they could not stand silent

Kind of wish we were still clutching Mummy Britain's apron strings, rather than sucking on Daddy America's pacifier at times (ooh, I know it sounds a little rude). This is from Jews sans frontieres.

UK considers arms embargo against Israel

Britain says it will review all weapons exports to Israel following the country's recent war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The move comes amid pressure from British lawmakers who had demanded that the government ensure U.K. weapon parts were not used against Palestinians.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband told Parliament Tuesday that all export licenses would be reviewed "in light of recent events in Gaza." Israel's three-week offensive ended in mid-January.

He says all future applications to export arms to Israel will also be assessed with the Gaza conflict in mind.

Miliband says Britain supplies less than 1 percent of Israel's military imports.

That's not really the point though, is it?

That last bit was written by the original poster. And, this is one I've been meaning to post for a while Veolia loses another contract in Bordeaux. That's April 16, so again, a little slow. I'll let you read the article, but being terribly lazy, will pop in this paragraph, so you get some idea of why it is a big deal:

The Greater Bordeaux local government give a contract for the management of the biggest urban network in France to Keolis, a subsidiary of SNCF over Veolia. Veolia has been involved in the construction of a tramway in Jerusalem, designed to link West Jerusalem with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. Veolia has now lost contracts that are worth more than $7.5 Billion in Stockholm, West Midlands (UK) and Bordeaux.

See, the thing is, though, despite the very good bloggers and human rights groups that come out of the U.S., considering that Catholic universities in that country have not hosted Archbishop Desmond Tutu in the past due to his humanitarian views, and that certain church groups rallied against him speaking with other church members about his views, it is highly unlikely that any great change will come from the U.S. This of course, is the biggest problem, because the U.S. grants Israel virtual diplomatic immunity in everything it does, and also funds it with foreign and military aid. Ah well. Maybe all the little bits from the rest of the world will ultimately, one day, add up to something called justice.


Ooh, and how about this one?: Finally on the same page as the date for once, and I am going to lift the picture: Norwegian lawyers charge top Israeli officials with war crimes

A group of lawyers in Norway have filed charges with the nation's top prosecutor against former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, accusing them of war crimes...

The lawyers said they could not stand silent in the face of what they termed Israel's 'war crimes' in Gaza. They said in their statement, "There can be no doubt that these subjects knew about, ordered or approved the actions in Gaza and that they had considered the consequences of these actions."[My emphasis]

Similar charges filed in Spain last month were later revoked after pressure from the Israeli government and lobbyists threatened to change the very nature of the Spanish judiciary. Lawyers backed down from the charges after the campaign, saying that the 'universal jurisdiction' in that country did not apply if an investigation is ongoing within the offending country. Although Israel has claimed that their military conducted 'investigations' into the military's actions in Gaza, but no on-the-ground evidence was actually gathered during, leading many observers worldwide to question its legitimacy.

The Norwegian lawyers said that the potential for diplomatic problems between their government and Israel was outweighed by the severity of the crimes in the case.[My emphasis].

I seem to recall a time when a lot of western countries were concerned with the above. Okay, so Spain did not go through with their charges, huh? Now, the news from this article explains why Dershowitz is saying that Norway is "one of the biggest offenders against Israel", along with the 'racist' Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Let's hope that their humanitarian resolve is strong. And let's hope that some of Norway's western neighbours, friends and allies (or all neighbours, friends and allies) rally around and support its just and moral decision in the face of the smear campaign and tactics that are sure to follow.

Update, April 24: Well, The Greater Bordeaux local government may not be dealing with Veolia. But, Iran is, though I thought the sanctions against Iran would have prevented even this.

heroes who valiantly try to protect us, all of us

Definitely worth reading, from MuzzleWatch (which is a project of the Jewish Voice for Peace) at the Durban Conference
Gay Muslim filmaker Parvez Sharma is my hero.

And these pithy paragraphs from the latest entry on the distrust the writer has for the reporting of the first Durban conference. She says:

I don’t doubt there was anti-Semitic literature and language at Durban I. But was it 90% of the conference, or .09%? I have no way to know. I do know, however, that yesterday’s Sharansky, Voight, Dershowitz session, supposedly on anti-Semitism, was a tour de force of insulting and demeaning anti-Muslim/Arab stereotyping and callousness, infused with Islamophobia, and that not one media account will ever call it what it is. [Author's emphasis].

There’s simply no question that there are plenty of Arab and Muslim diplomats in particular who are more than happy to use their air time to go after Israel and ignore their own miserable human rights records. This is not news. And I’m sure that if you took enough time, you could find someone who supports Hamas, someone else who hates Jews, and someone else who hates women.

But where is the power? [my emphasis]. That, in some ways, is the only question that matters. And in the end, Israel continues to act with diplomatic impunity, thanks in large part to the US which protects it. That’s why a strong UN is a threat.[my emphasis]

The United Nations is not a corporate entity. It is a place where every country has some voice, though some-like the United States and other Security Council members- have much much stronger voices than others. At a conference like this, the representatives of those countries, no matter how vile, stupid or cruel, get to speak. As Ijm Dike told me, “After Achmedinejad spoke, any leader of state could have gotten up and taken him to task, and then re-asserted the focus on the conference. I don’t understand why nobody did that.”

Too late now.

By the way, American Dershowitz above has labelled anti-apartheid campaigner, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, as a racist and a bigot for his prior comments that Palestinians live in conditions similar to, if not worse than, South African apartheid, and for his urgings that they be treated equally and fairly, and for his urgings to change the conditions they live under. I wonder what Dershowitz's comments are classified as, if Achmedinejad and Tutu have the racism mantle between them, and Israel and (its proxy supporters) is the only country with a voice?

americans harassing americans within america

It seems that students of Hampshire College of Amherst, MA in the States, who put forward a motion to said college to divest from companies with a strong interest in Israel and Palestine (the interest of which, aid and abet misery, whether deliberately or not), are being intimidated by forces far bigger than them. The college, following many British colleges and universities, did choose to take note of the students' petitioning and did choose to divest. Apparently it was the first college in America to divest from apartheid South Africa, in 1977, for which it should be proud. Along with the students, the college has also been pressured for its moral stance, which means that it, like the Church of England (which has recently disinvested - their word - from Caterpillar), has claimed that its reasons for divestment are financial or vaguely ethical, though the Church of England has now clarified its position, and says that divestment is due to:

[t]he majority in the Synod [being] clearly particularly unhappy with the idea of the church profiting from one specific and controversial security policy. The demolition of Palestinian homes [by bulldozing], in recent years has been a regular source of controversy, and raises moral issues of some seriousness. [Is due] to [a wish to] register our concern over this and to review whether we should or could continue with an investment policy which appeared to accept something with which we were deeply uneasy.

There is information of the intimidation here, and you can trace it back through the Mondoweiss blog. The students' action has the endorsement of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, by the way.

Students at Cornell College who made a very peaceful protest, in that it didn't even involve people, by placing 1300 black flags around their college to represent 1300 Gazan deaths, and by putting up signs quoting United Nations and Amnesty International statements on deaths and war crimes in Gaza, had their flags uprooted and signs destroyed within the day. If one reads the comment sections on the newspaper article linked, it seems that some students (I wonder) were intimidated by the flags as they walked to their school. It's just as well they didn't have to face phosphorous or dime bombs then. I wonder what the sight of those would have done to them if flags could reduce them to babbling messes (okay, okay, I exaggerate on the babbling mess). Anyway.

Further developments and discussion can be found at the Mondoweiss blog. He provides lots of links within a post, so you can click back through them.

A lot bigger than Hampshire.
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Three of 900 people protesting.
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Have been wanting to add this letter from Antony Lowenstein's blog for a few days. 300 signatories. I will quote directly from the entry:

The following letter was endorsed by 300 participants at the meeting on February 6 and sent to federal ministers and Labor backbenchers.

from: Sydney Public Meeting*,
Politics in the Pub, Gaelic Club,
Surry Hills, Sydney, NSW
February 6th 2009

Dear……………………………..,

The Gaza Catastrophe: An Independent Australian Foreign Policy
The killing of over 1300 people in Gaza, a large proportion of whom were children, plus the devastation of homes and basic infrastructure prompts the question, ‘Where is the respect for human rights?’ This question also addresses Hamas firing of rockets which, during the long siege of Gaza, killed at least eleven Israelis.

In relation to the Gaza catastrophe, we ask that your Government cease the practice of treating Israel as an exceptional State, above international law , able to ignore UN resolutions, steal more land for settlements and able to kill at will. Please also find the courage to challenge Israeli spokespersons’ explanations and excuses for their brutality.

We also ask you and your colleagues to find the courage to develop an independent Australian policy which recognizes that peace with justice for the Palestinians, as identified by the rulings and principles of international law, would also provide security for Israel. Dialogue for a just peace, including meetings with Hamas, is the least costly, the most visionary and the only non violent way to address this decades old injustice.

Yours sincerely,

Stuart Rees,
Chair, * Public Meeting, letter endorsed by 300 + participants on 6/2/09
Sydney Peace Foundation
Box 54, Holme Building, Univ. of Sydney, NSW 2006

I think a lot of Australians wish that the government, and members of government, whether in power or opposition - the members that they elected - could and would follow the above.