Nov

30

Saturday: Protest Gaza Seige @ Dupont Circle

November 30, 2006 | Leave a Comment

This Saturday December 2nd is the international day of action against the Gaza Siege. There will be peaceful protests held around the world in coordination with the main one being held in Tel Aviv. Check this website for information about events in your city, or organize one yourself. For those in the DC area, the protest will be held on Saturday at 12 noon in Dupont Circle. For more information on this protest, click here.

Saturday, December 2, 2006

12:00 noon

Rally at Dupont Circle

Speakers:

Rev. Walter E. Fauntroy, (invited)

Former DC Delegate to the US House of Representatives

Dr. Mark Braverman,

Partners for Peace, and Washington Interfaith Alliance for Middle East Peace

Huwaida Arraf,

Co-founder, International Solidarity Movement

Yonatan Shapira,

Israeli Refusenik, Co-founder, Combatants for Peace

Mai Abdul Rahman

American Palestinian Women’s Association, President and WIAMEP, member

Washington DC Rally Sponsored By:

Washington Interfaith Alliance for Middle East Peace, the Coalition for Justice and Accountability, Save Gaza and the DC Anti-War Network (DAWN)

Dupont Circle, intersection of Massachusetts and Connecticut

Easily accessible through the Dupont Circle Metro stop on the Red Line

For more information or to sponsor, call 1-888-810-6202 or relamine@yahoo.com


Be there. It’s the least we can do to speak out against the injustice being inflicted on Gazans.

Nov

29

Random News Stories

November 29, 2006 | 1 Comment

Hunger has been eradicated in the US. Yes, you heard me right. We no longer have a problem called “hunger.” It’s now called “low food security“. The people at USDA are geniuses, really. Now the homeless man in front of my office will be saying, “Hi, I’m hungry suffering from very low food security, can you spare a dollar?”

You know there is something either seriously wrong with CNN or seriously wrong with some of my fellow Americans when you see this headline on their website: Woman Microwaves Baby. It was on the homepage yesterday. Sad, sad world.

Does something happen to politicians after they leave office? Because it seems to me that they start making sense only when they’re not in office. Powell now says Iraq is in a “civil war.” Or maybe they just have more freedom to speak their mind when they leave.

And to stop North Korea from nuking the world, the Bush administration has thought of a genius plan: no more iPods for Kim Jung Il. Yeah, don’t dream of them buddy. We’re not going to sell them to you! Nana nana na naaaaa!

Did you know Matt Lauer is 48?! Am I the only one who thought he was 35 or something like that? His make up artist must be good.

Nov

22

Jordanian Student ‘Not Guilty’ in 9/11 Perjury Case

November 22, 2006 | 1 Comment

I first heard of this case Monday from Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman who interviewed Osama Awadallah, the Jordanian student who was detained a few days after 9/11. After long hours of questioning and mistreatment over a couple of weeks, Awadallah was presented to a Grand Jury as a “material witness”. When they asked him about his knowledge of one of the hijackers involved in the 9/11 attacks, Awadallah could not answer. He had, however, given the FBI all the information they asked for and answered all of their questions just days before. But one can imagine that after days in solitary confinement, questioning by four agents more than 8 hours at a time, someone might just not be ready to give testimony to a grand jury. He was then charged with perjury and was recently found not guilty on all 27 charges by the jury. This is an excerpt of the interview he had with Amy Goodman:

AMY GOODMAN: Did you have a lawyer present?

OSAMA AWADALLAH: No, I didn’t have a lawyer. They told me it was going to be a short time, you don’t need anyone to be with you. You’re going to be fine. Just a few questions and then you will go home. I said that’s fine. Remember, at that time, I’m 20 years old, you know? My English at that time was not like I’m speaking to you now. It’s completely different. Its been only 2 years in the country, or year and a half…

AMY GOODMAN: Was there an Arabic speaker there?

OSAMA AWADALLAH: No. There wasn’t an interpreter there, nor an Arabic speaker. They questioned me all day until 10:00, 11:00, midnight. And I was so exhausted I just wanted to go home. I even was going to answer whatever they wanted in order to just get home and rest. My family didn’t know where I am. Everyone was worried. My community was looking for me. And I came at 11:00 and I went to my brother’s and there, I told them what happened with me and the second day, the FBI. — well, actually, on that day, on September 20th, they asked me that they want to come the next day to continue questioning me. I said I just said everything that you want, that I have. Why this other day? They said well there’s a couple questions we need to verify. I said ok.

And the second day at 6:00 in the morning, they came to my apartment and I drove with them. I told them it was a Friday—Friday, the Friday service and I told them I had to catch my Friday service. So I hope this won’t take much time. They said no, no problem. Then we went there. They started confronting me with things more, you know, in a more high-tone than the previous day and they start to jump on me, this time, there are four people asking me questions not like one. It’s like you have a person there and you have four people asking you questions at the same time. So you have to answer. All this pressure and stress that you know, they came in and then at the end, they said you know what? I guess we’re going to go to New York right now. Right now, we’re going to put you on a plane and ship you to New York just–just like this. From there, continued, went to MCC Jail and then to Oklahoma—uh I think San Bernardino Sheriff Jail, then they took me to Oklahoma Jail and then ended up in New York. And until then, that’s all that happened.

Read the full interview, watch it or listen to it here.

Nov

19

Fall Colors

November 19, 2006 | 8 Comments

My favorite season in the US is Fall, or Autumn. How can it not be?! Feast your eyes on these amazing scenes. No need to drive hours or fly for them; just pull back my curtains and enjoy. Thank God for these little blessings, subhan’Allah.
Images around my home in Northern Virginia; the rest on my Flickr page.

amazing colors

my backyard

a foggy day in the neighborhood

leaf covered pathways

before

and after

more fog leaf covered sidewalks more leaves fall leaves foggy morning after the rain and winds fall clouds pretty yellow leaves again amazing colors

Nov

16

AlJazeera’s English Venture

November 16, 2006 | 4 Comments

As someone who watches AlJazeera’s Arabic channel regularly, I was looking forward to the launch of the English channel as well as the relaunch of the English website. I watched some of the free version clips and my initial reaction was to focus on the British/BBC like feel of the channel. The new website is much better than the old one which looked like it was from the Internet Stone Age, but can still use a lot of improvement. I must say it’s an exciting venture to have an international English-language channel broadcast world news from the heart of the Middle East. What AlJazeera has accomplished over the past 10 years is no small feat. It has by far been one of the most powerful tools and most innovative technologies to emerge from the region in a long time, paving the way for more open and independent media that is so lacking in the region.

The new channel is not yet available in North America, and most likely will not be for a while. It is difficult to break into the cable/satellite companies here in the US, especially if you have already been vilified by the US government. Even the BBC is not carried by a cable/satellite channel here in the US, although it is available on some local stations for a two hours per day. Instead of welcoming such a news outlet that will be able to reach out to the American public and portray international issues from a different angle, unfortunately, AJE is not yet allowed to provide this bridge between the West and the Muslim world.

I subscribed to it yesterday through Real Player, but was not able to get it to work until now. I had to call customer service and be switched around until I was finally told that there has been some problems with the subscriptions to the new channel, and they will be fixed in the next few days so that it can automatically appear on my Real Player. Until then, I’ll have to access it through a certain link. It has better quality streaming than I expected, but this is the first time I subscribe to a channel through the Internet and I’m not sure how much I will watch it.

I’m mostly interested in the programs that will be on the channel more than the news reports. When I first saw the news highlights, I was taken aback by the strong British accents of almost every reporter and anchor. The headlines on the bottom of the screen with the orange background are really similar to how the BBC looks. Sometimes I forget that I’m watching an “Arab” channel until someone says “AlJazeera” then I realize how foreign it seems. I guess I would’ve liked for it to have an Arab touch rather than trying to be something completely Western in appearance, albeit not content.

The news reports from Africa are gripping and add a much needed focus on the often under-represented and beleaguered continent. I just saw a report about the temporary refugee camps in Darfur which is definitely not something I would see on CNN or even BBC these days. It’s a welcome change. I caught a short part of Riz Khan’s show where he hosted a Palestinian who was tortured in Israeli jails and a former IDF member who is now a refusenik. I’m not sure what the topic of the show was, but to host these types of individuals as opposed to the usual policy makers is an interesting way of getting diverse opinions on hot topics.

So it’ll take me some time to adjust to the British accents, but I hope the content will be good enough for me to watch it make use of my subscription.

You can subscribe through Real Player or Jump TV here.

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Nov

14

Talking About Palestine and Israel, in America

November 14, 2006 | 2 Comments

A few interesting articles caught my attention over the past few days, all related to the way Americans talk about the “Israel Palestine issue”. That’s about the only similarity between these articles; one about pro-Israeli evangelicals, another about a former president’s view of Israel, and the last about college students bickering about the conflict.

David D. Kirkpatrick writes in the New York Times today with a provocative headline, “For Evangelicals, Supporting Israel is ‘God’s Foreign Policy’ “. Kirkpatrick discusses the rise of popularity of pro-Israeli evangelical Christian groups recently, especially during the war on Lebanon this past July. One such group–the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews– ran commercials on Fox News network asking viewers to donate to help Israelis hurt by the war.

The response, mainly from evangelicals, “burned out the call centers,” Mr. Eckstein said. During the five-week war, his group added 30,000 new donors. Thanks to the influx of money, he said his organization has exceeded its income from the first 10 months of last year by 60 percent, putting it on track to pull in $80 million this year. “The war really generated a momentum,” Mr. Eckstein said.

On the other side of the spectrum, former president Jimmy Carter is feeling the heat even before his new book– entitled “Palestine: Peace not Apartheid“– was released today. Pro-Israeli groups pounced on the opportunity to start a smear campaign against anyone daring to question Israel’s apartheid-like occupation of the Palestine territories. American politicians didn’t hesitate to make statements criticizing the book (before reading it) and its author for such a characterization of the Jewish state.

Two key party leaders — Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, party chairman, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi — and several congressmen issued statements Monday saying that the book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid,” does not represent their views on the Jewish state.

“It is wrong to suggest that the Jewish people would support a government in Israel or anywhere else that institutionalizes ethnically based oppression, and Democrats reject that allegation vigorously,” Pelosi wrote in a statement. “With all due respect to former President Carter, he does not speak for the Democratic Party on Israel.” [h/t www4report]

(Side note: If you just now realized that Nancy Pelosi’s position as the new Speaker of the House won’t do the Palestine issue any good, feel free to go cry in the corner). The politicians do not even attempt to give the book a chance and wait to read it then refute its arguments. Even this Israeli reporter notes the futility in arguing against characterizing Israel as an apartheid regime (although he goes on to criticize Carter’s use of the word in terms of “the context and bigger picture”).

Apartheid is the worst word one can use against Israel and stay within the boundaries of legitimacy. Using analogies to Nazi Germany - as some anti-Israel activists have done in the past - is unacceptable. Using words like Occupation is not strong enough to earn any attention. Carter pushed the envelope just a little bit futher, but got the effect he wished to have: Anger, controversy, political turmoil, hurt feelings. Arguing about Apartheid is pointless. There is enough material evidence to prove that apartheid exists in the occupied territories in one form or another. If you argue about the use of this word, you lose. If you argue that Israel is blameless you also lose.

Finally, a lengthy article in the Boston Globe today looks at the dynamics of discussions on this conflict across college campuses in the US. Jake Halpern writes that the issue of Palestine and Israel is simply “Too Hot to Handle“, even though more controversial issues such as race and homosexuality are more openly broached without the same intensity among college students.

The question for students and administrators at Brandeis, UC Irvine, Penn State, and other schools is this: Why is it so hard to talk about Israel in an open, civil, and constructive manner? After all, our college campuses have long provided a forum for discussing the nation’s most divisive and controversial issues - including date rape, racism, abortion, and gay rights. So why, exactly, is the subject of Israel so difficult to discuss?

The Holy Land has never been an easy topic of conversation. The fact that three of the world’s major religions all have a large spiritual stake in the city of Jerusalem, Israel’s capital, guarantees that virtually every young person with an opinion has something to say on the fate of this place. But why is the topic especially contentious right now?

The answer in part is that Christian, Jewish, and Muslim college students are more organized than they ever have been - and more outspoken, especially when it comes to Israel.

This is indeed true that many American students are more aware and engaged in what is going on in the region, and have put their energy into organizations that support their views and allow them to express their opinions on the conflict. It is also the case that pro-Israeli student groups receive a lot of funding and training from national organizations such as AIPAC and ADL, in addition to having Hillel’s resources at their disposal, despite the fact that the latter is predominantly a religious organization and ideally should not engage in all this politics. The work of pro-Israeli groups is thus more organized and much better funded than that of pro-Palestinian groups which nonetheless are generating a lot of discussion about the occupation and American support for it despite the intimidation they face from some hard-line pro-Israel groups and university administrators.

[photo courtesy: Amazon]
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Nov

11

Israel Doesn’t Just Destroy Lives

November 11, 2006 | 5 Comments

It destroys history too. During their vicious rampage in Beit Hanoun, the Israeli Occupying Forces managed to bring to the ground an 800 year old mosque.

The An-Nasr mosque in Beit Hanoun, which was completely destroyed by the Israeli shelling during the invasion of Beit Hanoun, is a historic mosque that was built 800 years ago.

The imam of the mosque, Sheikh Shihda Abu Zreiq, told Ma’an on Friday that the occupation has ruined “the house of God”, which was built in the year 637 according to the Islamic calendar, following the ‘Um An-Nasr’ battle between the armies of Sultan Mahmoud Qutob and the Crusaders’ armies in the area between Gaza City and Asqalan (today’s Ashkelon). The Muslim armies triumphed in the battle.

If a Palestinian rocket destroyed a small insignificant synagogue, what would the world’s reaction be? Not to mention an 800 year old synagogue…

“This mosque is more than 800 years old. It is part of our heritage and thousands of people visited it every year,” laments Akram Abdel Jawd Qassam, whose family have been caretakers of the holy site for half a century.

“The Jews want to destroy everything. Even our heritage and our history. It’s a tragedy,” adds the old man.

“They said there were fighters in the mosque but they are liars. I have the keys and it was closed. They occupied my house for two days and never asked me to open the doors to show them that it was empty,” he said.

Just another day in the Occupied Territories…

[photo: Ma’an News]

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