February 02, 2012

Pro-Israeli discourse suppressors desperately try to rebuild their Bar-Lev Line!

It is almost amusing to see the lengths to which the pro-Israeli discourse suppressors here in the United States have been going to try to rebuild the long-crumbled "Bar-Lev Line"...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 03:18 PM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

January 16, 2012

The use of web-based disinformation by the 'west'

Patrick Cockburn has an extremely important piece at the Independent today, in which he takes to task the major organs of the 'western' media-- including, crucially, today's Al-Jazeera-- for the...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:51 AM | Fulltext link (11 comments)

January 14, 2012

2012: A good year to boycott Sabra (& Shatila) Hummus

I've been thinking a lot, recently, about the upcoming 30th anniversary of the September 1982 massacres at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut. As some of you may...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 04:31 PM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

September 10, 2011

For September 11, ten years on

... I want to link, first, to these reflections on 9/11, that I published in Friends Journal in 2007, and to this column, that I wrote for the Christian Science...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:15 PM | Fulltext link (3 comments)

July 24, 2011

Nurturing that better future

All my wonderful longtime readers here at JWN may wonder why I've been so silent recently. Two reasons, mainly. I've been deep immersed in the most wonderful forms of family...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 01:00 PM | Fulltext link (3 comments)

March 10, 2011

Bayard Rustin understood Palestinians

I just came across this great, short piece of writing, quoting the African-American, gay, Quaker activist Bayard Rustin: In 1968, American civil rights organizer Bayard Rustin wrote, “We would be...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:23 PM | Fulltext link (3 comments)

February 28, 2011

Pete Seeger joins BDS campaign!

Great news from Max Blumenthal about this. I like his post particularly, because of the sound-track on the video there! Seeger had been inveigled by something called the "Arava Institute"...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 01:44 PM | Fulltext link (4 comments)

February 08, 2011

'Gaza Mom's west coast tour: Starts this week!

I realize that I haven't done enough to tell JWN readers about the exciting plans for Laila El-Haddad's west coast book tour. The preliminary schedule is here... But more events...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:00 AM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

November 15, 2010

Virginians standing up to Cantor!

A group of home-state Virginians and I are planning to build a network of in-state activists-- including our friends in the 7th congressional district-- to stand up for our country's...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:00 AM | Fulltext link (9 comments)

July 26, 2010

Foreign investment in Israel plunged in 2009

Haaretz today: Foreign direct investment in Israel fell by 64% in 2009 to only $3.9 billion, down from $10.9 billion in 2008. Israel fell from 54th place in 2008 to...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 04:35 PM | Fulltext link (7 comments)

June 24, 2010

A great resource on the Hamas women

Kudos to Conflicts Forum, which a few months ago published (PDF) a very informative study by the Hebron-area journalist and researcher Khaled Amayreh on the role of women in Hamas....
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:57 AM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

June 23, 2010

Swedish dockworkers follow Oakland's BDS lead

Following the amazing lead given by citizen activists and dockworkers/longshoremen in Oakland, California at 5 a.m. on Sunday, today dockworkers in Sweden announced they will try to institute a week-long...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:12 AM | Fulltext link (3 comments)

May 02, 2010

"Another Acre and Another Goat"

I am very happy to be able to publish this essay by veteran Israeli peace activist Amos Gvirtz of Kibbutz Shefayim. The essay vividly captures the continuity in the conduct...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:37 AM | Fulltext link (8 comments)

May 01, 2010

Chicago Hearing videos now online

The videos from the April 18 Chicago Hearing, which looked into whether U.S. policy on Israel upholds American values, are now all available through their website. I really apologize to...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:47 AM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

April 18, 2010

In Chicago, for the Hearing

So I'm in Chicago, for the Chicago Hearing, which will be running from 1:30 through 5:30 this afternoon, CST. Last night we had an interesting dinner at Dr. Ghada Talhami's...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:23 AM | Fulltext link (3 comments)

April 15, 2010

Berkeley's BDS epic continues; Despatches

The debate at U.C. Berkeley's student Senate (ASUC) continued throughout last night, on whether to over-ride the veto the Senate president had cast against the recent divestment bill. The divestment...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:51 AM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

April 13, 2010

Divestment at Berkeley: Tutu weighs in

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has written a wonderful letter in support of the student activists at U.C. Berkeley who are working to get their student Senate-- and beyond that, hopefully, the...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:19 PM | Fulltext link (7 comments)

March 31, 2010

Chicago Hearing, April 18: Be a part of this happening!

It's now just 17 days and 18 hours till the start of the Chicago Hearing, a breakthrough gathering in the heart of our country where a number of singularly well-informed...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:34 PM | Fulltext link (18 comments)

March 21, 2010

Great graphics for a BDS effort

Jam'a al-yad, an artists' collective in Beirut, produced half a dozen powerful posters during the city's recent Israeli Apartheid Week. Though the most prominent captions on them are in Arabic,...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 04:46 PM | Fulltext link (12 comments)

March 18, 2010

Berkeley divestment, contd.

Here (Doc) is the press release that U.C. Berkeley Students for Justice in Palestine put out about the historic, late-night vote in which the student senate last night voted to...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 04:52 PM | Fulltext link (3 comments)

BDS comes to U.C. Berkeley

Yes, Alan Dershowitz, eat your heart out, the student senate at U.C. Berkeley voted 16-4 last night to "urge the University of California to divest from companies who have supplied...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:22 AM | Fulltext link (10 comments)

March 16, 2010

Mourning Jay (and Gene)

This afternoon my beloved friend Jay Worrall died. Jay was a shining, Light-filled elder of our Quaker meeting here in Charlottesville who in an earlier era played a pioneering role...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 08:47 PM | Fulltext link (6 comments)

March 14, 2010

More ferment in the liberal establishment: Friedman!!

I'm late getting round to reading the NYT today. But credit where credit is due. Tom Friedman: I am a big Joe Biden fan... So it pains me to say...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 03:26 PM | Fulltext link (10 comments)

Sullivan, Goldberg, and new ferment among U.S. liberals

There is some new and very real ferment on the Palestine Question these days, in the heart of the United States' chronically very strongly pro-Zionist "liberal" political-cultural establishment. Witness, the...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 02:58 PM | Fulltext link (6 comments)

March 13, 2010

Max Blumenthal on N.Y. 'Lawfare Project' conference

Blumenthal went to this seven-hour conference, held Thursday by the 'Lawfare Project' in New York, and has written a great blog post about it at Mondoweiss. The Lawfare Project has...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 05:11 PM | Fulltext link (11 comments)

March 11, 2010

Kramer at Harvard: Student coalition pushing back

Kudos to the 16 student organizations at Harvard who co-sponsored an op-ed in the Harvard Crimson highly critical of the call that Martin Kramer issued recently for the U.S. government...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:45 AM | Fulltext link (18 comments)

March 08, 2010

Waskow's sad arguments against BDS

I was just watching the discussion that Amy Goodman (video here) recently moderated between Omar Barghouti of the Global BDS Movement and Rabbi Arthur Waskow, over the utility and ethics...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:50 PM | Fulltext link (3 comments)

March 01, 2010

Israel Ballet bombs (artistically) in DC

The Israel Ballet, which reportedly receives around $1 million annually in funding from the Israeli government, gave a performance Saturday in suburban Washington DC that was panned by influential WaPo...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 01:46 PM | Fulltext link (22 comments)

February 25, 2010

Excellent BDS victory in Brussels!

Lengthy efforts by those trying to get targeted sanctions imposed against products made in Israel's illegal settlements have won a great victory in the European High Court. It ruled today...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 01:46 PM | Fulltext link (6 comments)

February 24, 2010

'Chicago Hearing' on Israel and U.S. values, April 18

The Chicago office of the American Friends Service Committee and various allies are organizing a public hearing on on April 18, on the important question, Does U.S. Policy on Israel...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:00 PM | Fulltext link (11 comments)

February 21, 2010

Turkish IHH foundation plans new siege-busting project for Gaza

Turkey's IHH humanitarian-aid foundation has now announced a plan to help lead a 20-ship siege-busting project for Gaza, to take place most likely in April. The project is called Noah's...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 02:28 PM | Fulltext link (4 comments)

February 19, 2010

Blast from the CNI past

Well, what should drop into our mailbox yesterday but the latest direct-mail fundraising appeal from CNI... And goodness, what an embarrassment to me now, my name is even on the...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 12:26 PM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

February 18, 2010

Israelis call for talks with Hamas

On February 15, Israeli 'refusenik' soldiers Arik Diamant and David Zonscheine published a short, tightly argued piece in the Guardian's 'Comment is Free' section under the title 'Talk to Hamas'....
Posted by Helena Cobban at 05:44 PM | Fulltext link (4 comments)

February 10, 2010

I'm back!

Okay, folks, spread the word: I'm back. The job with CNI didn't work out. If you're interested to learn more, you can read the statement I just wrote about the...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 04:21 PM | Fulltext link (19 comments)