Category: BDS

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The Freedom Flotilla 2 to Gaza : Highlighting Israel’s Crimes

The efforts of the Greek government at the behest of the US, Israel and EU to stop the Gaza Freedom Flotilla 2 have served to highlight the inhuman oppression and illegal blockade which Israel, with the complicity of those aforementioned nations, perpetrates against the defenceless civilian population of Gaza, half of whom are children.

As Adam Shapiro says:

It seems only the Palestinian people in Gaza must seek their freedom through established humanitarian channels that rely on the whim of their oppressor and the occasional glance of attention from the international community. Being born in Gaza is being born into a life sentence of living in a virtual cage, without fundamental human rights.

The flotilla effort, initiated by the Free Gaza Movement in 2008 when it sailed small fishing ships to Gaza and successfully reached the port of Gaza, is not about humanitarian aid. It is about Palestinian freedom and their rights to access the world as any other people.

And despite the chorus of “the flotilla is not necessary”, reality on the ground shows that it non-violent direct action that has been the only effective power to make change in the lives of Palestinians.

Greece’s offers to deliver the aid aboard the Flotilla vessels is irrelevant, as it is Israel’s illegal blockade which must be challenged. Edith Garwood from Amnesty USA writes:

The blockade does not target specific individuals, but collectively punishes the entire population which contravenes the Fourth Geneva Convention. It violates the Gazans’ right to health (including access to clean drinking water and sanitation), education, work, an adequate standard of living and freedom of movement. It violates their basic dignity; their basic human rights.

The blockade is illegal and must end. Period. And Israel, as the occupying power (in effective control of area), is responsible for ending it. Israel is a sophisticated, militarily advanced country that should be able to effectively meet their national security needs without unjustly punishing an entire population

The activists aboard the Tahrir in Greece have released an action plan and a list of demands for Canadians and other supporters to take.

If you are in Sydney, join the Rally outside the Greek Consulate to convince the Greek Government to let the Flotilla sail.

The Star offers a comprehensive update on the state of play with our humanitarian friends on the Canadian Boat to Gaza.

Three others — Torontonian Sandra Ruch, 50, Soha Kneen, 40, of Ottawa, and Aussie Michael Coleman — were released from jail Tuesday but will appear in court Wednesday, facing charges related to a clever getaway plan that ended with Greek commandos taking the ship.

Kneen and Coleman are charged with obstructing the vessel, a relatively minor crime.

Ruch, who lived in Greece for several months preparing for the flotilla, is charged with more serious offences related to sailing without permission. She was not on the boat when it made its run Monday but represents the company that owns the boat.

“They are felony and criminal charges, which I am proud to accept,” said Ruch.’

Meanwhile the French flotilla vessel, Dignite al Karama, continues its voyage to breach Israel’s blockade on Gaza.

The vessel’s passengers include Olivier Besancenot, head of the New Left Party in France, French politician and member of the European Parliament Nicole Kiil-Nilsen, and other well-known French personalities.

In Athens, some activists from the Spanish flotilla vessel, the Guernica, are occupying the Spanish Embassy.

Alejandro Fierro, an activist aboard a Spanish boat, Guernica, that is currently in port in Crete, told Al Jazeera that activists from his boat remained fully committed to going to Gaza.

“We have a few people on the boat now, and they will remain on the boat, in Crete, until they can go to Gaza,” Fierro said, “Some people are going back to Spain, but we are going to continue to keep our boat in Crete, and keep people on the boat, until we can sail to Gaza.”

Some of the members of the Spanish boat are currently occupying the Spanish embassy in Athens, and have hung a Palestinian flag from the balcony of the embassy.

Demonstrators in Athens protest the Greek government’s blocking of the Flotilla at Syntagma Square and in front of the American Embassy.

Meanwhile, 300 French activists prepare to land at Tel Aviv airport with the intent of travelling to Palestine and showing solidarity with the people of Palestine. They will join humanitarians from all over Europe – this is the first ‘flytilla’ and Israel is hysterical about it!

UPDATES

@ibnezra: I clearly spoke to soon. Coast guard is en route according to sources on the ground. Looks like a repeat. #flotilla2
@Soha Kneen We’re free! Got a 30 day suspended sentence for obstruction (aka being kayactivists) in Greek court today!!!! #
@ibnezra: A Greek flagged vessel has apparently set sail for Gaza with the last hours #flotilla #
@ibnezra MV Juliano arriving at first stop. Coast guard is still close. flotilla Broadcasting live at http://ustre.am/zQHM

Juliano ship heads for Gaza“We are at sea,” former Israeli Dror Feiler, one of the organizers, told Ynet. “All roads lead to Gaza. It will be a small but high-quality flotilla.”

Related Links

Following boarding and arrests, Canada boat demands end to Greek interference ‘Today, the activists on board the Tahrir issued a statement to explain their current situation and the action they want Canadians and other supporters to take.’

Freedom Flotilla Live Blog
John Klusmire, Gaza Boat’s U.S. Captain, Released From Custody In Greece
A Pipeline of Injustice: Greek consular official admits that natural gas pipeline drives complicity in Gaza siege
Israel refuses Dutch journalists access
UN says more time needed for flotilla report
FM won’t apologize to Turkey
Turkey holds out for an apology :

Turkey is concerned over some of the clauses in the delayed report, which accuse the state of having ties with the IHH as well as direct involvement in the flotilla.

In addition, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu stressed Wednesday that Ankara would continue to demand an apology and compensation for the nine casualties in the May 31 IDF flotilla raid.

Earlier Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said he does not believe Israel should offer such an apology. “There are some things I’m willing to discuss and some things I’m not willing to discuss. I will not have an apology harm Israel’s national dignity and I will not see IDF soldiers humiliated,” he said.

But Turkey remains adamant. “We have been saying the same thing since last year. Israel owes an apology and compensation. This is our principled stance on this matter,” he said.

Palestine / Israel Links

Border Guard Officer Shani Sivilya who was charged with abusing a 17 year old Palestinian detainee, aiming a gun to his head and pulling the trigger while saying “death to Arabs” and “Arabs are whores” was convicted Tuesday at the Jerusalem District Court.

The teen is then alleged to have screamed “no, no” after which, when she finished her countdown Sivilya pulled the trigger while yelling “Death to Arabs” and “All Arabs are whores”. During the incident Benishti urged Sivilya to stop, but she refused.

In the revised indictment sheet Sivilya admits to forcefully hitting the minor with her fists, while slapping his head and shoulders. The sides have not reached an agreement over the sentence and the Police Internal Affairs Bureau has made it clear that it will demand a prison sentence.

In response, Sivilya’s attorney Refael Farig said: “I believe that the person convicted in this case was not just Shani Sivilya but all those who enlist 18-year old teens to serve in the Border Guard and put them at the center of the Israeli-Arab conflict.

“Though we haven’t decided upon a specific sentencing in this case, we did agree that the probation service would present a review of the defendant’s case and examine the possibility of closing this case without a criminal conviction.”

Welcome to Palestine – if you can get in : Israel’s threat to deny visitors entry to Palestine is as disturbing as it is shocking. Our protest will be a civil society tsunami
UN: Israel used unnecessary force against protesters on Nakba Day

In its conclusions the secretary general expresses concern about Nakba Day and notes that IDF soldiers “used direct live fire against unarmed demonstrators” who tried to breach the border fence.

Palestinian-American Zionist Ray Hanania Denies Being Removed From ADC Board
Israel’s body transfer debacle likely to damage Palestinian trust
Defend the Boycott Israel 19

‘In response to the brutal attack on the protest in Melbourne, we have decided to launch an all out effort to build a protest on August 27 against Max Brenner inBrisbane. We will launch this campaign at the BDS protest that will take place here this Saturday.’

In a significant legal victory for palestinian solidarity as well as freedom of political speech,

the ASA released a ruling on 5 July 2011, dismissing each and every complaint made by the SAJBD against the advert and instead ruled in favor of the submissions made by SA Artists Against Apartheid. The ASA also refused to provide any sanctions in favor of the SAJBD.

Reggae DJ, “The Admiral”, and member of the SA Artists Against Apartheid collective, welcomed today’s decision:

“The ASA decision is significant due to our own history of Apartheid. The decision sends a clear message to the Zionist lobby that the time has come for an end to the baseless accusations of “discrimination” and “hate speech” whenever criticism of Israel is voiced. Calling Israel an Apartheid state is legitimate because Israel practices Apartheid. The boycott of such an oppressive regime should be supported as it was in our own Anti-Apartheid freedom struggle.”

Israel corrupts British justice. ‘Unfounded claims against Salah were first made by the Zionist media in Britain, which has become an uncritical cheerleader for Israel, and by the Board of Deputies, Britain’s representative body for Jews.’

And the answer to Israel’s crimes? BDS!

Other Links

Send a message opposing Murdoch’s media takeover

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Protests, Diplomatic Flotilla Sabotage & Other Scuttlebutt

Flotilla Related Links

Please email Greek PM to release Freedom Flotilla II
@jvplive: pers @ NY Greek Consulate told JVP supporter “It’s your government [US] that ordered us not to let the ship sail!” flotilla2# @USBOATTOGAZA #
Leftist Greek MPs accuse government of caving to Israeli pressure to stop Gaza flotilla
Middle East Quartet: Additional Gaza flotillas should be discouraged
Palestinian NGOs condemn Greek government decision to block Freedom Flotilla II
Aboard the Gaza flotilla LIVE
Greece detains Gaza-bound boat captain
Israeli-Swedish activist Dror Feiler, acting spokesman for the flotilla

, said although there was no proof of Israeli involvement, the Jewish state was “the only party who would benefit” from such vandalism.

Israel has made no secret of its determination to prevent the flotilla reaching Gaza and has accused passengers of harbouring “terror activists” who are “looking for blood.”

Endless delays and fading hope while waiting to sail to Gaza

Palestine/ Israel Links

PACBI-Behind the Boycott: Why South Africa’s academic boycott of Ben Gurion University took hold
Get ready for cheers of “Bi-bi, Bi-bi!!”
Lessons Learned And The Coming Theocracy – charming weekly malevolence from the ziocolony.
A racist, messianic rabbi is the ruler of Israel Nutanyahoo of the extremist rabbis who incite murder of those who oppose expansionist zionism and even Jews: ‘They are the elite commando unit leading the nation and paving the way’.

Nor does Lior stop at non-Jews. Leading rabbis have testified that Lior was the source of rulings labeling the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin a “rodef” and a “moser” (a traitor who endangers Jewish lives ). Here, too, he didn’t stop at incitement. Rabin’s assassin used to travel to Hebron to see the rabbi. Baruch Goldstein (who massacred Arabs at the Cave of the Patriarchs in 1994 ) also visited King Lior for instruction. After he massacred dozens of people, the rabbi ruled that Goldstein was “holier than all the martyrs of the Holocaust.”

Israel bans use of words that start with “b”, “o” and “z”

Turkey Links

Moving Beyond the Dichotomy Writer falls into his own trap?

The dichotomous perception of the choice in the orientation of Turkish policy between “pro-Western” and “anti-Western”, or “pro-Muslim”, is more reflective of a mental division of the world between Occident and Orient than of the complex reality of 21st-century international politics.

Other Links

2011-07-02 Cables reveal the logic of Nicaragua’s social welfare programs for street children: ‘Cut the budget and hide it in secrecy’

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International Terrorism by Israel Against the Irish Boat to Gaza?

Dr. Fintan Lane from the MV Saoirse: “If this boat had gone to sea, it’s almost certain we would have lost lives – this boat would have sank.”

From Haaretz:

“This was done by hostile divers and identical sabotage was carried out to the Swedish ship, Juliana,” ISG spokesman Raymond Deane told DPA. “The inference is that the saboteurs were Israeli,” he said.

“This is attempted murder. The damage done to the propeller means that the ship could have sailed but the propeller would have come up through the hull after some time. We are a small ship and we would have gone down,” Deane added.

The Israeli embassy in Dublin said it had no connection with the incident and no information on it, Ireland’s national broadcaster RTE reported.

Six of the 20 crew and passengers who intended to sail on the MV Saoiree will transfer to another ship in the flotilla, ISG said. Those include former Ireland rugby player Trevor Hogan and Paul Murphy, a Socialist Party Member of the European Parliament, as well as ISG campaign coordinator Fintan Lane. They are joining activists on board the joint Italian and Dutch ship in the flotilla.

State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said Thursday the U.S. has seen no independent confirmation of the ships having been sabotaged, yet nevertheless stated that “our opinion that’s been stated very clearly from the State Department, both from the secretary down to this podium, is that these flotillas are a bad idea.”

The sabotage against the Irish and Swedish boat, both of whose propeller shafts were similarly damaged, could just as well have been done by US navy divers, as a favour to Israel.

The Irish government is showing some spine, with Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore backing calls for an investigation into damage.

Minister Gilmore said he takes the matter seriously.

“I do have concerns about it, and that is something that is going to have to be investigated initially by the Turkish authorities,” the Tánaiste said.

“I would take a very serious view of it, if it turned out that there was sabotage of that vessel.”

Mr Gilmore last week told Israeli ambassador to Ireland, Boaz Modai, that any interception of the flotilla must be peaceful.

He said while the activists were well intended and well motivated, they had been warned it would it would be dangerous to travel on the MV Saoirse vessel and on the mission.

“I met with a delegation from the people who are travelling a couple of weeks ago and subsequent to that I met with the Israeli ambassador and made it clear to him both what our travel advice was but also our expectation that there would not be a repeat of last year and that people who engaged in what is essentially a form of peaceful protest activity, that there is not to be a disproportionate response to that activity,” he added.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has also called for a probe into the incident.

“The Irish government has a responsibility to protect Irish citizens abroad and must demand answers from the Israeli government on this matter,” Deputy Adams said.

“I would also urge the government to ask the Turkish authorities to carry out a full and thorough investigation into what has occurred.”

Sign the petition for an independent inquiry into the sabotage.

Related Links

Sabotage of MV Saoirse in Turkey: ‘An Act of International Terrorism’
MV SAOIRSE SABOTAGE PHOTOS AND VIDEO
Israel army uses fabrications to assert flotilla financial links to Hamas
Gaza flotilla activists: Queers welcome aboard aid ships
Alice Walker : “Settlers are the Klan,” she says definitively, referring to the notorious white supremacist terror organization. “They don’t have their white sheets because I guess they don’t need them.”
Warding off the evil eye in the Eastern Mediterranean
Why breaking Israel’s illegal blockade on the people of Gaza is essential.
Political Zionism has always been an ideology of force and violence. Israel has become a society of force and violence

This is a recurring pattern: first demonization, then legitimization (to act violently ). Remember the tall tales about sophisticated Iranian weaponry coming through arms-smuggling tunnels in Gaza, or those about how the Strip was booby-trapped? Then Operation Cast Lead came along and the soldiers hardly encountered anything like that.

The attitude toward the flotilla is a continuation of the same behavior.

British Parliamentarians add support for Flotilla to Gaza
Peaceful flotilla essential step to win freedom for Palestinians

Palestine / Israel Links

Insane racism update: Danny Danon: Send African migrants to Australia

“The arrival of thousands of Muslim infiltrators to Israeli territory is a clear threat to the state’s Jewish identity,” Danon told The Jerusalem Post.

“The refugees’ place is not among us, and the initiative to transfer them to Australia is the right and just solution.

“On the one hand, it treats the refugees and migrants in a humane way. On the other hand, it does not threaten Israel’s future and our goal to maintain a clear and solid Jewish majority,” he explained.

U.S. Senate passes resolution threatening to suspend aid to Palestinians

The PLO General Delegation to the U.S. said in response that while it respects the right of Senate members to pass resolutions expressing their views, “we urge them to use an even-handed, fair, and unbiased approach when addressing their concerns on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.”

The delegation added that “the Israeli government has failed to reciprocate, and Prime Minister Netanyahu has repeatedly chosen a policy of land grabbing and settlement expansion over a just solution to the conflict and an end to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.”

Janan Abdu on the detention of her husband, political prisoner Ameer Makhoul

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To Jello Biafra : Please Don’t Play Apartheid Israel

After several decades, it seems my path and Jello’s are diverging – despite denials, he’s spinning off to Israel to wallpaper over the apartheid crimes of the regime with his life work. Yes, I’m taking this personally. I’ve revelled in his songs for their abrupt condemnation of imperialism, its accomplices and crimes since the early 80s. His music was part of a fabulous repertoire which punctuated the critical strikes and struggle to reclaim the right to march from the police state of Joh Bjelke Petersen in Queensland Uber Alles, and the anti- apartheid campaign to liberate South Africa. Our community radio station, the legendary 4ZZZ, suffused our lives with punk.

While not so popular at paid gigs outside the city, the success and appeal of political songs by the likes of Jello, Chris Bailey of The Saints, The Clash and other punk innovators helped to inspire me to keep writing and performing them whenever I could.

Now, Jello’s ambivalence to BDS, the principled non-violent tactic of resistance chosen by Palestinians, impacts me like losing a best friend who after a lifetime of feigning solidarity, reveals they always secretly despised your politics.

As a child, one of my first records was an album of a musical revue from apartheid South Africa called ‘Wait a Minim!’. The songs hedge about the cruel regime in veiled, satiric terms, because the government imprisoned its critics on the notorious Robben Island. Nelson Mandela along with countless others – musicians, playwrights, actors, activists and authors – were banished to that miserable hellhole for years. Many thousands of Palestinian political prisoners too are incarcerated in Israeli dungeons since they dare to exercise their legal right under international law to resist the illegal Israeli occupation. These are the people, including 217 children, whom Jello betrays most heinously by disrespecting the Palestinian BDS call. Awaiting their freedom are mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, children and family who are prevented often by Israel from visiting them, sometimes for many years. And there’s more treachery.

Palestinian people are relegated by the Israeli regime to the sub-human status of ‘demographic threat’. Through the deliverance of their birthright by imperial schemers into the hands of northern european invaders who will not countenance their return though it is guaranteed by international law, refugees are locked outside their ancestral domains. Their kin who avoided slaughter or expulsion from 1947 onward and who remain with their descendants in the Occupied Territories endure segregation, checkpoints, lack of basic rights, brutal military incursions, bombardments, blockades, harassment, exploitation, home demolitions, water and land theft and more. They share the fate of being born ‘children of a lesser god’ with Palestinians residing over the apartheid wall in the usurped state itself, under the thrall of a contemptuous, expansionist regime masquerading as did white South Africa as a democracy, impelled by discriminatory majority rule. While the real Israeli left supports universal human rights and BDS, the faux left staggers under a fatal cognitive dissonance which cannot resolve the contradiction of equal rights for all with the Zionist compulsion for a racist ethno-religious state.

I’ve gigged in very diverse places, from large civic venues to tiny dance halls way out west, played pub punk and rock, classical, gypsy, blues, soul, latin and cocktail jazz. Yet I can’t imagine playing a gig against the express wishes of Aboriginal people, to be used as a poster child to benefit the delusional racism of several past gerrymandered, authoritarian regimes and acolytes which held sway over and discriminated against Australian indigenous people by virtue of the white settler colonial majority. I have seen firsthand what covert and overt racism means in the name of ‘peace’ for people of colour.

At this time, the refrain of Palestinian people subsisting under the boot crescendoes and cries for justice – that song is the roots of the blues and so too, punk. International musicians can be a powerful force for change by respecting Palestinian civil society’s call for boycott. Then the Palestinian song demanding justice, freedom and equal rights for all can be heard loud and strong.

SOURCE

Related Links

Jello Biafra cancels his Tel Aviv gig
Another day, Another Appeal!
Peace Now Collaborates With Lieberman
Jello Biafra pulls out of Israel concert “I am going to Israel and Palestine to check things out myself – and may yet conclude that playing for people in the belly of the beast was the right thing to do in the first place.”
Jello’s conclusions recorded in his diary after visiting Israel :

I will not perform in Israel unless it is a pro-human rights, anti-occupation event, that does not violate the spirit of the boycott. Each musician, artist, etc. must decide this for themselves.

Jello Biafra’s ‘Ultimate Third Rail’: Why the Outspoken SF Punk Rocker Abandoned Plans to Play in Israel

UPDATE 28/2/12

Jello’s diary at Alternate Tentacles is truncated for an article at Al Jazeera. Where and what threats did Jello receive from BDS supporters? Not on his wall.

UPDATE 25217

From Boots Riley of The Coup in June 2011:

Well, let me see. I don’t know what my history with punk rock is. I love The Clash. There are a few bands that I think would be called punk that I would think fall into that. My cousin Lauren has a band called New Earth Creeps. That’s a punk band.

My first history of punk rock was given to me on a three hour drive from an airport in Alabama to Tuscaloosa. I was trapped in a van with Jello Biafra. I said I don’t know much about punk rock. For three hours, he started talking about punk from the mid 60s to the 2000s. That was an experience. That being said, if youâ??ve talked to Jello, he takes a hardline on certain bands. He didn’t like The Clash because they were on a major label. He’s a character. When he told me about Bad Brains, a lot of the groups he told me about, was the first time hearing about them. I listened to them later. “Bad Brains were good but blah blah blah and people stopped liking them.”

Now Jello is crossing the international picket line of the boycott, from the movement in Israel. He’s going to play in Israel while there is a boycott which is the same as playing Sun City. Knowing him and how hardline he is on people, on whether or not they stick to the script, that shocked me. I called him and left some messages.*

It’s not about keeping something from the people. Do boycotts work to force states to do something? The answer is, “if they are big enough they do.” The whole thing with Jelloâ?¦ by having Jello Biafra, someone who is a self proclaimed radicalâ?¦even Jello Biafra went! He’s performing there, not just going there. The boycott is against performing, not visiting. He not only doesn’t choose a side, he strikes a blow against the boycott movement. Before Jello decided to go there, even Coldplay was down the boycott. Coldplay but not Jello Biafra! Is Coldplay or Elvis Costello proving himself to be more punk rock than Jello? That’s a sad day.

I think that neither hip hop nor punk rock is in of itself radical or against the state. I think hip hop can support the status quo and so can punk rock. People get in an aesthetic that make themselves feel rebelliousâ?¦ just like rock and roll. Just like the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin were rebellious. But Mick Jagger can have tea with the Queen. Johnny Lydon, is on commercials. So is Iggy Pop. I think a lot of times people give themselves a pass as if they are punk rock.. people do that in hip hop too.

Itâ??s fine to be individual and find your own way. But if your individuality is actually going against a group of folks who have come together to be able to change the world, then you are on the side of the government, on the side of the capitalist- not just standing by and observing.