Bending the Rules at City Council Slightly frustrated by being sidelined by Ann Arbor City Council rules, this writer used a tenuous connection to play by the rules, yet get a point across. Readers remember the vigil report of Nov. 16 when my talk exposing the blacklisting of companies by MasterCard was delayed. This week’s talk […]

Dodging the Question A handful of JWPF members joined about 150 others at the University of Michigan’s Dearborn campus last Monday to listen to speakers Josh Ruebner, Ben White, and Susan Abulhawa avoid the topics we listed in last week’s report: 1. The legitimacy of the Jewish state 2. Jewish Identity Politics 3. Influence of Jewish […]

Dynamic Silence Redux With a touch of irony, this writer was “Dynamically Silenced” by an Ann Arbor City Council rule even as I was about to speak to that body [bold]about dynamic silence. Prior to about 2004, citizens wishing to address Council on any topic were allotted four minutes provided they signed up in advance. […]

Will Rasmea Odeh follow Rabih Haddad? Three members of JWPF traveled to Detroit for a rally to have apparently-politically-inspired criminal charges dropped against Palestinian activist Rasmea Odeh, who spent ten years in an Israeli prison. This writer was reminded of similar protests in 2002 “demanding” – whatever that means – the release of Rabih Haddad, […]

Dynamic Silence (again) Benjamin Ginsberg, in his book The Fatal Embrace, identifies the term “Dynamic Silence” for us. From page 124 we read: Together with their allies, Jews also organized efforts to deprive anti-Semites of access to the media. This effort began during the late 1940s and continued into the 1950s. For example, during this […]

Protesting the Fed in Ann Arbor Last Sunday saw nine peace and justice activists at an entrance to the Washtenaw Community College, where the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor was holding its annual “Main Event” – a fund raiser that supports the apartheid Jewish state. We were joined by Michael Rabb, organizer of the […]

Fast Times in Ann Arbor This writer hosted author Pamela Olson, who gave readings from her first book, Fast Times in Palestine, at the Literati Book Store in Ann Arbor this week. Attendance was about twenty people and Ms. Olson seemed professional and comfortable in her delivery. Of the points she raised, these seemed notable: She […]