Wednesday, August 13, 2008

"Walks in the West Bank"

Watch the VIDEO

View the beautiful SLIDE SHOW

Read the article in the New York Times

"Roaming Freely in a Land of Restraints"

IDF Murderers: Be They Innocent and Proud

Not surprisingly Israel has cleared the IDF in the deaths of Reuter's camerman Fadel Shana and eight others who were struck by fire and murdered from an Israeli tank in April. When was the last time we witnessed Israel bringing to justice ANY of their IDF soldiers when either killing or wounding Palestinians?

Today in the LA Times the following article was published, "Crime and Israeli Army Punishment" concerning the point blank shooting of Ashraf Abu Rahmeh. (video of the incident can be seen HERE)

In the Israeli military, injuring a handcuffed Palestinian is 'conduct unbecoming' a soldier -- but less so than tying cardboard wings to an antenna.

By Etgar Keret
August 13, 2008

Afew weeks ago, I saw a short news interview of a man who killed his wife with a kitchen knife. "Are you sorry for what you did?" the interviewer asked, and the murderer shrugged and said, "A little." His answer was only two short words, but they contained a ton of subtext. As if the murderer had said, "OK, I accept the fact that slaughtering my wife in front of my kids wasn't really right, but to handcuff me for it, to take me to court and send a TV crew? Don't you think you're overdoing it a little?"

An Israeli military court last week held a hearing about an incident captured on videotape that allegedly shows a regiment commander holding a bound, blindfolded Palestinian man, arrested at a demonstration, while a soldier shoots a rubber bullet at his leg. There is some disagreement between the soldier and the officer as to whether the soldier was ordered to do so. The two were indicted on the charge of conduct unbecoming to members of the Israeli army. The prosecution apparently is not even seeking any prison time, and some reports say that a plea bargain is likely.

There are many charges that could be brought against soldiers and commanders who fire at a handcuffed detainee, and the army's choice of conduct unbecoming carries the same tone as the statement made by the man who murdered his wife: We don't think it's really right to shoot at a handcuffed detainee who poses no threat. But, guys, let's keep things in perspective. The bullet was rubber, not steel; the kid didn't die, he was just wounded; and let's not forget that we're talking here about a pain-in-the-neck demonstrator and not someone strolling innocently along the beach promenade eating ice cream.

Years ago, when I was still in high school, my older brother was brought up on the charge of conduct unbecoming to a soldier in Israel. During one of his guard-duty shifts, out of boredom, he decorated the antenna he was guarding with huge cardboard wings and a sharp-featured face, turning it into a totem pole. His commander, who showed up for a surprise inspection, claimed that he found my brother worshiping the antenna.

Because there is no way the Israeli Defense Forces can prosecute a soldier for paganism, my brother was charged with conduct unbecoming and found guilty. Unlike the soldier and officer who were involved in a shooting, my brother actually did find himself in the brig for 30 days.

In retrospect, there is no doubt that it would have been better for my brother to relieve his boredom by shooting bound detainees. Because shooting bound detainees is not only more exciting and entertaining, it is also -- so it turns out -- a much less serious offense. After all, although both acts are conduct unbecoming, there is some kind of scale, and the IDF system of punishment testifies to it: Tying huge cardboard wings to an antenna is conduct unbecoming, but shooting at a bound person is also conduct unbecoming, but less so. Or, to use the language of the man who killed his wife, "Conduct a little unbecoming for a soldier in the IDF."

Etgar Keret is the author of, most recently, "The Girl on the Fridge and Other Stories." This essay was translated from Hebrew by Sondra Silverston. (source)

The following is the response from Reuters concerning the murder of their cameraman and eight others:

FACTBOX: Death of Reuters Gaza cameraman

Wed Aug 13, 2008 8:39am EDT

(Reuters) - Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana was killed by Israeli troops four months ago, while filming in the Gaza Strip. An Israeli army investigation, which was concluded this week, found that the troops' actions were justified.

Following are key facts established by Reuters:

-- Fadel Shana, 24, was killed by several darts, known as flechettes, which burst from a shell fired by an Israeli tank on April 16 about 5:30 p.m. The tank firing and shell bursting were the final images on tape before Shana's camera was destroyed.

-- Eight other civilians aged between 12 and 20 were killed, six of them aged under 16. At least seven other bystanders aged from 10 to 18 were also hit. None was armed or was a militant. Reuters soundman Wafa Abu Mizyed, 25, was wounded in the wrist.

-- Shana and Abu Mizyed were wearing blue body armour marked "PRESS" and stood next to a car bearing "TV" and "PRESS" signs in the middle of a country road some 100 meters southeast of Gaza's main highway. Two Merkava-4 main battle tanks stood on a ridge about 1.5 km (a mile) to the southeast, facing northwest.

-- In the preceding half hour, the Reuters crew had driven past a point 700 meters from the tanks, filmed the aftermath of an Israeli air strike that killed several children and returned by the same route. Shana stopped, set up his tripod and filmed a panorama of the area, including the tanks, for several minutes.

-- Twenty or more children, some on bicycles, were present between Shana and the main Gaza highway 100 meters behind him.

-- An Israeli observation drone was circling over the area.

-- A tank fired a flechette shell, typically containing 5,000 1.5-inch (3.75-mm) metal darts. Their purpose is to kill over an area 300 meters wide. In 2003, Israel's Supreme Court said that under IDF rules "use of the flechette is restricted to areas in which the danger to innocent civilians is not actual". Continued>>>>>>>>

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Who's to blame for the Russian Georgian conflict?

Georgian troops launched an aerial bombardment and ground attack on its separatist province of South Ossetia on Thursday. South Ossetians want to join up with their ethnic brethren in North Ossetia, an autonomous republic within the Russian Federation. Seeing this as an act of aggression Russia launched bombing raids against Georgia, vowing to defend its citizens. More than half of South Ossetia's citizens are said to have taken up Moscow's offer of a Russian passport. Pepe Escobar believes that "the hypocrisy of the international community knows no bounds for if the West forced the issue of Kosovar independence then the independence of South Ossetia should also be on the cards."

Tel Aviv to Tbilisi: Israel's role in the Russia-Georgia war
Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 12 August 2008

Israelis wave both Georgian and Israeli flags as they chant anti-Russian slogans during a demonstration outside the Russian embassy in Tel Aviv, 11 August. (Gali Tibbon/AFP/Getty Images)

From the moment Georgia launched a surprise attack on the tiny breakaway region of South Ossetia last week, prompting a fierce Russian counterattack, Israel has been trying to distance itself from the conflict. This is understandable: with Georgian forces on the retreat, large numbers of civilians killed and injured, and Russia's fury unabated, Israel's deep involvement is severely embarrassing.

The collapse of the Georgian offensive represents not only a disaster for that country and its US-backed leaders, but another blow to the myth of Israel's military prestige and prowess. Worse, Israel fears that Russia could retaliate by stepping up its military assistance to Israel's adversaries including Iran.

"Israel is following with great concern the developments in South Ossetia and Abkhazia and hopes the violence will end," its foreign ministry said, adding with uncharacteristic doveishness, "Israel recognizes the territorial integrity of Georgia and calls for a peaceful solution."

Tbilisi's top diplomat in Tel Aviv complained about the lackluster Israeli response to his country's predicament and perhaps overestimating Israeli influence, called for Israeli "diplomatic pressure on Moscow." Just like Israel, the diplomat said, Georgia is fighting a war on "terrorism." Israeli officials politely told the Georgians that "the address for that type of pressure was Washington" (Herb Keinon, "Tbilisi wants Israel to pressure Russia," The Jerusalem Post, 11 August 2008).

While Israel was keen to downplay its role, Georgia perhaps hoped that flattery might draw Israel further in. Georgian minister Temur Yakobashvili -- whom the Israeli daily Haaretz stressed was Jewish -- told Israeli army radio that "Israel should be proud of its military which trained Georgian soldiers." Yakobashvili claimed rather implausibly, according to Haaretz, that "a small group of Georgian soldiers were able to wipe out an entire Russian military division, thanks to the Israeli training" ("Georgian minister tells Israel Radio: Thanks to Israeli training, we're fending off Russian military," Haaretz, 11 August 2008).

Since 2000, Israel has sold hundreds of millions of dollars in arms and combat training to Georgia. Weapons included guns, ammunition, shells, tactical missile systems, antiaircraft systems, automatic turrets for armored vehicles, electronic equipment and remotely piloted aircraft. These sales were authorized by the Israeli defense ministry (Arie Egozi, "War in Georgia: The Israeli connection," Ynet, 10 August 2008).

Training also involved officers from Israel's Shin Bet secret service -- which has for decades carried out extrajudicial executions and torture of Palestinians in the occupied territories -- the Israeli police, and the country's major arms companies Elbit and Rafael.

The Tel Aviv-Tbilisi military axis appears to have been cemented at the highest levels, and according to YNet, "The fact that Georgia's defense minister, Davit Kezerashvili, is a former Israeli who is fluent in Hebrew contributed to this cooperation." Others involved in the brisk arms trade included former Israeli minister and Tel Aviv mayor Roni Milo as well as several senior Israeli military officers.

The key liaison was Reserve Brigadier General Gal Hirsch who commanded Israeli forces on the border with Lebanon during the July 2006 Second Lebanon War. (Yossi Melman, "Georgia Violence - A frozen alliance," Haaretz, 10 August 2008). He resigned from the army after the Winograd commission severely criticized Israel's conduct of its war against Lebanon and an internal Israeli army investigation blamed Hirsch for the seizure of two soldiers by Hizballah.

According to one of the Israeli combat trainers, an officer in an "elite" Israel army unit, Hirsch and colleagues would sometimes personally supervise the training of Georgian forces which included "house-to-house fighting." The training was carried out through several "private" companies with close links to the Israeli military.

As the violence raged in Georgia, the trainer was desperately trying to contact his former Georgian students on the battlefront via mobile phone: the Israelis wanted to know whether the Georgians had "internalized Israeli military technique and if the special reconnaissance forces have chalked up any successes" (Jonathan Lis and Moti Katz, "IDF vets who trained Georgia troops say war with Russia is no surprise," Haaretz, 11 August 2008).

Yet on the ground, the Israeli-trained Georgian forces, perhaps unsurprisingly overwhelmed by the Russians, have done little to redeem the image of Israel's military following its defeat by Hizballah's in July-August 2006.

The question remains as to why Israel was involved in the first place. There are several reasons. The first is simply economic opportunism: for years, especially since the 11 September 2001 attacks, arms exports and "security expertise" have been one of Israel's growth industries. But the close Israeli involvement in a region Russia considers to be of vital interest suggests that Israel might have been acting as part of the broader US scheme to encircle Russia and contain its reemerging power.

Since the end of the Cold War, the US has been steadily encroaching on Russia's borders and expanding NATO in a manner the Kremlin considers highly provocative. Shortly after coming into office, the Bush Administration tore up the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty and, like the Clinton administration, adopted former Soviet satellite states as its own, using them to base an anti-missile system Russia views as a threat. In addition to their "global war on terror," hawks in Washington have recently been talking up a new Cold War with Russia.

Georgia was an eager volunteer in this effort and has learned quickly the correct rhetoric: one Georgian minister claimed that "every bomb that falls on our heads is an attack on democracy, on the European Union and on America." Georgia has been trying to join NATO, and sent 2,000 soldiers to help the US occupy Iraq. It may have hoped that once war started this loyalty would be rewarded with the kind of round-the-clock airlift of weapons that Israel receives from the US during its wars. Instead so far the US only helped airlift the Georgian troops from Iraq back to the beleaguered home front.

By helping Georgia, Israel may have been doing its part to duplicate its own experience in assisting the eastward expansion of the "Euro-Atlantic" empire. While supporting Georgia was certainly risky for Israel, given the possible Russian reaction, it has a compelling reason to intervene in a region that is heavily contested by global powers. Israel must constantly reinvent itself as an "asset" to American power if it is to maintain the US support that ensures its survival as a settler-colonial enclave in the Middle East. It is a familiar role; in the 1970s and 1980s, at the behest of Washington, Israel helped South Africa's apartheid regime fight Soviet-supported insurgencies in South African-occupied Namibia and Angola, and it trained right-wing US-allied death squads fighting left-wing governments and movements in Central America. After 2001, Israel marketed itself as an expert on combating "Islamic terrorism."

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez recently denounced Colombia - long one of the largest recipients of US military aid after Israel -- as the "Israel of Latin America." Georgia's government, to the detriment of its people, may have tried to play the role of the "Israel of the Caucasus" -- a loyal servant of US ambitions in that region -- and lost the gamble. Playing with empires is dangerous for a small country.

As for Israel itself, with the Bush Doctrine having failed to give birth to the "new Middle East" that the US needs to maintain its power in the region against growing resistance, an ever more desperate and rogue Israel must look for opportunities to prove its worth elsewhere. That is a dangerous and scary thing.

Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah is author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli- Palestinian Impasse (Metropolitan Books, 2006). (Source)

Sunday, August 10, 2008

All Hail to the Bush "Library"

As some may know, the so-called Bush Library (for a "president" who doesn't read much) is being built on the grounds of Southern Methodist University despite the overwhelming objection to it being placed there by world wide Methodist leaders (In April the Methodist General Conference which meets only once every four years, in a symbolic vote, 844 to 20, voted to reject the library and "think tank")

The ink on the final agreement between the South Central Jurisdiction of Methodists had already dried by the time the General Conference met so the project is going through, with some very appropriate rooms and collections.

The George W Bush Presidential Library now in the planning stages.

According to a Democrat candidate, the Library will include:

The Hurricane Katrina Room , still under construction.

The Alberto Gonzales Room, where you won't be able to remember anything.

The Texas Air National Guard Room, where you don't even have to show up.

The Walter Reed Hospital Room, where they don't let you in.

The Guantanamo Bay Room, where they don't let you out.

The Weapons of Mass Destruction Room, which no one has been able to find.

The National Debt Room, which is gigantic and has no ceiling.

The 'Tax Cut' Room, with a wealthy-only entrance.

The Economy Room, which is in the toilet.

The Iraq War Room: After you complete your first tour, they make you go back for a second, third, fourth, and sometimes fifth tour.

The Dick Cheney Room, in the famously undisclosed location, complete with shotgun gallery.

The Environmental Conservation Room, still empty.

The Supremes Gift Shop, where you can buy an election.

The Airport Men's Room, where you can meet some of your favorite Republican Senators.

The 'Decider' Room, complete with dart board, magic 8-ball, Ouija board, dice, coins, and straws.

The museum will also have an electron microscope to help you locate the President's accomplishments.

Admission: Republicans - free; Democrats - $1000 or 3 Euros.

Thanks John!

Barak Prefers Truce to Invasion (so he says)

Well well, this is interesting...........let's hope to God it's not the calm before the storm.

Barak (Israeli defense minister) is saying that he prefers the truce with Hamas over invasion because the rockets have essentially stopped.

Since AP has initiated it's utterly ridiculous policy on posting their articles I will give you the LINK.

(Just remember Robin, even linking to an AP story for more than a month is now supposedly going to cost money!)

So It's Finally Official, Israel is a SKUNK!

It was reported two days ago that Israel was using a new weapon to disperse protesters against the apartheid wall. It was thought to be toilet water which could be contaminated. Many became immediately sick after having this sprayed on them.

Now Israel is claiming it is not toilet water, but rather a new weapon, "The Skunk" (at least this is what they are now claiming)

The weapon, nicknamed "The Skunk," is a foul-smelling liquid which is sprayed on the protesters, compelling them to leave the scene to escape the smell (source)

Curious, I went looking for what this could possibly be and came up with this article, "Police Sniff Out the Ultimate Weapon" (Los Angeles 2003)

A small posse of sheriff's deputies in Compton has unleashed a new weapon in the war on crime.

It is remarkably small, improbably inexpensive, stunningly low-tech and for the past seven months has proved incredibly effective. So effective, in fact, that Shaun Mathers of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department wonders why more departments have not realised that such a tool might be right under their noses.

"I was kind of grousing with some friends," he said. "What could we do to make our officers more visible in the community? And someone said: 'Maybe we could use a good odour, like fresh baked cookies.' As I was driving home, it struck me. Maybe there's a value in a bad odour."

That value, Lieutenant Mathers thought, would be in clearing out the vacant buildings that become magnets for prostitutes, drug dealers and gangs. After a few experiments with chemical stink bombs, he and Deputy Scott Gage found a petroleum-based gel called SkunkShot on the internet. "It's pretty weird," Deputy Gage said, "but it's brilliant."

And the Skunk Squad was born. Its first success, Lieutenant Mathers said, came early this year on Long Beach Boulevard.

"There was an old vacant bungalow-style motel which is in a heavily populated prostitute area," he said. "People were coming and going to use narcotics. One part of it had even burned down because they were using candles to light the place. It was dangerous."

One day in May, the deputies took several small $US15 ($21) tubes of SkunkShot and spread them around the building, which they had just cleared of the drug users and prostitutes. Several hours later, Lieutenant Mathers was amazed to find no one there.

"It's horrible, just unbearable for two days," he said of the odour. "After five or six days you can still smell it. We even got in a battle of smells with the folks there. They were bringing cans of Glade and scented candles, but that stuff just can't compete."

What is this stuff they are spraying? Is the IOF using it on prostitutes, drug dealers or gangs?

No! They are using it on Palestinians who are protesting the appropriation of their land by an apartheid wall deemed ILLEGAL by the World Court. SkunkShot Gel is sold to repel cats and dogs. Are Palestinians animals? It is manufactured by Connovation Ltd who states on their website, "Our business is providing tools to monitor and control invasive animals. " Who is the invasive animal here? The Palestinians who are trying to prevent a wall from expropriating their land in what is SUPPOSEDLY going to become a "state" should the "two-state solution" ever materialize? Or the Israelis who have been BELIGERANTLY occupying them for more than forty years?

The results of the tests on this new substance that Israel is using are not in yet, but it's easy to see who the "skunk" is. Just beyond words SICK!

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Mahmoud Darwish 1941-2008

Mahmud Darwish

Famed Palestinian poet dead: hospital

5 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Mahmud Darwish, widely considered one of the greatest Palestinian poets, died Saturday in a US hospital following open-heart surgery, hospital officials told AFP.

"Mr Darwish has died at 1:35 pm (1835 GMT)," said Ann Brimberry, a spokeswoman for the Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, Texas, where he was being treated told AFP.

Darwish had been in critical condition in the US hospital and according to a friend in Jerusalem had been placed on life support two days ago following complications arising from the surgery.

Darwish has published more than two dozen books of poetry and prose rooted in his experience of Palestinian exile and the bitter Middle East conflict in a career spanning nearly five decades.

____________________

Poet Mahmoud Darwish dead at 67

1 hour ago

Mahmoud Darwish, the world's most recognised Palestinian poet, whose prose gave voice to the Palestinian experience of exile and infighting, has died in Houston, Texas. He was 67.>>>>>>

___________________________

A prayer and a poem

Mahmoud Darwish

"Everything ends in one minute." openDemocracy publishes two new works written by the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish in response to war’s crimes and destruction.

12 - 09 - 2006

Murdered Houses

In one minute the lifetime of a house is ended. When a house is killed, it is a serial killing, even if the house is empty: a mass grave of all the things once used to give a home to Meaning, or, in times of war, to a marginal poem.

A slaughtered house is the severing of things from what they meant, from the feelings they inspired. It's the duty of tragedy to change the gaze of eloquence and to reflect upon the life of Things, for in everything there's a being that suffers: a memory of fingers, a memory of a smell, a memory of a picture. Houses are murdered just as their inhabitants are killed and the memories of things are slaughtered: stones, wood, glass, iron, mortar - scattered like human limbs. Cotton silk, linen, exercise books, books - torn apart like the unsaid words of people who did not have the time to say them. Dishes broken, spoons, toys, old records, pipes, doorknobs, the refrigerator, the washing machine, pots, jars of olives and pickles, cars - all broken, like their owners. The two whites - sugar and salt - are trod upon along with matchboxes, medicines, birth control pills, steroids, strings of garlic and onions, dried okra, tomatoes, rice and lentils - all are trod upon as are their owners.

Land-deeds and marriage certificates torn apart with birth papers, water and electricity bills, identity cards, passports, love letters - torn apart like the hearts of their owners.

Photographs are swept away with combs, make-up, brushes, shoes, lingerie, sheets, towels, swept away like family secrets betrayed to others and to devastation. All these things are the memories of people deprived of things, and the memory of things deprived of people .... Everything ends in one minute. Things die like we do, but they are not buried with us.

Translation: Tania Nasir and John Berger

Lebanon, Chris Anderson, August 2006

The Girl / The Scream

There is a girl on a sea shore
And the girl has a family
And the family has a house
And the house has two windows and a door.
And at sea there's a warship playing a game
of targeting those taking a stroll on the shore.
Four five seven drop to the sand.
The girl is spared by a sleeve of mist
a certain celestial sleeve came to rescue her.
She calls out: Dad, my Dad, let's go home, this sea is not for us.
And the father does not reply.
He lies there in an agony of absence, wrapped in his shadow in an agony of absence.
Blood in her palms blood in the clouds,
Her scream flies away with her far from the sea shore and higher.
She screams in the night of a wilderness
The echo has no echo
And the girl becomes the eternal scream of a breaking news event made obsolete by the planes return
to bomb a house with two windows and a door.

Translation: Tania Nasir and John Berger

Source of above

One of the most beautiful songs ever written Oummi (“My Mother”), the lyrics of the song are based on a poem by Mahmoud Darwish,

My Mother

I long for my mother's bread
My mother's coffee
Her touch
Childhood memories grow up in me
Day after day
I must be worth my life
At the hour of my death
Worth the tears of my mother.

And if I come back one day
Take me as a veil to your eyelashes
Cover my bones with the grass
Blessed by your footsteps
Bind us together
With a lock of your hair
With a thread that trails from the back of your dress
I might become immortal
Become a God
If I touch the depths of your heart.

If I come back
Use me as wood to feed your fire
As the clothesline on the roof of your house
Without your blessing
I am too weak to stand.

I am old
Give me back the star maps of childhood
So that I
Along with the swallows
Can chart the path
Back to your waiting nest.

Video: Remembering Mahmoud Darwish

Palestine's Olympic Team

The Palestinian Olympic Committee has sent a team to compete at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. The Palestinian delegation consists of two runners and two swimmers.^[1] ^[2]

Palestinian Athletes Prepare for Beijing Olympics
By Jim Teeple Jerusalem 03 June 2008

Many of the athletes who will take take part in the upcoming Summer Olympic Games have had to overcome challenges to qualify for their teams before going to Beijing. But few have overcome such tremendous obstacles as the four athletes who will make up the team representing the Palestinian territories. VOA's Jim Teeple reports from the West Bank city of Jericho.

Palestinian Olympic Team in training

It's a long way to Beijing from this hot dusty field in Jericho but these runners have been training for years to get there.

These two have made it: Nader Masri and Ghadeer Ghuruf will be running for Palestine this year. Nader says his dreams have come true.

Nader has been in training a long while. "I've been training for 10 years hoping to go to the Olympics and now my dream is coming true," Nader said.

This rundown field and dilapidated gym are where the Palestinian runners train. Palestinians have been sending athletes to the Olympics since the 1996 games in Atlanta, but their training facilities are anything but Olympic class.

Nader Masri

For Nader the rundown track in Jericho is a vast improvement. Until recently, he was stuck in the Gaza Strip living in the Beit Hanoun refugee camp, where a training run could attract the attention of Israeli troops, who target the camp because Palestinian militants use it to fire rockets at Israel. Gaza is under a strict Israeli blockade. Israeli journalists and human rights activists had to fight for months to get permission for Nader to leave to go to Jericho, and now to Beijing.

Nader says the problems in Gaza have hurt him as an athlete, but he says all of his struggles will be worth it once he gets to compete in the 5,000 meter race in Beijing.

"It has certainly impacted my capabilities as a runner but my focus is on the Olympic games. I have one aim and I am going to achieve it," he said.

Ghadeer Ghuruf

Nader's teammate Ghadeer will be one of the youngest athletes competing in Beijing. Only 17 years old, she has been training hard in the 100 and 200 meter events for seven years for this moment.

"I am going to represent Palestine, a country that is considered by many to be an irrelevant place," Ghadeer said. "It is not irrelevant. It has people like us - educated people. It has concerned and educated people and I am going to prove that to them at the Olympic games."

Nader and Ghadeer say they don't expect to win any medals in Beijing. Just being there will be enough - and knowing that the eyes of the world will see Palestinian athletes competing on a global stage.

Palestinian Olympic team face training hurdles

AM - Saturday, 7 June , 2008 08:19:00

Reporter: Ben Knight

BRENDAN TREMBATH: The Olympics are just two months away and international teams are beginning to leave for China to prepare for the Games.

The Palestinian Olympic team, about to head off, is made up of two runners, two swimmers, and their coaches. Warming up for the Games has been particularly tough because the best training facilities are often on the other side of Israeli checkpoints.

Middle East correspondent, Ben Knight, reports.

BEN KNIGHT: Every day, Hamse Abdouh trains for the Olympics. Most days, he does it here at the YMCA pool in Arab East Jerusalem. But it's not much of a pool.

There aren't even proper diving blocks here, this is an 18 metre pool and in fact as I'm speaking to you now, he's just finished his first lap. He only gets six strokes before he reaches the end of the pool. There is a 50 metre pool, an Olympic-sized pool in Jerusalem but it's too expensive for him to use on a regular basis so he's just finished another lap. This is where he trains.

Each week, he swims thousands of laps in here.

BEN KNIGHT: How does it feel when you do get into a 50 metre pool, and you can't see the end?

HAMSE ABDOUH (translated): I'm scared. I feel absolute panic. How can I finish such a distance?

BEN KNIGHT: Of course, he does finish it. His best time for the 100 metres butterfly is 10 seconds off the world record. To put it politely, that means his chances of winning a medal are slim, but he knows that.

HAMSE ABDOUH (translated): it's a difficult record to achieve. I have to train morning and night.

BEN KNIGHT: It was in Melbourne last year, at the World Championships, when Hamse Abdouh found out he'd made the Olympic team.

He lives in East Jerusalem, so he can at least get to a pool every day. But the other member of the Palestinian swimming team is Zakia Nassar, who lives and studies in the West Bank and can only train on weekends when she goes home to Bethlehem.

Their coach is Ibrahim Tawil.

IBRAHIM TAWIL: We asked the Israeli authority to issue a permission for her, but unfortunately we didn't get it until this time.

BEN KNIGHT: Hamse Abdouh and his three teammates are going to the games with the help of Olympic Solidarity, a movement that helps poorer nations to train and send their athletes.

But even though the Olympic ideal of friendship between nations through sport is what got Hamse Abdouh his ticket to Beijing, it apparently doesn't apply here in Jerusalem. He refuses to compete against Israelis here.

HAMSE ABDOUH (translated): There are martyrs every day. There are problems every day. It's impossible to interact normally with Israelis.

BEN KNIGHT: Yet it's really only at major sporting events like the Olympics that something called Palestine actually exists.

That idea of building goodwill through sport hasn't taken root with Hamse Abdouh yet. For he and his coach, it's the chance to walk into the stadium at Beijing, carrying a sign that says Palestine and marching behind a Palestinian flag that counts.

Ibrahim Tawil remembers the feeling from Athens.

IBRAHIM TAWIL: When Palestine get into the stadium, and the 75 people that were there they were all the time shouting “Palestine! Palestine!” I think this was our medal. This was the real medal for Palestine.

It is a feeling that I will never forget, I felt that people are, you know, handing me all the way in the stadium.

BEN KNIGHT: This is Ben Knight in Jerusalem reporting for Saturday AM.

For Palestinian swimmers, it´s a chance to swim (THE GLOBE AND MAIL) ORLY HALPERN JERUSALEM, ISRAEL 07/07/08)

There´s no Olympic-sized pool in the territories and no training budget to speak of, but two athletes are on their way to the Games

JERUSALEM -- Palestinian swim coach Ibrahim Tawil felt bittersweet relief when he parted from his two Olympic athletes, who were on their way to Beijing. Although he is unable to be with them now, at least, he said, they will have regular access to something he struggled and failed to provide them: a pool. (read further>>>>>>>>)

Video:

Friday, August 8, 2008

Arafat Snacks and Boycotting American Products

Note: This article "Exhibit: An Arafat Snack Attack" I found in English in Mother Jones.

It made me curious though, so I did a little more googling and came up with the article below this which was originally in Italian. I used Google language tool to translate it (which is not perfect by any means) but you can get the gist of it. Interestingly, I have seen nothing in the US MSM that the Arab world is successfully boycotting US products, it seems very successfully from what is written.

Should we be surprised? Absolutely not! With US foreign policy running amok in the Arab world we shouldn't be surprised at all! Remember back folks to the lead up to the Iraq war, France was NOT standing by the United States (as well they shouldn't have). Do you remember? People wanted to rename "French fries" and boycott French products. It is an act of collective civil disobedience, non-violent, and what better way to send the message to the US that our foreign policy isn't acceptable.

I just wonder why the MSM here hasn't reported this.

Exhibit: An Arafat Snack Attack

September/October 2002 Issue

An Arafat Snack Attack

The streets of Cairo have seen plenty of demonstrations for the Palestinian cause, but now they have taken on a new flavor. An enterprising Egyptian snack company has introduced an unlikely hit -- Yasser Arafat cheesy poofs.

The snack is called Abu Ammar, the Palestinian leader's nom de guerre. The bag pictures Arafat in his trademark black-and-white kaffiyeh and green military uniform, looking a bit more portly than usual (maybe too many cheesy poofs). "Hand in hand, we are building our future. The more you buy, the more you build," the bag reads. Al Jawhara, the Cairo company that manufactures the snacks, is aiming them primarily at kids. And Al Jawhara executive Mahmoud Farid says that the company hopes "to introduce the Palestinian issue to the largest amount of people possible."

Each bag of Abu Ammar costs around 5 cents and approximately 2 percent of the proceeds are donated to the Palestinians through the Egyptian Red Crescent. So far, thousands of dollars have been donated, Farid says, although charity is not the only reason for the snack's appeal. Cairo shopkeeper Said Hegazy says,"Some people buy these because of Palestine. Some people buy them because they taste so good." -- Sarah Gauch

Now for the Italian article: (google language tool translation-a rather choppy translation)

Children Egyptians have become gluttonous of a new snack: crisps of Abu Ammar, the name of the battle of Yasser Arafat. Launched on the market two months and a half ago by the Egyptian al-Jawhara, who until then had produced only tea are proving very successful, not only among the very young. They are available in three flavors: cheese, tomato and paprika.

On one side of caricature of a package that Arafat salutes with the kefiah and the unmistakable military jacket. The balloon does not speak, so the caption: "batal to nidal", "hero of the resistance". On the other side of the pack, under the Palestinian flag, the explanation commercial: "Hand in hand, we build our future. The more you buy, build more."

Like any patatina that respects Moreover, even those of Abu Ammar have their surprise: inside any package is a coupon entitling a T-shirt with the image of the Al Aqsa mosque or other monuments of Jerusalem.

"This is a message directed primarily at children," says Ali Ghineim, manager of al-Jawhara, "to know the Palestinian cause and the right of a people brother to live in peace in their own land".

The Abu Ammar chips are one of the first attempts to transform into operation marketing campaign to boycott U.S. products and Israelis launched months ago across the Arab world. Rather than simply ask not to buy Nike, Coca Cola, Pringles, Johnson, Milestone Power, 7Up, Arab companies are beginning to promote alternative products to those Americans who have fattened entire generations in the Middle East condizionandone tastes so indelible.

Medhat Koraytem, Executive Director of al-Jawhara says that with the invention "of chips" have opened new spaces in the market, although unfortunately can not yet be filled by Palestinian products. On the other hand, sell products and Arabs also serves mainly to help the Palestinian cause ...". A packet of crisps Arafat coast just 25 plates (just over 5 euro cents) but Mahmoud Farid, industry sales of al - Jawhara, can not say exactly how much of the proceeds is intended to Palestine.

Leave understood that the company follows a flexible policy: depends on "the emergency" or by any Israeli offensive. "But a substantial amount of funds", assures, " has already arrived in the Occupied Territories, thanks to the logistical support provided by the Red Crescent.

"Meanwhile the campaign to boycott products of U.S. imports (or other origin, but whose proceeds will be invested in Israel) is spreading to stain d ' oil especially in Egypt. Backed by religious leaders, parliamentarians, trade unionists and professional associations, was promoted by the left and by many student networks, both secular and religious (fixture on Friday at the university of Al Azhar for the sermon of Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi) and various organisations who define themselves as "underground" preferring to remain anonymous.

The spread can not rely on open media campaigns and boycotts then passes through flyers, e-mail bombing and messaggini sms. The phenomenon is so widespread even among the average bourgeois housewives and families who love yet defined "high society" cairota. The media official visas are forced to spend several services on talk shows American style, to explain to the public "all the pros and cons": movements market and the boomerang effect that could fall on the local economy, but also the importance of solidarity and the difference between a neo-mujahedin ready to leave for jihad in the Holy Land and concrete financial aid sent to Palestine.

Difficult estimate because the boycott had an impact in the region, the U.S. import market. Hassan el Tamimi, owner of a large supermarket in Cairo, ensures that in the last two months his store has experienced a decline in sales of American products by at least 6O %: "All products have been affected by Kellog's to Pepsi, up to cigarettes. So we decided not to order more American goods, because there remains unsold on the shelves. "

Even then he started to source their products Arabs: Jordanian muesli, cereals and biscuits Egyptians of Bisco Masr, fruit juices and cigarettes local Tunisians, the terrible Cleopatra. And in a few more European product: a detergent English, for example, has replaced the famous Ariel, distributed by Procter and Gamble.

But Egypt is not the only country in the region involved in the boycott. In Jordan, Syria and Lebanon some hospitals have stopped ordering U.S. medicines. In Baharein, historical U.S. and allied military base for the fifth fleet of U.S. navy, the supermarket chain al-Muntaza has returned to the sender import U.S. products with a value of one million dollars. Always the small island in the Gulf a few weeks ago has begun to import the Zam Zam Cola, the Iranian alternative to Coke.

While the traffic lights in Cairo, for months there are no longer the washer: the crossroads of several busy streets are full of boys who sell Palestinian flags, kefiah, posters of Al Aqsa and planting of the Territories in an effort to scrape together funds to be sent in Palestine and coloring the streets of the capital Egyptian red, green, white and black.

Food for Thought

In today's world of steady news streaming of chaos and fighting worldwide, often it's the every day things which we do such as eating which are taken for granted in our own lives. In saying this, I am not referring to the availability of food, because that is quite often an issue. I am referring to the way in which different cultures treat their food and practice rituals surrounding it.

Presently the world is experiencing a food crisis of unprecedented magnitude. The advent of biofuels while touted as a means to free the world of dependency on oil has meant that people are starving because of the shift in agriculture.

But long before this, the people's of the world still had their food customs which while most do not think are political, indeed they are.

The article below is about a new recipe book titled, " "Cuisines of the Axis of Evil and Other Irritating States: A Dinner Party Approach to International Relations" is written by Chris Fair, a Washington, D.C.-based analyst of South Asian political and military affairs. She has lived, studied, traveled, worked, and eaten her way through the Middle East and South and Southeast Asia. She bunkers down in an undisclosed location with her beloved spouse. (source)

Check out the website for this book, and in particular, watch the video on the "about the author"

While most think of food as a means of coming together, Chris Fair points out that food is often used to divide.

So next time you prepare that meal, think to yourself, is your hunger which is a biological necessity driven by the need to fuel the body and the hunger center in your brain, is that any different than any other human beings need? Are you using food to "divide" and set others who don't share your customs apart from you, OR, are your food practices uniting.

Chris Fair has written a book that I plan on purchasing right away.

It is "food for thought"

What if you gave a dinner party and the Axis of Evil came?


Enlarge

Hot-button dishes: Analyst and author Chris Fair examines cuisines through her unique foreign-policy prism.

By Jayne Clark, USA TODAY

Self-described "think-tanker chick" Chris Fair, 39, has whipped up a creative cookbook concept in Cuisines of the Axis of Evil and Other Irritating States: A Dinner Party Approach to International Relations (Lyons Press, $24.95). Borrowing the phrase first used by President Bush in 2002, Fair's book flits all over the map. She shares some food for thought with USA TODAY.

Q: It's probably a safe bet that few hosts derive dinner party inspiration by examining the world's more politically irksome spots. How did you come up with the notion of throwing "axis of evil" dinner parties?
A: I love to cook, and I tend to cook my way out of depression. So when my brothers, who were in the Indiana National Guard, were called up in September of 2002, the whole "axis of evil" premise (for going to war with Iraq) seemed so unconscionable. The dinner parties were a way to bring people together to commiserate.

Q: What can a nation's eating habits tell you about it?
A: What a country declares to be its national food tells us how they want to be perceived. For instance, Israel has falafel as its national food. That's Israel saying, "We have a national claim to an Arab dish." In some other places — France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom — popular ethnic foods represent a colonial past. In France, it's North African. In the Netherlands, it's Indonesian. In the U.K., it's Indian food. Food tells us a lot about where these countries have been.

Q: Iraq, Iran, Israel, Afghanistan — there's a lot of the Middle East in this book. Isn't Middle Eastern food all alike?
A: Myth, myth, myth. For instance, Iranian food is not like Arab food. They use a lot of fruits and really good grilled meats and a lot of meat stews that incorporate fresh or dried fruit.

Q: Do you have a favorite Middle Eastern dish?
A: Khoresh-e-fesanjan. It's a chicken, walnut and pomegranate stew.

Q: It sounds complicated — as do a number of other recipes in the book. Is the degree of difficulty a metaphor for international relations?

A: Some of these cuisines are time-intensive and that goes back to the politics of production. (I know this as an Indian housewife boot-camp attendee.) These ladies spend most of their time in food production. And the only way they get freed up is if they have servants or a lot of daughters-in-law. Also, many of these foods are foods you'd eat on a special occasion.

Q: Which of your axis of evil dinner parties has gone over best?
A: Iran did well. Pakistan also has done well. North Korea had a rough start. Koreans eat a cold beef soup with buckwheat noodles. Everyone was queuing up at the microwave. I never cooked it again. But then, what we think is edible is not shared by everyone.

Q: Like dog or snake, which you write that you refused to eat in your far-flung travels. Anything you took a pass on that you regret not trying?
A: I regret not eating rat in Burma. In point of fact, rat is probably no different than chicken. It's a seasonal dish there — you'll see rat shacks on the side of the road. Later we had frog curry, and how different from rat is that?

Q: Speaking of Burma, what are your thoughts on the ethics of making tourist visits to countries with long, dark records of human-rights abuses?
A: I went to Burma because of work. But you cannot go there without subsidizing the military junta. I don't know how comfortable I would feel going there for vacation. There's an alternative view that if you can put money into the local economy, it's OK. And I'm not a lawbreaker, so I wouldn't be able to go to Cuba.

Q: How many of the 10 countries featured in your book have you actually been to?
A: I've visited them all but Iraq, North Korea and Cuba.

Q: Do you have a favorite?
A: Pakistan. I'm in love with the country. It's a geopolitical jalopy careening down the highway of politics with its wheels flying off — yet it manages to survive. Another country I'm smitten with is Iran. I spent a couple of months there. I found an immediate rapport with Iranians. They kind of see the world the same way we do. And they were incredibly hospitable to Americans.

Q: You included the USA in your round-up of annoying states and note that a lot of the world doesn't like Americans. Should we take that personally?
A: I think we should. We need to understand how we interact with the world. We don't travel much — (close to) 80% of us don't have passports — and who can afford to travel these days, anyway? But if we're going to get our image in the world right, we're going to have to listen to why they say they don't like us. In the end, maybe it's not in our national interest to do things differently. But I find it hard to think it's in our interest to alienate so much of the world.

Under The Holly Tree

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