some animals are more equal than others

birthright: a right or privilege that you are entitled to at birth; "free public education is the birthright of every American child" (Google Dictionary)




Take a look at that:
Sample Itinerary of Birthright trip

we'll deconstruct later what it means to "bake pita break and press olives the traditional way" on the first day of your free trip to a country that you have never seen before.

The restrictions on movement make the ban on fuel redundant

People who dismiss the analogy between South African Apartheid and the Israeli occupation as unsupported, or weirder still bigoted, don't understand the extent of Israeli restrictions on movement in the W. Bank or their main purpose: to make sure settlers never have to live through the horror of seeing an Arab driving or walking without an Israeli soldier next to him/her.

From B'tselem

The government recently announced that at the end of March 2008, the army began removing 61 physical obstructions – dirt piles, boulders, and blocks – it had placed inside the West Bank. The obstructions were purportedly removed following Israel’s commitment, made in March to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to reduce restrictions on Palestinian movement in the West Bank. However, B'Tselem’s investigation and investigations by other human rights organizations indicate that the government’s declaration was no more than sleight of hand.

Furthermore, at a number of places in the northern West Bank, obstructions that had previously been removed by the residents were moved back into place by army bulldozers. The army then took pictures of these obstructions before removing them the same day or the following day. Examples of this staging of removal follow.

In early February, the army placed three obstructions composed of boulders and dirt piles at the southern entrance to Bal’a, a town northeast of Tulkarm. On 5-7 March, in coordination with the army, the Bal’a municipality removed the obstructions and reopened the entrance. According to local residents, at the end of March, an Israeli bulldozer, guarded by soldiers, again placed an obstruction blocking the entrance. Residents wanting to ride along the road were delayed by the army, which filmed the vehicles waiting on either side of the physical obstruction. Immediately afterward, the bulldozer removed the obstruction, which the army also filmed. This obstruction is on the list of physical obstructions that the army contends were removed as part of its efforts to “ease” Palestinian movement.

This important press release from B'tselem on Israeli fuckery comes just after the World Bank had this to say

A report by the World Bank says the Palestinian economy will not grow this year, despite billions of dollars in international aid. The bank blamed the problem on Israeli restrictions on Palestinian movement and trade.

In December, international donors pledged more than $7 billion to beef up the Palestinian Authority and economy. The aim was to gradually cut government spending and revive the private sector, eventually making the Palestinians less dependent on foreign aid. But the World Bank warns that unless Israel changes its policies, this goal cannot be achieved.  

This from a 2003 Amnesty International report on restrictions on movement in the W. Bank and Gaza

Trips of a few kilometres, where they are possible, take hours, following lengthy detours to avoid the areas surrounding Israeli settlements and settlers’ roads (known as "bypass roads"), which connect the settlements to each other and to Israel and which are prohibited to Palestinians. With the spread of settlements and bypass roads throughout the Occupied Territories, the prohibited areas have multiplied. Where the settlements are closest to Palestinian villages, movement in and out of these villages is even more restricted than elsewhere. In parts of the Gaza Strip, areas where Palestinians live surrounded by Israeli settlements have been declared closed military zones. These are only accessible, and only at specific times, to the residents, who are also often stopped from leaving or returning to their homes for days or even weeks.

In addition to the increased time, effort and cost involved, journeys are also not without risk. To enforce closures and curfews, Israeli soldiers routinely fire live ammunition, throw tear gas or sound bombs, beat and detain people, and confiscate vehicles and documents (IDs). Ordinary activities, such as going to work or to school, taking a baby for immunization, attending a funeral or a wedding, expose women and men, young and old, to such risks. Hence, many people limit their activities outside the home to what is absolutely essential.

Closures and curfews have prevented Palestinians from reaching their places of work and from distributing their products to internal and external markets, and have caused shortages. Factories and farms have been driven out of business by the losses incurred, dramatically increased transport costs and loss of export markets. As a result, unemployment has soared to over 50% and more than half of the Palestinian population is now living below the poverty line. With the sharp decline in the standard of living in the Occupied Territories, malnutrition and other illnesses have increased. Closures and curfews have prevented Palestinian children and youths from attending classes for prolonged periods, violating their right to education and undermining their future professional prospects.

And from much later in the report:
Mostly the restrictions on the movement of Palestinians within the Occupied Territories are enforced to keep Palestinians away from Israeli settlements and from the roads used by the settlers. Checkpoints, roadblocks and blockades are mostly situated near settlements and settlers’ roads (see chapter on Israeli settlements).

I'll add the links later.

-Sam

it is secretly academic, I promise

Turks represent their country in Eindhoven

Fuel still illegal in Gaza

People have also become more reliant on basic food products, and have severely reduced consumption of expensive goods like fresh meat.
"Now these people, reliant on these basics of life -- flour, sugar, oil, chickpeas and salt -- are even unable to cook them," Campbell said.
Some 90 percent of Gaza's bakeries run on cooking gas, and most in the southern Gaza Strip have shut down due to the lack of fuel.

EI on the still growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza 

Debbie Almostar on DN!

DEBBIE ALMOSTAR: My last words are basically urging the American public to really develop a better understanding of the political agenda that is out there by people such as Daniel Pipes and rightwing groups who are going after prominent Muslim and Arab American leaders who are trying to make a difference in this country. It is so important to allow us to bridge the gaps and build bridges of understanding among people across this country and to, you know, continue in the healing process of developing a better country and a better world for all of humanity.

New Ed Herman article

On the other hand, the truly genuine case of ethnic cleansing, and one that has had global implications because of the Arab and Muslim resentment that it inspires, has been the steady Israeli expulsion of Palestinians from their lands in the Occupied Territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem in order to allow Jewish settlements. The phrase "ethnic cleansing" is almost never applied to this case in the West. This despite the fact that it has been openly acknowledged by Israeli leaders for many years that the aim of these settlements is to displace Palestinians with Jews, and that in the process they have killed many thousands, demolished over 18,000 Palestinian homes since the occupation began in 1967

Antı-Zionism and orphanages now illegal in Palestine

From IPS:

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42151

The Israel Defence Forces issued orders Feb. 25 for the closure and confiscation by Apr. 7 of orphanages, schools and other facilities owned by the Islamic Charitable Society (ICS), claiming the foundation "masquerades as a charity organisation in order to cover its activities of increasing support of the Hamas terror network."

"The foundation in Hebron not only raises money for terrorism, it also recruits new terror operatives and disseminates the creed of anti-Zionism and jihad among the population," an IDF spokesman told IPS.

The article says the orphanage keeps 240 Palestinians.

In Solidarity

nationalism is sad

and too repetitive

http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/26/readers-respond-to-grace-wang-and-chinese-nationalism/

I really need to go to sleep.

god doesn't seem to want to speak to us, and we are fine with that.

Hello Hi,

While I've been waiting for an opportunity to say something about how everyone I know and their mothers have been getting nose jobs (and I've been burning with a -super well intentioned- desire to leave a note under their pictures saying "cute nose job" or something of the sort, like "yeni burnun çok yakışmış") we have exigent circumstances here. And that is called the Turkish Deep State. You know that everything is connected in post-structuralist structure-structure.

General wikipedia stuff:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_state
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taksim_Square_massacre

More on Ergenekon in English:

http://www.bianet.org/bianet/kategori/english/104456/the-gang-could-be-the-tip-of-the-iceberg
http://www.bianet.org/english/kategori/english/106563/dink-murder-trial-the-investigation-leaves-istanbul-but-the-trial-is-still-local
http://www.bianet.org/bianet/kategori/english/104465/how-far-will-ultra-nationalist-organisation-be-unmasked

what Felice Casson (the guy that Young Civilians invited over for a panel on the deep state) had to say:
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=140315

In other news:
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=140285
same story by Haaretz:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/978432.html

Zaman is quite pro-AKP in its ideological leaning, but there is really little room left to lean these days. Plus people really need to start offering English versions of their websites. HELLO? trying to educate each other here.

Communiqué #1-A call for Martyrs

Comrades,
This is the first communiqué of the Queering the Dinosaur Nation (QDN) blog. Fear not. After generations of colonial brutality and exploitation by the postructuralist colonial structure-structure QDN is here to fight and even die for the independence of all types of dinosaurs.
Points of action
Finkelstein Interview:
http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/17229
Perry Anderson on Cyprus
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n08/ande01_.html
Putin and Medvedev (not the hockey player)
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21353
Hamas
http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/conflicts/middle_east/hamas_talk_to_them

In Solidarity,
Sam

i did it.

let's see the links.