Mazin Qumsiyeh
8 January 2010

Dear friends:

I gave a talk at the NATO Defence College in Rome to some 82 officers and civilians from many NATO countries and affiliated or partner countries (including Egypt, UAE, Jordan, etc).  An Israeli colleague who lives in London also presented his point of view and read on things and then we took questions.  We also participated in small group meetings and discussions.  I was pleased with the level of sophistication, excellent questions asked, and hospitality we received. The commanding officers and all others were very kind to us. We will not forget this visit.  While in Rome for three days we got to visit the Vatican including seeing the magnificent Sistine Chapel paintings.  We got to tour the museums and also visit the Roman Forum and the Palatine.  There, I was interested to see for the first time Titus arch which was built after the death of this emperor. On one of its panels it celebrates its victory over the Jewish rebels in Jerusalem.

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FreeGaza.org
7 January 2010

As Israeli F16s attack northern, Western, Southern and Middle Gaza tonight, doing extensive damage, the Palestinians of Gaza are, once again, terrorized by American bombs and Israeli genocidal policies. Viva Palestina is still there, and the Gaza Freedom March has just finished.

For those of us, Palestinian, International and Israeli who are continuously outraged, we can still make our voices heard. Watch this video and see what happened around the world on December 31, 2009 as Supporters marched on December 31, 2009 and January 1, 2010 to demand of their governments, “Break the siege on Gaza, let them live in peace and dignity”

By Gideon Levy, Ha’aretz, 7 January 2010

There is a pedagogic poem in Tel Aviv; through the curtain of indifference and darkness, a ray of light. In an educational system that provides only grades and sterile surroundings, the encouragement of thinking is prohibited. It’s a place where teachers are mute and educators blind in the stupefying brainwash of propaganda, evasion and ignorance in the curricula. But a courageous voice has been heard: The principal of Aleph High School of the Arts, Ram Cohen, called his 11th-graders to a meeting last week and gave them a real civics lesson, a real education in values. Instead of the usual blah-blah, cheap Zionism and cheaper democracy, cliches within hollow and specious cliches, Cohen spoke the truth to his students.

Cohen told his students about the occupation. He told them that you can’t brutally crush values the way Israel has been doing for 42 years and say we are educating for democracy. He asked them whether they would be willing to live under an occupation. He told them he does not justify terror but understands what leads to attacks. He called on educators to tell students that the occupation is cursed and called on students to serve in an army that protects security, not an army busy with the occupation.

“Talk to each other, talk to your parents, go out and demonstrate,” he told them, doing what any educator should do. But in the Israel of 2010, nationalist and militarist, Cohen’s remarks raised a storm. MKs called for his dismissal, he was summoned for “clarifications” in the Education Ministry and the Tel Aviv municipality. He was not allowed to give interviews, which is outrageous in and of itself.

[Read the article]