Human Rights

December 25, 2012December 11, 2020

May Your Presents Not Be Plastic This Year

This solstice, celebrate trees with their gift of diversity and life, conserve dwindling resources from human predation, and aim at ending all tyrannies, capitalism, racism and bigotry and especially US imperial hegemony, the dominion of apartheid Israel over Indigenous Palestinians and Indonesia over West Papuans.

In the home zone, here’s to de-amalgamation of Noosa from the development-crazed southern Sunshine Coast vultures and protection of our UNESCO-designated biosphere in March – even if the rest of the planet goes down due to pollution and over-consumption, at least we succeeded in living in harmonious sustainability with the environment in Noosa!

Me to parent as one surveys the mountains of child-placating crap: ‘Wow, what a lot of plastic!’

Parent: ‘I never got anything at Christmas as a child so I am making sure my kids get everything!’

Me: ‘So you really spent thousands of dollars on yourself.’

Parent: ‘We can spend hours together building this rare R2D2 lego model!’

Me to child: ‘Did you get any books?’

Child: ‘No, just this instruction manuel for Power Rangers’.

This society is not built for me.

December 15, 2012December 11, 2020

Stanley Jordan, Please Respect the Boycott of Israel

Dear Stanley Jordan,

We are aware that you, Kenwood Dennard and Alex Blake, are slated to play at the Eilat Red Sea Jazz Festival in January, 2013, and wish to persuade you to reconsider and cancel. In 2005, Palestinian civil society called for boycott as a principled tactic to achieve justice and the rights denied to them by Israel. SInce then, prominent musicians such as Elvis Costello, Roger Waters, Cat Power, Cassandra Wilson and many others have responded in solidarity and with vocal support. The Portico Quartet has already cancelled their performance at Eilat. A letter sent to the director of the band said that “the decision to cancel the arrival of the ensemble Israel stems directly from the Israeli government’s decision to build 3,000 housing units in E1”.

The call to boycott is made to people of conscience across the globe because governments have refused or been unable to act to implement justice guaranteed to Palestinian people under international law. The Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions movement is similar to the effective means employed by anti-apartheid activists to end South African apartheid. Noted anti-apartheidists like Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Rev. Alan Boesak, Ronnie Kasrils and others have stated that the apartheid practised by Israel is far worse than that which they experienced in South Africa.

As you observe in your NLP studies, while music can be employed as a healing tool, 65 years of music have not healed Israel’s constant oppression of the Palestinians and denial of their basic human rights. Music has not helped to end the criminal occupation of Palestinian lands, to allow equal rights for all in Israel and to recognise the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes. Israel continues to steal Palestinian land and prevent the Palestinian people from attaining self-determination, while pretending to be for ‘peace’ under the pretext of interminable negotiations, ‘security’ and ‘the right to defend itself’.

In 2005, Nissim Ben-Sheetrit of Israel’s Foreign Ministry specifically denoted all culture as propaganda, a means to obscure Israel’s oppression, to anaesthetise its first class citizens from the results of their state’s actions, to dehumanise Palestinians and send a false message to the world that all is normal. Musicians who breach the boycott are used to promote these lies and are flaunted on Israel’s propaganda sites to bolster excuses for ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Portico Quartet supports BDS — Portico Quartet announcement of support for BDS – http://www.facebook.com/porticoquartetmusic/posts/10152308885645234

Please do not compromise yourself and your music by being appropriated and used in this way against a moral right. Music can move the spirit of the planet, yet it can also drown out the cries of oppressed people.

As the powerful entity in this grossly unequal situation, Israel intends to dominate the message, and sees all criticism of its crimes as delegitimising. Nevertheless, the truth about its oppression is beginning to ring out clearly. You can assist Palestinian people in gaining their rights by choosing to do no harm to their chosen tactic of resistance – please cancel, and stand in solidarity with the voiceless who rely upon those who can use their voice to support their just cause.

Best regards

Don’t Play Apartheid Israel

We are a group of 950 members, representing many nations around the globe, who believe that it is essential for musicians and other artists to heed the call of the PACBI, and join in the boycott of Israel. This is essential in order to work towards justice for the Palestinian people under occupation, and also in refugee camps and in the diaspora throughout the world.

December 13, 2012December 11, 2020

For the Palestinian People – Against the Normalisation of Apartheid

False Equivalence

Contrast free choice
with less by the years
one is duplicitous
one is crushed
bulldozers grind
village homes to dust
one expands to usurp
indigenousness
one says enough
to a bone harvest
of human surplus
valley to valley
springs sealed dry
one steals water from
daughters of vines
one exposed, burning
one hand to hand
from settlement terraces
one laughs alone
500 checkpoints
between the two
one throws stones
one shoots to kill
one cries protest
one fires murder
tree spirit scream
love disinterred
ripped from the body
one redeems curses
exotic burdens
on children of land
another empirical
divide and rule
one from one
unequivocal theft
torments one mind
one asks the Beast
for armament gifts
one asks just people
for support, to resist.

Sylvia Posadas, December 2012

New Age Apartheid

In light and love
no more enemies
knock at the door
at 2 a.m. to drag away
the children
to the dungeons
where they will be
verballed,
detained till they
implicate out of fear
and next week the
boots will kick at the door
in light and love
at gunpoint take
husband for years
on no charge
no trial,
robbing light and love
no more enemies
they think
when all are driven
from coveted land.

Sylvia Posadas, December 2012

The appropriation of indigenousness has been a long term project on the part of the invading zionists – as Haneen Zoabi said at the Russell Tribunal hearings some months ago, they are trying to redefine themselves as the owners of the land – they are stealing the very concept of homeland from Palestinians. This endeavour is not only unjust for Palestinian Arabs but Palestinian Jews.

Zionists, who were and are predominantly secular, have absorbed pieces of mythology from many sources in order to bolster their expansionist, land thieving settler colonial purposes. The syncretism of religious themes into the political ideology of zionism is highly convenient, but of course is utterly worthless as any real claim. The Christian zionist vote is of much interest to Israel, for the evangelical vote is the single most important factor delivering clout to Israel’s influence in the US. Thus, when Israel courts evangelical Indigenes, there’s a double purpose – to aid in the usurpation of Indigenousness from Palestinians, rebranding Palestinians as invaders of their own lands, and assuring the evangelical vote.

Coincidentally and contemporaneously: Navajo President meeting with Israeli Apartheid government: Grassroots Navajos outraged, call Navajo president ‘war machine puppet’

‘Noting that Native American governments have been complicit with, or coopted by Israel, Barker says:

I want Native governments to divest themselves from Israel as well (most immediately the Chickasaw and Navajo governments, who support Israeli products and send delegates to the Israeli government).

Notably, Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly was in Israel for an official visit at the same time as Harjo.’

From Sa’ed Adel Atshan: ‘Many Palestinians and those in solidarity with our struggle had hoped that Joy Harjo would be principled in heeding the calls of another subjugated people. We have been profoundly dismayed by her recent decision to accept funding from Tel Aviv University, an Israeli state institution, and to not only perform there on Monday but also to serve as a Writer-in-Residence. Soon after hearing this disappointing news, Native American peers of Harjo, including Robert Warrior, called on her to boycott the event.’

President Shelly in Israel to Meet with Knesset, Agriculture Ministry, & Memorial Visit to Yad Vashem

Inferring wrongly that Palestinian students support her, Harjo breaches the boycott

Joy Harjo ‘Didn’t Know’

Alice Bach examines the fake biblical syncretism by zionists.

‘The triumphant Assyrians settled some of their subject populations there and in Syria to mingle with the Palestinian people. The Hill Country of Samaria remained a province during the Persian period. Then, Samaria, along with Judea, became the property of the Babylonians, from 539 until 333 BC, and subsequently was ruled by the Hellenistic Greeks, and then the formidable Roman Empire. The land was never owned by the Jewish people, except in minds that were nourished by the Biblical narratives.’

From Ricardo A. Bracho:

“My response to Joy Harjo letter defending her indefensible performance at Tel Aviv University. The “last minute” stuff is re: her seemingly being unaware of the boycott until she was contacted night before and day of her flight out.

Joy, It wasn’t as last minute as you claim. I, among others, noticed your earlier intent when you posted “Should I go to Tel Aviv?” while the occupying Zionist forces rained down bombs on the Gazans in November. Tel Aviv University posted in cancelling the event that you did not go “for security reasons” while your postings indicated that you stayed for a family medical emergency. I thought that was that. I should have intervened then. That was my political error. I then noticed, as others did, your posting indicating you had an early flight out to Tel Aviv the evening prior to your departure. Once I began to recover from his shock, and yes I found it utterly shocking that you would go to Israel and Tel Aviv University, I contacted others closer to the BDS movement and to you. Our emails and phone calls reached you before you left the US. You could have not boarded the plane. You could have, once you arrived, cancelled the gig and put yourself in contact with Israeli and Palestinian activists and gone to the West Bank and Gaza. You could have simply returned. You could have engaged, directly, with the critique coming from Palestinians, the initial letter emailed to you and then posted on here or the many eloquent comments. You did none of this. You now hide behind platitudes and metaphors. At the very least, you are a better writer than this. But even your best verse, will provide no shade for your grossly unethical actions. I am less in shock now. In rage and sadness, Ricardo A. Bracho”

Building Bridges Between Jews and Christians

Joshua Generation for Jesus: ‘The offical business is presenting a Proclamation Declaring the Navajo Nation, as a Sovereign Nation, is standing with Israel.’

‘Whether you are a Jewish person wondering about your connection to people who believe Yeshua is the Messiah, or a Christian who has accepted Him as your Savior you are called. We are called by God to join together.’

Tso is full Navajo, a “pastor” but also has a business – church is a registered non profit but has not submitted 990s. This is possible only if revenue is under 25 grand.

Somebody Cares America – The Net that works!

Glenn Beck amplifying Pastor Tso

Messanaic Jewish org: Navajo nation supports Israel

Main Street USA – Gallup, New Mexico – 10 Sep 07 – Part 1 : Dave Marash visits the town where Navajo and Palestinian traditions intertwine.
Main Street USA – Gallup, New Mexico – 10 Sep 07 – Part 2

On her blog, Harjo reflects dissonantly on boycott here, here and here.

December 4, 2012December 11, 2020

Solidarity with the Palestinian People of Gaza

Monique Buckner reports on Israel’s recent 8 day attack of the people of Gaza, who have now been besieged for over 2000 days.

The Palestinian people of Gaza have been devastated by Israel’s latest attack, which has killed 158 people, 33 of whom were children. Palestinians are still dying from injuries.

The Gaza Strip is an area of 141 square miles, occupied by Israel since 1967, along the Mediterranean coast bordering Israel and Egypt and comprising 8 refugee camps with 80% of its inhabitatnts being the refugees and their descendants of the ethnic cleansing of 1948, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were expelled from what became Israel. More than half the 1.7 million population of Gaza are children. Gaza has been under a relentless blockade since June 2007, which many legal experts have deemed ‘collective punishment’ which is illegal under international law. As UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, Richard Falk has described the blockade as a crime against humanity and a violation of international humanitarian law. Living under blockade, Gaza’s population has still not recovered from Israel’s previous offensive which has led to further impoverishment and homelessness or internal displacement, insufficient hospital care, food insecurity to the point that 80% rely on food aid, an unavailability of essential life-saving medications, shortages of fuel, a lack of building materials, especially to rebuild or repair after ‘Cast Lead’ and insufficient clean, safe drinking water, leading to ‘blue baby syndrome’. Israel has admitted to engineering the Gazan economy to be on the brink of collapse and often cuts electricity supplies to the Gaza Strip. In fact, the World Health Organisation says that by 2020, Gaza will probably be completely uninhabitable. As Israel is the occupying power with full responsibilty for the well-being of the occupied, it has legal obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, the neglect of this making Israeli leaders guilty of violations of humanitarian law and human rights.

Israel’s ‘counting of calories’ has led to the stunting of children’s growth and development due to nutrient and calorie deficiency (10%) and chronic anaemia in pregnant women, among other health problems.

Theories abound concerning the true cause of Israel’s latest attack on Gaza. One is that Israel wanted to prevent the Palestinian bid for UN recognition as a ‘UN non-observer state’, which might open the way for the Palestinian people to pursue legal actions against Israeli politicians and officials for war crimes. Some have speculated that this latest offensive was to test the Iron Dome missile defense shield in preparation for future wars. Another theory is that the Israeli elections are in January and Netanyahu will gain popularity by spilling blood with his hawkish behaviour. Indeed, 91% of Israelis in one poll supported the offensive against Gaza. Eerily, Israeli elections also succeeded the Cast Lead massacre. “The goal of the operation is to send Gaza back to the Middle Ages,” says Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai. Yisrael Katz, the Minister of Transport, used colonial imagery and mentality to explain how Palestinians should be “hunted down as one hunts wild, dangerous animals.” Also see the violent racist and homophobic chants in Tel Aviv.

Dr Gershon Baskin, an Israeli negotiator and human rights activist, has noted that Israel spoiled a permanent truce agreement that had been on the table. Just hours before the truce was finalised, Ahmed Jabari was assassinated. This permanent truce could have resulted in Gaza being opened and the economy boosted as a result, but Israel does not want self-determination for the people of Gaza and the Palestinians in general.

From 2004 – 2012, a total of twenty-six Israeli civilians have been killed by Gazan rocket attacks, which are a symptom rather than a cause of Israeli aggression and truce violations. On 4 November, the Israeli army shot dead an unarmed and mentally-ill man who had wandered into the buffer-zone, an area created by Israel that has taken a third of Gaza’s arable land. Any person (including children, and even animals), who wanders into this area, is killed by Israeli soldiers.

For the timeline of Israel’s latest attack on the people of Gaza, see these two sources:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nancy-kanwisher/reigniting-violence-how-d_b_155611.html and http://imeu.net/news/article0023227.shtml

Under international law, occupied people have a legal right to defend themselves, as long as civilians are not targeted, which constitutes war crimes. Israel manufactures ‘justifications’ for targeting civilian infrastructure (also a war crime).

The death of 12 members of the al-Dalu family spanning four generations, including 5 children, is an indication of how civilians have been targeted by Israel in so-called ‘wrong house’ episodes.

In one of the most densely populated areas on earth where the civilian population is trapped under a blockade with no bomb shelters, there is no refuge for Gazans, let alone anti-missile defences. In contrast to Israeli military capability, Gaza has no army, navy or airforce with which to defend itself, and the destructive power and range of their missiles paints an obvious David and Goliath narrative when comparisons with Israel are made. Taking this into perspective, it is easy to conclude just who is a very real, not merely an existential threat to whom.

Actions to take for Gaza and Palestine in general

1) Boycott Israeli products, such as Teva medicines and Tivall vegetarian products. Always read labels at the supermarket.

http://www.bigcampaign.org/the-palestinian-call/

Join in solidarity with the BDS movement.

2) Donate now:

Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) responded immediately to the crisis caused by Israeli air, tank and naval strikes, working with local hospitals, doctors and nurses to ensure they have the supplies they need to treat the casualties. Medical Aid for Palestinians works for the health and dignity of Palestinians living under occupation and as refugees. Medical Aid for Palestinians is an international, non-governmental, independent, non-political, non-religious organisation established in 1984.

Online: www.map.org.uk
Mobile: Text 70070 with the phrase
“GAZA10 £10”. This will donate £10 and will be added to your phone bill
Phone: 020 7226 4114
Post: Send a cheque to Medical Aid for Palestinians 33a Islington Park Street, Freepost ND6445, London, N1 1BR

3) Sign a petition to remove the 2013 UEFA finals from Israel, especially after it destroyed the Gaza sports stadium http://www.thenation.com/blog/171344/killing-hope-why-israel-targets-sports-gaza

http://redcardapartheid.weebly.com/

4) Purchase Palestinian fair trade products, such as Zaytoun.

5) Contact the media and if need be confront their distortions and bias, raise awareness on social media, join a protest, create an awareness event, write a blog post, share this blog post.

http://stopwar.org.uk/index.php/how-the-bbc-is-re-writing-history-in-its-reporting-of-israels-assault-on-gaza

GUEST POST BY Monique Buckner

December 4, 2012December 11, 2020

Roger Waters Speaks at the UN Against Israel’s Oppression of Palestinians

Text trancript of Roger Waters’ UN speech – the full text of Waters’ address is below the UN transcript

“The BDS movement, which has spread from Palestinian civil society to activists around the world, is part of that non-violent resistance and I support it whole heartedly, but let us be clear that the disparity of power, and the reality of the occupation, and the response of the occupied is the reality we face unless we find recourse in international law and hold all parties to it. “

——————————————————————————————————————

The 3rd of December, 2012, marks 2000 days of siege by Israel on the people of Gaza – collective punishment, a crime against humanity. End Israel’s oppression and apartheid, equal rights for all, recognise the right of Palestinians to return to their lands, and until these are achieved, boycott, divest from and sanction Israel!

Don’t forget to boycott Israeli goods for Christmas – and join the campaign in Melbourne

Following the UN vote admitting Palestine as a non-member observer state, Netanyahu has announced 3,000 more illegal Jews-only settler houses in Occupied East Jerusalem. The reactions of Western governments has been one of horror as they believe this development will make two states geographically impossible, as if two states weren’t already geographically impossible. Still, their concern for protecting the mirage of the possibility of two states blows their continued support for Israel as a willing negotiator if only the Palestinians would negotiate, out of the water. The UK mutters about diplomatic withdrawals – I’ll wake up a little more if the UK threatens an arms boycott. Otherwise this sort of thing is symbolic. It may cause Israel to feel more isolated, delegitimised and even belligerent. There’s a couple of possibilities the zio-elite may have in mind to get their noxious impunity from the West back – the obvious is to precipitate another conflict. Otherwise is an early election possible? Netanyahu on the other hand may have decided to go for broke and to snatch Area C in the West Bank in total.

“Those who place their hope in the Palestinian Authority taking steps to hold Israel to account naively failed to grasp that the Palestinian Authority essentially manages the occupation for Israel
through its “security coordination” with Israel. Mahmoud Abbas has “always been the obedient servant of the United States and Israel.” It must not be forgotten that in October 2009, Abbas, under pressure from Israel, the United States and European diplomats, abandoned a resolution requesting the UN Human Rights Council to forward Judge Richard Goldstone’s Report on war crimes in Gaza to the UN Security Council for further action.

Meanwhile, the settlement expansion and land and water expropriation will persist unabated, and Israel will continue to cement its status as an apartheid state.”

How will Israel and the adminstrators of its occupation in the West Bank and Gaza keep up their pretence now? Ban ki Moon: “Israel’s construction plans ‘fatal blow’ to the two-state solution”.

Other Links

The Indonesian occupation of West Papua must be challenged and ended.
Senator Faulkner’s speech is wide-ranging and well worth reading in full, particularly in regard to transparency of political donations and corporate accountability.