Between The Lines - Rona Moran: exposing companies that profit from the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land (Week Ending Jan. 6, 2012)

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Between The Lines on Stitcher

Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

Listen to Scott Harris Live on WPKN Radio

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Website Exposes Companies that Profit from Israeli Occupation of Palestinian Land

RealAudio MP3

Posted Dec. 28, 2011

Interview with Rona Moran, researcher with WhoProfits.org, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

From a small office on a busy street In Tel Aviv, Israel, a trio of women produce the influential website Who Profits? It's a project of the Women's Coalition for Peace that investigates companies that profit from the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, part of the Palestinian occupied territories. They research global companies involved in construction, communication, and in some cases, exploitation of Palestinian resources for export.

Rona Moran, one of the Israeli women researchers, explains that the project was born out of a heated debate about whether the Women's Coalition should support the call by many Palestinian civil society groups for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel, known as BDS. Researching the companies that profit was a compromise position, a way of collecting more information, but it has also become an invaluable tool for solidarity activists all over the world. In exposing companies and corporations involved in the occupation, the group hopes to promote a change in public opinion and corporate policies, leading to an end to the occupation.

The fact that one of the researchers is a Palestinian-Israeli citizen means she can visit parts of the West Bank for her research that the other two women are barred from. On a recent visit to Israel and the West Bank, Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Rona Moran, who talks about the effectiveness of their project in exposing companies that profit from the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.

RONA MORAN: What we are doing, we are an information center for calls and for questions from all over the world from activists that are asking, "What is the situation? Is this company involved in activity in the West Bank?" And we can say, "This is the situation right now: they withdrew...they closed their factory; they invested in this company." And the fact that we are able to read in Hebrew and to check and monitor the activities of these companies allows us to spread this information for a very vast community of activists all over the world. So our function in this system is to provide the most accurate and updated information we can find.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Can you tell me about any particular information that you found through your research that turned out to be particularly useful for folks who are interested in this issue?

RONA MORAN: For example, last week we had some French activists over here and they asked about French companies, and I told them about the involvement of Veolia in the Occupied Territories.

BETWEEN THE LINES: What is it – Veolia?

RONA MORAN: Veolia, yeah. It's a huge French company that's involved in infrastructure projects, usually working on transportation, water, garbage disposal, things like that. They are heavily involved in the building and operating of the light rail train in Jerusalem, which is a massive project that was built in order to connect the settlement in the east side of Jerusalem to the west side of the city. So they practically built it and there was a very intense international campaign against it. But during the research, at the beginning we only knew about the light rail, but as we checked all the subsidiaries of the company, we discovered that they have a landfill in the Jordan Valley, and that they transfer any waste from inside Israel into the Occupied Territories to that landfill. And we discovered that they operate a transportation unit in a subsidiary called Connix a few bus lines that go on apartheid roads from Mod'in Illit to Jerusalem and (unintelligible) area and Palestinians are not allowed to use these roads. So, the deeper you go, the more things come up. For example, the information about the landfill was received from a request for information that we filed for the Civil Administrations in the Ministry of Security. So we received the information and two days later it was spread too...so it's important to us that we will be able to provide information in real time. Sometimes we have delays.

BETWEEN THE LINES: In the U.S., we have a law called the Freedom of Information Act that allows reporters, or anyone, to seek information from government sources. Sometimes it's slow, or you have to pay a lot per page, or there's a lot of cross-outs when it comes, but it's a good way to get information. Does Israel have a similar law?

RONA MORAN: Usually, we work with information the companies publish themselves – on their websites, on marketing materials, in reports they file for the state or for financial use. Their annual reports is one of the best information sources there are. And some of it we ask from the state, from the Ministry of Defense, from different governmental or companies and organizations. It depends; sometimes you get all the information and you get it fast; sometimes security issues do come up and then we have to apply to the Supreme Court on several occasions.

BETWEEN THE LINES: And have you succeeded when you've done that?

RONA MORAN: There is one appeal right now; it was established on information that we did get from the Civil Administration regarding mining companies that are working in the West Bank.

BETWEEN THE LINES: We just spoke to someone who works on the BDS campaign and he says it's been very successful, in the six years since it's started it's really kind of taken off and there is some awareness around the world about it. How do you view it? Do you think it's a successful campaign, and if so, how do you judge that?

RONA MORAN: I can say it only as a fellow activist, and not as part of the project. I think the economic pressure is heavily felt, by Israeli companies and by the Israeli government who fear this campaign greatly. And you can see it in the hysterical reactions of diplomatic Israeli representatives all over the world when they have to address the boycott. And I think we are only getting started. This is only the beginning. The more information that we'll have on this issue and the more successful campaigns we will have, I believe that international companies will find it a lot more complicated to be involved in this activity. I think the most important thing that we can say about the project is that it reveals something that people usually don't understand. When you speak about economic activity in the Occupied Territories, people think about settlement products. Settlement products are almost insignificant; they are such a small portion of the economic activity that is going on in the West Bank that dealing with it, it's like peanuts. The involvement of Israeli companies...the entire Israeli economic system in the West Bank is massive. It's undeniable and it involves banks and construction companies and law firms and every sector of the Israeli market is there. The fact that Israeli companies use the Palestinian market as a captive market – it's such an enormous advantage for them. So in many ways we want to show the wider picture, and to show that the involvement doesn't stop at the Green Line. You don't have to have a factory in a settlement in order to be involved over there. So this is the main thing.

For more information, visit WhoProfits.org.