racism

July 17, 2012December 11, 2020

More Hasbara Funding, More, More!

In the face of a growing number of significant successes for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement to end Israel’s crimes against Palestinians, MK Danny Danon screams for more funding to expand Israel’s noxious hasbara empire. Here’s a Google translation of this story on INN:

150 messengers, trained and 500 missions and 22,000 explain, three million hits the site, 300 thousand leaflets, millions of followers Btoitr, and tens of millions of radio listeners do not – Jews in the world – this is a small part from Israel propaganda, as revealed today (Monday) Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora.

The problem: All projects and many others, budgeted at 40 Million shekels only, ten and a half million dollars.

Committee chairman MK Danny Danon (Likud) said it was a scandal the state’s public budget in the world is under attack so sum – miserable. This is a comprehensive and impressive action. The firm does a lot, initiate grand projects – achievements, lack of success, but still does not get proper government backing. The budget must be increased significantly, to encourage the activities of Israel’s friends in the world – that they do not – very few.

Minister of Information and Diaspora Yuli Edelstein told the meeting that the principle of information activity is beyond activism, and more on the defensive sufficiency, advocacy by citizens, and stop apologizing. Edelstein said the firm gave more than three hundred thousand leaflets – information about Israel at Ben Gurion Airport, in English, French, Spanish, Russian and Hebrew, hydrogen Ldibiitim training to more than 22 thousand people, and 500 delegations underwent training in public relations, and that 3 million people entered to date to “explain Israel.”

The Minister presented the project “Faces of Israel”, issued more than 150 representatives of Israeli society to the world in order to tell about life in the country, from the corner of academic studies, tourism, science, culture, living together and so on. “We are fighting the ignorance that many of the world at do not know that Ethiopian Jews or Bedouins – Israel, “said Edelstein.

Program “broadcast in Israel for ever” stayed in television and radio announcers and executives from the world, with 5-7 million listeners and over, broadcasting from Israel for a week. Like – yes Edelstein revealed that Hollywood film actors organize a delegation to come to Israel to learn how to look after children with special needs, as well as office assistance support for Israel annual march in New York. The minister also revealed that the ministry is working to connect Israelis – Jewish emigrants abroad and recognize Israel and sign a huge demand for this initiative.

Edelstein said he had recently held a conference in forty countries interested to learn from Israel about the connection with their distribution, and activity center office in favor of Israel against the world’s Christian leaders. Edelstein noted the fruitful cooperation with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Tourism, the Jewish Agency and World Zionist Organization, “otherwise they could not carry out these projects.”

Jewish Agency Secretary Josh Schwartz also noted the cooperation emissaries, especially on campuses, and Danny Wosner, representative of Jewish Federations of North America said that the firm serves the world’s Jewish communities address. Show Melaku, IBA works, represented Israel in Ireland Several months ago, said that “We have received excellent training. The Irish do not know anything about Israel, and contrary to the image do not hate her. ”

MK Shlomo Molla (Kadima) added also – is that “I was in college in California, considered to be particularly anti-Semitic, and Cshstodntim meet with the Israelis face – to – face, not through the media, the reactions are particularly good. Amount of only $ 40 million is a miserable, in front of government offices not to use their budgets until the end “.

Plot firm CEO Ronen said at the meeting that “The office was established three years ago from nothing, today is an empire of 40 projects that only 5 percent is presented here. Are in demand all over the world but we are forced to turn them away because of lack of sufficient budget. Should at least double the budget and increase the standards. ”

IOF steal Palestinian water tanks

The Israeli army waited for the peak of summer heat to confiscate Palestinian water tanks.
No amount of money can destroy the truth about Israel’s crimes, Danny. Instead of attempting to whitewash these unsustainable iniquities, money would be better spent ending Israel’s racist persecution and land theft, removing injustice to Palestinians and conforming with the requirements of international law.

Danon further distinguishes himself with vehement racism at a recent conference by calling for the expulsion of ‘infiltrators’ to Israel –

“Enough talk,” Danon said. “It is time for action. Deport all of the infiltrators from the state of Israel.”

Danon offered his preferred solution to the ongoing issue: Israel must “build cities for infiltrators, finish construction of the border fence (along Israel’s southern border with Egypt) and expel all the infiltrators from Israel,” he said. “Illegal infiltrators must have two modes: Deported or awaiting deportation.”

…

“Citizens of Israel have turned into refugees in their own homes, and the (African) refugees have become the permanent residents (of Israel),” Danon said.

Illegal Israeli settlement products are not for Minnie Mouse

USACBI issues letter to university presidents after Israel tour

Why Dr. Wissam Joubran from Nazareth refused to normalise Israeli oppression: ‘Participation was conditioned on an Israeli singer appearing alongside me, yet such an appearance, when in Gaza there are still bodies coming out from under the ruins and the blood of hundreds of children and women is still shouting, would not be for the goal of presenting my music and art, but to attempt and present a sparkling picture of the relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel. My response was that I am not prepared to be the laundry detergent of the state of Israel in such a ceremony.’

Will Ireland propose an EU ban on Israeli settlement goods?

Professional apartheid : Doctors who receive their medical degrees from Al-Quds University, a prominent Palestinian institution of higher learning, can’t practise in Jerusalem because Israel won’t let them take the necessary licensing exam.

What Is Settler Colonialism: ‘As Israel continues to claim the Palestinian kitchen as its own, so does the United States with Native America: consuming corn, wild rice, quinoa, cranberry, cornbread and Turkey with the confidence of a national cuisine. In the United States, settler colonialism has been so complete, and so successful, that the world has forgotten that South Africa, Australia and Israel are all reproductions, all approximations of the ongoing victory back home.’

Palestine / Israel Links

Defense Ministry hires architect to resume construction of illegal West Bank outpost

New campaign from Stop the Wall targeting the German insurance company Allianz as the principle institutional shareholder in the Israeli arms company Elbit Systems.

Is Palestine going mainstream in British politics?
Lesson of The Atlantic attack on Mondoweiss: “New media” can’t kick old habit of excluding Palestinians

Syria Links

Tariq Ali: What is really happening in Syria?

TARIQ ALI says we are witnessing in Syria a new form of re-colonisation by the West, like we have already seen in Iraq and in Libya.

Many of the people who first rose against the Assad regime in Syria have been sidelined, leaving the Syrian people with limited choices, neither of which they want: either a Western imposed regime, “composed of sundry Syrians who work for the western intelligence agencies”, or the Assad regime.

The only way forward, in the interests of all Syrians, says Ali, is negotiation and discussion. But it is now obvious that the West is not going to let that happen because they are backing the opposition groups who are against any negotiation.

Australia Links

Daily spew – the US and Australia, tied at the knees by neoliberalism.
Boat people dreaming
Qld LibNat racism is vomitous – their conference passes a resolution that “Asian and Aboriginal history should not be taught at the expense of western history and Christian values”.

July 16, 2012December 11, 2020

Israel’s Criminal Treatment of Palestinian People Is Beyond Appalling

Three pieces today detailing crimes committed by the apartheid Israeli entity bring a sickening lurch to an already nauseated stomach and reaffirm the need for boycott, divestment and sanctions against it.

The first – where Israel is complaining like a torturer unsatisfied with the volume of the victim’s screams, is recorded by Ma’an News agency:

Israel’s military department governing civil affairs in the occupied West Bank regards a UN agency’s assistance to displaced Palestinians as illegal operations, a spokesman said Sunday.

Israeli daily Haaretz reported earlier that the department, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, are seeking to “reassess” the role of the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the West Bank.

The UN office “are assisting Palestinian communities who have demolitions because they are built in an illegal way. OCHA gives them tents and by that is doing illegal work, without seeking Israeli permission,” COGAT spokesman Guy Inbar told Ma’an.

Humanitarian officials say providing a temporary tent to a displaced family falls under international definitions of emergency humanitarian assistance, rather than a building project that requires a permit.

Israeli authorities insist there is a legal process for Palestinians living in Area C, the 62 percent of the West Bank under full Israel civil and security control since the 1993 Oslo Accords, to build in their communities.

“In the last year (COGAT) approved many international projects, even UN OCHA projects, but not in an illegal way, like what they are doing in the south Hebron hills,” Inbar said, while warning: “International work does not get immunity.”

But the United Nations and humanitarian agencies say in reality it is almost impossible for Palestinians to obtain a building permit, and highlight that Israeli settlers in the same area are able to expand communities that are illegal under international law.

The south Hebron hills is one area of the West Bank facing repeated demolition orders. Israeli forces last month warned that they intend to demolish all 50 buildings in one village in the region, Susiya, after a settler group filed a legal petition calling for its removal.

A diplomatic source told Ma’an: “It is outrageous that (the Israeli) administration which condones illegal settlement construction is here using an argument against construction that helps some of the most disadvantaged communities, who have the right to protection under international law.”

Already in 2012, Israeli authorities have demolished 330 Palestinian buildings in the West Bank, displacing 536 people, half of whom are children, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories Richard Falk said in late June.

Meanwhile international law experts say that under the Fourth Geneva Convention Israel must provide for the needs of the occupied Palestinian population, and are prohibited from demolishing any structure that has a civilian purpose.

Haaretz reported that COGAT asked the Foreign Ministry to lodge a formal complaint with the UN, and on July 10 Israel’s UN ambassador wrote to the UN humanitarian affairs chief asking for staff lists, past and future activities and a review of the agency’s role.

Israeli authorities are considering limiting visas for foreign OCHA employees and stopping work and travel permits for Palestinian staff members, the newspaper said.

Inbar said COGAT is perturbed that OCHA is over reaching its mandate through its work in Area C, while OCHA says it does not undertake building projects but is mandated to coordinate international agencies’ response to humanitarian emergencies.

The second gut-churning criminal abuse involves Israel’s continuing mistreatment of Palestinian children incarcerated in its dungeons. Unfortunate child prisoners are forced to stand in the sun for three hours and be strip-searched while their rooms are searched:

The administration of the Israeli Hasharon jail has forced Palestinian minors to stand in the sun heat for three hours at the pretext of searching their rooms.

Amjad Siraj, who is representing those minors, told a lawyer for the Palestinian prisoner’s society that the incident took place three days ago and that the rooms were turned upside-down in the savage search by the Israeli Nahshon unit members.

Siraj said that the conditions in the Israeli jails, as far as minors were concerned, did not change, adding that the prison administration only responded to a number of simple requests.

He said that the Nahshon unit members rummaged through the minors’ ward and forced minors to strip search.

Defence for Children International’s recent report details the deleterious extent of Israel’s disgraceful abuses against Palestinian children. In an urgent DCI appeal last week, this prestigious organisation revealed that

Since 2008, DCI-Palestine has documented 53 cases in which children have been held in solitary confinement in facilities located inside Israel, mainly Al Jalame and Petah Tikva interrogation centres, and Hasharon prison. The children report being held in isolation at these facilities for an average of 10 days.

In the third instance of unusual and cruel collective punishment, in which Egypt is also implicated, the people of Gaza are subjected to power cuts – 8 hours on and 8 hours off in blistering summer heat.

Ahmed Abu Amrain, the Director of Information Center of the Energy Authority, said during a press conference yesterday that the Authority and Gaza Electricity Distribution Company are working on scheduling the electricity consumption in order to manage the crisis noting that the electricity will be running for 8 hours then cut off for 8 hours, successively throughout the 24 hours.

He attributed the main reasons behind the deficit to the reduction in the amounts of fuel provided for Gaza and which is resulting from the Israeli arbitrary measures and Egyptian inaction in allowing the fuel donated by Qatar into the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, Nutanyahoo brags about another 500 apartheid settler homes to be constructed in the illegal and brazenly named ‘national priority settlements’ in the Occupied West Bank, and La Ashton indicates her complicity with Israel’s criminal treatment of Palestinian prisoners in variance with the EU Parliament position. As Ali Abunimah has highlighted:

Moreover, the circumstances in which she gave her statement suggest Ashton acted in order to ensure that Israel’s human rights abuses would not be discussed by the Foreign Affairs committee of the European Parliament.

These vile, ongoing crimes remind us all, in the absence of action by governments, to support the international boycott of Israel called by Palestinian civil society until Palestinian people receive their full human rights which Israel denies them, including the end of Israel’s Occupation, apartheid and colonialism, equal rights for Palestinian citizens of Israel and the recognition of right of return of Palestinian refugees.

Related Links

“Break your chains on your own” : Mustafa Barghouti urges Palestinian BDS against apartheid Israeli products in the Occupied West Bank

In New York, TIAA-CREF shareholders will be attending the annual meeting to question new trustees about their stance on profiting from companies whose products are used by the Israeli military in grave and systematic human rights violations. “We are here to remind TIAA-CREF that their investments destroy Palestinian schools, make Palestinian families homeless, and deny Palestinians freedom of movement,” said Allison Brown of Adalah-NY, a We Divest Campaign coalition partner. “These are not investments ‘for the greater good.’

Apartheid illegal settlers indulging in vitiwashing hasbara

Palestine / Israel Links

Would you trust the media spew from these hasbaroids?
Israeli government office burned, vandalized in solidarity with self-immolating protester

The empire is back to using the Egyptians as intermediaries, washing its hands of Obama’s failure to stop the settlements – not that he cared enough to put sufficient pressure onto Israel, in fact rewarded them with increased joint miltech projects.

Egypt’s new president signals there won’t be dramatic changes in Gaza policy

Contrary to what Baskin claims, Palestinian nationalists are talking (and working) with Israelis, if and when the Israelis fulfill the conditions set by the Palestinian national leadership. It is not and should not be a matter of negotiation between the Palestinian national movement and the tiny minority of Israelis supporting their rights. Israeli anti-occupation activists are not the UN, working between the two camps: either Israelis are with the Palestinian national struggle, or they are a kind of cover-up for the Israeli colonial occupation.

Histadrut still represents Israel Railway workers, National Labor Court rules

July 6, 2012December 11, 2020

Geri Allen: Inspire Justice, Join the Cultural Boycott of Israel

Paul Robeson Geri Allen
Associate Professor of Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation
http://www.geriallen.com/contact.php
University Of Michigan
734-764-5599

Dear Geri Allen,

We (Don’t Play Apartheid Israel) heard that you plan to perform before a segregated audience in Eilat on August 1 and 2. This is your opportunity to refuse this invitation to play for an Israeli government sponsored event and to support human rights. Among the nearly 6 million Palestinians who are subject to racism and segregation by Israel, there is at least one young Beah Richards whom you have the opportunity to ‘lift up’ by standing up for equal rights and justice.

In our minds, the film about the late Beah Richards, who was empowered by the strength of Paul Robeson, is intertwined with your piano notes. Had it not been for Paul Robeson’s firm refusal to perform before segregated audiences, Richards would have never been inspired to write her poem, then later become the strong woman who fought for human rights for African Americans through her leadership and role as a great actress.

Less than two years ago, a group of young, bright students at the University of Michigan staged a silent walk-out protest when two Israeli soldiers who falsely claimed that Israel does not harm civilians, spoke. The courage of these students who wore the names of Palestinian children whose lives were ended by Israel’s ferocious military power (the 4th largest in the world) moved many people to support justice and human rights for Palestinians. Please watch “Students Protest IDF Soldiers Campus Visit – OFFICIAL”:

In February, Robin D. G. Kelley, the Gary B. Nash Professor of American History at UCLA and prize-winning author endorsed the academic and cultural boycott of Israel. He stated:

“We went to Hebron, and visited and talked to Palestinian merchants, and witnessed a level of racist violence that I hadn’t even seen growing up as a black person here in the States, I have to say, and I’ve been beat by the cops.”

In March, organizations from around the world applauded Cassandra Wilson’s choice to refuse to headline a women’s empowerment festival in Holon, Israel. The festival was, as is the Red Sea Jazz Festival, not something Palestinians under occupation could attend. Wilson said:

“As a human rights activist, I identify with the cultural boycott of Israel.”

In June, Alice Walker, refused to have her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Color Purple republished in Israel. In a letter to Yediot Publishers in Israel she writes:

“Israel is guilty of apartheid and persecution of the Palestinian people, both inside Israel and also in the Occupied Territories.”

Palestinian Civil Society has called for a cultural boycott of Israel and many musicians support it, including 230 Irish artists and 150 Swiss artists, who have signed up to respect the boycott, stating “We note that the non-violent boycott, when it gains wide popular support, is an effective means of putting pressure on those in power.” Endorsements for the academic and cultural boycott of Israel from colleagues at American institutions now number 690.

The choice is yours to stand with those who are oppressed, or to stand with the oppressors. Are your two gigs really worth it? By cancelling, you might inspire a young person like Paul Robeson did. What better way to do this than by endorsing the cultural boycott? If you play, however, you set a grim example for your young students and diminish Robeson’s legacy. We are hoping you choose to stand with integrity, justice and human rights, with Paul Robeson and many others who have played a vital part in challenging racism and brutal oppression.

Beah said “With those words, that man lifted me.” When Richards met Robeson as an adult, she recited the poem she wrote as a teenager:

But, most all your songs have
taught me how to fight
To speak out, stand up for what
is right.
So now I say NO to those who
clasp unseemly silence
on your golden tongue,
who dare obscure the light
of life . . . .
Paul Robeson must speak
for Dan
for me
for us
Even yet. Today.

Sincerely,
Don’t Play Apartheid Israel
Don't Play Apartheid Israel

London, Ireland, Australia, USA
We are a collective of over 900 members, representing many nations around the globe, who believe that it is essential for musicians & other artists to heed the call of the PACBI, and join in the boycott of Israel. This is essential in order to work towards justice for the Palestinian people under occupation, and also in refugee camps and in the diaspora throughout the world.

SOURCE

July 4, 2012December 11, 2020

Due to Israel’s Expansionism, Two States are Out of the Picture

ICAHD, ID SR on situation in Palestinian territories, 25th Meeting
02 July 2012

Israeli Committee against House Demolitions Mr. Itay Epstein, Interactive Dialogue with: – Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 A/HRC/20/32 . Item 7: Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories – 25th Plenary Meeting. 20th Session of the Human Rights Council. HRC Extranet.

The art of intransigence, from Shamir to Netanyahu

It was Shamir who taught Bibi the method of pushing off the risk of concession without saying “no” to the Americans and inventing preconditions for the political process that the Arabs would undoubtedly reject. Shamir demanded that the PLO not be invited to the Madrid Conference that the administration of Bush senior convened at the end of 1991. Shamir demanded the Palestinian delegation be part of the Jordanian one and not include any representative from East Jerusalem. And just to be sure, he also demanded that every Arab nation, especially Syria, show up in Madrid.

To Shamir’s great surprise, the Palestinians agreed to all the conditions and found indirect stratagem that made a laughingstock out of Israel, such as finding East Jerusalem representatives who also happened to have addresses is Ramallah. I remember the panic in the Prime Minister’s Office after its staff read a piece I published in this newspaper about an American congressman who had visited Damascus bearing the message that Hafez Assad had decided to dispatch his foreign minister to the Madrid Conference. When I met Shamir a few days later, I couldn’t resist, and said to him, “You’re right, Mr. Prime Minister, you just can’t trust those Arabs.” Shamir, knowing what I meant, didn’t laugh. He was not amused.

Netanyahu’s policy on the settlements and his demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people demonstrate that Netanyahu is Shamir without the mustache.

June 20, 2012December 11, 2020

Barrington Levy, Please Boycott Israel, Say No to Racism and Apartheid

You can contact Barrington Levy and let him know that breaking the boycott against apartheid Israel is unacceptable from the contact link on his web site.

Gangsters - BARRINGTON LEVY Dear Barrington Levy,

We have discovered you are scheduled to play in Israel on ~~22 June~~ the 28 August.

The fact that there is a cultural boycott of Israel is not something of which all musical artists are aware when they schedule to play Israel. After becoming aware, many cancel. (See http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1788)

We are writing to let you know more about this global movement, and we hope you will decide to be a part of it.

Israel has claimed authority over the lives and land of millions of Palestinian people. What began in 1948 in Palestine has now escalated into what South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and many others call apartheid. Racism runs deep in the streets of Tel Aviv, Africans seeking asylum and living as refugees are filled with fear as Israelis demonstrate on the streets against their presence. Last May brought fear to Africans in Israel as a series of fire bombings of apartments and a day nursery were set off in an area where African migrants live. Shops run by or serving migrants were smashed up and looted in violent demonstrations in which several Africans were attacked. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu stated:

“We’ll start by ejecting the infiltrators from South Sudan…and then move on to other groups.”

Israel’s Minister of the Interior, Eli Yishai said chillingly:

“The infiltrators [African immigrants] along with the Palestinians will quickly bring us to the end of the Zionist dream…we don’t need to import more problems from Africa…[they] think the country doesn’t belong to us, the white man”.

A heinous series of walls, checkpoints, and sniper towers dot the landscape for millions of Palestinians. Brutal military might is flaunted daily and children in Gaza are regularly targeted to demonstrate the “effectiveness” of new weapons. Armed soldiers raid homes, fire into schoolyards, maiming and killing children.

While some liberal “peacenik” Israelis will tell you they want you to play because they will be your audience, please know that the most effective tool to end the oppression is an unequivocal stand against the injustice by saying no. Instead listen to the brave Israelis from “Boycott From Within” who have asked many artists to stay away from the failing Zionist state. (See http://boycottisrael.info/ )

Artists who do play for apartheid are being used to promote Israel as a false democracy. The Israeli government has an official twitter and uses its position to let the world know which artists lend their name to promote Israel’s false image. Just three of many examples are Bobby McFerrin, Gun N Roses and Sister Bliss.

Please don’t allow your name to be used to whitewash racism, apartheid, and the horrible illegal annexation wall (pictured here in this recent video).

Join the boycott for justice, equality, freedom and human rights.

Yours truly,

DPAI
Don’t Play Apartheid Israel (DPAI) seeks to inform musicians of the Palestinian call to boycott Israel, and the extent to which their decision to play in the apartheid state will be instrumentalized – against their will – as propaganda for the maintenance of a horrifying status quo in Israel/Palestine: that is a brutal, decades-long occupation, ongoing ethnic cleansing, continual land theft, passing of over 20 racist laws within Israel/’48, and the crackdown on human rights groups. We represent over 900 members from around the globe who believe that it is essential for musicians & other artists to heed the call of the PACBI, and join in the boycott of Israel.

For more information:
http://972mag.com/israeli-coalition-members-speak-about-refugees/47455/

SOURCE