Ali Abunimah

Thank you for reading my blog at Posterous, a rich record of my activities, talks, reportage, media appearances and other experiences over the past two years.

For the past few weeks I have started blogging at The Electronic Intifada: http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah

Please bookmark that blog and join me there.

I will certainly keep this blog here as an archive and may at some point post personal stuff to it.

On Land Day, Budour Hassan (@Budouroddick on Twitter), visited Lifta, the village where my mother was born, just outside Jerusalem, and planted an olive tree in honor of my mother and me, as the photo shows.

My mother and her family, along with all other Liftawis were forced out of the village due to Zionist attacks during the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1947-48. The village still stands, however, Israel has never permitted its people to return solely on the racist grounds that they are not Jews. Now, Israel plans to demolish what's left of Lifta and turn it into a Jews-only luxury condominium complex, compounding the crime of 1948.

Lifta's people are now engaged in a new struggle to save the village. (See "Suspended in time, Lifta under threat," The Electronic Intifada, 25 March 2011).

Thanks to Budour, and to her friend Amal who took the photo, for this very touching gesture. I hope that all Liftawis will have the chance to return one day, and see this tree grow tall!

Ali Abunimah & David Cronin at King's College London on 24 March 2011, sponsored by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and King's College Action for Palestine.

Israel remains one of the world's most negatively viewed countries alongside Iran, North Korea and Pakistan, according to the latest annual survey of global opinion by the BBC World Service. But most significantly, according to full results of the survey:

While overall views of Israel have not moved substantially over the past year , there have been significant increases in negative views of the country among Americans (negatives rising from 31% to 41%) and Britons (from 50% to 66%).

In total 28,619 citizens in 27 countries, were interviewed face-to-face, or by telephone December 2, 2010 and February 4, 2011 by the firm GlobeScan on behalf of the BBC.

The poll does not give reasons for why this shift has taken place, but this erosion of support for Israel is no doubt due to a combination of factors: Israel's brutal massacre of Palestinians in Gaza in winter 2008-2009, the ongoing siege and the massacre aboard the Gaza Freedom Flotilla last May, as well as the general aura of extremism and intransigence conveyed by the country's actions (continued settlement in the occupied West Bank, ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem, racist laws against Palestinian citizens and so on).

The reality of Israel is can no longer be hidden by slick hasbara. The world is waking up to smell the apartheid.

Award-winning Gaza journalist and photographer Mohammed Omer will be speaking in the New York area between March 2-5. Do not miss the chance to hear him! Most recently, Mohammed has been reporting from Egypt and Gaza during the Egyptian revolution.

http://ipsnews.net/new_focus/GellhormPrize/omer.asp

Details of the events are below.

==================

March 2, 2011, 7 PM
Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, NJ
sponsored by the Princeton Middle East Society, Interfaith Network for Understanding.
Main Lounge in Mackay Campus Center, Princeton Seminary

March 3rd , 201, 7 PMTemple University , speaking together with Julia Hurley.1801 North Broad Street, Conwell Hall 103
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122-6096

March 4th, 2011, 7 PMRiverside Church, NYC
490 Riverside Drive New York, NY 10027-5788
(212) 870-6700. Subway: 116 St - Columbia University

March 5th, 2011 from 11-4PM
Stony Point CenterAllison House 142 W. Main St. Stony Point, NY. (reservation required, Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb rabbilynn@earthlink.net)This event is co-sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace Westchester,The Fellowship of Reconciliation and The Presbyterian Peace Fellowship.

Please join us and forward widely...

NOTICE

We the Palestinian People

Find you have failed to keep your oath to represent the Palestinians

PA…YOU’RE FIRED!

• Suspend and terminate the Oslo Accords
• Dissolve the Palestinian Authority – Abbas must resign
• End the Blockade of Gaza
• End all security arrangements with Israel
• Release all Palestinian political prisoners from Palestinian jails
• Unify the resistance – Build a national platform upon which to coalesce Palestinian political parties and formations in their resistance to apartheid, colonialism and ethnic cleansing

Notice of termination served on February 28, 2011 4:00-6:00 p.m.

at the General Delegation of the PLO Mission to the U.S.

1320 18th Street, NW - Washington, D.C. 

 Issued by the United States Palestinian Community Network-DC

I was asked for some resources about the Palestine Papers, which were released by Al Jazeera on 23 January. These 1600 documents, dated from 1999 to 2010, including minutes, reports, emails, maps and presentations, constitute the largest leak and the deepest insight into the failed "peace process" ever.

I was one of several experts and analysts invited by Al Jazeera to take an early look at the documents and I wrote at least eight articles about them which are linked below. I've also included some key articles by other writers and links to the document archive itself. Scholars, historians and activists should take it onwards from here because there is still much exploring to be done of these valuable documents.

ARTICLES:

"Jordan, PLO clash on refugee issue"
Ali Abunimah, Al Jazeera, 24 January 2011
http://english.aljazeera.net/palestinepapers/2011/01/2011124122125339673.html

"A dangerous shift on 1967 lines"
Ali Abunimah, Al Jazeera, 24 January 2011
http://english.aljazeera.net/palestinepapers/2011/01/201112411450358613.html

"PA lobbying blocked Shalit swap"
Ali Abunimah, Al Jazeera, 26 January 2011
http://english.aljazeera.net/palestinepapers/2011/01/2011126132936232554.html

"Israel's lawyer, revisited"
By Mark Perry and Ali Abunimah, Al Jazeera, 24 January 2011
http://english.aljazeera.net/palestinepapers/2011/01/201112412759856229.html

"The US role as Israel's enabler"
By Mark Perry and Ali Abunimah, Al Jazeera, 26 January 2011
http://english.aljazeera.net/palestinepapers/2011/01/201112614122782761.html

"US sidelined Palestinian democracy"
Ali Abunimah, Al Jazeera, 26 January 2011
http://english.aljazeera.net/palestinepapers/2011/01/2011126145337346201.html

"The Palestine Papers and the 'Gaza coup'"Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 27 January 2011http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11756.shtml

"If US can't be 'honest broker' in Middle East, get out of the way"
Ali Abunimah, Christian Science Monitor, 27 January 2010
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2011/0127/Palestine-Papers-If-US-...

ARTICLES BY OTHERS:

"PA relinquished right of return"
Amira Howeidy, Al Jazeera, 24 January 2011
http://english.aljazeera.net/palestinepapers/2011/01/2011124121923486877.html

"Dayton's mission: A reader's guide"
Mark Perry, Al Jazeera, 25 January 2011
http://english.aljazeera.net/palestinepapers/2011/01/2011125145732219555.html

'Not worth the paper they're printed on'
Mark Perry, Foreign Policy, 27 January 2011
http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/27/not_worth_the_paper_they_re...

Aljazeera English's special page on The Palestine Papers with many more articles and analsyes by other authors: http://english.aljazeera.net/palestinepapers/

All the Palestine Papers documents can be viewed at:
http://www.ajtransparency.com/en/search_english

VIDEO: The Palestine Papers panel discussion

"Shlomo Ben Ami, former Israeli Forign Minister, Daud Abdullah, director of Middle east monitor UK and Ali Abunimah, co-founder of Electronic Intifada make up the panel of analysts who discuss the Palestine Papers. This is Part three"