Palestine Think Tank

Allow me to start with a correction. How impolite, you'd rightly think, but anyway, we Israelis are being forgiven for much worse than impoliteness.
What is so  generously termed today by the International Women's Media Foundation as my lifetime achievement  needs to be corrected.  Because it is Failure.  Nothing more than a  failure.   A lifetime failure.
Come to [...]

New entry in the PTT and Tlaxcala intitaive: First Word War (Translated by Tlaxcala in English, German and Spanish) Piracy on the Somali coasts, armed violence in the East of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the explosive situation in Darfur, and the harmful impact all these matters have on neighbouring countries fill the news headlines. But the media merely describe the phenomena without analysing the real causes.

One of the most misleading terms used by the media, and which can also be found in certain academic publications, is that of “armed conflict”. It is even alternated with the term “war”. However, when referring to conflicts in Sub-Saharan Africa, the media use adjectives such as “ethnic conflict”, “civil war”, etc. But where military operations take place in other places and the United States of America is an actor, such as Afghanistan or Iraq, the term “war” is used.
So where is the difference? Aside from the technological, military or legal aspects, the difference lies in the ideological assumptions which try to justify the presence of the Empire in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Our next entry in the First Word War, the intitiative by Palestine Think Tank and Tlaxcala to declare war against disinforamation, presents two writers who deconstruct the Israeli and Zionist lexicon. We are asked to stop calling Palestinians who live within Israel "Israeli Arabs", when they were, are and always will be Palestinians. The second intervention explains why Israel's use of the word "self-defense" is an abuse of the concept.
Translations into Italian by Mary Rizzo and Spanish by Manuel Talens

What peace, Mr. Nobel for Peace, if you cannot stop settlements? What peace when the British Foreign Secretary considers the Israeli war a democratic decision by a democratic state? What peace when European Union countries have refrained from voting to form an investigation delegation, a mere delegation to investigate the murder of 1,400 Palestinians, three quarters of whom were civilians? We are before a western ethical crisis. These countries, which teach daily lessons on the independence of the judiciary and human rights and the importance of accountability, stand naked at Israeli checkpoints, incapable of demonstrating even minimal credibility. International justice in Belgium retreated before Sharon. In Spain, it retreated before the generals of “Operation Cast Lead”. We have no idea where else in the aging continent (as Rumsfeld calls it) it will retreat. Has the Israeli war criminal become stronger than judicial buildings that are over two centuries old? This is the question before judicial, national, regional and international institutions today.

UPDATE! NEW ADDITIONS IN SPANISH AND ARABIC. FIRST WORD WAR – PALESTINE THINK TANK AND TLAXCALA DECLARE WAR ON DISINFORMATION.  (Original art for PTT and Tlaxcala by Carlos Latuff). Our second instalment features Nahida Izzat, Adib S. Kawar and Issa OnLine. Translations into Spanish, English and Arabic by Manuel Talens, Victoria Blanco, Atenea Acevedo, Mary [...]

AN INTERNATIONAL CALL FOR ESSAYS  and the first essays by MARY RIZZO, AYMAN EL KAYMAN AND SANTIAGO ALBA RICO (Spanish and French translations below. Translations to English, Spanish and French by Manuel Talens, Machetera and Fausto Giudice)
Reclaiming Significance: Palestine Think Tank and Tlaxcala declare the First Word War
WRITTEN BY MARY RIZZO 

There are some words that are used as emotional [...]

WRITTEN BY KOUROSH ZIABARI 
Iranian experts believe that the development of political reform and the emerging wave of social awareness which is encompassing the different classes and layers of Iranian society is not a direct result of efforts made by the politicians, notes Kourosh Ziabari. 
 
The gradual and steady evolution of reform movement in Iran does not [...]

Over three years ago, an idea took shape. That idea was to create a network of activists that would share their material, translating things they considered important from one language, and in exchange, they would be able to circulate things translated by others. We hoped that we could contribute to a more active, involved discourse [...]

This interview was made by activist, writer, translator and academic Mauro Manno. Last Friday, following 14 months of suffering, our friend Mauro was released from his agony. All those who knew him, worked together with him and who were befriended by him will miss his intellect, generosity, determination and commitment to a cause. It is [...]

Translated into English by Manuel Talens and revised by Mary Rizzo
 
During the current Israeli aggression to Gaza both the Spanish Left and Right have built linguistic fences to position themselves around the problem. The case of the Spanish institutional Left is without any doubt paradigmatic: on one side there a party now in office – [...]