Democracy Now! Friday, May 16, 2008

Today's Headlines

• China Earthquake Toll Tops 21,500
• California Supreme Court Overrules Gay Marriage Ban
• House OKs Iraq Withdrawal Measure
• McCain Predicts US in Iraq Until 2013
• Chiding Obama, Bush Likens Iran Talks to Hitler Appeasement
• Palestinians Denounce Bush Visit to Israel
• Residents: US Attack Kills 18 in Pakistan
• US: 2,500 Youths Jailed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Gitmo
• CIA Kidnap Trial Begins in Italy
• Burger King Fires Exec, Investigator for Targeting Tomato Pickers
• Admin Promotes GMO Crops in Food Aid Package
• HIV-Positive Man Sentenced to 35 Years for Spitting at Officers
• Wheelchair-Bound Scholar Dies in US Jail
• May 16 is Bike to Work Day

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  Israeli Writer-Activist Tikva Honig-Parnass, Who Fought for Israel's Founding in 1948, on 60 Years of Palestinian Dispossession and Occupation

  We continue our coverage of the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel, what Palestinians call the Nakba, or catastrophe. We begin with Tikva Honig-Parnass, an Israeli who fought with Jewish paramilitary units and the Israeli army, participating in the military operations that expelled over 750,000 Palestinians. Today, she’s an anti-Zionist leftist writer and activist who has been involved with anti-occupation, women’s, and Mizrahi movements in Israel since the 1960s. [includes rush transcript]

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  As Israelis Celebrate Independence and Palestinians Mark the "Nakba," a Debate with Benny Morris, Saree Makdisi and Norman Finkelstein

  Sixty years since the creation of Israel and displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, we host a debate on the legacy of 1948 and the possibility of a just future for both Israelis and Palestinians with three guests: Benny Morris, seen as one of the most important Israeli historians of the 1948 war and after; Saree Makdisi, UCLA professor and author of Palestine Inside Out; and Norman Finkelstein, author of several books, including Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict and Beyond Chutzpah. [includes rush transcript–partial]