--------------------
Divisive Test Of Character
--------------------
By VANESSA DE LA TORRE
Courant Staff Writer
February 2, 2007

Shirley Q. Liquor is a drag queen known across the nation for performing as a poor black Southern woman with 19 children, a welfare boozer who speaks in Ebonics. Her shows are usually packed to capacity, with audience members laughing in hysterics, many of them white. "How you durrin?" she greets them.

But without the housedress, the bright wig, dark cosmetics and orange lipstick, Shirley Q. is a white minister from Kentucky named Chuck Knipp.

Later this month, Knipp is scheduled to perform his blackface routine at the Chez Est in Hartford, drawing condemnation from some patrons who call the performance a modern-day minstrel show that has no place at the friendly neighborhood gay bar, especially during Black History Month.

The controversy threatens to splinter the gay community and raise debate over censorship and sensitivity. People who counted each other as allies in the fight against discrimination are suddenly accusing each other of being ignorant. Or, as Shirley Q. says in her show, "ignunt."

Knipp says influences on his character come from African American women he knew while growing up in the South, such as his family's housekeeper, who had 16 kids. He has denied accusations over the years that the skit is racist and misogynist, saying the stereotypes will push discussion among blacks, whites, gay and straight people, and that blackface drag "can actually help heal racism."

Kamora Herrington, mentoring program director for True Colors Inc., a statewide agency that gives support for young gays and lesbians, said she felt recent controversies in the area were examples of unconscious racism. But the Shirley Q. Liquor show, she said, is "overkill."

"We got a white woman running through Bushnell Park saying she got raped by a black man," Herrington said. "We got law students at UConn thinking it's OK to throw a `Bullets and Bubbly' party. And we have a bar in Hartford that thinks it's OK to bring blackface."
Herrington and other activists recently pleaded with Chez management to cancel the Feb. 23 event. They reproached blackface as a repulsive symbol of American racism since the 1800s, when white performers smeared burnt cork on their faces to imitate blacks in comedy routines.

Bryan Couzens, the club's manager for the past decade and the man who booked Shirley Q., was not persuaded.

"We're not looking to bring back the racist days of the Jim Crow era," Couzens said this week. "If they told me he's convicted of a felony for hate crimes, or is a Klan member, I'd cancel it in a second."

But Knipp's dissenters came at him with emotional reasons, Couzens said. While they may be offended and can choose to stay home, many patrons will think Shirley Q. is funny. On any given night, the Chez cannot cater to everyone's tastes, he said. In an informal poll on the club's MySpace.com site, Shirley Q. Liquor was one of the most highly requested performers.

Still, Couzens acknowledged that no other act has provoked as much anger and hurt in the 32-year history of the Chez - a home for people whom society has historically oppressed, with a bar that donates to progressive causes.

Regina Dyton, head of the city's commission on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues, said that as a proud black lesbian in her 50s, she had long felt that the Chez belonged to her. Now, Dyton asked, must she choose a side, between being black and being gay?

"I feel so betrayed, so betrayed," Dyton said Wednesday.

Last week, a protest coalition successfully pressured club promoters in West Hollywood, Calif., to cancel a Shirley Q. Liquor performance set for this month. Two years ago, an emceeing gig planned in New York during Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend was also axed. Protesters shut down other events scheduled at New York and Boston nightclubs in 2002.

Couzens said it would compromise his integrity to censor a performer. "You give me a solid reason to cancel the show, and don't say, `Because a white man is doing blackface,'" he said. "Give me a solid reason."

"It may not be the best decision to bring that to his bar," said Kevin Brookman, president of the Connecticut Pride Center. "But it's his choice. ... It's not an act I would bring in. No matter how you perceive that, performing in blackface is something that should have gone out of style in the '50s.

"But again," Brookman said, "that's their decision."

In written messages to The Courant, Knipp describes himself as a longtime friend of African Americans, whom he counts as fans of Shirley Q.

When Knipp first started his blackface routine years ago, he says it was in black gay bars in Texas and Louisiana, where the drag queens "first painted me and taught me how to do African American lady makeup and found my routines hilarious."

"This is someone who has notoriety in the gay scene, in the gay circuit, and he's a funny, plus-sized drag queen," Couzens said.

As an ordained Quaker minister, Knipp said, he performed ceremonies for African American lesbian couples. In 2000, Knipp ran for Congress as a Libertarian candidate in Texas. He is now based in Lexington, Ky.

Shirley Q. has become a franchise, with a syndicated radio skit and an online store that sells comedy CDs with titles like "Queen of Dixie" and "Totally Ignunt." Some baby bibs read, "Who Is My Daddy?" and "INMATE." The website states: "Money from sales of my ignunce will help me feed my 19 chirrens."

Activist Jasmyne Cannick, Knipp's archenemy, led the West Hollywood show protest and is petitioning people on her Internet blog to boycott the Hartford event. Cannick, who is African American and a lesbian, says the skit is racist and that white gays are being hypocritical in supporting Shirley Q. Liquor or staying silent, when they recently rebuked black TV actor Isaiah Washington for using a homophobic slur on the "Grey's Anatomy" set.

"You're talking about a group of people who, like other groups of people, try to compare their struggle to that of African Americans," Cannick said. "I just think if you want to call out one injustice, you need to call out what's happening in your own backyard."

Herrington, of True Colors, said she did not want to make the Shirley Q. controversy a black vs. gay feud.

But Wednesday night, Herrington held a community action meeting to strategize. "We did it the nice way: sending our letters, expressing our concerns, and we went in to meet with [Couzens]," Herrington told several supporters gathered in her living room, the majority of them white.

"There's no part of me that can allow a minstrel show to happen in Hartford," Herrington said.

On Feb. 23, the night of the Shirley Q. performance, True Colors is holding a free counter-event with nationally known lesbian comedian Karen Williams, tentatively called "Laugh Him Out of Town." Until then, they plan to distribute leaflets, issue press releases and threaten to boycott the Chez Est unless the show is canceled.

In retrospect, Couzens said, the one thing he would do differently is not book Shirley Q. during Black History Month. "Being a 32-year-old white guy, Black History Month didn't pop into my head," Couzens said.

Meanwhile, on Shirley Q.'s MySpace page, the adulation continues. Knipp says some of his fans are racist, but that he hopes they leave his performance "at least scratching their heads."

Contact Vanessa de la Torre at vdelatorre@courant.com.
--------------------
This article originally appeared at:
http://cw20.trb.com/news/hc-shirleyq0202.artfeb02,0,7736579.story?coll=wtxx-news-3
Visit Connecticut's CW20 online at http://cw20.com

America and Isreal are punshing the palestinaiens for there vote for Hamas. (31) Thirty one Palestinaen  Civilianes where  killed  this month  due to the  Isreali  attacks and  bombings on villigaes and towns. The only thing done to provoke these attacks was the demoncatice process of voteing. 

The US goverment also is cuting the riduclisslley small amouts of finacle support through the UN to Palseitne. All because the Palestinan people voted for Hamas. A group that was democraticly put in power. Just because thier politics are un- favorable to the US and Isreal. More lies are being spun through the corparte media and infeltraters.

The United States of America is, vetoing all charges and proclamtions in the U.N against the inhumane treatment of the Palestinanes and the displacement of millions and  murder of thousands.

below is a report from the Frontlines of Occupied Palestine.

1 Balata refugee camp is being invaded- Two youth killed and over
thirty injured
2 The Joint Struggle Against the Occupation- The Conference
3.Post Publishes Three Letters in Defense of Georgetown Conference
4.Update on Mohammad Mansour's Day in Court
5.First Anti Wall protest in Beit Sira
6.Resistance Collecting Momentum
7.Parents Continue Daughter's Cause
8.The Anger at Racist Cartoons Continues
__________________

1.Balata refugee camp is being invaded- Two youth killed and over
thirty injured
February 19th, 2006
For immediate Release
Balata Refugee camp was invaded early this morning. A resident of the
camp, Muhammad Al Qaisy, leader of Al Aqsa was arrested the house he
was found in belonging to the Hamami family was blown up from the
inside and it's garden bulldozed.
The military set up a military base in the UNRWA girl school bringing
in tents, generators and water tanks and have taken over twenty houses
locking the families in a room of their own homes.
Youth that confronted the soldiers with stones were shot at with live
ammunition. Ibrahim Issa Hader and Muhamad Ahmad Natur were killed.
Over thirty have been injured among them, Salih Abu Aifa and Mahmnud
Raje, were shot in the legs and then detained from red Crescent
ambulance before being evacuated to hospital Another youth who was shot
in the shoulder was detained by the military for half an hour before
being evacuated to the hospital by the UPMRC (united Palestinians
Medical Relief Committees). The UPMRC are have set up a
field clinic to treat the wounded on the site.
For more information:
Clara : 0599756222
Mohammed : 0546218759 or 0522223374

______________________________

2. The Joint Struggle Against the Occupation- The Conference
An international conference in Bil'n:
The conference will be held over two days at the public school in the
village of Bil'n. It will consist of a few opening presentations
followed by workshops focusing on the non-violent struggles taking
place in different locations. The workshops are the main part of the
conference and are where activists will share their experiences and
new ideas will be discussed. The focus of the discussion will be
practical and the workshops aim to lead to a joint non-violent action
being initiated by the participants in the conference and carried out a
few weeks later.
Day 1: Monday February 20th
9:00-10:30, Opening session: Overview
1. Welcome message.
2.The history of the Palestinian popular struggle: Kadura Faris.
3. The history of Joint Israeli Palestinian struggle: Uri Avnery.
4. Israel's Apartheid wall: Dr. Mustafa Bargouti.
5. The political situation after the Palestinian elections
6.World media and the popular struggle in
Palestine:Kasem El Hatib.
10:30-11:00 Break.
11:00-12:15 Presentations session: Representatives of struggles at
different areas of Palestine and the rest of the world will give short
5-10 minute introductions to the struggle in their area. The areas that
will present are North, Central and South Palestine as well as the
world outside Palestine. The introductions will list the
different struggle locations in their regions (see the complete list of
workshops) and participants will choose the workshop they wish to join
based on the presentations.
1.North Palestine: Nawaf Asuf.
2.Bil'in: Muhamad El Hatib.
3.Central Palestine (Ramalla region).
4.Southern Palestine: Hani Abu Haikal.
5 Outside Palestine: Neta Golan.
12:15-12:45 Break and choosing workshops: Participants can choose one
of the workshops from the list and go to the room in the school where
it will be held. The workshop facilitators will organize translation as
needed to fit the people who want to participate in the workshops.
12:45-14:00 First workshop session: The pros and cons of joint
struggle. What constitutes a joint struggle, what advantages it has and
what disadvantage? What problems are encountered in the course of joint
struggle and how they can be dealt with? The list of workshops is:
Salfit, Hares, Tulkarem, Nablus, Mas'ha, Qalqilya, Budrus, Bil'in,
Beit Likya, Jerusalem, Hebron, Inside Israel, The world outside
Palestine and Israel.
14:00-15:30 Lunch break
15:30-16:45 Second Workshop session: The practice of non violent
resistance in the struggles and brainstorming for new ideas and
methods, a discussion of tactics which have been tried and how
successful they were.
16:45-17:15 Break.
17:15-18:30 Conclusions session: Representatives from each workshop
will present the results of the discussions to the whole assembly.
18:30-19:30 Dinner.
19:30-21:00 A presentation of a movie by Bil'in photographer Imad
Burnat.
Day 2 Tues February 21st
9:00-11:00
1.Presentation of findings Beir Zeit university researchers about
weapons used against demonstrators in Bil'in.
2.A discussion by the whole assembly of a joint action to be taken a
few weeks after the conference at different locations by the
participants.
3.Conclusion statement.
11:00-14:00
The conference will be concluded by the planting of olive trees, the
establishment of a new playground and a football tournament.
For more information: Muhammad Khatib 054-5851893 Abdulla Abu Rahme
0547-258210
After the conference the occupation will reach an end and world peace
will be established- Don't miss this Historical event! Come and bring
friends!

__________________________


3. Post Publishes Three Letters in Defense of Georgetown Conference

Letters were printed on Friday, February 17, 2006, in the Washington
Post:

Regarding the Feb. 12 Close to Home commentary by Eric Adler and Jack
Langer ["Why Is Georgetown Providing a Platform for This Dangerous
Group?"] about the student conference being held on the Georgetown
University campus this weekend:

First, Georgetown prizes its commitment to free speech and expression.
Georgetown student groups and faculty have the right to invite speakers
and conferences to campus in accordance with the university's speech
and expression policy. This does not mean that the university endorses
any speakers or their views.

Second, federal law enforcement authorities assured the university that
allegations that the conference host, the Palestine Solidarity
Movement, is connected to terrorism are false.

Third, Georgetown faculty and administrators will monitor the
conference to ensure that both conferees and protesters comply with the
university's policy on speech and expression.

Mr. Alder and Mr. Langer also said that Georgetown refused to host a
conference for America's Truth Forum. In fact, Georgetown had no role
in that decision. Decisions about that conference were made by Marriott
Corp., which operates an independent hotel and conference center on
campus.

Erik Smulson
Assistant Vice President for Communications
Georgetown University
Washington

_______

Eric Adler and Jack Langer disparaged the International Solidarity
Movement (ISM), a movement that I co-founded in the spring of 2001 in
the occupied territories of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East
Jerusalem to help draw attention to the human rights abuses suffered by
Palestinians as a result of Israel's occupation. The ISM also is a
resource for Palestinian nonviolent resistance to the occupation. The
ISM believes that average civilians can bring about change, and it
tries to unite Palestinians, Israelis and other people in nonviolent
resistance to Israel's occupation policies.

When I "acknowledged" that the ISM "cooperates with Hamas, the
Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine," I was offering concrete examples of the ways in which these
groups were engaging in nonviolent resistance.

Both the ISM and the Palestine Solidarity Movement advocate nonviolent
resistance to Israel's human rights abuses -- the ISM through organized
action in the occupied territories and the PSM by promoting
international divestment from companies that profit from occupation.

Huwaida Arraf
Washington

_______

The piece about the Palestine Solidarity Movement (PSM) conference that
starts today at Georgetown University was misleading. PSM's organizers
are people of all faiths and backgrounds. Many are Jews.

The PSM's Web site condemns racism and discrimination. Its FAQ page
says, "The PSM does not support or endorse terrorism." The FBI does not
consider the PSM to be a terrorist organization; nor does any other
government agency.

The Close to Home commentary was nothing more than an attempt to stop
Americans from hearing our message.

Fadi Kiblawi
The writer is an organizer of the PSM conference at Georgetown
University
Arlington

__________________________


4. Update on Mohammad Mansour's Day in Court

When Mohammed Mansour arrived at the courthouse today a half an hour
before his scheduled court appointment, the trial was already over.

Today was supposed to be the final hearing, the 14th in two years of
protracted legal struggle.  Having refused repeated deals from the
prosecution (see previous post), today Mohammed expected either that
the charges would be dropped unconditionally, or that he would be
handcuffed and taken to jail.

Instead, Mohammed and his two international friends learned when they
arrived at the bustling courthouse that the trial was postponed -- yet
again.  Relief at another month of freedom mingled with frustration
that the episode remains unfinished. Perhaps the judge hopes that more
time will convince Mohammed to accept the prosecution's latest offer.

The freezing rain had transformed to sunshine when the activists left
the courthouse.  But in Palestine, life is never that easy.  Because
Mohammed does not have a permit that allows him to enter Jerusalem, he
had to sneak through the mountains in order to appear at his trial.  He
had barely left the Jerusalem bus station on the way home to his
village near Ramallah when soldiers stopped his bus and  demanded
I.D.s.  Although Mohammed showed them the papers proving he had to be
in Jerusalem for his trial today, they pulled him off the bus, and the
two international activists followed.

The three waited around for perhaps an hour (the freezing rain had
reappeared) while the soldiers called in Mohammed's I.D. number and
conferred with their superiors over the radio.  Several more soldiers
arrived in a green jeep, and one of the internationals asked, "What's
the problem?  He was required to be in Jerusalem for his trial, and now
he's going home."  The officer replied, "There is no problem.  Only, he
is wanted."  He could not say what Mohammed was wanted for.

In the end, Mohammed was allowed to continue back to his home, but is
required  to go meet with Israeli intelligence in two different
locations in the next week.  Often during these interviews, The
intelligence officer offers bribes of ,money and permission to travel
and work inside Israel, in exchange for information. If Mohammad
doesn't go to the interview, the military are likely to show up to his
home and may arrest a family member in his stead.  If he goes and
doesn't cooperate, they will call him back again and again, keep him on
their wanted list and harassing him at will.  But for Mohammed and many
Palestinians like him, resistance is the only option.

On March 21st, he will return to Jerusalem for the next chapter in his
ongoing struggle, and go through it all again.

__________________________


5. First Anti Wall protest in Beit Sira

Three Fridays ago there was only one Anti-Wall demonstrations, last
week there were two Anti-wall demonstrations and this week there were
three. This week on top of the rallies in Bil'in and Abud there was
also a rally in Beit Sira.

We marched from the town as vibrant group. Whilst a few younger kids
ran to the front and were a bit a head the main group, who were
proceeded slowly chanting and singing.
It wasn't long until we bumped into a settlement. Unlike the
settlements at Bil'in that confiscated primarily agricultural land
that was a 15 minute walk from the village, the settlement here was
literally a stones throw away.
There was wire fence that separated the village from the settlement but
the full-on wall project is yet to be in full swing. so far, many of
the villages trees had been cut down where the wall is going to be
built. We moved onto a road and proceeded to Match. The terrain in Beit
Sira helped things in that the whole group stayed together on the flat
cement road, so we weren't dispersed on a hill side A lone jeep drove
through the rally. One of the soldiers stood on the roof and waved his
gun indiscriminately. In this photo you can see after they parked their
car in front of the demonstration the first thing they did was load
their guns with rubber bullets. They were clearly trying to provoke.
Still there was a thin line of them and the rally could have easily
passed the soldiers in a peaceful non violent manner.
But we hesitated. Then another three of jeeps showed up at the back of
the demonstration. They also wanted to drive through the rally. Many of
the young people wanted to block the Jeeps to prevent them from getting
through, but the elders in the village instructed them to let the Jeeps
pass and the young people co-operated. Now the Army had four jeeps in
front of the demo and they had some more soldiers.

They were trying to provoke the demonstration including this soldier
(left) who didn't think twice about where he held his gun or the fact
he had a tear gas canister in his outstretched arm. This tear gas
canister threat seemed particularly silly given that he couldn't use
it while we were that close. Even though there were four jeeps, a jeep
is hardly a people mover and they wouldn't of had more then 24
soldiers against the 200 demonstrators
The young people (the majority of the demonstration) wanted to march
but the 'popular committee' of the village instructed people to
turn back. It was very clear that people were frustrated and wanted to
proceed with the march regardless of the soldier presence. Whilst the
popular committee were able to stop people moving forward they
weren't able to convince people to move back.
So we milled around in front of the soldiers, the crowd slowly
diminishing. The youth felt defeated with all there energy and
frustration remaining. So the usual stone throwing, tear gas dynamic
played itself out. This was the first demonstration in Beit Sira,
hopefully demonstrations will continue and will feel more empowering in
the future.
__________________________


6. Resistance Collecting Momentum


The struggle of Palestinian villagers against the separation wall and
settlements is collecting momentum. In addition to the ongoing direct
action of manning the two Palestinian "out posts" that Bil'in
villagers have built on their land to be stolen by the annexation wall,
three demonstrations were held this Friday. As usual, the Israeli
military attempted to block the way of the Israeli activists to
Bil'in and detained two of them who were not fast enough to evade the
few soldiers allocated to the mission.
In Bil'in, about 20 internationals who came to participate in the
Bil'in international conference due 20th-21st February joined the 70
Palestinians and the 20 Israelis in what has become the traditional
Friday demo.
The demonstration began at noon with a march towards the land cut off
from the village by the route of the barrier. Protesters first
attempted to pass through the olive orchard towards the part of fence
not yet finished but , the soldiers were ready to stop them among the
olive trees... so they diverted back to the road leading to the open
gate in the fence - now "blessed" by the highest court of justice
as opened always for passage, though the armed forces make an
exception, and block it every Friday during the demonstration.
The march was blocked by a border police unit about 20 meters from the
passage. During the usual confrontation the protestors advanced about 2
meters - something the commander of the unit took personally. A few
shock grenades and physical pushing gained the Israeli military the
last two meters. After a while, people tried to get down from the road
to the olive orchard in order to go around the blocking border police
and get nearer to the fence. A large group of demonstraters did reach
the fence route and started to bang with stones on the low fence
bordering it. A small unit of soldiers who rushed there tried
unsuccessfully to disperse the people with tear gas grenades.
After the nonviolent demonstration was declared over, many of the
protestors stayed near by observing the usual confrontation between the
stone throwing youngsters and the military, shooting tear gas grenades
at them.
__________________________


7. Parents Continue Daughter's Cause
By Jennifer Moody
Originally published in the Albany Democrat-Herald
Cindy Corrie used to think the conflict between Israelis and
Palestinians had no beginning, no end and no solution - if she
thought about it at all.
That was before her daughter Rachel was crushed to death by an Israeli
bulldozer as she stood in protest in front of a Palestinian home about
to be razed.
Rachel Corrie was a writer who went to the Gaza Strip as a peace
activist with the International Solidarity Movement. She died March 16,
2003, about three weeks shy of her 24th birthday.
Since then, her parents, Craig and Cindy of Olympia, Wash., have been
accepting invitations to talk about their daughter and the conflict
that led to her death.
They spoke Wednesday at Linn-Benton Community College in a talk
sponsored by the Institute for Peace and Justice at LBCC, the Albany
Peace Seekers, and a student group, Linn-Benton Peace Studies.
Since her death, Rachel has inspired sharply conflicting opinions. Her
critics describe her as a misguided defender of Palestinian terrorists
and say the house she was protecting may have been used to smuggle arms
to Gaza from Egypt.
The parents' goal, her mother said, is to remind people in the United
States to "really pay attention to what's happening in the
Israeli-Palestinian situation, and to learn more about our role in it,
and to find ways to actively try and take personal action on it ... not
to tune out on all of this."
People are beginning to understand, Cindy added, but she thinks more
people would take notice if they understood that the need to find a
solution to the conflict directly affects this country.
"What the world sees is a very strong U.S. bias in support of the
Israeli government. That's viewed as being unjust," she said.
"That's very damaging to us, in terms of world opinion."
About 20 people attended the two-hour presentation, which centered on
Rachel's life and death and on the experiences her parents have had
in the region on subsequent visits.
Rachel was in the area for about 10 weeks. She lived in Rafah, a city
of about 140,000.
She wrote her parents often about the destruction she witnessed: homes
bulldozed to clear the way for roads or walls, wells for drinking water
destroyed by the Israeli military, an economy devastated by division
and isolation. On one of her first calls home, as Israeli forces fired
shells into the night, she held up the telephone and let her parents
listen.
The Corries stressed they are horrified by suicide bombs and other
Palestinian atrocities and in no way mean to defend them.
At the same time, however, they said they don't believe such bombs
are a threat to the very existence of the Israeli people in the same
way that Israel is capable of threatening Palestinian existence.
They also question the solutions Israel has said it needs for security,
such as putting walls and checkpoint terminals on Palestinian - not
Israeli - property, and demolishing homes to make way for those
efforts. American tax dollars, they said, are used to purchase some of
the equipment for that work and may have paid for the very bulldozer
that killed their daughter.
"We are motivated by Rachel to do what we can to work for a just
resolution that will support all the people of this region, and I think
before the whole world as well," Cindy said.
Added her father: "We can't do anything about Rachel, but we can do
something about these children."
__________________________


8. The Anger at Racist Cartoons Continues

>From Socialist Worker, www.socialistworker.co.uk

>From London's Trafalgar Square to Ramallah in Palestine, from Lebanon
to Austria, the caricatures of the prophet Mohammed, first printed in a
Danish paper, have sparked rage

Some 20,000 protesters filled Trafalgar Square in London on Saturday of
last week for a rally against Islamophobia and incitement. The event
was called at short notice by the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB)
and others in the wake of the cartoons row.

The protest was also supported by the Stop the War Coalition and CND.
Lindsey German, convenor of Stop the War, was warmly received by the
crowd when she spoke at the rally.

She noted that it wasn't only Muslims who find the cartoons
offensive: "They offend me because they offend my politics - they
are racist provocations from a racist newspaper."

MAB spokesperson Dr Azzam Tamimi also drew cheers and applause for a
fiery and uncompromising speech. "They say Muslims don't understand
that governments can't control the media. Who are they
bullshitting?" he said.

Kate Hudson, chair of CND, said she was proud to be "standing here in
solidarity with the Muslim community". She was one of many speakers
to note how anti-Muslim racism is being used to cover up for the
occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Respect MP George Galloway backed up this message of solidarity, noting
that the anti-war movement today stood in a proud tradition of working
people mobilising against racism and fascism.

Yvonne Ridley, political editor of the Islam Channel, attacked the
mainstream media's stereotypes about Muslims and double standards
over "freedom of speech".

She and others drew a direct parallel between contemporary anti-Muslim
caricatures and the anti-Semitic caricatures of the 1930s that helped
lay the groundwork for the Nazi Holocaust.

Throughout the rally, the speakers who made political connections
between the cartoons row, racism and the "war on terror" were
cheered and applauded.

In contrast, those who spoke more defensively about the need for
"moderation" were received less well.

The same anger felt on the demonstration in London echoes through the
streets of Ramallah, on the Palestinian West Bank, 1,500 miles away.

The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in Palestine has joined the
international chorus of criticism of the cartoons.

The movement, which brings together activists from around the world to
stage non-violent direct action in support of Palestinians, released a
statement denouncing the cartoons.

Israeli-Canadian peace activist and ISM founder Neta Golan spoke to
Socialist Worker from Ramallah.

She said, "The Danish cartoons have sparked deep anger among the
Palestinian people. Many feel that it is part of the discrimination,
racism and disrespect that they have been suffering under occupation.

"By labelling the prophet Mohammed as a terrorist, they are labelling
all Arabs and Muslims as terrorists.

"This disrespect reinforces the feeling that the life of a
Palestinian is worth less than that of a Westerner, that Palestinians
and Muslims are to be looked down on."

The ISM has called on the newspapers that published the cartoons to
apologise and is demanding Western governments condemn Islamophobia.
Neta says these cartoons are a part of the demonisation of Arabs and
Muslims:

"Racism against people in the Middle East, and towards their own
Muslim citizens, has a long history in the West and underlies much of
the current policies in the Middle East - whether in Afghanistan,
Iraq or Palestine.

"Most Western media are ignoring these facts while discussing the
issue of free speech. They are reinforcing stereotypes that the Muslim
world rejects Western liberties."
__________________________
end

REINVENTING LIFTA

Malkit Shoshan and Eitan Bronstein, 6 February 2006

The Jewish state uses Jerusalem to define itself in the ever expanding
city. All buildings, including new ones, have to be made of stone in
order to show the eternal Jewish presence, in this process Jerusalem’s
Palestinian past is being appropriated. Malkit Shoshan, director of
FAST (the Foundation for Achieving Seamless Territory), and Eitan
Bronstein, director of Zochrot, examine the ways in which planning is
being used to create this fantasy heritage for Israel, at the expense
of Palestinian culture. The village of Lifta, which lies just outside
Jerusalem, has been abandoned since the Israeli army drove out the
last of its Palestinian inhabitants in 1948.

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4457.shtml


SECOND ATTACK IN 24 HOURS: ISRAEL ASSASSINATES TWO PALESTINIANS IN
GAZA 
PCHR, 6 February 2006

On Sunday evening, 5 February 2006, Israeli Occupation Forces
extra-judicially executed two members of the al-Quds Brigades, the
military wing of Islamic Jihad, in Gaza City. This attack came less
than 24 hours after a similar attack, also in Gaza City, which left 3
members of the Fatah movement dead. This escalation in violence
represents a confirmation of the Israeli official statement vowing to
continue to search for and target activists of Palestinian factions.
on Sunday, 5 February 2006, IOF aircrafts launched two missiles at two
civilian cars that were traveling near the Doula building in the
densely populated al-Zaytoun neighborhood in the southeast of Gaza
City.

http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article4461.shtml


ISRAEL AIR ATTACK IN GAZA KILLS THREE PALESTINIANS 
PCHR, 5 February
2006

On Sunday morning, 5 February 2006, Israeli forces extra-judicially
executed three members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military
wing of the Fatah movement. Israeli aircrafts attacked a car, in which
two of the victims were traveling towards the hospital. They were
evacuating a person who had been wounded, when Israeli aircrafts
attacked a sports club in the densely populated Tal al-Hawa
neighborhood in the south of Gaza City. The club was totally destroyed
and one of its members, 30-year-old Hani Tal'at al-Qayed, was
seriously wounded. When two members of the club offered to help and
evacuate Qayed, their car was hit by a missile launched from an
Israeli aircraft. The three men were immediately killed.

http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article4456.shtml


THE THIRD INTIFADA 
Sam Bahour, 4 February 2006

Welcome to the third Palestinian intifada. The first was with stones,
the second a mix between non-violent and more violent means, and this
one via a ballot box. With Hamas' landslide victory in the Palestinian
elections breaking years of political stagnation, we are witnessing,
right before our eyes, a chapter of history being made. In an attempt
to make sense of the rapidly moving situation following the elections,
I pose the following for consideration. Three ironies, three potential
failures and three challenges.

http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article4455.shtml


A PARLIAMENT OF PRISONERS
Toufic Haddad, 4 February 2006

Most attention surrounding the 25 January 2006 election has focused
upon the sweeping victory of Hamas at the polls, and with good reason.
But there are other aspects to this year's election that will also
leave permanent impressions upon the future of Palestinian national
activity. Among the 132 Palestinians who won seats in the Legislative
Council, 15 of them are prisoners. 14 are imprisoned in Israeli jails,
and one sits in a Palestinian administered jail in Jericho, with CIA
and British Intelligence oversight. 11 of them are affiliated with
Hamas, 3 with Fateh, and one with the Popular Front for the Liberation
of Palestine.

http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article4454.shtml


AID CUTS WILL HIT PALESTINIANS 
Christian Aid, 3 February 2006

The Middle East Quartet said on Monday that a new Hamas-led government
must commit to non-violence, recognise Israel and accept current peace
agreements, or it could lose the financial support it receives from
the international community. Christian Aid is deeply concerned about
the potentially crippling effect on Palestinian household economies if
this aid was cut. Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories
is the main cause of Palestinian poverty. While aid is a necessary
lifeline for the Palestinians, it can only address the symptoms of the
occupation rather than bring about a lasting solution to poverty.

http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article4458.shtml


POLITICS, LANGUAGE AND THE PALESTINIANS 
Saree Makdisi, 3 February 2006

After Hamas' election victory, the organization's exiled leader Khaled
Meshal wrote an article that was printed in several western
newspapers. EI contributor Saree Makdisi says "what was refreshing
about Meshal’s piece was his use of a defiant language of struggle—one
appropriate to their desperate circumstances—rather than the
meaningless, empty, bankrupt language all but handed to current and
previous Palestinian leaders by a team of American and Israeli
script-writers." Makdisi writes that whether one disagrees with Hamas
or not, the article reminds us of the importance of redefining the
Palestinian struggle and the language used to shape it.

http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article4452.shtml


MUNICH, OR MAKING BAKLAVA
Joseph Massad, 3 February 2006

"The best baklava is made by the Arabs in Jaffa," insists the Mossad
case officer to his chief agent in charge of assassinating those
Palestinians Israel claims planned the Munich operation of 1972.
Besides being excellent baklava-makers, we learn little else in Steven
Spielberg’s film "Munich" about Jaffa’s Palestinians, the majority of
whom were pushed into the sea by Zionist forces in May 1948. Columbia
University professor and EI contributor Joseph Massad examines
Spielberg's film and finds that it continues a tradition started by
Otto Preminger's 1960 film "Exodus," and ultimately serves to justify
rather than question Israeli terrorism and violence.

http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article4449.shtml


WEEKLY REPORT ON HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
PCHR, 3 February 2006

This week, Israeli forces killed three Palestinians, including a
mentally-handicapped child. At least 13 Palestinian civilians,
including a child were wounded. Israeli forces conducted 27 incursions
into Palestinian communities in the West Bank. Israeli forces raided
Palestinian homes and 53 civilians, including six children were
arrested. Israeli forces transformed six Palestinian homes into
military outpost. Israel continues to impose a total siege on the
occupied Palestinian territories. Israeli forces have imposed severe
restrictions on movement. Despite international criticism, Israel
continues to construct the Apartheid Wall. Israeli forces razed land
in Hebron. Israeli settlers continue attacks on Palestinian civilians
and property. Israeli forces demolished two Palestinian homes in
Bethlehem.

http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article4448.shtml


THE END OF A POLITICAL FICTION?
Adam Hanieh, 2 February 2006

Hamas's landslide victory in the January 25 elections for the 132-seat
Palestinian Legislative Council is an unprecedented turning point for
politics in both Palestine and the broader Middle East. Arguably for
the first time since the establishment of Israel in 1948, an official
administrative power in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has strong
popular support and is not directly beholden to Israeli or Western
interests. The Hamas victory helps to dispel the myths surrounding the
negotiations of the last decade. Hamas's victory expressed a political
sentiment and desire for a real alternative to the Oslo straitjacket.
The Hamas leadership clearly recognizes this and has shown little
inclination to implement far-reaching social changes along religious
lines.

http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article4447.shtml


WASPR DELEGATION DIARY 6
STUCK AT ERETZ CROSSING, HAVING COFFEE WITH KAREEM
Dr. Bill Dienst, 2 February 2006

Have I been blacklisted? What will happen when we are separated from
the rest of the group? After fumbling through my bags on the terminal
floor to find the gifts going into Gaza, I am flabbergasted, and a bit
panicky. I am sent back to the desk to pick up a piece of paper so I
can disembark on the Israeli side of the checkpoint. I feel nervous. I
leave the desk and then return, thinking that the soldiers have not
given me back my passport. They say they can't find it, and after a
cold sweat, I discover it in my shirt pocket, right where it belongs!
Part of the art of living in this part of the world is being
appropriately paranoid, without being excessively so. We all miss the
mark at times. That goes for Israelis, Palestinians, and also human
rights activists.

http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article4396.shtml


WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS 
Laila El-Haddad, 1 February 2006

Yesterday, after a trip around Bait Hanun, Gaza's northern
breadbasket, I headed to the Erez Crossing to give some journalist
friends a lift. They were headed to Jerusalem, where they were based,
and to where I am I unable to travel.I hadn't been to Erez in a while,
namely because there is no point. I am forbidden from entering the
West Bank based on the arbitrary decision of some official in the
Israeli security matrix. Or maybe not so arbitrary. Because obviously
with a pen in one hand, a dirty diaper in the other, I am a very real
and potent threat to the Israeli security establishment.

http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article4446.shtml




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January 13, 2006 A CounterPunch Exclusive Investigation How the FBI Spied on Edward Said By DAVID PRICE The FBI has a long, ignoble tradition of monitoring and harassing America's top intellectuals. While people ranging from Albert Einstein, William Carlos Williams to Martin Luther King have been subjected to FBI surveillance, there remains an under-accounting of the ways in which this monitoring at times hampered the reception of their work. In response to my request under the Freedom of Information Act, filed on behalf of CounterPunch, the FBI recently released 147 of Said's 238-page FBI file. There are some unusual gaps in the released records, and it is possible that the FBI still holds far more files on Professor Said than they acknowledge. Some of these gaps may exist because new Patriot Act and National Security exemptions allow the FBI to deny the existence of records; however, the released file provides enough information to examine the FBI's interest in Edward Said who mixed artistic appreciations, social theory, and political activism in powerful and unique ways. Most of Said's file documents FBI surveillance campaigns of his legal, public work with American-based Palestinian political or pro-Arab organizations, while other portions of the file document the FBI's ongoing investigations of Said as it monitored his contacts with other Palestinian-Americans. That the FBI should monitor the legal political activities and intellectual forays of such a man elucidates not only the FBI's role in suppressing democratic solutions to the Israeli and Palestinian problems, it also demonstrates a continuity with the FBI's historical efforts to monitor and harass American peace activists. Edward Said's wife, Mariam, says she is not surprised to learn of the FBI's surveillance of her husband, saying, "We always knew that any political activity concerning the Palestinian issue is monitored and when talking on the phone we would say 'let the tappers hear this'. We believed that our phones were tapped for a long time, but it never bothered us because we knew we were hiding nothing." The FBI's first record of Edward Said appears in a February 1971 domestic security investigation of another unidentified individual. The FBI collected photographs of Said from the State Department's passport division and various news agencies. Said's "International Security" FBI file was established when an informant gave the FBI a program from the October 1971 Boston Convention of the Arab-American University Graduates, where Said chaired a panel on "Culture and the Critical Spirit". Most of Said's FBI records were classified under the administrative heading of "Foreign Counterintelligence," category 105, and most records are designated as relating to "IS ­ Middle East," the Bureau's designation for Israel. Post-Patriot Act alterations of the Freedom of Information Act facilitate the FBI's efforts to keep significant portions of Said's FBI file classified ­ as if concerns with resolving Palestinian sovereignty from twenty or thirty years ago are indelibly linked to Bush's "war on terror". Large sections of Said's file remain redacted, with stamps indicating they remain Classified Secret until 2030, 25 years after their initial FOIA processing. One 1973 "Secret" report is now "exempt from General Declassification Schedule of Executive Order 11652, Exemption Category 2," and is "automatically declassified on indefinite". Such administrative stonewalling diminishes our ability to understand the past and further complicates our ability to document the FBI's role in undermining domestic democratic movements. In February 1972, New York FBI agents produced a report listing Said's employment at Columbia University, his home address and phone number, including a notation that his home telephone service was provided by New York Telephone Company ­ information that was later used to request listings of all toll calls charged to Said's home phone number. A July 1972 FBI report indicates Said received a phone call from someone who was the subject of intensive FBI surveillance. The NYC agent wrote that "reasons for phone call, activities of the professor, and his sympathies in relation to [blank in the document] matters have not been ascertained". In the months after the attacks at the 1972 Munich Olympics there was a flurry of FBI interest in Said and other Palestinian Americans. In early October 1972, the NY FBI office investigated Said's background and citizenship information as well as voting, banking and credit records. Employees at Princeton and Columbia Universities gave FBI agents biographical and education information on Said, and the Harvard University Alumni Office provided the FBI with detailed information. As Middle East scholar Steve Niva observes, "looking back, this post-Munich period may have marked an historic turning point when statements in support of the Palestinian cause became routinely equated with sympathies for terrorism." The FBI spoke with their "Middle East informants" in Boston, Newark and New York to gather information on Said. One report indicated that "several confidential sources who are familiar with Middle East [blank in the document]in the United States were contacted during 1972 and 1973, but were unable to furnish any information pertaining to Edward William Said." During this investigation, FBI agents located and read a 1970 Boston Globe article headlined "Columbia Professor Blames Racist Attitude for Arab-Israeli Conflict". One FBI report detailed events at the fifth annual convention of the Association of Arab-American University Graduates (AAAUG) held in November 1972 in Berkeley. Said was living in Lebanon at the time and did not attend the conference, but because he was a member of the AAAUG Board of Directors, the FBI included their convention report in his FBI file. There was a significant FBI presence at the conference, and the FBI's released records include the conference program indicating presentations from a selection of Arab-American scholars such as anthropologists Laura Nader and Barbara Aswad. The extent of the FBI's surveillance of the conference is seen in the FBI's list (provided by a "reliable" FBI informer) of all AAAUG convention's attendees staying at the Claremont Hotel. Why the FBI collected information on conference attendees' accommodations is not clear. Was it to break into participants' rooms to plant listening devices, search for documents, or to monitor attendees? The redacted report does not say, but the FBI's well-documented reliance on such "black bag jobs" during this period raises this as a likely possibility. The Bureau's policy for these illegal operations was to maintain separate filing systems for them. The FBI's report contains summaries of several talks, including a detailed account of Andreas Papandreou's keynote address criticizing "the imperialistic forces of the United Stats against the peoples of the Middle East, Greek and Arab peoples alike."In January 1973, the FBI undertook further criminal and biographical background checks on Said, and the New York Special Agent in Charge recommended in February that the case be closed. But an FBI investigation the next month of a "subject [who had] traveled in the United States in 1971" began a new investigation of Said as one of several individuals whose phone numbers had come to the attention of the FBI and were believed to have possible "connections with Arab terrorist activities." Such alleged connections remain unspecified as do Said's connections to such activities, but such vague associations are frequently used to keep investigations active. FBI memos from this period discuss the creation of a LHM (Letterhead Memorandum, meaning a memo identified as coming from the FBI) that "should be suitable for dissemination to foreign intelligence agencies". The agency or country to receive this LHM report is not identified, but Israel's Mossad was a likely candidate. During the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War the FBI collected several of Said's newspaper columns and interviews, and his file includes a New York Times column arguing that Arabs and Jews in the Middle East had historically been pitted against each other rather than against "imperialist powers". In 1974, the FBI received word that Said would speak at the Canadian Arab Federation Conference in Windsor, Ontario, and the Bureau again tracked Said's movements, though an FBI informer indicated that "he did not consider Said to be the type of individual who would be involved in any terrorist activity". The FBI made no entry in Edward Said's file in 1978, the year of the publication of his groundbreaking book, Orientalism. A July 1979 FBI report summarized information on thirty-six individuals (names blacked out in the released documents) preparing to attend the August 1979 Palestine American Congress (PAC) at the Shoreham-Americana Hotel in Washington, D.C. The FBI noted that Said was an ex-officio member of the council. Snippets of paragraphs on other unidentified attendees mention past academic and political conferences attended, and one FBI informant is identified as being linked to the "pro-Iraqi Ba'ath Party". FBI offices receiving this report were advised to check their files for pertinent information on any of the mentioned individuals. The extent of the FBI's conference surveillance is shown in a partially declassified Secret Report Index indicating that attendee records had been consulted from FBI field offices in twenty-five listed cities alphabetically listed from Albany to Washington. This report contains sentence summaries on participants. Said's summary, for example, says, "EDWARD SAID ­ Previously identified as being from Columbia University, New York City, New York, and as being deeply affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine." Other released passages find the FBI preoccupied with tracing various attendees' PFLP sympathies. The PAC was perhaps the most open and democratic deliberative effort by displaced American Palestinians to address the goals of the Palestinian struggle. With great concern the FBI documented how the PAC "created a Preparatory Committee that empowered it to prepare a working paper on a proposed constitution for some mechanism for collaborative action". The FBI noted some internal arguments about the legitimacy of some delegates coming from Arab communities with low Palestinian populations. The FBI reported that one delegate at the Congress "reminded all in attendance that the FBI has no legitimate interest in the activities taking place during the three day convention. There was no reason to be afraid of one's presence at all functions of the PAC." Without irony the FBI then noted with concern that some present used false names to register their hotel rooms. Following opening remarks by Jawad George, another speaker described in the FBI report as a revolutionary black male named Smith, "ensured the PAC that the black Americans would render assistance to Arab revolution." Other speakers discussed in the FBI report included a member of the Organization of Arab Students and Ramallah Mayor Krim Khlif speaking on efforts to establish a Palestinian State on the West Bank. The FBI report discussed problems arising at the conference's conclusion when there was "much discussion on just the preamble to the constitution. Strong disagreement on the wording of a sentence concerning return to its national homeland, to national self-determination, and to its national independence and sovereignty in all of Palestine, by the Arab peoples." Fights over the wording of the constitution's preamble continued, and several disputes "almost broke out into fist fights" between rival factions. Said's FBI file contains a copy of the "Proposed Constitution of the Palestine American Congress" that had been distributed to PAC attendees, which the FBI marked as classified "SECRET." This information provided by an FBI informant from this period has now been reclassified under thePatriot Act measures making the document classified "Secret" until the year 2029. In May 1982, the New York FBI Special Agent in Charge sent a Secret report to FBI Director William Webster saying that Said's name had "come to the attention of the N.Y. [FBI Office] in the context of a terrorist matter." FBI headquarters was then requested "to contact liaison with State Department's Middle East section with regard to their knowledge of Said". A week later, Said's file gained a photograph of him addressing the December 1980 Palestine Human Rights Campaign National Conference. One 1982 newspaper clipping added to the file attempted to connect his wife Mariam Said and the PLO to the funding of a full-page anti-Israel advertisement in the New York Times. During the summer of 1982 an unidentified individual was arrested and deported from the United States, and the "INS obtained photocopies of all documents in his possession". Among this deported individual's papers was Edward Said's name and home phone number. Documents relating to Said and this deportation are still being withheld and are being vetted under National Security Classification review processes. On September 3, 1982, FBI Director Webster instructed FBI librarians at Quantico to use their computerized New York Times index to locate all past references to Said. This generated a thirteen-page report containing abstracts of forty-nine NYT articles featuring Edward Said. These articles range from political columns by Said, features about him, to literary book reviews by Said. The New York Times Information Service was long used by the pre-Google FBI to compile dossiers on persons or organizations of interest. Thus did the FBI collected a filtered analysis of Said's writings and public statements formed by the reports and prejudices of Times reporters and editors. Said's FBI file, in the form in which it reached me, concludes with a few redacted reports (now reclassified until the year 2030) from 1983 and a highly censored Classified Secret memo from August 1991 that ends with the suggestions that the FBI "may desire to contact your Middle East Section for additional information concerning Said". Curiously, Said's FBI file, as released to me, contains no information on the remaining dozen years of his life. Either the FBI stopped monitoring him, or they couldn'tlocate these files, or they won't release this information or even the fact that the information exists in the files. The latter two possibilities seem far more likely than the first . It did not matter how frequently or clearly Edward Said declared that he "totally repudiated terrorism in all its forms". The FBI continued to focus its national security surveillance campaign on him. Had the FBI read the Palestine American Congress's proposed constitution placed in Said's file in 1979, they would have seen the group's commitment to upholding the "basic fundamental human and national rights of all people and affirms its opposition to racism in all of its manifestations including Zionism and anti-Semitism". Instead, they kept searching for connections to terrorism. The FBI's surveillance of Edward Said was similar to their surveillance of other Palestinian-American intellectuals. For example, Ibrahim Abu Lughod's FBI file records similar monitoring ­ though Abu Lughod's file finds the FBI attempting to capitalize on JDL death threats as a means of interviewing Lughod to collect information for his file. Having read hundreds of FBI reports summarizing "subversive" threads in the work of other academics, I am surprised to find that Said's FBI file contains no FBI analysis of his book Orientalism. This is especially surprising given the claims by scholars, like Hoover Institute anthropologist Stanley Kurtz in his 2003 testimony before the House Subcommittee on Select Education, that Said's post-colonial critique had left American Middle East Studies scholars impotent to contribute to Bush's "war on terror". Given what is known of the FBI's monitoring of radical academic developments it seems unlikely that such a work escaped their scrutiny, and it is reasonable to speculate that an FBI analysis of Orientalism remains in unreleased FBI documents. But some known things are obviously missing from the released file. Chief among these are records of death threats against Said and records of the undercover police protection he received at some public events. But there are no reasons to withhold such records, and their absence gives further cause to not believe the FBI's claim this is his entire releasable file. The reasons for the temporal and thematic gaps in Said's file remain unknown. One explanation for such gaps is suggested in Kafka's The Trial, where reference is made to cases of suspects never cleared of vague accusations but who are instead given an "ostensible acquittal" under which the accused's dossier circulates for years, "backwards and forwards with greater or smaller oscillations" on "peregrinations that are incalculable". Perhaps such Kafkaesque forces move within the FBI, empowered by post-9/11 legislation and desires to shield the public's eye from acknowledgments of past persecutions of Edward Said. David Price is author of Threatening Anthropology: McCarthyism and the FBI's Surveillance of Activist Anthropologists (Duke, 2004). He can be reached at: dprice@stmartin.edu