Israeli Citizens in Solidarity with Australian BDS Activists!

Following anti-Democratic Arrests and Intimidation Attempts: Israeli Citizens in Solidarity with Australian BDS Activists!

We, Israeli citizens, members of Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within, would like to express our solidarity with the numerous Australians who are involved in the burgeoning BDS campaign in Australia.

Witnessing first-hand the brutality of our government against the Palestinian people, we have joined the July 2005 Palestinian call for a comprehensive boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against the state of Israel and its institutions. Such means should be applied as long as Israel continues to flout international law and UN resolutions and refuses to acknowledge the Palestinian people’s universally recognized human rights: The rights of Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories, the rights of Israel’s Palestinian citizens, and the rights of Palestinians who were expelled from their homes during the Nakba (the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine).

As Israeli citizens, we are angered by the outrageous attempts to exploit the horrors committed by the Nazi regime, through a comparison of the Palestinian led BDS campaign to the 1933 Nazi boycott campaign, in order to try and silence the Palestinian non-violent popular struggle for freedom and justice. The deplorable and racist Nazi boycott campaign targeted all Jews, without exception, and only for being Jewish. The Australian BDS campaign does NOT target Jewish businesses, as argued by demagogues in Australia! The lesson from the Jewish holocaust should be, in our view, the need to oppose all forms of discrimination and violence committed against different ethnic groups in the name of nationalist or supremacist ideologies. The state of Israel has failed to learn that lesson.

To reiterate, we are concerned that some politicians in Australia have accused the activists involved in BDS of being anti-Semitic. We reject those accusations. The BDS campaign is a legitimate form of non-violent political action, whereby people and organizations are required not to participate in or support violations of international law. We take a clear stand against all forms of racism, including antisemitism and Islamophobia. Not only does the BDS campaign oppose anti-Semitism, it is also a responsible call that targets only complicit institutions rather than individuals. BDS is neither anti-Jewish nor anti-Israeli, since it does not oppose all that is Israeli because it is Israeli: the campaign simply insists that Israel abide by its obligations under international law. Furthermore, by attempting to lump together all Jews around the world as a monolithic block that is expected to support its criminal policies, the state of Israel is denying the fact that many Jews, including in Israel, oppose the occupation and apartheid policies inflicted on the Palestinian people.

The current debate within Israeli society shows us that the boycott campaign is extremely effective. The latest attempt by the Israeli government to silence its own citizens, the new anti-boycott legislation, in addition to other explicitly racist laws, is yet another indication of the need for this Palestinian-led non-violent global movement, in order to insure the rights of all people in this region.

The recent Australian BDS actions have been a great inspiration. We are encouraged to know that as far-away as Down Under there are individuals and groups active in the BDS campaign, promoting the Palestinian people’s unassailable rights. The BDS movement needs your help and support. We call upon all Australians to join and support the struggle for freedom and equality in Palestine.

With the deepest gratitude and all our support,

Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within

http://boycottisrael.info/

Rioting Against the Rich

Consumerism says “Buy”, crisis capitalism says “Only if you are rich.” UK debtor’s prisons don’t have walls these days, they are council estates with invisible class walls. Since David Cameron can’t see any relationship between poverty, cuts in youth service funding and social services, and an increase in youth crime, he needs to get out of the Circumlocution Office more often.

As he introduces further austerity measures which will impact most upon already disadvantaged people, Cameron forgets that prevention is better than cure, ignoring the existing vast wealth and privilege inequities, the alienation of youth who feel and are made to feel unwanted. Ostracism is society’s most powerful tool against vulnerable people and the UK government is leading the charge.

Three years after Wall Street precipitated a global crisis, British youth unemployment reached record levels earlier this year, An analyst noted that “”Being out of work for more than a year can have a scarring effect, making it harder to get a job as well as having a negative impact on one’s health and wellbeing,” adding: “The Government’s decision to abolish job guarantees for young people may leave a generation of young people scarred for many years to come.”

By 2008, Great Britain had reached the highest level of income inequality in more than half a century, and the austerity measures imposed by the new government targeted the victims of that inequality. As a recent report showed, the poorest 10% of the population saw their real income fall over the last decade, while “richest tenth of the population have seen much bigger proportional rises in their incomes than any other group.”

The riots began in Tottenham, which has the highest unemployment rate in London. Youth clubs have been closed, because the austerity economics regime slashed 75% of the youth services budget. And, as Seumas Milne points out, young people in the neighborhood said the club closings could lead to rioting, as bored and anxious young people take to the streets.

And the austerity crowd has slashed police budgets, too, just as the House Republican budget did here in the United States. Even law and order, that shibboleth of conservatism, takes a back seat to the radical austerity ideology. That makes it harder for the right and the pseudo-center to justify their discredited policies, leaving them to come up with increasingly shrill and implausible explanations for the violence.

Where are the tallest pillars of this society to provide ethical models and strategies to lead youth toward hope and a future of their choice? As David Harvey highlights:

But the problem is that we live in a society where capitalism itself has become rampantly feral. Feral politicians cheat on their expenses, feral bankers plunder the public purse for all its worth, CEOs, hedge fund operators and private equity geniuses loot the world of wealth, telephone and credit card companies load mysterious charges on everyone’s bills, shopkeepers price gouge, and, at the drop of a hat swindlers and scam artists get to practice three-card monte right up into the highest echelons of the corporate and political world.

A political economy of mass dispossession, of predatory practices to the point of daylight robbery, particularly of the poor and the vulnerable, the unsophisticated and the legally unprotected, has become the order of the day.

Thatcherism unchained the feral instincts of capitalism (the “animal spirits” of the entreprenuer they coyly named it) and nothing has transpired to curb them since. Slash and burn is now openly the motto of the ruling classes pretty much everywhere.

This is the new normal in which we live. This is what the next grand commission of enquiry should address. Everyone, not just the rioters, should be held to account. Feral capitalism should be put on trial for crimes against humanity as well as for crimes against nature.

Stockmarket Crash Cleanup
Cameron’s reaction is to glower about the social media, like a petty dictator in the Middle East which imperials implanted and cossetted then looked down upon and chastised for draconian measures against insurrection, foolishly imagining he can commit a human rights violation by preventing internet access and escape public opprobrium. When other countries use social media to struggle for democracy, it is acclaimed, yet now Cameron wants to control it and demonises it. For easy approval in uncertain times, Cameron fervently supports Laura Norder – Tory opportunism and personal conviction coincide. If looters’ parents are to be held responsible for their childrens’ crimes and evicted from their homes, why is Murdoch able to evade his corporation’s crimes? Is it a surprise that youth without hope and nothing to lose have followed the UK elite’s no-blame no-criminality culture? Prepare for the fight against increased withdrawal of civil liberties, as the ruling elite defend their piles of loot by any means they can muster. The local small businesses targeted by youthful insurrectionists on their rampage are the meat in the sandwich and offer Cameron a wedge – he can protect them from and coopt them againt the loathsome youth menace without reference to the underlying malaise which has festered during years of neglect.

Cameron could ensure affordable education, health, social services and housing, but prefers to raid taxpayer funds to employ more cops with increased leeway for brutality to protect property, which for Tories, comes before people, particularly hated youth. Businesses damaged by looting will be recompensed from the public purse, yet where’s Cameron’s compensation to the public for decades of economic irrationalism and elite looting? When will shorters of banking stocks get their comeuppances? Cameron’s response to unrest caused by vast inequities of wealth and privilege is to add fuel to the fire with mass arrests and incarceration – sure to enrage youth further and solidify their untouchability. With thousands of arrests promised, the 3 private corporations – G4S, Kalyx and Serco – who run 11 of Britain’s prisons will be dining well this week. Perhaps Australia will be seeing more British ships loaded with the raddled empire’s unwanted felons arriving on its shores.

Dr. Clifford Stott, who specialises in crowd psychology at the University of Liverpool, sounds a prescient note:

While there is no real causal relationship, however, he [Dr. Clifford Stott] noted that in societies that see outbreaks of riotous behaviour, the existence of large disenfranchised population is a common factor.

“One of the things that we know about riots is that they are underpinned by perceptions of illegitimacy of authority,” he said.

The tendency to cast crowd action as either explosions of mob irrationality or criminality – something common to both authoritarian and democratic governments, Stott said – undermines attempts to understand the root causes behind the violence.

“It is the dominant discourse around riots, it always has been,” he said. “Society tends to pathologise collective action.”

Fascists love scapegoats, and conveniently, youth don’t vote. But their mums and dads do – Cameron and his foppish old school tie set’s days in power are numbered. But will there be sufficient mobilisation amongst the UK people to support an end to an obscenity which sacrifices the futures of UK children and livelihoods of small business people in their community to obscure malevolent ruling class pillage? A vicious, classist society which doesn’t care about all of its youth sabotages its own future.

“Things got out of hand & we’d had a few drinks. We smashed the place up & Boris set fire to the toilets.” David Cameron, 1986

RT @ciderpunx: #londonriot hotspots are /all/ in areas w high child poverty. See @newint #map http://is.gd/6kLjp4 #inequality #poverty #

Related Links

Big Brother isn’t watching you

If we want to live in a society where people feel included, we must include them, where they feel represented, we must represent them and where they feel love and compassion for their communities then we, the members of that community, must find love and compassion for them.

At Camberwell Green magistrates, Nicholas Robinson, 23, an electrical engineering student with no previous convictions, was jailed for the maximum permitted six months after pleading guilty to stealing bottles of water worth £3.50 from Lidl in Brixton.
UK Riots Live Blog
London Rioters Vs. Stock Market Traders: Who’s More Destructive?
Is Rioting Revolutionary?
The moral decay of our society is as bad at the top as the bottom
Generation F*cked : How Britain is Eating Its Young
And, o! exquisite refinement in the ancient art of double standard: the same conservative press that indignantly deplored dictators’ censorship of online communication, now call for plain suppression of entire telecommunication networks
An Open Letter to David Cameron’s Parents
England’s Ashes – America’s Future?
Unequal justice for property crime: Out of the 1.7m cases heard in magistrates courts last year, only 3.5% were remanded to jail. These figures from this week show a rate of nearly 60% remanded to jail, where their criminality may be ensured, not cured.
The Government consultation proposes removing the courts’ power so that it is mandatory for the courts to approve evictions, which will speed up the process. It takes an average of seven months just to get a court decision at the moment.
The UK riots have unique roots, but British youth’s alienation is similar to the disenfranchisement behind Arab revolts.
UK riots: how do Boris Johnson’s Bullingdon antics compare?
London Is the Surveillance Society’s Biggest Test Yet
Of Nika and Basmati Rice: another twocents worth on the London riots
Cameron uses riots as excuse to crack down:

Meanwhile Cameron threw cash at firms that have lost money in the riots, saying even uninsured shops will get payouts.

He said any shop affected won’t have to pay business rates, can defer its tax and claim from a £20 million “high street support scheme”.

So while he claims there’s no money for youth centres, or workers’ pensions, or anything else being cut, he can suddenly produce piles of cash for businesses.

Meanwhile it was revealed that MPs will be getting all their flight costs and hotel bills on expenses to compensate them for having to come back from their holidays.

And they’ll also be given money to fly back out again and continue their getaways.

Who are the real looters?

The British government committed a great sin when they ignored this element in society, and focused all their attention on how to save the rich and made hundreds of billions to rescue the banking system -which is the mainstay of the capitalist system – from collapse in 2008, by reducing public spending and cutting billions from the budgets of public services, which led to worsening unemployment, and with it the suffering among the disadvantaged class.
Class war: We want to put fear in hearts of the looters, warn police
‘This is really a deep, festering problem of the underclass at the bottom of Britain’s social ladder, which I don’t think exists to quite such a vast extent in other countries.’
Anonymity and social censorship in the UK riots
Elitist drivel adds fuel to the fire: Prime Minister David Cameron has delivered a statement to the House of Commons on the recent disorder and looting that has taken place in London and other cities.
Africa to send troops, food parcels to UK as riots spread
Dealing with insurrection against the rich in the future : Hypersonic plane could fly Sydney to London in 49 minutes
The UK riots: the psychology of looting
How did the world get so fixated on GDP?

Even growth’s blunt promise of material prosperity is failing. GDP in the UK increased by 11% from 2003 to 2008. Over the same period, median real incomes stagnated. The economy boomed, but few shared in its rewards. Living standards were maintained through unsustainable debt. As we crawl back into recession, the majority will find those rewards still harder to come by – even if a minority continue to grow fat.

Around the world, people act out economic anger
The unrest in the U.K. may be a decisive moment for the modern surveillance state
How to really hug a hoodie
Birmingham vigil: ‘The three who died, died nobly. Don’t riot in their name’ – video

Palestine / Israel Links

But fundamental questions remain. How can a protest in Israel, borrowing the revolutionary energy of the Arab Spring, ignore Israel’s military control of the Palestinians?
Goodbye, Liliane Khalil
Irish activists plan protest aimed at Riverdance’s upcoming performances in Israel
State Department awards $200,000 to Elliott-Abrams-led thinktank repeatedly cited by mass murderer Breivik
Apartheid judges find technicality to reverse conviction of Israeli soldier for attacking Palestinians
Canadian College Media Joins Boycott Divestment Sanction Campaign Against Israeli Apartheid
Israeli misogyny : Haredi woman seeking to purchase light rail ticket in one of Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods sent to stand located two blocks away. Her husband, on the other hand, receives full-service treatment
Here’s hoping – Reut Institute: Israeli Boycott law may backfire
“Bibinomics” have never been popular; Bibi gets the public to support him and to allow his economic terrorism to continue, by using the Palestinian issue, the Iranian issue or social rifts within Israeli society to distract them.

Douchowitless panders and flies in the face of ziolobby attempts to use lawfare to silence criticism of Israel: “It’s a myth that criticism of Israel is silenced,” Dershowitz said in a phone interview with the Post on Thursday. I have spoken at AIPAC many times and have criticized Israeli policy. AIPAC has never silenced me, because AIPAC knows I’m pro-Israel.”
Eleven people detained after clashes erupt during protest against building of separation barrier in village of Walaja.
In February, around 400 members of parliaments from across this continent were brought to Israel in a trip hosted by the European Friends of Israel (EFI). They included 120 members of the European Parliament (MEPs) — one-sixth of that assembly’s total membership.
What Is Rael? The What Is Rael delegation is a Tel Aviv University (TAU) Student Union initiative, whose aim is to “actively contribute to Israel, by sending “Students who consider themselves Zionists” abroad to speak on campuses
The greatest elected body that money can buy

Libya Links

Libya — Lather, Rinse, Repeat — Syria: Liberal Imperialism and the Refusal to Learn
‘The threat of starvation cannot be solved by the replacement of one capitalist ruling class with another’

Australia Links

Aboriginal peoples’ right to traditional homelands in the Northern Territory
A Good Long Look At John Howard’s War In Iraq
Calls for John Howard to face Iraq inquiry
Transportation cases at the Old Bailey

No light had ever been shone on the behaviour of Mr Howard and former foreign minister Alexander Downer.

“They have never been made to sit down and explain why over many, many weeks and months arguing about WMD and terrorism when it was very quickly apparent that the official case for war was a lie,” Mr Wilkie said.

Crackdown on Free Speech and BDS Political Protest in Australia

Australia’s ruling elite really don’t like having their Israeli Occupation latte spoiled by truth. The use of lawfare by the Israeli regime and its supporters to counteract BDS protest is yet another sign that BDS is working. These present repressive measures against BDS activists are likely to have the reverse effect than intended by those who support Israeli occupation and apartheid.

Ian Curr at Workers Bush Telegraph comments:

Such arrests which seek to deprive people of the right to freely go where they wish and to express their opinions freely escalates a legal question into a political act by police & government.

I have viewed the YouTube video of the protest at Max Brenner and there is no evidence of a blockade of customers or an act which prevents people from buying chocolates or coffee at the store.

The protesters actions were symbolic.

So for the police and/or courts to apply such restrictions using the bail act may itself be unlawful. This should be tested by civil liberties lawyers in court immediately especially if people have been refused bail and jailed while awaiting trial.

A broad-based international movement of people of conscience in support of human rights and justice , BDS is the call from Palestinian people themselves for equal rights, the end of apartheid and the recognition of their rights to return to their lands. All these demands are soundly grounded in international law.

Max Brenner, the operation which is being protested by BDS supporters, is owned by the Strauss group, which shamelessly aids the brutal Israeli military occupation and thus the deprivation of rights from Palestinian people.

The assault against BDS by the Australian elite is unlikely to succeed since it may criminalise consumer boycotts generally, which would prove unacceptable to a large proportion of the Australian community.

‘Greens MP Greg Barber said that if the investigation results in a prosecution it could have a chilling effect on other consumer boycott campaigns.

”I’m telling people to boycott Reflex Paper because it’s made from native forest woodchips, so maybe I’ll be next,” Mr Barber said.

But Mr Barber said he expected the investigation to fall over.

”For that matter a ‘Buy Australia’ campaign can fall foul of it, so Mr O’Brien might not get the result he’s looking for,” he said.

…………………………………………………………………………………….

Victorian Consumer Affairs Minister Michael O’Brien attempts to erode our democracy

The Victorian Consumer Affairs Minister Michael O’Brien has named our organisation amongst
others for investigation by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) for
what he called our involvement in ‘secondary boycotts’ against Israeli-owned businesses in
Australia – namely Max Brenner.

For the record, Australians for Palestine took no part in the protests against the Max Brenner
stores, but we believe that Max Brenner and other Israeli owned businesses that support
violations of human rights are legitimate targets for the boycott call.
The boycotts target Israeli-owned institutions and businesses that have been instrumental in
supporting Israel’s violations of international humanitarian law and not “Jewish businesses”, as
Mr O’Brien alludes to in his comment to The Australian (8/8/2011).

“Minister O’Brien wants us to slowly erode our democracy and roll back our rights to freedom of
political thought, affiliation and freedom of protest” said Ms. Sabawi, Public Advocate for
Australians for Palestine. “This draconian move does not bode well for Australians to see our
government trying to intimidate its citizens who are critical of the actions of a foreign state.”

“Mr. Obrien needs to be reminded that taxpayer money should be spent on safeguarding our
democratic rights and values and not to be wasted on the pursuit of appeasing foreign powers and
special interest lobby groups at the expense of our own rights and liberties.” said Ms Sabawi

……………………………………………………………………………………….

MEDIA RELEASE Tuesday 9 August

BAILLIEU GOVERNMENT ESCALATES ATTACKS ON CIVIL LIBERTIES

Dawn raids see pro-Palestine activists arrested

Police demand activists be held in custody for weeks

Raids carried out at dawn this morning by police have seen several pro-Palestine activists arrested, in the most severe crack-down on civil liberties in decades. The activists are being targeted because of their involvement in protests against chocolate shop Max Brenner, a chain store with strong ties to the Israeli military. The protests are part of the worldwide Boycott Divestment and Sanctions campaign, which aims to draw attention to the ongoing genocide committed by the Apartheid regime in Israel against Palestinians.

Campaign organiser Omar Hassan:

“This crack-down on the right to protest should be of concern to all Victorians. The lengths to which the Baillieu government is going to eradicate criticism of Israeli Apartheid and criminalise dissent are unprecedented. We need to be clearly saying; demonstrating is not a crime. Taking action in support of Palestine is not a crime.”

The activists were arrested for breaching bail conditions imposed following arrests at a previous pro-Palestine protest at Max Brenner. The bail conditions, which prohibit arrestees going within 50 metres of a Max Brenner shop, are themselves a serious curtailment on the right to protest. The arrestees have been told they will be held until September the 5th.

As Hassan points out:

“Actions taken against South African businesses by anti-Apartheid protests were important in generating opposition to that racist regime. To outlaw similar actions today can only be motivated by a desire to protect the reputation of Israel, and represent an unacceptable attack on our right to express dissent and show solidarity with oppressed people around the world.”

For more information about the arrests and on-going BDS campaign, contact:

Omar Hassan: 0421185037

Louise O’Shea: 0420819419

Or go to http://boycottisrael19.wordpress.com/

UPDATE 11/8/11

Australian zionist organisations coordinate with politicians and police in pushing the hasbara agenda of Israel against BDS.

Arguing against any Zionist-organized BDS “counter” protest, Alhadeff writes: “It is important for the community to be aware that our response to BDS forms part of [a] coordinated national strategy. Furthermore, this strategy is endorsed by counterparts abroad and Israel’s Foreign Ministry.”

Alhadeff outlined this coordinated national strategy in response to BDS, stating that it “included, but is not limited to, engagement with civil society and politicians, patronage of boycotted outlets, cooperation with police, shop owners and center managers and exposure of the motives behind the BDS movement.” According to Alhadeff, Zionist policy in response to BDS should be one which seeks to “speak softly” but to also carry “a suggestion of a big stick.”

Why does Australia always vote against UN resolutions supporting the Palestinian people? Why did Labor get rid of Rudd, since Gillard is just the same or worse? Why didn’t Senator Mark Arbib lose his job, when he was outed as a US intelligence source?

Julia Gillard set to reject Kevin Rudd on Palestine
Has Rudd or Gillard even bothered to read the call to BDS?

Rudd stance a ‘surprise’ to the ziolobby

Israeli fascism blooming : Israeli military prosecutor demands banishment of Palestinian minor
Israeli ministers demand preemptive action against Palestinians before September

Related Links

ACCC probes anti-Israel boycotts

‘The ACCC will investigate whether the protesters contravened section 45D of the Competition and Consumer Act, which prohibits a group from gathering with the intention of stopping a third person or company from doing business.

Until now, it has only been used to target trade union activity, but Melbourne University competition law professor Dr Caron Beaton-Wells said protesters might have a case to answer if protesters ”had the purpose or their actions had the effect of causing substantial loss and damage to the shop owner’s business”.

Consumer watchdog asked to investigate Israel boycott

‘”This is an attempt by the Government to criminalise any protest against Max Brenner or other corporations that support the state of Israel, and support their offensive towards the Palestinian people, and in particular their support for funding for the Israeli military, which is the point of the protests.”‘

Green Left Weekly rejects attempt to silence Palestine supporters

‘Munckton said: “The attempt to equate supporters of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign with anti-Semitism — in particular the campaign in Nazi Germany to boycott Jewish-owned businesses — is entirely unfounded.

“BDS campaign is a global campaign supporting justice for the Palestinian people. It does not target any company on the basis of religion or ethnicity.

“Even a cursory glance at the statements of organisations supporting BDS show that no business is targetted for being Jewish-owned.

“O’Brien’s threat is an attempt to silence those who support the rights of Palestinians. This is an attack on the rights of free speech.”’

When will Kevin Rudd bother to read the call to BDS and stop casting wrongly as anti-jewish?

‘The Australian on Monday reported that Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd recently met with Jewish Victorian federal Labor MP Michael Danby at the same Max Brenner store as the BDS protest.

“I don’t think in 21st-century Australia there is a place for the attempted boycott of a Jewish business,” Rudd was quoted as saying. “I thought we had learned that from history.”

“According to a statement put out by AIJAC, the BDS movement has been targeting businesses in Australia for no reason other than their perceived relationship with Israel.

“They have included cafes, skincare product stores and other companies with little or no political influence or direct involvement in the Palestinian/Israeli conflict,” the statement said.

Rubenstein said that “such discriminatory practices have no place in Australian society and, moreover, will only serve to intensify the Palestinian- Israeli conflict by promoting division and hatred.”

Defending BDS activists to speak out against the crimes of the Zionist state
On the International Day of World’s Indigenous People, remember theongoing crimes of settler colonialists in Australia, US, Israel and Canada.

Israeli boycotts: ACCC called in

Palestine / Israel Links

Ni’lin continues with strong will despite Israeli raids
Israel arrests third actor in refugee theatre group
How Palestinian Authority’s UN “statehood” bid endangers Palestinian rights
Selling weapons of war is not ethically, politically, nor economically sustainable.
Protest leaders present their vision for social justice in Israel
From last month, “Michael Danby MP the new chairman of Australia’s Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee and Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd today shared a hot chocolate at Max Brenner’s CBD shop in solidarity with Israel and the Australian Jewish Community”

London Riots

Arab spring protesters back UK rioters in their fight for new trainers
Tariq Ali:

‘Why is it that the same areas always erupt first, whatever the cause? Pure accident? Might it have something to do with race and class and institutionalised poverty and the sheer grimness of everyday life? The coalition politicians (including new New Labour, who might well sign up to a national government if the recession continues apace) with their petrified ideologies can’t say that because all three parties are equally responsible for the crisis. They made the mess.

They privilege the wealthy. They let it be known that judges and magistrates should set an example by giving punitive sentences to protesters found with peashooters. They never seriously question why no policeman is ever prosecuted for the 1000-plus deaths in custody since 1990. ‘

Excessive policing in Europe and the United States shows that governments are resorting to ever more coercive measures in order to save their neoliberal project
What next to tackle the riots? Curfew? Water cannon? The army?
FB Links

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The Truth About War – Who Are The Real Terrorists?
Weeds acquire genes from engineered crops
Wong baby not right – Reverend Fred Nile
Want to cut big government abuses? Start with defence contracting
Anti-racists confront far right rally in Brisbane

Another Arrest from the Jenin Freedom Theatre

The brutal IOF arrests another member of the Jenin Freedom Theatre and places a gag on reporting within Israel about the incident.

Today at approximately 15:00 hrs one of the third-year graduating students at The Freedom Theatre was taken by the Israeli army at the Shave Shomeron checkpoint between the Palestinian cities Jenin and Nablus. The student’s name is Rami Awni Hwayel, age 20. He was travelling from Ramallah to Jenin together with his fellow students.

Batool Taleb, one of the female acting students who was in the car with Rami describes what happened: “When they got to our car, they took all our IDs and when they saw Rami’s ID they told him to get out of the car. Once he was out they immediately handcuffed and blindfolded him and put him in the army jeep.”

The students had been rehearsing for their final graduation project directed by the Israeli-American Director Udi Aloni in Ramallah.

“This is devastating, Rami is playing the main role in ‘Waiting for Godot’ and doing an amazing job, he’s so dedicated to the work. He just left rehearsals today for the weekend to see his family for Ramadan. It’s terrible, we want our Pozzo back!”, says Udi Aloni.

Rami is the third member of The Freedom Theatre that has been taken by the Israeli army recently. On the 27th of July at 3:00 in the morning the Head Technician Adnan Naghnaghiye and the Chairperson Bilal Saadi were captured by a large group of Israeli soldiers.

The consequences of these actions only result in more damage to The Freedom Theatre. The theatre once again calls on its friends and supporters around the world to act in order to stop this outrageous harassment by the Israeli army against a cultural establishment.

Israeli military censorship has of now also placed a gag order on reporting on this arrest inside Israel, a violation of free speech and a show of how free media in Israel really is.

For more information please contact:

Jacob Gough, acting General manager at +972 (0)595348391,

Jonatan Stanczak, co-founder of The Freedom Theatre at +46 (0)707908296

In other dispatches

The ‘7arakat’ or ‘Harakat’ project seeks to develop a series of theatre and performance initiatives between Australia and Palestine.

The fake Palestinian state move exposes a rift in ALP ranks, with Rudd favouring an abstaining vote, and Gillard in lockstep with empire? the public poll vote is running 72% in favour of a Palestinian state, reflecting the Australian public’s support for Palestinian rights which is ignored by the US/zionist reflexive political elite.

Palestine / Israel Links

Get involved, and read what others are doing to end Israeli apartheid and bring on equal rights and recognition of Palestinians’ right of return.
Could Arab staying power ultimately defeat Zionism?
Occupation profiteer Ahava soaks up EU science grants
BDS South Africa student campaign
Academic claims Israeli school textbooks contain bias :

Children, she says, grow up to serve in the army and internalise the message that Palestinians are “people whose life is dispensable with impunity. And not only that, but people whose number has to be diminished.”

Israel arrests third actor in refugee theatre group

Aboriginals Are 13 Times More Likely To Be Incarcerated

Prison rates down, but not enough

Australia’s prison population is decreasing. But it’s a little too early to break out the champagne. The huge regional differences reveal that imprisonment is not based on the crime you commit, but the preferences of your local politicians.

The latest statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that 4% fewer people are locked up now than last year.

At first sight, this finally looks like some good news, as the general trend since the mid-eighties has been one of relentlessly rising imprisonment rates. But we need to take stock of the mad ride we have been on over this period in which the number of people behind bars increased exponentially from 86 per 100,000 adult population in 1984 to 165 in 2011.

A costly and unequal policy

And it’s an expensive business: according to the Productivity Commission, the real net operating expenditure per prisoner per day was $207 in 2009-10. There seems to have been no brake on the enthusiasm for imprisonment and it has sometimes been argued that rich western countries like Australia simply imprison as much as they do because they can.

And there seems to be no substantial sign of good news on one of the most important and intractable problems in regard to imprisonment in Australia. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners remain grossly over-represented making up a quarter (26%) of all prisoners while they only constitute 2% of the total Australian population.

Australia is not alone in this dangerous imprisonment spending spree – we are part of a global wave spreading across most of the developed world with only a few exceptions.

Around the world

The US is the unconquerable winner of this race: the rate of imprisonment in the US has increased seven fold since 1973 and stands at present at 743 per 100,000 of the total population. From here on we will use this more standard measure of imprisonment rates which uses total population as the denominator (and not just adult population).

Increases have also been substantial in other Anglo-Saxon countries such as England and Wales (152), and New Zealand (199). The Australian rate when measured per 100,000 population is 128.

Although there have also been increases in imprisonment in several mainland European jurisdictions, their imprisonment rates fluctuate around 100 and remain relatively stable (France: 102, Belgium 97), or are even decreasing (Germany 85). The Netherlands are a particularly interesting case as they witnessed a rapid increase of their imprisonment rates over the last decades – from a rate of 49 in 1992 up to 123 in 2004 – but recently experienced a significant fall of their prison numbers (decline to 94). This resulted in overcapacity in their prisons, which they have rented out to accommodate Belgian prisoners; haven’t they always been smart traders, these Dutch men?

Further, the Scandinavian countries remain the poster child in this field managing to keep their prison populations consistently low (Finland 59, Sweden 78) even in our current era characterised by punitive populism.

These differences clearly demonstrate that imprisonment rates are not just a fait accompli, but that they result out of choices, made at several levels of the criminal justice process.

What is the point of prison?

So it is time to ask ourselves – and our governments – what do we have to show for it? Or how effective is our imprisonment policy? Although crime rates are also going down, can this drop in volume crime be attributed to the enthusiasm to put people behind bars?

Over the last decade, and in reaction to David Garlands’ publication of the “Culture of Control” (2001), in which he analyses crime control and criminal justice system in the UK/US over the last 30 years, various wise people have looked into this question.

There seems to be a consensus that imprisonment rates vary independently from crime rates, and that in many countries the increases in the prison population have started during a period of sustained decrease in crime rates, or when crime rates remained stable.

So, if this is the case, what can explain this extraordinary expenditure of public funds on a somewhat medieval remedy to the many and varied forms of crime in modern society?

According to many scholars focusing on this issue over the past decade, higher imprisonment rates can be linked to a combination of the following variables: the lack of a strong welfare model; a bi-partisan political model; a common law system; fear of crime; lack of trust in the government and; the presence of minorities who are considered as being problematic.

Regional differences

While one could state that some of these characteristics apply to Australia, why then are there such differences between the states? How is it that, according to the most recent figures, the Northern Territory ends up with an imprisonment rate of 719, Western Australia with 262, New South Wales with 179, while this is only 105 in Victoria?

The states in Australia appear to reflect in microcosm the variety of imprisonment rates observed across the rest of the developed world bearing no particular relation to underlying crime rates but rather policy preferences.

The way ahead

So where do we go from here? Interesting in that respect is the recent popularity of Justice Reinvestment initiatives, originating in the US, and using the funds that are normally spent on imprisoning people, to improve local services addressing the underlying causes of crime.

This might be worth considering and has clearly caught the imagination of many who are pushing for meaningful improvements in this area.

At the very least we should be asking whether we are getting value for money out of imprisonment when it comes to preventing crime, presumably its primary justification.

We need to perhaps review the “open cheque book” approach and look at what we get as a return on our investment.

However outrage over crime means that there will never be any shortage of demand for imprisonment. It then becomes a question of restraint.

But selling the benefits of that in today’s heady emotive media-dominated political environment, provides the proverbial challenge of selling refrigerators to Eskimos.

Hilde Tubex, Future Fellow, Crime Research Centre at University of Western Australia and David Indermaur, Associate Professor, Crime Research Centre at University of Western Australia

This article was originally published at The Conversation.
Read the original article.

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