Hours after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi announced a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas on Nov. 21, Twin Cities activists nonetheless marched the Lake Street Bridge over the Mississippi River to express solidarity with Palestinians. Several dozen demonstrators — Arabs and Anglos alike — occupied the sidewalks as dusk fell on Minneapolis and as rush hour brought a stream of automobiles leaving town for the Thanksgiving holiday, many of them honking in solidarity with the protest. Activists will rally again tomorrow in support of Gaza.
Israel is at war with Hamas, again. You can spend all day reading news reports and commentaries — and wind up pretty disheartened and depressed. However, residing more than 6,000 miles from the war zone certainly has its advantages, as far as being out of mortar and rocket range.
Amid violence in the Middle East, pro-Palestinian and Israeli groups held demonstrations in front of Coffman Memorial Union Friday — at one point nearing confrontation.
SodaStream, a new product that turns tap water into seltzer water, has been showing up on the shelves of Twin Cities’ department stores. The circumstances under which SodaStream products are made is anything but refreshing.SodaStream is an Israeli company with its main factory in the industrial park of Ma’aleh Adumim, the largest Israeli Jewish settlement in the West Bank. Free Speech ZoneThe Free Speech Zone offers a space for contributions from readers, without editing by the TC Daily Planet. This is an open forum for articles that otherwise might not find a place for publication, including news articles, opinion columns, announcements and even a few press releases. The opinions expressed in the Free Speech Zone and Neighborhood Notes, as well as the opinions of bloggers, are their own and not necessarily the opinion of the TC Daily Planet.According to research by the Israeli group Coalition of Women for Peace, being in the settlements provides SodaStream structural advantages – low rent, a labor force that is easily exploited, special tax incentives, and lax enforcement of regulations.For over 40 years, Israel has occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem. The Occupation means that the Israeli military has total authority over every aspect of Palestinian life in these areas. Numerous human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have condemned the Occupation for violating international humanitarian law and Palestinians’ human rights through the construction of hundreds of settlements in the West Bank. The Israeli government offered substantial benefits to encourage hundreds of thousands of Israeli Jews to relocate to these settlements. Similarly, SodaStream built its factory in the settlement in order to receive financial incentives from the Israeli government, and like all businesses in the settlements’ industrial parks, SodaStream qualifies for ongoing tax deductions.As with the Maquiladoras along the U.S.-Mexican border, the high unemployment rate means that many Palestinians are forced to try to earn a living through jobs in the settlements, despite the low pay and harsh working conditions.Palestinian workers in the settlements do not enjoy the full protection of Israeli labor laws. They must get special permits and security clearance just to be able to enter these factories. Involvement in a labor dispute constitutes a security risk and can result in the loss of not only a worker’s current job but their ability to work in settlements in the future. Thus, many Palestinian workers do not demand their legal employment rights due to fear of losing their work permit. At the SodaStream factory, when workers protested that they were being paid less than half of the minimum wage and were forced to work 12 hour days, they were fired. Continue Reading
OK, for the time being, things are looking about as good as I dared hope, for President Obama’s reelection. But I’m not as sanguine as many; it just doesn’t feel right, to be that way. The bottom could still fall out of the labor market, though that looks unlikely. Gas prices could continue to rise, even after Labor Day, though most analysts seem to be anticipating a drop. Continue Reading
Hey kids, welcome to This Month In Jewish: a monthly installment for TC Jewfolk where we recap all the important (and some unimportant) stories you may have seen this past month. Continue Reading
This article is to present the Palestinian point of view mainly for reference purposes. Americans deserve to know all perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian matter.
Sunday evening during the J Street conference in Washington DC, I struggled to stay concentrated. After a previously inspiring day; exhaustion had suddenly sunk in. I was about to succumb to my daydreams when a social justice activist from Texas energetically bounced on stage to give her “Coming Out” speech. Continue Reading
Taiser Khatib, a Palestinian Israeli citizen, met his wife in the West Bank. It could have been a one of a kind American fairy tale romance: love at first sight, engagement, wedding, two young children, two working parents. It could have been, but for one huge difference. The couple is one of an estimated 26,000 to 30,000 couples with one spouse a Palestinian Israeli citizen and the other a stateless Palestinian born in the Occupied Territories. Because of a recent Supreme Court decision, all of those families face permanent separation. Continue Reading
If the new Reese Witherspoon rom-com isn’t cutting it and you’re looking for films with some bite, you might want to check out IZUN/MIZAN. Plus you won’t be cursing yourself for wasting your hard-earned cash on a Reese Witherspoon movie (IZUN/MIZANis free, but please donate at the door if you can). Continue Reading
