I probably should have taken advantage of my break to write a diary or two, but ya know, other things got in the way! That said, I thought I'd squeeze in a few before things start up next week, and the first is to pass on a request from a friend:
From Facebook,in Hebrew (thanks to Ofer). Pollak is serving three months in prison for riding a bicycle during a 2008 demonstration against the Gaza onslaught. Apparently he is sharing a cell with men convicted in this sensational 1983 murder case, and he sought to bring 10 books to prison and was allowed to bring only four.
Jonathan Pollak will be happy to receive letters!.
His address:
Jonathan Pollak
Hermon Prison, NS Wing
P.O Box 4011
Maghar 14930
Israel
I've got my first postcard ready, and I'll be sending more in the coming months, hopefully one a week if I can manage it. Who knows, I used to be really good at the whole writing letters thing, you know, before that internet thingy happened!
Aside from that, here's a few articles and maybe a video or two as well to sit back and think about...
Israeli authorities demolished the Bedouin village of El Arakib Sunday morning (16 January) for the ninth time in the past six months, and bulldozers from the Jewish National Fund remain on the villager's land, long after finishing the demolitions.
Police fire sponge bullets at Israeli citizens in al-Araqib
Joseph Dana, +972 Blog
The Bedouin village of Al-Araqib was destroyed for the 9th time on Sunday morning in the wasteland of Israeli democracy. Today police forces were back in Al-Araqib destroying make-shift structures which had been erected over night. Villagers resisting the takeover have been arrested and beaten, with eyewitnesses reporting use of sponge bullets. Based on villagers’ and activists’ accounts, the state is planning a major offensive to erase the village once and for all in order to make room for a forest to be planted by the Jewish National Fund (JNF).
A requiem for Israel's Labor Party
Daniel Levy, Foreign Policy
The Labor Party split serves to clarify rather than change the existing political dynamic - one of absolute impasse on the Israeli-Palestinian front. There is no prospect of meaningful change being generated internally by the Israeli side. Netanyahu is now under even less and perhaps no pressure from his coalition to do anything on the peace front. The US has so far decided not to step into this vacuum with a clear effort of its own.
Barak, the saboteur who has been destroying Israel's left wing
Gideon Levy, Haaretz
For some reason he forgot to mention Moshe Dayan, who bolted parties decades before Barak learned how to do it. Dayan jumped ship in order to make peace with Egypt, and Sharon changed parties in order to pull-out of the Gaza Strip; only President Shimon Peres and Barak left their
party for the sole purpose of protecting their jobs.
In the week after the killing of Jawaher Abu Rahma by Israeli military forces, Bil'in village has continued the struggle of resistance against the occupation.
Hundreds of Palestinians from around the West Bank participated in today's march. Today's demonstration was led by feminist and women's organizations. In addition, dozens of international activists and hundreds of Israelis participated in the demonstration.
The occupation forces closed the entrances of Bil'in since dawn this morning and prevented many international, Israeli and Palestinians from reaching the village and participating in the demonstration. However, many participants took alternative routes through the mountains and managed to get past the Israeli closure.
And last, but not least, Juan Cole has some very important observations about the important stories being ignored by our mass-media:
Does anyone doubt that if Tunisia’s president had been overthrown by an Islamic Revolution, there would have been 24/7 coverage of it in US media?
Couldn’t our "news" channels give us some background, interviews, etc., about these key developents? It is almost as if the "news" corporations are trying to keep us away from real news by giving us fluff and narrow shouting matches. It is almost as if they think it is better if the public of the world’s most powerful country were not very well informed about US policy, labor protest movements abroad, and the dynamics of politics in US allies.