racism

June 29, 2011August 24, 2022

Palestinian Political Prisoners, from the Oldest to the Youngest

Nael Barghouti was part of a Fatah squad who killed an Israeli officer in 1978. Although under international law occupying military forces are legitimate targets for resistance to occupation, Nael has been imprisoned since 1978 for life and is the longest-serving political prisoner held by Israel. Nael is regarded by Palestinian people as the dean of Palestinian political prisoners.

Yesterday Nael’s gaolers demanded a strip search. He refused so he was thrown in an isolation cell for two days and beaten.

Fellow detainee, Hilal Jaradat, reportedly rushed to his aid and was subsequently put together in a cell with Nael where they were both beaten by the guards, Al-Ashkar told Ma’an.

The lawyer for Al-Barghouti, Muhammad Al-Shayed, said in a statement that Nael is being punished for the incident and has been banned from receiving visitors for a period of four months, in addition to being fined 500 NIS and prohibited from buying from the prison cafeteria.

More than one third of Palestinian prisoners are denied visitation rights according to prisoner affairs expert Abdul-Nasser Farwana.

Nelson Mandela, now universally honoured, spent 27 years of his life from 1964 to 1982 imprisoned on the evil Robben Island, incarcerated by the apartheid South African regime for resisting its oppression. Current South African President Jacob Zuma who was imprisoned there for ten years. Over 3,000 political prisoners were banished to Robben Island between 1961 and 1991.

In Israel’s dungeons, there are many Palestinian Mandelas and Zumas, who await freedom after years of steadfastness.

According to B’tSelem, at the end of April 2011 there were around 5,380 Palestinian political prisoners, 4,381 are serving sentences and 1,002 are detained. These prisoners include 217 Palestinians children, 37 of whom are under the age of 16. 121 imprisoned children are detainees. Some prisoners haven’t seen their families for years.

The Israeli Occupation Forces take particular delight in disrupting the education of Palestinian children. During the present round of final year Tawjihi examinations, several children were detained near Bethlehem on the way home and told to report to the Israeli intelligence office. Often when children report, they are detained for hours or days, miss their exams and fail their final year.

According to Prisoners rights organisation Addameer,

Since the beginning of this Intifada in September 2000, over 2500 children have been arrested. Currently there are at least 340 Palestinian children being held in Israeli Prisons.

According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted on 20 November 1989 and entered into force on 2 September1990 (to which Israel is a signatory), and to relevant Israeli law, a child is defined as every human being under the age of 18 years. This is reiterated in the UN Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty, adopted by General Assembly Resolution 45/113 of 14 December 1990. However, Palestinian children from the age of 16 years are considered adults under Israeli military regulations governing the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

As is the case with adult prisoners, child detainees are transferred to prisons located within Israel. The primary prisons in which Palestinian child male detainees are held are Hasharon (Telmond), near Netanya, and Megiddo, near Haifa. Girl child prisoners are transferred to Neve Tertza Prison (Ramleh). Interrogation of child detainees takes place at Beit El and Huwarra Interrogation Centers, and occasionally other interrogation centers, and Palestinian child administrative detainees are held with adult administrative detainees at both Ofer and Negev Military Prison Camps. Palestinian children are primarily arrested at Israeli military checkpoints, from their homes, or from the street.

Since children 16 years and older are regarded by Israel as adults, they are not offered an education whilst in detainment or prison, are subject to medical negligence and are in many cases placed in the general criminal prison population where they are subject to harassment.

According to Addameer, Israel fails UN Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty.

Palestinian child prisoners are held in inhumane conditions of detention, made to live in overcrowded and filthy cells. Often, children are placed in small solitary confinement cells, measuring 1.5 square meters, that are extremely humid and have no windows for natural light, or with bright artificial light that is continuously kept on. This forces prisoners to remain awake at all times, depriving the prisoner of sleep for days in some cases. Prisoners do not receive sufficient food to meet the daily nutrition requirements for children, are prevented from going to the toilet at their will, and are not allowed a change of clothing.

Palestine / Israel Links

Raed Salah arrested after UK appearance
The elitist TED forums are viralised in TedX events. In Israel TedX is being spun to rebrand, sanitise and normalise oppression
Israel passes draft law requiring Palestinians to pay for their own home demolitions
Ethiopian children make up 1% of the education system’s student body. The report suggests that the concentration of Ethiopian immigrants in certain communities has resulted in some schools becoming “ghettos” for the community’s children.
AP Interview: PM Fayyad skeptical of UN bid, says declarations don’t change reality

Other Links

Climate sceptic Willie Soon received $1m from oil companies, papers show

June 29, 2011

Slavoj Zizek in Palestine

June 8, 2011December 11, 2020

The Case for Our Lives

Harriet McBryde Johnson’s insightful article, “Unspeakable Conversations (Should I have been killed at birth? The case for my life.)” enriches me every time I read it.

The main issues of which Harriet writes include:

‘We should not make disabled lives subject to debate.’

‘who should have the burden of proof as to the quality of disabled lives’

‘What worries me most about the proposals for legalized assisted suicide is their veneer of beneficence — the medical determination that, for a given individual, suicide is reasonable or right. It is not about autonomy but about nondisabled people telling us what’s good for us.’

If people are ‘able’ to make a decision about their own life or death, that is their choice to make. For those with diminished rights, entitled people do not have the right to make the choice for them.

Harriet’s consistent vision for society is one which cares for all life, which doesn’t see lives like hers as expendable, which encourages all its members to achieve their fullest potential, which encourages voice to all its members.

She says:

‘choice is illusory in a context of pervasive inequality. Choices are structured by oppression. We shouldn’t offer assistance with suicide until we all have the assistance we need to get out of bed in the morning and live a good life. Common causes of suicidality — dependence, institutional confinement, being a burden — are entirely curable.’

McBryde is not arguing against suicide as an option, but for dealing logically with the primary issue issue of inequality first.

People are prevented from choosing to work when the society in which they live doesn’t legislate for adequate childcare.

People who live in societies where education isn’t free or available have restricted choices.

In many societies these situations are dealt with by law and choices are increased.

Yet how many societies place importance on providing paid care and access for dis-abled people so *their* choices are maximised?

How do we build compassionate societies which value and incorporate equality of choice when the practicalities of equality and maximisation of individual potential are subordinated to the entrenched needs and viewpoints of those most benefited by existing inequities? Some live blithely, thinking the issue will not affect them – yet many will experience dis-ability by accident or as a consequence of old age.

I accept acknowledgement of my own entitlement and systemic inequalities, and in solidarity with others, attempt to work through my individual, social, economic and political relationships in a context of justice and rights, rather than adding to a toxic ethos of dis-ablement which excludes, marginalises and deprivileges further those already excluded, deprivileged and marginalised by existing social, political and economic constructs which reinforce and protect the needs of advantaged groups at the expense of everyone else.

These constructs include racism, prejudice, bigotry, elitism, agism, sexism and ableism, all embedded in distorted ‘laws’ and unquestioning acceptance of present injustice. It is comfortable to be complacent about others’ rights when it is not our rights that are denied or our voices which are silenced – yet the presumption that some lives are more valuable than others leads inevitably to atrocities. Where there is discrimination, all who are knowingly silent are complicit and contribute to their own potential or actual enslavement.

Stephen Hawking says ‘I’m sure my disability has a bearing on why I’m well known. People are fascinated by the contrast between my very limited physical powers, and the vast nature of the universe I deal with.’

One wonders how Stephen would have progressed had his talent been for political theory and leadership in the vanguard of the ‘left’ if there is lack of accessibility to union and other ‘activist’ meetings.

How many Stephen and Stephanie Hawkings have been locked out of the revolutionary process to the detriment of solidarity because of precious champagne socialists for whom providing accessibility is contaminated with the ‘weak arguments’ of ‘identity politics’ and ‘social exclusion’?

Can a solidarity movement truly be described as such when it behaves in the same manner as the structures it claims to be critiquing?

We can’t change our skin but we can own it. When we speak from a position of power about others’ lives, it’s essential to recognise that as Aboriginal activist Leila Watson says:

‘If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.’

June 7, 2011December 11, 2020

Archbishop Desmond Tutu Offers Solidarity with Marrickville Council

Since a delightful presentiment from Lee Rhiannon on last night’s Q&A, parts of Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s letter of support and solidarity to Marrickville Council have surfaced. The letter will be presented to Council tonight. Marrickville Council has the admirable fortitude to embrace human rights and justice for Palestinians.

Firstly on the Coalition for Justice & Peace in Palestine (CJPP):

“Sometimes taking a public stand for what is ethical and right brings costs, but social justice on a local or global scale requires faith and courage,” wrote Archbishop Tutu.

“I want to pay my respects to you and your fellow Councilors in Marrickville for taking a stand to isolate the Israeli state, and before that for offering practical solidarity to our sisters and brothers under occupation in the Holy City of Bethlehem.

“International Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions against the Apartheid regime, combined with the mass struggle inside South Africa, led to our victory.”.

Mayor Fiona Byrne and Councillors respond:

“I’m honoured to receive this endorsement from Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu,” Mayor Byrne said. “Desmond Tutu’s courageous stand against Apartheid in South Africa and ongoing advocacy for peace and human rights is an inspiration to us all. Palestinian civil society has called for support for the Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions campaign to highlight the struggle of the Palestinian people for basic human rights. I am proud that Marrickville Council was able to support and highlight the human rights violations suffered by many Palestinian people,” Mayor Byrne said.

“We are humbled and inspired by this expression of support from Archbishop Desmond Tutu,” said Councillors Kontellis, Thanos and Peters, who along with Mayor Byrne maintained their support for the BDS despite intense media pressure.

Then In the Sydney Morning Herald

The Nobel peace prize recipient and critic of Israel wrote that he wanted to extend his respects to the mayor, Fiona Byrne, and her fellow councillors ”for taking a stand to isolate the Israeli state”.

”We in South Africa, who both suffered apartheid and defeated it, have the moral right and responsibility to name and shame institutionalised separation, exclusion, and domination by one ethnic group over others,” Archbishop Tutu said in the letter, which will be formally presented to Cr Byrne tonight.

”Sometimes taking a public stand for what is ethical and right brings costs, but social justice on a local or global scale requires faith and courage.”

ABC Story with unflattering Tutu photo

Yet why has the ABC used such a dreadful, unflattering photo of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and quoted Vic Alhadeff’s snide smears?

Jewish groups have condemned Nobel peace prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu for congratulating Sydney’s Marrickville Council on its now abandoned boycott of Israel.
….
The chief executive of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, Vic Alhadeff, says Archbishop Tutu has a long history of such comments.

“This one is merely another in a consistent line of outrageous comments in terms of the conflict,” Mr Alhadeff said.

Yet Alhadeff was associated according to a deleted, cached and now screen-shot post from the blog of the Inner West Jewish Community and Friends Peace Alliance, ‘a local grassroots group which formed as a response to the December 14 2010 resolution by Marrickville Council to boycott Israel’ with an aim to use the scuttling of the first Australian Council initiative to warn local government off support of BDS.

We think it is extremely important to ensure that this first local government attempting to implement the boycott will be convinced by their constituents and by intelligent public opinion to reconsider and recast their boycott decision. The March state election is giving candidates and voters the opportunity to consider what an Israel boycott means, and to ask questions such as whether local or state governments should be deciding foreign policy.

We have plans for some carefully targeted media coverage and advertising in relation to the election. These strategies are expensive, but we believe they will be successful. We have been fortunate to have ongoing help and advice from very capable professionals. Also, we have among our own numbers people who are deeply involved in the Jewish community, and we are in frequent communication with Vic Alhadeff and Yair Miller from the Jewish Board of Deputies as well as Peter Wertheim from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.

We need to raise approximately $12,000 in the next two-three weeks to carry out the activities that we believe will make a decisive difference. All the professional work that is being done for the campaign has been donated pro bono, but there are unavoidable advertising and research costs we will need to pay.’
…
If you would like to contribute to the success of this campaign, please donate what you can. Please also pass this information on quietly to like-minded friends.

Alhadeff has consistent form himself, most recently endorsing the Shalom Institute’s decision to ban pro-BDS speakers from Jewish Festival Limmud-Oz and slamming Lee Rhiannon’s involvement with the Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine forum, which he described as “an activist conference lacking any hint of balance or academic integrity on a divisive and complex issue”.

Following an exceeding dirty campaign against Palestinian people’s human rights of push polls, electoral poster vandalisation with racist graffiti, near complete media blackout of Palestinian voices, newly elected NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell threatening to ‘sack’ the Council for its support of BDS and death threats to Councillors, the Marrickville Council stuck to the principles of BDS in its final motion without implementing a boycott.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Vic Alhadeff said his ‘organisation had no knowledge of the poster campaign, or the phone survey, until afterwards’.

The solidarity of human rights icon and anti-apartheidist Archbishop Desmond Tutu is a wonderful accolade for Marrickville Council and the community which supported their principled struggle for justice for Palestinians through boycott, divestment and sanctions. Congratulations to the courageous Councillors from Marrickville who have set an example which all people of conscience and compassion can applaud.
Poll: 77% of Israelis oppose going back to pre-’67 lines

Palestine / Israel Links

The Impossible Distance: A Choice to Kill : fascism kills compulsively to replenish itself
On Naksa Day, unarmed resistance sends Israel into violent contortions

While evidence that the Syrian regime directly organized the demonstrations is scant to non-existent, the regime clearly enabled the demonstrators to reach the fence by neglecting to repel them with its own troops. Not only does this fact fail to excuse Israel’s wanton killing, it highlights the irony of Israel and its allies condemning the Syrian regime for its brutal repression of Syrian citizens rising up against it (of course, the whole world should deplore Assad’s draconian rule), while at the same time demanding that the regime repress the Palestinian refugees who are protesting for their own internationally recognized rights.

Ex-army adviser says Goldstone op-ed makes S. Africa safer for ex-pats
Israel Prepares To Approve 4100 New Units For Israeli Settlers In East Jerusalem
Israel’s Obsession with walls : Israel needs northern wall In face of new Arab invasion strategy on Golan, Israel must build new cement wall
West Bank mosque targeted in suspected ‘price tag’ attack by settlers Palestinians: Jewish youth roll burning tires into a mosque in Maghayer village next to Alei Ayin outpost demolished by IDF last week.
Poll: 77% of Israelis oppose going back to pre-’67 lines

77% of Israelis would rather stay expansionist and reject peace – they ‘oppose returning to pre-1967 lines even if it would lead to a peace agreement and declarations by Arab states of an end to their conflict with Israel’ … 82% considered security concerns more important than a peace deal.

Saudi Arabia Links

petro-dollar counter-revolution Saudi Arabia’s array of bribes to makes its inhabitants forget that they’re living under the whip of nut-job monarchs.
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Australian Links

Emails reveal nature of attacks on climate scientists
Statement by Samah Hadid, Australian Youth Representative to the United Nations Third Committee, delivered 4 October 2010

June 1, 2011December 11, 2020

UK Brains Say BDS is the Way to Go

Here’s a victory for reason – well done to British academics! Britain’s largest trade union for academics, the UCU, to the consternation of zionists ‘has voted to disassociate itself from the EU working definition of anti-Semitism’ and supports BDS.

70 EUMC working definition of anti-semitism – National Executive Committee

Congress notes with concern that the so-called ‘EUMC working definition of antisemitism’, while not adopted by the EU or the UK government and having no official status, is being used by bodies such as the NUS and local student unions in relation to activities on campus.

Congress believes that the EUMC definition confuses criticism of Israeli government policy and actions with genuine antisemitism, and is being used to silence debate about Israel and Palestine on campus.

Congress resolves:

that UCU will make no use of the EUMC definition (e.g. in educating members or dealing with internal complaints)

that UCU will dissociate itself from the EUMC definition in any public discussion on the matter in which UCU is involved

that UCU will campaign for open debate on campus concerning Israel’s past history and current policy, while continuing to combat all forms of racial or religious discrimination.

This successful motion follows on the UCU resolution carried on the 29th May backing BDS below:

36 Composite: Threats to academic freedom in Israel and Palestine – National Executive Committee , LSE

Congress notes:

Israel’s continued illegal occupation of Palestine and daily oppression of Palestinian teachers and students

the restrictions on the free movement of Palestinian Academics within the Occupied Territories and crossing between the Territories and Israel and on foreign travel

Israel’s ongoing construction of settlements

the current witch-hunting of Israeli academics, civil rights campaigners and NGOs who are deemed to be damaging Israel’s economic interests by their political activities

the recent alarming moves in the Israeli Knesset to penalise Israeli academics who support boycott action or even just provide information which may assist boycotts; this law will lay academics open to fines of £5000 with ‘no need to demonstrate that injury was done’ and to unlimited damages if losses are caused.

the petition from 155 Israeli academics expressing their ‘unwillingness to take part in any type of academic activity taking place in the college operating in the settlement of Ariel’, calling Ariel an illegal settlement whose existence contravenes international law and the Geneva Convention.

Congress deplores these attacks on the academic freedom of our Palestinian and Israeli colleagues.
Congress instructs NEC to:

circulate to all members

the call by the Israeli academics

the PACBI call for academic and cultural boycott of Israel

information about the current legislation passing through the Knesset threatening heavy fines and other penalties on Israelis taking non-violent action against the occupation.

seek a delegation to meet the Israeli Ambassador to raise our concerns

press the Foreign Office to protest to the Israeli Government

raise the issue with Education International and press them to seek similar action by all affiliates

publicise these threats and our actions in response.

Well, Kevin Rudd and Paul Howes, is BDS so nutty now that the largest academic union in the EU supports it?

The Congress also carried a motion in regard to the zionist complaint about the Healthy Inclusions course at Liverpool University for medical students.

This week Liverpool University withdrew a course delivered to students in the medical faculty as a result of a complaint made by one student objecting to a talk reporting on medical issues in Palestine.

Liverpool UCU has called for the re-instatement of the Healthy Inclusions course and for the university to be robust in defending the freedom of its staff to select the content and delivery of course material without interference.

The university has refused to reinstate the course and signalled their intention to incorporate the course into mainstream teaching in the interests of ensuring ‘balance’.

Congress condemns the decision to withdraw the course, and calls on the NEC to:

write to the university

publicise the issue nationally and encourage a letter writing campaign

consider how the growing number of threats to academic freedom can be effectively resisted in the current climate driving market-led provision.

‘In fact, the document appears to be dead in the water as far as the Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), the successor body to the EUMC, is concerned. They recently told me that feedback on initial testing of the document ‘drew attention to a number of issues which impacted on its effectiveness as a data collection support tool.’ In other words, it wasn’t useful. “Since its development we are not aware of any public authority in the EU that applies it,” the FRA official added. Moreover, “The FRA has no plans for any further development of the ‘working definition’.” (24 August 2010)

The latest FRA publication on the topic – its Working Paper Anti-Semitism: Summary overview of the situation in the European Union 2001-2009 (April 2010) does not even mention the “working definition”. It does complain (p.3) that: “Even where data exist they are not comparable, since they are collected using different definitions and methodologies.” That was precisely the reason why an operational definition was called for in the first place. The “working definition” clearly does not provide this.’

How a flawed bureaucratic document has been transformed into a sacred text
Loaded words: Evolving interpretations of ‘anti-semitic’ and ‘anti-semitism’ [1] in dictionary definitions and in public discourse [2]

Moving to the conclusion:

‘In short: the EUMC working definition has little to do with fighting antisemitism and a lot to do with waging a propaganda war against critics of Israel. It is time it was buried and the UCU decision to take it on is hopefully a step in that direction. The fight against antisemitism should not be muddied by those who confuse criticism of Israeli violations of human rights and international law with hatred of Jews. It is clearly no such thing.’

When You’re Reut, You’re Wrong

Ali Abunimah analyses the Reut Institute stance for a Palestinian State.

Gidi Grinstein, the founder and president of Israel’s Reut Institute argues that US President Barack Obama should support the Palestinian Authority’s unilateral efforts to seek recognition of a Palestinian state at the UN in September. The reasons he gives, however, have nothing to do with supporting Palestinian rights, but precisely with negating them. Grinstein writes:

a declaration of a Palestinian state in September includes the possibility of a diplomatic breakthrough as well as significant advantages for Israel. The establishment of such a state will help anchor the principle of two states for two peoples, shape the permanent situation with Israel controlling the security assets and the new state’s surroundings, and diminish the refugee problem by marginalizing UNRWA and limiting refugee status.

Despite Obama’s speeches, the diplomatic process will remain at a dead end as the moment of decision in September approaches. Then the United States will have another opportunity to do the right thing: to ensure that the establishment of a Palestinian state conforms to Israel’s needs.

In other words, Grinstein hopes that UN recognition will set rolling a bandwagon that limits any Palestinian state to precisely the kind of demilitarized bantustan under overall Israeli control that will “solve” Israel’s legitimacy and diplomatic problems while marginalizing Palestinian rights, especially refugee rights.

Grinstein’s Reut Institute is the organization that has set out the strategy Israel’s current campaign of “sabotage and attack” aimed at global Palestine solidarity activism, especially the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.

Palestine / Israel Links

Greek BDS activists plant trees in Estee Lauder store –

six participants dressed in suits as members of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and “proceeded to ‘plant’ trees over the Estee Lauder shop space … flyers were distributed to shoppers and staff informing them that ‘this Estee Lauder space is currently being rezoned.’”

British prime minister steps down as JNF patron

The state of Israel anchors modern slavery in its laws
On June 5th support the Palestinian refugees’ right to return
Bachmann in my bubble?! Nooooo – The Google ad filter is pushing anti-BDS ads in response to pro-BDS site searches. Filthy hasbaroids team with global capitalism.
Limmud-Oz censorship and bans highlight desperate, oppressive tactics and goals of the zionist right against BDS in Australia. – and more ulterior motive : against the New Israel Fund (NIF) –

Executive Naomi ‘Chazan’s planned visit was challenged last week when the Shalom Institute, which runs Limmud-Oz, confirmed that a major donor had threatened to withdraw funding for Shalom if Chazan, who also is scheduled to speak at Limmud-Oz, was not removed from the program.’

Boycott!! Frameline Film Festival Pinkwashing Israeli Apartheid
Life beyond “The Wall” by Jenny Baboun
IMEU: Rafah: a return to the status quo?
The Gaza Cheat Sheet Real Data on the Gaza Closure
Donate musical instruments to Salem village project in the West Bank
The new settlement of Bassa (in the Western Galilee), an abandoned Arab village turned into a Jewish settlement.
August Burns Red Have Cancelled Their Planned Concert in Israel
The Israeli Military’s Unforgivable Abuse of Women
Israeli anchorwoman accused of interpreting Netanyahu’s speech
Israeli forces destroy house and barn in the Bedouin village of Arab Abu Farda, south Qalqilya

Australia Links

Reverse proof of title, says Paul Keating

IN a landmark speech, Paul Keating has called for the onus of proof in the Native Title Act to be reversed so that Aboriginal claimants are no longer required to establish a continuous association with their land. Instead, the former prime minister says, native title objectors should be required to prove a continuous attachment no longer exists.

Australian govt pays less than lip service to indigenous rights : Don’t say “Sorry” unless you mean it.