exhibition

Here is a story about common suffering, and people willing and hoping to work together in peace. A story that probably will not get much mainstream media attention. It's uplifting. Take a look.

Here is another story about how things are negotiated in Israel.

By the way, the Spanish courts have decided to continue probing crimes against humanity allegations against Israel. It relates to a 2002 attack on Gaza City which killed a suspected leader of Hamas, Salah Shehadeh, along with 14 civilians, mainly infants and children.

Some 150 Palestinians were also wounded, according to the allegations. In accepting the case last month, Andreu said the attack in a densely-populated area "showed signs of constituting a crime against humanity." Sounds familiar, though the number of deaths have increased nowadays. I think these are the same courts that ultimately were able to arrest Pinochet for his human rights abuses.

It seemed for a while that Spain was not going to proceed, but they have now decided that they will. There are two Ha'aretz articles detailing it here and here. From that last article, this paragraph is very revealing:

The [Spanish] judge initially launched the investigation under a doctrine that allows prosecution in Spain, and other European countries, to reach far beyond national borders in cases of torture or war crimes. The universal jurisdiction ruling sparked outrage in Israel and elsewhere.

Subsequently, Spanish Foreign Minister said that Spain would act to amend the legislation that granted Andreu the authority to launch the investigation, promising Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni that he would take action to prevent such moves in the future.

According to Spanish judicial sources, Andreu decided to continue with investigation after reading material handed over to Spain by Israel's Foreign Ministry, indicating that Israel is not investigating the incident.

Those two articles are from an Israeli paper, so I don't really know how much "outrage" the universal jurisdiction ruling provoked "elsewhere".

___________________________________________________________________

I saw Lemon Tree on the weekend at the Festival of Perth. An Israeli directed film about Israel and Palestine and Lemon Trees, with the wonderful Hiam Abbas who I first saw in the American film, The Visitor (I know, I know. I'm late on the scene). The Festival is held at the University of Western Australia every summer. It is outdoors. It's a beautiful way to spend an evening. Cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, olives and wine. The stars above and the damned uncomfortable deck chairs! Each week a different film is shown. It winds up next week, but I am more than happy that I have been able to catch two weeks of it.

Sorry for the lack of visuals. I'm on a friends computer, and will insert them all later when I'm on familiar cyber ground.

__________________________________________________________________

Also from the Israeli papers. Just remember, these kinds of deaths are still going on. An almost daily occurrence, it seems, or at the least, definitely not unheard of.