racist brands take a stand
with oppression hand in hand
capitalist charities affirm disparities
freedom and the bantustans
the moneygoround grinds
in sordid imperial embrace
and your silence is assent
your bullying, self-defence
while others realise dreams
resist the Beast’s foul schemes
and your wall’s stacked
solid with sycophancy
praising white supremacy
your struggle, your sacrifice
brandished wares to sell
a Great Man or two
say they’re worth a look
have you read the book?
on besieged Gaza beach
a young boy flies a kite
unseen above, Israel tests
new drones for the US
and its predatory National Interest
At present, Ali Abunimah is in France, speaking in Paris, Bordeaux, Montpellier and Lyon, marking 10 years since the advent of the 2005 BDS call and “the first anniversary of the beginning of Israel’s 51-day assault on Gaza that killed more than 2,200 people and devastated the territory”.
Ali Abunimah speaks on why there has been no reconstruction in Gaza, about the total impunity Israel enjoys, highlighting that there are no consequences for Israel’s continued blockade because of almost no pressure from outside world.
Here’s some points which Ali made in the interview.
“It’s very easy to criticise the inmates of a prison for their behaviour within the cell.”
“As there has been no reconstruction, many Palestinians have died in the Mediterranean trying to flee the devastation in Gaza.”
“Israel with total impunity continues to take land, build illegal settlements.”
“Palestinians have a right to resist military occupation, whether they are from Hamas or other as the French resisted in World War 2, as others have resisted, Palestinians have a right to resist.”
“People say “you should not launch rockets” …the point is that particularly Europe, is treating Palestinian resistance as if it’s illegal.”
“The point I’m making is that when you talk about a people living under occupation as ‘terrorists’, and you greet the occupiers, the oppressors, at the Elysees Palace or in Buckingham Palace, you are sending a moral message that occupation and apartheid is OK.”
“I don’t recognise that any state, whether it’s Israel or France or a future Palestine, has a right to discriminate against people based on their religion or ethnicity, so I don’t recognise any legitimate Israeli claim Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state because that is by definition discriminatory against Palestinians.”
“The reason Israel is talking about the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement as a strategic threat is because Israel recognises that the movement pushing for equality, for a fundamental change, is going mainstream.”
at midsummer feast
he measures her bones
the incline of her neck
grey eyes like his own
and she in communion
surrenders her grip
he captures the pearls
that tumble and slip
purloined, coveted
he holds them fast
dons robe and talisman
nascent jewels past
at village harvest
her mother had worn
with oracle sisters
to bless the bright corn
Juno to Jezebel
Astarte to tart
prophecies broken
the land torn apart
his words command
over silver water
his sun, his moon
his property, his daughter.
Appearing in promotional shots in mud blackface, the Backstreet Boys besmirched themselves not only by flaunting the Palestinian-led boycott of Israel, but by becoming complicit with Israel’s crimes against Palestinians, marketing apartheid products.
Photographed frolicking in the Dead Sea to promote Premier Dead Sea Cosmetic Laboratories, the Backstreet Boys muddied their own brand with Israel’s colonial, apartheid crimes.
Premier Dead Sea, an Israeli company which is part of the Hadan Group and located in Lod, was ousted from Dundee and Sligo in 2011 after successful BDS campaigns.
Along with accepting more than $1m for their three performances at Ra’anana in May 2015, the Backstreet Boys allowed themselves to be used for brazen rebranding of Israeli settler colonialism, brutal military occupation, apartheid and theft with photo sessions in Occupied Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. Did the band receive more than a nice day, a mud beauty treatment, a meal and Goodie bags for their promotional photos?
Deployment of celebrities to pad Brand Israel reflects a desperate need to obscure an international image which becomes dirtier by the day.
In these videos, Professor Haidar Eid discusses BDS and addresses the hypocrisy of white liberal ideology and promises of supposedly left wing organisations in the setting of late capitalism “which does not take into consideration the perspective of the Other”.
“You do not wait for the coloniser to accept what you are saying, you force the coloniser to accept what you are saying – that is what resistance is all about.”
