Links and Rants

Jon Voight. Better known as the guy who gave his Y chromosome that begot the former sexy Angelina Jolie (for us, she lost her appeal after having/picking up so many babies). He's 71, white, male, loaded, and a northern American. His contacts may include Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh, and all the other racist Tea Party goers. He, as any other sane person, is not happy with Obama and the way the president is running the country. He, like any other sane person, wrote a letter to express his opinions and frustrations, addressing the problems that in his opinion Obama is responsible for. Fair enough, after all this is the President who has no problem in ordering the assassination of US citizens on foreign soil, denies habeas rights to suspected terrorists, and loves being an ass in general. But back to Voight's letter, of which the content is unsurprisingly insane and full of poppycock.

"You will be the first American president that lied to the Jewish people, and the American people as well, when you said that you would defend Israel, the only Democratic state in the Middle East, against all their enemies," Voight wailed. "You have done just the opposite. You have propagandized Israel, until they look like they are everyone's enemy-and it has resonated throughout the world. You are putting Israel in harm's way and you have promoted anti-Semitism throughout the world."

Hm, we remember Obama at the Cairo conference a couple years back vowing to uphold the Arab countries' interests and values while serving to improve relations with the US. So, yeah Obama is a certified liar, but that's just another term for a politician. Ok time to break it down.

"The only Democratic state in the Middle East." Bitch please. Refer back to the wonderfully insidious (ok, it's actually pretty docile) website theonlydemocracy.org . But then Voight can't have known about the fact that this Democratic state has no internationally recognized borders? And that it is an occupying force devastating the lives of millions of measly Palestinians? Or that it harbors nuclear power? And that it gives automatic citizenship based on Religion and religion only? And that it is a Jewish state whose rights are exclusive to Jews, and not say, Palestinian citizens of Israel? What a flawed concept hmm.

"You have propagandized Israel and they look like they are everyone's enemy..." How exactly? By exerting the minimal pressure regarding the on-going illegal settlement building in Jerusalem and the West Bank? Oh how can we say that, this minimal pressure is not at all standardized political hogwash, a poor pantomime for the world. This minimal pressure was the cause for US-Israeli relations to reach the lowest point ever! Perhaps, by this minimal pressure, the world got a glimpse of what Israeli claims itself to be and what it is in reality. Oh, the demonization!

Ok, we can't be bothered with the rest, but of course it is all Obama's fault for promoting Anti-Semitism when the world took to the streets protesting loudly at the Israeli attack and murder of civilians aboard a humanitarian ship 3 weeks ago. You know, sarcasm aside, it partly is his fault, after all his administration continues the American tradition of supplying Israel with 3 billion dollars in military aid. But then, Obama isn't the one that gave the order from Canada to go ahead with the flotilla attack. Nooooo that was someone called Netanyahu. Right, Jon Voight, you are a clueless deluded silly ignorant old man, and now we know the reason for Angelina estranging you. After Sean Penn's lauding of Hugo Chavez, the Conservatives sought to bring this upon us? Ha.

Gilad Shalit and Palestinian Prisoners. Shalit's parents started their march to Jerusalem on Friday commemorating their son's 4th year in captivity. They will stay at a protest tent erected a year ago and pressure the Israeli government to secure Shalit's release. This goes to show, more than anything, the incompetence and seemingly indifferent view of the Israeli government, who apparently are portraying that the release of Shalit is not in their best interests, in contrast to their repeated rhetoric and assurances. One soldier in return for the release of Palestinian women and children and 300 other detainees. No? Ok, no Gilad. This is the way it works. The torture and detainment of Palestinian children is of course illegal under international law, and when we hear that a child's testicles are being electrocuted by Israeli interrogators who sneer in the child's face "you will never be able to become a father" vitriolic rage renders us senseless. Dear oh dear, we wonder how that child's mother must feel? Aviva Shalit at least can be 'comforted' with the knowledge that her brave son was serving with the Lions and fulfilling his duty to his state, and not say, captured while loitering at some alley.

Gaza Electricity Blackout. Again and again and again, the only power plant in Gaza has ran out of fuel to operate and the tiny coastal strip is plunged into darkness once again. Gazans will now have to go 15 hours a day without electricity and depend on Israel and Egypt for some. Imagine going 15 hours a day with no TV, computers, telephones, refrigerators, hot water, etc. An EU contribution to fuel shipments to Gaza was transferred (intercepted more like) by the rotten PA, who cited budget constraints. How much more do they have to bend over backwards for Israel?

World Cup Ponderings. Why do people support the teams they do? Political motivation is the main reason according to our parents and their generation. Brazilian flags are seen everywhere, rippling from windows and cars and stores, and all because Brazil kicked out its Israeli ambassador. We won't lie, if Turkey had qualified we would have been behind them religiously. But you see...Spain does have delectable players who can actually play, and Argentina...well it's Argentina for God's sake! We were so happy USA got knocked out by Ghana, before a snapshot of a memory caused us to pause. Back in 2006, after Ghana had beaten some team, one team member celebrated by waving the Israeli flag in front of cameras. What a blow. We wish we had selective retainment dammit. Anyhoo, it seems only fair that the other colonialist power in the world should be defeated, so England, we are humbly awaiting your exit. To show our good sportsmanship, we won't delight at your red sun burned skin or your tears, because your poor judgement clouds the inevitable i.e. you should have had it coming. England winning the world cup? What next, elephants flying to the moon? Teehee!

Normalization is B.A.D

B: Brainwashing people and warping their minds.

A: Assuming that the two sides, Palestinians and Israelis are equal in this conflict.

D: Derogatory, Detrimental, Down-right Disgusting. Dung-head Dragon-breath Dog-face.

(We've been rereading Harry Potter for the 2948th time, can you tell?)

It makes us

B: Ballistic.

A: Antagonized.

D: Deleterious.

We want it to

B: Break down, bleed, burst into maggots.

A: Abrogate, asphyxiate, annihilate itself.

D: Deliquesce, decimate, disappear.

We would do this to Palestinians engaging in Normalization:

B: Bludgeon and Brown beat them with all of our Bestiality.

A: Abuse and Agonize them with Accuracy.

D: Deform and Disfigure them with Dedication.

How dare anyone that calls him/herself a Palestinian be a part of this farcical, propagandist spewing Hasbara-cranked filthy falsehood? It is Dishonest, a huge Detraction from the truth, a Subterfuge, a Distortion of reality. Dialogue with Israelis can only be made once they recognize and admit to the Palestinian subjugation, suffering, oppression, and occupation at their own hands. Forget their cutesy Biblical self-portrayal as David and we monstrous beasts who will stop at nothing to -drive-them-to-the-seas as the mighty Goliath. Once they can recognize that their state is illegal, born with the help of European Imperialism and at the expense of the native people who were subjected to despicable policies of racism early on as well as massacres and forced expulsion, culminating in over 4 million refugees currently, once they recognize the Right of Return, that there can be no such thing as an exclusively Jewish state, and that equality and justice are not just for the Ashkenazi, then we might be tempted to spill a few words. But to sit at a table, engage in mundane activities together, all at the pretense that 'yes, what we do have in common is the need for peace, and yes, I admit that the Palestinians too are to blame, goddamn suicide bombers, and the Wall needs to come down, but they are afraid for their security if it does, and that's our fault' then guess what? These ignorant imbeciles need to go impale themselves slowly, unless they're willing to see the light. The problem is, generally speaking, Palestinians are not well aware of their history. They are not taught about it in schools from an early age, as opposed to the troll-feeding that goes on in the Kibbutz's child-friendly classrooms. As a result, they (Palestinians) are unable to counter properly and within academic reason the arguments made against them. There are people in this sorry world who don't believe that "Palestinians" existed, that the term is now used after the establishment of Israel as a form of labeling for the dirty peasant Arabs who much to these people's despair, were not totally eradicated. How are you supposed to counter that when the history of your country is unbeknown to you? The Israelis, on the other hand, are well prepared at a young age and have all the lies and falsifications and propaganda and justifications and their HISTORY drilled into their heads. This is why Normalization is dangerous; it is used as a means of exploiting the emotional Palestinian mind and promoting the "symmetry" between the two sides. Eff that!

Definition from the BNC's 2007 conference: to participate in any project or initiative or activity, local or international, specifically designed for gathering (either directly or indirectly) Palestinians (and/or Arabs) and Israelis whether individuals or institutions, that does not explicitly aim to expose and resist the occupation and all forms of discrimination and oppression against the Palestinian people.

Such projects include: Seeds of Peace, OneVoice, Breaking Barriers, and The Peace Computer Centers Program, the last being developed from the Peres Peace Center. Ohh there goes our bile.

Good day. We shall now dunk our heads in an aloe vera scented ice bucket.

The Yankees Get it Right

What a display of blundering ineptitude! Thanks for the laugh NY Post :)

This Past Week

Monday: Our last day of freedom, of laziness, of unprecedented lie-ins. 17 hours is our record. We spent that day trying hard not to mope about the dawning summer classes, heart to heart talks up on the rooftop, stuffing our faces, and clinging sloth-like to whatever comfortable furniture in our way.

News that Iran is to send humanitarian aid ships with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard escorting them makes our hearts flutter a bit. Could this be if it were indeed carried out the catalyst for World War III? Neocons and Zionuts certainly need no rational reason to wage war. If the Mavi Marmara flotilla carried terrorists affiliated with Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda who were armed with butter knives then God knows what these Iranian aid ships might have on board...Hitler's spawn and nails yanked out of planks. Now naturally, we believe that any country has the right to send whatever kind of humanitarian aid it can supply to break an immoral and illegal siege that has devastated the lives of 1.5 million civilians trapped on a tiny strip of land. If the U.S and Israel want to seize this act as a pretext to decimate Iran because of the threat it imposes with its nuclear power (completely glossing over the fact that Israel has nuclear power as well) then this calls for a specialized team of Bristows and Vaugns to perform a top notch secret operation that involves tightening the screws and possibly using injections of brain intelligence delivered to the white folks that run this earth. We did not sound like conspiracy theorists there at all. So far, numerous countries have announced that they are putting together another flotilla, bigger and better than before, with 50 ships and more than 4 thousand volunteers signed up so far. Haitham Sabbah, editor of Palestine Think Tank published this somewhat controversial piece stating his firm opinion that Iran is only using this situation where international outcry at Israel's terrorist actions on the flotilla is loud and ringing for its own propagandist reasons, and that these reasons might come at the expense of the Gazan civilians. Make what you want of that.

Tuesday: 1st day of summer classes. Naturally we didn't go, preferring sleep and our mental health.

Wednesday: Enough faffing about, we rose like Shaun of the Dead and made our way back to the university, only to sit around doing nothing as 1 in 3 teachers showed up. Helen Thomas, the longest serving White House correspondent, stated that Israelis should "get the hell out of Palestine...They should go home. To Germany, Poland, America and everywhere else." Naturally, the 89 year old has been slaughtered with vitriolic self-righteous Zionist words, being called everything from an anti-Semite (big surprise) to a blundering old fool (unfair) to a xenophobic (never side with the brown people) to an infiltrator terrorist (we bet) to a sandnigger sympathizer (we know) to a Mujahida (we did not see that one). Never mind we made up the last three accusations, they have been made and we don't need credible sources to cite from. She was pressured to resign, after 50 years on the job. Freedom of speech once again, prepare to get slandered!

Thursday: Back in it again, this time some improvement seeing as 2 out of 3 teachers showed up. We got invited to the Youth Boycott Movement in the beautiful village of Jifna, but after reading more about it and discovering that the boycott movement is for the settlement products only, we tossed our heads and gave a derisive snort. When will they ever learn...there is no difference between Israeli settlement products and Israeli products..key word ISRAELI. The Karama (Dignity) Pledge is an insult, but then again it was devised by the Palestinian Authority so that explains it. See the farcical connection here or do we have to elaborate more..well why not. The rotten PA has taken it upon themselves to expel any settlement products from the areas it controls and to fine/imprison anybody selling them. It's a LAW now, something to make them feel a tad more pretentious. They devised this great big thing called the Karama Pledge which people sign their names onto a piece of paper, affirming that from now on they won't buy said sordid products. A campaign ripped off of Intajuna called Min Beit la Beit (From House to House) has 3000 volunteers going around houses and educating the inhabitants on the detrimental results of buying settlement goods. They also distribute a list of settlement products/companies and the alternatives that can be bought instead. Don't get us wrong, we're glad that some form of political group has finally undertaken the initiative of boycotting, but limiting this boycott to settlements only is so wrong. The impression people get is that boycotting settlement products is now a must but Israeli products can still be bought and consumed. Hypocrisy at its slinkiest best, and if we see one more Goddamn yellow sticker declaring YOU AND YOUR CONSCIENCE we'll do more than scream like raving lunatics in the middle of the street. We might resort to running around naked. We might.

Friday: The 11th of June!!!!!!!!!!!!!Can only mean one thing!!!!!!!!!! WORLD CUP 2010!!!!!!!!!! We've been waiting YEARS for this (specifically, 4) and we gobbled up every moment of the opening ceremony. Favorite part hands down? Archbishop Desmond Tutu getting his groove on complete with scarf and hat. We would like to pinch his cheeks for this, how adorable was that? We figured that a snapshot of this would go viral, yet our search engines have come up with nothing. We'll keeping searching, someone must have it...Our teams of choice? Argentina and Spain. It would be hilarious of Argentina won, imagine Maradona's inflatable ego soaring past the seven heavens all the while giving the finger to everyone who mocked and denounced his skills as a manager and a recovering crack addict. But we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves with such fantasies. To be honest with ourselves though...we expected a whole lot more from the opening ceremony. There were parts we didn't get (what's up with that giant beetle?) and we needed more joyous singing and dancing. And we couldn't believe that there were hundreds of empty seats in the stadium! Possibly reserved for us and our extended families.

One last thing, just to bring people's attention to this. Translated video of what went down in the Knesset when MK Hanin Zoabi tried to speak. The only democracy in the middle east harasses and name calls and accuses and slanders a fellow MK for trying to speak the truth, that Israel is a terrorist bigoted arrogant militaristic state.

Ms Zoabi, we have immense respect for you. Plus you're hot, with those good old Palestinian looks. Love.

40 Hours for THIS?

Grainy image of graduates

Being the potential felons we and the rest of the students are, we must serve 120 community service hours in order to graduate, 80 of which are school related, and 40 outside the university domain. News of how to get these hours are mostly found on Birzeit's academic portal, Ritaj. As is custom with 80 percent of the students, they usually leave all 120 hours until after they graduate, meaning their diplomas will be under a closely guarded underground vault until they stop being so lazy and complete their hours. We honestly thought we'd be the same, because really, community service does not sound fun at all. Yet we proudly announce that so far, we each have 20 hours under our belts. There are opportunities of getting a huge number of hours just doing one thing, and though these are rare, we still like to capitalize on them. One such opportunity is volunteering for the graduation. There are some issues concerning this particular volunteering. We both hold opposite views on the issue that non-hijabis are favored over hijabis. Depending on our beliefs, it's either some silly rumor that has been circulated widely, or a legitimate case based on personal experiences and testimonies garnered from a number of girls. Anyhoo, we both applied for the volunteering and only one of us got accepted. The graduation is spread out over two days: the first day for the Science, IT, Engineering, and Law majors; the second day for the Business and Arts majors. Here's what happened:

Uniforms consisted of a white shirt and black pants. How hard is it to shop in Ramallah for a simple white shirt? Well I had to tackle at least 7 stores before I found one. The volunteers are split into two major groups. There are the ushers, who must stay outside the whole time, and the outfitters, whose fingers and hands are kept busy by dressing the graduates and faculty members in their robes and pinning the hats on their heads. Ushers were divided up into small groups located around many stations. I was in the group that had to help the graduates line up in the small basketball court before they were to enter the track field. The graduation starts at 5, yet all volunteers were required to arrive at 1. These four hours in between proved to be a colossal waste of time, since I realized that my help wasn't needed, and that there was simply nothing for me to do. That was how the first day was anyway. There was no way I was allowed into any building for shade and respite. My supervisor arrives late on purpose. I went to the basketball court at 4 to "line up the graduates" and found that the supervisor, armed with a loudspeaker, had them all lined up within ten minutes. I had such such immense fun standing like a log not doing anything, smiling inanely. Before I was at another station, which was against the rules, welcoming families by pointing them in the right direction. Those hard lined middle aged women had some serious problems, gawking at us long after they had passed. Children are forbidden from the graduation, yet whole armies of them were marching on. Little girls were dressed in white dresses complete with veils. For some families, graduations are like weddings, but not in the literal sense. I guess these families misread the memo or something. Little boys were dressed in suits and ties. It was pretty amusing, to say the least. Another amusing thing was how the wind would sweep all those summer dresses and skirts up so that an abundance of fleshy/skinny/cellulite thighs were on display. A woman heavily pregnant with twins refused to enter through the normal gate. Her royal highness wanted to enter through the VIP entrance because she was scared her twins would pop out. These women I would like to shake by the hair, because they have no reason coming to graduations when they're in that kind of situation. Palestine's high birth rate was exhibited as well. I counted way too many women who held their two year old son's hand, carried their one year old daughter, and walking solidly pregnant with their third child.The graduation itself was a snoozefest, with long-winded speeches droning on and on. I got home just before the people and vehicle traffic started. After hours standing on my feet under the sun, my face resembled that of a baboon's backside. Speaking of which, why is Rafiki's butt blue?

I woke up the second day at 12:45. I purposely took my time eating breakfast, and when I finally left the house, there were no empty BZU-bound taxis. I finally took a normal taxi and the idiot driver ripped me off, but my head wasn't with me so I didn't bother harassing him. The day proceeded in much as the same way as the first day. Boredom. Listless. Useless. Hot. Annoyance. Families were pouring in since 2 pm, those weirdos. A good time to come would be between 3:45 and 4. The gates close at 4:30, so all the late arriving families are held back. Held back by whom...yes, poor unsuspecting me. Along with 50 other volunteers but this wasn't my job. Forming a human wall, we kept back a pulsating angry mob. I had women yelling at me, women telling me their life stories, women pointing to their babies as a means of exploitation so that they could get in. The truth was, there were no empty seats. So even if this mob got in, which by the way they could do so but only after the graduates walked in, they would still be standing. A woman was telling me how her feet hurt in her heels, and that she normally didn't wear heels, but today she gave up her comfortable sneakers for heels, and that these heels cause her so much pain, and because of the pain, she had to take an injection to her feet. Another woman was saying that she had to sit down because of her 2 month old baby, to which I muttered under my breath, Well you shouldn't have brought him with you then. A man suddenly erupted and wreaked havoc when he threw up his hands and screamed MY DAUGHTERS ARE GRADUATING LET ME IN YOU FOOLS! I was also violated, because a little boy kept pushing his head up my bottom. Another woman forcibly knocked my head to the side and kept it there while she aimed her camera at the graduates. I accidentally on purpose stepped back hard on her toes. Keeping the mob at bay wasn't that easy. They kept trying to surge forward, and it felt like the I had the whole human race breathing and sweating on my back. As soon as the faculty members finished walking in, a stampede followed, and I was passed around from one body to another until finally, miraculously, my survival instincts kicked in and I got away. Conclusion? 40 hours are definitely not worth this hassle. No food, no shade, not even the nerdy feeling of having accomplished something worthwhile and helpful. Eh, you live and you learn.

Flotilla Compendium

Hastily put together, with most of the sources coming from the British newspaper The Guardian's website.

First eye-witness accounts of what happened on the Mavi Marmara when the honorable IDF attacked. Please, feel free to discredit their testimonies. After all, these so-called activists are closely affiliated with Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups. So-called pacifists who hide behind a few European men, is what the Spanish Israeli ambassador growled.

A cat fight was narrowly avoided in the Knesset when Israeli Arab members denounced the attack on the flotilla. Hanin al-Zoubi, the only female Israeli Arab member, was on the flotilla. She got shouted down as she tried to speak by Zionuts, who take any criticism of Israel as an affront to their manhood. The only democracy in the Middle East tra la la laaa.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2010/jun/03/scuffles-israeli-knesset-flotilla-debate

There are youtube videos of protests all over the world. Here's one from Ireland.

Our favorite two Brits, Lowkey and Jody McIntyre, displayed their eloquence at London protests. We adore them more and more.

Henning Mankell, well known Swedish author, was also on the flotilla. Here is his account, but beware, he's also an Israel-hater. Who hates Jews. And wants to promote an Islamist regime.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/03/gaza-flotilla-attack-henning-mankell

Joe Biden, self-proclaimed Israel lover, asks, What's the big deal over the flotilla attack? What indeed..man we feel so sorry for American citizens to have such leaders. Oh wait, that includes one of us. Shit.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/richard-adams-blog/2010/jun/02/joe-biden-israel-gaza-flotilla-raid

Israelis demonstrated in front of the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv. They threw rocks and chanted that Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan is a terrorist. Stay classy folks. Classy and demented.

Good article on the low down of the flotilla attack and Israel's weird supremo-fascist propaganda.

http://therebelproject.tumblr.com/post/654406213/israeli-propaganda-and-the-freedom-flotilla-free-gaza

The Rachael Corrie ship that set sail from Ireland is due to arrive at the Gaza port at 8 am on Saturday. Supplies include construction materials and wheelchairs. It was a brave decision by the crew to continue sailing on, but Netanyahu has vowed that the ship will not reach Gaza.

2nd Annual BDS Conference

One of us braved the Saharan-like weather complete with murky sky and headed off to Nablus in the early morning of Monday. The second annual Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction conference was being held at the Hayat Hall, and since we have upcoming plans tucked up our sleeves concerning BDS at a student level, the conference was more than likely to benefit our sponging minds.

During the 45 minute taxi ride the radio brought the news that the flotilla was attacked and activists were killed dampened the mood, to say in the slightest. How many more reasons do we need in order to popularize BDS even more in this society? We won't generalize here, but it is safe to predict the majority of the reactions of normal Palestinian citizens when they are fronted with the BDS call:

"Boycott? There's a lot of time on your hands."

"What has boycott ever achieved? If we boycott Israeli product, then the occupation will end? Bah!"

"Boycott Israeli products? But they taste so much more better and are of much higher quality than Arab or local products!"

To answer the first comment, we can just simply point to the fact that the BDS call was endorsed by a coalition of over 170 Palestinian civil society groups that represent three elemental parts of the Palestinian people: Palestinians in the diaspora (refugees), Palestinians living under occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and Palestinian citizens of Israel. Ever since the formation of BDS in July 2005 it has grown stronger and elicited support and responses internationally. This brings us to the second comment. What, indeed, has boycott ever achieved? In history, it brought up the end of Apartheid South Africa. In Palestine, there are the boycotts of 1936, 1986, and the boycott that took place during the first Intifada. In 1936, a 6 month industrial strike brought the economy to a halt in order to demand self-determinism. The boycott of 1986 was initiated by Hannah Sinoira, the editor of the East Jerusalem Arabic Daily, who advocated the boycott of Israeli-made cigarettes. This eventually led to an epic widespread boycott of all Israeli products, ranging from soap to clothes to food and water.

But what has BDS achieved? In 2009 alone, galvanized by Israel's assault on Gaza, organizations and groups all over the world heeded the BDS call as a means to end Israel's impunity. The following is just a few examples that are taken from PACBI's (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel) 2009 newsletter:

• The second largest Dutch pension fund-PZFW- divested from Africa-Israel, which has been targeted internationally for its investments in companies that support settlement activity.
• The British Trades Union Congress (TUC), representing over 6 million workers, adopted a historic decision supporting a BDS motion put forth by the Fire Brigade Union (FBU).
• The Scottish Trade Union voted overwhelmingly to commit to to boycott, divestment, and sanction against Israel.
• The Boycott Motorola Campaign was launched in New York. Motorola provides equipment to the Israeli military which include bomb fuses and surveillance for the Apartheid Wall and settlements.
• The Church of England divested from Caterpilla, a company whose bulldozers and heavy plant equipment have been used to destroy Palestinian homes by the Israeli military.
• Hampshire College became the first college in the USA to divest from companies that profit from the Israeli occupation.
• The Norwegian government decided to exclude the Israeli company Elbit Sustems Ltd. from the Government Pension Fund.

That is not forget the Academic boycott as well! There's a big debate on whether or not it is 'right' to boycott Israeli academics, and we have this to say: The Israeli academic institutions fully support the Israeli security forces and policies toward the Palestinians. A report carried out by the Palestine Society at SOAS at University of London have shown how Tel Aviv University's collaboration with the Israeli military provide crucial research and information fo the purpose of furthering the oppression of the Palestinians. Cultural boycotting this year and the last has made artists think twice about performing in Israel, and we applaud the correct choices of Carlos Santana, Gill Scott-Heron, and Elvis Costello. Recently, two major supermarket chains in Italy have decided to boycott all Israeli products from suppliers Carmel-Agrexco. Forza Italia! All over the world, from Norway to Ireland to the rest of Europe and beyond, conscientious people standing in solidarity with Palestinians are pushing for BDS in their communities. This is testament to the awareness of incalculable Palestinian suffering at the hands of the Israeli occupation. However, in Palestine itself, boycott has over the last year or two pushed itself to a higher platform, but the implementation, in the general sense, remains to be seen.

Hugh Lanning

The conference itself was enlightening. Various speakers gave their verdict/speeches in two different panels, Boycotting Israel Internationally and Boycotting Israel Nationally. At the end of each panel a 15 minute question and answer series followed. Lunch was provided, and after that workshops were set up until the conference ended. Hugh Lanning, the deputy general secretary for PCS-Palestine Solidarity Campaign-was present and gave a speech in which he asserted that the British trade unions are fully behind the BDS call, and mentioned five examples of how the unions disseminate hundreds of thousands of material and copies of BDS achievements to their members. These unions, FBU, PBS, UNITE, UNISON, and GNB all campaign for a nuclear free Middle East and work to unite and defend universal jurisdiction in Britain so that war criminals like Tzipi Livni are tried when they come to the country. Haidar Ibrahim, secretary general of GUPW reiterated that even though most of the Arab countries have cosy relationships with Israel, not one of the workers unions in those countries have succumbed to normalization nor do they have any plans to do so. The workshops consisted of seven different topics: Grassroots work, Civil Society Organizations, Public Sector, Private Sector, Palestinians in the Diaspora, Students, and International BDS. The turn out was very good, with Palestinians and foreigners (and a few Israeli activists) alike. Simultaneous translation was on the offering, but one translator was doing a pretty poor job. Overall, it was a good experience. Oh, and to answer the third comment, the products that Israel distributes to the Palestinian territories wouldn't even compete with consumer markets in western countries. That's how 'good' of a quality they really are. Another important point is that this nonsense about local products being inferior is all simply a matter of culture and stigma. Palestinians for some reason or another believe that Israeli products are better when that is far from the truth. One of the speakers on the panel gave an example. He worked in a factory for some years, putting pickles in cans. The cans that were distributed to Israel were stamped with Hebrew lettering, while the same cans distributed to the Palestinians were stamped with Arabic lettering. Israel sells the products Palestinians produced back to them, that's how twisted this concept is. One day this man saw another man in the supermarket buying the Hebrew-stamped can of pickles. The man asked him, why don't you just buy the Palestinian can, it's the same thing. The other man shook his head and said, are you crazy? This is Israeli, much better than the Palestinian!

If we have this distorted image of Israeli/Palestinian products, then yeah there's an uphill mountain to climb. But a project has already been working on changing the perception of Palestinian consumers to their local products. Salut Intajuna!

Check out the BDS website, very informative, very important. We hope this will dynamize you to take action. Start small, work your way up. There's support everywhere. And that is what we are doing.

bdsmovement.net

The Never-ending Cycle of Israel's Impunity Has to Come to an End

Israel has for the countless time paraded its authentic barbaric face to the world by attacking and killing activists on board humanitarian ships carrying tons of aid that were heading for the Gaza Strip. The fact that the flotilla was in international waters (65 kilometers from the coast) only makes this deliberate senseless attack even more grave. If this is truly what Israel stands for then its path to self-destruction and world isolation is welcomed but not at the expense of the lives of innocent civilians. The worldwide repulsion and anger at this latest antic from the IDF is radiated from top government officials to ordinary citizens, the latter who have taken to the streets in their thousands to demand reparations and explanations for the unprovoked and illegal strike. However, this reaction is not unusual. It is part of a repetitive circle, of which the next stage of the cycle is well-known. The world demands justification for Israel's brazen dispensation of international law. The UN demands an explanation. Any kind of potential punitive measures will be automatically vetoed by the USA. Citizens of consciousness will continue to boil and then simmer down. Israel will continue to act with derisive unchecked exculpation. The victims of Israel will continue to suffer. All is right with the world again.

Israel's war with Lebanon, or more accurately, with the guerrilla group Hezbollah in 2006 left more than 2000 innocent people dead. The painful image of aid workers, in Qana especially, pulling out dusty child corpses, who were as limp as rag dolls, from the rubble was more than enough reason to punish Israel, after revelations were shown that the specific targets were civilians in their residences, some murdered as they acted on the IDF's orders to evacuate their homes. The usual moral uproar and political hullabaloo then commenced. The result has fashioned itself in the mocking ghost of Israeli accountability. The siege on Gaza received immense worldwide condemnation. Yet four years on, the siege is still there, ever prominent. The massacre of Gazan civilians in Israel's inhumane offensive sent millions around the world protesting loudly, vociferously, emphatically. The dead remained dead, with no justice brought to their souls whatsoever, and the Gaza Strip remained scarred with the devastating marks of a crumpled infrastructure. The UN proved once and for all to be farcical, with no actions undertaken to punish Israel for the on-going war crimes it perpetrates onto the civilian Palestinian population.

Governments who express their shock and condemn Israel's heinous attacks and policies demonstrate how effective their shock and condemnation really is a few weeks, months later by meeting with the Israeli government and resuming chummy relationships once again. People dared to hope that after Operation Cast Lead the international community would regain its senses and isolate Israel. So far, Mauritania and Venezuela are the only countries that transformed their scathing remarks into actions. Turkey, hopefully, is on the way to do so as well. The Arab countries that know no shame still maintain relations with Israel, both politically and economically. Shimon Peres, a certified war criminal, smiling and posing in Qatar. Lev Leveiv's jewelry store in Dubai never came to be thanks to the efforts of the BDS campaign. This is not to say that Arab countries should ban Jews from entering, far from it, but that they should turn its back on zionists, particularly those with a well-publicized agenda. The citizens of countries around the world, notably in Arab countries, do not reflect the thoughts and acts of their governments. Sadly, the same cannot be said for Israelis, as evidenced by the 93% approval rate they gave concerning Operation Cast Lead. No matter, they will surely come around.

The solution to this circle? How to make the circle a linear line with different points composing it, culminating in an end point that serves justice and peace? People of consciousness, rise up, and up, and up again. Promote the Palestinian call to boycott, divest from, and sanction Israel. Isolate the racist pariah state! Congregate, organize, and take assertive action. Never forget, raise awareness, campaign, disseminate this stratagem to the masses. Your conviction will be strong enough to convert others, to get others involved, to push for a wider movement. Please, save the Allah Akbar's for another protest. This is not religious warfare, this is war executed by a state that has been allowed to contravene from responsibility, liability, and accountability. Ramallah, Nablus, Bethlehem, Jenin, Hebron, and the rest of the West Bank, do not be intimidated or give in to Abbas' censorship policy. Rise up and be heard. Take control of how you would want to see your community. This time, make it count.

State Terrorism, Flotilla Under Attack

What poor, victimized Israel has done today is in the words of Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan "state terrorism." What they have done constitutes terror. They murdered civilians aboard a humanitarian ship. Those filthy criminals, assailants, murderers, barbarians. What they have done in the early hours of today is unfathomable. It is senseless. It is horrific, unnecessary, and brutal. Much like Operation Cast Lead. This time, instead of attacking, killing, and injuring a few thousand lowly Palestinians whose lives aren't worth that much anyway (pure sarcasm for the drain-brained) they've opened fire, wounded, and killed civilians and activists from so many different countries. So far, there are confirmed reports that 19 are killed, ten who are from Turkey. Yeah that's right, the quickest way to self-destruction is to jeopardize already troubled relations with the only country in the region that had an amicable relationship with it. We are beyond disgusted. We are beyond horrified. This, we did not expect. This, with the whole world watching, we did not see coming.

Under cover of the darkness before dawn, Israeli troops descended onto the main ship, Mavi Marmara, carrying 600 passengers in international waters (read it twice, international waters) and began shooting. This military action came with the full approval of Benjamin fucking Netanyahu, after speaking on Monday from Canada to top Israeli diplomats and officials. When we first heard about the news, we went numb. This is not even outlandish anymore, there are no extremities that Israel has not reached with such brazen impunity, allowing aggressive and destructive behavior to rule at the cost of innocent lives. Heard about the Israeli bombing of the USS Liberty ship back in 1967? 34 were killed.

We can't even collect our train of thoughts right now. Let's start with the Israeli version of how things went, if only to provide some harrowing comedic effect.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs played Russian Roulette with itself, packing the single most absurd preposterous bullet. When that bullet was fired, the extremity of the bull shittedness was enough to cause a lot more innocent people to brain hemorrhage. The bullet read as:

During the interception of the ships, the demonstrators on board attacked the IDF navy personnel with live fire and light weaponry including knives and clubs. Additionally one of the weapons used was grabbed from an IDF soldier. The demonstrators had clearly prepared their weapons in advance for this specific purpose.

Ok, so they use the victim card. They've been using it for more than 62 years. It never gets old! But, as Azmi Bshara derisively and correctly assessed, what kind of elite commando unit does Israel have if it allows a civilian to get close to him and intercept his weapon? We shouldn't even be doing this, humoring Israel's claims. No one with half a brain believes this nonsensical blabber above. And anyone with that half a brain is smart enough to know the deep bottomless well of Israel's stupidity. What the hell kind of people were on board this flotilla anyway? Hmm, maybe an underground selective inter-European guerrilla army. Don't be fooled by those women on the ships! They were trained at Qaddafi's special training school for his female bodyguards. And those parliamentarians? They are haters of Israel, not necessarily the crazy "Islamo-fascists" but just obsolete Roman emperors who have taken it upon themselves to single-handedly oversee the demise of Israel. This isn't far-fetched at all! No more than a heavily armed troop being attacked with knives and clubs!

The Free Gaza Movement have stated their own CORRECT* version of events. (*This is unbiased reporting from us.)

Under darkness of night, Israeli commandos dropped from a helicopter onto the Turkish passenger ship, Mavi Marmara, and began to shoot the moment their feet hit the deck. They fired directly into the crowd of civilians asleep. Streaming videos shows Israeli soldiers shooting at civilians. This attack has happened 75 miles off the coast of Israel, in direct violation of international law.

When will Israel's impunity end? When will it be held accountable to its atrocious war crimes? When will its perpetrators and leaders be tried (and hanged...or shot at by a firing squad made up of families that have lived off the injustice and occupation) as war criminals in international hearing courts? Damn you USA for your superpower-ness.

Turkey has 10,000 protesters in the capital, voicing their anger in front of the Israeli embassy, making their way to the city square and demanding justice.

400 people turned out in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where one of the ships carrying construction materials set off from.

In Edinburgh, Scotland, 200 people are starting out the protest.

London's protest has a massive turn-out!

Amman, Jordan has a 1000 people protesting.

Associated Press reports that smaller protests have broken out in Kirachi (Pakistan) and Sarajevo (Bosnia), and Thessaloníki (Greece).

Turkey, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, and Greece have all summoned their Israeli ambassadors for a meeting. France backs growing support for a thorough investigation of Israel's attack.

Citizens from all of these countries mentioned were aboard the flotilla.

Old man Abbas has politely heeded Israel's demand that no protests in Ramallah or the West Bank should be held. He has as compensation for his lack of balls issued a 3 day mourning period.

Sheik Raed Saleh of the Islamic Movement in Al-Quds and 1948 region is between life and death after sustaining an injury/getting shot at by a bullet on his head.

The worst feeling is that of desolate hopelessness, knowing that you can't do anything, while these good souls on the flotilla have suffered death and injury and terrorizing at the hands of mentally challenged state.

UPDATE: New day brings with it new clarifications, Sheik Raed Saleh is unhurt, in one piece, and detained at Be'er Sheva prison. There was a gathering of people around the Manara square in Ramallah but to us, that does not make up a protest. Protests should be of at least 1000 people, with their voices ringing loud and clear. See Cairo, Ankara, and London.

Israel is Threatened by Flotilla Humanitarian Aid

The world's complicity with the illegal siege on the Gaza Strip that has been imposed by Israel for a few years now is beyond despicable. We're going to use our favorite tactic, called Breaking It Down, to provide background information.

WHY has Israel imposed a siege on the Gaza Strip?

In 2006, the Palestinian people voted democratically to elect Hamas as their government. As a way of punishing the Palestinians for exercising their democratic rights, this led to an immediate boycott of Hamas from international (mostly Western) governments, on the basis that Hamas is a terrorist group who will not rest on their laurels until every single Jew in the occupied territories (the 1948 region is included) is driven out from the land into the sea. These governments refused to deal with such a wack ideology, and condemned Hamas as a dangerous violent faction that threatens potentially progressive peace plans. Is it not, just a teensy weensy ironic, how these same filthy hypocritical governments are dealing with and embracing whole-heartedly the deranged serpentine ideology of Zionism? Zionism is a racist doctrine that is established on the grounds of ethnically cleansing an indigenous population in order to make the land available for settlers. Israel is a colonialist settler state that upholds noble acts of Apartheid and continuously harasses Palestinians on a daily basis under its deplorable occupation. When the Palestinians have the nerve to elect democratically a political faction, a dreadful civil war between rival factions Hamas and Fateh, instigated and backed by the USA government, ensues. Hamas stage a coup, overthrow Fateh from the Gaza Strip, and fuel the justification for a boycott against it even more. Don't listen to the Israeli hasbara machine. Hamas has on more than one occasion offered a peace plan based on the 1967 borders (Jews aren't under threat anymore!) but Israel has rejected it every time. Ceasefires between Hamas and Israel are always broken by...Israel. Israel blocks off all of its border openings, Egypt does the same, and as a result, collective punishment on the 1.5 million population of the Strip is eventuated.

HOW bad is this unlawful siege?

Very bad. Gaza is dependent on Israel and Egypt for electricity, and since we can't ask anything more from generous Egypt, Israel monopolizes electricity. It destroyed the only power plant in Gaza during its last massacre last year, and has not given its permission nor approval to fully rebuild it again. As a result, those on life-support machines or any kind of machine that aids them medically had their conditions even more worsened. Medical supplies and medicine have ran out, culminating in up to 400 deaths. Food was once scarce, everyday items such as pens and papers and coffee and diapers and powdered milk were deemed too much of a threat to Israel's precious security to be allowed entry to Gaza.

WHAT has been done to counter this siege?

The siege has effected into an explosive tunnel industry, where everything is smuggled from Egypt to Gaza. Food, animals, cars, motorcycles, clothes, gas, generators- all have become available. There are deep risks that come with these tunnels, as they are liable to collapse unexpectedly and are subjected to Israel's bombing once in a while. Children have become involved in tunnels as a means for providing for their families, and they use drugs to drive off fatigue and claustrophobia. Also, the tunnel industry will be forced to abort its activities because of Egypt's plans for a border wall that will have steel blocks 30 meters underground. The supplies that come from the tunnels however are double or triple their normal price, and with close to 90 percent of the people living on less than two dollars every day, their availability is useless to those who can not afford them. Yousef Munayyer has published a piece in Ma'an News where he states, "That's all part of the plan. Israel seeks to squeeze the strip to the point of near catastrophe, bad enough to make people suffer, but just short of having to take responsibility for it." Humanitarian aid has arrived in ships and convoys from different countries and a diverse mix of citizens, yet they encounter danger once they either enter Gaza's waters (under threat of Israeli navy ships that harass/barge/block their progress) or provocation and hounding by Egyptian officials, who beat activists and subject them to ungodly exasperation, when they land in Egypt and try to make it through the Rafah border crossing. The only breath of life Gaza's population has are mostly from the tunnels, which will be redundant in the near future, and the humanity of the people who organize and put together these convoys and ships.

WHAT is going on now?

There's a flotilla of three ships, courtesy of the Free Gaza Movement, making their way to Gaza right now, carrying aid, reconstruction supplies, and a few hundred activists on board. Israel has vowed to stop the flotilla and arrest all of the activists. It tries to convey its image as one of a benevolent nature that allows aid to enter into the Strip every now and then, when the reality is that the supplies entering are of minimal amount. A couple of months ago, Israel once again played the altruistic card by allowing clothes and shoes to enter. Their compassionate humanity is just too much for us. By withdrawing from Gaza in 2005, Israel has created the illusion of a free and totally Palestinian territory. How far from the truth is that, when Israel still controls all of the borders and forbid fishermen from fishing more than 12 kilometers from the coast, while at the same time still raids Gaza and shoots at random boats and people from the sea. We won't ever forget what happened to Huda Ghaliya's family.

Break the siege on Gaza, spread the word about Israel's fascist imperialism, and never forget the 1.5 million Palestinians imprisoned on a strip of land 30 miles long, 5 miles wide.

Wavin' Flag

Now with us being huge fans of football and all, we like to keep ourselves updated with the latest news on the 2010 FIFA World Cup. We have the countdown drilled into our heads down to the last nanosecond. Knowing that every world cup has a theme song of its own we wondered what this year's was going to be. Pavarotti's vocals still send shivers down our spines. We still samba to Ricky Martin's The Cup of Life (here we go! ole ole ole! go go go! ole ole ole!). Il Divo and Toni Braxton's song does nothing for us other than making us wistful for some Italian lover abound on a faraway ship. Finally, after those long, brutal months of waiting, the unveiling of the song has finally been made public, and it is... drum roll please..Wavin' Flag by Somalian artist K'naan! Others are arguing that Shakira's song, Waka Waka is the official song, but who cares! Wavin' Flag has some serious groove to it! It makes us jump and twirl and shimmy while simultaneously swaying a lighter back and forth. Perfect song for the perfect game? Or are we just so caught up with World Cup fever? CAN NOT WAIT!!!! Yet, our eyes couldn't avoid viewing a little something called 'Wavin' Flag-k'naan ft. Nancy Ajram.' We rue the moment we gave in to our curiosity. What the freak is that thing?! Having Nancy dance worse then a theatrical monkey just caused laughter, the mean kind, to bubble forth from us! But then we were also painfully hurt by this collaboration. Why take something so pure and good and infest it with...cheap Arabic music? Yes, CHEAP! Because that's what it sounds like! The dancing grates us, the scantily clad dancers enrage us, and the whole time we were thinking: after all those plastic surgeries she STILL ends up looking like that? Ohh haters! Sad to say this pain can never be taken back, unless we keep listening to the original song 25 times over and over again.

The Fake Thing

The Real Thing

The Raping of One of Ramallah's Main Roads

This disgusting eye-sore has been thrusted upon us every day for the last month or so. And it just got worse. A few days after this pic was taken, pavements were first raped and then eradicated by metal machines. Now, one must put up with the invasion of dirt mounds and small pebbles in their shoes, and if you're a woman with no sense wearing open-toed high heels then may the nuppity force of the grey matter be with you. We miss asphalt. We yearn for the days where we could walk in a straight line instead of picking our feet over rocks and little hills and risking a twisted ankle. How long does it take to re-d0 a friggin street? We do have a simple request to make though: BIGGER SIDEWALKS. Saves the hassle of being mowed over by a car, and transforms the mutinous muttering of drivers into ecstatic ululations.

Hungarian Horntail/Ginormous 3D Pokemon

It's perfectly normal to walk into campus one day and find this gargantuan...sculpture smack in the middle of somewhere, with no explanations. The hell is that thing? And why is it there? And who put it up? We've come to the conclusion that a flock of ancient Aztec fowls disguised as modern day BZU students erected this...sculpture as a shrine for their deity, but underneath this seemingly simplistic and harmless elucidation is the darker, twisted veracity with the sinister motive of hypnotizing poor unsuspecting students to convert to their religion where they act as the brainwashed and mentally powerless brawny army so desperately needed to fight and overthrow the descendants of Cortez and his looting men, with the help of Harry Potter and his homies.

Things We Learned This Semester

This semester has by far been the most stressful one we've encountered so far. There were whole days when our heads literally wouldn't come out of books, mainly when sleeping face first between pages. Thank god for support groups. We've held on to our human nature despite the multitude of work that had rained down upon us with relentless mercy, and we've managed to come up with a tabulation of our keen observations/bequeathed knowledge:

• Indian men in very traditional villages cover their faces during sex on their wedding night. We've mentioned this before, yet it still delights us.
• A certain class had to master these elementary level rules: Raise hand quietly. Wait quietly until you get picked. Speak only after the person before you has finished speaking.
• A class that is made up solely of girls renders learning anything a lost cause.
• Our major is the wrong choice if we wanted to pick out a potential husband, therefore having a minor in a different field is an extra plus.
• There's a mythic pattern in not just every literary work, but in everything to do with words, such as the back of cereal boxes, flyers advertising a new restaurant, etc. Thanks Dr G. D!
• To expose our nerdy side, taking a quiz after every discussion class does wonders for our brains and exam grades.
• The study of speech sounds is the best tongue action fetish anyone will ever come across.
• Listening to our ipods in a boring class only makes the time go doubly slow. Yes we used the word doubly.
• Having two classes consecutively in the same room weakens are butt muscles and the strength of our eyelids.
• Having a professor with only four of his five senses is a tribute to his amazing abilities.
• There's a pseudo Superstar singing competition (American Idol for you Yanks) for those with exceptional vocals, but we have no information about this at all.
• It takes five months to learn 6 chords on a guitar. Have mercy.
• Doing community service and not getting the hours for it makes us as mad as a chili-infused raging bull.
• Holding rallies with nationalistic music blaring out from speakers while people scream empty threats and promises in their mics about the Holy Land does not liberate Falasteen.
• There are some people who lack the imperative brain cells to fully understand the danger and seriousness of opening a synagogue in the compound of Al-Aqsa mosque.
• Running a one party 'democratic' student election is the true staple for following in the footsteps of those Arab regimes.
• The fact that less than half of the student population voted illustrates the incompetence of said elections, and the overwhelming indifference of students to the rival political factions.
• Finding out about extra-curricular activities two years after their termination indicates the great communication skills of the students in charge.
• Taking 18 hours with a seminar-like class makes us feel like proper humans as opposed to frantic working animals only at the end of the semester.
• Having an exceptional teacher who finds time in her extremely busy schedule to organize and implement activities and cultural events has broadened our horizons and kick-started our journey to become people who can play an influential role in the lives of others. Mythical pattern right there!
• Reading a feminist manuscript in a class made up mostly of females makes us feel empowered, much like sitting in the front seat of the taxi does.
• Seeing a myriad of male ass cracks does nothing for our poor forever scarred minds, even if they do come in a variety of textures. Ya shabab, lo sama7to, por favor, sil vous plait, PLEASE for the love of ALLAH wear longer shirts or high-rise jeans. Or just wear a dishdasheh!

There's a brief two week respite before we embark on summer classes. Why we insist on hurting ourselves like this is something we do not like to discuss. Masochists are powerful people.

Boycott, Divest, and Sanction I

That's right bitches. We're huge on the whole BDS campaign, and we've stamped our authority where it counts. Mainly friends' houses who now know better than to serve us ANYTHING that comes from a package with the 729 bar code stamped on it. One of us even devoted the entire semester to do a research paper on boycotting Israeli products, and while it was a harrowing, exhausting, and most stressful journey the end result (paper) is pretty awesome. This is the first of a series of posts about the boycott, where later on we'll tackle other topics related to it.

Basically we're more into the consumer Israeli boycott, but that is not to take away from the importance of the academic and cultural boycott, despite what dissenters say. We can only speak for Ramallah, but boy oh boy are the supermarkets here STUFFED to the max with Israeli products. When we ask the Palestinian consumers why they unwittingly buy Israeli products, it's always the same reply: they're of much better quality than local or even Arab products. Keep in mind that tests have been performed on popular Israeli products such as the disgusting flavorless juice Tapuzina and what was discovered what that these products contain cancerous substances. Intajuna is a project that aims to improve the Palestinian consumer's perception and opinion of local products, and to make these products more popular in the market. Now we're pretty sure it's gonna be hard work for lazy fools who lack common sense or a conscience to boycott all Israeli products. We accept that not everything can be boycotted, because of lack of alternatives, but simple things that can be done away with such as chocolates, candy, chips, pasta, frozen food (yuck), etc should not pose a problem at all. This is about boycotting Apartheid people! This is about boycotting the heinous unlawful Apartheid Wall that has cut up farm lands and villages and made inaccessibility to work, school, and land a daily problem in the lives of thousands of Palestinians. This is about boycotting Israel's arbitrary policies under which Palestinians continue to suffer, such as the forced evictions of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Jerusalem and the wanton demolition of the Silwan village to make an exclusively Jewish park. This is about boycotting the racist 'Jewish only' state whose Palestinian citizens (those who live in the 1948 region) suffer atrocious discrimination and perverse justice purely because of their disagreeable race and religion. This is about boycotting the only 'democracy' in the Middle East. We've all heard the tired and regurgitated Zionist response to the boycott, preferably said in a nasal voice: You might as well do away with your computers, laptops, cell phones, and let your babies and family and friends die because of the top range medicine produced in Israeli labs, blah blah blah. Listen here Zionuts. Boycott is a movement that is meant to bring about more awareness to the continuous Israeli occupation and colonization of Palestine. It is a way to encourage resistance against a racist settler colony that has, 62 years ago forcibly created the refugee problem by expelling almost two thirds of the Palestinian population by something called ethnic cleansing that entailed massacres, and today has rendered more than four million Palestinians as refugees. It is a peaceful way to end the on-going subjugation of Palestinians, whose lives are given no more worth than the mud on the back of the occupier's shoes. It is a way to dispel the crazy, lunatic, and laughable ideologies of settlers who hail from parts of Europe but claim that this land belongs only to them because of some nonsensical liturgic command, and that non-Jewish folk are to be ousted. Boycott is not meant to be taken literally, as in the Israeli economy well suffer a dramatic collapse, rendering millions of workers jobless and upping the suicide rate of tycoons. It is more about educating people, bringing their attention to the deplorable acts of an illegal state that was founded on the crushed skulls of the indigenous population. Boycotting products is a means to bring about this kind of open dialogue and awareness and solidarity. And it sure is working. The Israeli ministers are clawing their faces over the despicable boycotting of their products. Big ups to those who do implement the boycott and call upon others to do so. Greater ups to those who actually act and form committees and groups to boycott. It's a long way coming, yet the tides are definitely changing.

From the peerless and one of a kind, Invincible:

Links and News

We've each got one more day of exams (Saturday and Sunday) and then we can kick back, shake up some pina coladas, and snooze under the ozone depleted sky.

End of Semester Wongs.

Wong: adjective, the definition of nothing. Vacuous. Pertaining to actions one would not usually commit.

Examples:> speaking in 3 different accents in one class. Old fashioned London accent (suppose old chap, we are having a vastly entertaining time!). Irish accent (Tis a grand ting to be sure). The third was a mixture of Mexican and Arab.

> Forming Conga lines down the stairs.

> When vending machines commiserate with us by refusing to let go of their babies:

It just wouldn't come down.

World Nursing Day came to BZU on Wednesday in the delightful new Nursing building. Avatars were running amok eagerly offering their services: testing eyesight, color-blindness, diabetes, blood pressure. Wanna know your height and weight? Also part of their services. Plus there was a grand tour of the labs in the building.
In the week building up to the 62nd Nakba Day, campus was filled with little makeshift tents with posters displaying brave words asserting our RIGHT that we WILL ONE day return to our homes! There were banners across the chain-link fence above the track field that listed each city and the villages that were eradicated/fully occupied by God's chosen children. For some reason, Gaza was missing. Which really dampened our mood. Come on, Haifa, Yafa, Akka, and other cities in the West Bank were included, where the hell is Gaza's banner? Oh wait, is it not included in Salam Fayyad's 2011 Palestinian state? Douches. Ramallah had a lot of banners and posters, some declaring when the protest will take place and where, others using language to make sure no one forgets what May 15 means to Palestinians. What we can't for the life of us get is why the protest was scheduled for Monday the 17th, two days after the Nakba Day? There are some things that don't make sense but then can be explained, and then there are other things that don't make sense and seem happy to stay like that.There was one that said: The Right of Return is a Political Red Line That Should Not be Crossed. You hear that, Abbas? Proximity talks schmoximity blabber.

On Monday 17 Noam Chomsky was supposed to be at Birzeit Uni, in the Kamel al-Nasser Building at 12, giving a lecture about "America and the World" and "America at Home", the former about US foreign policies, the latter a discussion about developments in the US. After five hours of waiting and interrogation at the Allenby Bridge border crossing from Jordan, Chomsky and his daughter's passports were stamped with ENTRY DENIED. Democracy Now! has an interview about what happened. Chomsky says that the reason why he was refused to enter the West Bank was purely because he was going to Birzeit Uni, and not other Israeli universities. Seriously, this inferiority complex is grating! In Chomsky's own words:

"They don't like the idea that a Palestinian university can be independent and pursue its own policies the same way any other university in the world does."

He was able to give his lecture from Amman to the university (Room 101, Women's Building) via video conference. Can you believe he is 82 years old! Looking good too...but you didn't hear that from us.

Now we come to more general news. As many of you are aware, the first Arab American Muslim Miss USA 2010 is Lebanese hot stuff Rima Fakih. We don't know why Arab-Americans are thrilled at this piece of news, like so what? Congratulations, Arab MUSLIM women have been accepted at the American face value of misogynistic objectifying! No, we're not going to start a tirade about the abominable sexist beauty pageants etc etc etc, but rather the fact that Rima is the first agent for Hizbollah in the US! You can't make up shit like this. Neocon/Moron commentator Debbie Schlussel has sounded the warning siren:

"Rima Fakih, Miss Michigan USA, who will compete in Sunday Night’s pageant broadcast on NBC, is a Dearbornistan Shi’ite Muslim who is a supporter of Hezbollah and used the pageant name at a forum promoting Islamic subjugation of women."

You really. Cannot. Make. Up. This. Kind. Of. Shit. Moronic Hater went on to say that Rima's 'devout' Muslim family (we doubt that they're practicing Muslims, bikinis are favored over burkas in their case) have, according to 'intelligence sources' at least 3 relatives who are currently top officials in Hizbollah and that 8 of her relatives were terrorists killed by Israel in past Israeli interventions into Lebanon. Our brain cells just terminated themselves. Now we have festering right wingnuts' incredibly racist juices sloshing from our eyes. Quick, a way to counter that!!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh...MUCH better...extra large pictures of beautiful people automatically regenerate our brain cells again.

Conspiracy Theories Regarding Our Pet

It's been more than a week since our last post. There's a reason for that. No, not exams, but that this blog was temporarily disabled by Google. We were what they called, a positive negative. Basically, there's a lot of spamming and porno blogs (called splogs) and when they get deleted, innocent blogs like ours unfortunately get caught up in the whole deletion process. At first, we thought that since we also couldn't access our gmail account, something more than fishy was going on. Yep, we thought the intelligence agencies were behind our asses! Oh, we're kinda paranoid. Then we came to the conclusion that it must have been Mossad who chose to victimize us, since they have a penchant for royally effing things up. We were on some kind of paranoia roll for a few days, always looking behind our shoulders, never making eye contact with anyone, learning a few Krav Maga chop suey moves. Eventually we took the daring step to figure out how we can retain this pet of ours, and things were looking extremely down after the first couple of account recovery forms were submitted. This is all a ploy to get bloggers to read and understand the Terms of Service for both Google and Blogger, as if we weren't sick of research. Our phases can by summarized as follows:

Paranoia. Heart in mouth.

Confusion. Ray of hope. Despair.

Beyond despair. Comatose. Unresponsive even to Johnny Depp pictures.

Anger. Rage. Shredding of vocal cords.

Eerie calm. Beginning of acceptance.

Disregard for everything living.

Acceptance grows. Formulation of new plans.

An early email. Shrieking joy.

Happiness. Content. Abundance of love.

The information we submitted to recover this blog was rendered insufficient and therefore we were advised to create a new blog. This is when the hard acceptance began to sink in. Then one day we received the mother of all emails, and we began doing the happy dance. Aaah it's good to be back. But we're in the midst of exams so we'll holler at yall sooooooon!