Thaer Qirresh is a 14-year-old Palestinian living in the Muslim quarter of the Old City in East Jerusalem. His family are the last Palestinian family left in the block after a settler organisation purchased the lease and moved in
A group of students gathered outside of one of Max Brenner’s franchise cafes in Sydney in protest at its support for the Israeli army.
The protest is part of the global Boycott Divestment and Sanctions, or BDS campaign, which was called from a broad cross-section of Palestinian civil society organisations in 2005.
Max Brenner is a chocolate retailer owned by the Strauss Group, which is the second largest Israeli food and beverage company and is largely touted as one of the greatest successes of Israeli industry.
On its website in the section on “Corporate Responsibility,” the Strauss Group emphasises its support for the Israeli army, noting: “Our connection with soldiers goes as far back as the country, and even further. We see a mission and need to continue to provide our soldiers with support, to enhance their quality of life and service conditions, and sweeten their special moments”.
Max Brenner has been the target of BDS actions throughout Australia for over two years. Protesters here say that this action is part of their commitment to the global BDS campaign which seeks to pressure companies that either profit from or support the Israeli military occupation until Israel ends the occupation and complies with international law and United Nations resolutions.
Early in the protest the police officers present tightened their control over the students movements. A number of police officers asked our crew to leave on a number of occasions, forcing us to stop filming and physically removing our crew away from the protest.
The students marched on chanting anti-Apartheid messages. The police officers then attempted to disperse the crowd and put an end to the protest. The police then used force to disperse the protesters, beating a number of students. Two students were charged with hindering police and their trials set for July 13.
The students have vowed to continue protesting outside of the ten Max Brenner cafes throughout Sydney, saying it is their legal right. They also criticized the police’s role in protecting a company that openly supports an illegal military occupation while at the same time using violence against a peaceful student protest
Medical services spokesman Adham Abu Salmiya said Thursday that warehouses had run out of over 178 types of medicine and that over 190 surgical items had either run out or were in short supply.
The health minister in the besieged coastal enclave appealed to human rights organizations to intervene to avert a looming crisis.
Gazan doctors cancelled surgeries due to critical shortages of medicine and supplies on Friday. Simultaneously Israel decided it would close ALL crossings until Sunday. The Rafah crossing to Egypt only allows traverse of people, not goods.
The crisis was unprecedented even during Israel’s massive offensive on Gaza in December 2008, Naem said, adding that the situation was worsening by the day.
Speaking at a conference in Ash-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Naem said 180 types of medicine and 200 medical items had run out in Gaza, including alcohol and needles.
All health facilities were affected by the deficit, the minister said, adding that Israel’s siege on the Gaza Strip exacerbated the crisis.
How many vulnerable, ill people does Israel cause to suffer because of its hideous, illegal collective punishment? Israel is sick, and makes itself sicker through such terrible acts.
The medicine for apartheid states is BDS – boycott, divestment and sanctions are effective as a global topical application.
UPDATE 19/6/11
Why doesn’t the PA blame Israel’s illegal closure of Gaza? The PA attempts to exonerate itself and blames Hamas for ‘politicising’ the issue of medical aid. Bad argument when the WHO say there have been shortages since February.
The Palestinian Authority health ministry on Saturday sent 20 truckloads of medicine to the Gaza Strip to ease critical hospital shortages.
Another 20 trucks will be transferred by Monday from warehouses in the West Bank city of Nablus to Gaza via the Erez crossing on Israel’s border, the ministry said in a statement.
Ramallah Health Minister Fathi Abu Moghli said that the critical shortage of medicine in the Gaza Strip was caused by suppliers’ delays. But he accused the Hamas health ministry in Gaza of trying “to politicize the health sector” by blaming the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority for the shortages.
The Gaza ministry threatened to close hospitals and clinics “to disturb the reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah,” Abu Moghli said.
The PA distributed medicines to hospitals in Gaza and the West Bank as soon as they were received from suppliers, he added.
Abu Moghli said 300 types of medicine worth 10 million shekels ($2.91 million) as well as laboratory equipment and surgical items would be delivered to Gaza on Saturday.
to the Palestinian Ministry of Health to meet ongoing shortages, the ministry’s PR head said Thursday.
Omer An-Naser told Ma’an that the truck contained medication which has run out in Gaza, to be added to a delivery of 20 truckloads of medical supplies to Gaza by the ministry on Saturday and Sunday.
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‘The report said shortages were a failure in coordination between the Ramallah and Gaza health authorities despite the unity agreement between the divided administrations signed over a month ago.’
Is the PA is covering for the Israeli regime with whom it collaborates? Gaza health ministry declared a state of medical emergency l on the 8/6/11. And now, once again –
Liaison official Raed Fattouh said Israel would reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing on Sunday.
The southern border crossing is the only operating entry point for commercial goods and humanitarian aid into the coastal enclave, home to more than 1.6 million Palestinians.
On May 28 Egypt reopened its Rafah border with Gaza, allowing limited numbers of residents to move freely in and out of the Strip for the first time in four years.
But Egypt is not allowing imports, exports and humanitarian aid or construction materials through Rafah, and the terminal is not equipped to handle large quantities of goods.
in the health conditions of Gaza residents, especially those with chronic diseases who could not access medication.
PCHR said the Gaza Strip had not received any medical supplies since February, and that shortages had led to a “devastating crisis” over the past two weeks. At a press conference in Cairo, Al-Barsh said most hospitals had run out of basic medicines and supplies.
Meanwhile, Ash-Shifa Hospital director Medhat Abbas said hospitals and primary care centers would have to close if medicine did not arrive soon, adding that many hospitals had been forced to cancel surgeries due to the crisis.
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights warned Monday of a “catastrophic deterioration” in the health conditions of Gaza residents, especially those with chronic diseases who could not access medication.
PCHR said the Gaza Strip had not received any medical supplies since February, and that shortages had led to a “devastating crisis” over the past two weeks.
Today, Israel sent 19 truckloads of medical equipment to Gaza’s Jordanian field hospital via the Erez Crossing. The Israeli aid convoy also included 195 Jordanian hospital staff members — who replaced outgoing staff — one fuel tank, one refrigerated truck and transportable buildings, which will expand existing hospital space by 300 meters.
Efforts such as providing Gaza’s civilian population with medical supplies–are coordinated daily by two Israeli bodies: The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) and Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration. The organizations also provide aid in fields including health, education, agriculture and infrastructure in particular.
Unnamed Egyptian border official: ‘Only medical supplies will be allowed through Rafah.’ Why then was a state of medical emergency declared by the Gaza health ministry last Wednesday?
When Egyptian border officials reopened the terminal on 5 June, they found that their Palestinian counterparts had closed it from the other side to protest Egypt’s apparent foot-dragging. … Border operations finally resumed on Wednesday, 8 June — although still confined to human traffic — after Egypt reportedly promised to raise the daily passenger limit to at least 500.
The Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA), which groups 80 charities working in the Palestinian territories, called on the international community to pressure Israel to ease the restrictions, saying they cost its members around $4.5 million (three million euros) each year in unnecessary expenses.’
The U.S. proposal was also given to chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who said the Palestinians would resume talks on this basis.
Meanwhile, a European diplomat who was briefed on Molho’s talks in Washington said they were fruitless. “The Americans didn’t get anything new from Molho,” the diplomat said.
Shalit is the first Israeli soldier to be captured by a Palestinian armed group since1994. By contrast, 700,000 Palestinians have been detained under Israeli military orders in the occupied territories since 1967. That amounts to one-fifth of the total Palestinian population in those territories. By placing so much emphasis on one Israeli, Ashton is turning a blind eye to the infinitely worse suffering that Palestinians have to endure. She does not even acknowledge – as far as I can tell – that Israel’s response to Shalit’s capture was disproportionate, to use a word that trolls regularly from the tongues of EU representatives. At the moment, there are some 900 prisonersfrom Gaza in Israeli custody. Following Shalit’s capture, Israel has deniedthose prisoners visits from their families, thereby breaching its international obligations (the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 says: “Every internee shall be allowed to receive visitors, especially near relatives, at regular intervals and as frequently as possible.”
The Palestinian president also disclosed in Ramallah that he had personally approached the leaders of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC ), knowing that they wielded considerable influence over Netanyahu.
She stressed that the real political struggle is to hold on to the ethical, humanitarian and national positions in every sphere; ranging from the struggle against land confiscation, demolition of Palestinian homes, the fight for recognition of the Palestinian identity, and the struggle to end the Israeli occupation
“Mash’al’s speech was in line with the movement’s positions, policies and principles,” the statement said. “Any remarks contradicting these issues do not represent the movement and its branches.”
The politburo is solely tasked with making the party’s policy, the statement added.
Community union delegates delivered a crushing blow today to the executive’s attempt to force through a resolution aimed at undermining the TUC policy of boycotting Israeli goods produced in illegal settlements.
Members at the union’s biennial conference in Southport accused the leadership of using it to obtain a “retrospective mandate” from members to support Trade Unions Linking Israel and Palestine (Tulip), which they labelled “an apologist” for Israeli war crimes.
Organisations in the firing line include the Pubic Committee Against Torture in Israel, the Association for Civil Rights, the Israeli branch of Amnesty International, and Physicians for Human Rights Israel.
‘Hadas Ziv, PHRI’s director of public outreach, described the initiative promoted by Hasson as “a shocking, appalling message.”
“The message being relayed is that if you have suspicions of crimes committed by the Israel Defense Forces during the 2009 war and a probe commission is established, you must not cooperate with it because it will damage Israel’s image,” Ziv said in a phone interview on Sunday.
“In effect, it substantially damages Israel’s position as a law- abiding state. The initiative also sends a message that we like one kind of Israelis, one that shoot and shut up, not those who pose question marks,” she said, “It’s a pathetic attempt to narrow the public discourse and to create an obedient people.”‘
Thus, if we are serious about international solidarity we need to figure out what the internal politics of a place is, what has been achieved in that country and what are its contradictions. As I have been saying, supporting rebellions for the sake of supporting rebellions is problematic because everything gets framed as a battle between good and evil. The alternative that ends up being offered actually narrows the space for thinking about and building something different than liberal-democracy anywhere in the world.
Since a delightful presentiment from Lee Rhiannon on last night’s Q&A, parts of Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s letter of support and solidarity to Marrickville Council have surfaced. The letter will be presented to Council tonight. Marrickville Council has the admirable fortitude to embrace human rights and justice for Palestinians.
“Sometimes taking a public stand for what is ethical and right brings costs, but social justice on a local or global scale requires faith and courage,” wrote Archbishop Tutu.
“I want to pay my respects to you and your fellow Councilors in Marrickville for taking a stand to isolate the Israeli state, and before that for offering practical solidarity to our sisters and brothers under occupation in the Holy City of Bethlehem.
“International Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions against the Apartheid regime, combined with the mass struggle inside South Africa, led to our victory.”.
Mayor Fiona Byrne and Councillors respond:
“I’m honoured to receive this endorsement from Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu,” Mayor Byrne said. “Desmond Tutu’s courageous stand against Apartheid in South Africa and ongoing advocacy for peace and human rights is an inspiration to us all. Palestinian civil society has called for support for the Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions campaign to highlight the struggle of the Palestinian people for basic human rights. I am proud that Marrickville Council was able to support and highlight the human rights violations suffered by many Palestinian people,” Mayor Byrne said.
“We are humbled and inspired by this expression of support from Archbishop Desmond Tutu,” said Councillors Kontellis, Thanos and Peters, who along with Mayor Byrne maintained their support for the BDS despite intense media pressure.
The Nobel peace prize recipient and critic of Israel wrote that he wanted to extend his respects to the mayor, Fiona Byrne, and her fellow councillors ”for taking a stand to isolate the Israeli state”.
”We in South Africa, who both suffered apartheid and defeated it, have the moral right and responsibility to name and shame institutionalised separation, exclusion, and domination by one ethnic group over others,” Archbishop Tutu said in the letter, which will be formally presented to Cr Byrne tonight.
”Sometimes taking a public stand for what is ethical and right brings costs, but social justice on a local or global scale requires faith and courage.”
Jewish groups have condemned Nobel peace prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu for congratulating Sydney’s Marrickville Council on its now abandoned boycott of Israel.
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The chief executive of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, Vic Alhadeff, says Archbishop Tutu has a long history of such comments.
“This one is merely another in a consistent line of outrageous comments in terms of the conflict,” Mr Alhadeff said.
Yet Alhadeff was associated according to a deleted, cached and now screen-shot post from the blog of the Inner West Jewish Community and Friends Peace Alliance, ‘a local grassroots group which formed as a response to the December 14 2010 resolution by Marrickville Council to boycott Israel’ with an aim to use the scuttling of the first Australian Council initiative to warn local government off support of BDS.
We think it is extremely important to ensure that this first local government attempting to implement the boycott will be convinced by their constituents and by intelligent public opinion to reconsider and recast their boycott decision. The March state election is giving candidates and voters the opportunity to consider what an Israel boycott means, and to ask questions such as whether local or state governments should be deciding foreign policy.
We have plans for some carefully targeted media coverage and advertising in relation to the election. These strategies are expensive, but we believe they will be successful. We have been fortunate to have ongoing help and advice from very capable professionals. Also, we have among our own numbers people who are deeply involved in the Jewish community, and we are in frequent communication with Vic Alhadeff and Yair Miller from the Jewish Board of Deputies as well as Peter Wertheim from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.
We need to raise approximately $12,000 in the next two-three weeks to carry out the activities that we believe will make a decisive difference. All the professional work that is being done for the campaign has been donated pro bono, but there are unavoidable advertising and research costs we will need to pay.’
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If you would like to contribute to the success of this campaign, please donate what you can. Please also pass this information on quietly to like-minded friends.
Following an exceeding dirty campaign against Palestinian people’s human rights of push polls, electoral poster vandalisation with racist graffiti, near complete media blackout of Palestinian voices, newly elected NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell threatening to ‘sack’ the Council for its support of BDS and death threats to Councillors, the Marrickville Council stuck to the principles of BDS in its final motion without implementing a boycott.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Vic Alhadeff said his ‘organisation had no knowledge of the poster campaign, or the phone survey, until afterwards’.
The solidarity of human rights icon and anti-apartheidist Archbishop Desmond Tutu is a wonderful accolade for Marrickville Council and the community which supported their principled struggle for justice for Palestinians through boycott, divestment and sanctions. Congratulations to the courageous Councillors from Marrickville who have set an example which all people of conscience and compassion can applaud. Poll: 77% of Israelis oppose going back to pre-’67 lines
While evidence that the Syrian regime directly organized the demonstrations is scant to non-existent, the regime clearly enabled the demonstrators to reach the fence by neglecting to repel them with its own troops. Not only does this fact fail to excuse Israel’s wanton killing, it highlights the irony of Israel and its allies condemning the Syrian regime for its brutal repression of Syrian citizens rising up against it (of course, the whole world should deplore Assad’s draconian rule), while at the same time demanding that the regime repress the Palestinian refugees who are protesting for their own internationally recognized rights.
77% of Israelis would rather stay expansionist and reject peace – they ‘oppose returning to pre-1967 lines even if it would lead to a peace agreement and declarations by Arab states of an end to their conflict with Israel’ … 82% considered security concerns more important than a peace deal.
Saudi Arabia Links
petro-dollar counter-revolution Saudi Arabia’s array of bribes to makes its inhabitants forget that they’re living under the whip of nut-job monarchs.
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Significantly, Israel has increased the number of trucks permitted to deliver humanitarian supplies into Gaza prior to the departure of Freedom Flotilla 11 at the end of June. Such is the hasbarist audacity of Israel.
Israel’s announcement today that it is “allowing between 210 and 220” trucks into Gaza with humanitarian aid is a direct response to the pressure that the upcoming Freedom Flotilla II is creating. Since July 2007, Israel has kept the number of allowed trucks at 25% of what the pre-blockade numbers were and of what is required by Gaza residents. To date, Israel has not responded to calls by human rights organizations or the UN to increase the numbers. Only as a result of the mounting pressure from the Freedom Flotilla has Israel altered its policy. However, today’s allowance still falls 35% short of what is needed in Gaza.
Letting in more trucks is not enough. More trucks with food and medicine are only meant to give the appearance of an open Gaza. More trucks does not mean freedom; more trucks does not mean rebuilding the hundreds of homes and buildings that the Israeli military destroyed during Operation Cast Lead (only 12 of the trucks being allowed in contain construction material for UN projects); more trucks does not mean Gaza is not occupied and its residents subjected to collective punishment; more trucks does not mean that Israel has ended its cruel blockade; more trucks does not mean that Palestinians are any less imprisoned.
More trucks do, however, mean that Israeli farmers and merchants make money off the occupation. as most international agencies bringing aid into Gaza are forced to buy their supplies from Israel.
In contrast to the results of the latest flotilla’s pressure, and while Israel’s piracy and murderous acts against the first Freedom Flotilla were found clearly illegal and that Israel’s closure regime was considered “to constitute collective punishment of the people living in the Gaza Strip and thus to be illegal and contrary to Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention”.by the UN Fact Finding Mission appointed by the UN Human Rights Commision to investigate, UN chief Ban Ki Moon is adamant that “flotillas were not helpful in resolving the basic economic problems in Gaza, though the situation there remains unsustainable, and that assistance and goods destined to Gaza should be channeled through legitimate crossings and established channels.”
Rebecca Collard, a Canadian journalist based in Jerusalem comments on the current situation in Gaza:
It isn’t just the sea that is blocked. Much of Gaza’s agricultural land, where farmers once grew crops and herded animals, has been placed off-limits by an Israeli security-justified buffer zone. These restrictions are compounded by the blockade.
“Protein intake for Gazans has plummeted, partly due to the blockade of the land and partly due to the blockade of the sea,” says Simon Boas, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s coordinator for the Gaza Emergency Programme.
Dov Weissglas, then-adviser to the Israeli prime minister, was quoted in 2006 as saying: “We need to make them lose weight, but not to die.” The policy seemed to be: make Gazans hungry enough to reconsider electing Hamas, but not starving to the point of a humanitarian – and therefore diplomatic – crisis.
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Fishermen and farmers suffer the highest levels of food insecurity in the territory. “It’s the only group whose food insecurity is rising,” Boas says. El-Najjar’s family is one of 50 vulnerable families assisted by the FAO project to supplement their diets and incomes. His family now has all the fish it can eat from their 120 cubic metre pool. The rest he sells for about 10 Israeli shekels (Dh11) per kilogram – a price that is affordable for many here but one that earns him no more than a few hundred shekels per month.
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Instead, most farms now rely on Iyad Deeb al Attar, who runs a hatchery near Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip. Al Attar is something of an expert – he worked for 15 years in the Israeli cities of Haifa, Ashkelon and Ashdod as well as Dugit, an Israeli settlement that once stood not far from his current farm. When Israel pulled its army and settlers out of Gaza in 2005, it took the fish farms with them. Al Attar decided to start his own.
“The market needs 18,000 tonnes each year,” estimates al Attar. The tonnage of farmed fish produced in the Gaza Strip has doubled each year since 2007. This year, the output from Gaza’s fish farms is predicted to top 200 tonnes and is expected to continue to grow rapidly.
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What we need is to produce our own fish food,” says Adel Jamel Atallah, director general of the fisheries department. Almost all the fish feed in Gaza comes from Israel, leaving the industry reliant on high-priced imports subject to Israel’s whim.
A basic machine to produce fish food pellets costs about $75,000. It requires expertise to make a pellet that has the right quantity of protein and still floats.
“But electricity is the main problem – it’s off about eight hours per day,” says Atallah.
Gaza suffers a massive power deficit and electricity is essential to run machines that pump oxygen into the water. Farmed fish can die in few hours without it. Some fish farms have human-powered systems using pedals to keep the water moving. Others simply throw their children in the pools as splashing around is enough to oxygenate the water, although those who can afford it use generators.
In addition to humanitarian aid and construction materials, The Audacity of Hope, the U.S. boat which will form part of Freedom Flotilla 11 will bear more precious cargo – “thousands of letters of friendship and solidarity with the people of Gaza from people throughout our country” and 34 passengers from 14 different states in the US according to U.S. Boat to Gaza co-ordinator, Leslie Cagan.
“Because Israel occupies Gaza, and accordingly has obligations under the Geneva Conventions, it cannot legally blockade Gaza.” Therefore, he continued, “attempts by the Israeli government to prevent ships from going to Gaza are equally illegal.”
This time around, the navy has been preparing rigorously for the operation, enlisting all of its Flotilla 13 commandos from the reserves and running different training models with various scenarios, from passive resistance – such as sit-downs – to potential gunfights and booby-trapped ships.
In addition to Flotilla 13 – better known as the Shayetet – the ships will be boarded by members of the Border Police’s Yasam Unit and the Prisons Service elite Masada Unit, both known for their expertise in crowd control and the use of non-lethal means to quell violent riots.
The teams will be supported by snipers – whose job will be to neutralize violent protesters before the commandos board the ships – with dogs from Oketz, the IDF’s canine unit, and operators from Yahalom, the elite unit from the Engineering Corps.
Several studies in Israel and one conducted by AIPAC and another by the Jewish National Fund in Germany show that perhaps as many as half of the Jews living in Israel will consider leaving Palestine in the next few years if current political and social trends continue
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During the recent meetings in Washington DC between Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s delegation and Israel’s US agents, assurances were reportedly given by AIPAC officials that if and when it becomes necessary, the US government will expeditiously issue American passports to any and all Israeli Jews seeking them.
Move on down the road
it leads to social justice
no more broken promises
Sing up Eddie Mabo.
Always blaming the victim
Still suffering curable disease
Time to end the genocide
remember Eddie Mabo.
Migaloo, keep your promises
cooperation or divided nation,
with the Land there’s hope
sing up Eddie Mabo.
Time for reconciliation
no more procrastination
move on down the road
remember Eddie Mabo.
Bureaucrats keep changing rules
for racist redneck fools
But Eddie Mabo knew the way
the true meaning of the Land.
Jinjirrie 1993
Eddie Koiki Mabo (c. 29 June 1936 – 21 January 1992)[1] was a Torres Strait Islander who is known for his role in campaigning for Indigenous land rights and for his role in a landmark decision of the High Court of Australia that overturned the legal fiction of terra nullius which characterised Australian law with regards to land and title.
@AboriginalOz It’s the last day of #ReconciliationWeek & exactly 1 year away from the 20th Anniversary of the Mabo Decision. 1 year to get the Vibe back! #
