Friday, August 8, 2008

Darlene Wallach

Nationality: US

Darlene, 57, is an anti-Zionist activist for social and environmental justice. She lives in San Jose, California (USA) and is of Jewish Eastern-European descent. Darlene spent almost two months in Palestine from May to July 2002. She visited Gaza, Ramallah and then a night at the Balata Refugee camp where she was detained and arrested with seven other internationals. All eight received deportation orders from the minister of the interior. They had witnessed brutal collective punishment of the Palestinians. Although Darlene fought the deportation order and was the first person to be let out of prison on bail, she was nonetheless eventually deported.

2 comments:

West Valley College Library said...

Just heard about Darlene's imprisonment and hunger strike on Democracy Now! How can we help her and others who are imprisoned?

Anonymous said...

Kudos for your efforts to help those in need.

But you do a great, great disservice to the cause of justice when you repeat propaganda.

Today on Democracy Now, you espoused the anti-Israeli lie that Israel has the "fourth largest military in the world".

Such lies diminish the strength of you message and make you appear to be a tool of Israel's enemies, instead of a person fighting for justice against Israel's agression.

By various countings (number of troops, budget), Israel ranks between 20 and 30, behind many countries that are openly hostile to its existence. Even measured by GDP (a dubious measure, since countries don't have the luxury of building military might according to their internal economy), Israel ranks seventh, behind Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan.

So, consider that you might have another way to dampen hatred in the region: challenge lies like this and the motive of those who spread them.