Prisoners being held in Syria’s Adra prison have written a letter to the public. The entire letter, in English and Arabic, is available here, but here is a short excerpt:

Syrians have paid a high price for their rights and freedom and we hope to be the last group forced to pay this price to help the great Syrian people. To do this we need more than your solidarity and denunciations. We need constant and tireless efforts to compel Syrian authorities to respect human rights, international law and the treaties and agreements it has signed which demand freedom of expression and opinion. The release of political prisoners is a necessary first step, including the abolition of the State Emergency Law and other such laws like Decree 49 signed in 1980 or the Hasakah Accountability Decree of 1962. Syria must abolish the State Security Court, compensate those that have suffered, create an independent judiciary, end torture and hold perpetrators responsible. They must stop political arrests and ensure the freedom of the press, allowing political participation and the formation of parties, organizations and civil society. They must stop the looting of public funds and policies of impoverishment and domination. However, these steps are just the beginning necessary to put Syria on the path to security and move towards development, progress and the protection of national unity that now suffers from division and tension. These rifts and divisions are now impossible to conceal, despite the dancing and celebrations and empty rhetoric about a healthy society that in reality is sick and suffering. As prisoners of conscience and opinion we are apprehensive about the future of our homeland, our children and our very decision to shape Syria’s future. However, we will not be deterred by threats, intimidation, and the repression of long years of imprisonment that we face to save our country and ourselves.

In solidarity.

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Marilee Jones, the former Dean of Admissions at MIT, could not have been a more perfect embodiment of her own beliefs. Disregarding all the judgment that has been passed on her old decision to lie about her credentials, you have to admit: is there a more perfect way to illustrate the lack of importance of a college degree than to become the dean of admissions of a prestigious university? I don’t think it is correct to say that her little lie has been exposed. If anything, her lie exposed the rest.

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Just kidding. However, the Syrian President, elected in his own right in a similar landslide, did praise the institution which reflected the will of the people–especially his own–and would lead Syria to a promising future. He added that few other countries around the world had elections so safe and carefully planned that the results would be known weeks in advance.

Meanwhile, dictators, monarchs, and puppets around the region seized the opportunity to attack an easy target to gain traction amongst Western audiences. These leaders, who are widely respected for their long history of democratic activism, were similarly brought to power by landslide elections.

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Students from the Israel Action Committee at UC Berkeley today celebrated Israeli Independence Day on Sproul Plaza today by introducing the student population to one of the State’s many innovations in the past 59 years: hip-hop music. The new Israeli genre has stirred a musical renaissance world-wide, and pop culture will certainly be indebted to Israel for generations to come.

Meanwhile, in Israel, real activists celebrated the date by asking:

“How can one celebrate independence, while the celebration depends on confining millions of Palestinians?” they asked. “How can one celebrate independence, while millions of people in Israel suffer hunger and poverty while corruption is rampant?”

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From here:

Noble Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan was treated for injury in leg sustained by rubber bullet

Nobel Peace Prize Mairead Corrigan has been injured during confrontations between security forces and left-wing activists protesting the security fence route near Bilin, activists said.

Corrigan, who won the prize in 1976 for her work in encouraging a peaceful solution to the Northern Ireland dispute, was hit in the leg by a rubber bullet and was transferred to a hospital for treatment. She was also said to have inhaled large quantities of teargas.

I could not be more amused by the lack of any agency whatsoever in this excerpt, that could possibly identify who was responsible for shooting Ms Corrigan. Apparently, IDF soldiers aren’t the ones shooting those bullets. They just happen to be flying around in the air. If you’re not careful you might “sustain” one in your leg.

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lyrics

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Pundits and propagandists alike often pose this question to those who dissent against current American and Israeli policies in the Middle East. For them, the dichotomy is simply one of “I support terrorism” or “I am against terrorism.” The slightest deviation from thought deemed acceptable by those coordinating policy results in such a question, even though it is often a non sequitur. In a political atmosphere where we are coerced into making binary decisions often, it might not be so surprising that one would be expected to join one of these camps accordingly. And yet it is important to realize that this is a false choice that disables us from recognizing the particularities of these groups and thus weakens our ability to make smart analyses of them and our interactions with them.

“Are Hamas and Hizballah terrorist organizations?” in today’s political parlance is a litmus test, and a litmus test only, that one is expected to answer in a vacuum within ten seconds or less. An answer that is longer than “yes” or “no” is taken to be a sign of weakness or an indication that the one being asked is “hiding” his or her “true” beliefs. My intent is not to attempt to define “terrorism” (a task that should be completed before asking the question let alone answering it) but to demonstrate its indefinability and hopefully to show what its function might be if not to describe. It is hard to proceed, though, without making a vague reference to what “terrorism” might be so I will opt for an explanation that addresses what is probably the most reprehensible component of any of the many definitions out there: violence against civilians.

1. What is “terrorism?”
2. What does “terrorism” do?
3. Are Hamas and Hizballah terrorist organizations?

[Read more →]

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