Down with the Wall!

(thanks Laurie)

Feminists Against Israeli Militarism

"We are strenuously insisting on upholding the right to protest against the militarism and the belligerence of Israeli society, and we are expressing our repugnance at the attempts to silence it," said a coilition of Israeli feminist groups after the arrest of memebers who were trying to persuade teenagers at a bus station to reject serving in the Israeli army.

Palestinian in Guinness World Record

Nael Barghouthi is going to enter the Guinness World Record for being the longest-held political prisoner. He has been in an Israeli jail for over 31 years.

He was 22 when he went in.

He will be breaking the record of another Palestinian political prisoner who was held in an Israeli jail for 31 years and 26 days.

Enough. Enough. Enough!

Free Nael Barghouti now.

"If Our Love is a Mistake..."

Let us be mistaken.

P.H.A.T.W.A

Israel Plans to Use Gays to Bomb Iran

Israel is so worried about the International community's willingness to talk to Iran before bombing it that they are launching a new "bomb-before-you-talk" public "tarnation" campaign for which they are recruiting gays. Read more.

The Right Recognition

"The only recognition that is needed now is Israel's recognition of the Palestinians as human beings," Gideon Levy writes.

Israel Whitewashes Its War Crimes

"Human rights watchdogs accused the Israeli military on Thursday of using its internal investigations to whitewash allegations that it committed war crimes during its recent offensive on the Gaza Strip," Ma'an reports.

Only Pretty Women Can Sing?

Susan Boyle wowed the audience and the world with her performance on a British talent show. The audience and judges seem to be surprised that a woman who doesn't fit the prevailing beauty standards of the day can be talented. In a big way. Well Boyle corrected their misconception.

We Arabs know better. We have been cured of such assumptions a long time ago. Yes. Before Haifa Wahbe and Dana, who confirmed our belief that looks and talent don't necessarily go together. Before they were even born, there was Umm Kalthoum. She was not known for her good looks, but, boy, did she have talent! Beautiful!

A Modest Proposal to Regulate Girls' Marriage

Saudi Arabia's justice minister has declared that the kingdom plans to "regulate" the marriages of young girls. He made this statement after a court refused for the second time to nullify the marriage of an eight-year-old girl to a man fifty years her senior.

How do you regulate the marriage of an eight-year-old child to a fifty-eight-year-old man?

Here are some suggestions.

Taliban Executes Lovers

"A young couple who tried to elope in one of the most lawless and conservative parts of Afghanistan have been publicly executed by Taliban gunmen after their parents handed them over to be tried by insurgents," the Guardian reports.

So much for all that change!

Burger King Adds Insult to Clogged Arteries

Mexicans, government and people, are offended by this Burger King add. They object to the stereotypical portayal of a Mexican man (as shorter and uglier than the North American alpha male) and to the disrespectful use of the Mexican flag.

Occupied Palestine

The PA government, headed by Salam Fayyad, decided to officially adopt the term "Occupied Palestine" to refer to the West Bank and Gaza. This is to replace "PA territories" or "Palestinian territories,"which are currently in use.

The idea behind this adaptation is to emphasize the fact that although the West Bank and Gaza are under PA "control," they are still occupied by Israel.

I think this begins to address one of the problems that the Oslo Agreement created: making the occupation invisible to the world. It may also mean that the Palestinian Authority, created by Oslo, is realizing its own limitations.

I know there is more to it. But for now, I choose to focus on the occupation part.

The Updo is Back

What we've all been waiting for: the updo is back. The higher the better and the more ridiculous.

Amazon.com: We're Watching You

Amazon.com's attempt at censorship is troubling and I'm glad to see that the protests against it made the company back down. For now.

We'll keep an eye on you, Amazon. com.

Oh, He's So Liberal!!!

You know, Amos Oz, the Israeli novelist, is so liberal when it comes to the Palestinian question. He has liberal views. His views are liberal. Liberality is in his blood. He just can't help being liberal. Every time I read an interview with him I'm reminded of how liberal he is. Her's an example of his latest liberal sentiment about the Israeli attack on Gaza:

"Mr. Oz favored the attack as an appropriate response to the rockets but wanted it called off within a few days rather than the three weeks it lasted."

This sums it up: the definition of an Israeli liberal in the Netanyahu-Lieberman age.

It was right to slaughter the Palestinians for a few days, but not for three weeks. That's liberal principle in a nutshell.

Can someone please give him a peace medal or something?

No License for the Licentious

These are some of the license plates that are being banned in Saudi Arabia because they "injure public modesty."

Resisting the Wall with Poetry

Poetry alone may not bring the apartheid wall down. But it will put cracks in it. No act of resistance is small.

Ma'an reports:

"Sendamessage.nl will spray a nearly 2,000 word “Open letter to Israel” on an expected 2,625 meters of concrete separation wall near Ramallah in the coming weeks, organizers say.

The letter, from South African scholar and human rights activist Farid Esack, will be spray-painted by local members of the Send a Message campaign, and the cost of equipment, paint and documentation, estimated at 12,000 euros, will be covered by donations of 20 euros by hundreds of supporters of the campaign. ...the letter testifies 'that the situation for Palestinians is far worse than what was experienced in South Africa under apartheid.'

Israel: A Religous Country

Israel markets itself to the world as "the only democracy" in the Middle East and as a secular country. Gideon Levy's writing has consistently shown that you can't call yourself a democracy and continue to occupy another people. In this piece, he focuses on the myth of Israeli secularism.

"We have the right to render your life meaningless."

I wish he talked more to Palestinians, but David Hare's piece, "Wall: A Monologue" is worth reading.

Saudi Samar Rabah Fights Segregation

The Saudi reporter Samar Rabah wanted to read her paper at a scientific conference in the Happy Kingdom. But because she wanted to read it from the men's podium, she was asked to leave to the women's section. Just another reminder that women should know their place. But she's lucky that they kicked her out in person, as clear from the picture above, and not by texting her.

Rabah's action is a reminder that no matter how oppressive the system is, there are always people resisting.

No Divorce for Eight-Year-Old Saudi Girl

So a Saudi man can divorce his wife by sending her a text message that says "I divorce you" but a Saudi judge continues to refuse to grant a divorce to the eight-year-old girl whose father married her to a man in his fifties to pay back money he owed that man. When the mother found out, she filed to divorce her daughter. That was five months ago. The irony is that the judge wants to wait till the girl is "mature" enough before he looks into divorcing her. Oh, the twisted logic of patriarchy!!

From Prison to Exile

If you are a Palestinian political prisoner and you finish your sentence and is released, there is a good chance you will also be deported, to either Gaza or Jordan.

A New Defition of Honor Killing

This story is an an example of how the label "honor crime" is used to justify murders of all kind. The murderer knows that to put the word "honor" before his crime is to get a reduced sentence and lots of sympathy. In this case, the man didn't kill his sister or wife for "honor" as usually is the case. He killed his father, his second wife, and their son. The first news mentioned an inheritance dispute to be behind the killing, which makes sense. But now the killer is saying that he was motivated by honor, that his father was a drug addict who would not reform. So he killed him. And his wife. And his five-year-old son. Oh, but he said that killing the boy was mistake. He just failed to see him lying there next to his mother.

It's interesting that he doesn't have any explanation why he killed his step mother.

Little Hope in Gaza

"Eighty per cent of Gaza's population lives in poverty, defined here as an income of less than $2 daily."

Yet, the article has to end with the suffering of an Israeli man who lives in Sderot. Even though the writer acknowledges that "The experiences of Israelis and Palestinians either side of the Gaza border in December and January were not equivalent," he nonetheless must conclude with the words of the Israeli sufferer.

This is called "balanced reporting."

Or maybe the writer feels that no matter what he writes about the suffering of the Palestinians, the readers will not be moved unless the suffering of a real "human" they can identify with is the last (and only) thing left in their heads once they finish reading.

This is called "obscene balanced reporting."

"Honey, I Divorce Thee. Send."

I envy the creative ways some people use technology. It's a talent I don't have. I grew up fearing technology or anything resembling it. "Don't touch it!" I can still hear my mother's nervous voice. "It will break." The "it" behind my mother's concern could be our ancient radio, the alarm clock, the tape recorder I got for my thirteenth birthday, or even the TV remote control. My mother was convinced that changing the channels often is not good for the TV. And this was in the pre-satellite era when we had three channels to choose from.

Read more.

Me No Terrorist

A Donkey Race??

A donkey race was organized in Qalqilia. Yeah. Why do I have the feeling it is some NGO's brilliant idea?

Reconstructing Gaza: A Jail within a Jail

The reconstruction of Gaza is going well. Hamas is building a new jail to replace the one damaged in the Isareli attack. But according to them, this will be a temporary one until they build a fancier jail that meets international humanitarian specifications.

Does this mean this one doesn't?

Maybe it has the same standards that the bigger jail called Gaza has.

Can We Please Borrow Gerry Adams?

Now that Gerry Adams is not that needed in Northern Ireland, can we please borrow him? The Palestinians desperately need a Gerry Adams who can articulately present their cause to the world while still looking good.

Not that the Palestinians didn't have their own Gerry Adams. But all fell victims to Israeli assassinations, who made sure that only mediocrities survived. (the list of both groups is too long to include here).

Gerry Adams was in Gaza, which he called a prison. The Israelis gave him a hard time entering because they wanted him to commit not to talk to Hamas leaders. He refused since he himself was once upon a time a member of a group that nobody was supposed to talk to.

Please, just for a year or two.

Shame on Homophobic Arab Media

Al Quds Al Arabi insists on calling gays being murdered in Iraq "sexual deviants." It has that in the headline and throughout the news report about how they are being hunted down and killed. By refusing to use the neutral word "Methli," which is what Arab gays like to be called, and by insisting on the expression that denigrates homosexuality and cast it as a disease and a sin, Al Quds al Arabi, under the guise of neutral reporting, is cheering on the killers.

This is occurring on the same pages that is shedding tears over six years of the American occupation of Iraq. It is easy to advocate for an abstract Iraq and at the same time betray real Iraqis who are being murdered for being themselves.

Shame.

Murdering Gay Men in Iraq

Three Iraqi gay men were found murdered in a Sadr City in Baghdad. Their bodies were tortured and a sign with the word "deviant" was left on their chest. Last month, four gay men were shot dead after their tribe disowned them for their sexuality. A coffee shop that is a gay hangout was burned down.

The latest killings followed Friday sermons that denounced homosexuality and asked the worshipers to rid the nation of this phenomenon. Read more.