by Alison Weir

While people are suffering in Israeli prisons and being killed in Gaza, it is sad to see time and energy expended in a campaign against Israeli author and saxaphonist Gilad Atzmon. I respect and like people on both sides of this controversy and am troubled over this distracting and destructive (but, I hope, temporary) split.

I, of course, come down on the side of open discussion, even when the  subject matter is difficult or troubling – in fact, that’s probably when it’s most needed. I believe in such old fashioned but critical concepts as the free marketplace of ideas, and I oppose censorship and would-be “thought police” telling others what they may or may not do, even when those attempting to do this have created valuable work that I admire.

Click here to continue reading “The unfortunate division over Gilad Atzmon” by Alison Weir.

Uploaded to YouTube.com by rosaingaza on Mar 12, 2012

At approximately 2:00 am on Monday 12 March 2012, an Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a house lived in by Bahjat Mohammed Idrees Hammad, near Shuhadaa Jabaliya Primary School, north of Gaza city. As a result, 31 people, including 21 children and six women, were injured.

The house was totally destroyed, three adjacent houses were severely damaged in the attack.

A Palestinian woman walks in front of a destroyed building after an Israeli air strike in Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip March 12, 2012. Israeli air strikes killed two Palestinians and wounded 25 civilians in the Gaza Strip on Monday, medical sources said, as israeli offensive continued into a fourth day. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem

Click here to read “Tolerable Savagery: Israeli Killing of Palestinians” by As’ad AbuKhalil.

Click here to read “Mowing the lawn”: On Israel’s latest massacre in Gaza and the lies behind it by Ali Abunimah.

By Activist Groups

11 March, 2012
One Democratic State Group

Besieged Gaza, Occupied Palestine–We condemn in the strongest possible terms the latest Israeli war crimes committed against our people in the Gaza Strip. We call on the international community and the Arab and Islamic worlds, to take up their responsibility to protect the Palestinian people from this heinous aggression and immediately terminate the continuing Israeli policy of collective punishment.

Over the last 48 hours, Gaza has been bombed by Apache helicopters and F16 and V58 fighter planes. 18 civlians have been killed in Gaza City, Jabalya, Rafah, and Shejaaiya. In the latest attack on Jablya, 12-year old Aamer Asaleyah, was killed as a result of an Israeli air strike which targeted a group of children on their way to school.

Gaza has been enduring Israeli policies of extermination and vandalism since June, 2006. The Palestinian people have already been under siege for more than six years as collective punishment. Israel has turned the Gaza Strip into the largest concentration camp, reminiscent of Bergen Bilsen and Auschwits, with the largest population of prisoners in the world. The continuing international conspiracy of silence towards the genocidal war taking place against the 1.3 million civilians in Gaza indicates complicity in these war crimes.

We call upon the international community to demand that the rogue State of Israel end its siege. We also would like to remind the members of the quartet that the International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law such as The Fourth Geneva Convention stipulate the protection of civilian lives and property, unless Palestinian women and children are not considered civilians!

The One Democratic State Group

University Teachers’ Association in Palestine

Uploaded by RussiaToday on Mar 7, 2012

Has Obama said anything new at the AIPAC conference? Why is it being scrutinized so much? Was he too vague? Could he be even more loyal to his audience? And does his speech send a signal to Netanyahu that he can deal with Iran on his own terms? CrossTalking with Valerie Lincy, Mya Guarnieri and Orde Kittrie on March 7.

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