Palestinian Unity

Protesters in Gaza issue ‘statement no. 1‘:

The statement was issued just before Hamas security forces violently dispersed the rally, according to witnesses.

The demonstrators called in their statement not to back off from the basic demand which is to end the division until the divided parties hear the people’s voice.

The statement confirmed on the necessity of self-control in the face of any provocation that they could be subjected to in order to disperse them.

The statement added that the “cohesion of the people in Gaza, especially in Al-Katiba square, is peaceful protests, not political and serves the national interests.

“What the youth did in Tunisia and Egypt is pride for the people, make your people proud of you. Stay on what you are, no leaving and no defeat until the end of division,” the statement added.

They called on all the Palestinian parties and organizations to support them and not to say they are the organizers.

Related Links

Palestinians Rally For Unity
Thousands of Palestinians rally for reconciliation
Security forces raid Gaza protest
Thousands of Palestinians rally for reconciliation
PLO statement
Hamas forces ‘beat students at Gaza university’

Palestine / Israel Links

The Arab revolutions’ message to America
“No Peace Without Water” – The Role of Hydropolitics in the Israel-Palestine Conflict ‘former Agriculture Minister Rafael Eitan declared that relinquishing control over water sources in the OPT would ‘threaten the Jewish state’.’
On the 8th anniversary of Rachel Corrie’s stand in Gaza
PLO: Israel has exploited Itamar murders
2012 on his mind– Obama’s Security Council veto
Hezbollah on Offense
De Niro and Penn back Palestinian film at UN (AFP)
Miral at the U.N.: Under Hollywood gloss, the truth about Israel/Palestine is revealed
Divestment: A Strategy to End the US-backed Israeli Occupation – Sherry Wolf
Lying hasbara headline of the day – Palestinian Authority forces slaughter family of five, slit baby’s throat
Where was the Victoria going and for whom was it carrying? Hasbara reports differ : Analysis: Israel’s shadow war against Iran : Ship Bound for Egypt Is Seized by Israel
Israel’s anti-boycott law is ‘suicidal’ say Israeli artists

Writer Sefi Rachlevsky: “The State of Israel, which has been building outside its territory, has been acting like a criminal state for years. The Israeli government has made insanity its flag, and is now saying that those who won’t wave this flag are criminals.””On the contrary: The anti-legal situation has allegedly become normal. Forcing people to commit criminal offenses is disgraceful and dictatorial, and all we have to do is look at what’s happening around us. There are laws in Libya as well, and they aren’t democratic either.

“As dictatorships in the region collapse one after the other, those who think Israel will be allowed to continue doing what it does in the territories is wrong. Saying that ‘Hebron is here’ is a suicidal act. The Israeli colony is destined to vanish, and those who claim that the territories and Israel are one is giving up on Israel’s continued existence.

“This is an existential question, not just a moral one. The occupation is not Israel, but an Israeli perversion. My patriotism is for the Israeli democracy, not for a dictatorial regime, and that’s what we must fight against.”

Gideon Levy – Let’s rehumanise the Arab-Israeli conflict:

When asked if he supported a “one state” solution, Levy said he would like to live side-by-side with Palestinians in one state, if it were to be equal and democratic. He said he was sceptical as to whether this would be the case, and therefore said he supported a two state solution.

Civil society and Palestine: The growing power – Ramzy Baroud :

The global boycott movement (BDS) and other related campaigns were launched to expose Israeli transgressions against the Palestinian people and galvanize international solidarity.

What is so uplifting to see now is how their achievements have far surpassed these initial aims. The campaigns have animated, accentuated and actually legitimized Palestinian civil society — a notion that long stood outside the official paradigm acceptable to Israel, and which had very little space within the restrictive realm of the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Yet, it is the Israeli occupation that is now being delegitimized, its own government that is being isolated, and its own country’s reputation that is constantly compromised. The power of civil society has indeed surpassed that of military hardware, archaic and exclusivist historical discourses, propaganda and political coercion.

LU kicks off Israeli Apartheid Week
Israel manipulates tragedy to advance its own harassment of Palestinians
Palestine is a queer issue
“Operation S” – LSE Palestine Society Occupy for Israeli Apartheid Week
Uruguay recognizes independent Palestine – ‘One hundred nations already recognize Palestine, including 11 of 12 South American nations. Colombia, a close US ally in the region, is the lone holdout.’
One-state Solution for Israel Palestine, Predicts Egypt Activist
A Guide to the Sayings of Gilad Atzmon, the anti-Semitic jazzman
At the Al Jazeera Forum: ‘The fall of dictatorial regimes that were allies of the US and Israel could motivate the Arab streets to strengthen calls for liberation of Palestine, the speakers felt.’
‘Release Palestinian Children’ – Irish MEP
Ukrainian Prime Minister’s Lies, Ukraine Has ‘No Idea’ What Happened to Kidnapped Palestinian, Abu Seesi
Israel’s latest PR bid has failed : Netanyahu wants to sell the missiles’ capture as proof of the Palestinians’ murderous intentions, but the U.S. and Europe clearly distinguish between the PA and Islamic organizations.
Manzarek and Krieger of the Doors, honor your humane legacy and cancel your show in Israel
Haneen Zoabi: a Palestinian woman fighting for equality in Israel :

“You cannot demand from me loyalty to a Jewish state because once you say a Jewish state, you say privileges to the Jews at the expense of the Palestinians. There is no real equality between the Jewish citizens and the Palestinian citizens. I want a liberal state. I want a fully democratic state. I want a state for all its citizens.”

Palestinian Youth Movement: Cherries not Strawberries!!
Itamar massacre: Army blamed for breach
Palestinian Bedouins in al-Araqib: “We won’t leave”

Egypt Links

Hillary Shillary snubbed by Egyptian youth ‘due to her negative stance towards the revolution during its inception and the approach of the US Administration towards the Middle East Region’.

Libya Links

Libyan troops outflank rebels in Ajdabiyah
Why a no-fly zone means no freedom for Libyans

Bahrain Links

Bahrain king clamps down; 3 dead as unrest spreads – Bahrain is now occupied by Saudi troops
U.S.-Saudi Tensions Intensify With Mideast Turmoil

Wikileaks Links

Internet is world’s greatest spying machine and obstacle to free speech, says Assange
Bradley Manning’s Military Doctors Accused Over Treatment
The Cypherpunk Revolutionary : Robert Manne on Julian Assange

Australia Links

Modelling agency denies racism claims : “Please note however that as you are of non-caucasian heritage that your work opportunities in Perth would be extrremely [sic] limited.”

Omar Barghouti at the launch of his new book on BDS

On 7th March 2011 the London Review Bookshop hosted the launch of Omar Barghouti’s book “BDS: Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions – The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights”.

From the full report at Inminds:

Zionist: Omar, you are living in Israel, you are doing a PhD, you are studying in an Israeli university. How does that equate with your boycott campaign, isn’t that hypocritical to live in Israel and consume everything Israeli, then call for a boycott of Israel?

And secondly, if God forbid, you ever needed a life saving medicine, or a member of your family.. in Israel, would you accept that medicine or would you reject that life saving medicine?

Omar Barghouti: I think Mandela went to an apartheid university, when you are living under apartheid you have no choice. You pay taxes to the apartheid regime, you accept services from the apartheid regime, how else can you survive? You go to hospitals, you go to universities, you go to the post office, you go to government offices in the apartheid regime. You are a ‘subject’ of that colonial system, there is no other way. Gandhi studied at a British university as well.

The point is that when you are under occupation, when you are under apartheid, no have no moral choice. There is no choice. We ask people from outside to boycott because they have a moral choice. Responsibility comes with choice.

Germans under Nazi rule who couldn’t open their mouths were cowards but we can perhaps forgive them for not opening their mouths when you think you would be shot by the Nazi genocidal regime if they opened their mouths. Israelis that stay silent are far more cowardly because they do have a choice and they wont get shot if they stand up against the occupation. So we measure this with how much choice you have. When you have no choice what do you do?

So there is absolutely no double standard for people under oppression to call on people who are not under oppression, standing in solidarity with them, to oppose and boycott completely the oppressive regime. What we cannot do, you can do in the UK.

Palestine / Israel Links

A raging Hora on the blood: Four notes – Zionist savagery stalking Palestinians in revenge for murders despite no evidence having been produced that they were committed by Palestinians.
The village of Awarta face repression from soldiers after attack on settlers
Israeli government approves 500 new settler homes as punishment for murder of family
Brandeis is turning in his (liberal Zionist) grave
Jordan Valley Access and Closure Map (OCHA)
Zionists attempt to marginalise Jewish Voice for Peace at Brandeis
A controversy over the movie ‘Miral’
March 15 protest organizers fight efforts to co-opt their movement
Israel incensed pro-Palestinian film to show at UN
Adidas – Don’t Run With Apartheid

The Adidas – Don’t Run With Apartheid campaign is urging people throughout the world to take action at Adidas stores and stockists so that Adidas will reconsider sponsoring the 2012 Jerusalem Marathon.

Adidas has already hinted that they are wary of an international boycott and bad publicity. This is an opportunity for all people of conscience to get involved.

Libya Links

Qaddafi Forces Move on Town Near Rebel-Held Benghazi
US senator says no-fly zone is ‘likely’ – Chuck Schumer, a US zionist democratic senator, has said that imposing a no fly zone on Libya “is more likely” because the Arab League supports the move.
5 reasons to oppose “no-fly zones” in Libya
BBC Interview: Evidence that Algeria is Helping Gaddafi

Bahrain Links

Saudi Arabian forces prepare to enter Bahrain after day of clashes

Wikileaks Links

Manning ‘endangered US security’ : interview with the dubious Lamo
Corporate media smears WikiLeaks
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley resigns : P.J. Crowley quits after criticizing the treatment in prison of Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, who is charged with stealing documents posted by WikiLeaks.
Saturday Night Massacre: Obama Axes PJ Crowley for Telling the Truth about Bradley Manning
P.J. Crowley Resigns As State Department Spokesman

Australia Links

How to make friends and wow Americans “For instance, a senior congressional staffer privately told the ABC after Julia Gillard’s speech on Capitol Hill that she had wowed the crowd to the point where the PM could probably now “get almost anything she wants” from this Congress.” How about an exit from Afghanistan?
Warning, NSW: companies like Serco aren’t your real friends
Let em In- Insyte ft Nutkaze and Lina Khalil

Other Links

The liquidation of work

Israel’s Attempted Jordan Valley Heist

Sarah Cobham – Brighton Jordan Valley Solidarity

In March 2010 Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu stated “Israel would never agree to withdraw from the Jordan Valley under any peace agreement signed with the Palestinians”. In line with this intension, since 1967 Israel has been operating a process of ethnic cleansing of the Jordan Valley. The Palestinian population has contracted from 320,000 in 1967 to about 52,000 today.

More information on the above video including reports

Two members of the Brighton Jordan Valley Solidarity gave an illustrated presentation to the Britain-Palestine All Party Parliamentary Group of MPs at the House of Commons on February 1st 2011. The meeting was hosted and chaired by Caroline Lucas, Green MP (Brighton Pavilion).

Speakers:

* Sarah Cobham – Brighton Jordan Valley Solidarity (brightonpalestine.org)
* Chris Osmond – Corporate Watch (corporateoccupation.wordpress.com).

Please read the links below which clarify and substantiate Nutanyahoo’s present Grand Land Heist plan in the Palestinian West Bank which Israel has illegally, brutally occupied with its military for the past 43 years in support of its previous criminal land grabs.

Related Links

Netanyahu invites extreme right-wing politicians to join coalition
Netanyahu’s Illusory Peace Plan
Address by PM Netanyahu at Bar-Ilan University
Likud Platform

Settlements

The Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza are the realization of Zionist values. Settlement of the land is a clear expression of the unassailable right of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel and constitutes an important asset in the defense of the vital interests of the State of Israel. The Likud will continue to strengthen and develop these communities and will prevent their uprooting.

Palestine / Israel Links

Israel Holds Gaza Engineer, Relatives Say – story now with daikon legs courtesy of the New York Times
The New Israeli Left
Who benefits from EU-Israel academic cooperation?

Western powers still don’t know how to deal with Arab democracy
Bedouin reject compensation offer, accusing Israel of land grab
This Is What Complicity Looks Like: Palestine and the Silencing Campaign on Campus
Israeli army holds graduation ceremony at Ibrahimi Mosque – Cave of the Patriarchs heritage scandal – the military stealth op for cultural appropriation
Jon Stewart compares settlements to terrorism, and gets laughs in the process
UN Delegates ‘Walked Out’ During Clinton Speech – the smell of empire in corrupt decline was too overwhelming
Israel Considers Military ‘Upgrade’
Israeli rabbis launch initiative to marry gay men to lesbian women ­
Israeli mother Addresses European Parliament
ei: Dutch opposition boycotts parliamentary delegation to Israel
What is the Qsociety up to? the full story by Larry Stillman
BDS Day of Action – March 30, 2011
Demonstrators Urge Boycott Of Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra

Middle East

Saudi police open fire on pro-democracy protesters
Urgency
Thursday: 8 Iraqis Killed, 19 Wounded
Libya: It’s all about us
The New Face of The Middle East – And Boy is She Gorgeous
Signs of dissent becoming more visible among Saudi Arabian youths

Racism Links

Bill O’Reilly Takes On Rep. Keith Ellison Over Radical Muslim Hearings
Are Right-Wingers Simply Stuck in Adolescence? – explains the malignant narcissism and racism?
The 6 dumbest things said at Rep. Peter King’s Muslim radicalization hearing
Peter King’s Witch Hunt

Imperialism Links

Fighter-jet price tag will approach $30-billion, budget watchdog warns
Canadian Exports of Arms, Ammunition and parts to the Middle East & North Africa
Obama’s Guantánamo Policy: Legally and Morally Corrupt
RUPERT MURDOCH – A PORTRAIT OF SATAN
The new working class: Welcome to the Precariat
No Big Deal – the demise of the LA Times imminent?
Word Games: Most US Media Hide an American Atrocity in Afghanistan Behind ‘NATO’ and Fudge the Victims’ Ages

Australian Links

The Wilful Girl and the Dreadful Monster: a cautionary tale by @firstdogonmoon
PM goes all the way with USA – from the bottom to the tonsils

Wikileaks Links

Yudhoyono abused power – Indonesian corruption.
Stripped naked every night, Bradley Manning tells of prison ordeal

End Israeli Apartheid – Equal Rights for All

The systematic apartheid practised by Israel punishes its Palestinian minority just for being born Palestinian and corrupts the rest of the populace. There are numerous laws and more trouble in the frying pan which discriminate against Israeli minorities. Assa Doron commends those who protest against oppression and notes:

The current government is attempting to redefine Israel’s raison d’etre as one premised on racism and prejudice towards Arabs.

Through its oppression against its minorities, those whom it occupies and those who protest these injustices, Israel delegitimises itself. As Professor Neve Gordon says:

‘The ongoing delegitimization of those watchdogs of democracy – human rights NGOs, the press and public intellectuals – is leading Israel down a steep and slippery slope … what kind of countries attack their own human rights organizations? The answer is straightforward.’

Boycotts, divestments and sanctions directly challenge Israel’s practices when governments have failed to do so or actively support Israeli oppression. What’s the point of having a nation state if it perpetrates atrocities and discrimination on 20% of its populace and suppresses an equivalent population to its own on adjacent land which it covets and usurps? where’s the legitimacy in state oppression and land theft?

Ending apartheid would help reverse the over-arching deeper, more invasive societal corrosion from the dominant fascist ideology of zionism.

Palestine/ Israel Links

Gideon Levy: ‘How many people have asked themselves how it is possible that a road that was paved in the heart of the Land of Palestine has no Palestinians traveling on it?’
Israel’s assault on human rights
Palestinian Nonviolent Movement Continues Despite Crackdown

Other Links

‘Prince of Mercenaries’ who wreaked havoc in Iraq turns up in Somalia
Lebanon crisis a test for the US
“The US is pursuing an aggressive Lebanon policy that will inevitably lead to conflict, a game the Iranians are willing to play. Tehran is aware it holds the upper hand, and there is little the Americans can do to dislodge Hezballah, which enjoys widespread popular support in addition to its unrivalled military presence in Lebanon.”
The Rise of the New Global Elite – doesn’t include the role of capitalism/mercantilism as mechanisms of predatory nation states; incomplete politicohistorical context – no discussion of neocolonialism, colonialism or empire

No, Nutanyahoo, East Jerusalem is Palestinian

Clinton admonishes Israeli perfidious land thievery, but will the US or any of the Quartet actually do anything? Unless the US is willing to apply tangible pressure, pigs might fly sooner.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying Jews have a right to live anywhere in Jerusalem, defended on Monday a settlement project that drew criticism from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Israeli bulldozers cleared the way for 20 new homes for Jews in East Jerusalem, an area captured by Israel in a 1967 war and which Palestinian want as the capital of a future state, by demolishing a derelict hotel on Sunday.

Clinton, in Abu Dhabi on a tour of U.S. Gulf Arab allies, called the Israeli action a “disturbing development” and said it “undermines peace efforts to achieve the two-state solution.”

A statement issued by Netanyahu’s office made no direct reference to Clinton’s criticism, but said “there should be no expectation that the State of Israel will impose a ban on Jews purchasing private property in Jerusalem.”

Here’s the EU report on East Jerusalem, which still clings to the illusion that two states are possible:

EU East Jerusalem 2010 by Angela Godfrey-Goldstein

In Haaretz, Carlo Strenger comments:

All they seem to care about is to establish their patriotism through ‘Judaizing’ Jerusalem and other areas; to grab another building from Palestinians; to show how “Jewish” they are by proposing anti-Arab legislation and by attacking NGOs that try to protect Israel the liberal democracy.

The frenzy of the ‘Judaization’ of Jerusalem has now crossed the tipping point where the international community is no longer willing to just stand by. A while ago 26 former EU leaders, many of whom during their careers had been staunch friends of Israel, asked for sanctions against Israel. This has now been followed by a call of EU consuls to recognize East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital; to place observers at each venue where Israel wants to destroy Palestinian buildings.

The ominous signs that Israel will soon be under great international pressure are mounting, and proposals for specific steps of boycott and sanctions are taking shape. One is to deny Israelis who live in the West Bank entry to the EU, and to forbid the sale of any Israeli products from the West Bank.

Palestine / Israel Links

Daily Israeli Crimes Against Humanity
Farmer ‘killed by Israeli fire’ in Gaza – more like Israel fascists executed another innocent civilian
Angry Arab says that after Bill Clinton got in, Arabists were ‘eliminated’ from State Dep’t
Remnick takes another step– the occupation is ‘deeply wrong’

Wikileaks Links

Greenwald on the climate of fear created by the US in reaction to Wikileaks : “People who spout pieties are never targeted with censorship, since there’s nothing to censor. Only those whose views are threatening or marginalized are subjected to such measures.”