Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

Imperialist designs "What I think I will do," he [Roosevelt] told Morgenthau, "is this. First, I would Palestine a religious country. Then I would leave Jerusalem the way it is and have it run by the Orthodox Greek Catholic Church, the Protestants, and the Jews—have a joint committee run it...I actually would put a barbed wire around Palestine...I would provide land for the Arabs in some other part of the Middle East... Each time we move out an Arab we would bring in another Jewish family... But I don't want to bring in more than they can economically support... Naturally, if there are 90 per cent Jews, the Jews would dominate ..." Sources of the quote James MacGregor Burns, Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom (1940-1945) Jay Winik, 1944: FDR and the Year That Chnaged History

Decolonise Palestine to achieve liberation

"Visitors to ramallah these days are often struck by its boom-town appearance. There are large-scale construction projects underway, a proliferation of hotels and nightclubs, Mexican restaurants, luxury cars, cappuccino prices on par with London or Brooklyn—jarringly at odds with prevailing notions of Palestinian life under the shadow of Israeli occupation. Arafat’s hilltop compound, reduced to rubble by Israeli shelling and bulldozers in 2002, has been rebuilt at vast expense and now houses his pharaonic tomb. The city’s ‘diplomatic quarter’ of al-Masyoun boasts quasi-embassies from the  OECD  countries, as if it were the capital of a real nation-state, while international dance and theatre companies regularly perform at its state-of-the-art Culture Palace. For some, Ramallah is Palestine’s Green Zone, as isolated from the rest of the Occupied Territories as the notorious  US  headquarters in Baghdad. It represents an enclave cosmopolitanism, a ‘Bantustan sublime’. The latest met

Palestine In February and March 2016, nearly 35,000 Palestinian teachers initiated a series of strike actions across the West Bank. Classes were dismissed and students sent home as teachers marched through Ramallah’s streets and organized sit-ins in front of Ministry of Education field offices. Though short-lived, the strike had wide resonance as teachers utilized their waning social capital in ways they had not done since the second intifada, and encouraged members of other unions to organize industrial actions, particularly after the  March 9, 2016 ratification of Social Security Law 6 .  This was the largest teachers’ strike in Palestinian history, and yet it was not organized by their union, the General Union of Palestinian Teachers (GUPT). It was organized despite it. A brief history of a teachers' strike

The Night الليل by Mohammad Malas A Syrian drama with French and German subtitles The film events take place between 1936 and 1948

"New forms of industrial action need to be instituted against managerialism. For instance, in the case of teachers and lecturers, the tactic of strikes (or even of marking bans) should be abandoned, because they only hurt students and members (at the college where I used to work, one-day strikes were pretty much welcomed by management because they saved on the wage bill whilst causing negligible disruption to the college). What is needed is the strategic withdrawal of forms of labor which will only be noticed by management: all of the machineries of self-surveillance that have no effect whatsoever on the delivery of education, but which managerialism could not exist without. Instead of the gestural, spectacular politics around (noble) causes like Palestine, it’s time that teaching unions got far more immanent, and take the opportunity opened up by the crisis to begin to rid public services of business ontology. When even businesses can’t be run as businesses, why should public ser

Mohamad Malas, memory and life

Sartre est effectivement resté constant dans son philo-sionisme fondamental. Peur de passer pour antisémite, sentiment de culpabilité devant l’Holocauste, refus de s’autoriser une perception en profondeur des Palestiniens comme victimes en lutte contre l’injustice d’Israël, ou quelque autre raison   ? je ne le saurai jamais. Tout ce que je sais, c’est que, dans sa vieillesse, il n’était guère différent de ce qu’il avait été jadis : la même amère source de déception pour tout Arabe, Algérien excepté, qui admirait à juste titre ses autres positions et son œuvre.  Ma rencontre avec Jean-Paul Sartre

Dispossession and Discipline in Palestine and West Asia 

A nice interview Angela Davis on Black Lives Matter, Palestine and the Future of Radicalism

Note the loose use of the term "Islamism" in the article . "Were I 20 today, would I be attracted to Islamism or desire to become a soldier of Islamic State.? " Today’s angry young Islamists are not interested in the fight against austerity, the defence of the NHS or even in the struggle against racism. They are obsessed, rather, in showing solidarity with the peoples of Palestine and Chechnya and Syria. In an age in which anti-imperialist movements have faded and belief in alternatives to capitalism dissolved, radical  Islam  provides the illusion of being part of a global movement for change."

I  think it is a timid article. It doesn't use the term state terrorism to refer to the actions of the imperialist powers. Also, yes, "the public" is also responsible. The public could be responsible for a positive change as well as for perpetuationg atrocities and the status quo, if not through tacit support, it is through passivity, indifference, silence and acceptance.  The public votes for the same criminals in again and again. Is not that a responsibility? The public also votes for the same criminals to perpetuate crimes at home (plunder, privatisation, inequality, etc). Furthermore, the author has not cited "the roots of terrorism" in the plural. He is happy to mention only a couple of the roots. The roots of terrorism

“I unhesitatingly identify myself with the just cause and the pain of those whom the state of Israel (and cousins of mine) are afflicting to a degree that is tragically totalitarian.” —  writer and art critic John Berger A story-teller and a friend of Palestine

He concedes he did not want to spend the rest of his life in a “militaristic” and “racist” society, but Germany was a practical choice. His grandfather was a German Jew who was forced to escape from Berlin when the Nazis came to power. On that background, Dayan was able to obtain German citizenship, an irony, he points out, considering Germany’s position on the Palestinian right of return. “Germany is a big supporter of denying Palestinians their right of return. But I got my documents very quickly,” he said. A Palestine documentary stirs controversy in Germany

John Berger dies aged 90 A Moment in Ramallah (an extract) Reproductions Distort’: A Note on the Culture Industry An obituary on the Financial Times

The US and Israel's settlements A settler-colonial state is advising another settler-colonial state: It is not about what you are doing; it is about how you are doing it.

Why Kibbutzism isn't Socialism

The Crimes of Winston Churchill

As Palestinians mourn their Nakba, the UK must acknowledge its responsibility

Israel-Palestine, settlements expansion, peace talks, Obama' policies in the Middle East, social unrest in Egypt, Lebanon. The State and religion in Egypt. Views by: Amr Hamzawy senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and co-editor with Marina Ottaway of a recent book: "Getting to Pluralism Political Actors" and Jean Shaoul, professor at Manchester University and contributor to the World Socialist Website. Sunday between noon and 1pm on 104.4 FM (London) Or resonancefm.com (worldwide)