Some of the Middle East elephant’s mandarins are signalling a major land grab if Palestinians request recognition of a Palestinian state in the UN in September.
Danon favors responding to a Palestinian declaration of statehood by annexing all of Area C, which includes all the West Bank’s Jewish settlements and empty land. He said Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu should follow the example of his predecessors Levi Eshkol, who annexed eastern Jerusalem, and Menachem Begin, who annexed the Golan Heights.
‘Israel should head off the U.N. vote at the pass, he says, by having Bibi proclaim to Congress that Israel accepts Palestinian statehood. But that would leave half a million Israelis in Palestinian hands without Palestine being able to protect them. This would require Israel to maintain all the present security measures until Israel and Palestine have fully agreed on peace. Sure, this is a ploy, but not a bad one for Israel because it might avoid an international blessing for a Palestinian state.’
Netanyahu has already begun staking out Israel’s redlines. Speaking to reporters on March 9, Netanyahu said,
“Our security border is here on the Jordan and our defense line begins here. If that line is breached they will be able to infiltrate terrorists, rockets and missiles all the way to Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, and Be’er Sheva and throughout the country. There is no alternative to the IDF’s line of defense. Therefore, in any future situation, and I say in any future arrangement as well, the IDF must stay here, i.e. along the Jordan River. This is the State of Israel’s insurance policy. If this was true before the major unrest now shaking the Middle East and the entire region, it is doubly true today. The IDF must remain along the Jordan River.
Yet Nutanyahoo doesn’t have the political capital in the Knesset to take on the fanatical illegal settlers. Israel covets the land and resources of the West Bank, particularly the water, and did I mention the land? While the US supports Israeli intransigence there is no chance that a Palestinian state would be formed in anything other than name. Nutanyahoo’s, and indeed any other Israeli leader’s strategy will be for the status quo – unctuous bleatings of negotiated outcomes and fake peace processes, while daily, illegal Israeli settlers supported by the IOF nibble away at the West Bank, continuing Israel’s criminal colonisation and slow, disgusting genocide.
“Our intention is to leave the situation as it is: autonomous management of civil affairs, and if they want to call it a state, let them call it that. If they want to call it an empire, by all means. We intend to keep what exists now and let them call it whatever they want. . . . Our approach is steadfastness, development, construction, strengthening and so on. This is our approach and this is what we do as a government.”
This is a defining moment for the people of the region and, by extension, a critical moment for Central Command to remain engaged with our partners and to clear away obstacles to peace and prosperity. On that note, while Israel and the Palestinian territories are not in my assigned theater, lack of progress toward a comprehensive Middle East peace affects U.S. and CENTCOM security interests in the region.
I believe the only reliable path to lasting peace in this region is a viable two-state solution between Israel and Palestine. This issue is one of many that is exploited by our adversaries in the region, and it is used as a recruiting tool for extremist groups. The lack of progress also creates friction with regional partners and creates political challenges for advancing our interests by marginalizing moderate voices in the region. By contrast, substantive progress on the peace process would improve CENTCOM’s opportunity to work with our regional partners and to support multilateral security efforts.
As Obama prepares for the next election, it’s unlikely he will apply adequate pressure to Nutanyahoo for a viable Palestinian state and risk his domestic political capital before a hostile Israel lobby, despite the forebodings of his defence advisors. The rainbow’s end is an illusion.
More broadly, the goal for Palestinians should not be “unity” among factions, but unity of goals for the Palestinian people. What is the purpose and platform of the planned “transitional government” other than merely to exist? A real Palestinian strategy that unites all segments of the Palestinian people has been articulated by the BDS movement:
(a) an end to occupation and colonization of the 1967 territories; (b) full equality and an end to all forms of discrimination against Palestinians in the 1948 areas (“Israel”); and (c) full respect and implementation of the rights of Palestinian refugees.
Notably neither Fatah Abbas nor Hamas have endorsed this campaign, and neither has articulated a realistic strategy aimed at restoring the rights of all Palestinians.
“The United States supports Palestinian reconciliation on terms which promote the cause of peace. Hamas, however, is a terrorist organization which targets civilians,” White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement.
“To play a constructive role in achieving peace, any Palestinian government must accept the Quartet principles and renounce violence, abide by past agreements, and recognize Israel’s right to exist,” he said.
: Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel believe Netanyahu will be able to use the newly signed unity deal as proof that Abbas doesn’t really want peace.
…
Renewed relations between Hamas and Fatah, however limited, could shed a different light on Abbas’ intentions, and Netanyahu, who is due to speak before both houses of Congress next month, will be able to present the agreement as proof that Abbas doesn’t really want peace.
Over half of the Egpytian public want to scrap the existing peace deal with Israel, according to a new survey undertaken by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. The poll measured attitudes in Egypt three months after the start of the uprising in Cairo. The U.S. State Department said in response to the survey that “the Egyptian army has pledged to uphold international agreements forged by Egypt, including the 1979 peace agreement with Israel.”
…
The survey said that 54 percent of Egyptians supported the annulment of the peace agreement with Jerusalem, and that just 36 percent wanted to maintain the peace agreement with Israel.
The annulment figure rose to six out of ten Egyptians when people in lower income brackets were asked. Further, 59 percent of respondents in lower educational brackets also supported negating the agreement. Among wealthy and well-educated Egyptians, the figures for those in favor of annulling peace relations with Israel are 45 percent and 40 percent.
…
Regarding the United States, only 22 percent of Egyptians think that the US played a positive role in the uprising, in contrast to 39 percent who think that the Americans exerted a negative influence; 35 percent think that the US had no influence.
President Barack Obama, it turns out, has an image problem in the Middle East and not just in Israel: Almost two-thirds of Egyptians (64 percent ) report that they do not trust Obama’s global policy. Further, 52 percent of respondents did not like President Obama’s responses to changes in the Middle East. Less than half (45 percent ) of Egyptians are happy with the U.S. President’s performance in the region.
Four out of ten Egyptians want to maintain close relations with the U.S., yet a similar number want their country to move away from the Americans. Only 15 percent of Egyptians want to strengthen relations between their country and the U.S. in years ahead.
You could blame Facebook. What typically happens when an artist — of any genre or stature — announces a show in Israel, the act’s Facebook page or website is bombarded with posts calling on said artist to cancel the show out of protest and/or boycott the country entirely.
The detention of Tamimi is not a formality: under Israeli military decree 101 he is being charged with attempting “verbally or otherwise, to influence public opinion in the Area in a way that may disturb the public peace or public order.” As in Syria, this is an “emergency decree” disguised as protecting public security. It carries a sentence of 10 years.
Samah Sabawi was be interviewed on the ABC’s Fran Kelly show tomorrow at 6.20am and will be heard again on SBS Arabic at 7.20pm tonight – Please ring in with questions for Samah if you’re around.
Item without notice: Motion (O’Sullivan/Macri)
THAT Council:
1. Resolve not to pursue the GBDS against Israel in any shape or form as called for in the December 14 resolution; and
2. Remains concerned about Palestinian human rights and calls on Israel to end the occupation of all Arab lands and dismantle the Wall; ensure the fundamental rights of Palestinians to full equality; and respect, protect and promote the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties.
Motion Carried For Motion and against BDS:
Councillors Hanna (Ind), Iskandar (ALP), Macri(Ind), Olive (G), O’Sullivan (ALP), Phillips (G), Tsardoulias (ALP) and Wright (ALP)
Against Motion and for BDS:
Councillors Byrne (G), Kontellis (G), Peters (G) and Thanos (Ind)
Marrickville BDS says:
Although Council is for the time being unable to continue formal support for BDS, there are many of us in the community to continue the struggle until apartheid is dead in Israel and it is a democracy for all its citizens.
Yesterday morning before the vote, Fran Kelly revealed that the NSW State ALP left faction voted in favour of BDS earlier this year in her interview with Deputy Mayor Sam Iskandar. Sam said BDS is not a goer as far as Marrickville council is concerned and unanimously the council was now against BDS. He seemed to be channelling the ziolobby and Ramallah, denied Anthony Albanese was a significant factor and sounded convinced that BDS is a federal issue. He also appeared to be under the misconception provoked by the ziolobby that the BDS movement holds a position on the one or two state solutions. It doesn’t.
Boycotts, divestments and sanctions against Israel can be implemented on an individual, organisational or institutional level with flexible, tactical measures targeting entities which support the Israeli Occupation and apartheid. BDS is grounded in human rights and international law and is called for because governments have failed Palestinians. The Australian government, for example, doesn’t support Palestinians, it sycophantically follows the Israel-centric US policy and interminable fake peace process, the deception by which Israel steals more Palestinian land, and continues its apartheid and ethnic cleansing.
For Marrickville Council to defer BDS to the federal government as ‘foreign policy’ is to deny truth – the Australian government has failed and is failing Palestinians – and it also means that the ziolobby strategy, to make an example of Marrickville in order to deter other such efforts, will have succeeded, temporarily – for as with other global human rights and justice grassroots movements, nothing can stop BDS. In Australia, grassroots mass movements for justice and rights with truth on their side inevitably WIN. The Marrickville Council BDS affair has served to gain national press coverage of BDS, the adversaries against it showed all their cards and it’s clear they will not withstand the unstoppable, legitimate ongoing global push for human rights and justice for Palestinians and accountability from Israel which BDS demands.
Those who think BDS is the wrong way to go to achieve justice and rights for Palestinian people aren’t listening to Palestinian civil society, but to the colonial voice in their head.
Boycotting Israel is the right thing to do:
Why Murdoch’s Australian is wrong over BDS
Speakers include:
Samah Sabawi, Australians for Palestine
Antony Loewenstein, author of My Israel Question
Sylvia Hale, former NSW Greens MP
The Murdoch media’s campaign to force Marrickville Council to abandon its support for a global campaign to pressure Israel to abide by international law has been relentless.
This meeting, called by concerned residents, will discuss the issues behind the global boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign and how we can support justice for Palestine.
Plus a screening of the short video by Anna Baltzer: Life in Occupied Palestine
Organised by Marrickville residents supporting the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign. Sponsored by the Sydney Peace Foundation.
Friday May 13, 6.30pm for 7pm
Holy Trinity Church Hall
11 Herbert Street
Dulwich Hill, Sydney
Gold coin donation
Marrickville Council Meeting
@Jo_Tovey Massive crowd at #marrickville council meeting. Protestors out front. Huge number of people can’t get in. Placards for and against boycott.
RT @bgaensler: Media circus at #Marrickville #BDS http://yfrog.com/hs9e0dlj
RT @bgaensler: Minute’s silence for lives lost in Israel/Palestinian conflict. #Marrickville #BDS
RT @Jo_Tovey: There are more than 20 members of the public speaking on the #BDS tonight. Could be a late one. #marrickville
RT @antloewenstein: #BDS Fiona Byrne marrickville mayor arrives to thunderous applause for originally backing Palestinian rights
Hasn’t read bdsmovement.net RT @Jo_Tovey: Speaker Leslie Marsh says the boycott has no paramaters, no goal of what would bring it to an end. #marrickville
RT @Pollytics: I can understand why The Australian is so against BDS Testing, being Ramsey RESET fundamentalists & all (comes w being dim)
RT @antloewenstein: #BDS how many speakers will discuss Palestine? First person says gaddafi and David duke backs bds. Er Riiiight then.
Yay, go @fatherdave !! RT @bgaensler: Speaker 2, “Father Dave”: flowery, poetic, & pro-BDS. #Marrickville #BDS
RT @antwoabboud: fr bob: #marrickville becomes the frontline for this conflict. Death threats in this little town. In support of mayor. #bds
RT @antloewenstein: #BDS father Dave speaks. Strategy of non violent resistance against military occupation of Israel. Must be supported. #Marrickville
RT @idunnonews: Father Dave says ‘i don’t know if this fight can be won but this fight is worth fighting…prepare for glory’ #marrickville
@domknight The Middle East has come to a halt as Israelis and Palestinians alike wait nervously for the verdict of #Marrickville Council.
@domknight If the Marrickville boycott goes ahead, a chastened Israel plans to leave the region entirely and relocate to the NT.
RT @aljazsydandrew: motion is downgrade policy fr active participation n boycott 2 merely ‘in principle’ support. #BDS #Marrickville
RT @andalusiya: every anti-BDS speaker wants peaceful actions, but they support the wars and occupation of Palestine. #marrickvile #bds
RT @antloewenstein: #BDS people speaking against bds seem to not want to talk about reality in west bank and gaza. Funny that. #Marrickville
RT @mayouss: #BDS #Marrickville yey Newtown yuppie waffling. He has 3 mins to talk shit.
RT @bgaensler: Speaker 4, Ashley from Newtown: “#BDS is a ploy to delegitimise Israel. Shouts from gallery of “terrorist”, “racist”. #Marrickville
@idunnonews Another speaker says ‘I supports mayor of marrickville, who has never degraded anyone based on their culture/faith/race’ #marrickville
@antloewenstein #BDS Colin Hesse talks bout #Murdoch hate campaign against people talking bout middle east. Never let truth get in way of islamophobia.
Hasbara twaddle RT @idunnonews: Jewish speakers calls for unity through consensus rather than mistrust through #BDS #marrickville
Hasbara RT @Jo_Tovey: Prof Alan Rosen asks community to start again, come together for peace and communal harmony. #marrickville
RT @aus4pal: #Marrickville Anti-Palestinian hate being espoused by speakers against #BDS is incredible.These people spruiking utopia r living in a bubble
Oh I can’t WAIT for her article on that #sarcasmfont RT @Jo_Tovey: Just spotted Miranda Devine in the press gallery. #marrickville
RT @mayouss: #bds #Marrickville speaker against says she’s the Jewish lobby and she says friendly. I am scared.
RT @aus4pal: #Palestine = bad,#Israel = good. That’s what the haters here in #Marrackville will have us all believe!! #BDS
RT @Jo_Tovey: Indigenous speaker Ray Minnecon said he would have loved to see this kind of action for his people’s injustices #marrickville
RT @mayouss: #BDS #Marrickville @antloewenstein says council should maintain bds motion because human rights matter #herehere #palestine
RT @mayouss: #Marrickville #BDS citizens acting locally to support globally
RT @Jo_Tovey: Says Israel does what it does bec west allows it, says there r not 2 equal sides in this conflict but an occupier & occupied.
RT @Jo_Tovey: Academic Peter Slezak praises BDS, says Jews like himself have an obligation to protest violence in their name #marrickville
RT @Jo_Tovey: Palestian Samah Sabawi says most concerning thing abt this debate is the bullying endured by elected officials. #marrickville
RT @antloewenstein: #bds just spoke at #Marrickville. Israeli crimes matter. Standing up for Palestine matters. Happy to speak up for bds. Justice matters.
RT @antloewenstein: #bds just spoke at #Marrickville. Israeli crimes matter. Standing up for Palestine matters. Happy to speak up for bds. Justice matters.
RT @bgaensler: Speaker 14, Samar, her family still live in Gaza. Well spoken, actually referred to motion being considered! Pro-BDS. #Marrickville #BDS
Zionists find BDS negtive because it challenges their privileges & apartheid RT @Jo_Tovey: Uri Windt, from Jewish BD, says healing must begin and that no resolution containing the negativity of the BDS should pass. #marrickville
@Jo_Tovey Uri Windt, from Jewish BD, says healing must begin and that no resolution containing the negativity of the BDS should pass. #marrickville
RT @Jo_Tovey: Palestinian Bishara Costandi says issue is ‘local because Israel is global’. Says councillors must show moral fortitude. #marrickville
RT @bgaensler: Speaker 13: blames Murdoch press, government, Israel lobby. “Criticism from these groups shows #Marrickville is on right track with #BDS”.
Speaker 16: evicted from occupied territories in 1950s. Says if Palestinians had occupied Israel, everyone in #Marrickville would want #BDS
RT @bgaensler: 17th & last speaker at #Marrickville #BDS, Carole: “I support the boycott of Israel.”
RT @aus4pal: Local Carole Lawson speaks of #Bethlehem sister city farce if #bds is not implemented fully. #Marrickville
RT @idunnonews: Speaker says ‘ Palestinian uni students can’t get to their schools because of Israeli occupation in palestine’ #marrickville
RT @aus4pal: Carole list other international councils who support #bds. Congrats to Mayor Fiona Byrne for your courage!! #marrickville
Mayor Fiona Byrne now thanking contributors, about to open discussion amongst Council. #Marrickville #BDS
RT @Jo_Tovey: Labor cr Laura Wright says symbolic support is for BDS is wrong, is a banner that will continue local war of words. #marrickville
More rubbish RT @Jo_Tovey: Greens cr Max Phillips says he will not back mayor’s call for in-principle BDS, not enough support in community to justify it. #marrickville
RT @aus4pal: Cr Victor Macri spews the standard #hasbara. you #fail in this debate Cr Macri. #Marrickville #BDS
The spitting ziolobby have no idea what they have helped along. BDS will win the final battle 🙂
RT @aus4pal: Cr Marika speaks the #truth. #humanrights is THE MOST important thing!! #Marrickville #BDS
RT @misseagle: RT @mayouss: #bds #Marrickville palestine – It is a just cause. Councillor Marika.
RT @thebigriboldi: Greens Clr Kontellis sticks to resolve: it is a job as a human being to stand up for injustice #Marrickville 3 for 3 against (2 backflips)
RT @bgaensler: Councillor: we’ve let contract w Eden Springs expire because they supply water to Golan settlements #Marrickville #BDS
RT @goldentalon: #BDS has put #Marrickville on the map. Good on the Greens for taking a stand. The zionist entity must feel the wrath of the int’l community.
RT @mayouss: #bds #Marrickville not first council in the world. Will not cost a cent. @ councillor Marika
RT @aus4pal: Cr Marika reads letter of support frSpanish cnclrs 2 #Marrickville n #BDS. We mst spprt human rights and international law!!
Zionists don’t care about human rights for Palestinians because they don’t regard Palestinians as human! #Marrickville
RT @thebigriboldi: Clr o’Sullivan: symbolism doesn’t mean much. Obviously didn’t support the Apology #Marrickville
RT @antloewenstein: #BDS #marrickville sadly many councillors talk bout how much they care about Palestine and yet seem to want to sit on fence/reject bds. Sigh
RT @Jo_Tovey: Greens councillor Peter Olive denounces Labor councillors who supported original motion but have since gone silent. #marrickville
RT @aus4pal: Cr O’Sullivan has sold out the #Palestinians. This is a disgrace. She’s speaking gibberish. WTF! #Marrickville #BDS
RT @jdub: The early, grass roots campaigns against apartheid began in universities and local government. #bds #marrickville
RT @aus4pal: Cr O’Sullivan is totally out of order. Crocodile tears for #Palestinians. #Marrickville #BDS
We already know RT @aus4pal: The man of the moment. Cr Iskandar is the deal breaker on #BDS #Marrickville debate. What will happen……….
RT @bgaensler: Cr Iskandar: We r a little isolated council but we stand for social justice & r respected 4 doing so. #Marrickville #BDS
If it walks like a duck and spits like a duck @misseagle @peter_b1953: The people acting like Nazis here are the Zionists #BDS #Marrickville
RT @aus4pal: Cr Iskandar tells us how much he cares about #Palestine. And???????? #Marrickville #BDS
RT @thebigriboldi: Hangs on Sam Iskander. Lebanese. Once vocal supporter of BDS. Albo’s numbers man… #Marrickville
RT @antloewenstein: #BDS #marrickville almost comical to hear some councillors keep on saying how much they love Palestine but anything practical impossible.
Coward! RT @Jo_Tovey: Labor’s Sam Iskander says he will continue to support Palestinians but will not support BDS #marrickville
RT @bgaensler: Cr: Can’t make case that symbolism isn’t important. Exhibit A: @KRuddMP apology 2 stolen generations. #Marrickville #BDS
Cr Thanos is a champion for #Palestine. A real voice for #humanrights. Such voices must resonate!! #BDS #Marrickville
RT @Jo_Tovey: Ind D Thanos said symbolism has always been important in setting people free. Sounds like he will continue to support BDS #marrickville
Once upon a time, a long time ago, Australians used to believe in something called “a fair go”. #Marrickville #BDS
RT @nav_guy: 1. Vote for boycott 2. get fired by fascist o’farrel 3. immortality 4. ???? 5. Profit!! #Marrickville #BDS #braddpitt
@antloewenstein BDS #marrickville finally a councillor who talks about boycott against Burma being in council job. So why not Israel?
Cr: “Precedent 4 #Marrickville #BDS is our Burma boycott”. But presumably no divided opinion from locals on Burma
RT @Jo_Tovey: Looks like vote will be 8 – 4 against boycott at this stage. #marrickville
Oh yessss RT @aus4pal: #bds vote goes down in #Marrickville but the journey has only just begun. #israel WILL be held to account
RT @antloewenstein: #BDS #marrickville mayor Fiona Byrne. We have put bds on the national agenda. Bravo!
You can count on it! RT @bgaensler: Mayor Byrne: “Whatever the vote tonight, this issue will not go away.” #Marrickville #BDS
RT @bgaensler: Vote to rescind harshest part of #Marrickville #BDS motion: 6 in favour, 6 against. Mayor uses casting vote to defeat amendment.
RT @bgaensler: Vote on milder amendment to #Marrickville #BDS motion: 8 against, 4 in favour, amendment defeated.
RT @thebigriboldi: 2 Greens and 4 Labor flip. BDS goes down at #Marrickville Council, but campaign not over.
RT @Jo_Tovey: Still to vote on whether to overturn it completely, a separate motion #marrickville
RT @Jo_Tovey: Prediction correct – only four support retaining boycott. Thanos, Kontellis, Peters and Byrne. #marrickville
RT @Jo_Tovey: Council now debating a snap motion to write to BoF and Albanese outlining thoughts on their intervention into issue. #marrickville
#Marrickville might write to @Australian too, telling them to concentrate on locating those who make death threats against elected pollies
RT @Jo_Tovey: That motion was voted againt by Macri, Hanna and Labor, but passes. Council will write to both politicians. #marrickville
MT @bgaensler: Final vote on original #Marrickville #BDS to come. many people confused, think vote been taken, walking out!
RT @aus4pal: Cr Macri is going nuts. He’s clearly on someone’s #fascism payroll. #BDS #Marrickville
Councillor Macri: “This meeting has become a farce.” #Marrickville #BDS
Cr Macri: “#Marrickville Council is in a tailspin.” # BDS
RT @bgaensler: Vote to drop #Marrickville #BDS completely, but to “remain concerned” as to Palestinian plight: motion carried. No BDS!
#Marrickville councillors who voted to drop #BDS will go down in Australian’s book of Infamy
RT @bgaensler: Final motion as passed and how they voted. #Marrickville #BDS http://yfrog.com/h44qsagj
RT @Jo_Tovey: To clarify: boycott has been completely quashed, but council did call for Israel to ‘end occupation of Palestinian lands’. #marrickville
RT @kevinwilde: Over at Leichhardt Council tonight the Greens voted down a Labor resolution ruling out future boycott of Israel. #bds #marrickville
The final motion resolved “not to pursue BDS against Israel in any shape or form” while at the same time maintaining the three tenets of the BDS call – to end the occupation of all Arab lands and dismantle the Wall, to ensure full equality for Palestinians living in Israel and to support the right of Palestinian refugees to return home. This was carried 8 votes to 4 against. None of the councilors who had opposed the BDS resolution seemed aware of the incongruity of now voting for a motion that included the very demands that BDS seeks, while refusing to do anything about it, nor that Point 1 of the original in principle BDS statement had in fact not been rescinded.
Disinformation and smear tactics may have partially lost us this battle, but the struggle for freedom, justice and equality is undoubtedly stronger as a result of your efforts. Marrickville will be remembered as the “battle” that effectively put boycotting Israel on the map in Australia!
The night before the election, Greens supporters photographed a group of men putting up posters and stickers accusing the Greens of homophobia, hating democracy and supporting terrorism. The posters have been the subject of complaints to the police and the NSW Electoral Commission.
The Greens have also criticised a controversial phone poll conducted during the campaign.
A group called the Inner West Jewish Community and Friends Peace Alliance claimed responsibility for the poll last week, but denied any wrong-doing.
On March 3 a request from the group was accidentally published on the Jewish news website J-Wire and a blog, requesting $12,000 in public donations for activities ”to research what local people really think … carefully targeted media coverage and advertising in relation to the election … Please also pass this information on quietly to like-minded friends”. It was quickly deleted.
Eleven days later Marrickville Council said it was investigating four complaints from residents about a survey ”asking residents to comment on the GBDS against Israel”. At least one resident complained the interviewer had claimed to be from the council.
Cr Byrne labelled it a push poll and a dirty trick.
The survey and its results, showing only one-third of respondents support the boycott, have been made public.
The poll’s introduction said the interviewer was doing a ”short five-minute study about your views and opinions of the Marrickville City [sic] Council”.
It asked residents what factors should influence council policies and initiatives and provided a list that included climate change, traffic congestion and foreign affairs. It also asked whether the interviewee was aware of the boycott.
After saying that the mayor was the Greens candidate at the state election, it asked whether that would influence their vote.
Uri Windt, who is a member of both the alliance and the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, said the poll was scientific and definitely not intended to mislead.
”It’s not push-polling; it does not fit the definition. It was professionally conducted,” Mr Windt said.
The alliance has refused to comment on how much it collected and spent on its campaign.
”It’s not relevant what we raised,” Mr Windt said. ”It really was us taking responsibility for our own actions and the strategy we wanted to apply, so we raised the funds and paid our debts.”
Accusations of one-sided media coverage of the issue were also rife at Tuesday’s meeting. The academic Peter Slezak, of Independent Australian Jewish Voices, said Jewish critics of Israel and supporters of the BDS campaign had not been heard, particularly in the Jewish media.
Samah Sabawi, a Palestinian-Australian, said their voice had been lost. ”I don’t feel we were able to discuss and debate the issue rationally and I don’t feel the door was open for Palestinian voices to discuss what the BDS was about.”
Vic Alhadeff, chief executive of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, said his organisation had no knowledge of the poster campaign, or the phone survey, until afterwards.
Noted that Alhadeff’s comment is out of sync from the cached blog post of the Inner West Jewish Community and Friends Peace Alliance, which says:
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.
I focused on the realities in Palestine and Israel’s racial discrimination. This is something that impacts us all, the lack of dignity of the indigenous peoples of the land. One side is the occupier and the other is occupied. It’s not really all that complicated. This is what Zionism is.
I spent my allotted three minutes detailing how the West props up Israel and it is our responsibility to speak up for human rights. Jewish-only roads in the West Bank. The siege on Gaza and ever-increasing settlements in the West Bank. Nearly universal backing in the UN for Palestinian rights (except Nauru, Marshall Islands, Australia, Israel and the US). As BDS takes off in countless places, the arguments against it become even further removed from Palestine itself. If you can’t argue on the facts, change the subject. Talk about local politics, or “balance” or “peace”.
Last night BDS was defeated in Sydney but the message I’m hearing from countless activists is that this has galvanised people to step up the campaign for Palestinian rights
It is fundamentally dishonest to attack opposition to Israel as anti-Semitic. It is intended to silence legitimate criticism. It also makes it impossible to challenge the real anti-Semitism that is, unfortunately, on the increase. This is largely fuelled, but not caused, by Israel‘s atrocities against the Palestinians.
There seems to be a dearth of real information in the mainstream media about the nature of the non-violent BDS call by Palestinian people and a tangible quashing of Palestinian voices, along with smears, distortions and intimidation of BDS supporters. Those who are unjust fear justice. The non-violent BDS call is firmly based in human rights and justice. and was initiated in 2005 since all other measures by governments and UN have failed to deliver Palestinians their just rights under international law.
Australian individuals, institutions and organisations should be at the forefront against Israel’s denial of Palestinian rights in the same way they were against apartheid in South Africa. Measures under BDS do not need to be sweeping nor disadvantage communities financially, but can be targeted against specific institutions and organisations which support the illegal Israeli Occupation and horrendous apartheid. BDS is a creative tactic which builds, in global grassroots solidarity with Palestinian people, an ongoing awareness of and resistance to Israeli oppression.
I hope that the Marrickville Council does not back down to intimidation and unseemly political pressure and contributes more than just lip service to BDS.
(Learn more about BDS and how other Councils round the world have incorporated BDS at bdsmovement.net ; for information about Israel’s crimes of apartheid and colonialism, see http://www.hsrc.ac.za/Media_Release-378.phtml)
Palestinian Civil Society Call for BDS -Palestinian Civil Society Calls for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel Until it Complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights 9 July 2005
Moammar Mashni, of Australians for Palestine, said the withdrawal of support for actual boycotts was disappointing.
”[Critics] have created such a frenzy around this debate that moved away from the central message of what the BDS was all about – it’s about non-violence … a principled stand to deliver both peace and justice,” he said.
…
The expatriate activist and journalist John Pilger has weighed in on the controversy,sending a message of support to the council.
”Justice for Palestine, said, [Nelson] Mandela, is ‘the greatest moral issue of our time’,” Pilger wrote.
”That’s the company those Marrickville councillors – who have stood up for this ‘greatest moral issue’ – keep.”
The bulk of the story is interpretation or hasbara, and includes an unctuous plea from the hasbaroid lobby group which conspired to destroy BDS using push polls which are euphemised in this group as a survey.
A local group, the Inner West Jewish Community and Friends Peace Alliance, said even the mayor’s revised motion should be rejected.
”There’s real healing that needs to be done in our community and just coming in with in-principle support for the BDS movement, that hasn’t been discussed with us or the community,” said the group’s secretary, Janet Kossy.
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The Inner West Jewish Community and Friends Peace Alliance carried out a phone survey on the campaign in March, and found that two-thirds of residents did not support it.
Ms Kossy called for $12,000 in donations in early March for ”activities that we believe will make a decisive difference” against the boycott. She would not comment yesterday on how much had been spent on the campaign.
It’s beginning to end. It’s beginning to end in the UK, it’s beginning to end even in the United States, in much of Europe, where people are finally being able, feeling that they can talk about it. And non-violent, completely non-violent campaigns, like the Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions campaign, the BDS campaign, which is much more modest than the anti-Apartheid movement but based on that, and supported by the likes of Desmond Tutu, who speaking in the spirit of Nelson Mandel called Palestine the greatest moral issue of our era, are starting to discuss it. There are views on this and those views should be heard, but this thuggish intimidation of people who are simply standing up for a justice is something that is particularly striking in Australia and in the Australian media and in my view reflects the, that monopoly, that omission, censorship by omission that exists mroe in Australia, than practically in any other Western democracy.
Jake, a 55-year-old Jewish health professional with friends in Marrickville, was so incensed by the council’s Israel boycott that he took three weeks off work to wage a guerrilla campaign against the Greens, plastering the suburb with posters late at night, accusing them of homophobia for boycotting gay-friendly Israel.
“I felt so angry,” says Jake, who wants to remain anonymous. “I couldn’t sleep at night, so I organised the posters, hired some utes and ladders” and enlisted the help of his son and his friends. Greens supporters harassed them, ripped down the posters, called police, and tried to intimidate Jake’s young helpers, posting footage of them on YouTube.
Two nights before the election, a “black sports car with neon high beams and a pseudo photographer kept flashing his camera right up on our eyes . . . It slowed us right down.”
Another night “cowboy” greenies in a Toyota Camry started following them home, until Jake confronted the driver at a roundabout. “It was like something out of a movie”.
On election day, Jake and his son organised 10 friends wearing T-shirts with “Boycott the Greens” logos to visit polling booths, prompting “Zionist pigs” abuse from greenies.
“The Greens knew we were the enemy, but the Labor people all nodded and smiled and gave us the thumbs up. Anthony Albanese [whose wife Carmel Tebbutt was ALP candidate] shook my hand and thanked me. We must have had quite an effect.
“On Sunday I took the boys out to dinner. It’s not often in life a private citizen can make a difference.”
What is emerging instead is a slow but sure manifestation of a new transnational movement, centred less on statehood and more on forging a national project that will traverse the existing Palestinian divides – diaspora, occupied territories and Israeli Arab citizens – and bypass the notion of an independent Palestinian state on part of Palestinian soil.
over 6,800 Palestinians, from the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, and 1948 Palestine, are currently imprisoned by the Israeli state. Of those, over 300 are children, 34 are women, 18 are elected Palestinian representatives and almost 300 are ‘Administrative Detainees’ – that is they have been interned without trial not having been charged with any crime or seeing the secret evidence against them.
The prisoners are being detained in 17 prisons and detention centers; such as, Nafha, Ramon, Ashkelon, Beersheba, HaDarom, Gilboa, Shata, Al-Ramla, Damon, Hasharon, Naqab, Ofer and Megiddo.
Over four decades of illegal Israeli military occupation, Palestinians from all walks of life have been illegally detained by Israel. Since the beginning of the occupation in 1967, over 650,000 Palestinians have been detained by Israel,.
An estimated 10,000 Palestinian women have been arrested and detained since 1967 under Israeli military orders, which govern nearly every aspect of life in the occupied Palestinian territory. As of 1 February 2011, 36 Palestinian women remain in Israel’s prisons and detention centers, including 3 women in administrative detention. The two prisons in which Palestinian women are detained are located outside the 1967 occupied territory, in direct contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Israel breaks every convention in the book in their treatment of Palestinian prisoners at Naqab (Negev) in 2007. The horrendous abuses of prisoners in the video below can only be described as the actions of a fascist regime and dispel any misconception that Israel’s police and army are “moral”.
Comment by @djonesowens1, who worked on the video:
Few people realize that most of these prisoners are unjustly imprisoned and have been brutalized throughout their lives. After spending all this time working with the translator, I realize most people just cannot “get it”. But, it’s a contribution to the piles of evidence against a sadistic, insane regime.
Related Links
Another country : Thousands of Palestinians go on trial every year in the Ofer military court for offenses like illegally entering Israel or demonstrating against the separation fence. On Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, April 17, 2011, the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat salutes all of the over 5,700 Palestinian prisoners inside the Israeli occupation’s jails, and calls upon all those concerned for justice and freedom to join and build the largest possible international movement to secure the freedom of all Palestinian prisoners, and of the entire Palestinian people. Israeli Military Court remands Palestinian Organizer, Bassem Tamimi, Indefinitely – moral? hahaha : this is what happens to peaceful Palestinian protesters. Another country : Thousands of Palestinians go on trial every year in the Ofer military court for offenses like illegally entering Israel or demonstrating against the separation fence. No one really wants to know what goes on there. So is there any point at all to telling this story? IOF troops detain 845 Palestinians in three months including 105 children Why Justice Won’t Be Done in the Itamar Murder Case
Mr. Goldstone notes that, according to the follow-up, Israel has begun 400 inquires into wrongdoing during the military campaign in Gaza, which it called Operation Cast Lead, and that much has been learned. His former colleagues say, by contrast, that of the 400 inquiries, 3 have yielded submissions for prosecution and 2 have led to someone being punished, in both cases with minor penalties.
“Therefore, the mechanisms that are being used by the Israeli authorities to investigate the incidents are proving inadequate to genuinely ascertain the facts and any ensuing legal responsibility,” they write.
“In addition, with regard to the issue of the policies guiding Operation Cast Lead, the committee states that there is ‘no indication that Israel has opened investigations into the actions of those who designed, planned, ordered and oversaw Operation Cast Lead.’ In other words, one of the most serious allegations about the conduct of Israel’s military operations remains completely unaddressed.”
The three conclude by saying that pressure had been applied to all members of the panel but that, unlike Mr. Goldstone, they had not yielded to it. They say: “Had we given in to pressures from any quarter to sanitize our conclusions, we would be doing a serious injustice to the hundreds of innocent civilians killed during the Gaza conflict, the thousands injured, and the hundreds of thousands whose lives continue to be deeply affected by the conflict and the blockade.
“The report has triggered a process that is still under way and should continue until justice is done and respect for international human rights and humanitarian law by everyone is ensured.”
Israel has produced hundreds of drone images and if it really had one of the single most shocking incident of the conflict, the al-Samouni attack of Jan. 5, 2009, as Goldstone and Israel state, why has this image not been produced?
Fiona Byrne: ‘When the resolution was passed, the council sought a report to provide comprehensive information about the potential impacts of the policy. The eventual report was unfortunately not in the spirit of the original motion, and the options presented were financially impractical. I personally believe that the council can support the campaign without having a negative financial impact on our ratepayers.
To this effect I will be tabling a mayoral minute tomorrow night recommending that the council maintain in-principle support for the campaign, while rescinding the part of the original motion which called for the council to implement the policy in our local area. I will also recommend we acknowledge Israel’s right to exist and condemn all acts of violence.
In this way Marrickville Council can continue to show our support for the Palestinians, while not having a financial burden on ratepayers or affecting the operations of the council.’
It is disappointing but perhaps not surprising that your stand in support of freedom and equality has come under such intense scrutiny. This can only be seen as an attempt by Israel and its supporters to whitewash Israel’s system of occupation, colonisation and apartheid, and to character-assassinate or smear those who challenge it. People of conscience, cultural superstars, financial institutions, businesses, trade unions and faith groups all over the world are joining our non-violent movement. On behalf of Palestinian civil society, we are today writing to urge you to remain part of this moral struggle, to maintain your BDS policy and to find creative and tactically feasible ways in which to implement it.
“Sometimes, looked at from the outside, Australia is a strange place. In other ‘western democracies’ the ‘debate’ about the enduring injustice dealt the Palestinians and Israel’s lawlessness has moved forward to the point where the cynical campaign of anti-Semitism smears is no longer effective — in the UK, much of Europe and even the United States.
If Israel’s bloody assault on Lebanon was not the turning point, the criminal attack on the imprisoned population of Gaza certainly was. The same is true of the BDS movement. This eminently reasonable, decent and necessary campaign enjoys a respectability across the world, not least in South Africa, where it’s backed by the likes of Desmond Tutu and especially those Jews who fought the apartheid regime. The University of Johannesburg, the country’s biggest, has just broken all ties with Israel. Justice for Palestine, said, Mandela, is ‘the greatest moral issue of our time’. That’s the company those Marrickville councillors who have stood up for this ‘greatest moral issue’, keep. And those who have wavered and walked away should think again – remembering other waverers who, long ago, walked away from speaking out against what was being done to Jews. The scale is very different; the principle is the same. Do not be intimidated by Murdoch vendettas or by anyone else. All power to you.”
After delays and unscrupulous attempts to keep him out of the US, Omar Barghouti is finally allowed into the US for his speaking tour to promote his new book, Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights.
Omar comments on BDS, the current Israeli onslaught in Gaza, US complicity and the overall Middle East scene.
We’re seeing a not just sea change in Arab diplomacy after the departure of Mubarak, the dictator of Egypt. First we saw the U.S. veto against its own position for decades that Israel’s colonial settlements are illegal and an obstacle to peace. The U.S. had to veto that, because there was no longer Mubarak to do its dirty work. If Mubarak were still around, he would have pressured the Palestinians to pull this out of the Security Council and not to embarrass the U.S. So the U.S. had to vote against its own position and to stand in this little dark corner with Israel facing the entire world community. So we’re seeing here some change, some real change, in the tone of the Arab League and of the Arab officials towards the Palestinians. Absolutely, a no-fly zone is more justified than ever over Gaza. Why should it be over Libya only, and Israelis, as an occupying power, continue to bomb Gaza with U.S. weaponry, F-16s and U.S. missiles?
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Israel is feeling this complete imbalance in its so-called Arab neighbor. So, Israel is losing that cover, and this is extremely important for our movement. And it has given a boost to the Palestinian nonviolent movement, especially in the form of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. We saw a lot of growth around the world.
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In the last year or so, especially after the attack on the flotilla, we’ve seen a very steep rise in cultural boycott of Israel. So we’re connecting this with the cultural resistance on the ground. It’s not just that the Palestinians are continuing to produce culture to counter Israel’s occupation and apartheid, but we’re also calling on performers, musicians, theater directors, and so on, not to perform in Israel, as they did during the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa.
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The BDS movement is based on international law and universal principles of human rights. We have Israeli partners. We have many faith communities, many trade unions supporting the movement now. It has really grown drastically, and this is why it’s worrying Israel, because it has not yet developed a weapon to counter this simple nonviolent movement. It’s not a centralized, dogmatic kind of movement. It doesn’t have a very difficult agenda. It’s a basic, liberal, decent agenda based on human rights that any person can join. And many people have been joining.
Omar Barghouti : “People have rights, and when we say we want to end Israel’s multitiered system of oppression…we must immediately, in the same sentence, say people have equal rights in every formal way” . Author, activist and professor Sarah Schulman has been involved with the Palestinian queer movement, emphasizing that their struggle is deeply tied to the struggle to end the occupation.
Fight to rescind the Goldstone report reaches the US Congress : the evil ziolobby in the US attempts to quash the evidence of war crimes. This is possibly an indication of the fear by which this report is held by the ziolobby. Fortunately, the UN is not subject to this sort of outrageous bullying and the UNGA may take this as further incitement against it and react in the opposite manner to which the ziolobby intends. I’m hoping for a Uniting for Peace resolution which will permit Israel and its scumbag US accomplice to be thwarted by ICC action regardless of US power.
‘According to Ros-Lehtinen, the initiative will “make it U.S. policy to demand that the UN General Assembly revoke and repudiate the Goldstone Report and any UN resolutions stemming from the report, and will refund to U.S. taxpayers their share of the costs for the report and its follow-on measures.”’
“They know very well that we’ll hit public institutions and have even instructed students to continue attending school,” he said, adding, “How ironic that while their kids continue to attend school, they keep firing rockets deep into Israeli territory.”
Goldstone’s community in Johannesburg summoned Goldstone to a meeting with the Jewish Federation at which communal leaders essentially indicted Goldstone for being a traitor.
As our southern towns continue to come under heavy fire, Israel must respond disproportionately until normalcy and calm are reestablished and our waning deterrence has been restored
Where exactly is the extremism with this vision that is “rooted in a century-old history of civil, non-violent resistance against settler colonialism, occupation and ethnic cleansing”? The extremism is more likely to be found in the anti-BDS propaganda, comparing this unarmed resistance to the Nazi boycott of Jews in 1930’s, whereby “dehumanizing them…is a vital step on the way to genocide”.
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Australia’s bipartisan loyalty to Israel is apparently in question when the Greens gain the balance of power in the Senate in three months. Is this because the major parties need to save face with Israel or Australia?. Over 100 Australian leaders have ‘graduated’ from the Rambam Israel Fellowship, including Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd, Alexander Downer and Bill Shorten. The six day program is engineered by the Israeli Foreign Ministry. By their own admission, the Rambam organisers have declared that “for the money we invest in, you can’t ask for better results”.
The latest vilification of the BDS campaign is yet another example of a return on this investment.
The AIJAC organisation which pays for the Rambam hasbara fellowships which 100 pollies etc have been on is a private organisation which doesn’t disclose its funding. Sourcewatch says:
‘The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) is a right wing lobby group based in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. On its website and in the media, AIJAC often claims to represent the Australian Jewish community, stating that it “represents the interests of the Australian Jewish community to government, media and other community groups and organisations.” [1]. In reality, it is a small, privately funded think tank which represents no one but its own small membership.
AIJAC describes itself as a think tank, however it does not do original research, and focuses mostly on political lobbying. It has been described as “an aggressive, no holds barred, privately funded, political lobby group. It is variously described as “the only effective organisation that lobbies for Israel”, a “Melbourne based pro-Zionist think-tank”, “Zionist propagandists”, “contentious”, but not a body, according to the President of the New South Wales Board of Deputies, “that is in any elected or democratic sense representative of the community”. ‘
‘AIJAC’s website states that it is “associated with” the American Jewish Committee’
“The Pratt Foundation was established in 1978 by Richard and Jeanne Pratt with the shared vision of supporting charitable enterprises and adding value to philanthropy. The Foundation is now one of the largest private sources of philanthropy in Australia. In the words of its mission statement, it aims “to enrich the lives of our community” and, in the words of Jeremiah, it works to fulfil this aim in a spirit of “kindness, justice and equity”.” [1]
“Through the Pratt Foundation, Visy donates over $10 million to a wide range of causes.”
The Israeli government is clever in using settlers. They are trying to say that Hebron is important for religious history, but what I hear from settlers is that it is a step towards taking Nablus, Ramallah, and the entire West Bank. Hebron is a frontline. If they succeed here in their campaign of ethnic cleansing under the banner of religion, they will move on to new goals.
Reading from a Wikileaks document, Finkelstein revealed that Israeli officials privately announced to an American representative that Israel planned to bring Gaza’s economy to the brink of collapse.
“There never has been, is not, and never will be a peace process,” Finkelstein said. “Rational people don’t judge by words, they judge by outcomes and results. Truthfully, it is an annexation process that uses peace as a facade.”
But when Israel supporters whine about the “anti-Israel climate on campus”, let’s not forget that the only groups with money to take out full-page ads are Israel advocates.
For the people of Libya, there can be no quick fix. Not only will the post-invasion Libyan state lack the means to defend its sovereignty externally, a post-invasion Libyan government will need to accommodate a highly fractured society through patient coalition-building, if Libyan society is not to disintegrate into an Afghan-style civil war.
That necessary work will have to be political, not military. For that work to begin, the first prerequisite is an end to the NATO invasion and a ceasefire.
‘the attack the NSW Greens have endured is not simply about discrediting the third force in Australian politics – although that certainly is one of the aims. This campaign of slander is, more broadly, an attempt to intimidate anyone even thinking about taking a principled anti-racist stance against Israel.
The right’s unwavering devotion to Israel’s cause is not, as they claim, a function of their support for freedom and democracy, but a reflection of their unquestioning support for Western domination of the Arab world. For that reason at least, supporters of Palestine need to stand firm against the ravings of the pro-Zionist right.’
Wikileaks Links
#Wikileaks @ioerror harassed & detained at airport AGAIN by CBP who say ‘You remember 9/11? That’s why!’ #US #fascism #policestate #
@ioerror Of course, I was again denied access to my lawyer, again denied information on my “random” screening, and I missed my connecting flight. #
@ioerror While asking questions, they located Gene Sharp books about authoritarianism and obedience. Apparently, something some passengers lack. #
@ioerror When I discussed my detainment with one of the officers, before I’d missed my flight, I was told that I was making it harder on myself. #
@ioerror The actual interactions with the border guards are certainly becoming less and less pleasant. The CBP agents in Texas also served in Iraq. #
@ioerror Needless to say, I do not actually believe that Americans are safer because Agent Rodriguez and his buddies were Army snipers in Iraq. #
The Israeli onslaught on the people of Gaza is following an analogous trajectory as that before the full scale massacre of Operation Cast Lead. Perhaps spurred tactically by Goldstone’s unfortunate recent statements, Israeldeliberately instigated and fuelled the new attack on the defenceless people in Gaza who subsist in the largest open air prison in the world, under brutal military occupation for 44 years and now besieged for nearly 1,400 days. 52% of Gaza’s population are children. Perhaps Gaza should disguise itself as a yellow bus.
After the Izzin Al Qassam brigade fired an anti-tank missile into a school bus, claiming they thought it was a military vehicle, Israel had its chance to justify its previous violence and provocations as well as to play into its tactical victimhood posture, already primed by blaming Palestinians for the Itamar murders and Jerusalem bus bomb despite no culprits having been found. Hamas has offered cease fires twice, and both offers have been contemptuously rejected by Israel. Israel, as with Operation Cast Lead, seeks a macabre ‘blood quota’ from the defenceless citizens of Gaza, over whom the Israeli Public Security Minister has declared an official state policy of collective punishment – there is “no immunity for anyone in Gaza.”
Despite Israel having conducted continuous previous provocations, it has utilised the bus incident, raining a deluge of strikes on Gaza which have killed at this point nearly 20 people:
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, issued a sharp warning to Hamas and other groups. “The attack on the children’s bus was crossing a red line. Heaven help those who try to hurt and murder children,” he said.
Yet Israel has been killing Palestinian children with impunity for 63 years.
Like most privileged groups, Israeli zionists consistently feel it is others, Palestinians, who should change and that violence, including acts prohibited by international law, is a legitimate tool to force the required change. Then the zionist elite expect Israel to be ‘liked’ and respected by those whom they cast as lesser beings and repress brutally. However, oppressed Palestinians don’t necessarily dislike anyone on an individual basis. The oppressed people would just like the oppression and violation of their rights to end. Israel on the other hand, pursues policies of collective punishment and a strategy of expansionism and belligerence. The Palestine Papers reveal how Israel consistently stretches out and sabotages the fake ‘peace process’ with impossible offers and intransigence, while illegal ziocolonists nibble away at the West Bank and East Jerusalem with impunity and encouragement, tacit and overt, from the Israeli regime, further entrenching existing apartheid.
Occupied people have the right, affirmed in the 4th Geneva Conventions, to resist their Occupiers. Recognising that no other methods have led to liberation, Palestinian people called in 2005 for non-violent boycotts, divestments and sanctions in order to obtain their just human and political rights Please help rightsless Palestinians end the occupation and attain the rights most of us take for granted in our own lands by answering their call. Only when oppression and injustice to the indigenous Palestinian people has ended will the violence also stop.
Palestinian resistance declared cease-fire that starts at 11 pm Gaza time but it was one-sided, Israel didn’t oblige instead they responded by continuous shelling and air raids.
They re-raided the border line between Gaza and Egypt. Egyptian local news sources reported that a shell fell on a land inside Egyptian Rafah but with no reported injuries.
All dead and injured in Gaza were civilians.
Huge power outages took place in Khan Younis and Rafah after Israel’s heavy shelling on Gaza, many power lines and converters were damaged.
Explosions, sporadic fire and Israeli warplanes were heard till 3 am of April the 8th.
It looks like the upcoming days will bring more assaults and attacks.
Following the attack, the Israel Defense Forces quickly retaliated and launched both land and air strikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, the IDF spokesperson said, killing a 50-year-old man and wounding five others.
Defense Minister, Ehud Barak ordered the army to respond quickly and said he held the Hamas militant group, which rules Gaza, responsible for the violence. There was no claim of responsibility for the attack.
The strike came following several weeks of tension and mutual attacks along Israel’s border with the Hamas-ruled Strip, with Israel Defense Forces aircraft striking smuggling tunnels in southern Gaza earlier Thursday.
On Tuesday, IDF tanks fired at and killed an armed Palestinian approaching the Gaza Strip’s border with Israel on Tuesday, as three mortar bombs exploded in Israeli soil.
The incident took place after an IDF force spotted an armed Palestinian near the Erez crossing at the Strip’s north, later directing tank fire to the spot. No injuries were reported from among the soldiers.
On Saturday, IDF planes struck a vehicle travelling at the south of the Gaza Strip, killing three Hamas operatives, one of them a top commander in Hamas’ military wing.
An IDF Spokesperson stated that the three men were members of a terrorist cell that was “planning to kidnap Israelis over the upcoming Jewish holiday of Passover” in Israel and in the Sinai Peninsula, a popular spring tourist destination for Israelis.
The Palestinian Ma’an news agency identified the three as Isma’il Labad and his brother Abdullah from Ash-Shati’ refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, and military commander Muhammad Ad-Dayah from the Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City.
Ad-Dayah, 33, is considered to be a top Hamas military official. As a child he participated in the first intifada, later serving as the bodyguard of former Hamas chief Abdel Aziz Rantisi. Ad-Dayah also lost one of his eyes during an attempted mortar attack on a nearby settlement.
Hamas vowed vengeance against Israel in a statement Saturday, describing the strike as a crime and “serious escalation” of the recent violence, and vowed that Israel would “bear all the consequences.” The militant group also called on the U.S. to stop the flow of financial aid to Israel.
Prior to the attack, Palestinian militants have fired rocket salvos into Israel, reaching as far as the major southern city Be’er Sheva, and Israel has carried out a series of air strikes.
RT @avinunu: Mahmoud, aged 10, was murdered by Israel on Mar 22, earlier in its deliberate escalation of Gaza violence http://is.gd/6PrIsb Violence erupts across Gaza border
The fire from Gaza on Thursday began a few hours after Israel’s air force bombed sites which it said were smuggling tunnels in the northern Gaza Strip, said Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharanot. Palestinian sources reported that four people were injured in those stikes.
Bethlehem-based Ma’an News Agency said three of the overnight air strikes hit the southern Gaza Strip – one in the Yebna refugee camp, a second in the Barazili neighbourhood and a third hit tunnels near the Salah Ad-Din district. The fourth hit an area east of Gaza City, said Ma’an.
@Omar_Gaza: Breaking: New martyr in Gaza khaled Al Dibari 23 4m Rafah #Gaza, total= 4 dead 30+ injured. #
“Many of those wounded [have] moderate to light [injuries]. More than ten of the wounded are children. In the southern city of Rafah, Israeli shelling hit a mosque and caused the injury of 14 persons, including women and children. Israeli shells also hit an ambulance, wounding two crew members,” Adham Abu Silimiya, spokesperson for the ambulance service in Gaza, told The Electronic Intifada.
Israeli air strikes struck residents’ homes in eastern Gaza, a government building in northern Gaza and underground tunnels in southern Gaza.
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The Izzedin al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in retaliation for Israel’s 1 April extrajudicial killing of three Hamas members in Gaza.
The U.S. State Department condemned the bus attack, and expressed concern about use of advanced anti-tank weapons against civilians.
“We condemn the attack on innocent civilians in southern Israel in the strongest possible terms, and on-going rocket fire from Gaza,” the statement read. “There is no justification for the targeting of innocent civilians and those responsible for these terrorist attacks should be held accountable.”
“We are deeply about concerned about reports that indicate the use of an advanced anti-tank weapon in an attack against civilians.”
A group of American Jewish lawyers is preparing a civil lawsuit against Richard Goldstone for libel, but when and where it will be filed has yet to be determined.
The proposed class action lawsuit was initiated by Likud MK Danny Danon, as reported by The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. He discussed the idea in conversation with American attorneys during a recent visit to the United States. It would demand that Goldstone publicly apologize to the State of Israel and pay a symbolic amount of damages for the accusations he made in his UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict report.
Hamas is no angel, they receive NO sympathy from me. But they appear to be much more efficient than Israel at not killing civilians using makeshift rockets and suicide bombings even though Israel is using state of the art U.S weaponry. Perhaps Israel should get some pointers from Hamas on how to avoid civilian deaths. And as far as I know Hamas hasn’t prevented freedom of movement or the oportunity to have a future for Israeli civilians. Funny how opinions can change. It’s like magic
On 12 November 2009 the embassy reported the views of the general responsible for Gaza and southern Israel, Major General Yoav Galant, that Hamas needed to be “strong enough to enforce a ceasefire”.
He told the Americans: “Israel’s political leadership has not yet made the necessary policy choices among competing priorities: a short-term priority of wanting Hamas to be strong enough to enforce the de facto ceasefire and prevent the firing of rockets and mortars into Israel; a medium priority of preventing Hamas from consolidating its hold on Gaza; and a longer-term priority of avoiding a return of Israeli control of Gaza and full responsibility for the wellbeing of Gaza’s civilian population.”
Rudd, who last month completed an exhaustive tour of the Middle East, including a visit to Israel, Jordan and two visits to Egypt, speculated the region’s future looked rocky.
He warned observers must keep watch on how some of the countries currently transitioning to democracy use that democracy.
“If a political movement uses a democratic process to obtain political power then extinguishes democracy once having obtained power and resorts to undemocratic means to exercise that power – that is what we must be mindful of across the Middle East,” he said.
He also noted Egyptian opinion polls had set Amr Moussa, a man who is not known as a friend to Israel, as frontrunner in the presidential elections.
Rudd, though, was guarded in his assessment of Moussa’s stance towards the ongoing presence of a Jewish State in the region.
“It is important that we work to understand what policies he would bring to bear in relation to Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the future of the Middle East peace process,” the Foreign Minister said.
The king said he was pleased with the developments in the peace process.
He also revealed to the ambassador that he had instructed his public information minister to stop referring to Israeli in official statements of the kingdom as the “enemy” or the “Zionist entity.”
Monroe asked the Bahraini king whether he would agree to have trade relations with Israel. According to the telegram, the king thought it was too early and that the matter would have to wait until after a Palestinian state was established.
According to the leaked documents, in one instance, Shin Bet Chief Yuval Diskin offered American counterparts, the organization’s stance on the sensitive subject of Israeli Arabs; many of whom “have taken their liberties too far.”
According to the leaked cables, Diskin said that some in the Israeli-Arab public see themselves as Arabs and Muslims first and Israeli citizens last. He also criticized the Arab MKs, saying they were “flirting with the enemy.”
The Shin Bet chief allegedly said that “(…) these people don’t spread Israel’s democratic values and principles, and abuse their diplomatic immunity.” He also attributed the problem to Palestinian refugees who return to Israel and “brought bad ideas” with them.
This time, Israel intends to exact a very heavy price from Hamas, as the State of Israel and IDF have no solution that would fortify civilian transportation in the Gaza region. The only immediate solution is deterrence – and deterrence can only be achieved via plenty of fire.
This time, officials will not accept a Hamas request for a lull via secret channels of UN officials in the area, as happened in the past. In the coming days, the cannons, missiles, tanks, jets and rockets will do the talking, until the blood quota is filled.
Israel versus Judaism Since the existence of Zionism, one constant trend of thought has been the direction of Weizmann, Greenbaum, Sharett, Ben Gurion, Ehrenpreisz, Kastner, Stephen Wise, the councils in the ghettoes and the rescue committees of the free world: The only yearning was for the State. The people as a whole, or a segment thereof, were merely the means for the realization of a “homeland”. Whoever did not serve this purpose might as well have not been created. Ziobots Invade Facebook Palestinian factions resume firing homemade shells into Israel, causing no injuries
The speculation in The Australian on this issue about some difference between myself and my fellow senators was false and misled its readers.”
Senior journalist for The Australian Matthew Franklin has hit back, complaining that the Greens had not replied to a number of questions sent to Senator Brown’s office.
“We had priorities and you didn’t figure,” Senator Brown responded.
Franklin asked Senator Brown: “With all respect, why is it when we put questions to your office you never answer them?”
But Senator Brown insists the Greens do answer the questions: “We answer them in written form so they won’t be misrepresented.
“We’ve got a great respect for the media in Australia, but The Australian doesn’t help keep that respect in order. The rest of the media does.”
In reply to another question from Franklin about the Greens’ attitude to Israel, Senator Brown referred to an Australian editorial which called for the “destruction” of the Greens.
“If The Australian wants to continue this vendetta in its aim of the destruction of the Greens editorially, then maybe it should look at the moral quality of the activities of its colleagues in News of the World in London,” Senator Brown said.
“I might ask News Limited if it can reassure readers that that sort of eavesdropping doesn’t occur and hasn’t occurred in Australia.”
As the feisty news conference drew to a close, Senator Brown challenged representatives of The Australian to a debate.
“Anytime, anyplace, anywhere. I’m very happy to take you on,” he said.
“Really, you should get over it. Grow up a bit. Get on to issues that Australians are interested in. You’re not doing yourselves much good.”
Franklin declined to take a call from ABC News Online.
Samah Sabawi was be interviewed on the ABC’s Fran Kelly show tomorrow at 6.20am and will be heard again on SBS Arabic at 7.20pm tonight – Please ring in with questions for Samah if you’re around.
