Israel/Palestine

A map of deaths from Israel's Pillar of Defense operation, inspired by the UK Guardian's map of "incidents". I added a timeline and removed anything that didn't result in deaths, on the basis that war is mainly a collection of deaths, and not a collection of "incidents". The geographical information could be more accurate, and I am happy to correct if anyone sends me corrections (I'll also be updating as time goes on, using Maan News's excellent feed).

I have been updating my Writings Archive (see the tab above) and making sure that all of the links are working, putting copies of the material published elsewhere into this blog so it's all searchable and such. Part of this is re-posting work that hasn't been on the internet in a long time, so it's been interesting memories.

One of the most was this photo essay from Palestine in the summer of 2002, 10 years ago now.

Another is

I just read Shlomo Sand's "The Invention of the Jewish People". It could easily be in my top 20 books. It is really awesome - historically rich, beautifully written, clearly looks at the past, and has a beautiful vision for the future, even though the author is pessimistic (realistic) about the prospects. I might review it - lots of other projects are taking up time right now - but meanwhile I wanted to just put this one long quote down, because it summarizes exactly what I have long thought on the topic. Page 282:

Dan discusses the international aspects of the raid. His website is notesonhypocrisy.com

Overnight, Israeli commandos attacked an aid flotilla in the high seas, some 65km from Israel. The commandos killed at least 10 people and injured dozens of others, mostly Turkish nonviolent activists bound for Gaza who were aiming to break Israel's siege with humanitarian supplies. Israel attacked all of the ships in the flotilla, but the killings seem to have happened on the flagship Mavi Marmari.

Just over a month ago (Oct 14/09) Palestinian geographer and director of the "Center for Global Consciousness" Saed Abu-Hijleh spoke at the University of Toronto. Traveling to the North American continent was no escape: Canadian Border services had put him through the ringer at Pearson airport, the border agent asking him whether he would "say anything against Israel" during his time in Canada. "Why did they give me a visa if they were going to humiliate me? I've had Canadians stay at my house in Nablus, but when I come to Canada I get treated like this."

"And yet, for all my fulminating, one fact is uncontested: I am writing about Naomi Klein. She isn’t writing about me."

--Jonathan Kay, September 12, 2007

I have to admit I stay away from Jonathan Kay's writing as much as I can (a stomach can only take so much, even though I've had two doses of Ducoral now). I can honestly say that I have never encountered a piece of writing of Kay's that doesn't mention Naomi. It's vaguely creepy for me as a reader, and I can only imagine how creepy it must be for her.

http://www.zcommunications.org/not-a-ceasefire-by-justin-podur

Israel used the word "disengagement" in 2005 to mean continued occupation, control of movement, periodic massacre, and blockade. Now Israel is using the word "ceasefire" to mean continued ground occupation and supervised societal collapse. The word used is irrelevant. Calling it a "ceasefire" is a simple lie. This will be a ceasefire that features continued fire. Other dangerous illusions abound.

Numerous analysts have said that "Israel will not allow a full-blown humanitarian crisis in Gaza". First of all, I am not sure how they would define a "full-blown" crisis. Can the current crisis reach "half-blown" status at least? The place is rubble. Sanitation, electricity, and drinking water facilities are destroyed. Hospitals are destroyed. The systems were brought to the breaking point by blockade and then pushed over the cliff by systematic destruction. If people are starving, how would anyone know?