The Checkpoint. An essay which looks inside the conflicted mind of an Israeli soldier, stationed at a West Bank checkpoint. By Oded Na'aman, currently a student in the Philosophy PhD program at Harvard University, who served in the Israeli Defense Forces from November 2000 to October 2003. Mr. Na'aman is also a member of
Breaking the Silence, a website that gathers and publishes anonymous
testimonials from IDF soldiers -- combat veterans -- about their experiences and the realities of life in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.
posted by zarq
on Jul 24, 2012 -
6 comments
Last year, the unofficial Dean of the White House Press Corps,
Helen Thomas, spoke about the State of Israel on camera.
(Previously) Her
replies:
"Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine," and that the Jews
"can go home" to
"Poland, Germany and America and everywhere else," sparked media
outrage, prompted her to issue an apology and
retire. After months of being out of the the public spotlight, she has now given
her first long-form interview, which will appear in the April issue of Playboy Magazine. In it, she explains what she meant, tells us how she would like to be remembered and expands upon her positions regarding Israel, Jewish political influence, Presidents Bush and Obama, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
posted by zarq
on Mar 22, 2011 -
224 comments
The YouTube clip, set to the tune of the 1985 charity single We Are the World, features Israelis dressed as Arabs and activists, waving weapons while singing: "We con the world, we con the people. We'll make them all believe the IDF (Israel Defence Force) is Jack the Ripper."
While the Israeli government has apologized for distributing links to the video, Israeli government spokesmen nevertheless
maintain that the video is "fantastic" and "what Israelis feel." And not just any Israelis: the video was produced by and stars, among others, the Jerusalem Post's deputy managing editor Caroline Glick.
posted by orthogonality
on Jun 6, 2010 -
153 comments
Gaza's tragically peculiar economy - Last week Palestinians marked the 1,000th day of the "siege" of the Gaza Strip. The continuing economic embargo, with its attendant social and economic effects on the more than 1.5 million Gazans, makes for a depressing story. Equally depressing is the extent to which this situation has somehow become accepted as normal and acceptable by much of the international community.
[more inside]
posted by nevercalm
on Mar 23, 2010 -
64 comments
The
Disasters' Emergency Committee is an umbrella organisation of 13 major British humanitarian NGOs:
ActionAid, the
British Red Cross,
CAFOD,
Care International,
Christian Aid,
Concern,
Help the Aged,
Islamic Relief,
Merlin,
Oxfam,
Save the Children,
Tear Fund and
World Vision. It was created to coordinate a rapid response to major disasters and to launch common appeals for donations to be broadcast in the British media. Since 1963, the DEC has
previously successfully run appeals for the victims of a.o. the
Asian Tsunami, the
Darfur and Chad Crisis, the
Congo Crisis, or the
Burma and
Bangladesh Cyclones. However, their
latest appeal has been
refused by the BBC.
[more inside]
posted by Skeptic
on Jan 25, 2009 -
25 comments
The End of the Affair. Like many followers of Judaism around the world, Sir Gerald Kaufman, a British MP and friend of Golda Meir, has gone through an internal battle over their views regarding the State of Israel. Kaufman rejected the Sharon government and later made
a remarkably prescient 2002 documentary (.ram) on Israel. Though he has
been targeted by zionist webistes, and has repeatedly
received death threats, hate mail, and has even been harassed during worship, Kaufman remains outspoken about Israel's attack on Gaza:
"My grandmother was ill in bed when the Nazis came to her home town of Staszów. A German soldier shot her dead in her bed. Madam Deputy Speaker, My grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza . . . they're not simply war criminals, they're fools."
posted by markkraft
on Jan 19, 2009 -
181 comments
Willy Pete - Now It’s a Chemical Weapon, Now It’s Not; was
used by US forces in the siege of Fallujah. Now
Haaretz has questioned if White Phosphoros is being used against Gaza.
Here is apparent video proof. Willy Pete has a strange
legality; but whether legal or not is certainly one of the nastiest
chemicals used in warfare.
posted by adamvasco
on Jan 16, 2009 -
62 comments
A Dispatches documentary
Gaza: The Killing Zone shows the shocking reality of seemingly ordinary Palestinians caught in the crossfire between Hamas and Israeli forces. Feels almost like a sci-fi movie about some fictional totalitarian regime. Hard to believe it's their everyday life. WARNING: contains scenes of graphic violence, which you may find disturbing.
posted by Surfin' Bird
on Jun 23, 2008 -
65 comments
Vergangenheitsbewältigung, Israeli style? Amidst overwhelming public approval for the Gaza pullout,
noted author David Grossman writes about the need for all Israelis to mourn today, in this
Ha-Aretz editorial.
posted by ori
on Aug 15, 2005 -
44 comments
Disengagement: The Game The debate in Israel over the withdrawal from Gaza has found its way into, of all things, dueling cartoony Flash games. The first, the
Wild West Bank, by proponents of withdrawal, has you removing settlers from the West Bank before they can establish settlements. The second, the "
Disengagement Game"
(click the square yellow button beside the picture), has you take the role of Ariel Sharon, whose political nickname is the "Bulldozer," as he uses his namesake (plus a club and a gaggle of pigs) to remove children protesting his policies. According to the creators of each, the first is supposed to be enlightening, the second purely entertaining. [Instructions inside]
posted by blahblahblah
on Aug 10, 2005 -
4 comments
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said yesterday that
Israel is on the verge of a civil war. The Israeli Knesset held an emergency session on Tuesday to discuss the
growing threat of violence and anti-government assassinations--but this time, the anti-Sharon and anti-Likud threats are from
the Israeli Right, not Left.
Angry settlers (who are about to become
ex-settlers), egged on by a few
extremist rabbis, oppose Israel's disengagement and pullout plan from Gaza (which is already underway) and the West Bank:
"The General Security Service (GSS) believes that the next assassin of an Israeli Prime Minister is already here and is looking for an opportunity to strike. "This is not an academic possibility anymore. The danger is clear and present. A small core of settlers believes that Sharon is disengagement, and disengagement is Sharon, and they want to stop him," a GSS official told Channel 1 TV. "There are people who have already taken the decision that, come the day they are going to 'save Eretz Israel, that they are going to kill the PM or a minister, a defense official or a policeman." Ironically, the only people who oppose the pullout/disengagement plan even more than the settlers are Palestinians,
who oppose it 65% to 34% in a new poll, down from a previous support of 73% in February. [more inside]
posted by Asparagirl
on Jul 6, 2004 -
46 comments
Israeli army bulldozes, kills American protester. Rachel Corrie, 23, of Olympia, Washington was killed in the Gaza Strip on Sunday when an Israeli Army bulldozer ran her over while trying to destroy a house in the Palestinian settlement of Rafah. Rachel was one of eight
Palestinian Solidarity volunteers from the US and Great Britain at the scene, who were gathered in front of the house of Dr. Samir Masri, which was slated for demolition. Rachel Corrie was a leading organizer of the
Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace, and was a senior at Evergreen State College, majoring in International Studies. She was also a
talented writer, documenting her experiences in Palestine and Gaza.
posted by insomnia_lj
on Mar 16, 2003 -
189 comments
Non-religious Israeli settlers are financially trapped, argues a sympathetic Tel Aviv University professor. He slams
Ha'aretz Daily for constantly urging Jewish settlers to
just move out, "as if people who somehow managed to buy a cheap housing unit in a settlement could simply leave it behind and buy another house somewhere else." Seems that for a lot of settlers,
financial benefits like reduced income taxes and generous loans are more important enticements than
appeals to
biblical righteousness. Too bad the "doubly cheated" and heavily villified settlers can't get any
financial help when they decide to move back. The solution? "Jews in America and world-wide should therefore use their money to support settlers who wish to leave the occupied territories and return to Israel."
posted by mediareport
on Jun 25, 2002 -
11 comments
A Good Summary, albeit in the form of a NYPost Editorial, as to why Israel should ignore 95% of the criticism it gets regarding it's current policy towards negotiating withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza. President Bush: are you listening?
posted by ParisParamus
on Mar 18, 2002 -
33 comments
The US dedication to blocking peace. “It was the second time in less than a year that the United States had used its veto power to effectively kill a resolution that would create a monitoring mechanism for the protection of Palestinian civilians.”
posted by raaka
on Dec 15, 2001 -
31 comments
Gaza Diary by Chris Hedges It's generally not the best idea to post links about the Palestine/Israel conflict, as each day's news can be debated ad infitum by various sides. However this Gaza Diary is a stunning personal look into the ravages of war and occupation. Written by the
New York Times Mideast Bureau Chief, and published in Harper's in October, it's a meditative reflection on the ways the human spirit can be twisted by conflict, and how a reporter (even a seasoned one) responds to the demons of war. Well worth your time.
posted by cell divide
on Nov 16, 2001 -
6 comments
Missles hit Gaza. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat called it
here. "If Sharon goes ahead and cancels [the cease-fire talks], that means he has other plans and we know those other plans -- they involve tanks, shelling and assasinations."
posted by hipstertrash
on Sep 15, 2001 -
3 comments
Occupied territories no longer "occupied" on TV news The turmoil in the Middle East has been a top international story on television news since fighting broke out in the West Bank and Gaza. But amid the constant flow of footage showing violent confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers, a central fact of the conflict has been missing from almost all network TV coverage:
The West Bank and Gaza are occupied territories. The right to use force to resist foreign occupation is universally recognized and enshrined in international law. via
thewebtoday
posted by lagado
on Nov 14, 2000 -
0 comments
On October 15th
The Guardian had for its editorial
"If Palestinians were black, Israel would now be a pariah state subject to economic sanctions led by the United States. Its development and settlement of the West Bank would be seen as a system of apartheid, in which the indigenous population was allowed to live in a tiny fraction of its own country, in self-dministered 'bantustans', with 'whites' monopolising the supply of water and electricity. And just as the black population was allowed into South Africa's white areas in disgracefully under-resourced townships, so Israel's treatment of Israeli Arabs - flagrantly discriminating against them in housing and education spending - would be recognised as scandalous too.
Expanding on this description,
Noam Chomsky gives an account of Israel's shift from coercive diplomacy to using direct force in implementing its "final status map". That is, the cantonization, containment and control of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
posted by lagado
on Oct 29, 2000 -
23 comments
