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Resources and Inspiration Against the Occupation
By Paul Street at Jan 18, 2008 |
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Here is a killer musical video from the wonderful left English folk-singer Billy Bragg: "The Loneseome Death of Rachel Corrie," adapted from a famous Dylan song.
In 2003, Rachel Corrie was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer while seeking to defend the Palestinian people against a brutal and illegal occupation.
And here for context is a remarkable eyewitness account of the revolting situation experienced by Palestinians under Israeli occupation: Anna Baltzer, Witness in Palestine: A Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories (Boulder, CO: Paradigm, 2007).
Ms. Baltzer's book evoked the following comment from Noam Chomsky: "even those who are familiar with the grim reality of the occupied territories will quickly be drawn into a world they had barely imagined by these vivid, searingly honest, intensely personal portrayals."
"Moving and vivid." says Tanya Reinhart.
I would add that the book is also a very useful introduction to the Palestinian issue for those who aren't "familiar with the grim reality." It's a very good starting place.
One of Witness in Palestine's great strong points is the inclusion of numerous photographs and maps. In the United States, there is something of a visual embargo on what the occupation looks like in terms of roads, walls, check-points, homes, facilities, and squalor (for the Palestinians). Ordinary Americans generally have zero idea of what daily life is like for Palestinians under the astonishing oppression imposed by Israel. That's no accident, of course.
The visual and related personal account of what apartheid looks and feels like on the ground will chill remotely sensitive readers to the bone and convey some sense of what motivated Rachel Corrie to risk her life in Gaza,
At the same time, Witness in Palestine contains much to inspire - numerous stories of heroic resistance and quite a bit of material about decent Isaelis who reject the Occupation and enlist in the fight against it.
Listen to and watch the Bragg video and buy or check out the Baltzer book. Both are good starting places to inform activism against an unjust occupation that is richly financed and otherwise enabled, sponsored, and protected by Uncle Sam.
Re: Resources and Inspiration Against the Occupation
By Street, Paul at Jan 26, 2008 21:16 PM
Good for you. Mr. Lynch. I honestly think Noam Chomsky is right to have suggested that the blogosphere may do more harm than good to progressive causes. I will do an occasional post that I hope is informative and inspirational or whatever but I\'d have to say that a good 2/3 of the discussion that tends to emerge in the comments sections --- including a while lot of pointless and endless sniping --- is just a complete and dysfunctional waste of time and energy.
You tried to to get on my case about using the word "killer" in describing the Billy Bragg video about RC. But that was a stupid thing for you to do in my opinion; it showed a lack of proper respect for what really matters. It diverted from the substantive subject matter of the post, which is what most blog comments do by my long observation. Now I\'m supposed to go look at your follow up and come back with some sort of retort and so on and so on and so on.
This is typical of the culture of blogs in my experience.
It\'s stupid, Damon. I refuse to get sucked into it anymore.
Sometimes I think blogs were devised by the ruling class or at least the coordinator class to keep people tap-tap-tapping along manically in front of their private computers instead of doing something smart, meaningful, substantive, and radical with their free time.
I suppose now you will do some sort of response either here or in some other part of the great blogosphere. Great, but It\'s unlikely I\'ll ever read it because I honestly think it\'s all pretty much a big waste of time.
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Re: Resources and Inspiration Against the Occupation
By Lynch, Damon at Jan 26, 2008 14:21 PM
Hi Paul, I have put response to your comment in a blog entry
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Re: Resources and Inspiration Against the Occupation
By Kurkulos, Maryellen at Jan 20, 2008 19:42 PM
For those who haven\'t done so yet, I highly recommend listening to Norman Finkelstein\'s talk on the coming breakup of American Zionism recently available on the top page of ZNet. If his conclusions are correct, it is in no small part due to Rachel Corrie. And I completely agree about Baltzer, having both seen her presentation and read her book.
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Re: Resources and Inspiration Against the Occupation
By Street, Paul at Jan 20, 2008 12:17 PM
Damon please don\'t come round here unless you have something substanttive to say; tantrums over minor word-choice matters are not worth having online. Life is short.
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By Lynch, Damon at Jan 20, 2008 06:33 AM
What made you describe the video as a "killer" video? If it is excellent, why not say so? Why use the language of violence and death to describe something that is intended to be uplifting and ennobling? And why did you use this in the context of a woman who died practicing nonviolent resistence?
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