James Petras in the Palestine Chronicle (please support this excellent publication if and as you are able) on an emerging group sometimes dubbed “academics in uniform”:
The Pentagon’s military strategists have recognized that they have suffered political losses, with strategic consequences in their recent military invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. US military support for the Israeli invasions of Lebanon and Gaza, the US-sponsored Ethiopian occupation of Somali, the coup attempts in Venezuela (2002) and Bolivia (2008), have also failed to defeat popular incumbent regimes. Worse still, civilian, family, community and national networks have reinforced the anti-colonial movements providing essential logistical support, intelligence, recruits and legitimacy. Read the rest of this entry »
Qalandia check point is the main check point into Jerusalem from Ramallah. It is worse than I remember it to be. A humiliating example of every day life for the Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories, in fact I think that animals are often treated better than these people. I had met a guy in Ramallah, who was traveling back to Jerusalem and for this I was grateful. This meant that I did not have to go through the check point alone.
