Posted December 11, 2006
Web Resources from Groups Based in the Middle East:
Al-Haq
www.alhaq.org
Al-Haq is a Palestinian human rights organization and West Bank affiliate of
the International Commission of Jurists. It conducts and disseminates legal
research, monitors and documents human rights violations, provides free legal
services to the Palestinian community and houses the only West Bank public library
specializing in human rights.
Alternative Information Center
www.alternativenews.org
The AIC is a joint Palestinian-Israeli organization that prioritizes critical
analyses, political advocacy and cooperation based on social justice and respect
for the national rights of all Palestinians. The center publishes News from
Within, a monthly magazine, as well as a series of economic pamphlets, on the
situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel.
B’Tselem
www.btselem.org
B’Tselem is The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied
Territories conducts research, serves as a resource center, publishes pamphlets,
produces videos to accompany its written reports and attempts to generate greater
commitment to human rights principles among the Israeli public.
Coalition of Women for Peace
http://coalitionofwomen.org
This website leads to several Israeli or Israeli-Palestinian women’s organizations,
including Bat Shalom, The Fifth Mother, Machsom Watch, New Profile, TANDI, WILPF,
Women in Black that work on human rights issues.
Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
www.icahd.org
ICAHD, a non-violent, direct action organization, opposes the matrices of Israeli
control (through land expropriation, settlement expansion, construction of exclusively
“Israeli” roads and economic closure) over the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.
Jeff Halper, ICAHD director, is the author of Obstacles for Peace.
Gush Shalom
www.zope.gush-shalom.org
This Israeli organization holds antiwar, anti-occupation demonstrations places
ads in Israeli newspapers to educate the population against human rights violations.
Also see the newsletter, The Other Israel, and Uri Avnery’s articles.
Health Development Information and Policy Institute
www.hdip.org
This institute is an independent Palestinian organization specializing in policy
research and planning in the West Bank and Gaza. It has a number of fact sheets
on water, health, children and the apartheid wall as well as other materials.
It also publishes The Palestine Monitor.
Palestine Monitor
www.palestinemonitor.org
This is an informational clearinghouse created by the Palestinian Nongovernment
Organization Network, in which the Health Development Information and Policy
Institute is delegated the responsibility of disseminating information from
Palestinian civil society.
Stop the Wall Campaign
http://stopthewall.org
Stop the War is a grassroots campaign coordinated by the Palestinian Environmental
NGOs Network (PENGON).
Taayush
www.taayush.org
Ta’ayush is a grassroots organization, bringing together Jewish and Arab Israelis
to oppose the Occupation, work with Palestinians to protest the Apartheid Wall,
and bring supplies to besieged Palestinian villages.
Yesh Gvul
| www.yesgvul.org
Founded in 1982, during the Israeli war on Lebanon, Yesh Gvul is the oldest
group dedicated to supporting Refuseniks-soldiers who refuse to serve in the
Occupied Territories.
U.S.-Based Web Resources:
Ad Hoc Coalition for Justice in the Middle East
www.mideastjustice.org
Organized in 2006 in response to the escalation of Israeli attacks on the Gaza
Strip and subsequent attacks in Lebanon, the coalition is a strategic alliance
in New York area of organizations opposed to U.S./Israeli aggression in the
Middle East.
Amnesty USA
www.amnestyusa.org
AI publishes extensive reports on human rights issues.
Electronic Intifada
www.electronicintifada.net
The EI publishes news, commentary, and reference materials about the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict from a Palestinian perspective.
Human Rights Watch
www.hrw.org
Issues reports on human rights issues.
Jewish Voice for Peace
www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org
This is the largest, left-wing Jewish anti-Occupation organization in the United
States. Not in My Name www.nimn.org, founded in 2000, is now the Chicago Chapter
of Jewish Voice for Peace.
Jews Against the Occupation
www.jatonyc.org
This is a New York-based organization composed of progressive, secular and religious
Jews.
Institute for Policy Studies
www.ips-dc.org/projects/newinternat.htm
The Institute for Policy Studies is a multi-issue think tank with the New International
as devoted to the Middle East crisis as manifest in Iraq and Palestine/Israel.
The IPS opposes the Israeli occupation and publishes materials analyzing Israeli
policy.
International Solidarity Movement
www.palsolidarity.org
Committed to resisting Israeli occupation, this Palestinian-led movement organizes
non-violent and direct action campaigns. Current on-going campaign is against
the construction of the apartheid Wall. The ISM organizes delegations to the
West Bank.
Iraqi Veterans for Peace
www.ivaw.org
This group is composed of vets and active-duty servicemen and women who are
working to bring their brothers and sisters home.
Middle East Research and Information Project
www.merip.org
MERIP publishes Middle East Report, an authoritative quarterly.
Military Families Speak Out
www.mfso.org
This website is particularly designed for families of soldiers. Military Families
is against all appropriations except for those to bring the troops home. They
suggest the following videos: “The Ground Truth,” directed by Patricia Foulkrod,
and “Sir, No Sir,” directed by David Zelger, about troop resistance during the
Vietnam War. Also see “Eyes Wide Open,” an exhibit on life and death in Iraq
www.afsc.org/eyes/.
The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
www.al-awda.org
Al-Awda supports the unconditional right of Palestinian return and “a single
democratic state for all its citizens in all of Palestine.”
Refuser Solidarity Network
www.refusersolidarity.net
A U.S.-based portal to find information about the various Israeli refuser groups.
United for Peace and Justice
www.unitedforpeace.org
This is a national coalition of antiwar and peace organizations. It is sponsoring
the January 27th March on Washington.
US Campaign to End the Occupation
www.endtheoccupation.org
This is a diverse coalition of over 200 member organizations based on human
rights and international law. Its current national priority is divestment from
Caterpillar.
USLAW (U.S. Labor Against the War)
www.uslaboragainstwar.org A network
of labor organizations that advocates, educates and mobilizes for a just U.S.
foreign polcy, an end to U.S. occupation, and supports U.S. troops and their
families by bringing the troops home now. Brings Iraqi trade unionists to speak
in the United States. Works closely with Military Families Speak out and veterans’
groups. Recommends “Meeting Face to Face,” directed by Jonathan Levin (www.MeetingFacetoFace.org).
Veterans for Peace
www.veteransforpeac.org
Veterans for Peace workers for peace and justice through nonviolence.
Vietnam Veterans for Peace
www.vvaw.org
Vietnam Veterans for Peace are veterans from the Vietnam War working for peace.
Some Additional Resources-Books:
Israel/Palestine:
Beinin, Joel and Stein, Rebecca L. (editors), The Struggle for Sovereignty:
Palestine and Israel, 1993-2005. (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press,
2006).
Bennis, Phyllis, Before and After: US Foreign Policy and the September
11 Crisis. Forward by Noam Chomsky (Institute for Policy Studies, 2002).
Carter, Jimmy, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid (New York: Simon &
Schuster, 2006).
Important and controversial for former President Carter’s use of the A-word.
Chomsky, Noam, The Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel and the
Palestinians (Boston: South End Press, updated edition 1999).
Finkelstein, Norman G., Image and Reality of the Israeli-Palestine Conflict
(London: Verso, 2003).
Flapan, Simha, The Birth of Israel: Myths and Realities (New York:
Pantheon Books, 1997).
Halper, Jeff and Younan, Michael (illustrator), Obstacles to Peace: A Reframing
of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict (ICAHD publication, 3rd edition, April
2005).
Khalidi, Rashid, The Iron Cage. The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for
Statehood (Boston: Beacon Press, 2006).
Khalidi, Rashid, Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National
Consciousness (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997).
Massad, Joseph, The Persistence of the Palestinian Question: Essays on
Zionism the Palestine (London/New York: Routledge, 2006).
Morris, Benny, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited
(Cambridge: Middle East Studies, Cambridge University Press, 2004).
Morris, Benny, Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict,
1881-2001 (New York: Vintage, 2001).
Pappe, Ilan, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (Oneworld Publications,
2006).
Peteet, Julie M., Gender in Crisis: Women and the Palestinian Resistance
Movement (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991).
Reinhart, Tanya, The Road Map to Nowhere: Israel/Palestine Since 2003
(London: Verso, 2006).
Reinhart, Tanya, Israel/Palestine: How to End the 1948 War (Seven
Stores Press, 2002).
Shahak, Israel and Mezvinsky, Norton, Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel
(London: Pluto Press, 1999).
Shlaim, Avi, The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World (New York: W.W.
Norton & Company, 2001).
Sternhell, Zeev and Maisel, David, The Founding Myths of Israel: Nationalism,
Socialism and the Making of the Jewish State (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1998).
Warschawski, Michel, On the Border. (Cambridge: South End Press, 2005).
Warschawski, Michel, Toward an Open Tomb. The Crisis of Israeli Society.
(New York: Monthly Review, 2004).
Marxist Critiques of Zionism:
Draper, Hal, Zionism, Israel and the Arabs (Berkeley: Center for Socialist
History, 1997).
Miliband, Ralph and Liebman, Marcel, The Israeli Dilemma, a debate between
two left-wing Jews. Introduction and epilogue by Gilbert Achcar (London,
Merlin Press, 2006).
Rodinson, Maxime, Israel, A Colonial-Settler State? (New York: Pathfinder
Press, 1973). Also see Israel and the Arabs, Islam and Capitalism,
Mohammed, Cult, Ghetto and State, and The Persistence of the
Jewish Question.
Weinstock, Nathan, Zionism: False Messiah (London: Ink Links, 1979).
Iraq:
Al-Ali, Nadje Sadig, Iraqi Women: Untold Stories from 1948 to the Present
(London: Zed Books, March 2007).
Ali, Tariq, Bush in Babylon: The Recolonisation of Iraq (London: Verso,
2003). See Christopher Phelps’ review from ATC 119.
Arnove, Anthony (editor), Iraq Under Siege: The Deadly Impact of Sanctions
and War (Boston: South End Press, 2002).
Also see his Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal
(New York: New Press, 2006). See David
Finkel’s review in ATC 122.
Batatu, Hanna, The Old Social Classes & the Revolutionary Movements
of Iraq (Princeton: Princeton University Press). Definitive history of
Iraq.
International Crisis Group, In Their Own Words: Reading the Iraqi Insurgency
(Amman/Brussels, 2006).
Parenti, Chrstian, The Freedom: Shadows and Hallucinations in Iraq
(New Press, 2004).
Middle East/Southeast Asia:
Achcar, Gilbert, Clash of Barbarisms: September 11 and the Making of the
New World Disorder (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2002).
Achcar, Gilbert, Eastern Cauldron: Islam, Afghanistan, Palestine, and Iraq
in a Marxist Mirror (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2004).
McAlister, Melani, Epic Encounters: Culture, Media and US Interests in
the Middle East Since 1945 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005).
Nouraie-Simone, Fereshteh, (editor), On Shifting Ground: Muslim Women in
the Global Era (New York: Feminist Press, 2005).
Rashid, Ahmed, Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia (New
Haven/London: Yale University Press, 2002). See Dianne Feeley’s review of Jihad
and Taliban in ATC 99.
Rashid, Ahmed, Taliban: Islam, Oil & Fundamentalism in Central Asia
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001). See Dianne Feeley’s review of Jihad
and Taliban in ATC 99
Said, Edward, Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How
We See the Rest of the World (London: Vintage, 1997).
Said, Edward, edited by Moustafa Bayoumi and Andrew Rubin, The Edward Said
Reader (Vintage, 2000).
A Few Films:
Battle for the Holy Land, originally a segment on PBS’s Frontline,
the film offers candid interviews with both the IDF and Palestinian fighters.
(www.shopPBS.com)
The Bedouin of Israel, 2-hour documentary by Ron Kelley on the displacement
of Bedouins from the Negev. Americans for Middle East Understanding also publishes
The Link (www.ameu.org)
Citizen Bishara, tells the story of Azmi Bishara, a leading Arab-Israeli
member of the Knesset, by Simone Bitton. (www.frif.com)
Divine Intervention, by Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman, is a
fantasy response to the media-generated images of Palestinians as terrorists.
(www.avatarfilms.com)
Gaza Strip, feature-length documentary completed before 9/11, by James
Longley. (www.arabfilm.com).
Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers directed by Robert Greenwald reveals
the privatization that has accompanied the war and occupation. (http://iraqforsale.org)
Paradise Now, a story of two Palestinian suicide bombers and what
makes them tick. (www.arabfilm.com)
People and the Land, a documentary. (www.arabfilm.com)
Wall, a documentary about the building of the Separation Wall. (www.arabfilm.com)
Americans for Middle East Understanding has a number of videos that can be purchased from $10-25 each. (www.ameu.org/videos.asp)
First Run/Icarus Films have a number of films/videos on the Middle East available for sale or rental (www.frif.com)
Both Al-Haq (www.alhaq.org) and B’Tselem
(www.btselem.org) have made videos to go
with their various reports. For example, Al-Haq has a 47-minute DVD, In
the Spider’s Web, is a documentary focusing on two women in order to illustrate
Israel’s use of collective punishment.