From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Alison Weir | If Americans Knew | 15 September 2004 The most monumental cover-up in media history may be the one I’m about to describe. In my entire experience with American journalism, I have never found anything as extreme, sustained, and omnipresent. Three and a half years ago, when the current Palestinian uprising began, I started to look into Israel and Palestine. I had never paid much attention to this issue before and so – unlike many people – I knew I was completely uninformed about it.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Ran HaCohen | Antiwar.com | 15 June 2005 What is the first picture the term "occupation" raises in our mind? Probably some kind of extreme violence among civilians: lethal fire in the middle of town, terrified kids in pajamas watching heavily armed soldiers searching a house, a helicopter firing a missile in the midst of Gaza. All these violent scenes do happen, but they do not give an adequate picture of what the occupation really looks like.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Dominic Casciani | BBC News | 29 December 2005 Britain's top Jewish body has apologised for branding a Muslim charity a "terrorist organisation". In an out-of-court settlement, the Board of Deputies of British Jews said it should not have described Interpal in these terms. London-based Interpal, which raises millions for Palestinian causes, had launched a libel action against the Board, due in the High Court next year.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Oren Ben-Dor | Counterpunch | 15 December 2005 Today we hear a lot about legal challenges mounted against the wall in the West Bank. I would like to reflect upon a different wall, a metaphorical wall, the wall which remains ethically and legally unchallenged and whose foundations are actually, albeit unwittingly, being fortified by many of the very people who legally challenge the real, physical wall.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) David Noble | Canadian Dimension | 1 November 2005 This is not about Jews. It is not about race, ethnicity or religion. It is about power. The new Israel lobby in Canada — the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy (CIJA) — has enormous power, derived from abundant resources, corporate connections, political associations, elaborate and able organization and a cadre of dedicated activists. Since its inception several years ago, this hard-line lobby has used its power, first, to gain political hegemony and impose ideological conformity on the matter of Israel within a heretofore diverse Jewish community, and second, to influence government decisions and shape public opinion regarding Israel — ostensibly in the name of all Canadian Jewry.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Mary Ellen Davis | Montrealserai.com | November 2005 (In the heart of the West Bank, checkpoints separate Palestinian youth and instructors from their classrooms; by September the sealed wall will further disrupt access to education.) The view is impressive from the balcony of the Muhsen family's apartment in Abu Dis. Hisham, a fine arts teacher at Al Quds University, gazes over the rolling hills of Jerusalem, the campus, the valley, and the 8-metre concrete wall that meanders into the distance, cutting through land, neighbourhoods, carving East Jerusalem into pieces.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Inigo Gilmore | The Observer | 30 October 2005 It was one of the most shocking massacres to scar the Middle East, the slaying of more than 2,000 Palestinians by Christian militiamen in the wretched Lebanese refugee camps. Now a film has returned to the story of Sabra and Shatila. But for the first time it has told the story of the slaughter through the voices of the killers.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Ran HaCohen | Antiwar.com | 26 October 2005 One of the difficulties in writing regularly about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is, in my eyes, that so little ever changes. The basic constants – above all, Israel's overwhelming military, economic, and political superiority, all serving its colonialist aims – change slightly over years, if at all. The media concentrate on immediate episodes: a violent incident, a statement, a peace plan – but in hindsight, they all make very little difference.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Ramzy Baroud | Al-Ahram Weekly, Issue No. 759 | 8-14 September 2005 In the halls of infamy, Machiavelli and Sharon walk hand in hand, writes Ramzy Baroud* Many lessons can be extracted from observing Israeli dominion over the Palestinians in the past 55 years, most notably the audacious mandate of institutionalised violence. Even more alarming than the crimes themselves, legislation passed through the Knesset, and particularly during the past five years, to willfully and blatantly violate international law, while Israel remains safe in the fold of the international community, seems one of the most outrageous lessons of all.
From the www.monabaker.com archive (legacy material) Mohammad Abed | Znet Magazine | 17 August 2005 I The Meaning of Disengagement Maintaining or intensifying oppressive policies requires the manufacture of a diversion, a 'smokescreen' that buys time and accumulates political capital. One reliable way of accumulating political capital is to make changes that incur minimal political and human costs while creating an illusion of reasonableness, compromise, and goodwill towards one's enemies. Israel's plan to disengage from the Gaza Strip later this summer is a clear example of this well-worn political strategy.