apartheid

December 20, 2010August 24, 2022

Wrong, Reut

In its latest plan released in summary form, the Reut Institute demonstrates the validity of Umberto Eco’s analysis of Ur Fascism : ‘Fascist governments are condemned to lose wars because they are constitutionally incapable of objectively evaluating the force of the enemy.’

By unceasing land grabs and burgeoning illegal settlements, demolitions, evictions, detainments, incarceration of Palestinian children, attacks on non-violent protestors, roughshod riding over court decisions, official condoning of racist laws, passing new racist laws, denial of rights to Palestinians, an overweaning, well-identified system of apartheid and decades of cruel Occupation, the Israeli entity delegitimises itself.

This week, Human Rights Watch released a 166 page report, “Separate and Unequal: Israel’s Discriminatory Treatment of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories”, which ‘identifies discriminatory practices that have no legitimate security or other justification and calls on Israel, in addition to abiding by its international legal obligation to withdraw the settlements, to end these violations of Palestinians’ rights.’

Human Rights Watch reiterated its recommendation that the United States, which provides US$2.75 billion in aid to Israel annually, should suspend financing to Israel in an amount equivalent to the costs of Israel’s spending in support of settlements, which a 2003 study estimated at $1.4 billion. Similarly, based on numerous reports that US tax-exempt organizations provide substantial contributions to support settlements, the report urges the US to verify that such tax-exemptions are consistent with US obligations to ensure respect for international law, including prohibitions against discrimination.

Human Rights Watch called on the EU, a primary export market for settlement products, to ensure that it does not provide incentives for settlement exports through preferential tariff treatment, and to identify cases where discrimination against Palestinians has contributed to the production of goods. For example, the report documents how crops exported from settlements using water from Israeli-drilled wells have dried up nearby Palestinian wells, limiting Palestinians’ ability to cultivate their own lands and even their access to drinking water.

The report also describes cases in which businesses have contributed to or benefited directly from discrimination against Palestinians, for example through commercial activities on lands that were unlawfully confiscated from Palestinians without compensation for the benefit of settlers. These businesses also benefit from Israeli governmental subsidies, tax abatements, and discriminatory access to infrastructure, permits, and export channels. Human Rights Watch called on businesses to investigate, prevent and mitigate such violations, including ending any operations that cannot be separated from discriminatory Israeli practices.

Blundering blindfolded by bigotry at windmills of concocted ‘Red-Green’ alliances is likely to be counter-productive when the root of the problem lies with Israel’s own atrocious behaviour.

Nor does the Reut tilt at its bete noir, the worldwide Palestinian BDS movement, seem cogent, considering basic aims of BDS which are thoroughly supported in international law – for equal rights, an end to Israeli apartheid and occupation, and recognition of the right of Palestinian people to return to their lands. Since the US has abandoned its pretence of being able to stop Israeli land grabs and oppression, boycotts, divestments and sanctions remain a primary means chosen by Palestinians to attain their rights.

The Reut Institute perceives these reasonable goals as an existential threat – somehow if Palestinian people were not discriminated against, disenfranchised and ethnically cleansed, Israel would cease to exist. Yet what legitimacy does an entity have which relies for its continuance on tormenting those whom it has dispossessed and continues to dispossess of rights and land? Reut seeks to:

‘Prioritize delegitimizing the BDS Movement, which is among the most sophisticated tools in the attempt to undermine Israel’s legitimacy, and can be considered a mega-catalyst due to its influence in a number of arenas. As mentioned, the BDS Movement claims to promote human rights, international justice, and peace, while in practice, its organizers explicitly or implicitly reject Israel’s right to exist.’

Whereas the BDS network is a grassroots, decentralised global effort sustained from solidarity of its members from myriad cultures including jewish culture in principled demands for justice and rights for those who have neither, the obtuse Reut hasbaroids intend targeting London as a ‘delegitimisation hub’, aiming ‘to out, name and shame activists’ in a scurrilous witchhunt. That Reut considers human rights activists have something to be ashamed of is symptomatic of the above-mentioned malaise – and again political zionism is revealed as a radical, fascistic ideology, whose adherents obliviously project onto their quarries their own attributes – ‘anti-peace, anti-Semitic’ and ‘dishonest purveyors of double standards’. Political zionism is limited and eroded by its internal contradictions of addictive expansionism and consequent insecurity, syncretised mythologies of entitlement, victimhood and hubris.

Below is a video of the brutal realities which Israel inflicts upon Palestinians within the Green Line which Reut, I feel sure, would rather have us ignore as much as it would like us to forget Israel’s violations in the Occupied Territories. The story of how 67 members of the extended Abu Eid family were evicted summarily and their homes bulldozed last week is horrendous.

It is a scene being repeated across Israel with increasing frequency. Some 42,000 Arab homes built without required permits are threatened with demolition: 13,000 could be carried out at any time and 30,000 are at some stage in local courts, said Ameer Makhoul, director of Ittijah, a Palestinian civil society organization.

Palestine / Israel Links

Do Israelis “hate Obama’s guts”?
Shalit activists protest against Palestinian prisoners’ rights
VOTE! ‘Israeli War Crimes’ signs to go on Metro buses
Refugees’ flat torched in Ashdod
Racial discrimination – a tool of occupation

Belarus Links

Buzek on Belarussian presidential candidate being beaten up
Presidential Pseudo-Elections in Belarus 2010
Lukashenka Declared Belarus Victor After Clashes, Detentions
Crackdown mars Belarus elections
Belarus journalist beaten by police

Wikilinks

WikiLeaks and OpenLeaks
2010-12-19 New Whistleblowing Sites
2010-12-16 FAIR: Media paint flattering picture of U.S. diplomacy
Brad Manning Has Rights!
Julian Assange to Launch Social Network for Diplomats, Twofacebook&tm;
China pays Nepal police to catch Tibet refugees: WikiLeaks
South Africa: Bloggers’ take on Wikileaks
Cover-ups, Coups, and Drones – A Holiday Sampler of What Wikileaks Reveals about the US
Spawn of WikiLeaks
Rap News 6 – Wikileaks’ Cablegate: the truth is out there
Secrecy, National Security and the Internet
Essential: voters support WikiLeaks and Assange, attack Gillard’s stance

Other Links

The tragedy of Algeria’s ‘disappeared’

December 18, 2010August 24, 2022

Hold Human Rights Abusing States to Account

For the minimisation of war and oppression, for a real chance of human survival and sustainability of the planet’s resources, all states should submit to international law, and most especially the rogue hegemon. Despite some easing in US stance since Obama took office, the empire still rejects the expansion of the role of the International Criminal Court in order to protect its war criminals. Further, US embassy advices denote the Council of Europe courts as “an organization with an inferiority complex and, simultaneously, an overambitious agenda”. Of particular annoyance to the US is the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), described as “an irritant”:

The ECHR will block the extradition of prisoners to non-COE countries if it believes they would be subject to the death penalty or torture. It has also requested more information on pending British extradition cases to the U.S. where it believes the prisoners might be sentenced in the U.S. to life imprisonment with no possible appeal or automatic judicial review of the life sentence.

In another Wikileaks cable, the US sought to pressure the incoming COE Secretary General on its vile renditions.

Jagland can be expected to criticize the U.S. for the death penalty; he may, however, be less enthusiastic than the previous SecGen, Terry Davis (UK), in publicly criticizing renditions, particularly if we review such issues with him soon.

If the flagging US empire wishes to be respected, then it should set an example which is beyond reproach. Yet in its latest outrage documented in the video below, the US hypocritically abandons a peaceful Palestinian activist protesting Israeli land theft, apartheid and violence.

Protection by the US and cronies of fascist, apartheid land thief, Israel, is unconscionable and unsustainable. Boycott, divest and sanction from the illegal occupier, Israel, now!

On the Australian home turf, Mrs. Grundy aka @JuliaGillard needs to apologise to Julian Assange for her loose-lipped betrayal. The ALP is sagging in the precious polls it permits to dictate its machinations – how long shall it be before Assange’s ‘Jerilderie letter’ prophecy is fulfilled:

Has there been any response from the Australian government to the numerous public threats of violence against me and other WikiLeaks personnel? One might have thought an Australian prime minister would be defending her citizens against such things, but there have only been wholly unsubstantiated claims of illegality. The Prime Minister and especially the Attorney-General are meant to carry out their duties with dignity and above the fray. Rest assured, these two mean to save their own skins. They will not.

The writing is on the wall for the Labor Party – regardless of the pusillanimous prospect of US and Israel’s disapproval, the party’s true left must be empowered or those remaining within it who value truth, justice and Australian sovereignty above sycophancy and treachery will continue to bleed to the Greens, the only party which has any right to hold its head high.

Send hope to 800 children and unaccompanied minors in immigration detention in Australia this Christmas – let them know you care about them and are hoping they are released from detention soon.

As Australians shudder briefly at the death toll from the refugee shipwreck at Christmas Island before returning to important issues of last minute card-sending, present-buying and turkey roasting, few commentators discuss the prime reasons for many refugees heading to Australia – that they flee from the results of wars in which Australia is participating, has participated or supports, and ironically, despite the monstrous Howard wedges and the gruesome legacy of the racist White Australia policy, Australia’s overseas image remains one of a land of the easygoing dinkum Crocodile Dundee, Steve Irwin fair go instead of a despicably racist polity represented and inflamed by opportunistic politicians. I remember some years ago when a bemused Iraqi refugee who had braved the perils of several seas to reach temporary sanctuary was interviewed on Nauru. He said “if we’d known Australia didn’t want us, we wouldn’t have come here”.

It is significant too that the number of people who overstay their holiday visas with an intention to remain permanently is far higher than the numbers of asylum seekers and these folks are not treated as criminals and thrown into mandatory detention.

‘It is estimated that over 50,000 people are overstaying their Australian visa and living in the country illegally, with the majority coming from China, Malaysia, the US, and Britain.’

In comparison, Australia’s Humanitarian Program for 2009-10 assisted 13,770 people, including a mere 6003 refugees.

Today’s Wikileaks Links

US criticises court that may decide on Julian Assange extradition, WikiLeaks cables show
WikiLeaks cables: Sudanese president ‘stashed $9bn in UK banks’
Bank of America says it won’t process payments intended for WikiLeaks
Open letter to President Obama and General Attorney Holder regarding possible criminal prosecution against Julian Assange
‘Wikileaks: Spielberg movies banned by Arab League’
Pentagon bars own journalists from reading Wikileaks
BofA cutting off WikiLeaks payments
WikiLeaks cables: Chevron discussed oil project with Tehran, claims Iraqi PM
Julian Assange furore deepens as new details emerge of sex crime allegations
10 days in Sweden: the full allegations against Julian Assange
Q&A: Julian Assange allegations
Live with the WikiLeakable world or shut down the net. It’s your choice

Today’s Australian Wikileaks Links

Labor suffers in WikiLeaks backlash
Programmed shill for zionism returns from Australia Israel hasbara forum junket to beat up fear of Iran
Are your hands clean of blood, Andrew?
Fairfax got its facts wrong reporting from WikiLeaks cable

Today’s Palestine / Israel Links

“We will continue to sing”: DAM’s Suhell Nafar interviewed
State Department says it has ‘raised’ Rahmah case with Israelis…
Israel’s new wall
Resisting an ideology of inequality: Jody McIntyre interviewed
Richard Falk : THE PALESTINIAN LEGITIMACY WAR VERSUS ‘LAWFARE’
Outcry in Denmark over firm’s involvement in occupation
Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (09 – 15 December. 2010)
Bilin Weekly Demo 17.12.2010 By haithmkatib
Kissinger, court Jews and Anti-Semites
Insisting on humanity – Ramzy Baroud

Other Links
US empire could collapse at any time
‘Unprecedented’ Drone Assault: 58 Strikes in 102 Days

December 16, 2010December 11, 2020

Yes Sir, No Sir – Whose Australia Is This Anyway?

The Age has now released some of its clutch of US embassy cables after harvesting them for exclusives and is to be applauded for conforming to the Wikileaks “scientific journalism” process. Today, the Australian Federal Police confirm Wikileaks has not breached the Australian criminal code.

The Australian Wikileaks cables reveal a disturbing pattern of snitching by politicians and union leaders, a disgusting collaboration between right wing elements from Australia and the US.

AWU union boss and zionist Paul Howes surfaces as a confidant of the American Embassy [6/13/2008 2:13 08CANBERRA609 Embassy Canberra].

‘When we reminded Paul Howes (protect), head of the right-wing Australian Workers Union, that ALP politicians from the Left, no matter how capable, do not become party leader, he said immediately: “but she votes with the Right.”‘

Gillard is given gold stars by the US for her pro-Israel sycophancy. This cable [6/10/2009 22:19 09CANBERRA545 Embassy Canberra] makes it explicit that Australian leader’s support for the brutal Israeli occupier is of paramount importance to the US.

PRO-ISRAEL

7. (C/NF) Gillard has thrown off the baggage of being from what one analyst called the “notoriously anti-Israel faction” of the ALP. As Acting Prime Minister in late December 2008, Gillard was responsible for negotiating the Government’s position on Israel’s incursion into Gaza. Left-wing ALP MPs, a group to which Gillard used to belong, wanted her to take a harder line against Israel. Instead, she said Hamas had broken the ceasefire first by attacking Israel – a stance welcomed by Israel’s supporters in Australia. MP Michael Danby, one of two Jewish members of Parliament and a strong supporter of Israel, told us that after the Gaza statement he had a new appreciation of Gillard’s leadership within the ALP (ref B). Israeli Ambassador Yuval Rotem told us that Gillard has gone out of her way to build a relationship with Israel and that she asked him to arrange an early opportunity to visit. He will accompany Gillard and a delegation of Australian officials (including newly-appointed Minister Mark Arbib and Liberal Party heavyweights former Treasurer Peter Costello and Chris Pyne, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) to a meeting of the Australia-Israel Leadership Forum later this month.

The Australian comments on Gillard’s plans for a leadership coup, with Senator Farrell ‘telling US embassy staff in June last year Ms Gillard was trying to knock off Mr Rudd’.

“Don Farrell, the right-wing union powerbroker from South Australia, told us Gillard is ‘campaigning for the leadership’ and at this point is the frontrunner to succeed Rudd, conceding that the Right did not yet have an alternative,” the cable states.

If correct, this means Ms Gillard was eyeing off Mr Rudd’s job before Tony Abbott replaced Malcolm Turnbull as Coalition leader, and before the international climate change talks at Copenhagen had failed and Labor’s carbon pollution reduction scheme was shelved.

At that time, Newspoll had the government ahead by a 10-point two-party-preferred lead over the opposition, and Mr Rudd had a 32-point lead over Coalition leader Malcolm Turnbull as preferred prime minister.

…

The cable says several Rudd “confidants have told us that Rudd appreciates Gillard and sees her as a possible PM, but that he wants to avoid anointing her to head off a possible leadership challenge when his poll numbers inevitably sag”.

They said Mark Arbib, the right-wing powerbroker behind the coup, “once told us a similar story, though he stressed Rudd appreciates Gillard’s strengths. However, another Rudd adviser told us that while the PM respects Gillard, his reluctance to share power will lead to a falling out, while Gillard will not want to acquiesce in creating potential rivals.”

The leaked US embassy briefings show Washington took a keen interest in the rise of Ms Gillard, and her migration from Labor’s Socialist Left faction to the party’s centre. The cables note that after the ALP won government in 2007, Ms Gillard sought to alter her left-wing image, particularly in asserting her credentials as a supporter of Israel and the US alliance.

Australian Ex Secretary of Defence, Primary Industries and Energy, Paul Barratt confirms there are two sine qua nons for being in office in Oz – being pro-ANZUS and pro-Israel. To hold Australia’s top job, one must be pro-imperialism, pro-neoliberalism, and pro-apartheid. No left-wingers or humanists need apply! Remember the lesson the US gave Australia when Gough Whitlam, the last left wing ALP leader, who ended conscription for the appalling US war on the people of Vietnam, was summarily dismissed.

Michael Hand helped forge documents used by the media to discredit the Whirtlam government, while his partner Frank Nugan was the conduit for CIA money to the Liberal Party. Millions of dollars flowed to the conservative parties via Nugan Hand.

Shackley played a key role in the security crisis of November 1975, which revolved around the US military base at Pine Gap. Whitlam had threatened that if the US tried to “bounce” his government, he would look at the presence of US bases in Australia.

The lease for Pine Gap was due for renewal in December 1975. On 10 November 1975, the day before Whitlam was sacked, Shackley sent an extraordinary cable from the CIA to ASIO’s director general, threatening to remove ASIO from the British-US intelligence agreement because he considered Whitlam a security threat.

The cable was published by the Financial Review in 1977 and has been widely reprinted. It shows Shackley’s involvement in the security crisis.

Shackley was furious that Whitlam had accused the CIA of funding the opposition conservative parties and had claimed CIA money was being used to influence domestic Australian politics. In particular, Whitlam was asking questions about the close relationship between Richard Stallings, who ran the so-called joint facility at Pine Gap, and National Party leader Doug Anthony.

“The CIA has grave concerns as to where this type of public discussion may lead”, Shackley’s cable said.

In his 1977 speech calling for a royal commission into the activities of the CIA in Australia, Whitlam called Shackley’s cable “a clear example of the attempted deception of the Australian Government by the American intelligence community … The message was offensive in tone, deceitful in intent and sinister in its implications.”

Australia’s lack of integrity is laid bare by Wikileaks. Another cable, 08CANBERRA609 sent on June 13, 2008, reveals Julia Gillard’s speechwriter, Michael Cooney has been a confidential source of information for United States embassy officials in Australia.

All Australian political snitches and sycophants who have dragged Australia through the mud by asserting a prior allegiance for apartheid Israel and US imperialism should resign NOW!

UPDATE

Arbib claims Fairfax got its facts wrong reporting from WikiLeaks cable :

Senator Arbib told The Weekend Australian yesterday that “the unedited cables show that there are serious factual errors in the original story, which is very disappointing”. The Weekend Australian cross-checked the WikiLeaks cable against the Fairfax report and discovered a comment attributed to Senator Arbib in one report was in fact made by Kevin Rudd’s brother, Greg Rudd.

Several other errors have emerged, including misquoting former US ambassador Robert McCallum and claiming former defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon’s resignation was a “blessing in disguise” when the WikiLeaks cable quoted US officials saying it was a “blessing for the government”.
…
The Australian also established from the cables that Ms Gillard’s speechwriter, Michael Cooney, was designated as a “protected source” by the US embassy, just like Senator Arbib and Mr Howes.

Mr Howes yesterday said he had “no idea what being a protected source means”.

“I have met with the embassy a few times; I know colleagues have as well. The fact that moderates in the ALP support the US alliance is hardly news,” he said.

OTHER NOTABLE POINTS RE THE AUSTRALIAN/US/ISRAEL ALLIANCE

06CANBERRA1366 9/8/2006 :

Beazley: “The Labor Party, for its part, could be counted on to continue to support the alliance’s core elements of ship visits, the joint facilities, and joint exercises.”

“the Howard government had had full knowledge of the Australian Wheat Board’s violations of the Iraq sanctions regime”

“Rudd had also provided a candid description of where Labor differed from the U.S. approach on certain issues, while reaffirming the leadership’s ironclad commitment to the overall alliance.”

“Australians remained obsessed with the United States, and followed Washington,s every move, perhaps to a fault.”

“In the meantime, the Ambassador told Beazley that he was committed to ensuring Washington had a comprehensive picture of Australian views, which meant those of the Opposition and well as those of the Government.”

“The government, and Foreign Minister Downer in particular, had badly misstated the facts, Beazley charged, when Downer claimed in August of 2004 in Beijing that a conflict between the U.S. and China over Taiwan would not necessarily trigger Australia,s ANZUS obligations to aid the U.S. In the event of a war between the United States and China, Australia would have absolutely no alternative but to line up militarily beside the U.S., Beazley said.”

“Labor supported Australia,s military contributions in Afghanistan, and would continue to do so until Hell freezes over, since Australia,s actions clearly fell under its ANZUS obligations to respond to the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. Iraq was different, he maintained, and was a terrible mistake because it damaged, rather than strengthened, the overall war on terror. Labor would not commit an act of vandalism, however, if it came to power.”

“David Hicks was a ratbag who had almost certainly been up to nefarious things, and should probably spend a long time in jail, Beazley said.”

“Although the reasons for Mark Latham’s loss to John Howard in 2004 are legion, Labor recognizes that his multiple, embarrassing pronouncements on issues affecting the alliance represented blunders of the first order”

06CANBERRA1574 10/5/2006 :

(Ongoing as I trawl through the Australian cables)

Today’s Wikilinks

HRW – US: Don’t Prosecute WikiLeaks Founder
WikiLeaker Bradley Manning’s Brutal Detention
Julian Assange bail decision made by UK authorities, not Sweden
State Department Bars Employees From Reading Wikileaks on ‘Personal Time’
The evolving Wikileaks website (and its attackers) – Watch Washington try and find something, anything, to get Julian Assange and how many Western states are keen to help them.
The Media Gets It Wrong on WikiLeaks: It’s About Broken Trust, Not Broken Condoms
WikiLeaks cables: Thai leaders doubt suitability of prince to become king
Misuse of the European arrest warrant
Wikileaks is currently mirrored on 2194 sites
U.S. Air Force blocks NYT, Guardian over WikiLeaks
Afghan civilian killed and children hurt in NATO strike
The Costs of War: Afghan Civilian Casualties Spike, says ICRC
Protect Assange, Don’t Abuse Him
2010-12-16: German newspapers call for WikiLeaks protection
How the US could charge Assange
Helping US spy on Fiji in the name of democracy
2010-12-16: Sweden case updates: Bail appeal hearing [Update 1]
TIME picks ‘wrong person’ this year
WikiLeaks’s Assange walks free on bail in London
Congress Hears WikiLeaks Is ‘Fundamentally Different’ From Media
Angry Wikileaks founder Julian Assange back online
Angry Assange back online
Rundle: Assange, the wikikids, a soldier, mum, an Icelandic ice-god … then it starts again
United States Antarctic Program Responds to Wikileaks: You Are Not Allowed to Look at the Classified Information That’s All Over the Internet.
Wikileaks’ Julian Assange tells of ‘smear campaign’
WikiLeaks: Anonymous hierarchy emerges
WikiLeaks cables: India accused of systematic use of torture in Kashmir
India: Official Spokesperson on allegations by Red Cross as per Wikileaks
WikiLeaks: US fears bioweapons from India labs
Sir Tim Berners-Lee on WikiLeaks Vs. Open Government
WikiLeaks cables: Mervyn King plotted banks bailout by four cash-rich nations
US embassy cables: Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya received many death threats, said embassy contact
US embassy cables: Pirate party rides an electoral wave in Sweden
WikiLeaks: CIA torture flights through Shannon

Today’s Australian Wikilinks

WikiLeaks: Fruit of an unhealthy tree (shill for imperialism)
Australian Documentary Makers Sign Petition in Support of Julian Assange and Wikileaks
Let’s start counting; how many Aussie politicians or advisers are leaking to US?
Australia and Canada working together to kill Afghans (and private firms keen to help out)
Greens demand Murdoch hack get a clue and fired
Julia Gillard ‘after top job a year before coup’: WikiLeaks
India and Sri Lanka are our mates (and they cause violence)
I am not a fan of WikiLeaks says Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard
PM must retract “illegal” WikiLeaks claim
Julia Gillard : Australia – Transcript of press conference, 17 december 2010
Balibo five: our secret blacklist
Leaked Cable: Hike Food Prices To Boost GM Crop Approval In Europe

Today’s Palestine / Israel Links

‘The Palestine Cables’: WikiLeaks dox expose Netanyahu’s vision of Palestinian bantustan (I already spotted this from the outset)
Apartheid Israel-style : Law to keep Jews and Arabs apart
GENERAL ASSEMBLY CONCLUDES TWO-DAY DEBATE, ADOPTING SIX RESOLUTIONS : ON QUESTION OF PALESTINE, SITUATION IN MIDDLE EAST All Texts Adopted by Recorded Vote; Speakers Say Israel’s Intransigence
Harms Peace Effort, United States’ Delegation ‘Disheartened’ by One-Sided Focus (Australia crawls to US and Israel and votes with them and for racism) 30th Nov, 2010
Inside the moral corruption of Israeli society
BDS update: ‘Besiege your siege!’
After protest by Jordan, Israel denies plans to expand East Jerusalem hotel
Muslims criticize handling of Israelis’ stay at D.C. hotel
#BDS: Marrickville Council supports BDS
Adidas, Don’t Help Running Apartheid: Cancel Sponsorship of Jerusalem Marathon!
ISRAEL: Jerusalem Marathon runs into politics
Dissolve The Palestinian Authority
Israel never really wanted peace
The rabbis’ racist letter: many words, little action
The problem with Israel’s Jewish ‘refugee’ initiative
In A Letter Send To Turkish PM; Likud MK Says Israel Should Have Killed All Marmara Passengers
Israeli Military demolishes water wells and cisterns in the South Hebron Hills
Bon Jovi to perform in Israel for first time
Israeli towns continue to rewrite bylaws to keep Arabs out
Israel’s Ayalon: No intention to apologize to Turkey
Open letter from the Jerusalem Palestinian Legislative Council members
Israeli police ravaged Palestinian store in Jerusalem
NGO Monitor’s smear campaign against the Electronic Intifada
The farce of a secular and democratic Jewish state
Blair blasts isolation of Gaza, says doesn’t weaken Hamas
To Motorola: We Don’t Want Your Dirty Phones
The Return of “Plan B” and the Death of the Peace Process
Linkage and its discontents: What WikiLeaks reveals about Israel-Palestine
Israel, anti-Semitism and the black humour of hypocrisy
Israel Doesn’t Need the West Bank To Be Secure – Martin van Creveld misses the point
Despite court ruling, IDF took Arab land for train line
Arab students get harsh lesson in racism from holy city
Free the Children of Palestine! Petition
Village is under attack in nabi saleh! One wounded badly

Other Links

Study Confirms That Fox News Makes You Stupid
FOXLEAKS: Fox boss ordered staff to cast doubt on climate science
Do supporters of Nobel winner Liu Xiaobo really know what he stands for?
Security Concil’s Big Five send senior-level naval delegations to Colombo – utterly vomitous
Get your act together or risk losing US ally, EU foreign policy chief tells leaders
Berlusconi-bashing tweets shut down EU summit experiment
Public Money May Fund European Arms
Let Us Pay: John Lanchester on the future of the newspaper industry
‘Supervision’ is not enough; the IPCC must handle this investigation themselves

December 14, 2010December 11, 2020

Of Mitherin’ Clutterbucks and Mordor

More than two weeks after Wikileaks began publishing US embassy cables, Fairfax is still printing “exclusives” from its treasure trove of leaks without linking to the source, subverting the process to which the honourable Guardian adhers by making its cables available for public scrutiny and interpretation. The Guardian blew the whistle on fake documents published last week by Pakistani dailies, so one might presume that if the Fairfax cables were not authentic, they too would be exposed. Crikey’s Bernard Keane has pointed out Fairfax’s ignominy. Asad Abukhalil is vouching for the authenticity of additional cables published by Al Akhbar. There are even more cables streaming from Indoleaks in Indonesia, according to the Jakarta Globe.

As far as I am aware, no Australian media is linking directly to Wikileaks cables, despite 1885 mirror sites in Australia and elsewhere. Since the Australian Attorney General has muttered that it may take the Australian Federal Police up to a year to locate a crime to fit the cables’ release, our gutless media may be hedging its bets.

In another article, Keane nails Mastercard, Paypal and Visa for providing service for donations to illegal Israeli settlement activities.

‘Visa, Mastercard and PayPal all enable donations to be made to US-registered groups funding illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank in defiance of international law.

It appears at least one of the major credit cards also enables donations to an extremist Jewish group that has placed a bounty on the lives of Palestinians.’

As I’ve previously revealed, an Australian Zionist organisation, the United Israel Appeal’s New South Wales branch, also offers online credit card facilities for tax deductible donations to its Women’s Division, 50% of whose funds are directed toward the consolidated revenue of Keren Hayesod which is involved in illegal Israeli ‘national’ heritage projects in the West Bank.

Currently, Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd is in Israel causing waves with his demands for Israel to submit to IAEA inspections and renew the settlement freeze.

“Our view has been consistent for a long period of time, and that is that all states in the region should adhere to the NPT, and that includes Israel.”

But it is what he added next by referring to International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors that has caught Israeli officials by surprise: “And therefore their nuclear facility should be subject to IAEA inspection.”

He was speaking before reports that a WikiLeaks cable suggested Australia, along with the US, could be drawn into a nuclear war in the Middle East if Israel were to attack Iran in an attempt to disable its nuclear program.

Perhaps Rudd hasn’t noticed that Lieberman told the Russians in 2009 that Israel did not intend attacking Iran, nor that Israel has repeatedly, deliberately and tactically linked ‘peace’ with Palestinians with the US confronting Iran. That this fiction about an attack on Iran must be maintained when the IAEA inspectors have not found any evidence of wrongdoing is annoying. The Israelis can’t attack without US support. The US would prefer a non-confrontational dialogue with Iran. Senator Kerry made this perfectly clear in February, 2010. Thus, ‘peace’ with Palestinians is also a fiction.

“There’s nowt wrong wi’ owt what mitherin’ clutterbucks don’t barley grummit!”

Israeli officials were not surprised by Mr Rudd’s call for Israel to sign the NPT but were taken aback by his call for IAEA inspections. One high-ranking Israeli official said: “I don’t remember any Australian minister saying (Israel’s) facilities should be put under inspection.”

…

On settlements, which have been at the centre of the collapse of direct peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians, Mr Rudd said: “The position of the Australian government has long been clear. We do not support new settlement construction and the reason is that it undermines the prospects of the successful prosecution of peace negotiations.”

Mr Rudd said the Australian government fully understood Israel’s security concerns from Gaza, but that settlements were “a different matter”.

He expressed concern after comments by Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, that if the peace talks achieved nothing he might dissolve the Palestinian Authority and hand over day-to-day running of the West Bank to Israel. “There is a second reality also, which is what security challenges Israel would face if the peace process entirely collapses, if the Palestinian Authority totally disengages or if Abu Mazen were to give effect to what he publicly implied in his recent statements about folding the authority, or if the moderate Arab states would begin to adopt a different posture against a protracted and non-successful peace negotiating process.”

Mr Rudd warned that there may be serious consequences if the peace process collapsed.

“All of us, if we are any students of the history of the last decade or so, have a grasp of what can go wrong, and what can go wrong big time if the Palestinian people don’t have a stake in a negotiated outcome,” he said.

For Palestinians, there are serious consequences if the peace process continues, because the interminable peace process is and has always been a facade for more Israeli land theft. Netanyahu called the US bluff with his refusal to stop settlement building despite handsome US bribes and now further, insisting Jerusalem will not be shared. Unless there are concrete repercussions from the US and other nations, the Israel will continue to steal, murder and occupy in pursuit of its expansionist strategy and goal. Is Kevin a knowing participant in this ongoing villainous mythology? A brief examination of a map of the illegal West Bank settlements should be enough for him to realise the two state solution is a vexatious illusion and a de facto one state with discontinuous, unofficial bantustans is the present reality. Israel is an apartheid state to be engaged accordingly with a tangible justice process through boycotts, divestments and sanctions to shortcircuit the duplicitous ‘peace process’ charade.

Meanwhile, somewhere in a cavern in Mordor, US gollums are plotting a star chamber, associated pseudo-laws and an attempt to spirit Julian Assange, the bearer of inconvenient tidings, into their pocketses.

Today’s Wikilinks

Inside Story – WikiLeaks’ financial crisis
How to Support Julian Assange & Wikileaks
Wikileaks.org domain comes back online, helped by new DNS providers
Indoleaks Touts Revealing WikiLeaks Documents, But Technical Problems Persist | The Jakarta Globe
Julian Assange Boasted About ‘Asian Teengirl Stalkers’ In Online Dating Profile
Foreign Office memo shows 2002 plan to sell Iraq invasion to UK media
America, the Grim Truth
America’s Facile, Self-Congratulatory Response to Wikileaks
Julian Assange wined and dined at US Embassy
Call for action over death calls
China: A Nobel Peace Prize for Assange?
Sweden colluding with US to charge Assange with espionage
Wikileaks mum in UK mercy dash
Cablegate Reveals Government Requesting Access to Microsoft Data, Kill Switches
Danish Politiken mirrors Wikileaks on Amazon servers
Wikileaks Christmas Song 2010
Assange attorney: Grand jury meeting in Virginia on WikiLeaks
WikiLeaks Can Survive Swedish, U.S. Assange Probes, Lawyers Say
Another cable searcher
Assange lawyers say US preparing charges
Imperialist diplomacy exposed: Behind the witch-hunt of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange
There Is Something To See Here
Peter Ludlow on “The Political Philosophy of Julian Assange”
Vatican reaction to WikiLeaks claims (LOLOL)
WikiLeaks row: why Amazon’s desertion has ominous implications for democracy
Rumsfeld: Government documents in new memoir, but not like WikiLeaks
Of Wikileaks, Whistleblowers and Whipping Boys
US Poll: People Behind WikiLeaks Should be Prosecuted (how dumbed down are Americans!!)
The Swedish prosecutor denies political pressure from the United States. From Wikileaks published documents show the opposite.
Hilarious: ‘XXXXXXXXXXXX passed on the suggestion from his North Korean interlocutors that the USG arrange for Eric Clapton to perform a concert in Pyongyang. As Kim Jong-il’s second son, Kim Jong-chol, is reported to be a great fan, the performance …could be an opportunity to build good will.’
WikiLeaks founder Assange says Pentagon plans prosecution
Inside Story – WikiLeaks and the craft of journalism
Food for thought. Updated Sunday 12 December
WikiLeaks may make the powerful howl, but we are learning the truth
Rundle: timeline of Assange’s visit to Sweden and events that followed
Swedish Police Leak May Clear Assange
WikiRebels
WikiLeaks cyber war: pro-Assange Anonymous v US nationalists
The Ballad of Julian Assange
What makes Assange tick from somebody who should know
Leaks and Leakers : NO QUARTER
WikiLeaks: Tying Assange to Manning Won’t Be Easy
WikiLeaks release ‘deplorable’: Obama
Hyperdemocracy
PdF Presents: A Symposium on Wikileaks and Internet Freedom
Danish search engine for cables
Why did I back Julian Assange? It’s about justice and fairness
Wikileaks and arms sales | Jewbonics
Sodomy charges were a set-up

Today’s Australian Wikilinks

Rudd defends Assange’s rights
Israel praises Labor allies
Lawyers defend WikiLeaks founder Assange
Defence costings dodgy
In other leaked US cables, Australian diplomats are reported as telling their US counterparts that the Australian government was ”completely aligned” with the United States in regard to Iran.
Rudd derided ‘loathsome’ Ahmadinejad – ‘Israel saw Australia ”as playing an important role in the ‘global PR battle’ on Iran’ – time for Australia to stop sucking up to apartheid Israel and US imperialism
ALP stuck on two state non-solution – Joint Statement on Australia-Arab Relations
Kevin Rudd defends Julian Assange’s rights – and promises him a laptop
The net will win against deception
Australia doesn’t seem to know what morality is re Wikileaks
Blast from the past: Departing ALP member tells of deep Zionist influence in party
Mungo: WikiLeaks principle critical, but contents … oh well
Iran not a rogue state: Australia
WikiLeaks exposes foreign policy’s dark side
Free Speech Is S*xy Again
Doug Cameron joins Labor Left rally to support Julian Assange
Australian Media’s Finest Defend Wikileaks
The cables and the damage done
Israel’s policy of separation is backed by Western powers
Antony Loewenstein speaks to Sydney Wikileaks Rally
So this is what the Afghan war is all about
WikiLeaks: gathering secrets in the new age
US refused cable access to Canberra
Here’s the story of how the Age received their cables, which they don’t publish, just interpret. IMV this undermines the cables’ credibility and usefulness.
The weight of the word
Labor’s big guns squirm in the WikiLeaks glare
Mark Arbib, aka CIA Agent 007
Compromising the Labor Party: WikiLeaks, the US Alliance and Mark Arbib
Arbib goes quiet, but many are talking
Wikileaks reveals Labor powerbrokers in regular contact with US Embassy
Government under fire at Assange rallies
‘Professor Chomsky, a long-term critic of US foreign policy, said Mr Assange was performing a civic duty. “Systems of power wish to protect themselves from citizens, while at the same time sparing no effort to intrude into private lives so as to better establish their control.”
Australia: WikiLeaks cables reveal secret ties between Rudd coup plotters and US embassy
Leaks point to US concerns over Australian role in Afghanistan

Today’s Palestine / Israel Links

Dutch giant PGGM reconsidering companies involved in Israel-occupied territories
Israel trying to eject Palestinians from Jordan Valley to take over region
Santa leads Boycott Apartheid Israel action in Brisbane
Knesset Approves New Law Preventing Detainees From Meeting Lawyers For Six Month
PALESTINE CAMPAIGNERS CLAIM BOYCOTT SUCCESS AS COUNCIL REJECTS CONTROVERSIAL BIDDER – Edinburgh Council rejects Veolia
Israel attacked for arrests of hundreds of children
The crumbling alliance / A natural lose-lose for Netanyahu
Suspected Israeli neo-Nazi arrested in Kyrgyzstan
IOF troops assault old woman, arrest her son
Blind woman sent to jail for harboring Palestinian
Winning Hearts and Minds for Palestine
Photos: Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine 43rd Anniversary Rally, Gaza City
Connection between the human rights march and West Bank demonstrations?
Israeli apartheid in Lod (Palestinian name Lydda)
Ghoul: Israel violates all international laws protecting rights of prisoners
Tom Friedman to Israeli Government: Suck On This! (when will Friedman et al realise 2 state is a non-solution?)
Israel/Palestine needs a South African style truth and reconciliation commission
Israel says it won’t share Jerusalem
Poll: Israel’s Arabs don’t want to be part of Palestinian state
Livni moans about Israel being at a ‘strategic disadvantage’; begs to continue the negotiations charade [Jpost]
British parliament debates Palestinian children prisoners
‘An Israeli human rights group has accused the police of arresting Palestinian minors as young as five in east Jerusalem and dealing with them in ways that violate the country’s laws, as well as international laws.
Israel dumps chem. waste in W Bank
Australian FM visits Israel as part of his world tour
The Israelis In The Machine. Or, SIA Later, Alligators…
Rudd, Yad Vashem and William Cooper
Jewish Congress Leaders Demand Pope To Combat the “Delegitimization” of Israel
New CWP Report – “All-Out War: Israel Against Democracy”
‘Our lives became something we’d never dreamt’: The former Israeli soldiers who have testified again
Israel to Destroy Electric Infrastructure Near Hebron
Kissinger relaxed about Jews being put in gas chambers
Former EU leaders call to sanction and boycott Israel

Other Links

Cancun agreement builds towards a global climate deal | Greenpeace Australia Pacific
UK Govt Moves Against 12 Year Old Dissident
Police-state tactics against protesters in Britain

‘Wikileaks provides a game breaking revelation of the secrecy, duplicity, violence, and criminal nature of the imperial state’ – Michael Parenti

December 9, 2010December 11, 2020

Israelis and others bought undocumented diamonds

One of the latest cables released by Wikileaks reveals an illicit trade in Zimbabwean diamonds. The cable, dated 12th November, 2008 states in summary:

The CEO of a British mining company described to us how high-ranking Zimbabwean government officials and well-connected elites are generating millions of dollars in personal income by hiring teams of diggers to hand-extract diamonds from the Chiadzwa mine in eastern Zimbabwe. They are selling the undocumented diamonds to a mix of foreign buyers including Belgians, Israelis, Lebanese, Russians and South Africans who smuggle them out of the country for cutting and resale elsewhere. Despite efforts to control the diamond site with police, the prospect of accessible diamonds lying just beneath the soil’s surface has attracted a swarm of several thousand local and foreign diggers. The police response has been violent, with a handful of homicides reported each week, though that number could grow as diggers arm themselves and attract police and army deserters to their ranks.

Further, the cable says:

¶7. (C) The diamonds that are not sold to regime members and elites, but instead are sold directly to foreign buyers, actually constitute the majority of the diamond trade in Chiadzwa. Cranswick said that around 85 percent of the diamonds extracted from Chiadzwa are sold directly to foreign buyers. Even so, he conservatively estimated that Mujuru, Gono and the rest were probably each making several hundred thousand dollars a month.

¶8. (C) Whether bought first by regime members or not, eventually the diamonds are sold to a mix of Belgians, Israelis, Lebanese (the largest contingent), Russians, and South Africans. A well-known buyer named Gonyeti fronts for Gono, as do two other buyers named Tendai Makurumidze and Takunda Nyaguze, according to Mutasa. Once sold to foreigners, the majority of the diamonds are smuggled to Dubai and sold at the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre Authority, a dedicated economic free-trade zone created in 2002 for the exchange of metals and commodities, most notably gold and diamonds. Although Zimbabwe is a participant in the Kimberley process, the diamonds from Chiadzwa are undocumented and therefore are not in compliance with Kimberley, which requires loose uncut diamonds to be certified.

¶9. (C) The highest quality diamonds are not sent to Dubai, but are shipped to Belgium, Israel, or South Africa for cutting. Despite this wide dispersal, Chiadzwa diamonds are very distinctive because of their age, color, and clarity and can easily be traced back to the Marange mine, according to Cranswick. He implicated Ernie Blom, president of South Africa’s Diamond Merchants Association in the illicit trade of Chiadzwa diamonds, and said that Blom had been known to boast of his involvement in illegal Zimbabwean diamonds. When asked why purportedly reputable diamond dealers would involve themselves in Chiadzwa, Cranswick said that the site was “massive” with tremendous profit potential that was attracting numerous buyers. One such group consisted of Russians who had recently bought US$500,000 worth of diamonds at an MMCZ auction, paying US$29/carat. They bought eight to ten carat rough diamonds, five to ten percent of which were gem quality.

¶10. (C) The diamond frenzy in Chiadzwa has led to hundreds and possibly thousands of homicides. Word of easy diamonds spurred a rush of Zimbabwean and foreign diggers to the area including Angolans, Congolese, Mozambicans, South Africans and Zambians, as well as diggers from as far away as Sierra

Yesterday a Swiss group urged Bern to bar sale of Marange diamonds from Zimbabwe.

The organization said the definition of “blood diamonds” used by the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme should be updated to include human rights violations by forces of the state. The present definition refers to rebel forces, a loophole that has allowed Harare to market Marange diamonds internationally under Kimberley supervision.

The Zimbabwe Advocacy Office, local partner of Bread For All, reports ongoing rights violations in the Marange diamond field of Manicaland province.

Diamonds from Marange are currently barred from export until the Kimberly Process has achieved a consensus on the disposition of the Zimbabwean stones. The organization met in Israel last month but was unable to reach a consensus on Marange gems.

Zimbabwean Mines Minister Obert Mpofu has threatened to sell diamonds with or without Kimberley approval, saying Zimbabwe has met all of the group’s requirements.

But political analyst Charles Mangongera said Harare must first address human rights abuses in Marange and completely demilitarize the zone, among other outstanding items in a work plan to which it agreed at a 2009 Kimberley Process meeting.

Israel is currently chairs the Kimberley Process. A boycott of Israeli cut diamonds has been called as Israeli diamonds cannot be regarded as conflict-free while Israel maintains its illegal apartheid, crimes against humanity, occupation and brutalisation of the people of Palestine.

Most people are unaware that the majority of diamonds on display in Jewellers’ windows are likely to have been manufactured in apartheid Israel and that their purchase helps to fund Israel’s illegal occupation and Zionist crimes against humanity. Israeli diamonds are de facto Blood Diamonds.

Significant revenues from corporation and personal taxes accrue to the Israeli state form the diamond industry each year. This helps to fund the 60 year long illegal occupation of Palestinian territory and associated crimes including murder, ethnic cleansing, home demolitions, destruction and theft of land and collective punishment of the Palestinian people.

Boycott Israeli Diamonds

The UN-based Kimberley Process which seeks to eliminate the trade in diamonds from conflict zones only applies to uncut or rough diamonds. It does not control to trade in polished diamonds from conflict zones. This has allowed jewellers to continue selling Israeli diamonds, conveniently ignoring the war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed by Israel, the world’s No1 producer of cut and polished diamonds.

Consumers and jewellers presently have no way of distinguishing which diamonds are cut and polished in Israeli and which are crafted in countries that respect human rights and international law. Consumers have a right to know not only where the diamond was mined (as certified by the Kimberley Process) but also the country where it was cut and polished.

The Indian government has placed a ban on Zimbabwean diamonds.

The Indian Government’s Union Ministry of Commerce has moved to stop its country from importing controversial diamonds from Zimbabwe, amid growing pressure for international traders to shun stones from the country. Indian has asked jewellery exporters and traders to bide their time until a solution of Zimbabwe’s trade future is resolved. Currently Zimbabwe’s diamonds are still effectively barred from international trade, because the watchdog Kimberley Process (KP) is still to decide on whether to give Zimbabwean exports the green light.

The Indian government’s decision is a major setback to the country’s diamond conglomerate, the Surat Rough Diamond Sourcing India Limited (SRSDIL), which signed a deal amounting to US$1.2 billion per year, to import rough diamonds from Zimbabwe. Recent diamond auctions in Zimbabwe, the first since the country was barred from trade last year, saw a high number of Indian buyers. Zimbabwe was barred by the KP over human rights abuses at the Chiadzwa alluvial diamond fields, and the auctions earlier this year were part of efforts to bring the country in line with international standards. But the KP has not made a unanimous decision on Zimbabwe yet, because of ongoing reports of abuses at Chiadzwa.

The Mines Ministry has since threatened to sell its diamonds without KP approval and recently the KP appointed monitor to Zimbabwe, Abbey Chikane, unilaterally certified Chiadzwa stones for sale. As a result, another auction, featuring mainly Indian buyers, went ahead last month. The KP has since publicly dismissed Chikane’s efforts to certify the stones without approval, and has asked member state not accepted Zimbabwean diamonds.

The KP is still reportedly negotiating an agreement with the Mines Ministry, which continues to make it clear that it has no intention of adhering to the KP’s limits. Mines and Mining Development secretary Thankful Musukutwa reportedly told a visiting Norwegian delegation this week that trade would not be stopped by NGOs and “other hostile nations.” Musukutwa said that while Zimbabwe has had “a few problems” with the KP, “we have worked our way up and we are very compliant.”

A Kimberley Process meeting in Israel in November failed to allow the export of Zimbabwean diamonds until they become process-compliant.

Talks to break an international deadlock over Zimbabwe’s suspended diamond exports ended in Belgium last week without a deal as the market was awash with rumours that Harare was courting buyers for stones from its controversial fields to the east of the country.

Industry representatives failed to hammer a compromise deal after a special meeting of the Kimberley Process (KP)’s Working Group on Monitoring (WGM) ended in Brussels on Thursday with no consensus on whether to allow rough diamond exports from Zimbabwe.

The Brussels meeting followed a KP plenary session held earlier this month in Israel which nearly reached an agreement after direct consultations between the United States and Zimbabwe. The agreement was widely accepted by KP members but was blocked by Canada and Australia. The Tel Aviv meetings ended with a decision to continue negotiations until a unanimous agreement is reached.

Zimbabwe boycotted the WGM meeting although it was said to be liaising with the working group via a delegation from neighbouring countries. Harare has insisted that it would resume selling the gems “without any conditions”. Under a set of measures meant to bring Zimbabwe’s controversial diamond industry in line with KP standards, the world diamond industry must monitor production and sales of diamonds from Chiadzwa field where the army has been accused of rights abuses against civilians.

In a later cable of the 9th January, 2009, we see:

¶7. (C) While Gono’s access to diamonds may have been compromised, XXXXXXXXXXXX said that many diamonds are still being sold to foreign diamond buyers in Mutare and over the border in Mozambique by a mix of panners, police, and soldiers. In particular, Lebanese buyers have set up shop in large numbers in Mutare and typically pay for the diamonds with U.S. dollars. In order to operate safely, the Lebanese have formed profitable relationships with senior military and police officials in the region. Marginally more reputable buyers from Europe and other regions prefer to stay in Chimoio in Mozambique. Chimoio affords these buyers protection from Zimbabwean police and soldiers who commonly seize cash, diamonds, and vehicles from them in Mutare, but that safety is offset by higher diamond prices.

Ask where your diamond was cut and sourced before buying – don’t buy Israeli blood diamonds.