St James’s Church, Piccadilly in association withAmos Trust, Holy Land Trust, Interpal, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) UK, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, P21 Gallery, Tipping Point North South,War on Want & Zaytoun CIC presents:
BETHLEHEM UNWRAPPED – A festival of Bethlehem at Christmas.
St James’s Piccadilly December 23rd 2013 – January 5th 2014
St James’s Church in Piccadilly will be hosting the Bethlehem Unwrapped festival with a packed programme of events.
The festival welcomes Nigel Kennedy, singers Reem Kelani and the Tallis Scholars; chefs Yotam Ottolenghi & Sami Tamimi; comedians Mark Steel, Jeremy Hardy, Dave Cohen; Also, spoken word artist Rafeef Ziadah and UK slam poetry champion Harry Baker; actor Adjoa Andoh, film-maker Leila Sansour and video artists Larissa Sansour; speakers include ICAHD founder Jeff Halper. The full line-up is available onthe Bethlehem Unwrapped website where tickets can be booked.
A major installation will be unveiled on the opening evening, Monday 23rd December
St James’s Church, Piccadilly in association withAmos Trust, Holy Land Trust, Interpal, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) UK, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, P21 Gallery, Tipping Point North South,War on Want & Zaytoun CIC presents:
BETHLEHEM UNWRAPPED – A festival of Bethlehem at Christmas.
St James’s Piccadilly December 23rd 2013 – January 5th 2014
St James’s Church in Piccadilly will be hosting the Bethlehem Unwrapped festival with a packed programme of events.
The festival welcomes Nigel Kennedy, singers Reem Kelani and the Tallis Scholars; chefs Yotam Ottolenghi & Sami Tamimi; comedians Mark Steel, Jeremy Hardy, Dave Cohen; Also, spoken word artist Rafeef Ziadah and UK slam poetry champion Harry Baker; actor Adjoa Andoh, film-maker Leila Sansour and video artists Larissa Sansour; speakers include ICAHD founder Jeff Halper. The full line-up is available on the Bethlehem Unwrapped website where tickets can be booked.
A major installation will be unveiled on the opening evening, Monday 23rd December
December 23rd 6pm
ART – ‘Unwrapped’ – festival opening ceremony with broadcast message from Holy Land Trust director Sami Awad in Bethlehem, unveiling of major installation in St James’s Courtyard and children’s art exhibition from Bethlehem, ‘All They Paint is the Wall’
December 29th 7.30pm
POETRY – ‘Slammed Up’ – an evening of slam poetry in the key of freedom, with 2012 World Slam champion Harry Baker, Zia Ahmed, Bridget Minamore &Dizraeli
December 30th 7.30pm
COMEDY – ‘Stand Up Against the Wall’ – comedy night, with BBC comedy star & Independent columnist Mark Steel, News quiz veteran, comedian and author Jeremy Hardy, Andy Zaltzman (“Breathtakingly good” Time Out) & Dave Cohen (“Smart & very funny” Huffington Post UK)
Jan 2nd 7.30pm
FILM – ‘Jeremy Hardy vs the Israeli Army’ – comedy doc following News Quiz veteran Jeremy Hardy on a hair-raising path through the Second Intifada. Palestinian film-maker and Bethlehem resident Leila Sansour joins us for a Q&A after the film (“Outstanding … riveting” **** Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian)
Jan 3rd 7.30pm
CUISINE – ‘Bethlehem Feast’ – Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi present a Bethlehem Christmas dinner, raising funds for Holy Land Trust’s ‘Future Peacemakers’ appeal. An incredible opportunity for a truly seasonal feast in the presence of the masters of Middle Eastern cuisine. Come prepared for after-dinner dancing, led by Palestinian dabke troupe Al-Zaytouna! NB Numbers strictly limited – book early to avoid disappointment! Presented by Zaytoun CIC and Rocket Food
Jan 4th 8pm
DEBATE – : ‘Both sides of the Barrier – Separation or Security?’ – speakers include Jeff Halper, founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD)
Jan 5th 7.30pm
MUSIC – : ‘The Bridge’ – concert with legendary violinist Nigel Kennedy and friends, performing his own composition The Bridge, with singers from the Tallis Scholars, directed by Peter Phillips, world-renowned Palestinian singer Reem Kelani and guest speaker Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
It has cost the United States $8 trillion to provide military security in the Gulf since 1976. According to Roger Stern, a Princeton economist, the US has spent as much on Gulf security as it spent on the entire Cold War with the Soviet Union! In recent years through 2010 it has been $400 billion a year, though the US withdrawal from Iraq at the end of 2011 and the gradual withdrawal from Afghanistan this year and next presumably means that the figure is substantially reduced. Still, we have bases in Kuwait, Qatar and elsewhere, and a Naval HQ in Bahrain, none of which is cheap. If it were $200 billion a year, that is a fair chunk of the budget deficit the Republican Party keeps complaining about. And if we could get that $8 trillion back, it would pay down half of the national debt. … Continue reading →
Economic sanctions have had a bad rap. Ever since 1919, when Woodrow Wilson suggested that boycotting the goods and services of rogue nations could serve as a peaceful substitute for wars, critics have been claiming that sanctions are woolly, ineffectual, and counterproductive. Continue reading →
But budget stories then and now tend to report on the base budget from the Department of Defense, leaving readers with the impression that that is the full cost of fulfilling the Constitutional mandate to “provide for the common defense.”
It isn’t. From the perspective of taxpayers who must bear the burden, total national security costs are as much as 2.5 times the base Defense budget. Reporters might want to take a look at the true costs, and not just at the way the White House prepares the budget and Pentagon spins it. Continue reading →
The US military is responsible for the most egregious and widespread pollution of the planet, yet this information and accompanying documentation goes almost entirely unreported. In spite of the evidence, the environmental impact of the US military goes largely unaddressed by environmental organizations and was not the focus of any discussions or proposed restrictions at the recent UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. This impact includes uninhibited use of fossil fuels, massive creation of greenhouse gases, and extensive release of radioactive and chemical contaminants into the air, water, and soil. Continue reading →
While the change may be largely symbolic, before Oct. 9 — no matter how bad it got, no matter how much violence or no matter who was leading the government — US companies producing and providing Egypt’s tanks, helicopters, and bullets did not flinch. Business was business.
To illustrate just how unwavering the arrangement was, GlobalPost compiled key US contracts for military aid to Egypt, held by the American defense giants that profited the most from that aid. We mapped this sample within the context of significant political moments, from the 2011 revolution that toppled a dictator to the military ousting of the president who took his place. Continue reading →
On the subject of China as a possible future threat, Dempsey said there was a chance for good diplomacy with that country and that military competition “doesn’t have to be confrontational.”
“The Chinese have a different view of time than anyone else,” Dempsey said about China’s potential for patient diplomacy. “I worry more about a China that falters economically than I do about them building another aircraft carrier.” Continue reading →
Because of its persistent inability to tally its accounts, the Pentagon is the only federal agency that has not complied with a law that requires annual audits of all government departments. That means that the $8.5 trillion in taxpayer money doled out by Congress to the Pentagon since 1996, the first year it was supposed to be audited, has never been accounted for. That sum exceeds the value of China’s economic output last year. … Continue reading →
The climate crisis of the 21st century has been caused largely by just 90 companies, which between them produced nearly two-thirds of the greenhouse gas emissions generated since the dawning of the industrial age, new research suggests.
The companies range from investor-owned firms – household names such as Chevron, Exxon and BP – to state-owned and government-run firms. … Continue reading →
Hetty Bower campaigned for peace and justice for ninety years, from campaigning as a suffragette after the first world war, to marching against the endless “war on terror” in the new millenium. … Continue reading →
Washington — The United States plans to spend billions to upgrade a decades-old atomic bomb designed to stop a Soviet invasion of Europe, as part of a controversial project to modernize its nuclear arsenal.
Some lawmakers and experts dismiss the effort as a colossal waste of money that could derail arms control talks with Russia. …
Some members of Congress are wary of the price tag, as the estimated cost for modernizing the B61 bomb keeps rising, from an initial $4 billion to $8.1 billion. And a Pentagon panel has projected the cost could reach $10 to $12 billion.
“The case against the B61 life extension is simple: it is unaffordable, unworkable and unnecessary,” said Kingston Reif of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Continue reading →
Is the Office of Net Assessment, the Pentagon’s futurist think-tank, paying $184,000 to a conservative Washington research group for a study on nuclear deterrence that has already been published and is available for free? Continue reading →
In a shocking court filing this week, the UK government accused journalist Glenn Greenwald’s partner David Miranda of “terrorism” for allegedly transporting leaked (and heavily encrypted) NSA documents from documentarian Laura Poitras in Germany to Greenwald in Brazil, on a journalistic mission paid for by the Guardian newspaper.
In a statement that should send chills down the spine of every reporter, the government made the unbelievable claim that merely publishing information that has nothing to do with violence still “falls within the definition of terrorism.”
“Additionally the disclosure, or threat of disclosure, is designed to influence a government and is made for the purpose of promoting a political or ideological cause. This therefore falls within the definition of terrorism…”
“Marijuana is indeed a gateway drug,” quips Sanho Tree of the Institute for Policy Studies. “It’s a gateway drug to the Oval Office!” Indeed. From Bill Clinton’s “I didn’t inhale it” through George W. Bush’s “I was young and foolish” to Barack Obama’s teen years in the Choom Gang (“I inhaled frequently—that was the point”), the last three presidents have more or less owned up to breaking America’s drug laws. Continue reading →
Tipping Point North South 