Frustrated Arab

Feb 16

Where Is The Palestinian Gandhi? And Other Stale Adages

Where is the Palestinian Gandhi? The non-violent heroin, the passive resister? The Palestinian who withstands blow after blow from Israel’s industry of occupation, yet refuses to strike back?

It is a fairly popular brain-teaser tossed around amongst orientalist’s; the Thomas Friedman’s, Nick Kristof’s and other backseat taxi-cab reporters.

The Palestinian prophet’s of peace are many. They have been jailed, taken captive by Israeli forces in the darkest of hours, routinely denied due process by Israeli courts, shot at close range with tear-gas canisters, rubber bullets and live ammunition. Their villages have been ransacked, their homes occupied by Israeli settlers armed and often trained by the Israeli military. Palestinian non-violent resisters have gone on hunger-strikes, most recently of which was Khader Adnan, who is entering his 61st day on hunger-strike, who lays emaciated, dying, and chained to an Israeli hospital bed. Read more

Feb 14

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The Palestinian Refugees of Lebanon

It’s a tragic tale of refugees meet refugee camp.
Palestinians expelled from their homes, blotted out by occupation; their native land pillaged and possessed. Israel’s occupation of Palestine has created a myriad of damage to Palestinian society – from denying Palestinians their right of return to destroying entire villages, ethnically cleansing the land of its indigenous inhabitants, so that Israeli settlements can take their place, so that cities carrying Arab names can be dismantled and forgotten. Read more

Feb 8

Palestine and The Black Community: A History of Struggle and Resistance

Some 300 academics, activists, community leaders and students from all across the United States of America assembled on the University of Pennsylvania to hear panel discussions, attend workshops, listen to keynote addresses and learn of how we all may coöperate in expanding the boycott, divestment and sanction movement (BDS), directed at Israel’s apartheid system; the PennBDS conference was meant to be a force of unity, a vast group of artists, students, activists, writers, professors et al., allied in order to build an alliance against the occupation in Palestine.

There were an assortment of breakout sessions spread out during the day; from “The Economics of Israeli Occupation” to “Queer Organizing and BDS” – I attended at least six breakout sessions during the conference, one of the most striking for me being “BDS and The Black Community” featuring Bill Fletcher, Jr., Rev. Graylan Hagler and Rev. Carolyn Boyd. The panel’s humble community leaders, church leaders and activists discussed the role of the black community and Palestine.

The “BDS and The Black Community” session meant to answer the following questions:

1. What are the prospects for mobilizing the American black community around the issue of Palestine?

2. How can the ongoing black struggle in the U.S. forge links with Palestinians struggling under Israeli apartheid? Read more

Jan 26

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Why We Should Be Furious The Haditha Massacre Marines Got No Jail Time

Orwellian-style agitprop; this best describes the latest article written by James Joyner for The Atlantic on the Haditha massacre, which refers to the event in which 24 unarmed Iraqi men, women and children were killed by a group of United States Marines in 2005 in the city of Haditha, in the western Iraqi province of Al Anbar. Read more

Jan 16