Zionism

April 1, 2011December 11, 2020

Israel the Self-Delegitimiser

Zeev Sternhell pins down Israel’s descent into fascism, self-delegitimisation and subsequent denial:

The settlement colonialism is the main reason today, usually the only one, for the opposition, sometimes bordering on hatred, that Israel arouses among much of the Western intelligentsia. It’s not the enemies of Zionism and the anti-Semites who are delegitimizing Israel, but Israel itself, with its own two hands.
…
The disgraceful flight from a confrontation with the right in the Knesset will not soon be forgotten, and the center’s moral bankruptcy will be recorded as a disgrace. The greatest enemies of democracy and the sources of fascism’s strength have always been not the radical right’s independent power, but the opportunism, conformism and cowardice of the center.

JPost goes into full swing and denial of Israeli fascism, in unwitting hypocrisy:

“Fascist” was a title infamously hard-earned by Brown Shirts in places like Germany, Italy and Bosnia, where racial laws were passed and genocides were carried out.

Passing racial laws and genocide are precisely what Israel has done and is doing.

And here’s more confirmation that the apartheid Israeli regime doesn’t want two (viable) states:

Isaac Molho, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s senior adviser and top negotiator on the Palestinian channel, made a secret trip to Moscow on Wednesday and met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The purpose of the visit was to dissuade Russia from supporting the European Union’s intention to present in two weeks’ time a plan for the establishment of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.

@phbarratt There will be one state in Mandate Palestine and Israel’s grandchildren will wonder why they are a minority in an Arab state. #

@Jinjirrie Racist Australians support Israeli crimes against Palestinians as they do Australia’s crimes against Aboriginals .#

Winner of the first Israeli Apartheid Video Contest offers a comparison of South African Apartheid To Israeli Apartheid. Read the full story about the contest at Electronic Intifada.

Global BDS Day of Action 2011 – Chicago

Palestine / Israel Links

Global BDS Day of Action 2011
Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (24-30 March 2011)
This is how many cops Max Brenner needs to prevent their customers hearing how they support occupation #BDS
Israeli activists call for a ‘no fly zone’ over Gaza
Netanyahu under probe for graft
Glenn Milne expresses his hatred for Palestinians and their rights

My published (corrected as I must have still been waking up when I wrote it) comment:

‘Learn more about the non-violent call from Palestinian people for justice and rights at bdsmovement.net before casting aspersions at those who support human rights against oppression, please, Glenn.

Leading anti-apartheidists like Bishop Desmond Tutu say Israeli apartheid is far worse than that perpetrated by white South Africa. The South African Human Sciences Research Commission has identified Israel practising colonialism and the three pillars of apartheid.

While Israel continues its land theft and settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, inflicts apartheid on Palestinians and denies Palestinian Israelis full equal rights, those Australians who are in tune with Martin Luther King’s example who see injustice anywhere as a threat to justice everywhere won’t stop highlighting Israeli crimes against humanity. Australia was at the forefront of the anti-apartheid movement against white South Africa – it’s time we Australians stood up again to insist our government acts to support the principled boycott against Israel.’

Murdock smears again
Sonja Karkar’s story on the smears: The Greens and BDS caught up in Israel’s theatre of the absurd

There is absolutely nothing in the BDS Call by Palestinian Civil Society of 2005 that says “Israel should be just a one-state country”. In fact, the statement merely says that BDS “should be maintained until Israel meets its obligations to recognise the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination”. It also clearly states that there is no alternative but to call for such non-violent punitive measures since “all forms or international intervention and peace-making have until now failed to convince or force Israel to comply” with its obligations under international law.

How that could be considered an “extreme” policy or one that goes against reconciliation, peace or justice, makes the mind boggle. But that’s precisely the theatre of the absurd into which Australia has fallen.

The inspiration for that initial call came from the South African struggle against apartheid, a struggle against injustice and oppression. And in case Australians have not heard what eminent South Africans have had to say about Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians through all the fog of misinformation and hysteria, it bears repeating that Archbishop Tutu, Nelson Mandela, former government minister Ronnie Kasrils, former UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, Professor John Dugard, former head of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), Willie Madisha, and also the current one, Sidumo Diamini have all said that what Israel is doing to the Palestinians is worse than anything that was done in South Africa. It is apartheid.
…

BDS then is neither extreme nor likely to “strengthen the hand of extremists”. It is Israel’s and its apologists reactions to BDS that are extreme. When two women have already been subjected to virulent attacks for their support of BDS, one has to wonder how much of this smear campaign is to neutralise the Greens and how much to quash the BDS campaign for good in Australia.

The Marrickville smear just shows their Green fear

There was a de facto anti-Green alliance of both major parties, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, The Daily Telegraph and the Australian Jewish New, a powerful alliance that ran a slanderous campaign asserting that the Greens are anti-Israel (or anti-Semitic) because they support BDS and Palestinian rights.

The anti-BDS and anti-Greens campaign in Marrickville – which reached fever pitch in the last two weeks of the election campaign – included the outrageous accusation that the Greens are “fascists” and “Nazis”. Greens billboards in the Marrickville electorate were plastered with swastikas, as well as racist and sexist abuse.

The attempt to slur those who criticise Israel’s treatment of Palestinians as fascists – or supporters of the Nazi’s attempts to wipe out the Jewish population in Eastern and Central Europe during the World War II – is a crude and desperate attempt to silence critics.

…

The argument that any criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic is ridiculous but it is routinely used by supporters of Israel to try and silence its critics. The accusation that critics of Israel’s policy towards Palestinians ignore other human rights abuses around the world and just pick on Israel is also wrong. Anti-racists are just as outspoken about Western justifications for imperial wars, the treatment of refugees, and the treatment of Indigenous people in this country.

On the other hand, most of the people doing the smear job on the BDS campaign are not noted for speaking out against these injustices.

Andrew Robb labels Greens’ Israel boycott calls ‘anti-semitic’
Bob Brown can’t run away from his support for the NSW Greens BDS policy.
Business slaps down boycott talk – these zionist shills are not aware that BDS selectively targets institutions which support Israeli apartheid and occupation – seems as though the Australian is using green tech to wedge the greens.
NSW Greens Israel boycott damaging: Brown
Lonely, but pampered, at the top – Nutanyahoo plagiarises Gough Whitlam
Hamas: “Israel Is Deluding Its People, Obstructing Swap Deal”
Moyle in Northern Ireland twinned with Gaza
Our brothers, ourselves : Will American Jews be able to continue to support Israel if it maintains its current political, social and religious orientations? Yes – and no – it depends on whom you ask
JPost in denial of Israeli fascism
The extreme right turned Israel into an anachronism
Yet another racist Israeli law on the way – The Palestinian Prisoners’ Forum warns against Israeli law preventing Palestinian detainees from meeting with lawyers
We must stop the nationalist and racist Lieberman

It is true half the nation is afraid of missiles on Ben-Gurion International Airport but the other half is even more from afraid of having Lieberman as prime minister.

In Palestine, curse anything but the land
Incitement and Racism in Israeli Media

Commenting on the racial laws recently enacted in Israel, Dror Edar wrote an article which was published in ‘Israel Today’ newspaper under the title “The priority is for Jews”. He said that the first priority is to preserve Jews’ rights, and not the rights of the Arab minority in Israel.

“The repeated claim that the Arabs are a minority in Israel, thus we need to preserve their right is a false one. The Jews are the majority in Israel, thankfully, but they are the minority in a threatening unstable Arabic and Islamic environment”, he said.

He added “Reserving the rights of the Arab minority in Israel can’t be at the expense of preserving the rights of the Jewish minority in the region.”

Activists: Settlers burn storefront in Al-Khalil
Hamas: Knesset’s citizenship revocation law targets the Palestinian presence
How to friend an Israeli soldier
Adalah, ‘The Inequality Report: The Palestinian Arab Minority in Israel’ (pdf) – important document
If you are Palestinian you were born with a goal, a goal to fight for justice.
Joe Klein and the Palestinian Gandhi – another pundidiot discovers the Palestinian tradition of non-violence

Libya Links

Noam Chomsky: On Libya and the Unfolding Crises
The price of Dignity in Libya

Wikileaks Links

@Anony_Ops hacks Nuclear Launch Codes

Australia Links

Most white Australians I know are vacuously unaware of their privilege and racism. Michael Anderson nails it:
Australia as “last bastion for the Aryan race”

Michael Anderson: ‘the New Way Sovereignty Summit in Canberra will challenge Australia’s application for a seat on the United Nations Security Council.

“Australia does not have the right to be nominated, let alone have a seat there. How can a colonial state of England have such a right? We will make every effort to lobby against Australia getting nominated.”’

Does the Australian working class have the power to change society?

March 31, 2011December 11, 2020

Inside the Imperial Tent Last November

Aimée Kligman at the Examiner relates information about the genesis of the current imperial debacle in Libya:

According to Voltairenet.org, the popular revolt which took seed in Benghazi, Libya last month had been planned by France’s secret services since November 2010. At the time, France drew the United Kingdom into its scheme as a partner, which now explains the earnest push with which both countries have exerted over action for a no-fly zone over Libya to help rebel forces. When the United States became involved in these discussions, it threw in its own objectives which included a counter-revolution in the Arab World as well as AFRICOM’s landing on the continent.

Just goes to show as ever – never trust a smiling imperialist.

Quote for the Day from @AboriginalOz: #ChampagneRacism Europeans have Nations. Africans and Indigenous peoples have Tribes. #

“We came to this country which was already populated by Arabs, and we are establishing a Hebrew, that is a Jewish, state here…Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages…There is not a single community in the country that did not have a former Arab population.” Israeli leader, Moshe Dayan, quoted in Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi’s “Original Sins.”

Palestine / Israel Links

Bi-partisan condemnation by zionist-infiltrated major parties in Australia against BDS is despicable –

Noted from the figures below the story, that Israel imports 4 times the goods to Australia than Australia exports to Israel.

Let’s reduce our unhealthy trade balance!

I see the unnamed ‘An Israeli embassy spokeswoman’ has ‘urged the Greens to engage in dialogue rather than support boycotts, suggesting such a path would embolden radicals.

“Those who are behind the policy of singling out Israel through a boycott are clearly showing their true colours,” she said. “The whole boycott program strengthens the radicals in a lot of ways.

“A lot of people who support the boycotts have never read the BDS charter which states Israel should be just a one-state country.

“It does not support negotiations at all.”

This unnamed mossad agent needs to read the BDS resolution which doesn’t state Israel should be a one-state country. In Australia generally, compliance with international law is only an issue if the US says it is. And it ‘s Israel’s continued building of illegal settlements & #Occupation which make one state inevitable, not BDS.

My comment passed through the Australian’s gatekeeper:

‘The BDS resolution called for by Palestinian people who have suffered 63 years of dispossession of their lands and 44 years of brutal military occupation does not say “Israel should be just a one-state country”. The remarks by the “unnamed Israeli embassy spokeswoman” are lies. EVERYONE should read the resolution here – bdsmovement.net – to understand how politicians and public are being duped against supporting Palestinian justice and rights against a system of apartheid which leading South African anti-apartheidists say is worse than that of white South Africa. Compliance with international law is NOT radical. “These non-violent punitive measures should be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people`s inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law by: 1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall 2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and 3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.”‘

BDS has endorsement not just from Marrickville Council but unions and other community organisations. The fact that it isn’t national Greens’ policy is a disgrace.
Speaking of Murdoch thuggery over Israel/Palestine
Time in Australia to pile onto anybody who speaks out against Israel
Irish Council offically twin with The Municipality Of Gaza
Interview with Israeli BDS activist Tali Shapiro: The fear of international isolation is shifting the discourse in Israel
AMP endorses Global BDS Movement in Commemoration of Land Day
Bi-partisan condemnation by zionist-infiltrated major parties in Australia against BDS is despicable
The current ‘one state’ reality in Israel/Palestine
Palestinian Man Murdered By Israeli Car In Jerusalem
Benjamin Netanyahu’s heart of darkness : outrageous lies
American Radical : The Film
Time for Regime Change in the Palestinian Authority – neocons call for another intervention
Racial Discrimination In Haredi Town Allegedly Payback For Sexual Abuse Victims Going To Police
Holes found in Pro-Zionist land theft panty protest – Palestinian sweatshop exploitation uncovered
Quintuple Hasbarah FAIL
DiManno: Libyan hospital reveals casualties of war
Protests drive Ahava out of Covent Garden
Are The Greens Ready For Hard Ball? – the thread continues
Cultural theft of Palestinian Land Day and Global BDS Day by the JNF
The corruption of innocence by Zionism and the pernicious hasbara of normalisation with apartheid : “Ten years in prison had not damaged me as deeply as Seeds of Peace had”.
Britain about to politicise the application of universal jurisdiction
Rattling the Cage: Israel is deporting kids – now

Asked how many children and parents were awaiting deportation in the new holding cells set up at Ben-Gurion Airport, the official said, “I don’t know, and I don’t know that we’re going to give out that information.”
During the interview, though, the official said “dozens” had been in the cells.

“Infiltration Bill” Passes First Reading without Debate
Stop the Wall release new report on Brazil’s military relations with Israel
All we need to know about racist Israeli politics
UN resolutions; only applicable to support our interests
“Justice” is Served, Israeli Occupation Style
Rawabi remains settler-colonial sub-contractor
Lod’s Growing Resistance to Ethnic Cleansing
Palestinian Rights Campaigners ‘Trash’ Veolia HQ
46% of Israeli teens: Revoke Arabs’ rights – Friedrich Ebert Foundation’s Youth Study reveals Israel’s teens think greatest threat to state is Jewish-Arab conflict, believe less in democratic values. As for who they trust most – IDF gets 93%
BDS and Beyond –

It once seemed as though BDS could strengthen the hand of those Israeli Jews who favoured a period of consolidation around a 1967-variant Palestinian ‘state’. This is no longer the case.

For as long as Palestinians are calling for BDS, their request has to be honoured. But the revolutions sweeping the Arab world contain the whisper of a potentially new strategy for Palestinian liberation. More accurately, it is the rebirth of an older strategy that many thought dead and buried: mass action by progressive, democratic and secular forces across the Middle East to liberate all peoples of the region.

On this Land Day, perhaps supporters of the Palestinian cause outside the region can dare to dream of ways in which we can help catalyse that process.

(Israelis seem to labour under the apprehension that BDS is primarily aimed at them).
UN resolutions; only applicable to support our interests
Because if you can’t break the apartheid wall, dance on it..

Libya Links

After unscripted Arab drama, the west sneaks back on set – People were not rebelling solely against dictators but the economic model. Yet foreign interests may again be calling the shots
The West’s strategy in Libya – As the bombs continue to fall, the international community isÂ scrambling to define its mission in Libya.
DiManno: Libyan hospital reveals casualties of war
The language of liberal war
you didn’t need to be an expert on Libya to know which way the wind was blowing… – I’m not the only one who had a very bad feeling about the Libyan ‘intervention’
WikiLeaks releases U.S. cable on Mussa Kussa –

Libya foreign minister who just defected in London, suggesting he is man of “acumen” and intellect who we can work with. “He is Western-educated… and is seen as a strong supporter of re-engagement with the West…. Kussa is the rare Libyan official who embodies a combination of intellectual acumen, operational ability and political weight.”

Wikileaks Links

Bin Laden interviewer to speak at UVa
Chatting With Bradley Manning

March 28, 2011December 11, 2020

Malevolent Marrickville Machinations

Marrickville Defacements Too busy to write much today, so here goes with a mish mash of Marrickville links. Greens candidate and Council Mayor Fiona Byrne was targeted with a reprehensible volley of smears and dirty campaign tactics prior to the election in order to hijack both the Greens and the principled BDS resolution passed by Marrickville Council. Prominent in hasbara media ops as usual was the scurrilous Australian.

But what a joke! the ALP and the Libs in disgraceful unison with Fred Nile in support of Israeli apartheid.

Now we find:

The Liberal-National Government will need 22 votes to get its agenda through the Legislative Council.

It is expected to turn for that support to Fred Nile’s Christian Democrats and the Shooters and Fishers party, who are predicted to hold two seats each.

Pre-election dirty tricks in Marrickville:

In Marrickville – where the swing required to unseat Labor was 7.5 per cent – Ms Tebbutt was slightly ahead of Ms Byrne but had not claimed victory.

The battle for Sydney’s inner west took an ugly turn yesterday when police were called to investigate vandalism of Marrickville Greens’ candidate Fiona Byrne’s campaign posters that were defaced with swastikas.

The Nazi symbols appeared on Ms Byrne’s posters in Petersham and Enmore on Friday night, some scrawled with the words: ”Watch out for the Nazi.” Other threats have been made.

Ms Byrne is the mayor of Marrickville Council, which controversially voted to boycott Israel four months ago. The boycott has sparked threats to other Marrickville councillors.

Police confirmed they were investigating the threats and the poster defacements.

Ms Byrne played down the threats yesterday, saying they were simply part of an intense campaign. ”It’s been a pretty emotional campaign,” she said. ”There have been some interesting tactics out there, but for me it’s about the voters and really keeping positive.”

She said the threats, most of which had been made in blogs or sent by email, had been reported to the NSW Electoral Commission and the police.

@annabelcrabb: If Carmel Tebbutt wins M’ville she can thank Israel, and the cute baby on her electorate-wide flyer she put out last night #nswvotes #

@annabelcrabb: Last night, Tebbutt’s campaign distributed a door tag with cute baby pic – “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater” #nswvotes #

My encounter on twitter with Israel born Hajnal Ban nee Black, in denial about the smear tactics and illegal campaign poster defacements used against Fiona Byrne is below. Apparently the term ‘denier’ is trademarked to the Israel Lobby.

Jinjirrie: The bizarro world of @HajnalBlack : ‘I am merely calling for respect in the Climate Change debate. There is no respect when the word denier is used in this context’ http://is.gd/5oMKcE #

Jinjirrie: . @HajnalBlack why do you think a non-violent campaign for justice against a state globally identified as apartheid is anti-semitic? #

HajnalBlack: @Jinjirrie Sorry, I forgot, Hamas is non-violent #

Jinjirrie: . @HajnalBlack Hamas is not a signatory to the 2005 non-violent call for BDS of Israel from Palestinian CIVIL society

Jinjirrie: . @HajnalBlack have you ever bothered to read the relevant #BDS documents? http://bdsmovement.net/ http://pacbi.org/ #

Jinjirrie: . @HajnalBlack BDS is directed at institutions which support the illegal Israeli Occupation and apartheid, not individuals #

Jinjirrie: . @HajnalBlack before I forget, what’s your reaction to the Nazi swastika poster defacements & filthy smear campaign against Fiona Byrne? #

@HajnalBlack: @Jinjirrie Her views and actions would indicate that she should be moderate in her perspective if she’ld like to avoid such harsh reactions #

Jinjirrie: @HajnalBlack so you condone the use of political smear tactics & Nazi swastika poster defacements against Fiona Byrne? #auspol #BDS #

No response … yet.

Hajnal is happy to smear the Greens as fringe extremists with the best of them. In heropen letter to the Prime Minister of Australia she fumes:

“You and your Ministers’ use of the word ‘climate change denier’ to describe me and others who agree with the fact that human induced climate change ‘science’ is questionable and the fact that a Carbon Tax will do zilch to lower Earth’s temperature is offensive. It is clear that your clever use of the English language is designed to paint people with opposing views to you as similar to holocaust deniers; fringe extremists who can’t grapple with reality.

I would like to formally make you aware of the fact that I regard your comments as racial vilification, as they link me to a group of people who I hold with such anathema, such distaste, that it hurts our family’s sensitivities surrounding the holocaust.

I won’t bother writing a letter of concern to the Greens who also part take in this despicable word game, as the Greens are a fringe group. However your antics and the hysteria that you whip up against people opposed to your increase in taxes is most certainly painting you as a Green-sympathising extremist.”

Hajnal Black proves Christopher Pyne wasn’t alone in channelling the tenuous Holocaust allusion. Pynehead laid claim on a trademark for ‘denier’ last week.

There was a time (much of the 20th century, indeed, when established beliefs were up for challenge) when scepticism was fashionable. In the currently overheated period, however, the very words sceptic and (gasp) denier have become as loaded as the accusation by a mediaeval inquisitor of heresy.

”Denier,” cried Ms Gillard. You might hardly be surprised to discover there was a bonfire being built in the grounds of Parliament House for the ritual burning of the heretic Abbott.

Mr Pyne flew to what he imagined was his leader’s defence.

He demanded that Mr Jenkins force Ms Gillard to withdraw her ”offensive words”.

”We all know the connotation the Prime Minister is trying to bring about by using the word ‘denier’,” he fulminated.

”We know she’s trying to allude to the Holocaust. It is offensive and it must stop.”

The Speaker, digesting Mr Pyne’s leap of logic, declared he had to employ ”as much sensitivity as I can muster” to deal with the matter.

Unsurprisingly, he didn’t buy the proposition.

”I think that the construction the manager of opposition business has placed at this point in time is stretching it,” he understated.

Mr Pyne protested. ”I make the connection between climate change denier and Holocaust denier.”

Mr Jenkins told MPs to ”take a deep breath and behave in a manner that those that observe us from outside would expect”.

His plea was, of course, denied.

UPDATE

Excellent story by Sonja Karkar on the Marrickville muckraking and subversion by the Coalition of Delegitimisation ‘The Greens and BDS – Killing two birds with one stone’

UPDATE 2

Lee Rhiannon, NSW Greens Senator-elect’s comments on BDS are prescient in this article by Antony Loewenstein dissecting the Greens’ result in the NSW election.

“Months before the election we needed to explain why the Greens backed BDS and we needed to work closer with our allies on BDS; academics, the Arab community and social justice movements in Sydney and Melbourne. Collectively we didn’t do enough to amplify support for BDS and show that this is part of an international movement.”

..

For Rhiannon, one of the saddest sights of the election was the ALP Left, “who call themselves the conscience of the party, driving this attack on the Greens over BDS. Anthony Albanese and Luke Foley ran a sophisticated campaign through the media to discredit the Greens. This is a party who has sometimes worked closely with the Palestinians — but in this case it was a bankrupt move for political reasons.”

..

Jamie Parker revealed to New Matilda the extent of the hatred directed at him during the campaign due to the Greens BDS policy. He had countless letters sent to him calling him a Nazi and Jew hater. His car was vandalised and campaign signs spray-painted with swastikas. He received death threats and some abusers said they knew where he lived. “One letter said I wanted to turn Balmain power station into a gas chamber and the light rail would take people there”, Parker tells me. “Lefty Jews told me that you can’t be surprised if extreme people do extreme things but they wouldn’t come out in public and condemn it.” He was appalled.

Did Fiona Byrne Get Fair Coverage?
The Australian’s banal, predictable under-analysis – no mention of the dirty tricks and repetition of the illusory but damaging ‘Byrne taking the issue to the state’ smear’
On push polls:

A push poll does not have to sound evil, but can take a hot button issue and attribute to candidate because he belongs to a particular Political Party.
A push poll is a political campaign technique in which an individual or organization attempts to influence or alter the view of respondents under the guise of conducting a poll. In a push poll, large numbers of respondents are contacted, and little or no effort is made to collect and analyze response data. Instead, the push poll is a form of telemarketing-based propaganda and rumor mongering, masquerading as a poll. Push polls may rely on innuendo or knowledge gleaned from opposition research on an opponent. They are generally viewed as a form of negative campaigning.[1] The term is also sometimes used inaccurately to refer to legitimate polls which test political messages, some of which may be negative. Push polling has been condemned by the American Association of Political Consultants,[2] and is illegal in New Hampshire.[3]

Federal leader Bob Brown yesterday admitted Byrne’s controversial decision to support Marrickville Council’s boycott of Israel had undermined her campaign: ”I think it [the boycott] had an effect on it?—?that’s my feedback from the electorate. I’m picking up from the electorate that it’s a matter of concern… As I’ve pointed out through the campaign, it’s not national Greens policy.”

On election eve police were called to investigate vandalism of Byrne’s posters which had been defaced with swastikas and phrases like “Watch out for the Nazi”. Pro-Israel groups also gathered at Marrickville polling booths on Saturday, urging voters not to support her because of her pro boycott-stance.

Crikey revealed on Friday that Ian Cohen, the NSW Greens’ longest-serving member in the upper house, does not support a boycott of Israel and believes it damaged the party’s campaign.

Anti-Israeli stance focus of Greens review – Oz slime
Father Dave speaks in support of BDS at Marrickville Council
Company denies push polling against Greens

Cr Byrne said the companies involved needed to take responsibility for the effect of the survey.

“Members of the community have made it clear that the last question asked is about myself and the state election,” she said.

“At the end of the day, such a question reveals the true intention of this survey, which is to influence the outcome of the state election campaign.”

A Greens spokesman said it was likely there was more than one phone poll being conducted in Marrickville, which is held by Labor by a magin of 7.5 per cent.

Liberal candidate Rosana Tyler said yesterday several members of her own party had also taken part in a recent phone survey, believing it to be from council.

“The way the questions were framed it would appear that it was a council survey,” she said.

Greens hung Fiona Byrne out to dry

”Many voters were searching for a genuine progressive alternative to NSW Labor and we failed to present as that,” Ms Faehrmann writes in the Herald today.
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She says the Greens abandoned Ms Byrne when she came under attack from Labor and Jewish lobby groups for her support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.

”The original proponents of BDS within the NSW Greens were nowhere to be seen, and our overwhelmed candidate for Marrickville was left with little support,” she writes. ”In any language, it was poor strategy and bad behaviour.”

Palestine / Israel Links

Mighty Israel and its quest to quash Palestinian popular protest
ADL slams Facebook for refusing to remove ‘third Intifada’ fan page

“We are disappointed that Facebook has rejected our request to remove this site, which is in clear violation of their terms of service,” the ADL said in a statement.

“We are especially disappointed in this case because in the past there has often been understanding and sensitivity from Facebook when we have brought violations of its own rules to its attention. We urge Facebook to reconsider its decision and remove this site, which by its very title incites violence,” the statement added.

Settlers squat on church-owned land, demand farmers leave
Grand larceny by the criminal zionist entity Israeli Authorities Orders Coal Fields Evacuated
National Director Foxman says page misleadingly calls for peaceful demonstrations; regrets Facebook has not yet taken down page. – what a loon!
Third Intifada
Third Intifada Event
31 Mar, CANBERRA: ISRAELI APARTHEID WEEK- Palestine Solidarity and the BDS Campaign
Smothering the “Dynamic Debate” in Israel
Breaking Israel’s illegal blockade on Gaza goes mainstream : Swiss president has plans
Jerusalem bus bomb victim was British
Bob Geldof – do not accept an honorary doctorate from Ben Gurion University
46% of Jewish Israelis support settler “price tag” terror, Congress blames Palestinians for incitement
“The Israel Lobby”, five years on

‘One of the great personal successes, in my view, has been the increasing number of Jews who recognise the devastating result of simply allowing the pro-settler, anti-Palestinian Zionists solely taking the floor. Judaism simply cannot be about backing never-ending colonisation of Arab land.’

Israeli Apartheid Week in Gaza
80 Reasons Why Gaza has the right to self-defense
Palestinians jailed because lawyer can’t communicate with them
Boycotting Israel … from within – Ronnie Barkan : “What is even worse is that people are raised to be deeply racist. Everything is targeted at supporting [Jewish] privilege as the masters of the land. Supporting BDS means renouncing my privileges in this land and insisting on equality for all.”
Who is annexing Whom? – Uri Avnery:

So political boycotts are not wrong, as long as they are directed against others. It’s the old “Hottentot morality“ of colonial lore – “if I steal your cow, that’s right. If you steal my cow, that’s wrong.”

Rightists can call for action against left-wing organizations. Leftists cannot call for action against right-wing organizations. It’s as simple as that.

BUT THE law is not only anti-democratic and discriminatory, it is also blatantly annexationist.

By a simple semantic trick, in less than a sentence, the lawmakers do what successive Israeli government did not dare to do: they annex the Palestinian occupied territories to Israel.

Abu Rudaineh calls on Hamas to accept Abbas’ offer
Palestine: Biggest Escalation of Violence in Gaza since Cast Lead
British Jews begin pitched battle over hasbara
Who are the Libyan Freedom Fighters and Their Patrons?
Two killed in Gaza air strike
Denial is a river of Palestinian blood running through zionism : Yossi Gurvitz – When the Ghosts Return
Israel deploys ‘Iron Dome’ anti-rocket system
Bomb Shelters Going Up In Washington Square – Israel Lobby hasbara in New York
Department of oxymorons, Israel division
Majority of Palestinian Voices Still Being Ignored
The Nakba Law deepens apartheid in Israel
Israeli minister, media perpetuate lie about Goldstone’s Gaza report
Israeli genocidalism: Army Evicts Palestinian Family in Jordan Valley to Facilitate Settlement
More Israeli genocidalism: Officials: Israel destroys ancient wells near Bethlehem
Settler pogroms target sheep, olive trees and children – and yet more Israeli genocidalism!
South Africa: ‘Boycott Israel’ campaign scores big win

Syria Links

Syrian Bloodbath

Libya Links

Libya: a legitimate and necessary debate from an anti-imperialist perspective
how we missed you, humanitarian intervention
Of Principle and Peril
Who gains? Loving the Libyan Rebels
Libyan “Revolutionaries” Aren’t So Revolutionary..

Egypt Links

On Sunday evening, around 2000 protesters marched against the proposed law by Essam Sharaf’s cabinet banning strikes and protests.
War stalks revolution in Middle East

US Links

Top Bush-era GITMO and Abu Ghraib psychologist is WH’s newest appointment
UNDERSTANDING PLUTOCRACY (war, ecocide, neo-feudalism, alienation, etc.) AND WAKING FROM IT
The privatization of US foreign policy
The Day the Klan Marched – Anti-KKK Protesters Beaten by Racist Austin Police
U.S. Products Help Block Mideast Web
The Kill Team : How U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan murdered innocent civilians and mutilated their corpses – and how their officers failed to stop them.

Australia Links

Why give voice to bigots? Why are the Melbourne Age and the Sydney Morning Herald giving voice to an Islamaphobe?
Inequality is growing in Australia: ACOSS

“We know the cost of essential items and services like food, rent, energy, health, education, clothing and transport costs continue to go up. In fact since 2000, the cost of living in Australia, as evidenced by the CPI has risen by 34% with energy expenses in particular doubling in the past decade and expected to double again in the next 5 years. And ACOSS believes this is understating it as the CPI isn’t necessarily the best measure to reflect the disproportionate impact of the rise of essential goods and services for people on the lowest incomes.

“We know that nationally over a million low-income households are in housing stress with housing costs exceeding more than 30% of household income. 65% of people on low incomes in private rentals currently experience housing stress, with many of these households spending over half their income on rent.

“And whilst the cost of staying afloat has gone up, those people who some of the most reliant on our social safety net – people who are unable to get paid work – have not had commensurate increases in their social security payment – the Newstart Allowance.”

Bolt’s day in court as racial villification case kicks off
Politics of misogyny, or misogyny of politics … you decide
Partnerships: not a political quick fix

‘It is clear that before we can effectively close the gaps in Education, Employment and Health we need to remove the ability of the Federal Government to use Aboriginal Australia as an election tool and place it into the hands of a bi-partisan task-force with a 7 to 10year life span to include and pro-actively consulate with Indigenous community members to implement effective community strategies.’

March 25, 2011December 11, 2020

Sanctioning Israel for Its Crime of Apartheid

Israel only just discovers the UN Uniting for Peace Resolution 377? very poor intel if so. Francis Boyle drew attention to the relevance of this resolution to the predicament of Palestinian people in January, 2009:

First, we must immediately move for the de facto suspension of Israel throughout the entirety of the United Nations System, including the General Assembly and all U.N. subsidiary organs and bodies. We must do to Israel what the U.N. General Assembly has done to the genocidal rump Yugoslavia and to the criminal apartheid regime in South Africa! Here the legal basis for the de facto suspension of Israel at the U.N. is quite simple:

As a condition for its admission to the United Nations Organization, Israel formally agreed to accept General Assembly Resolution 181 (II) (1947) (partition/Jerusalem trusteeship) and General Assembly Resolution 194 (III) (1948) (Palestinian right of return), inter alia. Nevertheless, the government of Israel has expressly repudiated both Resolution 181 (II) and Resolution 194 (III).

Therefore, Israel has violated its conditions for admission to U.N. membership and thus must be suspended on a de facto basis from any participation throughout the entire United Nations System.

Second, any further negotiations with Israel must be conducted on the basis of Resolution 181 (II) and its borders; Resolution 194 (III); subsequent General Assembly resolutions and Security Council resolutions; the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions of 1949; the 1907 Hague Regulations; and other relevant principles of public international law.

Third, we must abandon the fiction and the fraud that the United States government is an “honest broker.” The United States government has never been an honest broker from well before the very outset of these negotiations in 1991. Rather, the United States has invariably sided with Israel against the Palestinians. We need to establish some type of international framework to sponsor these negotiations where the Palestinian negotiators will not be subjected to the continual bullying, threats, harassment, intimidation and outright lies perpetrated by the United States government.

Fourth, we must move to have the U.N. General Assembly impose economic, diplomatic, and travel sanctions upon Israel pursuant to the terms of the Uniting for Peace Resolution (1950), whose Emergency Special Session on Palestine is now in recess.

Fifth, the Provisional Government of the State of Palestine must sue Israel before the International Court of Justice in The Hague for inflicting acts of genocide against the Palestinian People in violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention!

Sixth, An International Criminal Tribunal for Israel (ICTI) can be established by the UN General Assembly as a “subsidiary organ” under article 22 of the UN Charter. Article 22 of the UN Charter states the UN General Assembly may establish such subsidiary organs as it deems necessary for the performance of its functions. The purpose of the ICTI would be to investigate and Prosecute suspected Israeli war criminals for offences against the Palestinian people.

In the JPost story, ex-UN Israeli ambassador Gabriela Shalev says:

If the Palestinians can gain General Assembly recognition for statehood under a “Uniting for Peace” resolution, she warned, “it would be a real obstacle… not just a public relations setback. This would seek to impose on us some kind of Palestinian state.”

It is made clear again that, as the Palestine Papers highlighted, Israel is terrified of the concept of a Palestinian state, despite all its protestations of being a genuine partner in peace processes aimed at producing one, though not the sort of state which Palestinian people would like, nor one with sovereign powers, but rather a tripartite bantustan system.

Neither do zionists want Palestinians to have full equal rights with jews, as has been confirmed this week with the passing of another two horrifically discriminatory laws.

So what do the zionists want? Patently, the default position – to continue expansionism as long as possible while pretending to be honest ‘peace partners’ – expansionism as ever is zionists’ primary strategy, tactic and aim, to take all the land, to drive out and dispossess as many Palestinians as possible while making life discriminatory and uncomfortable for Palestinians who remain on their indigenous land, the same as zionists have been doing for more than 63 years.

Palestine / Israel Links

Israeli Foreign Ministry sent ‘spy’ to report on Gideon Levy speech in Dublin
Israeli airstrikes across Gaza
Israeli soldiers arrest Bassem Tamimi, coordinator of Nabi Saleh Popular Committee
Violence not inevitable, talk to Hamas
No-Fly Zone Needed Over Israel
Israel lying its way into another massacre of the people of Gaza

Now Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak is warning of even tougher action.

“Israel will not tolerate these terror attacks and we will not allow terror to rise once again,” he said.

At a joint press conference in Ashdod with US defence secretary Robert Gates, Mr Barak said Israel had no choice but to respond to the latest violence.

But he is yet to reveal the timing or nature of the response.

Mr Gates says the violence is all the more reason to reopen the peace process which collapsed late last year.

“There is a need and an opportunity for bold action to move toward a two-state solution,” he said.

Israeli fascists import apartheid normalisation to British Universities
Haredi Parents Force 13-Year-Old Daughter To Marry As “Penance” For Flirting
Rocket fire increases; IDF may deploy Iron Dome soon
Zionist Propaganda: Lieberman’s “Battle Bus” At British Universities
Legal expert warns of “ethnic cleansing” in Jerusalem
A Trilogy: The Road to “Independence”
Tell me, who is the terrorist?!
Hamas not likely behind Jerusalem bombing

Despite the escalation, Hamas does not seem to want large-scale clashes yet. The organization actually has good reasons to believe that Israel is the one heating up the southern front. It began with a bombardment a few weeks ago that disrupted the transfer of a large amount of money from Egypt to the Gaza Strip, continued with the interrogation of engineer and Hamas member Dirar Abu Sisi in Israel, and ended with last week’s bombing of a Hamas training base in which two Hamas militants were killed.

It is noteworthy that Hamas has not fired at Israel over the past two days, even after four Palestinian civilians were killed by errant IDF mortar fire on Tuesday.

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh’s office said yesterday that Haniyeh had phoned the secretary general of Islamic Jihad, Abdallah Ramadan Salah, in Damascus. Pundits in Gaza said Haniyeh asked Salah to stop the escalation, for which Islamic Jihad is mainly responsible.

The ‘A-Word’ in Hebron
‘NY Jewish Week’ excommunicates ‘J Street’ for opposing settlement project
Boycotters ‘victory’ as music festival distances itself from Israel
The List of Zionist stooge
New moves to boycott Israeli gems

Libya Links

Opposing Gaddafi’s massacre and foreign intervention in Libya
Marines on ground in Libya – will the US stay forever like they always do?
UAE to send 12 planes to patrol Libya no-fly zone
Libya and the ability to say ‘No’ – Turkey’s stance

Australia Links

Why do we constantly change terminologies for Aboriginal issues in Academia?

Other Links

U.S. doesn’t count civilians killed by drones
US soldier admits killing unarmed Afghans for sport

“Washing one’s hands of the conflict between the powerful & the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral. ” Paulo Freire

March 23, 2011December 11, 2020

World Water Day – Justice and Rights for Palestinians Now!

While Bob Geldof reprehensibly plans to accept an honorary degree from Ben Gurion University which collaborates with the Jewish National Fund to thieve land and water resources from Palestinians, the University of Johannesburg is taking a close look at ending its relationship with BGU partly in response to efforts by “the University of Johannesburg’s Student Representative Council, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and more than 300 South African academics”. (NB Update – in a magnificent victory for global BDS, The University of Johannesburg has now severed ties with Ben Gurion University!). Further,

The fact is that access to water and sanitation in Israel and the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip is based upon a discriminatory system, which privileges Israeli institutions while denying Palestinians their basic human rights to water and sanitation. Palestinians are not suffering human rights violations due to a lack of technology or scientific advancement. Palestinians are suffering because of the Israeli occupation that will not allow them to enjoy their full rights to their groundwater and surface water, and will not even allow them to construct facilities for treating wastewater. We are committed to taking nonviolent action to bring these and other human rights violations to an end.

Water resources in Palestine and Israel are shared on a vastly inequitable basis – “Israelis consume on average more than 3.5 times as much water per capita than Palestinians”.

The Bedouin village of Al Araqib in the Negev has been demolished 18 times by the Israeli Army, to make way for Jewish National Fund plantations which serve to obliterate visually the indigenous presence on the land as deliberately as the new racist Knesset law to cover up and outlaw acknowledgment of the history of Israel’s genocide of Palestinians – the Nakba . The JNF partners blatantly with Ben Gurion University – if Bob accepts an award from them, he will be complicit directly with ethnic cleansing.

Jordan Valley Blues from Life Source on Vimeo.

Filling Point (by LifeSource and Pietro Bellorini) from Life Source on Vimeo.

Palestine/ Israel Links

Knesset passes ‘Nakba bill’

The “Nakba bill”, proposed by Yisrael Beiteinu, requires the state to fine local authorities and other state-funded bodies for holding events marking the Palestinian Nakba Day by supporting armed resistance or racism against Israel, or desecrating the state flag or national symbols.

On Nakba Day Palestinians mark the “catastrophe” of Israel’s inception in 1948.

The bill, which was reworked before its final passing, states that the finance minister will be charged with deciding when to withdraw funds from various groups after considering the opinions of the attorney general and a professional team comprised of members of the ministries of finance and justice.

Thirty-seven MKs supported the bill in its final form, while 25 opposed it.

..

MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad) was also outraged. “You are creating a monstrous state that will enter the thoughts and emotions of citizens. Is accepting my history considered incitement?” she asked. “The Nakba is a historic truth, not a position or freedom of expression.”

…

The second bill, which passed by a majority of 35 to 20, formalizes the establishment of admission committees to review potential residents of Negev and Galilee communities that have fewer than 400 families. It was passed after 2 am.

After the passing of the bill the Knesset erupted in riots as MK Ahmed Tibi (United Arab List-Ta’al), refusing to limit himself to the comparison of the bill to South Africa’s apartheid,mentioned the Wannsee Conference in which the Nazis decided on the Holocaust’s “final solution” – or the gassing of Jews.

Arab and left-wing MKs claim the bill, which was proposed by MKs from Yisrael Beiteinu and Kadima, is aimed at preventing Arabs from residing in the communities that choose to adopt admission committees.

But its initiators claim in their explanation of the bill that it is “a balanced bill and not racist, and does not intend to harm the Arabs or the weaker members of society”.

MK Taleb El-Sana (United Arab List-Ta’al) said the bill’s initiators should be ashamed. “How can a country determine for its citizens where to live and die?” he asked.

…

MK Hanna Swaid (Hadash) announced “the clinical death of the State of Israel.” He added that although the law prohibits denying anyone residence based on his race, it was still possible to do so on cultural grounds. “We will make sure the towns, local authorities, and communities that adopt the law are boycotted in the world,” he said.

Tibi: Read Jewish history

But the Knesset truly erupted in violence when MK Tibi took the stand. “You must read Jewish history well and learn which laws you suffered from. Do you remember anything about the prohibition of interracial marriage? Do you need an Arab on the stand to remind you of your history?” he asked.

“When 14 representatives gathered in Berlin, they discussed which policy to use against the Jews. It was then they discussed pushing them aside and limiting their living space…”

At this point MKs from other parties interrupted Tibi, yelling at him to leave the podium. MK Uri Ariel (National Union) refused to let him continue, yelling out, “Go back to Ramallah.”

Tibi was eventually allowed to continue, and said Arabs felt as though they were being pushed aside. He said he was not comparing the law to the final solution, but that he had brought it up in order to stress the level of hatred.

Two Grad rockets fired by Gaza militants strike Be’er Sheva
#Israel is well revealed as insincere about peace & gung ho about land theft – any new massacre of #Gaza civilians likely to be even worse PR for it than Cast Lead #
Israel may have to launch fresh operation against Gaza, says Vice Premier
Israel’s killings that ignited the present violence: PCHR condemns killing of Gaza teens :

The death of two Gaza teens on Saturday, killed by Israeli fire 300 meters from the border area was an act of “excessive and lethal force,” a condemnation from the Palestinian Center for Human Rights said.

The two, both 17, were killed east of Johur Ad-Dik in the central Gaza Strip. Medics were only permitted to retrieve their bodies more than 12 hours after they had been killed

Hamas calls day of mourning; Abbas demands end to fire
Gene Simmons fails to notice that Palestinians are in revolt against Israeli oppression
Just what is keeping the Peace Process alive? And what will it take to bury it?
Abbas: Jerusalem-Gaza road shortest path to unity

Addressing comments from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said earlier in the week that Abbas could choose between “peace with Israel or Hamas,” the president said “Israel has no right to object to Palestinian conciliation, it has no stake in Palestinian national unity. Netanyahi has always wept in front of the Americans, saying the Palestinians are divided and he can’t negotiate with them like this,” adding that unity would make the prospect of a Palestinian state stronger.

Israel to Charge Abusisi ‘Within Days,’ Ukraine Denies Involvement in Kidnapping, Summons Israeli Ambassador
Likud MK launches Knesset lobby to fight delegitimization
Israel is blind to the Arab revolution
Gaza: Hamas calls for truce
25 injured, 4 seriously in J’lem bus explosion
A small war is starting along Gaza border
Israeli warplanes launch fresh air strikes on Gaza
Inside the minds of Itamar colonists
Australia’s Zionist lobby worried #BDS may be catching
A small war is starting along Gaza border

The current tensions began exactly a week ago when Israel launched an air attack on a Hamas base in the ruins of the settlement of Netzarim, killing two Hamas men. That attack came in response to a Qassam fired from Gaza that landed in an open area. Hamas then responded with a barrage of 50 mortars on communities south of the Gaza Strip. Israel delayed its response so as not to disrupt the Purim festivities in the Sderot area.

But on Monday evening Israel launched a series of air attacks in which a number of Hamas militants were wounded. Things worsened yesterday afternoon. After a round of mortar fire on kibbutzim east of Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces fired its own mortars right back at the source of the firing – at the Sajaiyeh neighborhood east of Gaza City, killing four members of a family, including two children.

Southern Command’s initial investigation indicates that the mortars’ launching point, an olive grove on the edge of a residential quarter, had been clearly identified. It seems that a number of the IDF’s mortars went off course and hit a house in Sajaiyeh, a few dozen meters from the grove.

Israel seeks aid of diplomats to prevent flotilla going to Gaza

Libya Links

Six Libyan villagers shot by US team rescuing pilot
Obama: NATO to join Libya war
Senator McCain is probably regretting this 2009 tweet, about #Gaddafi

Morocco Links

Morocco: The Winds of Change

Bahrain Links

UAE Said To Have Changed View On Libya Deployment Due To Bahrain

Other Links

The Stoner Arms Dealers
EXCLUSIVE: CIA Psychologist’s Notes Reveal True Purpose Behind Bush’s Torture Program
Tomgram: Chris Hellman, $1.2 Trillion for National Security