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Portland artist wins first prize for Nakba Poster Design |
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Written by Ildiko Toth
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Thursday, 15 May 2008 |
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We are proud to announce that Portland's own Ildiko Toth, intrepid graphic designer, has won first prize the the U.S. Campaign's Expressions of the Nakba contest for best poster design. Her poster is called "Parachutes Falling." Check it out! |
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expressionsofnakba.org/gallery/node/44
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Written by Haim Baram In New Statesman (United Kingdom)
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Thursday, 15 May 2008 |
Israel marks its 60th birthday in a climate of increasing racism, intolerance, corruption and militarism. A nation that has long seen itself as one of the most misunderstood is now almost unable to understand the world beyond its borders. Fear and anxiety provide the mood music of the celebrations.
The past decade has brought a sharp increase in anti-Arab sentiment, which finds many forms of expression, from sordid chants at sporting events ("Death to the Arabs") to blatant racism and attacks on Arab colleagues by right-wing pol iticians in the Knesset. In such an atmosphere, it is almost impossible for Arab citizens (or 1948 Palestinians) to identify with the state of Israel, despite the terms of their legal status. Indeed, it is increasingly difficult for them even to protect their civil rights and express themselves freely in public.
Anyone who doubts the depth of anti-Arab feeling has only to scan the internet. On 8 May, I was commissioned by the popular news site Walla! (associated with the newspaper Haaretz) to write a short column about the Israeli national anthem, "Hatikva" (or Hope). Haaretz had asked another writer to support the anthem. I was commissioned to write against it and to suggest a more suitable one.
My main point of opposition was that the opening words - "As long as deep in the heart/A Jewish soul yearns . . . towards Zion" - excluded the more than one million Arab citizens of Israel. Walla! debates are allocated some two hours' airtime and previous ones, for example on economic issues or the evacuation of the Jewish settlements in Gaza, have generated talkback that was overwhelmingly right-wing. However, the anthem debate exceeded even my pessimistic ex pectations.
Within an hour 481 comments had appeared, 472 of which were vehemently anti-Arab and abusive of "bleeding-heart leftists". Some of the comments were simply racist, but the majority were nationalistic, betraying deep hatred of Israel's Arab citizens.
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serv01.siteground202.com/~atfp/news/article.php?id=1866178317
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Members of Oregon’s Arab-American and Jewish Communities Support Steve Novick As A Candidate... |
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Written by Novick for Senate
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Wednesday, 14 May 2008 |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 14, 2008
Contact: Jake Weigler, 503-236-7289
Members of Oregon’s Arab-American and Jewish Communities Support Steve Novick As A Candidate Committed to Peace in the Middle East
 “For too long, Arab Americans have felt like election season was
more like ‘open season’ on our community. By standing here with us
today, Steve has made clear that he represents a break from this type
of divisive politics. I am glad to be able to support his bid for the
Senate.” 
Portland – Members of Oregon’s Arab-American and Jewish communities joined together today to announce their support of Democrat Steve Novick’s candidacy for the United States Senate at a press conference in Portland.
“We are confident that Steve is committed, as we are, and as most Israelis and Palestinians are, to the goal of peace between Israelis and Palestinians,” said Hala Gores, a Palestinian-American activist who had previously supported another Democratic Senate candidate, Jeff Merkley. “I am proud to support a Jewish Senate candidate whom I know I can count on to work to ensure that the United States is an engaged and supportive partner for peace, sensitive to the concerns of both Israelis and Palestinians.”
Steve understands that the United States does not have to choose
between being ‘pro-Israeli’ and ‘pro-Palestinian.’ To play a
constructive role in resolving the conflict and bringing peace and
security to the region, the United States must be both pro-Israeli and
pro-Palestinian.” The public endorsements followed several meetings between Novick and
advocates for the Palestinians and Israelis in recent months. Activists
from both sides emphasized their appreciation of Novick’s consistency
and candor in discussing Israel, a Palestinian state and the Middle
East Peace Process. |
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www.novickforsenate.com
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Read more...
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RETHINKING ISRAEL AFTER SIXTY YEARS |
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Written by Jeff Halper
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Wednesday, 14 May 2008 |
Israeli Independence Day 2008, marking the sixtieth anniversary of the rise of the Jewish State on the ruins of Palestinian society, should be cause more for sober reflection and reevaluation than for celebration. True, Israeli Jews have much to celebrate. Only a few weeks ago the shekel joined the fifteen strongest currencies in the world, and with an economy fueled by diamonds, arms, high-tech, security services and tourism, Israel's economy is booming. Israel's international position continues to soar: the European Union recently upgraded its links, German Chancellor Angela Merkel brought half her cabinet to Jerusalem to emphasize that Germany was Israel's "loyal partner," and President Bush will come for the second time in the past few months. Celebrities like Steven Spielberg (who withdrew as a cultural consultant to the Olympics in protest of China's human rights violations), Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google founder Sergey Brin, Rupert Murdoch and Henry Kissinger, alongside South African Nobel Laureate and anti-apartheid crusader Nadine Gordimer, will also grace the festivities. And as for the "conflict," it has been effectively removed from the public consciousness (with the exception of Sderot) as attacks inside Israel have been virtually eliminated. What's not to celebrate?
A lot, it turns out, though most of it exists beyond the bubble that insulates the Israeli public from its wider reality, and so does not dampen public celebrations. After sixty years, however, several fundamental developments have materialized which were not anticipated by the Zionist movement nor Israel's founding, but which must be squarely acknowledged and addressed. First, the vast majority of Jews did not and will not come to Israel. Israeli Jews represent, if emigrants are factored in, less than a third of the world Jewish community. Only 1% of American Jews ever came, and most of them are religious, even ultra-orthodox Jews, or the elderly, who live there only part-time. The reservoir of potential Jewish immigrants has been exhausted. Second, some 30% of Israel's population - almost 50% if we include the Palestinians of the Occupied Territories who, it seems, will stay permanently under Israeli rule - are not Jews. This is the Demographic Bomb, made even more threatening to a "Jewish state" by the fact that the Palestinians are a people whose national rights can no longer be denied. Israel/Palestine is a b-national country which somehow must either be partitioned or shared. And finally, the greatest irony of all, it is Israel, by its own hand, through its massive settlement project, that has foreclosed partition and created a thoroughly bi-national entity which can only lead to a one state or apartheid.
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icahd.org
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'We are almost dead. We have no money, nothing' |
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Written by Rory McCarthy in Beit Hanoun
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Tuesday, 13 May 2008 |
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In the third part of our series on Gaza, Rory McCarthy talks to Ahmad
Abu Me'tiq, who lost his wife and four of his children in an Israeli
air strike Her bed is on the third floor of Gaza's Shifa hospital, where shafts
of warm afternoon sunshine reach in from the window. The ward is
crowded, and the bed on which Asma'a Abu Me'tiq lay is curtained off
from the rest and surrounded by the blankets her sister-in-law uses
when she sleeps on the floor next to her at night. "This house is empty. There is nothing for us here." It may be the
best hospital in Gaza but even the poorest families, like the Abu
Me'tiqs, must provide extra food themselves. Asma'a's father, Ahmad,
returns from downstairs with a cheap electric hot-plate, which he
bought on credit from a shopkeeper he knows. He plugs it into the wall
to heat a pot of thin homemade soup for his 13-year-old daughter, but
there is either no electricity or the hot-plate didn't work. "What bad
luck," he says quietly to himself. Then he reaches over to his
daughter, who is coughing and struggling to breathe from the deep wound
in her chest. She hasn't touched her food since she was rushed to
hospital 10 days earlier: the day an explosion in the street outside
demolished the metal front door of their house as the family were
eating breakfast, impaling her and her younger sister, Shaima, seven,
with shrapnel and killing outright four other brothers and sisters and
her mother too. "I'm waiting to see you eat," says her father.
"Later," says Asma'a. Several minutes passed. "Let me see you eat," he
says again. "Tomorrow," she replies.
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www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/14/gaza
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May 31st: Ending the Palestinian Nakba |
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Written by AUPHR
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Tuesday, 13 May 2008 |
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Commemorating 60 years of Palestinian dispossession, 40 years of Israeli occupation. 
Saturday, May 31st 2008 The event is from 1 to 5pm. Admission is Free.
Hoffman Hall
Portland
State University
1833 SW Eleventh, Portland,
Oregon 97201
Professor George Bisharat will speak at 2pm about
"Ending the Palestinian Nakba"
The event will open at 1pm with drumming by Native Americans in support
of Palestinian sovereignty. See an exhibit of 1948 era UNRWA
photos. UNRWA is the official United Nations Relief and Works Agency for
Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
Films: 1:30 “Sons of Eilaboun” 4:00 “Sands of Sorrow”
Palestinian Handicrafts and Fair Trade Olive Oil.
Sponsored by Muslim Student Association of Portland State University, Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights
and Friends of Sabeel--North America. See www.auphr.org for more information. FLYERS: Color: http://www.auphr.org/images/stories/flyers/nakba_handouts.pdf Black&White: http://www.auphr.org/images/stories/flyers/nakba_handoutsbw.pdf POSTERS: Color: http://www.auphr.org/images/stories/flyers/nakba_poster.pdf Black&White: http://www.auphr.org/images/stories/flyers/nakba_posterbw.pdf
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www.auphr.org/images/stories/flyers/nakba_poster.pdf
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AUPHR Media Study
Dangerous Omissions |
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