Tactical urbanism, bicycle rebellion, Right to the City.

Performance Art, the Commons, and a Monster Named Netanyahu

This week Israeli artist Itay Zalait did something truly amazing in Tel Aviv’s famed Rabin Square. Zalait erected a golden statue of right-wing extremist and mass murderer Benjamin Netanyahu, who also currently serves as Israel’s prime minister.

This depiction was revolutionary for several key reasons.

Statues of living figures are forbidden in Israel, as are other forms of political speech normally protected throughout the first world. Hardly unpopular, a 2014 survey by the Israeli Democracy Institute found 46% of Israelis believed “public criticism” of Israel should be banned.

Israel’s censorship czar Miri Regrev, who recently promoted a “loyalty in culture bill” condemned Zalait’s statue, as “an expression of hatred towards Netanyahu.”

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A Post-Election Question for Liberal Democrats

This blog usually only wades into the cesspool of national politics when there’s a local or urban angle. But we did just have a mid-term election – the results of which means less to me than reactions to the outcome does.

I’ll keep this short.

It’s common for two-term presidents to lose the house and senate in the final years of their administration. Still, there’s been copious disappointment among Democratic party voters stemming from Tuesday’s trouncing. This has confused me, as I’m unclear what it is they feel they’ve lost with a new Republican controlled Senate.

Based on the reactions I’ve seen, you’d have thought a major movement of progressive politics had been brought to its knees. You’d have thought the Age of Enlightenment had just come to an end. That’s the funny thing about politics, though; how people standing right next to each other can be living on totally different planets.

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A Gift for Jeff Merkley and Cory Booker

Something’s always troubled me about the attitudes and discourse in the US regarding Israel’s ongoing crimes against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank – how otherwise caring, intelligent people rigorously maintain what Israel is doing is somehow justified, or that the conflict is somehow symmetrical. If you’ve seen people derail discussions by absurdly blaming “both sides” (while ignoring the fact the US is arming only one side), you likely know what I’m talking about here.

In the social media savvy Twitter-verse we now occupy, it’s virtually impossible to maintain the level of ignorance required to view the conflict as anything but slow genocide with periodic massacres.

Anyone studying the kill ratio alone will easily conclude that one side firing glorified bottle-rockets is little match against the other dropping US-made laser-guided 500 lb. warheads. Israel just wiped out over 2,000 lives in a matter of weeks, almost all civilians, while sustaining barely a few dozen deaths, almost all soldiers. This is not a war, this is mass extermination.

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How Can You Blog About Bikes at a Time Like This?

How anyone can blog about bikes these days astounds me. Obviously, bikes consume my life, as they should yours. If you live in the city, this city, then you know why. All bikes, all funs, at all times. The multiple cultures and avenues of the urban cycling multiverse know almost no bounds.

While this blog has focused on three main themes, there are occasional topical events that more loosely fall within the scope of Rebel Metropolis that make normal content seem esoteric by contrast. Yes, the safety and welfare of active transit users, especially cyclists, should be viewed a social justice issue. But in comparison to colonial massacres in Gaza or racist state violence against black communities in Ferguson, the issues facing people on bikes become largely irrelevant. In such times of crisis, how people can continue blogging such trivialities is frankly disturbing.

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