una storia vera

Nello spot gli ex militari chiedono a un altro ragazzo israeliano dove abbia svolto il servizio militare

Internazionale 731, 14 febbraio 2008

Di recente in Israele è stato lanciato uno spot per il servizio militare, accompagnato dallo slogan: "Un vero israeliano non fugge". Nel video si vedono alcuni giovani israeliani che, in quello che sembra un albergo indiano, si vantano delle loro esperienze militari con una ragazza straniera.
È un dato di fatto che, abbandonata l'uniforme, molti giovani fanno lunghi viaggi all'estero. Nello spot gli ex militari chiedono a un altro ragazzo israeliano dove abbia svolto il servizio militare. E questo rimane in silenzio, con gli occhi bassi. Il messaggio è chiaro.
Lo spot è stato girato in un piccolo ristorante di Tel Aviv. Alcuni dei camerieri, infastiditi per essere stati coinvolti nel video, hanno deciso di girare un contro-spot. La scena è simile, anche se i camerieri parlano in ebraico e la ragazza non ha i capelli biondi.
Due dei protagonisti raccontano di aver abbandonato il servizio militare perché non sopportavano quello che erano costretti a vedere ogni giorno. La ragazza, invece, ha lasciato l'esercito, dove faceva l'assistente sociale, dopo il suicidio di due soldati.
Il terzo cameriere ha scelto il carcere pur di non arruolarsi. Gli altri commentano: "Lo stato non si è mai occupato della sua famiglia. Perché mai lui avrebbe dovuto servirlo?". "E tu?", chiedono infine tutti al quarto ragazzo. Che, imbarazzato, non dice una parola. Il video si chiude con una scritta: "Un vero israeliano non fugge… dalla verità".
All'inizio non volevo scrivere di questa vicenda. Per parlare di un fatto del genere, mi dicevo, passo troppo poco tempo in Israele e inoltre conosco gli umori della mia società solo attraverso la tv.
Poi, quando ho scoperto che il contro-spot si era diffuso su internet, mi sono ricordata che oggi viviamo nel mondo virtuale non meno che in quello reale. Inoltre avevo seguito le polemiche sollevate dal video tra gli utenti della rete. Così ho capito che anche voi, cari lettori di Internazionale, meritavate di conoscere questa storia.

fonte Internazionale, Amira Hass

declassata

... mi hanno dato solo 5 ...
solito iter, niente domande ma controlli (al mio portatile hanno rimosso la batteria, sono sparito per 10 minuti, poi l'ho dovuto accendere davanti a loro, aprire un file a caso per far vedere che era tutto a posto!)

si ritorna a casa ...

the meaning of life

Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations. (...)

Whenever life gets you down Mrs. Brown / and things seem hard or tough / and people are stupid, obnoxious or daft / and you feel that you've had quite enough! / just remember that your standing on a planet thats evolving / revolving at nine-hundred miles an hour / its orbiting at ninety miles a second / so its reckoned / a sun that is the source of all our power / the sun and you and me / and all the stars that we can see / are moving at a million miles a day / in an outer spiral arm at forty-thousand miles an hour / of the galaxy we call the Milky Way / Our galaxy itself / contains a hundred billion stars / its a hundred thousand lightyears side to side / it bulges in the middle / sixteen-thousand lightyears thick / but out by us its just three-thousand lightyears wide / were thirty-thousand lightyears from galatic central point / we go round every two-hundred-million years / and our galaxy is only one of millions of billions in this amazing and expanding universe. The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding / in all of the directions it can whiz / as fast as it can go / the speed of light you know / twelve million miles a minute and thats the fastest speed there is / so remember when your feeling very small and insecure / how amazingly unlikely is your birth / and pray that there intelligent life somewhere up in space / cause theres bugger all down here on Earth.

Monthy Piton, The Meaning of life

... oh yeah ...

environment

The editor of This Week in Palestine Tony A. Khoury: un numero dedicato all'ambiente.

Jerusalem, Ramallah, and Bethlehem came to a virtual standstill when President George Bush came to visit last month to give the peace process a push. The residents of Jerusalem, in particular, were happy to see him leave due to the havoc his presence created on the city’s traffic for three days. The peace process is also at a standstill. There are periodic meetings between Palestinians and Israelis but not much seems to transpire from them. Gaza continues to be the hermetically sealed jail that it has become - not that it was much better in the past - with the added punishment of power cuts for hours on end, reduced supplies of fuel (especially during the unseasonably cold spell of a few weeks ago) and food staples, not to mention other products that Israel is not allowing into the Strip, thus bringing the economy to a near total collapse. Many factories and workshops have run out of the raw materials needed for their work, thus forcing them to shut down and lay off their workers. Another casualty of the Israeli occupation, perhaps less visible but no less serious, is the environment. For years now, Israel has been siphoning off the West Bank’s underground water reserves, abundantly supplying Israeli settlements created on Palestinian lands with it, while rationing the water supply to Palestinian villages and farmers. Water is one of the subjects covered in this month’s issue of This Week in Palestine, which is dedicated to the environment. Among the other topics highlighted are wildlife, desertification, global warming, waste management, and biodiversity. Legislation dealing with laws that should be put in place to protect the environment is the focus of one article, while another looks at the effect of the environment on the economy. It is interesting to see how the environment affects many aspects of our lives. Awareness of such issues should start early and be incorporated into the school curricula. Think twice before throwing that candy wrapper or tissue paper on the ground or out of your car’s window.

finita la tempesta?

... oggi almeno c'è il sole e la neve inzia a sciogliersi...
Ramallah sotto la neve è bella anche se la città è assolutamente impreparata all'emergenza neve, i negozi sono quasi tutti chiusi (compresi quelli che vendono il gas per le stufette, ad esempio), le strade e i marciapiedi non sono stati puliti se non da qualche volenteroso, io mi sono spalata la neve intorno alla macchina (un po' di esercizio fa sempre bene) .... ma che freddo in casa, si sta decisamente meglio fuori ... anche se orde di bambini grandi e piccoli fanno a pallate di neve, le strade sono completamente allagate ed è impossibile non bagnarsi!

continua la tempesta ...

... e sta portando la neve...
c'è un vento frtissimo che fischia da tutti gli spifferi della casa, oggi tutto è chiuso, non si lavora, fa molto freddo, non c'è neanche una macchina in giro ...
mi sento un po' in gabbia ....

Last Supper in Palestine

uno spettacolo realizzato da Ashtar for Theatre Productions and Training.
The performance ‘Last Supper in Palestine’ is initiated by Simon Rowe and is part of his ‘Globallocal series’, a series of projects being realized in different cities, internationally, where he has developed a relationship to the place and the people in collaborations during his career. In the last years Simon developed a passionate interest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This led to his involvement in the occupied Palestinian territories. After visiting the occupied territories he was inspired to create a performance with Palestinians that would communicate their daily reality of living under impossible conditions with check points, military occupation and now imprisoned behind a wall. Inspired by meeting the Ashtar Theatre in Ramallah, he invited Iman Aoun, director of Ashtar, to co-direct a performance presenting the people, their culture, the situation in Palestine.

Last Supper in Palestine
Concept & Choreography: Simon Rowe
Directed by Simon Rowe & Iman Aoun

Critical reflection of Modern Palestine presented through physical-theatre by a group of Palestinian performers. Approached with a touch of irony tragi-comedy and ridicule, the performance lays bare, the seriousness of the Palestinian situation, the plight of a people living under constant siege. Drawing associations between the fate of Palestine and the Last Supper of Christ, the last stations of the cross, the performers wrestle with their fate, twisting and bending to persist, dedicated to the fulfilment of a dream against all odds. It’s not over yet.

Dancing on the Edge

con 'sta pioggia e con 'sto vento...

c'è poco da bussare, c'è il diluvio e la tempesta fuori e chi si muove dall'ufficio?
speriamo che non nevichi... almeno...

Born in the shadow of a checkpoint

si può nascere anche al checkpoint a Hebron, dove alle ambulanze non è consentito entrare in alcune zone della città e dove bisogna aspettare "ordini superiori" per poter passare ...
l'assurdità della vita inizia davvero da subito qua in Palestina ...

"You'll never walk alone." It's doubtful that a slogan used by the Israel Defense Forces has been read in such a macabre context. The slogan, in the name of the 92nd Auxiliary Unit, appears on the sign next to the checkpoint that blocks off the Tel Rumeida neighborhood in Hebron. True, Kifah Sider did not walk there alone. Her husband and brother-in-law were with her. In fact, she did not exactly walk. Groaning with contractions, she was carried by her husband. The young woman of 23 was in labor.

The soldiers held her up at the checkpoint for 20 critical minutes, the family says. In any case, she had to proceed on foot because this neighborhood, where evil stalks - a place ruled by a handful of sometimes-violent settlers who have forced out half the inhabitants - is barred to Palestinian vehicles. Including ambulances that can rush a woman in labor to the hospital in the dead of night. Evildoing resides here. The windows are barred because unruly settler children throw stones. Cars are forbidden entry, and the way home passes through the checkpoint, with the message "You'll never walk alone" on the gate. But the 92nd Auxiliary offered no support that night. Its soldiers only delayed the pregnant woman until her screams finally persuaded them to let her through. On foot, of course. That was 20 minutes too late. It was no longer possible to rush the woman to Aliyah Hospital, a five-minute drive away. Kifah lay on the road, the neighbors brought a mattress, the husband took off his jacket, and in the subzero cold another checkpoint birth took place, delivered by the Israeli occupation. It wasn't the first, it won't be the last. (...)

fonte Haaretz, Gideon Levy

Gaza’s misery has to be stopped

The tens of thousands of Palestinians who burst out of Gaza into Egypt this week in search of food, fuel and medicine have temporarily broken the siege that had tightened like a noose around this teeming territory ever since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip last June.
Like the lid coming off a pressure cooker, the blown-up border fence has avoided a bigger explosion – for now. But Gaza’s humanitarian disaster and conflict shows every sign it could escalate into war if it is not brought under control.
That would put paid to any chance current efforts to resurrect peace negotiations might succeed.
The breach in the Rafah crossing may well be the work of Hamas, the Islamist party that now controls Gaza, to dramatise the plight of the population and put pressure on Egypt to intercede with Israel and the US. It follows Israel’s tightening of the blockade, in response to the continuing barrage of primitive rockets aimed at the Negev town of Sderot from north-west Gaza. Last weekend Gaza’s power went off after Israel suspended fuel supplies.
This siege is not only wrong; it is almost wholly counterproductive.
First, Israel’s tactic of “collective punishment” is illegal. Targeting a civilian population is prohibited by international law: there is no debate to be had about it.
Second, however, two decades of using this tactic, in the occupied ter- ritories and in Lebanon, should have taught Israel that it does not work. It actually strengthens organisations such as Hamas and Hizbollah.
Indeed, this siege is visibly increasing Gazans’ dependence on Hamas as the only source of the means of subsistence.
It is time that Israel, its Arab neighbours such as Jordan and Egypt, the US and the Fatah nationalists they are all backing against Hamas rethought their position.
Their attempt to isolate and topple Hamas after its 2006 election victory – which included arming Fatah warlords in Gaza – has failed.
Arab and international mediators should immediately seek an armistice from Hamas and an end to the Gaza blockade from Israel.
They should then seek to revive the year-old Hamas and Fatah unity agreement and set up a joint caretaker government prior to eventual new elections. The Islamists should be brought into talks – on condition they are ready to work for a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza with east Jerusalem as its capital. Only when that is achieved should Hamas, and all Arab countries, be required to recognise Israel – an Israel with fixed borders, not the moving frontiers it keeps pushing into occupied Palestinian land.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008

Inside Story - Gazans pour into Egypt

Thousands of Palestinians have flocked into Egypt through the collapsed Rafah border crossing for a second day. They buy essential supplies made scarce by Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Fonte Al Jazeera English

once again....

...vado in Palestina.... anzi, sono già arrivata :-)

Gazans flood through Egypt border

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have surged into Egypt from the Gaza Strip after masked militants destroyed parts of the border wall.
Gazans rushed to buy food, fuel and other supplies that have become scarce because of an Israeli blockade - aimed at stopping rocket attacks from Gaza.
Egyptian police have so far taken no action to stop people crossing. Israel has expressed concern at the events at the border and has urged Egypt to restore security there. (...)
The BBC's Ian Pannell, who is on the Egyptian side of the border, says thousands of Palestinians have crossed through the breached wall and were stocking up on essentials, petrol and cigarettes.
Among them was Ibrahim Abu Taha, a father of seven, who told the Associated Press news agency: "We want to buy rice and sugar, milk and wheat and some cheese."
One Gaza woman told the BBC as she crossed the border: "We're going over there to our family. They're all there. I haven't seen [them] for 10 years." (...)

fonte BBC News (anche la foto)

Gaza plunged into darkness as Israel restricts fuel

The only power plant in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip has shut down because of a lack of fuel, Palestinian officials say, blaming Israeli restrictions.

Gaza City was plunged into darkness after the plant's turbines stopped. Israel's closure of border crossings amid continued rocket fire from Gaza has brought the delivery of almost all supplies, including fuel, to a halt. But Israel, which provides 60% of Gaza's power, says the territory still has sufficient fuel stocks. The UN believes Gaza's 1.5m inhabitants face serious hardship and one of its officials said unheated hospitals were having to rely on generators for operations. Mahmoud Abbas, the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority president who lost control of Gaza to Hamas last year, called on Israel to "end its blockade of Gaza immediately and allow the entry of fuel to facilitate the lives of the innocent". (...)

fonte BBC News

Honorary citizenship of the moon

"Daniel Barenboim, the world-renowned Israeli pianist and conductor, has received Palestinian citizenship" and a Palestinian passport, the Haaretz English edition reported on Monday, using a Reuters story. The Ynet version said that the Palestinian Authority had granted Palestinian citizenship to Barenboim, whereas The New York Times reported that the Argentinian-born Israeli pianist and conductor had agreed to accept Palestinian citizenship and an honorary Palestinian passport. (...)

fonte Haaretz, Amira Hass

... io vengo dalla Luna ...

la luna bambina

E adesso a chi la diamo
questa luna bambina
che vola in un "amen"
dal Polo Nord alla Cina?
Se la diamo a un generale,
povera luna trottola,
la vorrà sparare
come una pallottola.
Se la diamo a un avaro
corre a metterla in banca:
non la vediamo più
né rossa né bianca.
Se la diamo a un calciatore,
la luna pallone,
vorrà una paga lunare:
ogni calcio un trilione.
Il meglio da fare
è di darla ai bambini,
che non si fanno pagare
a giocare coi palloncini:
se ci salgono a cavalcioni
chissà che festa;
se la luna va in fretta,
non gli gira la testa,
anzi la sproneranno
la bella luna a dondolo,
lanciando grida di gioia
dall'uno all'altro mondo.
Della luna ippogrifo
reggendo le briglie,
faranno il giro del cielo
a caccia di meraviglie.

Gianni Rodari

... ciao Marco ...

Chronicling struggles of Italy's poor

ROME, ITALY - Ten months ago, Giampiero Beltotto started writing down what his friends said they were most worried about. They were struggling. They could barely make ends meet. They were part of an Italian middle class "at their limit," he said.
Beltotto compiled their stories and others in a book that offered an intriguing look at Italy in 2007, a year in which writers and bloggers plumbed the inequities and political rot found in one of Europe's most beautiful countries. "I Nuovi Poveri" or "The New Poor," details the uncertainties of an increasingly marginalized class, the people who should make up the bedrock of democracy.

fonte Chicago Tribune

per una volta non parlo di Palestina...

Olmert to assure Bush he will remove outposts 'expeditiously'

Israel will tell U.S. President George W. Bush during his visit to the region this week that it is committed to acting expeditiously to dismantle unauthorized West Bank settlement outposts, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday.
Israel has pledged repeatedly to take action on the outposts, generally small encampments settlers have set up in the West Bank.
Olmert spokesman Mark Regev did not say how quickly Israel would take down the dozens of outposts.

Fonte Hareetz, Barak Ravid

our violent presence

There is no Israeli whose presence in the West Bank is neutral. Civilian or armed, soldier or woman settler, resident of a quality-of-life settlement or a nearby outpost, MahsomWatch activist or guest at a settlement, Bezek worker or client at a Palestinian garage. All of them, all of us, are in this Palestinian territory, in the West Bank, because our state occupied it in 1967. (...)

Fonte Hareetz, Amira Hass

buon 2008