The commencement of the scholastic year in Palestine is once again marked by Israeli tactics to disrupt not only a smooth transition for students and teachers, but also the foundations of a society that can, in due course, construct a political reality that challenges the colonial repression. Last Tuesday, Israeli forces removed mobile classes from…
Author: walzerscent
A message to the Palestinian Authority: persecuting Palestinian journalists aids the colonial occupation
Last May, when the media was concentrated upon the collective hunger strike in Israeli jails organised by Marwan Barghouti, another hunger strike initiated by Hamza Zablah went largely unnoticed. Zablah, a former prisoner for Hebron, was been detained by the Palestinian Authority security services and despite an order being signed for his release, his detention…
BOOK REVIEW: Jose Carlos Mariategui. An Anthology
Connecting with an International Historical Reality: Book Review of “Jose Carlos Mariátegui: An Anthology “We do not want American socialism to be a copy or an imitation, it should be a heroic creation. We must give life to Indo-American socialism with our own life, in our own language.” Jose Carlos Mariátegui This anthology provides an…
BOOK REVIEW: Thorough Surveillance
Departing from the contradiction which mainstream narratives have assimilated into normalised recurrences, Ahmed Sa’di’s excellent treatise commences with a reminder that Israel has extended the existence of colonialism far beyond its alleged demise. Surveillance methods, historically implemented to control populations of colonised territories, have been adopted by Israel to consolidate the desired demographic changes aimed,…
BOOK REVIEW: Rhetorics of Belonging
Moving away from the emphasis placed by the mainstream upon narrative when discussing Palestinian and Israeli literature, Anna Bernard’s academic treatise, “Rhetorics of belonging: nation, narration and Israel/Palestine” (Liverpool University Press, 2013) provides rigorous insights into often overlooked experiences of nation and narration. Identity construction of Palestinians and Israelis has been shaped externally by hegemonic…
A temporary suspension of exile: interview with former MIR militant Hugo Marchant
Chile’s supreme court of appeals has temporarily suspended the exile sentence imposed upon an ex-militant of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR). Hugo Marchant was detained in 1973 for distributing leaflets containing anti-Pinochet propaganda and later became a member of the (MIR) while in exile. Marchant entered Chile clandestinely in 1980 as part of a…
Destroying the ability to think historically in Chile
The decision to remove the term ‘military dictatorship’ from Chilean primary school textbooks has been revoked, following the resignation of Alejandro Goic, a member of the National Council of Education (CNED). In his resignation letter to Minister of Education Harald Beyer, Goic cites discomfort at having to work with former Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI)…
A Poetic Concept of Identity: An interview with Mapuche poet David Aninir Guilitraro
The culture of Mapuche poetry has evolved into three distinctive forms: traditional, intellectual and urban. David Aniñir Guilitraro, an urban Mapuche poet from Santiago, has created a literary realm which connects the history of the Mapuche struggle to the social problems which the people face today. Guilitraro describes his book, Mapurbe, as ‘a poetic concept of identity’…
BOOK REVIEW: Building the Commune
Reviewed: Building the Commune: Radical Democracy in Venezuela, by George Cicciarello-Maher, Verso Books, 2016. Venezuela’s kaleidoscopic political scene – a constant struggle which is often simplified in mainstream media – is articulated with clarity inBuilding the Commune: Radical Democracy in Venezuela (Verso Books, 2016). Drawing upon historical episodes and the more recent forms of right-wing violence, political…
BOOK REVIEW: After Abu Ghraib
Reviewed: After Abu Ghraib: Exploring Human Rights in America and the Middle East, By Shadi Mokhati, (Cambridge University Press, 2011). In the book Abu Ghraib: Exploring Human Rights in America and the Middle East, author Shadi Mokhtari describes how the human rights violations at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and other secret prisons have created a new level of consciousness…
RAMONA WADI 