…and our craven leaders love it Stuart Littlewood
On Tuesday the Israeli navy, in a blatant act of piracy on the high seas, assaulted the vessel 'Spirit of Humanity' and abducted six British nationals who were taking part in a voyage of mercy. The tiny unarmed ship was bringing a humanitarian cargo of medicines, children's toys and reconstruction materials to the devastated people of Gaza. Israel's murderous 22-day offensive last December/January left more than 50,000 homes, 800 industrial properties, 200 schools, 39 mosques and two churches damaged or destroyed. The International Committee of the Red Cross says the 1.5 million Palestinians living in Gaza are "trapped in despair", unable to rebuild their lives because Israel, having wantonly wrecked their civil society and infrastructure, is blocking efforts to bring in the necessary repair materials. Those on board the 'Spirit of Humanity' were acting in accord with donors' pledges of $4.5 billion for reconstruction and rehabilitation and US President Obama's request to Israel to let those supplies pass. The mercy ship sailed from Larnaca, Cyprus, with a crew of 21 human rights activists, humanitarian workers and journalists from 11 different countries, including Nobel laureate Mairead Maguire and former US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. In the early hours of Tuesday morning Israeli warships surrounded it and threatened to open fire if the crew didn’t turn back. When they refused to be intimidated, the Israelis jammed their instrumentation and blocked their GPS, radar, and navigation systems, putting all lives at risk.
Palestinian National Initiative 30 June 2009 Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative and member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, was shocked to hear about the arrests of 21 human rights advocates on board of an aid ship heading to the Gaza Strip, carrying medical supplies, reconstruction materials and children’s toys to alleviate the lack of equipments resulting from the 2009 Gaza war and the Israeli blockade. Dr. Barghouthi, who himself boarded such a ship in Cyprus at the end of 2008, firmly condemned the aggressive way Israel’s authorities dealt with the solidarity convoy and reiterated that such arrests on international waters are against international law. He expressed his concern as to the outrageous arrest of peace and human rights activists such as Nobel prize laureate Mairead Maguire, former US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and member of the Free Gaza movement that were on board of the convoy. ‘Supplies carried by the boat are urgently needed in Gaza, where medical treatments and reconstruction supplies are prevented from entering the Strip due to the Israeli blockade.’ Dr Barghouthi confirmed that only a very few amount of goods are allowed in the Strip, seriously affecting the reconstruction process as well as the overall health and economic situation. He righteously declared that the boat posed no security threat to Israel and firmly denounced Israeli authorities’ obstruction strategy as the main cause of the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Dr Mustafa Barghouthi urgently calls on all diplomatic missions to establish appropriate measures to help and free the arrested human rights’ activists and to make sure that all humanitarian goods are delivered in time in the Strip. Ramallah, West Bank. 30 June Contact +972 599 201 528, +972 599 254 218
http://ingaza.wordpress.com The sea provides no relief today. I sit on a tattered plastic chair at the seaside, close enough that the waves’ mist brushes my face. But there’s no relishing this water. I’m acutely aware of the sewage and pollution in it, and shudder at the sight of kids diving in headfirst. There’s no other option for them, and perhaps luckily for them they don’t know what diseases they will quite possibly contract. Out of school and with little else but kites to amuse them, the sea is one of the blessings of Gaza. But it’s not just the kids exposed to these waters the sea today. Families, women in long robes wading knee high, men in t-shirts and pants splashing in… And even from my non-immersed spot on the rocks above, my skin is slowly being saturated with the sewage water sea. A line of small fishing boats (hassakas) is being pulled out to an uncertain fate, hoping to drop nets and catch what meagre amounts of fish remain within an arbitrary fishing limit severely imposed by an occupying military force. Behind the idyllic sunset and silhouettes of the boats in tow is a grim reality: many of the fishermen will face shooting, shelling, water cannon spray
Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
The most outrageous news in this week's digest is the Israeli attack on the "Spirit of Humanity" boat in International waters kidnapping human rights activists and confiscating humanitarian supplies bound for Gaza (just happened). This is simple piracy and shows that Israeli leaders have sunk to new lows on the morality scale. Please take action; see below for press release and action alert from the Free Gaza Movement. Unfortunately where I am now in the US (temporarily), the corporate media is largely silent on this event. But the internet is buzzing and each of us has a responsibility to send this information to all contacts and all media outlets we know. Reality can't be hidden.
(nice summary of a growing movement, I personally saw it as especially younger generations of all religions leave tribalism behind and move to universal and humanistic values, it is what gives us optimism that humanity has a far brighter future) Jews Confront Zionism by Daniel Lange/Levitsky
… while world’s medical ethics chief turns blind eye By Jonathan Cook in Nazareth Israel’s watchdog body on medical ethics has failed to investigate evidence that doctors working in detention facilities are turning a blind eye to cases of torture, according to Israeli human rights groups. The Israeli Medical Association (IMA) has ignored repeated requests to examine such evidence, the rights groups say, even though it has been presented with examples of Israeli doctors who have broken their legal and ethical duty towards Palestinians in their care. The accusations will add fuel to a campaign backed by hundreds of doctors from around the world to force Yoram Blachar, who heads the IMA, to step down from his recent appointment as president of the World Medical Association (WMA). More than 700 doctors have signed a petition arguing that Dr Blachar has disqualified himself from leadership of the WMA, the profession’s governing ethical body, by effectively condoning torture in Israel. The campaign against Dr Blachar has gained ground rapidly since his appointment as president in November. Critics said his alleged complicity in the use of torture in Israeli detention facilities can be traced to 1995, when he became chairman of the IMA.
Sami Jamil Jadallah Last week, when Bibi Netanyahu, the pathetic snake charmer of Israel demanded the demilitarization of a future state of Palestine among many of his preconditions, prerequisites, and demands. For agreeing to consider let alone agree to such a state, no one within the Ramallah leadership or among world leaders took Bibi and his Chutzpah demanding the same of a garrison Sparta Israel to disarm. It seems that both the Palestinians leadership is as coward lacking the backbone as those of the leadership of the West when it comes to mighty Israel. Hardly any one of significance even raised the issue of a demilitarized Israel as well. I am one of those people (Palestinian-American) who believes that the future state of Palestine, whenever it comes, perhaps in 1000 years, should be a demilitarized state with no regular standing PLO Liberation Army, no Palestine Defense Forces, no Palestinian Preventive Security, certainly no Dayton’s Palestinian Security Forces. I believe it is in the best interest of Palestinians to disarm and disband and disarm all existing militias in both Gaza and the West Bank. I am taking this position not out of love for Bibi Netanyahu and his very powerful and criminal “Jewish State” but for the love of Palestine and the people of Palestine. A close look at the history of the PLO Liberation Army and Palestinians Authority’s Palestinian Security Forces should convince all Palestinians and all friends of Palestine that a disarmed demilitarized Palestine is the best thing that can happen to the country and people.
Uri Avnery
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of Iranian citizens pour into the streets in order to protest against their government! What a wonderful sight! Gideon Levy wrote in Haaretz that he envies the Iranians. And indeed, anyone who tries these days to get Israelis in any numbers into the streets could die of envy. It is very difficult to get even hundreds of people to protest against the evil deeds or policies of our government – and not because everybody supports it. At the height of the war against Gaza, half a year ago, it was not easy to mobilize ten thousand protesters. Only once a year does the peace camp succeed in bringing a hundred thousand people to the square – and then only to commemorate the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. The atmosphere in Israel is a mixture of indifference, fatigue and a “loss of the belief in the ability to change reality”, as a Supreme Court justice put it this week. A very dramatic change is needed in order to get masses of people to demonstrate for peace. FOR MIR-HOSSEIN MOUSAVI hundreds of thousands have demonstrated, and hundreds of thousands have demonstrated for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. That says something about the people and about the regime.
Stuart Littlewood
Reports of prisoner abuse at the US prison at Bagram air force base in Afghanistan come as no surprise. They are just the latest example of the world’s biggest bully behaving badly as usual.
As if that weren't enough, I'm reading how some 83 people, mostly civilians, were killed and over 50 injured in three drone attacks within 12 hours in Lataka, South Waziristan.
The first strike killed several suspected Taliban. Later, a second drone fired three missiles into a crowd of funeral mourners.
One of the wounded commented: "If the Taliban are bombing the mosques and America is bombing the funerals, what is the difference between them? We are stuck between Taliban and US attacks and when we are killed, not only no one cries for us, but also we are dubbed militants."
Since August 2008, over 40 US drone strikes have killed at least 410 people. US troops in neighbouring Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy unmanned drones in the region.
Palestine Monitor 27 June 2009 The G-8 and the Middle East Quartet both called on Israel to freeze all settlement construction as a step towards resumption of peace talks. The Quartet includes the United States, Russia, European Union, and the United Nations. They met in the Italian city of Trieste on Friday in an attempt to persuade Israel and Palestine to resume the stalled peace process. In addition to discussing Israel’s continued construction on illegal settlements, the groups also called on Israel to open Gaza crossings to ease the humanitarian disaster taking place in the territory. UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, said “We are urging Israeli authorities to stop settlements including natural growth and remove all these blocks and open the crossings…this will be the first beginning to make sure all our proposals are implemented.” In a meeting in Paris with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in which he clearly called for a complete halt in settlement construction, Israeli PM Netanyahu said that Israel would not build any new settlements or take any more land from the Palestinians. However, he reiterated that natural growth would be allowed in the settlements. So far, Netanyahu has not agreed to a complete settlement freeze, most likely fearing a backlash from members of his own coalition—many of which believe that the West Bank territory is part of the traditional Jewish homeland and must eventually belong to Israel. Currently, there are around half a million Israelis living in illegal settlements and outposts in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem—territories which were captured by Israel in 1967. The World Court based in The Hague has concluded that all of the settlements are illegal. U.S. President Obama has consistently called on Israel to freeze all settlement construction. He says that it is a necessary step in resuming the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Families battle in court to reclaim assets By Jonathan Cook in Nazareth Israel’s second largest bank will be forced to defend itself in court in the coming weeks over claims it is withholding tens of millions of dollars in “lost” accounts belonging to Jews who died in the Nazi death camps. Bank Leumi has denied it holds any such funds despite a parliamentary committee revealing in 2004 that the bank owes at least $75 million to the families of several thousand Holocaust victims. Analysts said the bank’s role is only the tip of an iceberg in which Israeli companies and state bodies could be found to have withheld billions of dollars invested by Holocaust victims in the country -- dwarfing the high-profile reparations payouts from such European countries as Switzerland. “All I want is justice,” said David Hillinger, 73, whose grandfather, Aaron, died in Auschwitz, a Nazi camp in Poland. Lawyers are demanding reparations of $100,000 for Bank Leumi accounts held by his father and grandfather. The allegations against Bank Leumi surfaced more than a decade ago following research by Yossi Katz, an Israeli historian. He uncovered bank correspondence in the immediate wake of the Second World War in which it cited “commercial secrecy” as grounds for refusing to divulge the names of account holders who had been killed in the Holocaust.
Stuart Littlewood A speech made 75 years ago by a US Marine Corps general, Smedley Butler, helps put today’s belated Iraq war inquiry, promised by the British government, into proper context.
”There are only two things we should fight for,” said Butler. “One is the defence of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket…
“A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.
”I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service… I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.
”I helped make Mexico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.
Palestine Monitor 23 June 2009 There are around 500,000 Israeli settlers living in illegal settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Although these settlements are illegal under international law, construction on the settlements has continued; gradually stealing more and more land from the Palestinians. Settlement construction has become one of the main obstacles to the peace process.  U.S. President Obama has recently made it clear in his speeches and through his envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, to the Israeli government that settlement expansion needs to stop. In addition to that, settler outposts, which are unsanctioned even by the Israeli government, must be dismantled. Israeli PM Netanyahu has continually ignored Obama’s demands to freeze settlement construction, saying that ‘natural growth’ in settlements must be allowed to continue. When Netanyahu has attempted to dismantle the settler outposts in the past, he has been unsuccessful. Most settlers in the West Bank are right-wing, but the settlers who live in the outposts are notoriously extreme.
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