Torture now acceptable as punishment in US for untried prisoners

Once safely tidied away in the pages of history or romance/horror stories, torture is a reality in modern America - (and to an extent in the UK; ask the Guildford Four). For revealing just one instance of the invasion's mindless killer brutalities in Iraq to the world and Wikileaks, quiet, unassuming soldier Bradley Manning has been forced into the most petty and malevolent solitary confinement, denied all comforts.

This has all happened on Barack Obama's watch. The "black" president who claimed that he was the harbinger of change. Who really deserves that prematurely awarded Nobel Peace Prize?

Stop the War Coalition suggests that it is awarded jointly to Julian

Assange, Wikileaks and Bradley Manning, the alleged source of the

leaks which so comprehensively lifted the veil on the secrecy and

lies that Obama, Bush, Cameron etc. use to wage unjustified and

illegal wars.

* THE TORTURE OF TRUTH-TELLER BRADLEY MANNING:

http://bit.ly/epv714

BBC Bias: Let's twist again, like we did last summer

For those of us determined enough to keep up our attack on the BBC for its hair-raisingly Zionistic look at the attack on the Freedom Flotilla there will be in our files a 'stage three' letter referring to the entire body of complaints being treated as one and being looked at by an 'independent' editorial 'advisor', whose paper will be distributed to the complainants and the BBC Executive to give all a further opportunity for comment before it is distributed to the "Committee", whose finding will be 'ratified' by the BBC Trust in April 2011 and then published.

I'd say baroque is a good enough metaphor. I've listened to one or two sessions of the United Nations, and in fact, their deliberations sound very like this. If they lead to anything at all it tends to be an agreement to set up a sub-committee. In such lumbering scenarios, the so-called Palestine 'peace process' grinds ever onwards while the destruction of the country leaps ahead.

One of my fellow-complainants has written an excellent response to the BBC's latest:

Sir,

I would refer to the 'consolidated appeal' procedure which Michael Fadda, Editorial Assistant to the BBC Trust, has described in his email of 3rd December. This was in response to Richard Lightbown’s complaint of 24th August that the Panorama programme, Death on the Med', was biased and lacking in impartiality. The procedure described by Mr Fadda is Byzantine and the process so drawn out as to make any final BBC decision, apparently due in April, meaningless.

It has become increasingly clear that the programme was a whitewash of the truth and represents a nadir of the consistent bias displayed by the BBC in its reporting of the Palestine/Israel situation.

This lack of impartiality was confirmed by John Pilger who told us on the Today programme (on 10/12/10) that the BBC had failed to report the UNHRC report on the Mavi Marmara affair on its main news channels – censorship by omission.

The report of the fact-finding mission of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla was released on 27/9/10. It is revealing and damning and should have been the subject of much publicity; it shows conclusively that US citizen Furkan Dogan and five Turkish citizens were murdered ‘execution-style by Israeli commandos’.

The report states that both activists and journalists on board the flotilla were treated in a cruel and inhuman way and confirms that cameras, laptops, mobiles, passports, credit cards and cash were stolen by the IDF. As John Pilger stated, war crimes were found to have been committed and the report recommends that there is a clear case for prosecution for wilful killing etc – *see extracts from the report shown below.

This Mission report gives unquestionable evidence that ‘Death on the Med’ was a travesty of truth. The BBC should now make an unreserved apology and offer the resignation of the Director General. Under the watch of the current DG the BBC has increasingly shown bias and lack of impartiality in their reporting of the Palestinian/Israeli situation. The BBC appears to be in thrall to Israel – as is much of the American media – it is understood that the UN Mission report did not appear in any US media whatsoever.

The Israeli military and its government have again behaved in flagrant contravention of the Geneva Conventions and should be regarded as a rogue state. For the UK to seek to protect members of the Israeli government from international law procedures – as they are attempting to do on 13th December by tampering with Universal Jurisdiction – makes them complicit in Israel’s serial wrongdoing, as does also the moral support they give in avowing that they are ‘Friends of Israel’

The UK government would be well advised to read the attached UN Mission report, and then to rethink that friendship and their whole policy towards the Middle East.

Ted from Liverpool

Brian Sewell calls for public galleries to sell the family silver

Brian Sewell, the bullshit detector whose condemnation of any artist's work has long been looked upon as the art world's equivalent of the ASBO for 'cool' status, has attacked local public galleries for hanging on to collections which could be partly sold off to fund services, now under threat by spending cuts. He singled out Bath and North Somerset for a particular kicking: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-11837414

and said of Bath's Victoria Art Gallery: "I've seen it described as a lucky dip.

'You might argue that you could take anything from it and no-one would notice."

Jon Benington, manager of the gallery, defended its collection, saying: "The art collections are there to inform, to educate, to inspire.

'Once they're gone, they're gone forever. You can't bring them back."

The question must be though: Who will buy these works? Many of the individual paintings in question are hack anecdotal works or demotic 'classical' fantasies, strictly of interest only to art historians with a special interest in upwardly mobile Victorians. But their value and use increases when they are part of collections; even if some of those collections are arbritrary, held together only by their shared provenance.

Will Miral be this generation's Exodus?

by Adam Horowitz, on Mondoweiss

Today, I saw Julian Schnabel's new film Miral. It won't be arriving in theatres in the US until next March, so it will be a while until we see what effect it has, but my initial impression was amazement at what I was watching. Here was a film following many of the conventions of a traditional Hollywood film, but this time it was telling the Palestinian liberation story (which might explain why it was not produced in Hollywood and instead was a French/Israeli/Italian/Indian co-production).

The film, based on Rula Jebreal's semi-autobiographical novel of the same name, takes us from the Nakba, and children orphaned during the Deir Yassin massacre, through the first Intifada to the signing of the Oslo Accords. I know there will be criticisms, and I have a few that I'll share later, but right now I am struck by the emotional impact of the film. You follow the lead character through checkpoints, refugee camps, home demolitions, interrogations, humiliations and protests. After that it is impossible to not understand, and feel, the Palestinian call for justice.

More, at http://mondoweiss.net/2010/11/will-miral-be-this-generations-exodus.html

Although (no surprise) this was not an American-funded production, it will be given a full distribution in the USA, by Harvey Weinstein.

Military Industrial Complex

Lara Lee, film maker and Freedom Flotilla survivor, introduces her new short film with this statement:
In 2009, the United States government spent some $650 billion on its military. This is more than the next 46 highest-spending countries combined. Much of this treasure ended up in the hands of profit-driven weapons manufacturers. In the following short film, I take a brief look at the current state of what President Eisenhower famously called the "military industrial complex." With the U.S. waging two wars overseas at the same time that millions of people are out of work at home, those pushing to reel in government spending and balance the budget would be wise to look carefully at bloated and unchecked military spending.

Cultures of Resistance: A Look at Global Militarization from Cultures of Resistance on Vimeo.

My Father Was a Freedom Fighter

Gaza, Mohammed and my mother

By Elana Golden

My Father was a Freedom Fighter is a page-turner though I read it in small bites, the way you would eat a rich chocolate cake. It is a great read not only for those interested in the Israel/Palestine conflict but for anyone who loves books about family, courage, hope and resilience.

For while clearly illustrating the trajectory of the long and complex history of the conflict – My Father was a Freedom Fighter tells a story of survival that is beyond this particular conflict. It is a personal story told through the keen eye of Ramzy Baroud, it reads like a novel, and is universal in its tone, its humanity, its psychology.

Mohammed Baroud, the 1948 Palestinian refugee, the subject in the book’s title, who lives in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip “is” my Jewish mother who lived under the military fascist regime in Bucharest, Romania that collaborated with the Third Reich. Or anyone who’d been occupied and brutally treated! Mohammed “is” also my mother for they share an exaggerated concern for their children, choices they were forced to make to feed their families, a cynical view of the world, their humour, dignity and pride, and down to the long-Kent-cigarettes they each smoked, Mohammed in Gaza, my mother in Tel Aviv.

On the personal level, I appreciated the disclosure of family dynamics, the dark side, the wound: Brothers’ rivalry, domestic violence – patterns and attitudes that are part and parcel of many societies at all socio economic and educational strata. On the political level the book sheds light on the growing split between the factions in the PLO and how this split was created. And why Mohammed, an atheist and a Marxist, puts on his best suit and goes to vote for religious Hamas.

The book is filled with unforgettable scenes, many that bring tears, but what’s a Palestinian story without humor? In his desperate attempts to keep his dignity and his livelihood, Mohammed falls into all kinds of mishaps and disastrous traps that would make a great comedy of errors. You really don’t know whether to laugh or to cry. And he is so intelligent, so resourceful, that I wished I could get his advice on my own problems! But Mohammed is also a man who never got over the loss of his family’s house and field, and his people’s lands and freedom! His brokenness is inconsolable. It is one face to a dispossession and expulsion tragedy.

As someone who grew up in Israel, it hurt me so much while reading the book to think back at Palestinians like Mohammed who worked in Israel after the 1967 war, how they were humiliated, shamed and exploited. I also remembered Prime Minister Rabin’s policy “break their bones.” To experience this policy from the point of view of young boys in Gaza, as so movingly described in the book, broke my heart and made me understand the emotional mind set of a Palestinian boy who holds a stone in the face of a tank, the mixture of fear and revenge, and the moment the stone is hurled toward an Israeli soldier and the boy becomes a man...

My Father was a Freedom Fighter was written from a generous heart and will appeal to the hearts of many worldwide, not only to those interested in political science or the Palestine/Israel conflict.

Though get ready for a story that is very different from those told on FOX TV and all other corporate media outlets!

My Father Was A Freedom Fighter – Gaza's Untold Story. Ramzy Baroud. Pluto Press 2010

- Elana Golden, screenwriter, director, creative-writing teacher, Palestinian rights activist, Women in Black – Los Angeles. She contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.

Bristol Silents celebrates ten years

It has been ten years since the Arnolfini hosted Bristol Silents’ first event - a Louise Brooks Double Bill. Back then, it seemed as if Bristol Silents might be a club for ageing, mostly male geeks with a small projector in a garage; but it has grown hugely. Supremo Chris Daniels looks as pleased as he is amazed; although of course, it didn’t just happen by magic. Once or twice a year Bristol’s enormous Colston Hall sells out for old-fashioned black-and-white silent film shows.

Friday 29th October 2010: To mark the anniversary, Bristol Festival of Ideas in collaboration with Arnolfini presented an evening celebrating the life and work of the incomparable Miss Brooks. Despite Hollywood's ill-use and her own best efforts to remain invisible after her first flowering, Brooks became a powerful face in cinema - indeed in our culture, her legacy shaped by her mesmerising work in a handful of European films, more than her appearances in a few 'girlie' comedies in Hollywood.
Diary of a Lost Girl confirmed Pabst as one of the great pre-talkie directors and established Brooks as an "actress of brilliance, a luminescent personality and a beauty unparalleled in screen history." (Kevin Brownlow). Brooks plays Thymian who, raped by her father's assistant, gives birth to an illegitimate child. When she refuses to marry the obnoxious assistant she is forced to leave the baby and is sent to a strict reform school for ‘wayward’ girls. It’s the second of two major films made by G.W. Pabst in Germany. The other, Pandora’s Box – with Brooks playing the part of Lulu – is usually considered one of the great films of the silent era. I would say that Diary, though not shown as often and not as highly regarded, doubtless because of its complexity and subtle sophistication as much as for its sordid story-line and full-frontal attack on society’s hypocrisies, deserves a higher ranking than Pandora.

The trouble with popularity ratings is that once a film, tune, picture, any work of art, becomes listed as being slightly popular, or even only well-known, its “popularity” can only increase, while others not listed remain off the ladder. Mentions engender yet more mentions, and so do listings.

The music for Diary was provided by pianist John Sweeney. It’s always difficult to write about - silent accompaniment - as it has to be dynamic, emphasising the sturm und drang and delicately floating over the flowery times, while being, ideally, completely unnoticeable. Of course, John Sweeney does it well. A one-man orchestra.

The night started with by a rare and slightly chopped about 1986 Arena documentary by Richard Leacock - a study broadcast shortly after Brooks' death, including one of her champions, Kenneth Tynan, while she talked of her days in Paris and Berlin and her experiences of Hollywood, with extracts from her films. This was one of these one-night only events, as the documentary is not out on DVD and we may well have seen the only copy; again, Diary of a Lost Girl, although it deserves all the praise it can attract, might only come your way once in a lifetime.

Gaza cartoonist meets fellow artists by video

الفنان الفلسطيني ماجد بدرة يلتقي فناني كاريكاتير من فلسطين وأمريكا

Palestinian cartoonist Majed Badra meets American and Palestinian cartoonists: his report -

Through visiting of Cartoonist (Josh Neufeld) to Palestine with coordination with the American consulate, artist Neufeld meets Palestinian cartoonists in west bank ( Bahaa El bokhary, Khalil Abu Arafa, Mohammed sabaaneh, Abu noon and Ramzi el taweel ) and from Gaza strip by the video conference, cartoonist (Majed Badra).

Artist (Josh Neufeld) present his artistical experience and his last work the book of A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge that tells the real stories of seven New Orleans residents and their experiences during and after Hurricane Katrina.

Neufeld focus in his work on economic crisis,social issues,Hurricane Katrina, but he never draw political cartoons.

Palestinian cartoonists present their artistical experience and their accomplishments that they achieved through their artistical work, and show how they suffer from closing borders and siege that prevent artistical and cultural exchanges .

Cartoonist Majed Badra thank the American cartoonist (Neufeld) for his coming to land of Palestine , and he regret for his inability to meet the cartoonist (Neufeld) and his colleagues (Palestinian cartoonists) in west bank due to the closing borders by the Israeli occupation.

Badra assure that the Palestinian cartoonists seek to achieve values of freedom, equality, progress ,social justice, liberation, peace, democracy in order to preserve world peace, and to protect human rights and the environment.

Also they do their best to eliminate underdevelopment and subordination on a global perspective.

Beside working to raise the awareness of the concepts of social justice, democracy, freedom, and human rights.

Badra considers the Cartoonists are the conscience of the world.

الفنان الفلسطيني ماجد بدرة يلتقي فناني كاريكاتير من فلسطين وأمريكا

رسامو الكاريكاتير الفلسطينيين يلتقون رسام الكاريكاتير الأمريكي (جوش نيوفيلد)

خلال زيارة لرسام الكاريكاتير الأمريكي (جوش نيوفيلد), للأراضي الفلسطينية , بالتنسيق مع القنصلية الأمريكية

التقى الفنان (نيوفيلد) برسامي الكاريكاتير الفلسطينيين في الضفة الغربية ( بهاء البخاري , خليل ابو عرفة ,محمد سباعنة , أبو النون , رمزي الطويل) وعبر الفيديو كونفرنس في قطاع غزة الفنان (ماجد بدرة) .

وقد استعرض الفنان (نيوفيلد) تجربته الفنية وآخر أعماله كتاب الرسومات الكرتونية بطريقة قصصية حول الفيضان الذي خلفه إعصار كاترينا في ولاية نيوأورليانز في الولايات المتحدة الامريكية, بعد لقاءه مع سبع مواطنين عانوا أزمة الإعصار والفيضان وتجربتهم بعد وخلال هذه الكارثة.

ومن المعروف عن الفنان(نيوفيلد) أنه يركز في أعماله حول الأزمة الاقتصادية , وإعصار كاترينا والقضايا الاجتماعية... وغيرها , ويبتعد في أعماله عن القضايا السياسية.

وقد استعرض كل فنان فلسطيني تجربته الفنية والانجازات التي حققها في مشواره الفني والمعاناة التي يعيشونها والمشاكل التي تواجه الفنان الفلسطيني من إغلاق المعابر ما يؤدي الى عدم التواصل المستمر بين الفنانين وعدم وجود تبادل ثقافي وفني .

وقد رحب الفنان (بدرة) برسام الكاريكاتير الأمريكي (نيوفيلد) على ارض فلسطين , وأعرب عن أسفه لعدم قدرته مشاركة الفنانين في اللقاء وجها لوجه في الضفة الغربية لان الاحتلال الإسرائيلي دائما يحول دون لقاء الأصدقاء.

وأكد (بدرة) أن رسامي الكاريكاتير الفلسطينيين يتطلعون لتحقيق قيم الحرية والمساواة والتقدم والعدالة الاجتماعية والتحرر والسلام وحماية حقوق الإنسان والبيئة.

ويبذلون جهود حثيثة من اجل انهاء التخلف والتبعية ومواكبة التطور العالمي , وان رسامي الكاريكاتير يمثلون ضمير العالم.

Gaza: A treasure house under threat

*ancient church and mosque in Gaza City [photo by Emad Badwan]

Oct 22, 2010 (IPS) – Few outside of Gaza would consider its history much beyond the decades of Israeli occupation. But Gaza is a historical treasure house. Many of those treasures are now in Israeli museums, and those that remain are becoming difficult to preserve due to the Israeli siege.

Gaza, set along the historical silk road and on the bridge between Africa and Asia, was host to civilisations, including the Pharaohs, Canaanites, Philistines, Crusaders, Mamluks, Romans and many following. Alexander the Great invaded Gaza; Napoleon Bonaparte passed through.

*photo: Abeer Jamal

“Throughout Gaza, you find pottery and carved columns and capitals, and the remnants of civilisations past, including artifacts from early human presence like the iron and bronze ages,” says Asad Ashoor from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities in Gaza.

“There are visible relics in Gaza,” says Ashoor. These have survived civilisations and more recently, Israeli bombings.

In the Deir al Balah region, the vast excavated remains of the Monastery of Saint Hilarion, the first church in Palestine, include surprisingly intact floor mosaics and structural pillars.

*ruins of Hilarion monastery [photo: Abeer Jamal]

*ruins of Hilarion monastery [photo: Abeer Jamal]

In southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, one wall — with an entrance gate and tower — of a Mamluk era inn (“khan”) and fort which served trade caravans stands today in the centre of the city.

Gaza City hosts the Pasha Palace, now a museum, where Napoleon is said to have stayed. The Omari mosque, used today by worshippers, was built on the site of a pagan temple-turned-Byzantine church, and still has a bell tower after it was used as a church again during the Crusader period.

Hammam al-Sammara, the Ottoman bath house, still attracts customers today.

“Recently, workers digging to repair water lines in the Tuffah region of Gaza City discovered an old house from the Mamluk period,” says Abeer Jamal, secretary at the Gaza museum.

*photo: Abeer Jamal

“Above it was cemetery from a later period. But we were not able to excavate because it is an important road for traffic and there are many people living in that area.”

“Roughly eight months ago,” Jammal says, “excavations began on Tel Rafah, an archaeological site from Greek and Roman times, rich with artifacts but in a dangerous area near the Palestinian-Egyptian border. The Israelis dropped leaflets saying not to approach within 300 metres of this specific site,” she says.

But workers continue to excavate, and according to the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, have found various important artifacts, including Roman era pots and dishes, pottery and the lid of a coffin from the Byzantine period, and Greek era silver coins.

“The other main discovery was over 40 bronze coins from the Greek era, with the image of Athena, the Emperor, and Greek symbolism including owls, and Greek gods,” says Jammal.

Discoveries and extant antiquities aside, Gaza’s archaeology faces serious obstacles.

Jammal says many of Gaza’s treasures have ended up in museums outside Gaza. “Since my work also entails giving visitors Gaza tours, I’ve met many who say they have seen artifacts like ours in Israeli museums in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem,” she says.

Gerald Butt, in his ‘Life at the crossroads: A History of Gaza’ notes, “The Israel Museum has among its collection a broad-based painted chalice taken from Tell al-Ajjul,” one of Gaza’s most important archeological sites. He later writes, “Pottery manufactured by the Philistines during this period can be seen in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem,” mentioning that Philistine artifacts were largely unearthed in the Wadi Gaza region.

“Most international visitors that enter Gaza enter via Erez and are given by the Israelis ‘a tourist guide to Israeli territory’,” says Abeer Jamal.

Aside from the former problems of looting, and the current Israeli disinformation campaign, archaeology in Gaza faces further obstacles of sporadic Israeli bombings and a lack of specialised equipment and preservation chemicals needed to excavate and maintain relics.

“We urgently need materials, particularly for cleaning and maintaining artifacts,” Jammal says.

Like most daily items Gazans need, the chemicals needed for the preservation of artifacts are banned entry to Gaza under the Israeli-led siege.

“The occupation and siege prevents not only Devcon and Ethanol, the chemicals we need for maintaining our relics, but also outside expertise to help in excavation and restoration,” says the Ministry’s Asad Ashoor.

“Given the circumstances, we do our best to conserve these pieces,” Ashoor says. “Some we can place inside glass tanks, but even these break or crack. And anyway, that doesn’t solve the problem of needing controlled ventilation and temperature.”

According to Ashoor, attempts at gaining United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) approval for historical sites and items have not succeeded.

“We contacted UNESCO, but they have refused to address our archaeological goods,” he says.

“Israel’s goal is a blackout on Palestine’s history and culture,” says Ashoor. “Israel wants outsiders to think only that Gaza is a depressing, dangerous place devoid of culture, history and beauty, and that the main theme here is humanitarian aid.”

Jammal agrees. “This is not just an economical siege, it’s a cultural siege, a siege on everything that is Palestinian.”

*inside one of Gaza’s churches [photo by Emad Badwan]

*Omari mosque, formerly a church [photo: Eva Bartlett]

*Omari mosque detail [photo by Emad Badwan]

*old roofs in Gaza [photo by Emad Badwan]

*the old city, in Gaza City [photo by Emad Badwan]

*old city lanes [photo: Eva Bartlett]

*Khan Younis inn [photo: Abeer Jamal]

Originally published at:

http://ingaza.wordpress.com

A fish? Dada's hangover

"All is going well at the meeting. The exquisite André Salmon recites his unobjectionable poems and the public is pleased, convinced that it is to be presented with the Art which it loves so very much. But its fatuous self-satisfaction, the smug congratulations to one another upon being seen at a cultural event, is soon destroyed. We enter wearing masks. Behind the masks we shout out a bad poem by Breton, the Big Balled Bastard. Now the audience is no longer happy. A certain anxiety can be felt as citizens look at one another, their expressions uncertain. Is this still art?May they congratulate themselves again?
... This time, I am happy to report, it concludes very decently in riot. Several pieces of furniture are broken and, in the noise, Picabia's last words are missed by many. I believe he is saying something he honestly believes it is important for them to know. He has mentioned this fact of artistic appreciation before. 'If you read literature aloud for ten minutes, you will develop bad breath,' But the audience will not listen to this extremely valuable advice. Most of them are here only because of our announcement that Charlie Chaplin will be the guest of honour. Many others have come merely to bombard the performers with small change from their pockets. They are beginning to realise that Dada must cost them money."

In his 'historical' work of 1990, Exquisite Cadaver, published just before he retired to Ireland to work on making collages, Wolf Mankowitz left us a brilliant picture of the origins in subversion for what is now State/Big Business Academia, as well as reminding us of what today's audiences have forgotten about: namely, informed scepticism. At this time, as the latest cherry-picked Turner Prize 'nominees' are lined up and cuts to the Arts are in the news, we should remember.

In a recent Guardian article, Laura Cumming, who has previously covered the Turner circus without blushing, stood up to declare she no longer believes in it; although with her own kind of reservations:
"Not any more. It has long since outlived its most useful function, which was to raise awareness of contemporary art in a society that often found it strange, forbidding, arcane or just plain laughable.
Consciousness-raising was the Turner's founding aim in 1984. The prize created hoopla, especially when broadcast on national TV with a panel of critics, commentators and artists in violent disagreement. But you cannot manufacture dissent like this without passionate opinions. And while there may be no consensus among the judges – or at least that's what they always insist when publishing their accounts of the experience – I strongly doubt that the issue of who wins the prize nowadays raises anybody's blood pressure.
The world has changed since 1984. Contemporary art is everywhere: bought, sold, debated, displayed, televised, mediated, thoroughly and ubiquitously exposed."

She is right on the ball when she speaks about manufacturing dissent. But the dissent she referred to was that purportedly among the ‘judges’ rather than between the competing artists and the public. And since the late nineteen-seventies, the kind of stuff that is most often referred to by art critics as contemporary art has been, when not pure “conceptualism”, Dadaist pranks recycled by successive generations of art students thinking that no one else knows about Duchamp. In much the same way that, every now and then, a new angry young rock guitarist will smash his axe onstage, doing the Sixties.

And contemporary art was doing pretty well, thank you, before the Turner Prize. I write as one whose first one-man show sold out (in Glasgow) in 1964. Laura Cumming praises with faint condemnation.

Iwona Blazwick spoke up unequivocally in favour of the Turner. She said, "From a public perspective the Turner prize is like the Booker, or the Orange, it guides you, narrows the field. For anyone wanting to know what's happening in contemporary art it's a great starting point.
From an industry point of view it presses a pause button, makes us stand back and take a more focused position. For me it raises questions like: why have these four been picked out of the huge panoply of activity?"

I can answer that, easily. Only those lucky few who are contracted to or shown by that tiny group of specialist galleries like the White Cube, manage to blag a show at one of the state-sponsored galleries like the Glasgow CCA and the Birmingham Ikon, or are championed by the speculative collector Charles Saatchi are added to the short list. No one who has been nominated by ordinary members of the public will even get considered. And, of course, what is happening in contemporary art has absolutely nothing to do with this self-serving party.

Hayden Smith of Metro covered the opening of this year’s Turner collection - yet to be judged, which the Press "threatened" to boycott after they were told to sign contracts agreeing not to publish images resulting in ‘any adverse publicity’ for the Tate. He blotted his copy a little, though, by calling the Award "Britain’s most prestigious - and controversial". That prestige is surely recognised only by the earnest workers in the Arts Council, the leap-frog culture joining the Tates and the Cubes and the Serpentines; and the publishers of a few glossy but vapid art mags.

Brian Sewell summed it up pretty well, and I can thank Mr Smith for this quote: "Most of the art that gets into the Turner Prize is some kind of extremely contemporary rubbish - assemblies of rubbish masquerading under important names."

And Dada is costing us! Now, after all these years, the British taxpayers are funding its idiot children. I propose a government bill to wind down the Arts Council, as a subclause in the Bill to outlaw masturbation while wearing hats.

'Exquisite Cadaver' Wolf Mankowitz
248pp ISBN 0 233 98547 6
André Deutsch 1990

Trio Joubran play Bristol

The Palestinian ‘Asylum’ Oud musicians Trio Joubran resurrected Nazareth at St George’s Hall

by Iqbal Tamimi

Director for Arab Women Media Watch Centre in UK

The fine Oud music did not need a crutch of words to explain its mission to the British music lovers. For the first time campaigning and praying for justice and peace in Palestine took the shape of music at St George’s Hall, where the senses kneeled in the presence of glorious art.

On Wednesday night 29th September the Palestinian musicians ‘Trio Joubran’ and the brilliant Palestinian Percussionist Yousef Hbeisch held a concert at the marvellous St Georges Concert Hall in the city of Bristol, that is dedicated to promoting high quality by hosting almost 200 events every year.

Le Trio Joubran, Samir, Wissam and Adnan are the fourth generation of a Palestinian family of « Oud » makers.

Samir told us that their last night’s Concert was the 11th in a series of performances within a tour. Even though the group is called Le Trio Joubran, the fourth member, the percussionist master, the son of Palestine’s’ Galilee, Youssef Hbeisch is not a member of the Joubran family but he is a main pillar in the Trio's compositions. His rhythms and notes were the magic that made the packed concert Hall of St George, echo with applauds while the Ouds of the Trio were creating a marvellous dialogue with his drums and tambourines.

Le Trio Joubran, Oud masters, are three brothers from the city of Nazareth, north Palestine. Samir, the leader of the band was introduced to Oud by his father at the age of five, and by the age of nine, Samir joined the Nazareth Institute of Music. In 1995 he graduated from the highly prestigious Muhammad Abdul Wahhab Conservatory of Cairo in Egypt.

Samir’s first album, Taqaseem, came out in 1996, followed by his second album Sou'fahm (Misunderstanding) in 2001. Until this date, Samir was the only Palestinian musician performing outside the borders of his country. He is also the first musician to be awarded, a two-year scholarship to Italy in 2003-2004 through the Writer's Asylum Program organized by the International Parliament of Writers.

Last night, Samir, who is now based in France, expressed his sorrow that a large number of talented musicians and creative Palestinian colleagues of his, are suffering the oppressive policies of Israel, denying them the right to travel to participate in international activities. The Trio themselves suffered all sorts of harassments including cancellations of their performances in their own home city of Nazereth by Israeli arbitrary orders. Samir said " we want to be known as musicians from Palestine not as Palestinian musicians".

On the stage, Samir gave tribute to the renowned great Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish who contributed to his musical poetic understanding, by saying ‘ I learned from Darwish what no collage can teach me’.Samir’s Music allied itself with the spoken word bringing back to life the traditional Palestinian tune of the well known song of ‘Hal Asmar Eloun’ that revived the audience at the back seats who found themselves humming along with him; the British enthusiasts just hummed the tunes, while the Arab expatriates sang along with his music for the homeland that has a moon made of silver, ‘Ya-boo Qamar Faddah’.

The Trio played some tunes that must have been tailored for a great documentary production back tracks. This was not surprising since Samir has good experience in this field. He composed the original sound track for Rashir Masharawi's Ticket to Jerusalem and three tracks from his albumTamaas were included in the sound track of Inguélézi. Three titles from Randana were also used in Parvez Sharmas' documentary ‘A jihad for love.’

Samir said ‘we will travel the world with our music for it is our weapon against oppression and no one can take our music or our Palestinian heritage away from us’. He also said: ‘We are fighting for peace, we are campaigning to end the occupation in Palestine and this is our message to the world’.

Samir Joubran, the eldest brother, started his music career in 1996, nearly a decade before the formation of the Joubran Trio. He released two albums,Taqaseem in 1996, and Sou'fahm in 2001 before inviting Wissam, to join him on the third album, Tamaas released in 2003. Adnan. Joined his brother’s band in August 2004, and at the Parisian' Luxembourg garden, the Joubran Trio came to life.

The second son of Hatem Jubran is Wissam whose father signed him up for violin lessons at the Nazareth conservatory and gave him a small Oud for his ninth birthday. Wissam performed in local Palestinian concerts and played on the theatre stage the role of a singing Oud player in a play about the life of the renowned Iraqi poet Moudaffar El Nawab. When Wissam was twelve, he seized the opportunity to take his dreams and talent all the way to Paris' Arab World Institute, where he shared the stage with his brother Samir. In 2005, Wissam was the first Arab graduate from the Antonio Stradivari Conservatory, in Cremona, and at the same time he followed his father’s footsteps by becoming a master luthier making the Joubran Trio's Ouds, carrying his four-generation’ family legacy into the future.

The third brother, Adnan, wanted to become a percussionist since he was young. Yet, he was captivated by the Oud. By the age of fifteen, he took part in Oud-playing contests, and he was one of five winners of a contest held in Palestine. Adnan provides musical accompaniment for the Fattoumi-Lamoureux dance company, in addition to his work with the Trio and performing for the Parisian audiences the combined music and circus show called EKO DU OUD (the Oud's echo). I have asked Adnan why their mother Ibtisam Hanna Joubran who is known for her mastery of singing the Mowashahat, (a form of singing that originated in Arab Spain) is not joining them. He said that it is not easy for her to leave Nazareth and travel abroad besides the difficult nature of their long tour which is not an easy option for her.

The Trio are haunted, like all Palestinians by exile and by the feeling of being forced to keep on the move searching for a home away from home like almost 6 million Palestinian refugees. This can be felt by the titles of their Albums. At the end of the successful concert, the four Palestinian musicians played a piece called Asfar which means ‘travels’, then signed a number of their albums for the audience. But what was interesting, is as Adnan said, we are Palestinians and we identify ourselves as such, no one even notices that we are Christian Palestinians, because for us Palestinians it does not matter what faith we are, we are campaigning for the freedom of our country through our heritage and music. The Trio got the biggest applause when Samir said " our instruments were the only weapons we picked up in our fight for Palestinian freedom and identity".

For me as a Palestinian in exile, the Joubran’s concert was a dream that brought my home country right to where I was. When the audience started stamping their feet, applauding the musicians and demanding more music, the sound of Palestinian Dabkeh sounds was brought back to life, I could swear that I can visualize the seasons of harvest in Palestine’s’ summers and smell the toasted wheat in its fields.

All Men are Liars

Alberto Manguel, translated by Miranda France
240pp Alma Books, £12.99
ISBN: 978-1-84688-109-1

There is something about this book in itself that suggests the imposter. Its cover is fake worn, the corners dog-eared; and the interior carries on the pose with an antique typeface and design. I half expected the pages to have the musty brown vapour of a dry old book shop.
We are expected to believe that the author is a liar. In fact, it’s easy to suspect that the true author is Miranda France, as, after the opening “Apologia” by “Alberto Manguel”, another contributor begins by declaring, “Albert Manguel is an asshole. Whatever he told you about Alejandro, I’ll bet my right arm it’s wrong, Terradillos..”
The story involves a tiny group of Argentinian expatriates keeping loosely together in 1970s Madrid; one of them, Alejandro Bevilacqua, has just died in a fall from his balcony the night before his book, which his compatriots insist is a literary masterpiece, is published.
The several accounts of the tragedy (in the form of letters to the unseen Terradillos) and the events leading to it differ as each writer knew Bevilacqua in separate ways and separate times, and each writer has peculiar, and untrustworthy, slants on what followed. But piece by piece, the man takes shape. He grew up in Argentina, fell in love with a puppeteer’s daughter, reluctantly began to write pulpy scripts for photo-comics and was imprisoned and tortured for reasons unknown to himself. One of the lovers he finds on his escape digs up his hidden or lost manuscript and insists on getting it published. Its title: “In Praise of Lying”. And her tale may be the one true account.

A letter from Bevilacqua’s one-time cellmate, El Chancho (“the Pig”) appears to suggest that he and not Bevilacqua was the author. On the other hand, there is the possibility that Bevilacqua wrote El Chancho’s letter.
If this sounds like a pain in the head, in fact it’s quite fascinating, partly because of the stream of warm, long-shadowed melancholy running through it. It’s really all about the unreliability of memory and perception as much as about reading itself. There are no signposts, and you will be a few pages into each revelation before you guess who it’s from; but I will say no more about that. No spoiler here.

For brain-food, the kind of book to hang on to, as you know it contains at least a couple more good meals, and you will be tempted to return for another look- just to make sure.

There is a list, at the back, of the author’s other works, which include “A History of Reading”. This is almost too good to be true!

Open letter to the people of Israel

Journalist Lauren Booth was on the first Free Gaza voyage and stayed to work in Gaza after the boats left. Her heartfelt letter to the people of Israel should be read and seen by everyone who hopes for peace in the Middle East, including those for whom "peace" means "greater Israel". This video realisation of her words was designed and produced by the Free Gaza movement.

The Independent - a suitable case for scepticism?

How independent is the Independent? When this young upstart began publication in 1986, it was too easy to dismiss it with the response,”No such thing” - although it has had periods when it did, indeed, look independent. My kind of independent, of course, slightly leftwards. Five years after its birth it imploded and went off the radar for a while, but rallied.

Now, though, with the kind of issue that either polarises or unifies, as the Israeli attack on the Peace Flotilla, the Indie’s true colours have been exposed.

Efforts by Tony Greenstein and a multitude of friends to place an advert condemning the BBC for its highly partial Panorama programme about the attack have been met with, first, a Jack Straw-style fog of constructive inactivity; then a kaliedoscope of legalese cant. The Guardian is also fidgety about attacking Auntie Beeb, but at least they put it in writing. As of today, Sunday 12th, the plan is to place the advert in the leftwing weeklies. And be damned!

Sat 11 September 2010

Dear Friends,

I was rung up yesterday by the Independent's libel lawyer, who I believe is Janet Youngson, and we had a completely fruitless conversation in which she made every type of objection possible. As you can see from my letter there is no point in pursuing this any further.

I will therefore submit it to the New Statesman, Spectator and left press as the majority of signatories have agreed.

It has been interesting seeing how the free press operates and how it is able to hide behind legal mystification. Note the contrast between the Indie's legal opinion, which it was not prepared to put down in writing, and that of the Guardian.

Would people do their best to spread this far and wide, Media Lens and any other outlets. A number of suggestions have been made by people.

best wishes

Tony

Saturday, 11 September 2010

Imogen Haddon
Managing Editor
The Independent and The Independent on Sunday

Dear Ms Haddon,

I was rung up by your libel lawyer, Janet Youngson I believe her name is, yesterday regarding the advert we tried placing with the Independent on 19th August concerning the BBC’s coverage of the attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. I assumed, after our recent correspondence, that she would be able to give me a list of specific points which you had problems with, in order that we could hopefully agree to any amendments or alterations deemed necessary to enable you to run the ad.

Ms Youngson immediately made it clear that she was unable to provide a list of objections because, in her own words, she had marked nearly every paragraph as requiring changes. I told her that I was happy, for example, to make it clear that it was in our opinion that the Israeli Military’s ‘Go Back to Auschwitz’ clip, that was uncritically broadcast by the BBC, was a fake rather than simply stating it as such. Ms Youngson’s response was that that changed nothing. It was equally defamatory, she said, to say that ‘in our opinion you are a murderer’.

There is however a difference, as there usually is, with such broad brush analogies. The Israeli navy commandos did murder 9 unarmed peace activists in international waters, most shot at close quarters to the head. Likewise the ‘Auschwitz’ clip contained no background sounds or noise, like the other clips the IOF broadcast, so it could have been recorded by anyone, anywhere and at any time. This was, of course, after the Israeli military had withdrawn their claim that it came from the Mavi Marmara. Ms Youngson’s response was that in a libel case the defendant has to prove their assertion, which is true, but this is on the balance of probability. Questions such as Israel’s confiscation of film and recording equipment would, in itself, have enabled powerful inferences to be drawn. I would have been prepared to make it clear that the BBC did not knowingly broadcast a faked tape, though it use of such was clearly grossly negligent, but this too wasn’t acceptable.

Ms Youngson also had problems with the statement that ‘Throughout its coverage the BBC broadcast uncritically Israel’s own film “evidence” of their commandos being attacked, when it was fully aware that this had edited out the initial lethal attack.’‘ Yet this is an established fact. Ms Youngson’s response was that the BBC often show people’s home video clips! Well yes, but this wasn’t a home or mobile movie but a carefully edited IDF clip which excluded the original attack on the ships.

Her next objection was that I couldn’t prove that the BBC had done this everywhere, including on its Arabic World Service broadcasts. This is true. I don’t have the resources monitor the BBC world-wide. Nor is it necessary since the advert is being placed in a British newspaper. However I offered to change this to BBC News 24, but this was also unacceptable.

What Ms Youngson was really seeking was nothing less than a wholesale rewriting of the advert, the effect of which would have been to make it so innocuous that it would no longer have been our views that were expressed. It also transpired that Ms Youngson had worked at the BBC as a lawyer, because she kept referring to how the BBC worked internally.

We also approached the Guardian to run the advert, but decided for other reasons against this. Their legal department also had objections and, as the e-mail below demonstrates, they had no difficulty outlining what they were. Their objections related solely to a minor rewording of the allegation that the tape which was broadcast was faked and that the IDF had admitted it was not from the MM.

What made the conversation with Ms Youngson even more surreal was that she admitted the BBC would not sue for libel. The idea that the Israeli military would sue, when they are keen to avoid subjecting any of their claims to an independent inquiry, is absurd. Ms Youngson also stated that if another newspaper printed the advert then she’d have no or fewer problems about running it, even though the fact that another publication prints something libellous is no defence to a libel action.

It became clear to me that despite her claims to be speaking as a libel lawyer, Ms Youngson’s and therefore the Independent’s objections to the advert, were political not legal. We could not criticise the BBC’s coverage unless we could prove everything according to the ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ test and in any event we were ascribing a motive to their slanted coverage, namely that it was deliberate, whereas I was quite happy to accept that they have been biased for so long, on the Palestinian and other questions, that it is almost subconscious.

The reason that Ms Youngson and the Independent could not supply a list of specific objections was that it objected to the advert in toto but did not feel able to say this. It is clear that any legal concerns were a smokescreen for political objections. I pointed out repeatedly that what we were saying was covered by provisions relating to ‘fair comment’ in libel law, which she did not seem able to take on board. I then decided that there was no point in continuing the conversation and terminated the call.

The advert which we have unsuccessfully tried to place with you was no more than a paid for Op-Ed. There was nothing defamatory about it at all. The objections to it were political not legal. I would have expected the Independent of all papers to have resisted the temptation to engage in such absurd self-censorship. Clearly I was wrong.

Yours sincerely,

Tony Greenstein

From: Jennifer Melmore
To: tony greenstein
Sent: Thu, 9 September, 2010 12:33:27
Subject: Re: Proposed advert

Hi Tony

Legal have just got back to me and said that we'll only be able to run your ad if you can make a few changes to the copy, as detailed below:

'In the 2nd paragraph ("In return, the BBC broadcast what amounted...") the advertiser would need to change the sentance "The BBC even broadcast a clearly faked clip, purporting to come from the Flotilla" to something that doesn't go as far as saying it was faked. Also the sentance " Even the IDF admitted on June 5th that this had been ‘edited’ and was not from the MM. http://tinyurl.com/2dvq6ph " would have to be changed as the IDF has apprently not said that the broadcast in question didn't come from the MM, just that it wasn't possible to tell which ship in particular it had come from.'

Please let me know what you think,

All the best,

Jennifer

Jennifer Melmore
Client Account Manager

Also: see Tony Greenstein's blog. at http://azvsas.blogspot.com/2010/09/jane-corbin-bbcs-prostitute-of-airwaves.html