House Negro

From one house negro to another

2008-11-20T07:25:00.002Z

Apparently I'm not the only fan of Malcolm X.

Pakistan to blame for black plague

2008-08-13T18:30:00.003Z

COPENGHAGEN, 14 August: Danish scientists studying ancient rat corpses, preserved in an old bog discovered recently, have stumbled on a startling discovery. The rats appear to be carrying strands of cotton that are only found in Pakistan. "That suggests Pakistan was involved in the black plague," said Martin Sorensen from the Danish National Research Institute. The rats have been carbon-dated to be 500 years old. That would mean they lived around the time of the black plague, one of the darkest periods in Europe's history when bubonic plague, believed to have been carried by rats, killed half of the continent's population. "It's possible the ISI was behind the black plague, but the picture is incomplete," said Darrell Rimple from the RAND Corporation. "But that would be consistent with what Pakistan, and especially the ISI does. Of course, Afghanistan is a democratic country ruled by freedom-loving people and the US would never dream of covertly participating in activities that would lead to the deaths of many people," Rimple added. For James Ripper, a Pentagon spokesman, the equation is much simpler. "Iraq has turned out to be a bad investment. Sure there's oil, but there's just too many Iraqis above it. Iran isn't playing by the rules, it's not being belligerent enough... on the other hand Pakistan is just perfect. It's Muslim, it has nukes, and there's plenty of terrorists there," Ripper added. "We know that because most of them used to be on our payroll. Some of them still are."

(c) Gullible News Network 2008

MustafaQadri.net

2008-07-25T07:14:00.003Z

Hey folks, I'm going on extended leave to attend to other matters. Don't worry it's nothing serious. But in the mean time may I suggest you check out mustafaqadri.net the brand spanking new website of a freelance journalist of the same name. You may have seen my links to his work before. He mainly focuses on Middle East politics and issues and social justice generally. But there's heaps of other great stuff on his site as well, like photos of his travels and videos of the interviews he does. He's currently based in Pakistan.

ANC veterans visit West Bank

2008-07-12T03:52:00.000Z

Dennis Davis, a high court judge and one of the South African delegation’s several Jewish members, told the extreme right-wing Hebron settlers’ leader Baruch Marzel: “These provocations didn’t come from us. I’m Jewish and I look at this and I say to myself, how can I feel fear from other Jews?”

Seconds anyone?

2008-07-11T11:48:00.000Z

It would be the first time I spoke to the man who would eventually become a household name in Australia. Who would become Aussie Islam's unofficial and unelected spokesman. Who, together with a certain Sydney sheik, would turn Aussie Arabs and Muslims into a combination of household joke and serious threat to social cohesion. And who many Muslims (to use Keating's phrase) might well describe as "unrepresentative swill".

Irfan Yusuf in NewMatilda.com.

The grim logic of Jerusalem

2008-07-11T11:22:00.001Z

He told me the story with resignation and not a word of hatred. His eyes only teared up when he explained how he had to pull his kids from school and tell them they could no longer play with their friends. Two years later, he wept again, holding my hand, when his brother's house was demolished, the standard punishment for adding floors without a municipal permit. Such permits are almost never granted. Wholesale demolition is a fate no Jewish house, for departing from a building code, will ever suffer.

Mindless terrorism or something else?

2008-07-09T00:25:00.000Z

In Israel Husam Dwayat is almost solely being referred to as “the terrorist”. The term has an intriguing linguistic pedigree. A terrorist has no name, no gender, no history. A terrorist is but a one-dimensional character, the one who terrorises. But what if we unmasked this terrorist, what if we recognised his acts for the crimes that they are? A criminal has the capacity for everything that is human. He can also be a victim or a father. Husam Dwayat was both of these things.

Mustafa Qadri, Wednesday 9 July 2008.

Women and war

2008-07-04T04:59:00.000Z

One act of torture worth accepting

2008-07-03T05:25:00.002Z

The agents then draped a towel over his face and began pouring water onto it for several seconds before Hitchens signalled them to stop. [my emphasis]

I'm glad we finally got a definitive answer from a fat, self-righteous, white, pro-Iraq invasion journalist with know expertise in medicine or international law.

Interesting that they say 'several seconds'. What did my English teacher say in the 8th grade? Several equates to anything more than 3 or 4. Why do I suspect actual torture victims would have had to endure waterboarding for a lot longer than that?

Tony Benn on BBC

2008-07-02T00:20:00.000Z

Sey Hersh on US covert war with Iran

2008-06-30T01:40:00.000Z

Late last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, according to current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. These operations, for which the President sought up to four hundred million dollars, were described in a Presidential Finding signed by Bush, and are designed to destabilize the country’s religious leadership. The covert activities involve support of the minority Ahwazi Arab and Baluchi groups and other dissident organizations. They also include gathering intelligence about Iran’s suspected nuclear-weapons program.

I wish I knew how

2008-06-30T01:28:00.001Z

Sex and the City

2008-06-25T12:32:00.004Z

In short, to anyone facing the quandaries of being a working mother, the movie sends a vicious memo: Don’t be a mother. And don’t work. Is this really where we have ended up—with this superannuated fantasy posing as a slice of modern life? On TV, “Sex and the City” was never as insulting as “Desperate Housewives,” which strikes me as catastrophically retrograde, but, almost sixty years after “All About Eve,” which also featured four major female roles, there is a deep sadness in the sight of Carrie and friends defining themselves not as Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, Celeste Holm, and Thelma Ritter did—by their talents, their hats, and the swordplay of their wits—but purely by their ability to snare and keep a man.

For one episode, perhaps the pilot, I enjoyed 'Sex and the city'. But that was mostly because I was able to watch sex scenes on free-to-air television. That enjoyment quickly ran out. The internet may have had something to do with that. Since then, I've consistently despised Sex and the City. Not just because it tells women to define themselves by the man they hook up with (which in itself is sufficient reason, as a man, to despise the show). But because of the way it celebrates the most shallow and destructive tendencies of American society: measuring one's worth through material possession, the neurotic obssession with self-help industry solutions to personal dilemmas that has replaced more meaningful forms of self-awareness, and its hyper-narcissm.

Noam Chomsky on Al Jazeera

2008-06-24T02:50:00.000Z

RIP George Carlin

2008-06-23T09:13:00.001Z

Has Israel already broken ceasefire?

2008-06-20T07:35:00.001Z

The Palestine Information Center, affiliated with Hamas, reported on Thursday that the Israeli army violated the truce three times and that these violations came only a few hours after the ceasefire practically started in the morning.

The Center reported that Israeli navy boats fired four shells at fishermen in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, while soldiers opened fire at farmers east of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

Also, eyewitnesses reported that soldiers fired at farmers in Khuza’a town, near Khan Younis, and fired at a number of houses in AL Qarara town, east of the city; no injuries were reported.
On Thursday, the Al Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, issued a press release stating it is committed to the truce but warned that it will retaliate if Israel resumes its attacks.

Blaming others

2008-06-20T03:15:00.000Z

The Amnesty International report on human rights for the year 2007 is out. The Muslim world constitutes, as usual, bleakest chapter. Every single country across the Muslim world has been pointed out by the Amnesty International either for executions and torture or discrimination against women and ethnic and religious minorities. Punishments never handed down even during the Stone Age, have been awarded in 21st century Muslim world. In one case, two Saudi nationals were awarded 7,000 lashes. Yes, 7,000. And executions? Well, 335 in Iran, 158 in Saudi Arabia and 135 in Pakistan. Violation of human rights, it seems, is the only thing that unites the otherwise divided Muslim world.

The report is no exception. The Muslim world cuts a sorry figure every time a global watchdog releases its findings. Freedom of expression here remains curtailed, Reporters Sans Frontieres annually reports. Regarding freedom of expression, there is a joke often told in Arab world. At a meeting, a US journalist says: "We have complete freedom of expression in the US. We can criticise the US president as much as we like." The Arab journalist replies. "We also have complete freedom of expression in Arab world. We can also criticise the US president as much as we like."

A nation imprisoned

2008-06-20T02:57:00.001Z

THIS month marks the 41st year of Israel’s continued occupation of the Palestinian territories. For ordinary Palestinians the occupation has turned Gaza and the West Bank into a giant prison. “[This] occupation put[s] you in a cage, a cage on your life and on your mind so you never feel safe,” says Mahmoud, an activist with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Mustafa Qadri, Dawn Newspaper (Pakistan), 20 June 2006. More of his work available here.

Security Council reform

2008-06-20T02:17:00.001Z

Saying that it was against the enlargement of the “coterie of the powerful and privileged”, Pakistan has called for a broad agreement on the expansion of the UN Security Council which envisages creation of mostly non-permanent seats and a few extended ones.

Interestingly, most Western and developed countries favour permanent seats for a few privileged states.

Death sentence for blasphemy

2008-06-20T02:16:00.000Z

SIALKOT, June 18: A district and sessions judge on Wednesday awarded death sentence and rigorous life imprisonment with a fine of Rs500,000 to a man in a case of blasphemy and desecration of Holy Quran.

According to the prosecution, the convict, Shafiq Latif of Kulluwal area of Sialkot tehsil, had committed blasphemy and desecrated copies of Holy Quran on March 17, 2006. The Head Marala police had arrested him after registering a case under the Blasphemy Act.

Strict security arrangements had been made in and around the court.

Sialkot District and Sessions Judge Suhaib Ahmad Roomi told newsmen that the verdict was based on Islamic laws.

Banners and posters welcoming the verdict were displayed at different places in the district.

Israeli intellectuals

2008-06-18T04:06:00.003Z

People often ask me how Israelis can tolerate the Occupation. The best answer is to just listen to what they have to say. This is a pretty good snapshot of what the average educated Israeli thinks about Palestinian claims to Jerusalem and the region more broadly. The bloke being interviewed is a respected academic in an Israeli university. The casual racism and insensitivity is pretty amazing (and mildly amusing actually). When I was in Israel I met other experts on Islam who said pretty much the same things.

As a side note, if you type in 'Al Jazeera' in You Tube this is the first hit, not a story from the Al Jazeera You Tube site. My guess is young Zionists have been busy clicking on this link so that it comes up first.

Galactica

2008-06-18T02:14:00.003Z

What a brilliant way to end the half season finale. The central theme of the show has been trying to find Earth. Well now they've finally found it, but it's a barren post-nuclear holocaust wasteland. I really like the way they've kept the series fresh by constantly recapitulating story lines and character profiles. Love to see how they get themselves out of this one!!

Ceasefire or not?

2008-06-18T00:40:00.004Z

You have to be alert to spot propaganda. The media reports a ceasefire being reached between Israel and Hamas. Then it breathlessly announces that Israel killed 6 Palestinians in Gaza. Only Israel can get away with reaching a ceasefire and continuing to kill Palestinians. I also heard an Israeli spokesman on TV saying Hamas can't be trusted with a ceasefire. The reporter didn't challenge this, for example, noting that Hamas had maintained a total ceasfire since late 2004 until they were attacked in 2007. It was something former President Carter did not forget (see last 20 seconds of this clip).

Taxi to the Dark Side

2008-06-16T14:56:00.002Z

Tonight at the Sydney Film Festival I saw 'Taxi to the Dark Side', the Academy Award-winning documentary about the crimes committed at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. I was surprised at how much law was mentioned in the documentary, and how well expressed the legal principles around torture (inhuman and degrading treatment) were canvassed. Well done.

Go see it!!

It's raining in Sydney

2008-06-16T02:29:00.002Z

Nice remix though courtesy of the Freemasons and a Daft Punk film clip.

Life's a bitch in Gaza

2008-06-14T16:40:00.003Z

The last year, since Hamas took over, has been a very difficult time for me and my family. Hamas accused my brother of injuring some of their men in a shootout. They surrounded the house, but he escaped and managed to get out to the West Bank. Me, my parents, his wife, and his children haven't seen him since.

The BBC carries a story on life for ordinary Palestinians in Gaza one year after the Hamas take over. On the surface it gives an insight into life for ordinary people. But reportage like this does more harm than good because it totally decontextualises the situation. It basically gives the reader the impression that life is bad in Gaza, but this is just the way things are. There's no real sense of cause and effect, apart from that Hamas is really bad and oppressive. Which in several ways they are. But oppression is usually a product of oppressive conditions. And Gaza is under oppressive conditions because of Israel's blockade, occupation and constant murder of the Palestinian population.

Top 5

2008-06-14T04:04:00.000Z

If I could meet any 5 people who are now deceased they would be (in no particular order):

1. Malcolm X
2. The Buddha
3. The Prophet Muhammad
4. Any of the first modern humans
5. My deceased grandparents (ok a bit of a cheat, I know!).

What about you? Leave your's in the comment box.

Time to rethink Afghan strategy?

2008-06-14T02:02:00.000Z

The first step in rethinking Afghan strategy is to think seriously about the lessons of a recent opinion survey of ordinary Taliban fighters commissioned by the Toronto Globe and Mail.* Two results are striking: the widespread lack of any strong expression of allegiance to Mullah Omar and the Taliban leadership; and the reasons given by most for joining the Taliban – namely, the presence of western troops in Afghanistan. The deaths of relatives or neighbours at the hands of those forces was also stated by many as a motive. This raises the question of whether Afghanistan is not becoming a sort of surreal hunting estate, in which the US and Nato breed the very “terrorists” they then track down.

A revealing piece from a respected establishment expert on Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Flight of the Conchords

2008-06-13T04:03:00.001Z

Settler violence near Susia

2008-06-13T00:15:00.004Z

An elderly shepherd, his wife and a nephew said they were attacked by four masked men for allowing their animals to graze near the settlement of Susia.

Today BBC carries a report on an attack on some Palestinians by settlers near the village of Susia. It's good to see this kind of story being reported. However there are some glaring omissions. For starters, BBC did not feel the need to follow up the incident with the local police or army. Are either investigating the attack? Judging from the video on the website, and the fact that the Jewish population in the region is small, it ought not to be too difficult to determine who the attackers are. If BBC had done an investigation it would have discovered that settler violence like this is rarely investigated and settlers found to have been involved are almost never charged or prosecuted.

Another matter omitted from the report is the fact that the Palestinians of Susia, whom I visited last month, live in very basic conditions. One of the main reasons for this is that they were actually evicted from their homes in 1986 by settlers. From their camp site you can even see the settlement that rests on the land where they used to live. Israeli military police have frequently destroyed their homes on the land they currently inhabit on numerous occasions over the past 20 years. Try to imagine what you'd feel like if this had happened to you: not only evicted, but routinely having your very humble new dwellings constantly destroyed and exposed to attacks by settlers in the knowledge nothing is going to be done about it.

Rather than reporting the attack as an isolated or decontextualised incident, BBC has a responsibility to report on these wider, more significant crimes.

Rachel Corrie

2008-06-12T05:20:00.002Z

Rachel Corrie was a young American peace activist killed in Gaza five years ago while trying to stop Israel bulldozing Palestinian homes to create a buffer zone.

Her story has been turned into a play and Dateline's Amos Roberts invites two people with opposing views on Israel to view the production.

An interesting Dateline story here on a play based on the life and death of Rachel Corrie. It's unfortunate, however, that they didn't speak to any Palestinians or visit Gaza itself. Certainly Dateline has a small budget but surely a foreign affairs program ought to bother to speak to the people whom Rachel was trying to defend? In this respect the program reminded me of a recent debate on the Israel Lobby which had six speakers in total. Three were Jewish (although only one was from Israel!) and only one Palestinian. That is basically how Western discourse unfolds. Even when The Other's cause is championed it is for us (in the West) to do the championing.

Collateral Damage

2008-06-12T00:58:00.003Z

"And they briefed this to the general," Millard said, "and they briefed it gruesome. I mean, they had pictures. They briefed it to him. And this colonel turns around to this full division staff and says, 'If these f---ing hajis learned to drive, this sh-t wouldn't happen.'"

An excellent article by Chris Hedges on US crimes in Iraq and their emotional and moral impact on American troops. It is adapted from his new book Collateral Damage. (Thanks to Jeanie)

Kevin Rudd

2008-06-11T23:50:00.001Z

Howard accused of war crimes

2008-06-11T11:35:00.000Z

A legal brief has been sent to the International Criminal Court (ICC) alleging former prime minister John Howard committed a war crime by sending troops to Iraq.

CEO pay

2008-06-11T11:18:00.002Z

Sol Trujillo's payout when he leaves Telstra will be 93 million dollars and some of us will ask how he earned it. 93 million dollars would keep ten small theatre companies going for a thousand years on the interest alone. 93 million dollars would fund a month of the Iraq War. It's a thousand times the annual wage of a New York fireman. It's three hundred times the annual wage of Kevin Rudd. In a bank earning seven percent interest, it would make him 17,835 dollars a day. 743 dollars an hour. 12 dollars a minute. A dollar every five seconds.

Bob Ellis on CEO pay. While I agree with him I must admit that his article is a good example of why so many people don't trust lefties. He favours rhetoric over analysis when CEO pay is one of the easier areas where you can just let the statistics tell the story. It's a classic example of the myths of the market. For example, there is the argument that CEOs are paid as much as they do because the market is willing to pay them that much. Which is true. But the reason why the market is willing to pay them that much is because the evaluation of CEO salaries based on supply and demand is controlled by CEO and other high level actors in the private sector. A market can be shaped to favour certain products and services by powerful interests. One reason why American IT companies do so well is that the US state can protect their IP rights much better than weaker countries.

Hong Kong

2008-06-09T11:39:00.006Z

I've spent the past few days in Hong Kong. It was nice to be able to clear immigration in 20 minutes and enter a lively city where no one stares at you, where trains run every few minutes, and there isn't a gun to be seen anywhere. I always enjoy Hong Kong for a few days and have never stayed any longer. If I did I imagine the place would quickly become claustrophobic and frighteningly consumer-capitalist. True I don't speak Cantonese or have family there and this can be a limiting factor. Moreover, I hear the hills and jungle in the new territories makes for some good hiking. So don't get me wrong, it's not that I think that Hong Kong is a bad place.

But there are constant signals that consumerism is king over here. The televisions in the Airport Express hint as much with their unending images of fashion designers and celebrities raving on about their new hand bags, shoes and mobile phones. I have never seen so many different choices for clothes and electronics in the one city. I tried to find a pair of hiking shoes to replace my current, smelly pair and managed to find four eligible options.

There are so many choices for the consumer that it is easy to miss the army of casualised workers, many from neighbouring developing countries, responding to your beck and call in the shops and restaurants you visit. There is such an expectation that money buys you goods and services in Hong Kong that when I tried to put my rubbish in the bin at a local McDonald's a friend told me that here there are people to clean up after you. On Sundays and public holidays you can see thousands of Filipino workers sitting on the ground in open spaces like a giant, CBD picnic. What they represent is an army of wage slaves with no place to be free except the public space you and I walk on.

Surely there has to be more to an Asian tiger economy, the Asian model for development, than this? Perhaps there is. Over the past few years there have been growing demands among Chinese residents for greater democracy and transparency in government. I suspect there is a long road yet to travel.

Last day in Israel/Palestine

2008-06-06T20:47:00.002Z

"Where once there was a path, now there is a hurdle. An earthen mound of hope and resentment piled into one."
- I.K.

I left Israel/Palestine today. Although the trip from Ramallah to the airport and freedom from the security state was something of a task, I managed to get through fairly easily. I decided to leave from Ramallah, in the West Bank, instead of return to Israel the night before I was meant to leave. Thankfully the flight was at midnight so I had plenty of time to get to Ben Gurion International Airport, and even have lunch with a good friend at his refugee camp just outside Ramallah. From Ramallah I took a bus to Arab East Jerusalem. From there I got a taxi. Although he asked for 250 shekels (around 80 Australian dollars) I bargained him down to 190, which happened to be exactly all the money I had. We drove up towards the airport and, as happened last time, a tall, armed Israeli security guard with an equally large M-16 strapped to his chest stopped our car and told us to park. My driver, himself a Palestinian Israeli (most taxi drivers are) was told to wait in a separate room while both of our IDs were taken. I was asked a range of questions, something I have become rather used to. What are you doing in Israel? Where have you been? Where are you going? And so on. My bags were searched and I got those magic blue stickers on my bags that would ensure they were only searched one more time inside the airport.

On this trip I've developed the ability to stand my ground with an unfailingly polite manner. It seems to have worked really well and developed my self-confidence enormously. But, at the end of the day, it is offensive the way you are treated like a potential terrorist until the bitter end. As much can be garnered from the questioners' body language. They look at you and test your every response with eyes that observe your body language. Even my humble toe nail clipper was mistaken for a knife requiring a pocket in my bag to be given special attention.

Inside the terminal my bag was searched again by a young woman. It turned out she was studying at the Middle East Studies department at the university my friend lectures at. She went through my bag, searched my laptop, even asked to see photos on my camera. When I told her I was a journalist and where I'd travelled to she queried whether I was objective. I told her I wouldn't have a job if I wasn't objective. I report what I see. By the end of the entire process she apologised for 'grilling' me 'so much' and I wished her all the best in her studies. At the end of the day, even the worst regime, which Israel certainly is not, and the harshest interrogator, which she certainly wasn't either, is human. If there is a soluton to the Israel/Palestine conflict it will require both parties to humanise the other more than they have hitherto.

My details were checked again at the third booth I was processed at. I had to wait another ten minutes, presumably for Intelligence to check up on me. And after that I was free. By international standards it was a long and draining process. By Israeli standards it was pretty ok. I know I haven't blogged as much on this trip as on the previous occasion. But I've been far more productive and have been in the region much longer this time around. More than anything I think the trip confirmed that some things, like Israel's occupation of Palestine, have only worsened but have not fundamentally changed. That puts the lie to the media and the 'International Quartet' and their claims that peace may just be around the corner, if only each side was willing to think in new and different ways.

The trip also confirmed my ability to work as a freelancer and has led to some exciting prospects.

Next stop, a brief stay in Hong Kong, followed by a slightly longer one in Australia.

George Carlin is a legend

2008-06-04T10:29:00.004Z

My own little minimarket jihad

2008-06-04T09:28:00.003Z

There's a minimarket at the foot of the apartment building where I stay in Ramallah. It opens early and closes late so it's always busy with customers. There's an old man whom I can only guess is the proprietor perennially at the tills with a long furrowed brow across his face. Usually it's because he's looking at some paper work. What this also means is that customers often have to wait a long time before getting his attention. As a result, there's a bit of a law of the jungle procedure to purchasing your items, not entirely dissimilar to buying a drink at a busy pub. I've routinely been pushed away by intimidating mothers who look like they should be playing rugby. So I've taken to dumping my money on the counter and walking out. I haven't been shouted at yet.

Euro parliamentarian speaks out on Gaza

2008-06-03T10:18:00.001Z

"The Israeli siege on Gaza continue to punish collectively and illegally civil population, killing them together with their hopes of a dignified life and of a better future: of course rocket launched from Gaza to Sderot are illegal and criminal and must be immediately stopped because they hit Israeli civilians, but the fault of some Palestinian extremists groups cannot be paid as reprisal by one million and a half of non-culpable people.

Today, more examples of collective punishment against Palestinian civilians took place. Special Israeli Forces raided Khaza'a area, east of Khan Younis, and killed Yosra Qzeih Abu Roq, a 70 years-old woman. Amnesty International in its latest report announced that since the beginning of 2008, "frequent air strikes and other attacks by Israeli forces killed more than 370 Palestinians, including some 50 children, and injured thousands more."

Also today, the U.S. Department of State withdrew all Fulbright grants from Palestinian students in Gaza, as Israel refused to grant them permission to leave the Gaza Strip. Seven Palestinian students were added to the long list of victims of the illegal, brutal, and incomprehensible siege. The students were deprived from a chance to better contribute to Palestinian society. As The New York Times reported today, even some Israeli lawmakers expressed their anger of the decision.

"This could be interpreted as collective punishment," Rabbi Michael Melchior, chairman of the Knesset's education committee, stated in a committee hearing. He also expressed his concern that "this policy is not in keeping with international standards or with the moral standards of Jews, who have been subjected to the deprivation of higher education in the past. Even in war, there are rules".

This is the meaning of a widespread and contradictory unbalanced policy carried out by the United States that, instead of asking to Israel to open the border crossings to people, women, men, ill persons and goods, it reinforces the brutality of the closure withdrawing scholarships for students.

Unfortunately this unbalanced and hypocritical policy is also followed by 'a supine Europe', as recently defined Peace Nobel Prize and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter who, together with another Peace Nobel Prize, Archbishop Desmond Tutu -in these last days visiting the Strip and shocked for the deteriorated situation in Gaza- urge both that Gaza siege must end.

Amnesty International also announced that "some 40 Palestinians died after being refused passage out of Gaza for urgent medical treatment not available in local hospitals," which totals143 Palestinian patients. Amnesty International also expressed concern over the situation of the thousands of those seriously ill and are denied permission to leave the Gaza Strip.
In the West Bank, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) denounced the increasing number of checkpoints and other physical limitations on movement. According to OCHA there are 607 new checkpoints and physical limitations added since September 2007. In its report, OCHA also expressed its concern regarding the 3,000 Palestinian homes scheduled for demolition by the Israeli Army, and the confiscation of Palestinian fertile land due to the illegal Wall.

Many UN Agencies, International, Palestinian and Israeli NGOs, are constantly denouncing this evidence, but once again in vain. There are also two resolutions by the European Parliament calling on Israel to end the Gaza siege. Nevertheless people in Gaza continue to dye, justice and rights for Palestinians are always more and more remote after 40 years of Occupation and 60 years of Nakba carried out by Israeli Governments and tolerated by the International Community.

LUISA MORGANTINI
Vice President of the European Parliament

Israel to take more Palestinian land

2008-06-02T10:21:00.003Z

This is an intriguing way to report a war crime, courtesy of the BBC. It begins with the headline:

The Israeli government has announced plans to build nearly 900 new housing units in a part of East Jerusalem that is considered occupied territory.

Which is a nice way of saying that Palestinians are being evicted to make room for Jews who could be from anywhere in the world. The balance of the report is actually on Israel PM Olmert's trouble over corruption charges the land confiscation story is not mentioned any further. This is the BBC method of propaganda. Frame the story from an Israeli persepective (leader embattled, talks coming up with the Palestinians, etc). Report crimes committed against the Palestinians as though they were something happening in the periphery.

The little things

2008-06-01T13:07:00.003Z

The guy I'm sharing a room in Ramallah with always sets his alarm for 8am. Every day he presses snooze instead of turning the alarm off. He usually gets up around 11am, which means he ritually turns it off every 15 minutes or so between 8 and 11am. Surprisingly the sound has become somewhat endearing to me. I think it helps that I'm usually out of bed by 7:30am and sit in the adjoining room.

I think I'm going to find it hard to sleep when I return home without the constant sound of the muezzin calling the Fajir azzan or mosquitoes buzzing over my ears. Having said that, to dispel any romantic fantasies readers may have about travel in exotic destinations, it'll be great to have a bit of peace and quiet and no irritating mosquito bites in wierd locations. Not to mention smelling like Aeroguard in the morning. Which reminds me, I've got a new business proposal. How about a line of aerosol perfumes, eg Calvin Klein 'Deterrance' for men and women? I'm (not very) serious! I don't have any cologne with me, glass bottles are too heavy. So my only real perfume is Aeroguard at the moment.

Ha'aretz putsch

2008-06-01T10:14:00.001Z

It appears that the Israelis are closing down many if not all of the sources of critical information coming out of Israel. The hypocrisy of it all is that Israel complains that when the British Academic Union proposes a boycott of Israeli academic institutions as a way to pressure Israel and to protest Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians the Israelis start to scream that the proposed boycott is a violation of freedom of speech and a violation of academic freedom. Israeli authorities have been crushing academic freedom and free speech for Palestinians, and even Israeli critics, for decades. Israel does not want its own population and the rest of the world to know what it is doing to the Palestinians.

UPDATE: according to a reliable and well-informed source this report is highly exaggerated. This is what I've been told:

a.. The new German investors own only about 10% of the paper. Their major influence is in forcing general cutbacks (something common to newspapers around the world); they don't care too much about the politics.
b.. Amira Hass is on sabbatical leave at her own request. This comes directly from her.
c.. Gideon Levy's Twilight Zone column has not been scrapped. It appeared two days ago as normal.
d.. Several reporters left/were sacked at the time the new editor, Dov Alfon, took over. This is again fairly normal. My source tends to agree with Dr Naor that the selection was essentially financial rather than political (although in Israel they are much intertwined.)
e.. From My Source's reading of Eldar's work in both English and Hebrew, he says there has been no change in his output.

Murdoch endorses Obama

2008-05-31T16:08:00.000Z

"We're on the verge of a complete phenomenon," Murdoch said. "Politicians are at an all-time low and are despised by 80% of the public, and then you've got a candidate trying to put himself out above it all. He's become a rock star. It's fantastic.

Haven't we been here before, aka with Bill Clinton and Tony Blair?

Palestinian generosity

2008-05-31T14:55:00.002Z

Today I was in the Ramallah fruit and veg market buying some tasty items. I picked up four very beautiful-looking tomatoes and the bloke at the stand just waved his hand. I didn't understand so I waved some money at him and he refused it. He gave me the tomatoes for free.

Jenin, Jenin

2008-05-29T15:18:00.008Z

Today I visited Jenin, a city in the north of the West Bank that has been a centre for Islamic Jihad, resistance, and regular invasions by the Israelis. I met a number of militants and toured the refugee camp where they live. I was given some harrowing stories of torture and collective punishment. Rather than the evil, Rambo-like fighters of the media stereotype they were, to a man, broken, young, and desperately trying to piece their lives back together.

Here is one of the many checkpoints you cross to get into Jenin. It was stinking hot, around 40 plus degrees, and I couldn't open the window next to my seat in the service taxi.

A horse designed by a European artist with the help of local artists. It's made out of an ambulance that was carrying a doctor from Jenin, Khalil Suleyman. During the 2002 Israeli invasion (in which hundreds of Palestinians were killed), Suleyman implored the Israelis to allow him in. He said he would treat anyone he saw inside, Israeli or Palestinian. His Ambulance was later found badly destroyed by ordinance. The horse is entirely made of the remains of the ambulance. A stensil of a martyr.

Interviewing an Islamic Jihad fighter.

Long way from home

2008-05-28T08:56:00.000Z

A video from a Japanese activist I met in Hebron.

Visit Palestine

2008-05-27T11:32:00.003Z

Check out the Palestinian Authority tourism website. You should seriously consider visiting. Not only is this place historical and mighty interesting, it's actually not as dangerous (for foreigners) as the media often suggests. Moreover, with the economy in tatters, it would send a powerful message of solidarity with the besieged Palestinian people.

Israel to demolish 3000 Palestinian homes

2008-05-27T10:15:00.003Z

"To date, more than 3,000 Palestinian-owned structures in the West Bank have pending demolition orders, which can be immediately executed without prior warning," the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a report.

Whenever you crave for balanced reporting of the Israel/Palestine conflict, always ask yourself - how many Israeli homes have the Palestinians raised?

Al Khalil

2008-05-25T14:07:00.013Z

I've been in Al Khalil or 'Friend' (Hebron) since last Thursday. It is called 'Friend' because it is where Abraham, the father of the three Semitic monotheisms, is believed to be buried. It is also the only major city where Jewish settlements have penetrated right into the city centre.

As a result, the city is littered with Israeli sniper towers and lookouts. In my experience the Israeli soldiers were generally ok, except for one soldier near the Abraham mosque who told me 'not to fuck with him'. When I asked why he said he didn't like me standing near the checkpoint, I was making him feel nervous. Presumably he thinks all Arab-looking men are potential sucide bombers or something. The fact that there's these soldiers, often semi-hidden, makes you a little nervous walking through the old city or near the settlements at night.

I was woken up at 2am on Friday morning by the sound of settler kids, around 40 of them but possibly more, walking down the street and shouting at Palestinian homes. Here's a very poor image of it which I tried to take quietly. You can see Israeli army jeeps coming up and telling the kids to move on. But instead of going home they continued down the street towards the Palestinian old city.

Earlier in the day (on Thursday) I was invited to a house directly bordering Kiryat Arba, a big settlement on the west side of Hebron. In the photo above you can see settlers sitting on Palestinian farm land outside the settlement which, of course, they believe belongs to them as well thanks to the Torah. Every Shabat the settlers light giant bonfires and often harass the Palestinians. Fortunately there wasn't any violence while I was there, although they did set fire to a field owned by Palestinians which was dowsed by a fire truck.

I also went with a Christian Peacemaker Team patrol around the Abraham Mosque/Synagogue. In this picture you can see a CPTer (second from right) putting herself between four settler boys (in white) and a Palestinian woman (on the right). The Palestinian woman is technically not allowed to walk on the road during Sabbath and instead is expected to walk through the field on the right. The Orthodox Jews do not permit their own women to walk on the road during the Sabbath either, but the reserve verbal and physical abuse for Palestinian women.

The road in the photo above leads up to the settlement of Kiryat Arba. Below it are Palestinian farms that are routniely harassed. Some like this one are even taken over, the family that lives there being evicted. By law the settlers are allowed to carry guns. It's not unusual to see a teenage boy with an M-16. By the same laws it is illegal for Palestinians to carry guns or large knives under the punishment of imprisonment. You can imagine what a power imbalance this causes!

Of course this is just 1% of what I've seen and done in Hebron. More to follow!

More information on Fehmi

2008-05-21T09:29:00.002Z

The International Solidarity Movement has more details on the murder of young Fehmi at Hawara checkpoint the day before last.

Witnesses concur that Fihme was alone going through the checkpoint. Jamal Hanoun, a Nablus taxi driver who witnessed the entire incident from 10 metres away, insists that Fihme raised his hands when Israeli soldiers yelled orders at him in Hebrew. Jamal explained that not speaking Hebrew, he couldn’t understand what the soldiers had ordered, but that after raising his hands in the air, Fihme didn’t move at all. He reports that Fihme kept his hands in the air while soldiers aimed at him, and then fired approximately 5-7 bullets, one by one, hitting Fihme in the neck, face, back, chest and abdomen. “He died with his hands in the air.” The shooting, he says, came from the soldiers who check the cars, not from soldiers in the watchtower, as some have suggested.

Israeli paramilitaries turn peaceful protest violent

2008-05-21T09:25:00.001Z

Benny Morris and the Nakba

2008-05-21T08:55:00.003Z

A revealing interview with Benny Morris, perhaps the single biggest authority on the events of 1948 (when, during the Arab-Israeli war the Palestinian people were expelled from what is now Israel).

It's interesting that, when all is said, all Benny Morris can say to justify the Nakba is that the Zionists felt that they had a just claim to the land. He says it would have been better (ie no conflict) if they had been able to totally expel the Palestinian population. But if you follow that logic, it would have been equally peaceful if the Zionists had been expelled too.

For Morris the primary reason for Palestinian resistance and Arab world reticence on the issue is sour grapes:

It’s a historic humiliation. It’s not a private, personal humiliation. I think the Arab world was brought up—the Islamic Arab world was brought up on tales of power and conquest dating back to the seventh century and the expansion of Islam and the Arabs out of the Arabian Peninsula and the conquest of the Mediterranean Basin, parts of Europe, and so on. And they had a self-image of a powerful people. And what happened in the—after the Turkish Ottoman conquests in the fifteenth century and subsequently belittled the Arab world, disempowered it. And then came the European imperial incursions, sometimes conquests in the nineteenth century. And topping all that came the Zionist influx and the unsuccessful Arab war against it in 1947-48. And this was a humiliation the Arab world could not take. 630,000 Jews had bested a 1.2 million Palestinians and 40 million Arabs surrounding that 630,000-strong community. And this humiliation is something which they have never been able to erase and still, I think, motivates them in large measure in their desire to erase the state of Israel.

This is a classically Orientalist mode of thought. It is not that the Palestinians were unjustly made homeless and stateless. It's just that the Arabs are bad losers.

Walking in Palestine

2008-05-21T07:58:00.003Z

One of my pet loves about Palestine is the fact that you can almost always walk in front of oncoming traffic inside the cities. No one travels particularly fast and cars give way to pedestrians! Here's a typical big city street, courtesy of Nablus.

A jihad for love

2008-05-20T18:34:00.003Z

Death at Hawara

2008-05-20T10:58:00.003Z

I've just been told that a teenage boy was shot dead at Hawara at 7pm yesterday, about 4 hours after I went through there myself. The Israeli news is claiming the soldiers foiled a suicide attack. Eyewitnesses contacted so far say he was not carrying any explosives but had a mobile phone strapped to his belt with headphones in his ears. When told to put his hands in the air he misunderstood and thought the soldiers wanted him to lift his shirt to show he had no explosives around his chest. I've been told the soldiers spoke in Hebrew, a language the boy is unlikely to know owing to the fact that he was Palestinian. More on this soon...

UPDATE: I think one of the soldiers who shot Fehmi was also one of the soldiers trying to give me a hard time yesterday. According to reports she was the soldier in charge of the checkpoint and from what I could gather one of the soldiers I spoke to, the woman, looked like she was the one in charge because she was seated in a booth while others were standing below her. It's like living in an alternate universe over here sometimes.

Happy birthday

2008-05-19T18:45:00.005Z

No one individual has affected me, emotionally, more than Malik el-Shabazz, better known to the world as Malcolm X. I remember watching Spike Lee's movie and then reading the Alex Haley autobiography. I was immediately moved by his remarkable transition from poverty and crime to activism. But it was only when I heard him speak that I realised that Malcolm was something special. I don't think the English language has ever had anyone as forthright or brave enough to openly change his views as he developed and learnt more about his struggle. It is important never to fetishise or mythologise people. There is a lot of things Malcolm said that I totally disagree with. Much of his early speeches were beyond extreme. But he was a human being, and, when all is said, represents everything a person can hope to do to openly and honestly challenge an unjust world. I love the Ossie Davis eulogy he read at his funeral as well. Always gets me choked up. If you get a chance see the version from the Spike Lee film, it has a cameo by Nelson Mandela (before he became president I think) at the end.

Happy birthday brother, may your spirit live on in our minds and especially our hearts.

Leaving Nablus

2008-05-19T16:06:00.009Z

[A man selling kites outside Huwara checkpoint in Nablus]

Today I left Nablus for Ramallah to rest up over the next few days and write up some pieces based on the interviews I undertook. I spent the last five days hearing stories of loss, grief, fear, uncertainty and (mostly) unwavering resistance interspersed with a lot of walking, smoke-filled rooms, and even the odd barn yard filled with goats, sheep or a cow. The Palestinians are very strong. Sometimes I wonder whether Israelis understand what they're up against. I think they mistake their resolve to remain on their lands for fool's courage. Moreover, as difficult as things are, I'm convinced that the Palestinians will eventually live in a state along with the Jewish population. But it will probably take several decades. Israel, and its occupation, are not only mad. They are unsustainable. Of course, no matter how rosy my conclusion sounds, even if the Palestinians do win their freedom they will no doubt also lose a lot more lives.

On another note, while I was lining up in the check point I couldn't resist pulling out my camera and taking some snaps. I concluded that even if the Israelis picked up a stink the worst thing they could do is tell me get lost. But at least I would have photos to show the outside world how the Palestinians have been dehumanised and herded through checkpoints like cattle on their own lands.So I went a bit crazy and took a lot of photos. Eventually a burly Israeli soldier came over, he looked Russian. He spoke in very bad Arabic and I just said, "sorry no Arabic mate. Press." And he walked off.When it was my turn to have my passport checked another soldier standing next to the woman holding my passport said "You take photo?" I pretended not to understand, he was, afterall, speaking in very broken English. Eventually he got frustrated and tagged my camera bag and I followed him as he put my bag on a table and started to open it. I quickly flashed my press cards and as he was looking at them zipped up the bag and took it back.

The other soldier, the one with my passport, said half-heartedly "Open your bag." Again, I feigned ignorance as to what she said. She too spoke poor English. There was around a five second pause, after which I just took my bags and walked off. You could tell they didn't really know what to do. The soldiers at these checkpoints are really young. They gave me a bit of a death stare and I did my best "go fuck yourself" facial expression.
There is not doubt that, had I been Palestinians, they would have grabbed me, knocked me about, and detained me for the afternoon. Talk about FUBAR.

Take it easy

2008-05-19T16:01:00.003Z

One of my deepest, darkest secrets is that I quite enjoy (some) country and western music (yes I really am that boring!). I remember singing The Eagles' 'Take it Easy' by the camp fire in the Pilbara in 2005 and ever since then it's been one of my pick-me-up tracks. This cover by Travis Tritt ain't too bad either although this video clip must have cost 5 cents!

Hollywood does Iron Man

2008-05-18T19:53:00.003Z

Thankfully there's a television in the place I'm staying in tonight. It's showing a documentary (ie: long advert) for Iron Man. Looks good, in a mindless kinda way. Good to see they've maintained the Arab/Muslim terrorist motif. Nothing worse than being inconsistent, you know? Robert Downie Jnr is being interviewed about his character. I love it out how movie stars can get so serious talking about the silly plot lines of their films. It's as though he's describing the curent crisis in Lebanon!

3 million Palestinians can't be wrong

2008-05-18T13:25:00.003Z

Almost everyone, well every man, smokes in Palestine. One fellow I met recently refused to be interviewed unless I shared in a smoke up with him. Needless to say I lit up, but I don't think I'll be taking up the habit just yet. Nevertheless, I can understand why they do. Life here is so stressful and uncertain. Palestinians may not die in the same numbers as Congoloese or Darfuris. But this is a small country and the Israelis really do play games with them. You never quite know if you are entirely safe from death. Particularly in the rural areas. For example, many people, including old people and children, are liable to be shot or have stones thrown at them while they are walking down the road or in the hills. I interviewed a man who witnessed, along with four others, a fellow goat herder being run over by a speeding Israeli bus last month. I'm going to spend my next visit to Israel, in a few weeks time, investigating this claim. Although I have no reason to doubt this man's testimony and I've seen photos of the incident. I also saw the road where it happened from around half a kilometre away. I was told not to go any further as I would risk being shot at. The road basically divides a Palestinian village from a neighbouring settlement. I don't see why this story would not be true either. My guess is the bus driver was trying to get the herder off the road by intimidating him and speeding up the bus, which is what eyewitnesses say happened. But the goatherder, who was crossing with a lot of goats, simply could not get out of the way in time. I reckon, when the bus driver hit the man, he panicked out of fear the scary Palestinians would have killed him if he stopped. And perhaps they would have. So he decided to keep driving on to the nearest settlement.

As far as I know no one has been charged over the murder.

Travelling through the West Bank

2008-05-17T19:26:00.008Z

[Burning the US flag at a Nakba protest in Nablus. Unfortunately, for those who lit it, it lacked the intended visual effect. It was polyester so it melted rather than burned.]

So much has happened over the past few days but it's been difficult to put blog to website. My general routine is to meet people from 11am onwards. 11am is when people get busy and the Palestinian cities really spring to life. I've interviewed refugees from 1948, the families of people, mostly kids, who have been murdered by the Israelis and a few who murdered Israelis, and have lined up some interviews with militants. The latter is a little more difficult to arrange owing to the fact that militants are being targeted for assassination or capture by the Israelis. Most have either been killed, imprisoned or fled the West Bank. The remainder are in hiding.

[A Palestinian boy getting excited during a Nakba protest in Tulkarem]

I've met some very dedicated foreign activists during my travels. They have often been the link to Palestinians and issues of interest, like the small village I stayed in overnight. It was experiencing settler violence, they were firing at the Palestinian village and setting fire to their crops. A Palestinian crowd often gathers and shouts at the settlers. Some throw stones. The settlers are armed to the teeth. I'm talking M-16s here. Israeli soldiers arrive and often just stand and watch the settlers firing on the village or setting fire to the crops. Instead they fire tear gas and rubber bullets at the Palestinians.

When we got to the village on this occasion the soldiers were, thankfully, about to leave. We missed the violence and I was happy about that. A bunch of us stayed in the village overnight. The townsfolk were incredibly good hosts and we partook in a local Nakba protest that evening which ran through the village streets.

It's interesting how your mindset changes when you have to share your personal space with total strangers. You become, in the short term, far more tolerant and resilient. At least, I like to think so. But eventually, as with all things, your tolerance ends. I've noticed, not for the first time, how annoying well intentioned people like activists can be. For example, some of my travelling companions are just a little too obssessed with respecting local customs and mores... and reminding me to obey in kind. To be sure this is generally a good thing. But I think a lot of foreigners who go to third world countries forget that the locals are just people too and are not monolithically attached to custom. By that I mean they are more tolerant and flexible with foreigners and and you don't have to follow every tip in the Lonely Planet guide. Don't chuck a cow if you accidentally shake hands with the wrong gender. Try to not to be more local than the locals. And for god's sake enjoy the odd moment of laughing or swearing inappropriately. Otherwise the locals may just find you a little patronising. I know I would.

That evening we sat in a reception room in our hosts' house for hours, all of us rather exhausted but afraid to seek permission to go to bed. Eventually, around midnight, I told one of our hosts it was time to sleep. I was told this may offend the hosts, but in truth they were tired too. I think they wanted to go to sleep as well but were afraid, ironically, like us, that they'd offend us by calling it a night too soon. All of us quickly and efficiently went to sleep once the ice was broken. Earlier in the night I offended one of my companions by using the f-word... while in the same room with a number of grown Palestinian men.

I also happened to have my right leg crossed over my left thigh while I was sitting down. The next morning one of my companions complained that this was considered disrespectful under local customs. Displaying the sole of your foot is rude. I was tired and keen to get back to my room for a hot shower before today's string of interviews and frankly the last thing I really was concerned about was my foot etiquette. The locals didn't seem at all concerned as a number of them spoke to me complete with exposed sole. Strictly speaking it is disrespectful to show the soul of your foot in the subcontinent too, but I've never run into trouble there, at least for this reason!, in all the times I've been around that part of the world.

[Boy in a refugee camp. There are so many kids over here.]

One of my companions is a really good Australian activist. Unfortunately this activist also has that trait, common among Australians, of being impossibly earnest. In a place like Palestine you often have to tell a white lie to keep desperate people afloat. "Will Mr B from France return to Palestine?" Truth: no, of course not. Appropriate response: "Yes, of course he will, inshallah!" Call that patronising or colonial even. But it's just plain true. This companion, who is something of a veteran and very knowledge on the conflict and local customs, simply does not realise this. To their credit it shows that they are honest and don't play games with the truth. Traits I respect more than anything else. I guess another problem is that it's hard not to become overly earnest and humourless in a depressing environment and, believe me, occupied Palestine is depressing.

[Poster of a shaheed or martyr, a militant killed in clashes with Israelis. Almost all the posters are of young men. So very, very sad.]

At the same time, observing them has made me wonder whether one problem with many activists is the inability to act dynamically. In every environment you have to be a bit of an actor. Pure altruism is like pure oxygen. It's lethal without impurities.

[An old man walking through the Nablus old city. Around twice a week these alleys become a battle ground between patrolling Israelis and militants.]

The Catastrophe

2008-05-15T21:51:00.001Z

Today represents the 60th anniversary of al Nakba, literally 'the catastrophe' in Arabic. The moment in history when the Palestinians lost most of their land and the chance for statehood. Lest we forget.

Apologies

2008-05-14T17:36:00.003Z

I haven't been updating you on my travels all that much of late, mainly due to limited internet access and exhaustion. I'm in Ramallah now, the cosmopolitan heart of the West Bank... and local bourgeois culture, and all the international organisations, and wifi cafes (yay!!). I went to a protest at Tulkarem today and will be going to Nablus tomorrow for the rest of the week.

The protest was interesting. Picture thousands of kids marching with UN flags (to represent the UN resolution of 1948 that attempted to create a Jewish and Palestinian state side by side). They were marching towards Jaffa, a town just south of Tel Aviv that is now impossible for Palestinians to reach. It was never meant to reach that far, only to the wall as a symbolic gesture. The kids got a little carried away, some started getting dangerously close to a sniper tower and throwing rocks. At one point I ventured close to where the kids nearest to the tower were until I noticed an Israeli soldier waving his rifle. I realised I was a lot taller than most of the kids and would've probably made an easy target. So I decided to courageously to walk back a bit. In the end a teacher came and waving a plastic stick herded the kids away from the wall. I'll post pictures as soon as I get a chance.

Earlier in the week I finally managed to interview a former big wig political adviser who is also an ultra-right wing settler. He was very approachable and... avoided properly answering every question I put to him. At least I got his phone number. I've concluded that, when I get back home, I'm going to buy a speaker phone and a hundred phone cards and do a lot of over the phone interviews.

Atheist religion?

2008-05-14T17:10:00.002Z

Science is not always directly empirical. Science is not governed by absolute, immutable laws. Science, and especially quantum mechanics, far from telling us we can know everything, tells us there will always be things we cannot know. No one ultimately understands. Science affirms the complexity and mystery of the universe. Science, like the religious impulse, opens us up to a world where we face mystery. There are forces in the universe that will always lie beyond the capacity of the human mind.

A great article over at truthdig.com on Dawkins and the other militant Atheists and their cult of science. Thanks to fanonite.org.

Watson

2008-05-14T17:07:00.002Z

Bill O'Reilly at his best

2008-05-13T16:25:00.001Z

This has got to be the funniest thing in the universe!!

Einstein on God

2008-05-13T15:35:00.001Z

The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. These subtilised interpretations are highly manifold according to their nature and have almost nothing to do with the original text. For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything 'chosen' about them.

Albert Einstein, in a letter published today.

Nice to know I have something in common with the big man.

IDF culture of denial and impunity

2008-05-11T06:34:00.001Z

And you can't help asking yourself, as you stand exposed on a roadway stained with blood and gristle and carbonised rubber, with a killer robot circling overhead, what would they say if it was you who'd been hit? For the average Middle East correspondent this is not a difficult question to answer. As a character remarked in the BBC political satire The Thick of It, looking up your own name on the internet is like opening the door to "a room full of people who are trying to throw shit at you". Fortunately, the job gives one a thick skin. But the Israeli Defence Force's culture of denial and impunity, repeatedly condemned by Israeli and foreign rights groups, does nothing for your confidence when you have reason to fear that someone you can't see is studying you on a computer screen, or through a gun sight.

Ed O'Loughlin, Fairfax Middle East Correspondent for the past 5 years in today's The Age.

Cargo pants

2008-05-10T21:41:00.000Z

I've concluded they're the most essential item for any traveller. For example, the other day I walked around 10kms with my dictaphone, notepad, diary, pen, phone, and wallet all in my pants. There's a particular brand I got in Sydney which is cheap and very durable. I think I'm going to buy up the shop when next I'm in town.

In other news I was meant to interview a Darfuri spokesperson yesterday evening. He invited me to the beach at evening, which I thought would be a sedate affair. Instead it was a big beach festival which was fun, but alas no interview (surprise, surprise). I didn't really hang around very long but I did check out Jaffa, the little port town that is now part of Tel Aviv. Jaffa is significant in that it was an Arab town completely cleansed by the Zionists. Contrary to the Zionist propaganada, which says the Palestinians were all primitive farmers, Jaffa was a centre of Palestinian intellectual life and commerce. Now it's one of the most expensive areas around.

Worth a read

2008-05-09T06:38:00.003Z

My good friend Mustafa Qadri has just had two pieces published, one on Israel's 60th anniversary here, another on racism, Islam and Daniel Pipes here.

Independence Day in Israel

2008-05-08T18:05:00.001Z

Today being Israel's 60th independence day (a public holiday) I went with a friend and his family to the beach near Ashkelon, a town south of Tel Aviv. There were people, music and barbecues everywhere, reminiscent to the families in Oz going to the camping grounds for the long weekend. Although the smell of barbecued flesh got me mightily hungry I had to contend myself with... cheese bagels and carrots. At least I got to see Israel's mighty and noble airforce. I managed to get some pics of the helicopters but not the jets. Ashkelon is, ironically and sadly, right above Gaza. Wonder whether the jets had a pay load for Gaza? To give you a sense of the irony, just imagine watching an airshow in Sydney of planes you know routinely bomb Cronulla.

Assaf - refugee assistance organisation in Israel

2008-05-08T17:49:00.001Z

Assaf was the organisation that put me in touch with the refugees mentioned in Tuesday's post. Check them out.

Living with an Israeli

2008-05-07T22:12:00.006Z

For the past two weeks I've been living with an Israeli academic I met during my travels in Europe. We hit it off when we first met and I was surprised to hear him say, on parting, that I should come visit him in Israel. When I contacted him late last year he seemed very keen to host me. Given that I'm struggling a bit money wise and accommodation is the single biggest cost for a traveller, and given that I wanted to get to know the locals better, I thought this was a great offer. What's more he happens to work at a conservative newspaper and offered to hook me up with government officials and politicans, even a right wing Jewish settler whom we'd describe as fanatical in Australia but over here is merely considered right wing. It was an offer too good to refuse.

It has definitely been a great learning experience. He has been a very gracious host, but it hasn't always been easy. For starters, I think I disappointed him because I'm not particularly religious or traditional. He happens to be a scholar in Muslim history so I think he was looking forward to dissecting my, perceived, pre-modern brain. Moreover, while he is quite open-minded and willing to discuss the Israel/Palestine issue to some extent I've reached the conclusion that he is actually quite close-minded and probably racist.

His interest in Islam, as I may have implied in an earlier post, is quite orientalist. His particular interest is tracking extremist Islamic scholars and, especially, diaspora Muslims in the West who take on their call to spread the word of Islam, including violently. His thesis comfortably fits within the orientalist mould because he concludes that Islam is a pre-modern faith and 'moderates' have to be found to champion the move towards Western-style democracy. Furthermore, he cites Israel as the model to emulate, being of course such a bastion of freedom and plurality, even for its Arab citizens (NOT!!). He's been widely published and is starting to get a lot of coverage in English-language countries. I'd love to post some links so you can read his stuff and make your own mind up but of course that would require disclosing his name.

I lumped down his comments with a lot of self control on and even, to begin with, was silent as he claimed that much of the story behind Israel's dispossession of the Palestinians was false. Eventually, however, I just could not let it go unnoticed. Now I believe I was firm but never rude or loud, I tried to be as diplomatic as possible, and I always gave him the last word or two or three and thanked him for broadening my horizons on the issue. But he really took offence to it. I think the straw that broke his back was when I asked if he thought Israel was at all like Apartheid South Africa.

Now he's saying that he cannot introduce me to the right wing politicians and government officials he previously promised as I may offend them and make him look bad. My initial reaction was surprise and sadness. 'If only I had shut up my big gob' I thought most of the day. But as I walked around Tel Aviv today I started to realise that I had not said anything in a disrespectul tone, did not use any derogatory words, and so on. Moreover, I was honest about my views. The other option would have been to be dishonest, pretend to be a 'neutral', ignorant bystander to the conflict and later quote him extensively without his knowledge... until he read one of my pieces in the press. The strange thing is we're still getting along but politics is a serious no-go area. In my friend's defence, these issues are close to the heart for Israelis and the instinct to be defensive is natural in many ways.

I contented myself with that rationalisation until, following that, we sat having dinner with his brother on the eve of Independence Day he told me this 'funny' story of how he overheard this woman in a bus 'singing' in a strange operatic way, and here I quote, "I wish we just exterminated all those Arabs!" His brother looked uncomfortable and I was really just speechless. I don't even think he was trying to rub it in but honestly thought it a funny story (because of the way the woman sung the words, not because of what she said). I have learnt many things on this trip, like just how ignorant I am and how much I need to learn. And I've also learnt that an intelligent man can be just as racist as an ignorant one. The former just tends to be more layered in his or her approach.

Israel's other refugees

2008-05-06T21:33:00.002Z

Today I met some refugees from Eritrea and Ethiopia in down town Tel Aviv. A contact I made through a friend is a refugee advocate and he suggested I go and check it out. I first met Mr G, a Christian Eritrean man who said he left his country because of its dictatorial leader. There is extreme poverty in Eritrea and people live in fear that any dissent will be met with imprisonment or death.

I was told about his harrowing journey through Ethiopia to Sudan and then Egypt and finally Israel. Afterward I met a few other refugees from Ethiopia and another from Eritrea. Most were afraid that information about them would flow back home and their families would be persecuted. So I took pains not to photograph faces and not to ask for names. I must admit to feeling a little pornographic. Like I was invading their house (which I was!) and taking photos as though I was at a zoo. I must say that journalism, for this reason, is a morally questionable profession.

They all said they were glad to be in Israel. Although they have no rights here, cannot legally work, and live in really basic, often horrible slum conditions at least they're not persecuted like in Sudan or Egypt. Apparently Egypt is particularly hostile and racist. Refugees are known to be killed, as happened during a refugee protest in Cairo in 2005. They also face a lot of violence, hence the interest in getting into Israel. The refugee advocate who told me to come here told me last week of one story where a group of refugees literally had to run towards the Israeli border as Egyptian police chased and eventually started firing at them. A few escaped but the unlucky ones were shot in front of them. One of them was caught in a deadly game of tug-of-war as Israeli soldiers pulled his or her arms and Egypitan police pulled their legs. Eventually the Egyptian police pulled their guns on the Israeli soldiers who let go and the refugee was dragged away to be shot.

Israel is nonetheless far from an ideal final destination. The Government here is loathe to give refugees residency because they fear more people will seek refuge in Israel. There is no government refugee program either. So UNHCR and local groups are the only ones assisting the refugees. Even then UNHCR only really processes them. Unlike other, developing nations, it does not provide any humanitarian assistance in Israel. Many refugees are thrown in prison. Others are bused to a park in this down town area of Tel Aviv where they are told to get out and are forced to camp in the grass. This should come as no surprise for us in Australia. The Israeli Government is also concerned that if it accepts African refugees it will have to consider the Palestinian refugees on their own doorstep. All in all a pretty fucked up situation.

I also met an Ethiopian man who works as an IT manager during the night and during the day helps manage the refuge hostels I visited where around 300-400 people seek shelter. There isn't enough rooms so people sleep in the corridors, on the floor, anywhere they can. I took a lot of photos but I can't publish them as they may be published elsewhere. This manager bloke was a real angel of a man. He was visibly exhausted and clearly was making time out of an otherwise hectic day for me to speak to him. Yet he was as patient with my, to him I'm sure, stupid or obvious questions as he was to the many people coming up to him asking for help fixing the plumbing or some other household issue. He told me he had sunk much of his own money into keeping the refugee hostels, which were in really poor condition, afloat. As dire as the situation seemed I must admit to feeling proud to have met a man like this. I should also share another thing he said to me, quite without provocation from me. He said although the African refugees here had it bad at least there was a long term sense of hope, that slowly they will find jobs and, if not citizenship, possibly get residency like he did (according to him only 1% of refugees have obtained this thus far and in fact no new residencies have been issued in the past few years). Moreover, at least they weren't harassed and indeed the area of town I was in had a sense of community in it including local food and music stores. Indeed, it is perhaps the most interesting bit of Tel Aviv I've seen yet. I met a peace activist around here a few days earlier and it is full of poor migrants like women who look Filipino (but of course may be from other Asian countries, I do not know), Arabs and poor Jews. Anyway the hostel manager said "but the Palestinians, for them I can see no hope. They have nothing to look forward to."

Recognise this song??

2008-05-05T19:35:00.002Z

This post will mean nothing to non-Battlestar Galactica fans, but does anyone know what this song is called??

An afternoon in Tel Aviv's orthodox quarter

2008-05-05T07:00:00.000Z

Today I went to M'barak, an outer suburb of Tel Aviv where orthodox Jews live. The place was full of men and women with kids, even little ones roaming around in little groups around the place. The air was warm with the smell of tasty traditional Jewish cuisine. I was surprised to find that many Orthodox men and women smoke. But I wasn't surprised to find that they have a serious thing for black. What is it with Orthodox people of every hue and the colour black??

While waiting for my bus back I decided to buy some cherries and started talking to the proprietor. Itzhak was originally from Baghdad, Iraq but his family moved to Israel in the early 1950s. He kept saying that "Israel is kaput!" Rather surprised by this comment I asked why. "Everything... money, money, money!!" He elaborated that Israel was now driven by money, "Jewish... money, money, money!" Not only was Israel imploding from within, it faced dangerous threats from Syria, Iran, Lebanon, everywhere.

Itzhak said that when he first came he experienced a lot of racism, including beatings from the police for merely, he claims, loitering on a street. "Israel [like] Apartheid." But according to him Israel is not so bad anymore. Many Arab Jews have become successful and now walk around with their noses raised (which he demonstrated in quite an animated fashion!).

Accidents

2008-05-03T17:37:00.003Z

I've witnessed 5 car accidents in the past two weeks. According to letsgo.com more Israelis have died in car accidents than from all of their wars combined. I've heard this surprising statistic from other sources too.

To do list

2008-05-03T15:55:00.002Z

As I conduct my travels I've realised there's a number of things I need to brush up on, if not entirely learn from scratch.

i. learn to read and write Arabic;

ii. learn to read and write Urdu;

iii. brush up on my knowledge of Islamic theology and history;

iv. brush up on the modern history of the Middle East and Pakistan.

Thankfully I already have the tools (books, cds, etc) to do this. I just need to get my arse on a seat and do the study.

I should point out that I'm still an atheist and don't personally derive much satisfaction from theology. But as I travel I've noticed that, to take part in the debate on Islam, terrorism and development I need to know more about the details. Islam's opponents know a lot more about Islam than most Muslims do. This is a serious concern.

Al Jazeera cameraman on Guantanamo ordeal

2008-05-02T19:59:00.000Z

Thanks to Toaf for the link.

Our wasteful economy

2008-05-02T07:02:00.002Z

Yesterday I saw the ultimate in useless consumerism. A schoolboy I know made an error in his homework and produced an electric eraser - a small battery-powered plastic gadget which moved an attached rubber to and fro when he held it to the page. It saved him having to move his fingers!

Probably, I thought, it had been wired up by a $2-a-day wage slave in some unhealthy factory and then, with container loads of similar junk, transported between continents using expensive fossil fuels pushing out CO2.

I am sure a clever person designed such a thing but, as a world already in trouble, we would be cleverer to reject such trifles which give a week's pleasure and an aeon of pollution.

Diana Evans Lindfield

(Letter from Sydney Morning Herald)

Israel's orientalism

2008-05-01T16:14:00.004Z

I've spent much of this week speaking to Israeli academics specialising in Islam and Middle Eastern history. Some of the open-minded ones have been open to debate and we've had some enjoyable if energetic discussions. Two things have really struck me. One, they're all Orientalists, even the most sympathetic ones. Two, they have a lot of knowledge and resources pertaining to Islam especially in the Middle East. As Muslims, we're so behind on this latter point. We need to study our religion, analytically not theologically, better. And we need to counter the colonialist message much of the Western scholarship, of which the Israeli scholarship is a segment, exhibits.

Day 12

2008-04-29T20:45:00.006Z

I should apologise for not putting up any journey-related blogs of late. It isn't for want of activities or experiences. In fact, the situation has been quite the opposite. I'm currently in the heart of Israel living and meeting with committed Zionists, aka Israeli citizens. It's been an eye opening experience for me and it has helped to further humanise the conflict. I'm also on the verge of some big interview scoops. Hopefully more on that later.

On another note, something of an interesting and sad story for you. Last time I was here I met Hisham, a friendly and helpful Palestinian hostel manager in Jerusalem. He told me about his torture experience in an Israeli dungeon following a suicide bombing he was suspected of carrying out. He claims to have never been involved in it and, to be sure, he was finally released by the Israelis because he refused to confess to involvement in the bombing despite days of torture.
Meeting Hisham was high on my list for this trip and I duly visited the hostel in East Jerusalem where I met him last. As I walked up the stairs leading to the hostel's entrance I was greeted by a new face. He explained that Hisham was no longer here. He had been kicked out by the owner because of his inability to manage the hostel. Initially he was allowed to stay, as a paying lodgee, but eventually even this was cancelled. Hisham fled to the hostel next door where he remains, not as a worker but as a guest.

Concerned at his wellbeing I immediately went to the adjoining hostel only to discover he was sleeping. Eventually he awoke and I reintroduced myself. Astonishingly he remembered who I was.

"From Sydney?" he asked.

"Yes" I replied.

When I met Hisham last time I remember him speaking about his wife, children and extended family. Clearly he was no longer living with them. I did not press the issue and at least physically he looked very much the same as before. Moreover, his mind was still sharp but the body, and body language, was less robust. We sat and drank mint tea and spoke sporadically. Occasionally bohemian looking Western tourists drifted in. But apparently none were activists. Once a hotbed of activist ferment, the hostel was now a semi-operational facility with semi-employed staff.

Interestingly, I met a tall, heavily stoned Serbian bloke who kept on telling the duty manager "I love you." I later noticed the same man walking through the Old City... wearing a monk's garb. In the hostel he professed to being an Orthodox monk but, of course, no one believed him.

Jerusalem is interesting that way. Something of a hotbed for the spiritually needy and bankrupt, as well as other types.

J Street

2008-04-29T06:35:00.000Z

Are liberal Jewish voices in America being drowned out by powerful conservative lobbyists? A group of prominent left-leaning Jewish-Americans thinks so.

He's too black

2008-04-28T07:01:00.002Z

Exit polls in Pennsylvania found that 12% of whites said that race was a factor in deciding their votes while Clinton won white union households and white Catholics by about 70% to his 30%.

A Newsweek poll published yesterday suggests that 19% of voters were not ready to elect an African-American president.

All of a sudden China is scary

2008-04-27T18:58:00.002Z

This comes courtesy of Crikey.com.au:

White men with guns seem naturally reassuring to the psyche of a colonial settler state nestled in the midst of Asia. The armed yellow man induces quite a different effect. Compare the response to the Chinese torch attendants with the reaction to the personal army that George Bush brought to Sydney not so long ago.

Another good article on fear of China and the Asian other here.

The waiting game - day 10

2008-04-27T16:27:00.006Z

Today I went to apply for an Israeli press card. I hailed a taxi and asked it to go to the address on the website. It turns out the address is for the head office, not the one journalists are meant to go to. The head office happens to be the fortress-like Prime Minister's Office. The barricade before the entrance is surrounded by three or four big security guards with very big machine guns. Needless to say I was stopped and my belongings searched. A guy delivering some take away food was also asked to stop and prove the contents of his delivery were high in carbohydrates and saturated fats and low in explosives. Eventually a very diminutive but helpful woman arrived and explained where I had to go. It was the prefect kodak moment but alas I couldn't exactly draw my camera out.

I suspect I won't get the pass. My sponsor isn't a large enough media outlet and my most recent piece for them is a pretty damning critique of Israeli society. If I don't get it it basically means I can't get into Gaza. To be honest, if that happens, I'll be pretty disappointed.

[A photo taken on my daily walk back up the hill away from the old city heading south east. In the distance you can see the separation wall that keeps all those terrorist Palestinians out]

Why you can't trust Mid-East reporting

2008-04-26T18:22:00.003Z

The US claim that Syria was developing nuclear weapons has hit the headlines. Check out the New York Times' curious piece on the site Israel bombed. Notice that you have to wait until the bottom of the page to read what Syrian officials said. But what's been almost entirely ignored is the fact that Israel bombed another sovereign nation when there was no immediate threat. Now what would happen if Syria bombed Israel's nuclear facilities, which we happen to know already have at least a hundred nukes?

The International Atomic Energy Agency has said it "deplores the fact that this information [alleging the existence of a nuclear facility]... was not provided to the Agency in a timely manner... to enable it to verify its veracity and establish the facts." That is diplomatic speak for 'not happy Jan'.

Most importantly, you'd think the fact that the US launched a murderous war in Iraq on the back of faulty intelligence would warrant a bit of skepticism towards the present claims. Yet most of the reporting has, at best, skirted around this. Surely allegations concerning nuclear weapons from the country with the most powerful military force in the world, not to mention largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, ought to be treated with significant skepticism?

Israel's American spy network

2008-04-26T18:12:00.000Z

You may find this shocking.

God, monotheism and the rest of it

2008-04-26T14:51:00.007Z

Last year I read Karen Armstrong's Battle for God. Basically it's a history of fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. I was impressed by her ability to describe complex histories and theological concepts using only plain language. I'd strongly recommend having a read of it as it's a good source of history and information on the development of these faiths. My copy is full of post-it notes. I just saw the documentary of her book History of God. While it's generally not bad, it's not particularly informative. Perhaps the book is more detailed. However what really surprised me was that it was really only about the development of God under Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Even then, the information wasn't really grounded in established fact and historical and archeological evidence but was rather a loose anthropological excerise. There's nothing wrong with that if your purpose is to produce a television documenary that leaves you with a warm, fuzzy feeling. But surely people ought to be given more detail. And not just about these three major faiths but other religions too.

To be honest, I think the three 'major' monotheisms get far too much air time. It's as if no other religious traditions exist. Moreover, the documentary treated pagan and polytheistic religions as precursors to monotheism, thereby implying that they are somehow less developed or sophisticated. Economically and geopolitically the world map may not be drawn up on the basis of adherence to one of the monotheistic religions. East Asia is an economic power house even though most of its peoples are not monotheists. However, I think there's a danger of relegating a lot of very useful and interesting thinking because it doesn't conform to the monotheistic template. For years, once becoming an atheist, I enjoyed reading the Tao Te Jing. It's so wonderfully ambiguous and paradoxical and poetic that it gives the reader the freedom to make of it what he or she feels. I think that is how most people, even monotheists, operate; especially when left to their own devices. Maybe we ought to celebrate that more.

Living in Jerusalem this past week and a bit has certainly confirmed the bankruptcy of organised religion. As much as religion has the capacity for beauty, surely the greatest beauty rests in the personal expressions not the grand public spectacles? But perhaps, being something of a loner, I'm a little biased on this point.

[A woman celebrating Orthodox Easter with the flame that symbolises Christ.]

China and the West's double standards

2008-04-26T06:39:00.001Z

We need China to be "terrible" — in Tibet and elsewhere — because we don't want to be the only ones defined as oppressors, as colonialists: we need to convince the world (and ourselves) that China is part of the club. So that we can say, as we always did, that brutality is common to all men, no matter what culture they belong to, no matter what economic system is ruling their lives. If Chinese foreign policy is not as terrible as ours, we have to make sure that we make it look like it is. Otherwise, what would justify our star wars and surveillance measures?

Andre Vltchek in NewMatilda.com.

Wall Art - Jerusalem old city

2008-04-25T05:12:00.000Z

Denying the Nakba

2008-04-24T21:33:00.004Z

I just received this email from a distinguished academic. He's involved in medical aid work in Afghanistan. In fact, he okays much of the donations from his Western government to clinics in Afghanistan. I shudder to think how he treats the Afghans.

Dear Iqbal,
There is too much Pallywood going on to believe even what you see there. My mother was in the West Bank and was treated to the same spectacles. They're good, but they do get caught, as with the recent "blackout". Check out:
http://www.seconddraft.org/movies.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pallywood
I assume that you are an immigrant to Australia. Where from?
Yours, [insert redneck]

Historic first session

2008-04-24T19:47:00.001Z

The United Kingdom came in for robust questioning on its human rights record from other UN member states last week at the Human Rights Council, during the historic first session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). Over the course of three hours, 38 countries took the floor to ask UK Justice Minister Michael Wills about a wide range of issues, including racial discrimination, corporal punishment against children, abuses committed by UK armed forces abroad, and failure to ratify particular UN conventions and their protocols.

Coming at a time when the UK government is trying to pass yet another piece of counterterrorism legislation, which includes extending pre-charge detention to 42 days, it’s no wonder a significant number of countries asked about UK counterterrorism policies. Neighbors such as The Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland expressed concern about 42 day detention, but so did countries like Syria and Algeria. Algeria’s representative pointed out that the Human Rights Committee - the UN body that monitors compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights - had recently "upbraided" Algeria for allowing up to twelve days of pre-charge detention.

Justice Minister Wills defended the UK’s counterterrorism approach as proportionate, necessary and subject to parliamentary and legal review. On this, as on most of the other issues touched upon, Wills gave little reason to believe the UK would change its position, despite the criticisms it received. Many interveners congratulated the UK on the broad consultations it conducted with domestic nongovernmental organizations leading up to the UPR. Indeed, the UK circulated a draft national report among NGOs and asked for input. But consultation is not synonymous with compliance, and the official report did not reflect many of the NGOs’ opinions that the government had so eagerly sought.

Overall, given the constraints of the forum - 3 minute interventions by states, with periodic responses from Mr. Wills - it was a substantive "interactive dialogue" that touched on major human rights issues in the UK. Other reviews in this historic first UPR session have not been nearly as challenging. But what happens now? An outcome report containing 29 recommendations - some broad-brush, others quite specific - that came out of last week’s debate will likely be adopted in June by the full Human Rights Council. Ultimately though, the UK will only be held to account for implementation of those recommendations it accepts, not the ones it rejects.

(From Human Rights Watch)

Daniel Pipes

2008-04-23T17:27:00.003Z

Daniel Pipes is one of the most dangerous hate speakers of our times. One minute, in Australia, he argues that Islam is incompatible with democracy. The other he argues in The Jerusalem Post (literally only two days later!!) that it is not.

I don't want to heap praise on the fellow because it's not exactly an act of genius, but he does have a way of massaging his racism so that it appears less offensive than it is. Compare, for example, the Jerusalem Post piece, which is actually quite informative and well written and around 95% correct, with something like this. Pipes knows exactly how to talk to his audience.

What he shows is that a racist in the guise of an intellectual can help legitimate a lot of very nasty things. One ought to cross reference this with the respected scientist James Watson, who discovered DNA, and his belief that 'blacks' are a less intelligent variant of homo sapiens sapiens. Here's a quote from the Sunday Times piece, written by one of his old assistants, which lifted his lid:

He says that he is “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really”, and I know that this “hot potato” is going to be difficult to address. His hope is that everyone is equal, but he counters that “people who have to deal with black employees find this not true”. He says that you should not discriminate on the basis of colour, because “there are many people of colour who are very talented, but don’t promote them when they haven’t succeeded at the lower level”. He writes that “there is no firm reason to anticipate that the intellectual capacities of peoples geographically separated in their evolution should prove to have evolved identically. Our wanting to reserve equal powers of reason as some universal heritage of humanity will not be enough to make it so”.

When you read what Watson says it sounds a lot more valid, almost respectable. Like Pipes in the JPost there are a deal of valid points raised. But masked within the euphimisms and indirect speech is a classically racist argument: blacks (or Muslims, or turnips, and so on) are not just inferior, but inherently so.

This is not the racism of the BNP or Pauline Hanson. No. Call it racism for the bourgeoisie.

Back in Jerusalem - Days 5-6

2008-04-23T12:14:00.015Z

It's stinking hot in Jerusalem. While this has done wonders for my pores and complexion it's also reduced my capacity to wander the hills and streets. Yesterday (Tuesday) I managed a little bit of a wander through the Jewish and Arab/Muslim quarters of the old city. It was really quite a wonderful if sometimes wierd and tense experience.

I met a friendly Ethiopian security guard while I was entering the Western Wall complex (you have to go through metal detectors). When I told him I was from Australia he asked if I'd sponsor his visa application. He wasn't joking either. I suggested he seduce a nice Australian girl and ask her to sponsor him.

This is the Western or wailing Wall. It is the western side of the old Jewish temple that sat where the Al Aqsa mosque now resides. It's the holiest site for Jews and it is quite a sight watching many of those praying become emotional, some even hug the wall.

This is an inner section of the Western Wall. Bizarrely, I was asked for money by two different Jewish beggers and I saw more of them outside. I've read that poverty and the rich/poor gap is increasing in Israel so it was sad to see it 'confirmed' like this.
I had a bit of difficulty entering Musjid-e-Al Aqsa complex. It was beyond the tourist opening times and I found it difficult to convince the Israeli soldiers, police and paramilitary folks (all six of them!!) that I was Muslim. I rattled off the few suras I still remember but it wasn't enough. So I resorted to showing my driver's licence and press passes. The end product of all this - the mosque complex, which is huge and quite beautiful, was close to deserted.

I really liked this lamp.

Here you can see the main room of Musjid-e-al Aqsa. It's actually the smaller of the two domes in the complex. According to canon, this is where Prophet Muhammed teleported from Mecca to Jerusalem via winged-mule before being transported to heaven at the Dome of the Rock (the bigger dome) where he hung out with other Prophetic lumeries such as Abraham, Jesus and Moses. Oh and Allah too.

Beautiful wall art outside Al Aqsa.

A street market in one of the halls exiting the Al Aqsa complex.

Passover

2008-04-22T15:38:00.001Z

Every year I marvel again at the genius of this ceremony. It unites the whole family, and everyone - from the venerable grandfather to the smallest child - has a role in it. It engages all the senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching. The simplistic text of the Haggadah, the book which is read aloud, the symbolic food, the four glasses of wine, the singing together, the exact repetition of every part every year - all these imprint on the consciousness of a child from the earliest age an ineradicable memory that they will carry with them to the grave, be they religious or not.

Hamas bans lawyers

2008-04-22T15:35:00.001Z

Palestine Centre for Human Rights is Concerned over the Ban of its Lawyers from Visiting Prisons in the Gaza Strip

PCHR is deeply concerned over the continued ban on visits for its lawyers to their clients in the prisons administered by the dismissed government in Gaza. The Centre views this ban as a violation of International Law and relevant international standards. Specifically, this ban violates the right of detainees to lawyer visits. The Centre is concerned that this ban is motivated by the perpetration of illegal actions such as torture and other forms of cruel and inhumane treatment against prisoners.

The Centers lawyers have not been able to visit their clients in Gaza prisons for over two months. The Centre has documented at least 30 instances in which lawyers were prevented from visitation despite prior coordination with the relevant authorities and with the prisons. Every time the lawyers face obstacles that bar the visits, including “The security officer is not in the prison” and “the place is not suitable for visits.” The last visit to an imprisoned client by PCHR’s lawyers was on 20 February 2008.

One of the recent ban on visitation occurred on Tuesday, 15 April 2008, when lawyers attempted to visit 18 prisoners in Gaza Central Prison in Gaza City. The lawyers submitted the visit request with the approval of the Ministry of Interior signed on 7 April. The Minister noted on the letter “Internal Security Apparatus to facilitate the mission of human rights organizations in accordance with regulations.” After waiting for more than half an hour at the gate, the guard informed the lawyers that the visit is not possible due to the unsuitability of the place.

PCHR maintains records for tens of prisoners banned from lawyer visits throughout the Gaza Strip. Some of them have not met their lawyers for more than 4 months, including some ill prisoners. The Centre repeatedly demanded from security services to facilitate and ensure these visits in order to assess the health conditions of these prisoners and ensure their reception of adequate healthcare.

It is noted that many prisoners were not subjected to adequate legal procedures. Some were detained by the Police; while others were detained without warrant by Internal Security. Some prisoners were questioned and tortured, including the use of handcuffs, blindfolds, and severe beating. They were detained without being brought in front of a judge.

In light of this situation, PCHR calls upon the dismissed government in Gaza to:

- Ensure that judges and prosecutors fulfill their responsibility over prisons to ensure that all detainees were detained according to due process in accordance with Article 126 of the Penal Code No. 3 for the Year 2001. The Centre also calls for the implementation of Articles 105, 123, and 128 of the afore-mentioned law.

- Release all prisoners who were illegally detained; and to take all necessary steps to ensure their enjoyment of their legal rights.

- Allow PCHR’s lawyers to visit their clients in prisons and detention centers in accordance with the law.

Rest in Peace

2008-04-22T05:17:00.003Z

Riad Hamad

1952-2008

(For more information watch this interview)

Read the Israeli press

2008-04-21T13:33:00.002Z

If you want to understand the conflict here, something I struggle to do, you need to read the Israeli press. For example, today's Ha'aretz has this in it:

Miller writes that many ethnic groups, such as the Irish and the Cubans, are deeply involved in American foreign relations; however, no group in America can compete with the clout of the Jewish community with its influence on centers of power. This former senior Jewish official is the first to accuse the U.S. administrations of the last 15 years, both Democratic and Republican, of a bias in the Israeli-Arab conflict.

You simply could not write something like that in a Western newspaper. You'd be branded anti-Semitic.