The 8th Annual Israeli Apartheid Week 2012 :

To accommodate various university schedules across regions, IAW will take place at slightly different times between February and March. Here is a list of dates for the regions confirmed so far:

Europe: February 20 – March 10
Palestine: March 12-19
United States: February 26 – March 3
Canada: March 5-9
Arab World: March 5-11
South Africa: March 5-11.

Follow @apartheidweek for updates, and check out the website at www.apartheidweek.org

Omar Barghouti: ‘Justice and equality only destroy their negation, injustice and apartheid, and this is precisely what Israel and its lobbies are running scared of, the effective and sustainable challenge of Israeli apartheid and colonial rule.’

Related Links

Compendium of Israeli apartheid links are here:

Israeli Apartheid is Worse Than South African Apartheid

Palestine / Israel Links

Current US opportunistic racism analysed by Daoud Kuttab: ‘Bashing Palestinians remains an easy political pastime, especially at election time.’
Israel is aiming to ethnically cleanse Bedouins from lands which it covets and on which it wishes to build Jews only settlements.
Jewish settlers attack Palestinian village, steal sheep herd
Abbas, Mashaal agree to form unity government
Hamas condemns Israeli attempts to wipe out Islamic, Christian shrines
Settlers attacked the Jerusalemite boy Amer Hejaij
Gaza fuel shortage ups risk of imminent health crisis
Settlers raid Ramallah village, vandalize property
International thoughts: Coping with the reality of Israeli occupation

I have experienced the checkpoint as an international, Muslim woman who wears the veil and observed the ignorant and mostly arrogant behavior of these young teenage soldiers. I am horrified, angry, and left paralyzed by confusion as I try to comprehend this behavior. I simply cannot imagine that the Palestinian people have to go through that every single day without having the possibility to leave as I do–without knowing that they can go home and are safe.

Happy Birthday, Dear Vittorio (RIP) by @ShahdAbusalama
Lawyers speak on academic freedom at @PennBDS conference

Other Links

Does your Australia senator or MP care more about US interests than the welfare of Australian citizen, Julian Assange?
The roles of class and culture in racism toward Indigenous Australians. Essential reading.
Electoral funding figures show Labor’s donations collapse
“Each star is a US base. But just to be clear, Iran is the one that is threatening us.”

Calling on Indigenous Young People to get involved in the Constitutional Recognition debate
Call to investigate police after tent embassy protest

“Aboriginal people want to talk about many issues, including economic development, sovereignty, land rights and treaty. These may be uncomfortable issues for the Australian people, but they are issues that must be resolved, sooner rather than later.”

Arrest the real criminals – Gillard and Abbott

Genocide is not just wiping people out in concentration camps, or forcing them to assimilate.

It is also stealing their land so they can no longer exist as a people, Tony. Dispossession is genocide. And that is what the Northern Territory intervention is about, tony. Driving aboriginal people off their land. That’s happening too in the major mining areas of Australia.

Too tolerant of ugly racism
The current state of the Northern Territory intervention – On Line Opinion – 31/1/2012
The National Riot Mismanagement Squad

Mr Anderson said the comments were disrespectful.

“He said the Aboriginal embassy had to go; we heard it on a radio broadcast,” he said.

“We thought no way, so we circled around the building.”

He said the protesters wanted the leaders to clarify their position and whether Mr Abbott was serious about removing the embassy.

“You’ve got 1,000 people here peacefully protesting, and to make a statement about tearing down the embassy – it’s just madness on the part of Tony Abbott.

“What he said amounts to inciting racial riots.

Barbara Shaw, who told Aboriginal Tent Embassy protesters the whereabouts of Opposition leader Tony Abbott at the Lobby, said she did not realise Prime Minister Julia Gillard would be present at the restaurant which protesters later picketed.

Ms Shaw says she couldn’t predict what would happen.

“I don’t regret it at all because nothing came of it,” she said.

“People wanted to make a little bit of noise and that is what they did.”

Ms Shaw says she did not realise the Prime Minister was with the Opposition Leader until after the restaurant incident.

But she says she does not regret telling people where Mr Abbott could be found.

“I basically informed the crowd of his whereabouts and they went,” she said.

“So I’m not responsible for people’s actions.

“It is up to people to do what they want to do.”

An eye witness relates the affair at the Lobby Restaurant.

A contingent of about 100 protesters made their way up the road to The Lobby and surrounded it. Though they were loud and noisy they were non-violent. Security blocked the protesters from getting close to the restaurant for a while but it didn’t take long for a few protesters to break the line and soon the rest had gotten close up against the restaurant’s walls. As the walls of The Lobby are made of glass the protesters could look in and see Mr Abbott and the others pretending not to hear them and, after about ten or fifteen minutes Julia Gillard’s white jacket was recognised and the protesters realised that she was in there along with Mr Abbott.

The aim of the protest had been to get Mr. Abbott to come out and talk to the crowd – now it wanted to get Ms. Gillard to come out and do the same as well. Yet they continued to ignore the protesters, drink champagne and take photos of one another while their constituents tried to get their attention.

A short time later a contingent of riot police and protective service officers arrived at the restaurant. All up there were about 50 to 60 officers there and protesters watched on as a group of about 20 riot police hurtled past them in V-formation, bursting into the restaurant and then locking themselves inside.

When I spoke to Sam she said that the protesters thought the riot police were arranging to form a sort of guard around the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader so that they could come out and talk to the crowd but, as the rest of the media has shown, the riot police’s real objective was to ‘escort’ the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader to their cars.

As more protesters made their way to the restaurant, the riot police charged out the doors, practically dragging Ms Gillard along, while the onlookers began to shout “where are you going?” and “why won’t you talk to us?” As the cars drove off, some people threw plastic water bottles and water at the cars.

At this point things began to get fairly nasty; one protester was knocked into the rose bushes and one gigantic cop started brandishing a can of tear gas or capsicum spray (reports differ on this point) in people’s faces and shoved Sam, another girl and a female photo-journalist in the head. When Sam told him to calm down he reportedly bared his teeth and grinned so widely his eyes nearly popped out of his head; to many on site it was fairly clear that the officer was barely under control.

Then the police began to link arms to form a line against the protesters and the protesters followed suit, ending up with a Mexican standoff. Some of the Indigenous Elders called for the protesters to return to the Tent Embassy but a female Elder began a non-violent sit-down protest in the road just down from the café and soon a line of Indigenous women, female Elders and non-Indigenous women had been formed across the road.

The women declared that they were not going to be intimidated by the police and that they would not move until the police stood down. While some of the other protesters returned to the Tent Embassy, a large group (including some of the Occupy Melbourne contingent) remained to watch on and support their fellow activists until the police eventually gave in and stood down.

As the remaining protesters made their way back to the Tent Embassy they were greeted by applause and the female protesters went through a cleansing smoke ceremony.

Several eye witnesses in the report above confirm there was no violence amongst the protesters, and it was the police who were violent. The white colonial Gubbahs have failed to sanction their own, instead blaming the protesters.

John Passant, another eye witness says:

The cops reacted as they always do when confronted by angry Aboriginal people.

The riot squad and the Prime Minister’s protection unit brutalised the crowd to clear a path for Gillard and Abbott, the two politicians of the Northern Territory invasion, the two politicians of hate, the two politicians of dispossession, the two politicians of aboriginal genocide.

Why is non-violence never expected of settler colonial oppressors?

Abbott now claims he was misconstrued yet his words retain the implication that there is no longer a need for the Aboriginal Tent Embassy.

Mr Abbott said he never suggested it was time for the Aboriginal tent embassy itself to “move on”.

“I was asked a question (and) I made the point, a lot’s happened in 40 years and I think we have moved on from the issues … that caused the Aboriginal tent embassy to be setup,” he said

However, the goals of the Tent Embassy are far from being met.

According to Channel 9 hyperbolic reportage, Australia’s leaders were “shoved” and “pushed” “in a mad dash” to safety.

The only ‘violence’ was caused by police, captured below as police assaulted protesters, despite the reportage playing up a ‘security threat’:

Aboriginal Australians have a long, proud and often ignored tradition of resistance to white settler colonialism.

‘Aboriginal Australians have been no different from the Palestinians in fighting back against ethnic cleansing and settler-colonisation. Our people actually carried out an extensive armed resistance to European settler colonialism. This resistance began the moment Cook set foot on Australian soil in 1770 – the Gweagal people attacked Cook’s landing party with spears and woomeras. From that moment on Aboriginal resistance never ceased.

Prior to Invasion Day 2012, Michael Anderson, the “last survivor of the four young Black Power men who set up the Aboriginal Embassy in 1972″ said he had “received intelligence that there is a move to destroy him personally and the Aboriginal sovereignty movement in which he plays a large role”.

Recently, during a visit by my mother and sister to Goodooga, my mother warned me that I need to be very well protected, because the government will find Aboriginal people to cause disruption to the sovereignty movement and threaten my life.

I have a very good idea of where the trouble will come from, as police intelligence is aware of the threat to my life and the sovereignty movement and that the people involved will commence a campaign to first character assassinate me to win support to reject me, thereby nullifying the sovereignty movement, by creating enormous divisions; which would permit the Australian government to say publically: Aborigines will never come together as a united body to fight for their sovereign status.

The First Nations Parliament wishes to return Julia’s shoe, lost during the rush to her vehicle.

Paul Coe, spokesperson for the First Nations Parliament, an organisation which has been re-established as a result of the anniversary celebrations, said Embassy activists were disgusted at the behavior of police.

“We’re appalled at the violence we saw today directed against the Prime Minister, and the tactics police employed to try and intimidate members of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, who were peacefully protesting at a family gathering.

“There was no need for that number of police to be there, or to have that level of menace or intimidation.

“They overreacted without assessing whether or not there was any risk to the Prime Minister. The only violence came from police.

“There was no risk to the Prime Minister of Australia. No-one here would have hurt the Prime Minister. Even the Opposition leader was safe.

“I’d remind the Prime Minister and the Opposition leader that in 1972 the then leader of the Opposition Gough Whitlam and the late Lionel Murphy came and met with us in the tents. They never felt threatened.

“We wish to return the shoe to her as a gesture of friendship and in the spirit of cooperation. We hope she will turn up here tomorrow to accept it in the same spirit.

“It’s to show we mean no harm and will not tolerate any threats or intimidation against the Prime Minister of Australia.

“I am appalled that the Prime Minister felt intimidated or threatened in any way because the Prime Minister of Australia should not have to endure or tolerate any of those kinds of behavior directed at her, be it from police or anyone else.

“The shoe is now a symbol of trust between two nations of people.”

Mr Coe said the First Nations Parliament would be established with a year.

“We’re sending letters out to our lawmen and women asking them to meet with First Nations to convene our parliament and to draft our constitution.”

The organisation came about after meetings at the Tent Embassy celebrations.

“We have re-asserted our First Nation sovereign rights through the re-establishment of the First Nations Parliament (the AP was first formed in 1972),” Mr Coe said.

Julia may have lost a shoe, but Tony lost everything, with his fearful, racist paternalism exposed.

UPDATE

Julia’s shoe has been returned to her via a security guard at Parliament House.

UPDATE 2

Michael Anderson may not have been too far off the mark, considering the tenor of today’s Australian Editorial, extolling colonial-friendly Aboriginal ‘leaders’ and minimising present Indigenous disadvantage and demands. The editorial censuriously accuses protesters of bullying while tutting about free speech, which the protesters were exercising:

“In short, as Mr Abbott suggested, events have moved beyond the grievances of the tent embassy. The former Labor premier of NSW, Bob Carr, wrote bluntly yesterday that it should be “packed up”. Brave and sensible indigenous leaders such as Warren Mundine and Mick Gooda have observed how the protest has been a blow against free speech. The bullying antics are aimed at silencing opponents. Even if someone had called for the tent embassy to be “torn down”, they should not be met with intimidation. “

Thus do the rightwing appropriate righteous victimhood. The Australian editor bleats blithely onward:

“As Meryl Tankard Reist, Ian Plimer or even Andrew Bolt can attest, the modern illiberal Left seems to care little for free speech unless that speech echoes their views. This is a disturbing tendency that The Weekend Australian will always seek to expose and counter. If Australia Day is to mean anything, we must embrace open minds, free speech and common sense. “

Yet who is responsible for this misleading headline which an average Australian might consider an incitement?

Comment has been sought from Ms Sattler.

Mr Anderson said the Tent Embassy would pursue a legal challenge against the British Government.

He said the embassy had lawyers in London who would take their concerns to the European Court of Human Rights and possibly the International Court of Justice.

”England still has some residual obligation in Australia.

”So what we’re doing now is we’re investigating the legal ramifications of that 1875 Act which recognises when Queen Victoria said she did not claim sovereignty or dominion over Aboriginal lands of this country and the people.

”Our objective is to go after England because they failed to implement their law in this country.”

Mr Anderson said he had been advised that the Tent Embassy had the capacity to sue the British Government in the court system.

Ms Sattler, who was present at Thursday’s protest at the Canberra tent embassy, is yet to address claims she was Mr Hodge’s mystery contact.

..

Mr Abbott yesterday tried to distance himself from his remarks, saying he did not advocate tearing down the tent embassy.

But conservative think tank Menzies House, co-founded by Mr Abbott’s colleague Cory Bernardi, has set up a petition calling for the embassy’s closure.

Some Aboriginal leaders have condemned the tent embassy activists, describing their behaviour as “appalling”.

But tent embassy co-founder Michael Anderson defended the violent protest and said the embassy was still important to promote Aboriginal rights.

Ms Gillard slammed the ugly scenes on Thursday.

“What I utterly condemn is when protests turn violent the way we saw the violence (on Thursday), and particularly disrupting an event which was to honour some extraordinary Australians,” she said.

Opposition attack dog Christopher Pyne said he would be surprised if Mr Hodges acted alone.

Activists from Canberra’s tent embassy were furious with Mr Abbott after wrongly believing he had called for the protest camp to be disbanded.

They rushed a nearby restaurant upon hearing Mr Abbott was inside.

Earlier, radio presenter Ray Hadley reported a staffer to Ms Gillard had rung Aboriginal tent embassy protester Barbara Shaw, or another protester, that Mr Abbott had called for the embassy to be torn down.

“Once she was told that, she was also told Mr Abbott was across the road (and) ‘maybe you can give them a bit of a liven up’,” the 2GB presenter told his audience.

The statement from Ms Gillard’s office did not address the allegation that Mr Hodges sought to inform tent embassy activists of Mr Abbott’s alleged comments.

Mr Abbott earlier declared he’d been “verballed”, saying he had not said the tent embassy should be removed.

“I never said that and I don’t think that,” he said.

“I made the point that a lot has happened in 40 years and I think that we have moved on from the issues of 40 years ago which caused the Aboriginal tent embassy to be set up.”

Ms Shaw, who told the protesters Mr Abbott wanted the tent embassy disbanded, said she heard of Mr Abbott’s comments from “a fly on the wall”.

Related Links

Australia Day shame

After Ms Gillard was bundled into a waiting car and whisked away, a protester displayed one of Ms Gillard’s blue high-heel shoes, which had fallen off during her hasty exit, and shouted: ”Gingerella, come get your shoe!”

A day for celebration, not a day to dwell : vacuous patronisation by a Gubbah or migaloo sharing Abbott’s mindset
‘
White supremacist alert – Darrin Hodges touting housie Mundine as a valid representative of Indigenous Australians.
It is right to be angry; it is right to protest – land rights now!
Abbott says Tent Embassy should remain

Senior indigenous leaders such as social justice commissioner Mick Gooda and Warren Mundine are dismayed at what happened on Thursday,

but a tent embassy organiser called them “handpicked puppets” who did not represent grassroots Aboriginal people.

Michael Anderson, the last surviving member of the original four that established the tent embassy in 1972, denied the ugly protest had set back the indigenous movement.

“You fellas can … dwell on that and stay there, but right now we’re passed that,” he said.

“We’re over it, so get over it and move on.”

Davies’ article marred by incorrect designation of Australian Aboriginals as ‘Aborigines’ – (see Luke L. Pearson’s article) Aussie Day ‘riot’: perspective and balance hard to find

The protest was not violent. It was certainly rowdy and confronting. The protesters chanted loudly and angrily, and some beat time on the glass walls of the restaurant. There was some pushing and shoving as the VIP cars finally moved out. Police on the day said there were “scuffles” and no arrests would be made.
…
You know there has never been any compensation, nor has the legal situation fundamentally changed. The contemptuous white attitude of the past persists today in the intervention in the Northern Territory, which was imposed by Tony Abbott’s party and continued by the Prime Minister’s party.

The intervention blatantly belies Abbott’s and Gillard’s claims that things are better than 40 years ago and that most Australians have respect for Indigenous people. Respect would involve looking together for a way forward, not draconian and racist income management and displacement from traditional country.

Change Australia Day: Mansell Mr Mansell said Aboriginal people would support any date other than January 26.

‘No evidence of criminal act’: AFP will not investigate disclosure of Abbott’s location

In a statement issued today, Ms Sattler said the News Ltd reports were “inaccurate”.

“As I said in my statement yesterday, Tony Hodges from the Prime Minister’s office told me what Tony Abbott had said – that people should ‘move on’ from the tent embassy,” she said.

“Yesterday the Prime Minister gave an accurate account of my role.”

Freedom Carols for Palestine, November 29, 2011 outside Dezire Cosmetics store at Broadway Shopping Centre. Dezire sells Ahava products and Ahava is targeted by the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israeli Apartheid because its products are made from stolen Palestinian natural resources. Organised by Coalition For Palestine to mark UN Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

Political zionism is manifestly expansionist and militarist – belligerent expansionism is the zionist elite’s strategy, tactic and aim. To obscure its crimes however, Israel projects the lie in its marketing endeavours that it is pursuing ‘peace negotiations’ earnestly, whilst simultaneously sabotaging peace and precluding the formation of a viable Palestinian state by stealing as much Palestinian land and building as many illegal zionist jews-only settlements on Palestinian land as possible, using the contradictory pretext of ‘defence and security’.

Ali Abunimah described an example of this apparent cognitive dissonance recently – “Israel claims Gaza waters are “closed military zone” but that it “withdrew” from Gaza in 2005. Which is it liars?”

Israel’s deceitful posturing as a ‘peace-seeking’ nation whilst behaving in the exact opposite to sabotage peace was demonstrated well recently by Netanyahu after the successful vote to admit Palestine to UNESCO.

As it began, someone shouted Vive La Palestine (long live Palestine); when the delegates began to vote on the resolution to admit Palestine, the hall rang with loud and sustained cheers, as representatives of Austria, Russia, Brazil, India, China, South Africa and France indicated their country’s affirmative vote. The resolution was carried with 107 for, 14 against and 52 abstentions.

Reasonable people would think this is a wonderful triumph for the Palestinian quest for peace, the object of which is, after all, the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. The two-state solution is supported not only by the Quartet (US, Russia, the EU, and the UN) — the sponsors of the peace process — but also by the parties themselves — Israel and Palestine.

Yet, the Obama administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that Palestinian membership in UN agencies undermines the peace process. They, therefore, announced punitive retaliatory measures: Washington will punish Unesco by withholding its financial contributions to it. Israel will go further by withholding its financial contribution to Unesco; and by punishing the Palestinians. Netanyahu announced that his government will accelerate the construction of new colonies in occupied East Jerusalem — a policy that has been condemned by the UN, the EU, and even by Washington itself as lacking legitimacy and undermining the peace process.

There is something wrong here. Either the Palestinians, supported by the international community, are misguided and their quest for membership in UN agencies does undermine the peace process. Or the peace process is intellectually corrupt claiming to serve the cause of peace when in fact it is perpetuating conflict.

There have been many instances in which it is possible to say that the Palestinians have pursued misguided policies. In a recent interview on Israeli television Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas mentioned two such instances — the Palestinian refusal to accept the 1947 UN Resolution recommending the partition of Palestine and the 2000 second Palestinian intifada. The editors of Wall Street Journal, a leading supporter of the American-Israeli position on the Palestinian quest for UN membership, recently explained that the Palestinian move undermined the peace process because it alienated Israel.

This logic reverses the roles: The occupier is absolved of its obligations under international law, and the victim is burdened with the obligation not to alienate the occupier even in the face of oppression, dispossession and collective punishment. If alienating your interlocutor undermines the quest for peace, then the Palestinians — who experience daily alienation under Israeli occupation — can legitimately argue that the Israelis have destroyed the peace process.

Israel treats Palestinians and other non-Jews as second class citizens in Israel and denies any rights at all to Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. Despite the UN in 1948 requiring that its admission of Israel as a state was dependent upon Israel recognising Palestinian refugees’ right to return, Israel has still failed to fulfill its promise. Instead, this legal recognition is cast by pernicious zionist hasbara as tantamount to destroying Israel, and so, too, is the one state solution vilified.

As Martin Woollacott correctly observes in his review of Ghada Karmi’s book “Married to Another Man”, ‘The single-state argument is not the essence of the problem. The essence is a change in the nature of Zionism’. Deconstruction and dismantlement of the white supremacist ideology of zionism is essential if peace is to be achieved in the region. Until then, Israel will remain the useful tool of exploitative imperialists which British Prime Minister Campbell-Bannerman envisaged in 1907. Thus does empire employ racism as a divide and rule tactic to achieve its rapacious ends to monopolise the vast resources of the Middle East.

Supported by other settler colonial and imperial entities and regardless of the negative consequences on Israel’s legitimacy in the Middle East, Israel’s crimes against humanity and war crimes are minimised and shrugged off – for Israel, land and resource theft are of singularly paramount import and is even portrayed as of ‘benefit’ to the dispossessed. In settler colonial Australia too, the suspension of human rights under the Anti-Discrimination Act for Aboriginals in the Northern Territory for the horrific Intervention was justified on the grounds of ‘need’ and sold to the public as essential for the ‘good’ of Aboriginals, despite protest from Aboriginal groups and communities.

The zionist regime similarly fails to acknowledge the racist nature of its laws which deliver privilege to 80% of the population and discriminate deliberately through birth or religion against 20% of the population. The racist Knesset proceeds instead to pass even more such laws. Yet it can hardly be expected for racists to recognise racist laws – the disease of racism occludes perceptions which threaten its eradication. Israel obscures its apartheid ziocolonial practices through a prism of overweaning need. In fact, Israel has no intention of permitting a Palestinian state or relinquishing one metre of land it has already stolen, yet to bolster the perfidious legitimacy of its theft, pretends it is seeking to negotiate for a Palestinian state for which Palestinians must deliver ever more concessions to achieve. By this strategy, Israel and its cruel western sponsors cast the onus onto Palestinians to pursue ‘peace’ while Israel continues its oppression and illegal appropriation of more Palestinian land and resources.

The boot on the neck of the oppressed can hardly expect the oppressed to remain silent while the boot attempts to crush them. Boycott, divestment and sanctions have been called by Palestinian civil society to counter Israel’s rejection of Palestinians rights – and increasingly, people of conscience throughout the world are answering the call.

Related Links

Balfour’s apartheid legacy
Shlomo Ben Ami, former Israeli foreign minister :

‘The Arab Spring has pushed Israel into a strategic trap from which it can extricate itself only through accommodation with the Palestinians. In the current political climate, Arab leaders, whether conservative or revolutionary, can no longer afford to be seen as complicit with Israel and the United States in the region. The Palestinian cause will now resonate louder than ever in the central squares of Cairo, Amman and Ankara.’

Political History of Australia
White Australia – Nation of Bigoted Climate Savers
The Phantom Menace: Fantasies, Falsehoods, and Fear-Mongering about Iran’s Nuclear Program

Other Links

As women everywhere should through protest movements, not just in the Arab world : Women urged to put their stamp on Arab Spring
Muslim Brotherhood did not understand Erdogan’s message on secularism
Julie action doll! Julia Gillard makes surprise visit to Afghanistan

Messages for Michael – from John Pilger:

For Michael Coleman … Michael, try not to be deterred by the rogue regime that illegally detains you. They kidnapped you and your comrades because they fear the growing moral outrage of the world; all criminal regimes harbour this dread of a known truth. Be assured the great majority of humanity is with you in spirit; I personally am grateful to you for what you have done and for your courage. All power to you.

Solidarity Appeal: Protest Letter to the Israeli Ambassador: ‘The crew of the MV Saoirse and the Tahrir remain in custody in Givon Prison. Reports have emerged of violence used when the ship was hijacked by the Israeli Navy, and from a telephone conversation with Paul we have learned that the crew have been severely mistreated in prison .’
Israeli takeover of freedom boats violent and dangerous
Violent tactics by Israel almost sunk Gaza-bound boats

“It began with Israeli forces hosing down the boats with high pressure hoses and pointing guns at the passengers through the windows,” Lane, who was onboard the Saoirse, said. “I was hosed down the stairs of the boat. Windows were smashed and the bridge of the boat nearly caught fire.”

From FB: Zoe Lawlor phoned home this Sunday morning and both she and Mags O’Brien are in good spirits and looking forward to getting home very much. They also asked us all to put as much pressure on the Dept of foreign affairs as possible.

UPDATE SUNDAY NOV 6 EVENING

Confirmed that the two Irish women hostages are being held in Givon prison.

While there’s been no statement forthcoming or phone calls from the women hostages held by Israel, the Israeli spokesperson is a woman:

“There are 21 passengers detained who refused to be expelled immediately and are engaged in proceedings against their deportation before an Israeli judge,” interior ministry spokeswoman Sabine Haddad told AFP. … ‘She said the remaining 21 people were still being held at a detention facility in Ramla near Tel Aviv, after questioning by immigration authorities.’

4 easy ways you can help illegally detained Australian #FreedomWaves to Gaza delegate Michael Coleman (please RT!) – is.gd/fda1ky

Only 2 days plus a couple of hours after he was kidnapped, Michael Cole is allowed a phone call with his family.

“We have just spoken to Michael’s father who has just had a call from Michael.

He was supposed to have a 3 minute call but was cut off after a minute. He reported that 30 armed men forcibly boarded the Tahrir. He and others were assaulted on the boat and again when they were forcibly taken off the boat against their will into Israel.

He has not signed and will not sign any deportation order or ‘admission’ that he entered Israel illegally. He expects to be deported 72 hours after ‘the process’ began.’

Why haven’t we heard from the women who are gaoled in Israeli dungeons? ?The Irish Prisoners Committee

‘is seeking direct contact with the women prisoners. ,,,
Note:the two women from the Irish ship (Zoe Lawler and Mags O’Brien are held elsewhere) ‘

From the Irish Times:

‘But it is understood activists have refused to sign deportation orders as they were brought to Israel against their will.

They include Socialist Party MEP Paul Murphy, former Fianna Fáil TD Chris Andrews, Siptu official Mags O’Brien, artist Felim Egan, People Before Profit councillor Hugh Lewis, Sinn Féin councillors Pat Fitzgerald and John Hearne, and Zoe Lawlor, who teaches at the University of Limerick.’

‘Claudia Saba, spokeswoman, said there has been no contact from anyone onboard since it was hijacked, apart from a single text message from Mr Hogan’s mobile phone.

“Once again, as with the flotilla of June 2010, Israel has managed to gain a monopoly on the narrative of what happened when the Gaza-bound boats were hijacked by Israel at sea,” she said.

“The footage released by Israel of the boarding of the boats is vague and lacking in detail.

“Since we have no direct contact with our fellow citizens, and since they are not allowed to communicate with the outside world, we do not know exactly what happened or how those aboard were treated.”

Campaigners called on the Government to suspend Israel from the Euromed Agreement, end all arms trade with Israel and take steps to ensure no Irish state-funded institution engages in any cultural, academic, or economic cooperation with the state of Israel or its associated institutions.’

More update on the recalcitrant Occupy Wall Street mob who have failed to make the connections between racism, imperialism, neoliberalism, capitalism and zionism. :

‘The tweet was erased because there was discussion about how it was not appropriate to address this issue on these large public social media accounts until we had agreement from the group on our exact stance on these kinds of international conflicts.’ http://mondoweiss.net/2011/11/occupy-wall-street-responds-to-controversy-over-gaza-flotilla.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

As thought the NYT doesn’t shill for imperial interests: ‘In the wake of the #OCCUPYWALLSTREET movement, the New York Times has twice taken a swipe at Adbusters magazine, originators of the event. David Brooks led the charge in his October 10 column, The Milquetoast Radicals, falsely accusing us of being anti-Jewish. ‘

Here comes anonymous! ‘Anonymous said that if the siege continues and Israeli forces intercept additional flotillas, or if they conduct additional operations such as the commandeering of the Mavi Marmara, it will have no alternative but to launch repeated cyber-attacks on Israeli computer systems until the siege ends.’

Australian held after Israel navy intercepts protesters
Michael Coleman: Tahrir Take Two

UPDATE SUNDAY NOV 6 DAY

Journalists held as Israeli navy boards Gaza peace flotilla

Congratulations, Occupy Boston, for having the humanity to extend the 99% to encompass oppressed Palestinian people who suffer because of the Israeli apartheid regime, zionist hegemony which strides arm in arm with US imperial hegemony. Freedom Waves and BDS are unstoppable and they are the Occupy movement’s natural ideological partners, not racist zionism and US elites.

From Givon prison, Tahrir humanitarian from Canada, David Heap, has managed to release a letter via his lawyer.

‘Although Michael and I (among others) were transported in handcuffs and leg shackles, let me stress that we are neither criminals nor illegal immigrants but rather political prisoners of the apartheid state of Israel. Four from the Tahrir are imprisoned with 12 Irish comrades from the Saoirse, who have more experience with such issues. The four of us, Ehab and I (Cdn), Michael (Aus) and Hassan (UK) have joined with the Irish in their political prisoners’ committee in order to press our collective demands:

Association in the block – i.e. open cells
adequate writing and reading material
free communication with outside world – i.e. regular phone calls
information about shipmate women held at same prison’

We add one Tahrir-specific demand: that Israeli state recognize the professional status of Democracy Now journalist Jihan Hafiz in accordance with her credentials from the US government. All political incarceration is unjust but let me stress that in duration and conditions, our situation pales in comparison to the plight of thousands of Palestinian political prisoners and to the open air prison of Gaza.

If you have energy to devote to solidarity actions in the coming days, please concentrate on them. We must get Tahrir back and hope Freedom Waves continue.
Free Majd Kayyal! Free all political prisoners! Free Gaza! Free Palestine!

Anishnabe-debuewin, restons humaine, stay human, in love and struggle,

David

Michael’s father John speaking early on Sunday morning said:

“We have had one call from DFAT. That is all. Michael has not been able to contact us. We have support from the organisers here and around the world but not from our Government.”

We understand that the delegates were asked to sign deportation papers testifying that they entered Israel illegally and waive their right to a court hearing. They were brought into Israel against their will; therefore they have refused to sign those papers. We also understand that this peaceful resistance is what is leading to ongoing punishment and communication restrictions.

Yesterday, the “Australia Foreign Affairs Department said it was trying to arrange a consular visit to Michael Coleman, 35, from the state of New South Wales.”

As for our Irish friends on the MV Saoirse,

The Derry Friends of Palestine received a phonecall from Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams office at about 10PM Irish Time last night (Friday). We were then advised that their office had been in touch with the Israeli authorities who were holding Belfast passengers John Mallon and Phil McCullough.

They were told both men were in custody and in good spirits. That they and the other passengers were believed to be in good physical condition. We were told they will be taken to court and charged with illegally entering Israel, if they agree to this “crime” and accept the charge they can go home immediately with voluntary deportation, if they refuse the criminal charge then they will be given a lawyer to appeal and ultimately be forcibly deported within 72 hours. The Israeli diplomat informed Mr Adams office that we could expect John Mallon home most likely on Tuesday.

We were told John was very concerned that people back home would be worrying, especially his 7 children and family members. So they were all overjoyed when the news came through last night about their Dad.

We can also confirm that Phil McCullough’s family has had a phonecall from the Irish Consulate just this morning (Saturday) And that Phil is in good spirits and, like the others, will be taken before the courts soon.

All passengers are being refused direct contact with family members; however, we can expect them to be back in Ireland most likely on Tuesday.

There’s two other big stories on the apartheid entity out today -

Israeli doctors ‘failing to report torture of Palestinian detainees’

“This report reveals significant evidence arousing the suspicion that many doctors ignore the complaints of their patients; that they allow Israeli Security Agency interrogators to use torture; approve the use of forbidden interrogation methods and the ill-treatment of helpless detainees; and conceal information, thereby allowing total immunity for the torturers.”

Palestinian Children Face Abuse in Israeli Military Courts

The legal apparatus of the Israeli military system does not endeavor to protect Palestinian children’s rights; the military courts, under which children from the OPT are tried, lack comprehensive fair trial and juvenile justice standards. In September 2009, Israel established the Military Juvenile Court, but the situation on the ground remains essentially unchanged. On September 27, 2011, the Israeli military authorities raised the age of majority in the military courts to 18 years old. Until this time, the age had been officially set at 16, which directly defied the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, in practice, children as young as 12 have been and continue to be tried in military courts, with those 14 years of age often being tried as adults.

As of the Second Intifada (which began in September 2000), Israel began to employ administrative detention against children. Since this time the arrest and detention of children has grown more rampant and systemic, with around 700 children detained each year, and frequently held with adults in detention. The most common charge is stone throwing. At the time of this writing, 164 Palestinian children are in Israeli detention, 35 of whom are between the ages of 12 and 15.

In addition to regularly suffering abuse and torture similar to that of adult prisoners (beatings, blindfolding, being painfully shackled, position abuse, solitary confinement, electric shocks, threats of sexual assault, coercion into signing documents in Hebrew despite being unable to read them), children in detention are routinely subjected to tactics designed to exploit their age and intimidate them into confessions. These illegally obtained admissions are often used as evidence in the military courts. In the overwhelming majority of cases before these courts, children are denied bail and ordered to remain in detention until the end of the legal process. Credible allegations of ill-treatment and torture are not investigated.

OLDER INFO

As I’ve tweeted, the thing about waves is that they keep on coming, until the rubbish of Israeli apartheid and oppression is washed away. The most recent wave of humanitarian passengers from the seized Tahrir and MV Saoirse are now in custody at Ashdod port, incommunicado for several hours.

Michael Coleman, Australian delegate on the Tahrir, left a pre-recorded message in the event of his capture.

Before the Israeli pirates boarded the two vessels, they sprayed them fiercely with water cannons. UN Human Rights Council independent investigation of the Israel’s May 2010 flotilla attack declared Israel’s maritime blockade of Gaza illegal. Further, as Ali Abunimah tweeted: “Israel claims Gaza waters are “closed military zone” but that it “withdrew” from Gaza in 2005. Which is it liars?”

Israel’s blockade was not broken on this 12th flotilla attempt, yet the waves will keep rolling over Israel’s apartheid and oppression in solidarity with the people of Palestine until it ends.

Here’s some resources for action to support Aussie delegate Michael Coleman and the other #FreedomWaves activists while they are held captive by the Israeli brigands.

UPDATES

On Saturday, 21 of the 27 passengers

remained in costudy and are slated to board flights back to their home countries over the next few days.

The other six passengers were released, including 2 Greek crew members, an Egyptian citizen that was returned to Egypt and two reporters, American and Spanish, who were released under limiting conditions and commited to leave Israel on Sunday.

Israel begins deporting Gaza flotilla activists
The Immigration Authority has taken four out of the 27 flotilla activists to a hearing prior to their deportation from Israel. Onboard one of the ships were 12 passengers and another 15 on another, including one Israeli citizen

The remaining passenger, Majed Kayal from Haifa, was released on bail after a police investigation.

25 activists are STILL DETAINED in #Givon Israeli detention center. They are not allowed to call a lawyer. #FreedomWaves RT @PALWaves #

Related Links

LIVE-BLOG: Israel military intercept Irish and Canadian boats off the coast of Gaza
Zionist agonises that the Occupy movement is becoming too explicitly pro-Palestinian
Email Campaign to Protect Irish and International Citizens Sailing to Gaza
Chaos at Occupy Sydney protest

“Who are we?” an Occupy Sydney spokeswoman asked the crowd.

“We are the workers, we are the indebted, we are the immigrants and the indigenous. We are homeless, we are the students, we are the unemployed, we are the under-represented people of the world. We are the 99 per cent. We are Occupy Sydney.”

Dis-ability Word Matters
Former Shin Bet director says Israel should take control of Strip for several years to dismantle terror organizations.

Palestine / Israel Links

Bedouin face bulldozers as Israel reshapes the desert
CIA following Twitter, Facebook, Mideast at the heart
Young man injured by Israeli machine guns East Shouja’ayah Neighborhood
KCL Action Palestine Campaign against Ahava
Goldstone a ‘liar’ – Gaza lawyer

Speaking at yesterday’s event, Palestinian refugee Leila Khaled drew parallels between South Africa’s apartheid regime and her own experiences in Palestine.

“I am optimistic, because in South Africa there was an apartheid regime and you ended your struggle with the support of the international community,” she said.

“I remember at school, rallying, demonstrating and calling for freedom in South Africa. I was brought up saying ‘when South Africa is free, Palestine will be free’.”

Khaled also called for the international community to boycott Israel.

Other issues discussed by the panel included the recent decision by countries such as the US to block funding to Unesco for accepting Palestine as a member country. Israel has also said it will block funding to the organisation.

US money accounts for nearly a quarter of Unesco’s funding.

Sourani, meanwhile, said this showed in a “clear-cut way that the US is providing full and clear diplomatic immunity to Israel”.

‘Four Knesset members have withdrawn their support for a private member’s bill that would subordinate democratic rule to Israel’s Jewish identity. Three of the MKs – Benjamin Ben-Eliezer (Labor ) and Kadima’s Doron Avital and Shlomo Molla – have already formally removed their signatures from the draft for the new Basic Law. MK Nachman Shai (Kadima ) said he will remove his within a few days. ‘

Melbourne 4 November, 2011

United First People’s Law men and women who are born leaders representing people of Prescribed Areas in the Northern Territory make this statement. Once again, they have gathered to openly discuss the future of our generation who have been subjugated by the lies and innuendo of the Federal Government, set out in the Stronger Futures document (October 2011).

The Stronger Futures report has created a lot of anger and frustration due to the lack of process and the ignorant way in which the views of the people have been reported. We therefore reject this report.

We will not support an extension of the Intervention legislation. We did not ask for it. In fact we call for a genuine Apology from the Federal Government for the hurt, embarrassment, shame and stigma, and for the illegal removal of the Racial Discrimination Act. It is our intention to officially call upon Government for reparation.

The recent consultations report shows that Government has failed to take seriously our concerns and feelings. This report is simply a reflection of pre-determined policy decisions. This is shown clearly by the absence of any commitment to bilingual learning programmes as well as the proposal to introduce welfare cuts and fines to parent of non-attending school children. Once again a punitive policy that is neither in the best interests of the child or the family.

Blanket measures have been central to the Northern Territory Intervention and have been the source of much distress. Where there are problems, they must be addressed on a case by case basis and preferably with the assistance through the appropriate community channels.

Since August 2007 till 2011, more than 45,000 First Nations Peoples living in the Prescribed Areas were traumatised when a Bill was passed through both Houses of Parliament (The House of Representatives and the Senate).

This legislation suspended the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 to put in place the Northern Territory Emergency Response. The Australian Greens were the only party to oppose the legislation.

These actions have placed Australia in breach of its international treaty obligations to the First Nations Peoples. Respectful discussion and negotiation with community elders did not take place before the introduction of the Intervention.

Discussions on a diplomatic basis are essential. There are elders in every Aboriginal Nation invested by the authority of the majority. These are the people with whom Minister Macklin should be negotiating, rather than with the chosen few, as has been her habit.

There has NEVER been acquiescence in the taking of our lands by stealth. Aboriginal people are sovereign people of this Nation. The process that will lead to legal recognition of customary law should be immediately commenced.

We believe that there should be an honest and comprehensive treaty negotiation with the Australian Government and facilitated by the United Nations.

We have a right under international law to self determination and after almost five years of the oppression of the Intervention, we demand that Government hand back to us control over our communities and provide adequate Government, long-term funding to ensure the future of Homelands.

Community Councils have suffered from years of underfunding. The same is happening today with the Shires that have been imposed on us. There is a lack of funding for our Core Service.There is no capacity for Aboriginal communities to engage in long-term services planning without the certainty of long-term funding.

We have had enough! We need our independence to live our lives and plan our futures without the constant oppression and threats which have become central to the relationship between Government and Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. We will not support policies that have not been negotiates with all elders of Prescribed communities and we will not support an extension of the Intervention, or an Intervention under other names.

Since the Apology and since reconciliation, the level of incarceration of Aboriginal men has increased three-fold; our families are being punished for failure to attend a foreign school design; our capacity to govern our own lives has been totally disempowered; Aboriginal youth suicide rates in the Northern Territory are higher than anywhere else in Australia; and our people have been demonized, labelled and branded. This is not what an apology is and it is not reconciliation. These outcomes are the very opposite to their intent.

Australia is in breach of its international treaty obligations to the first nation’s people through it membership to the United Nations in the elimination of racial discrimination.

We as leaders of the Northern Territory acknowledge other peoples’ views. We acknowledge that some may agree and some may disagree with parts or all of the ‘intervention’; whatever the name the Government chooses to call it. The only right we now have left is to remain silent.

We as Aboriginal people call on the international community to hold Australia to account for its continuing crimes against humanity for its treatments of its first nation’s people. Again, we say to our visits by the Minister’s department; this is not consultation. Proper consultation is about listening and inviting and including the views of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Consultation is about outcomes that are progressive and agreeable to all parties.

The future is based on our children having a quality education, but to date this continues to be a systemic failure. A quality education for our people needs to include:
• Bilingualism in schools to be returned and strengthened to ensure our children learn their traditional languages, dialects and cultural knowledges.
• Attendances need to be rewarded, rather than children and families being punished for non-attendance.
• Aboriginal teachers in classrooms and school educational leadership roles are essential to building quality, localized schooling programs. This means also equal pay and entitlements, rewards and opportunities consistent with their important roles.
• Curriculum needs to change and reflect traditional knowledges not just for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, but importantly for the broader Australian population who know very little about their own first peoples.
• Aboriginal teachers need to be treated fairly and equally to their non-Aboriginal counterparts in delivering quality education to our children. This includes the opportunity to tell oral stories of Kinship, Creation Stories, and about important cultural knowledge and skills.

Failure to accept these views and work seriously toward their inclusion will simply mean more of the same.

Rev. Dr. Djiniyini Gondarra OAM
Rosalie Kunoth-Monks OAM
Japata Ryan
Harry Nelson
Djapirri Murunggirritj
Barbara Shaw
Yananymul Mununggurr

SOURCE

Greens Senator Rachel Siewert: “The Government’s Stronger Futures Consultation Report wasn’t surprising, but it was deeply disappointing.”

Other relevant Statements.

Aboriginal Elders statement: 7th Feb 2011

PUBLIC STATEMENT NORTHERN TERRITORY INTERVENTION

REBUILDING FROM THE GROUND UP – AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE NORTHERN TERRITORY INTERVENTION

Basic Rights not BasicsCard – Address to the Say No to Income Management Rally, Bankstown, 6th October 2011 Dr John Falzon – or watch the Video

Rev. Dr. Djiniyini Gondarra full response to Minister Jenny Macklin

Joint letter by Alastair Nicholson QC and others full response to Minister Jenny Macklin

Rt Hon. Malcolm Fraser full response to Minister Jenny Macklin

Related Links

SBS: Elders voice anger over NT intervention
“Statement by Northern Territory Elders and Community Representatives – No More! Enough is Enough!”
http://stoptheintervention.org/
http://www.jumbunna.uts.edu.au/researchareas/alternatives.html
http://www.ourgeneration.org.au/press/
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1602367/Elders-voice-anger-over-NT-intervention

“Occupy Melbourne, not Palestine!”

Related Links

Exclusive: 98 of the FTSE 100 companies are addicted to tax havens Clean out the offshore banking nests of filthy corporate vampires

Palestine / Israel Links

The NSW leader of the APP, Darrin Hodges, is an ex-Stormfront forum member who once opined that “[Hitler] laid a foundation that we should build on” but who now identifies The Muslim rather than The Jew as being Public Enemy #1. Martin Brennan, the former leader of the ADL, was last month deported back to England as an illegal immigrant but looks forward to joining the EDL as they attempt to march through Tower Hamlets on September 3 (slight problem being police have banned the march). One of Brennan’s closest supporters was another foreigner named Roberta Moore, former leader of the EDL’s ‘Jewish Division’: on the one hand, Moore was unhappy with the number of ‘Nazis’ belonging to the group; on the other hand, the EDL was unhappy with Moore’s cultivating links with the ‘Jewish Task Force’.

Roberta Moore has a cosy relationship with the Australian far right.

In an Australian JDL Facebook group now secret or defunct and assisted by Meir Weinstein from the Canadian JDL (which collaborates with the Canadian EDL), Ms Moore offers Australian JDLers assistance lining up Australian Defence League honcho Martin Brennan with the Australian Jewish Defence League, which is supporting a demonstration against an Islamic Conference early in July.

Boycott, divestment and sanctions are the principled non-violent method chosen by Palestinian people to oppose the illegal Israel Occupation, to end Israel’s apartheid, for equal rights and the recognition of Palestinian people’s rights to return to their lands. BDS was one of the primary methods used by the anti-apartheid movement to end white South African apartheid.

Recently, Zionists and white supremacists including from the Australian Patriotic Defence Movement (APDM), a fascist organistion here in Australia, joined forces to oppose a BDS protest near Max Brenner in Brisbane. Birds of a feather protest together.

While the Fairfax press is quick to smear BDS falsely as anti-semitic, it neglects to examine the far right white supremacist anti-semites who protest alongside the their zionist counterparts. White supremacists who support Israel’s apartheid regime hate Arabs only slightly less than they hate Jews. The alliance between the odd bedfellows is an opportunistic, twisted marriage of convenience.

“People are angry, but they can’t explain why.” I’d suggest someone made a similar mash up of the Cronulla times 50 loon over at Slack Bastard’s, except his voice sounds more like a jackhammer than anything remotely associate with music. Maybe I need to listen to some TISM for inspiration. And the Brechtian further incarnation – Root!

Related Links

BDS protesters say they won’t be silenced, intimidated
We, Israeli citizens, members of Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within, would like to express our solidarity with the numerous Australians who are involved in the burgeoning BDS campaign in Australia.
BOYCOTT! Newsletter #64

Far Right Australian Nationalist Groups include

Australian Protectionist Party Facebook Group
Australian Defence League (official) Facebook Group [Old]
Australian Defence League (Official ADL Est.2009) [closed group]
Australian Patriots Defence Movement
Alert: French JDL is recruiting ‘militants’ to travel to West Bank in 2 weeks

UPDATE 9/9/11

Marrickville BDS reaches finals of SydneyVision Song Contest
Hate Muslims and multiculturalism; welcome to the Zionist party
Max Brenner and Australia’s fascists While this piece exhibits some understanding of the nature and opportunism of far right nationalists, it fails to identify the bigoted fallacies they share with zionism which makes white supremacism and zionism natural bedfellows. (a) White supremacism and zionism both assume Jews can’t live safely anywhere else but in Israel. Yet Jews should be able to live safely anywhere. (b) White supremacism and zionism also assume bigotry toward Jews is inevitable.

These two fallacies play directly into the Zionist regimes’ interminable ‘security’ hasbara, which is code for zionist expansionism and disposal of its surplus ‘sub-human’ Palestinians. Zionism treats Palestinians as sub-human, in the same way as white supremacists regard Jews. Zionism resonates well with the sense of entitlement other settler colonial entities have over surplus sub-humans in their colonies, often including the way these other settler colonial entities have treated Jews.

UPDATE 8/8/11

The AJDS releases a despicable document in which the most shameful thing besides trivialising the holocaust, impugning bds activists as antisemites and nazi supporters and slandering Australians for Palestine is it makes no mention of the white supremacist far right nationalists aligning directly with anti-BDS zionists against legitimate protest by Palestinians and supporters for rights. So much for ‘democratic’. Apparently, the Palestinian protest isn’t polite enough for these apologists for apartheid.

When “liberal Zionists” slam BDS, you know moral compass is lost — Antony Loewenstein
More zio hasbara about the Max Brenner protests
Fred Nile – the zionist anti-BDS loons embrace another ludicrous fellow traveller

Palestine / Israel Links

Why the J14 protest won’t cause the Israeli govt to change a damn thing
Israeli warplanes bomb Gaza Strip despite a new ceasefire agreement between Tel Aviv and the Hamas government in charge of the territory.
Leak Offers Look at Efforts by U.S. to Spy on Israel
PRESS RELEASE FROM BEETHOVIANS FOR BOYCOTTING ISRAEL
Wadi Ara next in line for Judaization project
?‘Racist & inaccurate’ : Captain Israel – ‘Brand Israel on steroids’

Other Links

Twitterzens of the World Unite!

Ironically, the BDS protest was opposed by a strident group of “Zionists, people mobilised by Max Brenner and University of Qld Liberal club … heavily supported by the Australian Patriotic Defence Movement (APDM), a fascist organistion here in Australia”.

With no irony they shouted slurs like ‘racists’ ‘anti-semites’(curious because some of us are semites) and ‘traitors’(to what, the Israeli flag they carried?). Some held up placards of the Australian Flag.

..The cops used water barricades to separate us from the abusive mob. Our speakers could not be heard above the din as the slanging match began. No reasoned debate was possible. The mob held up ‘Never Again’ placards, taking the holocaust slogan in vain. How could Jewish people stand alongside Nazis from the APDM to shout us down is beyond me. Our message was never about race or religion, it was about democratic rights for Palestinian people indicated in the three demands of the BDS movement …

Ian says that ‘This was the first time in 30 years that a demonstration I have been in had been attacked by the organised right.’ The opposition of the white supremacist far right against the anti-racist, pro-human rights BDS solidarity for Palestinians which includes amongst its supporters many Jewish people is unsurprising. White supremacists either hate Arabs only slightly more than they hate Jews, or hate Jews only slightly more than they hate Arabs. White supremacists are opportunistic with their allegiances, gravitating to support other intrinsically fascist movements – like political zionism, which erroneously claims to represent the aspirations for ‘security’ of all Jews by the false premise and maintenance of a racist religio-ethnic state built on the dispossession, subjugation and de-privileging of Palestinian people. Like other groups, Jews should be able to live safely anywhere, without compromising the collective and individual human rights of others.

On a very positive note, and as highlighted in the video below:

‘… the Qld Teachers Union QTU had just passed a motion in support of the Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions BDS campaign. Inside the Convention Centre next door the teachers had voted to continue to support the BDS.’

The next Brisbane Justice for Palestine meeting will be held on 14th September at 6.30pm at the TLC building.

Related Links

Backing elite interests, the Victorian Government and zionist contingent in the ALP attempts to strongarm Victorian unions over BDS
However defying the Victorian government, Victorian Trades Hall supports BDS and condemn the arrests of of the Max Brenner 19
Murdoch Press and the Fictional Jewish Chocolatier

The good news is that there is no call to march on Jewish-owned businesses by any group of people. But also worth knowing is that if indeed Jewish businesses were ever targeted by any group I would not be surprised to find the same human rights advocates who are marching against Israel today standing to defend the Jewish community’s right to live free of racism and intolerance. These are the values held by the BDS movement: non- violence, equality, justice for all and zero tolerance for all forms of racism and discrimination. But you would never know that, if your primary source of information is The Australian newspaper.

BDS protesters say they won’t be silenced, intimidated
Greens senator Lee Rhiannon stands by Israel boycott
Danby implies that the white supremacists who demonstrated with zionists are ‘mainstream Australia’

BDS action against Max Brenner undeterred by counter protest
Canada: Community radio broadcasters back Israel boycott
Chocolate war gets messy
Zionist propaganda about the Brisbane demo
Australia BDS campaign under attack
Anti-Israel campaign leaves parliament in shameful disarray

Why does the ALP continue to resist BDS? supporting BDS is consistent with opposition to South African apartheid! The Australian continues its disgraceful divide and conquer attack on BDS support from Australian unions – the zio-imperialists continue to illustrate their fear of the strength of ethical BDS.

Enough With The Nazi Slurs : Antony Loewenstein
Why Palestine protests target Max Brenner

Contrast the Max Brenner protests in Australia with the Palestinian Olive Revolution protests and commentary in Part 2: The Olive Revolution, Knocking on Jerusalem’s Doors at Qalandia Checkpoint

Abir Kopty reports : Olive Revolt in Palestine

Palestine / Israel

Youth Against Normalization: #BDS: Boycott #Israel campaign targets London’s Hatton Gardens
Israel uses sport for propaganda to normalise its apartheid
Sonja Karkar:

For decades the mantra of a Palestinian state side by side with the state of Israel has been the only solution given any credence. But now Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is going all out to prevent it, while a long-time supporter in Australia is deciding between a ”no” vote in the UN or abstaining.
…
The arguments for and against statehood are many. There is a sense of foreboding in many Palestinians and supporters who see the statehood bid as only further entrenching Israel’s occupation, with no prospect of an intransigent Israel abiding by international law.

Negotiations are, in fact, a ruse to keep the old discredited paradigm of a two-state solution going for as long as it takes Netanyahu to achieve his goal of a Greater Israel.

More than the statehood bid, what threatens the Greater Israel dream is the fast-growing global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Modelled on the movement that helped bring down apartheid South Africa, BDS is adding to the tremors being felt in the power structures that have enabled Israel to wreak such havoc at home and in the region.

For peace and a just solution, it is time to hold Israel to account.

Gaza strikes kill two youths, and cut off hands of 13-year-old boy playing football
Israel’s bloodthirsty illegal reprisals against Gazan citizens claim 17 lives, including 2 children. PCHR Weekly Report

‘In addition, 3 workers went missing when Israeli warplanes bombarded a tunnel in Rafah. A Palestinian resistance fighter died of a previous wound in Gaza City.

14 Palestinians, including 5 children and two women, were wounded by Israeli forces the Gaza Strip.’

Video: No Place is Safe in Gaza

Report: Egypt thwarts Israeli assassination of Hamas PM
Australia supported the US against the Goldstone Report after a US demarche
Protests in 6 governorates demand expulsion of Israeli ambassador

While protests in Egypt are demanding a reassessment of Egypt Israel ties, Nutanyahoo is using this to delay negotiations with Palestinians.

Jimmy Carter to Haaretz: Recent Cairo protests threaten Israel-Egypt peace treaty
Israel OK’s expansion of building in Hebron : Israel OK’s expansion of building in Hebron: Barak “a tool of the most radical settlers”.
Occupation renews administrative detention of Palestinian lawmaker
Israel inflicting the third pillar of apartheid again
Microsoft CEO “Microsoft is as much an Israeli company as an American company
Egypt’s military ruler Tantawi and the American siege of Gaza: revelations from Wikileaks

Australia Links

Amerikkka using historical commemoration as propaganda in Australia: the Great White Fleet
Maxine McKew and Greg Smith confide in the empire prior to the 2007 election
What Really Happened in the Bin Laden Raid?

Libya Links

Did Wikileaks just reveal the US blueprint for Libya?
Dead Sirte: Another Murderous Twist in NATO’s Coil of Lies
Oh look, AQ freed in Libya, joining the rebels – what a lovely excuse for the US to establish AFRICOM bases there. : Al Qaeda Terrorists Fled Libyan Prisons, Joined Rebels – Report
The rape of Libya
Assault on Tripoli ‘planned weeks ago’
Video: With Support Of NATO Racist Rebels Continue To Eradicate Black Libyans
NATO nations set to reap spoils of Libya war
The African Union (AU) does not currently recognise the Transitional Council as the ruling power in Libya.
Libyan “liberation” : Max Ajl surveys the devastation of Libya and looks at some of the wins in store for empire.