Tikkun Daily Blog Archive (https://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/author/galleryeditor/page/37/)
In her letter to us accepting the position of NSP co-chair, Vandana Shiva requested that we send out to you her request that you read the information below, and then sign and send the letter included below to President Obama and President Modi. Please take a look at this insightful writing!
In Britain, the BBC has recently finished airing a landmark documentary ‘The Story of the Jews’, written and presented by the British historian Simon Schama. The ratings were good and the praise was high from both the mainstream media critics and from most British Jews. It was a highly passionate and emotional telling of ‘our story’. This time, unlike Schama’s previous television histories, it was personal. I had certainly enjoyed much of Schama’s presentation until he said this:
“…in some sense if you don’t live in Israel – I don’t live in Israel – you’re morally obliged to be nearly silent, nearly silent.”
While filming the documentary Seeking the 36, James Cumming and Stephen Billias encounter Rabbi Shachter-Shalomi and introduce him to Shintaido. Their article discusses the art of Shintaido and Tai Chi, exploring their potential use for transformation both within the individual and society as a whole.
The hunger strike/work stoppage across California prisons, now in its 31st day, is a call to action that crosses racial and geographical lines. I support the hunger strike because in my time in Pelican Bay, I saw the violent, racist, divisive, and torturous practices of the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation (CDCR)
On Tuesday, President Obama expressed “disappointment” in the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling in Shelby County v. Holder, which all but eviscerated Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, and called upon Congress “to pass legislation to ensure every American has equal access to the polls.” Other critics of the ruling, however, were not so temperate in their characterization of what could prove to be a game changer for ongoing efforts to counter voter suppression.
The red panda, a small mammal that is on the endangered species list, appears on a building’s side just above the Bagmati Bridge in Kathmandu, Nepal. The mural was created by Daas, a transcontinental artist and entertainer who wanted to draw attention to this mammal that is fighting for its survival. “Knowing that thousands of people, everyday, will see this huge, colorful painting – in a sea of grey, deteriorating buildings – felt like I was helping to breathe new life into the city,” Daas says. “I wanted to give the people something to spark awareness as well as imagination.” In 2007, Daas, who was born in the United States, caught the attention of Universal Studios in Osaka, Japan, through his work on large-scale murals.
It is one thing to come, deliver and fly off, but without a coherent and resolute, goal-driven, follow-up strategy, the Obama visit could turn out to be be worse than a waste of time. Raising hopes and dashing them once again would be very damaging. If the Obama initiative succeeds in emulating the Sadat initiative by triggering new political currents in Israel, it is imperative that they are cultivated and nourished.
Burning injustice into memory was a huge inspiration for Lee and burning images into newspaper seemed almost a meta-narrative pathway of burning memory into our collective consciousness—a way of burning the image of these murder victims into history, a way to imprint their image into the news where they were largely forgotten.
Photographer Claire Schwartz explores both sides of the Israeli West Bank Barrier and the Bethlehem/Jerusalem checkpoint in her series entitled israel.checkpoint.palestine. Schwartz describes her photographs as a form of visual activism and social justice. “For me, art is all about my politics,” she says. “It is a way of being creative and expressing things that are political.”
The story so far… So, the Palestinians have failed in their attempt to gain full statehood recognition through the UN Security Council. Even if they had achieved the nine votes required, we know that the United States would have used its veto to turn the win into only a moral victory. The General Assembly can now have its say but can only vote on a lesser status than full statehood for the Palestinians. Of course, even if the statehood bid had been successful it would have done little to change the reality on the ground for Palestinians.