Ever since a prison guard was murdered in 1972, three Black Panthers who’d been vocal about conditions at a Louisiana penitentiary were blamed, and the “Angola 3” were placed in solitary confinement – where Wallace and Woodfox remain to this day, 40 years on.

When one thinks of American torture tactics, images of men subjected to waterboarding in some faraway Middle Eastern country are more likely to spring to mind than that of an inmate quietly biding time in a prison down south. But the plight of Herman Wallace, Albert Woodfox and Robert King has been on Amnesty International’s radar for decades. Ever since a prison guard was murdered in 1972, three Black Panthers who’d been vocal about conditions at a Louisiana penitentiary were blamed, and the “Angola 3” were placed in solitary confinement – where Wallace and Woodfox remain to this day, 40 years on.

Many people still freely believe that poor people should not be ‘allowed’ to reproduce.

As far as Palestine is concerned after Obama, there is little hope and barely any change.

What just happened?

First, President Barack Obama landed in Tel Aviv—he stepped onto the tarmac, said “Shalom” and the crowd went wild. Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers saluted him and religious leaders greeted him. “It’s good to be back in the land of Israel,” he continued, in Hebrew.

This is a serious challenge to Zionism, with much to recommend it as an intellectual resource for non-Zionist diasporic Judaism and Jewishness.

Judith Butler, Parting Ways: Jewishness and the Critique of Zionism. Columbia UP, 2013

Having made her name in the early 90s with Gender Trouble, a densely-written look at the ways in which gender is culturally performed, the American cultural theorist Judith Butler has over the last decade turned her eye towards ethics and violence. 2004’s Precarious Life began her evolution with an in-depth meditation on the ethical resources of the Judaism in which she was raised, with her analysis of the Iraq war and the charge of anti-Semitism levelled at critics of the state of Israel.

“It wasn’t the City of David that changed things,” he tells me. “It was the settlers.”

As a Palestinian neighborhood, Silwan presents an interesting case.

Nestled just a few meters away from the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, Silwan is also the site of the Jewish tourist attraction of the City of David—attracting hundreds of thousands of tourists every year, from curious internationals to young Jewish tourists discovering Israel on Birthright trips and local Israeli students and soldiers.
On one side of the street is the pristine entrance to the City of David—with an exterior that mimics the Jerusalem stone of the old city and a beautifully manicured garden of pink flowers. Inside, tourists purchase tickets to see the archaeological remains of what is thought to have been the oldest settled neighborhood of ancient Jerusalem. Either by themselves or on a guided tour, they will explore the preserved artifacts from King David’s time, marvel at the underground tunnels that showcase archaeological findings, visit the “miracle pool” and then finally end their tour, once again near the Jewish Quarter of the Old City.

For outsiders, the Israeli occupation of Palestine starts at Ben Gurion Airport.

“What is the purpose of your stay in Israel?”

For outsiders, the Israeli occupation of Palestine starts at Ben Gurion Airport.

If you are Israeli, welcome home. Go through customs, get your luggage and be on your way to Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa or any number of Jewish settlements that you might call home. If you are Palestinian and live in the West Bank, you are probably not here. Even though it is only a 45 minute taxi ride to Jerusalem and from there an even shorter bus ride to Ramallah, Ben Gurion Airport is in Tel Aviv and Tel Aviv is in Israel—to be here, you need a travel permit from the Israeli authorities, which is difficult to obtain.

A new Tarantino film always arouses curiosity but a spaghetti Western about slavery demands our attention.

America 1858. “Gentleman, you had my curiosity. But now you have my attention.” Leonardo DiCaprio’s Calvin Candie, Francophile, plantation owner and slave trader addresses Django and Dr King Schultz with ridiculous Southern hospitality. To paraphrase David Thomson, a slaver’s good manners are, “About as encouraging as sweet breath in someone preparing to torture you.” A new Tarantino film always arouses curiosity but a Spaghetti Western about slavery demands our attention.

Faith is one of those standbys in times of intense trauma. It can be a community institution that allows people to come together to grieve, and it can be a destructive and abusive force that minimizes human loss for its own self-aggrandizement.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”

John 1: 1-5, New Revised Standard Version

With outsourcing, it’s a race to the bottom when it comes to working conditions, wages, and workplace protections

Last weekend, 125 garment workers died in Bangladesh in a horrific factory fire that tore through the Tazreen Fashion factory. Accounts of the conditions at the factory, and in the fire, should conjure up a certain amount of deja vu for anyone familiar with the history of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, which occurred over 100 years ago; the fire started in late evening, and moved quickly through a building with inadequate safety controls. Workers struggled to leave, finding locked doors and no emergency exits, which left them trapped inside the factory to burn to death. Meanwhile, fire crews struggled to get to the site, with limited access making it difficult to respond promptly.

Ceasefire or not, Gaza remains under an internationally supported siege.

by Anna Lekas Miller

Minutes before the ceasefire, Israeli F-16s were still dropping bombs on Gaza.