Thus the prospects of peace could be fleeting or imminent, depending on which Israel decides to turn up to any future negotiations. In what can only be described as a blatant act of aggression, Israel has approved more settlement construction in September and October, thus the future of an independent Palestinians state is all but out the window upon examination of any map, particularly this most recent one from the UN.
Contrary to the often regurgitated myth that Palestinians use their children as human shields, it has never been proven – not once. Yet in October 2010, two Israeli soldiers were convicted of using a 9-year-old boy as a human shield during the infamous Operation Cast Lead of 2008/9. There are at least 15 other documented cases of children being used as human shields since 2004, with only the aforementioned case of the 9-year-old ever having been investigated.
Analysing the statistical data of child mistreatment by Israel is a horrific mission. The average number of Palestinian children in Israeli detention over the last 12 months is 212 – that is children aged 12 to 18 locked up on for the most minor indiscretion as Israel creates specific military orders that criminalise any form of opposition to the occupation.
Without doubt though, the statistic that should trouble any person of good conscience is the data relating to child fatalities. From 2000 to 2009, 1,329 children were killed by Israel. In real terms that means a Palestinian child was killed every three days, of every week, of every month, of every year, for 10 long years. How can this possibly be justified?
The international community has a moral obligation to hold Israel accountable for these crimes. Without the rule of law, and in this case we are talking about International Law and International Humanitarian Law, how can we possibly expect that the state of play will ever change?
Whether we like it or not, it is an undisputable fact that every single one of the 12 or so million people living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea (historic Palestine) are under Israel’s rule. Is it therefore acceptable, that in the 2011 we still have a system that deliberately privileges one people over another in the same land? Or should this current spawn of apartheid be also discarded to the annals of history in the same way it was for South Africa in 1989.
Israel’s use of Palestinian children as human shields is highlighted. The comments following the post which support zionism nearly all blame Palestinian children for their own incarceration. Yet are Israeli children who throw stones at Palestinians and others collectively punished or incarcerated by the Israeli state? No.
Aaron David Miller asks Erekat 10 questions about the peace negotiations back in November 2010, followed by questions from the audience.
Erekat reveals lots of interesting points from behind the scenes, including Hamas position that they have never challenged the authority of the PLO.
Most negative thing for negotiating for Palestinians was the US insisting on Palestinians recognise Israel without it defining its borders.
Do we have someone in Israel willing to engage in decisions?
“The state of Israel was recognised by us [in September 1993] … then they changed the wording to recognise Israel as the Jewish state. I will not become zionist, I will not.”
No time to blog at present, annoyingly, so here’s a poem by Rafeef Ziadah “We Teach Life, Sir” which is receiving deserved accolades round the globe. Rafeef’s thoughts contrast with the colonising of the Occupy Wall Street movement by the liberal ziolobby, which claims legitimacy in the OWS since titularly it opposes the Israeli Occupation (though not the occupation and deprivileging of non-Jews in Israel itself) and so that instant solidarity becomes restricted by zionist-mediated checkpoints of the mind. More chains to break! Not enough people have broken through to the realisation that zionism is fully congruent with imperialism, both utilising the familiar tool of capitalism, both expansionist and colonialist.
Take your goons and bases home, Obama. You aren’t welcome here until you stop using Australia as a projection of US criminal imperialism.
Palestine / Israel Links
Palestinians express solidarity to NYC ‘Occupy’ camp before raid; Activist in tweet controversy linked to Israel PR groups Palestine solidarity activists in particular (as I can tell you from experience) have all too often been asked to check their politics at the door in various political coalitions in the US, in the interest of not “alienating” the mainstream (if we can speak frankly, this was a major issue in organizing against the Iraq war during the past decade). The recent response of Daniel Sieradski, a driving force between Occupy Judaism, to the controversy over support for Freedom Waves shows that this logic is still, unfortunately, current in parts of the Occupy movement Defense Minister Ehud Barak is under fire over a comment he made during an interview with PBS’ Charlie Rose on Wednesday. Asked by Rose whether he would strive for nuclear weapons had he been in Iran’s shoes, Barak said, “Probably…I don’t delude myself that they are doing it just because of Israel .”
‘”While India brutalises Kashmir in so many ways, that occupation brutalises the Indians.
It (the occupation) turns us into a people who are able to bear a kind of morally reprehensible behaviour done in our name, and the fact that so few Indians will stand up and say anything about it is such a sad thing.”‘
“The ties that hold Israel together as a united society have long been in a tragic process of disintegration. What we have here is not a society but cells inimical to one another in a state of potential civil war. Israel will not be able to stand this way before an enemy or confront the difficult challenge of peace.”Professor Shlomo Ben-Ami
Yigal Amir, the unrepentant, fanatical right wing orthodox jew who murdered Rabin and is jailed for life, claimed justification of his act due to Rabin being defined a ‘rodef’ by several of his religious peers. However
Dayan Weiss (Teshuvot Minchat Yitzchak 8:148) notes that only responsible Jewish leadership (i.e. a recognized Beit Din) may determine that an individual constitutes a danger to the community and is classified as a Rodef.
One is tempted to wonder why Amir’s Shabak friend, Avishai Raviv, to whom he confided his plans, did not stop the assassination. If anyone would qualify as a rodef it would be Amir, given his murderous intentions. According to some sources, Raviv, the head of an ultra rightwing zealot organisation, Eyal, a tool of the General Security Service, incited Amir.
The classification of a forfeiter of land as a rodef states that “If a Jew gives up the land of other Jews to Goyim, and he persists in this, that is, he gives up the land of three or more Jews, he is a Rodef.”
Uri Dan, a journalist close to Ariel Sharon, wrote that witnesses heard Raviv tell Amir: “Be a man! Kill him already!”
Then GSS boss was Carmi Gillon, appointed personally by Rabin despite opposition from high-ranking security officials. Accused of human rights abuses during his GSS term, Gillon became mayor of the Jerusalem suburb Mevasseret Zion. After Rabin’s assassination, Nutanyahoo inherited the GSS position and the peace process de-materialised. What was Sharon up to at the time?
Raviv, for those who might have forgotten, was the obedient General Security Service operative who was ordered to create violence-orientated rightist gangs, preferably kippa-wearing.
After successfully defending himself from implication in the assassination “on the grounds that he had just been doing his job and events had spun out of control”, Raviv has gone to ground.
Once a high-profile fixture of militant opposition to peace deals with the Palestinians, he has been largely untraceable since Mr. Rabin’s assassin, Yigal Amir, gunned down the Israeli Prime Minister in November 1995.
Justice Yaacov Turkel issued a gag order yesterday on the minutes of a secret discussion held in the office of Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein regarding former Shin Bet security service undercover agent Avishai Raviv.
…
The document in question is the minutes of a discussion held in May 1996 regarding what was called the “swearing-in ceremony” of the extreme-right Eyal group, organized by Raviv in the summer of 1995. Raviv is currently on trial in connection with his role in the group’s activities as well as on charges of not preventing a crime, in connection with the assassination of the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The discussion was held in the office of then Attorney General Michael Ben-Yair, and was attended by the state attorney and other officials in the attorney’s office and the Shin Bet.
According to the classified chapters of the Shamgar report, GSS agent Avishai Raviv told Yigal Amir that Yitzchak Rabin falls into the classification of a “pursuer” who may be killed. According to the report, Raviv even prodded Amir to kill him, although Amir did not tell Raviv of his specific plans to do so.
The heretofore secret parts will not be released until Thursday — in accordance with a request by Labor Knesset faction head Raanan Cohen, who said that it would not be appropriate to release them on the official day of memorial for Rabin. Five of the seven pages that will be publicized deal with Raviv, and the others deal with the supervision by the prime minister over the GSS. Two other chapters, dealing with the performance of the GSS unit for protection of persons and the GSS relationship with the police, will remain classified.
Another conclusion gleaned from a perusal of the report is that the GSS had the police cancel the criminal files opened against Raviv during the eight years that he served as its agent. The report emphasizes that Raviv was not responsible for distributing the Rabin-SS picture, although he was the one who made sure to show it to a television reporter.
But according to an investigation by the Jerusalem Post, Raviv’s task involved much more than infiltration: His orders were to attract individuals to Eyal, incite them to illegal activities, and then inform on them to the Shin Bet.
One of the sources of this information was Rabbi Benny Elon, the dean of Yeshivat Beit Orot, a religious college, and son of a retired Supreme Court justice. Elon would later become a Knesset member in 1996. This prominent Jewish-settlement activist and leader of the right-wing group Moledet held a press conference and charged that Raviv had effectively manufactured the wild far Right. He was, in Elon’s words, an “agent provocateur,” carrying out a mission by the government to discredit the right-wing opposition, including, by association, the Likud. “I would venture to say,” Elon added, “that the whole organization [Eyal] and its activities, including the poster depicting Rabin in an SS uniform, were all paid for by the Shin Bet.” (The Shin Bet later denied the charge.) Elon went on to say, “There is a reasonable suspicion that [Raviv’s activity] was okayed by the legal authority.”
The order came down: Lior was not to be arrested, tried or even seriously interrogated. The very belated and slight delay for an hour of questions relating to the book Torat Hamelech (The King’s Torah ) is therefore ridiculous. It’s even convenient for Lior. He’s responsible for more important and extreme books. Lior does not stop at incitement.
Nor does Lior stop at non-Jews. Leading rabbis have testified that Lior was the source of rulings labeling the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin a “rodef” and a “moser” (a traitor who endangers Jewish lives ). Here, too, he didn’t stop at incitement. Rabin’s assassin used to travel to Hebron to see the rabbi. Baruch Goldstein (who massacred Arabs at the Cave of the Patriarchs in 1994 ) also visited King Lior for instruction. After he massacred dozens of people, the rabbi ruled that Goldstein was “holier than all the martyrs of the Holocaust.”
The government is taking action. Twenty-five senior members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, including its chairman and the chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, ruled that a shocking deed had been done. How did they dare to investigate Rabbi Lior? Shocked, they demanded the full force of the law be used against Deputy State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan, who is bringing down the State Prosecutor’s Office and the police.
And the ruler of the coalition? Upon returning as a victor from President Barack Obama, he went to Mercaz Harav. The featured speakers endorsed each other. And then the prime minister warmly thanked the rabbi who refuses to be investigated or to explain himself, as Lior and his disciples had given Netanyahu the strength to confront the American president. They are the elite commando unit leading the nation and paving the way, Netanyahu said.
Summer vacation begins today. Yesterday, most of the first graders who are defined in Israel as Jews were attending religious and ultra-Orthodox classes. Many of their educators receive a state salary to preach in the spirit of inflammatory and racist “Torat Hamelech.” There’s a reason why the “moderate” chief rabbis supported Lior.
It’s not a one-hour delay that Israel needs. Without dramatic change here, the government is making all of its laws illegal. As long as hesder yeshivas like Nir are not dismantled; as long as rabbis who identify with Rabbi Lior are not ousted from their jobs; as long as funding for the present religious education is not stopped; as long as Lior’s involvement in acts of murder, according to the testimony of the perpetrators, is not prosecuted, the country has no right to demand its citizens serve in the army or pay taxes. Until the change takes place, Israel is not a state.
Translation from Hebrew Haaretz Rabin was assassinated as an Israeli, not as a Jew
Salman Masalha
4 November 2012 4.08
As the years keep on passing, both the name and the memory continue to wane away. But the memory does not become duller by itself. There are those who have put in the effort to ensure that it does. Seventeen years have passed since that fateful Saturday, 4 November, in the square that then bore the name of the Kings of Israel.
The impact of the shock that hit the country was limited to producing a crop of memorial candles, which were lit everywhere but nothing more. So much emphasis was placed on establishing internal peace within Jewish society that no one saw the assassin and those who were behind him, or the victim. Everyone has been satisfied with commemorating Rabin by naming the square after him as well as well a street here and a building there.
Now, that the official ceremony, the national Memorial service, and all the speeches are well and truly over we can revert to calling the murder by its true name. Because fixing the date of the commemoration of the 12th day of Jewish month of Cheshvan, also has a substantial role in diminishing the significance of the murder.
We need to reiterate and remind those who trying to make sure the assassination’s memory is dimmed forget that Rabin was assassinated on 4 November. He was not murdered on the 12th of Cheshvan. In other words, the Israeli prime minister was assassinated as an Israeli. He was not murdered as a Jew. Only the murderer and his ideological dispatchers (who have remained behind the scenes) acted as Jews functioning under the Jewish order of the day.
In a society ruled by tribal codes, the individual has no value, even if he is the Prime Minister of the tribe. The value of the individual is measured by their ability to adopt the strict tribal codes and operate by them. Any violation of these codes could lead to an extreme response from those who view themselves as the tribe’s flag bearers and guards of honour.
The original Zionist sin during the creation of state was the way the ZIonist leaders, from the left to right, did not use their wisdom to differentiate between the Jewish religion and the Jewish state. Two decades later the Six Day War broke out, which in turn brought the Jewish tribe closer to places laden with religious and tribal values.
As the years went on the occupation, settlements were established and demography continued to chart its own course. The First Intifada prompted a change in Yitzhak Rabin’s point of view. In 1967 he had been the Chief-of-Staff of the Occupation. During the First intifada, as Defence Minister, he was busy taking charge of the breaking of the arms and legs of protesting Palestinians.
But belatedly, Rabin realised that the continued Occupation of another people, who continues to proliferate thus threatening the existence of a Jewish state with a Jewish majority, was creating a knot that would be too difficult to untangle. So he turned, however hesitantly, to the Oslo path.
But in order to reach his Zionist-Israeli destination Rabin crossed the red lines drawn by the Jewish tribe’s flag bearers. To form a government he relied on an Israeli majority in the Knesset. His government was propped by the so-called “Arab parties” who ensured his government survival. This act can be compared to waving a red flag at the swaggering bull of Jewish fundamentalism and Israel very existence as a “Jewish state.”
For this reason the Right levelled the racist accusation at him of not having a “Jewish majority” to carry out his policy. In response, he began a civil society discourse using the state-owned channel for the purpose. He tossed such terms as racism and Apartheid at the Right.
The tribe elders gathered and out of the past began to evoke such concepts as Din Moser [Halachic law relating to someone handing Jewish persons or property to non-Jewish authorities] Din Rodef [the law dealing with someone believed to be about to murder] and a host of other laws and ways to treat a son who has gone astray. Only one minor question remained open – Who would carry out the verdict.
The shots were fired by those who saw the Kings of Israel Square as the Shabbat Square, the Tribe’s Square [An alliteration in Hebrew.] In other words, Rabin was assassinated as an Israeli who relied on an Israeli majority. That is, for crossing the Jewish tribe’s red lines. He was murdered in an honour killing, for defiling the honour of the Jewish tribe.
The discourse which is centred on the concept of a “Jewish state” has deepened in recent years. It seems that as far as the Israeli Right is concerned the assassination continues to pay off.
Salman Masalha is a Druze-Israeli poet, writer, essayist and translator.
For Michael Coleman … Michael, try not to be deterred by the rogue regime that illegally detains you. They kidnapped you and your comrades because they fear the growing moral outrage of the world; all criminal regimes harbour this dread of a known truth. Be assured the great majority of humanity is with you in spirit; I personally am grateful to you for what you have done and for your courage. All power to you.
“It began with Israeli forces hosing down the boats with high pressure hoses and pointing guns at the passengers through the windows,” Lane, who was onboard the Saoirse, said. “I was hosed down the stairs of the boat. Windows were smashed and the bridge of the boat nearly caught fire.”
From FB: Zoe Lawlor phoned home this Sunday morning and both she and Mags O’Brien are in good spirits and looking forward to getting home very much. They also asked us all to put as much pressure on the Dept of foreign affairs as possible.
UPDATE SUNDAY NOV 6 EVENING
Confirmed that the two Irish women hostages are being held in Givon prison.
“There are 21 passengers detained who refused to be expelled immediately and are engaged in proceedings against their deportation before an Israeli judge,” interior ministry spokeswoman Sabine Haddad told AFP. … ‘She said the remaining 21 people were still being held at a detention facility in Ramla near Tel Aviv, after questioning by immigration authorities.’
4 easy ways you can help illegally detained Australian #FreedomWaves to Gaza delegate Michael Coleman (please RT!) – is.gd/fda1ky
“We have just spoken to Michael’s father who has just had a call from Michael.
He was supposed to have a 3 minute call but was cut off after a minute. He reported that 30 armed men forcibly boarded the Tahrir. He and others were assaulted on the boat and again when they were forcibly taken off the boat against their will into Israel.
He has not signed and will not sign any deportation order or ‘admission’ that he entered Israel illegally. He expects to be deported 72 hours after ‘the process’ began.’
‘But it is understood activists have refused to sign deportation orders as they were brought to Israel against their will.
They include Socialist Party MEP Paul Murphy, former Fianna Fáil TD Chris Andrews, Siptu official Mags O’Brien, artist Felim Egan, People Before Profit councillor Hugh Lewis, Sinn Féin councillors Pat Fitzgerald and John Hearne, and Zoe Lawlor, who teaches at the University of Limerick.’
‘Claudia Saba, spokeswoman, said there has been no contact from anyone onboard since it was hijacked, apart from a single text message from Mr Hogan’s mobile phone.
“Once again, as with the flotilla of June 2010, Israel has managed to gain a monopoly on the narrative of what happened when the Gaza-bound boats were hijacked by Israel at sea,” she said.
“The footage released by Israel of the boarding of the boats is vague and lacking in detail.
“Since we have no direct contact with our fellow citizens, and since they are not allowed to communicate with the outside world, we do not know exactly what happened or how those aboard were treated.”
Campaigners called on the Government to suspend Israel from the Euromed Agreement, end all arms trade with Israel and take steps to ensure no Irish state-funded institution engages in any cultural, academic, or economic cooperation with the state of Israel or its associated institutions.’
More update on the recalcitrant Occupy Wall Street mob who have failed to make the connections between racism, imperialism, neoliberalism, capitalism and zionism. :
‘The tweet was erased because there was discussion about how it was not appropriate to address this issue on these large public social media accounts until we had agreement from the group on our exact stance on these kinds of international conflicts.’ http://mondoweiss.net/2011/11/occupy-wall-street-responds-to-controversy-over-gaza-flotilla.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
As thought the NYT doesn’t shill for imperial interests: ‘In the wake of the #OCCUPYWALLSTREET movement, the New York Times has twice taken a swipe at Adbusters magazine, originators of the event. David Brooks led the charge in his October 10 column, The Milquetoast Radicals, falsely accusing us of being anti-Jewish. ‘
Here comes anonymous! ‘Anonymous said that if the siege continues and Israeli forces intercept additional flotillas, or if they conduct additional operations such as the commandeering of the Mavi Marmara, it will have no alternative but to launch repeated cyber-attacks on Israeli computer systems until the siege ends.’
Congratulations, Occupy Boston, for having the humanity to extend the 99% to encompass oppressed Palestinian people who suffer because of the Israeli apartheid regime, zionist hegemony which strides arm in arm with US imperial hegemony. Freedom Waves and BDS are unstoppable and they are the Occupy movement’s natural ideological partners, not racist zionism and US elites.
‘Although Michael and I (among others) were transported in handcuffs and leg shackles, let me stress that we are neither criminals nor illegal immigrants but rather political prisoners of the apartheid state of Israel. Four from the Tahrir are imprisoned with 12 Irish comrades from the Saoirse, who have more experience with such issues. The four of us, Ehab and I (Cdn), Michael (Aus) and Hassan (UK) have joined with the Irish in their political prisoners’ committee in order to press our collective demands:
Association in the block – i.e. open cells
adequate writing and reading material
free communication with outside world – i.e. regular phone calls
information about shipmate women held at same prison’
We add one Tahrir-specific demand: that Israeli state recognize the professional status of Democracy Now journalist Jihan Hafiz in accordance with her credentials from the US government. All political incarceration is unjust but let me stress that in duration and conditions, our situation pales in comparison to the plight of thousands of Palestinian political prisoners and to the open air prison of Gaza.
If you have energy to devote to solidarity actions in the coming days, please concentrate on them. We must get Tahrir back and hope Freedom Waves continue.
Free Majd Kayyal! Free all political prisoners! Free Gaza! Free Palestine!
Anishnabe-debuewin, restons humaine, stay human, in love and struggle,
“We have had one call from DFAT. That is all. Michael has not been able to contact us. We have support from the organisers here and around the world but not from our Government.”
We understand that the delegates were asked to sign deportation papers testifying that they entered Israel illegally and waive their right to a court hearing. They were brought into Israel against their will; therefore they have refused to sign those papers. We also understand that this peaceful resistance is what is leading to ongoing punishment and communication restrictions.
Yesterday, the “Australia Foreign Affairs Department said it was trying to arrange a consular visit to Michael Coleman, 35, from the state of New South Wales.”
The Derry Friends of Palestine received a phonecall from Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams office at about 10PM Irish Time last night (Friday). We were then advised that their office had been in touch with the Israeli authorities who were holding Belfast passengers John Mallon and Phil McCullough.
They were told both men were in custody and in good spirits. That they and the other passengers were believed to be in good physical condition. We were told they will be taken to court and charged with illegally entering Israel, if they agree to this “crime” and accept the charge they can go home immediately with voluntary deportation, if they refuse the criminal charge then they will be given a lawyer to appeal and ultimately be forcibly deported within 72 hours. The Israeli diplomat informed Mr Adams office that we could expect John Mallon home most likely on Tuesday.
We were told John was very concerned that people back home would be worrying, especially his 7 children and family members. So they were all overjoyed when the news came through last night about their Dad.
We can also confirm that Phil McCullough’s family has had a phonecall from the Irish Consulate just this morning (Saturday) And that Phil is in good spirits and, like the others, will be taken before the courts soon.
All passengers are being refused direct contact with family members; however, we can expect them to be back in Ireland most likely on Tuesday.
There’s two other big stories on the apartheid entity out today –
“This report reveals significant evidence arousing the suspicion that many doctors ignore the complaints of their patients; that they allow Israeli Security Agency interrogators to use torture; approve the use of forbidden interrogation methods and the ill-treatment of helpless detainees; and conceal information, thereby allowing total immunity for the torturers.”
The legal apparatus of the Israeli military system does not endeavor to protect Palestinian children’s rights; the military courts, under which children from the OPT are tried, lack comprehensive fair trial and juvenile justice standards. In September 2009, Israel established the Military Juvenile Court, but the situation on the ground remains essentially unchanged. On September 27, 2011, the Israeli military authorities raised the age of majority in the military courts to 18 years old. Until this time, the age had been officially set at 16, which directly defied the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, in practice, children as young as 12 have been and continue to be tried in military courts, with those 14 years of age often being tried as adults.
As of the Second Intifada (which began in September 2000), Israel began to employ administrative detention against children. Since this time the arrest and detention of children has grown more rampant and systemic, with around 700 children detained each year, and frequently held with adults in detention. The most common charge is stone throwing. At the time of this writing, 164 Palestinian children are in Israeli detention, 35 of whom are between the ages of 12 and 15.
In addition to regularly suffering abuse and torture similar to that of adult prisoners (beatings, blindfolding, being painfully shackled, position abuse, solitary confinement, electric shocks, threats of sexual assault, coercion into signing documents in Hebrew despite being unable to read them), children in detention are routinely subjected to tactics designed to exploit their age and intimidate them into confessions. These illegally obtained admissions are often used as evidence in the military courts. In the overwhelming majority of cases before these courts, children are denied bail and ordered to remain in detention until the end of the legal process. Credible allegations of ill-treatment and torture are not investigated.
OLDER INFO
As I’ve tweeted, the thing about waves is that they keep on coming, until the rubbish of Israeli apartheid and oppression is washed away. The most recent wave of humanitarian passengers from the seized Tahrir and MV Saoirse are now in custody at Ashdod port, incommunicado for several hours.
Michael Coleman, Australian delegate on the Tahrir, left a pre-recorded message in the event of his capture.
Before the Israeli pirates boarded the two vessels, they sprayed them fiercely with water cannons. UN Human Rights Council independent investigation of the Israel’s May 2010 flotilla attack declared Israel’s maritime blockade of Gaza illegal. Further, as Ali Abunimah tweeted: “Israel claims Gaza waters are “closed military zone” but that it “withdrew” from Gaza in 2005. Which is it liars?”
Israel’s blockade was not broken on this 12th flotilla attempt, yet the waves will keep rolling over Israel’s apartheid and oppression in solidarity with the people of Palestine until it ends.
Here’s some resources for action to support Aussie delegate Michael Coleman and the other #FreedomWaves activists while they are held captive by the Israeli brigands.
remained in costudy and are slated to board flights back to their home countries over the next few days.
The other six passengers were released, including 2 Greek crew members, an Egyptian citizen that was returned to Egypt and two reporters, American and Spanish, who were released under limiting conditions and commited to leave Israel on Sunday.
“Who are we?” an Occupy Sydney spokeswoman asked the crowd.
“We are the workers, we are the indebted, we are the immigrants and the indigenous. We are homeless, we are the students, we are the unemployed, we are the under-represented people of the world. We are the 99 per cent. We are Occupy Sydney.”
Speaking at yesterday’s event, Palestinian refugee Leila Khaled drew parallels between South Africa’s apartheid regime and her own experiences in Palestine.
“I am optimistic, because in South Africa there was an apartheid regime and you ended your struggle with the support of the international community,” she said.
“I remember at school, rallying, demonstrating and calling for freedom in South Africa. I was brought up saying ‘when South Africa is free, Palestine will be free’.”
Khaled also called for the international community to boycott Israel.
Other issues discussed by the panel included the recent decision by countries such as the US to block funding to Unesco for accepting Palestine as a member country. Israel has also said it will block funding to the organisation.
US money accounts for nearly a quarter of Unesco’s funding.
Sourani, meanwhile, said this showed in a “clear-cut way that the US is providing full and clear diplomatic immunity to Israel”.
‘Four Knesset members have withdrawn their support for a private member’s bill that would subordinate democratic rule to Israel’s Jewish identity. Three of the MKs – Benjamin Ben-Eliezer (Labor ) and Kadima’s Doron Avital and Shlomo Molla – have already formally removed their signatures from the draft for the new Basic Law. MK Nachman Shai (Kadima ) said he will remove his within a few days. ‘
Statement by Northern Territory Elders and Community Representatives – No More! Enough is Enough!
Melbourne 4 November, 2011
United First People’s Law men and women who are born leaders representing people of Prescribed Areas in the Northern Territory make this statement. Once again, they have gathered to openly discuss the future of our generation who have been subjugated by the lies and innuendo of the Federal Government, set out in the Stronger Futures document (October 2011).
The Stronger Futures report has created a lot of anger and frustration due to the lack of process and the ignorant way in which the views of the people have been reported. We therefore reject this report.
We will not support an extension of the Intervention legislation. We did not ask for it. In fact we call for a genuine Apology from the Federal Government for the hurt, embarrassment, shame and stigma, and for the illegal removal of the Racial Discrimination Act. It is our intention to officially call upon Government for reparation.
The recent consultations report shows that Government has failed to take seriously our concerns and feelings. This report is simply a reflection of pre-determined policy decisions. This is shown clearly by the absence of any commitment to bilingual learning programmes as well as the proposal to introduce welfare cuts and fines to parent of non-attending school children. Once again a punitive policy that is neither in the best interests of the child or the family.
Blanket measures have been central to the Northern Territory Intervention and have been the source of much distress. Where there are problems, they must be addressed on a case by case basis and preferably with the assistance through the appropriate community channels.
Since August 2007 till 2011, more than 45,000 First Nations Peoples living in the Prescribed Areas were traumatised when a Bill was passed through both Houses of Parliament (The House of Representatives and the Senate).
This legislation suspended the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 to put in place the Northern Territory Emergency Response. The Australian Greens were the only party to oppose the legislation.
These actions have placed Australia in breach of its international treaty obligations to the First Nations Peoples. Respectful discussion and negotiation with community elders did not take place before the introduction of the Intervention.
Discussions on a diplomatic basis are essential. There are elders in every Aboriginal Nation invested by the authority of the majority. These are the people with whom Minister Macklin should be negotiating, rather than with the chosen few, as has been her habit.
There has NEVER been acquiescence in the taking of our lands by stealth. Aboriginal people are sovereign people of this Nation. The process that will lead to legal recognition of customary law should be immediately commenced.
We believe that there should be an honest and comprehensive treaty negotiation with the Australian Government and facilitated by the United Nations.
We have a right under international law to self determination and after almost five years of the oppression of the Intervention, we demand that Government hand back to us control over our communities and provide adequate Government, long-term funding to ensure the future of Homelands.
Community Councils have suffered from years of underfunding. The same is happening today with the Shires that have been imposed on us. There is a lack of funding for our Core Service.There is no capacity for Aboriginal communities to engage in long-term services planning without the certainty of long-term funding.
We have had enough! We need our independence to live our lives and plan our futures without the constant oppression and threats which have become central to the relationship between Government and Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. We will not support policies that have not been negotiates with all elders of Prescribed communities and we will not support an extension of the Intervention, or an Intervention under other names.
Since the Apology and since reconciliation, the level of incarceration of Aboriginal men has increased three-fold; our families are being punished for failure to attend a foreign school design; our capacity to govern our own lives has been totally disempowered; Aboriginal youth suicide rates in the Northern Territory are higher than anywhere else in Australia; and our people have been demonized, labelled and branded. This is not what an apology is and it is not reconciliation. These outcomes are the very opposite to their intent.
Australia is in breach of its international treaty obligations to the first nation’s people through it membership to the United Nations in the elimination of racial discrimination.
We as leaders of the Northern Territory acknowledge other peoples’ views. We acknowledge that some may agree and some may disagree with parts or all of the ‘intervention’; whatever the name the Government chooses to call it. The only right we now have left is to remain silent.
We as Aboriginal people call on the international community to hold Australia to account for its continuing crimes against humanity for its treatments of its first nation’s people. Again, we say to our visits by the Minister’s department; this is not consultation. Proper consultation is about listening and inviting and including the views of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Consultation is about outcomes that are progressive and agreeable to all parties.
The future is based on our children having a quality education, but to date this continues to be a systemic failure. A quality education for our people needs to include:
• Bilingualism in schools to be returned and strengthened to ensure our children learn their traditional languages, dialects and cultural knowledges.
• Attendances need to be rewarded, rather than children and families being punished for non-attendance.
• Aboriginal teachers in classrooms and school educational leadership roles are essential to building quality, localized schooling programs. This means also equal pay and entitlements, rewards and opportunities consistent with their important roles.
• Curriculum needs to change and reflect traditional knowledges not just for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, but importantly for the broader Australian population who know very little about their own first peoples.
• Aboriginal teachers need to be treated fairly and equally to their non-Aboriginal counterparts in delivering quality education to our children. This includes the opportunity to tell oral stories of Kinship, Creation Stories, and about important cultural knowledge and skills.
Failure to accept these views and work seriously toward their inclusion will simply mean more of the same.
Rev. Dr. Djiniyini Gondarra OAM
Rosalie Kunoth-Monks OAM
Japata Ryan
Harry Nelson
Djapirri Murunggirritj
Barbara Shaw
Yananymul Mununggurr
