racism

May 3, 2011December 11, 2020

Holding to Human Rights in Marrickville

Fiona Byrne keeps the faith on the universal relevance of human rights and the oppression of Palestinian people.

I am proud to have been one of five Greens and four ALP councillors on Marrickville who took the global message to local government.

We believe that we represent citizens who would not want their money being used to support the on-going dispossession of the Palestinian people.

We led Marrickville into support of the global boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, a grassroots movement, aimed at pushing the Israeli government to comply with international humanitarian law.

Rupert Murdoch, Barry O’Farrell, and, sadly, some of the leaders of the Labor Party felt differently.

They clearly believe that Australia is best served by the cone of silence on Middle Eastern policy that pervades our politics and our media, whether it is Israel, Syria or any other country where the struggle for human rights continues.

We do not agree.

I’m proud to have recently heard the story from my parents’ homeland of 12 department store workers in Dublin who in the mid-’80s went on strike for two-and-a-half years for the right to not handle goods from apartheid South Africa.

Initially they were vilified, but as the sanctions movement grew their courageous stand gave hope and strength to those fighting for their human rights half a world away.

Relevant Links

BARGHOUTI: Setting the record straight on BDS –

The Marrickville Council was on the right side of history when it first chose to endorse the global BDS campaign. It remains so by insisting on Palestinian rights, despite the tactical setback. Brave Australians had done the same when responding to the calls from the oppressed South African majority under apartheid. We expect no less from conscientious Australians today in response to our urgent appeal for effective solidarity. I have no doubt that one day commentators and activists will mark Marrickville’s decision as the true beginning of mainstreaming BDS in Australia and of finally standing up to Israel’s lobby and for the rights of Palestinians.

Palestine debate widens despite council BDS backdown

The campaign against Marrickville Council’s support for BDS shows just how worried apologists for Israel are about the growing global support for an ethical local policy towards Israel based on its treatment of Palestinians.

Palestine / Israel Links

Facebook campaigns launched for Palestinian boycott of Israeli products
Israeli Foreign Minister urges boycott of PA – Hamas government

The developments on Wednesday represent an unambiguous failure of Israel’s long-standing policy of ‘divide and rule’. It was in pursuit of such a strategy that Israel began to fund Hamas in the late seventies and eighties, in order to undermine the secular Palestinian leadership of the PLO. This strategy appears to have backfired dramatically, in a similar fashion to Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, which resulted in the creation of the other asymmetric threat on Israel’s borders, the Shi’ia Hizbollah movement.

In retrospect, such a development was always likely in view of the utter intransigence of Israeli negotiators revealed by the Palestinian Papers. The leaked documents reveal a supine, if not desperate, Palestinian negotiating team making sweeping concessions on refugees right to return, the legal status of the Temple Mount and illegal settlements in East Jerusalem, to no avail. Such obduracy, arguably far in excess of what hardline Zionist Vladamir Jabotinsky was recommending in his doctrine of the Iron Wall, recalls Golda Meir’s stance towards Anwar Sadat in 1971, a stance that led inexorably to the Yom Kippur War.

Gaza is a symbol of occupation, thanks to Israel : Israel’s Pavlovian response to Palestinian reconciliation, which included the usual threats of boycott, is the result of the ingrained anxiety of people who no longer control the process

Bassem Tamimi: “Our destiny is to resist”

The occupation is continuous in Israeli society and this is why they lose — because they try to force us to accept them as an occupier, and that will never happen. We don’t have any problem with Jewish people. Our problem is with Zionism. We don’t hate them on the other side; we simply demand that they end the occupation of their minds. The separation between us is between different ways of thinking, not between land. If we change our ways of thought and remove the mentality of occupation from our minds — not just from the land — we can live together and build a paradise.
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The army is determined to push us toward violent resistance. They realize that the popular resistance we are waging with Israelis and internationals from the outside, they can’t use their tanks and bombs. And this way of struggling gives us a good reputation. Suicide bombing was a big mistake because it allowed Israel to say we are terrorists and then to use that label to force us from our land. We know they want a land without people — they only want the land and the water — so our destiny is to resist. They give us no other choice.

April 26, 2011December 11, 2020

Norman Finkelstein: “The Coming Breakup of American Zionism”

Finkelstein speaks to his forthcoming book “A Farewell to Israel : The Coming Breakup of American Zionism”

Nathan Glazer, 1957: “Israel has had remarkedly slight effects on the inner life of American jewry.”
Mr. Wiesel before 1967 war was asked by Haaretz what can we do to win over jews to their jewishness because there was a fear back then of rampant assimiliation: “The jewishness of jewish youth can still be reached but not through Israel. Perhaps through the problems of jews in Russia, perhaps through questions about the Holocaust, but not through Israel.”

Finkelstein: “Israel became a strategic asset of the US. If you were pro-Israel, you were actually super-loyal to the United States, because there was Israel on the frontline protecting American interests from Arab hordes… Israel was winning, while practising ‘purity of arms’. … Zionism as an idea arises from the idea that jews cannot assimilate. Zionism’s main product is the state of Israel. Paradoxically by swearing allegiance to Israel, Americans can thus assimilate fully into American life, defending Judaeo Christian culture against Arab hordes. The more pro-Israel one is, the more pro-American one becomes.”

“Israel is seen as a besieged beacon of enlightenment values in the Middle East, so for American jews Israel becomes a source of pride… Israel is the Alamo all over again.”

The history of European Orientalism is one that is fully complicit with anti-Semitism from which it derives many of its representations of ancient and modern Arabs and of ancient Hebrews and modern Jews. As Edward Said demonstrated a quarter of a century ago in his classic Orientalism, “what has not been sufficiently stressed in histories of modern anti-Semitism has been the legitimation of such atavistic designations by Orientalism, and… the way this academic and intellectual legitimation has persisted right through the modern age in discussions of Islam, the Arabs, or the Near Orient.” Said added: “The transference of popular anti-Semitic animus from a Jewish to an Arab target was made smoothly, since the figure was essentially the same.” In the context of the 1973 War, Said commented that Arabs came to be represented in the West as having “clearly ‘Semitic’ features: sharply hooked noses, the evil moustachioed leer on their faces, were obvious reminders (to a largely non- Semitic population) that ‘Semites’ were at the bottom of all ‘our’ troubles.”
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While holocaust denial in the West is indeed one of the strongest manifestations of anti-Semitism, most Arabs who deny the holocaust deny it for political not racist reasons. This point is even conceded by the anti-Arab and anti-Muslim Orientalist Bernard Lewis. Their denial is based on the false Zionist claim that the holocaust justifies Zionist colonialism. The Zionist claim is as follows: Since Jews were the victims of the holocaust, then they have the right to colonise Palestine and establish a Jewish colonial-settler state there. Those Arabs who deny the holocaust accept the Zionist logic as correct. Since these deniers reject the right of Zionists to colonise Palestine, the only argument left to them is to deny that the holocaust ever took place, which, to their thinking, robs Zionism of its allegedly “moral” argument. But the fact that Jews were massacred does not give Zionists the right to steal someone else’s homeland and to massacre the Palestinian people. The oppression of a people does not endow it with rights to oppress others. If those Arab deniers refuse to accept the criminal Zionist logic that justifies the murder and oppression of the Palestinians by appealing to the holocaust, then these deniers would no longer need to make such spurious arguments. All those in the Arab world who deny the Jewish holocaust are in my opinion Zionists.
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Today we live in a world where anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hatred, derived from anti-Semitism, is everywhere in evidence. It is not Jews who are being murdered by the thousands by Arab anti- Semitism, but rather Arabs and Muslims who are being murdered by the tens of thousands by Euro- American Christian anti-Semitism and by Israeli Jewish anti-Semitism. If anti-Semites posited Jews as the purveyors of corruption, as financier bankers who control the world, as violent communist subversives, and as poisoners of Christian wells, the Arab and the Muslim today are seen as in control of the oil market and therefore of the global financial market, the purveyors of hatred and corruption of civilised Christian and Jewish societies, as violent terrorists, and as possible mass murderers, not with some Semitic Jewish poison but with Semitic Arab nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons (which are nowhere to be found). Thus Michael Moore feels vindicated in telling us in his recent film, Fahrenheit 9/11, about the portion of the American economy controlled by Saudi money while neglecting to mention the much, much larger American share of the Saudi economy. Anti- Semitism is alive and well today worldwide and its major victims are Arabs and Muslims and no longer Jews. The fight should indeed be against all anti-Semitism no matter who the object of its oppression is, Arab or Jew.

Israel / Palestine Links

Donor to Ben Gurion University wants condemnation of leftist statements : Neve Gordon –

“I’m not sure it’s the role of academics to change society. People should speak out in support of democracy and criticize undemocratic elements, but not necessarily through academia. Civil society movements should lead… academics are not only academics, they are also something else, they are also members of civil society. And as members of civil society, academics need to struggle for social justice, locally and nationally.”

Perhaps the donor is worried about someone else on this haet lsit though?

The Scottish Trade Union Congress (STUC) condemns the Histadrut and declares its continued commitment to the campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against the state of Israel

Breaking the Silence database
PLO official says PA prefers negotiations to unilateral declaration of Palestinian state

The Palestinian Authority will defer its attempts to unilaterally declare a Palestinian state at the United Nations if “real and serious” negotiations with Israel begin, an official was quoted saying Monday.

Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization Yasser Abed Rabbo told London-based Al-Hayat newspaper on Monday that the basis of any negotiated agreement must be according to “the 1967 borders, very limited exchange of land and no exchanges of populations.”

BBC Trust clears Panorama documentary on Mavi Marmara over majority of complaints, but upholds three out of 51 points
Israel: UN recognition of a Palestinian state will turn us into ‘colonialists’ – zionists bleat about what already exists – their colonialism.
Stolen Youth: The Politics of Israel’s Detention of Palestinian Children free download of ebook
“For as long as I can, I will continue”: Hajo Meyer interviewed

The Zionists in contrast are automatons. Wherever I speak they do always the same. They come to the audience without any arguments or just shout “lies!” … They are brainwashed to nothing.

It is a lesson I learned in Auschwitz. When a dominant group tries to dehumanize a certain distinguishable group, it is necessary that the members of the dominant group have been brainwashed beforehand. A normal human being cannot see another human being suffering, let alone inflict suffering. His or her inborn empathy needs to be reduced to be able to inflict suffering on a human being. My hope is that, eventually, a society composed of a majority that lost empathy by brainwashing right from the kindergarten until the army, like the Zionists, kills itself from within by too much aggression.

Other Links

A book to buy : The Face of Imperialism by Michael Parenti

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. Jin, April 2011.

April 10, 2011December 11, 2020

The Hypocrisy of Israeli Oppression : Cast Lead Revisited?

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, Israel deliberately 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.

So to be continued….

Teen critically injured in attack on Negev bus
Two hurt in missile strike on bus carrying students near Gaza

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. #

Barghouti: Israel trying to thwart reconciliation
Israeli attacks on Gaza kill 5, injure 30

“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.

New York, 7 April 2011 – Statement attibutable to the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General on violence in Gaza and southern Israel
Netanyahu: Israel will take any action necessary in Gaza Strip

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.”

Despite Ceasefire Declared by Palestinian Factions, Army Bombards More Areas In Gaza
@Palaestina: israeli terrorist forces continue to bombard Khuza3a in besieged #Gaza #Palestine #
@Palaestina: 2 martyrs in Khan Younsi and at least 3 wounded in continued israeli air raids on besieged #Gaza #Palestine #
Gaza gov’t files complaint to UN over strikes
BDS rooted in law and human rights
Rumors that Israel has fallen out of favor in the EU are exaggerated
Erekat condemns ‘systematic Israeli escalation’
Hamas says didn’t mean to target Israeli school bus

BREAKING NEWS: Israeli Embassy in Cairo Under Siege
Palestinian factions resume firing homemade shells into Israel, causing no injuries
Death toll rises in deadly Gaza strikes

Palestine / Israel Links

In Memoriam: Deir Yassin
Transient Is Sought in Blast at California Synagogue
Concern For the Future of Israel
Israeli wide demolitions in Aqaba village this morning
Interview with Norman Finkelstein: ‘Israel has bigger problems than me’
Goldstone Flinched For Reason So Many Progressive Jews Do: Social Pressure
Ladysmith Black Mambazo not performing in Israel
If anyone tells you the next war on #Gaza started because a rocket hit a bus in #Israel, show them this http://bit.ly/fqURgy
Libya and Gaza explained by Fanon and Sartre
Merkel: Unilateral recognition of Palestinian state may not push peace forward
Beating up on the Greens, Australian style
Mendes’ mendacious article in the Oz : Israel boycott harms Arabs, too
Palestinians utterly ignored by Murdoch press when talking Palestine

Latest WikiLeaks cables reveal Israel’s fears and alliances
Planned US lawsuit against Goldstone ‘still in early phase’

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.

Goldstone Flinched For Reason So Many Progressive Jews Do: Social Pressure
An amazing magic trick by Israel. Now you see it…now you don’t.

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

God Retracts Key Biblical Pledge, Apologises for Harm Caused to Humankind
Spectacular New Ceasefire Pictures
Latest WikiLeaks cables reveal Israel’s fears and alliances

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: Greens won’t touch Israel policy

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.

Haaretz Wikileaks exclusive / Bahrain King boasted of intelligence ties with Israel

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.

Wikileaks to publish Israeli cables soon, including Moghniyeh’s assassination
Shin Bet chief: Arab MKs flirting with enemy

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.

Haaretz WikiLeaks exclusive / Lieberman’s pick for PA president: Arafat’s economic adviser
Ireland PSC: Goldstone’s ‘reconsideration’ does not invalidate UN report on Israeli crimes in Gaza
US embassy cables: US discusses Gaza with Israeli security chief
The eugenicist racism of religious zionism: ‘Gentile sperm leads to barbaric offspring’
Forbidden Fruit: The Israeli Wine Industry and the Occupation
200 Trees Planted in Saffa Despite Military Harrasment
‘Israel pays no war compensation’
Hamas must pay dearly : Op-ed: Following attack on school bus, only way to restore lull in Gaza region is deterrence

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

Libya Links

US Commander Sees Libya Stalemate
WikiLeaks: British officials toured Libyan chemical weapons lab months before Tony Blair visit
Libyan minister to take Turkish peace plan to Gaddafi
NATO Fears War without End in Libya
America’s coming ground war in Libya

Australia Links

Greens leader tells newspaper to ‘grow up’

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.

Other Links

Torture and killing in Kenya – Britain’s double standards : The UK sees no contradiction in forcing Libyans to apologise for Lockerbie while denying Kenya’s Mau Mau victims recompense
Christina Patterson: What Hugh Grant revealed about the paparazzi and power

April 4, 2011December 11, 2020

Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions gain prominence in Australia

Thanks in no small part to the efforts of the garrulous bevy of Israel (and US) protectionists at the Murdoch press, BDS has now hit the mainstream well and truly as an issue in Australia.

Murdoch’s motley grab of gutter rags have aimed their mendacious clumps of dirt serially at Greens and their candidates who back BDS, their supporters and journalists who fairly report the issue and are critical of Israel’s crimes.

Journalist Antony Loewenstein responds to the latest Murdoch smears.

I stand by my article and Parker’s quotes and I have the notes to back this up. …
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In the days after my New Matilda piece on the Greens ran, Parker called me a few times to discuss the Middle East and BDS and did not dispute the accuracy of my article. In fact, he said he liked it and wanted it to be widely read.

In a statement to New Matilda today, Parker says:

“An article published in New Matilda last week by independent journalist Antony Loewenstein outlined my experience during the recent NSW election campaign. Certain quotes are attributed to me which do not reflect the language that I have always used in relation to the conflict in the Middle East.”

Parker does not deny the quotes. He is, however, clearly keen to distance himself from the issue.
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Again today the Australian mentions my article and the Parker quotes and tries to undermine the credibility of both the new Greens MP and me.

Parker further explained his position that was articulated in my story:

“The [New Matilda] article does reflect my belief that there is no place for bullying or intimidation in Australia’s political process, encouraged by either interested players or certain sections of the Murdoch press. The level of rhetoric and vitriol directed against the Greens — such as swastikas on our posters, hate calls and death threats — needs to be addressed and I have raised my disappointment with a range of people including members of the local Jewish community.

“I have the utmost respect for all of the groups with which I have been working but I strongly believe that there should have been a very clear condemnation of the hate-filled language which included the Daily Telegraph comparing the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) motion by Sydney’s Marrickville Council with the murderous rampage of Kristallnacht across Austria and Germany in 1938. We have seen this inflammatory and extremist language continue yesterday with comments by Murdoch columnist Andrew Bolt on ABC’s Insiders which compared my election in Balmain to the rise of the Nazis in 1933. It is time to end the extremist language and focus on peaceful initiatives that will promote justice for all.”

Indeed. Condemnations of the outrageous illegal defacements of Greens’ electoral posters immediately prior to the NSW election have been conspicuously absent from the Murdoch media hasbara which instead has focussed on slandering the Greens, Greens candidates and BDS whilst protecting the prestige of the apartheid Israeli regime and its immoral Australian sycophants.

Australians should take note of the latest announced plans by the Israeli IDF to breach sovereignty across the globe in order to pursue those whom they feel are ‘delegitimisers’ of the apartheid Israeli regime, including human rights defenders who support BDS.

There are another two disgusting, fascistic laws before the Knesset too, which are aimed at those who dare to support BDS from countries outside Israel.

The Israeli Knesset has been reviewing the proposed “Prohibition on Instituting a Boycott Bill” aimed at fighting the growing momentum in support of the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israeli oppression, occupation and apartheid.

If proven they participated in a boycott, individuals who are not citizens or residents of Israel can also be punished by having their right to enter the country denied for at least 10 years, according to the proposed legislation.

Knesset members are also working on an “anti-subversive” bill aimed at anarchists and supporters of the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). If approved the law would allow Israel’s Interior Ministry to bar international activists from entering Israel.

The law would apply restrictions to anyone who acts against Israel, denies the Holocaust, works to boycott Israel and/or attempts to place Israeli leaders on international trial for what they did in the line of duty.

“Many people why call themselves call themselves ‘peace activists’, along with all other Israel-haters who often are called ‘human rights activists,’ often act against the rights of Israeli citizens and are free to travel in the country without any restrictions,” said Nochi Eyal, director of the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel, a proponent of the bill.

What sort of nation considers these sort of putrid tactics? certainly one worth boycotting. As ever, Israel is its own worst enemy, and it delegitimises itself.

Michael Brull: ‘I think this brings us to the question: does a boycott of Israel establish someone’s evil malice to Jews? No. The reason is obvious: many people of good faith believe Israel has established an apartheid regime in the occupied territories. Anyone who thinks it was right to boycott South Africa because of apartheid there presumably is about as reasonable in boycotting apartheid in Palestine.’

Israel apologists defend the indefensible :

‘Israel deserves harsh criticism, not because it makes “mistakes”, but because it is a state built on the suppression of an entire people.

The Israeli system is deliberately designed to obliterate a nation (Palestine), destroy a people’s culture, history and way of life and crush their legitimate resistance.

Israel practises routine methods of cruel subjugation that deny Palestinians their political, religious and national and human rights.’

Brown moves to quell Israeli boycott brawl
Malevolent Marrickville Machinations
Father Dave speaks in support of BDS at Marrickville Council
Whodunnit? Fake Phone Poll Pushing Voters in Marrickville
Boycotting Israeli Apartheid in Australia

Palestine / Israel Links

Find out more about the upcoming US tour organised by Jewish Voice for Peace who are bringing Mira, Amer, and Hanna, three young Palestinians to share the challenges facing Palestinian students under Israeli military occupation, and their hopes and aspirations for a better future, where everyone’s human rights are respected.
How zionists appropriate Palestinian land. ‘Nasser outlined the details of plan based on documents he obtained. He said the project would cover 661,000 sq meters of land in historic Issawiyya and Tur, known as Karm al-Rumi, Ras al-Salm, Zaafarana, Maraj, Rabie, Dya and Khulla al-Jawz.’
Shabak Strikes Again, Israeli Palestinian Boy Arrested Under Gag for Alleged Security Offenses
People of Gaza have celebrated Orphans Day to alleviate the sufferings of those Gazan children that lost their parents during the 22-day Israeli-imposed war in late 2008.
Israel to promote itself on Facebook : Deputy foreign minister meets networking site’s managers to discuss plans for online PR
Avraham Burg in Haaretz foresees the end of zionism: “There is no other country in the Western world from which the international community has been willing to put up with acts of state violence for five decades, other than Israel. There is no other country that is permitted by the international community to maintain a vast, unsupervised nuclear arsenal, other than Israel. And there is no other colonialist left in the world, other than “the only democracy in the Middle East.” The world is still putting up with all this, but not for much longer – it will soon be over.
…
We have done very little in Israel to develop an internal national-identity model that is not dependent on the definitions of the external persecutor. It is convenient, albeit not pleasant, to place responsibility for our identity in the hands of the enemy. Let Hitler decide who’s a Jew. And if Hitler is gone, then some poor man’s Hitler, like Yasser Arafat or Ahmadinejad. Every generation and its Pharaoh, every era and its wicked Haman.

Is there another possible way to understand and live the reality? Plainly. Hatred exists in the world, but we do not have a monopoly on it. In the past, anti-Semitism was the primary focus of Western hatred. Because in the heart of the First World, the Christian world, we were the ultimate strangers, set apart by the two basic activities that define a society and a community: eating and procreation. The strangers are those people who live in our midst but with whom we do not eat and do not marry. And for thousands of years “we” and “they” refrained from sharing the same bed and the same table. ”
MI5 files: Lehi planned to assassinate Churchill : Britain’s Security Service uncovers files suggesting Eliyahu Bet-Zuri, who was hanged for murdering Lord Moyne, plotted to kill British prime minister, Foreign Secretary Bevin in 1944
Jerusalem committee to discuss approval of 942 apartments beyond the Green Line

Australia Links

Margaret Simon writes about free speech for Bolt, no mention of Racial Discrimination Act – WTF?
Zionist lobby in Australia denies there is Zionist lobby
Aussie Zionist lobbyist doesn’t like answering questions about his lobbying

March 28, 2011December 11, 2020

Malevolent Marrickville Machinations

Marrickville Defacements Too busy to write much today, so here goes with a mish mash of Marrickville links. Greens candidate and Council Mayor Fiona Byrne was targeted with a reprehensible volley of smears and dirty campaign tactics prior to the election in order to hijack both the Greens and the principled BDS resolution passed by Marrickville Council. Prominent in hasbara media ops as usual was the scurrilous Australian.

But what a joke! the ALP and the Libs in disgraceful unison with Fred Nile in support of Israeli apartheid.

Now we find:

The Liberal-National Government will need 22 votes to get its agenda through the Legislative Council.

It is expected to turn for that support to Fred Nile’s Christian Democrats and the Shooters and Fishers party, who are predicted to hold two seats each.

Pre-election dirty tricks in Marrickville:

In Marrickville – where the swing required to unseat Labor was 7.5 per cent – Ms Tebbutt was slightly ahead of Ms Byrne but had not claimed victory.

The battle for Sydney’s inner west took an ugly turn yesterday when police were called to investigate vandalism of Marrickville Greens’ candidate Fiona Byrne’s campaign posters that were defaced with swastikas.

The Nazi symbols appeared on Ms Byrne’s posters in Petersham and Enmore on Friday night, some scrawled with the words: ”Watch out for the Nazi.” Other threats have been made.

Ms Byrne is the mayor of Marrickville Council, which controversially voted to boycott Israel four months ago. The boycott has sparked threats to other Marrickville councillors.

Police confirmed they were investigating the threats and the poster defacements.

Ms Byrne played down the threats yesterday, saying they were simply part of an intense campaign. ”It’s been a pretty emotional campaign,” she said. ”There have been some interesting tactics out there, but for me it’s about the voters and really keeping positive.”

She said the threats, most of which had been made in blogs or sent by email, had been reported to the NSW Electoral Commission and the police.

@annabelcrabb: If Carmel Tebbutt wins M’ville she can thank Israel, and the cute baby on her electorate-wide flyer she put out last night #nswvotes #

@annabelcrabb: Last night, Tebbutt’s campaign distributed a door tag with cute baby pic – “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater” #nswvotes #

My encounter on twitter with Israel born Hajnal Ban nee Black, in denial about the smear tactics and illegal campaign poster defacements used against Fiona Byrne is below. Apparently the term ‘denier’ is trademarked to the Israel Lobby.

Jinjirrie: The bizarro world of @HajnalBlack : ‘I am merely calling for respect in the Climate Change debate. There is no respect when the word denier is used in this context’ http://is.gd/5oMKcE #

Jinjirrie: . @HajnalBlack why do you think a non-violent campaign for justice against a state globally identified as apartheid is anti-semitic? #

HajnalBlack: @Jinjirrie Sorry, I forgot, Hamas is non-violent #

Jinjirrie: . @HajnalBlack Hamas is not a signatory to the 2005 non-violent call for BDS of Israel from Palestinian CIVIL society

Jinjirrie: . @HajnalBlack have you ever bothered to read the relevant #BDS documents? http://bdsmovement.net/ http://pacbi.org/ #

Jinjirrie: . @HajnalBlack BDS is directed at institutions which support the illegal Israeli Occupation and apartheid, not individuals #

Jinjirrie: . @HajnalBlack before I forget, what’s your reaction to the Nazi swastika poster defacements & filthy smear campaign against Fiona Byrne? #

@HajnalBlack: @Jinjirrie Her views and actions would indicate that she should be moderate in her perspective if she’ld like to avoid such harsh reactions #

Jinjirrie: @HajnalBlack so you condone the use of political smear tactics & Nazi swastika poster defacements against Fiona Byrne? #auspol #BDS #

No response … yet.

Hajnal is happy to smear the Greens as fringe extremists with the best of them. In heropen letter to the Prime Minister of Australia she fumes:

“You and your Ministers’ use of the word ‘climate change denier’ to describe me and others who agree with the fact that human induced climate change ‘science’ is questionable and the fact that a Carbon Tax will do zilch to lower Earth’s temperature is offensive. It is clear that your clever use of the English language is designed to paint people with opposing views to you as similar to holocaust deniers; fringe extremists who can’t grapple with reality.

I would like to formally make you aware of the fact that I regard your comments as racial vilification, as they link me to a group of people who I hold with such anathema, such distaste, that it hurts our family’s sensitivities surrounding the holocaust.

I won’t bother writing a letter of concern to the Greens who also part take in this despicable word game, as the Greens are a fringe group. However your antics and the hysteria that you whip up against people opposed to your increase in taxes is most certainly painting you as a Green-sympathising extremist.”

Hajnal Black proves Christopher Pyne wasn’t alone in channelling the tenuous Holocaust allusion. Pynehead laid claim on a trademark for ‘denier’ last week.

There was a time (much of the 20th century, indeed, when established beliefs were up for challenge) when scepticism was fashionable. In the currently overheated period, however, the very words sceptic and (gasp) denier have become as loaded as the accusation by a mediaeval inquisitor of heresy.

”Denier,” cried Ms Gillard. You might hardly be surprised to discover there was a bonfire being built in the grounds of Parliament House for the ritual burning of the heretic Abbott.

Mr Pyne flew to what he imagined was his leader’s defence.

He demanded that Mr Jenkins force Ms Gillard to withdraw her ”offensive words”.

”We all know the connotation the Prime Minister is trying to bring about by using the word ‘denier’,” he fulminated.

”We know she’s trying to allude to the Holocaust. It is offensive and it must stop.”

The Speaker, digesting Mr Pyne’s leap of logic, declared he had to employ ”as much sensitivity as I can muster” to deal with the matter.

Unsurprisingly, he didn’t buy the proposition.

”I think that the construction the manager of opposition business has placed at this point in time is stretching it,” he understated.

Mr Pyne protested. ”I make the connection between climate change denier and Holocaust denier.”

Mr Jenkins told MPs to ”take a deep breath and behave in a manner that those that observe us from outside would expect”.

His plea was, of course, denied.

UPDATE

Excellent story by Sonja Karkar on the Marrickville muckraking and subversion by the Coalition of Delegitimisation ‘The Greens and BDS – Killing two birds with one stone’

UPDATE 2

Lee Rhiannon, NSW Greens Senator-elect’s comments on BDS are prescient in this article by Antony Loewenstein dissecting the Greens’ result in the NSW election.

“Months before the election we needed to explain why the Greens backed BDS and we needed to work closer with our allies on BDS; academics, the Arab community and social justice movements in Sydney and Melbourne. Collectively we didn’t do enough to amplify support for BDS and show that this is part of an international movement.”

..

For Rhiannon, one of the saddest sights of the election was the ALP Left, “who call themselves the conscience of the party, driving this attack on the Greens over BDS. Anthony Albanese and Luke Foley ran a sophisticated campaign through the media to discredit the Greens. This is a party who has sometimes worked closely with the Palestinians — but in this case it was a bankrupt move for political reasons.”

..

Jamie Parker revealed to New Matilda the extent of the hatred directed at him during the campaign due to the Greens BDS policy. He had countless letters sent to him calling him a Nazi and Jew hater. His car was vandalised and campaign signs spray-painted with swastikas. He received death threats and some abusers said they knew where he lived. “One letter said I wanted to turn Balmain power station into a gas chamber and the light rail would take people there”, Parker tells me. “Lefty Jews told me that you can’t be surprised if extreme people do extreme things but they wouldn’t come out in public and condemn it.” He was appalled.

Did Fiona Byrne Get Fair Coverage?
The Australian’s banal, predictable under-analysis – no mention of the dirty tricks and repetition of the illusory but damaging ‘Byrne taking the issue to the state’ smear’
On push polls:

A push poll does not have to sound evil, but can take a hot button issue and attribute to candidate because he belongs to a particular Political Party.
A push poll is a political campaign technique in which an individual or organization attempts to influence or alter the view of respondents under the guise of conducting a poll. In a push poll, large numbers of respondents are contacted, and little or no effort is made to collect and analyze response data. Instead, the push poll is a form of telemarketing-based propaganda and rumor mongering, masquerading as a poll. Push polls may rely on innuendo or knowledge gleaned from opposition research on an opponent. They are generally viewed as a form of negative campaigning.[1] The term is also sometimes used inaccurately to refer to legitimate polls which test political messages, some of which may be negative. Push polling has been condemned by the American Association of Political Consultants,[2] and is illegal in New Hampshire.[3]

Federal leader Bob Brown yesterday admitted Byrne’s controversial decision to support Marrickville Council’s boycott of Israel had undermined her campaign: ”I think it [the boycott] had an effect on it?—?that’s my feedback from the electorate. I’m picking up from the electorate that it’s a matter of concern… As I’ve pointed out through the campaign, it’s not national Greens policy.”

On election eve police were called to investigate vandalism of Byrne’s posters which had been defaced with swastikas and phrases like “Watch out for the Nazi”. Pro-Israel groups also gathered at Marrickville polling booths on Saturday, urging voters not to support her because of her pro boycott-stance.

Crikey revealed on Friday that Ian Cohen, the NSW Greens’ longest-serving member in the upper house, does not support a boycott of Israel and believes it damaged the party’s campaign.

Anti-Israeli stance focus of Greens review – Oz slime
Father Dave speaks in support of BDS at Marrickville Council
Company denies push polling against Greens

Cr Byrne said the companies involved needed to take responsibility for the effect of the survey.

“Members of the community have made it clear that the last question asked is about myself and the state election,” she said.

“At the end of the day, such a question reveals the true intention of this survey, which is to influence the outcome of the state election campaign.”

A Greens spokesman said it was likely there was more than one phone poll being conducted in Marrickville, which is held by Labor by a magin of 7.5 per cent.

Liberal candidate Rosana Tyler said yesterday several members of her own party had also taken part in a recent phone survey, believing it to be from council.

“The way the questions were framed it would appear that it was a council survey,” she said.

Greens hung Fiona Byrne out to dry

”Many voters were searching for a genuine progressive alternative to NSW Labor and we failed to present as that,” Ms Faehrmann writes in the Herald today.
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She says the Greens abandoned Ms Byrne when she came under attack from Labor and Jewish lobby groups for her support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.

”The original proponents of BDS within the NSW Greens were nowhere to be seen, and our overwhelmed candidate for Marrickville was left with little support,” she writes. ”In any language, it was poor strategy and bad behaviour.”

Palestine / Israel Links

Mighty Israel and its quest to quash Palestinian popular protest
ADL slams Facebook for refusing to remove ‘third Intifada’ fan page

“We are disappointed that Facebook has rejected our request to remove this site, which is in clear violation of their terms of service,” the ADL said in a statement.

“We are especially disappointed in this case because in the past there has often been understanding and sensitivity from Facebook when we have brought violations of its own rules to its attention. We urge Facebook to reconsider its decision and remove this site, which by its very title incites violence,” the statement added.

Settlers squat on church-owned land, demand farmers leave
Grand larceny by the criminal zionist entity Israeli Authorities Orders Coal Fields Evacuated
National Director Foxman says page misleadingly calls for peaceful demonstrations; regrets Facebook has not yet taken down page. – what a loon!
Third Intifada
Third Intifada Event
31 Mar, CANBERRA: ISRAELI APARTHEID WEEK- Palestine Solidarity and the BDS Campaign
Smothering the “Dynamic Debate” in Israel
Breaking Israel’s illegal blockade on Gaza goes mainstream : Swiss president has plans
Jerusalem bus bomb victim was British
Bob Geldof – do not accept an honorary doctorate from Ben Gurion University
46% of Jewish Israelis support settler “price tag” terror, Congress blames Palestinians for incitement
“The Israel Lobby”, five years on

‘One of the great personal successes, in my view, has been the increasing number of Jews who recognise the devastating result of simply allowing the pro-settler, anti-Palestinian Zionists solely taking the floor. Judaism simply cannot be about backing never-ending colonisation of Arab land.’

Israeli Apartheid Week in Gaza
80 Reasons Why Gaza has the right to self-defense
Palestinians jailed because lawyer can’t communicate with them
Boycotting Israel … from within – Ronnie Barkan : “What is even worse is that people are raised to be deeply racist. Everything is targeted at supporting [Jewish] privilege as the masters of the land. Supporting BDS means renouncing my privileges in this land and insisting on equality for all.”
Who is annexing Whom? – Uri Avnery:

So political boycotts are not wrong, as long as they are directed against others. It’s the old “Hottentot morality“ of colonial lore – “if I steal your cow, that’s right. If you steal my cow, that’s wrong.”

Rightists can call for action against left-wing organizations. Leftists cannot call for action against right-wing organizations. It’s as simple as that.

BUT THE law is not only anti-democratic and discriminatory, it is also blatantly annexationist.

By a simple semantic trick, in less than a sentence, the lawmakers do what successive Israeli government did not dare to do: they annex the Palestinian occupied territories to Israel.

Abu Rudaineh calls on Hamas to accept Abbas’ offer
Palestine: Biggest Escalation of Violence in Gaza since Cast Lead
British Jews begin pitched battle over hasbara
Who are the Libyan Freedom Fighters and Their Patrons?
Two killed in Gaza air strike
Denial is a river of Palestinian blood running through zionism : Yossi Gurvitz – When the Ghosts Return
Israel deploys ‘Iron Dome’ anti-rocket system
Bomb Shelters Going Up In Washington Square – Israel Lobby hasbara in New York
Department of oxymorons, Israel division
Majority of Palestinian Voices Still Being Ignored
The Nakba Law deepens apartheid in Israel
Israeli minister, media perpetuate lie about Goldstone’s Gaza report
Israeli genocidalism: Army Evicts Palestinian Family in Jordan Valley to Facilitate Settlement
More Israeli genocidalism: Officials: Israel destroys ancient wells near Bethlehem
Settler pogroms target sheep, olive trees and children – and yet more Israeli genocidalism!
South Africa: ‘Boycott Israel’ campaign scores big win

Syria Links

Syrian Bloodbath

Libya Links

Libya: a legitimate and necessary debate from an anti-imperialist perspective
how we missed you, humanitarian intervention
Of Principle and Peril
Who gains? Loving the Libyan Rebels
Libyan “Revolutionaries” Aren’t So Revolutionary..

Egypt Links

On Sunday evening, around 2000 protesters marched against the proposed law by Essam Sharaf’s cabinet banning strikes and protests.
War stalks revolution in Middle East

US Links

Top Bush-era GITMO and Abu Ghraib psychologist is WH’s newest appointment
UNDERSTANDING PLUTOCRACY (war, ecocide, neo-feudalism, alienation, etc.) AND WAKING FROM IT
The privatization of US foreign policy
The Day the Klan Marched – Anti-KKK Protesters Beaten by Racist Austin Police
U.S. Products Help Block Mideast Web
The Kill Team : How U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan murdered innocent civilians and mutilated their corpses – and how their officers failed to stop them.

Australia Links

Why give voice to bigots? Why are the Melbourne Age and the Sydney Morning Herald giving voice to an Islamaphobe?
Inequality is growing in Australia: ACOSS

“We know the cost of essential items and services like food, rent, energy, health, education, clothing and transport costs continue to go up. In fact since 2000, the cost of living in Australia, as evidenced by the CPI has risen by 34% with energy expenses in particular doubling in the past decade and expected to double again in the next 5 years. And ACOSS believes this is understating it as the CPI isn’t necessarily the best measure to reflect the disproportionate impact of the rise of essential goods and services for people on the lowest incomes.

“We know that nationally over a million low-income households are in housing stress with housing costs exceeding more than 30% of household income. 65% of people on low incomes in private rentals currently experience housing stress, with many of these households spending over half their income on rent.

“And whilst the cost of staying afloat has gone up, those people who some of the most reliant on our social safety net – people who are unable to get paid work – have not had commensurate increases in their social security payment – the Newstart Allowance.”

Bolt’s day in court as racial villification case kicks off
Politics of misogyny, or misogyny of politics … you decide
Partnerships: not a political quick fix

‘It is clear that before we can effectively close the gaps in Education, Employment and Health we need to remove the ability of the Federal Government to use Aboriginal Australia as an election tool and place it into the hands of a bi-partisan task-force with a 7 to 10year life span to include and pro-actively consulate with Indigenous community members to implement effective community strategies.’