Is This The British Parliament?

News from London:

Thursday, 27 January 2011 06:57

MPs express horror at torture of prisoners by the Palestinian Authority

That this House expresses grave alarm over recent reports of the torture of prisoners under the custody of the Palestinian Authority

Thursday, 27 January 2011 07:50

Questions for written answer (Lords) by Feb 9 - Middle East

Lord Dykes to ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they intend to make about the President of the Palestinian Authority following election laws and submitting himself for re-election...

And here we were thinking that for the Brits, the Pals can do no wrong.


(Kippah tip: MJ)

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Not Dead, Not Even Past

There's a recent, 2003, book out that claims "The Palestinian past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past".

It's entitled "Memories of Revolt: The 1936–1939 Rebellion and the Palestinian National Past" by Ted Swedenburg, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Arkansas.

It's described thus:

“This wonderful monograph treats a subject that resonates with anyone who studies the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and particularly Palestinian nationalism: that how Palestinian history is remembered and constructed is as meaningful to our understanding of the current struggle as arriving as some sort of ‘complete empirical understanding’ of its history. Swedenburg . . . studies how a major anti-colonial insurrection, the 1936–38 strike and revolt in Palestine [against the British], is remembered in Palestinian nationalist historiography, western and Israeli ‘official’ historical discourse, and Palestinian popular memory. Using primarily oral history interviews, supplemented by archival material and national monuments, he presents multiple, complex, contradictory, and alternative interpretations of historical events. . . . The book is thematically divided into explorations of Palestinian nationalist symbols, stereotypes, and myths; Israeli national monuments that simultaneously act as historical ‘injunctions against forgetting’ Jewish history and efforts to ‘marginalize, vilify, and obliterate’ the Arab history of Palestine; Palestine subaltern memories as resistance to official narratives, including unpopular and controversial recollections of collaboration and assassination; and finally, how the recodification and revival of memories of the revolt informed the Palestinian intifada that erupted in 1987.”

Just against the British?

And over 500 Jews weren't killed in what I call 'Saba Intifada' - the Grandfather Intifada? Jewish-planted trees weren't uprooted by the thousands, wells weren't blocked, fields weren't set alight, etc., etc. etc.?

Did You Catch This?

Lt. Gen. Keith W. Dayton, the American security coordinator for the Palestinians, was pressing ahead with up to $80 million in aid to train and equip Mr. Abbas’s Presidential Guard

Source.

O the waste, the foolhardiness.

Johnston Update: He's a "Friend" of the Pals

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) said on Monday it was increasingly concerned about the safety of one of its journalists, Alan Johnston, who it believes was abducted in Gaza a week ago.

In a statement released in London, the broadcaster urged anyone with influence in the region to do all they can to ensure the safe release of Johnston, who has not been seen since March 12 when he left the BBC’s office to drive to his Gaza City home.

“Although we have not been able to establish exactly what has happened to Alan, it seems certain that he has been abducted and is being held somewhere in the Gaza Strip,” the BBC said.

“It is disappointing that after seven days there has still been no firm word either about his whereabouts or his condition.

“We call on everyone with influence on this situation to redouble their efforts now that Alan has been missing for more than one week.”

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And his father has something to say:-

In a televised appeal for information from the family home in Argyll, Graham Johnston said his son had made friends with many Palestinians while working in Gaza.

"This holding Alan is not doing the Palestinian people any favours, quite the opposite," he said.

"It is no way to treat a friend of the Palestinian people, and all I can say to the men who are holding Alan is: please let my son go, now, today."