Dr. Jeff Halper, an Israeli academic and activist, as well as co-founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, gave a lecture on 16 March 2009 at the University of Sydney, Australia, where he explained why he believes Israel's "separation barrier" enforces "apartheid" between Israelis and Palestinians. His lecture - as captured in this video clip - is transcribed below. JEFF HALPER: This is why we use the word "apartheid." Apartheid, in our view,...
Laura Flanders of GRITtv talks to Glen Ford, executive editor of the Black Agenda Report about the implications for racism in America with regard to the Obama administration's decision to "boycott" the United Nation's Racism Conference, also known as Durban II, which took place in Geneva last week. What follows below is a transcript of the interview. LAURA FLANDERS: Glen to you. I mean after this brouhaha and President Ahmedinejad's speech, Robert Gibbs of the US...
Democracy Now - A number of Western countries are joining the United States and Israel in boycotting the United Nations (UN) World Conference on Racism, which hosted by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, opened in Geneva, Switzerland on 20 April 2009. Australia, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and New Zealand all announced they would boycott the conference soon after the US announced its formal decision not to attend Saturday. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the opening session he was...
The Real News Network provides this clip in which President Barack Obama defends America's decision not to attend the United Nation's (UN) Racism Conference. Billed as the Durban Review Conference, the conference hosted by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, opened in Geneva today. Obama's statement, transcribed below, is somewhat vague in its justifications. However, the one thing that does come out clearly in the subtext of his statement is his administration's...
Yoni Goodman, director of animation for the Academy Award-nominated film Waltz with Bashir, collaborated with Open Society Institute grantee Gisha to create a powerful animated film about how the Gaza Strip’s 1.5 million residents experience living in a "closed zone." Despite declarations that it has "disengaged" from the Gaza Strip, Israel maintains control of the strip’s overland border crossings, territorial waters, and air space. This includes substantial,...
After the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, broke with the story of abuse by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) during the recent Gaza attacks, the New York Times carried a story on its cover last week - which out of character for this newspaper - had the words "Israel" and "war crimes" in the same paragraph. The BBC has also run a report questioning war crimes in Gaza. The Real News Network talks to Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC who writes...