Bob Dylan has donated to the World Food Programme which says ‘Palestinians are experiencing a dramatic decline in their living standards and a regression of the economy due to internal and external movement restrictions, limited control over natural resources, restricted access to local and international markets, low rates of economic production and limited access of Palestinian labourers to their former work in Israel’ yet he’s still planning to play Israel on June 20th. Please, Bob, boycott Israel, which deliberately creates the problems for Palestinians identified by the WFP, whilst practising the three pillars of apartheid.
True, the last time you famously did something about it, the man for whom you went to bat (and whom you got a retrial and an eventual acquittal by reminding the world of how he was railroaded) threatened to sue you for using his life story without permission. But in this case you don’t have to write a song. You don’t even have to sing a song. What you have to do is simply NOT sing – at least not in Israel.
The debate, said Stephen Hazan Arnoff, executive director of New York’s 14th Street Y, a community center not targeted by protesters, reflects similar trends in Israel, where tolerance of dissenting views is in decline. Attacks on JCCs and Jewish cultural institutions, he said, “are a sign of weakness” of the community. “If the community cannot accommodate diversity, the community is not healthy.”
In addition to tightening the siege on the Palestinians in Gaza,the Israeli army commenced a new military offensive against the population in mid-March.
On 16 March the Israeli air force attacked a Hamas training base near the former settlement of Netzarim. Two Hamas militants, Adana Eshtaiwi, 27 years old, and Ghassan Abu Amro, 25 years old, were killed in the attack, while a third person was injured.
The Israeli military claimed the strike was in response to a single mortar projectile launched from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel. No Palestinian faction claimed responsibility for the firing, and the Israeli press reported that the projectile was launched by a small, unknown organization.
Since Operation Cast Lead, Hamas has generally abstained from firing into Israeli territory while Israel has refrained from targeting manned Hamas facilities.
Two days later the Israeli military reported that its soldiers were attacked by Gaza fighters while “performing a routine activity”. Again, no Palestinian faction took responsibility for the attack.
Normally Palestinian factions take responsibility and credit for their attacks on Israeli targets. There have also been cases in which Palestinian military factions claimed attacks that never actually occurred.
The next day, on 19 March, Israeli tanks shot at targets in the Gaza Strip. Five people were injured in this attack, while additional shelling destroyed power lines.
In response to Israeli attacks, Hamas fired mortars into Israel on Saturday 20 March. According to the Israeli police, at least 49 mortars exploded within the regional councils bordering Gaza, including Sdot Negev and Eshkol. Two Israelis were lightly hurt by shrapnel.
What gives us room for optimism is that this running amok has awakened Israeli public opinion against the murky fascistic wave. Perhaps this absurd law will provoke a dialogue about the events that took place in 1948, as a way to reconcile the two peoples.
The government’s ambassadors and its propagandists can barely persuade anyone in the world, except themselves. The destroyers of Israeli democracy can only stoke the fire higher and higher against it. The critical voices still being heard, in commendable freedom, arouse the world’s esteem. The dissidents are now the best explainers of Israel, whose regime is still to its credit.
‘The revolutionary leadership has said that even if there are civilian casualties, they will be a necessary price to prevent even greater loss of life if Gaddafi’s forces had continued their assault on Misrata and exacted revenge against the residents for their support of the uprising.’
Maintaining a revolutionary position in the present Libyan scenario is like walking in a minefield. One cannot applaud imperialists with their undeniable record of ruthless manipulation in pursuit of control of the world’s energy resources nor the violent tyranny of Gaddafi and bevy of Western puppet dictators which infest nations which often hold treasures coveted by mercantilists. In the Financial Times, Roula Khalaf reminds us of the recent history of the Libyan revolution and warns of the impact of Gaddafi’s manipulations across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA):
But as the international coalition steps up its attacks on Libyan forces, Muammer Gaddafi is single-handedly, and tragically, transforming the image of the Arab spring, taking the region back to what we have long been used to, a combination of bloody conflict and foreign intervention.
…
It is important to remember that Libyans began their protests peacefully, marching across the country to demand Col Gaddafi’s departure. They were forced to take up arms to confront a crackdown using every military tool in Col Gaddafi’s arsenal. As army officers broke away and sided with the rebels, and ammunition depots were raided, the stand-off veered towards civil war.
It was also the rebels themselves who were the first to call upon the world community for assistance, specifically asking for a no-fly zone to protect the cities and towns that were under their control. And it is only grudgingly that a coalition has been formed, with the US a late-comer to the game, and everyone insisting that any military operation required Arab backing.
Navy Vice Adm. William E. Gortney underlined that strikes are not specifically targeting the Libyan leader or his residence in Tripoli. He said that any of Gadhafi’s ground forces advancing on the rebels were open targets.
But NBC Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski today knocked down the talk that what is going on militarily is a “huge coalition effort.” Here’s what he said in a remarkable segment this morning:
“Despite the White House attempts to make this look like it’s a huge coalition effort — obviously it required coalition political support — but for now the U.S. military is not only in the lead but conducting almost all military operations, with only minor participation from the French, as you mentioned, even British fighters over night. There’s a U.S. commander. And even this morning I talked to senior military officials, when I asked them how soon will the U.S. turn over the command to the coalition — and the indication is the U.S. military is in no hurry to do that.”
A refugee crisis – another cruel human toll consequent of war – is mounting:
As of 19 March, IOM and UNHCR estimated that at least 320,423 people have fled Libya, and approximately 8,578 remain stranded at the Libyan borders with Tunisia and Egypt.
And in Palestine, Israel’s foul oppression and collective punishment continues with a green light from the West, with opposition leader Livni calling for a repetition of the vile Cast Lead operation against the people of Gaza. Israel has cut a main power line in Gaza. The apartheid state has also admitted holding Gazan electrical engineer Abu Sisi.
Abu Sisi, 42, and a father of six, disappeared from a train while travelling between Kiev and the eastern city of Kharkiv on the night of February 18-19.
The engineer’s wife Veronika said she had been told by train attendants that her husband had been taken away by two men posing as officers of the Ukrainian secret service,
He is being held at Shikma prison in Ashkelon, according to a Ukrainian delegate at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees cited by Israeli media.
Hamas condemned the abduction and demanded the engineer’s release.
“This kidnapping violates international law and Ukraine’s sovereignty. It is further proof of the contempt of the (Israeli) occupation for the international community,” spokesman Sami Abu Zohi told AFP.
UPDATES
RT @avinunu: Iraq was devasted by weeks of intensive bombing in 1991 and Saddam held on for 12 more years, despite crippling sanctions. #
The new MI unit will monitor Western groups involved in boycotting Israel, divesting from it or imposing sanctions on it. The unit will also collect information about groups that attempt to bring war crime or other charges against high-ranking Israeli officials, and examine possible links between such organizations and terror groups.
In response to erroneous allegations of anti-semitism and ‘even more insidious’ criticisms that it was none of Council’s business, Father Dave (Rev. David B. Smith) said:
That “it’s none of my business attitude”, I think, is really what allowed the Holocaust to happen,”I’m sorry about what happening to jews in Poland but its none of my business”, “I’m sorry about what’s happening to blacks in South Africa but what’s it got to do with me”, “I’m sorry about what’s happening to Palestinians in Bethlehem but it’s none of the business of Council”, and if we all take that attitude the whole world burns. As Martin Luther King said, injustice anywhere is a threat against justice everywhere and we cannot sit idly by while our sisters and brothers in Bethlehem suffer, not as a country, not as individuals either and again I congratulate our Council for their consistent, courageous stand.
Father Dave was Marrickville Citizen of the Year for 1997 and 2009.
Opposition local government spokesman Chris Hartcher told The Australian yesterday that, if the Coalition won government, he would use his discretionary powers to “call councils to account” over the issue.
NSW Greens spokesman Mark Riboldi said Ms Byrne had not made a formal “vow” to introduce GBDS in state parliament. “Also, ‘I would suggest that the NSW Greens would be looking to’ is not the same as ‘I will’,” Mr Riboldi said.
The Libya intervention is also complicated by the trends in the rest of the region. There is currently a bloody crackdown going on in U.S.-backed Bahrain, with the support of Saudi Arabia and the GCC. The Yemeni regime of Ali Abdullah Saleh is currently carrying out some of its bloodiest repression yet. Will the Responsibility to Protect extend to Bahrain and Yemen? This is not a tangential point. One of the strongest reasons to intervene in Libya is the argument that the course of events there will influence the decisions of other despots about the use of force. If they realize that the international community will not allow the brutalization of their own people, and a robust new norm created, then intervention in Libya will pay off far beyond its borders. But will ignoring Bahrain and Yemen strangle that new norm in its crib?
A great mass of humanitarian social media addicts and self-styled cyberactivists in their hundreds of thousands signed petitions to beg the United Nations to authorize the bombing of Libya. Bearers of good intentions, no doubt, but perhaps less skilled as historians. Many will not even Google their way to the nearest Wikipedia entry that might cause them to ask some basic questions. On the other hand, history does not always repeat itself, and I am not one to make solid predictions, so perhaps this is not a useful basis for discussing the role of “humanitarian concern” in this debacle.
Instead, I have questions.
For example, exactly what kind of global human rights agenda is it that requires substantial military spending, private defense contractors, and a robust air force?
“We can’t stand by and do nothing”–and why not, when it is precisely what you are doing every day when it comes to the slaughter of civilians in Afghanistan (courtesy of our own troops), when it comes to the “secret” war in Yemen, the “secret” war in Somalia, or for that matter, the killing of civilian protesters today in Yemen and Bahrain? How about how we stood by and did nothing, as our allied torture state, Uzbekistan, boiled alive opponents and the detainees sent to them by the CIA? Boiled alive–whisper it, because not even Gaddafi has imagined perpetrating such horrors. Whisper it, so you can forget it again: “Andijan massacre;” “Uzbekistan: Repression Linked to 2005 Massacre Rife;” “500 bodies laid out in Uzbek town;” “‘High death toll’ in Uzbekistan;” “’700 dead’ in Uzbek violence.”
In the ABC religion and ethics section, Slavoj Zizek speaks about the fictitious two state solution, annunciating that which many of us already know: ‘If there is a lesson to be learned from the protracted negotiations, it is that the greatest obstacle to peace is what is offered as the realistic solution – the creation of two separate states.’
Zizek goes on to say:
Although neither side wants it (Israel would probably prefer the areas of the West Bank that it is ready to cede to become a part of Jordan, while the Palestinians consider the land that has fallen to Israel since 1967 to be theirs), the establishment of two states is somehow accepted as the only feasible solution, a position backed up by the embarrassing leak of Palestinian negotiation documents in January.
What both sides exclude as an impossible dream is the simplest and most obvious solution: a bi-national secular state, comprising all of Israel plus the occupied territories and Gaza. Many will dismiss this as a utopian dream, disqualified by the history of hatred and violence.
Zizek seems oblivious to Nutanyahoo’s plans to assimilate parts of the West Bank adjacent to Jordan in the fertile Jordan Valley for Israeli military purposes.
He might be cheered though by the latest statistics from an AWRAD Poll in August, 2010 surveying Palestinians across the Occupied Territories, where it was found ‘as much as 53 percent are willing to support, accept or consider the idea of one-joint state in which Israelis and Palestinians are equal citizens between the Jordanian River and the sea. In contrast, 47 percent find this unacceptable.’ It is the collaborator PA which clings to the false western colonialist plan for two states.
Zizek is on the mark with his conclusions:
But far from being a utopia, the bi-national state is already a reality: Israel and the West Bank are one state. The entire territory is under the de facto control of one sovereign power – Israel – and divided by internal borders. So let’s abolish the apartheid that exists and transform this land into a secular, democratic state.
My twitter notes from Ali Abunimah’s address today at McGill University, Montreal:
Boycotting, divestments & sanctions #BDS against Israel are not an ends in themselves, they are a means to legitimate Palestinian goals
End occupation, end all forms of discrimination against Palestinians, and end the racist exclusion of Palestinian refugees V @avinunu LIVE
When considering criticism of BDS academic boycott, Ali Abunimah draws attention to the awful destruction of schools by Israel in #Gaza
Israel went back again just 2 days ago and bombed Gaza University – so why are people critical of BDS silent on Israeli ‘academic boycott’?
‘It is the duty of civil society to respond to the Palestinian BDS appeal and act, especially when govts are complicit’ @avinunu LIVE
?’#BDS is an ethical, moral, justifiable means to bring pressure on Israel to change ‘ @avinunu Ali Abunimah LIVE
‘Israel has reached a crisis in the type of stories it can tell to cover up its crimes of apartheid’ @avinunu LIVE
The peace process has been an alibi, an excuse, for inaction, something for the gutless to hold onto’ @avinunu LIVE
Govts all worked to forestall, to prevent justice coming from the Goldstone Report, with the excuse being the ‘peace process’ @avinunu LIVE
“The ‘peace process’ is an utter hoax, has reached a dead end, what’s exposed more & more are realities of colonialism, apartheid & racism ”
Israel is 1 of the 4 most negatively viewed countries in the world, there’ve been significant increases in views from Americans @avinunu LIVE
Israel says this is cos of anti-semitism, but even Israeli diplomats quitting – ‘can no longer support Israeli foreign policy’ @avinunu LIVE
(diplomat made actual reference to this anti-semitism cover used by israel hasbarists)
Great historic change can happen and it can happen suddenly, people are still powerful, that when people decide they have had enough, nothing can stop them’ @avinunu LIVE
Billions of aid have gone to the west bank into building a repressive police pseudo state exactly of the kind people are rising up against in Tunisia and Egypt @avinunu LIVE
The IDF recognises that in the event of a popular uprising it will not be able to rely on the PA police state to repress it, and is searching for more collaborators – and that is a dead end – israel really has nowhere left to go @avinunu LIVE
Winning means bringing an end to apartheid, an end to colonial rule, giving everyone in Palestine/Israel a decent life, restitution and justice, refugees’ rights @avinunu LIVE
Jewish National Fund is primary means for land theft by zionists – JNF is one of the key institutions enforcing apartheid by denying Palestinians access to their land, locking it up for jews only @avinunu LIVE
Since the attacks on the Twin Towers and Pentagon, Muslims have been involved in 45 domestic terrorist plots. Meanwhile, non-Muslims have been involved in 80 terrorist plots.
In fact, right-wing extremist and white supremacist attacks plots alone outnumber plots by Muslims, with both groups being involved in 63 terror plots, 18 more plots than Muslim Americans have been involved in.
The Embassy Suite Hotel, Anaheim South
11767 Harbor Boulevard
Garden Grove, California 92840
April 29, 30, 2011
We call on all Palestinians regardless of organizational affiliation to join Al-Awda’s members and supporters at this year’s convention. We will address and collectively take steps toward changing our destiny as a people while we reaffirm our determination to return to our homes and lands. We can no longer stay silent while an un-elected, illegitimate leadership beholden to its U.S. and occupation masters is cravenly giving up on our rights.
To address these critical issues that our cause is facing, planning discussions that will merge brain storming ideas, strategy, tactics with action items will include:
* The Palestine Papers and the Arab people’s uprising; Impact on the Palestinian struggle and future organizing. Round-table and panel discussion with key speakers
* Boycotts & Divestment
* Refugee Support
* Cultural Resistance Through Various Forms of Art
* Palestinian Children’s Rights Campaign
Several young activists from the refugee camps will be taking part this year in hands-on workshops.
Among the Speakers at the Ninth Al-Awda convention are:
* Dr. Salman Abu Sitta, General Coordinator Palestinian Right of Return Congress, Founding President of the Palestine Land Society
* Abbas Al-Nouri, Syrian Arab actor of “bab el-h7ara” fame, political activist
*Diana Buttu, Palestinian lawyer, former legal advisor to Palestinian negotiating team
* Lubna Masarwa, Palestinian activist, survivor of Mavi Marmara massacre
* Laila Al-Arian, Palestinian Author, writer and producer with Al-Jazeera English, one of the lead producers of the Palestine Papers
* Dr. Jamal Nassar, Specialist in Middle East politics and Dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at CSUSB
* Rim Banna, Palestinian singer & activist
* Najat El-Khairy, Palestinian porcelain painting artist
* Remi Kanazi, Palestinian spoken word artist, activist
* Youth from Refugee Camps
Two of Labor’s leading left-wing MPs – the Deputy Premier, Carmel Tebbutt (Marrickville) and the Education Minister, Verity Firth (Balmain) – have written to their Greens opponents, Fiona Byrne and Jamie Parker, proposing a preference swap.
The Labor candidate for Sydney, Sacha Blumen, has also written to his Greens rival, De Brierley Newton.
”While I note that media reports have indicated that the Greens will not be preferencing Labor in the upper house statewide, I believe we can show leadership in the community of Marrickville,” Ms Tebbutt wrote to Ms Byrne. ”I suggest that both our parties should indicate to voters that we will recommend an exchange of preferences locally and in the upper house in the electorate of Marrickville.”
The three inner-city seats accounted for more than 10 per cent of the Greens’ upper house vote at the 2007 election. Labor believes if it can persuade the Greens to swap preferences in these seats it could alter the balance of power in the upper house.
However, the Greens campaign spokesman, Chris Holley, said: ”The Greens are encouraging voters to make up their own minds about whether to give a preference or not. The best way to avoid a conservative dominated upper house is to vote for the Greens.
“There is absolutely no plan or intention to boycott China”, she [Byrne] said that day.
It was clearly a set-up by the ALP machine to try and smear the Green mayor.
The real story here is that the Labor party has been under pressure from supporters of Israel to reverse the council’s decision on the BDS.
Yet, all five Green councillors, all four Labor councillors and one independent councilor supported the motion.
Carmel Tebbutt, deputy Premier and Labor MP for Marrickville, made a point of stating at the candidates’ meeting that she did not agree with the council’s support for BDS.
She also tried to stop the chairperson — Eva Cox — from asking an anti-BDS speaker to finish up and ask a question. Tebbutt defended the person arguing that her “question” (it was a speech) had been “placed on notice”.
It is understood that some of the Labor councillors and rank-and-file members are furious with the Labor machine for its attacks over BDS.
As the countdown to March 26 begins, we can expect a lot more dirty tricks from Labor as the party faces an electoral wipeout, including possibly in a seat it has held since 1910.
As a Palestinian and a Jew, we salute Marrickville council for understanding that words about “two-state solution” and “peace process” are soothing to elite media and political ears, but desperate facts on the ground in Palestine require direct action in a consultative and non-violent way.
When governments fail to arrest the illegal march of colonisation on Palestinian land, it is not enough to wait for futile peace negotiations that only lead to a more deeply entrenched occupation.
Marrickville council is at least trying to advance the debate about occupation while our leaders visit Israel and dine with Benjamin Netanyahu.
Ten local councillors from the suburb of Marrickville, New South Wales, Australia, in their official role as elected representatives of approximately 75,000 residents, have put forward an official resolution in December 2010 to:
“…boycott all goods made in Israel and any sporting, institutional, academic, government or institutional cultural exchanges…”.
By this action, the ten councillors have formally aligned their municipality with terrorist organisations seeking to overthrow the State of Israel, the one free and democratic nation in the Middle East, fellow UN member, and notably the only multi-ethnic state in the region where freedom of expression, equality, non-discrimination, free union movements, freedom of press and the rule of law are established and guaranteed. In short, they have espoused totalitarian values over Australian democratic values. They are playing into the hands of the Islamist Global BDS Movement and supporting the Hamas and Hizbollah terror groups and other international racist and anti-Semitic organisations..
This irrational act is not only alarmingly naïve, but by supporting the worldview of totalitarian Islam, represents an appalling abuse of our democratic process.
A council’s brief is to act in the interests of their residents, by organizing such things as rubbish collection, social services, catching stray dogs and regulating fence heights. They are not elected to engage in partisan foreign politics or involve themselves in the domestic affairs of other states. In particular, they must never be seen to side with totalitarian, anti-democratic religious fanatics who use terrorism and murder in seeking to destroy the democratic nation of Israel, with which Australia has strong and friendly relations.
Petition:
We ask the Hon Minister for Local Government in the State of New South Wales (Australia) to reprimand the council of Marrickville for engaging in conduct unbecoming of a local municipality in Australia.
We consider that the conduct of this council is divisive, irrational and ill-informed, and that it deals with matters which do not and should not be included in the jurisdiction of a local municipality.
The aim of Q Society of Australia is to tell the truth about Islam and Sharia law as we see it: That Islam is a totalitarian, political and religious ideology, of which Sharia law is an integral part, and that the further spread of Islam and Sharia law threaten our free, egalitarian and democratic society. Many national and international political leaders have voiced exactly the same concern. …
In consequence, our objection to the expanding use of this small Community House in Melbourne’s Jewish heartland as instant part-time mosque for up to 100 faithful, is not racist by any measure.
The nationality, race or ethnicity of the people involved is immaterial and was never raised by us. Q Society is very much in favour of a multi-ethnic Australia. We are not petitioning against Muslims praying, neither do we have any concern with members of Australia’s Islamic community peacefully gathering to worship in private, or in a designated place of worship. Peaceful assembly for worship
is the right of all Australians and there are now many mosques in Melbourne for this purpose. …
sermons are often used to incite violence against non-believers. So it is hardly alarmist to acknowledge local residents’ concern about this. It is evident that Friday prayers in the heart of Jewish Melbourne will inevitably create unease in a community already forced to employ security guards outside its schools and synagogues. It is a fact that foundational Islam contains many words fostering hatred of Jews and Christians, with the result that anti-Semitism and violence against Christian minorities is rife in the Islamic world.
While it is true the prayer group has received support from some Jewish groups, these are not representative of the whole of the Jewish community, but mostly progressive elements, who also support Palestinian causes either out of self-interest or a misplaced concern for “the Other”. Deborah Stone of the ‘Anti-Defamation Committee’ (ADC), proclaims “We at the ADC understand that by defending everyone’s freedom we ensure a freer society for ourselves.” But she fails to acknowledge that defending the freedom of intolerant Islam and Sharia ultimately threatens to destroy both her and our freedoms.
‘Asharq Al-Awsat- Informed Libyan sources in the city of Benghazi, where the headquarters of the Interim National Council are located, which has recently put forth its candidates to administer the country in the coming period, have revealed that Colonel Muammar Gaddafi yesterday sent a negotiator on his behalf to visit the Council. [Via the negotiator], the Libyan leader declared his readiness to abandon power and leave Libya, in return for ensuring the safety of himself and his family.’
The law’s lack of clarity, its paternalism, the profound disconnect between it and community standards about privacy, gender equity and the entitlement of patients to ethical and professional medical care unequivocally demonstrates that it is indeed broke.
The charging of Cairns couple Tegan Leach, 19, and Sergie Brennan, 21, in 2009 with abortion-related crimes was a game changer. Here, at last, was incontrovertible proof that not only did the law of abortion denigrate, patronise and discriminate against Australian women, it also put them and their partners at very real risk of being charged, tried, convicted and sent to jail for undertaking what the World Health Organisation says is “one of the safest medical procedures.”
The Cairns case also exposed how confused Australians of reproductive age such as Leach and Brennan are about the laws of abortion that reign in their state or territory. How many Australians, perhaps even most, mistake the relative availability of safe abortion services as evidence that abortion is no longer a crime?
“Maliki is starting to act like Saddam Hussein, to use the same fear, to plant it inside Iraqis who criticize him,” said Salam Mohammed al-Segar, a human rights activist who was among those beaten during a sit-in. “The U.S. must feel embarrassed right now – it is they who promised a modern state, a democratic state. But in reality?”
Despite hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of troops, the US is unable to conclude its longest war. All of which explains the rather blunt comments made in a speech at the end of February, by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates when he said “… any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should ‘have his head examined,’ as General MacArthur so delicately put it.”
