PA Ministers Like to Steal, Israeli Ministers Like to Rape

Moshe Katsav, former Israeli president, was found guilty of rape and sexual harrassment that were filed against him four years ago.

Shared Experience About Gaza

Abu Yazan on the first day of the massacre:

"That day I was walking in the street with a friend of mine in the middle of Gaza City…we were laughing at some jokes he was saying…and all of the sudden we heard the roaring of the Israeli F16s…It is normal in Gaza to hear such things, so we did not pay much attention to that, we kept moving with our jokes….Then with a glance, an explosion happened in a police station that was around 150 meters away from us.. We went running to the place when another explosion took place followed by a third, then a fourth, a fifth, we didn’t know what was happening but we didn’t hesitate to keep on going to the first place bombed…We had our hands over our ears because the explosions never ended, it was very loud to the limit you think that you are the one being hit with those rockets."

Read the rest here:
http://palestinethinktank.com/2010/12/27/abu-yazan-%e2%80%93-the-27th-of-december-a-day-i-will-never-forget/

An article by the BNC concerning the two year anniversary.

2 Years Since the Horrors in Gaza

Searching through pictures of the Gaza massacre is about as fun as staring at Tzipi Livni's bearded face on Al-Jazeera TV. It reinvoked those helpless frustrated emotions in us, as we were glued to our screens unable to tear our eyes away at the horrors taking place 5o miles away from us. The fact that we couldn't even express solidarity with our fellow Palestinians was extremely difficult to stomach, to say the least, as any signs and protests expressing resistance were cruelly trampled upon by old man Abbass and his despicable legion of brainless yes men.

Israel's Operation Cast Lead has had at least one positive impact-the increasing awareness and activism carried out through the boycott, divestment, and sanctions committee all around the world. It managed to open up the eyes of citizens worldwide who finally came to terms-albeit 60 years late- with Israel's gruesome and horrifying policies against an occupied population, all at the expense of the more than a thousand innocent civilians killed, which includes over 4oo children. Convoys have been organized and sent, and some have succeeded whereas others were denied access. Now, two years on, Gaza remains what it was before the 08/09 invasion-simply forgotton about in the eyes of the international community and great upholders of human rights, such as the United Failtions. Now, more than ever, the people of Gaza are reliant on conscientious citizens to keep on notifying the world of the past and present injustices done to them and the terrorism they were subjected to by the great democratic state of Israel. Bastards Ehud Olmert, Ehud Barack, and Tzipi Livni are still walking around free, not being held accountable for the atrocities under their orders. Il dinya dawara-what goes around comes around.

22 days living in absolute trepidation while the silent eyes of the world simply looked on. This will never do, and hopefully-as the right wing nut cases are gaining more power in the Israeli government, threatening a future civil war-the Gaza massacre will have marked a crucial point in the demise of Israel as a brutal occupying force. Maybe then we can all enjoy our reparations.

Look Ma-I'm on Al-Jazeera!

This is quite spiffing. Or spiffy. And rather prodigious. And we'll leave it at that before we go all self-congratulatory like.

Merry Christmas!

It's been a long arduous week full of wedding preparations for one of us (her brother's) but we can finally work again on an excruciatingly slow internet connection.

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Hope this upcoming year will be full of liberating happiness and renewed resistanc. Wonder if Santa made it to the Holy Land this year or not. Anyhoo, enjoy your burbara and sinus opening smell of pine cones-we've certainly had our share of fun with Christmas lights and tinsels.

Good Shit

Like the true hipster he was, Bob Marley spawned about a dozen kids. Most of them went into the music business. We only care about one, a Mr Damian Marley. His collaborative effort with Nas- the album Distant Relatives-is pardon us, off the heeezaaay. Wallahi.

To adopt a pretentious aura, we like to think that this song is like the soundtrack of our lives. In fact, we have it all imagined out. Late afternoon, walking with our hoods up, down one street up another, the camera zooms in, we give a world weary yet cheeky brief look, before blackness descends.

Don't judge us.

Julian Assange Granted Bail

Confession here. We had a crush on his name, and now we think we have a crush on the man himself. Which is totally weird. Because he's like, the prototype of everything that goes against our exhausting list of what a man should look like. But there's something so sweet and so vulnerable in his childlike soft face we can't help but want to pet the TV screen whenever he shows up on there. Plus his hair is mad cool. Yeah.

Anyway, his bail was a whopping quarter of a million pounds, provided for by supporters. He spent ten days in solitary confinement in a Victorian cell which sounds highly unpleasant. He'll be back in court January 1st to fight against the non-existent evidence tying him to accusations of sexual assault on two Swedish women. Meanwhile he has to wear an electronic tag, observe strict curfew, and report to a police station on a daily basis.

Do we dare post something corny like "The truth shall set you free" and hope against all hope that this might actually come true? It's hard being optimistic about this, especially with the virulent US reaction who want to try sweet Julian for espionage and see nothing perverse in murdering him. Oh, that great upholding nation of freedom of speech and investigative journalism.

The Truth Will Always Win. His words not ours, so we're saved from the corniness.

University of Mass. Walk Out

This is the problem with devoting every waking minute of our time to exams. We miss out on cool stuff. Like this burnation? It happened over two weeks ago. But whatever, we're really buoyed by this. Following in the foot steps of Michigan State University and Arizona State University, the University of Massachusetts, Amherst staged a similar silent protest when former IDF solider Kenny Sachs arrived on their campus in an attempt to humanize the Israeli occupation.

"The Western Massachusetts Coalition for Palestine organized a protest in order to show our solidarity with all Palestinians and to call attention to the illegal occupation in Palestine. We are a unified collective of community organizers, faculty members, campus groups, and concerned citizens. We support the international call for a boycott, divest, and sanctions movement against Israel until they comply with international law to allow for Palestinian right of return.

We engaged in a silent walk-out in order to represent the voices of those who were murdered by the Israeli Defense Forces and not able to give their account of the occupation. The Western Mass Coalition for Palestine is an anti-Zionist, anti-racist, anti-colonization group who stands with the Palestinians until the occupation ends, the separation wall is torn down, and the apartheid state of Israel allows for Palestinian self-determination."

Thank you.

And this does seem trivial and unnecessary, but we are seriously wondering if the dude with the white beard didn't scream blue murder when he took his duct tape off of his mouth. Ouch.

Goodbye Moto!

Another spectacular flash dance pulled off! Just how adorable is 86 year old Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein? We think she nailed the choreography way more than her younger counterparts.

Saint Lous Palestine Solidarity Campaign certainly know how to put one in a festive mood!

Ben Brown is a Gimp, Jody McIntyre is No Wimp

Our beloved man Jody McIntyre has been at the forefront of the London student protests, expressing along with thousands of others his strong disapproval-to put it mildly- of the increase in student tuition fees to up to nine thousand pounds annually. His ever excellent blog has covered the protests in detail, and now more than ever he has been at the center of the media light because of what happened during the last protest last week. Jody and his brother were in the front crowd in Parliament Square opposite a legion of armed police officers. The first completely unprovoked incident saw police officer KF963 strike Jody on the shoulder with a baton. The second incident initiated by KF963 was a four man attack on Jody as the commendable police officers dragged Jody off from his wheelchair about a hundred meters. Did we mention Jody has cerebral palsy? And that, as he so adequately put it himself, "Do you really think a person with cerebral palsy in a wheelchair can pose a threat to a police officer who is armed with weapons?" The disgusting despicable vermin who calls itself Ben Brown makes a very strong case for Douchebag of the Year Award with his highly accusatory questions, fascist tone, and rankling rude interruptions, but Jody is not surprised at all by the idiot's actions:

"I was at a demonstration against the government, and I'm then interviewed on television that works for the government. Why would they question me fairly?"

It just grates us how Brown insinuates that because Jody identifies himself as a "revolutionary" then that made it all the more justifiable for the police-scratch that, pigs- to assault him. A revolutionary is just a word, not a physical action, says Jody and everyone else with a brain. Reason seems to have departed permanently from Brown's vacuous mind as he angles for the victim of police brutality as a dangerous threat to the precious police whose role, might we needlessly add is obviously to protect the government and not its citizens.

But we applaud Jody for the great job he has done with dealing with those "embedded" journalists, here's another video where he owns those cretins.

Much love and respect ya zalameh! And don't worry, we won't be focusing on the horrible way you were treated, but to contextualize it as you said with the larger issue here which is of course the abominable increase of tuition fees.

"Just as I was unseated from my wheelchair I hope that every member of this government will also be unseated." WORD.

Original Jordanians Throw a Tantrum After They Lose Football Match

Ah, Jordan. That country whose leading Bedouin clan were all to ready to lap up some imperialistic lie that they were descended from the very same clan that Prophet Mohammad belonged to, and therefore justified into enthroning themselves in sagacious royalty.

Nowadays, saying something like how 80 percent of Jordan are Palestinians isn't that far fetched at all. But the resentment for Palestinians is quite strong, which leads to the joke of how Palestinian Jordanians hate Palestinian Palestinians. This is just another form of brainwash, at least to us. Jordan was scared that military action would emerge from the Palestinian refugee camps it had and so went on a quest to obliterate any form of resistance through any means possible. The result was for those brainwashed an embraceable whole new mother country, complete with full citizenship. Jordan's few tribes still lead and control the order, and of course they are not below the law at all meaning that they can get away with anything. They certainly don't want Palestinians to be integrated fully into their own sense of society, so a few laws or rights are missing from the life of the Palestinians lest they forget that they are in fact guests of a neighboring country and are allowed to live and build their lives purely from the good will of the previous King Hussein. Discrimination is alive and well. Beneath the normalcy of daily life tension simmers away, waiting for any excuse to boil over.

Such was the case on Friday over an innocent football match between rivals Wihdat and Faisali. The Wihdat team, named after the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan, are mostly made up of members who are of Palestinian origin as are their fans, whereas the Faisali team members and fans are of native Jordanian Bedouin tribes. The team is actually sponsored (read controlled) by the Adwan tribe. Wihdat won, beating Faisali 1-0 so naturally all hell broke loose because how DARE these Palestinians win over sacred ruling class blood? Fans attacked each other and many were injured, including policemen (who served up their own special brand of brutality against the Wihdat fans) after the wire fence separating fans from the pitch broke down. This isn't the first time fights between rival fans break out-last year the Faisali team chanted insults about Queen Rania-who is a Palestinian-and offered the King two wives from their own origin instead. What is with all the hating. Well we do get it, but what we mean is WHY, what's with all this pettiness about who's greater than who and intolerance and hatred and racism and bigotry-can't we all just get a bong?

Ugh. Jordanian ultra-nationalism.

Israel is a DEMOCRACY dammit!

Which is why hundreds of state appointed rabbis have signed a democratic letter and called on Jewish Israelis to refrain, nay to adamantly refuse renting real estate-either living or work accommodations- to Palestinians. Armed with religious nonsense, the rabbis have justified this act as a Jewish one, with biblical references mentioning the decrease of property values as a result of Mr Jew renting to Mr Arab. Wonder what else these Dan Brownesque biblical references include, something about the predictability of current stock markets?

International reaction? Zero. But if it were whites refusing to sell/rent property to blacks as was the case a few decades ago in the great US, then yes an uproar would be the least type of acknowledgement.

So, no really, we are trying to understand this belligerence. Ok, getting in the zone. Beards, bowler hats, long fingernails. Hello. We are rabid rabbis. No, not rabid, but something more euphemistic. Uh..um..zealous? Zealous rabbis. Who believe in some religious doctrine that dictates the superiority of one people over all other humans in the world. And that to defend that special feeling, we must...be even more zealous. And make up laws and rules to suit our self interests, because it's all for the greater good. We cannot blame people for not being who we are, so we must rid their infiltrating presence because it serves to remind us that we did not settle on a land without a people. We are merely acting out God's will. God came to us in the form of a dogmatist enrobed in a white rose tinged flowing material and ordered us to do so. The Jews must feel protected and secure, therefore we must keep our promise to our brethren by...disregarding humanity and basic rights concerning the unchosen brown people? Sounds about right.

That was exhausting. How do these rabbis manage to live like that? Note, we are not lumping all Jews into one xenophobic spoon, we're way too educated for that. And of course these rabbis (which we have just spelt rabies accidentally for the 4th time) do not represent nor reflect the moral values of other humane Jews and rabbis. Every religion has its own batch of extremist wing nuts, but these rabies DAMMIT rabbis are municipal chief rabbis, not some comforting harmless religious figures. Oh, a few rabbis that have held on to reason refused to sign rabid letter yay, stating:

"There are things that should not be done; what if there would be a similar call in Berlin against renting properties to Jews? Where is the public conscience? What will this do to Jews around the world? We must act responsibly."

and

"This ruling is a serious distortion of the Torah, and contradicts basic human morality."

and

"...despite the Biblical prohibition 'Thou shalt not give them respite,' in a democratic state you cannot discriminate between citizens. What's more, it will cause discrimination against Jews in other countries."

Racist rabbis, this is for you-ka bam!

Overall, this is khrazy. And not too surprising. Because that's the only way Israel can be a Jewish democracy. And now our brains hurt for that incompatible sentence.

Right of Return Anniversary Sucks

December 13th- The impotent UN and its 194 Resolution have marked 62 years since its conception. The Right of Return looks as close to fruition as old man Abbass looks to dying, which given his deal with the devil is a heart wrenching never. Palestinian academic Ghada Karmi speaks about Ben Gurion's hope that "The old will die and the young will forget." 7 million Palestinian refugees ain't that willing to do so.

You can also read Saeb "Shalom to you in Israel, we have failed you" Erekat's article on the subject but it reeks of unbelievable hypocrisy, given his role as Legitimizer of Israel's Occupation, aka Negotiator.

MIA For a Change

We'll be back sometime between Monday and Thursday. Until then, wish us luck!

Happy New Year!

This week marks the last one of classes before our finals start on Saturday. However, we've been enjoying a couple days off due to the Ministry administered strike on Monday and the Islamic new year (hijra) today. That's 1432 years since the prophet PBUH first made the journey from Mecca to Medina.

And since we're in such a reflective mood, here's what's been sweeping the world this week:

Something small called Wikileaks. Thousands of classified private US documentations have been made public to the entire world, which of course is doing wonders to the US foreign relations. See what they think of world leaders here, and read the brave founder of the website, Julian Assange (great name!) answers to the public's questions. The US have gone on a haters' mission to besmirch Assange's reputation therefore his credibility and/or to see him safely behind bars, and/or...assassinated. The besmirching has already begun-the ridiculous accusations of rape and other sex offences committed by him during his last visit to Sweden in August. The case has highly conspicuous political undertones, and today Assange was refused bail and will remain in custody until December 14th, where he will continue to refuse his extradition to Sweden. One of the six people ready to offer him surety was film maker Ken Loach-who earlier this year boycotted the Melbourne International Film Festival because of its sponsorship from Israel-and was willing to offer 20 thousand pounds in bail. Stay strong, be safe.

The raging wildfire that has consumed Mount Carmel in Haifa was finally put out on Sunday after leaving more than 40 people dead and thousands of evacuees. Israel's poorly unprepared forces were no match as it pleaded to countries all over the world to aid them (since the neighboring countries supposedly loathe them), but they needn't have feared as the imbecilic PA fire-fighters lost their balls and strapped on their boots to help. Because Israel would do the same for us huh. As always, we are astounded by the new levels of depravity that the PA sink to. The best Israel can do as to find who the culprit is is to arrest four teenage boys, boohoo. Anyway, we liked Gilad Atzmon's take on how the JNF's plans to "reclaim" the land back in the 1930's came and bit Israel right on the ass last week.

Several Latin American countries have recognized Palestine's right to exist. Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay (due next year)-thanks, you're about 60 years too late. Unsurprisingly, Bibi and his cronies are not too happy with those decisions, muttering something about how this will upset the balance of peace negotiations or some crap like that.

Old man Abbas has threatened to dissolve the PA if the settlement freeze doesn't get extended yada yada yada. Empty threats, silly notions, must be all those blue pills he's been munching on. And no this piece of news doesn't warrant a link.

Qatar 2022

How in God's name did His Mammoth Majesty find a suit big enough to fit him?

We never joined the facebook groups yodelling QATAR 2022 FOR WORLD CUP nor participated in general gushing about what it would be like for Qatar hosting the event. To be honest, it didn't sound all that appealing. The WEATHER people. There's a difference between sunny countries and infernos. And all that technology they're claiming to use that will cool down temperatures in the new swanky stadiums is faulty and a lie and even if it will work it will malfunction causing mass hysteria and stampedes and suffocations and death. Also, there's no alcohol allowed! What kind of football tournament host country is that! There go the English, scurrying back to their homes and air conditioned pubs. Another thing-women can't wear tube tops or hot pants! Where's the justice in this world! Apparently, this crime is punishable by fifty lashes! And they must travel with a mahram and ask his permission whenever they want to go out. Oh but this is the last straw: homosexual behavior is NOT tolerated. Forget lashes, this time it's execution! How could Fifa let Qatar host this amazingly popular tournament. Of course, oily money talks [hehe see what we did there]. Screw Fifa, Qatar, and the powers that be.

So the above wailing was the overwhelming response we saw on one too many forums and message boards. Gosh if it's that bad without having said wailing person actually visiting the country then imagine how worse it could be in reality when they grow a pair of balls and actually see Qatar in person. But then that could be refuted by one of those annoying all-knowing pompous fools who start their comments with: "I'm from New Zealand and I've lived in Qatar for three years now and that makes me qualified to talk condescendingly about the country and the systems it employs and the abhorrent social stratification and incurable sexism it portrays on a daily basis." Look, it's a tiny country, half the size of Wales (and yes Mr American neighbor-in- the-past, Wales counts as a country) with a population of 1.6 million, and very rich in natural resources that the US loves to monopolize. Indian workers get jailed by being grossly and falsely accused of attempted rape of Qatar's overly affluent insecure hornified women, immigrant workers are not represented adequately if at all and live in squalid conditions, and western foreigners get treated like kings as long as they have a license for beer and tell their partners to cover their shoulders in public. That's the kind of country Qatar is, much like other Gulf countries and the city of Dubai. Oh, here's another diatribe about the outrageous human rights violations. We hate using this line unless we're joking, but It's 'cause we're Arab, isn't it? So easy and fun to vilify. Had America won the vote, everyone would be lauding the growing gay acceptance and the hordes of willing prostitutes-never mind the obtrusive racism, dangerous ignorance, and human rights violations it commits on a daily business, both domestically and abroad. So now, in the honeyed speeches of Qataris, this is a collective Arab win. It will unite Arabs together, before another western mercenary stirs the waters to produce infighting and supplying of weapons. Qatar's motto on its bidding posters was 'Expect Amazing'. South Africa was a successful host, but that took its devastating toll on its countrymen. We're talking whole townships being uprooted to make way for the stadiums. Qatar had promised that after its hosting duties, it will distribute stadium pieces to poorer Middle Eastern countries. We'd like the whole piece of the one on water please.

Anyway, our thoughts on Qatar 2022. What the hell, that's twelve years from now and we'd be in our 30's and that notion is too petrifying to even contemplate living being that old.

We just hope the Palestine football team make it.

What if Israel qualify? A long shot, we know -haha- but that could be a diplomatic struggle right there, which will culminate in the world boycotting Qatar and cancelling the World Cup.

Eh, 12 years is a long time. We could be MOTHERS by then. Ok we're panicking blank mind blank mind blank mind!

Che Guevara is HOT

Look at him. Burning under all that sun. Hello, hi we are in December no? That beret must be all itchy. 77 degrees, all through this week. Snowpocalypse we welcome you heartily.

So the other student political group that always gets shunted to one side by Hamas and Fateh, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-PFLP, threw this little display outside the Arts building. Basically it was a bunch of pictures about the occupation, where this stand showed images of prisoner torture, that stand some images of Palestinians being routinely humiliated at Israeli checkpoints, etc.

What's the occasion? The Marxist party was formed December 11th 1967, so there are still ten days to go before commemorating it.

Our knowledge of the PFLP is that the red kuffiyeh is somehow theirs, just like the black and white kuffiyeh is Fateh's. Silly nonsense. Oh yeah, they're shock horror LEFTISTS. And shock horror COMMUNISTS. And shock horror ATHEISTS. Founder-George Habash. Most interesting person in the party-Laila Khaled. Opposes negotiations with Israel, and favors a one state solution. Considered to be a terrorist organization in more than 30 countries. Many of its leaders are old and exiled, so it draws a lot of support from university students.

We might join up purely for the reason that we get referred to as Comrade. Comrade!