If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for reading!
After almost four months in Gaza I am already leaving… I leave behind some of the most inspiring and dedicated people I have ever known, though I am sure to be back within the next few years.
I’ll be traveling in the West Bank and Israel with Ilektra until January 8th (Christmas in Bethlehem!), but I’ll return in the new year with some reflections on my time in Palestine.
Happy Holidays to all!
I recently learned that Karlheinz Stockhausen, one of my artistic idols, died on December 5 at age 79 – this is a terrible loss for the music world and the art community in general.
Stockhausen’s music found me as recently as 2003, when I took a class in contemporary electronic music as an eager music undergraduate. His Gesang der Jünglinge will remain one of the most simultaneously disturbing and uplifting works of all time and one of my personal favorites. Stockhausen was a pioneer in his use of sound and experimentation with the limits of musicality.
The following is his obituary from Pitchfork:
A man content to exist outside the classical establishment, Stockhausen saw his influence extend beyond it as well. Among his advocates were the Beatles, who included the composer on the collage cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. (more…)
Today marks the beginning of formal peace talks between Israel and Palestine since the Annapolis summit last month. In observance of Israeli tradition, settlement construction has intensified and the IDF launched a massive invasion of the Gaza Strip yesterday killing several and arresting dozens in house-to-house raids. These are sure signs that peace is on the agenda!
According to Israeli government apologist, Mark Regev – a man I have come to know quite well from his briefings on the “humanity” of Israel’s crimes:
“We do believe that [with] these sort of surgical incursions where we go in, we deal with the infrastructure of the extremists, of the terrorists, we keep them on the run.” <<< more
In September 2004, Charles Ogletree, a professor at Harvard Law School, found himself having to admit that his latest book, All Deliberate Speed, contained six paragraphs lifted verbatim from a book by Yale professor Jack Balkin, What “Brown v. Board of Education” Should Have Said. Equally surprising was the fact that Ogletree hadn’t known about the plagiarism, which occurred in a passage about the history of desegregation efforts, until he was told of it by Balkin himself.
“I accept full responsibility for this error,” Ogletree said in a statement. But some readers of that statement might have gotten a different impression: Ogletree attributed the plagiarism to two research assistants: “Material from Professor Jack Balkin’s book … was inserted … by one of my assistants for the purpose of being reviewed, researched, and summarized by another research assistant with proper attribution … Unfortunately, the second assistant, under the pressure of meeting a deadline, inadvertently deleted this attribution and edited the text as though it had been written by me. The second assistant then sent a revised draft to the publisher.” (more…)
Raji Sourani of the Palestinian Center For Human Rights (my boss) joined with Al-Dameer, Al-Mezan and the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens Rights this morning in condemning Hamas’ recent action in seizing control of Gaza’s impartial court system. The move is extraordinarily bold and could provoke a serious response from Hamas. So far, Hamas representatives are expected to hold an impromptu press conference this afternoon.
The following is the entire press release announced by Raji Sourani and the other Gazan organizations.
Press Release
Human Rights Organizations Condemn the Takeover of the Civilian Courts Compound
The undersigned Palestinian human rights organizations condemn in the strongest terms the attack on the civilian court compound in the Gaza Strip, and the break-in by members of the so-called “Higher Justice Council” formed by the dismissed government into the office of the President of the Higher Judicial Council and President of the High Court. These attacks and actions are illegal and contradict the Basic Law of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). Human rights organizations call upon the dismissed government to immediately rescind the illegal decision to takeover the civilian judicial system in the Gaza Strip. These organizations hold this government fully responsible for undermining and destroying the Judicial Authority in order to establish illegal judicial bodies that are not independent. (more…)
In the chronology of the Bush administration’s record of manipulation and willful distortion of evidence, the apparent revelation – revealed in a recently declassified National Intelligence Estimate – that Iran ceased its nuclear program in 2003 promises to usher in a renewed phase of White House propaganda. While the cautious pundits and news anchors of the television media may predict this new information to initiate a sea-change in Washington’s antagonistic posturing, I am more skeptical. This administration will somehow find a way to interpret the development as “proof” of their wolf-crying.
Leaving aside the obvious outrage we should express at the government’s failure to rely on solid evidence and the colossally ignorant manner in which Bush threatened to launch WWIII based on shoddy intelligence, it would be prudent to review the case Washington has made against Iran thus far… (more…)
The headlines say it all: “Russia Vote to Cement Putin Dominance“, “Russian Election Insider Outlines Fraud“, “Putin’s Phony Election“. Russia votes today in a sham of a parliamentary election – orchestrated by Putin himself – rife with enough anti-democratic trappings to make Stalin proud.
In many ways, Russia’s political landscape is a fascinating place. Most voters have no faith in Russian elections and 35% prefer the former Soviet system. Perhaps surprisingly, most Russians even favor the concentration of Putin’s power (though the efficacy of Putin’s electioneering may have something to do with it). (more…)
