Global Voices

English

The world is talking, are you listening?

JoeSettler posts a photo of a sign he often passes that reads, “This [road] is a gift from the American people to the Palestinian people.” “What I think that USAID overlooked,” he comments, “Is that Jews also use this road regularly.” According to their website, USAID has donated $1 billion in aid to projects in Gaza and the West Bank since 1993.

When you live in the Middle East, water is essential to your daily survival. Israeli Kitchen recommends ways to store water in preparation for an emergency and what water sources you can use if your standard stores dry up.

“I’ve noticed that whenever a woman defends having taken her husband’s name… it’s invariably stated, ‘After all, feminism is about choice.’ Well I’m not pleased with having women who choose tradition, or patriarchy, telling me what feminism ‘is about,'” writes Israeli Yam Erez at Stand By Your Name.

If you want to know the weather for Jerusalem on your iPhone, you're going to have to get specific, reports Jewlicious‘ CK. You will now have to choose between East and West Jerusalem. “On the Yahoo weather page East Jerusalem’s weather is in Palestinian Occupied Territories >West Bank >Jerusalem and West Jerusalem’s weather is in Weather >Israel >Yerushalayim >Jerusalem.”

I see your protest and I raise you one. Jameel of the Muqata gives us politics with a much needed sense of humor. Last Saturday, a left-wing demonstration protesting 43 years of Israeli occupation in the West Bank was infiltrated by counter protesters holding signs such as, “We believe in blah-blah-blah,” and “We make the world abandon reason”- an Israeli cultural reference based on the recent “We Con the World” video. See blog for photos.

In “7 Reasons I'm Conflicted about the Fredom Flotilla” Daniel Sieradski writes: “By engaging in violence…[the activists] have demonstrated succinctly to Israel's supporters and allies that they, and by extension all Palestinian solidarity activists, are neither non-violent nor pro-peace. This hampers their cause and the greater cause of Palestinian liberation.”

In an entry entitled “You Know You're an Outcast When…” Israeli blogger David Bogner remarks on Spain's barring of Israel from its gay pride parade. Meanwhile, Tel Aviv celebrated its largest parade ever with 100,000 participants, Isrealli reports.

Picture this: Druze and Bedouin Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers sitting in a room singing call and response poetry to each other in the ancient Arabic style of Zajal. The video and background information can be found at Nizo's Blog, subtitled “A Gay Palestinian Muses on the Missile East.”

Joseph Dana posts a video of demonstrators waving Turkish and Palestinian flags in front of the prison in Beer-Sheva, Israel, where the passengers of the flotilla were being housed until deportation. Video is in Arabic and Hebrew with no subtitles, but you can still get a sense of the action.