Jean-Paul Sartre (centre) dining in Paris with filmmaker Claude Lanzmann (left) and Simone de Beauvoir in 1964 | Bettmann/Corbis
On October 10, 1964, the French existential philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre rejected the Nobel Prize for literature. Continue reading
Filed under History
By As’ad AbuKhalil
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, 75, who was declared dead in a Paris hospital November 10, 2004 in murky circumstances. Painting by Ismail Shammout
“How Arafat Eluded Israel’s Assassination Machine,” the story in the New York Times, which is part of a book which has come out, is a typical Mossad planted story in the U.S. media. Notice that there is an attempt to show that humanitarian consideration went into planning to kill Arafat.
The most fervent effort by Israel to kill Arafat was in the summer of 1982 during the savage siege of Beirut. As I lived those times, I remember how whole apartment buildings would be bombed by concussion bombs from the air ON THE SUSPICION that Arafat was in the building. Continue reading
Filed under Palestine
Act of God, the harbour pilot, the navy?
The Halifax Explosion and the Royal Canadian Navy: Inquiry and Intrigue
John Griffith Armstrong
(Vancouver: UBC Press, 2002)
Hardcover, 256 pp, 6 x 9 inches, 16 b/w photos, maps
Index, Bibliography and Chapter end-notes
ISBN 0-7748-0890-X
$39.95
New in Paperback: July, 2003
ISBN 0774808918 $24.95
Reviewed by GARY ZATZMAN*
Painting of the Halifax Explosion
Was it an “accident”? Did the harbour-pilot do it? Why did the British Admiralty send such a dangerous ship into the harbour of Halifax in the first place? Why was it diverted from New York? Why did the Americans and the French load explosive cargo in such a way? How much did the navy know – and when did they know it? The Halifax Explosion of 6 December 1917, the most destructive man-made explosion before the dropping of The Bomb, left half the population homeless, levelled residential areas of the working class, the poor, parts of the African-Nova Scotian community at Africville and the Mi’kmaq community at Tufts Cove, discredited the reputations of a number of officials and continues to inflame controversy to this day. John Griffith Armstrong’s The Halifax Explosion and the Royal Canadian Navy: Inquiry and Intrigue heaps another faggot on this fire. Focusing on the official inquiry following the disaster, Armstrong clarifies the role and responsibility of the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). Continue reading
Filed under Canada, History, No Harbour for War (Halifax)
By SARAH IRVING*
Islam Under the Palestine Mandate: Colonialism and the Supreme Muslim Council, Nicholas E. Roberts, I.B.Tauris (2017)
In the dangerous and inaccurate popular narratives on Palestine, religion – a black-and-white tale of Islam versus Judaism – is often given priority of importance. Religious identities are taken as the simple, unquestioned driving force behind the actions of Palestinians throughout history.
A closer look, of course, reveals the flaws in this image. During the Ottoman period, the people of Palestine might have been more likely to identify themselves in terms of their family, neighbourhood, city or profession, depending on which identity the situation called for at a particular time. Continue reading
Filed under Palestine
British forces who served in Ireland during its war of independence were later sent to Palestine | National Library of Ireland/Flickr
Cover for Estela Bravo’s Fidel, la historia no contada (Fidel: The Untold Story).
Documentary filmmaker Estela Bravo’s Fidel, la historia no contada included in the site’s catalogue |
CUBA’S Information Technology and Advanced Electronic Services Enterprise, Citamel, has recently announced the addition of nine new audiovisuals to its multimedia products catalogue of CDs, DVDs, audiobooks, e-books and downloadable documents, available for sale on it internet website, Bazar Cuba.
This electronic sales outlet allows for the acquisition of a great variety of Cuban products via the Internet, and its multimedia offerings, grouped in eight thematic categories, have been very well-received, according to the company. Continue reading
Filed under Americas
(From our archives: originally published on May 25, 2014) – This ground-breaking book, based on research undertaken in the archives of the Comintern in Moscow as well as archives in France, Britain, the US and West Africa, documents the activities of the Communist International in relation to Africa and the African diaspora. It focuses on a period when the world was in flux, with inter-imperialist rivalry at its height, when African and Caribbean countries, amongst others, were under colonial domination. Black people in Africa, the Caribbean and other western countries were officially considered inferior, had few rights and racism was at the level of open state policy from so-called “Jim Crow” laws and lynching in the US, to pass laws and segregation in South Africa and the colour bar in Britain. Continue reading
