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From Challenge # 85  May - June 2004

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In This Issue 

AFTER 37 years of Occupation, to think that Israel could unilaterally disengage from Gaza amounted to a Unilateral Disengagement from Reality. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon submitted his disconnection plan to the members of his party, who proceeded to disconnect themselves from him, as well as from most Israelis. The plan takes its place in a gallery of failures, along with Oslo and the Road Map. Our editorial seeks a Strategy in a Time of Impasse.

Millions throughout the Arab world have likewise discovered the charms of unilateral disengagement – but of a different sort. In Hooked on Being Hooked, we explore the enormous attraction that Reality TV is having for Arab viewers, who at last have discovered a format where their votes count.

 

Among the conscientious objectors in Israel are the soldiers and officers in “Courage to Refuse”. Its leader, Arik Diamant, talks about Patriotic Refusal.  Another long standing refuser – less patriotic – is Mordechai Vanunu, free and sane after 18 years of imprisonment, mostly in solitary confinement, for revealing Israel’s atomic secrets.

During the week leading up to May 1, WAC led a delegation of 14 European labor organizers on a visit in Israel/Palestine. Meeting scholars, government officials, workers, and activists, they discovered the Dynamics of Inequality in the local labor market. The distortions of that market are described in a paper adopted by the delegation as a working draft. We print an abridged version here. The full and final report will soon be available at the WAC website n

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