Archives : 2016 January

Hell on Earth for Iraqis: 19,000 civilians killed in less than two years — roughly 28 per day
▻http://www.salon.com/2016/01/22/hell_on_earth_for_iraqis_19000_civilians_killed_in_less_than_two_years_roughl

A new United Nations report paints a hellish picture of the violence that has overtaken Iraq in the wake of the U.S. war that destabilized the country.

At least 18,802 civilians were killed and 36,245 wounded in the country in the 22 months between Jan. 1, 2014, and Oct. 31, 2015, according to the Report on the Protection of Civilians in the Armed Conflict in Iraq.

Another 3,206,736 Iraqis were internally displaced, including more than 1 million school-age children, in the 21 months from January 2014 to September 2015.

[…]

In the Iraq War, from March 2003 to December 2011, more than 1 million people were killed — “a conservative estimate,” according to a study by the Nobel Prize-winning organization the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.

Remembering Alan Rickman’s pro-Palestinian play about Rachel Corrie, American activist crushed by Israeli bulldozer
▻http://www.salon.com/2016/01/14/remembering_alan_rickmans_pro_palestinian_play_about_rachel_corrie_american_a

[…] Rickman had not only a legendary film and theater résumé, but also a firm commitment to progressive politics, and support for Palestinian rights in particular.

Rickman edited and directed a play in 2005 titled “My Name Is Rachel Corrie,” based on the life of a 23-year-old American activist who was killed by an Israeli soldier.

[…]

“My Name Is Rachel Corrie” was based on the young woman’s diary and emails. Rickman co-edited it with Katharine Viner, editor-in-chief of leading British newspaper The Guardian.

[…]

When theaters tried to produce the play in the U.S., however, they faced powerful backlash. An Off Broadway production of the play was being considered at the New York Theater Workshop, but was delayed after opposition and pressure from pro-Israel groups.

Rickman vociferously condemned the delay of the production, which he called a form of “censorship.” “Calling this production ‘postponed’ does not disguise the fact that it has been cancelled,” Rickman said. “This is censorship born out of fear, and the New York Theatre Workshop, the Royal Court, New York audiences — all of us are the losers.”

Oil drives our Israel policy: New government documents reveal a very different history of America and the Middle East - Salon.com
▻http://www.salon.com/2016/01/04/oil_drives_our_israel_policy_new_government_documents_reveal_a_very_different

As the question of partition on Palestine assumed greater impor­tance in Washington, another theme dominated, as it still does. This was the claim that U.S. policymakers were faced with the choice of protect­ing U.S. oil interests or deferring to partisans of partition and, later, Jewish statehood. The question became: Oil or Israel? This formula erred, as I will explain in the following chapters. The choice facing policymakers was not oil versus Israel but rather oil and Israel. In the years that followed, it was oil and Israel versus reform and revolution in the Arab world.