what everyone needs to know

about Israel and Palestine.

Since September 29, 2000:

121 Israeli children have been killed by Palestinians.
786 Palestinian children have been killed by Israelis.

1,084 Israelis have been killed.
4,171 Palestinians have been killed.

7,633 Israelis have been injured.
30,670 Palestinians have been injured.

The U.S. gives $15,139,178 per day to the Israeli government and military.
The U.S. gives $232,290 per day to Palestinian NGO’s.

Israel has been targeted by at least 65 UN resolutions.
The Palestinians have been targeted by none.

1 Israeli is being held prisoner by Palestinians.
9,599 Palestinians are currently imprisoned by Israel.

0 Israeli homes have been demolished by Palestinians.
4,170 Palestinian homes have been demolished by Israel.

The Israeli unemployment rate is 8.9%.
The Palestinian unemployment is estimated at 25-31%.

From March 2001 - July 2003, 60+ new Jewish-only settlements have been built on confiscated Palestinian land.
There have been 0 cases of Palestinians confiscating Israeli land and building settlements.

Source: If Americans Knew

Itemad Ismail Abu Mo'ammar

was my age. In a week when I've been celebrating my sister's wedding, she was struggling to feed her 11 children in Gaza, a strip of land where 1.5 million people are being systematically eliminated, through starvation and massacre, by Israel.

She was the latest casualty. Alison Weir, of If Americans Knew, reports in Counterpunch:

Neighbors report that Israeli soldiers had been beating her husband because he wasn't answering their questions. Foolishly or valiantly, how is one to say, the 35-year-old woman had interfered. She tried to explain that her husband was deaf, screamed at the soldiers that her husband couldn't hear them and attempted to stop them from hitting him. So they shot her. Several times.

She bled for 5 hours before the Israeli soldiers allowed an ambulance to take her to hospital. She was pronounced dead on arrival.

my sister's wedding

is this Saturday. Today is the Women of the Family Get Gorgeous day. I've just been manicured and pedicured, alongside my mother, two sisters, sister-in-law-to-be. My toenails are glittery fuchsia. My fingernails clear and glossy.

This afternoon - mehndi.
Tomorrow - wedding rehearsal.

I have so many complicated, contradictory, conflicted thoughts and feelings about weddings. But the truth of family weddings is that in the end, I just show up. Because, ultimately, I love the people involved. I want them to be as happy as humanly possible, and I want to celebrate their happiness with them.

men raped in US prisons

In 2003, the US Congress passed the Prison Rape Elimination Act. It estimated that over 200,000 inmates now incarcerated have been or will be, raped in prison. And that the number of inmates assaulted in the past 20 years likely exceeds 1,000,000.

Hmm. If male US soldiers, captured in Iraq, were raped, it would make headlines. Be irrefutable proof of the barbarity of the "terrorists". Right-wing pundits across the country would howl for Armageddon to be unleashed on everything within 1,000 miles of where the act took place. If the odd Israeli soldier, captured by the militant wing of Hamas, was raped, bombs would fall on Lebanon and Palestine without further discussion. Oh wait - they already did.

But when it happens, every minute, in prisons across the land, sanctioned by prison officers, ignored by legislators, sniggered at in the mass media - nothing.

today was the beginning

of our work with Parijat, on the movement choreography and dance elements of Migritude.

We did a little blessing ceremony, Kim, Parijat and I. We spread the khanga I chose as a gift for Parijat in Zanzibar on the studio floor as an altar. The khanga is red and white, bordered with ambi shapes, combining both sharp geometric designs and fluid, round forms. We put out my small travelling aarti tray - miniature gold Ganesha, silver Lakshmi medallion, a red candle for courage, a purple one for creativity, a deeva. Parijat laid her dancer's ankle bells beside it.

We lit the candles and deeva. Parijat chanted Ganesha slokas. Kim sang an invocation to Elegba. I offered verses from the Devi Mahatmayam. Our prasad was a small chocolate cake, with eye-stoppingly bright pink and yellow icing.

here's the crazy thing about grant money

you think, when you apply for grants, that getting them will give you time to make the work. When you get them though, there are endless forms to fill out, compliance documents to produce, reports to submit. You wade through the paper, watching the creative work time you'd imagined swirl down the drain.