BLOGS

Blogs

Useful links on Israel & Palestine

March 20, 2020

In Blog News The Israel-Palestine Conflict

With a generous offer to present the following publications/interviews to the audience of Dr. Norman Finkelstein by Dr. Finkelstein, after a presentation of some work in middle to late 2019 and in early 2020 to him, I write the following statements of description for the interviews, presented in chronological order, published between April 26, 2019, and March 17, 2020:

The first interview, “Interview with Dr. Norman Finkelstein on Gaza Now,” published on April 26, 2019. The interview opened with a reiteration of the historical context for the current situation for Dr. Finkelstein, alongside a personal evaluation (nothing more, nothing less) of the chosen intellectual life, including lifelong consequences of intellectual integrity, for him. Everything framed around the new book, at the time, published by him, Gaza: An Inquest Into Its Martyrdom:

https://www.canadianatheist.com/2019/04/finkelstein-jacobsen/

The second interview, “Interview with Gideon Levy – Columnist, Haaretz,” with a Haaretz columnist and editorial board member published on May 3, 2019. The interview touched on a health update, as Levy suffered from cancer and cancer treatment several times, and further updates on the Israeli elections, and the nature of the media in Israel:

https://www.canadianatheist.com/2019/05/levy-jacobsen/

The third interview, “Interview with Omar Shakir – Israel and Palestine Director, Human Rights Watch (Middle East and North Africa Division),” published on May 6, 2019. It focused on the basic facts of the Israeli-Palestinian issue, the extrapolations of the unlivability of Gaza into 2020, the violation of rights, the media and alternative sources of information, other human rights organizations, the concerns of the Palestinians in the near future, and the removal of the blockade:

https://www.canadianatheist.com/2019/05/shakir-jacobsen/

The fourth interview, “Interview with Dr. Usama Antar – Independent Political Analyst (Gaza Strip, Palestine),” published on May 22, 2019. It focused on the sociopolitical situation in the Gaza Strip, the factors increasing Palestinian radicalization, the potential impact of lifting the blockade, the impositions’ and restrictions’ impacts on people’s abilities to form families and on children’s sense of safety (“it is like a joke,” not ‘it is a joke’ – important and subtle distinction), some life experience, sense of the conflict, and the historical reasons for the internal split:

https://www.canadianatheist.com/2019/05/antar-jacobsen/

Following this, Shakir agreed to an educational series on Israel and Palestine, as one of the relevant subject matter experts and the Israel and Palestine Director for Human Rights Watch (Middle East and North Africa Division). The fifth interview, “Ask HRW (Israel and Palestine) 1 – Recent Events,” published on May 23, 2019. It focused on the issues in mid-May of 2019, recent firings between the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) and Israel, and military and civilian casualties within some of the conflicts to contextualize it:

https://www.canadianatheist.com/2019/05/ask-hrw-israel-and-palestine-1-recent-events/

The sixth interview, “Ask HRW (Israel and Palestine) 2 – Demolitions,” published on October 29, 2019. It focused on the June, 2019 human rights violations and breaches of international law, media reportage in the region and around the world, the most severe crimes, targeted killings or shooting at the kneecaps of journalists, medical personnel, civilians, and children, Palestinian civilians who are maimed and not killed returning to Palestinian society, racism as a dynamic in the Israeli-Palestinian issue, likely trends to July of 2019, some possible and actual consequences for frank reportage on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, and glimmers of hope:

https://www.canadianatheist.com/2019/10/ask-hrw-israel-and-palestine-2-jacobsen/

The seventh interview, “Ask HRW (Israel and Palestine) 3 – November-December: Deportation from Tel Aviv, Israel for Human Rights Watch Israel and Palestine Director,” published on December 25, 2019. It focuses on some brief contextualization of the Question of Palestine, things happening in November through December in Israel and the oPt, light and heavy critiques of Shakir, state-based consequences for Human Rights Watch coverage of human rights violations, other states known for similar restrictive human rights reportage and activities, consequences for the image of Israel over the long term as a result of the expulsion of Shakir, and the first-time use of an amendment to the law of entry from 2017:

https://www.canadianatheist.com/2019/12/ask-hrw-3-jacobsen/

The educational series has new parts with far more coverage and research. This is based on a series of ‘critiques’ amounting to two forms: ad hominem and red herrings, or both at once. Nonetheless, I took them seriously. In that, I systematized, to myself, and made sure to cover these critiques as such, and made the appropriate adjustments and additions to the future sessions. The eighth interview, “Interview with Musa Abu Hashash – Field Researcher (Hebron District), B’Tselem,” published on March 17, 2020. It focused on family and personal background, B’Tselem and Hashash’s work with them, the real history of the Palestinians, and the physical and emotional toll on the refugees:

https://www.canadianatheist.com/2020/03/hashhash-jacobsen/