Film Review: NO OTHER LAND

Critical analysis aside, the fact that Palestinian documentary NO OTHER LAND won an Oscar for Best Documentary in the bastion of Zionism that is Hollywood is huge. Or maybe I should say that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts used to be a bastion of Zionism? Maybe this win can be seen as a generational shift analogous to that of younger Jews moving away from unconditional support for the U.S.-Israel land theft enabled by genocide.

I saw the film yesterday at the Strand Theatre in Rockland, Maine (it will show again tonight, March 5, at 7pm). It called to mind another documentary about the challenges of documenting land theft actions by Israel's military and settler militias, FIVE BROKEN CAMERAS. Masafer Yatta and Bil'in are different locations, but both are in the occupied West Bank and constantly besieged by violent Zionists. CAMERAS was released in 2011; more than a decade later, not much has changed.

Student of law Basel Adra operates his family's gas station following his father's arrest and imprisonment in notorious torture site Ofer Prison. He puts aside his camera and explains to his partner in documentary journalism, Israeli Yuval Abraham, that he needs to provide for his family. While Abraham moves at will on special roads for cars with yellow i.e. Israeli license plates, Adra and his neighbors are constrained at every turn: checkpoints, home and school demolitions, stun grenades and live ammunition. 

The Maine audience gasped as Israeli soldiers poured concrete into a well, and when soldiers shot young Harun abu Amar as he struggled to prevent them stealing a generator. Amar's subsequent paralysis and suffering, in a filthy cave rather than in a now-demolished home, and his mother's anguish over caring for him and her wish that he could die, are fierce. (A footnote at the end of the film says he did die, and I imagine I wasn't the only one who muttered Thank God.)

The fact that Amar is visited by a host of foreign journalists and filmed even as he tells them he doesn't consent and that they should go away teases out the film's central theme: what good does documenting atrocities do if atrocities continue accelerating? The problem of finding an audience is discussed in terms of likes on social media or online publications. Adra asks Abraham if there is much interest in his articles among Israelis. There isn't.

A visit by the odious warmonger Tony Blair does little to remedy this, though appears to result in some temporary and limited relief from land theft.

A question I had going in: does this film subtly promote the Zionist project in Palestine? A friend had shared a post on the blog Marginalia Subversiva, "The Celebration of a Sanitized Narrative: How Genocide is Managed, Marketed, and Sanitized" An excerpt:

The Oscar win for No Other Land has been hailed as a historic moment for Palestinian representation in cinema. But beneath the surface of this celebration lies a deeply frustrating reality: Palestinian stories are only recognized when they fit a settler-approved narrative -- one that erases Gaza, centers Israeli voices, and reinforces the colonial fantasy of a "two-state solution."

The post linked to a scathing review by Mary Turfah, "'No Other Land' For Whom?" on the film website mubi.com. "The Palestinian-Israeli documentary indulges in a familiar kind of wishful thinking" is its subtitle and Turfah goes on to say:

Abraham remains committed to ending the program of ethnic cleansing committed in his name, but in the film and elsewhere, he attributes those horrors to the “occupation” rather than to Zionism. His condemnation of the former serves to preserve the latter. This distinction is artificial: from the standpoint of its victims, Israel is its occupation, the Zionist project necessarily one of ethnic cleansing and genocide, of total erasure.

Abraham attempts a rehabilitation of an iteration of Zionism that doesn’t exist but could, a familiar settler hope (think, imagine what America could be). 

Young children crying in fear as a contingent of Israeli soldiers in combat gear looms outside the windows of their village school made me cry, too. The villagers struggle to defend the school they've built, but the occupation's bulldozer crushes it anyway. Adults comfort the children sometimes with white lies like Don't worry, you are safe and It will be ok. What else is a parent to tell them?

There is no happy ending where the children are safe. In his Oscar acceptance speech Adra invoked his infant daughter, but at the end of LAND he answered Abraham's question about his desire for marriage and children by saying that without stability "it's complicated." Filming in Masafer Yatta occurred prior to Hamas' Gaza Al-Aqsa Flood operation October 7, 2023 but the final cut includes an audio clip of an English language broadcaster repeating PM Netanyahu's lie about Hamas killing thousands of Israelis that day. That lie goes unchallenged in the film.

On our way home I asked my husband to imagine being a 12 year old who didn't know about the Zionist occupation of Palestine. How would the film seem to someone without much background information? Mark said: I don't think anyone could see this evidence of Israel's sadistic cruelty without siding with the Palestinians. My conclusion: the film is imperfect, but the Oscar win is a good thing in terms of showing how land theft by Israel is ongoing and actually has nothing to do with Hamas. And, as Turfah observes, demonstrating the need for armed resistance. No wonder it has not found a U.S. distributor!

Of course my husband had plenty of background information heading into the film. As we rose from our seats he turned to me and said, Fuck Joe Biden. I would add Fuck 47, too. They both have the blood of tens of thousands of Palestinians on their hands.

If you live in the U.S. and want to send yet another message to your AIPAC-sponsored members of Congress, you can click here.

REVISED March 7: Revised to include this link to the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel’s March 5 statement on NO OTHER LAND.

REVISED March 8: Revised to include this link to Indie Nile’s video review of the film highlighting the normalization aspect of NO OTHER LAND.

BOOK REVIEW: The Message

I just finished Ta-Nahisi Coates' controversial book The Message, a Christmas present from one of my kids who said, I know he's kind of a liberal darling, mom, but I think you're going to really like this book. It's an opportune time to read about Coates' experiences in Palestine  because I have friends who are visiting the West Bank as observers of the Zionist occupation. One of them posts to a private blog each day and coincidentally had just read The Message before leaving on their trip. Much of what they report aligns with Coates' descriptions of apartheid and white supremacy in all its ugliness.

As for what Coates made of his experiences, therein lies the controversy.

Coates burst on the scene with a long-form piece in the legacy liberal magazine The Atlantic where he was on staff. "The Case for Reparations" is something most of us probably read years ago when it came out in 2014. If so, did you remember that Coates used the creation of Israel as an historical example of reparations? That he now regrets his hoodwinking by hasbara (Zionist pr) is palpable; he's embarrassed for himself, but not too embarrassed to learn more and to hold himself accountable for his errors.

I had been aware of his fall from grace with the liberal, Democratic Party-aligned media over the book but didn't know the details. Since I never watch CBS Mornings or really any corporate media, I missed it when Israel-aligned journalist Tony Dokoupil attacked Coates for comparing Jim Crow and Israeli apartheid. Astonishingly, Dokoupil told him:

If I took your name out of it, took away the award, and acclaim, took the cover off the book, the publishing house goes away -- the content of that section would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist.

So the Zionist argument is: despite your stature as a prominent Black intellectual, we are going put a pejorative label on you for drawing your own conclusions based on your own recent observations in occupied Palestine. 

Conclusions that prominent Jewish intellectuals Noam Chomsky, Dr. Gabor Maté , Hannah Arendt, and Albert Einstein also reached based on their own observations.

What makes Coates' observations and conclusions so powerful is his broad experience with structural racism and white supremacy in our times. The Message is actually a collection of three essays he wrote for his writing students at Howard University, a historically Black college in Washington DC. One essay reflects on his trip to Senegal to see where the African slave trade that his ancestors suffered through originated. One reflects on his visit to a South Carolina school district that attempted to ban his book Between the World and Me from Advanced Placement English. And both those essays inform what he makes of his experiences in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv.

Coates is nothing if not a researcher, delving into primary sources like Zionist founder Theodor Herzl's early writings to find prescient scheming and plans for dehumanization:

We must expropriate gently the private property on the estates assigned to us. We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it[sic] in the transit countries, while denying it[sic] any employment in our own country. The property owners will come over to our side. Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly.

As Coates begins to examine why he never interrogated Zionism, his research uncovers some facts that shock him: a study finding that from 1970-2019 fewer than 2% of opinion pieces about Palestine were by Palestinian authors. The dearth of Muslim or Arab journalists with positions in Western corporate media. Myths about Israel being "the only democracy in the Middle East" and the industry devoted to mythologizing archaeological ruins that become theme parks for promoting Zionist tropes.

The role of settlers in pushing Palestinians out of their homes and off their land is a major theme in Coates' essay. According to his research there are now half a million of them.

In case you're wondering, he meets with Israelis, too. They tell him how dangerous it is to speak out against apartheid or to refuse military service. They take him, a Black descendant of enslaved people, on the roads that only Jews may use, bypassing the checkpoints that clog up commerce, education, and familial bonding for Palestinians.

Back stateside, Coates gets together with a group of Palestinian professionals and activists and their friends.

The group spoke about politics in a manner of communal intimacy -- the way my people speak when no white people are around..

Deanna [Othman] told me she taught at a school where most of the kids were Palestinian, and she loved teaching "The Case for Reparations." She said, "The kids always say, Yeah but about the Israel part? And I just say, Well, nobody's perfect."

There's so much more in-depth analysis in The Message than I can convey here. As Israel refused over the weekend to release 600 Palestinian prisoners already on buses, despite the release as promised by Hamas of Israeli hostages in Gaza, and moved tanks into the West Bank for the first time in 20 years, it's time to examine the unvarnished truth about the Zionist project.

Atrocities In Abundance

I just purchased a print of this original work "Repentance" by Inga Solveig. You can, too.

The atrocities committed by Israel seem to escalate with each passing day as if the ICJ ruling that they were likely guilty of genocide accelerated their efforts. I avoid war porn but in the week that U.S. Airman Aaron Bushnell sacrificed his own safety in an attempt to protect Palestinians from violence inflicted by our country, it's surreal how fast the horrors are piling up.

Trigger warning: disturbing content follows.

Video here if you can stand to watch it. This is not what 5 month old babies typically look like, and the mother is reportedly too malnourished to produce milk to feed her infant.)

https://twitter.com/angeloinchina/status/1763138532695298378

The occasion for the massacre: starving people were receiving food aid. More than 100 were killed and hundreds more were injured.

"More than 100 killed as Israeli forces open fire in chaos at Gaza food lines, Palestinian health ministry says" by Abeer Salman & Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Feb 29, 2024 

Al Jazeera reported:

• At least 112 Palestinians waiting for food aid killed and 760 wounded after being shot at by Israeli forces in Gaza.
• “Life draining out of Gaza at terrifying speed,” says UN aid chief Martin Griffiths on aid seeker attack, as death toll in Gaza crosses 30,000-mark.

In some cases, food aid boxes have been dropped into the surf so that people have to swim out to get it. Israeli snipers shot them, too, according to witnesses. Haven't seen any photos of that.

The UN Security Council is set to meet later today about the killing of starving, dehydrated aid seekers. Another veto opportunity for the U.S.? 

And finally, how could we overlook the citizens of Israel out on the borders blocking aid trucks by erecting macabre facsimiles of carnivals with bouncy castles and cotton candy machines to delight the children. 

https://twitter.com/QudsNen/status/1761147220164845777

Not the beautiful starving children of Gaza, dehydrated, orphaned, and mourned.

Only the well-fed, housed, and hydrated Zionist children. 

Because apartheid is the enormous, vicious lie that some children are worth more than other children.

If you're able to, you might join me in donating to the Palestine Children's Relief Fund. It was named as a beneficiary in Aaron Bushnell's last will and testament, a man who could not stay alive in the face of his complicity in all these atrocities.

Movie Review: ISRAELISM

A long-awaited documentary on the generational shift in perceptions of Israel by U.S. Jews came to the Maine International Film Festival last night. Seven years in the making, ISRAELISM combines searingly honest interviews with archival material to tell the story of the profound absence of the Palestinian point of view in the training of young Zionists. (Full disclosure: I donated to an early fundraising round for the film, and director Eric Axelman is a childhood friend of one of my kids.)

As he conducts a tour through the occupied West Bank, Baha Hilo of To Be There tells the camera crew, "Jewish Americans would tell me things like, We like you but we don't like Palestinians. Even though I'm the only Palestinian they know."

Animations for recalled incidents reminded me of the Israeli film WALTZ WITH BASHIR depicting tormented recollections of the Sabra and Shatila refugee camp massacres by a traumatized IDF soldier who participated. Forty years on, this week's IDF and settler attacks on the Jenin refugee camp will produce the same result: trauma for the Palestinian survivors and for their oppressors. The turning point for young idealists in the IDF who find themselves on the wrong end of a gun is a major theme in both films. And although no one in ISRAELISM uses the term "moral injury" it's clear that it affects even non-soldiers who witness the brutality of occupation firsthand -- in one case, by exiting a Birthright tour funded by older Jews who have made it their life's work to train kids to be Zionist.

Jewish identity in my lifetime has often focused on issues of justice and equality. When these traditional ethics of Judaism confront apartheid, land and water theft, and violent suppression, it creates friction. Holocaust trauma does not, for many young Jews, justify brutality against the indigenous people of Palestine.

Anchored by the recollections of two young Jews, the film centers Simone Zimmerman and Eitan. We hear Eitan recount why he enlisted in the IDF and how his experiences tormenting Palestinians while "just following orders" turned him against the occupation. We see Zimmerman give details of the indoctrination she experienced in her Jewish day school and summer camps, producing a 10% IDF enlistment rate among her U.S. high school graduating class. 

We also see Zimmerman, co-founder of the organization If Not Now, touring the West Bank with Sami Awad of Holy Land Trust. And headlines about how she was hired as Jewish outreach advisor to Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign and fired only days later for a past social media post critical of Israeli PM Netanyahu.

It's not the only brush with U.S. presidential politics in the film. Coincidentally, current Green Party candidate Dr. Cornel West appears giving a talk on his views on the spiritual dimensions of Israeli apartheid. (Not incidentally, the pro-Israel views of Democratic primary challengers Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Marianne Williamson have eroded support for both among leftist opinion leaders in the U.S.)

The film succeeds in part because it maintains a sharp focus. It could have widened to include many related topics: why so many politicians and other power brokers in the U.S. are beholden to AIPAC and Israel (cf. Epstein's black book). The complicity of the corporate media in pushing pro-Israel narratives. The intifadas and ongoing Palestinian resistance could have been covered in more detail. And the film could have addressed the constitutional crisis of the alleged "only democracy in the Middle East" enforcing segregation and ethnic cleansing.

It could have delved into the role of settlers, many of whom are from the U.S., as the opportunistic Zionists who serve as colonizers. One of the most poignant clips in the film is one I'd seen elsewhere: a Palestinian woman confronts a settler saying, "You are stealing my house!" He responds in a U.S. native speaker accent, "And if I don't steal it, someone else is gonna steal it." So much for his Jewish ethics.

To my mind Zimmerman gets the last word:

What we've been told is the only way that Jews can be safe is if Palestinians are not safe. 

The more I learned about that, the more I came to see that as a lie. 

Stench From The Camps Is The Defining Smell Of U.S. Government Rotting

Palestinian child being evicted, and not for the first time, by apartheid-state Israel in 2018. Yesterday Israel was admonished by the UN for demolishing dozens of Palestinian homes.
(Image by UNRWA/Lara Jonasdottir)

Sometimes the news is so sad, so troubling, and so bizarre that my feelings about current events are best expressed in a digest of what I've been reading.

So, here goes for the final week of a very hot and very ugly July with dollops of fierce kindness and (probably unfounded) optimism.

Trending on Twitter July 18 after the demagogue with bad hair had a crowd in South Carolina chanting "send her back" about Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.

 Omar has been a naturalized U.S. citizen for 16 years, which is longer than the demagogue's current wife. Stochastic terrorism is the demagogue's specialty. Indeed, two police officers in Louisiana were fired this week after posting and liking on Facebook that someone should use one of America's 300,000+ guns on another member of "the Squad" whom the demagogue loves to target, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. It would take an week of posts to list all the threats of violence against the four women of color who make up the Squad.

Note the asymmetry on Twitter, the demagogue's presumed home court: 134,000 versus 39,800.

(My eternal optimism was deflated by a convo with my youngest who explained that Area 51 is a morally vacant millennial joke -- not a metaphor about storming government facilities to free "aliens" being held captive as I had hoped.)

Speaking of so-called aliens being held captive, here is a long post from an immigration lawyer who is doing a difficult job in worsening times:

Then, for some dark comic relief, a letter from my "representative" in Congress who this week represented General Dynamics, not me, when he voted to authorize $733 billion in Pentagon funding for 2020. His statement on the vote is predictable, while his expressed views on justice for Palestinians makes him sound like a poorly informed middle school student.

To say that Golden is in AIPAC's back pocket so soon in his maiden voyage as an elected official would be disappointing except that I expected no better. After all, he ran as a Democrat and veteran bragging about his role in U.S. wars of aggression against Israel's foes.Is the fact that the Pentagon's bloated budget and insatiable appetite for petroleum are causing a climate emergency lost on him? No reply on that topic of my communications with him. Nor any meaningful response to the humanitarian disaster of brown babies and children being held in U.S. concentration camps.

Photo credit: USA Today

The stench from the camps is the defining smell of our times.It has become ever more necessary to hold your nose while attending to the media circus of which candidate will get the Democratic Party nomination.I'll bet you that, no matter who else is running, the oligarchs will keep the demagogue with bad hair in office by hook or by crook. They find 8-year terms much more convenient than taking on a whole other group of Katie Johnsons and Stormy Daniels to pay off, hush up, etc. every four years.Of course I'm praying he goes down with Jeffrey Epstein. But I'll believe it when I see it.

Israelism, Upcoming Documentary On The Strange Relationship Of American Jews And Israel

Last night I had the rare good fortune to be part of a group in Skowhegan, Maine premiering clips from Eric Axelman's upcoming documentary, Israelism. The film's working title used to be 70 Years Across the Sea: American Jews and 21st Century Zionism and its facebook page still is for the time being.

As a half Jewish man raised as a Jew, Axelman is fascinated by how devotion to Israel replaced devotion to Judaic teachings for so many of his and his parents' generations.

To kick off his documentary, Axelman took a free trip from the Zionist organization Birthright Israel, bringing along camera and recording equipment. He was amazed at the extent of apartheid in Israel, and returned even more fired up to continue the project.

Then, he scored an interview with Noam Chomsky early on that helped immensely with fundraising. Clips of the interview are incorporated into the first trailer for the film, which you can see here.

A salient Chomsky quote from the interview:

Loyalty to Israel simply meant whatever they do, we support it -- even if we don't know what it is.




Other notable interviews already in the can include one with Cornel West on "the battle for public opinion" so that "AIPAC doesn't take up all the air in the room." 

Also activist Issa Amro of occupied Hebron in the West Bank. A new trailer shows Amro  blindfolded and arrested for the umpteenth time for nonviolent resistance to settlements crowding out Palestinian families in what the UN said in 1948 was supposed to be Palestine.

Also Rabbi Alissa Wise, the first rabbi banned from entry to Israel because of her support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement to support Palestinian rights in the occupied territories.

Also Simone Zimmerman, a Jewish outreach coordinator who was fired quickly by Bernie Sanders' campaign for a social media post where she called the Israeli PM (Bibi) Netanyahu an "arrogant, deceptive, cynical asshole" and wrote, "Fuck you, Bibi...

He does not speak for me as a Jew, an American, and as a thinking person."

In the clips I saw last night, Zimmerman in particular details how the ugly truth of Israel's human rights abuses was hidden from her as she was growing up. "My questions about Israel were met with radio silence," she told another interviewer. Not surprisingly, Zimmerman began to wonder what was so awful that it had to be so carefully hidden.

All great stuff, and I cannot wait to see the finished film in a year or so.

Pushed Learning and Media is producing the film,  a non-profit that Axelman co-founded while a student at Brown University. Their stated mission: We use performance and multimedia to start conversations about privilege, identity, and oppression.

Donate at www.gofundme.com/70years to help finish post-production on Israelism.

Obama Wants To Give Israel $40 Billion In Military Aid But Does Your Senator Agree?

Photo source: Electronic Intifada "

Qalandiya checkpoint after two Palestinian siblings were slain by Israeli forces on 27 April. (

Shadi Hatem, APA images)"

Seventeen brave U.S. Senators did not sign the Graham/Coons letter supporting the gift of up to $40 Billion of military aid to Israel over the next ten years. Maine's Sen. Angus King did not sign while Sen. Susan Collins did. Collins has been in AIPAC's pocket for decades so no surprise that she singed. However, Independent King has taken some local heat for his support of Israel's war crimes in Gaza. Could this have influenced his decision? We can only hope.

Israel's apartheid wall has displaced thousands and limits the free movement of Palestinians.
Photo source: Luigi Farrauto, http://www.khtt.net/page/13391/en

Also, good for Sen. Bernie Sanders for not signing on to the Obama administration's latest craven pandering to an apartheid state that is among the wealthiest in the world and not in need of aid from U.S. taxpayers. Lately Sanders has been backing away from his former support for Israel right or wrong. This takes courage because the backlash from AIPAC and other angry Zionists will be fierce. 

Some of the senators on this list may have refused to sign out of simple fiscal conservatism.

Military aid to any country is corporate welfare for U.S. weapons manufacturers as it allows other countries to buy weapon systems at the U.S. taxpayers' expense. Countries like Israel and Saudi Arabia, with their stellar human rights records (sarcasm warning), are often the recipients of this largesse.

Perhaps you would consider sending a note of thanks to senators who did not sign on to this bad proposal. Because they will definitely be attacked by AIPAC for their stand. Here are the refuseniks to thank:

Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.)

Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.)

Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio)

Tom Carper (D-Del.)

Bob Corker (R-Tenn.)

Al Franken (D-Minn.)

Tim Kaine (D-Va.)

Angus King (I-Maine)

Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.)

Chris Murphy (D-Conn.)

Rand Paul (R-Ky.)

Jack Reed (D-R.I.)

Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.)

Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.)

Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.)

John Tester (D-Mont.)

Tom Udall (D-N.M.)

Each name has been linked to their contact page to send feedback. You may need to use a zip code to establish that you're a constituent. 

If you're a Mainer, or even if you're not, you can join me in letting Sen. Susan Collins know how you feel about her support of Israel's war crimes.

You can let your elected officials know how you feel about supporting the Israeli military with its regular extrajudicial killing of civilians, including a pregnant mother of two trying to cross into Jerusalem for medical care. If you're Christian, you can ask yourself: what would Jesus do?

Maureen Clare Murphy reporting April 27 in Electronic Intifada "Brother and sister slain at checkpoint were executed, Palestinians say":

Video from the scene shows Israeli forces turning away a Palestine Red Crescent medic and preventing a cameraman from filming. 

A brother of Maram and Ibrahim told Haaretz that he doesn’t believe his sister intended to carry out an attack, saying that she was on her way to a doctor’s appointment when she was shot dead.

Information Control Takes On Boycott, Divestment And Sanctions #BDS

History reminds us that lots of nasty practices were -- or still are -- legal. 

Apartheid was once legal in South Africa and is becoming increasingly so in Israel. Slavery was once legal in the U.S. and remains so in countries where consumer products are created for the U.S. market. Segregated access to public transportation was once legal in Montgomery, Alabama but it was successfully opposed by a boycott that spread like wildfire under the leadership of Rosa Park and her coalition partners. The second time Parks was arrested, it wasn't for refusing to get to the back of the bus; it was because boycotting was illegal.

Following the UK's lead, the U.S. Congress took a giant step toward protecting the state of Israel from boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) aimed at ending the violent occupation of Palestine. But you will not likely read about the special status of Israel in the corporate "news" about the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015.

Nor did the public hear much about the anti-BDS provisions included in the bill signed by President Obama last summer. As reported July 2 by Josh Ruebner for Electronic Intifiada:

This provision, tucked into the Trade Promotion Authority bill — more commonly known as “fast track” authority — makes it a “principal negotiating objective” of the United States “to discourage politically motivated actions to boycott, divest from, or sanction Israel” in current negotiations with the European Union over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. 

The law also specifically extends this US discouragement of BDS to include “Israeli-controlled territories,” a transparent ploy to put pressure on the EU to reverse nascent steps to label products from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Nor, for that matter, has the public heard much about the highly toxic TTIP in any of its aspects. But that's the topic for another post.

Why is the U.S. government specifically aiming to squelch the BDS movement? 1) Because it has such a special relationship with Israel; and 2) because BDS is working.

The fizzy drink maker with the factory in occupied Palestine shut down their plant after international pressure on the SodaStream brand. That was after the actress who is the face of the brand's ad campaign was asked to resign from her Global Ambassador position with international humanitarian aid organization Oxfam. (Full disclosure: I've been boycotting her films ever since).

Source: US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation facebook posted on February 24 with the comment, "Look what's in today's LA Times after we were censored by Variety! We need to continue pushing on this campaign to urge Oscar nominees to#SkipTheTrip so please find resources and actions to take here: http://bit.ly/1Tm04Gb."

And, as long as we're in Hollywood, let's note the lawsuit brought by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences against the purveyor of the "swag bag" given to Oscar nominees in certain big categories. Responding to a voucher in the bag for a free trip to Israel worth $55,000, Palestinian activists have called on Oscar nominees to "reject Israel propaganda trip" because of Israel's apartheid policies. The Academy is distancing itself from the company that distributed the bags and assembled their contents, using court filings to say loudly and clearly that the swag bags and their contents have no official relationship with the Oscars. 

Did the marijuana vaporizer or the trip to Israel inspire the lawsuit? We may never know. It's very doubtful that a journalist working for a major media corporation will delve into it.

Institutions of higher learning with active divestment campaigns include Tufts, the University of Mississippi, Harvard and MIT, Columbia/Barnard, Kansas State, Evergreen State College and Stanford among others. There are ongoing attempts to silence campus groups that criticize Israel or punish them for even debating the issues. Heard about any of that on the evening news?

Ok, then, have you heard about this? Sarah Lazare reporting in AlterNet on February 22:

The Israeli government is planning to pour $26 million this year alone into a covert cyber operation to attack and sabotage the global human rights movement for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS), earmarking large sums for technology companies to spy on Muslim activists in the United States and Europe.

Didn't think so.