Israel deploys cyber team to spread positive spin

The passionate support for Israel expressed on talkback sections of websites, internet chat forums, blogs, Twitters and Facebook may not be all that it seems.

Israel’s foreign ministry is reported to be establishing a special undercover team of paid workers whose job it will be to surf the internet 24 hours a day spreading positive news about Israel.

Click here to read the full article in The National by Jonathan Cook

Controversial Bestseller Shakes the Foundation of the Israeli State

What if the Palestinian Arabs who have lived for decades under the heel of the modern Israeli state are in fact descended from the very same "children of Israel" described in the Old Testament?

And what if most modern Israelis aren't descended from the ancient Israelites at all, but are actually a mix of Europeans, North Africans and others who didn't "return" to the scrap of land we now call Israel and establish a new state following the attempt to exterminate them during World War II, but came in and forcefully displaced people whose ancestors had lived there for millennia?

What if the entire tale of the Jewish Diaspora -- the story recounted at Passover tables by Jews around the world every year detailing the ancient Jews' exile from Judea, the years spent wandering through the desert, their escape from the Pharaoh's clutches -- is all wrong?

Click here to read the full article.

Architecture, Ethics and Code of Conduct

The following email was sent to the Architectural Record magazine (USA) in response to an article by Ruth Jacobson in their July 2009 issue featuring the William Davidson Center in Jerusalem by Kimmel Eshkolot.

We will post their response if and when we receive it.

Dear Sir,

We read in your July issue just received about the new William Davidson Center in Jerusalem by Kimmel Eshkolot.

This project is yet another example of the architectural community inside Israel, flouting all codes of conduct and professional ethics by building on conquered and disputed land. Your article notes that "building on an archaeological site with so much historical, political and cultural significance posed a tremendous challenge". We would add: "Ethical and Moral challenge" as well. Hence any act which defies these parameters must be considered an illegal one until settlement of the dispute surrounding Jerusalem and the rest of the conquered Palestinian territories has been reached.

Kimmel Eshkolot ask "how often is an architect granted the opportunity to work on a site considered one of the holiest places in the world?"

Quite often, unfortunately.

Jerusalem was declared 'Corpus Separatum' in UN Resolution 181 issued in November 1947. In plain words: an International separate zone.
This remains the view of the international community and the UN. It is disputed territory, and any building on this land must surely be considered illegal.

All architects are bound by their institute's Code of Ethics. The Royal Institute of British Architects, The International Union of Architects and the American Institute of Architects (to name but a few world institutes) would not condone such involvement by their members in the building of projects in disputed territories.

Professional codes of conduct must be applied by the architectural membership wherever and whenever international law has been violated. Kimmel Eshkolot cannot be an exception. Your writer Ruth Jacobson should have raised this issue in her, otherwise, excellent article.

Sincerely,

Raffoul Darrer Architects Limited

Click here for the Architectural Record article

Photo © Amit Giron

Gambling with peace: how US bingo dollars are funding Israeli settlements

For the winning punters chancing their luck at Hawaiian Gardens' charity bingo hall in the heart of one of California's poorest towns, the big prize is $500. The losers walk away with little more than an assurance that their dollars are destined for a good cause.

But the real winners and losers live many thousands of miles away, where the profits from the nightly ritual of numbers-calling fund what critics describe as a form of ethnic cleansing by extremist organisations.

Each dollar spent on bingo by the mostly Latino residents of Hawaiian Gardens, on the outskirts of Los Angeles, helps fund Jewish settlements on Palestinian land in some of the most sensitive areas of occupied East Jerusalem, particularly the Muslim quarter of the old city, and West Bank towns such as Hebron where the Israeli military has forced Arabs out of their properties in their thousands.

Click here to read more from the Guardian Unlimited website

IDF abuse Palestinian protester [from the Guardian UK]