Palestine in Pieces: An Interview With Kathleen and Bill Christison
Jeff Gore — October 23, 2009 8 Comments
In 1979, Kathleen and Bill Christison retired from the CIA, where they worked as analysts. Ever since then, they’ve had an unorthodox retirement, to say the least. With only a couple relatively brief interludes, they’ve dedicated what could have been years of relaxation to fighting perhaps the most uphill battle imaginable: trying to bring the plight of the Palestinians to the public eye. The newest addition to the Christison canon is Palestine in Pieces: Graphic Perspectives on the Israeli Occupation, published in August by Pluto Press. During this decade the Christisons have made a habit of visiting Palestine at least once per year; they returned from their most recent trip earlier this month. Since the couple warned against the potentially endless nature of a conversation over the phone, I elected to send them a few questions via email, which they were gracious enough to answer
Politics
Breaking The Silence: South of Hebron
Jeff Gore — September 28, 2009 1 Comment
A few days ago some friends and I took a tour of the hills south of the city of Hebron in the West Bank. The tour was given by Breaking the Silence, a group of former Israeli soldiers who speak about the conscienceless things that they did to Palestinians in the name of “security” during their time in the military. I suspect that many of them view this project as some sort of repentance for their sins, and I also suspect that to some of them, it will never be enough
Editor's Pick, Politics
Remembering Sabra and Shatila
Richard Seymour — September 20, 2009 4 Comments
In September 1982, a month after Israel’s demolition of the PLO had been consecrated, the IDF sealed off the Sabra and Shatila refugee camp. On Thursday 16 September 1982, truckloads of Phalangist and Haddad troops entered the camp from behind IDF lines. The Phalangists selected for the attack were drawn from the most extreme elements of the militia, while the Haddad troops were more or less direct auxiliaries of the Israeli army. They killed and killed for days. At night, they killed by they light of flares, methodically massacring the inhabitants, scooping them up with bulldozers and burying them under the rubble. Those bodies which could not be buried were taken away in trucks
Editor's Pick, Politics
The Toronto declaration is not a violation of artistic freedom
Faraaz Rahman — September 18, 2009 7 Comments
The protest is not against the individual Israeli filmmakers included in City to City, nor does it in any way suggest that Israeli films should be unwelcome at TIFF. However, especially in the wake of this year’s brutal assault on Gaza, protest is against the use of such an important international festival in staging a propaganda campaign on behalf of what the South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, and UN General Assembly President Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann have all characterized as an apartheid regime.
Culture, Editor's Pick, Politics
Norman Finkelstein: “Why I resigned from the Gaza Freedom March coalition”
Norman Finkelstein — September 6, 2009 11 Comments
I joined the coalition because I believed that an unprecedented opportunity now exists to mobilize a broad public whereby we could make a substantive and not just symbolic contribution towards breaking the illegal and immoral siege of Gaza and, accordingly, realize a genuine and not just token gesture of solidarity with the people of Gaza. In its present political configuration I no longer believe the coalition can achieve such a goal
Editor's Pick, Politics
Endgame diplomacy for the Middle East
Sam Bahour — May 19, 2009 0 Comments
President Obama has acknowledged that “we can’t talk forever” about the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. “At some point,” he said recently, “steps have to be taken so that people can see progress on the ground.” This attitude sheds a cautious ray of hope that the United States may be finally considering a policy shift gauged by facts on the ground instead of the number of meetings held to discuss a peace process. This is a wise starting point
Editor's Pick, Politics
Lieberman is bad for Palestinians, but so have been all the other Israeli leaders
Sam Bahour — April 21, 2009 5 Comments
Palestinians have been dispossessed, occupied and brutalized year in, year out since 1948 by an Israel that continues to talk peace while waging war. The roster of political players changes, but Israeli intransigence remains
Editor's Pick, Politics
Remembering Bassem Abu Rahma, murdered at demonstration in Bil’in, Palestine, last week
Frank Barat — April 20, 2009 3 Comments
Frank Barat remembers the fighter for justice, Bassem Abu Rahma, who was murdered last week by the IDF in the West Bank