Global Voices

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The world is talking, are you listening?

Israel blogger Elizabeth Tsurkov tweets:

@Elizrael: Today is the 65th anniversary of the Deir Yassin Massacre, one of the worst crimes ever committed by armed Israelis

Pambazuka.org published a letter [fr] from players addressed to the president of FIFA, Joseph S. Blatter :

Some sixty professional footballers, for the most part African, wrote a letter to UEFA in protest at the decision to entrust Israel with the organisation of the European Under-21 Football Championship (June 5-18, 2013). In doing so, they argue, European football is turning a blind eye to the recent Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip.

About 100 people gathered in Sofia's central square to show their support for the victims of Israel's recent Operation Pillar of Defense in the Gaza Strip. Facebook page “Together for Palestine” [bg] has this photo of commemorative candles lit in Bulgaria's capital; another page, “Bulgaria supports Palestinian independence in the UN” [bg], has more updates and photos. A few pro- and anti-Assad Syrians were seen arguing with each other during this solidarity gathering:

Photo by Ruslan Trad.

Foreign expats, the local Muslim community and local Hong Kongers marched peacefully to hand in a letter to the Israeli consulate. Photo use with permission from HongWrong.com.

Hong Wrong has collected reports and photos on the weekend protest demanding an end to the Israeli occupation and the current bombardment of Gaza.

Photograph of a dog biting a Palestinian woman, from the Facebook page I Love Dogs

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“Gulf countries awfully quiet about Gaza,” tweets Foreign Policy editor Blake Hounshell. Lebanese journalist Antoun Issa adds:

@antissa: Amazing how eager GCC are to arm Arabs to fight each other, while disappearing completely when it comes to Palestine. #Gaza

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is made up of Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

Outraged by the Israeli air strikes attacks in Gaza earlier this week, peace activist in Hong Kong has organized a peaceful protest in the coming Sunday (November 18, 2012) to express their solidarity with the victims in Gaza.

Greek blogger Asteris Masouras uses Storify to collect the first reactions to the latest Gaza-Israel face off.

Israel and Alqassam Bridages exchange threats on Twitter. Screenshot shared by @AlexYudelson

Alex Yudelson shares a screenshot of tweets in which the account of the Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson and Palestinian Alqassam Brigades exchange threats – on Twitter.

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Netanyahu: Those who believe in him are afraid. Photograph shared by @elizrael in tumblr

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Egyptian Nervana shares her thoughts on the 39th anniversary of the 6th of October (Yom Kippur) War. She writes:

Egyptians need hope, and October ’73 is the event that is often used (and abused) to provide that much-needed feel- good factor.

Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue in Alexandria. Photo has been released into the public domain by its author, Moshirah.

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@activestills, “a collective of Israeli, International and Palestinian photographers, united by a conviction that photography is a vehicle for social change”, says on Twitter this morning: “Israeli police informed media about the shooting incident against refugees only 8 hours after it happened”, pointing to a few images from the shooting. The target was Eritrean refugees and the shooting is reported to have happened in the Shapira neighbourhood in south Tel Aviv. It is not clear what provoked the attack or why the media were informed 8 hours later.

Maya M of Maya's Corner comments on today's deadly bus explosion in the Bulgarian city of Burgas: “[...] While I understand that even the best intelligence can overlook the preparation of a terror act, I am angry, because our “services” are overstaffed and overfunded. They have generous subsidies even in the worst crisis, they receive more than the entire Bulgarian Academy of Sciences just to monitor telephone communications… and still they do not serve the public (to say the least) and do not provide the security which is their function.”

Paul Mutter blogs about the newest permutations of a social media campaign started over the weekend by two Israeli graphics designers that is called “We Love Iranians,” aimed at raising public awareness against the steady march to war the Likud government has been taking Israel on towards Iran. The meme, which uses cat pictures, has “gone viral” in Israel.

Blogger Iqbal Tamimi posts rare photographs of the Palestinian Nakba of 1948.

Sibo Kanobana wrote in the blog Afro-Europe: “I visited Israel en Palestine during the Christmas holidays and saw many things I didn’t expect to see. One of these things is the striking presence of black people in urban Israel. They represent a diverse people of whom most are Ethiopian Jews who made aliya (i.e. the migration of the jewish diaspora back to Israel) and settled in Israel in the 80’s and early 90’s.”

On Facebook, Elizabeth Tsurkov shares this set of photographs she took during a protest held against the deportation of the children of migrant workers in Tel Aviv, Israel, tonight.

Crikey's NAJ Taylor gathers five of Australia's Middle East diaspora to write about the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction of Israel campaign. How effective is it at “balancing the competing harms”? How “useful is [it] for members of the Israeli and Palestinian, as well as Jewish and Muslim, diaspora”?

Israeli woman Lihi Yona, a Moroccan Jew descendent, reclaims her Arab roots and complicates local identity politics on a bus ride to Jordan to attend a Lebanese band performance. The Hebrew version is followed by an English one: I am an Arab Jew.

Eran Amir produced a stop motion video showing 500 people around Israel holding up more than 1500 developed pictures. You'll have to see it twice, once to focus on the story told through the black and white pictures the people hold, and the other to enjoy watching the people and scenery of Israel.

The hacker collective J14hackers put together an SMS-Twitter gateway which enables easy content publishing from a local phone to Twitter. Users in Israel can send an SMS from their phones to 052-5635053, and the content of their message will be posted on the @J14Mobile Twitter account.

Occupied Palestine shares the plight of Khaled Zawahre, who is detained in Ofer prison, allegedly for beating up an Israeli soldier and throwing rocks. Occupied Palestine maintains Khaled's innocence and shares photographs and videos.

At OpenDemocracy.net, Dmitry Golubovsky and Svetlana Reiter write about the lives of autistic people in Russia.

“Bits of my life in Israel” is the title of a new video project, initiated by Israeli journalist and blogger Ziv Kitaro. The project invites Israelis to upload short videos in English documenting bits from their daily life dealing with any aspect of life, outside politics. the aim of the project is to give the world a window to the Israeli society, which isn't normally presented in the media outside a political context.Click here to follow the project or participate

On Wednesday 2/3/2011, a deadly accident took the life of Tal Shavit (55), a local motorbike guru, the founder of Motto Magazine and an activist campaigning for safe riding. His death shattered the local bikers community who felt that if it could happen to Shavit, one of the most experienced and careful riders in Israel, no one is safe. Bikers who spoke at Shavit's funeral said that on every routine ride they feel like car drivers are trying to kill them. On Friday morning, 4/3/2011, over 1,500 riders took over one of the main roads, escorting Shavit on his last ride to the cemetery. Watch video

A group of Israeli indie musicians have gathered to create a song, entitled Children of Liberty, expressing their support of the Egyptian people's newly acquired freedom, and have a “toast” to new neighbors, human rights and equality in both countries.

The weekly solidarity march of Palestinian and Israeli activists in the East Jerusalem Neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah this morning, was marked by a solidarity protest with the people of Egypt. Protesters carried an Egyptian flag and changed the name of Shaikh Jarrah garden to Tahrir Square. Click for photo

Arab-Israeli author and Journalist Sayed Kashua wrote a humorous yet sharp column targeting the Israeli narrow view point on the events in Egypt: “I used to think one of the troubles with this place, where people are always buzzing about humanism and accepting others, was the lack of knowledge of Arabic. After listening to our Arab affairs analysts, I reached the conclusion that it would be better not to teach Arabic at all here. In fact, Yisrael Beiteinu should get a law passed banning Jews from learning Arabic, if the result is going to be analysts like Guy Bechor.” Read more

Emily L. Hauser writes memories from Cairo as she prays for the Egyptian people: “I know that the Egyptians don’t love the peace that Sadat signed with us. I know that they hate the occupation, distrust Israel and the US because of it, are prone to believing mildly (and not-so-mildly) anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. I know that the Magen David, the Star of David, the symbol of my faith, is often used by them as a symbol of evil. I know these things. But in my heart, they are my people, too.”Read more