Month: April 2011

April 18, 2011August 24, 2022

Israel’s Crimes Against Palestinian Prisoners

April 17 is Palestinian Prisoners’ Day. According to ADDAMEER, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Rights NGO:

over 6,800 Palestinians, from the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, and 1948 Palestine, are currently imprisoned by the Israeli state. Of those, over 300 are children, 34 are women, 18 are elected Palestinian representatives and almost 300 are ‘Administrative Detainees’ – that is they have been interned without trial not having been charged with any crime or seeing the secret evidence against them.

The prisoners are being detained in 17 prisons and detention centers; such as, Nafha, Ramon, Ashkelon, Beersheba, HaDarom, Gilboa, Shata, Al-Ramla, Damon, Hasharon, Naqab, Ofer and Megiddo.

Over four decades of illegal Israeli military occupation, Palestinians from all walks of life have been illegally detained by Israel. Since the beginning of the occupation in 1967, over 650,000 Palestinians have been detained by Israel,.

An estimated 10,000 Palestinian women have been arrested and detained since 1967 under Israeli military orders, which govern nearly every aspect of life in the occupied Palestinian territory. As of 1 February 2011, 36 Palestinian women remain in Israel’s prisons and detention centers, including 3 women in administrative detention. The two prisons in which Palestinian women are detained are located outside the 1967 occupied territory, in direct contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Israel breaks every convention in the book in their treatment of Palestinian prisoners at Naqab (Negev) in 2007. The horrendous abuses of prisoners in the video below can only be described as the actions of a fascist regime and dispel any misconception that Israel’s police and army are “moral”.

Comment by @djonesowens1, who worked on the video:

Few people realize that most of these prisoners are unjustly imprisoned and have been brutalized throughout their lives. After spending all this time working with the translator, I realize most people just cannot “get it”. But, it’s a contribution to the piles of evidence against a sadistic, insane regime.

Related Links

Another country : Thousands of Palestinians go on trial every year in the Ofer military court for offenses like illegally entering Israel or demonstrating against the separation fence.
On Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, April 17, 2011, the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat salutes all of the over 5,700 Palestinian prisoners inside the Israeli occupation’s jails, and calls upon all those concerned for justice and freedom to join and build the largest possible international movement to secure the freedom of all Palestinian prisoners, and of the entire Palestinian people.
Israeli Military Court remands Palestinian Organizer, Bassem Tamimi, Indefinitely – moral? hahaha : this is what happens to peaceful Palestinian protesters.
Another country : Thousands of Palestinians go on trial every year in the Ofer military court for offenses like illegally entering Israel or demonstrating against the separation fence. No one really wants to know what goes on there. So is there any point at all to telling this story?
IOF troops detain 845 Palestinians in three months including 105 children
Why Justice Won’t Be Done in the Itamar Murder Case

Palestine/ Israel Goldstone Links

Goldstone’s 3 colleagues on the UN Fact Finding Commission stand by report:

Mr. Goldstone notes that, according to the follow-up, Israel has begun 400 inquires into wrongdoing during the military campaign in Gaza, which it called Operation Cast Lead, and that much has been learned. His former colleagues say, by contrast, that of the 400 inquiries, 3 have yielded submissions for prosecution and 2 have led to someone being punished, in both cases with minor penalties.

“Therefore, the mechanisms that are being used by the Israeli authorities to investigate the incidents are proving inadequate to genuinely ascertain the facts and any ensuing legal responsibility,” they write.

“In addition, with regard to the issue of the policies guiding Operation Cast Lead, the committee states that there is ‘no indication that Israel has opened investigations into the actions of those who designed, planned, ordered and oversaw Operation Cast Lead.’ In other words, one of the most serious allegations about the conduct of Israel’s military operations remains completely unaddressed.”

The three conclude by saying that pressure had been applied to all members of the panel but that, unlike Mr. Goldstone, they had not yielded to it. They say: “Had we given in to pressures from any quarter to sanitize our conclusions, we would be doing a serious injustice to the hundreds of innocent civilians killed during the Gaza conflict, the thousands injured, and the hundreds of thousands whose lives continue to be deeply affected by the conflict and the blockade.

“The report has triggered a process that is still under way and should continue until justice is done and respect for international human rights and humanitarian law by everyone is ensured.”

The Goldstone Affair
Matter of Policy: Gaza War and Goldstone’s Moral Collapse
Finkelstein says Goldstone restored Israel’s only faculty (aggression) based on a claimed drone image it has never produced

Israel has produced hundreds of drone images and if it really had one of the single most shocking incident of the conflict, the al-Samouni attack of Jan. 5, 2009, as Goldstone and Israel state, why has this image not been produced?

Palestine / Israel Links

Vittorio Arrigoni: pacifist supporter of the Palestinian cause
Vittorio Arrigoni, “hero of Palestine”
Israeli Troops Demolish Homes Near Jericho
Michael Jansen: Murder of Vittorio Arrigoni
An open letter to our rabbinical colleagues
US committed to support Israeli crimes
Israeli tanks open fire in northern Gaza
Fatah: Netanyahu vision for provisional statehood problematic
“2Pac tortured by Jewish gangsters using Tel Aviv mob method”
“The problem will remain unresolved unless the United States steps forward, ” Brzezinski said. “I think it behooves the United States to step forward with a generalized framework of what the peace has to be.”
A Moment Of Silence
#BDS: No surprise Bob Dylan is visiting the ‘neighborhood bully’
60% of polled Israelis support a new war on Gaza
‘Lack of evidence’ in Gaza death probe: Israel – another coverup.
IDF leaders learn to be ‘humanitarian officers’ in battle – practise on occupying a Lebanese village.
Gaza police identify murder suspects
From the slavery of falsehood to the freedom of truth
3 Myths About Israel Promoted by the Right-Wing Pro-Israel Lobby

‘I never feel safe, not because of Palestinians but because of Israel’s leaders and policies.’
Ireland to press Israel on Gaza aid
There are nearly 34,000 African migrants in Israel and threaten the nation’s Jewish character.
Hebron Settler Leader: ‘Burn Awarta to Ground, Turn it to Ash’
PA: Jewish freedom holiday restricts Palestinians

Marrickville Links

Rates, roads – and justice in Gaza

Fiona Byrne: ‘When the resolution was passed, the council sought a report to provide comprehensive information about the potential impacts of the policy. The eventual report was unfortunately not in the spirit of the original motion, and the options presented were financially impractical. I personally believe that the council can support the campaign without having a negative financial impact on our ratepayers.

To this effect I will be tabling a mayoral minute tomorrow night recommending that the council maintain in-principle support for the campaign, while rescinding the part of the original motion which called for the council to implement the policy in our local area. I will also recommend we acknowledge Israel’s right to exist and condemn all acts of violence.

In this way Marrickville Council can continue to show our support for the Palestinians, while not having a financial burden on ratepayers or affecting the operations of the council.’

Backlash forces end to Israel boycott
Hey Barry O’Farrell, piss off out of Marrickville
Znet spin: Tech safe as Mayor set to dump Israel ban

Council’s Israeli boycott set to lose its teeth (The Australian spin)
Marrickville council – continue to stand on the right side of history!

It is disappointing but perhaps not surprising that your stand in support of freedom and equality has come under such intense scrutiny. This can only be seen as an attempt by Israel and its supporters to whitewash Israel’s system of occupation, colonisation and apartheid, and to character-assassinate or smear those who challenge it. People of conscience, cultural superstars, financial institutions, businesses, trade unions and faith groups all over the world are joining our non-violent movement. On behalf of Palestinian civil society, we are today writing to urge you to remain part of this moral struggle, to maintain your BDS policy and to find creative and tactically feasible ways in which to implement it.

John Pilger to Sydney’s Marrickville council; stand up for Palestine

“Sometimes, looked at from the outside, Australia is a strange place. In other ‘western democracies’ the ‘debate’ about the enduring injustice dealt the Palestinians and Israel’s lawlessness has moved forward to the point where the cynical campaign of anti-Semitism smears is no longer effective — in the UK, much of Europe and even the United States.

If Israel’s bloody assault on Lebanon was not the turning point, the criminal attack on the imprisoned population of Gaza certainly was. The same is true of the BDS movement. This eminently reasonable, decent and necessary campaign enjoys a respectability across the world, not least in South Africa, where it’s backed by the likes of Desmond Tutu and especially those Jews who fought the apartheid regime. The University of Johannesburg, the country’s biggest, has just broken all ties with Israel. Justice for Palestine, said, Mandela, is ‘the greatest moral issue of our time’. That’s the company those Marrickville councillors who have stood up for this ‘greatest moral issue’, keep. And those who have wavered and walked away should think again – remembering other waverers who, long ago, walked away from speaking out against what was being done to Jews. The scale is very different; the principle is the same. Do not be intimidated by Murdoch vendettas or by anyone else. All power to you.”

Joe Hildebrand : right-wing spambot – Michael Brull dissects a case of limp punditry against BDS
The new Greens – just another political party? : another rightwing limp lettuce leaf tilts at whinemills.
Left is a gift that keeps on giving : Tim Blair moans on as usual
Albanese bullies the Greens and lies about BDS which doesn’t advocate a one or two state solution: “The problem with the BDS is that it is a one-state solution, it doesn’t provide a way forward”.
Albanese’s hogwash : The Greens swipe at Albanese
@AlboMP the Australian has quoted you lying about #BDS – it doesn’t advocate 1 or 2 states http://is.gd/lXB6BP facts: http://is.gd/8gIiBC
Marrickville Council’s Israel boycott given support by local priests
News Ltd wages war on local council for supporting Palestinian human rights
Australian City Faces Attacks for Supporting BDS
Austin Mackell @austingmackell reminds the Marrickville Greens that matters of principle work both ways
Prominent academics and political and cultural figures write to Marrickville Council in support of BDS policy
Councillors and Mayors from UK, Spain and Sweden write to Marrickville Council in support of BDS policy
Greens’ boycott rebounds : More Australian slime
Albanese Merely Posturing over Marrickville Council

Libya Links

When War Games Go Live: “Staging” a “Humanitarian War” against “SOUTHLAND”
Using Libya to abort the Arab Spring
Gadhafi’s Cluster Bombs–and Uncle Sam’s
Nato must send in troops to save Misrata, say rebels : here comes the occupation?
Imperialist powers prepare escalation of Libyan war

Other Links

Public defenceless against influence-peddling arms race
91 victims and rising: Met police admits scale of phone hacking
Sri Lanka forces committed war crimes, says UN
U.S. Ranks Dead Last In Overall Social Spending
Hey Facebook: What’s SO wrong about a pic of two men kissing?
Criticism of Behrendt hides political agenda : ripping apart the NT Intervention.
Rich men in the tax-free kingdom of God

April 17, 2011December 11, 2020

Concerned Citizens Within Israel Letter to Marrickville Councillors

Letter to Marrickville Council from concerned citizens of Israel urging you to stand firm in your support of BDS

We are Israeli citizens who witness first-hand the brutality of our
government’s policies towards the Palestinian people. We stand firm
in our support of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) initiatives
against Israel until it meets its obligation to recognize the
Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination, and
fully complies with the precepts of international law.

We reject the notion promoted by demagogues, that the 2005 BDS call
from Palestine, and the BDS campaigns the world over which it has
inspired, are rooted in anti-Jewish sentiment. On the contrary, BDS is
an anti-racist movement against the daily, brutal occupation of
Palestine and the virulently racist policies towards Israel’s Palestinian
citizens.

We also reject the assertion that cultural and academic boycotts of
Israel defy the democratic principle of free speech. Research and
development in academic institutions play a central role in designing
and defending Israel’s military and intelligence machinery. Prominent
state-sponsored cultural institutions perpetuate the deception of
Israeli democracy, and serve as propaganda tools. Moreover, the BDS
campaign targets Israeli institutions, and does not bar Israeli
individuals from conducting research with partners abroad or Israeli
artists from performing abroad.

BDS was a key strategy in ending the white South African system of
apartheid by applying international pressure.

We warmly commend the groundbreaking stand taken by the Marrickville
Council in support of the Council in support of the democratic and non-violent BDS campaign for
justice and human rights and urge the council to stand firm in the
face of attempted intimidation and manipulation.

Sincerely,

Steve Amsel
Ronnen Ben-Arie
Matan Cohen
Adi Dagan
Prof. Rachel Giora
Rosamine Hayeem
Iris Hefets
Shir Hever
Yael Kahn
Dr. Anat Matar
Rela Mazali
Professor (emeritus) Moshé Machover
Dr. Dorothy Naor
Ofer Neiman
Amit Perelson
Itai Ryb
Herzl Schubert
Yonatan Shapira
Jonatan Stanczak
Ruth Tenne
Yana Ziferblat

On behalf of Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from within http://boycottisrael.info/

contact info

phone: 972-544-740825
boycottisrael.info

More Marrickville Council BDS Related Links

Fiona Byrne says she will will be tabling a mayoral minute

tomorrow night recommending that the council maintain in-principle support for the campaign, while rescinding the part of the original motion which called for the council to implement the policy in our local area. I will also recommend we acknowledge Israel’s right to exist and condemn all acts of violence.

In this way Marrickville Council can continue to show our support for the Palestinians, while not having a financial burden on ratepayers or affecting the operations of the council.

Zionist lobby told me Israel was democracy so damn you Palestinian activists calling for justice Wonder if pinkwasher “Jake” knows anything about the swastikas and other defacements of Greens’ electoral posters?

‘Jake, a 55-year-old Jewish health professional with friends in Marrickville, was so incensed by the council’s Israel boycott that he took three weeks off work to wage a guerrilla campaign against the Greens, plastering the suburb with posters late at night, accusing them of homophobia for boycotting gay-friendly Israel.

“I felt so angry,” says Jake, who wants to remain anonymous. “I couldn’t sleep at night, so I organised the posters, hired some utes and ladders” and enlisted the help of his son and his friends. Greens supporters harassed them, ripped down the posters, called police, and tried to intimidate Jake’s young helpers, posting footage of them on YouTube.

Two nights before the election, a “black sports car with neon high beams and a pseudo photographer kept flashing his camera right up on our eyes . . . It slowed us right down.”

Another night “cowboy” greenies in a Toyota Camry started following them home, until Jake confronted the driver at a roundabout. “It was like something out of a movie”.’

Marrickville Council to vote on Israeli boycott – Cr Victor Macri’s motion of withdrawal
Barry O’Farrell bans Marrickville’s Israel boycott: is he the new Menzies?

April 15, 2011December 11, 2020

Marrickville BDS Resolution Under Attack

The Marrickville Council vote on BDS will be next Tuesday 19th – please read the below information, then contact the people and media in the list – help Palestinians to convince the Council that the people are with them and that decency, human rights and justice should prevail by upholding the existing support for Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions of Israel.

ACTION ALERT: First Australian City Council BDS Victory Under Attack: Please Send Letters of Support

In December, 2010, the local council of Marrickville, which is a Sister City to Bethlehem, decided as part of its ethical investment and purchasing strategy, to endorse the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel until that country complies with international humanitarian law.

More information: http://coalitionforpalestine.org/bds/local-government/marrickvillebds : http://coalitionforpalestine.org/2011/04/14/marrickville-boycotts-update/
Links to media coverage: http://coalitionforpalestine.org/bds/media-links
Australians for Palestine

Below is the Marrickville Council resolution:

That:

1. In particular recognition of its sister city relationship with Bethlehem and the strong support for this relationship from local progressive faith communities and other community members, Marrickville Council support the principles of the BDS global campaign and report back on any links the Council has with organisations or companies that support or profit from the Israeli military occupation of Palestine with a view to the Council divesting from such links and imposing a boycott on any future such links or goods purchases.

2. Marrickville Council boycott all goods made in Israel and any sporting, institutional academic, government or institutional cultural exchanges.

3. Marrickville Council write to the local State and Federal ministers (Carmel Tebbutt and Anthony Albanese) informing them of Council’s position and seeking their support at the State and Federal level for the global BDS movement.

First Australian City Council BDS Victory Under Attack – Please write a letter of support!
by Anna Baltzer on Thursday, 14 April 2011 at 15:00

Opponents of Marrickville’s historic BDS resolution are claiming it will cost taxpayers millions and must be overturned. The pressure is on. Please write a letter of support bcc’ing the councillors’ email address listed here. To see an example, I have included my letter to them below…

CONTACT DETAILS OF MARRICKVILLE COUNCILLORS

Deputy Mayor Clr Sam Iskandar (ALP) 9558 7927 0408 210 618

Clr Victor Macri (Independent) 9569 2865 0408 219 260

Clr Max Phillips (Greens) 0419 444 916

Mayor Clr Fiona Byrne (The Greens) 0401 719 120

Clr Cathy Peters (Greens) 0419 444 974

Clr Laura Wright (ALP) 9560 8707 0419 444 560

Clr Morris Hanna (Independent) 9569 1447 0417 660 997

Clr Peter Olive (The Greens) 9559 8901 0401 719 148

Clr Mary O’Sullivan (ALP) 9559 8980 0419 444 889

Clr Marika Kontellis (The Greens) 9590 3898 0409 076 708

Clr Dimitrios Thanos (Independent) 9569 0199 0414 403 173

Clr Emanuel Tsardoulias (ALP) 0432 684 120

The meeting will be held on
6:30pm, Tuesday 19 April 2011
at Marrickville Council, 2 Fisher Street, Petersham (Level 3 of the Administrative Centre)

ADDRESSES FOR YOUR EMAILS TO THE MEDIA:

Sydney Morning Herald
Inner West Courier
The Australian
The Daily Telegraph (Sydney)
Go to this page and scroll to the bottom to find the form for your letter:
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/your-say

Dear Councillor,

I urge you to continue the Marrickville boycott against Israel until it complies with international law. The recent report implying that taking a stand against human rights violations by Israel would mean losing millions is ill-conceived for several reasons:

1. The companies mentioned are not primary targets of BDS and need not be a focus for Marrickville. As in the BDS movement against Apartheid South Africa, specific companies and products can be chosen to boycott/divest from. It is largely a symbolic act to send a message of disapproval to Israel.

2. Much of the boycott wouldn’t cost a cent, including cultural and sports boycott. Australia has a proud history of using the sports boycott to help topple Apartheid South Africa.

The report seemingly argues that Marrickville should not uphold principles of human rights and international law because it’s too expensive to do so. What a cruel assertion. As I said, it need not be expensive, and furthermore, to *not* uphold these principles comes at a very dear cost to the Palestinian people. Please, do not be deterred from your courageous stance by this ill-conceived report.

Best,

Anna

Marrickville Council is now under attack from the NSW State Government with Barry O’Farrell threatening an overthrow. Australia’s democracy takes another backward step, thanks to a concerted smear and tactical campaign against it by a coalition of rightwing Christian and Jewish zionists.

In a letter to Greens Mayor Fiona Byrne, Mr O’Farrell threatened to use his powers under the Local Government Act to move against the Sydney council if it did not comply.

In the letter, the premier gave the council a 28-day deadline.

Ms Byrne may lose her job if she doesn’t back down.

Someone leaked a Marrickville council report to the gutter press which is being interpreted as though it were Council policy, but it isn’t. No targets for boycott have been decided upon. BDS is a creative tactic, and people can choose their targets to suit – the aim being to highlight the target’s collaboration with and potentiation of the illegal Israeli Occupation and apartheid.

More information has come to light about who was involved in the nefarious pushpolls prior to the NSW State elections:

The Inner West Jewish Community and Friends Peace Alliance yesterday published the results of a controversial survey conducted in March on residents’ attitudes to the boycott.

Almost two-thirds of residents said they disagreed, to varying degrees, with the boycott, while about 30 per cent supported it.

The group did not identify itself in the survey and several residents complained to the council. The Greens labelled it a ”push poll” and council staff directed the survey company to properly identify on whose behalf the poll was being conducted.

The old blogs of the group have been removed, but from a screenshot of the cached page and a post from March 3 we find:

The Inner West Jewish Community and Friends Peace Alliance is a local grassroots group which formed as a response to the December 14 2010 resolution by Marrickville Council to boycott Israel. Local members of Newtown Synagogue and the Inner West Chavurah, as well as other local Jewish and Israeli people and concerned friends, have met and set up networks to discuss the issues and coordinate ways of seeking to have the resolution overturned.

….

We want the local community, the political parties and the broader Australian community to become aware that a local government boycott of Israel is not an acceptable strategy for seeking Middle East peace and justice. We think it is extremely important to ensure that this first local government attempting to implement the boycott will be convinced by their constituents and by intelligent public opinion to reconsider and recast their boycott decision. The March state election is giving candidates and voters the opportunity to consider what an Israel boycott means, and to ask questions such as whether local or state governments should be deciding foreign policy.

….

‘We have plans for some carefully targeted media coverage and advertising in relation to the election. These strategies are expensive, but we believe they will be successful. We have been fortunate to have ongoing help and advice from very capable professionals. Also, we have among our own numbers people who are deeply involved in the Jewish community, and we are in frequent communication with Vic Alhadeff and Yair Miller from the Jewish Board of Deputies as well as Peter Wertheim from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.

We need to raise approximately $12,000 in the next two-three weeks to carry out the activities that we believe will make a decisive difference. All the professional work that is being done for the campaign has been donated pro bono, but there are unavoidable advertising and research costs we will need to pay.’

…

If you would like to contribute to the success of this campaign, please donate what you can. Please also pass this information on quietly to like-minded friends.

Clearly, the op was to be on the quiet. And this piece shows that it was BDS, not the Greens, which were the main target of the Coalition “of the delegitimisers of the delegitimisers” (CoDDs). Fred Nile must be smirking now. Are the CoDDs playing Australian pollies like skittles?

Why should people be able to buy our political process to enable more persecution of Palestinian people? For Israel, Palestinian people are cattle to be herded and penned arbitrarily, their homes demolished, their lands stolen, their rights denied. This is systematic collective punishment and apartheid and decent Australians need to ignore the pleas of folks who support such horrendous behaviour. With absolute unconscious irony, the group’s petition takes the same approach as used at the rorting of the Berkeley divestment motion – that BDS will ‘divide’ the community. These are the folks who support the illegal apartheid wall which constitutes an Israeli land grab as well as caging Israel’s hapless indigenous people while the ziocolonials steal more and more of what remains of the swiss cheese that is the West Bank.

Who’s After Andrew Wilkie?

Andrew Wilkie ‘regrets’ army bastardisation, renews claims of clubs’ smear campaign
AFP opens file on Andrew Wilkie death threats ‘Clubs and hotels on Monday launched a $20 million print, television and radio campaign against the proposed changes.’
Gillard promises to uphold commitment to Independent MP on pokie reform, defy clubs
MP Andrew Wilkie accused of Nazi outrage

Palestine / Israel Links

ISM confirms the death of Vittorio Arrigoni
Italian peace activist killed in Gaza
You Have The Right To Remain Occupied
Israeli security forces are detaining hundreds in Awarta– Why?
goodbye my friend
GoodBye Vittorio Arrigoni, killed in Gaza 15\4\2011
Turkey tells Israel: Gaza flotilla not up to us
FBI : Tupac Shakur was a victim of a Jewish terror group
Goldstone has not backed down in his criticisms of Israel or Hamas.
U.S. scuppered Israeli security firm’s South American plans : another example of the US stomping on Israel when it interfers with US interests.
Tarabin’s Nakba in the Negev
Despite what the rightwing shills for Israel say elsewhere on the Australian (still no comments published), Marrickville council says Israel boycott won’t cost ratepayers $4 million. I submit the below at the bottom of the former story (the Australian is publishing comments again, or is it just pro-Israel comments?):

Boycotts, divestments and sanctions are a principled means of achieving justice and rights for oppressed Palestinians, and they are legitimised by the fact that Palestinian civil society itself called for them, as attempts by governments to sanction Israel’s impunity and disregard for international law have failed due to the support it receives from other settler colonial states. As Martin Luther King said, ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere’. I salute the conscientious people of Marrickville and their councillors who are attempting to stand up to the outrageous bullying, death threats and so on from supporters of Israel’s oppression and apartheid. Boycotts, divestments and sanctions were largely responsible for the end of apartheid in South Africa. Australians rightly supported that movement too. Stand up against bullies, folks, otherwise they are only encouraged to continue their disgraceful behaviour.

Another beatup here.
Max Ajl deconstructs assumptions behind the ‘incorrigible and tenaciously ignorant Grant Smith/Idrees Ahmad’s video “US-Israel Trade: Espionage, Theft and Secrets..”‘
Remembering Juliano
Recognising Palestine? by Ali Abunimah

‘The PA’s push for recognition of a Palestinian state is the diplomatic counterpart to its much-touted “institution-building” and “economic development” efforts which are supposed to create the infrastructure for a future state.

But the institution-building program is nothing more than a mirage, boosted by public relations tricks and good press.

In fact, the main “institutions” the PA has built are the police-state and militia apparatuses used to repress political opposition to the PA and any form of resistance to Israeli occupation. Meanwhile the economy of the West Bank, and the PA itself, remain completely dependent on foreign aid.

UN recognition of a Palestinian make-believe state would be no more meaningful than this fantasy “institution-building”, and could push Palestinians even further away from real liberation and self-determination.
…
Rather than fetishising “statehood”, the BDS campaign focuses on rights and realities: it calls for an end to Israel’s occupation and colonisation of all Arab lands conquered in 1967; full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel; and respect for and implementation of the rights of Palestinian refugees. These demands are all fully consistent with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international law.

The PA has never endorsed this campaign, and in fact has sought to distract from and undermine it by calling only for a half-hearted boycott of Israeli settlement goods while actively promoting trade with Israel in violation of the BDS call.
…
Palestinians and their allies should not be distracted by this international theatre of the absurd, but should focus on building wider and deeper BDS campaigns to end Israeli apartheid everywhere that it exists, once and for all.”

Zionion Exclusive: Scorsese to Helm ‘Difficult’ Second Flotilla
Birth Certificate for a Palestinian State
Israel Grants Settlers Gun Licensing
Barghouti Urges Israel Boycott

“Equality never destroys people. It destroys a racist system,” he said.
…
“There is absolutely no comparison in the level of violence perpetrated by the perpetrator, the occupying power, and that of the resistance,” said Barghouti. “To end all violence, you must eliminate the roots of violence, which is occupation and apartheid.”

Goldstone Commission Members Affirm Study Findings

Responding on April 14 in the London Guardian, Commission members Hina Jilani, Christine Chinkin and Desmond Travers headlined, “Goldstone report: Statement issued by members of UN mission on Gaza war,” saying without mentioning Goldstone by name:

Recent articles and comments on the Commission’s work “have misrepresented facts in an attempt to delegitimize the findings of (its) report and to cast doubts on its credibility.”

The four-member Commission’s report “is now an official UN document and all actions taken pursuant to its findings and recommendations fall solely within the purview of the United Nations general assembly which, along with the human rights council, reviewed and endorsed it at the end of 2009.”

“Aspersions cast on the findings (however) cannot be left unchallenged.” Jilani, Chinkin and Travers dispute efforts to claim “any part of the mission’s report unsubstantiated, erroneous or inaccurate.”

Vittorio Arrigoni, ISM worker, Kidnapped in Gaza
My Abduction by the Israelis – Vittorio Arrigoni
Hamas worried about rise in support for religious sects

Libya Links

NATO Nations Commit to Ending Gadhafi Rule

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the world must increase its support for the Libyan opposition. Speaking to reporters alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Clinton said Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi must go.

“We are also sharing the same goal which is to see the end of the Gadhafi regime in Libya and we are contributing in many ways to see that goal realized,” she said.

But Rasmussen again distanced himself from arming the Libyan rebels on Thursday, saying it was NATO’s mandate to also enforce the arms embargo on Libya. He said that while NATO members were committed to protecting civilians in Libya, ousting Gadhafi demanded a political track.

“I fully agree there is no military solution to the problems in Libya. What we need to ensure a long term sustainable solution is a political process that responds to the legitimate demands of the Libyan people,” he said.

Rasmussen did not respond directly to the question of whether NATO was advising Libyan rebels on military strategy. He said the alliance had contacts with the opposition but it was up to them to decide day-to-day strategy.

Australia Links

It’s budget time, and out come the furphies about the jobless

April 12, 2011December 11, 2020

Omar Barghouti on Israel’s New Attack of Gaza and BDS

After delays and unscrupulous attempts to keep him out of the US, Omar Barghouti is finally allowed into the US for his speaking tour to promote his new book, Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights.

Omar comments on BDS, the current Israeli onslaught in Gaza, US complicity and the overall Middle East scene.

We’re seeing a not just sea change in Arab diplomacy after the departure of Mubarak, the dictator of Egypt. First we saw the U.S. veto against its own position for decades that Israel’s colonial settlements are illegal and an obstacle to peace. The U.S. had to veto that, because there was no longer Mubarak to do its dirty work. If Mubarak were still around, he would have pressured the Palestinians to pull this out of the Security Council and not to embarrass the U.S. So the U.S. had to vote against its own position and to stand in this little dark corner with Israel facing the entire world community. So we’re seeing here some change, some real change, in the tone of the Arab League and of the Arab officials towards the Palestinians. Absolutely, a no-fly zone is more justified than ever over Gaza. Why should it be over Libya only, and Israelis, as an occupying power, continue to bomb Gaza with U.S. weaponry, F-16s and U.S. missiles?
…
Israel is feeling this complete imbalance in its so-called Arab neighbor. So, Israel is losing that cover, and this is extremely important for our movement. And it has given a boost to the Palestinian nonviolent movement, especially in the form of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. We saw a lot of growth around the world.
…
In the last year or so, especially after the attack on the flotilla, we’ve seen a very steep rise in cultural boycott of Israel. So we’re connecting this with the cultural resistance on the ground. It’s not just that the Palestinians are continuing to produce culture to counter Israel’s occupation and apartheid, but we’re also calling on performers, musicians, theater directors, and so on, not to perform in Israel, as they did during the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa.
…
The BDS movement is based on international law and universal principles of human rights. We have Israeli partners. We have many faith communities, many trade unions supporting the movement now. It has really grown drastically, and this is why it’s worrying Israel, because it has not yet developed a weapon to counter this simple nonviolent movement. It’s not a centralized, dogmatic kind of movement. It doesn’t have a very difficult agenda. It’s a basic, liberal, decent agenda based on human rights that any person can join. And many people have been joining.

Full transcript here.

Omar Barghouti : “People have rights, and when we say we want to end Israel’s multitiered system of oppression…we must immediately, in the same sentence, say people have equal rights in every formal way” . Author, activist and professor Sarah Schulman has been involved with the Palestinian queer movement, emphasizing that their struggle is deeply tied to the struggle to end the occupation.

Palestine / Israel Links

UN General Assembly Campaign for Palestinian State Gathers Momentum
UN General Assembly “Uniting for Palestine”
Raymond Deane: ‘Mr Geldof should consider whether it was “appropriate” to attend the IsraAid conference because “the criminal actions of the Israeli state have resulted in the Palestinians being more dependent on humanitarian aid than any people on earth”.’
VEOLIA: Another BDS victory as Veolia dumped from possible billion pound tender

Fight to rescind the Goldstone report reaches the US Congress : the evil ziolobby in the US attempts to quash the evidence of war crimes. This is possibly an indication of the fear by which this report is held by the ziolobby. Fortunately, the UN is not subject to this sort of outrageous bullying and the UNGA may take this as further incitement against it and react in the opposite manner to which the ziolobby intends. I’m hoping for a Uniting for Peace resolution which will permit Israel and its scumbag US accomplice to be thwarted by ICC action regardless of US power.

‘According to Ros-Lehtinen, the initiative will “make it U.S. policy to demand that the UN General Assembly revoke and repudiate the Goldstone Report and any UN resolutions stemming from the report, and will refund to U.S. taxpayers their share of the costs for the report and its follow-on measures.”’

Lieberman speaks from his pulpit – busy flushing the evidence?
SAMAH SABAWI: The horrible truth about Gaza
Lieberman: Israel should topple Hamas
Major-General Dangot admits that Israeli war crimes are state policy:

“They know very well that we’ll hit public institutions and have even instructed students to continue attending school,” he said, adding, “How ironic that while their kids continue to attend school, they keep firing rockets deep into Israeli territory.”

The Goldstone Chronicles
Goldstone Flinched Due To Social Pressure – din rodefed?

Goldstone’s community in Johannesburg summoned Goldstone to a meeting with the Jewish Federation at which communal leaders essentially indicted Goldstone for being a traitor.

Israel must respond disproportionately – Israeli ex-IDF justifies war crimes, admits intent :

As our southern towns continue to come under heavy fire, Israel must respond disproportionately until normalcy and calm are reestablished and our waning deterrence has been restored

Lieberman: Gaza ceasefire is not in Israel’s interests
‘Boycott Israel’ campaign challenges apartheid
Sudan: We have proof that Israel was behind strike
Mutual deterrence between Israel and Gaza is working
Supreme Court is on wrong side of West Bank separation fence
Education Ministry hunting for Arab teachers absent on Land Day
Lieberman to be served draft indictment for graft in next 24 hours
Ran Greenstein: Reflections on academic boycotts in the wake of the UJ-BGU campaign
9 more detained in latest Awarta sweep
Haaretz WikiLeaks exclusive / Israel ruled out military option on Iran years ago
It’s democracy stupid

Where exactly is the extremism with this vision that is “rooted in a century-old history of civil, non-violent resistance against settler colonialism, occupation and ethnic cleansing”? The extremism is more likely to be found in the anti-BDS propaganda, comparing this unarmed resistance to the Nazi boycott of Jews in 1930’s, whereby “dehumanizing them…is a vital step on the way to genocide”.
…
Australia’s bipartisan loyalty to Israel is apparently in question when the Greens gain the balance of power in the Senate in three months. Is this because the major parties need to save face with Israel or Australia?. Over 100 Australian leaders have ‘graduated’ from the Rambam Israel Fellowship, including Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd, Alexander Downer and Bill Shorten. The six day program is engineered by the Israeli Foreign Ministry. By their own admission, the Rambam organisers have declared that “for the money we invest in, you can’t ask for better results”.

The latest vilification of the BDS campaign is yet another example of a return on this investment.

The AIJAC organisation which pays for the Rambam hasbara fellowships which 100 pollies etc have been on is a private organisation which doesn’t disclose its funding. Sourcewatch says:

‘The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) is a right wing lobby group based in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. On its website and in the media, AIJAC often claims to represent the Australian Jewish community, stating that it “represents the interests of the Australian Jewish community to government, media and other community groups and organisations.” [1]. In reality, it is a small, privately funded think tank which represents no one but its own small membership.

AIJAC describes itself as a think tank, however it does not do original research, and focuses mostly on political lobbying. It has been described as “an aggressive, no holds barred, privately funded, political lobby group. It is variously described as “the only effective organisation that lobbies for Israel”, a “Melbourne based pro-Zionist think-tank”, “Zionist propagandists”, “contentious”, but not a body, according to the President of the New South Wales Board of Deputies, “that is in any elected or democratic sense representative of the community”. ‘

‘AIJAC’s website states that it is “associated with” the American Jewish Committee’

One funder that it has exposed is The Pratt Foundation:

“The Pratt Foundation was established in 1978 by Richard and Jeanne Pratt with the shared vision of supporting charitable enterprises and adding value to philanthropy. The Foundation is now one of the largest private sources of philanthropy in Australia. In the words of its mission statement, it aims “to enrich the lives of our community” and, in the words of Jeremiah, it works to fulfil this aim in a spirit of “kindness, justice and equity”.” [1]

“Through the Pratt Foundation, Visy donates over $10 million to a wide range of causes.”

The Pratt Foundation donates to the JNF.

Can’t find anything about its funding of AIJAC on its sites.

The foundation has an australian and israeli website.

Pratt went down for price fixing in 2008, fined $36m. He returned his Order of Australia.

An oldie but goody on Rambam thank you ma’ams. Possibly where Wakim got the inaccuracy about the Israeli government funding RamBams.

Rambamming Makes the Front Page
Hamas, Palestinian Authority Not Ordering Iron Dome Defense System
The Sharp End of Hebron

The Israeli government is clever in using settlers. They are trying to say that Hebron is important for religious history, but what I hear from settlers is that it is a step towards taking Nablus, Ramallah, and the entire West Bank. Hebron is a frontline. If they succeed here in their campaign of ethnic cleansing under the banner of religion, they will move on to new goals.

The Australian runs dodgy book review misquoting the Balfour Declaration
Norman Finkelstein spoke at a Students for Justice in Palestine event.

Reading from a Wikileaks document, Finkelstein revealed that Israeli officials privately announced to an American representative that Israel planned to bring Gaza’s economy to the brink of collapse.

“There never has been, is not, and never will be a peace process,” Finkelstein said. “Rational people don’t judge by words, they judge by outcomes and results. Truthfully, it is an annexation process that uses peace as a facade.”

Tap Dancing to AIPAC’s Tune

But when Israel supporters whine about the “anti-Israel climate on campus”, let’s not forget that the only groups with money to take out full-page ads are Israel advocates.

Netanyahu mulling West Bank pullout to stave off ‘diplomatic tsunami’

Libya Links

Libyan rebels reject African cease-fire proposal
Libya after the NATO invasion

For the people of Libya, there can be no quick fix. Not only will the post-invasion Libyan state lack the means to defend its sovereignty externally, a post-invasion Libyan government will need to accommodate a highly fractured society through patient coalition-building, if Libyan society is not to disintegrate into an Afghan-style civil war.

That necessary work will have to be political, not military. For that work to begin, the first prerequisite is an end to the NATO invasion and a ceasefire.

Australia

The Greens and Palestine

‘the attack the NSW Greens have endured is not simply about discrediting the third force in Australian politics – although that certainly is one of the aims. This campaign of slander is, more broadly, an attempt to intimidate anyone even thinking about taking a principled anti-racist stance against Israel.

The right’s unwavering devotion to Israel’s cause is not, as they claim, a function of their support for freedom and democracy, but a reflection of their unquestioning support for Western domination of the Arab world. For that reason at least, supporters of Palestine need to stand firm against the ravings of the pro-Zionist right.’

Wikileaks Links

#Wikileaks @ioerror harassed & detained at airport AGAIN by CBP who say ‘You remember 9/11? That’s why!’ #US #fascism #policestate #
@ioerror Of course, I was again denied access to my lawyer, again denied information on my “random” screening, and I missed my connecting flight. #
@ioerror While asking questions, they located Gene Sharp books about authoritarianism and obedience. Apparently, something some passengers lack. #
@ioerror When I discussed my detainment with one of the officers, before I’d missed my flight, I was told that I was making it harder on myself. #
@ioerror The actual interactions with the border guards are certainly becoming less and less pleasant. The CBP agents in Texas also served in Iraq. #
@ioerror Needless to say, I do not actually believe that Americans are safer because Agent Rodriguez and his buddies were Army snipers in Iraq. #

Other Links

7 Examples of How the Poor Are Being Robbed to Give More Wealth to the Rich
Arab Government Human Rights Abuses in 2010

April 10, 2011December 11, 2020

The Hypocrisy of Israeli Oppression : Cast Lead Revisited?

The Israeli onslaught on the people of Gaza is following an analogous trajectory as that before the full scale massacre of Operation Cast Lead. Perhaps spurred tactically by Goldstone’s unfortunate recent statements, Israel deliberately instigated and fuelled the new attack on the defenceless people in Gaza who subsist in the largest open air prison in the world, under brutal military occupation for 44 years and now besieged for nearly 1,400 days. 52% of Gaza’s population are children. Perhaps Gaza should disguise itself as a yellow bus.

After the Izzin Al Qassam brigade fired an anti-tank missile into a school bus, claiming they thought it was a military vehicle, Israel had its chance to justify its previous violence and provocations as well as to play into its tactical victimhood posture, already primed by blaming Palestinians for the Itamar murders and Jerusalem bus bomb despite no culprits having been found. Hamas has offered cease fires twice, and both offers have been contemptuously rejected by Israel. Israel, as with Operation Cast Lead, seeks a macabre ‘blood quota’ from the defenceless citizens of Gaza, over whom the Israeli Public Security Minister has declared an official state policy of collective punishment – there is “no immunity for anyone in Gaza.”

Despite Israel having conducted continuous previous provocations, it has utilised the bus incident, raining a deluge of strikes on Gaza which have killed at this point nearly 20 people:

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, issued a sharp warning to Hamas and other groups. “The attack on the children’s bus was crossing a red line. Heaven help those who try to hurt and murder children,” he said.

Yet Israel has been killing Palestinian children with impunity for 63 years.

Like most privileged groups, Israeli zionists consistently feel it is others, Palestinians, who should change and that violence, including acts prohibited by international law, is a legitimate tool to force the required change. Then the zionist elite expect Israel to be ‘liked’ and respected by those whom they cast as lesser beings and repress brutally. However, oppressed Palestinians don’t necessarily dislike anyone on an individual basis. The oppressed people would just like the oppression and violation of their rights to end. Israel on the other hand, pursues policies of collective punishment and a strategy of expansionism and belligerence. The Palestine Papers reveal how Israel consistently stretches out and sabotages the fake ‘peace process’ with impossible offers and intransigence, while illegal ziocolonists nibble away at the West Bank and East Jerusalem with impunity and encouragement, tacit and overt, from the Israeli regime, further entrenching existing apartheid.

Occupied people have the right, affirmed in the 4th Geneva Conventions, to resist their Occupiers. Recognising that no other methods have led to liberation, Palestinian people called in 2005 for non-violent boycotts, divestments and sanctions in order to obtain their just human and political rights Please help rightsless Palestinians end the occupation and attain the rights most of us take for granted in our own lands by answering their call. Only when oppression and injustice to the indigenous Palestinian people has ended will the violence also stop.

Palestinian resistance declared cease-fire that starts at 11 pm Gaza time but it was one-sided, Israel didn’t oblige instead they responded by continuous shelling and air raids.

They re-raided the border line between Gaza and Egypt. Egyptian local news sources reported that a shell fell on a land inside Egyptian Rafah but with no reported injuries.

All dead and injured in Gaza were civilians.

Huge power outages took place in Khan Younis and Rafah after Israel’s heavy shelling on Gaza, many power lines and converters were damaged.

Explosions, sporadic fire and Israeli warplanes were heard till 3 am of April the 8th.

It looks like the upcoming days will bring more assaults and attacks.

So to be continued….

Teen critically injured in attack on Negev bus
Two hurt in missile strike on bus carrying students near Gaza

Following the attack, the Israel Defense Forces quickly retaliated and launched both land and air strikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, the IDF spokesperson said, killing a 50-year-old man and wounding five others.

Defense Minister, Ehud Barak ordered the army to respond quickly and said he held the Hamas militant group, which rules Gaza, responsible for the violence. There was no claim of responsibility for the attack.

The strike came following several weeks of tension and mutual attacks along Israel’s border with the Hamas-ruled Strip, with Israel Defense Forces aircraft striking smuggling tunnels in southern Gaza earlier Thursday.

On Tuesday, IDF tanks fired at and killed an armed Palestinian approaching the Gaza Strip’s border with Israel on Tuesday, as three mortar bombs exploded in Israeli soil.

The incident took place after an IDF force spotted an armed Palestinian near the Erez crossing at the Strip’s north, later directing tank fire to the spot. No injuries were reported from among the soldiers.

On Saturday, IDF planes struck a vehicle travelling at the south of the Gaza Strip, killing three Hamas operatives, one of them a top commander in Hamas’ military wing.

An IDF Spokesperson stated that the three men were members of a terrorist cell that was “planning to kidnap Israelis over the upcoming Jewish holiday of Passover” in Israel and in the Sinai Peninsula, a popular spring tourist destination for Israelis.

The Palestinian Ma’an news agency identified the three as Isma’il Labad and his brother Abdullah from Ash-Shati’ refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, and military commander Muhammad Ad-Dayah from the Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City.

Ad-Dayah, 33, is considered to be a top Hamas military official. As a child he participated in the first intifada, later serving as the bodyguard of former Hamas chief Abdel Aziz Rantisi. Ad-Dayah also lost one of his eyes during an attempted mortar attack on a nearby settlement.

Hamas vowed vengeance against Israel in a statement Saturday, describing the strike as a crime and “serious escalation” of the recent violence, and vowed that Israel would “bear all the consequences.” The militant group also called on the U.S. to stop the flow of financial aid to Israel.

Prior to the attack, Palestinian militants have fired rocket salvos into Israel, reaching as far as the major southern city Be’er Sheva, and Israel has carried out a series of air strikes.

RT @avinunu: Mahmoud, aged 10, was murdered by Israel on Mar 22, earlier in its deliberate escalation of Gaza violence http://is.gd/6PrIsb
Violence erupts across Gaza border

The fire from Gaza on Thursday began a few hours after Israel’s air force bombed sites which it said were smuggling tunnels in the northern Gaza Strip, said Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharanot. Palestinian sources reported that four people were injured in those stikes.

Bethlehem-based Ma’an News Agency said three of the overnight air strikes hit the southern Gaza Strip – one in the Yebna refugee camp, a second in the Barazili neighbourhood and a third hit tunnels near the Salah Ad-Din district. The fourth hit an area east of Gaza City, said Ma’an.

@Omar_Gaza: Breaking: New martyr in Gaza khaled Al Dibari 23 4m Rafah #Gaza, total= 4 dead 30+ injured. #

Barghouti: Israel trying to thwart reconciliation
Israeli attacks on Gaza kill 5, injure 30

“Many of those wounded [have] moderate to light [injuries]. More than ten of the wounded are children. In the southern city of Rafah, Israeli shelling hit a mosque and caused the injury of 14 persons, including women and children. Israeli shells also hit an ambulance, wounding two crew members,” Adham Abu Silimiya, spokesperson for the ambulance service in Gaza, told The Electronic Intifada.

Israeli air strikes struck residents’ homes in eastern Gaza, a government building in northern Gaza and underground tunnels in southern Gaza.
…
The Izzedin al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in retaliation for Israel’s 1 April extrajudicial killing of three Hamas members in Gaza.

New York, 7 April 2011 – Statement attibutable to the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General on violence in Gaza and southern Israel
Netanyahu: Israel will take any action necessary in Gaza Strip

The U.S. State Department condemned the bus attack, and expressed concern about use of advanced anti-tank weapons against civilians.

“We condemn the attack on innocent civilians in southern Israel in the strongest possible terms, and on-going rocket fire from Gaza,” the statement read. “There is no justification for the targeting of innocent civilians and those responsible for these terrorist attacks should be held accountable.”

“We are deeply about concerned about reports that indicate the use of an advanced anti-tank weapon in an attack against civilians.”

Despite Ceasefire Declared by Palestinian Factions, Army Bombards More Areas In Gaza
@Palaestina: israeli terrorist forces continue to bombard Khuza3a in besieged #Gaza #Palestine #
@Palaestina: 2 martyrs in Khan Younsi and at least 3 wounded in continued israeli air raids on besieged #Gaza #Palestine #
Gaza gov’t files complaint to UN over strikes
BDS rooted in law and human rights
Rumors that Israel has fallen out of favor in the EU are exaggerated
Erekat condemns ‘systematic Israeli escalation’
Hamas says didn’t mean to target Israeli school bus

BREAKING NEWS: Israeli Embassy in Cairo Under Siege
Palestinian factions resume firing homemade shells into Israel, causing no injuries
Death toll rises in deadly Gaza strikes

Palestine / Israel Links

In Memoriam: Deir Yassin
Transient Is Sought in Blast at California Synagogue
Concern For the Future of Israel
Israeli wide demolitions in Aqaba village this morning
Interview with Norman Finkelstein: ‘Israel has bigger problems than me’
Goldstone Flinched For Reason So Many Progressive Jews Do: Social Pressure
Ladysmith Black Mambazo not performing in Israel
If anyone tells you the next war on #Gaza started because a rocket hit a bus in #Israel, show them this http://bit.ly/fqURgy
Libya and Gaza explained by Fanon and Sartre
Merkel: Unilateral recognition of Palestinian state may not push peace forward
Beating up on the Greens, Australian style
Mendes’ mendacious article in the Oz : Israel boycott harms Arabs, too
Palestinians utterly ignored by Murdoch press when talking Palestine

Latest WikiLeaks cables reveal Israel’s fears and alliances
Planned US lawsuit against Goldstone ‘still in early phase’

A group of American Jewish lawyers is preparing a civil lawsuit against Richard Goldstone for libel, but when and where it will be filed has yet to be determined.

The proposed class action lawsuit was initiated by Likud MK Danny Danon, as reported by The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. He discussed the idea in conversation with American attorneys during a recent visit to the United States. It would demand that Goldstone publicly apologize to the State of Israel and pay a symbolic amount of damages for the accusations he made in his UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict report.

Goldstone Flinched For Reason So Many Progressive Jews Do: Social Pressure
An amazing magic trick by Israel. Now you see it…now you don’t.

Hamas is no angel, they receive NO sympathy from me. But they appear to be much more efficient than Israel at not killing civilians using makeshift rockets and suicide bombings even though Israel is using state of the art U.S weaponry. Perhaps Israel should get some pointers from Hamas on how to avoid civilian deaths. And as far as I know Hamas hasn’t prevented freedom of movement or the oportunity to have a future for Israeli civilians. Funny how opinions can change. It’s like magic

God Retracts Key Biblical Pledge, Apologises for Harm Caused to Humankind
Spectacular New Ceasefire Pictures
Latest WikiLeaks cables reveal Israel’s fears and alliances

On 12 November 2009 the embassy reported the views of the general responsible for Gaza and southern Israel, Major General Yoav Galant, that Hamas needed to be “strong enough to enforce a ceasefire”.

He told the Americans: “Israel’s political leadership has not yet made the necessary policy choices among competing priorities: a short-term priority of wanting Hamas to be strong enough to enforce the de facto ceasefire and prevent the firing of rockets and mortars into Israel; a medium priority of preventing Hamas from consolidating its hold on Gaza; and a longer-term priority of avoiding a return of Israeli control of Gaza and full responsibility for the wellbeing of Gaza’s civilian population.”

Rudd: Greens won’t touch Israel policy

Rudd, who last month completed an exhaustive tour of the Middle East, including a visit to Israel, Jordan and two visits to Egypt, speculated the region’s future looked rocky.
He warned observers must keep watch on how some of the countries currently transitioning to democracy use that democracy.

“If a political movement uses a democratic process to obtain political power then extinguishes democracy once having obtained power and resorts to undemocratic means to exercise that power – that is what we must be mindful of across the Middle East,” he said.

He also noted Egyptian opinion polls had set Amr Moussa, a man who is not known as a friend to Israel, as frontrunner in the presidential elections.

Rudd, though, was guarded in his assessment of Moussa’s stance towards the ongoing presence of a Jewish State in the region.

“It is important that we work to understand what policies he would bring to bear in relation to Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the future of the Middle East peace process,” the Foreign Minister said.

Haaretz Wikileaks exclusive / Bahrain King boasted of intelligence ties with Israel

The king said he was pleased with the developments in the peace process.

He also revealed to the ambassador that he had instructed his public information minister to stop referring to Israeli in official statements of the kingdom as the “enemy” or the “Zionist entity.”

Monroe asked the Bahraini king whether he would agree to have trade relations with Israel. According to the telegram, the king thought it was too early and that the matter would have to wait until after a Palestinian state was established.

Wikileaks to publish Israeli cables soon, including Moghniyeh’s assassination
Shin Bet chief: Arab MKs flirting with enemy

According to the leaked documents, in one instance, Shin Bet Chief Yuval Diskin offered American counterparts, the organization’s stance on the sensitive subject of Israeli Arabs; many of whom “have taken their liberties too far.”

According to the leaked cables, Diskin said that some in the Israeli-Arab public see themselves as Arabs and Muslims first and Israeli citizens last. He also criticized the Arab MKs, saying they were “flirting with the enemy.”

The Shin Bet chief allegedly said that “(…) these people don’t spread Israel’s democratic values and principles, and abuse their diplomatic immunity.” He also attributed the problem to Palestinian refugees who return to Israel and “brought bad ideas” with them.

Haaretz WikiLeaks exclusive / Lieberman’s pick for PA president: Arafat’s economic adviser
Ireland PSC: Goldstone’s ‘reconsideration’ does not invalidate UN report on Israeli crimes in Gaza
US embassy cables: US discusses Gaza with Israeli security chief
The eugenicist racism of religious zionism: ‘Gentile sperm leads to barbaric offspring’
Forbidden Fruit: The Israeli Wine Industry and the Occupation
200 Trees Planted in Saffa Despite Military Harrasment
‘Israel pays no war compensation’
Hamas must pay dearly : Op-ed: Following attack on school bus, only way to restore lull in Gaza region is deterrence

This time, Israel intends to exact a very heavy price from Hamas, as the State of Israel and IDF have no solution that would fortify civilian transportation in the Gaza region. The only immediate solution is deterrence – and deterrence can only be achieved via plenty of fire.

This time, officials will not accept a Hamas request for a lull via secret channels of UN officials in the area, as happened in the past. In the coming days, the cannons, missiles, tanks, jets and rockets will do the talking, until the blood quota is filled.

Israel versus Judaism Since the existence of Zionism, one constant trend of thought has been the direction of Weizmann, Greenbaum, Sharett, Ben Gurion, Ehrenpreisz, Kastner, Stephen Wise, the councils in the ghettoes and the rescue committees of the free world: The only yearning was for the State. The people as a whole, or a segment thereof, were merely the means for the realization of a “homeland”. Whoever did not serve this purpose might as well have not been created.
Ziobots Invade Facebook
Palestinian factions resume firing homemade shells into Israel, causing no injuries

Libya Links

US Commander Sees Libya Stalemate
WikiLeaks: British officials toured Libyan chemical weapons lab months before Tony Blair visit
Libyan minister to take Turkish peace plan to Gaddafi
NATO Fears War without End in Libya
America’s coming ground war in Libya

Australia Links

Greens leader tells newspaper to ‘grow up’

The speculation in The Australian on this issue about some difference between myself and my fellow senators was false and misled its readers.”

Senior journalist for The Australian Matthew Franklin has hit back, complaining that the Greens had not replied to a number of questions sent to Senator Brown’s office.

“We had priorities and you didn’t figure,” Senator Brown responded.

Franklin asked Senator Brown: “With all respect, why is it when we put questions to your office you never answer them?”

But Senator Brown insists the Greens do answer the questions: “We answer them in written form so they won’t be misrepresented.

“We’ve got a great respect for the media in Australia, but The Australian doesn’t help keep that respect in order. The rest of the media does.”

In reply to another question from Franklin about the Greens’ attitude to Israel, Senator Brown referred to an Australian editorial which called for the “destruction” of the Greens.

“If The Australian wants to continue this vendetta in its aim of the destruction of the Greens editorially, then maybe it should look at the moral quality of the activities of its colleagues in News of the World in London,” Senator Brown said.

“I might ask News Limited if it can reassure readers that that sort of eavesdropping doesn’t occur and hasn’t occurred in Australia.”

As the feisty news conference drew to a close, Senator Brown challenged representatives of The Australian to a debate.

“Anytime, anyplace, anywhere. I’m very happy to take you on,” he said.

“Really, you should get over it. Grow up a bit. Get on to issues that Australians are interested in. You’re not doing yourselves much good.”

Franklin declined to take a call from ABC News Online.

Other Links

Torture and killing in Kenya – Britain’s double standards : The UK sees no contradiction in forcing Libyans to apologise for Lockerbie while denying Kenya’s Mau Mau victims recompense
Christina Patterson: What Hugh Grant revealed about the paparazzi and power