war crimes

November 26, 2011December 11, 2020

Turkey’s Requirements of Israel Remain Non-Negotiable

Turkey continues to remain firm in its stance against Israel’s criminality.

Davutoglu told reporters on Friday that Israel should apologize, pay compensation to families of the Turkish citizens killed during the boarding of the aid ship and end the embargo on Gaza. Otherwise, the minister stated, relations between Turkey and Israel will not be normalized.

Additionally Davutoglu extended Turkey’s criticism of the apartheid land-thieving entity:

“Israel should decide to be a part of either the problem or the solution,” Davutoglu told reporters. The minister also spoke out against other aspects of Israeli policy, criticizing Israel to for continuing its settlement policy. The minister concluded by emphasizing that Turkey would react positively if Israel pursued a less hawkish foreign policy.

From @leventbasturk: If it doesn’t remain firm on this issue, the new course of Turkish Frgn Pol in ME will be under great suspicion. #

In the US press, Davutoglu’s comments were under-reported, omitting the need for Israel to end its embargo on Gaza.

Palestine / Israel Links

Nutanyahoo newspeak reveals his narcissist delusional extremism – his blitherings are straight out of Animal Farm
Pinkwashing, 2008-2011: Obituary for a hasbara strategy
Palestinian freed in prisoner swap is persecuted by Israel’s maniacal illegal settlers in Hebron
Haaretz publisher and owner Schocken identifies Israel’s ‘strategy of territorial seizure and apartheid’
Old Palestinian man in front of his house demolished by Israel

Occupy

Occupy Everywhere: Michael Moore, Naomi Klein on Next Steps for the Movement Against Corporate Power

October 24, 2011August 24, 2022

OPEN LETTER to Oumou Sangaré…Don’t close your eyes to torment

Dear Oumou Sangaré,

In 2005 Palestinian civil society, almost unanimously, called for international artists to refuse to perform in Israel as part of the BDS (Boycott Divestment Sanctions) campaign which is a non-violent method of holding Israel accountable to standards of equality and human rights that nations such as ours are accustomed to. If you perform in Israel it will be a rejection of that appeal made not just by the Palestinian BDS movement, but by the Global BDS movement.

When you booked your concert in Israel, you probably did not think about the siege of Gaza or the Israeli carpet bombing of the Strip with white phosphorous and other brutal weapons resulting in the death of over 1,400 Palestinians, over 300 of them children, as well as the maiming of thousands.

As a typical piece of Israeli propaganda, people are led into meeting the needs of Israelis and concentrating on the Israeli sufferings, while ignoring the much greater sufferings imposed by Israel, which forces millions of Palestinians into living as refugees and in destitution. The boycott is about turning away from the policy of appeasement of the oppressor and of standing in solidarity with the oppressed.

The campaign asking you to cancel your concert has no intention to hurt or embarrass you, however, there was great pain and dismay among many of your fans when they heard you chose to entertain the state that inflicted the slaughter of so many children in Gaza. Oumou Sangaré, many of your songs denounce violence against women. The pain Israel inflicts on Palestinian women and children is well represented in children’s artwork and in the piece of artwork entitled “Torment” by Najah. See http://boycott-israel-harp-contest.posterous.com/palestinian-art-depicts-womans-childrens-suff

All artists objecting to the Israeli regime’s actions have justified their booked performances in Israel as acts of support for the Israeli “peaceniks.” Recently, another performing musician, Natacha Atlas, wrote:

“I had an idea that performing in Israel would have been a unique opportunity to encourage and support my fans’ opposition to the current government’s actions and policies. I would have personally asked my Israeli fans face-to-face to fight this apartheid with peace in their hearts…”

Natacha Atlas then confirmed that she decided to cancel, explaining:

“after much deliberation I now see that it would be more effective a statement to not go to Israel until this systemised apartheid is abolished once and for all. Therefore I publicly retract my well-intentioned decision to go and perform in Israel…”

Some of the artists who initially breached the boycott and performed in Israel, believing they would be supporting justice by appeasing so called Israeli “peaceniks,” now wholeheartedly support the cultural boycott.

For example, Roger Waters breached the boycott, then changed his position and later wrote:

“Where governments refuse to act people must, with whatever peaceful means are at their disposal. For me this means declaring an intention to stand in solidarity, not only with the people of Palestine but also with the many thousands of Israelis who disagree with their government’s policies, by joining the campaign of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israel. This is [however] a plea to my colleagues in the music industry, and also to artists in other disciplines, to join this cultural boycott. Artists were right to refuse to play in South Africa’s Sun City resort until apartheid fell and white people and black people enjoyed equal rights. And we are right to refuse to play in Israel.”

South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu has this view:

“International Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions against the Apartheid regime, combined with the mass struggle inside South Africa, led to our victory … Just as we said during apartheid that it was inappropriate for international artists to perform in South Africa in a society founded on discriminatory laws and racial exclusivity, so it would be wrong … to perform in Israel”.

Oumou Sangaré, your association promotes freedom, justice, and the rights of children and women around the world. For this reason, we feel you are a musician of integrity, and we hope you will also support the oppressed Palestinians. We know you may have felt the pain of Gaza when Israel pounded it with thousands of tons of explosives. You would know that children in Gaza are not just children. As in the heartbreaking short film: “One Family in Gaza”, the children do play in the rubble of their house, but their little souls cannot escape the trauma of being shot at and seeing their home bombed and their brother repeatedly shot, even after his death. Jen Marlowe, made this film showing the children play, she doesn’t show the bombing, but lets their loving parents speak of their anguish:

The Israeli state has a multi-million dollar hasbara [the Hebrew equivalent to propaganda] and thousands of recruits to propagate the hasbara, especially targeting social networks. The Israeli promoters who bring the artists were even invited to the Israeli Knesset to discuss the anti-boycott campaign and the Israeli regime agreed on financial support to those who bring artists from abroad. Israeli ministers have stated the significance of culture in whitewashing the Israel I crimes [though they used different wording but we are happy to send you the quotes].

You don’t need us to tell you how mainstream media in France has been in denial of the Israeli crimes against the Palestinians, starting from the Nakba in 1948, through the current apartheid and racism.

Occasionally we get a big boost to our campaign, when artists choose to make a statement in the media, such as Massive Attack on http://www.newstatesman.com/music/2010/09/israel-interview-boycott-naja
Similarly, when Elvis Costello posted his message on his own website the international and Israeli media published it widely.

Against the massive well oiled Israeli hasbara, all we have is the public sphere, such as blogging and social networks like Facebook. This is how we inform artists like yourself about the boycott. This is how we spread the word of the BDS to all people concerned with human rights.

In honor of Palestinian woman’s rights, freedom, justice and the rights of innocent children like the dear ones in Jen Marlowe’s film, please refrain from performing in Israel.

Sincerely,

Don’t Play Apartheid Israel

We are a group, of 780 members, representing many nations around the globe, who believe that it is essential for musicians & other artists to heed the call of the PACBI, and join in the boycott of Israel. This is essential in order to work towards justice for the Palestinian people under occupation, and also in refugee camps and in the diaspora throughout the world.

SOURCE

Join the Facebook campaign to help persuade Oumou Sangaré to cancel her gig in Israel : Oumou Sangaré : s’il vous plait, ne vous produisez pas en Israël

Palestine / Israel Links

Interactive Map: Escalation of settler violence
Who Are the Palestinians?

which voices are we still not hearing? What are their stories? What unites – and divides – the sometimes mutually antagonistic voices across their society as a whole? Who are these people, the Palestinians?

October 10, 2011December 11, 2020

An Apology from the Palestinians to Mrs. Haris Alexiou …

An appeal from the Greek Association for Solidarity with the Palestinian People – INTIFADA) to Greek singer Haris Alexiou, planning to perform in Caesarea, Israeli Apartheid, on 20 and 22 of October 2011.

Mrs. Haris Alexiou, we Palestinians do apologize, but they are not letting us come to your concert

Dear Mrs. Haris Alexiou

(or, if that’s OK with you) our Haroula

We, all Palestinians, rejoiced at the news that, despite the call from a certain self-proclaimed Palestinian civil society and some Israeli activists for boycotting the Israeli apartheid till it stops committing crimes and complies with the international law, you will not follow the example of other artists (such as Roger Waters, Natacha Atlas, Elvis Costello and others) and you will come to sing in historical Palestine – excuse us, Israel.

We know that you, as well as other Greek artists (Yiannis Kotsiras, Demis Roussos, George Dalaras, Glykeria, and others), don’t mix politics with art and you are coming to sing for peace and for all the peoples of that region, which have common cultural roots, anyway.

Unfortunately our joy for your coming was somewhat mitigated by the fact that we will not be able to attend your concert, as we would like so much to.

More than 1.5 million residents of the Gaza Strip, mostly children, in our majority refugees since the “Nakba” (that means the catastrophe, the ethnic cleansing of 1948), we are under blockade inside the Strip and we are not only not allowed to get out and attend your concert but not even, apart from a few exceptions, go to hospitals or study.

Another 2.5 million approx. of us, including once again many 1948 refugees, we are being blocked (even among us) in the West Bank and we are no more allowed to visit the area where you are going to have the concert, not only to watch it, but not even to go for a day’s work, as we were doing in the past. But even if they would allow us, we would have to pass so many checkpoints as well as the Wall, that it would be uncertain if could make it on time for your concert.

More than 5 million others we are dispersed around the whole world, refugees since 1948 (“this cologne lasts for years” [1]…) and we are not allowed to visit our villages destroyed then (among them Qisarya where you usually perform), our houses, our relatives – but, most of all, we are not allowed to come to your concert. We were thinking of giving it a try, by organizing peaceful demonstrations to return to the area where you are going to sing, but the last time we tried something like this, in May and in June, some ones – obviously not among your fans – welcomed us with live ammunition and we had dozens of people killed.

We were thinking of catching at least a plane and coming just for your concert. But the last time some foreigners tried to do it, last June, they found themselves crammed in the detention centers of Ben Gurion airport. Even by boat would we come, but when some of us, having gained foreign nationality, tried, along with many foreign friends, in 2010, something similar, i.e. to come to Gaza by boats, some Israelis – for sure not among your fans – attacked us, killed 8 Turkish fellow travelers and one American of Turkish origin, injured dozens and, after beating us and tazered us, they crammed us by hundreds in prisons and finally they deported us. Fortunately in 2011, when we tried to do the same crazy thing, the Prime Minister of your country, Greece, Mr. Papandreou (obviously remembering the fraternal friendship of his late father with the late Yasser Arafat) protected us like a father and, with the help of fully armed coast guard policemen, prevented us from suffering the same or worst.

About 5,500 of us, including hundreds of children, are imprisoned in Israeli jails, even in jails-concentration camps in the desert. As you can understand, it is uncertain if we will be given, not of course the permission to leave the jail for 5 days, as it happens in your country, but even a permission to leave the jail for half a day, in order to be able to come to your concert. But, in any case, we will give it a try and we are determined to even have a hunger strike in order to assert a permission for a few hours and be able to watch your concert.

Thousands of us, we found ourselves disabled in our homes (or still in hospitals) after being injured not only by vicious beatings from settlers and soldiers – for sure not some of your fans – but also by not-so-“rubber” bullets, live ammunition, shells, bombs, missiles, white phosphorous etc. We were really dreaming of coming to your concert, but the doctors do not allow us to do so for the moment.

Finally, more than 6,500 of us, about 1/5 of them children, about ¼ of those children under the age of 12, we have been killed during the last 11 years by Israeli fire and as you can understand it’s a little bit difficult for us to attend. Despite that, be sure that we will listen to you “from the edge of sky”. [2]

So, we are sorry that we, all your Palestinian fans, will not be able to come to your concert in the heart of historical Palestine – excuse us, Israel – but we are sure that “your love will find us wherever we are”. [3]

“By the prayers” [4] of:

The “free besieged” [5] people of the Gaza Strip under blockade

The “built in wall” people of the occupied West Bank

The displaced people of occupied East Jerusalem

The exiled – refugees of the Palestinian diaspora

The Palestinian prisoners

The Palestinian injured and disabled people

The Palestinian martyrs

All your Palestinian fans

Freely adapted by the:

Greek Association for Solidarity with the Palestinian People – INTIFADA

P.S. We know how much you, Mrs. Alexiou, are also hit by the economic crisis that your country, and many more, suffer by. And how much you need the profits from this concert. The fact that we will not be able to attend your concert, does not mean that we don’t want to support you in this difficult moment of yours. Please send us the details of your bank account and we will send you the price of the ticket. We don’t want anything in exchange. We just want you to contribute so that, in a future concert in historical Palestine – excuse us, Israel – we will be able, at least some of us, to attend. We thank you in advance.

[1] “This cologne lasts for years”: an old song by Haris Alexiou

[2] Referring to the song “To the edge of your sky”, by Haris Alexiou.

[3] Referring to the song “Love will find you wherever you are”, by Haris Alexiou.

[4] Another song by Haris Alexiou

[5] “The Free Besieged”: one of the most important works of the Greek national poet Dionysios Solomos, about the siege of Messolonghi by the forces of the Ottoman Empire, during the Greek revolution for independence.

SOURCE

October 10, 2011August 24, 2022

Max Brenner, a Legend of Contemporary “Journalism”

On the 20th September, Australian ABC TV’s Foreign Correspondent broadcast a programme titled “Follow the Money”, mainly focussing on the impact of BDS on Daniel Birnbaum, the Israeli US immigrant business owner of Soda Stream, an Israeli factory illegally located in one of the neoliberal industrial zones in the Occupied West Bank. The show offered a token ‘balance’ with a Palestinian US immigrant family who supported boycott, divestment and sanctions of Israeli apartheid and occupation. The mother, Cairo Arafat, emphasised her support for two states, whilst her daughter Semma, was less enthusiastic, opining that “Two states will not work. Two states would just be a phase into Palestine being wiped off the map, into creating a one state that is an Israeli state”. The programme lacked considerable depth and sensitivity on the BDS issue within Palestine and Israel, and made some glaring factual errors – such as failing to note that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank is illegal under international law, that instead of “Thirteen per cent of it [the apartheid wall] … being constructed inside the West Bank”, the apartheid barrier is built mainly in the West Bank and only partly along the 1949 Armistice line, or “Green Line” between Israel and Palestinian West Bank, with 12% of the entire West Bank area illegally annexed across into the Israel side of the barrier. Further, despite the new anti-boycott law passed by Israel’s far right extremist Knesset, which has been condemned by Amnesty International as “an attack on freedom of expression”, there are a growing number of Israelis who are in solidarity with the call of Palestinian people for BDS.

Foreign Correspondent programmes are re-broadcast regularly “by more than 20 international networks, including CNN International, Al Jazeera, NHK Japan and TV NZ”. Al Jazeera English re-broadcasted “Follow the Money” retitled as “About a boycott” on its “People & Power” show on October 6, 2011. So who inserted the ubiquitous fake Max Brenner this time – for this is not the first occasion that Max Brenner has been anthropomorphised.

The “Max Brenner Shop Owner” title pops up in the screenshot opposite at about 10.07 minutes into Al Jazeera English’s slightly truncated re-broadcast version. This individual is named in the Foreign Correspondent transcript as “GRAHAM WEINBERG (IN CROWD)”. Now we know which balding lookalike Max Brenner is this month. The Max Brenner site states “ALL AUSTRALIAN MAX BRENNER CHOCOLATE BARS ARE COMPANY OWNED & WE DO NOT CURRENTLY FRANCHISE”.

Foreign Correspondent Eric Campbell captures some correct information from a protester at a recent rally against the Israeli occupation-supporting Max Brenner business in Newtown.

CAMPBELL: “And what’s Max Brenner doing?”

PROTESTOR: “Max Brenner is financially and morally supporting the Israeli defence forces, particularly two brigades – the Golani and the Givati”.

Like Max Brenner, Sodastream is bound to the illegal, brutal Israeli military occupation, and is a legitimate boycott target.

Al Jazeera made an appearance in some recently released WikiLeaks cables.

“Al Jazeera is a vital component to the USG’s strategy in communicating with the Arab world.” — Joseph E. LeBaron, U.S. Ambassador to Qatar, November 6, 2008

“Al Jazeera Board Chairman Hamed bin Thamer Al Thani has proven open to creative uses of Al Jazeera’s airwaves by the USG beyond straightforward interviews.” — Joseph E. LeBaron, U.S. Ambassador to Qatar, February 10, 2009

Might the omnipresent bald man be such an example of ‘creative uses’ of Al Jazeera’s airwaves by the US or was the inserted caption a plausibly deniable slipup?

You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word “tension.” I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood. The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation.

Palestine / Israel Links

The hand of a thief: Taking a page from Nixon (“If the president does it, that means it’s not illegal!”) Netanyahu instructed Justice Minister Ya’acov Ne’eman, a religious ultra-nationalist, to come up with a legal way for Israel to keep even the radical hilltop settlement outposts built on land that Israel itself recognizes as being owned by Palestinians.

Other Links

Next come the micro-drones to zap anyone with soma who says nasty things about neoziocons. Government Aims to Build a ‘Data Eye in the Sky’
Here Comes FIATtackWatch: Ben “Big Brother” Bernanke Goes Watergate, Prepares To Eavesdrop On Everything Mentioning The Fed

August 21, 2011December 11, 2020

Israel’s Criminal Reprisals Against the Civilians of Gaza

Reprisals against civilians are a war crime, a fact to which Nutanyahoo is oblivious as he sends bombs to murder the people of Gaza in response to the Eilat attacks committed by as yet unknown assailants. No one in Gaza has claimed responsibility for the attacks, yet even if they had, reprisals against Gazan civilians would still be an international war crime.

Tellingly, Israel had preplanned an attack on Gaza.

‘The IDF recently completed the preparation of different plans of action against Hamas and the rest of the terror organizations in the Strip – from surgical strike to a wide-scale operation. ‘

Nutanyahoo has much to gain by creating a conflagration – to disrupt the UNGA vote for a Palestinian state, the Palmer report which is due for release at the end of this month, discussion of the Goldstone and HRC flotilla report in the UN in September, along with the J14 protests in Israel which threaten zionist privilege by merging Jewish and Palestinian housing and social welfare issues. Ironically, war will reduce the funds available for social welfare, and after its cessation, housing costs are likely to skyrocket.

At present, the J14 protests continue.

Shafir criticized calls by ministers including Ayoub Kara (Likud ) to end the protest due to the terror attacks. “The fact that the government is calling on us to halt the protest because of the terror attacks is an attempt to use our pain as citizens hurting for their friends and families to make us bow on the social front, and that’s sad for several reasons,” she said.

Perhaps as a smokescreen, Nutanyahoo’s mysterious aides have been floating unconfirmed signals in the past couple of weeks which indicate that Nutanyahoo *might* be willing to negotiate on 67 borders.

Leaks from unnamed aides to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu claim he has shifted positions on another critical peace process issue – borders – but so far there’s no official confirmation. It appears to be a tactical move to derail the Palestinian strategy for a UN statehood resolution next month, and it could work if the Israeli leader can convince Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that he is serious.
…
Netanyahu is demanding a quid pro quo, aides are telling Israeli media. He will acknowledge the 1967 Green Line as the reference point for negotiations of future borders if the Palestinians will agree to ultimately recognize Israel as a Jewish state

According to Benny Morris:

‘And Netanyahu has failed to publicly, clearly chart out the main lines of a territorial compromise (necessarily along the lines of the Clinton parameters of December 2000) that could serve as a basis for a two-state solution acceptable to Washington and Europe. Instead, Netanyahu has talked vaguely about his willingness to engage in “painful” concessions for peace, a formula that may sell well on the hill but has had little traction anywhere else.’

In the absence of confirmation from Nutanyahoo himself, these claims that he is prepared to negotiate seriously, also aired on Israel TV according to AP, should be considered as hasbara. The apparent concessions are in contradiction to Nutanyahoo’s stated position in May, along with his Bar Ilan speech and the Likud charter.

Predictably, Israel is now blaming their convenient whipping boy, Hamas, for rockets attacks launched pursuant to the Israeli reprisals.

In response to Israel’s murder of 5 Egyptian security personnel, Egypt has recalled its ambassador from Israel.

“The cabinet committee has decided to withdraw the Egyptian ambassador in Israel until the result of investigations by the Israeli authorities is provided and an apology from the Israeli leadership over the hasty and regrettable statements about Egypt is given,” the cabinet statement said.

STATEMENT REMOVED

The statement was later removed from the website, prompting speculation that Cairo may have retracted its decision. An Egyptian government spokesman said the cabinet stood by statements made by its information minister, but declined to make any reference to the recall of the ambassador, which was also reported by state media.

…
Emad Gad, senior researcher at Cairo’s Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said neither Egypt nor Israel was keen to escalate the issue further. “Withdrawing the Egyptian ambassador is a good step but Egypt still has to insist on a formal apology from Israel,” he said

Israel continues to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity unchallenged by the international national community. This is one of the important reasons why BDS, which circumvents government, is so effective and essential.

The Arab League has urged the UN to act to stop Israeli attacks on the people of Gaza and on Egyptian land.

As Livni screams for the blood of innocent Gazans,
with the aid of Egypt, Gazan militant groups agree to cease-fire with Israel from today, Sunday 21/8/11.

Israeli faux pas shock horror – Egypt identifies three men responsible for Eilat terrorist attack and it doesn’t look like they are from Gaza.

Related Links

This is the Ehud Barak we remember and know from various past predilections, his fetishes are taking an even grosser form. : “Those who operate against us will be decapitated” – does Barak mean he’s going to assassinate, whilst ‘collaterally’ murdering countless civilians, whom he thinks are at the head of the resistance? or just generally chop everyone’s heads off whom he suspects of opposed Israel’s oppression?

Really? Senior IDF officials suggest amending Israel’s peace treaty with Egypt
Spring is so short here
Hamas: Gaza militant groups agree to cease-fire with Israel
Hamas was not behind the attacks on Thursday

, nor does it seek to increase tensions with Israel. Therefore, a direct attack on Hamas will be perceived as disproportionate and unjustified. Egypt will not be able to stand aside; this time it will surely call back its ambassador from Tel Aviv and freeze the peace.

The international community will not show restraint; it will present Israel as a war-monger. And when hundreds of rockets from Gaza hit Sderot, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Be’er Sheva, Rehovot, Rishon Letzion and Tel Aviv, the Iron Dome will be deemed ineffectual. Netanyahu will face dilemmas that tore Ehud Olmert apart.

Members of Knesset from Israel’s leading opposition party, Kadima, urged the cabinet on Sunday to launch a military campaign in the Gaza Strip, in light of the ongoing barrage of rockets.
Gaza Under Attack – in pictures
IDF officer: Terrorists planned an abduction attack
Is Israel planning to invade the Sinai?
The SCAF has largely been silent about identifying the armed groups who launched the attack.

“Given the conflicting reports, where is the SCAF’s official statement on the recent developments in Sinai?” ElBaradei asked on his Twitter account, adding that the SCAF needed to inform the public about its strategy to handle the delicate security situation in the peninsula.’

Al-Qassam: Israel ‘crimes’ cannot be ignored
Israel’s video game killing technology
Israel’s revenge attacks against defenceless civilians in Gaza continue
Israel weighs response after rocket barrage leaves one dead, several wounded
Minister Shalom: Not ruling out option of ground operation in Gaza
Opposition MKs urge IDF action in Gaza as rockets keep falling on southern Israel
From spy intrigue, self-sabotage & condom failure to neolib softdrink stands, the WHR has it all!

Also, the General Security Service (Shabak) wasted no time in making it very clear, very loudly that they had given the army very detailed and specific information of the impending attack. But remembering Clinton trying to take out Bin Laden back in ‘98 and getting blamed unfairly for wagging the dog? I should shut up about the obvious thoughts pursuant to the above intelligence.

War crimes, collective punishment … does Israel hope the people of Gaza drown in their own excrement?
Palestinians farming creatively to overcome the ‘buffer zone’
Israel to expel Palestinian activists
Israel launches bloody reprisals in Egypt and Gaza

Palestine / Israel Links

What sort of monsters fire tear gas at children?
Demolitions by Israel increase fivefold, says new UN report
Another BDS success: Tuba Skinny cancels show at jazz festival in Israel
Occupy, Colonize, Exploit: The Economic Uses of the Separation Barrier
Murdoch press success; discuss Palestine and BDS and ignore occupation
Attacks on Gaza continue: “I’ve never seen shrapnel wounds like this before.”
Palestinian youth in Gaza skeptical about PA’s UN bid
Zionist idiotic waffle on the fake state: ‘Virtual’ Palestinian state could lead to actual disaster
Australia’s leaders must back Palestinian bid for statehood : Robert Newton pontificates pompously on the fake state.
Flashback to Obama giving Nutanyahoo the Jordan Valley as if it was his to give, nearly a year ago: Obama in personal appeal to Netanyahu: Extend settlement freeze for two months
Kafka at the Rafah border

Other Links

John Pilger: Riots reveal Britain’s forbidden truth
A New Approach: A statement by prominent Australians urging political leaders to break the stalemate on refugee and asylum policy
Ita still tells the truth? Murdoch told me to have someone followed: Buttrose
Malcolm Fraser exposes the truth about Beazley’s political opportunism which blind freddy could see at the time anyway, and which disgusted then as now.