While on a visit to Canada, the Arab-Israeli member of the Knesset describes the conditions experienced by her people in and outside Israel and the pressures she faces.
Paul Weinberg
Paul Weinberg is a Toronto-based freelance writer and journalist. His website is www.paulweinberg.ca.Haneen Zoabi in conversation
Nazareth, Haneen Zoabi's home city in northern Israel, is a chaotic mess of streets and nondescript buildings that has seen better days from an architectural and planning perspective.
It is a kind of metaphor for the member of the Knesset's major constituency, the little over a million Palestinian-Arabs or Arab-Israelis living inside the state of Israel today.
The childhood home of Jesus was actually a small, beautiful historical town in 1948 that never really recovered from an overwhelming flood of refugees that had managed to escape the ethnic cleansing of 700,000 Palestinians in what is called the Nakba or catastrophe by the armed forces of the then new state of Israel.
A preview of the Toronto Jewish Film Festival
Israel may have problematic politics but it is also a hothouse for remarkable storytellers and journalism as demonstrated by some upcoming offerings at the upcoming Toronto Jewish Film Festival, on from April 17 to 25.
The latest available episode of the Israel TV sitcom, "Arab Labour" is only on at 12 p.m. on April 23 at the Al Green Theatre in Toronto, but you may be able to rent it eventually in some video and DVD outlets along with past episodes. Sayed Kashua, the scriptwriter and creator of this remarkable series may be among the funniest men in the Jewish state. I wish someone could do something as biting in Canada.
Reel Injun is real interesting
The image of Atanarjuat, the Fast Runner, in the great Inuit movie, is what still stays in my mind almost a decade after its release -- one lean desperate man dashing naked across the choppy Arctic ice and snow to flee from the murderers of his brother.
Revisiting the Palestine question: An interview with Ilan Pappe
Israeli historian Ilan Pappe begins a speaking tour across Canada tonight in Montreal. The theme of his talk is "The False Paradigm of Peace: Revisiting the Palestine Question."
Based currently at the University of Exeter in the UK, Pappe will be discussing the history of failed negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. He is the author of nine books including The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, which is the definitive account of the expulsion of close to 800,000 Palestinians in 1948 upon the founding of the state of Israel.
The truth about Lester Pearson's peacekeeping
Lester Pearson’s Peacekeeping: The Truth May Hurt
(Fernwood Publishing,
2012;
$15.95)
In his new book, Yves Engler sets to demolish the near saintly status of Lester Bowles ("Mike") Pearson in the public sphere, Canadian foreign policy circles and even on the social democratic left. And in the process, he takes on the much repeated slogan that "the world needs more of Canada."
Much like Noam Chomsky who provides a forward to Lester Pearson's Peacekeeping, the author relies mostly on the excellent but largely unread scholarship plus the former PM's own statements in Parliament and in memos to successfully establish a case.
An interview with Norman Finkelstein: Israel 'has lost a lot of ground'
Controversial Jewish American scholar Norman Finkelstein does not feel like a pariah anymore.
Visiting Canada again this week on a tour of campuses to deliver lectures and answer questions about the seemingly intractable situation in the Middle East, he reports receiving more invitations to speak than ever these days.
"It is much more difficult in public life to defend Israel than to criticize it," Finkelstein explains in a telephone interview with rabble.ca. "I've gotten more invitations from more mainstream places."
The Face of Imperialism: An interview with Michael Parenti
This fall, Michael Parenti's timing as a writer could not have been better. The independent scholar and lecturer has produced 22 books on political and cultural subjects. But his latest, The Face of Imperialism, jives completely with the current Occupy movement in cities around the world.
Parenti spoke to rabble.ca this week while on a three-city tour of Ontario university campuses. Parenti's short Canadian tour took him to Toronto (Tuesday), Guelph (Wednesday) and Hamilton (Thursday).
A revulsion for repression: In conversation with Amira Hass
Amira Hass, the award-winning Ha'aretz newspaper columnist, brings the hardships and repressions experienced by Palestinians to her readership in Israel every week. As a resident and correspondent reporting from the West Bank, she is in a better position than most Israeli journalists to paint an accurate picture of life there. She has been on a Canada-wide speaking tour and will appear in Toronto tonight. For more information, click here.
Toronto Palestine Film Festival holds a mixture of laughter and tears
French filmmaker Vanessa Rousselot took a very nervy path to gain a fresh insight into the life of Palestinians in the occupied territories. The result is the 2010 documentary, (No) Laughing Matter, which is being shown on Oct. 6 and is one of the highlights at this year's Toronto Palestine Film Festival, which starts Friday.
With a TV camera, she approached people, young and old, male and female, in shops, stores, the classroom and on the street across the West Bank, Haifa in Israel and in Gaza (via Skype) to ask if each of whom could provide a joke.
