What does a “Free Palestine” Really Mean?
“Free, Free Palestine!” I used to lead the chants at protests as a teenager, but I was never entirely sure of what they meant. Of course, I knew my history. I knew that in 1948 the state of...
Category: Racism
“Herman’s House” Director Angad Singh Bhalla Discusses Solitary Confinement and the Angola 3
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...
Involuntary Sterilisation in the United States
On Tuesday morning, Twitter user auntie crissle (@crissles) posed the following question to her followers: ‘Do you think people currently on govt assistance (welfare, food stamps, section 8, TANF,...
Recovering From an Obama Hangover in Palestine
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...
A Non-Zionist Jewishness? Judith Butler’s Parting Ways
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...
Silwan: The Jerusalem Story Tourists Don’t See in the City of David
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...
Not a Security Threat: How Israel Restricts Entry to the Occupied Territories
“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...
Review: Django Unchained
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...
Blessed Are Those Who Mourn: Reflections In the Aftermath of the Connecticut School Shooting
“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...
Disposable Labor: The Tazreen Fire in Bangladesh
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...