occupation

Haneen Al Zoubi, champion of democracy and embattled Palestinian member of the Israeli parliament, spoke in the northeastern US in late April. Al Zoubi is from Nazareth in the Galilee, northern Israel/Palestine, whose population stubbornly remains 50% Palestinian Arab despite nearly 70 years of intensive Judaization, to the consternation of Israel. She is an outspoken opponent of the Jewish state, and its oppression of the Palestinians, be they citizens, under occupation or in exile.

The Palestinian Embassy in London recently released a statement by President Mahmoud Abbas telling the world ‘It’s Time for Palestine’.
He starts by saying:

The parties are so busy dancing to the hardline Zionist tune that they fail to acknowledge the original Jewish wish for there to be no Jewish state at all. They’re all pressing for a two-state arrangement arrived at by endless, futile and utterly discredited negotiation. They claim to be champions of international law but are not prepared to let the law settle it.

 
 
100-year betrayal of the Holy Land set to continue
 

I suspect the word “occupation” – even the more precise “belligerent occupation” – fails to convey to most people the reality of daily horrors inflicted on the Palestinians. Of course, we know that occupations in general are bad and that it would be better if this particular one ended. But what does an occupation feel like if you’re a child, if you’re four or eight years old?

Camouflaging the reality of elite domination with rhetorical sleight of hand techniques and symbol manipulation has catapulted Barack Obama over Ronald Reagan as the new “great communicator.” And while this privileging of style over substance is not new in bourgeois politics, Obama’s ability to demobilize opposition from the left sets him apart and is becoming a model for liberal accommodationist parties.

Israeli soldiers escort blindfolded Palestinian women to the Kissufim Israeli army base,after they were detained during a military operation in the Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2008.(AP Photo/Yehuda Lahiani)
 
 

The Palestinian society is exposed daily to Israeli occupation repressive measures, including the kidnapping and detention of more than 800,000 Palestinians since 1967, including over 15,000 women.

 

…when you select heroes about which black children ought to be taught, let them be black heroes who have died fighting for the benefit of black people.  We never were taught about Christophe or Dessalines.  It was the slave revolt in Haiti when slaves, black slaves, had the soldiers of Napoleon tied down and forced him to sell one half of the American continent to the Americans. They don’t teach us that.  This is the kind of history we want to learn.

Six weeks after being abducted on her way home from school in the occupied West Bank, 14-year-old Malak al-Khatib was released on Friday from the jail where she was being imprisoned by Israeli occupation forces. The youngest Palestinian girl ever to be incarcerated, Malak is one of hundreds of children to be prosecuted through the Israeli military court system each year.

Noam Chomsky’s critique of the boycott/divestment/sanctions movement against Israel, which is in solidarity with the Palestinian people, has attracted wide attention.1 The Nation, where his article appeared, published five responses, to which Chomsky responded, and at least five appeared independently.2 Chomsky’s views were not new, but were first expressed during a BDS initiative in 2002, at Harvard and MIT.

“What are you doing in heaven’s sake?” My mom shouted at me and rushed to slap me on my head before I jumped running away. “Are you crazy? You are burning souls.” “Souls? They are just damned ants.” I retaliated. “No, …