Apartheid within Israel

Jazi Abu Kaf talks about the crime of persecution in regards to Israel’s actions towards the Bedouins in the Naqab (Negev) desert during the 3rd International Session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine in Cape Town, November 2011.

Palestine / Israel Links

3-year-old arrested, leftist writer interrogated — another day in the “Jewish and democratic” state
The latest version of Israel’s propaganda kit.
As with apartheid South Africa, Israel purifies its sins through others
Israeli students organisation is paid by the Israeli government and @avimayer Jewish Agency to do state propaganda with a ‘pretty face’ – great expose

Other Links

This is a fabulous link – cool water to a parched mouth. : A powerful year of online media by and for Indigenous Peoples
‘Decolonization is a dramatic reimagining of relationships with land, people and the state.’

Today Al Mezan releases ‘Children in the Gaza Strip’s Access to Medical Care’ a factsheet published under the Save the Children UK funded project ‘Child Rights at the Centre: Enhancing National Capacities to Monitor, Document, and Report on Child Rights Issues in the oPt.’ The factsheet documents Israel’s policies towards the Gaza Strip which result in children being denied the right to access proper medical care.

The ongoing siege on Gaza which stops essential medical equipment and drugs from entering and causes sporadic fuel and electricity cuts combined with the closure system which prevents medical professionals from travelling abroad to access advanced training outside Gaza. These policies have resulted in a medical system in Gaza which cannot provide care and procedures for many patients. Children requiring care that is unavailable have to go outside Gaza, usually to hospitals in Israel, Jerusalem or the West Bank (as well as to Egypt and Jordan). In order to access these hospitals children require a permit from the Israeli authorities. The process for acquiring a permit is long and complex and often results in denials. Since January 2008, 4 children have died because their application was denied or took too long to be approved.

Israel also denies children’s access to medical care when it prevents ambulances from accessing the Buffer Zone. Ambulances require prior coordination with the Israeli military authorities before they can access the sick or injured in the Buffer Zone. 173 children have died because ambulances have been denied access to reach them (throughout the Gaza Strip, not just in the Buffer Zone).

The policies outlined in this factsheet result in serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law which Israel, as the Occupying Power in the Gaza Strip, has an obligation to uphold.

“Children in the Gaza Strip are deprived from receiving quality medical treatment and access to procedures that can save their lives. The right to access medical treatment and to enjoy the highest attainable physical and psychological health is one of the Israeli systematic violations of children’s rights in the Gaza Strip,” Samir Zaqout, Al Mezan’s fieldwork coordinator, states. “This has particularly been the case in the last five years since Israel tightened its siege on the Gaza Strip.”

In addition to the polices outlined in this factsheet which directly affect access to medical care Samir Zaqout says that “the Israeli siege has caused a deterioration in the health of children due to increasing poverty levels and diseases among children such as anemia. Israeli military attacks have also injured thousands of children, hundreds of them sustaining permanent physical disabilities.”

DOWNLOAD FACT SHEET [.pdf]

Palestine / Israel Links

Today, in a landmark step for children’s rights,

the UN General Assembly has adopted a new Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) establishing a complaints procedure for violations of children’s rights.

The new treaty will enable children, or their representatives, claiming that their rights have been violated to bring a complaint to an international committee of children’s rights experts if they have not been able to get remedies for these violations in their countries. A coalition of over 80 international and national NGOs, coordinated by the NGO Group for the CRC, which has been actively campaigning for the treaty since 2006, welcomed the news.

Ethnic Cleansing of Invented People. By Miko Peled

‘Israeli children are educated to see the Palestinians as a problem that must be solved and as a threat that must be eliminated. They can go through life, as I did growing up in Jerusalem, without ever meeting a Palestinian child. They know nothing of the life or culture of Palestinians who quite often live only several hundred meters from them.’

“Rudd seeks action on torture allegations involving Palestinian children” by John Lyons
The Permanent Palestinian Observer at the United Nations, in New York – USA, Riyad Mansour, stated that 182 countries at the General Assembly voted Monday for the Palestinian right to self-determination.
French clothing firm Lacoste censors, expels Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour from prestigious contest
Owner of Lacoste, which censored Palestinian artist, is major donor to Israel, Zionist causes
Fabulous win for justice against racist corporatism.
Boycott Israeli products this Christmas.
An Open Letter to CSU Chancellor Charles Reed Regarding the CSU-Israel Study Abroad Program – boycott!
Israel on another rampage : ‘Israeli bulldozers Wednesday razed and demolished a number of water wells, agricultural sheds and land in Dahr Sobh area north of Kafr al-Deek, a town west of Salfit in the northern West Bank, according to local sources.’
More ziofascism uncovered in the UK: UK charity with Mossad links secretly denounced anti-Zionist Jews to government
Another great reason to boycott Israeli academic institutions : Tel Aviv University accused of spying on student activists – TAU security head writes lecturers requesting details of students seen in video urging fellow students to join a campus protest.
Victim of Israeli fascism : 972mag pointedly gags itself from publishing advocacy for BDS – good comments beneath
Will more Israelis pay the price in solidarity with Palestinians for civil disobedience?
A confederacy of hypocrites – “Britain, France, Germany and Portugal release a statement saying settlements in West Bank and East Jerusalem illegal; Israel’s UN envoy: Palestinian conditions are real obstacles to peace.”
?14 UN Security Council members criticize U.S. for blocking condemnation of Israel : ‘Israel’s security and the realization of the Palestinians’ right to statehood are not opposing goals,’ says Britain’s UN Ambassador.
US falls for zionist ‘security’ hasbara – but it suits US hegemony to maintain colonial domination of ME via Israel
Israel officials: Security Council criticism on West Bank violence ‘disgusting’
OCHA The MonThly huManiTarian MoniTor November 2011
Israel’s siege punishing Gaza orphans: The most vulnerable people are seriously affected by Israel’s illegal siege: “All development in our institute has stopped since the siege,” says Sarraj. “The buildings we currently have we built with money from the Islamic bank and foreign NGOs [non-governmental organizations] and donors, before the blockade.”
OCHA report 14-20 Dec: Illegal settler price tag attacks, 7 Israel navy attacks on Gazan fishermen [.pdf]

Other Links

Sandmonkey takes stock of the Egyptian revolution and cannot find a way to shift an immoveable object.

Israel’s theft from the people of Nabi Saleh of their water and land created the weekly protests against the Occupier. This is the moving speech of Nariman Tamimi, read at the Human Rights March rally in Tel Aviv, December 9, 2011 by Nisreen Alyan, an attorney at the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), which emphasises that

“In the shadow of the Occupation, there is no dignity and there is no freedom of expression.”

“Even the most basic right to demonstrate and protest against the action of the Occupation is grossly abused.”

A short time after the speech was read in Tel Aviv, at the weekly demonstration in Nabi Saleh, Mustafa Tamimi was critically injured from an IOF teargas projectile manufactured in the US and fired at him face from point blank range. He died in the hospital the following day, on International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011.

According to eye witness to the murder, Linah Alsaafin, the Israeli soldiers delayed Mustafa’s transportion to the hospital.

‘The soldiers laughed. They smiled. They took pictures of us, zooming in on each of our faces, and they smirked. ‘They laughed at us as we screamed at them to let us through to where he was, unconscious in a taxi near the watchtower. They threatened us if we didn’t go back. We waved the flag with his blood on it in front of them. One of them had the audacity to bat it away. We shouted, “His blood is on your hands!” They replied, “So?”’

Another eye witness, Ibrahim Bornat, artist and activist from Bil’in was standing next to Mustafa at the time of the murder and describes the inordinate, cruel delays created by the Occupation forces.

I ran back to get people, because we were far away, but there was no ambulance around, so the people around gathered him and put him in a servee [a communal taxi] and tried to leave. The soldiers stopped the servee and tried to arrest Mustafa, but when they saw that he was on the brink of death, they began to act as if they were humanitarian, to revive his heart. But what is ‘humanitarian’, to shoot someone to kill, and then to try to help him? These were the same soldiers from the jeep that shot him. They shot him, then say they want to help him. What they really did is prevent him from leaving.

The body lay on the ground for half an hour. They wanted Mustafa’s ID, and they also wanted the ID of his mother, of another family member, and of Bassem Tamimi’s wife, because these people wanted to go out with him too… They were doing some kind of medical treatment while he was lying on the ground, but this was no hospital, and what he needed was to be taken to a hospital. He should have been flown out in that moment. There is nothing you can do for him on the street there.

RT @ibnezra: The Israeli army has failed to confirm that its soldiers violated ‘open-fire regulations” resulting in the death of Mustafa Tamimi.
RT @shunradan: The jeep frm which #mustafatamimi was shot carries a “how am I driving?”sticker http://twitpic.com/7qupdd Call 02-5694211 & tell them!
RT @Abou_Charlie: #MustafaTamimi’s father was denied a permit to exit West Bank to be with his son as he fought for his life. How ethical!
RT @iRevolt: IOF spokesperson displays picture of slingshot as the reason 4 blowing off half of #MustafaTamimi’s head is.gd/JycvNU
RT @gazaheart: Hate has no limits. I was shocked to read comments re IDF murder of #mustafatamimi beneath article is.gd/EXLXZ0

Mustafa was the 20th person which Israel’s sadistic Occupation forces have killed with tear gas canisters, and the first martyr of Nabi Saleh. The criminal IOF have excused themselves by stating that the incident was ‘exceptional’. (exceptionally cruel?)

Figures in the army’s Central Command said the soldier claimed he “didn’t see” Tamimi. But even if that is true, the IDF’s rules of engagement prohibit the firing of tear gas grenades from a rifle pointed directly at demonstrators or from a distance of less than 40 meters away. They also stipulate that the shooter must use the rifle sight and verify that no one is in the line of fire. Central Command and the Military Police are conducting separate investigations into the incident.

Plan Dalet has never ended, Israel’s genocide of Palestinians has never ended, Israel’s expansionism, its deceitful posture of ‘defence’ and ‘security’ which it uses to obscure and justify its foul land grabs and murder has never ended.

At Mustafa’s funeral, the IOF again resorted to violence, with 3 people injured and 8 arrested. Once again, the IOF fired tear gas projectiles directly at the crowd, spraying the village with skunk water which will pollute it for days. This collective punishment on people who are being robbed of their birthright and denied civil rights is a crime against humanity.

RT @LinahAlsaafin: The pig soldiers wanted to arrest us all. They beat us. We formed a human pile on the ground, limbs bodies twisted. They continued to hit us

RT @LinahAlsaafin: I held up a picture of #MustafaTamimi in front of a soldier’s face. He grabbed it and balled it in his fist. It’s in my bag now, torn.

Meanwhile, Israel focussed its terror on the civilians of Gaza, breaking the ceasefire again, invoking the biblical symbology of Palestinians as Amakelites as a sheep and chicken farm was attacked, causing mass death of livestock.

On Saturday, Israeli soldiers fired artillery shells targeting a chicken and sheep farm in Beit Hanoun, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip — dozens of livestock died in the attack; excessive damage was reported.

The Maan News Agency reported that the shelling targeted the farm of local resident Ramadan Abu Ghazala, located east of Beit Hanoun. The shelling led to no human casualties.

In another Israeli state terrorist attack

A Palestinian child was severely wounded and her father was injured in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a house in Zaytoun neighborhood in Gaza city at dawn Sunday.

At present, Gaza may serve as a scapegoat for Israel’s impotence toward incidents in the Sinai. Israel is also threatening to punish the Gazan people in another despicable way – by cutting off their water supply.

Mustafa #fail’: Israeli military spokesman mocks on Twitter death of Palestinian demonstrator killed by army tear-gas canister
Israeli Defence Force spokesman sparks fury after ‘mocking’ dead Palestinian demonstrator on Twitter

Related Links

Palestinian protester struck in face by tear gas canister dies of injuries
Nabi Saleh 9.12.2011
Palestinian demonstrator killed by IDF in West Bank protest
Chroniques de Palestine- Popular resistance and human rights: Mustafa Tamimi, Martyr in Nabi Saleh
In Israel, ‘fascist’ is not a rude word – Amira Hass gets it:

‘It is not important what this bill teaches us about Danon as a person – that he did not study history, for example, or that he did but he knows very well that in fascist regimes the State is above all else; or that as an experienced demagogue he knows just how close a connection there is between the level of discrimination against a certain ethnic group and the claims about crime among its members. ‘

Israel’s religious right builds fascist machismo, while the govt builds fascist political repression
The Haaretz editorial is still being coy – ‘religious extremism’ and ‘nationalism’.
Count the fascistic lies and distortions in this drivel where Israel claims to support human rights.
Turkish President shuns event attended by Israel’s Defense Minister
Drones spotted above Gaza as Israel breaks truce; death toll at 5
Israeli Airstrike Injures Father, Daughter in Gaza
Israel must refrain from launching Gaza offensive
Israeli aircraft strike Gaza, as cross-border violence continues
“Israel cannot strike at the donkey, so it hits the saddle instead and Gaza cops it.”
My attempt to arrest Israeli weapons chief
Israeli ambassador to take up Cairo post
In pictures: When a nonviolent protest ends in death
Ministry of Hasbara: IDF Has Become Israel’s Chief Delegitimizer
Invitation: Third National BDS Conference
Gingrich, part of the invented ‘US people’ describes indigenous Palestinians as ‘invented’ : Gingrich won’t like where his logic leads.
Nabi Saleh Activist Critically Injured by Tear Gas Canister | Palestine Solidarity Project
VIDEO (Graphic): 27 year old Mustafa Tamimi after being shot in head by an IOF tear gas canister yesterday
Seeing the forest and the trees: The untold story of the Jewish National Fund – A sleazy tale : follow the JNF land thieving fund money :

Recalling that Bob Geldof praised the JNF land thieves. Bob Geldof breached the boycott [on May 31, 2011, 'when he accepted a dis-honorary fake degree from Ben Gurion University] praised the JNF when he spoke to patrons at a Jewish National Fund event telling them that the JNF ‘got’ the idea of sustainability & the importance of water over 100 years ago.

Israel is gobbling Palestinian land again extending an illegal Jews-only apartheid settlement to the edge of Bethlehem. while meanwhile Regev slithers out and lies that it’s all Palestinians’ fault again, for refusing ‘direct’ peace talks.
Great news! ‘Ads calling for “peace with justice and equality” and an end to the U.S. aid to Israel went up last week in a prominent location in the Civic Center station in San Francisco as well as on 15 AC Transit buses servicing the East Bay area. ‘

Christian bigots get Lowes ads pulled : Lowe’s Pulls Advertising from Muslim Reality Show After Bigots Complain
Palestinian flag to be raised at UNESCO headquarters
New initiative in UN to ‘censure Israel’s attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem.’ : how about STOPPING Israel’s attacks for good with BDS ?
Shufat residents were protesting the construction of a new Israeli military checkpoint at the entrance of the camp, which they say will cut the 45,000-string community from the rest of the city and control their movements.
Bedouin protest Israel’s relocation plans; village receives notice of imminent eviction
There’s no need to be any less bigoted than Europe implies Nutanyahoo
Palestinian protester’s death an ‘exceptional’ incident, say IDF officials
Israel’s Russian doll apartheid : Legal researcher on Israel: “Segregation within segregation within segregation”

Egypt Links

Egypt’s military will have final say on country’s new constitution

Other Links

Wondering why the domestic police are bristling with weapons to use against those they are supposed to defend?
US missiles ‘hit Iranian village’
We are all ‘persons of interest’ in the #newfeudalism of full spectrum surveillance

Davutoglu told reporters on Friday that Israel should apologize, pay compensation to families of the Turkish citizens killed during the boarding of the aid ship and end the embargo on Gaza. Otherwise, the minister stated, relations between Turkey and Israel will not be normalized.

Additionally Davutoglu extended Turkey’s criticism of the apartheid land-thieving entity:

“Israel should decide to be a part of either the problem or the solution,” Davutoglu told reporters. The minister also spoke out against other aspects of Israeli policy, criticizing Israel to for continuing its settlement policy. The minister concluded by emphasizing that Turkey would react positively if Israel pursued a less hawkish foreign policy.

From @leventbasturk: If it doesn’t remain firm on this issue, the new course of Turkish Frgn Pol in ME will be under great suspicion. #

In the US press, Davutoglu’s comments were under-reported, omitting the need for Israel to end its embargo on Gaza.

Palestine / Israel Links

Nutanyahoo newspeak reveals his narcissist delusional extremism – his blitherings are straight out of Animal Farm
Pinkwashing, 2008-2011: Obituary for a hasbara strategy
Palestinian freed in prisoner swap is persecuted by Israel’s maniacal illegal settlers in Hebron
Haaretz publisher and owner Schocken identifies Israel’s ‘strategy of territorial seizure and apartheid’
Old Palestinian man in front of his house demolished by Israel

Occupy

Occupy Everywhere: Michael Moore, Naomi Klein on Next Steps for the Movement Against Corporate Power

In 2005 Palestinian civil society, almost unanimously, called for international artists to refuse to perform in Israel as part of the BDS (Boycott Divestment Sanctions) campaign which is a non-violent method of holding Israel accountable to standards of equality and human rights that nations such as ours are accustomed to. If you perform in Israel it will be a rejection of that appeal made not just by the Palestinian BDS movement, but by the Global BDS movement.

When you booked your concert in Israel, you probably did not think about the siege of Gaza or the Israeli carpet bombing of the Strip with white phosphorous and other brutal weapons resulting in the death of over 1,400 Palestinians, over 300 of them children, as well as the maiming of thousands.

As a typical piece of Israeli propaganda, people are led into meeting the needs of Israelis and concentrating on the Israeli sufferings, while ignoring the much greater sufferings imposed by Israel, which forces millions of Palestinians into living as refugees and in destitution. The boycott is about turning away from the policy of appeasement of the oppressor and of standing in solidarity with the oppressed.

"Torment" by Najah

All artists objecting to the Israeli regime’s actions have justified their booked performances in Israel as acts of support for the Israeli “peaceniks.” Recently, another performing musician, Natacha Atlas, wrote:

“I had an idea that performing in Israel would have been a unique opportunity to encourage and support my fans’ opposition to the current government’s actions and policies. I would have personally asked my Israeli fans face-to-face to fight this apartheid with peace in their hearts…”

Natacha Atlas then confirmed that she decided to cancel, explaining:

“after much deliberation I now see that it would be more effective a statement to not go to Israel until this systemised apartheid is abolished once and for all. Therefore I publicly retract my well-intentioned decision to go and perform in Israel…”

Some of the artists who initially breached the boycott and performed in Israel, believing they would be supporting justice by appeasing so called Israeli “peaceniks,” now wholeheartedly support the cultural boycott.

For example, Roger Waters breached the boycott, then changed his position and later wrote:

“Where governments refuse to act people must, with whatever peaceful means are at their disposal. For me this means declaring an intention to stand in solidarity, not only with the people of Palestine but also with the many thousands of Israelis who disagree with their government’s policies, by joining the campaign of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israel. This is [however] a plea to my colleagues in the music industry, and also to artists in other disciplines, to join this cultural boycott. Artists were right to refuse to play in South Africa’s Sun City resort until apartheid fell and white people and black people enjoyed equal rights. And we are right to refuse to play in Israel.”

South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu has this view:

“International Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions against the Apartheid regime, combined with the mass struggle inside South Africa, led to our victory … Just as we said during apartheid that it was inappropriate for international artists to perform in South Africa in a society founded on discriminatory laws and racial exclusivity, so it would be wrong … to perform in Israel”.

Oumou Sangaré, your association promotes freedom, justice, and the rights of children and women around the world. For this reason, we feel you are a musician of integrity, and we hope you will also support the oppressed Palestinians. We know you may have felt the pain of Gaza when Israel pounded it with thousands of tons of explosives. You would know that children in Gaza are not just children. As in the heartbreaking short film: “One Family in Gaza”, the children do play in the rubble of their house, but their little souls cannot escape the trauma of being shot at and seeing their home bombed and their brother repeatedly shot, even after his death. Jen Marlowe, made this film showing the children play, she doesn’t show the bombing, but lets their loving parents speak of their anguish:

The Israeli state has a multi-million dollar hasbara [the Hebrew equivalent to propaganda] and thousands of recruits to propagate the hasbara, especially targeting social networks. The Israeli promoters who bring the artists were even invited to the Israeli Knesset to discuss the anti-boycott campaign and the Israeli regime agreed on financial support to those who bring artists from abroad. Israeli ministers have stated the significance of culture in whitewashing the Israel I crimes [though they used different wording but we are happy to send you the quotes].

You don’t need us to tell you how mainstream media in France has been in denial of the Israeli crimes against the Palestinians, starting from the Nakba in 1948, through the current apartheid and racism.

Occasionally we get a big boost to our campaign, when artists choose to make a statement in the media, such as Massive Attack on http://www.newstatesman.com/music/2010/09/israel-interview-boycott-naja
Similarly, when Elvis Costello posted his message on his own website the international and Israeli media published it widely.

Against the massive well oiled Israeli hasbara, all we have is the public sphere, such as blogging and social networks like Facebook. This is how we inform artists like yourself about the boycott. This is how we spread the word of the BDS to all people concerned with human rights.

In honor of Palestinian woman’s rights, freedom, justice and the rights of innocent children like the dear ones in Jen Marlowe’s film, please refrain from performing in Israel.

Sincerely,

Don’t Play Apartheid Israel

We are a group, of 780 members, representing many nations around the globe, who believe that it is essential for musicians & other artists to heed the call of the PACBI, and join in the boycott of Israel. This is essential in order to work towards justice for the Palestinian people under occupation, and also in refugee camps and in the diaspora throughout the world.

SOURCE

Join the Facebook campaign to help persuade Oumou Sangaré to cancel her gig in Israel : Oumou Sangaré : s’il vous plait, ne vous produisez pas en Israël

Palestine / Israel Links

Interactive Map: Escalation of settler violence
Who Are the Palestinians?

which voices are we still not hearing? What are their stories? What unites – and divides – the sometimes mutually antagonistic voices across their society as a whole? Who are these people, the Palestinians?

Mrs. Haris Alexiou, we Palestinians do apologize, but they are not letting us come to your concert

Dear Mrs. Haris Alexiou

(or, if that’s OK with you) our Haroula

We, all Palestinians, rejoiced at the news that, despite the call from a certain self-proclaimed Palestinian civil society and some Israeli activists for boycotting the Israeli apartheid till it stops committing crimes and complies with the international law, you will not follow the example of other artists (such as Roger Waters, Natacha Atlas, Elvis Costello and others) and you will come to sing in historical Palestine – excuse us, Israel.

We know that you, as well as other Greek artists (Yiannis Kotsiras, Demis Roussos, George Dalaras, Glykeria, and others), don’t mix politics with art and you are coming to sing for peace and for all the peoples of that region, which have common cultural roots, anyway.

Unfortunately our joy for your coming was somewhat mitigated by the fact that we will not be able to attend your concert, as we would like so much to.

More than 1.5 million residents of the Gaza Strip, mostly children, in our majority refugees since the “Nakba” (that means the catastrophe, the ethnic cleansing of 1948), we are under blockade inside the Strip and we are not only not allowed to get out and attend your concert but not even, apart from a few exceptions, go to hospitals or study.

Another 2.5 million approx. of us, including once again many 1948 refugees, we are being blocked (even among us) in the West Bank and we are no more allowed to visit the area where you are going to have the concert, not only to watch it, but not even to go for a day’s work, as we were doing in the past. But even if they would allow us, we would have to pass so many checkpoints as well as the Wall, that it would be uncertain if could make it on time for your concert.

More than 5 million others we are dispersed around the whole world, refugees since 1948 (“this cologne lasts for years” [1]…) and we are not allowed to visit our villages destroyed then (among them Qisarya where you usually perform), our houses, our relatives – but, most of all, we are not allowed to come to your concert. We were thinking of giving it a try, by organizing peaceful demonstrations to return to the area where you are going to sing, but the last time we tried something like this, in May and in June, some ones – obviously not among your fans – welcomed us with live ammunition and we had dozens of people killed.

We were thinking of catching at least a plane and coming just for your concert. But the last time some foreigners tried to do it, last June, they found themselves crammed in the detention centers of Ben Gurion airport. Even by boat would we come, but when some of us, having gained foreign nationality, tried, along with many foreign friends, in 2010, something similar, i.e. to come to Gaza by boats, some Israelis – for sure not among your fans – attacked us, killed 8 Turkish fellow travelers and one American of Turkish origin, injured dozens and, after beating us and tazered us, they crammed us by hundreds in prisons and finally they deported us. Fortunately in 2011, when we tried to do the same crazy thing, the Prime Minister of your country, Greece, Mr. Papandreou (obviously remembering the fraternal friendship of his late father with the late Yasser Arafat) protected us like a father and, with the help of fully armed coast guard policemen, prevented us from suffering the same or worst.

About 5,500 of us, including hundreds of children, are imprisoned in Israeli jails, even in jails-concentration camps in the desert. As you can understand, it is uncertain if we will be given, not of course the permission to leave the jail for 5 days, as it happens in your country, but even a permission to leave the jail for half a day, in order to be able to come to your concert. But, in any case, we will give it a try and we are determined to even have a hunger strike in order to assert a permission for a few hours and be able to watch your concert.

Thousands of us, we found ourselves disabled in our homes (or still in hospitals) after being injured not only by vicious beatings from settlers and soldiers – for sure not some of your fans – but also by not-so-“rubber” bullets, live ammunition, shells, bombs, missiles, white phosphorous etc. We were really dreaming of coming to your concert, but the doctors do not allow us to do so for the moment.

Finally, more than 6,500 of us, about 1/5 of them children, about ¼ of those children under the age of 12, we have been killed during the last 11 years by Israeli fire and as you can understand it’s a little bit difficult for us to attend. Despite that, be sure that we will listen to you “from the edge of sky”. [2]

So, we are sorry that we, all your Palestinian fans, will not be able to come to your concert in the heart of historical Palestine – excuse us, Israel – but we are sure that “your love will find us wherever we are”. [3]

“By the prayers” [4] of:

The “free besieged” [5] people of the Gaza Strip under blockade

The “built in wall” people of the occupied West Bank

The displaced people of occupied East Jerusalem

The exiled – refugees of the Palestinian diaspora

The Palestinian prisoners

The Palestinian injured and disabled people

The Palestinian martyrs

All your Palestinian fans

Freely adapted by the:

Greek Association for Solidarity with the Palestinian People – INTIFADA

P.S. We know how much you, Mrs. Alexiou, are also hit by the economic crisis that your country, and many more, suffer by. And how much you need the profits from this concert. The fact that we will not be able to attend your concert, does not mean that we don’t want to support you in this difficult moment of yours. Please send us the details of your bank account and we will send you the price of the ticket. We don’t want anything in exchange. We just want you to contribute so that, in a future concert in historical Palestine – excuse us, Israel – we will be able, at least some of us, to attend. We thank you in advance.

[1] “This cologne lasts for years”: an old song by Haris Alexiou

[2] Referring to the song “To the edge of your sky”, by Haris Alexiou.

[3] Referring to the song “Love will find you wherever you are”, by Haris Alexiou.

[4] Another song by Haris Alexiou

[5] “The Free Besieged”: one of the most important works of the Greek national poet Dionysios Solomos, about the siege of Messolonghi by the forces of the Ottoman Empire, during the Greek revolution for independence.

SOURCE

Foreign Correspondent programmes are re-broadcast regularly “by more than 20 international networks, including CNN International, Al Jazeera, NHK Japan and TV NZ”. Al Jazeera English re-broadcasted “Follow the Money” retitled as “About a boycott” on its “People & Power” show on October 6, 2011. So who inserted the ubiquitous fake Max Brenner this time – for this is not the first occasion that Max Brenner has been anthropomorphised.

The “Max Brenner Shop Owner” title pops up in the screenshot opposite at about 10.07 minutes into Al Jazeera English’s slightly truncated re-broadcast version. This individual is named in the Foreign Correspondent transcript as “GRAHAM WEINBERG (IN CROWD)”. Now we know which balding lookalike Max Brenner is this month. The Max Brenner site states “ALL AUSTRALIAN MAX BRENNER CHOCOLATE BARS ARE COMPANY OWNED & WE DO NOT CURRENTLY FRANCHISE”.

Foreign Correspondent Eric Campbell captures some correct information from a protester at a recent rally against the Israeli occupation-supporting Max Brenner business in Newtown.

CAMPBELL: “And what’s Max Brenner doing?”

PROTESTOR: “Max Brenner is financially and morally supporting the Israeli defence forces, particularly two brigades – the Golani and the Givati”.

Like Max Brenner, Sodastream is bound to the illegal, brutal Israeli military occupation, and is a legitimate boycott target.

Al Jazeera made an appearance in some recently released WikiLeaks cables.

“Al Jazeera is a vital component to the USG’s strategy in communicating with the Arab world.” — Joseph E. LeBaron, U.S. Ambassador to Qatar, November 6, 2008

“Al Jazeera Board Chairman Hamed bin Thamer Al Thani has proven open to creative uses of Al Jazeera’s airwaves by the USG beyond straightforward interviews.” — Joseph E. LeBaron, U.S. Ambassador to Qatar, February 10, 2009

Might the omnipresent bald man be such an example of ‘creative uses’ of Al Jazeera’s airwaves by the US or was the inserted caption a plausibly deniable slipup?

Related Links

Double Protests! Occupy Melbourne and BDS Action Against Apartheid Israel!
Protest against Max Brenner: Say no to Israeli Apartheid
Kate Ausburn: Conversations with BDS counter-protesters in Newtown
Conversations with BDS counter-protesters in Newtown
Accusations of anti-Semitism rife as the Australian Senate debates BDS
Max Brenner and Australia’s fascists
Just who are those blindly backing Israel and hating BDS in Australia?
“Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.]“

You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word “tension.” I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood. The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation.

Palestine / Israel Links

The hand of a thief: Taking a page from Nixon (“If the president does it, that means it’s not illegal!”) Netanyahu instructed Justice Minister Ya’acov Ne’eman, a religious ultra-nationalist, to come up with a legal way for Israel to keep even the radical hilltop settlement outposts built on land that Israel itself recognizes as being owned by Palestinians.

Other Links

Next come the micro-drones to zap anyone with soma who says nasty things about neoziocons. Government Aims to Build a ‘Data Eye in the Sky’
Here Comes FIATtackWatch: Ben “Big Brother” Bernanke Goes Watergate, Prepares To Eavesdrop On Everything Mentioning The Fed

Tellingly, Israel had preplanned an attack on Gaza.

‘The IDF recently completed the preparation of different plans of action against Hamas and the rest of the terror organizations in the Strip – from surgical strike to a wide-scale operation. ‘

Nutanyahoo has much to gain by creating a conflagration – to disrupt the UNGA vote for a Palestinian state, the Palmer report which is due for release at the end of this month, discussion of the Goldstone and HRC flotilla report in the UN in September, along with the J14 protests in Israel which threaten zionist privilege by merging Jewish and Palestinian housing and social welfare issues. Ironically, war will reduce the funds available for social welfare, and after its cessation, housing costs are likely to skyrocket.

At present, the J14 protests continue.

Shafir criticized calls by ministers including Ayoub Kara (Likud ) to end the protest due to the terror attacks. “The fact that the government is calling on us to halt the protest because of the terror attacks is an attempt to use our pain as citizens hurting for their friends and families to make us bow on the social front, and that’s sad for several reasons,” she said.

Perhaps as a smokescreen, Nutanyahoo’s mysterious aides have been floating unconfirmed signals in the past couple of weeks which indicate that Nutanyahoo *might* be willing to negotiate on 67 borders.

Leaks from unnamed aides to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu claim he has shifted positions on another critical peace process issue – borders – but so far there’s no official confirmation. It appears to be a tactical move to derail the Palestinian strategy for a UN statehood resolution next month, and it could work if the Israeli leader can convince Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that he is serious.
…
Netanyahu is demanding a quid pro quo, aides are telling Israeli media. He will acknowledge the 1967 Green Line as the reference point for negotiations of future borders if the Palestinians will agree to ultimately recognize Israel as a Jewish state

According to Benny Morris:

‘And Netanyahu has failed to publicly, clearly chart out the main lines of a territorial compromise (necessarily along the lines of the Clinton parameters of December 2000) that could serve as a basis for a two-state solution acceptable to Washington and Europe. Instead, Netanyahu has talked vaguely about his willingness to engage in “painful” concessions for peace, a formula that may sell well on the hill but has had little traction anywhere else.’

In the absence of confirmation from Nutanyahoo himself, these claims that he is prepared to negotiate seriously, also aired on Israel TV according to AP, should be considered as hasbara. The apparent concessions are in contradiction to Nutanyahoo’s stated position in May, along with his Bar Ilan speech and the Likud charter.

Predictably, Israel is now blaming their convenient whipping boy, Hamas, for rockets attacks launched pursuant to the Israeli reprisals.

In response to Israel’s murder of 5 Egyptian security personnel, Egypt has recalled its ambassador from Israel.

“The cabinet committee has decided to withdraw the Egyptian ambassador in Israel until the result of investigations by the Israeli authorities is provided and an apology from the Israeli leadership over the hasty and regrettable statements about Egypt is given,” the cabinet statement said.

STATEMENT REMOVED

The statement was later removed from the website, prompting speculation that Cairo may have retracted its decision. An Egyptian government spokesman said the cabinet stood by statements made by its information minister, but declined to make any reference to the recall of the ambassador, which was also reported by state media.

…
Emad Gad, senior researcher at Cairo’s Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said neither Egypt nor Israel was keen to escalate the issue further. “Withdrawing the Egyptian ambassador is a good step but Egypt still has to insist on a formal apology from Israel,” he said

Israel continues to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity unchallenged by the international national community. This is one of the important reasons why BDS, which circumvents government, is so effective and essential.

The Arab League has urged the UN to act to stop Israeli attacks on the people of Gaza and on Egyptian land.

As Livni screams for the blood of innocent Gazans,
with the aid of Egypt, Gazan militant groups agree to cease-fire with Israel from today, Sunday 21/8/11.

Israeli faux pas shock horror – Egypt identifies three men responsible for Eilat terrorist attack and it doesn’t look like they are from Gaza.

Related Links

This is the Ehud Barak we remember and know from various past predilections, his fetishes are taking an even grosser form. : “Those who operate against us will be decapitated” – does Barak mean he’s going to assassinate, whilst ‘collaterally’ murdering countless civilians, whom he thinks are at the head of the resistance? or just generally chop everyone’s heads off whom he suspects of opposed Israel’s oppression?

Really? Senior IDF officials suggest amending Israel’s peace treaty with Egypt
Spring is so short here
Hamas: Gaza militant groups agree to cease-fire with Israel
Hamas was not behind the attacks on Thursday

, nor does it seek to increase tensions with Israel. Therefore, a direct attack on Hamas will be perceived as disproportionate and unjustified. Egypt will not be able to stand aside; this time it will surely call back its ambassador from Tel Aviv and freeze the peace.

The international community will not show restraint; it will present Israel as a war-monger. And when hundreds of rockets from Gaza hit Sderot, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Be’er Sheva, Rehovot, Rishon Letzion and Tel Aviv, the Iron Dome will be deemed ineffectual. Netanyahu will face dilemmas that tore Ehud Olmert apart.

Members of Knesset from Israel’s leading opposition party, Kadima, urged the cabinet on Sunday to launch a military campaign in the Gaza Strip, in light of the ongoing barrage of rockets.
Gaza Under Attack – in pictures
IDF officer: Terrorists planned an abduction attack
Is Israel planning to invade the Sinai?
The SCAF has largely been silent about identifying the armed groups who launched the attack.

“Given the conflicting reports, where is the SCAF’s official statement on the recent developments in Sinai?” ElBaradei asked on his Twitter account, adding that the SCAF needed to inform the public about its strategy to handle the delicate security situation in the peninsula.’

Al-Qassam: Israel ‘crimes’ cannot be ignored
Israel’s video game killing technology
Israel’s revenge attacks against defenceless civilians in Gaza continue
Israel weighs response after rocket barrage leaves one dead, several wounded
Minister Shalom: Not ruling out option of ground operation in Gaza
Opposition MKs urge IDF action in Gaza as rockets keep falling on southern Israel
From spy intrigue, self-sabotage & condom failure to neolib softdrink stands, the WHR has it all!

Also, the General Security Service (Shabak) wasted no time in making it very clear, very loudly that they had given the army very detailed and specific information of the impending attack. But remembering Clinton trying to take out Bin Laden back in ‘98 and getting blamed unfairly for wagging the dog? I should shut up about the obvious thoughts pursuant to the above intelligence.

War crimes, collective punishment … does Israel hope the people of Gaza drown in their own excrement?
Palestinians farming creatively to overcome the ‘buffer zone’
Israel to expel Palestinian activists
Israel launches bloody reprisals in Egypt and Gaza

Palestine / Israel Links

What sort of monsters fire tear gas at children?
Demolitions by Israel increase fivefold, says new UN report
Another BDS success: Tuba Skinny cancels show at jazz festival in Israel
Occupy, Colonize, Exploit: The Economic Uses of the Separation Barrier
Murdoch press success; discuss Palestine and BDS and ignore occupation
Attacks on Gaza continue: “I’ve never seen shrapnel wounds like this before.”
Palestinian youth in Gaza skeptical about PA’s UN bid
Zionist idiotic waffle on the fake state: ‘Virtual’ Palestinian state could lead to actual disaster
Australia’s leaders must back Palestinian bid for statehood : Robert Newton pontificates pompously on the fake state.
Flashback to Obama giving Nutanyahoo the Jordan Valley as if it was his to give, nearly a year ago: Obama in personal appeal to Netanyahu: Extend settlement freeze for two months
Kafka at the Rafah border

Other Links

John Pilger: Riots reveal Britain’s forbidden truth
A New Approach: A statement by prominent Australians urging political leaders to break the stalemate on refugee and asylum policy
Ita still tells the truth? Murdoch told me to have someone followed: Buttrose
Malcolm Fraser exposes the truth about Beazley’s political opportunism which blind freddy could see at the time anyway, and which disgusted then as now.

Yesterday Nael’s gaolers demanded a strip search. He refused so he was thrown in an isolation cell for two days and beaten.

Fellow detainee, Hilal Jaradat, reportedly rushed to his aid and was subsequently put together in a cell with Nael where they were both beaten by the guards, Al-Ashkar told Ma’an.

The lawyer for Al-Barghouti, Muhammad Al-Shayed, said in a statement that Nael is being punished for the incident and has been banned from receiving visitors for a period of four months, in addition to being fined 500 NIS and prohibited from buying from the prison cafeteria.

More than one third of Palestinian prisoners are denied visitation rights according to prisoner affairs expert Abdul-Nasser Farwana.

Nelson Mandela, now universally honoured, spent 27 years of his life from 1964 to 1982 imprisoned on the evil Robben Island, incarcerated by the apartheid South African regime for resisting its oppression. Current South African President Jacob Zuma who was imprisoned there for ten years. Over 3,000 political prisoners were banished to Robben Island between 1961 and 1991.

In Israel’s dungeons, there are many Palestinian Mandelas and Zumas, who await freedom after years of steadfastness.

According to B’tSelem, at the end of April 2011 there were around 5,380 Palestinian political prisoners, 4,381 are serving sentences and 1,002 are detained. These prisoners include 217 Palestinians children, 37 of whom are under the age of 16. 121 imprisoned children are detainees. Some prisoners haven’t seen their families for years.

The Israeli Occupation Forces take particular delight in disrupting the education of Palestinian children. During the present round of final year Tawjihi examinations, several children were detained near Bethlehem on the way home and told to report to the Israeli intelligence office. Often when children report, they are detained for hours or days, miss their exams and fail their final year.

According to Prisoners rights organisation Addameer,

Since the beginning of this Intifada in September 2000, over 2500 children have been arrested. Currently there are at least 340 Palestinian children being held in Israeli Prisons.

According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted on 20 November 1989 and entered into force on 2 September1990 (to which Israel is a signatory), and to relevant Israeli law, a child is defined as every human being under the age of 18 years. This is reiterated in the UN Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty, adopted by General Assembly Resolution 45/113 of 14 December 1990. However, Palestinian children from the age of 16 years are considered adults under Israeli military regulations governing the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

As is the case with adult prisoners, child detainees are transferred to prisons located within Israel. The primary prisons in which Palestinian child male detainees are held are Hasharon (Telmond), near Netanya, and Megiddo, near Haifa. Girl child prisoners are transferred to Neve Tertza Prison (Ramleh). Interrogation of child detainees takes place at Beit El and Huwarra Interrogation Centers, and occasionally other interrogation centers, and Palestinian child administrative detainees are held with adult administrative detainees at both Ofer and Negev Military Prison Camps. Palestinian children are primarily arrested at Israeli military checkpoints, from their homes, or from the street.

Since children 16 years and older are regarded by Israel as adults, they are not offered an education whilst in detainment or prison, are subject to medical negligence and are in many cases placed in the general criminal prison population where they are subject to harassment.

According to Addameer, Israel fails UN Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty.

Palestinian child prisoners are held in inhumane conditions of detention, made to live in overcrowded and filthy cells. Often, children are placed in small solitary confinement cells, measuring 1.5 square meters, that are extremely humid and have no windows for natural light, or with bright artificial light that is continuously kept on. This forces prisoners to remain awake at all times, depriving the prisoner of sleep for days in some cases. Prisoners do not receive sufficient food to meet the daily nutrition requirements for children, are prevented from going to the toilet at their will, and are not allowed a change of clothing.

Related Links

Israel Arrests 4 Hamas MPs in Northern West Bank – more political detainments by the Detainment entity
Nael Al-Barghouthi – Dean of the Palestinian prisoners
Barghouti longest-held political prisoner
Nael and Fakhri Barghouti were part of a Fatah squad who killed an Israeli officer in 1978

Palestine / Israel Links

Raed Salah arrested after UK appearance
The elitist TED forums are viralised in TedX events. In Israel TedX is being spun to rebrand, sanitise and normalise oppression
Israel passes draft law requiring Palestinians to pay for their own home demolitions
Ethiopian children make up 1% of the education system’s student body. The report suggests that the concentration of Ethiopian immigrants in certain communities has resulted in some schools becoming “ghettos” for the community’s children.
AP Interview: PM Fayyad skeptical of UN bid, says declarations don’t change reality

Other Links

Climate sceptic Willie Soon received $1m from oil companies, papers show

Sylvia Hale, former Greens NSW MP and on board the Gaza Freedom Flotilla 2, said via satellite phone:

“I find it … perturbing that the Israeli Government should propose to deny consular access, not only to Australian nationals but also to nationals of other countries.

“….[C]ould you please explain why the Australian Government has remained silent in the face of the possible injury, imprisonment or deportation of Australian citizens from Israel, especially as they have absolutely no desire to set foot, willingly or unwillingly, on Israeli territory,” Ms Hale said.?
Audio recordings of Ms Hale’s comments are available on request.

Jake Lynch, Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at University of Sydney, said:
“The Australian government has a responsibility to protect its citizens against illegal military aggression, especially with prior knowledge of Israel’s plans.

“Both Australia and Israel are signatories to the Vienna convention, under which consular access must be allowed to detained persons. For Australia to waive this right at Israel’s behest shows our government places greater importance on supporting Israel’s flouting of international law than it does on the safety of Australians.

“With this decision, DFAT legitimises both the siege and naval blockade, both of which contravene Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, forbidding collective punishments.

“Australian diplomacy places our government on the extreme pro-Israeli fringe of world political opinion. The international community opposes the illegal siege of Gaza, the illegal occupation of Palestinian territories and the ongoing expulsion of the Palestinian population of East Jerusalem. On all these issues, Australia is one of a tiny minority of countries which routinely provide diplomatic cover”, Associate Professor Lynch said.

Our muppet politicians seem to have forgotten that even drug runners, rapists, murderers and ‘terrorists’ like David Hicks are supplied consular assistance. The four Australians participating in the flotilla are peaceful humanitarians engaged in a principled action to break the villainous Israeli blockade, collective punishment of a civilian population of 1.6 million people, half of whom are children. The blockade of Gaza is illegal under international law.

If Australian politicians want to put the wishes of Israel first before the welfare and lives of Australian citizens, then they should go live there.

UPDATE 30/6/11

Kate Ausburn: No Diplomats For Gaza Flotilla

Australians taking part in the second Freedom Flotilla to Gaza have been told not to expect consular assistance should they be detained by Israeli authorities.
…
The Australian contingent of the Flotilla has been told through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) that Israel intends to deny or limit consular access to foreign nationals if they are detained during the Flotilla.
…
DFAT said that Israeli authorities had told the meeting that, “if it appears that a vessel intends to breach the blockade, it will be seized and escorted to Ashdod Port.”

Further, DFAT said that the meeting was told:

“Ashdod Port will be declared a closed military zone and no consular access will be possible. Participants will either be deported or transferred to one of three prisons. Limited consular access will be afforded to Australian consular officials to participants at the prison and no consular access will be permitted to participants at the airport prior to deportation. Journalists will be considered to be participating in the Flotilla and will not receive special treatment.”

DFAT told Hale that the Australian Government felt “concerned” about the apparent lack of consular access, however concluded, “the extent to which we will be able to help you will ultimately be determined by the Israeli government.”

Dear Aunty ABC comes good )

DFAT warns of limited consular assistance for Australian activists

PM has seen emails from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade which say the department has contacted Israel but can’t do any more.
…
STATEMENT FROM DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND TRADE (Voiceover): Australia will not be denying consular assistance to any of its citizens involved in the flotilla. On the contrary, Australia has made it clear to Israel that we expect that consular access will be made available in the event that any Australians are detained.

If any Australians are detained, consular officials will endeavour to provide appropriate consular assistance. However, access to those detained by Israeli authorities will ultimately be determined by the Israeli government.

CONNIE AGIUS: DFAT also advised PM that the Australian Embassy in Tel Aviv has written to Israeli authorities expressing concern following the briefing.

But that’s not good enough for Sylvia Hale.

SYLVIA HALE: The Australian Government says that it will do what it can but it’s inhibited by Israeli local laws. But I expect my government to at least, if it cannot physically intervene to ensure our safety, to issue a public statement saying that it finds the Israeli attitude offensive and one that is worthy of condemnation.

Australians in Gaza flotilla fear limited consular help

Australian activists sailing in a flotilla to Gaza have been told they will have little or no consular assistance if Israel detains them.

Four Australians will be aboard one of the vessels which aims to challenge Israel’s blockade of Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has contacted former NSW Greens Upper House member Sylvia Hale, who is one of the four Australians making the voyage.

She says she was told the department had been briefed by the Israeli government earlier in the month about plans to intercept the flotilla and limit consular access to the activists.

“I gather the Israelis more or less said what they were proposing to do, namely to intercept the flotilla, to force it to divert to the port of Ashdod, which would be declared a closed military zone, at which there would be no possibility of consular access,” she said.

“Then participants would either be deported immediately or they would be taken to one of three prisons, at which there might be the possibility of consular access.”

Last year a similar flotilla was intercepted by the Israeli Defence Force.

Nine people were killed and hundreds arrested.

Ms Hale and legal experts say they are critical of DFAT’s response to Israel’s plans.

ABC Radio’s PM program asked the department to clarify what it would do if Australians were detained.

A statement in response said Australia would not deny consular assistance to any Australians involved in the flotilla.

It also said the Australian embassy in Tel Aviv had written to Israeli authorities expressing concern over the flotilla briefing.

In emails from DFAT seen by PM the department said it had contacted Israel but could not do any more.

Ms Hale says that is not good enough.

“The Australian Government says that it will do what it can but it’s inhibited by Israeli local laws, but I expect my government to at least, if it cannot physically intervene to ensure our safety, to issue a public statement saying that it finds the Israeli attitude offensive and one that is worthy of condemnation,” she said.

Lawyer’s concern

Legal experts are also concerned about the Australian Government’s position.

Australian Lawyers’ Alliance director Greg Barns says activists may be subjected to abuse in the time it takes the Australian embassy to reach them.

“People could be held incommunicado for a number of days before seeing anybody from the Australian embassy,” he said.

“It could mean that people are subjected to physical and mental abuse; it could mean that people are subjected to interrogation which wouldn’t be allowed if they had access to lawyers or to consular access.

“And it could mean that those people then are forced to make false statements or seek to cut some form of deal so they can just get out of the detention they’re being held in.”

Mr Barns says DFAT should take a tougher stance.

“What we have here is Israel – which is a signatory to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, which is the international instrument that governs the way in which diplomatic relations are to be conducted between countries, and including it looks at the issue of consular access,” he said.

“Australia should not tolerate Israel simply saying, ‘well we will drag people into a closed military zone and have no consular access’.”

Israel has signed the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations but it has not been ratified.

The flotilla is scheduled to depart in the next few days.

What you can do

Contact your Australian Federal MP and demand they ask a question in Parliament regarding Australia’s abandonment of its citizens on directives from Israel.
Contact your local media and ask that they highlight the issue.
Viralise the issue through through your choice of social media.
Phone DFAT and your local Consulate and complain on behalf of the Australian flotilla participants.
Insist that the peaceful humanitarian activists must be protected from Israeli violence and piracy.

Related Links

Gaza-bound / From Aborigine to Palestinian rights

Sylvia Hale: “But whoever asks us ‘what about the Aborigines,’ are not the ones who are interested in their rights, and not the ones fighting for those rights. They are using this as a diversionary tactic for evading the debate over Israel’s policy, or to delegitimize criticism of Israel.”

No Turkish boat to Gaza as Ankara, Tel Aviv mend fences
What does fraudulent “anti-gay flotilla” video tells us about Israeli hasbara strategy?
Gaza flotilla organizers demand Greek police provide security for ships
Freedom Flotilla doing what government won’t: supporting Palestinian human rights
If any Australian MPs support the Gaza flotilla, the press here isn’t reporting them
Freedom Flotilla Ready to Sail Despite Threats and Sabotage
Harper Should Support Canadians Safe Passage to the Gaza Strip on Freedom Flotilla Two
Socialist Party Member of European Parliament joins Palestine “Freedom Flotilla II” — Aim of Flotilla to break siege and highlight blockade impact on Gaza population
Gaza Freedom Flotilla organizers dismiss Israeli lies they plan to “attack” Israeli hijackers as they board ship “The organizer of the Gaza-bound flotilla dismissed Tuesday Israeli allegations that extremists aboard the ships plan to harm Israeli soldiers who would be dispatched to stop them. ”
The deep reach of Zionist lobby in the Australian Parliament and society

We now have, thanks to Greens leader Bob Brown, the list of politicians and journalists who took the junket last year. The fact that so many were willing to be taken on a propaganda tour (and how many even thought of visiting the West Bank for longer than five minutes, let alone Gaza?) shows the level of obedience to the Zionist agenda in Australian elite circles. Thankfully, studies prove that the general public are increasingly supportive of the occupied Palestinians.

Israeli Hasbara Alert

Last night, the propeller of the Swedish ship with the Freedom Flotilla was sabotaged in Greece. This morning, Israel has obscured this crime with a barrage of propaganda alleging that some participants on the flotilla are intending to use chemical weapons against the Israeli military if (when) they attempt to board.

Notwithstanding that it is illegal for Israel to board vessels without permission in international waters and vessels under attack in such a manner have a right to defend themselves, this shameless rubbish, quoting the usual unnamed ‘defence sources’ that signify the mouthing of Israeli hasbara, projects Israel’s own persistent chemical crimes – its use of skunkwater and CS gas against non-violent protestors against Israel’s illegal apartheid wall in demonstrations held weekly in the West Bank, and its criminal use of white phosphorus in its Operation Cast Lead massacre in January, 2009. Israel also denies the people of Gaza access to clean water – an insidious form of chemical poisoning.

according to the Jerusalem Post today, Israel is preparing to commit more crimes against the peaceful Freedom Flotilla..

Navy commandos have developed new techniques on how to fast-rope down onto the ships’ upper decks quickly. They also have new equipment such as water cannons, attack dogs from Oketz and riot-control specialists from the Prisons Service’s elite Masada Unit.

Above: Video of the damage to the Swedish flotilla boat’s propeller.

Related Links

ANNOUNCEMENT of the Initiative Ship To Gaza regarding the sabotage of the Greek ship
Israel’s Defense Ministry proposes confiscating boats that breach Gaza blockade
Gaza-bound: A mystery worthy of Henning Mankell

Swedish author Henning Mankell, who took part in last year’s flotilla and is joining the currently planned one, said that the flotilla was not a declaration of war, but a declaration of peace.

Fact-checking the State Department on Gaza aid channels
Spirits of Justice Going to Gaza

Palestine / Israel Links

Israel’s draconian anti-boycott bill targeting individuals, corporations and NGOs who support BDS is approved for its final reading.

This bill is politically motivated and unfortunately it is not the only bill promoted in Knesset these days that stands in contrast to democratic values. A boycott by consumers is a legitimate tool of protest and falls within the protection of freedom of expression. It is ironic that this bill will further enhance the criticism voiced against Israel”. A representative of Coalition of Women for Peace, who was present in the committee debate, quoted Rotem as saying “international law is not of my interest.”

The Israel lobby playbook – rewritten by J Street
Israel refuses citizenship for gay man married to Jewish immigrant – so Israel is a welcoming, gay-friendly place?
Israel’s chief clergy decries arrest of top rabbi who called for killing gentiles – rabbis in Israel are employees of the state.
Glenn Beck to address Knesset panel in July – Israel uses anti-semites to legitimise itself? what a joke.

Israel using phone spam promising rewards to recruit spies in southern Lebanon
How Israel nobbles Palestinian students’ education : Israeli Army Detains Tawjihi Students in Bethlehem
The Palestine Entries: Today I saw Hamas for what it’s worth
UNESCO censures Israel over Mughrabi Bridge : UNESCO’s censure calls for the immediate cessation of all renovation work done on the Mughrabi Gate bridge, which leads from the Western Wall plaza in Jerusalem to the to the al-Aqsa Mosque and Temple Mount.
Pinkwashed : Solidarity between liberation movements is essential
BOYCOTT! Issue 59
Australian denies being Hamas recruit
Israel remains a Tier 2 country for Human Trafficking in US report [pdf]

inadequate at identifying and protecting labor trafficking victims, prosecuting and convicting labor trafficking offenders … Some agencies for migrant workers require recruitment fees from $4,000-20,000 : these migrants are vulnerable to debt bondage and sex slavery.

Australia Links

Human rights complaint: moral victory the only hope – the current Australian government stance on David Hicks’ case is deplorable