Insomniac: Damn right.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/957536.html
By Haaretz Editorial
Three years ago, the CBS television network broadcast photos of American soldiers abusing prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The horrifying pictures led to the trials of eight soldiers, dismissals and a storm of outrage in America. At the trial of one prison guard, who was sentenced to eight years in jail, a psychologist gave his evaluation: that the man was an entirely ordinary person, without any particular violent tendencies, who served as a guard for many years in civilian life but never behaved sadistically toward American prisoners. The situation of occupier and occupied, as opposed to that of citizen versus citizen, causes ordinary people to become violent and lose restraint. At Abu Ghraib, the trial found, there was institutionalized contempt at every level. The prison guards understood that "this is the way to behave here."
Last night, the investigative television program "Fact" broadcast pictures of our own Abu Ghraib affair. It is doubtful whether a country that has grown used to 40 years of occupation, and the stories that accompany it, will be shocked. We have become accustomed to treating the Palestinians as inferior people. Generations come and go, and new soldiers abuse the residents of occupied Hebron in almost the same manner. Stories similar to those broadcast last night were exposed by the Breaking the Silence group three years ago. The saying "occupation corrupts" has become a slogan of the left instead of a warning signal to everyone.
This time, it was regular soldiers in the Kfir Brigade. They exposed their backsides and sexual organs to Palestinians, pressed an electric heater to the face of a young boy, beat young boys senseless, recorded everything on their mobile phones and sent it to their friends. One of their "mischievous acts" was to test how long a Palestinian who was being choked could survive without breathing. When he passed out, the experiment was stopped. The soldiers described activities to "break the routine" that consisted entirely of abuse. It was enough for a boy "to look at us the wrong way" for him to be beaten.
Earlier, at the trial of First Lieutenant Yaakov Gigi, officers spoke of burnout, of "something bad happening to the brigade," of a Wild West, of a moral crisis. The commander of the brigade, Colonel Itai Virov, said "we failed on several parameters." His words reflect a denial of the depth of the failure. This continuing routine, far from the eyes of the commanders, must lead to a series of investigations, and perhaps to dismissals as well. It is unconscionable for the head of the Hebron Brigade, the division commander, the GOC Central Command and even the chief of staff to ignore the ongoing behavior of soldiers in the brigade responsible for routine security in the West Bank. Colonel Virov admitted that there was a conspiracy of silence in the brigade - in other words, a norm of abuse and its concealment. To change norms, one has to shock and be shocked, not be satisfied with a few imprisonments and empty words about a loss of values.
Perfectly ordinary people, as the American psychologist said of the Abu Ghraib abusers, are capable of behaving like monsters when they receive a message from the top that it is permissible to abuse, beat, choke, burn, make people miserable and generally do anything that man's evil genius is capable of inventing to others who are under their control. Something bad is happening to us, they are saying in the Kfir Brigade. That "something" is the occupation.
Showing newest 27 of 52 posts from 02/01/2009 - 03/01/2009. Show older posts
Showing newest 27 of 52 posts from 02/01/2009 - 03/01/2009. Show older posts
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
30/03/09: Organize for boycott Israel day of action
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10316.shtml
Appeal, Secretariat of the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee, 19 February 2009
In December 2008, Israel decided to mark the 60th anniversary of its existence the same way it had established itself -- perpetrating massacres against the Palestinian people. In 23 days, Israel killed more than 1,300 and injured at least 5,000 Palestinians in Gaza. The irony of history is that Israel targeted those Palestinians -- and their descendants -- whom it had expelled from their homes and pushed into refugeehood in Gaza in 1948, whose land it has stolen, whom it has oppressed since 1967 by means of a brutal military occupation, and whom it had tried to starve into submission by means of a criminal blockade of food, fuel and electricity in the 18 months preceding the military assault. We cannot wait for Israel to zero in on its next objective. Palestine has today become the test of our indispensable morality and our common humanity.
We therefore call on all to unite our different capacities and struggles in a Global Day of Action in Solidarity with the Palestinian people and for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel on 30 March 2009.
The mobilization coincides with the Palestinian Land Day, the annual commemoration of the 1976 Israeli massacre of Palestinians in the Galilee in struggle against massive land expropriation, and forms part of the Global Week of Action against the Crises and War from 28 March 28 to 4 April.
We urge the people and their organizations around the globe to mobilize in concrete and visible boycott, divestment, sanctions (BDS) actions to make this day a historic step in this new anti-apartheid movementand for the fulfilment of the rights and dignity of the people and the accountability of the powerful. In our 30 March BDS actions, we will particularly focus on:
The time for the world to fully adopt and implement the Palestinian call for boycotts, divestment and sanctions is now. This campaign has to become an urgent part of every struggle for justice and humanity, by adopting widespread action against Israeli products, companies, academic and cultural institutions, sports groups, international corporations supporting Israeli policies of racism, ethnic cleansing and military occupation and pressuring governments for sanctions. It must be sustained until Israel provides free access to Gaza, dismantles the Apartheid Wall and ends its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands; recognizes the right of the Arab Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and respects, protects and promotes the rights of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties.
Appeal, Secretariat of the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee, 19 February 2009
In December 2008, Israel decided to mark the 60th anniversary of its existence the same way it had established itself -- perpetrating massacres against the Palestinian people. In 23 days, Israel killed more than 1,300 and injured at least 5,000 Palestinians in Gaza. The irony of history is that Israel targeted those Palestinians -- and their descendants -- whom it had expelled from their homes and pushed into refugeehood in Gaza in 1948, whose land it has stolen, whom it has oppressed since 1967 by means of a brutal military occupation, and whom it had tried to starve into submission by means of a criminal blockade of food, fuel and electricity in the 18 months preceding the military assault. We cannot wait for Israel to zero in on its next objective. Palestine has today become the test of our indispensable morality and our common humanity.
We therefore call on all to unite our different capacities and struggles in a Global Day of Action in Solidarity with the Palestinian people and for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel on 30 March 2009.
The mobilization coincides with the Palestinian Land Day, the annual commemoration of the 1976 Israeli massacre of Palestinians in the Galilee in struggle against massive land expropriation, and forms part of the Global Week of Action against the Crises and War from 28 March 28 to 4 April.
We urge the people and their organizations around the globe to mobilize in concrete and visible boycott, divestment, sanctions (BDS) actions to make this day a historic step in this new anti-apartheid movementand for the fulfilment of the rights and dignity of the people and the accountability of the powerful. In our 30 March BDS actions, we will particularly focus on:
- Boycotts and divestment from Israeli corporations and international corporations that sustain Israeli apartheid and occupation.
- Legal action to end Israel's impunity and prosecute its war criminals through national court cases and international tribunals.
- Cancelling and blocking free trade and other preferential agreements with Israel and imposing an arms embargo as the first steps towards fully fledged sanctions against Israel.
The time for the world to fully adopt and implement the Palestinian call for boycotts, divestment and sanctions is now. This campaign has to become an urgent part of every struggle for justice and humanity, by adopting widespread action against Israeli products, companies, academic and cultural institutions, sports groups, international corporations supporting Israeli policies of racism, ethnic cleansing and military occupation and pressuring governments for sanctions. It must be sustained until Israel provides free access to Gaza, dismantles the Apartheid Wall and ends its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands; recognizes the right of the Arab Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and respects, protects and promotes the rights of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Christians in Jerusalem want Jews to stop spitting on them
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=487412&contrassID=2&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y&itemNo=487412
By Amiram Barkat
A few weeks ago, a senior Greek Orthodox clergyman in Israel attended a meeting at a government office in Jerusalem’s Givat Shaul quarter. When he returned to his car, an elderly man wearing a skullcap came and knocked on the window. When the clergyman let the window down, the passerby spat in his face.
The clergyman prefered not to lodge a complaint with the police and told an acquaintance that he was used to being spat at by Jews. Many Jerusalem clergy have been subjected to abuse of this kind. For the most part, they ignore it but sometimes they cannot.
On Sunday, a fracas developed when a yeshiva student spat at the cross being carried by the Armenian Archbishop during a procession near the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City. The archbishop’s 17th-century cross was broken during the brawl and he slapped the yeshiva student.
Both were questioned by police and the yeshiva student will be brought to trial. The Jerusalem District Court has meanwhile banned the student from approaching the Old City for 75 days.
But the Armenians are far from satisfied by the police action and say this sort of thing has been going on for years. Archbishop Nourhan Manougian says he expects the education minister to say something.
“When there is an attack against Jews anywhere in the world, the Israeli government is incensed, so why when our religion and pride are hurt, don’t they take harsher measures?” he asks.
According to Daniel Rossing, former adviser to the Religious Affairs Ministry on Christian affairs and director of a Jerusalem center for Christian-Jewish dialogue, there has been an increase in the number of such incidents recently, “as part of a general atmosphere of lack of tolerance in the country.”
Rossing says there are certain common characeristics from the point of view of time and location to the incidents. He points to the fact that there are more incidents in areas where Jews and Christians mingle, such as the Jewish and Armenian quarters of the Old City and the Jaffa Gate.
There are an increased number at certain times of year, such as during the Purim holiday.”I know Christians who lock themselves indoors during the entire Purim holiday,” he says.
Former adviser to the mayor on Christian affairs, Shmuel Evyatar, describes the situation as “a huge disgrace.” He says most of the instigators are yeshiva students studying in the Old City who view the Christian religion with disdain.
“I’m sure the phenomenon would end as soon as rabbis and well-known educators denounce it. In practice, rabbis of yeshivas ignore or even encourage it,” he says.
Evyatar says he himself was spat at while walking with a Serbian bishop in the Jewish quarter, near his home. “A group of yeshiva students spat at us and their teacher just stood by and watched.”
Jerusalem municipal officials said they are aware of the problem but it has to be dealt with by the police. Shmuel Ben-Ruby, the police spokesman, said they had only two complaints from Christians in the past two years. He said that, in both cases, the culprits were caught and punished.
He said the police deploy an inordinately high number of patrols and special technology in the Old City and its surroundings in an attempt to keep order.
By Amiram Barkat
A few weeks ago, a senior Greek Orthodox clergyman in Israel attended a meeting at a government office in Jerusalem’s Givat Shaul quarter. When he returned to his car, an elderly man wearing a skullcap came and knocked on the window. When the clergyman let the window down, the passerby spat in his face.
The clergyman prefered not to lodge a complaint with the police and told an acquaintance that he was used to being spat at by Jews. Many Jerusalem clergy have been subjected to abuse of this kind. For the most part, they ignore it but sometimes they cannot.
On Sunday, a fracas developed when a yeshiva student spat at the cross being carried by the Armenian Archbishop during a procession near the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City. The archbishop’s 17th-century cross was broken during the brawl and he slapped the yeshiva student.
Both were questioned by police and the yeshiva student will be brought to trial. The Jerusalem District Court has meanwhile banned the student from approaching the Old City for 75 days.
But the Armenians are far from satisfied by the police action and say this sort of thing has been going on for years. Archbishop Nourhan Manougian says he expects the education minister to say something.
“When there is an attack against Jews anywhere in the world, the Israeli government is incensed, so why when our religion and pride are hurt, don’t they take harsher measures?” he asks.
According to Daniel Rossing, former adviser to the Religious Affairs Ministry on Christian affairs and director of a Jerusalem center for Christian-Jewish dialogue, there has been an increase in the number of such incidents recently, “as part of a general atmosphere of lack of tolerance in the country.”
Rossing says there are certain common characeristics from the point of view of time and location to the incidents. He points to the fact that there are more incidents in areas where Jews and Christians mingle, such as the Jewish and Armenian quarters of the Old City and the Jaffa Gate.
There are an increased number at certain times of year, such as during the Purim holiday.”I know Christians who lock themselves indoors during the entire Purim holiday,” he says.
Former adviser to the mayor on Christian affairs, Shmuel Evyatar, describes the situation as “a huge disgrace.” He says most of the instigators are yeshiva students studying in the Old City who view the Christian religion with disdain.
“I’m sure the phenomenon would end as soon as rabbis and well-known educators denounce it. In practice, rabbis of yeshivas ignore or even encourage it,” he says.
Evyatar says he himself was spat at while walking with a Serbian bishop in the Jewish quarter, near his home. “A group of yeshiva students spat at us and their teacher just stood by and watched.”
Jerusalem municipal officials said they are aware of the problem but it has to be dealt with by the police. Shmuel Ben-Ruby, the police spokesman, said they had only two complaints from Christians in the past two years. He said that, in both cases, the culprits were caught and punished.
He said the police deploy an inordinately high number of patrols and special technology in the Old City and its surroundings in an attempt to keep order.
Mass demonstration in the 4th anniversary of the popular struggle in Bilin against the apartheid wall
This Friday, Feb 20.
The village of Bilin has long ago become a worldwide symbol of popular struggle against occupation, land theft and racial segregation. Next Friday Feb 20th it will continue four years of continuous popular struggle.
For four years the people of Bilin have been courageously resisting the expansion of settlements on their lands. They refuse to surrender in spite of violent repression of the israeli occupation army (iof) which resulted in hundreds of injuries and arrests.
For four years we have been together in Bilin. Together we say no to Apartheid, No to occupation and no to the wall.
This Friday we will demonstrate in Bilin against the wall and implementing the decision of the Israeli supreme court.
Palestinian flag will be carried only.
see you in Bilin next friday
for more information contact
nasir
Insomniac: (details withheld for security reasons)
The village of Bilin has long ago become a worldwide symbol of popular struggle against occupation, land theft and racial segregation. Next Friday Feb 20th it will continue four years of continuous popular struggle.
For four years the people of Bilin have been courageously resisting the expansion of settlements on their lands. They refuse to surrender in spite of violent repression of the israeli occupation army (iof) which resulted in hundreds of injuries and arrests.
For four years we have been together in Bilin. Together we say no to Apartheid, No to occupation and no to the wall.
This Friday we will demonstrate in Bilin against the wall and implementing the decision of the Israeli supreme court.
Palestinian flag will be carried only.
see you in Bilin next friday
for more information contact
nasir
Insomniac: (details withheld for security reasons)
Ummahgiving - the alternative to justgiving - coming soon iA
UmmahGiving.com is a charity that is working to unite donors, fundraisers & charities to aid humanity. We intend to launch Summer 09, and will have a 100% donations policy, inshallah. We still need to raise 10K.
INSOMNIAC: Contact me here if you would like to donate.
INSOMNIAC: Contact me here if you would like to donate.
Starbucks spiralling downwards :D
Insomniac: great news that Starbucks is going down - I hope the recession hits the Zionists where it hurts.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/feb/18/peter-mandelson-starbucks
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/feb/18/peter-mandelson-starbucks
Mandelson heard Schultz's remarks while waiting to appear on the same television show and, once on screen, immediately took him to task.
"The UK is not spiralling, although I've noticed Starbucks is in a great deal of trouble – but that might be because of their over-expansion given the state of the market," he said.
"So please don't project Starbucks on to the UK economy as a whole."
Starbucks recently revealed a 69% plunge in profits to $64.3m for the three months to December.
It announced that it was shutting 300 stores, in addition to 600 closures last year, at a cost of nearly 7,000 jobs.
According to official figures, Britain's economy shrank by 1.5% in the fourth quarter of 2008 in comparison to the third. Unemployment is approaching 2 million.
UAE denies entry to Israeli tennis player
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SPORT/02/15/tennis.uae.israel/index.html
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CNN) -- The United Arab Emirates has refused to grant a visa to a female Israeli tennis player, preventing her from competing in the Sony Ericsson World Tennis Association Tour in Dubai, the WTA said in a statement Sunday.
The UAE has refused to grant a visa allowing Shahar Peer to compete in Dubai.
Shahar Peer would have been the first Israeli athlete to participate in a professional sporting event in the UAE, CNN Sports Correspondent Pedro Pinto said.
The UAE has no diplomatic ties with Israel.
The governing body of women's tennis said it was "deeply disappointed" that Peer was being denied entry to the country hosting the tournament, but it did not cancel the competition.
The move runs counter to WTA policy, which says no player should be barred from competing in a tournament for which she has qualified.
Dubai could lose its membership in the WTA tour next year over the ban on Shahar, according to WTA rules. That would mean professional players could compete only in exhibition matches in Dubai, the results of which would not count in pro rankings.
Government officials in Dubai have not responded to CNN's request to comment over their refusal to allow Peer to compete in the event.
"We are deeply disappointed by the decision of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) denying Shahar Peer a visa that would permit her to enter the country to play in the Dubai Tennis Championships," said Larry Scott, chairman and chief executive of the tour.
"Ms. Peer has earned the right to play in the tournament and it is regrettable that the UAE is denying her this right.
"Following various consultations, the Tour has decided to allow the tournament to continue to be played this week, pending further review by the Tour's Board of Directors."
The Dubai Tennis Championships began Sunday. The tournament patron is Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Makhtoum. Two million dollars in prize money is on the line.
Al-Makhtoum told CNN in 2004 that Dubai would accept Israeli students to a school dedicated to students from the Middle East who are talented at sports.
In 2003, Dubai hosted World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings, which Israeli government officials attended. The Israeli flag -- among other member states' flags -- is still part of a globe monument in Dubai.
Peer, 21, is ranked 48th in the world among female tennis players. She was allowed to compete at the Doha tournament in Qatar last year, where she received a warm welcome, according to Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz.
Qatar, another Gulf Arab state -- froze diplomatic ties with Israel following Israel's military offensive in Gaza last month.
Peer downplayed the political undertones of her participation in last year's Doha tournament, telling Haaretz that she didn't come to Qatar "to help the politics of course." But she added that if her playing in the tournament "can help for peace or anything, I'd be really happy."
Scott said the tour will "review appropriate remedies for Ms. Peer" as well as "appropriate future actions with regard to the future of the Dubai tournament."
Peer was advised Saturday by tournament and WTA officials of the denial of her visa while she was participating in a tournament in Pattaya, Thailand, according to a WTA statement.
"Ms. Peer and her family are obviously extremely upset and disappointed by the decision of the UAE and its impact on her personally and professionally," Scott said.
"The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour believes very strongly, and has a clear rule and policy, that no host country should deny a player the right to compete at a tournament for which she has qualified by ranking."
The Dubai Tennis Championships, which began in 1993, runs from February 15 to February 28, 2009.
Windows Live Hotmail just got better. Find out more!
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CNN) -- The United Arab Emirates has refused to grant a visa to a female Israeli tennis player, preventing her from competing in the Sony Ericsson World Tennis Association Tour in Dubai, the WTA said in a statement Sunday.
The UAE has refused to grant a visa allowing Shahar Peer to compete in Dubai.
Shahar Peer would have been the first Israeli athlete to participate in a professional sporting event in the UAE, CNN Sports Correspondent Pedro Pinto said.
The UAE has no diplomatic ties with Israel.
The governing body of women's tennis said it was "deeply disappointed" that Peer was being denied entry to the country hosting the tournament, but it did not cancel the competition.
The move runs counter to WTA policy, which says no player should be barred from competing in a tournament for which she has qualified.
Dubai could lose its membership in the WTA tour next year over the ban on Shahar, according to WTA rules. That would mean professional players could compete only in exhibition matches in Dubai, the results of which would not count in pro rankings.
Government officials in Dubai have not responded to CNN's request to comment over their refusal to allow Peer to compete in the event.
"We are deeply disappointed by the decision of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) denying Shahar Peer a visa that would permit her to enter the country to play in the Dubai Tennis Championships," said Larry Scott, chairman and chief executive of the tour.
"Ms. Peer has earned the right to play in the tournament and it is regrettable that the UAE is denying her this right.
"Following various consultations, the Tour has decided to allow the tournament to continue to be played this week, pending further review by the Tour's Board of Directors."
The Dubai Tennis Championships began Sunday. The tournament patron is Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Makhtoum. Two million dollars in prize money is on the line.
Al-Makhtoum told CNN in 2004 that Dubai would accept Israeli students to a school dedicated to students from the Middle East who are talented at sports.
In 2003, Dubai hosted World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings, which Israeli government officials attended. The Israeli flag -- among other member states' flags -- is still part of a globe monument in Dubai.
Peer, 21, is ranked 48th in the world among female tennis players. She was allowed to compete at the Doha tournament in Qatar last year, where she received a warm welcome, according to Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz.
Qatar, another Gulf Arab state -- froze diplomatic ties with Israel following Israel's military offensive in Gaza last month.
Peer downplayed the political undertones of her participation in last year's Doha tournament, telling Haaretz that she didn't come to Qatar "to help the politics of course." But she added that if her playing in the tournament "can help for peace or anything, I'd be really happy."
Scott said the tour will "review appropriate remedies for Ms. Peer" as well as "appropriate future actions with regard to the future of the Dubai tournament."
Peer was advised Saturday by tournament and WTA officials of the denial of her visa while she was participating in a tournament in Pattaya, Thailand, according to a WTA statement.
"Ms. Peer and her family are obviously extremely upset and disappointed by the decision of the UAE and its impact on her personally and professionally," Scott said.
"The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour believes very strongly, and has a clear rule and policy, that no host country should deny a player the right to compete at a tournament for which she has qualified by ranking."
The Dubai Tennis Championships, which began in 1993, runs from February 15 to February 28, 2009.
Windows Live Hotmail just got better. Find out more!
Monday, February 16, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
UK: Over 100 vehicles leave with humanitarian aid for Gaza
http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/news/news.php?article=15752
14-02-2009
By Ahmed J Versi
London, (The Muslim News OnLine):
Over 100 convoys left London wit £1m humanitarian aid for Gaza Saturday midday.
The convoy, which consists of vans, cars, ambulances, a boat, a fire brigade, under an umbrella organisation, Viva Palestina, is led by Respect Party Leader, George Galloway.
The convoy with hundreds of volunteers will travel 5,000mile to Gaza passing through France, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.
It will be for the first time, according to one of the volunteers, Yvonne Ridley, a journalist, since WWII that such a long convoy would be taking this route. She told The Muslim News as she was leaving with the convoy at Hyde Park that it is after a long time that border between Morocco and Algeria would be opened to allow the convoy to pass. "This shows the willingness by all to see the convoy reach its destination to give humanitarian help to the Gazans," she said.
More people are expected to join the convoy along the way and hope to more than double the vehicles with more humnitarian aid.
Support for the unique humnitarian project came from every section of the British community.
Watch this space for regular updates on the convoy's journey through the difficult journey.
14-02-2009
By Ahmed J Versi
London, (The Muslim News OnLine):
Over 100 convoys left London wit £1m humanitarian aid for Gaza Saturday midday.
The convoy, which consists of vans, cars, ambulances, a boat, a fire brigade, under an umbrella organisation, Viva Palestina, is led by Respect Party Leader, George Galloway.
The convoy with hundreds of volunteers will travel 5,000mile to Gaza passing through France, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.
It will be for the first time, according to one of the volunteers, Yvonne Ridley, a journalist, since WWII that such a long convoy would be taking this route. She told The Muslim News as she was leaving with the convoy at Hyde Park that it is after a long time that border between Morocco and Algeria would be opened to allow the convoy to pass. "This shows the willingness by all to see the convoy reach its destination to give humanitarian help to the Gazans," she said.
More people are expected to join the convoy along the way and hope to more than double the vehicles with more humnitarian aid.
Support for the unique humnitarian project came from every section of the British community.
Watch this space for regular updates on the convoy's journey through the difficult journey.
Israel's forgotten Palestinians
| Israel's forgotten Palestinians | ||||
| http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/israelvotes/2009/02/200929135652244104.html | ||||
| By Ahmed El Amraoui | ||||
The rising mistrust of Israelis towards the Palestinian citizens of Israel raises the question of what will happen to the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine, who already suffer discrimination. While they used to make up the majority of the population of Palestine before the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, only 150,000 out of 950,000 native Palestinians remain within what is now known as the state of Israel. After this tragic war and the forced expulsion of the people – known by Arabs as al-Nakba, or the Catastrophe - Israeli forces occupied 213 villages and expelled more than 400,000 refugees before the British mandate ended on May 15, 1949. After the defeat of Arab forces in December 1948, Israel confiscated nearly 85 per cent of the territory. Most of this land was taken from about 800,000 Palestinians from 531 villages, cities and tribes, who were thrown out or fled in fear of their lives. Those who remain Today, the Palestinians who remain in Israel account for less than 20 per cent of the population, roughly numbering 1.4 million of a total population of 7.3 million. As part of its longstanding effort to "divide and rule", Israel identifies them as "Arab Israelis" rather than the Palestinian citizens of Israel to separate them from their kin in occupied territories. The majority of them live in all-Palestinian towns and villages located in three main areas: in Galilee in the north, in the "little triangle" in the centre, and in the Naqab, or Negev, as it is referred to in Hebrew. By referring to the desert area of Naqab as Negev, Israel tries to achieve a fait-accompli to erase what remains for the natives - a name. Up to 220,000 indigenous Palestinians are displaced within Israel and not allowed to return to their homes, while 43 villages, where more than 70,000 Palestinians live, are not recognised by Israel. All citizens are equal? Israel identifies itself as a state "Jewish in essence and democratic in character". Azmi Bishara, a Palestinian citizen of Israel and a former member of the Knesset, says it is unrealistic and prejudiced for Israel to be both Jewish and democratic. "I would call it trivial democracy. It is a democracy for Jews," Bishara told Al Jazeera. He called for a fair and impartial state for all Israeli citizens, taking into account the sizeable non-Jewish community. "The Israeli state was established in 1948 on the ruins of the Palestinian people. Now if you want, in the language which will be known probably in Australia or America or even in South Africa, we are indigenous people, the natives of the place," Bishara said. "And Israel was built on our ruins. We did not immigrate to Israel in order to become Israelis, like many French people would like the Algerians to integrate into France or to be accepted as equal citizens. "We did not choose to be Israelis. Israel came to Palestine, destroyed Palestine and emerged from the ruins of Palestine. "We are Arab Palestinians. Israeli identity does not exist even according to Israel - they insist their identity is Jewish. There is no such thing as Jewish Israeli identity. "Our Israeli citizenship was forced upon us. Now we use it as a framework for work to demand equality." Racism and discrimination Discrimination favouring "Jewish nationals" pervades nearly all walks of life, depriving Palestinians from enjoying their social, civil, cultural, political and economic rights. Negatively indentified as "non-Jews" in Israeli statistics, and subdivided into groups according to religious affiliation rather than nationality, Israeli law establishes Jewish nationality status as well as Israeli citizenship as differentiated levels of civil status. The theocratic character of the Israeli legal system is shown by the fact that the enjoyment of full rights is determined by faith.
Every year, Israel demolishes dozens of houses belonging to Palestinian Bedouin in unrecognised villages in Naqab, leaving dozens of families without shelter. "Most Palestinians in Israel live in discrimination in all walks of life. They cannot go back to their villages. They become internal refugees, living 5km from their villages, from which they were driven away, and cannot go back to their properties," he said. "There is a phenomenon called 'unrecognised villages'. Villages that should not be there, although they were there before the state of Israel emerged. So, it is a severe case of discrimination." Figures and statistics According to a report released by the Israel Democracy Institute in June 2007, about 56 per cent of the Jews in Israel publicly voice their opposition to full equality for the Arabs. As many as 78 per cent of them reject the idea Arab parties should join the government or any crucial political decision-making body. Other Israeli statistics show that half of Israel's non-Jewish population is defined as "poor". Among non-Jewish citizens, 51.2 per cent of the families were poor as opposed to 15.4 per cent of the Jewish families in 2006, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics. As stated by the Law of Return, relatives of Palestinian citizens of Israel abroad cannot return to Israel, while Jews automatically qualify for citizenship. Most worryingly, 66 per cent of Jews do not trust Palestinian citizens of Israel and 55 per cent of them think that they should leave Israel. Government prejudice Tzipi Livni, the current foreign minister of Israel and a frontrunner in the race to become the next prime minister, told a group of secondary school students in Tel Aviv on December 11, 2008, that Palestinian Israelis should not remain in Israel once a Palestinian state is eventually created. "My solution for maintaining a Jewish and democratic state of Israel is to have two distinct national entities," Livni was quoted by army radio as saying. "And among other things I will also be able to approach the Palestinian residents of Israel, those whom we call Arab Israelis, and tell them: 'Your national aspirations lie elsewhere,'" Livni said. Another party leader who advocates Livni's plan is Avigdor Lieberman, whose party Yisrael Beiteinu seems set to become the third-largest in Israel. Lieberman also wants to strip citizenship from Palestinian citizens of Israel, whom he considers to be disloyal to the "Jewish state". The rising popularity of Lieberman reflects the general mood of the Jews towards the indigenous population. Such discrimination does not exist against Jews in Arab countries. In Morocco, for instance, Jews are well integrated in the society and Andre Azoulay, a Moroccan Jew, is a senior adviser to King Mohammed VI. Israel is not accountable for such prejudiced measures, but if such things happen to Jews anywhere in the world, they will be considered anti-semitic. The views expressed by the author are not necessarily those of Al Jazeera. |
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Saturday, February 14, 2009
Cyprus boycotts Israeli tourism fair
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3670012,00.html
Country decides to call off participation in Israel's annual travel expo after organizers allow northern Cypriot company to attend. However, several private Cypriot companies attend event despite official ban Ynet
Latest Update: 02.11.09, 15:04 / Israel Travel
However, on Wednesday morning representatives of several Cypriot companies arrived at the fair and set up their booths as in previous years, though this time without any official government sponsoring.
One of the representatives told Ynet: "We've been working with Israelis for many years. We are here every year, and this year is no exception."
When asked if his participation did not violate an official government decision, he said: "We're not acting against anyone's decision. The government decided not to have a pavilion here, so there isn't any. We, in the private sector, have nothing to do with that. Nothing has changed for us – we are here to sell Cyprus to the Israelis."
Cyprus: Incident could hurt relations
Earlier this week Lior Gelfand, one of the fair's organizers told Ynet that the Israeli hosts were aware that the participation of the north Cypriots could be potentially sensitive and demanded that the company, listed as North Cyprus Tourism Center, refrain from displaying symbols of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus on its promotional material.
However, once Cyprus learned of the northern Cypriot company's plan to attend the exposition, it decided to withdraw from the event in response. A letter sent to the Israeli Foreign Ministry by the Cyprus Israel Friendship Association warned that the incident could significantly jeopardize the relations between the two countries.
Gelfand said he was surprised by Cyprus' decision. "In other truism fairs, such as ITB in Berlin and WTM in London, there are regularly representatives from both countries and the Cypriots have no dispute with the organizers.
"Sadly here a commercial platform has been turn into a political one," he added.
According to Gelfand, the cooperation with Cyprus in the event wass usually excellent. "The Cypriots have been attending the fair for 15 years, and they do wonderful things every year. They are literally one of the event's focal points."
The Island of Cyprus has been divided since 1974 into two political entities, which have been embroiled in a decades-long dispute: The internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus, which is ruled by Greek Cypriots, and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
Relations between Israel and Cyprus have been strained lately, after several ships carrying aid for the Gaza Strip have left Cyprus despite Israel's objection.
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Friday, February 13, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Israel lurches into fascism
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10302.shtml
Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 12 February 2009
Whenever Israel has an election, pundits begin the usual refrain that hopes for peace depend on the "peace camp" -- formerly represented by the Labor party, but now by Tzipi Livni's Kadima -- prevailing over the anti-peace right, led by the Likud.
This has never been true, and makes even less sense as Israeli parties begin coalition talks after Tuesday's election. Yes, the "peace camp" helped launch the "peace process," but it did much more to undermine the chances for a just settlement.
In 1993, Labor prime minister Yitzhak Rabin signed the Oslo accords. Ambiguities in the agreement -- which included no mention of "self-determination" or "independence" for Palestinians, or even "occupation" -- made it easier to clinch a short-term deal. But confrontation over irreconcilable expectations was inevitable. While Palestinians hoped the Palestinian Authority, created by the accord, would be the nucleus of an independent state, Israel viewed it as little more than a native police force to suppress resistance to continued occupation and colonial settlement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Collaboration with Israel has always been the measure by which any Palestinian leader is judged to be a "peace partner." Rabin, according to Shlomo Ben-Ami, a former Israeli foreign minister, "never thought this [Oslo] will end in a full-fledged Palestinian state." He was right.
Throughout the "peace process," Israeli governments, regardless of who led them, expanded Jewish-only settlements in the heart of the West Bank, the territory supposed to form the bulk of the Palestinian state. In the 1990s, Ehud Barak's Labor-led government actually approved more settlement expansion than the Likud-led government that preceded it headed by Benjamin Netanyahu.
Barak, once considered "dovish," promoted a bloodthirsty image in the campaign, bolstered by the massacres of Gaza civilians he directed as defense minister. "Who has he ever shot?" Barak quipped derisively about Avigdor Lieberman, the leader of the proto-fascist Yisrael Beitenu party, in an attempt to paint the latter as a lightweight.
Today, Lieberman's party, which beat Labor into third place, will play a decisive role in a government. An immigrant who came to Israel from the former Soviet republic of Moldova, Lieberman was once a member of the outlawed racist party Kach that calls for expelling all Palestinians.
Yisrael Beitenu's manifesto was that 1.5 million Arab Palestinian citizens of Israel (indigenous survivors or descendants of the Palestinian majority ethnically cleansed in 1948) be subjected to a loyalty oath. If they don't swear allegiance to the "Jewish state" they would lose their citizenship and be forced from the land of their birth, joining millions of already stateless Palestinians in exile or in Israeli-controlled ghettos. In a move instigated by Lieberman but supported by Livni's allegedly "centrist" Kadima, the Knesset recently voted to ban Arab parties from participating in elections. Although the high court overturned it in time for the vote, it is an ominous sign of what may follow.
Lieberman, who previously served as deputy prime minister, has a long history of racist and violent incitement. Prior to Israel's recent attack, for example, he demanded Israel subject Palestinians to the brutal and indiscriminate violence Russia used in Chechyna. He also called for Arab Knesset members who met with officials from Hamas to be executed.
But it's too easy to make him the bogeyman. Israel's narrow political spectrum now consists at one end of the former "peace camp" that never halted the violent expropriation of Palestinian land for Jewish settlements and boasts with pride of the war crimes in Gaza, and at the other, a surging far-right whose "solutions" vary from apartheid to outright ethnic cleansing.
What does not help is brazen western hypocrisy. Already the US State Department spokesman affirmed that the Obama administration would work with whatever coalition emerged from Israel's "thriving democracy" and promised that the US would not interfere in Israel's "internal politics." Despite US President Barack Obama's sweet talk about a new relationship with the Arab world, few will fail to notice the double standard. In 2006, Hamas won a democratic election in the occupied territories, observed numerous unilateral or agreed truces that were violated by Israel, offered Israel a generation-long truce to set the stage for peace, and yet it is still boycotted by the US and European Union.
Worse, the US sponsored a failed coup against Hamas and continues to arm and train the anti-Hamas militias of Mahmoud Abbas, whose term as Palestinian Authority president expired on 9 January. As soon as he took office, Obama reaffirmed this boycott of Palestinian democracy.
The clearest message from Israel's election is that no Zionist party can solve Israel's basic conundrum and no negotiations will lead to a two-state solution. Israel could only be created as a "Jewish state" by the forced removal of the non-Jewish majority Palestinian population. As Palestinians once again become the majority in a country that has defied all attempts at partition, the only way to maintain Jewish control is through ever more brazen violence and repression of resistance (see Gaza). Whatever government emerges is certain to preside over more settlement-building, racial discrimination and escalating violence.
There are alternatives that have helped end what once seemed like equally intractable and bloody conflicts: a South African-style one-person one-vote democracy, or Northern Ireland-style power-sharing. Only under a democratic system according rights to all the people of the country will elections have the power to transform people's futures.
But Israel today is lurching into open fascism. It is utterly disingenuous to continue to pretend -- as so many do -- that its failed and criminal leaders hold the key to getting out of the morass. Instead of waiting for them to form a coalition, we must escalate the international civil society campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions to force Israelis to choose a saner path.
Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah is author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse (Metropolitan Books, 2006). A version of this article first appeared on the Guardian's Comment is Free website with the headline "No peace for Israel."
Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 12 February 2009
 |
| Israeli riot police argue with Palestinian and Jewish citizens of Israel protesting against racism outside a polling station in Um al-Fahem during the Israeli elections, 10 February 2009. (Oren Ziv/ActiveStills) |
Whenever Israel has an election, pundits begin the usual refrain that hopes for peace depend on the "peace camp" -- formerly represented by the Labor party, but now by Tzipi Livni's Kadima -- prevailing over the anti-peace right, led by the Likud.
This has never been true, and makes even less sense as Israeli parties begin coalition talks after Tuesday's election. Yes, the "peace camp" helped launch the "peace process," but it did much more to undermine the chances for a just settlement.
In 1993, Labor prime minister Yitzhak Rabin signed the Oslo accords. Ambiguities in the agreement -- which included no mention of "self-determination" or "independence" for Palestinians, or even "occupation" -- made it easier to clinch a short-term deal. But confrontation over irreconcilable expectations was inevitable. While Palestinians hoped the Palestinian Authority, created by the accord, would be the nucleus of an independent state, Israel viewed it as little more than a native police force to suppress resistance to continued occupation and colonial settlement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Collaboration with Israel has always been the measure by which any Palestinian leader is judged to be a "peace partner." Rabin, according to Shlomo Ben-Ami, a former Israeli foreign minister, "never thought this [Oslo] will end in a full-fledged Palestinian state." He was right.
Throughout the "peace process," Israeli governments, regardless of who led them, expanded Jewish-only settlements in the heart of the West Bank, the territory supposed to form the bulk of the Palestinian state. In the 1990s, Ehud Barak's Labor-led government actually approved more settlement expansion than the Likud-led government that preceded it headed by Benjamin Netanyahu.
Barak, once considered "dovish," promoted a bloodthirsty image in the campaign, bolstered by the massacres of Gaza civilians he directed as defense minister. "Who has he ever shot?" Barak quipped derisively about Avigdor Lieberman, the leader of the proto-fascist Yisrael Beitenu party, in an attempt to paint the latter as a lightweight.
Today, Lieberman's party, which beat Labor into third place, will play a decisive role in a government. An immigrant who came to Israel from the former Soviet republic of Moldova, Lieberman was once a member of the outlawed racist party Kach that calls for expelling all Palestinians.
Yisrael Beitenu's manifesto was that 1.5 million Arab Palestinian citizens of Israel (indigenous survivors or descendants of the Palestinian majority ethnically cleansed in 1948) be subjected to a loyalty oath. If they don't swear allegiance to the "Jewish state" they would lose their citizenship and be forced from the land of their birth, joining millions of already stateless Palestinians in exile or in Israeli-controlled ghettos. In a move instigated by Lieberman but supported by Livni's allegedly "centrist" Kadima, the Knesset recently voted to ban Arab parties from participating in elections. Although the high court overturned it in time for the vote, it is an ominous sign of what may follow.
Lieberman, who previously served as deputy prime minister, has a long history of racist and violent incitement. Prior to Israel's recent attack, for example, he demanded Israel subject Palestinians to the brutal and indiscriminate violence Russia used in Chechyna. He also called for Arab Knesset members who met with officials from Hamas to be executed.
But it's too easy to make him the bogeyman. Israel's narrow political spectrum now consists at one end of the former "peace camp" that never halted the violent expropriation of Palestinian land for Jewish settlements and boasts with pride of the war crimes in Gaza, and at the other, a surging far-right whose "solutions" vary from apartheid to outright ethnic cleansing.
What does not help is brazen western hypocrisy. Already the US State Department spokesman affirmed that the Obama administration would work with whatever coalition emerged from Israel's "thriving democracy" and promised that the US would not interfere in Israel's "internal politics." Despite US President Barack Obama's sweet talk about a new relationship with the Arab world, few will fail to notice the double standard. In 2006, Hamas won a democratic election in the occupied territories, observed numerous unilateral or agreed truces that were violated by Israel, offered Israel a generation-long truce to set the stage for peace, and yet it is still boycotted by the US and European Union.
Worse, the US sponsored a failed coup against Hamas and continues to arm and train the anti-Hamas militias of Mahmoud Abbas, whose term as Palestinian Authority president expired on 9 January. As soon as he took office, Obama reaffirmed this boycott of Palestinian democracy.
The clearest message from Israel's election is that no Zionist party can solve Israel's basic conundrum and no negotiations will lead to a two-state solution. Israel could only be created as a "Jewish state" by the forced removal of the non-Jewish majority Palestinian population. As Palestinians once again become the majority in a country that has defied all attempts at partition, the only way to maintain Jewish control is through ever more brazen violence and repression of resistance (see Gaza). Whatever government emerges is certain to preside over more settlement-building, racial discrimination and escalating violence.
There are alternatives that have helped end what once seemed like equally intractable and bloody conflicts: a South African-style one-person one-vote democracy, or Northern Ireland-style power-sharing. Only under a democratic system according rights to all the people of the country will elections have the power to transform people's futures.
But Israel today is lurching into open fascism. It is utterly disingenuous to continue to pretend -- as so many do -- that its failed and criminal leaders hold the key to getting out of the morass. Instead of waiting for them to form a coalition, we must escalate the international civil society campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions to force Israelis to choose a saner path.
Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah is author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse (Metropolitan Books, 2006). A version of this article first appeared on the Guardian's Comment is Free website with the headline "No peace for Israel."
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Egypt arrests pro-Palestine journalist
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10297.shtml
Per Bjorklund, The Electronic Intifada, 10 February 2009
Amidst a wave of repression against protests in support of Palestine, Egyptian security agents on 6 February arrested journalist and filmmaker Philip Rizk. Rizk, an Egyptian and German national, was detained after a peaceful march in solidarity with the people under siege and attack in the Gaza Strip. Days later his location is still unknown.
Fourteen activists from a number of countries, including Egypt, Spain, the US, UK and Germany all took part in the "March to Gaza," which was led through the Egyptian countryside on Friday with the aim of raising awareness about the ongoing siege on Gaza. Close to Kafr Hamza village north of Cairo, the group of activists and two journalists were detained on the roadside by local state security agents. They were held for four hours before being taken to the police station in Abu Sabel.
At this point the officers singled out Rizk and demanded to interrogate him inside the police station, acting apparently on direct orders from state security agents in Cairo. Rizk agreed to enter the station only on condition that he was accompanied by three human rights lawyers who had arrived from Cairo. At 11pm, state security agents from Cairo arrived and forced the lawyers to leave the interrogation room. Rizk was then smuggled out through a back door, and sped off in a microbus without license plates, almost running over Rizk's supporters who had gathered outside the police station and tried to stop the vehicle.
After more than 48 hours there was still no official response to questions about Rizk's whereabouts or the charges against him, although a public prosecutor in Cairo said it was "90 percent certain" that he was being held in state security facilities in Lazoghly, Cairo. At around 1:30am on Monday, armed security agents went to the home of his parents in Cairo and searched it. The same night they also broke into his apartment that he shares with his sister and took a number of items, including his camera and laptop.
Demonstrations calling for Philip's immediate release have been held by activists, students and teachers outside the High Court in Cairo and on the American University of Cairo campus on three consecutive days since the arrest, and more protests are being planned for the coming days ahead.
Rizk is a journalist and documentary filmmaker, in the final stages of finishing his film Samoud, about peaceful resistance to Israeli occupation in Palestinian villages in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He has lived in Gaza for two years, reporting for various international media outlets like The Electronic Intifada and Al-Jazeera English, while running the blog Tabula Gaza. Before being detained by the police, Rizk explained the purpose of the march was part of an international campaign to raise awareness about the continuing siege of Gaza, building on the momentum created by the Israeli military assault.
"As our governments fail to move to help the Palestinians, citizens around the world have no choice but to act ourselves," Rizk said during the march.
The campaign was launched on 23 January to commemorate the border breach in Rafah on that day last year, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinian poured into Egypt to shop for badly needed supplies denied to them by the Israeli siege.
In a campaign call on the website togaza.net, citizens around the world are urged to march on Gaza to protest the siege: "Though the immediate Israeli military onslaught on Gaza -- for the time being -- has come to a standstill this is not a solution. Let us seize this time of urgency to act and call for an end to siege on Gaza. Though our respective governments reject expressing our resistance to the status quo we -- the multitude -- must move to the streets, as a collective global expression in condemnation of Israel's actions."
On 31 January around 15 activists in Spain responded to the call and organized a symbolic march close to Alicante, reaching the point in Spain that is closest to Gaza. Activists say another march is already being planned in Egypt, despite the arrest of Rizk.
On Friday more then 50 people were also arrested during protests called for by the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the leading opposition parties to president Mubarak's National Democratic Party. The demonstrators demanded that Egypt permanently open the Rafah border crossing and warned Israel from invading Gaza again. Last week another political activist was also arrested from the Islamist Labor party and is being tried for visiting the Gaza Strip without a permit.
During the Israeli war on Gaza tens of thousands of Egyptians took to the streets, condemning the military assault as well as the complicity of the Mubarak government in the blockade of the strip. Hundreds were arrested during the protests.
Per Bjorklund is a freelance journalist based in Cairo since 2006, covering social protest movements and dissent in Egypt as well as events in the region.
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Per Bjorklund, The Electronic Intifada, 10 February 2009
 |
| Philip Rizk marching in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and against the Egyptian government's closure of the Rafah crossing. (Per Bjorklund) |
Fourteen activists from a number of countries, including Egypt, Spain, the US, UK and Germany all took part in the "March to Gaza," which was led through the Egyptian countryside on Friday with the aim of raising awareness about the ongoing siege on Gaza. Close to Kafr Hamza village north of Cairo, the group of activists and two journalists were detained on the roadside by local state security agents. They were held for four hours before being taken to the police station in Abu Sabel.
At this point the officers singled out Rizk and demanded to interrogate him inside the police station, acting apparently on direct orders from state security agents in Cairo. Rizk agreed to enter the station only on condition that he was accompanied by three human rights lawyers who had arrived from Cairo. At 11pm, state security agents from Cairo arrived and forced the lawyers to leave the interrogation room. Rizk was then smuggled out through a back door, and sped off in a microbus without license plates, almost running over Rizk's supporters who had gathered outside the police station and tried to stop the vehicle.
After more than 48 hours there was still no official response to questions about Rizk's whereabouts or the charges against him, although a public prosecutor in Cairo said it was "90 percent certain" that he was being held in state security facilities in Lazoghly, Cairo. At around 1:30am on Monday, armed security agents went to the home of his parents in Cairo and searched it. The same night they also broke into his apartment that he shares with his sister and took a number of items, including his camera and laptop.
Demonstrations calling for Philip's immediate release have been held by activists, students and teachers outside the High Court in Cairo and on the American University of Cairo campus on three consecutive days since the arrest, and more protests are being planned for the coming days ahead.
Rizk is a journalist and documentary filmmaker, in the final stages of finishing his film Samoud, about peaceful resistance to Israeli occupation in Palestinian villages in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He has lived in Gaza for two years, reporting for various international media outlets like The Electronic Intifada and Al-Jazeera English, while running the blog Tabula Gaza. Before being detained by the police, Rizk explained the purpose of the march was part of an international campaign to raise awareness about the continuing siege of Gaza, building on the momentum created by the Israeli military assault.
"As our governments fail to move to help the Palestinians, citizens around the world have no choice but to act ourselves," Rizk said during the march.
The campaign was launched on 23 January to commemorate the border breach in Rafah on that day last year, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinian poured into Egypt to shop for badly needed supplies denied to them by the Israeli siege.
In a campaign call on the website togaza.net, citizens around the world are urged to march on Gaza to protest the siege: "Though the immediate Israeli military onslaught on Gaza -- for the time being -- has come to a standstill this is not a solution. Let us seize this time of urgency to act and call for an end to siege on Gaza. Though our respective governments reject expressing our resistance to the status quo we -- the multitude -- must move to the streets, as a collective global expression in condemnation of Israel's actions."
On 31 January around 15 activists in Spain responded to the call and organized a symbolic march close to Alicante, reaching the point in Spain that is closest to Gaza. Activists say another march is already being planned in Egypt, despite the arrest of Rizk.
On Friday more then 50 people were also arrested during protests called for by the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the leading opposition parties to president Mubarak's National Democratic Party. The demonstrators demanded that Egypt permanently open the Rafah border crossing and warned Israel from invading Gaza again. Last week another political activist was also arrested from the Islamist Labor party and is being tried for visiting the Gaza Strip without a permit.
During the Israeli war on Gaza tens of thousands of Egyptians took to the streets, condemning the military assault as well as the complicity of the Mubarak government in the blockade of the strip. Hundreds were arrested during the protests.
Per Bjorklund is a freelance journalist based in Cairo since 2006, covering social protest movements and dissent in Egypt as well as events in the region.
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UN official slams Israel for blocking textbooks
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3669379,00.html
Head of UNRWA operation in Gaza 'extremely frustrated' by Israel's refusal to allow paper into Strip, says new textbooks meant for children's human rights program
Associated Press
The top UN Official in Gaza criticized Israel on Monday for blocking the shipment of paper to print textbooks for a new human rights curriculum that will be taught to children in all grades in the Palestinian territory.
Israel also has refused to allow 12 truckloads of notebooks into Gaza as well as plastic sheeting which is
turned into plastic bags to distribute food that the UN provides to some 900,000 people, John Ging, head of Gaza operations for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency which helps Palestinian refugees, said in a videoconference with reporters at UN Headquarters.
He said 60% of the textbooks needed in Gaza have not been printed, so children don't have the material they need to study.
Ging said he was "extremely frustrated" at Israel's refusal to allow paper into Gaza, "Not least because we have a new human rights curriculum which everybody here is very excited to teach the children."
The human rights courses are modeled on those developed by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, with input from the human rights community in Gaza, he said. They will be taught by specialist human rights teachers in every school, and human rights organizations in Gaza will evaluate the teachers' performance.
"Hopefully when the kids leave our schools, they'll have the clearest understanding of rights, responsibilities and the effective mechanisms to uphold and achieve those rights," Ging said.
"We want these kids to come up with a civilized outlook, with the mindset that is orientated toward peace and tolerance, and we're being obstructed," he said. "Not being allowed to bring in paper to print the human rights textbooks means that there is an obstruction for the teaching of human rights to the children here in Gaza."
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Poets for Palestine
This poem is written by a young brother, Remi Kanezi, editor of Poets for Palestine: http://www.poetsforpalesti
I never knew death until I saw the bombing of a refugee camp
Craters filled with disfigured ankles and splattered torsos
But no sign of a face, the only impression a fading scream
I never understood pain
Until a seven-year-old girl clutched my hand
Stared up at me with soft brown eyes, waiting for answers
But I didn't have any
I had muted breath and dry pens in my back pocket
That couldn't fill pages of understanding or resolution
In her other hand she held the key to her grandmother's house
But I couldn't unlock the cell that caged her older brothers
They said, we slingshot dreams so the other side will feel our father's presence
A craftsman
Built homes in areas where no one was building
And when he fell, he was silent
A .50 caliber bullet tore through his neck shredding his vocal cords
Too close to the wall
His hammer must have been a weapon
He must have been a weapon
Encroaching on settlement hills and demographics
So his daughter studies mathematics
Seven explosions times eight bodies
Equals four Congressional resolutions
Seven Apache helicopters times eight Palestinian villages
Equals silence and a second Nakba
Our birthrate minus their birthrate
Equals one sea and 400 villages re-erected
One state plus two peoples…and she can't stop crying
Never knew revolution or the proper equation
Tears at the paper with her fingertips
Searching for answers
But only has teachers
Looks up to the sky and see stars of David demolishing squalor with hellfire missiles
She thinks back words and memories of his last hug before he turned and fell
Now she pumps dirty water from wells, while settlements divide and conquer
And her father's killer sits beachfront with European vernacular
She thinks back words, while they think backwards
Of obscene notions and indigenous confusion
This our land!, she said
She's seven years old
This our land!, she said
And she doesn't need a history book or a schoolroom teacher
She has these walls, this sky, her refugee camp
She doesn't know the proper equation
But she sees my dry pens
No longer waiting for my answers
Just holding her grandmother's key…searching for ink
I never knew death until I saw the bombing of a refugee camp
Craters filled with disfigured ankles and splattered torsos
But no sign of a face, the only impression a fading scream
I never understood pain
Until a seven-year-old girl clutched my hand
Stared up at me with soft brown eyes, waiting for answers
But I didn't have any
I had muted breath and dry pens in my back pocket
That couldn't fill pages of understanding or resolution
In her other hand she held the key to her grandmother's house
But I couldn't unlock the cell that caged her older brothers
They said, we slingshot dreams so the other side will feel our father's presence
A craftsman
Built homes in areas where no one was building
And when he fell, he was silent
A .50 caliber bullet tore through his neck shredding his vocal cords
Too close to the wall
His hammer must have been a weapon
He must have been a weapon
Encroaching on settlement hills and demographics
So his daughter studies mathematics
Seven explosions times eight bodies
Equals four Congressional resolutions
Seven Apache helicopters times eight Palestinian villages
Equals silence and a second Nakba
Our birthrate minus their birthrate
Equals one sea and 400 villages re-erected
One state plus two peoples…and she can't stop crying
Never knew revolution or the proper equation
Tears at the paper with her fingertips
Searching for answers
But only has teachers
Looks up to the sky and see stars of David demolishing squalor with hellfire missiles
She thinks back words and memories of his last hug before he turned and fell
Now she pumps dirty water from wells, while settlements divide and conquer
And her father's killer sits beachfront with European vernacular
She thinks back words, while they think backwards
Of obscene notions and indigenous confusion
This our land!, she said
She's seven years old
This our land!, she said
And she doesn't need a history book or a schoolroom teacher
She has these walls, this sky, her refugee camp
She doesn't know the proper equation
But she sees my dry pens
No longer waiting for my answers
Just holding her grandmother's key…searching for ink
Fair trade, not aid, is the way forward
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10278.shtml
Gen Sander, The Electronic Intifada, 6 February 2009
Some would argue that fair trade never really existed in the Gaza Strip -- at least not in the "certified" way. Needing to meet certain standards for present-day international export is reasonable enough, but fair trade can also exist domestically or internationally, without all the fuss and formalities. If we understand fair trade to be about dignity, empowerment, sustainability, justice and social responsibility, then any form of exchange that meets those criteria should be recognized as just that.
Before the days of Israel's crippling siege of the Gaza Strip, six women's couscous processing cooperatives were in operation in Gaza, built on the foundation of the above criteria. Their products, however, did not bear a fair trade certification mark that made the product instantly and internationally recognized as being fair trade. They were, however, exported by the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC), a member of the International Federation for Alternative Trade (IFAT, recently renamed the World Fair Trade Organization), so there is no question as to whether or not the products were actually fair trade. With the help of the Fair Trade department of PARC, which also provided their founding infrastructure, these co-ops exported more than 100 tons of couscous in 2006 to fair trade organizations all over Europe. That initiative had so much potential and seemed like a viable and promising avenue for economic development -- "had" being the pivotal word.
Following Hamas's victory in the January 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections, Israel's immoral and illegal collective punishment of Gaza's 1.5 million people began. It has been two and a half years now since the siege was imposed, and Gaza has since been described as the world's largest prison. Its borders are hermetically sealed, the free movement of people and essential goods and services severely restricted, and its economy and society stunted by a prohibition on partaking in any kind of trade, never mind fair trade.
Last year PARC issued a release outlining its concerns regarding the effects of the blockade on the agricultural sector in general, but more specifically on the six women's couscous processing cooperatives operating in Gaza. It seemed as though the situation could not get any worse; production requirements were not allowed into the Gaza Strip, and all agricultural products were not allowed out. The results were visibly devastating. The ban on exports led the deterioration of the agricultural sector, which led to the closure of many farms and all six couscous co-ops, which had a direct impact on hundreds of people whose lives depended on their continued existence. Additionally, with the incapacity to produce and the inability to purchase or sell came an unprecedented surge of food insecurity in Gaza.
The likelihood of the situation further deteriorating seemed impossible at the time but, obviously, it just got worse -- much worse. Gaza's initial break just became a compound fracture.
Israel's deadly 22-day assault on Gaza killed more than 1,300 persons, mainly civilians, and left nearly 5,000 injured. The damage caused to public and private infrastructure was massive, and the agricultural sector suffered a nearly insurmountable amount of devastation. The day after Israel unilaterally declared a ceasefire on 18 January, the agriculture minister in Gaza declared that 60 percent of the Strip's agricultural land was destroyed, along with 80 percent of all agricultural products for this season, with a total economic loss for the sector alone estimated at $170 million. The fair trade sector, which had already been rendered inept by the siege, has endured an even greater setback. According to PARC's Gaza branch, one of the couscous co-ops in the Sheikh Radwan area was completely destroyed, leaving five co-ops (barely) standing and in a condition so fragile their future has become even more tenuous than it was just one month ago. Clearly, the Israeli war machine has systematically left in its wake a mess so colossal that it has been estimated that the Gaza Strip has just been set back at least 20 years.
Whatever hope Gaza was holding onto for the possibility of fair trade ever catching on again has now been ruthlessly thwarted by Israel. Understandably, the focus is no longer on fair trade, or even on trade for that matter, but on survival and other immediate needs that generally need tending to after an atrocity of this sort. For the moment, Gaza desperately requires immediate humanitarian aid for immediate relief to the civilian population. PARC, however, firmly believes that aid is indisputably unsustainable. Instead, PARC urges the international community to foster an environment and humanity of fair trade, rather than one of aid. Israel's siege of the Gaza Strip needs to be lifted immediately in order to help put an end to the humanitarian catastrophe that is occurring, before it's too late, and before we regret our inaction once again.
Gen Sander currently lives in Ramallah, West Bank. She works in the Fair Trade Department of PARC and teaches a beginner's photography class at Aida refugee camp
Gen Sander, The Electronic Intifada, 6 February 2009
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| Palestinians harvest olives in Gaza City, October 2008. (Wissam Nassar/MaanImages) |
Some would argue that fair trade never really existed in the Gaza Strip -- at least not in the "certified" way. Needing to meet certain standards for present-day international export is reasonable enough, but fair trade can also exist domestically or internationally, without all the fuss and formalities. If we understand fair trade to be about dignity, empowerment, sustainability, justice and social responsibility, then any form of exchange that meets those criteria should be recognized as just that.
Before the days of Israel's crippling siege of the Gaza Strip, six women's couscous processing cooperatives were in operation in Gaza, built on the foundation of the above criteria. Their products, however, did not bear a fair trade certification mark that made the product instantly and internationally recognized as being fair trade. They were, however, exported by the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC), a member of the International Federation for Alternative Trade (IFAT, recently renamed the World Fair Trade Organization), so there is no question as to whether or not the products were actually fair trade. With the help of the Fair Trade department of PARC, which also provided their founding infrastructure, these co-ops exported more than 100 tons of couscous in 2006 to fair trade organizations all over Europe. That initiative had so much potential and seemed like a viable and promising avenue for economic development -- "had" being the pivotal word.
Following Hamas's victory in the January 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections, Israel's immoral and illegal collective punishment of Gaza's 1.5 million people began. It has been two and a half years now since the siege was imposed, and Gaza has since been described as the world's largest prison. Its borders are hermetically sealed, the free movement of people and essential goods and services severely restricted, and its economy and society stunted by a prohibition on partaking in any kind of trade, never mind fair trade.
Last year PARC issued a release outlining its concerns regarding the effects of the blockade on the agricultural sector in general, but more specifically on the six women's couscous processing cooperatives operating in Gaza. It seemed as though the situation could not get any worse; production requirements were not allowed into the Gaza Strip, and all agricultural products were not allowed out. The results were visibly devastating. The ban on exports led the deterioration of the agricultural sector, which led to the closure of many farms and all six couscous co-ops, which had a direct impact on hundreds of people whose lives depended on their continued existence. Additionally, with the incapacity to produce and the inability to purchase or sell came an unprecedented surge of food insecurity in Gaza.
The likelihood of the situation further deteriorating seemed impossible at the time but, obviously, it just got worse -- much worse. Gaza's initial break just became a compound fracture.
Israel's deadly 22-day assault on Gaza killed more than 1,300 persons, mainly civilians, and left nearly 5,000 injured. The damage caused to public and private infrastructure was massive, and the agricultural sector suffered a nearly insurmountable amount of devastation. The day after Israel unilaterally declared a ceasefire on 18 January, the agriculture minister in Gaza declared that 60 percent of the Strip's agricultural land was destroyed, along with 80 percent of all agricultural products for this season, with a total economic loss for the sector alone estimated at $170 million. The fair trade sector, which had already been rendered inept by the siege, has endured an even greater setback. According to PARC's Gaza branch, one of the couscous co-ops in the Sheikh Radwan area was completely destroyed, leaving five co-ops (barely) standing and in a condition so fragile their future has become even more tenuous than it was just one month ago. Clearly, the Israeli war machine has systematically left in its wake a mess so colossal that it has been estimated that the Gaza Strip has just been set back at least 20 years.
Whatever hope Gaza was holding onto for the possibility of fair trade ever catching on again has now been ruthlessly thwarted by Israel. Understandably, the focus is no longer on fair trade, or even on trade for that matter, but on survival and other immediate needs that generally need tending to after an atrocity of this sort. For the moment, Gaza desperately requires immediate humanitarian aid for immediate relief to the civilian population. PARC, however, firmly believes that aid is indisputably unsustainable. Instead, PARC urges the international community to foster an environment and humanity of fair trade, rather than one of aid. Israel's siege of the Gaza Strip needs to be lifted immediately in order to help put an end to the humanitarian catastrophe that is occurring, before it's too late, and before we regret our inaction once again.
Gen Sander currently lives in Ramallah, West Bank. She works in the Fair Trade Department of PARC and teaches a beginner's photography class at Aida refugee camp
30 Little Known Facts About Israel!
http://www.islamicawakening.com/viewarticle.php?articleID=1139
30 Little Known Facts about Israel!
1. Did you know that non-Jewish Israelis cannot buy or lease land in Israel? A Jew from any country in the world is guaranteed citizenship in Israel, while the Palestinians who have been there for centuries are oppressed and persecuted.
2. Did you know that instead of sewing an insignia on clothing to distinguish race (like the Germans did to the Jews before WW2), Palestinian license plates in Israel are color coded to distinguish Jews from non-Jews?
3. Did you know that East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza, and the Golan Heights are all considered by the entire world community, including the United States and the United Nations, to be occupied territory and NOT part of the State of Israel?
4. Did you know that Israel allots 85% of the water resources for Jews, and the remaining 15% is divided among all Palestinians in the territories? For example in Hebron, 85% of the water is set aside for about 400 Jewish settlers, while the remaining 15% is distributed among Hebron's 120, 000 Palestinians?
5. Did you know that the United States awards Israel $5 billion in aid each year from American tax dollars?
6. Did you know that US aid to Israel ($1.8 billion annually in military aid alone) exceeds the aid the US grants to the entire African continent? This aid is used both to buy American weaponry and to buy arms made in Israel.
7. Did you know that Israel is awaiting an additional $4 billion worth of American military hardware, including new F-16s and Apache and Blackhawk helicopters. As Israel's main ally and supporter internationally, the United States is committed to maintaining the Jewish state's "qualitative edge" in weapons over its neighbours.
8. Did you know that the U.S. administration has notified Congress on numerous occasions that Israel has violated the rules on how US-supplied weapons are used? (In 1978, 1979 and 1982 during fighting in Lebanon, and once after Israel's bombing of an Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981.)
9. Did you know that Israel is the only country in the Middle East that refuses to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and bars international inspections from its sites?
10. Did you know that high-ranking military officers in the Israeli Defence Forces have admitted publicly that unarmed prisoners of war have been summarily executed by the Israeli forces?
11. Did you know that Israel blew up an American diplomatic facility in Egypt and attacked a US warship in international waters (the USS Liberty), killing 33 and wounding 177 American sailors and the US did nothing about it? (Imagine if an Islamic country like Iraq did this!)
12. Did you know that Israel stands in defiance of 69 United Nations Security Council Resolutions?
13. Did you know that Israel is explicitly dedicated to the policy of maintaining a distinct Jewish character?
14. Did you know that Israel's current Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, was found by an Israeli court to be "personally and directly responsible" for the Sabra and Shatilla massacre in Lebanon where more than a thousand innocent Palestinian men, women, and children were axed to death or lined up and shot in cold blood?
15. Did you know that on May 20, 1990, a group of unarmed Palestinian labourers were lined up and murdered by an Israeli solider as they sat waiting for transportation back to Gaza? The terrified labourers who gathered in an area of southern Israel known as Rishon Lezion (known to Palestinians by its Arabic name Oyon Qara) handed their ID cards to the Israeli soldier. The soldiers ordered the distressed labourers to kneel down and face the ground and unexpectedly showered them with a barrage of bullets, killing seven and wounding many others. Needless to say, the soldier was not charged with any crime.
16. Did you know that until as recently as 1988, Israelis were permitted to run "Jews Only" job ads?
17. Did you know that the Israeli Foreign Ministry pays six US public relations firms to promote a "positive image" of Israel to the American public?
18. Did you know that Sharon's coalition government includes a party--Molodet--which advocates ethnic cleansing by openly calling for the forced expulsion of all Palestinians from the occupied territories?
19. Did you know that recently-declassified documents indicate that David Ben-Gurion approved of the forced expulsion of Arabs from all Palestinian territory in 1948?
Saturday, February 07, 2009
Shoe thrown at Israeli Ambassador in Sweden
http://www.imemc.org/article/58788
Shoe thrown at Israeli Ambassador in Sweden and hits dead on!
A shoe was thrown at Israel's ambassador to Sweden, Mr. Benny Dagan, when he was giving a speech at Stockholm University on Thursday. It was followed by two books and a note pad, all hitting the severely embarrassed ambassador.
The two protesters, a young woman and a young man, shouted "Murderers!" and "Intifada!" while pelting Dagan with the objects. They are currently under arrest, suspected of assault and public disturbance.
The lecture was organized by the Foreign policy association at Stockholm University. The ambassador was supposed to talk about the upcoming elections in Israel , but turned quickly to issues of Hamas and Iran and developed a lengthy defence for Israel 's recent actions in the GazaStrip.
Some 20 minutes into the lecture, a woman stood up in the audience, threw a red shoe at the ambassador and shouted "Murderers!" The shoe hit Dagan in his stomach. Another protester then joined in and hurled two books and a note pad.
Dagan was dumbstruck and paralyzed, but returned to his lecture shortly after a few minutes – only to face shouts and other verbal protests from the audience. The meeting ended in chaos, while the two protestors were taken to custody.
The boycott movement in Sweden has gained momentum during the last weeks, not the least since Veolia lost its Stockholm metro contract, worth some 3.5 billion euro a year, after a long campaign against the company's notorious involvement in the Jerusalem tram project. The movement is now taking aim at the Davis Cup tennis match between Sweden and Israel scheduled in Malmö from the 6th to the 8th of March 2009.
POEM: I am Palestinian
I AM PALESTINIAN
(anonymous)
I am the Palestinian fury
I am the diaspora
The exile
The lack of travel documents
The absence of an identity card
The prison cell
I am interrogation
The beating and torture
Watch out for my anger
I have not much patience for injustice
Patience has its limitations
I am administrative detention
I am rubber bullets
I am house demolitions
I am deportation
I am
El-haram el-Ibraheimi
Deir Yassin
Sabra and Shateila
Tal el-Za'tar
Al-Aqsa...
I am the Zionist officer slapping me across the face
I am the humiliation of a foreign check point in my homeland
I am prison cells and execution squads in Arabia
I am terrorism and xenophobia in the West
I am Tear gas cannisters
I am Al-quds
I blossom from the agony of my people
I survive and return to my homeland with victory
I am the haunting refugee returning
The incessant memory returning
The Palestinian of 48
The Palestinian of 67
The Palestinian of 98
The Palestinian of 2001
(The latest and best car model in refugee market)
The insomnia in my occupier's bed
the menage a trois when he sleeps with his wife
I am the Intifada
Five hundred thousand rocks hurled at once
A Klashinkov
I am the tameness of a wedding song
The conviction of Palestinian Dabkeh steps
The infatuation with the land
I am wrapped in the red, black, white, and green
I am resilience, virtue, and pride
I am the tenderness of a young Palestinian lady's
Palm and chest her femininity her strength her mother-ness
I am a Palestinian man's resilience, loyalty, and kindness I am Palestinian
children's conviction that they will return someday
I am the Palestinian
Friday, February 06, 2009
What Israel gets away with...
Amazing what they get away with isn't it.....
Question: Which country alone in the Middle East has nuclear weapons? Answer: Israel.
Q: Which country in the Middle East refuses to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and bars international inspections? Answer: Israel..
Q: Which country in the Middle East seized the sovereign territory of other nations by military force and continues to occupy it in defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions? Answer: Israel..
Q: Which country in the Middle East routinely violates the international borders of another sovereign state with warplanes and artillery and naval gunfire? Answer: Israel..
Q: What American ally in the Middle East has for years sent assassins into other countries to kill its political enemies (a practice sometimes called exporting terrorism)? Answer: Israel..
Q: In which country in the Middle East have high-ranking military officers admitted publicly that unarmed prisoners of war were executed? Answer: Israel..
Q: What country in the Middle East refuses to prosecute its soldiers who have acknowledged executing prisoners of war? Answer: Israel..
Q: What country in the Middle East created 762,000 refugees and refuses to allow them to return to their homes, farms and businesses? Answer: Israel..
Q: What country in the Middle East refuses to pay compensation to people whose land, bank accounts and businesses it confiscated? Answer: Israel.
Q: In what country in the Middle East was a high-ranking United Nations diplomat assassinated? Answer: Israel.
Q: In what country in the Middle East did the man who ordered the assassination of a high-ranking U.N. diplomat become prime minister? Answer: Israel.
Q: What country in the Middle East blew up an American diplomatic facility in Egypt and attacked a U.S. ship, the USS Liberty, in international waters, killing 34 and wounding 171 American sailors? Answer: Israel.
Q: What country in the Middle East employed a spy, Jonathan Pollard, to steal classified documents and then gave some of them to the Soviet Union? Answer: Israel.
Q: What country at first denied any official connection to Pollard, then voted to make him a citizen and has continuously demanded that the American president grant Pollard a full pardon? Answer: Israel.
Q. What Middle East country allows American Jewish murderers to flee to its country to escape punishment in the United States and refuses to extradite them once in their custody? Answer: Israel
Q. What Middle East country preaches against hate yet builds a shrine and a memorial for a murderer who killed 29 Palestinians while they prayed in their Mosque. Answer: Israel
Q: What country on Planet Earth has the second most powerful lobby in the United States, according to a recent Fortune magazine survey of Washington insiders? Answer: Israel.
Q. Which country in the Middle East deliberately targeted a U.N. Refugee Camp in Qana, Lebanon and killed 103 innocent men, women, and especially children? Answer: Israel
Q: Which country in the Middle East is in defiance of 69 United Nations Security Council resolutions and has been protected from 29 more by U.S. vetoes? Answer: Israel.
Q. Which country in the Middle East receives more than one-third of all U.S. aid yet is the 16th richest country in the world? Answer: Israel
Q. Which country in the Middle East receives U.S. weapons for free and then sells the technology to the Republic of China even at the objections of the U.S.? Answer: Israel
Q. Which country in the Middle East routinely insults the American people by having its Prime Minister address the United States Congress and lecturing them like children on why they have no right to reduce foreign aid? Answer: Israel
Q. Which country in the Middle East had its Prime Minister announce to his staff not to worry about what the United States says because "We control America?" Answer: Israel
Q. What country in the Middle East was cited by Amnesty International for demolishing more than 4000 innocent Palestinian homes as a means of ethnic cleansing. Answer: Israel
Q. Which country in the Middle East has just recently used a weapon of mass destruction, a one-ton smart bomb, dropping it in the center of a highly populated area killing 15 civilians including 9 children? Answer: Israel
Q. Which country in the Middle East routinely kills young Palestinian children for no reason other than throwing stones at armored vehicles, bulldozers, or tanks? Answer: Israel
Q. Which country in the Middle East signed the Oslo Accords promising to halt any new Jewish Settlement construction, but instead, has built more than 270 new settlements since the signing? Answer: Israel
Q. Which country in the Middle East has assassinated more than 100 political officials of its opponent in the last 2 years while killing hundreds of civilians in the process, including dozens of children? Answer: Israel
Q.. Which country in the Middle East regularly violates the Geneva Convention by imposing collective punishment on entire towns, villages, and camps, for the acts of a few, and even goes as far as demolishing entire villages while people are still in their homes? Answer: Israel
Thursday, February 05, 2009
MEP urges end to Hamas boycott
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/mep-urges-end-to-hama-boycott-14170632.html
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
Richard Howitt was speaking after the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, called for international backing to hold Israel accountable for the attacks on Gaza.
Mr Howitt said it was clear that Europe's Middle East policy required a "sea-change" if the EU was to support a Palestinian reconciliation agreement and to provide international troops to fulfil UN responsibilities to protect Palestinians.
President Mahmoud Abbas was addressing Euro-MPs in Strasbourg ahead of a visit to London for talks with Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
The president said it was essential to show that Israel was "not above international and humanitarian law, in the wake of incursions into Gaza which he said amounted to "an aggression against the entire Palestinian people".
Afterwards Mr Howitt, who was an official EU election monitor for both the Palestinian presidential and legislative elections and visited Gaza during the blockade, said Britain should review its policy towards Hamas in the light of the Egyptian peace initiative.
He also called for an existing EU border mission at Gaza to be stepped up.
"President Abbas' description of an Islamic peace initiative giving the prospect of peace between Israel and 57 Islamic states provides a direct challenge to Europe to shift its own policy, in order to avoid worldwide divisions becoming entrenched in the quest for Middle East peace," said Mr Howitt.
"I have been persuaded that the European boycott against Hamas has been counterproductive, and will have to change in line with the Egyptian peace initiative and UN resolutions.
"Britain and our European allies must listen to the Palestinian president's call to uphold Israeli accountability within the United Nations or we ourselves become accountable for our failure to do so."
Israeli Army rabbi 'gave out hate leaflet to troops'
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/army-rabbi-gave-out-hate-leaflet-to-troops-1516805.html
The booklet, entitled Go Fight My Fight: A Daily Study Table for the Soldier and Commander in a Time of War, was published especially for Operation Cast Lead, the devastating three-week campaign launched with the stated aim of ending rocket fire against southern Israel. The publication draws on the teachings of Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, head of the Jewish fundamentalist Ateret Cohanim seminary in Jerusalem.
In one section, Rabbi Aviner compares Palestinians to the Philistines, a people depicted in the Bible as a war-like menace and existential threat to Israel.
In another, the army rabbinate appears to be encouraging soldiers to disregard the international laws of war aimed at protecting civilians, according to Breaking the Silence, the group of Israeli ex-soldiers who disclosed its existence. The booklet cites the renowned medieval Jewish sage Maimonides as saying that "one must not be enticed by the folly of the Gentiles who have mercy for the cruel".
Breaking the Silence is calling for the firing of the chief military rabbi, Brigadier-General Avi Ronzki, over the booklet. The army had no comment on the matter yesterday.
Rabbi Arik Ascherman, the executive director of the Rabbis for Human Rights group, called the booklet "very worrisome", adding "[this is] a minority position in Judaism that doesn't understand the ... necessity of distinguishing between combatants and civilians."
Army rabbi 'gave out hate leaflet to troops'
By Ben Lynfield in Jerusalem
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
The Israeli army's chief rabbinate gave soldiers preparing to enter the Gaza Strip a booklet implying that all Palestinians are their mortal enemies and advising them that cruelty is sometimes a "good attribute".
The booklet, entitled Go Fight My Fight: A Daily Study Table for the Soldier and Commander in a Time of War, was published especially for Operation Cast Lead, the devastating three-week campaign launched with the stated aim of ending rocket fire against southern Israel. The publication draws on the teachings of Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, head of the Jewish fundamentalist Ateret Cohanim seminary in Jerusalem.
In one section, Rabbi Aviner compares Palestinians to the Philistines, a people depicted in the Bible as a war-like menace and existential threat to Israel.
In another, the army rabbinate appears to be encouraging soldiers to disregard the international laws of war aimed at protecting civilians, according to Breaking the Silence, the group of Israeli ex-soldiers who disclosed its existence. The booklet cites the renowned medieval Jewish sage Maimonides as saying that "one must not be enticed by the folly of the Gentiles who have mercy for the cruel".
Breaking the Silence is calling for the firing of the chief military rabbi, Brigadier-General Avi Ronzki, over the booklet. The army had no comment on the matter yesterday.
Rabbi Arik Ascherman, the executive director of the Rabbis for Human Rights group, called the booklet "very worrisome", adding "[this is] a minority position in Judaism that doesn't understand the ... necessity of distinguishing between combatants and civilians."
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