Dohiyi Mir

Saturday's Fridaycatblogging

Taran looks for more kibble in the dining room.

Vinnie had a busy night outside in the rain.

Gracey is annoyed that I might join her in my chair.

ntodd

The Nakba (Separation)

In which NTodd celebrates independence and mourns freedom.  (16:18) 

Features: Ernest Gold.  Bonus links: Mahmoud Darwish, Time To Remember (Al Ghabisiyya), We Still Have The Keys (El Ghabsiya).  Note: I hate transliterations.

Subscribe, vote and DONATE!  And don't forget PINK Talk on Sundays from 5-6pm Eastern and PaxLive on Fridays from 3-4pm Eastern!

ntodd

Friday In Bil'in: 228

This week's message from our friend Iyad in Bil'in:

Three injured and dozens suffered from gas inhalation when Israeli troops attacked the weekly protest in Bil'in village near the central West Bank city of Ramallah on Friday.

International and Israeli supporters joined the villagers of Bil'in and marched from the village center after the Friday midday prayers. The protesters demanded the halt of Israeli illegal settlements and construction of the wall.

They also called for more resistance to the construction of the wall and settlements in light of the new Israeli plans to take over more Palestinian land near the dead sea and Jordan valley.
The villagers asked human right groups to intervene in the case of those kidnapped by the army from the village. The army attacked Bil'in this week and last week and kidnapped a dozen civilian among them five children.

As the protesters arrived at the wall, Israeli troops stationed at its gate fired a barrage of sound bombs, tear gas and rubber-coated bullets. Three protesters, Adeeb Abu Rahmah, Judi from UK and Julia from Germany, were lightly wounded and dozens were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation.

This week the Israeli military attacked the village on a number of occasions and kidnapped six people among them two children.

In other news this week the Israeli High Court of Justice ordered the Israeli military on Wednesday to press stronger charges against an officer that shot a handcuffed and blindfolded Palestinian civilian from Bil'in. The court decision came based on a petition by Israeli human rights organizations on behalf of the victim Ashraf Abu Rahmeh, 27.

Same repression, different day...

ntodd

I Can't Make Out Whether You're Bloody Bad-mannered Or Just Half-witted

Inhofe calls Franken a clown, his own fellow Minnesotan apparently thinks he doesn't know anything.  Puzzling that--Franken's clear smarts and wonkishness aside--these are considered bad things since satire and clowning can be very good ways to interrupt status quo thinking and effect change. 

We can't all be lion tamers...

ntodd

Vermont Deploys Again

Back to Afghanistan, folks.

ntodd

This Week In Utero: 24

It's funny to read these things because they are perfectly describing what we're experiencing.  So text book, it's scary:

Your baby isn't just sitting around (on your bladder) doing nothing, he's working hard preparing for life outside the womb—perfecting his lungs and packing on the pounds. He'll gain ½ pound this week alone. Other highlights this week:

Things are starting to get a little crowded inside the old womb as baby grows bigger and bigger. Your ribs are probably pining away for the good old days when they didn't have a foot permanently lodged between them. Hate to break it to you, but it's going to get worse before it gets better.

Your baby's ears are fully functional now. And since they are, you may notice that loud noises and sudden movements can startle the little bugger. He's getting used to the everyday sounds inside the womb: the sound of your heart beating, your lungs inhaling and exhaling air, the growling of your stomach because your partner promised he'd be right back with that double cheeseburger and he's taking forever! He'll even be able to hear your voice when your partner finally arrives and you ask him where the bleep he's been! So talk nice!

Baby's got a fully developed inner ear now. This means his sense of balance is working and he can tell whether he's hanging upside down or right side up. He can also feel you moving, so go ahead, pop in your favorite tunes and boogie.

Your little Wiener schnitzel is about the length of a foot-long Chicago hot dog and weighs about 1 1/3 pounds.

Given that I'm fasting on Fridays in solidarity with Bil'in, I really would like the food comparisons to stop.

ntodd

Independence (Separation)

In which NTodd looks at creation and destruction.  (18:46) 

Features: Jefferson Airplane, Doors, Rolling Stones, TS Eliot, Mahmoud Darwish. 

Subscribe, vote and DONATE!  And don't forget PINK Talk on Sundays from 5-6pm Eastern and PaxLive on Fridays from 3-4pm Eastern!

ntodd

Thursday Packblogging

SamuelT's Ma looks on as the canines behave surprisingly well for an impromptu portrait--for some reason all three decided to join her on the couch of their own volition.

Ericka introduces Sam to the Dogz over at And Baby Makes 11...

ntodd

Happy Independence Day!

The Lee Resolution, which Congress adopted on July 2, 1776:

Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.

That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances.

That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective Colonies for their consideration and approbation.

John Adams wrote:

The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.

Proving that the Framers were not entirely prescient.  They might have even recognized that, hence bequeathing us an adaptable, evolving system that is not beholden to all their original notions of right and wrong, justice, liberty...

ntodd

Another Brick In The Wall (Separation)

In which NTodd gets back in the groove after a little jaunt to the Middle East.  (40:03) 

Features: Michael and Janet Jackson, Disturbed, Rage Against The Machine, Pink Floyd, U2, Bob Marley, Artists Against Apartheid. 

Subscribe, vote and DONATE!  And don't forget PINK Talk on Sundays from 5-6pm Eastern and PaxLive on Fridays from 3-4pm Eastern!

ntodd

Wednesday Catblogging

Pearl was playing with Taran for a while around the backdoor, then retreated when he started spazzing too much.

See what I mean?

Lola got caught in a t-storm last night, and Taran ministered to his dirty brother once he finally came in.

Oh, you know me and blurry shots.

Content.

Returning the favor.

ntodd

The World Was Created For My Sake, Hence I Must Be Upright And Just

Just before I left for the Middle East, we went on a 251 Club trip to Isle La Motte.  I was struck by this sign marking Vermont's "oldest settlement" and the celebratory flag that we now see in Burlington as well proclaiming this to be the 400th year since Samuel de Champlain's arrival to the area.

While perhaps not quite so explicit, and certainly not so recent, as "a land without a people for a people without a land," the United States certainly has its own dark history when it comes to seizing territory and shamefully treating the people who already lived there.  Such a comparison between our past and what's happening in Palestine and Israel came up quite a bit in discussions with our peace activist friends. 

The walls we built were mostly wooden and instead of ghettoes we created reservations.  Our forebears felt justified in taking land because it wasn't being used properly.  They felt justified in brutally repressing the natives because of their "terrorism".  We pretend the indigenous populations are sovereign, but our government decides what their status is.  This certainly makes it harder for us to judge Israelis and their policies so harshly when we don't quite occupy the moral high ground we imagine.

The First Peoples aren't totally invisible here, though.  Names of rivers, roads and towns use their words.  We have Pow Wows and other festivities that showcase their culture.  But we still have overlaid our world upon theirs.

Tel Aviv is celebrating a milestone this year as well: the city is marking its centennial with arts festivals, concerts, etc.  It began as a neighborhood in Jaffa and didn't actually get its name until the following year:

Minutes of a meeting of the Ahuzat Bayit Committee, early 1910:
Dr.Hayyim Hisin: “I suggest that we call our new neighborhood Herzliya, in memory of Herzl”
Abraham Gerson Hanoh: “But there is a chance that we will incur the wrath of the (Ottoman) authorities by naming it after Herzl”
Arieh Akiva Weiss: “This is true. We have to find a name that the goverment will agree to. And let us not forget that we are only building a small neighborhood (sec:!!!), a part of the big city of Jaffa. I suggest the name New Jaffa.”
Menahem Sheinkin: “I suggest the name Tel Aviv, which is the Hebrew name of Herzl’s book ‘Altneuland’, as it was translated by Nahum Sokolow. This is the name by which Herzl wished to express the hope for our future in the Land of Israel. In addition, Tel Aviv has a local, Arab sound and so the local population will be able to get used to it quickly”

On May 21, 1910 the committee accepted Menachem Sheinkin’s proposal to name the new neighborhood Tel Aviv.

The neighborhood of Spring Hill grew out of Old Jaffa and eventually through all-too-familiar tactics, took over the city:

Tel Aviv is Israel’s first and most important example of the apartheid-style colonialism which is central to Zionism. As historian Tom Segev wrote, “Segregation led to the establishment of Tel Aviv… by Jews tired of living among Arabs. Zionist leader David Ben-Gurion wrote that “The destruction of Jaffa, the city and the port, will happen and it will be for the best… When Jaffa falls into hell I will not be among the mourners.”

Driving Jaffa “into hell” was required in order to assure Tel Aviv’s dominance. As a result Jaffa, whose orange groves, factories and literary institutions made it the center of Palestinian life, had to be destroyed and its residents driven out. In 1948 Zionist military forces displaced 95% of Jaffa's Palestinians. Historian Ilan Pappe writes that the people of Jaffa were “literally pushed into the sea” to board fishing boats destined for exile as “Jewish troops shot over their heads to hasten their expulsion.” Soon after Zionist forces blew up and bulldozed three-quarters of Jaffa's Arab section.

Out of the 70,000 Palestinians who used to call Jaffa home, only 3,650 were allowed to stay. Many of Jaffa’s Palestinian residents fled to Gaza – which means the families of many of those killed and wounded in this year’s massacres by the Israeli Occupation Forces, as well as those suffering right now from Israel’s genocidal siege, came from Jaffa.

Their homes and property confiscated, the few remaining after 1948 were pushed into a ghetto surrounded by barbed wire patrolled by Israeli soldiers and guard dogs. In 1950 Jaffa was swallowed up by the Tel Aviv municipality. Some of the Palestinian workers remaining were forced to build the luxury hotels and condos that line Tel Aviv's beaches, but could be imprisoned if they were found in Tel Aviv after 6 p.m.

The ghetto into which the remaining Palestinians were pushed, while by far the poorest neighborhood in the city, is also a coastal neighborhood with some of the highest property value in the city. As a result 3,000 Palestinians face eviction right now so their homes can be torn down to provide exclusive housing for Jews so they can have easier access to the real Tel Aviv beach.

Exodus 14:1-3: And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp...by the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in.

The Palestinians of Jaffa were pushed into the sea, and hundreds of thousands all over the land began their forced exodus.  Truly a catastrophe of Biblical proportions and worthy of remembrance.

Today, the government of Israel still attempts to remove all vestiges of the Palestinians who used to live on those lands.  They build concrete walls and restricted roads, they destroy villages, they make life so intolerable that Palestinians will leave of their own accord.  They travel through an invisible country.

Yuri Olesha, one of my favorite Soviet authors, wrote in The Cherry Seed:

The sun is setting. I'm heading east. I am traveling a double path. One path is accessible to the observation of everyone. A passerby sees a man walking along an empty, overgrown area. But what's going on with this peacefully walking man? He sees his shadow in front of himself. The shadow moves along the ground, extending into the distance. It has long, colorless legs. I traverse the vacant lot. The shadow rises along a brick wall and suddenly loses its head. The passerby doesn't see this. Only I see it. I step into a corridor between two buildings. The corridor is endlessly high, filled with shade. Here the soil is claylike, pliable, like in a garden. Toward me, along the wall, moving to the side, runs a stray dog. We pass. I look behind. The threshold behind is shining. There on the threshold, a solar flare momentarily covers over the dog. Then it runs off into the emptiness, and only now can I see its color--reddish.

All this happens in the invisible country, because in the country accessible to normal vision, something else is going on: a traveler meets a dog, the sun sets, the vacant lot turns green.

The invisible land is a land of attention and imagination. The traveler is not alone! Two sisters walk at his sides and lead the traveler by the hand. One sister is called Attention, the other, Imagination.

So what does this mean? Does it mean that, in defiance of everyone, in defiance of order and society, I create a world which submits to no laws save the shadowy laws of my own feelings? What does this mean? There are two worlds, the old and the new. And what world is this? A third world? There are two paths; but what is this third path?
...
[C]lear and bright is the day. The wind is blowning, making the light of day burn more brightly. The wind is rocking my tree, and it creaks with its lacquered limbs. Each of its blossoms rises and lies down again, rendering it now pink, now white. This is a kaleidoscope of spring...Five years ago you treated me to some olives, remember? Unrequited love makes the memory poorer and more clear. To this day I remember...I planted a tree in memory of the fact that you didn't love me.
...
In five years, on this spot--where there is now a vacant lot, ditches, usless walls--a concrete giant will rise up. My sister Imagination is an impulsive person. In the spring, they'll start laying the foundation...Yet, there in the invisible country, someday, the tree dedicated to you will bloom.

Tourists will come to the concrete giant.

They will not see your tree. Is it really impossible to make the invisible country visible?

This letter is imaginary. I didn't write it. I could have written it if Abel hadn't said what he said.

"The building will be laid out in a semicircle," said Abel. "The exterior of the semicircle will be filled in with a garden. Do you have imagination?"

"I have imagination," I said. "I see it, Abel. I see it clearly. There will be a garden here. And on that spot where we are standing will grow an olive tree."

Yes, I edited it a bit.  Take out 'cherry' and replace with 'olive' and it represents the same thing in a different context: if you will it (the transfer of the Palestinians), it is no dream.  They will be invisible, not even a memory, and we can imagine the land of milk and honey with no messy reality of another people living here, no cognitive dissonance, no myths to struggle to maintain.  Nevermind that we had to uproot their trees, shatter their lives, kill their children.

Surah 5 (The Feast): We decreed for the Children of Israel that whosoever killeth a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind, and whoso saveth the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind.

That sounds uncannily like something in the Talmud.  I think Sisters Attention and Imagination would agree that the two sides have more in common than they admit and should they recognize that shared humanity, olive trees may yet bloom in the Holy Land.  If you will it, it is no dream...

ntodd

Reluctor Ergo Sum

One of my favorite shots from the Wall.

Flore Chapon: Our French journo friend shot this at the Kerem Shalom crossing.

Flore Chapon: if anybody doubts how our actions build bridges and score for humanity.

Flore Chapon: yes, these stonethrowers are clearly an existential threat to Israel.

Flore Chapon: looks like one of the IDF soldiers forgot to pull the pin on his teargas cannister in Bil'in.

Flore Chapon: methinks this is hyperbole.

Flore Chapon: they put Palestinian flags in their olive trees, the trees they own and try to harvest, which is all they are struggling for.  Livelihoods, lives for their children...is that really different from what Israelis want?

ntodd

Warum Bin Ich Ich Und Warum Nicht Du?

Song of My Son.

ntodd

The Rest Of Friday Catblogging

Taran naps amongst the detritus on our front porch, oblivious to the fact he and Lola were not included in Saturday's Friday Catblogging.

Lola's oblivious, too.

Even when we moved the kitty condo across the living room, he didn't budge, and now appreciates the new vantage point.

ntodd

It Is Not Up To You

A passage from Palestine Inside Out that I cited the other day has really stuck with me:

As the Israeli architect Eyal Weizman points out, the Israeli road scheme emphasizes the profound contradictions of Israeli policy in the West Bank, where, as he puts it, two separate geographies inhabit the same space.  The Jewish parts of the West Bank, he explains, are seamlessly incorporated into Israel...The Palestinian parts of the West Bank, on the other hand, are fractured and broken and fragmented into shards of territory cut off from each other.

I was curious if 'shards' was a sort of editorial interpretation or if Weizman actually used the term in his book Hollow Land.  I don't have a copy of the book itself (yet), but reviews do show that he seems to like the word.

Via IMEU:

In 2002 Sharon appeared to have suddenly slammed on the brakes, building a linear wall close to the Israeli border in an operation that would have made Bar Lev proud. What happened? Did the leopard really change his spots?

No, Hollow Land claims, suggesting that the wall's appearance and surrounding media hullabaloo have been misleading. The barrier has in fact "ceased being a singular, contiguous object," Weizman writes. Instead, it has become a series of "separate shards, fragments and discontinuous vectors. Like a worm sliced into segments each assuming a renewed life, the fragments of the Wall [now]...curl around isolated settlement blocs and along the roads connecting them." Each of these "depth barriers," as Israeli officials term them, have their own sensors and fortifications; they are mini-Walls of their own.

Via the PMC:

On 27 June 1967, twenty days after the Israeli Army completed the occupation of the [formerly Jordanian] eastern part of Jerusalem, the unity government of Levi Eshkol annexed almost 70 square kilometers of land and incorporated almost 70,000 Palestinians within the newly expanded boundaries of the previously western Israeli municipality of Jerusalem. [...] The new boundaries sought to 'unite' within a single metropolitan area the western Israeli city, the Old City, the rest of the previously-administered city, 28 Palestinian villages, their fields, orchards, and tracts of desert, into a single 'holy', 'eternal' and 'indivisible' Jewish capital (page 25).

The problem, of course, was the unwanted presence of those 70,000 Palestinians. And so, "following [the] [urban] masterplan [of 1968] and a series of subsequent masterplans, amendments and updates during the forty years of Israeli occupation, twelve remote and homogenous Jewish 'neighborhoods' were established in the occupied areas incorporated into the city," Weizman reports."...An ever-expanding network of roads and infrastructure was constructed to weave together the disparate shards of this dispersed urban geography."

This just brought to mind tikkun olam:

Isaac Luria, the renowned sixteenth century Kabbalist, used the phrase “tikkun olam,” usually translated as repairing the world, to encapsulate the true role of humanity in the ongoing evolution of the cosmos. In his view, God created the world by forming vessels of light to hold the Divine Light. But as God poured the Light into the vessels, they catastrophically shattered, tumbling down toward the realm of matter. Thus our world consists of countless shards of the original vessels entrapping sparks of the Divine Light. Humanity’s great task involves helping God by freeing and reuniting the scattered Light, raising the sparks back to Divinity and restoring the broken world.

I wonder if Weizman thinks we are not free from complete the work of perfecting the microcosm that is Palestine and Israel, let alone the rest of the cosmos...

ntodd

The Geek Gene

My son not only twitters already, he now also blogs.  How could he not?

ntodd

Bending Toward Justice

40 years since Stonewall.  The ledger is unbalanced toward injustice at the moment, given DOMA and 19 states banning all recognition of marriage equality, but with VT, MA, IA, CT, ME and NH supporting civil rights at least there are 6 more states on the right side of history than there were at the birth of the modern gay rights movement.  That's something, I guess.

Let's see if NY can muster the courage to stand with us.  And what about you, CA?  Think you can right the egregious wrong caused by your complacency?

ntodd

Friday Catblogging

Pearl's annoyed that her favorite windowsill is occupied by a fan.

Gracey rolls around on one of the Sherpas we used to take Vinnie and Lola to the vet.

BFFs sitting next to Mommy and her laptop.

Bathing in the driveway, happy that Taran and Lola chose the other direction to hunt.

ntodd

While You Live Your Troubles Are Many

Tired of injustice, tired of the schemes, kinda disgusted, so what does it mean?

Uri Avnery:

I DO NOT underrate, of course, the significance of the chief of the Likud uttering the two words: “Palestinian state”.

Words carry political weight. Once released into the world, they have a life of their own. Unlike dogs, they cannot be called back.

In a popular Israeli love song, the boy asks the girl: “When you say no, what do you mean?” One could well ask: When Netanyahu says yes, what does he mean?

But even if the words “Palestinian state” passed his lips only under duress, and when Netanyahu has no intention at all of turning them into reality, it is still important that the head of the government and the chief of the Likud was compelled to utter them. The idea of the Palestinian state has now become a part of the national consensus, and only a handful of ultra-rightists reject it directly. But this is only the beginning. The main struggle will be about turning the idea into reality.
...
He is ready, so he says, to conduct negotiations with the “Palestinian community”, and that, of course, “without preconditions”. Meaning: without Palestinian preconditions. On Netanyahu’s part, there are plenty of preconditions, every one of which is designed to make certain that no Palestinian, no Arab and indeed no Muslim will agree to enter negotiations.

Condition 1: The Arabs have to recognize Israel as “the nation-state of the Jewish people” (and not just “a Jewish state”, as many in the media erroneously reported.) As Hosny Mubarak has already answered: No Arab will accept this, because it would mean that 1.5 million Arab citizens of Israel are cut off from the state, and because it would deny in advance the Right of Return of the Palestinian refugees...

Condition 2: The Palestinian Authority must first of all establish its rule over the Gaza Strip. How? After all, the Israeli government prevents travel between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and no Palestinian force can pass from one to the other. And the solution of the problem by establishing a Palestinian unity government is also ruled out: Netanyahu flatly declared that there would be no negotiations with a Palestinian leadership that includes “terrorists who want to annihilate us” – his way of referring to Hamas.

Condition 3: The Palestinian state will be demilitarized. This is not a new idea. All peace plans that have been put forward up to now speak about security arrangements that would protect Israel from Palestinian attacks and Palestine from Israeli attacks. But that is not what Netanyahu has in mind: he did not speak about mutuality, but about domination. Israel would control the air space and the border crossings of the Palestinian state, turning it into a kind of giant Gaza Strip...

Condition 4: Undivided Jerusalem will remain under Israeli rule. This was not proposed as an opening gambit for negotiations but presented as a final decision. That by itself ensures that no Palestinian, nor any Arab or even any Muslim, could accept the proposal...

Condition 5: Between Israel and the Palestinian state there will be “defensible borders”. These are code-words for extensive annexations by Israel...

Condition 6: The refugee problem will be solved “outside the territory of Israel”. Meaning: not a single refugee will be allowed to return. True, all realistic people agree that there can be no return of millions of refugees. According to the Arab peace initiative, the solution must be “mutually agreed” – which means that Israel has to agree to any solution. The assumption is that the two parties will agree on the return of a symbolic number. This is a highly charged and sensitive matter, which must be treated with prudence and the utmost sensitivity. Netanyahu does the opposite: his provocative statement, devoid of all empathy, is clearly designed to bring about an automatic refusal.

Condition 7: No settlement freeze. The “normal life” of the settlers will continue. Meaning: the building activity for the “natural increase” will go on. This illustrates the saying of Michael Tarazy, a legal advisor to the PLO: “We are negotiating about sharing a pizza, and in the meantime Israel is eating it.”

All this was in the speech. No less interesting is what was not in it. For example, the words: Road Map. Annapolis. Palestine. The Arab peace plan. Occupation. Palestinian Sovereignty. Opening of the Gaza Strip border crossings. Golan Heights. And, even more important: there was not a hint of respect for the enemy who must be turned into a friend, in the words of the ancient Jewish saying.

Peek in the shadow, come into the light, you tell me I'm wrong, then you better prove you're right.

Letter from Hamas to Obama (delivered by Code Pink):

We in the Hamas Government are committed to pursuing a just resolution to the conflict not in contradiction with the international community and enlightened opinion as expressed in the International Court of Justice, the United Nations General Assembly, and leading human rights organizations. We are prepared to engage all parties on the basis of mutual respect and without preconditions.

However, our constituency needs to see a comprehensive paradigm shift that not only commences with lifting the siege on Gaza and halts all settlement building and expansion but develops into a policy of evenhandedness based on the very international law and norms we are prodded into adhering to.

With such confusions, don't it make you wanna scream?

Continue reading "While You Live Your Troubles Are Many"

This Week In Utero: 23

Speaking of my comfy home life:

Your baby's got a while to go before her lungs will be ready for air and is practicing her "breathing" on the amniotic fluid—sucking it in and out of her lungs. Other highlights this week:

Fat production is in overdrive at this point (for the baby, not you! Well, OK, maybe for the baby and you). Your baby will basically double in weight over the next four weeks! You'll be happy to know the same won't apply to you.

Your Mini is starting to look more like a newborn as her skin becomes less see-through. Her body is looking more proportional now, although her head is still kinda big compared to her cute little body.

Your baby is about 11½ inches long and weighs 1 pound, or about the length and weight of a Harry Potter book.

Yup, Samuel Thomas was 15oz the other day at our final ultrasound and the new weight has been helping him pack quite the whollop of late, taking Ericka's breath away and such.  I even felt one of his powerful smacks last night, which took me by surprise.  Just wait 'til his bones really start ossifying in Week 32...

ntodd

Friday In Bil'in: 227

Well, it's already happened: I've been so wrapped up in my comfortable little life, running errands, going to vet appointments, doing stuff in preparation for Samuel Thomas' arrival, etc, that I didn't even realize it's Friday.  And that means I thoughtlessly broke my fast today and thus wasn't entirely in solidarity with Bil'in the way I want to be. 

It took the weekly e-mail from our friends there--Iyad sent out the report this time--to jolt me out of my complacency:

Bil’in village holds press conference and a demonstration against construction of the Apartheid Wall. Palestinian residents, alongside international and Israeli activists gathered today in Bil’in to demonstrate against the Wall. Before the demonstration, Naomi Klein, Basel Mansour, and Attorney Wisam Ahmad held a press conference.

Naomi Klein is visiting Palestine on the occasion of the publication of her latest book, the #1 international bestseller, “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism” in Arabic and Hebrew. Klein is an advocate for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign and spoke about her choice to respect the 2005 call for BDS from Palestinian civil society. She explained that the international community can actively support the Palestinian people in their non-violent resistance to the Occupation through BDS.

Explaining her role as a writer, Klein said, “We believe that art and culture are political… Bil’in has integrated art and culture into their resistance. ”

Basel Mansour; a member of Bil’in’s Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements spoke about Bil’in’s ongoing campaign to demonstrate against the theft of it’s land.

“We will continue our non-violent resistance to the confiscation of Bil’in’s land and incorporate using the legal system as a means of attaining justice. We hope that the Canadian court will decide to hear our case and hold Green Park International and Green Mount International accountable for their violation of international law.” – Basel Mansour

Attorney Wisam Ahmad; a program officer for Al Haq and speaker on behalf of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) will talk about Bil’in and the village’s current suit against two Canadian companies.

“The privatization of the settlement industry is an attempt for the Israeli government to hide behind the actions of companies such as Green Park International and Green Mount International. These companies and the Israeli government must be held accountable for violating the Geneva Conventions and Rome Statue.”

After the press conference, Palestinian, Israeli and international demonstrators marched from the village towards the site of the Wall. Chanting slogans against occupation, protesters arrived near the Wall. Israeli forces shot tear-gas at demonstrators, including the use of the cannon (which shoots off many gas canisters at once). Several suffered from heavy tear-gas inhalation and required medical attention from medical personnel.

I'm glad Naomi Klein is supportive of the BDS movement.  We kicked off Code Pink's involvement with the action against Ahava in Tel Aviv a couple weeks ago and NYC Pinkers et al followed up at a faux Tel Aviv event just a few days ago.  That's just one company who profits from the occupation.

Another way to get involved is to "buycott" Palestinian goods.  I'm wearing an embroidered wristband I got from one of the kids in Bil'in just before we marched, but if you can't get over there you can still purchase products made in Palestine or made by refugees, at PalestineOnline for example.  And if you like the Kufiyeh (or Keffiyeh) look, maybe buy one from the only Palestinian factory making them.  Yes, I've got one from Hebron on order--figure it will go well with the robes I haggled for in Jerusalem.

So about that fasting.  Once again, my doing it obviously doesn't change reality in Occupied Palestine.  That's not the point: it's a symbolic reminder to myself about the sacrifices other people are making, to keep me mindful of how easy my life is when others are struggling.  Clearly I need something to keep me focused with the siren song of American life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness ringing in my ears.

ntodd

A Tale Of Two Narratives

Duane V over at Eschaton today linked to an important post.  I noted it made a point that I have a couple times this week in comment threads and he reminded me that it's really something that bears repeating.

I've remarked kind of obliquely here about the violence in Iran, lamenting the usual bouncing ball coverage and the missing acknowledgement of repression in which we share complicity.  Yet I haven't explicitly made a connection between the media's constant replay of one martyr and their resounding silence regarding another.

Here's Neda Agha Sultan, the new sympathetic figure and symbol of courageous Iranian dissent:

A lovely woman, full of life.  A life that drained away in the streets of Tehran as people watched helplessly.  A life and death that has been shown countless times in Western media and online.

Now here's Basem "Phil" Abu Rahme, a beloved friend of the villagers in Bil'in, West Bank:

Basem was also full of life, shown here flying a kite much as we did in solidarity actions at Erez.  His name means Smile, while Neda's means Voice.  Neither now smiles or has a voice, but so many people know of her voice and not his smile.

Did anybody see this picture in our media back in April?

I stood right in that place--right where Basem was shot--a couple months later with the IDF firing tear gas and other weapons.  I came out okay, as did all but two wounded that day; Basem did not.

Why, then, with his courageous stand against oppressors in nonviolent protest, do we not see constant replay of his death?  It's on Youtube.  He's an attractive person, young, makes good visuals.  His story is sad.

Okay, that might be a rhetorical question. 

It's nice that twitterers and bloggers and everybody are making their avatars and backgrounds and whatnot green to show support for the Iranian protesters, and of course being a compassionate human being isn't a zero-sum game.  I'd just like to remind everybody that American money paid for Basem's death, not Neda's.  You might want to add black and red to your color palette for the people who yet struggle nonviolently under the Israeli-American occupation.

ntodd

[Update: Sadly, I'm sure more attention will be paid to The King of Pop's death...]

Do you have any conceivable reason for even getting up in the morning?

I like to get Ha'aretz:

Jason Alexander, who spent nine years playing George Costanza on Seinfeld, told a crowd in Jerusalem on Wednesday that the search for an Israeli-Palestinian solution and the show about nothing that launched him to fame have one thing in common - neither seemed destined to succeed.
...
Alexander, 49, is a creator of Imagine: 2018, a project that asked Israeli and Palestinian high school students to write stories about what the world might look like 10 years down the road if an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement was signed in 2008.

The group collected 50 stories from each side into a book and has made two of the stories into short films.

The project is sponsored by One Voice, a nonprofit organization that works to forge connections between Israeli and Palestinian moderates.
...
"People here get painted throughout the world with a very wide brush," he said. "To most of the world, to most people I know, Israelis are two things: victims or occupiers. Palestinians are two things: victims or terrorists... But when you sit down and you talk to people on both sides, everyone's humanity and the similarity we all share comes out."

There's someone who understands the importance of clowning and building bridges.

ntodd

Wednesday Sunblogging

Kayla enjoys the morning sun.

The evening sun and showers allowed us to enjoy this in our backyard.

ntodd