Dissident Veteran For Peace: Handala Banned Again

Dissident Veteran For Peace

"I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America." —Alexis de Tocquevile. Democracy in America, Book I, Chapter XV.

With a nod to the Most Rev. Dom Helder Camara: When I support Palestinians some call me an 'anti-Semite', when I try to explain why I stand in solidarity with Palestinians they call me a Nazi.

"WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives." —Major General Smedley Butler, USMC (ret.)

"... no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end." —character of O'Brien in 1984, part 3, ch. 3 by George Orwell.

"Every prophet has realized that nobody loves you for being the enemy of their illusions. Every prophet has realized that most of us want peace at any price as long as the peace is ours and somebody else pays the price. That is why the prophet Jeremiah said, ' "Peace, peace," they say, when there is no peace,' ..." —The Rev. William Sloane Coffin. "Not to Bring Peace, But a Sword."

Friday, October 26, 2007

Handala Banned Again

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: