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Search Results for benay blend
From Birchbark Books to Palestine: Takeaways from Louise Erdrich’s The Sentence
By Benay Blend In the past few years, several articles and books have focused on the ties between Native American and Palestinian activists/scholars. See, for example, Steven Salaita’s ‘Internationalism: Decolonizing Native America and Palestine’ (2016), […]
On Israel’s History of Targeting Pregnant Palestinian Women
By Benay Blend In late August 2021, Palestinian prisoner Anhar Al-Deek, who is nine months pregnant, wrote a moving letter to her family. “What should I do if I give birth far from you? I […]
On the Perils of Normalizing the Virus
By Benay Blend A fault is a fracture or zone of fracture between two blocks of rock. During an earthquake, the rock on one side of the fault suddenly slips making a big move all […]
On Cuba’s Historic Connections to Palestinian Liberation
By Benay Blend “People be ‘nuancing’ and ‘both-siding,’ then a government is overthrown and a country falls into devastation and they are nowhere to be found.” That quote from Hood Communist sums up the history […]
On Memory, Justice, and the Bones of Indigenous Children
By Benay Blend In the Jewish faith, there is a saying when someone dies: “May their memory be a blessing.” When many people die, as in the case of settler-colonial regimes, fascist dictatorships, mass shootings, […]
‘Oslo’: The Movie and the Myth
By Benay Blend On May 29, 2021, HBO premiered the screen version of J.T. Rogers’ play Oslo. It follows a Norwegian couple as they coordinate meetings between the Israeli government and the Palestine Liberation Organization […]
From Boarding Schools to Child Detention: The Lives of Children Matter
By Benay Blend “Yes, I am thinking of Palestinian children and undocumented children as well,” mused Diné activist Melissa Tso. “They are literally being killed daily by these settler governments.” As “an essential part of […]
On the Rise of Antisemitism from an Anti-Zionist Jewish Perspective
By Benay Blend On May 25, 2021, Politico reported a rise in antisemitic attacks on the Jewish population in America. Writing in the midst of the latest escalation of violence towards Palestinians by the Israeli […]
On the Ethics of Non-Palestinians Promoting Nonviolence
By Benay Blend In “The Violence Debate: Teaching the Oppressed how to Fight Oppression” (2010), Ramzy Baroud explains that for “progressive and Leftist media and audiences, stories praising non-violence” are preferred, for they invoke a […]
No Black Liberation Without Palestine Liberation: On the Commonality of Structural Racism
By Benay Blend “In the 70s,” writes author Ibtisam Barakat, “the UN passed a resolution that Zionism is Racism.” By the 90s, that mood changed. Due to efforts to prolong South African apartheid, to prolong […]
On Memory, Resistance, and Nakba Day 2021
By Benay Blend In “Invention, Memory, and Place,” the late Edward Said reflects on the question of collective memory: what is remembered, how, and in what form? On Nakba Day, May 15, 2021, it is […]
‘Colonization of the Mind’: Joint Nakba Commemorations and Normalization
By Benay Blend “If 15/20 years ago we had listened to ‘serious moderate’ voices telling us to support ‘two-state solution,’ not call out Israeli apartheid and not push BDS,” tweeted journalist Ali Abunimah, “where would […]
Was Justice really Served? Lessons Learned from the Chauvin Trial that Relate to Palestine, Turtle Island
By Benay Blend Over thirty years ago, James Baldwin was the subject of a PBS documentary The Price of the Ticket (1989) in which he reflected on what he considered a lack of progress in […]
On Normalization and the Joint Memorial Ceremony in Palestine, Israel
By Benay Blend “To be liberated,” writes Rima Najjar, “Palestine must feel free to be herself, not in rivalry to Israel, but in the context of her own capacity and her personality.” In a January […]
Passover 2021: Who are the Modern-Day Pharaohs?
By Benay Blend “We’ve got to face the fact that some people say you fight fire best with fire,” said Black Panther Chairman Fred Hampton, “but we say you put fire out best with water. […]
Land Day 2021: Existence, Resistance, Resurgence
By Benay Blend “In 2019 I went to Palestine twice,” wrote Ibtisam Barakat, “one time with Palestine Festival of literature in April.” When an officer informed her at the border that she didn’t exist in […]
Black Radical Politics, Palestine and Zionism: An Online Event with Prof. Rabab Abdulhadi
By Benay Blend On March 25, 2021, at 10 AM MDT, the Amsterdam Centre for Middle Eastern Studies will present an online Facebook event entitled Black Radical Politics, Palestine and Zionism with Prof. Rabab Abdulhadi, […]
Israeli Apartheid Week 2021: Lessons from the Black Radical Tradition
By Benay Blend “Make no mistake,” wrote Nerdeen Kiswani, “it is because of white supremacy that Black people are all too familiar with, that they recognize and even are affected by Zionist white supremacy as […]
‘Facebook, We Have to Talk’: On Distinguishing Anti-Semitism from Anti-Zionism in Public Spaces
By Benay Blend In January 2021, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) announced a global campaign “Facebook, we need to talk” about the social media giant’s inquiry into whether criticism of the movement Zionism “falls within […]
Zionists’ Efforts to Coopt the BLM Movement: Can Racists Be Anti-Racist?
By Benay Blend On February 6, 2021, Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza announced that she was pulling out of a World Values Network online gala with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, a prominent American Zionist. “They […]
‘What About the Other Side?’: Notes on ‘The Devil’s Advocate’
By Benay Blend The late historian Howard Zinn once said that sometimes there are not two sides to a question. In A People’s History of the United States (2003), Zinn writes that one reason that […]
‘Nobody’s Free Until Everybody’s Free’: On Extending the Holocaust Day of Remembrance
By Benay Blend In a speech entitled “Nobody’s Free Until Everybody’s Free” (1971), Fannie Lou Hamer told the National Women’s Political Caucus that black and white women had to work together in order to achieve […]
On the High Cost of Solidarity: Joe Biden, Palestine and The Left
By Benay Blend “As Palestinians,” writes Zarefah Baroud, “we are taught to comply with our oppression for the sake of a peace we won’t be included in. Unlearn this,” she suggests, and moreover, “when a […]
On Apartheid, White Supremacy and Ongoing Police Violence: Whose Words Really Matter?
By Benay Blend “Everyone’s reporting on the B’Tselem report like it’s the first they’ve ever heard anyone say that Israel’s an apartheid state,” commented Susan Abulhawa, Palestinian author and activist. “It’s like nothing about Palestinian […]
‘Beyond Vietnam’: Where Do We Go from Here?
By Benay Blend In “Beyond Vietnam” (1967), his speech delivered at the Riverside Church in New York, Martin Luther King opened by quoting from Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam. “A time comes when silence […]
‘Public Lands are Stolen Lands’: On the Necessity of Networking in 2021
By Benay Blend “Anti-imperialist politics also have to speak to the conditions of people in the US,” writes Onyesonwu Chatoyer, “if you want to win people in the US to anti-imperialism.” A cadre with the […]
On 2021 and Confronting the Ghosts of the Past
By Benay Blend In “A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas” (1843) Charles Dickens tells the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly miser who is paid a visit by his former […]
‘What Binds Us Together’: On What It Means to Support Indigenous Liberation
By Benay Blend In a recent interview with Michael Arria, Sumaya Awad and Brian Bean discuss their book Palestine: A Socialist Introduction (2020). The collection argues that socialism should be viewed as an important element […]
A Room of Their Own: Takeaways from ‘Mangrove’ and Palestine Writes Back
By Benay Blend A Room of One’s Own is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf, first published in September 1929. Here she argues that a woman requires a room of her own and money if […]
From Turtle Island to Palestine: There is No Going Back to ‘Normal’
By Benay Blend Shortly before Thanksgiving social media was abuzz with news that President-Elect Joe Biden had conferred with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arden over what measure to take regarding the Coronavirus crisis in […]