a year ago today

Read more.

Apparently, remembrance vigils are being held world-wide (according to Indi-media,and Jews san frontieres.), but food and aid convoys and so on are still being denied entry. The siege continues. The wall is still being built. Water supplies are destroyed and limited. The settlers still settle. Houses still get demolished. A mammoth amount of aid is still provided to Israel, and they are given carte blanche from Australian and American governments to do anything they want.

Also here from Mondoweiss.


Adam Horowitz has a great article on the injustice that injust keeps keeping on.

Photo by Oren Ziv, Active Stills

One such injustice, this is from the West Bank, comes via the site, Artists Against Apartheid.

Abdallah Abu Rahmah, a school teacher and coordinator of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall, was indicted in an Israeli military court yesterday. Abu Rahmah was slapped with an arms possession charge for collecting tear gas canisters shot at demonstrators in Bil’in by the army, in the creation of this sculpture (seen above).

The arrest is mentioned in this post from earlier this month.

B'Tselem, the Israeli human rights watch group, also has a report on the lack of accountability one year since the attacks.

How we treat educated people and Bethlehem greeting cards

Archive photo of Abdallah Abu Rahmah, Bilin, Palestine, 17.5.2005.

In This archive photo taken on the 17/5/2005 in the village of Bilin, Abdallah Abu Rahmah is seen during a demo against the apartheid wall, while Israeli soldiers try to arrest him.

At exactly 2 AM last night (10/12/2009), seven Israeli military jeeps pulled over at Abdallah Abu Rahmah's residence in the city of Ramallah. Soldiers raided the house and arrested Abu Rahmah from his bed in the presence of his wife and children. Abu Rahmah is a high school teacher in the Latin Patriarchate school in Birzeit near Ramallah and is the coordinator of the Bil'in Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements.Photo by : Oren Ziv/ Activestills.org

Not too late if you are in Australia to buy these Christmas cards. If you are a Christian, well, you're supporting your fellow Christians. If you are a Christian and a humanitarian, you are supporting your fellow Christians who are also human, and humans who may not be Christian. If you are a humanitarian, but not Christian, well, you'll be supporting humans no matter their religion, so all is good, even when it's not.

supporting torture - the U.S. and Australia; supporting kids - Olive kids and ASPIRE volunteers

From Australians for Palestine. Australian government supporting the right to torture, and not supporting Israeli humanitarians.

The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) released on Friday a
new report which exposes the shifts in Israel’s combat doctrine as
evidenced in the prosecution of operation “Cast Lead” and from numerous
public oral and written statements made by high ranking military officers
and senior Israeli Government officials.

The report, “No Second Thoughts: Changes in the IDF’s Combat Doctrine In
Light Of Operation ‘Cast Lead’,” demonstrates Israel’s application of a new
combat doctrine during the hostilities in Gaza, which is based on two
principles: (1) Zero Casualties while disregarding the increased risk to
Palestinian civilians and (2) the Dahiyah Doctrine which promotes targeting
civilian infrastructure to cause widespread destruction and suffering among
the civilian population.

It is quite an eye-opener, especially since it comes from Israelis
themselves. This then must make us question why the US and its acolytes –
Australia being one – would vote against the Goldstone Report on war crimes
in Gaza being brought to the UN Security Council for review and action. The
report is available here (my emphasis).

More about the Goldstone Report:
New York Times Advert in Support of the Goldstone Report, and Goldstone wins Human Rights Award from Sweden NGOs. Australia was one of the 18 out of 132 nations who voted agings the adoption of the recommendations of the report which states that the occurrence of war crimes should be investigated, from both Hamas and Israel, in relation to the Gaza massacre. Fortunately we don't have the power of veto.

AFP also reports

And finally a happy ending to the ordeal of 16 Palestinian families who are arriving in Perth and Melbourne today to begin new lives with hopefully better prospects than had seemed possible when they fled Iraq in 2003 and were stranded in make-shift camps in the desert for more than 5 years.

Please read the press release below and see what ASPIRE – Australian
Supporters for the Palestinian-Iraqi Refugees Emergency – managed to do over
two years and hundreds of hours of voluntary work.

If that cannot be read, go to the AFP website. I was unable to find a direct link, but it might be in their archives somewhere.

Also, fund-raising-wise, AFP reports this about the Olive Kids, Palestinians living in Australia:

On a lighter note, you can read about how the third “Olive Kids” dinner last Sunday raised $18,000+ for Palestinian children in Gaza and secured sponsorship for 50 orphans. It was a wonderfully successful night and in particular showed the enthusiasm and skills of an emerging younger generation of Palestinians very willing to continue the struggle for their people, despite their more privileged circumstances.

Sorry for such lazy writing (as in, I haven't done any) - but I think that exposure to the stories and the amazing work that AFP does is very important.
_______________________________________

Military aid, just in case you didn't get it the first time around in the many similar posts on this blog, is somewhat suspect.Seventy-five percent of US military aid to Israel is, by law, given to US arms manufacturers. From the Jewish Voice for Peace blog, Muzzlewatch. Seems a whole lot more money, except in the arms section, of course, could be generated if that 75% was actually channelled into U.S. domestic initiatives. But arms manufacturers employ a lot of people, don't they? In so many ways. And initially, they are domestic enterprises.

I think, if the food riots, shortages, flooding, global warming and so on which will inevitably affect the developed countries as well as further devastate the developing countries are to come about, I mean, even more so, as has been predicted, then the supply of arms is perhaps the only surefire (boom-boom, and boom-boom again) way to guarantee an income with which to maintain a high standard of living. That is, of course, until the inevitable happens. I guess guns can only buy so much food. And the production of food and such is impossible without people and workable land.

we are forced to make a choice

Good news. Director Ken Loach has withdrawn his movie from the upcoming Melbourne International Film Festival due to the involvement of the Israeli Embassy. Ken Loach films are always pretty popular on the indie-circuit, and I've seen some I've loved, some I thought were Okay, and some I absolutely hated.

From an article on AFP comes the following:

This is not Ken Loach’s first principled stand on the issue: the Edinburgh Film Festival returned money to the Israeli embassy after Ken Loach asked it to reconsider Israel’s sponsorship. However, it does not seem that Melbourne’s festival organisers have any intention of following suit. We hope that Australians will protest in their own way and send a message to our government and institutions that we are not supportive of any cultural or business arrangements with a racist state

The correspondence, as appeared on the AFP site, is also throughout this post. Click on the images to enlarge. Ken Loach, writer Paul Laverty and producer Rebecca O'Brien from Sixteen Films all signed them, however, the festival organiser only directed his reply to Rebecca O'Brien - interesting, or maybe that is standard.

An excerpt from the first letter states:

As you are no doubt aware, many Palestinians, including artists and academics, have called for a boycott of events supported by Israel.

The letter then lists some of the reasons which can be found throughout this blog and anywhere except mainstream media. It continues:

The Israeli [my emphasis] Poet, Aharon Shabtai, has said:

"I do not believe a state that maintains an occupation, committing on a daily basis crimes against civilians, deserves to be invited to any kind of cultural event"

This is not a boycott of independent Israeli films or filmakers but of the Israeli state [my emphasis].

The response from Richard Moore outlines the other sponsors of the events from various countries including Taiwan, China and Korea; films that have been submitted by Middle Eastern directors, including Palestinian films and wonderfully sympathetic Israeli films such as "Lemon Tree". It includes the fact that it has focused on the ongoing occupation and the results thereof for quite some time.
Loach, O'brien and Laverty respond thusly:

We understand Israel is and has been festivals, including some which have shown our films. However, situations change. It is the Palestinians themselves, writers, artists, academics, people from all walks of life, who are calling for our support. We are forced to make a choice by those suffering such intolerable oppression.

The boycott of apartheid South Africa suffered similar criticisms to the ones you know make. But who would now say it was wrong?

Read all of the letters (they are short) to get more information, and to realise that Loach, et al. know that their own governments have been just as guilty of war crimes. They finish by saying

But the cultural boycott called for by the Palestinians means that remaining sympathetic but detached observers is no longer an option. You either support the boycott or break it. For us the choice is clear.

I think that the anti-apartheid movement around the world in support of human rights in South Africa gained so much momentum because the people of the world who could see that atrocities were being committed on a continual basis were not being protested by their governments. Though, the South African cricket team did not play against Australia fro a very long time. The same with this situation. In fact, western governments, particularly Australia and the United States, overtly support this suppression and oppression. So, good on Ken Loach, and let's hope that Australia one day politically matures and becomes independent enough that it too can follow in footsteps of the organisers of the Edinburgh Film Festival.

Obama, ironically enough, stated there were many people out there on the wrong side of history. I feel, and I hope that in the future in more peaceful times we will be able to look back and level this observations at the supporters of any form of occupation around the world.
_________________________________________________________

Of course there are many young or youngish people who are supporting the Palestinians in their fight for their rights, but a vast majority have been doing it for many years, are in their sixties at least, and are not what I would term radical. Here is Dennis James in Gaza talking about his reaction to seeing Palestinian fishermen being attacked by the Israeli navy, and how he thinks American attitudes have shifted. The news comes via AFP and Mondoweiss.

_________________________________________________________

If anyone in Melbourne would like to help the AFP out at the Melbourne International Film Festival in protesting about the treatment of people in Palestine, the following has been posted on their website:

Supporters of Palestine will be staging a nonviolent protest at the opening of the film festival at 6.30pm on Friday 24 July outside Hamer Hall, The Arts Centre, 100 St Kilda Road, Melbourne and giving out protest cards to people attending the screening of the Australian film “Balibo”. Please join us. Other sessions will be picketed over the two weeks of the festival and if you wish to help distribute cards, please contact Moammar at info@australiansforpalestine.com

why is this okay?

From ISM and Mondoweiss. Why do we think that the kidnapping of 70 men and boys by Israeli forces, since 2008, for protesting the building of a wall which will, for all intents and purposes, jail them in the oft-quoted open-air prison, and which will block and blocks them off from the land they have lived on all their lives and for many generations - why do we think this kidnapping, and the building of the wall is okay? The occupation, even?



Why do we think it is okay to herd people into queues like sheep waiting for a dip? Think it is okay to limit their movement? Why do we think it is okay to deny people medication and goods? Why do we think it is okay deny people their land and livelihoods?

PHOTO: Rina Castelnuovo, New York Times
Article found here.

surely god is a book lover, or the security threat that is michael palin

Books or soldiers? The closure of Palfest literary festival 2009 by Israeli soldiers.
Surely God is a Lover is a Paul Kelly song. You can have a listen if you go to his homepage and register for the A-Z songs (free), then go to 'S' and download from there. The 'S' songs will only be up for a month. Thereafter you can download them from Robin Bell Books.

There would be others who would argue that Surely God is a Book Lover. I know there are many out there who love books more than life itself, figuratively speaking, whether they love or believe in God or not. Therefore, the following report even though a little old, should be as distressing to them as it is to me.

Walking miles in Palestinian feet
By Claire Messud June 29, 2009

I RECENTLY returned from a literary festival that was to have opened and closed in Jerusalem; but which, to our surprise, opened in France and closed in the United Kingdom.

Some 20-odd writers from the world over - including the popular British travel writer and comedian Michael Palin; Sweden’s preeminent thriller writer Henning Mankell; and Canada’s Giller Prize-winning M.G. Vassanji - found our events at Jerusalem’s Palestine National Theater shut down by machine-gun toting Israeli soldiers in flak jackets. On the first evening, with a Gallic flourish, Jean-Paul Ghoneim of the French Consulate opened the French Cultural Center impromptu, and hosted our event on nominally French soil: we paraded through the streets in our party clothes, bearing trays of canapés and looking, I’m sure, very threatening indeed.

By the festival’s closing night, the British Consul General Richard Makepeace had made plans to welcome us at the British Council - which was fitting because the British Council was the festival’s primary sponsor.

Closing night at the British Council
You might well ask how a bunch of novelists and nonfiction writers could be so dangerous as to require a military-ordained ban in a democratic country. I can’t tell you; except that our literary festival had the word “Palestine’’ in its title, and the use of this word in Jerusalem apparently constitutes a security threat. The city has been declared the Capital of Arab Culture for 2009, and according to Palestinians we met, the Jerusalem police have shut down more cultural events than they have permitted - including the timed release, by schoolchildren, of colored balloons in celebration of Al-Quds. Balloons are also a security risk.

During the week of the Palestine Festival of Literature (Palfest for short), we gave readings in Ramallah and Bethlehem as well as in Jerusalem, and taught workshops at universities in Ramallah, Jenin, and Hebron.

Panel in Bethlehem
We lumbered about in a great tour bus, repeatedly grateful for our foreign passports (nowhere have I been more conscious of the liberating power of my US citizenship); but still, privileged as we were, we waited interminably at borders and checkpoints, in the shadow of the vast, ugly hopelessness that is the Wall, under the panopticon scrutiny of the watchtowers. We answered questions barked by teenagers at the point of their guns. We got a very small taste of what it’s like to be Palestinian. Members of our group likened it to living under apartheid; to Orwell’s “1984’’; to Kafka. But none of these allusions fully conveys the disturbing psychological experiment currently perpetrated on Palestinians in the West Bank. Read more

Sonja Karkar from Australian Women for Palestine and Australians for Palestine, which first drew my attention to this article here (the photos in this article are from the AFP article) points out the following:

The closure occurred - according to an Israeli police spokesman and reported by The Guardian’s Micky Rosenfeld - because Israel believed it was organised or funded by the Palestinian Authority (PA), despite being supported by UNESCO and the British Council. Now, if Israel thought it was organised and funded by Hamas, it would have made more sense, but the PA, the governing body of the Palestinian state that US President Obama and other world leaders are so committed to seeing emerge? The PA that has just been offered $10 million in aid by our deputy prime Minister Julia Gillard? So much for that “shining light on the hill” democracy that journalists and politicians are all too eager to laud without questioning how that phrase ever came to be coined.

Similar news here of the prevention of a folklore and creative dance evening from convening in East Jerusalem.

El Funoun dance company
Sonja Karkar also points out that Israel has a cultural partnership with the Melbourne International Film Festival being held from 24 July – 9 August and is asking anyone who wants to help protest such a partnership to please contact AFP. Contact details can be found on their website, here. http://www.australiansforpalestine.com

There are many writers, performers, commenters, activists and so on who protest Israel's actions in the occupied Palestinian territories, despite the blanket support their governments seem to provide for all Israeli actions. Alice Walker, Adrienne Rich, Haruki Murakami and Naomi Klein are among them. There are many Israelis, themselves, who are not happy with the state sponsored terrorism, as it has been so eloquently put, since at least the seventies, regarding the well-detailed Israeli encroachment on Palestinian lands and lives every day, in every way.

Ask your congressman what crime is being committed by giving the people in Gaza medicines, toys, and pencils?

From Chroniques de Palestine:

Kidnapped Passengers from the Spirit of Humanity include:

Khalad Abdelkader, Bahrain
Khalad is an engineer representing the Islamic Charitable Association of Bahrain.

Othman Abufalah, Jordan
Othman is a world-renowned journalist with al-Jazeera TV.

Khaled Al-Shenoo, Bahrain
Khaled is a lecturer with the University of Bahrain.

Mansour Al-Abi, Yemen
Mansour is a cameraman with Al-Jazeera TV.

Fatima Al-Attawi, Bahrain
Fatima is a relief worker and community activist from Bahrain.

Juhaina Alqaed, Bahrain
Juhaina is a journalist & human rights activist.

Huwaida Arraf, US
Huwaida is the Chair of the Free Gaza Movement and delegation co-coordinator for this voyage.

Ishmahil Blagrove, UK
Ishmahil is a Jamaican-born journalist, documentary film maker and founder of the Rice & Peas film production company. His documentaries focus on international struggles for social justice.

Kaltham Ghloom, Bahrain
Kaltham is a community activist.

Derek Graham, Ireland
Derek Graham is an electrician, Free Gaza organizer, and first mate aboard the Spirit of Humanity.

Alex Harrison, UK
Alex is a solidarity worker from Britain. She is traveling to Gaza to do long-term human rights monitoring.

Denis Healey, UK
Denis is Captain of the Spirit of Humanity. This will be his fifth voyage to Gaza.

Fathi Jaouadi, UK
Fathi is a British journalist, Free Gaza organizer, and delegation co-coordinator for this voyage.

Mairead Maguire, Ireland
Mairead is a Nobel laureate and renowned peace activist.

Lubna Masarwa, Palestine/Israel
Lubna is a Palestinian human rights activist and Free Gaza organizer.

Theresa McDermott, Scotland
Theresa is a solidarity worker from Scotland. She is traveling to Gaza to do long-term human rights monitoring.

Cynthia McKinney, US
Cynthia McKinney is an outspoken advocate for human rights and social justice issues, as well as a former U.S. congressperson and presidential candidate.

Adnan Mormesh, UK
Adnan is a solidarity worker from Britain. He is traveling to Gaza to do long-term human rights monitoring.

Adam Qvist, Denmark
Adam is a solidarity worker from Denmark. He is traveling to Gaza to do human rights monitoring.

Adam Shapiro, US
Adam is an American documentary film maker and human rights activist.

Kathy Sheetz, US
Kathy is a nurse and film maker, traveling to Gaza to do human rights monitoring.
###

Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
A bedouin in cyberspace, a villager at home


The story can be found here, and here and here.

From the Jewish Voice for Peace:

We have just learned that a few hours ago, Israel illegally, in international waters, seized the 'Spirit of Humanity,' a boat carrying a cargo of humanitarian aid. The boat is being forcibly towed to an Israeli port.

Also seized with the boat are 21 human rights workers from 11 countries, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire and former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. The boat holds medicine, toys, and other much needed humanitarian relief for the Palestinians living in Gaza under siege. Its cargo was searched and it received a security clearance by Cypriot Port Authorities before departure.

Call your Congressperson and your Senators today. Ask them to call the Israeli Embassy and to call the U.S. State Department demanding that the boat and its occupants be released, together with their humanitarian cargo, and that they be allowed to dock in Gaza.

Ask them what crime is being committed by giving the people in Gaza medicines, toys, and pencils?

Also, from the Free Gaza website via Australians for Palestine:

WHAT YOU CAN DO!

CONTACT the Israeli Ministry of Justice
tel: +972 2646 6666 or +972 2646 6340
fax: +972 2646 6357

CONTACT the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs
tel: +972 2530 3111
fax: +972 2530 3367

CONTACT Mark Regev in the Prime Minister's office at:
tel: +972 5 0620 3264 or +972 2670 5354
mark.regev@it.pmo.gov.il

CONTACT the International Committee of the Red Cross to ask for their
assistance in establishing the wellbeing of the kidnapped human rights
workers and help in securing their immediate release!

Red Cross Israel
tel: +972 3524 5286
fax: +972 3527 0370
tel_aviv.tel@icrc.org

Red Cross Switzerland:
tel: +41 22 730 3443
fax: +41 22 734 8280

Red Cross USA:
tel: +1 212 599 6021
fax: +1 212 599 6009

CONTACT AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT MINISTERS:

Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard: Julia.Gillard.MP@aph.gov.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Stephen Smith: Stephen.Smith.MP@aph.gov.au
CONTACT the International Committee of the Red Cross to ask for their
assistance in establishing the wellbeing of the kidnapped human rights
workers and help in securing their immediate release!

tunnelling

I originally found the following article at Australians and Australian Women for Palestine. But it can also be found at the source, which is counterpunch online magazine Before I run with the story about the tunnels which are the mainstay for getting food and supplies, including baby milk formula and basic staples of life into Palestine, the Jewish Voice for Peace has sent an email saying that the New York Times has run a story on Ezra Nawai, a gay Israeli Jew from an Iraqi background who is fighting for Palestinian rights. He is to be sentenced for his efforts next month in Israel. He is referred to in this post. The surprising thing, of course, is that the New York Times ran the story at all. Things do seem to be shifting. Let's hope it's true.

Under Pressure in the Gaza Strip
by Emily Ratner

Today I went to the tunnels in Rafah. I climbed into a loop of rope attached to a wire on a pulley and was lowered 7 meters to the tunnel floor. When I stood up the man next to me signaled me to follow him into a narrow passage, maybe three times as thick as my torso. Soon I was walking, crouched, behind him. When I turned back I saw some of my friends beginning to follow. But the tunnel must have taken a bend a few meters later, because when I turned a second time I saw only the wire suspending small lights along the tunnel wall. My guide beckoned again, and again I followed, promising myself I would turn back at the next light. But when we got there I saw more lights ahead, and I thought maybe he was taking me to a room, or another chimney out of the tunnel, and I followed further.

We continued this way for I don’t know how many meters, and soon I couldn’t hear anyone behind me, only a murmur that might have been distant voices ahead. Each point of light held the promise of hot sun and desert air, but each time I arrived to find only more tunnel, and a hand imploring me to follow deeper.

Soon my legs were burning with wanting to stand. It became so dark in the long lapses between electric lights that my guide had to take my hand as we felt our way along. So many times I said “Khalas”—I have seen enough. But at each light he would signal that it was just a little further.

Finally, I was finished. I could not remember why I had followed, and why I had continued to follow. I’d lost track of how many lights we’d passed, and had no idea how far the journey back would be. My guide pointed to a light maybe 8 meters ahead, and this light was different. Brighter, and more yellow. I knew this time we’d almost reached our destination, perhaps the end of the tunnel and the relative freedom of Egyptian sun and sand, but I couldn’t continue. “Khalas,” I said, and this time he knew I meant it. I turned and began to feel my way back.

Soon I was tearing through the tunnel, tripping over the uneven floor and scratching my fingers on the packed dirt and sand of the walls. Craggy sections of the ceiling tore at my hijab but I would not slow. My guide grabbed my hips to steady me and force a more even pace, and so I dragged him with me. Finally he pulled me to my knees inside one of the occasional wooden box frames supporting the more than 20 feet of packed sand and dirt above us. He sat down next to me and pushed his open palms up through the air in front of his chest and then down, showing me how to breathe. “Shway,” he said, “slow.”

Nearly everyone I’ve talked to in Gaza has told me that the effects of the siege and the massacre have been worst for women and children and I believe them, but 7 meters below the rubble of Rafah and the rumbling of the tractors that push this endless sand away from the mouth of each new tunnel, my thoughts turn to Gaza’s men.

The guide kneeling beside me, and thousands like him, cheat death every day in these tunnels as they journey back and forth between Rafah, Egypt and Rafah, Gaza, one city divided by a border and a cruel siege. And nearly every day, at least one of these men loses his gamble and does not come home. The siege has kept out everything but a painfully short list of humanitarian items. Building materials, a wide variety of foodstuffs, ink and paper, and so many other necessities are not permitted to enter Gaza. If the people of Gaza are to have anything close to a life, to bathe and eat and rebuild and learn, they must purchase this contraband illegally, and someone must illegally import it.

The Israeli government claims that the tunnels must be bombed because they are used to smuggle weapons, but in reality the tunnels are almost always used for anything but. After the massacre the tunnels brought lions and tigers to replace the ones loosed by the attack on Gaza’s largest zoo (Can you imagine? Amid all the bombing and chaos, wild animals running through the streets of Gaza!) Many people have told me the next big project is to smuggle in cars, a necessity in a place where virtually every vehicle is subject to regular breakdowns.

The tunnels provide a necessary lifeline for the people of Gaza, but as my guide patiently awaited the end of my panic attack, I began to realize that they are born out of another necessity: The tunnels offer an opportunity for men to reclaim their place as protectors and providers in a society where occupation and siege make those roles virtually impossible.

A few days earlier, Palestinian psychiatrist Eyad Sarraj told me of a game he plays with his young nephew called “Arab and Jew.” In the game, his nephew would play a Palestinian, chasing Dr. Sarraj around the yard and pretending to throw rocks at him. Not long ago, they played the game again, but this time his nephew insisted on playing the Israeli. Shortly into the game the small boy leapt onto his uncle’s back and began to beat him as hard as he could. Once Dr. Sarraj was able to escape his nephew’s brutal attack, he immediately asked his sister about the change in her son’s behavior. She told him that the child had recently witnessed his father humiliated and severely beaten by Israeli soldiers. Dr. Sarraj tells this anecdote to illustrate a growing trend he’s seen in young Palestinians: As parents, especially fathers, are humiliated, beaten, arrested, and otherwise disempowered in front of their children by Israeli soldiers, they lose their status as protectors in their children’s eyes. Desperate for signs of strength in terrifyingly unstable and dangerous times, young Palestinians find a new role model: the Israeli soldier.

Dr. Sarraj finds the origin of this trend in the Nakba (catastrophe) of 1948, when Israelis began ethnically cleansing Palestinians from their land. Since 1948, the trauma of losing agency over one’s life and living conditions has become, in the words of Dr. Sarraj, “a part of the Palestinian psyche.” This trauma, which has grown with every violent incursion into Palestinian communities, strongly intensified with the first Intifada in 1987, when Israeli soldiers mercilessly beat children armed only with rocks, and also beat and arrested their parents. The psychiatrist notes that many of these children grew up to embrace more violent weapons in the second Intifada in 2000, a response to the brutal abuse and humiliation they’d witnessed. More than 45% of Palestinian children have watched Israeli soldiers beat and/or arrest their fathers, and the trend Dr. Sarraj describes has grown exponentially since the December/January massacre. Since the attacks, more than 75% of the youth of Gaza do not believe their parents can protect them from Israeli soldiers. Surrounded by the rubble of schools, hospitals, and whole neighborhoods, and with virtually no hope of employment upon graduation (the siege-induced unemployment rate is 80%), it is hard for the youth of Gaza to envision much of a future. And it is virtually impossible for their parents, highly educated but lacking agency and employment, to give them hope.

The trauma that is now part of the Palestinian psyche, that forces Palestinian youth to seek the new role model of the Israeli soldier, can be seen at its worst when these children grow up. Dr. Sarraj tells another story from a brief detention in a Palestinian prison. In the cell next to his, he heard a Palestinian guard interrogating a prisoner. The guard’s voice became louder and more frantic as his anger grew, until he began screaming at the prisoner in Hebrew. Dr. Sarraj later learned that the guard had been severely tortured in an Israeli prison. In this moment of uncontrollable anger, the guard became his tormentor.

Stories like these are all too frequent in Gaza, where weddings and graduations are celebrated with a soundtrack of constant Israeli bombing and shelling. My own such story came on a beautiful afternoon on the beach, while eating lunch with a large family. One of the older sons, maybe in his late teens, asked me to follow him to a small tent tucked behind the rows of family tents facing the Mediterranean. The son sat me down at a cheap metal table that had been transformed into a desk, decorated with a poster of young men murdered by Israelis, a couple of notebooks, and a mug holding some pens and a small Hamas flag. The man seated behind the desk and surrounded by young boys anxiously awaiting their next task made it clear that he would interrogate me, and sent one of the boys to find an interpreter on the beach. The son who had brought me beamed at my side, occasionally picking up the Coke my interrogator had presented me, encouraging me to drink more. After about ten minutes my interpreter arrived, another boy in his late teens. My interrogator spoke in a serious voice, but his questions were the same as those I’d received from students and families, curious about my country, a source of so much fascination and suffering for the people of Gaza. “What do Americans think of Palestinians? Who do Americans blame for the ‘war’ in December and January? What does American media say about the people of Gaza, and about Palestinians? What do Americans think of Bush? What will Obama do differently?” Throughout my “interrogation” I could not distract myself from the image of this authority figure, digging his toes into the sand, surrounded by a volunteer staff of young boys, protecting the beach by investigating a camera-toting foreigner from behind his make-shift desk and small Hamas flag.

This story is not representative of my experiences with Hamas. I do not know my interrogator’s official role within the government, if he actually has one, and I expect that the members of Hamas who were tasked with protecting and providing for our delegation would have been angered to learn of my unauthorized interrogation, an inconvenience they would have spared me. But this story stays with me because of the trauma Dr. Sarraj describes, which was palpable long before he described it to me. In detaining and interrogating a foreigner whose American passport can take her anywhere in the world and could have rescued her from the December/January massacre, this man momentarily seized his agency. In front of his young, eager audience, he claimed his place as their protector.

The phenomenon Dr. Sarraj illustrates is not only visible in individuals. One need only look at the devastated building of the Hamas-led Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) to see the Israelis’ humiliation and abuse on a governmental scale. Of all of the destroyed buildings I’ve seen in Gaza, in some ways this one haunts me most. These walls housed a democratically elected government that has endured a vicious siege since 2006, fought off an attempted coup, and has struggled with great patience and flexibility to be seen as legitimate by the global community. All of these pressures combined are enough to destroy a government, but they are magnified exponentially by the horrific massacre that stole the lives of more than 1,400 Palestinians and forced the PLC to meet in a tent behind their largely collapsed building. I think often of the meetings held in this vulnerable tent: I wonder if sometimes the pressures bearing down on these legislators simply become too much, and they are unable to breathe, to force their words out into the hot air of a Gaza parking lot.

Just as the task of protecting and providing for one’s children in Gaza is nearly impossible, the task of Hamas to fulfill the role of protector and provider for 1.5 million people is truly Herculean. Every day the leaders of this government wake up to regular attacks from one of the best-funded militaries in the world and a global misrepresentation as a terrorist organization that took power by force. Because of the horrific Israeli siege Hamas cannot provide rebuilding materials to the people of Gaza, or even feed the people who voted them into power based on the party’s history of providing necessary social services to the Gaza community. The vast majority of food aid that reaches Gaza comes from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), tasked with caring for Gaza’s refugees (80% of the population). While UNRWA supplies vital necessities to the slowly starving people of Gaza, their presence is a constant reminder of what Hamas cannot provide. It would be a lie to say that Hamas is loved by everyone in Gaza. But every action for which Hamas is condemned by western media must be understood in the context of the inhuman Israeli occupation and ethnic cleansing, which have become so commonplace and expected we sometimes forget they exist. With the siege, their complicity in the attempted coup, and the December/January massacre, the Israeli government has stolen the agency of the government the people of Gaza chose.

While Dr. Sarraj’s explanation of the societal effects of trauma explains so much about my interactions in Gaza, about the youth who only want to be photographed pretending to shoot guns at my camera and the gaming centers whose violent advertisements are omnipresent on Gaza’s city streets, the brilliant professor and one-state activist Haidar Eid makes an important counterpoint to Dr. Sarraj’s theory. While Dr. Eid agrees with much of what the psychiatrist describes, he insists that by attributing every action Palestinians take to Israeli-induced trauma, one steals the last ounce of agency Palestinians have. When Palestinians take up arms against their occupiers, or smuggle food and tigers through tunnels, they resist the inhuman Israeli occupation and reclaim some of their agency. As a Palestinian soldier told a delegation member, “What else are we supposed to do? We cannot sit by when they come to kill our families. We have to protect them.”

It has been more than 12 hours since I left the tunnel, and I still can’t catch my breath. Dusty walls of packed earth occupy my eyelids, and whenever I near sleep the walls begin to crumble. When we finally neared the tunnel entrance and I could see real, natural light maybe 15 meters away, we heard a distant rumble. Bombs dropped from Israeli planes perhaps, or a partial tunnel collapse somewhere, or more mechanical digging. All of these things happen almost every day in Rafah, and then there are the near-daily silent threats, like the poisonous gas the Egyptian military releases into tunnel entrances before permanently sealing them. As I scrambled out of the narrow tunnel passage and into the loop of rope that would pull me up to the surface and back to a reality where my American passport and some patience guarantee my safe passage across the Rafah border, I watched my guide shrink below me, before ducking back into the bend of the tunnel and resuming his daily routine.

Emily Ratner is an organizer and mediamaker based in New Orleans. She is currently traveling in Gaza with a delegation of journalists, organizers and human rights workers from the US South.She can be reached at emily@nolahumanrights.org and www.patoisfilmfest.org

then again - connex campaign

Click on image to enlarge

But then again: A press release from Australians for Palestine, and Australian Women for Palestine. Campaigners have successfully campaigned for the Victorian government to not renew its contracts with Connex. Connex provides Melbourne with its train services. Their parent company, Veolia, is responsible for building a light rail in Israel which is going to, and which, cuts through occupied territories. Its use is not for the Palestinians. More information can be found at the web site here : http://boycottconnex.org/

Sorry that the press release is a screen capture, but you can find similar news at the above website. It seems that people want things to change even if governments do not.

the shift in public opinion has no change on policy

Small and petty things might end up bringing down the Labor Rudd government in Australia. On many levels there are things they have done that both the business community and the general community are happy with. On Palestine, they seem to have no moral compass at all, and it therefore makes it very hard to trust any politician in the sphere, because, apart from Julia Irwin, and ex-prime minister, Malcolm Fraser, it seems that no politician has a moral compass at all. It is hard to watch them condone violence in Iran and other trouble spots when they endorse it in the occupied territories. This is the latest from Australians for Palestine and Australian Women for Palestine. Please take note, Pappe is an Israeli-born Jewish academic and writer. People say that his book, the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, is an amazing read, but a harrowing one which needs to be put down every ten pages or so to take in the horrors that it describes. A group of Australian politicians have just been on a junket to Israel, including our deputy prime minister, Julia Gillard. She did not have one word of condemnation for Israel's actions during Gaza. It kind of tells you which career camp she clearly stands in.

In light of our Deputy Prime Minister’s unfortunate remarks during her visit
to Israel, Ms Gillard does not seem to have listened, heard or understood
anything about the whole Palestine/Israel conflict. Gaza may as well be
light years away for all the interest she has shown in a people still trying
to make sense of the horrors they have had to endure since Israel’s
merciless bombing sprees at the beginning of the year. There was no
sympathy from Ms Gillard then, so we should not be surprised that she shows
none now. Surely though, one would think, human decency would override for just
a moment political opportunism and help Ms Gillard to remember the living
and not just the dead. However, we seem to be living in a different world
these days where even the veneer of principle and morality are no longer
deemed necessary.

So what is left to the Palestinians after we have stripped away from them
every right and refuse them even the dignity of belonging? What can they
hope for when people who should know better and could make a difference turn
their faces, and more insultingly, pander to the oppressors? Israeli-born
Professor Ilan Pappe urges the international community to begin cultural
boycotts as “the longest and one of the cruellest Occupations in modern
times” enters it 42nd year. Those who demand that “we leave culture out of
our political actions,” he says, “ provide immunity for one of the greatest
atrocities of our time.”

Certainly, no one thought to give Ms Gillard a briefing on Ilan Pappe’s
seminal work “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” as she erroneously held
Australia up for being ‘the first to vote in favour of Israel’s right to
full independent nationhood and its right to live securely within defined
borders in 1947”. She may have learned that Israel did not come into
existence until May 1948 and that the Park of the Australian Soldier at
Beersheba bequeathed by the late Richard Pratt had nothing to do with
“shared history” or “hard-won freedoms” because it was the Palestinians who
fought with the Australian soldiers in the First World War. But as long as
Israel is wooing Ms Gillard, she is unlikely to brush up on her history.

The struggle for freedom, justice and peace must come from the people and
boycotts are the most effective, nonviolent means to overturn what our
politicians are so loath to change.

You will find this article on our website http://australiansforpalestine.com
as well as many more of the latest articles and new items as well as reports,
studies, letters and educational material. Our website has been re-vamped
and it is now being updated daily.

- SK

The necessity of cultural boycott

by Ilan Pappe

Electronic Intifada
24 June 2009




If there is anything new in the never-ending sad story of Palestine it is
the clear shift in public opinion in the UK. I remember coming to these
isles in 1980 when supporting the Palestinian cause was confined to the left and in it to a very particular section and ideological stream. The
post-Holocaust trauma and guilt complex, military and economic interests and the charade of Israel as the only democracy in the Middle East all played a role in providing immunity for the State of Israel. Very few were moved, so it seems, by a state that had dispossessed half of Palestine’s native population, demolished half of their villages and towns, discriminated against the minority among them who lived within its borders through an apartheid system and divided into enclaves two million and a half of them in a harsh and oppressive military occupation.

Almost 30 years later it seems that all these filters and cataracts have
been removed. The magnitude of the ethnic cleansing of 1948 is well known, the suffering of the people in the occupied territories recorded and described even by the US president as unbearable and inhuman. In a similar way, the destruction and depopulation of the greater Jerusalem area is noted daily and the racist nature of the policies towards the Palestinians in Israel are frequently rebuked and condemned.

The reality today in 2009 is described by the UN as “a human catastrophe.” The conscious and conscientious sections of British society know very well who caused and who produced this catastrophe. This is not related any more to elusive circumstances, or to the “conflict” — it is seen clearly as the outcome of Israeli policies throughout the years. When Archbishop Desmond Tutu was asked for his reaction to what he saw in the occupied territories, he noted sadly that it was worse than apartheid. He should know.

As in the case of South Africa, these decent people, either as individuals
or as members of organizations, voice their outrage against the continued
oppression, colonization, ethnic cleansing and starvation in Palestine. They are looking for ways of showing their protest and some even hope convince their government to change its old policy of indifference and inaction in the face of the continued destruction of Palestine and the Palestinians. Many among them are Jews, as these atrocities are done in their name according to the logic of the Zionist ideology, and quite a few among them are veterans of previous civil struggles in this country for similar causes all over the world. They are not confined any more to one political party and they come from all walks of life.

So far the British government is not moved. It was also passive when the
anti-apartheid movement in this country demanded of it to impose sanctions on South Africa. It took several decades for that activism from below to reach the political top. It takes longer in the case of Palestine: guilt about the Holocaust, distorted historical narratives and contemporary misrepresentation of Israel as a democracy seeking peace and the Palestinians as eternal Islamic terrorists blocked the flow of the popular impulse. But it is beginning to find its way and presence, despite the continued accusation of any such demand as being anti-Semitic and the demonization of Islam and Arabs. The third sector, that important link between civilians and government agencies, has shown us the way. One trade union after the other, one professional group after the other, have all sent recently a clear message: enough is enough. It is done in the name of decency, human morality and basic civil commitment not to remain idle in the face of atrocities of the kind Israel has and still is committing against the Palestinian people.

In the last eight years the Israeli criminal policy escalated, and the
Palestinian activists were seeking new means to confront it. They have tried it all, armed struggle, guerrilla warfare, terrorism and diplomacy: nothing worked. And yet they are not giving up and now they are proposing a nonviolent strategy — that of boycott, sanctions and divestment. With these means they wish to persuade Western governments to save not only them, but ironically also the Jews in Israel from an imminent catastrophe and bloodshed. This strategy bred the call for cultural boycott of Israel. This demand is voiced by every part of the Palestinian existence: by the civil society under occupation and by Palestinians in Israel. It is supported by the Palestinian refugees and is led by members of the Palestinian exile communities. It came in the right moment and gave individuals and organizations in the UK a way to express their disgust at the Israeli policies and at the same time an avenue for participating in the overall pressure on the government to change its policy of providing immunity for the impunity on the ground.

It is bewildering that this shift of public opinion has had no impact so far
on policy; but again we are reminded of the tortuous way the campaign
against apartheid had to go before it became a policy. It is also worth
remembering that two brave women in Dublin, toiling on the cashiers in a
local supermarket, were the ones who began a huge movement of change by refusing to sell South African goods. Twenty-nine years later, Britain
joined others in imposing sanctions on apartheid. So while governments
hesitate for cynical reasons, out of fear of being accused of anti-Semitism
or maybe due to Islamophobic inhibitions, citizens and activists do their
utmost, symbolically and physically, to inform, protest and demand. They have a more organized campaign, that of the cultural boycott, or they can
join their unions in the coordinated policy of pressure. They can also use
their name or fame for indicating to us all, that decent people in this
world cannot support what Israel does and what it stands for. They do not know whether their action will make an immediate change or they would be so lucky as to see change in their lifetime. But in their own personal book of who they are and what they did in life and in the harsh eye of historical assessment they would be counted in with all those who did not remain indifferent when inhumanity raged under the guise of democracy in their own countries or elsewhere.

On the other hand, citizens in this country, especially famous ones, who
continue to broadcast, quite often out of ignorance or out of more sinister
reasons, the fable of Israel as a cultured Western society or as the “only
democracy in the Middle East” are not only wrong factually. They provide immunity for one of the greatest atrocities in our time. Some of them demand we should leave culture out of our political actions. This approach to Israeli culture and academia as separate entities from the army, the
occupation and the destruction is morally corrupt and logically defunct.
Eventually, one day the outrage from below, including in Israel itself, will
produce a new policy — the present US administration is already showing
early signs of it. History did not look kindly at those filmmakers who
collaborated with US Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s or endorsed
apartheid. It would adopt a similar attitude to those who are silent about
Palestine now.

A good case in point unfolded last month in Edinburgh. Filmmaker Ken Loacha message that this embassy represents not only the filmmakers of Israel led a campaign against the official and financial connections the city’s film festival had with the Israeli embassy. Such a stance was meant to send but also its generals who massacred the people of Gaza, its tormentors who torture Palestinians in jails, its judges who sent 10,000 Palestinians — half of them children — without trial to prison, its racist mayors who want to expel Arabs from their cities, its architects who built walls and fences to enclave people and prevent them from reaching their fields, schools, cinemas and offices and its politicians who strategize yet again how to complete the ethnic cleansing of Palestine they began in 1948. Ken Loach felt that only a call for boycotting the festival as whole would bring its directors into a moral sense and perspective. He was right; it did, because the case is so clear-cut and the action so simple and pure.

It is not surprising that a counter voice was heard. This is an ongoing
struggle and would not be won easily. As I write these words, we commemorate the 42nd year of the Israeli occupation — the longest, and one of the cruellest in modern times. But time has also produced the lucidity needed for such decisions. This is why Ken’s action was immediately effective; next time even this would not be necessary. One of his critics tried to point to the fact that people in Israel like Ken’s films, so this was a kind of ingratitude. I can assure this critic that those of us in Israel who watch Ken’s movies are also those who salute him for his bravery and unlike this critic we do not think of this an act similar to a call for Israel’s destruction, but rather the only way of saving Jews and Arabs living there. But it is difficult anyway to take such criticism seriously when it is accompanied by description of the Palestinians as a terrorist entity and Israel as a democracy like Britain. Most of us in the UK have moved far away from this propagandist silliness and are ready for change. We are now waiting for the government of these isles to follow suit.

Ilan Pappe is chair in the Department of History at the University of Exeter.

LINK: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10614.shtml

Tuesday 25 May, those concerned in melbourne

VISITING SCHOLAR PROF YAKOV RABKIN "Jewish Opposition to Zionism"‏

the dawning of a new era

Guantanamo, Guantanamo, Guantanamo. Obama, Obama, Obama. The new era, any better than the last?



(That one ushered in Thatcher).

And how can one just walk away? It's impossible. From B'Tselem.

Testimony: Settlers throw rocks at ambulance transporting patient while soldiers stand idly by, Hebron, April '09
Mediha Abu Haikal, 70

Our house lies right next to the Tel Rumeida settlement. For years, I’ve had heart, diabetes, and blood pressure problems. Every day, I take eleven different kinds of medication. Because of my health, I go to medical clinics and hospitals a lot.

Last Wednesday [8 April], I had edema in my legs and they turned blue, because of the diabetes. A Red Crescent ambulance took me from my house to the government clinic. After I was examined there, the ambulance took me to Aliyah Hospital for further examination. The physician who usually treats me, Dr. Ibrahim al-Hur, wasn’t in the hospital, and I was told I could make an appointment to see him at his private clinic in the city. I made an appointment for 11 April. I preferred not to go back home in the meantime, because it’s so difficult to get in and out of the neighborhood and because of my health problems. I stayed at my nephew’s house.

On Saturday [11 April], at around 10:00 A.M., I went to the doctor’s office. He examined me, gave me new medications, and calmed me down. My daughter, Hanaa, went with me. After seeing the doctor, I decided to go home. I called the Red Cross, which called the Civil Administration to coordinate my return home by ambulance. Then my daughter and I went to the Red Crescent Medical Center, in H-1 [the part of Hebron under Palestinian control], to get into the ambulance that would take me home. The medical team was waiting, and Hanaa and I were told to get into the ambulance. The driver was Shaher Mujahed and the paramedic was Ahmad Makhamrah.

When we got to the checkpoint at Gross Square, the soldier at the checkpoint made a telephone call and then let us pass. The ambulance drove along a-Shuhada Street to get to our house. When we passed by the gate of the army base, a soldier stopped us and spoke with the driver. He asked him why he was riding on this road. The driver explained that we had coordinated the trip with the Red Cross, and that the soldier at Gross Square let us pass, but the soldier didn’t let us continue on our way. He looked angry and told the driver to turn around.



The rock that the child threw into the ambulance. Photo: Musa Abu Hashhash, 12 April ’09.

In the meantime, while the driver was preparing to turn around, I saw a child, who looked about twelve years old, and was dressed in white, was wearing a skullcap and had long, curly hair. He opened the door on the driver’s side and slammed it shut. Then he bent over and picked up a big rock. I was afraid he would throw it at us, and my daughter began to shout and asked the driver to get going quickly, before the child throws the rock at us. The soldier was still standing on the side of the ambulance, and put his hand on the window. Then the child threw the rock at the rear door of the ambulance, breaking the window, and it fell on the bed inside the ambulance. It weighed about three kilograms. Luckily, Hanaa and I were sitting on the seat and were not injured, but small pieces of glass scattered on my clothes. I began to shake in fear and to cry. I shouted and then I was just too overwhelmed to speak. My daughter and the paramedic tried to calm me. As they did that, another rock, a small one, flew into the ambulance, landing near the big rock. This one, too, didn't hit me. The soldier standing next to us did not stop the child from throwing the stones, and let him run away. He didn't do anything.

The driver immediately turned around and drove back to Gross Square. The soldier who had let us cross was still there. The driver told me that he asked why we had returned. While the soldier was speaking with the driver, I saw more than thirty children run toward the ambulance. The children began to throw stones at the ambulance and some of them hit it. My daughter identified, among the children, the child who had attacked us previously. I heard the soldier shout at the children, and the paramedic quickly got out of the ambulance, opened the gate, and we passed.

The ambulance returned to the medical center. I was in shock and didn't stop crying, even when we got there. The paramedics hooked me up to oxygen. Afterwards, my daughter took me to my nephew’s house, where I stayed until today. Because it was holiday, it was impossible to coordinate with the Red Cross to enable me to return home sooner. Today, a Red Crescent ambulance brought me home. A police patrol car and a Civil Administration patrol car accompanied us, and this time, settlers didn't attack us. I arrived home around 12:30 P.M. Just before reaching the house, we were kept waiting for half an hour because a tanker was bringing water to the army.

Since the incident, I haven’t been able to calm down. I am still frightened, and hear the sound of the window shattering. I don’t know if I’ll ever dare again to ride in an ambulance, I’m so afraid.

Mediha A'abeid Hamed Abu Haikal, 70, a widow with five children, is a homemaker and a resident of Tel Rumeida, Hebron. Her testimony was given to Musa Abu Hashhash at the witness's house on 14 April 2009.

nakba remembered in australia

This deserves a hell of a lot more attention than I am currently giving it, so I will post this email from Sonja Karkar from Australians for Palestine, and Women for Palestine, and apologise for my lack of attention.

Today, when Palestinians remember the Nakba of 1948 and the subsequent
years of catastrophic upheavals in Palestinian society, a number of events are
being held to help people focus not just on the tragedies of the past, but
the monumental tragedies of today, especially in Gaza. Please visit our
http://www.1948.com.au website to find out all the events that are
being held over the next week. In the meantime, please try and support the
Students of Palestine teach-in at RMIT and then the rally and march
organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign from 3.30pm onwards today
(see posters below).

Next week, we will begin with the much anticipated play “Seven Jewish
Children” starring Miriam Margolyes and Max Gillies on Monday and over the
following two days, Melbourne will be introduced to the newly-elected MK
Haneen Zoabi of the Israeli Knesset – the first Arab woman from an Arab
Party. She will be speaking publicly at various universities and will also
be meeting privately with parliamentarians and trade union secretaries.

With these events, the opportunities are there to acquaint yourselves with
the little-known Palestinian narrative, to show your support for those whose
voices are simply not being heard and to work on a way forward even if it is
only to create a better understanding of each other in a less than
compassionate world.

- SK