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After detailed discussions with DIRECTV, including agreement on rates, times, and network placements of the ad, when we gave them the final product, they abruptly decided not to do business with us.
This blatant act of censorship is preventing millions of U.S. households from learning the truth about our government’s crucial role in enabling Israel’s war on and siege of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
“THE boss has lost it,” many Israeli military and political officials, and people on the street, were reportedly joking after their army’s recent devastation of the Gaza Strip. As Israeli journalist Uri Avnery observed, the jest means that: ” … in order to deter our enemies, we must behave like madmen, go on the rampage, kill and destroy mercilessly.”
In fact, the “boss has lost it” is an unselfconscious admission of policies that violate international law, and could at some point be used against Israeli leaders in a criminal prosecution.
Evidence suggests that Israel may have committed at least seven serious offenses during its Gaza invasion: launching a war of aggression (because Israel itself triggered the breakdown of a six-month truce, and therefore did not have a valid claim of self-defense); deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure; deliberate killings of civilians; collective punishment; illegal use of weapons, including white phosphorous; preventing care to the wounded; and disproportionate use of force.
These constitute grave breaches of customary and conventional international law, and some amount to war crimes. Hamas’ indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israeli civilians were also war crimes, but did not justify Israel’s violations.
What is the likelihood that Israel leaders faced with allegations of war crimes will ever be investigated and brought to justice?
Bisharat is not confident of any international court being able to try the Israeli war criminals and suggests it is civil action which may have the most success in conditioning Israel’s sociopathic behaviour.
Thus, perhaps the “court of last resort” is that of international civil society, whose tools for nonviolent enforcement include boycotts, divestment and sanctions. That route, once so effective in helping to end apartheid in Africa, offers a powerful model for those seeking justice in Israel/Palestine today. Israel is both sensitive to Western opinion and dependent on trade and would likely respond to ostracism.
John Ging, the director of operations for the United Nations refugee agency in Gaza, said Thursday that Israel’s blockade was creating growing misery there by choking off basic humanitarian supplies like food, medicine, clothes and blankets as well as school supplies.
He also criticized the leadership of Hamas for letting its police force run wild, attacking a distribution center for the needy to cart off supplies.
“We are neither getting in the volume nor the range of supplies that we need here,” Mr. Ging told reporters at the United Nations, speaking via video link-up from Gaza. “This is creating a lot of misery among the people.”
In one example, Mr. Ging said that the teachers in the schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency had worked throughout the three-week Israeli bombardment that ended Jan. 18 to create a new human rights curriculum. But because Israel was blocking paper supplies, the textbooks and workbooks could not be printed, so some 60 percent of the children in United Nations schools lack books.
In the West Bank, an Israeli court has decided to permit the destruction of yet another Palestinian village situated on Palestinian land, for the benefit of a neighbouring illegal Israeli settlement.
About 25 Palestinian families would be forced to leave their homes and agricultural lands in the village of Khirbet Tana, located within the territory of the Beit Furik town, east of Nablus, after the Israeli high court rejected the objection made by human rights organizations on behalf of the families.
Arab Knesset member Ahmed Tibi has warned that Lieberman’s rising popularity reflects a dangerous trend.
“We are talking about a pure and obvious fascist phenomena invading the Israeli society,” Tibi said. “During the last years, racism became mainstream in the Israeli society.”
Meantime, Abbas meets with Gordon Brown whose platitudes are empty without the support of the world’s other hegemon, the US. Abbas also takes another counter-productive stab at Hamas.
The international community must make the reconstruction of Gaza a top priority, Gordon Brown has said.
Speaking after meeting Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, Mr Brown said he had urged Israeli PM Ehud Olmert to grant aid agencies full access to Gaza.
He also said it was vital that the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas remained in place.
Mr Abbas accused Israel of “dreadful aggression” in Gaza but said there was no alternative to the peace process.
Gordon Brown said the UK had trebled its humanitarian aid to Gaza as a result of the recent conflict in which more than a thousand Palestinians, including 300 children, died.
He said it was in Israel’s interest as well as that of the international community that aid agencies had unrestricted access to Gaza to help those in need.
“We must do everything we can to help rebuild Gaza and to provide humanitarian aid to families whose lives have been shattered,” he said in Downing Street.
“We must help rebuild Gaza’s economy to give hope that there can be a true peace dividend.”
Countries in the region must do more to stop arms smuggling into Gaza while dialogue between different Palestinian groups must be stepped up to try and bring about a reconciliation, he said.
Progress in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians was a “top priority” for the UK and world leaders must focus on the search for a lasting peace in the region with “renewed urgency”, Mr Brown added.
Mr Abbas said the cost of rebuilding Gaza would be close to $15bn (£10.2bn) and the “world must keep sending aid”.
The Palestinian Authority, which he heads, has said it will donate $600m (£408.8m) towards reconstruction in Gaza.
He accused Israel of seeking to “deepen divisions” between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas through its campaign in Gaza, which Israel says was provoked by Hamas rocket attacks.
But he also attacked Hamas for perpetrating what he called “a revolution” in Gaza.
However, he called for Palestinian unity and for the resumption of peace talks with Israel on the basis of approved UN resolutions.
“We believe that there are no alternatives to peace in the Middle East,” he said. “We remain committed to achieving peace.”
The positive economic benefits of next generation broadband could be as high as $90b. However, the conservative Labor Party proposed filters could sabotage these gains significantly.
The first test paper released by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) found that under trial conditions (so not a full black list), filtering reduced speeds between 2% and “in excess of” 75%, with three of the 6 products tested coming in at between 20-30%. Since that report it has been suggested that the filters with the lowest success rate are the quickest, so a proper implementation of a censorship regime would likely, at best cause a 20% drop in internet speeds, but likely significantly higher again.
Direct cost
Australian ISP’s have already stated that they are likely to pass on the cost of filtering data directly to users (ref). Further, a broad scale filter proposed by the Government may also drive up related costs, such as data center staff needed to deal with an increase in customer complaints when they can’t access sites.(ref).
No hard figure has been proposed by the industry, but even a small increase in internet charges would create a negative impact on the Australian economy.
At the end of June 2008, there were 7.23 million internet subscribers in Australia (ABS). An increase in costs of only $10 per month would immediately cost Australian internet users $867.6 million a year in additional direct costs. A $25 increase in internet access would result in an additional $2.169 billion in direct costs.
Indirect costs
Australia already has some of the slowest internet speeds in the developed world. A 2008 study (link) found that average internet speeds in Australia was 1.7 mbps, up from 1 mpbs in 2006, when Australia was ranked 26th out of 27 developed countries (ref).
The amount of the indirect cost will depend very much on the amount speeds drop. A 75% cut would bring the average speed down to 425kbps, where as a 25% cut to 1.275mpbs.
The cuts in speed would punish small businesses and the less well off more deeply than large businesses and those who can already afford high speed access. The June 2008 figures from the ABS found that only 43% of Australians have speeds higher that 1.5mpbs, and 21.7% of “broadband” subscribers only have speeds between 256kbps and 512kbps. A 75% cut on a 256kbps account would result in a 64kbps connection, basically dialup.
Remarkably, some 2 million Australians are still using dialup, with a maximum speed of 56kbps.
Slower speeds mean quite simply that it takes longer to do business, and that has a negative effect on productivity.
I identify myself as a social and fiscal conservative and most people who know me would agree with that assessment. As such, one could reasonably expect me to support ISP filtering as a means of ensuring inappropriate content remains unavailable via the internet.
Yet I have grave reservations about the Labor Party proposal on mandatory ISP filtering which is described as a ‘clean feed’ – words that just sugar-coat compulsory censorship of whatever the government deems you are not allowed to see.
While I strongly believe that anything we can do to prevent access to illegal material is a lawful and moral obligation, there is a world of difference between illegal and inappropriate. The latter being a personal assessment in which I also recognise that my own standards and beliefs are not shared by all in our community.
Further, the nature of the internet means that we can’t really classify content for availability only at a certain time or for certain ages like we can with television, movies or some printed content. This is a concern where young people may be exposed to inappropriate content inadvertently.
There are also broader philosophical reservations about allowing government to be the ultimate judge of what people should and should not have access to. I believe in small government – not big brother where personal responsibility is subservient to the State.
There are already many PC-based filters available that will prevent access to ‘blacklisted’ sites and allow PC end users to tailor the filters to meet the particular requirements of their households. Critics of these filters claim that they are easily disabled, but as I wrote earlier, prohibited material will always be available to those willing to break the rules.
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Among the many advocates for ISP filtering that I have spoken with, including Minister Stephen Conroy, no one has been able to explain to me exactly how it will work and what content will (or should be) filtered.
In some cases, advocates believe content bans should be extended to all nudity and even stories featuring consensual relations between adults. (I had to describe it like that because the word ‘sex’ might prevent you from being able to access this page!)
It has been suggested that there should be a rating system for internet content similar to how ACMA rates media content.
When I have asked how this could work, no one that I have spoken to has any clear idea, yet they all maintain that ‘it needs to be done’.
That may be so, but at what cost?
There is no stronger supporter of families than myself. My political life is a commitment to strengthening families and changing our nation through the development of our children. However, I also believe that in most circumstances, families know better than government what is best for their children.
Parental responsibility cannot and should not be abrogated to government – if it is, our society will only become weaker.
Yes, illegal content should be banned from the web. It is illegal after all, but it is wrong to give the government a blank cheque to determine what is appropriate for us to view on the internet. That is a job for families, working with government.
As the old saying goes, “absolute power corrupts absolutely” and Israel is no exception. With the craven collusion of the UK and US, the Zionist enterprise has had absolute power over its luckless neighbours since its unfortunate conception or rather transplantation.
Israel’s fetishistic posture as victim whilst it perversely celebrates a stance of victory, colonialism, nationalism and militarism has encouraged displays of defiant, lawless behaviour by the state itself and amongst its worldwide cadres of Zionist zombies, which would make it the envy of every tinpot dictator from Zimbabwe to Burma.
The latest of its repugnant transgressions against international law and human decency is the terrorising of the crew of the Lebanese aid ship en route to Gaza and carrying 60 tons of aid, journalists and activists including former Greek Catholic archbishop of Jerusalem Hilarion Capucci, who left Jerusalem in the 1970s after serving in an Israeli jail.
Israeli soldiers on Thursday climbed into the Lebanese aid ship “Taly” and beat up the crew, while Israeli war ships opened fire on the ship near Gaza territorial waters, the Doha-based al-Jazeera TV reported.
An al-Jazeera reporter on board, crying in panic, said “they are directing their guns to our heads and beating us” before the television signal broke off.
The Israeli navy fired three times on the Togo-flagged ship, according to the report
The Israeli army confirmed that a Lebanese aid boat, which was trying to enter the Gaza Strip water, was seized by the Israeli navy on Thursday morning.
The crew was taken in for questioning by Israeli security personnel and all the humanitarian goods would be transferred into Gaza via border crossings, the spokesman said.
Earlier, reporters from Al-Jadeed and al-Jazeera TVs said the Israeli navy fired three times on the ship, which caused no casualties.
The Al-Jadeed station said Israeli troops then boarded the ship and threatened the crew, adding that the Togo-flagged ship was surrounded by 18 Israeli gunboats demanding the crew turn back.
IDF spokesman denied that the army used any gunfire to the boat, adding that the crew of the boat had ignored different warnings from the Israeli navy.
“Israeli crew approached the boat Wednesday night, as it was suspicious of smuggling illegal supplies,” he said.
The boat set sail from the northern Lebanese port of Tripoli on Monday night and headed for Gaza Wednesday morning after a stopover in Cyprus.
It was directed to al-Arish in Egypt initially, but the crew decided to try again to reach Gaza to challenge an Israeli siege of Gaza, according to army sources.
Al Jazeera’s correspondent aboard the Al-Ikhwa (The Brotherhood) ship said the navy first opened fire, then five Israeli soldiers boarded the ship, beating and threatening the passengers.
“They are pointing guns against us – they are kicking us and beating us. They are threatening our lives,” Al Jazeera’s Salam Khoder said.
Communications with the ship broke off shortly thereafter.
According to the owner of the vessel, the Israelis destroyed its communication equipment and confiscated the phones of those on board.
…
Maan Bashour, an aid co-ordinator for the group End the Blockade of Gaza, said the ship was carrying medical equipment, food supplies and books, toys and milk for small children.
“This ship was searched in Cyprus and in Lebanon,” Bashour told Al Jazeera in Beirut, Lebanon. “And we were very eager to let it be searched by Lebanese and Cypriot authorities in order that there be no reason for the Israelis to prevent it from going to Gaza.”
Foud Siniora, Lebanon’s president, condemned the attack on Al-Ikhwa, emphasising that it was on a humanitarian mission to Gaza.
“It is no surprise for Israel to perpetrate such an action as it has been accustomed to ignoring all international resolutions and values,” he said during a speech in Beirut.
“I made a number of necessary phone calls with international parties in order to exert pressures on Israel which is violating laws. I hold Israel responsible for the safety of the ship and passengers. ”
Egyptian officials had expressed hopes a deal would be signed on Thursday, but Hamas negotiators returned to Gaza and Damascus overnight with a number of issues still unresolved.
Despite the setback, Hamas delegates are expected to return to Egypt on Saturday and officially accept an at least 12-month truce with Israel.
Mohammed Nasr, a member of the Hamas delegation that travelled to Cairo, told Al Jazeera that some of the proposals discussed were “ambiguous”.
“Our brothers in Egypt, they need some time to contact the other side [Israel] in order to get clarifications and answers to our questions and issues raised by the [Hamas] movement,” he said.
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One of the key sticking points in reaching agreement is the opening of Gaza’s borders.
Hamas and other Palestinian groups have demanded Israel lifts its blockade of the Gaza Strip, which prevents even humanitarian aid from coming in.
Israel, however, has cited concerns of weapons smuggling into the territory and says it wants to keep at least a quarter of the border crossings closed as leverage until Hamas releases Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured in 2006.
Hamas has so far refused to link the two issues, saying Shalit will only be released if Israel frees some of its held members in exchange.
Another sticking point is the length of the ceasefire agreement.
Israel has asked for a 18-month truce, while Hamas has called for a year-long truce.
Salah al-Bardawil, another member the Hamas negotiating team, told Al Jazeera that while there are still several unresolved issues, he was confident that a deal would be reached within days.
Furthermore, he said Egypt has pledged to host all the Palestinian factions, including Hamas, at a conference on February 22 to deal with such issues as national unity, security and political prisoners.
Ominously, US/Israeli collaborator, Egypt, has closed the southern borders completely – is another military assault on Rafah imminent?
Egypt on Thursday closed its Rafah crossing with the Gaza Strip to all but exceptional cases after opening it to aid and wounded Palestinians during Israel’s war on Hamas.
“The border is closed as of this morning,” a border official told AFP, adding that wounded Palestinians being treated in Egypt would still be allowed to return home and some wounded Gazans would still be allowed to enter Egypt.
“No humanitarian, media or medical delegations will be allowed through, nor will medical aid deliveries be permitted,” the official said, while “foreign delegations” who entered Gaza from Egypt would also be allowed to return.
Egypt and other foreign countries had asked its citizens and the medical teams to leave the Gaza Strip before February 5 without showing the reason, but in fear of a resumption of an Israeli military assault on Gaza.
Meanwhile, Gaza-Israeli crossings coordinator Ra’ed Fatouh said earlier that Israel informed the Palestinians that it would partially and temporarily reopen its crossings with Gaza to allow food and fuels for the Gaza Strip.
“Three key crossing points between Israel and Gaza will be reopened today (Wednesday) to allow food supplies as well as industrial diesel for operating the main Gaza power station,” said Fatouh.
Israeli Prime Minister’s Office spokesman Mark Regev did not mince his words.
“Hamas is playing with fire and they alone will be responsible for the destruction of the truce,” Regev said. “The whole international community will understand that if there is a new escalation it will be the direct result of Hamas’ extremist, irresponsible and nihilistic behavior.”
This victimhood hasbara is getting very old, Mark.
Netanyahoo begins to throw his projectionist cap into the electoral ring.
Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu claimed on Tuesday that he would dethrone Hamas if he is elected.
“A government led by me will topple the Hamas government in Gaza and bring peace and security to the South,” he said, attacking Livni and Barak for ending Cast Lead without stopping the rockets.
Someone needs to explain to Bibi that one dethrones monarchs, not democratically elected governments.
In a process one military historian has termed the rapid “theologization” of the Israeli army, there are now entire units of religious combat soldiers, many of them based in West Bank settlements. They answer to hardline rabbis who call for the establishment of a Greater Israel that includes the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Their influence in shaping the army’s goals and methods is starting to be felt, say observers, as more and more graduates from officer courses are also drawn from Israel’s religious extremist population.
“We have reached the point where a critical mass of religious soldiers is trying to negotiate with the army about how and for what purpose military force is employed on the battlefield,” said Yigal Levy, a political sociologist at the Open University who has written several books on the Israeli army.
The new atmosphere was evident in the “excessive force” used in the recent Gaza operation, Dr Levy said. More than 1,300 Palestinians were killed, a majority of them civilians, and thousands were injured as whole neighborhoods of Gaza were leveled.
“When soldiers, including secular ones, are imbued with theological ideas, it makes them less sensitive to human rights or the suffering of the other side.”
Money will no doubt pour into the system now but unless there is some justice over the use of unconventional weapons on a civilian popultation so the extent that almost every street had bits of phosphurus mixture that kids play with to make it ignite 20 days later in some cases. That also needs clearing up safely particularly as rain water or heat of the summer could reignite these remnants. children are already getting fingers and faces burnt as they play with remnants in the streets.
Several stories are new on Raising Yousuf and Noor: diary of a Palestinian mother –
The two protesters, a young woman and a young man, shouted “Murderers!”and “Intifada!” while pelting Dagan with the objects. They are currently under arrest, suspected of assault and public disturbance.
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Some 20 minutes into the lecture, a woman stood up in the audience, threw a red shoe at the ambassador and shouted “Murderers!”. The shoe hit Dagan in his stomach. Another protester then joined in and hurled two books and a note pad.
Dagan was dumbstruck and paralysed, but returned to his lecture shortly after a few minutes – only to face shouts and other verbal protests from the audience. The meeting ended in chaos, while the two protestors were taken into custody.
“And then the tanks came. One of them was based only meters away from my house. There were twenty-five of us, and we were all told to leave,” he said as his voice trembled and he began to cry. “The soldiers were eating chips and chocolate, and they were smiling when they killed my daughters.
”My mother, my wife, and my three daughters all held white flags when they tried to leave the house. We saw two of the soldiers get out of their tank, and we told them how we wanted to leave. We waited and waited for their response but were given no answer. Then, to our own surprise, a third soldier emerged and he opened fire on the children with insanity.
“Souad was only seven years old, Summer was three, and Amal was of only two years. My mother was shot as well, and I watched all that I loved fall to the ground. I screamed for them to stop! I ran into the house to call civil defense, ambulances, anyone who could help.
“For one hour the injured were bleeding, and two of my daughters were killed despite the so called ceasefire. No help was able to come to us in time. One of the ambulances tried, but the Israeli soldiers stopped the paramedic and forced him to remove his clothing. They then bombed the ambulance and it was buried in rubble. The paramedic fled naked while their fire surrounded him.
Baby Shahed’s body, when it was finally recovered, had been found by dogs. The 5 bodies were all so burned, decomposed, and torn apart that the remaining pieces fit into 1 grave.
No scrap of dignity was allotted to the dead.
Nor to the living. The house was occupied and desecrated by Israeli soldiers, as was the house of Muhammad and Matar. Some of the graffiti penned by Israeli soldiers included: “Your underwear is good,” which the family had tried to scrub off.
In Matar’s house significant shelling and shooting ripped into walls and windows. Much more graffiti in Hebrew stained the walls. A sketch of a nude woman.
And pledges:
“If we missed (left) one of the house corners undestroyed, we will get back to you the next operation!”
Luca Ricolfi notes (Gambetta, 2005) that despair of a very particular kind is certainly an animating factor in Palestinian suicide bombings. Citing research by a Palestinian economist, B. Saleh, which shows almost all suicide bombers having been subjected directly to arrest or maltreatment by the IDF, and a good number having had a family member killed, he notes that compounding the desire for revenge is indifference to death. That is, the extreme repression in Palestine produces a “drastic, extreme and tragic contraction of an individual’s set of options”. Material deprivation leaves individuals with “literally nothing to do or imagine”, while specific repression can “generate a progressive dismantling of a person’s emotional world” in which “reality has shrunk to a minimum” and is replaced by a highly mental world of symbols and fantasies. Here, liberal economic theory does not hold: man does not always pursue his own immediate interests in such a situation, and such a society. The moral priority of the community over the individual can lead people thus deprived to be willing to sacrifice themselves. Other research produces similar conclusions, as Jacqueline Rose notes:
According to Eyad El-Sarraj, the founder and director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, today’s suicide attackers are, for the most part, children of the first intifada. Studies show that during the first uprising, 55 per cent of children saw their fathers being humiliated or beaten by Israeli soldiers. Martyrdom – sacrificing oneself for God – increases its appeal when the image of the earthly father bites the dust. ‘It’s despair,’ El-Sarraj states baldly, ‘a despair where living becomes no different from dying.’ When life is constant degradation, death is the only source of pride. ‘In 1996, practically all of us were against the martyr operations,’ Kamal Aqeel, the acting mayor of Khan Yunis in Gaza, explains. ‘Not any longer . . . We all feel that we can no longer bear the situation as it is; we feel that we’d simply explode under all this pressure of humiliation.’
Israel creates despair amongst those whom it steals life, liberty and land.
… what we appear to have is injustice generating recruits for unjust actions.
Since the Israeli fascists constructed the fence around Gaza, the level of oppression has been ramped up.
Someone needs to explain to Bibi that one dethrones monarchs, not democratically elected governments.