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In his Cairo speech President Obama called for a complete freeze on Israeli settlement construction. Israel's government has thumbed it's nose at him byauthorizing construction on 300 new homes to be built in on an "illegal outpost" in the West Bank. All the settlements are illegal by international law, but an "illegal outpost" is a settlement that's illegal even according to Israeli law. 60 totally illegal houses, and roads to get to them, have already been built in this outpost named Givat Habrecha.
The outpost is 13 kilometers east of the Green Line (the 1949 armistice line with Jordan). It's built on the "Palestinian side" of the Segregation Wall. (so much for claims that the wall is built for security). The 300 units were authorized by Israelil Defense Minister Ehud Barack.
The ball is in Obama's court now. Will he suspend aid to Israel?
Monday in West Hartford
The Iran Questions
Monday, June 29, 2009, at 7 p.m.
Quaker Meeting House, 144 South Quaker Lane, West Hartford
Horror Story
Stanley Heller describes how Israelis shot at a search party looking for a corpse of a youth who had disappeared 54 days earlier. Click here for the sound file. Click here to see the video
A Dozen Picket DeLauro's Home
The Middle East Crisis Committee sponsored a picket of powerful Congressman Rosa DeLauro's home on June 19th to protest her indifference to the demolitions of Palestinian homes
by the Israeli army. Last week the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that the
authorities could tear down the house of Salim Shawamreh in Anata,
Jerusalem. The reason given is that he had no permit to build. According to
the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions over 24,000 Palestinian
homes have been demolished by Israel since 1967, about a quarter due to a
lack of a permit. Palestinians are almost never given a permit to build by
Israeli authorities.
Signs carries the message "What if the Israelis Smashed Your House?", "Rosa, Save Salim's Home", "24,000 Home Demolitions since 1967", "No More Home Demolitions" and "Stop Being Israel's 'Yes' Woman"
for more click here
The Fruit Police
A while back Senator Kerry discovered that pasta was considered by a Israeli authorities a luxury that the people of Gaza had no right to ingest. The Israeli paper Haaretz on June 22 printed a full report on what's allowed into the bellies of Gazans.
"These officers decided, for example, that persimmons, bananas and apples were vital items for basic sustenance and thus permitted into the Gaza Strip, while apricots, plums, grapes and avocados were impermissible luxuries. Over the past year, these officers were responsible for prohibiting the entry into the Gaza Strip of tinned meat, tomato paste, clothing, shoes and notebooks. Read the whole article by clicking here.
Jimmy Carter's Speech at the Gaza Graduation
The New York Times buried references to former President Jimmy Carter's speech in Gaza deep on its website. Here it is:
"I first visited Gaza 36 years ago and returned during the 1980s and later
for the very successful Palestinian elections. Although under occupation,
this community was relatively peaceful and prosperous. Now, the aftermath of
bombs, missiles, tanks, bulldozers and the continuing economic siege have
brought death, destruction, pain, and suffering to the people here.
Tragically, the international community largely ignores the cries for help,
while the citizens of Gaza are being treated more like animals than human
beings." Click here for the complete speech.
Download David Rovics' Songs....for Free
Click on this link to hear them and download them. To download click on the little triangle arrow pointing down. RECOMMENDED: "Behind the Barricades", "Operation Iraqi Liberation", and on page 2 "Spanish Journalist Strike"
A Major Human Rights Victory
In the first smashing and convincing victory of the global BDS (Boycotts, Divestment, Sanctions) movement in the field of corporate responsibility and ethical compliance, Veolia is reportedly abandoning the Jerusalem Light Rail project, an illegal project that aims at connecting Israeli colonies built on occupied Palestinian territory to the city of Jerusalem.
As the Haaretz article below admits, the BDS campaign's success in costing Veolia some $7 billion worth of contracts is the key behind this decision by the troubled company to pull out of the project.
It is worth mentioning that Le Monde has recently published an expose, revealing to French readers and, crucially, to Veolia's stock holders the fact that the company is losing a lot of money because of its complicity in a project that constitutes a major violation of international law, if not a war crime.
This great victory came as a result of years of hard, principled, meticulous and persistent work by French solidarity groups, particularly AFPS; by the growing French BDS movement which was instrumental in making Veolia lose a huge contract in Bordeaux; by Dutch activists who achieved the first success in convincing a Dutch bank to divest from Veolia and applied pressure on other banks to follow suit; by Swedish peace and justice groups, mainly connected to the Church of Sweden, particularly Diakonia, and Swedish Palestine solidarity groups who cost Veolia the heaviest, $4.5 billion contract in running the Stockholm metro; by British solidarity groups and activists, particularly affiliated with PSC, who contributed tremendously to excluding Veolia from a lucrative contract in the West Midlands; and of course by the Palestinian BDS National Committee, BNC, which partnered with all the above in the now famous Derail Veolia and Alstom campaign to pressure the company to abandon this illegal project.
The Derail Veolia and Alstom campaign, which involves activists and groups in many countries all working to pressure the two French giants to quit the JLR project, was officially launched at the Bilbao Initiative conference in the Basque city last November.
Now is the time to pressure Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran, Gulf states, among others, to kick Alstom out due to its complicity in this illegal project. Solidarity with Palestine means almost nothing if it cannot be translated into BDS action that can truly cost the Israeli occupation and apartheid regime dearly.
This is the time to DERAIL ALSTOM!
Galloway's Magnificent Speech
In Brooklyn, NY in late May he called for 1,000 Americans to defy the Gaza siege. If you just have time for the last 10 minutes click here. To see the whole speech in ten minute sections click here Then on the right look at other sections produced by: thestrugglevideo.
And rate us. It literally takes half a second. Click on the stars just below the picture ...hopefully the one most to the right. It bumps us up in You Tube and makes it more likely people will see us.
And you must view Galloways savaging of Sky News a couple years ago see this And hear him wipe out an idiot anti-Semite click here.
Shocking Racist Anti-Obama Comments
from American Jews in Israel
see it here, over 250,000 people have already.
Benjamin L. Hartman, Haaretz Correspondent, wrote an article June 7th, downplaying it and saying the the video is circling the globe "on a mission to humiliate the Jewish people. " Get it. It's the Jewis people here who should get the sympahty, not a the U.S. President who has been called every racist name in the book. Hartman continues, "the booze-fueled hubris and uber-Zionism is not so strange at all. In the Jewish homeland for the first time, on a free trip, fleetingly experiencing a place gripped by a visceral realism and powerful sense of purpose, it's easy to let the beer overtake you."
It's the booze at fault. Now where did we hear that before? Something comes to mind, a drunken movie star yelling about "the Jews". Yes, Mel Gibson' ranting. When he sobered up he claimed it was all the fault of the booze. Funny I don't recall him getting that much sympathy.
One of the putzs' threated to kill Obama. Last I looked that was against the law. Will Homeland Security track him down and question him?
The video was shot Max Blumenthal and Joseph Dana. For Blumenthal see: maxblumenthal.com/ For Dana ibnezra.wordpress.com/ Good comments on Mondoweiss Philip Weiss just came out of Gaza as part of the Code Pink delegation. Norman Finkelstein was part of the delegation.
Unfortunately many of the comments posted below the video are disgusting and racist, by "brave" bigots who don't have to show their face or state their real name.
Heller on Obama's Cairo Speech
published on Counterpunch, June 5, 2009
and on the upcoming June 8 anniversary of the 1967 Israeli attack on the USS Liberty Stanley Heller's article calling for the arrest of Robert McNamara.
Rally to Robinson's Defense
The Arab haters are at it again. The Israeli paper Ha'aretz reports The University of California, Santa Barbara, is investigating allegations of improper conduct and anti-Semitism against Sociology professor William I. Robinson for sending an e-mail to 80 of his students in January that contained photos of Jews killed by the Nazis and similar photos of Palestinians killed in the recent Israeli offensive in Gaza. And the offense here? It's now anti-Semitism to object to the murder of a Palestinians? Over 400 children were killed in Israel's three week attack on Gaza, one family lost 29 people, the IDF bombed the United Nations warehouse, killed three youth right in a UN school, flattened the American International School completely… They even bombed a cemetery.
And to speak of this and to make inevitable parallels with Nazi treatment of Jews is now anti-Semitism. Garbage. Read Robinson's speech at the May al-Awda convention.
People should not stand for this intimidation from Arab haters and should rally to Robinson's defense
See http://sb4af.wordpress.com/ for more information
Here's an outstanding letter sent by a CT Professor to Chancellor Yang of UC Santa Barbara
21 Year Old Woman Dies After 12 Weeks of Suffering
from Israeli Phosphorus Attack
On 29 March, Ghada Abu Halima died in an Egyptian hospital from injuries she suffered when struck by white phosphorous on January 4. Phosporus cannot be put out. It must be dug out. It can burn for weeks in the human body. It penetrates deeply and can cause heart and liver damage.
In mid-January Ghada Abu Halima told the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, "...Around 4 P.M. the next day [4 January], when all the family was in the house, the army started to shell our area. A few minutes later, shells landed on our house. Fire broke out in the house and several members of the family burned to death: my father-in-law, his baby daughter Shahd, and three of his sons - 'Abd a-Rahim, Zeid and Hamzah...."
In her memory please, please read her entire testimony
Questionable Evaluation Leads to Firing
Joel Kovel, author of Overcoming Zionism, has been fired from his position at Bard College. After nearly 20 years he received a bad evaluation. However, the chief evaluator had no business evaluating him.
SMELL A RAT? READ ON
The Latest on Tristan Anderson
Gaby Silverman, the girlfriend of Tristan Anderson, who was shot by an Israeli soldier in Ni'lin , Gaby, reports that he is doing much better. When the doctor asked him to put up two fingers he did so. Tristan recognizes Gaby and can squeeze her fingers in answer to different questions. He’s started his moving toes and his torso around a bit. (according to www.palsolidarity.org)
About a dozen people protested the shooting of Tristan in New Haven on March 16. We had signs about Tristan and we displayed our banner about Rachel Corrie. A message from Cheryl Broderson, the aunt of Rachel Corrie was read to those assembled. See video fo the protest next week on "The Struggle" TV.
An article Stanley Heller wrote about the shooting was published on Opednews
Also very good account on Democracy Now including an interview with Gaby Silverman and the usual bureaucratic twaddle by Obama's Consul General in Israel, Andrew Parker.
and this brand new piece from storysinger, songwriter David Rovics
The Israeli Terror
I was in Olympia, Washington driving towards Evergreen State College when I got a phone call from someone in the occupied West Bank of Palestine. An Evergreen graduate named Rachel Corrie had been killed a few days before by an Israeli soldier in an armored bulldozer, and someone with an Australian accent on my cell phone named Tom was wondering whether it was OK for the International Solidarity Movement to use the lyrics to a song I had just written about the incident on their website. Rachel's murder was followed quickly by the murder of a British ISM activist named Tom Hurndall.
And now, almost six years to the day after the murder of Rachel Corrie, my friend and comrade Tristan Anderson has been critically injured by the IDF. He joins ISM activist Brian Avery, who was also shot in the face. Brian survived, seriously disfigured but otherwise intact. Tristan lies in a coma in a hospital near Tel Aviv and may or may not be as lucky as Brian. His brain was exposed by the tear gas canister fired at close range at his face, and as I write, large parts of his frontal lobe have had to be removed by the surgeons.
CONTINUED
Famed Jurists Demand Invesigation into Israeli Actions in Gaza
Sixteen of the world's most experienced investigators and judges On March 16, 2009, called for a full international investigation into alleged abuses of international law during the 22-day Gaza war in late 2008 and early 2009.
CONTINUED
Help the Schools of the Gaza Strip
A bold proposal. Raise money within your schools to send money to the United Nations to rebuild 37 U.N. schools damaged or wrecked by Israeli bombs. A "non-political" humanitarian campaign that will naturally build sympathy for the cause of Palestinian rights. Click here.
See photos of the UN schools that were bombarded. See pictures here.
Here's a page on a website made for younger people that explains the situation simply
Collect money at colleges. Click here for photo and leaflets.
The Nation Would't Print What I Wrote about Tom Hayden
by Stanley Heller
Tom Hayden's red-baiting attack on anti-war protests is dismaying. He crows about President Obama's "commitment" to withdraw all troops from Iraq by 2011. Actually Obama's one sentence about it in his Camp Lejeune speech was just confirmation of the Status of Forces Agreement agreed to by President Bush last year. The speech itself was replete with neo-con pandering. "You got the job done," he said. "We will leave the Iraqi people with a hard-earned opportunity to live a better life - that is your achievement", etc. Not a sentence mentioning the colossal Iraqi and American waste in life or the divided and ruined Iraqi society that is our real "accomplishment". His only criticism of Bush's war was that we must remember to "go to war with clearly defined goals." Is that what he meant in the campaign by the Iraq war being "misguided"?
CONTINUED
$900 Million of Posturing
Mazin Qumsiyeh writes from Beit Sahour, Palestine
A donor conference in Sharm Alshaikh in Egypt is "to raise funding" for Gaza but is turning out to be similar to all previous conference: lots of huff, puff, and posturing. For the US administration, it is a way to prop the government of Mahmoud Abbas (whose term ended January 9). The US "pledged" $900 million but $200 million , of this will go to cover deficits of the administration of Mahmous Abbas, $400 million to West Bank projects (many profiting Israel), and the remaining $300 million will be slated for Gaza but may never get there because the US refuses to deal or help anything associated with Hamas and Hamas is the de facto government (and most of the people) of Gaza.
CLICK FOR THE REST OF THE ARTICLE
Should We "Waltz with Bashir"?
by Stanley Heller
Assuming "Waltz with Bashir" to be an Israeli anti-war film I made an exception of my usual practice of boycotting Israeli products and personalities and went to see it. Only afterwards did I hear of (Ha'aretz columnist) Gideon Levy's blistering review of it.
CONTINUED
Letter to the New York Times on Saudi Arabia
by Lenni Brenner
To the Editor:
Re "A Promise of Reform in Saudi Arabia" (editorial, Feb. 26):
The Times welcomes King Abdullah's recent mini-reforms and hopes for "full civil and legal rights to women and all who reside in the kingdom." How much time is the Times allowing the dynasty to go from despotism to sexual equality and democracy?
CONTINUED
The Atrocities Wrapped Inside a War Crime
For three weeks in December and January Gaza was assaulted unmercifully by the Israeli army. The attack is generally known as the Gaza Massacre. In Israel it's called an "operation", Operation Cast Lead. MECC chairperson Stanley Heller writes that the whole attack was criminal and lists many of the particular outrages with the attack.
37 UN schools and the Islamic University were bombarded. See pictures here.
Professing Peace, Raining Death
by Gulamhussein Abba
Following worldwide outrage and condemnation of its recent savage military attack on Gaza, Israel has been speaking more of its desire for peace than of its right of defense
Speaking in Davos at the World Economic Forum, Israeli President Shimon Peres made an impassioned defense of Israel’s December- January invasion of Gaza. At times wagging his finger at Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had accused Israel of “killing babies” and more, Peres shouted – literally! –“Our aim is peace, not war, and when we win a war, we don't consider it as a victory, for us victory is peace, not war.”
CONTINUED
Don't let the neo-con rubbish about victory in Iraq fool you. Read this Newsweek article showing how little even "they" realilze they've accomplished. "The coalition is fighting to remove Al Qaeda from a land where it did not operate before 2003 and has built blast walls to end a sectarian blood feud between sects that used to live in relative harmony."
For leaflets to use to tell people about the March 21 demo click here.
Man Bulldozes his Own Home
Al Shalloudi received permission from a Jerusalem Court to bulldoze his own home. He's doing this because his ten year old home was built without a permit (Palestinians are almost never given one.) and Jerusalem authorities are about to knock it down themselves. Their bulldozer cost would be much higher and their also could be a jail sentence. Read the sad story here.
Finkelstein Examines Gaza Massacre
Backed by his usual impeccable scholarship Norman Finkelstein speaking before a packed hall at Central Connecticut State University demolished Israeli apologies for mass murder and laying bare the true and barely disguesd motive. He explained that after losing in Lebanon in 2000 and 2006 it needed to restore its military reputation as a feaful power so it smashed up Gaza, purposely killing masses of civilians to increase its swagger. It was classic state terrorism.
Watch for excerpts from his talk on future editions of "The Struggle" TV.
Pickets Greet Racist Benny Morris
Benny Morris chief apologist for Israeli ethnic cleansing and a man who last July hysterically demanded the U.S. attack Iran spoke at Wesleyan University on February 2. He was greeted by a group of sign carrying pickets carrying signs saying "Genocide Apologist Go Home", and "Stop Calling for War with Iran" and "Morris approves of the annihilation of the American Indian" and "Morris Demands War with Iran...Aggression is a War Crime.", "End the Siege of Gaza" and more.
Among other things Morris approves of the ethnic cleansing of 1948 and said Ben Gurion should be faulted for not pushing all the Palestinians out. He defends more ethnic cleansing at a future date,. He told Ha'aretz that "Even the great American democracy could not have been created without the annihilation of the Indians" (emphasis added). Last July in an op-ed in the New York Times he openly called for a massive attack on Iran, a war crime of aggression.
To see our new leaflet about Morris click here
On January 26 ten of us picketed the appearance of an Israeli filmmaker at Yale University. MECC calls for boycott of Israeli goods and for boycott of any public appearance by an Israeli except those speaking on behalf of Palestine human rights and against Israeli massacres. We passed out scores of leaflets, spoke via megaphone to hundreds passing by and were interviewed by NBC-30.
New Leaflet
Doctor Described Attack for Israeli TV...Then the Israeli Army Killed his Daughters
click here for downloads page and leaflet
They Murdered 450 Children and Now they Ceasefire
by Mazin Qumsiyeh, Beit Sahour, Occupied Palestine
With the Gaza "cease fire" in place for one week (after Israeli forces murdered at least 450 Children), the Beit Sahour vigil that was held daily for the past 22 days will be transformed to increased action. Tomorrow (Monday) at 10 AM local, Palestinian Civil Society Organizations in the Bethlehem area will hold a second work day for Gaza where we will be emailing, writing media and politicians, sharing ideas and developing strategies to develop the Boycotts, Divestments, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel as well as bringing Israeli leaders to justice for war crimes and crimes against humanity.Those of you who can join us it will be at AlGhad institute in Downtown Beit Sahour near the bus company offices.
We believe this is not the time to relax but to intensify the pressure that is building especially introducing new BDS actions so that we can once and for all end the 61 year injustice against the native Palestinians (Israel must be made to comply with all Palestinian Rights especially the rights of refugees to return to their homes and lands). We also believe the International community should not be paying for Israel's war crimes and must hold Israel accountable.
Please begin to or expand your work in your community for BDS (see http://www.bdsmovement.net and http://www.pacbi.org) and develop legal, media, and out reach strategies to build up the isolation of Israel like we did with South Africa so that such atrocities that have been ongoing for 61 year are ended and we move to a post-Apartheid era of Peace with Justice. For resources and tools, we are listing below links to: pictures and video, facts on Gaza, Declarations by the UN and human rights groups, political analysis, and the link to 25 actions to do.
Links to video and picutres of Gaza Massacre
New Leaflet: "Unemployed? Losing your House?
It's Time you Paid tor Taxes for Israel
click here for leaflet
Zionist Spokesperson Calls Demonstrators "KKK"
After blathering about "peace, friendship and love" Gary Jones, of the Community Relations Council (Hartford, CT) refused our challenge to debate the Gaza attack. According to TV station WTNH he called the demonstrators protesting the appearance of an Israeli General in a West Hartford Jewish Community Center "KKK" and said he refuses to debate "hate".
About 30 stood opposite the Center will signs and bullhorns condemning the Gaza massacre. One of us was arrested. A day earlier Yale cancelled the appearance of the General upon hearing that he would be picketed.
Hundreds March in New Haven
Hundreds marched through frigid New Haven streets with large banners and signs, chanting "Free Palestine" and "Not Another Nickel, Not Another Dime, No More Money for Israel's Crimes". Signs: "End the Siege of Gaza", "Stop Killing Palestinians - Cut the Billion$ to Israel", "Stop the Massacres of Palestinians", "Collective Punishment is a Crime", "Stop US Aid to Israel".
They were then addressed by human rights, activist and Islamic speakers who demande an end to the siege of Gaza, an end to the killing of Palestinians and the cutoff of U.S. aid to Israel.
New Haven Register reports
Injured when Israel bombed the UN School in Gaza and killed 40
London Times "We’re wading in death, blood and amputees." READ ARTICLE
US Soldiers on Egypt-Gaza Borders to Destroy Tunnels READ ARTICLE
Family of Seven Wiped Out by Israeli Naval Shell Read Artcle
"The Gaza Ghetto Uprising" a
denunciation of
Israel and Arab Collaborators by Joseph Massad READ ARTICLE
25,000 March in New York City
Big Protest in New Haven Being Planned for Friday
Thousands marched past the Israeli Embassy Saturday Jan 3 in New York City. Most wore kuffieyehs, the new emblem of protest and human rights.
ANWER is calling for a national protest this Saturday in Washington, DC.
Hundreds Demonstrate in Hartford
200 to 300 people rallied in Hartford in the late afternoon against the Gaza Massacre in front of the Federal Building. The rally was mainly organized by the Islamic and Palestinian community. People came from all over the state. The sponsors were the Council on Islamic Relations, Palestinian-American Congress, Middle East Crisis Committee, American Friends Service Committee, People of Faith, Queers Without Borders, ISO-CT
higher quality image
Statement of Determination to Boycott Israel Sponsored by The British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP)
Gaza's Guernica
Enough is enough
The Israeli government is sending waves of F16 fighter jets to bomb the Palestinian population of Gaza, many of whom are already weak and sick from two years of siege and encirclement by Israel. Children, says an Israeli spokeswoman, are legitimate targets because if they inhabit a house allegedly being used to manufacture home-made rockets to fire into Israel, they are 'terrorists' themselves. On Saturday December 27, Israel says it dropped 100 tonnes of bombs on Gaza.
We say enough is enough. As long as the state of Israel continues to defy humanity and international law, we, the citizens of the world, commit ourselves to boycotting Israel.
When Nazi planes firebombed the Basque town of Guernica in 1937, to advance General Franco's revolt against the democratically elected Republican government, Britain, France and other European powers continued to refuse military and political support to the Republic, and Franco and his Nazi allies prevailed.
Since our governments decline to take action against Israel, we, as citizens, must act.
We declare that, in solidarity with the bombed, maimed, tortured and ethnically cleansed people of Palestine, we will, individually and collectively:
refuse to buy any fruit, vegetable, flowers, cosmetics, underwear, swimwear or piece of technology manufactured or produced in Israel or the illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and we will inform shops that we object to them stocking Israeli products;
we will not go on holiday to Israel;
we will research which brands of computer contain Israeli-designed and manuctured components, make the information public, and and press all computer manufacturers to end research partnerships with Israel;
we will boycott Israeli films, theatre companies, dance groups and orchestras, and make known our objections to the management of theatres and cinemas;
we will campaign actively for our governments not to allow citizens of our countries to serve in the Israeli army, navy, airforce and security services;
we will lobby in our professional organisations and trade unions for Israeli institutions to be boycotted unless they state publicly that they oppose their government's actions, will not co-operate with the state (for instance by teaching courses for the security services, which all Israeli universities do), and support the establishment of a viable Palestinian state.
Signed:
Professor Jonathan Rosenhead, London
Professor Haim Bresheeth, London
Abe Hayeem, London
Mike Cushman, London
Professor Keith Hammond, Glasgow
Professor Ghada Karmi, Exeter
Jenny Morgan, London
Dr. Sue Blackwell, Birmingham
28 December 2008
for a higher quality image of Guernica/Gaza click here
20 Send Letter to Hartford Courant Dec. 28
click to see the letter
The British papers are writing about the growing pitiful hunger in the Gaza Strip. Peter Beaumont, the Foregin Affairs editor of The Observer (UK) on December 21 reported that Palestinians are picking through garbage dumps looking for the remains of food.
A week earlier the London Times website featured an article talking about a family that lived on wild grass. The mother and 12 year old daughter beg and when they don't get enough they eat khobbeizeh, the leaves of a plant that grows in the streets.
On the 18th UNRWA announced that it once again was stopping food distribution to the 750,000 refugees in Gaza because Israel will not allow the trucks laden with food in past the checkpoints. Israel's excuse, as always, is the rockets which fall on Sderot, but when there was a fairly well observed truce for five months Israel only opened the flow of food, medicine and materials into the Strip by a trickle. This is all very much like Iraq in the '90's. Supposedly all Saddam had to do to end the sanctions on Iraq was to obey certain demands (goal posts that were ever changing). Since he didn't it was perfectly reasonable for the UN to kill a million Iraqis to make him comply.
The Strip goes in a never ending spiral downwarded, from being walled-in ghetto, to being blockaded, to becoming the world's largest prison, to having the status of a enemy "entity" under siege. Only the option of extermination camp has not been applied. The only food and supplies coming in is through tunnels from Egypt. Sara Roy in an upcoming aritcle for the London Review of Books writes that Israel is allowing the tunnels hoping to make Gaza an Egyptian problem.
On the 20th a boat carrying a Qatari delegation, Lebanese activists and journalists from Israel and Lebanon sailed into Gaza City's small port in defiance of a border blockade. It was the fifth such boat trip since the summer, part of the Free Gaza movement. On of the Israelis was activist Neta Golan (see an interview with her in our recent TV shows) She was arrested when she left Gaza to return "home".
The Free Gaza boats have been leaving from Cyprus. Arab governments and private Arab groups are finally starting to challenge the blockade. A Libyan ship with 100 tons of medicine was turned back from Gaza. A Qatari boat tried to land in Ashkelon Israel with 2 tons of cancer supplies and was turned back angrily by Defense Minister Barak. A boat from Lebanon will reportedly be next to challenge the siege.
Speaking of Barak the latest stage of all out siege was started by him when on the night on the US Presidential election his troops defied the truce and raided the Strip, killing six Palestinians. Palestinian rockets flew and the heightened siege began, Why did he do it? The Israeli elections are coming up in a month or so and each Israeli party tries to outdo each other in fascist attacks and threats. Barak's attempt to be "strong" backfired. Polls suggest his Labor Party will be crushed in the next election.
Final note the UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories is Richard Falk. His job is to report to the UN on conditions for the Palestinians. He's an American Jew, a former Princeton professor. All this counts for nothing to Israel. When he arrived in Tel Aviv on December 14 he was detained and forced on a plane and out of the country. Israel says he is "biased" and that's that. The US government,crusader for "democracy" has nothing to say. Neither does President-elect Obama.
At times it all seems hopeless, but we must patiently (but passionately) expose all this to the American people. They pay billions for this continuuing outrage. If it's explained well at some point people will refuse to be fleeced by the Imperialists and the Zionists. . An op-ed about Gaza by MECC Chairperson Stanley Heller was published in the New Haven Register.
There are thousands of Palestinians in the US from Gaza. They need to tell their story to the papers and to the net.
Hundreds March against the War in Hartford on December 7
On a cold windy day 150 to 200 marched and rallied against the war in Hartford CT. CCSU professor Mike Alewitz electrified the crowd with his denunciation of the war and vain hopes of those pressing for a New New Deal . Other speakers were CT AFL-CIO President John Olsen, Dave Ionno of Veterans for Peace, Jerrimarie Leisgang of Queers Without Borders, Mazin Qumsiyeh of the Middle East Crisis Committee and several student leaders. SEE VIDEO
Not a single elected politician was in evidence anywhere in the crowd.
After speakers were done the crowd marched a mile through Hartford neighborhoods. Colorful MECC banners "60 Years of Occupation and Apartheid are Enough" and "End the Siege of Gaza" were in the thick of it. Despite the weather many windows opened and onlookers waved. One TV station gave the event a minute of nightime coverage and of course TSVN, The Struggle Video Network recorded the whole event for future programs..
The UN Resolution That Time Forgot
Ghada Karmi reflects on the Right to Return resolution 60 years after its passage.
UN General Assembly President Calls for Boycott of Israel
Father Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann of Nicaragua the current head of the UN General Assembly called for a boycott of Israel. On the UN's International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People which takes place yearly on the day the UN voted the 1947 partition resolution he said, "Although different,
what is being done against the Palestinian people seems to me
to be a version of the highest policy of apartheid." The General Assembly president called on international institutions to boycott Israel and sever its financial ties to the world, and for the imposing of sanctions against Jerusalem
READ MORE
Nobel Peace Prize Winner Says: Suspend Israel from UN
Mairead Maguire who won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in Ireland in 1976 has called on the United Nations to suspend Israel's membership. She takes this stand because Israel has defied a long string of UN resolutions concerning the Palestinians. Maguire has been invovled in Palestinian rights causes for years. In 2004 she welcomed Israeli nuclear whistle blower Mordechai Vanunu on his release from prison. In 2007 Israeli soldiers injured her with a rubber coated bullet and tear gas in a demonstration againg the Wall in Bil'in.
READ MORE
Hamas Says It Will Accept State
on '67 Borders
The Hamas leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, said on Saturday his government was willing to accept a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. He spoke to 11 members of the European Parliament who had arrived in Gaza via the second sailing of "The Dignity". Another person on the boat was Amira Hass the amazing journalist for Haaretz who has been kept out of Gaza for two years.
The Europeans delivered a ton of medical supplies and a medical scanner. "We are taking very basic medical supplies like paracetamol and painkillers. We were shocked when we got the list from the Health Ministry in Gaza - it means they don't have anything," said Arafat Shoukri, a doctor from the UK.
The "Dignity" Makes it to Gaza
Despite threats that the boat would be towed to Ashod the new boat of the Free Gaza movement, made it to Gaza City on the morning of October 29th.
Read this account by Ramzi Kysia, a member of the boat's company :
"This morning I walked to the Indian Ocean and made salt in defiance of the British Occupation of India. This morning I marched in Selma, I stood down tanks in Tiananmen Square, and I helped tear down the Berlin Wall. This morning I became a Freedom Rider. "
"The Freedom Riders of the 21st Century are sailing small boats into the Gaza Strip in open defiance of the Israeli Occupation and blockade. This morning I arrived in Gaza aboard the SS Dignity, part of a Free Gaza Movement delegation of twenty seven doctors, lawyers, teachers, and human rights activists from across the world, including Mairead Maguire - the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. CONTINUE
Hear Stanley Heller's telephone interview with Huwaida Arraf in Cyprus shortly before the boat left harbor by clicking here."
While this is good news the grinding siege is the biggest reality. Medicine to Gaza is now down to a "trickle" according to the International Red Cross
.
Israeli settlers attack a Beit Sahour neighborhood, detain six persons
Beit Sahour is a town next to Bethlehem. Part of it has land that was used as an army base by Jordan and later by Israel. Palestinians were hoping to build a hospital on the land. Settlers are trying to take the land. On October 16 IMEMC reported, "Dozens of Israeli colonists, some of them were armed, stormed on Thursday the Osh Ghrab neighborhood of Beit Sahour town in the West Bank. Israeli police detained six people including four international human rights activists and two Palestinian. "
These are videos of what happened
Part 1
Part 2
Mazin Qumsiyeh who is in Beit Sahour fills in the details:
When our photographer friend was being wrestled to the ground and heavy boots stepping on his neck and his expensive camera being trashed, time seems to stand still. It was actually a few seconds when several members attempted to help him (by pleading with the brutal settler police and border guards and in some case trying to shield him from brutal blows with their bodies) and six individual were "arrested" (I use this term in quotes because they were actually just kidnapped illegally and held hostage). The events leading up to this event began with intents by racist colonial settlers (many of them with foreign passports) to take over this piece of Beit Sahour land that was for a while used by the Jordanian and later Israeli army. Christian and Muslim Palestinians in Beit Sahour (the Shepherds' Field) and the surrounding towns and villages continue to actively use their land in Ush Ghrab in creative and positive ways despite attempts by settlers to take over. We regularly join hands with International human rights activists to show the power of nonviolent resistance and affirmation of our rights. Part of the land was already developed for a recreational area including children playgrounds. Other areas are slated for a community garden, a nature walk, and a hospital.
Palestinians and our international friends use the site for many activities from meetings to nature walks to parties to barbeques and picnics. On this day, we had plans for a hike with bird-watching (Palestine Wildlife Society), music festivities, and athletics. We arrived at 11 AM and our first attempt was to take three barrels (one for regular trash, one for glass/plastic, and one for compost) to put at the place where the settlers are to gather. Dozens of heavily armed soldiers blocked our way. We asked to see the military order of closure and they showed us an order that said that the area is a closed military zone (ironic since colonial settlers were allowed to get in with no problems !). Some soldiers took over a private home near the site and imprisoned its owners in one room while they made it into a military post with roof and window guns pointed at us.
We asked the soldiers to at least please deliver the trash barrels/bins to the site because every time settlers come they leave trash everywhere. We did much education of the soldiers and police (or at least those of them who listened). The soldiers followed us in the hike around the mountain and it was when we came close to the road which settlers used to get up the hill that they became insistent on us leaving, as we were walking back, an international friend was suddenly attacked from behind and as others were also attacked and kidnapped. We were told that if we go back to the park area and stay there they might be released. So essentially, the friends were hostages to impact our decisions (this is considered a war crime and fits the definition of terrorism to try and coerce an action from someone by threats to harm a friend or relative). We did go ahead with our other activities (including over 70 children who had a rap and other music festival) while negotiations for the release of our friends ensued and expanded to include the Mayor and officers of the Occupation army. Finally after several hours, five of our comrades were released and one was still being held and maybe deported. The five released included two Palestinians (one from Beit Jala and one from Bethlehem) and nationals from Italy, England, and the US. After the army withdrew, we did not that the soldiers (but not the colonial settlers) did use our trash containers but had decided to also add a few rocks! The colonial settlers plan to return with their hateful messages (and trash) on 9 November. We will stay here with peaceful and creative activities always and we always invite anyone to join us whether in dialog or action for peace.
Nir Rosen Back from Afghanistan
Taliban Takeover Looks "Irreversible"
Sign the Petition to Outlaw the Degrading Strip-Searches
of Palestinianians and Jewish Dissidents
Click here to see what's it's all about
150 Jews from Around the World Denounce Drive to Attack Iran
See the statement and signers by clicking here. Statement issued August 11, 2008 and updated as of August 15. Statement in English, Arabic, French and German
MECC Calls for
"We Cannot Afford a War Against Iran" Campaign
We have a chance of stopping war against Iran. This country can't afford it and people know it. Iran has warned that any "limited bombing" of their country will result in a massive strike against oil tankers, our troops in Iraq and Israel. Oil prices will skyrocket. Still Congressional support for HCON 362 is rising (247 sponsors) and with the fanatics in the White House anything is possible. We have a good leaflet on the subject for distribution and we call on all our readers to write letters to the media and to call Congress. We also have a petition available for downloading. And listen to an great interview with Scott Ritter here.
Big Success at National Assembly
In Cleveland on June 28-29 four hundred people gathered for the National Assembly, a body called to urge the fractured anti-war movement to get back massively in the streets. Anyone who attended had an equal vote. The Middle East Crisis Committee's proposal on Palestine passed as did others on Afghanistan and Iran. For a full report click here for the Counterpunch article.
The National Assembly is not a rival anti-war coalition, but an attempt to show existing groups the state of grassroots sentiment and to call for unity. The Assembly did decide to continue as a network.
Poets for Palestine
You've heard Remi Kanazi's poems on our "The Struggle" TV program. He's just one of the poets in the collection "Poets for Palestine"
"Poets For Palestine" was published to unite a diverse range of poets, spoken word artists, and hip-hop artists who have used their words to elevate the consciousness of humanity. Sixty years after the dispossession of the Palestinian people, this anthology presents forty-eight poems alongside original works by Palestinian artists. All proceeds from the sale of this collection will go toward funding future cultural projects that highlight Arab artistry in the New York City area. .
Selected Past Headline Stories
November 15 Hamas Says it Will Accept 1967 Borders
July 30 Another Youth Killed in Nil'in
May 26 Regime Deports Jewish Hero
April 25 Dems Offer Bush an Extra $70 Billion
April 17 Israel Threatens to End the Iranian Nation
March 30 Will "Stop Loss" Break Through? **** Ritter Regrets
March 8 Israelis Loot Orphanage - Vilnai Threatens "Holocaust"
February 22 The Man Who Should Win the Academy Award
January 1 Peace Activists Occupy Huckabee’s Iowa Campaign Office
November 24 Palestine Authority Doesn't Have the Right to Cut a Deal
October 30 Break the Siege
September 15 Cut and Run
September 13 Pentagon Will Take Out 1,200 Iranian Targets
August 20 European Union Turns off Gaza Electricty
July 12 Senate Supports Lieberman 97-0
July 6 - Is US Killing 10,000 a Month in Iraq...or is it More?
June 28 - Israelis Kill 11 in Gaza --- Katzav Cops a Plea
June 25 Lieberman Commits War Crime
June 1 Rabbi Uses Bible Story to Justify Carpet Bombing
May 20 Israelis Shoot Dead Fetus
May 2 Whistleblower Vanunu Found Guilty
April 8 Sanctions Working: Another Dialysis Death
March 31 Six Month Old Killed at Checkpoint
March 20 Tanya Reinhart has Died / 80% on Food Aid in Gaza
February 27 Nablus Raped Again
February 19 - Facing MECCA - Uri Avnery
More past headlines
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