Armed Israeli police close theatre on first night of Palestinian festival |
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Posted By dissent
6 months, 3 weeks ago
in News
Armed Israeli police last night tried to halt the opening night of a prominent Palestinian literary festival in Jerusalem when they ordered a Palestinian theatre to close.
The week-long festival, supported by the British council and Unesco, has brought several high-profile international authors – among them Henning Mankell, Michael Palin and Ahdaf Soueif – on a speaking tour of Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Shortly before the opening event was due to begin, a squad of around a dozen Israeli border police walked into the Palestinian National Theatre, in East Jerusalem, and ordered it to be closed.
Police brought a letter from the Israeli minister of internal security which said the event could not be held because it was a political activity connected to the Palestinian Authority.
Members of the audience and the eight speakers were ordered to leave, but the event was held several minutes later, on a smaller scale, in the garden of the nearby French Cultural Centre.
Israeli police were deployed on the street outside.
"We're so taken aback. It's is completely, completely independent," Egyptian novelist Soueif, who is chairing the Palestine Festival of Literature, said.
"I think it's very telling," she told the crowd at the French centre. "Our motto, which is taken from the late Edward Said, is to pit the power of culture against the culture of power."
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Submitted By:
dissent
we live in a culture of war.
let's make it a culture of peace.
"my country is the world. and my religion is to ...
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Edmar146 months, 3 weeks ago
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Not a police state, a state surrounded by jihadists and enemies. Imagine that you have the best house on the block. The most technologically advanced, with the potential to make the entire neighborhood a paradise. Now, imagine that your neighbors hate you but covet what you have built. Would you then want them to actively support the neighbors that talk the loudest against you? It's easy being an arm chair general in the safety of your living room. Why didn't you go there when the Intifida was taking place with all of the suicide bombers? You have no idea of what a police state is really like. You have never lived under one.
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AnteUp6 months, 3 weeks ago
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This is the thanks that a "good Palestinian" gets for
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being a moderate - a valued peace partner - for behaving
as a lackey for the Quartet, etc., like Mahmoud Abbas.
Just in case there are still those who think the Israelis
are crafting their policies to seek peace with their neighbors - Think again!
If these stories get any exposure at all, the world
will have no excuse to continue this charade and excuse Israel's behavior as protectionist. These actions have absolutely nothing to do with security.
They have deliberately exacerbated tensions with unnecessary cruelty toward civilians - political, militant or otherwise.
They are thumbing their nose at the world community - other
than REAL militants, who has EVER tried to stop them?
But by all means - let's send them more military aid $$$.
BTW - when you see no national media coverage here - do me
a favor and ask yourself WHY?-
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Edmar146 months, 3 weeks ago
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Israel tried to craft peace with Arafat. It failed. Israel withdrew it's soldiers and settlers from Gaza and got rockets in return. Israel has no intention of being a protectionist. It has every intention of living without hostile neighbors jutting into it's heartland. You would do no different if confronted with what they have had to live with for the past 60 years. BTW, Israel and Egypt made peace 30 years ago and it has lasted. Israel made peace with Jordan and it has lasted. Fatah has never been an active partner for real peace. It has siphoned off most of the international aid money for it's own pockets. It has been a corrupt organization. But it has never been a trusted partner in peace. You know it, I know it, and the Israelis know it.
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Sageparadox6 months, 3 weeks ago
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Police brought a letter from the Israeli minister of internal security which said the event could not be held because it was a political activity connected to the Palestinian Authority.
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Omfg. So what that it was connected to Palestinian Authority? It was a literary festival for christ sakes. -
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Natureboy6 months, 3 weeks ago
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Its time to divest from Israel. If it were not for the US dollars (particularly our tax dollars) flowing in, Israel would not be able to sustain its police state.
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So, check your mutual funds and your 401Ks. If you are invested in Israel, write the fund and ask them to divest. Write your congressmen and ask them to axe the 30 billion in aid to Israel.-
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Edmar146 months, 3 weeks ago
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First of all, you have no idea exactly how much the US government gives to Israel each year, but it isn't 30 billion. Secondly, if you are invested in Israeli companies, keep them. They are a far better investment then anything you would pick yourself. Thirdly, Israel gives to the world far more than it takes. It has supplied the world with technology that has helped many countries feed themselves. Your computer technology and cell phone technology was developed in Israel. So, if you want to divest, throw away your cell phone and computer chip. And, should you or anybody in your family need cancer treatment, thank Israel for the technology that is being used in the US today to pinpoint tumor radiation. Your life or the life of a loved one may just depend on Israel.
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jaspersneed6 months, 3 weeks ago
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"......[T]o pit the power of culture against the culture of power."
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A noble ideal indeed. It's POC pitted against.... uhhh, COP, as it were. I'm trying to estimate an approximate number, in the thousands certainly, of years such a contest has been waged. Is it 5000, maybe? 7000? And has anybody been keeping score? Is POC winning yet -- anywhere?
"Culture proposes, cop disposes.
Melancholy symbiosis." -
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FrankHummel6 months, 3 weeks ago
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The thing is, of course --- yes, you can disperse a mere gathering of intellectuals (even under international sponsorship). All you need is a squad of jack-booted thugs. But if you drive the opposition UNDERGROUND then their activities are apt to be considerably less "polite".
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So now, the Jewish leadership (of ALL people!), are NOT stupid, and must surely be aware of that basic reality. That being the case, one must then infer that perhaps such an outrage as this may really be a DELIBERATE provocation ---intended to incite actions that could "serve" as a pretext for some kind of still FURTHER repression of the Palestinians. IN other words, maybe the marvelous MIS leadership of the Jewish state WANTS to encourage violence among the Arabs because more of THAT actually SUITS THEIR OWN "PURPOSES"!-
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hyperbola6 months, 3 weeks ago
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The zionists have been doing that for 5-6 decades already. It works because of their propaganda machine in the US and because they can buy off US politicians willing to sell out the ideals of american democracy for their own personal gain.
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Saban's financial leverage is in a long tradition of 'practical politics' in the Israel lobby
People seem to be leaving out the plainest part of the Jane Harman scandal, which is actually the worst part of it: the importance of big money to the Israel lobby.
Leave aside the legal issues--whether or not Harman cut a corrupt deal, whether or not Nancy Pelosi played ball, whether or not Alberto Gonzales cut Harman a break because she was so useful to the neocon White House--the lever of influence in the matter was said to be Haim Saban, who gives tons to the Democratic Party and is an ardent Zionist. Per Jeff Stein's reporting in CQ, Saban was to politically blackmail Pelosi. withholding contributions, unless she came through on Harman's Intelligence committee status.
The alleged deal speaks to an important issue of our political culture, the long reliance of the Israel lobby on "power politics," as anti-Zionist Rabbi Elmer Berger put it long ago. A few pieces of string:
--In 2006, a year after the Harman-Saban business, Pelosi "vigorously" dismissed Jimmy Carter's book on apartheid in Palestine as a fantasy. Was she motivated by financial concerns? Similarly, when Jimmy Carter was barred from a speaking role at Obama's convention last summer in Denver--again, money concerns? How large is Jewish giving in the political process? A legendary Washington Post report put Jewish contributions at 60 percent of Democratic Party giving, and Clintonite Steve Rabinowitz told me a year or so back that if he got into the proportion of Jewish giving it would only fuel conspiracy thinking.
--When Walt and Mearsheimer's paper came out, a Harvard rabbi warned about the financial consequences to Harvard of Walt's association with the school-- "seismic," he said. Meanwhile Marty Peretz said that by losing its president Larry Summers three years back, Harvard had sacrificed several $100 million gifts. -
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AnteUp6 months, 3 weeks ago
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I agree. Almost as incomprehensible as Dick Cheney being pleased as punch
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if and when panic rules the streets of America again - that Netanyahu would endanger
the safety of some Israelis to justify another Operation Cast Whatever.
Some will die - but the percentages are in Netanyahu's favor, no?
1400 to 9 ? I don't think he's worried that it wouldn't be a "successful" operation.
I thoroughly believe these men are capable of what I have stated.
Yet, Cheney's ratings are climbing and Netanyahu was elected again -
you have to ask yourself.............What's WRONG with people??
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PsychoHosebeastComment removed: Spammer, Abusive1 Reply
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