Dissident Veteran For Peace

On Zazzle.com, you can buy these stamps ...













and you can buy these stamps ...










and you can buy this stamp portraying Maimonides, one of the leading founders of violent Judaic racism ...













and you can buy this stamp of "Jewish Refugees in Russia"...









and you can buy this stamp of a Jewish boy at the western wall of al-Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount ...









but you can't buy or even see this stamp of Handala, representing a Palestinian refugee boy ...




















not anymore. Here's Zazzle's explanation:

The following Zazzle Custom Stamp could not be approved:

• Product Title: littleboy - Handala
• Product Type: Stamp
• Product ID: 172639119048327848
• Contributor: [redacted]
• Result: Not Approved
• Policy Violations:
• Incorporates material that is primarily partisan or political in nature.
• May infringe on or parody a trademark, trade secret, copyright, or other intellectual or proprietary right of a third party.
  

If you have any questions or concerns about the review of your Zazzle Custom Stamp product, please email stamps_review@zazzle.com

Thank you,
Content Management Team
Zazzle.com, Inc.

The Handala stamp doesn't infringe on any "copyright, or other intellectual or proprietary right of a third party." Handala creator Naji al-Ali was assassinated in London more than 20 years ago and he created Handala and released it into the public domain to draw attention to the plight of Palestinian refugees and the crime of al-Nakba, he didn't create it to make money.

See also:

• "State Censorship: Handala & Hasbara"
• "Bay Area Artists Fight Over Framing of Mideast Conflict" in the Jewish Daily Forward

Labels: Handala, hasbara, thoughtcrime

Published yesterday by Monthly Review:

A Message from Howard Zinn
on behalf of the Committee for an Open Discussion of Zionism

Dear Friend:

As you may have heard, in late August of this year, The University of Michigan Press, after receiving a series of complaining and threatening emails and letters from an ultra-Zionist group called StandWithUs, an offshoot of Campus Watch, withdrew from distribution Prof. Joel Kovel's book Overcoming Zionism, published by Pluto Press in London, United Kingdom. Since then, following numerous protests by fellow academics and scholars, The U. of M. Press Executive Board has restored the book to its distribution listings. But, ominously, the Board has indicated its intention to reconsider its contract with Pluto Press in mid October.

Overcoming Zionism is a serious, well researched work espousing a humanistic resolution. It is a valuable addition to the growing debate, in and out of American academia, that is re-examining long held assumptions about the sources of conflict in the Middle East. It should be discussed -- supported or refuted -- but not suppressed.

But even more serious is the University's threat to cancel its distribution contract with Pluto Press. Pluto is a valuable and unique intellectual resource, publishing progressive books of a consistently high quality. It provides an alternative viewpoint essential to discussion and debate of important social issues, such as those concerning Israel/Palestine and the Middle East. The cancellation of Pluto's contract with the University would be a serious blow to the principles of pluralism, academic freedom and free speech.

We urge you to add your voice to those of the many professors and authors that have vigorously protested these actions. We ask that you send a letter or, better yet, an email to U. of M. Press Executive Board Chair Peggy McCracken with copies to University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman, Dean Janet A Weiss; and Provost Teresa Sullivan, demanding that the University of Michigan Press continue its contract with Pluto Press. Further, we ask that you forward this request for support and suggested support letter to those on any list that you may maintain or have access to.

We have prepared a sample email or letter together with emails and postal addressees of University of Michigan Press committee members below but also feel free to compose your own. Time is of the essence so please act quickly.

Thank you for your kind support.

Sincerely,

Howard Zinn
For the Committee for an Open Discussion of Zionism
www.CODZ.org

Click this link to view the sample letter and UM Press committee member details.

Howard Zinn is a historian, playwright, and social activist. This letter was published on the Web site of the Committee for an Open Discussion of Zionism.

For other posts on this ongoing story click here and then scroll down.

Labels: censorship, hasbara, Pluto Press, thoughtcrime, Zionism

A new installment of the Zionist/Imperialist propaganda effort to demonize Sudan may be on its way to a theater near you. The film The Devil Came on Horseback began screening at US theaters last July. The film's web site describes the film, in part, thusly:

Using more than a thousand uncompromising and exclusive photographs taken by former US Marine Captain Brian Steidle during his role as a military observer with the African Union, THE DEVIL CAME ON HORSEBACK propels the viewer through the tragic impact of an Arab government bent on destroying its black African citizens.

The 30-page press packet claims: "This is a crisis based on race and the government is targeting its own citizens." The filmmakers openly associate and cooperate with the decidedly Zionist Save Darfur Coalition. The films definitely calls the conflict "genocide" and former US Marine infantry officer Steidle writes in a book of the same title: "Why was the U.S. letting this happen? I had such faith that the United States government would put an end to the violence if only it had accurate and complete information."

Steidle came to prominence via the good graces of Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times, who magnanimously wrote last year: "Africa desperately needs Western help in the form of schools, clinics and sweatshops." The Philadelphia Weekly describes Steidle as "a gung-ho, battle-scarred 27-year-old vet" but doesn't say where he got his battle scars. I've now listened to two interviews with Steidle and he doesn't say either and, curiously, neither of the interviewers asked him about his service in the US Marines.

On his personal web site, Steidle urges readers to:

Ask our government to support four things:

1) Deployment of a UN protection force
2) No-fly zone to stop the aerial attacks
3) Economic and military sanctions on Sudan
4) Cooperate with the International Criminal Court

US-backed no-fly zones and economic sanctions killed hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Iraqis after the first US Gulf War and laid the groundwork for the US to invade that country in 2003. And last August, Steidle told the Guardian that he found an "al-Qaida training camp" in Sudan. Make no mistake the leaders of the Darfur campaign are gunning for an imperialist war in Sudan and now is the time to mobilize against it.

Update: For a leaflet that you can hand out at "Save Darfur" rallies, screenings of The Devil Came on Horseback, etc., go here (PDF).

Labels: Brian Steidle, Darfur, Sudan, War, Zionism