Radars and Fences 3 Program
Event Time
Friday, March 12, 2010
9:30 AM – 5:00 PM

Location
Institute for Public Knowledge
20, Cooper Square – 5th Floor
New York, NY 10003

Please RSVP at Council for Media and Culture Events’ page

Description

A symposium with Ricardo Dominguez & Amy Carroll, Teddy Cruz, Helga Tawil Souri, Laila el Haddad & Mushon Zer-Aviv.

Radars and Fences 2010 will explore the production of the Israel/Palestine and Mexico/US borders, examining how they engage affects, bodies, and spatial scales. Despite their seemingly confounding specificities, it is our intention to open up a dialogue between these borders in order to enable new terms of practical and political engagement. By bringing this plurality of perspectives into dialogue around the themes of affect and space, we hope to reinvigorate critical analysis of the border in all of its (im)materialities and locations.

More at the Radars & Fences website

But he may not have to worry-at least not if Martin Kramer has his way. The current fellow at Harvard’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs has suggested I -and other Palestinian women from Gaza- should deliberately be stopped from having babies because chances are, they will be grow up to be radicals.

According to the Electronic Intifada, who first broke the story last week, Kramer offered this fasinating piece of solicited advice in the annual Herzliyah Conference in Israel earlier this month in which he called on “the West” to take measures to limit the births of Muslim Palestinians of Gaza and consider them a form of terrorism, or, as Kramer puts it, “extreme demographic armament”. He also praised the unconscionable Israeli siege for getting the ball rolling already and reducing the numbers of Palestinian babies there (see: infanticide; Gaza Diet). If your skin didn’t curl watching the audience clap at the end of that video, well, save your soul somehow.

Family Planning, the Martin Kramer way

Kramer’s argument: Gaza is a cauldron of crazy; there is already an excess of aimless young Muslim men loitering around and many most all of them will be extremists! Solution: they shouldn’t be born to start with. Like I said: brilliant!

How does he suggest they implement this ground-breaking plan? Stop providing “pro-natal subsidies” that encourage these births. Pro-natal subsidies, you might ask? Is that like pre-natal vitamins? Close, but spinal bifida or not, a baby is still a baby. Kramer is referring to food and humanitarian assistance for “Palestinians with refugee status”, who make up 70% of the Gaza Strip ( and of whom, I might add, 40% are already malnourished, and 80% rely on food hand-outs for survival).

Yes, you read that correctly. “In other words”, says MJ Rosenberg, Kramer seems to be saying “starve the Palestinians so they don’t have babies and…starving the babies so they don’t grow up.”

Lest an outraged public be all up in arms about…plagiarism, Kramer himself notes the idea is “not at all original”. Got THAT right…let’s see, where HAVE we heard this kind of chilling drivel before? Hmmm. Oh wait- the Nazis beat you to it! Except back then they called it Eugenics. Juan Cole contends it is a recycled form of Malthusianism.

Nice company you keep, Kramer. Way to hog the limelight.

One would think such unapologetic racism need not even warrant discussion. Ever the flag bearer of academic iniquity freedoms, Harvard disagrees.

This, despite the fact that Kramer’s ideas appears to meet the international legal definition of a call for genocide according to the Geneva Convention (which includes measures “intended to prevent births within” a specific “national, ethnic, racial or religious group.”).

Electronic Intifada founder Ali Abunimah spread the word about it, trying to force Harvard to take a stand, but instead they rushed to his defense.

“I wonder how long Mr. Kramer’s views would be tolerated if — all other things being equal — he were an Arab scholar who had called for Jews to be placed in a giant, sealed enclosure which virtually no one is allowed to leave and enter, and deprived of food and schooling for their children in order to reduce their birthrate?” Abunimah asked.

The ghastliness of it all was best summed up by an exchange between the mock Dan Halutz and Doron Almog to the real Martin Kramer on Twitter:

danhalutz RT @doronalmog: @DanHalutz Remember that time u, me, & @Martin_Kramer debated @Harvard over drinks on how to get rid of those superfluous Gazans? Good times

danhalutz @DoronAlmog Of course! @Martin_Kramer was all about the “pro-natal subsidies” and you just wanted to bulldoze those Gazans. Me, I like F16s

danhalutz @Martin_Kramer Dear Sir: I admire your brilliant ideas but fear ending pronatal subsidies will not eliminate superfluous Arabs fast enough.

danhalutz @Martin_Kramer: I say replace ‘pronatal’ subsidies with ‘pro-morbid’ ones: cluster bombs, white phosphorus, napalm. Let’s co-author a paper!

“Gosa?” I asked.
“It says Gaza” he said matter-of-factly.
“Oh-I see. But that’s not your physical address, you live in Columbia, Maryland” I instructed him.
“Mama, you don’t get it, that IS my address, its my my hometown, even if I live here, that is my real address!” he insisted.
“But its not even in the United States” I replied.
“So what. Its my city!” he answered.

Ok, obviously this was a losing battle. Forget about explaining geography and the limits of physical boundaries to a 5 year old. What does it matter in his mind anyway? His “city” is Gaza; he is IN Gaza, even though he is physically present in the United States.

That’s Yousuf for you. Even though he only spent a short part of his young life there (his first 2-3 years) Gaza has taken a big part of his heart and he never forgets it. I think in some way, that is how we all feel. No matter how far away we are, no matter how young or old, no matter where we are born and where we end up living, Gaza is in our hearts and is always our city. It casts a spell on you.

Yousuf demonstrates how to properly core a squash (koosa) in preparation for stuffing and cooking mahshi koosa (stuffed squash). The key is not to pierce the squash with the corer (my mother was hovering the background ready to wring our necks if we did perchance make this critical error!). In the background one can hear Noor furiously scribbling with crayons on her table-eep.

Ok so I’m gloating-but how many 5 year olds do YOU know that can core koosa

Friday, January 29, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: IHH, Ahmet Emin +90 530 341 19 34
Free Gaza Movement, Eliza Ernshire +44 754 011 22 94

[Istanbul, Turkey] Yesterday, the Free Gaza Movement and the Turkish Relief Foundation (IHH), announced a joint venture, sending 10 boats in the spring of 2010 to the besieged Gaza strip. Organizations from Greece, Ireland and Sweden have also promised to send boats to join the flotilla with the Free Gaza movement and Turkey.

Mr. Bulent Yildirim, chairman of the IHH said, “We sail in the spring to Gaza, and our last port is freedom; freedom for the 1.5 million Palestinians denied the right to rebuild their society. We will never stop sailing until Israel’s siege is lifted.”

Two cargo ships will be part of the flotilla, one donated by the Malaysia-based Perdana Foundation and one from IHH. Both will be laden with building supplies, generators and educational materials that Israel prohibits from entering Gaza since their brutal attack on the civilian population a year ago.

The many passenger boats accompanying the cargo ships will carry members of Parliament from countries around the world as well as high-profile journalists and human rights workers.

According to the chair of the Free Gaza Movement, Huwaida Arraf, “The illegal blockade on Gaza and Israel’s continued intransigence make a mockery of international law. If our governments will not take a stance to stop Israel’s abuse of the Palestinian people, global civil society is showing that we will.”

“I don’t know who or how, but I know that two of our soldiers put him in a jeep, and that two weeks later the kid was walking around with casts on both arms and legs…they talked about it in the unit quite a lot – about how they sat him down and put his hand on the chair and simply broke it right there on the chair” read one.

The complete story here at Ynet.

Back in July ‘09, the group made headlines when it published a booklet of testimonies that said they went into Gaza “with guns blazing” and orders to “shoot first, worry later”. “If you’re not sure, kill” one soldier was quoted as saying.

In response, the government of Israel launched a campaign to repress the organization and pressure foreign governments from withdrawing their funding of it.

Now, the subject war near and dear to my heart, as I disclose in my first question to him in the interview because my mother was a survivor and witness to those events in Khanyounis (her home town). She was eleven at the time, and I grew up with non sequitur details of what occurred that day-from the harrowing (mass executions) to the hilarious (my mother’s jokester of a cousin who-while awaiting imminent execution-asked his neighbor “what do you think they’re going to do to us??” (the reply: Make us dance-what do you think!!); My Aunt, who showed the soldiers about to execute her only son a coat she has purchased in Tel Aviv in hopes they would spare his life (it was, but only because a cease fire was declared)), never quite making sense of it all. ;Wasn’t 1948 was the really important date, I thought? And didn’t the Israelis occupy Gaza in 1967, so what were they doing there in 1956? And why haven’t I read about this anywhere?

“I can’t forget Ahmed Bitar-the newlywed they executed just outside the shelter we were staying in because he pleaded for mercy with his pregnant wife; or the bodies-all those bodies soaking in their own pools of blood along the castle wall in the town center; of my baby sister Mona, who couldn’t stop crying because she lost her pacifier,” she kept telling me.

And so when I came across Sacco’s book, I was thrilled-in whatever odd way one can be thrilled when reading about massacres…to discover that someone had finally bothered to investigate these incidents. I poured through the books pages one after another. I even showed some to my mother-she recognized many of the faces immediately.

“This is not something you can just forget or [say] ‘let’s move on’ [about]. It has to be acknowledged, it has to be talked about. History has to be written not just by the victors, but by the people being victimized” Joe said to me in the interview.

Afterward, he a request of me: that when the interview goes live, I re-link it here along with testimony from my mother. Well here it is that testimony, following by an exclusive excerpt from the book.

Free website – Wix.com

As many of you know, I am a foodie of sorts-some (*ahem* Yassine) would call me a slow-food activist. I am particularly interested in the connections between food, culture, and politics and have written a lot about the foods of Gaza in specific and Palestine in general. Here is a short video I made using my flip of my mom (who is still visiting us in the US) demonstrating how to cook Rummaniya, an unusual Gazan vegetarian dish made from the unlikely combination of sour pomegranates, eggplants and lentils. In the process, she gets a little homesick and emotional. FYI: the poem she recites in the end is attributed to a Imam Shafi’i, a Muslim jurist whose teaching eventually led to the Shafi’i school of fiqh named after him. It is said he was born and raised in Gaza and missed it so much after leaving that he wrote this poem.

Rummaniya is a seasonal dish, made just before pomegranates are fully ripe in the fall. It is traditionally considered a “poor man’s food” because it is meatless and consists of cheap legumes and vegetables. You would be hard-pressed to find it in any restaurant (but hey-maybe one day at cafe Laila’s! .

The finished product

Here is the recipe for those interested:

Rummaniya

1 cup brown lentils
3 small eggplants (if they are big, one really big one, or two medium ones, or 1/2 kg)
3 sour pomegranates if you really can’t find them anywhere, you can use a few Tablespoons of pomegranate molasses, found at most Middle Eastern grocers.
1/2 cup flour
1 small onion, diced
2 T. Tahini
3 cloves garlic
2 whole dried red chili (or dried chili flakes)
1 teaspoon caraway seed
¼ tsp ground cumin
1 T. dried dill seed
1-2 tsps salt

1. Boil lentils in water until cooked.
2. Remove pomegranate seeds, put them in a blender; puree and strain, reserving juice. Set aside.
3. Cut unpeeled eggplant into cubes.
4. In a mortar and pestle (we call them zibdiya in Gaza, basically an unglazed clay/earthen bowl; if you can’t find them, use a mini-food processor), crush salt, dill seed, garlic, and chili. Set aside.
5. Saute chopped onion in some olive oil until golden brown; add eggplant until wilted and soft; add lentils; boil for a few minutes until well-mixed.
6. Mix pomegranate juice (or pomegranate molasses diluted in a few T. water) with flour until well-mixed, then slowly add to stew on stove-top while mixing.
7. Add crushed spices to stew and mix well until thickened.
8. When thickened, add Tahini, mix through for 5 minutes, and turn off heat. Pour into bowls and allow to cool before putting in fridge.

Top with extra-virgin olive oil, and garnish with pomegranate seeds if available. Serve with Kmaj/Arabic bread.

On the first year of the onslaught against Gaza-against all of the Palestinian people, the short animated clip Closed Zone is as relevant as ever. More thoughts later.

A while ago, I blogged about a meta-tourism project created by my friend, media artist Mushon Zer Aviv, called You Are Not Here (YANH), a play on the directional “You are HERE” found on maps everywhere.

YANH is an urban tourism mash-up. It takes place in the streets of one city and invites participants to become meta-tourists of another city. The way it works is : You download a map, take your phone with you and go tour Gaza through the streets of Tel Aviv or Baghdad through the streets of New York. It started as a tour of Baghdad through the streets of NY, a project dreamed up by Mushon and some of his colleagues while a graduate student at NYU’s ITP program.

I collaborated with Mushon on the Gaza iteration of the project, writing and recording the locations in Gaza City.  The project was presented in many an exhibit, including Rotterdam’s Digital Electronic Art Festival and Istanbul’s Akbank Gallery. During the past few months, we updated the sites and recordings to reflect the current reality, and re-launched the tour for a theater exhibition at the (first) ArtTLV biennial in Tel Aviv.

Reuters, Haaretz, and the Abu Dhabi National and the Dutch NOSJOURNAAL (use google translate for this piece) among others covered the re-launch (links below).

Re-recording the locations was a very strange, very emotional experience, something that is mirrored in the tour itself. Its been a while since I’ve been able to return to Gaza, and so much  has changed that I feel like a stranger-one that is nevertheless intimately familiar-with this city, this place I call home.  So relying on my own personal knowledge and experience, and filling in the details with the help of my parents, Wikimapia, and some research of our own, we pieced together the most accurate descriptions we could. I tried to make the recordings as intimate and as colorful as possible-I really wanted to disorient the listener/walker, challenge their commonly held perceptions and their relationship to Gaza, all while reflecting the current reality.

As we made clear to all media outlets we spoke with: this is NOT a normalization initiative (if you didn’t catch it, notice the deliberately broken beach umbrella in the project’s logo above, created by our colleague Dan Phiffer). As one of the journalists covering the project put it, the tour serves to “create an association in the mind of the listener-to momentarily disorient the tourist and then reorient them with a new perspective—one that includes Gaza as part of their consciousness.”

You can read more about our thoughts in the articles above. I’ve also provided a sample recordings below. If they are not working, you can also access that at the YANH website itself.   Enjoy!