Activist poet and dear friend Suheir Hammad has sent a list of links to help us try to make sense of things. Please click around, and please provide other links, from any perspective on this conflict, that you think might be helpful to others, and post them as comments.
Praying for Peace,
Eisa
famalam
light
i wish for you health love family music light dance heart poetry justice love
all year.
below links i?ve been reading and researching. i?ve received emails from folks wanting to understand gaza, hamas, this current time. i?m at a loss, deep. i keep thinking this is all my family has ever known.
i tried to find articles esp written by women. i?ve done mad research to find alternative jewish voices for peace and justice. when possible, i?ve also tried to include background info on the writers themselves. there is no order to the articles, they are all related somehow. i did try for some kind of order out of the chaos. but please feel free to make your own.
don?t get overwhelmed. because of my own weak stomach these days, and out of respect for the dead and the living, i have not posted any of the images of the murdered. but i have promised myself i will look. we must. when you can, watch the rest of the world?s media, and look at what has happened. we must.
found this while researching picasso?s painting, guernica.. the link below tells the story of how the writer arrived to gaza. originally published in italain, vittorio arrigoni is the writer
http://www.countercurrents.org/arrigoni291208.htm
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45024
ilan pappe, israeli scholar now head of the history dept at exeter, published this on electronic intifada. it offers a sense of how zionism, the ideology and the facts on the ground of it, is at the heart of all political and military action taken by the state of israel. his home site is linked below.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10100.shtml
http://ilanpappe.com/
the honorable cynthia mckinney has joined the free gaza movement. she was on the boat dignity, to deliver emergency aid to gaza within days of the first air attacks. the site offers images and eyewitness accounts from the previous 4 trips the boat made (they got in!) and this last journey, which was stopped when
the israeli navy rammed the boat over and again until water leaked into it.
marcy newman is an educator, scholar, an activist and a witness. i?m always moved by her commitment to the right of return and social justice. she has posted my own work in the past, and recently put up one of the breaking poems. her site is full of links to other writers (palestinian!) and more information than one woman should be able to warehouse. brava m.
http://bodyontheline.wordpress.com/
http://bodyontheline.wordpress.com/2008/12/23/disappearance-ii/
another person committed to truth, justice and peace is naji ali. each week his podcast, introduced by mumia abu jamal, invites different people to talk about all things related to palestine. i recorded an interview with him in december about breaking poems, i?ve posted it below the link to the home page. do check out his archive.
http://ctl.libsyn.com/
http://cdn1.libsyn.com/ctl/CTL_Podcast_December_12th.mp3?nvb=20081231113257&nva=20090101114257&t=08cc56ed64c3f788f4cd2
watching the tv, reading the papers, i don?t understand the sound of war. the din of it. below a link to a muslim tv page airing eyewitness video in gaza just after an air attack. the image is blurry and shaking. if you can?t take the scene, just listen to the noise.
http://muslimtv.magnify.net/video/ISRAEL-CARNAGE-CIVILIANS-CHILDR
jennifer loewenstein?s article last week on counter punch. an analysis of the latest incursion, within a framework of what life is like for the people in gaza.
http://www.counterpunch.org/loewenstein12292008.html
sarah roy?s piece in the london review of books was written before these attacks even began. a commendable job of explaining the state of emergency gaza has been under since the siege on it?s ports and freedom of movement. most of the people have been hungry, sick, without water or electricity for months. for years. also an article from the christian science monitor.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n01/roy_01_.html
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0102/p09s01-coop.html
info in english:
http://gazasiege.org/
http://english.aljazeera.net/
http://electronicintifada.net/
http://www.imeu.net/
info on boycotts and divestments
http://www.boycottisraeligoods.org/modules11748.php
http://www.pacbi.org/
http://israel-divest.org/
http://www.quitpalestine.org/actions/DivestCampaign-new.htm
it?s so much, i know.
i want to leave you with images of life, hope. below the sites and art of a few palestinian artists. those who create through the destruction.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Lailati-Nar/1045002754
http://www.cafepress.com/LailatiNar
http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/press-room/news/2456
http://www.stationmuseum.com/Made_in_Palestine-Emily_Jacir/jacir.html
http://virtualgallery.birzeit.edu/community_artist_of_the_month?mart_id=61084#
http://www.philistinefilms.org/
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=25392149
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=AUFO1t3Oxrg
http://www.slingshothiphop.com/
http://www.mahmouddarwish.com/english/index.htm
http://www.universeofpoetry.org/palestine_p4.shtml
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/174
http://www.nathaliehandal.com/
http://www.maysoon.com/
thanks for following this all the way to the end. it?s just the beginning. pls fwd any of the links you think would help your own friends and family. more questions than answers.
this eblast list is actually to keep you up to date on the books, film and work i do. i?ll send another email soon with info on future dates. if you?d rather not get this kind of info, please do let me know. i?d never want to abuse your email addy, or your expectation of what you signed up for. this was the best i could do right now?as always, if you know folks who?d want to be on this list, let me know and i?ll invite them.
at last. a gift. john coltrane playing my favorite things.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=I_n-gRS_wdI&feature=related
and one
s
I spend my days preparing for life, not preparing for death. They haven?t
stopped me from doing what I want everyday. I believe in life, I believe in
freedom, so my mind is not consumed with death. It?s with love, life and those
things. In many ways, on many days, only my body is here, because I am thinking
about what?s happening around the world.
Mumia Abu Jamal, Oct 25, 2007 ? The Guardian.
Comment(s)
What a powerful post, Nelly. Thanks so much for bearing witness, for the act of Remember and Tell.
Eisa