Zionism

January 4, 2011December 11, 2020

Asia to Gaza Breaks the Siege, Still Egypt Blocks the Aid Ship

1301 days into Israel’s illegal siege, the Asia to Gaza convoy has managed to cross into Gaza.

The convoy’s aid cargo was expected to arrive in Gaza later in the day, after travelling separately from Syria to Egypt by boat. … Egyptian authorities had prevented several activists from entering Gaza at the Rafah border crossing. … The boat is carrying $US1 million worth of medicine, foodstuffs and toys as well as four buses and 10 power generators for hospitals, Palestinian officials said.

A couple of hours later, Egypt is still not permitting the aid ship to dock.

Egyptian authorities have prevented an Asian convoy’s ship carrying humanitarian aid and activists from reaching the Gaza Strip.

The ship has not allowed to dock at the Egyptian port of El Arish.

The vessel, which is part of a sizeable pro-Palestinian relief mission, is said to be carrying eight activists as well as $1 million worth of relief supplies for the Israel-blockaded Gaza Strip.

“Egypt still didn’t allow the aid ship to dock. It is 50 hours,” dpa quoted the activists as saying on Monday, noting that they are in a “bad situation.”

UPDATE

@Asia2Gaza 8 activists suffered 65 hours on #Asia2Gaza aid ship until #Egypt allowed ship to dock by receiving 10000$ bribe! #

In Kensington, England, protestors draw attention to Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people of Gaza.

What will the convoy find in Gaza? Two years after Israel’s monstrous Cast Lead attack on Gaza’s 1.5 million people, the water which Gazans drink is largely unsafe for human consumption.

The water quality control authority in the Gaza Strip said that more than 90% of the Strip’s potable water was contaminated, warning of a serious threat to lives of the Strip’s inhabitants.

The report published on Monday said that the Palestinian citizens were increasingly using home desalination and purification systems especially with the high concentration of chlorine in the water wells.

It noted that the sewage water, agricultural chemicals, and “dangerous waste” spewed by the former Israeli settlements in the Strip were contaminating the underground water reservoir.

The report said that the people in Gaza consume 170 million cubic meters of the underground water per annum with no equal natural feeding of the water wells due to the scarcity of rain.

In the West Bank, the zionist apartheid state has been on a rampage, demolishing Palestinian homes and electricity structures to make way for invading colonists who steal Palestinian land for more illegal settlements.

Israel’s Civil Administration patrols on Sunday delivered 17 demolition orders to an extended family near the West Bank city of Jericho, residents said.

Members of the Az-Zayed family received orders to demolish a mosque, electricity infrastructure and tents north of An-Nuwei’ma village.

The electricity structures slated for demolition were recently installed by the Palestinian Authority at a cost of 79,000 shekels ($22,225)

North of Sheikh Jarrah, in Lafta village, the zionist oppressor demolished part of a Palestinian home, leaving a family of 9 to “live in one bedroom, one lounge and a corridor”.

Seyam told Ma’an a legal dispute began in 2004, when he received a demolition order which was frozen three times. The Jerusalem municipality said his license was conditional on submitting a plan for the surrounding area, which he could not afford.
…
On Wednesday, Israeli forces demolished 11 structures in the At-Tur neighborhood of East Jerusalem, which authorities said were constructed without permits.
…
Palestinians say it is virtually impossible to secure Israeli permission to build in East Jerusalem.

In late December, two Palestinian families destroyed their own homes in compliance with Israeli demolition orders.

Director of UNRWA Operations West Bank Barbara Shenstone said the families opted to demolish their own homes rather than wait for Jerusalem municipality to do so because a municipal demolition would cost them up to 120,000 shekels ($33,389).

“These condemnable acts have a devastating impact,” Shenstone said in a statement at the time.

“While children around the world are enjoying the holiday season in their homes, these children have suffered the trauma and indignity of watching their homes destroyed in the presence of their parents. It is extremely cruel and distressing.”

On 23 December, Maxwell Gaylard, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, offered his own condemnation after visiting the site of a home that had been demolished 24 hours earlier.

“The destruction of this home and the displacement of these people raises serious concerns with regard to Israel’s obligations under international law,” he said.

“These actions have a severe social and economic impact on the lives and welfare of Palestinians and increase their dependence on humanitarian assistance,” he added.

“The government of Israel must take immediate steps to cease demolitions and evictions in the West Bank, including east Jerusalem.”

And from Bil’in, whose non-violent protesting inhabitants suffered a despicable attack by the Israeli Occupation Forces a couple of days ago, Mohammad Khatib writes:

“…my next letter will likely be written from inside a prison cell”

At the threshold of the New Year, I write to wish you a new year of freedom and liberation. This has been an unbelievable year for me in both highs and lows. A year during which I have witnessed how, despite repression, ordinary people all across Palestine take to the streets for freedom.

In my village, Bil’in, thousands of people marched on the Wall today to take it down. During the demonstration, one protestor, a 36 year old resident of the village, Jawaher Abu-Rahmah, was critically injured by severe tear-gas inhalation. She is currently hospitalized in Ramallah, unresponsive to medical treatment as the doctors are fighting for her life. [The morning after this was written, Jawaher lost her life. Cause of death: Poisoning from over exposure to CS gas.]

Bil’in has been struggling for almost six years against the Wall that was built on our lands. The illegality and absurdity of this wall has been recognized worldwide, and even by the Israeli Supreme Court, which ruled it must be dismantled over three years ago. Yet the Wall still stands. We, the people of Bil’in, the people of Palestine, have waited enough. Today was therefore declared by the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements as the last day of the Wall. Together with our supporters, we managed to bring a substantial part of the wall down but we still have a long way to go.

On a personal note, the beginning of 2011 also strikes notes of fear. In just a few days, on January 3rd, 2011, my trial in front of an Israeli military court will draw into conclusion. Captain Sharon Rivlin, the soldier-judge presiding in my case, will hand down my verdict. If found guilty of “incitement”, my next letter will likely be written from inside a prison cell; If found guilty, despite having proved that evidence against me was falsified, I will proudly join my friend and comrade,Abdallah Abu Rahmah, who is now spending his second new year’s eve behind bars. PSCC’s media coordinator, my friend and brother in struggle, Israeli activist Jonathan Pollak, will also be going to prison, again, for three months on January 11th, for protesting Israel’s siege on Gaza.

We are all facing tremendous challenges, as individuals and as a movement. It is our pride and strength that keeps us going. It is your support and involvement, which is becoming more crucial than ever. Join us – take our struggle forward, so that the year of 2011 will become an historical year of Palestinian liberation and a just peace.

In solidarity,
Mohammad Khatib

Palestine / Israel Links

Palestinians to pressure US with UN resolution
Second Palestinian dies on Israeli roadblock in W. Bank
Canadian Boat to Gaza campaign is legal, ethical, and necessary
Global silence over 7000 Palestinian prisoners
Who will teach Israeli Jewish kids that the world hates them?
We will not go down, for the Gaza tonight
Pirate Party Bilin Report Public Pad
Breaking the Israel-Palestine Deadlock
Kensington Vigil for Gaza 2 years on
The Wall In Palestine [vid]
Legal official slams bill that would expel Israelis’ foreign partners with undetermined residency status

Wikileaks Links

Not trusting Sweden
WikiLeaks: US targets EU over GM crops
Bradley Manning : Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Speedy Trial
2011-1-4: James Richardson’s Collateral Damage in the Guardian: WikiLeaks & Tsvangirai
2011-01-03 PsySR Open Letter on PFC Bradley Manning’s Solitary Confinement
Psychologists protest ‘inhumane, harmful’ treatment of Bradley Manning
The Rove/Assange Story Hits the International Press in Sweden
Window on Eurasia: ‘Wikileak-ization’ of Media Transforming Russian Politics, Analyst Says

Other Links

Global Warming by Banksy
A New Year’s Plea to Close Guantánamo by a Clear-Sighted American
The Toppling: How the Media Inflated the Fall of Saddam’s Statue in Firdos Square
Dear Australian Retailers
More Retailer Fascism: The internal email from Revealed: retailers’ secret tax strategy
Belmarsh – Britain’s Guantanamo Bay?
Continued detention of Papuan prisoners violates basic rights
Chewing Gum for Terrorists
Nuclear war: Iran snubs US, invites Russia, China
Are we living in the end times? – Slavoj Zizek with Riz Khan
The Internet is far too valuable to become an agent of Washington’s digital diplomats.

January 2, 2011December 11, 2020

This Year, The Illegal, Malicious Israeli Occupation Must End

To those who dwell in Palestine and Israel who oppose injustice and are working in solidarity to end Israel’s cruelty, salutations, and greetings to the people of the world who support their struggle. The appalling death yesterday of Jawaher Abu Rahmah from inhalation of tear gas fired by the Israeli Occupation Forces at a peaceful demonstration in Bil’in protesting the apartheid wall and Israeli land theft is an unwelcome beginning to the year.

The Israeli IOF spokesman attempted to muddy the waters and smear Palestinians by suggesting they created a false story about Jawaher’s death.

An Israeli military statement issued Saturday evening said Palestinians initially reported that Abu Rahmah was released from hospital Friday and died at home. “Subsequently the Palestinians changed their version of events, claiming that she died in the hospital,” the statement continued.

A military spokesman did not immediately know who the Palestinians quoted in the statement were, but said he would look into it.

Bil’in popular committee spokesman Jonathan Pollak said the statement was a “shameless lie aimed at distorting reality.”

Abu Rahmah arrived at the hospital unconscious and doctors were unable to revive her, Pollak said. She did not die because of a lack of medical treatment, but because Israeli forces used a lethal tear gas banned in several European countries, he added.

More IOF lies have bubbled up through the zionist swamp. Jewish Voices for Peace @jvplive tweeted at the time from the protest : “One eye injury and jawaher – sister of bassem who was killed last year at a demo -was taken to the hospital for gas inhalation.”

Journalist Lisa Goldman, who was also present at the protest, has translated Jonathan Pollak’s collection of witness statements.

Ali Abunimah @avinunu also notes on twitter: In report on Jawahir Abu Rahmah BBC World Service just lied that Israel’s wall is “built around the West Bank” (it’s built through it) #

Jawaher’s funeral:

Hundreds of Israelis rallied in Tel Aviv also to protest Jawaher’s murder. Lisa Goldman, who was also present at the Bil’in protest, reports:

The demonstration to protest Jawaher’s death by tear gas asphyxiation was announced mid-morning on Saturday, via Facebook and Twitter. Despite the short notice, it attracted at least 200 people. The crowd was sufficiently large to block traffic across from the Ministry of Defense (Kirya) on Kaplan Street, a main traffic artery that connects to the Ayalon Highway.

Waving poster-size mourning posters emblazoned with photos of Jawaher Abu Rahmeh and carrying placards with slogans in Hebrew and English, demonstrators chanted in Hebrew: “Citizens, awake! Fascism is already here!” “Barak! Barak! Minister of Defense! How many demonstrators have you killed today?!” ; in English: “Apartheid! Fight back!”; and in Arabic: “Min Ghaza el Bil’in, hurra hurra Falasteen!” (from Gaza to Bil’in, freedom, freedom for Palestine).

Haaretz notes that former MK Musi Raz is “reportedly arrested and beaten by Israeli police” at the Tel Aviv protest against Jawaher’s murder.

According to Joseph Dana, another participant in the Bil’in protest, there’s a new form of BDS arisen in Israel.

Israeli activists protesting the killing of Bil’in’s Jawaher Abu Rahmah ‘returned’ spent tear gas canisters to the residence of the American ambassador to Israel late Saturday evening.
…
The tear gas used by the Israeli forces in Bil’in is manufactured by Combined Systems Inc.; a United States company based in Jamestown, Pennsylvania. This is the first protest where empty tear gas canisters have been returned to an ambassador’s home.

Approximately twenty five Israeli protesters gathered in front of the residence of American ambassador to Israel, James B. Cunningham around 1am local time. The protesters ‘returned’ loads of spent tear gas canisters collected in the West Bank village of Bil’in in protest of the murder of Bil’in’s Jawaher Abu Rahmah. The demonstrators also made noise throughout the Ambassador’s neighborhood informing residents of how American military aid to Israel is being used to kill unarmed and nonviolent demonstrators in the West Bank. They chanted, “one, two, three, four stop the occupation stop the war. Five, six, seven, eight end the funding (US) end the hate.”

Meanwhile, as Israel bombs and terrorises them, the besieged people of Gaza await the arrival of the Asia to Gaza convoy.

Egypt yesterday gave permission for the Asia to Gaza Caravan — or Asia1 — to pass through Egypt to Gaza, according to Khaled Abdel Megid, a member of the Palestinian National Congress.

He said the Egyptian embassy in Damascus informed the convoy of the permit that allows only 120 activists entry to Egypt and then Gaza. It denied entry to 46 activists from Iran and Jordan.

Egypt will not allow 10 generators donated by the Iranians to enter to the besieged Gaza Strip. This will decrease the size of the humanitarian aid convoy to below 300 tons, which will be limited to food and medical aid in addition to toys, according to Abdel-Meguid.

The Asia to Gaza Caravan consists of approximately 160 people from more than 15 countries, including Iran, India, Japan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Malaysia, New Zealand and Kuwait. It was scheduled to reach Gaza by 27 December, in time for the second anniversary of Israel’s 22-day war on the Strip that started on 28 December 2008.

Approximately 1,400 Palestinians were killed and 5,000 injured or maimed in the three-week war. Half of Gaza’s infrastructure was destroyed and remains unrepaired as a result of Israel’s siege, which includes a ban on the entry of building materials into the Strip.

The time has come for justice, an end to the lies and crimes of those who consider themselves privileged and above others, who maintain their privilege by stepping on and stealing from those whom they oppress. Justice is for all, equal rights are for all. Please boycott, sanction and divest from apartheid Israel until the Occupation is ended and Palestinians have attained their just rights.

Happy new year to everyone! I am blessed with the best online friends one could imagine, sources of joy, knowledge and companionship largely absent from the elitist, white-privileged area of Queensland, Australia in which I live. Thank you 🙂

UPDATE January 7

From Mondoweiss:

It may be a nonlethal weapon, but tear gas can have serious effects. A 2003 article published by four Israeli army doctors in Archives of Toxicology noted that CS gas — the type used by the IDF at these protests — causes tearing and burning for about 15 to 30 minutes, and this is lessened if people are moved into fresh air. The army has insisted on the safety of CS beyond these immediate effects. But the Israeli army doctors’ article noted, “At high concentrations, enclosed spaces, or prolonged exposures, severe side effects may occur and human deaths from lacrimating [tearing] agents have been reported.”

A 2009 article in the British Medical Journal came to similar conclusions, noting that tear gas is “not a gas at all, but a toxic chemical irritant.”

Palestine / Israel Links

Bilin protestor’s mother ‘not seeking revenge’
Gazan youth issue manifesto to vent their anger with all sides in the conflict
Demonstrators ‘return’ tear gas canisters to US ambassador home over the killing of a Bil’in protester
The teargas grenades that killed Jawaher Abu Rahmah were most likely ‘made in the USA’
Hundreds rally in Tel Aviv to protest Bil’in woman’s death
Police clash with leftists at Tel Aviv demonstration of Bil’in protester’s death
Gazans face cooking gas shortage
WikiLeaks cable: UN Goldstone resolution: NZ is watching Europe
Army investigating death of Bil’in protester
Protesters Breached the Wall in Bil’in
The first martyr of 2011 and where we go from here
Abbas: Latest Palestinian death another Israeli crime against our helpless nation
Israeli Forces Kill Female Protester in Bil’in
IMAGES: funeral of Bil’in protester Jawaher abu Rahmah
The death of Jawaher Abu-Rahma is a direct result of occupation and the inhumane violence and brutality against the nonviolent demonstrators in Bilin
Settlers set fire to home as seven Palestinians sleep inside
Sister of Bilin victim dies in anti-fence protest
How many israeli police officers does it take to guard a locked door? Four…
Report: U.S. in secret talks with Syria over peace accord with Israel
Use this site to know which Israeli products to boycott 🙂
What options exist for Netanyahu next time on the high seas?
An open letter from Gaza to Thomas Quasthoff: Do not Forget the Gaza Concentration Camp and “Tell It like It Is!”
NY Times Isabel Kershner Wasn’t At Bil’in Demo–But Still Wrongly Reports On It
More Israeli lies : Israel says direct negotiations best path to peace
Boston says: Break the Siege of Gaza!
Holocaust survivors warn of stirrings of neo-fascism
Israeli forces arrest 2 children in Jerusalem
WikiLeaks: Israel has only 12-minute warning if Iran attacks
Netanyahu Wants Nonstop Talks With Palestinians

Wikileaks Links

The Anti-Empire Report Wikileaks, the United States, Sweden, and Devil’s Island
Coming to terms with the information age : Mark Pesce
On the double-o licence of the powerful
Announcing ScienceLeaks
Invasion of privacy in Paraguay : US Collects DNA And Data On Foreign Presidential Candidates
US government knew about human experiments : Pfizer tested drugs on children
Tortured Until Proven Guilty: Bradley Manning and the Case Against Solitary Confinement
My Time with Julian Assange at the World’s Most Dangerous Website
WikiLeaks, Ideological Legitimacy and the Crisis of Empire
Wikileaks: Israel preparing for ‘large scale war’

Other Links

Egypt church bombing: Why some point to Al Qaeda-linked group
Who is Behind The Alexandria Explosion !!?
Fahem Boukadous and Tunisia’s War on Press Freedoms
US at War Since 1950: A New Year’s Meditation

December 30, 2010December 11, 2020

Global Military Industrial Disease

The US Military Industrial spiderweb, with the Pentagon trillion dollar budget at its disposal, makes the Israel lobby look like a corner shop. Nearly every US state hosts significant MIC plant and associated jobs -.no potential or incumbent political candidate can afford to ignore this. The Pentagon is enmeshed incestuously with the armaments and associated industries.

As Andrew Sullivan relates:

“In some years, the move from general staff to industry is a virtual clean sweep. Thirty-four out of 39 three- and four-star generals and admirals who retired in 2007 are now working in defense roles — nearly 90 percent. And in many cases there is nothing subtle about what the generals have to sell — Martin’s firm is called The Four Star Group, for example. The revolving-door culture of Capitol Hill — where former lawmakers and staffers commonly market their insider knowledge to lobbying firms – is now pervasive at the senior rungs of the military leadership.”

It is in the interests of US defence industries, though not the US people, to provoke conflict between nations and within civil societies including within the US itself. In the US, covert rule by the military industrial plutocracy seems accepted as a bearable consequence of imperial dominance – the military and its ventures are a primary focus for super-nationalistic reverence. Americans are conditioned to support their troops without questioning whose bidding they are actually doing and for what ends. Sometimes, those in denial of the involvement of wealthy WASPs, the ‘Establishment’ and the Pentagon in the MIC plutocracy blame the Israel lobby or “the jews”.

Yet there is no contradiction between the interests of the US and Israeli ruling classes. US and Israeli society are both diseased with militarism. While Israel is voraciously expansionist with designs for regional preeminence, the US is preoccupied with maintaining ‘global security’, code for strategic placement of military force at 900 plus bases and several conflict zones to support current or potential resource exploitation and contain the rise of any competing power. The US has not relinquished the doctrine of full spectrum dominance.

Despite Netanyahu’s protestations that he, and Israel, are for peace, Israel’s ruling Likud party retains its opposition to a Palestinian state within its platform.

Self-Rule

The Government of Israel flatly rejects the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state west of the Jordan river.

The Palestinians can run their lives freely in the framework of self-rule, but not as an independent and sovereign state. Thus, for example, in matters of foreign affairs, security, immigration and ecology, their activity shall be limited in accordance with imperatives of Israel’s existence, security and national needs.

Jerusalem

Jerusalem is the eternal, united capital of the State of Israel and only of Israel. The government will flatly reject Palestinian proposals to divide Jerusalem, including the plan to divide the city presented to the Knesset by the Arab factions and supported by many members of Labor and Meretz. The government firmly rejects attempts of various sources in the world, some anti-Semitic in origin, to question Jerusalem’s status as Israel’s capital, and the 3,000-year-old special connection between the Jewish people and its capital. To ensure this, the government will continue the firm policies it has adopted until now:

No diplomatic activity will be permitted at Orient House. The government stopped the stream of visits by heads of state and ministers at Orient House, begun under the left-wing government.

The presence of the Israeli police in eastern Jerusalem will be increased. This in addition to the new police posts and reinforcements in the neighborhoods.

The Likud government will act with vigor to continue Jewish habitation and strengthen Israeli sovereignty in the eastern parts of the city, while emphasizing improvements in the welfare and security of the Arab residents. Despite protests from the left, the Likud government consistently approved the continuation of Jewish living within the Old City and in ‘City of David’.

The Jordan River as a Permanent Border

The Jordan Valley and the territories that dominate it shall be under Israeli sovereignty. The Jordan river will be the permanent eastern border of the State of Israel. The Kingdom of Jordan is a desirable partner in the permanent status arrangement between Israel and the Palestinians in matters that will be agreed upon.

Security Areas

The government succeeded in significantly reducing the extent of territory that the Palestinians expected to receive in the interim arrangement. The government will insist that security areas essential to Israel’s defense, including the western security area and the Jewish settlements, shall remain under Israeli rule.

Israeli expansionism in the form of land theft in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Negev is facilitated further by associating the peace process facade with Palestinians toward a fictitious two state solution with an equally fictitious ‘existential threat’ from Iran. The rightwing and extremist settler dominated Knesset continues to pass oppressive, racist laws which undermine the prospect for human rights and peace. The PA and Hamas are both tasked by Israel with official and unofficial de facto collaboration respectively for security in the West Bank and Gaza. Thus both major Palestinian factions support the Israeli Occupation and ensure the Israeli milsec incubator is perpetuated.

Military industrialism is a common, complementary denominator between Israel and the US. Israel’s manufactured conflict with the people of Gaza and occupation in the West Bank incubates imported US and local milsec which is then used in barrios and on reservations in the US. Israel also serves as a milsec incubator for other countries, including “China, which imports Israel’s methods of propaganda and repression”.

The number one export for the US, UK, France, Germany and Italy is armaments – and as David Cronin documents, the EU is in bed with the Israeli arms industry alongside the US.

… senior EU figures have consistently shown “cowardice” in refusing to pursue the Israeli military for the cost of European-funded infrastructure projects which have been damaged or destroyed in repeated Israeli invasions. “Privately, EU officials acknowledge that the aid policies they are implementing have become hugely problematic. ‘Are we subsidizing activities that should fall on Israel as a consequence of its responsibilities as an occupying power?’ a well-placed Brussels source said to me. ‘The answer is unquestionably yes,'” writes Cronin.

While the EU’s continued aid to the PA is said to be part of a “tacit division of labor” with the US, whereby Washington holds the political reins and Europe the financial ones, Cronin provides examples of US refusal to allow joint donor statements which criticized Israel for damage to donor-funded projects illustrating the EU’s junior role in that relationship. In the meantime, the EU’s “aid” is also revealed by Cronin’s writings — both in the book and for The Electronic Intifada — to include the far-from-benign training given by European police organizations to PA security forces.

With its snout well and truly in the military industrial trough, the global ruling class is an auto-immune disease of human society.

UPDATE

Considering Israel’s nuclear posture, pursuant to a release from the British archives revealing that the British feared Israel would nuke the Arabs, Paul Barratt, past Secretary of Defence, Primary Industries and Energy Departments in Australia shared some insights:

@phbarratt : Israelis mobilised nuclear force in ’73. Americans petrified, airfreighted previously unreleased weapons out of Wiesbaden. #

@phbarratt : That is something US has had to weigh up ever since whenever Israelis demand access to latest weaponry. #

@Jinjirrie : so in essence, the qualitative military edge law is just icing on the cake #

@phbarratt : Alternative to unconditional US guarantee of Israeli security is more ready reliance by Israel on its nuclear force. #

@phbarratt : You will not that US does not get anything by way of gratitude, acknowledgement or cooperation for this guarantee. #

@Jinjirrie : how realistic though really is the samson option? any use of nukes by israel will blowback on them hard #

@Jinjirrie : physically as well as metaphorically #

@phbarratt : Nuclear weapons a very blunt instrument. Israel and Iran have gone for studied ambiguity – implied deterrence all round. #

@Jinjirrie : Threats make better threats when implied 🙂 i see israeli nuke posture as defiant symbolism against europe as well #

@Jinjirrie : yes, implied deterrence plays into militarisation by other means in the region, suits US/EU defence industries fine #

Story Related Links

Australian Defence White Paper 2009 Appraisal
Clausewitz vs. Sun Tzu
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute – Arms Trades
Why Intelligence Fails: Lessons from Iran and Iraq
Andrew J. Bacevich on Douglas Feith
Exercises – Central Command
Choke Point : The Straits of Hormuz
Closing Time: Assessing the Iranian Threat to the Strait of Hormuz
International Security
Military Resistance 9A 2 : “Why We Fight”
WikiLeaks cables: Mauritius sues UK for control of Chagos islands
The Big (Military) Taboo
The Tyranny of Defense Inc. (Andrew J. Bacevich)
The US Senate is a complete joke (and what to do about it)
Lockheed Martin’s Shadow Government
“Washington Rules” is a tough-minded, bracing and intelligent polemic against some 60 years of American militarism.
The Tyranny of Defense Inc.
U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel Jeremy M. Sharp, Specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs, September 16, 2010

Palestine / Israel Links for Today

Rotim Settlers Seize Land Near Tubas; Minister Arrested in Hebron
Hatem, 17, was shot in the head while purchasing strawberries to sell at market in the Gaza Strip, about 800 metres from the border fence with Israel.
Israel’s Qassam strikes on Gaza : Amira Hass
Several rabbis from Tiberias have called for a boycott of the Poriya hospital following a decision by the hospital to establish a mosque on its campus
Rabbi Dov Lior, one of the most senior deciders of Jewish law in religious Zionism, has determined that Jewish women are not allowed to obtain a sperm sample from non-Jewish men. Rabbi Lior said that the resulting infant would suffer adverse genetic traits.
Ex-President Katsav guilty of two counts of rape and sexual assault
Israeli society is falling into a deep, dark pit of racism and xenophobia
A report by the Central Bureau for Statistics shows that the school drop-out rate of students in the South is 16% higher for Arabs than for Jewish students. However, the report also shows a 20% fall in the drop-out rate of Arab students from schools between 1980 and today.
Israeli leftists have a racist past, too
Knesset Member Yariv Levin (Likud), chair of the Knesset Committee, has proposed a new law that would permit the Minister of the Interior to expel from Israel any foreign citizen who calls for the boycott of Israel of of anything produced in a settlement, and any person who calls for international trials for soldiers who will be involved in carrying out war crimes. Under the proposal, the Minister of the Interior will be able to bar such people from entering the country or expel them from Israel.
Gaza Youth Breaks Out
Diamond Exchange expels member over blood stones
Warped EDL psycho incites violence towards a Pro-Palestine protest.
Book Review: Europe’s Alliance with Israel
Shlaim shills for empire
SJP statement on FBI intimidation: ‘We live in an age in which silence is not only criminal but suicidal – we shall, therefore, make as much noise as we can’
British feared Israel would nuke Arabs: archives
Selective Law Enforcement Against Activist for Bedouins
Israeli Troops Arrest Seven Overnight, Allegedly Beat Woman
Am I allowed to be a Palestinian Jew?
Judaization of Jerusalem includes “defacing walls of the Old City”
Palestine Today: A Reality of Justice Denied

Wikileaks Links for Today

Sweden, Assange and the USA : It is almost a certainty that the editor of WikiLeaks will be turned over to the United States if he is extradited to Sweden [.pdf]
From Ion Cannon to BotTorrent: Potential new paradigm in hactivism
2010-12-30 Updated New Whistleblowing Sites and Games
Corruption combating online project is officially released
Untouchables swoop on Anonymous network
The Julian Assange Investigation — Let’s Clear the Air of Misinformation
Omar Bongo pocketed millions in embezzled funds, claims US cable
Leaked: Cuban Government Fears Bloggers More Than Activists
How Is Leaking Like Getting a Job?
2010-12-29 Amnesty: Sweeping new media law threatens freedom of expression in Hungary
NPR Apologizes for WikiLeaks Mistake; Nina Totenberg and Teena Marie
Christmas With Julian
[AFP] WikiLeaks seulement à “un cinquantième” de sa mission selon Assange

Other Links for Today

Poll: Vast Majority of Americans Oppose Attacking Iran
US refuses to co-operate in probe over alleged CIA secret prisons
‘Pentagon enjoys US unemployment’
Australia’s Business Council self-defines as anti-democratic
Davis resigns Ivory Coast contract
US military investigates ‘death squad’ accused of murdering Afghans
Tunisia : Arabic Pinochet Government Respond to Peaceful Protests by Live Ammunition Orchestrating AlJazeera and Seizing AlMowqef Newspaper
Israel: the next war : The US’s failure under Barack Obama to impose peace between Israel and the Palestinians makes a new war likely
No country should be immune from war crimes prosecutions, including Sri Lanka
Britain always sees its role as imperial power
The “Family” – Who Really Is Behind This Secret Organization?
Research links rise in Falluja birth defects and cancers to US assault
The Final Chapter… : Poem by Layla Anwar
End human rights imperialism now
Israel is not able to endure a long war with a powerful regional opponent due to its geographical restrictions, Director of IGA (Institute for [Persian] Gulf Affairs) Ali al-Ahmed says.

December 30, 2010December 11, 2020

Israeli Courts Used As Instruments of Political Coercion

Two recent ‘show trials’ provide clear evidence that the course of justice is being perverted in Israel, with coercion applied purposefully to intimidate those who challenge zionist brutality, land theft and ethnic cleansing.

High profile Jewish activist, Jonathan Pollak, attended court two days ago. Bearing witness in court were a throng of journalists and supporters. Joseph Dana provides an excellent account of Jonathan’s trial.

Tel Aviv Magistrates court judge Yitzhak Yitzhak convicted Israeli leftist Jonathan Pollak of illegal assembly for his participation in a January 2008 Critical Mass ride against the siege on Gaza and then sentenced him to three months imprisonment that will begin on January 11th, 2011. Pollak was the only one detained at the said protest, and was accused of doing nothing other than riding his bicycle in the same manner as the rest of the protesters.
…

During the trial, an Israeli supporter of Pollak was violently removed from the courthouse for wearing a shirt that said “there is no pride in occupation.” After the verdict was handed down, supporters began chanting in the courtroom against Israeli fascism and the occupation. They were forcibly removed one by one from the courthouse and subsequently held a demonstration on the sidewalk.

Despite evidence of Israeli wrongdoing in the course of the Gaza war, the only Israeli sentenced to jail so far is a leftist who choose to ride his bike through Tel Aviv in non-violent protest. The state of Israel sent a clear message with this verdict: that it will not tolerate dissent from the left. In fact, the state persecutor asked for a severe sentence in order to ‘make an example out of Pollak and those who engage in similar anti-occupation work.” Pollak said that he will continue to work with Palestinians against the occupation and repeatedly cited the much harsher verdicts given to Palestinians involved in non-violent protests. The only remorse that he showed was that he did not do enough to express dissent about the siege of Gaza. If peacefully riding a bike against violent aggression is a crime, Pollak said that we will happily go to jail.

Less well-known, and unreported in the western media, was the trial yesterday of Nuri al-Uqbi, a 68 year old Bedouin father of 8 children. Like Jonathan Pollak, Nuri was arbitrarily charged with a petty offence. Nuri’s punishment was increased by the magistrate to ‘seven months in prison for “running a business without a license”‘ to send a deliberate, vicious political message to other Bedouins who might have the temerity to oppose their dispossession. Five years ago, Nuri commenced a legal challenge against the state to regain his family’s lands in the Negev.

al-Uqbi’s expert, Oren Yiftachel, of Ben Gurion University in Beersheva, has countered that there was a well-established system of Bedouin land ownership and crop cultivation in the Negev long before Israel’s creation.

He says Bedouin deeds — though never formally recorded — were recognized by the Ottomans, the British and even early Zionist organizations such as the JNF, which bought land from the Bedouin.

A 1921 document from the public records office in London unearthed by Yiftachel shows that Winston Churchill, the colonies minister, signed an agreement with Bedouin in the Beersheva area that exempted them from registering their lands and set up a special tribal court to settle land disputes.

Al-Uqbi has kept a large store of documents passed on to him, showing that his father cultivated crops on the land and paid regular tithes on the profits to the Ottoman and British authorities.

He also has a copy of the treaty signed in 1948 between 16 Bedouin tribes, including the Uqbi, and the new Israeli army, pledging loyalty in return for a guarantee that they could continue living on their lands.

Clearly, the magistrate’s intimidatory message to Nuri and the outrageously harsh sentence relays the racist, predatory concerns of the zionist state. Will Nuri’s sentence be used against him by the state in his pending land rights case?

The Negev, constituting nearly two-thirds of Israel’s territory, has been almost entirely nationalized by the state, with the land held in trust for world Jewry. But the Bedouin have outstanding legal claims on nearly 80,000 hectares of ancestral property.

In recent months, the Israeli government has ramped up demolitions of Bedouin homes in the Negev to clear the way for more Jewish colonialists and Jewish National Fund pine forests. The village of al-Araqib was bulldozed for the eighth time since July last week, along with homes of 20 people in al Sadier village. Bedouins say Israel is demolishing homes “on a daily basis”.

Below is a google translation of the original Hebrew piece relating Nuri’s trial, pending a better version.

The judge wrote in the verdict: “worsened with the Okbi to deliver a message for the Negev Bedouin
by Noa Levy on Tuesday, 28 December 2010 at 21:28

Nuri al Okbi, rights activist Negev Bedouin Arab residents

Sentenced to seven months in prison for “running a business without a license”

The judge wrote in the verdict: “worsened with the Okbi to deliver a message for the Negev Bedouin”

Nuri al Okbi, chairman of the Association to protect the rights of the Bedouins who is also active in defense of rights and Arab residents of Lod many of them Bedouin origin, was sentenced today to seven months in prison for possession of a business without a license. Judge Zachary Yemini Ramle Magistrate’s Court verdict explicitly wrote that he had decided to aggravate the sentence – Okbi for being active in the Bedouin rights, and that the sentence is intended to “send a message Bedouin diaspora.”

After which the – Okbi guilty guilty several weeks ago the court referred him to community service, and – Okbi already expressed willingness in this work for the public good in a soup kitchen in Ramla was interested to receive it. But surprisingly, the judge decided to worsen and cut him seven months in prison instead of six which can be converted to community service.

Attorney Avi Dubin, lawyer of the Okbi, asked the court to delay the execution to allow the filing of an appeal, but the judge conditioned the implementation delay immediate deposit of thirty thousand dollars the court fund, a sum that is in his hands – and he was taken immediately imprisonment. In addition to imprisonment imposed on the court Nuri al – Okbi fine of forty thousand shekels or four hundred days in prison for them.

Business without a license is accused managed to – Okbi is a garage that opened in 1964 to Okbi Hasmonean 11th Street in Lod, when passed, like many other Bedouins from the Negev, to live in it. Over the years, changed the policy of the Municipality of Lod, which some in the garage and gave license to – Okbi other years denied him. “I feel discrimination and intimidation taken against me for political reasons, to keep me open my mouth and fight against the policy of the municipality – for example the destruction of seven homes of Arab residents about a week ago. I received a certificate from the Police, Fire Department, the Ministry of Interior Ministry of the Environment workshop working properly, but City Hall deprived me of the license while the people around me got business licenses started many years after my garage. I am convinced that if I was ready to walk the line dictated by the Town Hall, I had no problem obtaining a license. My garage is not their real problem, but a public activity.

UPDATE

Nuri al-Oqbi was hospitalised with his heart condition shortly after the trial – he collapsed after sentencing.

Following the harsh verdict, al-Okbi – who is 68 years old and suffers from a heart condition – felt bad and was hospitalized at the Assaf Harofeh Hospital, where he is hospitalized under police supervision and his hands and feet handcuffed to the bed. The police also prevented al-Okbi’s son, who came to the hospital, from talking to him.

Today’s Palestine / Israel Links

Two years after Operation Cast Lead, Gaza remains imprisoned
How much racism can a “democracy” take?
Israel blocks essential medical supplies for Gaza hospitals
China imports Israel’s methods of propaganda and repression
Israeli politician urges “a shot in the head” for Bedouins
Bedouin-Jewish Justice in Israel
Cablegate – Mastercard numbers used by the Mossad Dubai killers 10ABUDHABI103
Some Israelis Question Benefits for Ultra-Religious
TIBI: The tragedy of a two-state solution
Christian extremists assist Israel in displacing Negev Bedouin
Gaza farmers pack strawberries and hope for export
Conspiracy Theories Linking Israel to WikiLeaks Circulate on the Internet
Israeli army: leave Khirbet Tana or else
Shelling Reported in Gaza City
Students for Justice in Palestine condemns US government witch hunt
Israeli leaders, soldiers fear arrest over Gaza War Crimes
Culture Group Rebuffs Bid To Condemn Boycotts
Barrier separates Palestinian farmers from their land
Detained journalist questions right to freedom of speech for Palestinians
CNN reports on racist letters emanating from ultra-orthodox rabbis or their wives in Israel.

Other Links

How thick is your grey matter? The grey matter was found to be thicker in people who described themselves as liberal or Left-wing and thinner in those who said they were conservative or Right-wing.
The Australian : A “serious” newspaper debases itself
Backing extremists is fine if you work for CNN

December 27, 2010December 11, 2020

Two Years Later, Israeli Cast Lead War Criminals Elude Justice

Accompanying an alarming metastasis of racism within Israel, baleful, triumphalist zionist rhetoric directed at the defenceless people of the Gaza gulag is building ominously once more.

The scenario for the next round is unfolding in front of our eyes and it resembles depressingly the same deterioration that preceded the massacre of Gaza two years ago: daily bombardment on the Strip and a policy that tries to provoke Hamas so that more expanded assaults would be justified. As one general explained, there is now a need to take into account the damaging effect of the Goldstone report: namely the next major attack should look more plausible than the 2009 one (but this concern may not be that crucial to this particular government; nor would it serve as an obstacle).

Today, on the anniversary of the commencement of Israel’s attack of the people of Gaza, many of us reflect on the events of two years ago in mourning and regret that its criminal progenitors have eluded justice, courtesy of the largesse and impunity lent by Israel’s blinkered, biased imperial benefactor, the US and its bevy of colonialist toadies, including Australia.

Then acting Australian PM Julia Gillard disgracefully cheerled the Israeli massacre:

Israel’s attack upon Gaza was met with a curious indifference by most of the so-called leaders of Western nations. As acting Prime Minister of Australia at the time, the ill-informed Julia Gillard refused to criticise, let alone condemn the actions of Israel. Supposedly speaking on behalf of the Australian people, she said: “Australia recognises the right of Israel to defend itself.” That comment was made on the third of January 2009, by which time it was widely known that 430 Gazans had already been killed and 2,300 wounded in 750 individual strikes carried out by air and by sea over the previous five days.

The Cast Lead massacre was committed with malice aforethought on an imprisoned Gaza population of 1.5 million people, 55% of whom were under the age of 18 years. Israel broke its truce with Hamas on November 5th, 2008 although there had been no actual Hamas rockets during the ceasefire. Nor had Israel cooperated with the spirit if not actual terms of the truce by easing its illegal blockade. Israel automagically, conveniently blames Hamas for any rockets fired from the oppressed Gazan sliver of land. In revenge, Israel inflicts ongoing indiscriminate collective punishment on the civilian population of Gaza, whom it has now incarcerated for 1,293 days.

Yet the truce was working, as during the final couple of months, there were practically no rockets fired from Gaza at all. After breaking the truce ,.Israel refused to renew it, even though Hamas expressed its willingness to renegotiate provided the siege was eased. Israel attacked on the 27th December, 2008. During the 22 infamous days of Operation Cast Lead, Israel killed 1417 Palestinian people, 352 of whom were children.

Flaunting the Geneva Conventions, Israel fiendishly, illegally targeted and destroyed ambulances, hospitals, schools, universities, the sole electric power and sewerage plants, chicken farms, dairy farms, crops, trees, police stations, homes and whole villages. Israel made around 50,000 Gazans homeless during winter, then for 18 months after the end of its 22 day attack, malevolently disallowed materials for rebuilding to enter Gaza. Two years later:

Israel has so far only approved the import of materials for 25 UNRWA[2] construction projects for schools and clinics, a mere seven per cent of UNRWA’s entire reconstruction plan for Gaza. Even for these approved projects, only a small fraction of the required construction materials have actually been permitted to enter Gaza so far.

More generally, says the report, the UN has estimated that Gaza needs 670,000 truckloads of construction materials for housing alone in Gaza. An average of only 715 truckloads of construction materials have entered the Gaza Strip per month since the ‘easing’ announcement, says the report. At this rate, it would take many decades to build the needed homes. And because UNRWA has been unable to get construction materials to build new schools, 40,000 eligible children could not be enrolled at UN schools at the start of the new academic year.

“Only a fraction of the aid needed has made it to the civilians trapped in Gaza by the blockade”, said Jeremy Hobbs, Director of Oxfam International. “Israel’s failure to live up to its commitments and the lack of international action to lift the blockade are depriving Palestinians in Gaza of access to clean water, electricity, jobs and a peaceful future.”

Altogether in the Occupied Territories, between 29th September, 2000 and 30th November, 2010, around 1313 Palestinian children have been slaughtered by Israeli security forces, according to B’TSelem.

According to an Al Mezan report from December 2010, over 21,000 people remain displaced two years after the end of Operation Cast Lead. Israel has committed more grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention (Article 147) as

careful documentation indicates that the IOF destroyed at least 1,723 shelters after the end of hostilities when they had come under Israel’s effective control. These shelters could not be deemed military objectives. Nor were they near any other legitimate military targets. Their destruction was therefore illegal, violating fundamental international humanitarian law principles, and amounting to war crimes.

Thanks to rejection by the credulous zionist sycophants in the US congress of the painstaking research within the UN-commissioned Goldstone Report into Cast Lead war crimes, Israeli war criminals responsible for the planning and execution of the heinous Cast Lead massacre still walk free, with no justice attained for, nor compensation paid to Israel’s civilian victims.

‘Despite its listing count after count of international law contraventions, Israeli “war crimes” and “possible crimes against humanity,” the European Union, the United Nations, the Red Cross, and all major Human Rights Organizations have called for an end to the illegal, medieval siege, it carries on unabated. On 11th November 2010 UNRWA head John Ging said, “There’s been no material change for the people on the ground here in terms of their status, the aid dependency, the absence of any recovery or reconstruction, no economy…The easing, as it was described, has been nothing more than a political easing of the pressure on Israel and Egypt.’

Though the resistance of Palestinians who endure it is unflinching, and international boycotts, divestments and sanctions against Israeli apartheid and occupation are flourishing, Israel’s pitiless, illegal siege remains.

Israel’s harvest from its vindictive, cruel folly is bitter – as Nelson Mandela said, “A man who takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he’s locked behind bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness.” Israel has deprived millions of Palestinians of their freedom. How much hatred, prejudice and narrow-mindedness imprisons Israel?

Palestinians deserve long overdue justice to be brought to their oppressors, for the hideous illegal siege to be lifted completely and for Israel’s aggression and expansionism to end. Join the #Gaza2 Campaign on twitter and post on your blog to remind the people of Palestine that neither they nor the calamities and evils inflicted on them during Operation Cast Lead by Israel and its collaborators are forgotten.

Palestine / Israel Links

The toxic downfall of the Jewish dream of a safe homeland
An Open Letter from Gaza: Two Years after the Massacre, a Demand for Justice
Israel’s image campaign a facade
Israeli foreign minister: Peace deal ‘impossible,’ ‘forbidden’
Dennis Ross Bats For Netanyahu
Hillary’s Envoy : Not Everyone is Cheering
New Mossad Chief Makes Nice to Brits
In Pictures: the slaughter of Gazan children – Victims of the Israeli occupation forces in the tenth day of their attacks on Gaza Strip – January 5, 2009
The drums of war are heard again in Israel
Davuto?lu blames Israel for failure to mend ties
And What Rough Beast Slouches Towards Gaza? Operation Cast Lead and the Dismembering of a People
Sorry, ‘Mother Jones’ but you’re piping the Israeli narrative of Gaza ‘war’
How long will American Jews deny this crushing reality?
Rabbi threatens civil war if settlements are evacuated
IDF warns troops: Facebook can bring terrorists to you
Jewish activist faces jail for West Bank resistance
Nomads No More: Israel evicts Indigenous Bedouins for more sterile racist settlements
Groundbreaking report details Israel’s inhumane conditions for isolated prisoners
UK considers recognizing PA diplomats
Palestinian group launches ‘Gaza Holocaust’ website
Another Gaza war?
Vigil outside the Israeli embassy in London to mark the second anniversary of the start of Operation Cast Lead
“To shoot an elephant” is an eye witness account from The Gaza Strip. December 27th, 2008, Operation Cast Lead. 21 days shooting elephants. Urgent, insomniac, dirty, shuddering images from the only foreigners who decided and managed to stay embedded inside Gaza strip ambulances, with Palestinian civilians.
The Gaza massacre and the struggle for justice
Suheir Hammad: 2. Rafah
Stuttgart Declaration
An Open Letter from Gaza: Two Years after the Massacre, a Demand for Justice
Operation Cast Lead 2 Years On
Leftist Yonatan Pollak sentenced to 3 months in jail
Shin Bet puts Israeli ‘anarchists’ in crosshairs
Israeli activist sentenced to 3 months in prison for protesting Gaza war

Wikileaks Links

WikiLeaks founder baffled by sex assault claims
THE WIKILEAKS NEWS & VIEWS BLOG, Special Holiday Weekend Edition!
Saving Private Manning
Beyond WikiLeaks: The Privatization of War
Austria and the WikiLeaks Diplomatic Cables
WikiLeaks tells why drug king is still free
Wikileaks: State Department Lied, Denying Dubai Asked for Assistance in Tracking Mossad Assassins
Wikileaks cables have revealed a disturbing development in the African uranium mining industry: abysmal safety and security standards in the mines, nuclear research centres, and border customs are enabling international companies to exploit the mines and smuggle dangerous radioactive material across continents.
EX-CIA SPOOK CALLS FOR “COVERT ACTION” VS. ASSANGE
WikiLeaks may spawn new sedition act

Other Links

Afghanistan denounces deadly NATO-led raid
America in Decline: Why Germans Think We’re Insane
Can Gillard Last?