Palestinians and foreign activists have torn down segments of Israel’s separation wall in a demonstration marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
In the town of Qalandiya in the occupied West Bank, a group of masked activists using a lorry pulled down a two-metre cement block before Israeli security forces confronted them with tear gas grenades.
Photo: Valerian Mazataud. Palestinian farmers harvest olives in the West Bank.
Palestine The olive harvest in the West Bank, used to be a joyful time. But now it is defined by burned trees, missing crops, and confrontations. Having become a significant source of strife for Palestinian farmers and Jewish settlers, Israeli media now refers to the harvest as the “Olive War.” Photographer Valerian Mazataud is currently visiting Palestine and documented the Palestinian olive harvest in the Israeli occupied West Bank.
The public relations (PR) industry has made exceptional use of the communications revolution. But for all the globalizing effects of multinational campaigns, many brands seem inextricably tied to their home country. Injecting products into foreign markets has, to a certain extent, acted as a driving force in the way nation-states are perceived internationally.
Coke, Marlboro and Starbucks are inseparable from their provenance, and Brand America is intimately tied to its products. But consumerism alone doesn’t tell the story of how America is perceived in the world; military adventurism and moral exceptionalism undermine the feel-good aspects of consuming Americana. A nation’s brand is inextricably tied to its actions in the world.
A series of detailed human rights reports about serious Israeli abuses during the recent Gaza conflict has given rise to an intense campaign by the Israeli government and some of its uncritical supporters to smear the messengers and change the subject.
Irwin Cotler’s attack in these pages on Judge Richard Goldstone’s UN-mandated investigation of the conflict is of a piece with these efforts (“The Goldstone Mission – Tainted to the core,” August 17 and 19). Rather than addressing the sad reality in Gaza, he effectively offers an apology for Israeli abuse.
Photo: Scott Weinstein Israel’s wall next to Har Homa settlement in the West Bank
Several Western pension funds and financial managers hold shares in two Israeli banks: Bank Hapoalim and Bank Leumi. Both banks operate in and offer loans to finance illegal settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian and Syrian territories.
Bank Hapoalim, Israel’s largest bank, was established in 1921 by the Israeli trade union Histadrut and the World Zionist Organization. It was nationalized in 1983 but privatized again in 1996. Founded in 1902 and originally named the Anglo-Palestine Bank, Bank Leumi is Israel’s second-largest bank. Both banks have branches in the settlements of Gilo and Pisgat Ze’ev, located in the occupied West Bank. Bank Hapoalim also has branches in the Ramot settlement in occupied East Jerusalem as well as the occupied Golan Heights. Meanwhile, Bank Leumi maintains branches in the settlements of Ma’ale Adumim, Oranit, Kiryat Arba, all in the occupied West Bank, and Katzrin in the Golan Heights.
Photo: Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. Destroyed Palestinian home.
Sur Baher, occupied East Jerusalem (IPS) – “We knew something bad was about to happen when we saw the roadblocks being thrown up, and police everywhere. It soon came down the grapevine — the Israelis were demolishing more houses.”
Naim Awisat, an East Jerusalem Palestinian community leader and entrepreneur, drove quickly down America Way (the winding old valley road that links the city’s southern neighborhoods of the Holy Basin with the walled Old City and its holy sites) to Salaa, a rundown quarter at the heart of the wadi.
BEIRUT: Most Palestinian refugees in southern Lebanon believe greater interaction with their Lebanese neighbors would help dismantle the prejudices and misconceptions that abound between the two communities, a recent report said.
The report, entitled “Community Perspectives on Protection: A Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices Analysis of Palestinian Communities in Southern Lebanon,” also found Palestinians endured high levels of familial and community violence because residents of formal camps and informal gatherings lack the necessary space and institutions where they can otherwise release their frustration.
Hundreds gathered in Montreal for the ninth Artists Against Apartheid concert featuring DAM, the celebrated Palestinian hip-hop group, who took the stage in Montreal for the first time at Café Campus.
Joining DAM at the concert was Montreal-based Iraqi hip-hop artist the Narcicyst, along with MCs from the celebrated local hip-hop group Nomadic Massive
In the 1968 film “The Swimmer”, starring Burt Lancaster, the hero hits on the idea of getting home by swimming the length of various pools owned by his rich friends in a leafy north-eastern US state.
Captivated by the sight of a string of luminous blue pools stretching into the distance, he embarks on this crazy scheme in what becomes a symbolic plunge into his own fractured psyche. It turns out that Ned, Lancaster’s character, has forgotten what has happened in his own life. The swimming pool plan slowly reveals itself as a disastrous attempt to recover his home and loved ones.
The Obama administration’s push to freeze Israeli construction of illegal colonies in the West Bank has brought the settlement question back to the fore of media coverage.
On July 27, Time published a rather long piece by Nina Burleigh on Israeli settlements under the headline “Two Views of the Land.” The first view was Israeli: The Katzes, very normal, gentle people readers can identify with (they’re even from New York!), “consider themselves law-abiding citizens” and do earnest and upstanding things like “publish a small community magazine and take part in civic projects. Sharon raises money for charity by putting on tap-dancing and theater shows.” There was a smiling family portrait, and a picture of settlers playing in a swimming pool with their kids. They “don’t think their town is an obstacle to peace.”
