The second edition Palestine Review is now available for viewing online, downloading, printing, sharing, emailing and snail mailing. A digest of the logical, the analytical, and the intelligent writing on the occupation of Palestine and its impact on the people there as well as the wider, global implications is meant for reading and sharing for those looking for rational voices often drowned out amid the din of punditry that passes for mainstream in U.S. media.
The three pieces in this issue focuses on the framework of the Fall Meeting in Annapolis, Maryland, called for by the Bush Administration. As Diana Buttu and Nadia Hijab write in their piece that kicks off this issue: “The timing and substance of the international meeting called by US President George Bush in his 16 July 2007 speech on the Middle East may end up focusing on aid at the expense of a political solution. This moves further away from the 1991 Madrid international conference and the bilateral Oslo 1993-2000 negotiations and reinforces the trend that was so visible at the 2005 London meeting. This approach has not worked before and is unlikely to work today.”
The Palestinian-International Campaign to end the Siege on Gaza was conceived by Dr. Eyad El-Sarraj of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme as a six-month effort to break the Siege of Gaza, beginning with an international symposium in Gaza in November, 2007 and culminating with the voyages of the Free Gaza Movement in May/June, 2008. The aim of this nonviolent campaign is to put international pressure on the Israeli government to abide by humanitarian law.
Bush’s nominee for Attorney General, Michael Mukasey, may not know if waterboarding is torture, but Henri Alleg, the journalist who suffered from it at the hands of French troops in Algeria has a pretty strong opinion that it is. He was interviewed today by Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman. Read the transcript or listen to the interview here.
For those not following the latest in the ever-expanding ghoulish vernacular making its way into mainstream U.S. discourse thanks to the good folks who brought you the Abu Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo scandals, waterboarding (as described by the website How Stuff Works)involves…
“strapping a person to an inclined board, with his feet raised and his head lowered. The interrogators bind the person’s arms and legs so he can’t move at all, and they cover his face. In some descriptions, the person is gagged, and some sort of cloth covers his nose and mouth; in others, his face is wrapped in cellophane. The interrogator then repeatedly pours water onto the person’s face. Depending on the exact setup, the water may or may not actually get into the person’s mouth and nose; but the physical experience of being underneath a wave of water seems to be secondary to the psychological experience. The person’s mind believes he is drowning, and his gag reflex kicks in as if he were choking on all that water falling on his face.”
So, is it torture, or just an “enhanced interrogation technique” as it’s listed with the CIA? The Bush administration seems to say it’s not, though only because it can’t/won’t say if the tactic is being used on people. The use of it does have a history that goest beyond French and U.S. occupations. The Tuol Sleng Prison in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, is now a museum dedicated to archiving the horrors of the Khymer Rouge. Here, David Korn’s website shows the museum’s exhibit on waterboarding.
In this YouTube video, Dahr Jamail, who recently appeared in Olympia in an event sponsored by the Rachel Corrie Foundation, discusses his book, Beyond the Green Zone.
Suheir recently read her poetry in Olympia during the kick-off to the Olympia Film Festival. If anyone has recorded any video or taken photos at the event, send them here.
The first issue of Palestine Review, featuring Dr. Sara Roy’s excellent essay, A Jewish Plea, is ready for release and the printing press is your own personal computer printer. Click on the link and hit print. This simply laid-out periodical is meant for you to churn out, read at your leisure and leave at home, the office, coffee shops, the tube, the bus, your mom’s house or where ever you hang out. Mail copies to your congressional representative, community religious leaders, Caterpillar executives or anyone else you can think of.
Palestine Review is put out by John Harvey and myself in pdf format with the giddy hosting assistance of the Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project. In each issue we compile and, with the direct consent of the authors, publish the best analysis and most thought-provoking, rational pieces on the conflict, the lack of a peace process and of course the long-running occupation and annexation of Palestinian lands. These are the writers and this is the news excluded from much of US media. (more…)
".... I'm steadfastly pursuing a track that guarantees I'll never get paid more than three Triscuits and some spinach" — Rachel Corrie
This blog pulls it's title from the above quote. It's a group-edited endeavor aimed at the subjects of activism, human rights, Israel-Palestine and a number of other issues relevant to those who either follow, volunteer or scratch out a meager living in grassroots progressive movements. This blog is run by and for human rights activists and volunteers and is hosted by the Rachel Corrie Foundation. As are anyone's, the participants' opinions are their own and do not necessarily reflect stances held the Rachel Corrie Foundation.
".... I'm steadfastly pursuing a track that guarantees I'll never get paid more than three Triscuits and some spinach" 
