Saturday, Sept 2 eNd THE OCcuPaTIon

FREE EVENT
Saturday, Sept 2
8:00PM Cultural Event--Lebanese Heritage Center

This event will take place at the Lebanese Heritage Center, 4335 Maple St., Dearborn and is being generously hosted by the Congress of Arab American Organizations. Refreshments will be provided.

This showcase of talent from across the United States is meant to inspire us all in the work that we're doing and to provide a space where we can be with one another as friends. Featuring:

Kathy Engel-Poet and founding director of MADRE

Khaled Mattawa-Libyan born writer, Assistant Professor of English at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

Invincible- Detroit-based emcee Invincible scripts lyrics to communicate both personal experience and a desire to affect social change

Iron Sheik-Palestinian-American hip-hop artist

Amer Zahr-Detroit-based entrepreneur and activist will be sharing his musical talents with us by playing the oud

Debka-the night will close with dabka, a Palestinian folkloric group dance

Creative ways to oppose war

The Lowes Theater on Broadway, NY

Dissent Sticker Project

Protesters: are we gone?

activists are still working, but yes, we tend to react to events and are most visible when the US is publicizing their bombing campaigns or when we are shown pictures of dead civilians. It's problematic to only acknowledge activism when protesters are visible or engaged in public actions. That said, I have feel like activists were not putting enough pressure to end the Iraq war. We should have mobilized more intensely against Bush in more persisent and consistent actions.

The point, however, is not to just "cut school" so we can "march in a few rallies." We should be marching with some purpose and not just as passive participants who might take some time off of our busy schedule to criticize our government. We need to be engaged in serious work to end this war and to oppose the actions of the Bush administration. nayj
______________________

By ANDREW ROSENTHAL

August 31, 2006
New York Times

Editorial Observer

There is Silence in the Streets;
Where have all the Protesters Gone?

By ANDREW ROSENTHAL

It was almost painful the other night to hear Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young sing about a war whose purpose Americans never really understood, started by a president who didn’t tell the truth and then waged the war ineptly. And that was before they sang about Iraq.

The audience rose for Neil Young’s blast at George Bush, “Let’s Impeach the President,” and sang the words displayed on a huge TV screen, even the 20-something in front of us who had been text-messaging throughout the concert. That same screen also displayed thumbnail photos of slain soldiers while a counter ran up the most recent toll. It takes longer than you might think to count to 2,600.

It was a surprisingly political moment for a rock concert in 2006. But when those four men sang their protest songs four decades ago, their lyrics echoed and personified a powerful political movement sweeping America. Now they are entertainment, something to leave behind in the concert hall.

There were a few political booths outside the Theater at Madison Square Garden. But the concert-tour T-shirt salesmen were getting all the business. The most noticeable sound was the cellphones being restarted by those few who had bothered to turn them off during the concert.

This, perhaps, is the ultimate difference between the Vietnam generation and the Iraq generation: When you hear Young and Company sing of “four dead in Ohio,” their Kent State anthem, it’s hard to imagine anyone on today’s campuses willing to face armed troops. Is there anything they care about that much?

Student protesters helped drive Lyndon Johnson — in so many ways a powerful, progressive president — out of office because of his war. In 2004, George W. Bush — in so many ways a weak, regressive president — was re-elected despite his war. And the campuses were silent.

There was a brief burst of protest when America first invaded Iraq. But if there is a college movement against the war, it’s hiding pretty well. Vietnam never had the moral clarity that the 9/11 attacks provided to this generation’s war. But in Iraq that proved to be a false clarity, and a majority of Americans now say they oppose the war and no longer trust Mr. Bush’s leadership of it.

But because there is no draft — a fact that Graham Nash noted sardonically on Sunday night — no young person has to fear being conscripted into the fight. It is hard to escape the conclusion that Americans find it much easier to stay silent when there is no shared sacrifice.

This war is also largely hidden from American eyes. Unlike Vietnam, when journalists were free to witness and record combat operations, the Pentagon controls access to American troops in Iraq and the images that come with it. The Pentagon banned press coverage of the flag-draped coffins returning home from Iraq. The president refused to attend the funerals of soldiers. Even the cost of this war was tucked from the very start into “supplemental bills” that magically don’t count toward the budget deficit.

The pressure to be silent is great. This week, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld compared critics of Mr. Bush’s Iraq policy to those who appeased Adolf Hitler. And antiwar protesters are told they’re un-American, cowardly and lending aid and comfort to terrorists.

But in the 1960’s and 1970’s, antiwar protesters were told they were un-American, cowardly and lending aid and comfort to Communists. Then, the personal and national cost of war grew so great that public outrage drowned out this sort of propaganda. Now, people find protesters vaguely embarrassing and don’t want to make too much noise. Outside the concert hall, a soldier who served in Iraq and now opposes the war said he wished Neil Young could be more “subtle.”

Mr. Young’s call for impeachment is over the top, and it’s certainly not subtle. But the anti-Vietnam protesters were not exactly masters of subtlety either. Bloggers say there is an antiwar movement online. Perhaps, but it takes crowds to get America’s attention. Just look at the immigration debate.

The noisy, annoying, unsubtle leaders of the protest lent courage to the rest of us to cut school and march in a few rallies.

Raed in the Middle: NO SILENCE

See Raed Jarrar's post on the incident. Also many folks have posted references to it like Kyle from Cultural Dissident. If anyone knows where to get this t-shirts, please enter info in comments section. in the meantime, we might ask raed directly.

Thanks to Emily Video from arabartists(at)yahoogroups

To learn more about the Artists Against War t-shirt
project, go here.

http://aawnyc.org/
http://www.parkerstudio.com/AAW/notsilentstories.html

To order t-shirts, e-mail Laurie & Caroline.
wewillnotbesilent(at) gmail.com
OR GO DIRECTLY TO THIS SITE: http://thecriticalvoice.org/order/

Death of Naguib Mahfouz

President Bush is saddened by the death of such an extraordinary artist. Really? Has he read any of his books? nayj

Naguib Mahfouz: 1911-2006

"Egyptian novelist and Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz passed away today in Cairo. Although the news is not a shock--he had been seriously ill for a few weeks--it is still difficult to accept. I find myself thinking about the first time I read him, when I was twelve or thirteen. Our high school didn't have a library, so our Arabic teachers organized a "borrowing club"--each of us would bring a book at the beginning of the trimester, and the books thus collected formed the class's pool, from which we could choose what to read every other week. That's how I came to Naguib Mahfouz's Miramar, and, later, to his other novels and stories. I will have more to say about him and his significance to Arabic letters very soon. Stay tuned."posted by Laila Lalami on moorishgirl at 08:31 AM filed under literary life

Other bloggers who pay tribute to Mahfouz:
Rebecca Jane
The Thinking Leb
Tara Bradford
Shbedr
rockslinga
Foulla

The Nakba: Deir Yassin Remembered

an engaging and informative interview with Israeli Journalist Hass:
Conversations with History: Amira Hass

Make aRT and PoeTRY not wAR

A CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS!!
DEADLINE: SEPTEMBER 1, 2006

Peter Werbe on the Fifth Estate

Fifth Estate Tribe

Zapped Pyramid, Fifth Estate Logo
Created by artist Stephen Goodfellow
The Layabouts are part of this tribe

WORDS from Friends in Nablus

Dear all,

Please find attached the report we prepared about the sad incident that took place yesterday in Nablus, its not exactly a news report but rather a story. I think it will be very helpful if you sent this or any better report you find on the topic to journalists , TVs , radios newspapers or whatever but it might be even better if you added a personal intro especially those of you who previously lived in or visited Nablus; a month ago we closed the yearly international voluntary work-camp that was taking place in the exact same school mentioned in the report which is also overlooking the currently destroyed building .. unfortunately nothing remains the same in Nablus. At this moment we welcome any idea that might help... so please don't save any effort to get the story of these families published and spread ..even if it was within your small community or circle of friends.... this is how we might be able to stop such aggressions one day !! from Mira A.B. Nabulsi

Note from Nayj: we were in Nablus on Tuesday, June 7 and we returned June 11-13th. Our friends at Zajel showed us around An-Najah University, and we heard more about the wonderful youth exchange program and the work they do with others around the globe.

Not only stones… lives, dreams and memories.

In Palestine the first thing you do in the early morning is turn on local TV’s, radios, websites and newspapers…. What’s the latest news? Any invasions? Is it safe to go to work? Another ordinary day or another ordinary day?! The first common event is to have an Israeli invasion in the city, while the second is to wake up quietly and anticipate an invasion later in the afternoon or evening!

Today it was the house of a dear friend of mine that was targeted. I woke up to hear the news reported everywhere. I felt a bit different as I knew the building well. Perhaps the fact that I knew it and its people made the usual Israeli excuse together with the expected conclusion of this day, a bit harder to digest this time.

The story started on Saturday at dawn. Inhabitants of the Lubaddeh building woke up in a panic, as many others in Nablus often do, at 2:15 am. The Israeli occupation forces invaded the area and started their activities; no body knew what the target was this time, they could only hear the loudspeakers as Israeli soldiers shouted at them, ordering them to evacuate the building. In less than five minutes all the inhabitants, families, lots of kids, women and old people had come down.

When the families had all appeared, the soldiers started calling two names over the loudspeaker: “Sufyan and Ameen.. Come down, you are surrounded.” Sufyan Qandeel and Ameen Lubadeh, the two young men the occupation forces claim they want, were according to them hiding inside the residential building. The soldiers didn’t enter it to conduct a house-to-house search as was expected. Instead a huge bulldozer showed up on the spot and started to destroy one of the walls of the building. The inhabitants who were held there started yelling desperately in protest: “Criminals … stop this…Allahu Akbar…Allahu Akbar (Allah is the mightiest)“, but the bulldozers continued their work under the cover of heavy shooting.

The inhabitants were later forced into a neighboring building and over 100 people were kept hostage for hours. Another neighboring house of the Masri family was used as an interrogation facility. Those who were forced into the building for interrogation were stunned by the equipment the Israelis had accommodated within the house – computers, maps and other materials. Approximately 7 people of the Lubaddeh building were interrogated and several old men aged over 65 were also kept for questioning, as the occupation forces tried to elicit a piece of information nobody had.

Later, in the early hours of that morning a digger was also brought to the area. It was kept working for over twelve hours, and although the building proved to be empty the destruction was continued deliberately, proving only what most Palestinians already know – that the occupation needs no excuse to commit daily crimes. Deliberate brutalities take place regardless of whether there is any justification and vicious actions don’t stop there. The nearby school overlooking the building was used as a military barracks, as snipers spread all around it and started shooting randomly at citizens of the area, including some kids throwing stones at their vehicles. Apparently this is the ‘self-defense’ the Israeli army repeatedly mentions. Only the stone throwers were injured, all of them kids – none of them exceeding the age of 18. One teenager was killed and 18 others were injured, while another 4-5 people were arrested - all of them minors who were present in the area.

The unjustified operation continued into the late hours of the afternoon and just when people started to think the operation would slow down, inhabitants of all the other buildings in the vicinity were asked to evacuate over loudspeakers. Everything suggested the Israelis would blow up the whole building, as calls were made to the other two houses connected to it (also belonging to members of Lubaddeh family). They were burnt to the ground and all the belongings inside them, including furniture, electrical equipments, clothes and even canary birds, were either damaged or destroyed.

The final result of the day: the big building was demolished with no possible hope of restoration, 20 flats were smashed, several neighboring shops and buildings were partially damaged, 8 cars fully destroyed, 18 families were made homeless, and over 125 people are now waiting for material and moral compensation for the lost dreams, lost hopes and most importantly lost memories of a place where so many people were born, raised and have lived happier days among beloved ones…

The tragedy of the scene wasn’t only the sight of bulldozers demolishing the place, men holding back their tears, or women and children grieving but the sight of every single person looking for something to remember under the rubbles. Minutes after the Israeli jeeps left the place, people rushed to the site even though the vehicles were just a few meters away. They started rushing to their beloved homes while soldiers were observing from a couple of blocks away. Just as people had watched the army ruining their houses stone by stone… the soldiers now watched them return to pick up clothes, books, photo albums, toys, sports medals and trophies… memories, piece by piece.

Each inhabitant carries a different tale, but all have one common story, the story of the hard work that enabled parents to build this big family house in which to gather their sons, cousins and grandchildren. Years of work destroyed in just a few hours. It is a familiar story in this country, although for sure that doesn’t make it accepted, and until the world opens an eye, listens with at least one ear or cares with a single tear this day will remain just like any other – a normal day in Palestine…SEE PICTURES!
authored by Mira A.B. Nabulsi

George and Saddam: STAND TRIAL for War Crimes!

There is nothing radical in stating the fact that GB is responsible for the death of so many innocents in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq. The fact that he chooses to involved our country in preemptive strikes, aggressive war actions, blatent lies is just the beginning. He has shut his eyes to the civil strife and genocides in Darfur, and he has botched the relief of so many American citizens in New Orleans. His callous attitude towards people of color is self-evident. HE DOES NOT CARE. THOSE OPINIONS MEAN NOTHING TO HIM. His constituency is the rich. This administration should be put on trial for crimes against humanities! How?when? are we going to hold him accountable?

I just came from a gathering of cousins. One first cousin told me that I am wrong about Chaldeans. They are not all Republicans. He is going to send my blog to these alleged 'democrats' and prove me wrong. Not even five minutes later, we start talking to a different first cousin's husband who says Bush's war is right. Always was. Is Bush responsible for the civil war and chaos of Iraq? Absolutely not, according to this cousin-in-law. IF WE DID NOT ENGAGE IN PREEMPTIVE ACTION, THE UNITED STATES WOULD BECOME ISLAMIC IN THE NEXT 15o YEARS! huh???? we need to wage war w/ Iraq (read: Islam) because we are expecting Muslims to 'take over the world.' wow. he is not an exception, trust me. This paranoid, Islamaphobic thinking is in so many American veins. Americans are partisan, are secatarian in their thinking. In my circles, unfortunately, SECULARiSM is misunderstood. It is a dirty word. I am fighting many crazy battles.

I am not good at keeping my mouth shut, so I get 'into it' w/ folks, but what good is silence? I am not trying to be belligerent or 'opiniated' but what the hell? Why is it when someone challenges your view, s/he is opiniated?

btw, I am not a democrat. dirty word. I don't participate in electoral politics. I did cave and vote for Ralph Nader. 2x. Sorry for that. I wish I just refrained from voting altogether.

I don't like labels so LEFT of LEFT is what I prefer. and sometimes right of left. What that means is, depending on the issue, I can piss someone off.