motorola’s human rights disengagement…

Have a look at this corporate accountability campaign against Motorola and see what you can do to help.  Rather than correct its policy of profiteering from Israeli military occupation and human rights abuses, Motorola is continuing to stick its head in the sand in violation of its own corporate human rights policy.

The London Palestine Film Festival

The London Palestine Film Festival opens on 18 April and runs for two weeks at the Barbican Cinema (18-24 April) and SOAS, Russell Square (25 April 25th – 1 May), with another extraordinary selection of documentary, fiction, art, and experimental work by artists from around the world. Still the largest of its kind, this year the Festival program includes more than 50 works related to the question of Palestine by artists from across the globe working in every genre of film and video production.

As the Festival falls on the 60th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) of 1948, several special sessions have been programmed to address questions of oral history and memory in cinema, as well as of refugee rights and the ongoing struggles of Israel’s Palestinian population. These include the opening session, featuring a short (45 minute) screening of oral history documentation projects from Israel and Lebanon, followed by a panel discussion on methods, challenges, and goals of oral history video work on the Palestinian Nakba.

Also reflecting this anniversary, Homeland Lost, a photographic exhibition by Alan Gignoux, will open on Wednesday 16 April in the Barbican Cinema 1 Foyer. Juxtaposing portraits of Palestinian exiles with present day images of the places they left in 1948 as a result of the war that led to the creation of Israel, Gignoux’s work provides an antidote to western media saturated with images of exiled Palestinians as either extremists or victims, portraying instead individuals trying to build a life for themselves in complex circumstances.

In all, more than 20 filmmakers, writers, academics and activists will be in attendance for a series of question and answer sessions and panel discussions on issues ranging from Water and the Conflict, via Lebanon in the Summer of 2006, through to Minorities and Britain’s Judicial System in the Wake of 7 July 2005.

Keynote speakers will include festival patron and award-winning novelist Ahdaf Soueif, leading UK-rights lawyer Garreth Pierce, and scholars Ilan Pappe, Karma Nabulsi, Sabry Hafez, Tony Allen, and Mark Zeitoun. Filmmakers will be in attendance throughout the festival and rarely-screened classic works such as Chris Marker’s seminal A Grin Without a Cat: Scenes From the Third World War, 1967-1977 will complement a program built around world and UK premiers of striking new documentary and experimental work from a growing number of Palestinian and international artists.

Full Festival program, special 2008 live highlights and ticketing are available online at www.palestinefilm.org and http://www.barbican.org.uk/film/.

a letter from my MP…

Dear Ms X,

I can assure you that I am doing my best. I went to Gaza myself in
September with the All-Party Parliamentary Palestine Group, and was
appalled by the humanitarian situation there, even before the present
blockade. Whilst it is also undoubtedly true that the indiscriminate
firing of rockets out of Gaza into residential areas constitutes a war
crime in its own right, this does not excuse the ‘collective punishment’
of almost a million people. I raise this issue whenever and wherever I
can.

If you have not seen it, I describe my trip on my website and in my
latest Annual Report.

The government is very actively involved in these issues and as you may
know, is a major funder of the Palestinian Authority. However, it is
absolutely clear that it is US pressure which is the essential
precondition to a lasting peace deal. One small heartening thing out of
recent events is that even president Bush has called for an end to the
illegal settlement programme on the West Bank.

Hope this helps

Karen Buck

—–Original Message—–
From: X
Sent: 22 January 2008 13:16
To: Karen Buck
Subject: Letter from your constituent

Tuesday 22 January 2008

Dear Karen Buck,

I am writing to you in horror at the situation in Gaza. It is
disgusting that we stand back and allow Israel to carry out such a
reign of terror. I have been to Israel and Palestine, and have
witnessed with my own eyes the restrictions on the Palestinian people.
Please make your voice be heard in sympathy of the human lives that are
being lost. The children and women who are suffering.
This goes against the geneva convention, regardless of which ’side’ you
may be on. This is inhuman and cruel and will only lead to more
violence.
I will not be able to support my government in any way if we do not put
an end to this massive abuse of human rights.
Please give me faith in our democracy.
At the very least please sign the Early Day Motions 305, 624 and 698.

Yours sincerely,

X

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of the Electronic Communications Act 2000.)

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rewriting history?

A pro-Israel pressure group is orchestrating a secret, long-term campaign to infiltrate the popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia to rewrite Palestinian history, pass off crude propaganda as fact, and take over Wikipedia administrative structures to ensure these changes go either undetected or unchallenged.

A series of emails by members and associates of the pro-Israel group CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America), provided to The Electronic Intifada (EI), indicate the group is engaged in what one activist termed a “war” on Wikipedia.

A 13 March action alert signed by Gilead Ini, a “Senior Research Analyst” at CAMERA, calls for “volunteers who can work as ‘editors’ to ensure” that Israel-related articles on Wikipedia are “free of bias and error, and include necessary facts and context.” However, subsequent communications indicate that the group not only wanted to keep the effort secret from the media, the public, and Wikipedia administrators, but that the material they intended to introduce included discredited claims that could smear Palestinians and Muslims and conceal Israel’s true history.