Co-operatives and Liberation, not necessarily in that order
This is a re-posting of a blog post I wrote for the Toronto media co-op site. Consider reading it on that site instead because then you can see my photos. Yesterday morning I spent a few hours at #occupywallstreet. It seems a bit silly – to drive more than two thousand kilometers over a […]
Read More Two hours at #occupywallstreetThe zone where the native lives is not complementary to the zone inhabited by settlers. The two zones are opposed, but not in the service of a higher unity. Obedient to the rules of pure Aristotelian logic, they both follow the principle of reciprocal exclusivity. No conciliation is possible, for of the two terms, one […]
Read More Franz Fanon on Colonial GeographyIn a conflict situation, political compromise is impossible. This is because conflicts situations occur when political stability breaks down – the war is the continuation of politics by other means, or Arafat’s “War is a loud voice for policy”. This mistake that governments often make is to assert a sharp distinction between small groups involved […]
Read More Kosovo, Ireland, Palestine – the complexities of recognition and lines in the sand between words and armsSo, it looks like the prisoner exchange is going to happen – the famous Israeli detainee will be released in exchange for more than a thousand Palestinian prisoners. Currently Israelis are appealing to their supreme court to try to block the deal, but the Israeli supreme court does not like intervening in military affairs, so […]
Read More On the Prisoner Exchange and the Recognition of WarWithout a contiguous East Jerusalem, there will be no two state settlement. And this has nothing to do with the hubris of the PA, or with their corruption; it has to do with something altogether more simple – the ability of the PA to maintain some kind of legitimacy in the eyes of the Palestinian […]
Read More Givat Hamatos: Israel against the two state settlementToday I attended a lecture at the Munk Centre by Mosche Hirsch, an Israeli scholar visiting from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem as part of the Halliburton exchange program. The lecture was part of the Munk centre Israeli studies program, but open to the public. Hirsch’s presentation of the ICJ’s advisory opinion emphasized the role […]
Read More Report Back: Moshe Hirsch on the ICJ’s advisory opinion on the security barrierI haven’t been able to find anything going on in Toronto in support of the Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike. This frustrates me somewhat – isn’t this suppose to be the centre of Palestinian activism in North America? Am I the only activist who follows twitter and the internet, and thinks local actions should be […]
Read More What can you do when no one around is doing anything?We live in an era of incessant debates which quarrel over the question “is religion a force for good”. What results is fame and fortune for the most prolific writers and debaters, embrassement for those who can not match the skills of their opponents in debate, defensiveness on the part of the quiet and well […]
Read More Is religion a force for good? No, there are 2 religions.There are unconfirmed reports that Marwan Barghouti and Ahmad Saadat will be released as part of this prisoner exchange. If true, this will have major implications on the Palestinian political situation.
Read More Shalit release deal – Bhargouti and Saadat to be released?In any particular political event, a skeptic can take up the position that you do not know the intention behind the event, and therefore you cannot ascribe the meaning to it that you have. For instance, if Israel decides to build on top of one of the few villages depopulated during the Nakba that remains […]
Read More Intentions are objective by the culpability of their omission
Only a Northern Song 