EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH NORMAN FINKELSTEIN

Dr. Norman Finkelstein: Never shy when it comes to bringing the truth into broad daylight.

Norman Finkelstein (born December 8, 1953) is an American political scientist and author whose primary fields of research are the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the politics of the Holocaust. He is one of the more "controversial" figures on the left, largely because he refuses to "play nice" -- just as raw war footage from Vietnam delivered a not-so-short, sharp, shock to middle America, Dr. Finkelstein takes the same approach to the issues he writes and speaks about. He is a staunch advocate for a sovereign Palestinian state free from any interference by Israel. During the Second World War, both of Dr. Finkelstein's parents were interned in Nazi concentration camps and he takes vehement exception to anyone he perceives as trying to exploit the holocaust for personal gain. Finkelstein travels extensively giving lectures, primarily on university campuses. He has written several books, including "This Time We Went Too Far: Truth and Consequences of the Gaza Invasion"(2010) and "The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering"(2000).


AZ: Some years back (October 15, 2001), in an interview with Don Atapattu, published as "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People," you said the following (according to the transcript that appeared on the Internet) in response to a question about elevating the image of Arabs and Muslims in the U.S.: "Nowadays nothing is possible with the events of September 11, a lot of hard work over many years to try to build a counter consensus disappeared in the rubble of the World Trade Center. I am utterly pessimistic about the prospects now, but I did not think it was impossible (before)." The 10th anniversary of 9/11 is upon us: Are prospects for improving the aforementioned image, and of helping the Palestinians achieve genuine sovereignty and freedom, still so grim?


NF: I overestimated the negative fallout of 11 September on popular movements and underestimated the clear thinking of most people. Already on the eve of the attack on Iraq in March 2003 there were massive antiwar demonstrations in the U.S. despite the orchestrated hysteria about Middle East terrorism. I do not think the War on Terror is any longer a serious distorting factor in public debate on the Israel-Palestine conflict.


AZ: You've also talked about America getting its comeuppance: That our government has maliciously interfered in so many countries around the world that 9/11 was not only evidence of this, but that there would be more to come. Certainly, as far as I can deduce, resentment continues to grow against the U.S. around the globe. From what you know, is this still evolving in militant ways that will see more backlash for the U.S., specifically on U.S. soil?


NF: I don't know anything more than the general public on the likelihood of future terrorist attacks directed at the U.S. But I am struck by how few terrorist attacks there have been. Everyone who rides the New York City subway knows how easy it is to commit a horrendous terror attack and how impossible it is to prevent by body searches, etc. Yet, it's not happened. My conclusion is that the terrorism threat is greatly overblown.


AZ: Is the key to unlocking the door of getting the U.S. out of Iraq and Afghanistan, helping Palestine achieve true sovereignty, restoring power to the U.N. in a way that it isn't emasculated by the U.S., rehabilitating the image of Arabs and Muslims in this country and so on, is the key to first democratize the U.S. mass media, to some extent, in some way, or, alternatively, giving more muscle to the genuinely alternative media like Democracy Now, Z Net, etc.?


NF: There is no single key. Our society seems headed in a very bad direction because the scale of the problems we are now confronting--particularly in the environment--are so much bigger and more potentially damaging, yet nothing serious is being done to address them. Quite the contrary, significant segments of our society are either in denial or just don't care: apres moi, le deluge. I myself worry more and more about what I eat. The new cuts in federal spending will hit hard the regulatory agencies. Right now about 30,000 people die each year from food poisoning. How many more people will have to die before people become convinced that federal regulation isn't such a bad idea, after all?


AZ: Just how critical is it that people be educated in the notion that "U.S." (in political terms) is not the same as "people of the U.S." and that "Israel" (in political terms) is not the same as "people of Israel"? After all, millions in the United States are quite radicalized, and many Jews are very much against the way their government conducts its affairs. Furthermore, how would this education best be achieved in the U.S. and, from there, evolved into action?


NF: Most people are decent; most would not want to inflict suffering gratuitously on other; most can be convinced that sharing wealth isn't a terrible idea. But if you look at poll data, there are also reasons to be pessimistic: over 90 percent of Israelis supported the Israeli aggressions against Lebanon in 2006, against Gaza in 2008-9, and against the Freedom Flotilla in 2010. So, depending on where you look and what you count, you reach different conclusions about how representative governments are of the people.


AZ: Obviously, on any issue, there are a great many things that people can do to aid progress. What would be the most effective thing/s that folks in the U.S. could do to aid the cause of Palestinian sovereignty and peace between Israel and Palestine?


NF: Right now the most important task is education. People are unfortunately ignorant of the basic facts, although more and more people are becoming better and better informed. Judging from poll results, about half the American people have a pretty clear idea that Israel is not up to any good, but most Americans still have a very negative image of Palestinians.


AZ: My specific area of interest is in doing my small part to help unify the single-issue groups of the true Left (generally, but not necessarily, beyond what tend to be called "progressives") so that a synergy might be created to fight for broader, institutional change. Give me your best piece of advice for this.


NF: My best advice is: Try to be consistent in who you are as a public and private person. It's the only way to win people's trust, and without bonds of trust there can be no progressive politics.

The award-winning documentary: "American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein."

My sincere thanks to Dr. Finkelstein for his time.

Take care,
Adrian

IF YOU FOUND THIS BLOG POST INTERESTING you might also like to take a look at NO WAY TO HONOR DR. KING by Medea Benjamin.

WIKILEAKS' JULIAN ASSANGE WINS PEACE PRIZE

Assange and his Sydney Peace Prize medal: Well deserved

Anyone above ground knows that the Nobel Peace Prize has become a pathetic joke.

Why? Well, take a look at some of these "winners": Henry Kissinger (mass murderer); Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin who shared the award in 1994 for all they did to bring "peace" between Israel and Palestine (absurd); Obama (huh?); Al Gore (c'mon, that's just silly); and on it goes.

There have been some worthy winners, like Mother Theresa, Amnesty International, and Albert Schweitzer, who said, many years ago: "Man has lost the capacity to foresee and to forestall, he will end by destroying the world."

There have also been glaring omissions: How Noam Chomsky hasn't been recognized by the Nobel noddies, I just don't know. But then, I have a similar attitude to awards as Woody Allen does: They're kind of dumb and meaningless most of the time.


Julian Assange Recognized

Still, for all of this, it was refreshing to hear that Julian Assange, he of Wikileaks fame, did snag a peace award this past week. He received the honor from the Sydney (Australia) Peace Foundation for "exceptional courage in pursuit of human rights."

Here's what foundation chief Stuart Rees had to say:

"For 14 years we've awarded the Sydney Peace Prize, but only on three occasions in 14 years have made an exception to the rule and awarded a gold medal for exceptional courage in pursuit of human rights.

"By challenging centuries-old practices of government secrecy and by championing people's right to know, WikiLeaks and Julian Assange have created the potential for a new order in journalism and in the free flow of information.

"Instead of demonizing an Australian citizen who has broken no law, the Australian government must stop shoring up Washington's efforts to behave like a totalitarian state. The treatment of alleged whistle-blower [U.S. Army Pvt.] Bradley Manning confirms a U.S. administration at odds with their commitment to universal human rights and intent on militaristic bullying."

And if you want to know the cred of the Sydney Peace Foundation award, the three previous winners for human rights are Nelson Mandela,the Dalai Lama, and Japanese Buddhist leader Daisaku Ikeda. Not a bloodthirsty megalomaniac among them.


Don't Let the Press Muddy the Waters

And, I say again, Assange's work with Wikileaks should not be looked at through the lens of the allegations of sexual assault he is currently faced with. That's a separate issue. He is innocent until proven guilty. If he is given a truly fair trial and found guilty, then he should be locked up. But his Wikileaks work has still reflected great courage and been a victory for truth and democracy.

The main point is, social change is not happening completely under the radar. Things are changing.

Empires crumble, despots fall, good can win out.

Best wishes,
Adrian

IF YOU FOUND THIS BLOG POST INTERESTING you might like to take a look at WIKILEAKS, IRAQ AND THE PRICE OF TRUTH.

Nakba

Today marks the 63rd anniversary of the Nakba - the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. In human terms, 1948 saw the mass deportation of 700,000 Palestinians from their cities and villages, massacres of civilians, and the razing to the ground of hundreds of Palestinian villages. Mention of the word 'Nakba' in Israeli textbooks was banned by the Israeli Ministry of Education in 2009. The vast majority of Palestinian refugees, both those outside the 1949 armistice lines at the war's conclusion and those internally displaced, were barred by the newly declared state of Israel from returning to their homes or reclaiming their property. This dispossession and dispersal of the Palestinian people is known to them as al-Nakba, meaning "the catastrophe," or "the disaster.

The reporting of the continued suffering of the Palestinian people in the Prison of Gaza and in the Occupied West Bank riddled with illegal settlements occupied by Jewish racists from Brooklyn has been abysmal with absolutely no attempt at explanation and the usual photogenic IDF Spokesperson explaining that Israel only shot “very specific targets.” This of course in the occupied Golan Heights and in “Shabba Farms”, two villages equally illegally occupied by Israel when it withdrew from Lebanon.


Palestinian girl in a protest on Nakba Day 2010 in Hebron, West Bank. Her sign says "Surely we will return, Palestine." There are 788,108 Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA in the West Bank, most of whom are the descendants of people whose families hail from areas incorporated into Israel in 1948.

Today, the UN reports that there are more than 4.75 million registered Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza. Of these, nearly 1.4 million live in 58 UN-operated refugee camps. The total number of Palestinian refugees worldwide is estimated to be 5.5 million—the largest population of refugees in the world. Yet Israel has consistently refused to recognize the Palestinians’ right of return, as expressed in UN General Assembly Resolution 194, Article 11. Moreover, Israel’s expulsion and internal displacement of Palestinians continues to this day, albeit on a much smaller scale than in 1948. In a very real sense, the Nakba never really ended.

I wrote last December in relation to the tragedy of Gaza;

“Let us not forget in our PC world why Gaza exists is two words never used in Israel; Ethnic Cleansing. Gaza exists because the Palestinians who lived in Ashkelon and the fields around it – Askalaan in Arabic – were dispossessed from their lands in 1948 when Israel was created and ended up on the beaches of Gaza. They – or their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren – are among the one and a half million Palestinian refugees crammed into the cesspool of Gaza, 80 per cent of whose families once lived in what is now Israel. This, historically, is the real story: most of the people of Gaza don't come from Gaza.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/12/free-gaza-free-palestine-free.html

The Wikileaks cables show the complete lack of concern by American diplomats for the people of Palestine, they confirm that America is acting in this region with no moral purpose when it come to the Palestinian people and that it is utterly uninterested in the so called “Two States Solution” allowing Israel to set 100% of the agenda to stop a Palestinian State being a reality. Better to withdraw its 1.1 Bn Dollar military aid to Israel which is totally contrary to the US’s strategic interests. Better to withdraw its $1. 0 Bn a year aid to Egypt which allows the Pharaoh Murbarak and the military elite to run a repressive farce pretending to be a democracy. Why, America will really be surprised when Egypt implodes and the US loses another great ally? Far better to cut both these payments by America’s hard pressed taxpayer and divert the resources to addressing the results and righting the wrongs of the 1948 ethnic cleansing and making the “Two Nation” solution a reality.

Malnourished children, restrictions on Gaza-fisherman, lacklustre sewage and water systems, and the confiscation of $4.5 billion in international aid will not improve Israel’s security in the long run. It will only increase the popularity of the Hamas Movement, decrease the effects of counterterrorism throughout the globe, and create the next generation of dangerous faith-based ideologues.”



Well the world has moved on since I wrote that. It may now be time for the State of Israel to start abiding by the concept of universal human rights. Not only would such activities have the symbolic effect of furthering international unity towards tolerance and respect (despite religion, ethnicity, or background), but may strengthen Israel’s right to exist by severely diminishing Arab hostility towards the Jewish people.



For there is only one Middle Eastern “rogue state” which has attacked each and every one of its neighbours including destroying the EU funded infrastructure of Gaza, dismembering Lebanon, occupying the sovereign territory of Syria, occupying East Jerusalem and the West Bank which it is illegaly settling and applying collective punishment to the civilian population (in defiance of the “quaint” Geneva Conventions), which has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty and which has developed nuclear weapons. And did I mention that its previous Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, had personally led a terrorist massacre of women and children? During the raid on Qibya, Jordan in 1953, a total of 69 Palestinians were killed and forty-five houses, a school, and a mosque were blown-up. The act was condemned by the US State Department, the UN Security Council, and by Jewish communities worldwide. And the previous Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s father was Quartermaster of the Irgun terrorist organisation (you know the guys who killed both the British and UN Peace Envoys and hanged three British soldiers including a Jewish lad from the East End). Former Foreign Minister’s Tzipi Livni’s father was the leader of the Irgun group which carried out the King David Hotel massacre which killed 92 people including 17 Jews.




King David Hotel massacre

And did I mention that another previous Israeli Prime Minister, Menachim Begin, was the Irgun leader who gave the order? But less of rogue states with terrorist links whose support by the US is entirely contrary to America’s strategic interests. But perhaps Barack might suggest to Israel’s leadership that if it is to survive and prosper it will not do so by military means and it is now a time for change?

I am not anti- Jewish, indeed quite the opposite. I document elsewhere in this Blog the Jewish communities of Prague, Krakow, Marrakech and Kos and the killing machine of Auschwitz-Birkenau. I am not anti-Semitic and abhor racism in all its forms. I do not equate Zionism with racism and I would never support in any circumstances any boycott of Israel, no matter how it is dressed up. I would never support it because I understand the resonance in Jewish history of boycotts and recognise that Theodor Herzl’s advocacy of Zionism was a valid response to the bullying and suffering Jewish people were suffering in 19th Century Europe. After the events of The Shoah there is no way I could look a Jewish person in the eye and argue in favour of assimilation, even though 60% of world Jewry lives outside of Israel.



But you do not fight racism and oppression by yourselves becoming the racists and the oppressors. Israel must acknowledge its terrorist origins and the part played by massacres of the Palestinians in the exodus of Arabs from Palestine, acknowledge the evil of the Deir Yassin massacre: the murder of roughly 100 Palestinians villagers by Zionist paramilitaries on April 9, 1948, and the other indefensible events in that tragic period.

For the only way forward for Israel is a genuine Two State Solution reverting to the 1949 Line of Control and internationalising Jerusalem. There is no long term strategic interest for the United States in having Israel as its proxy military power in the Middle East and for Israel to rely on military might subsidised by a foreign power for its long term security. And for the United States perhaps when the sugar rush from the killing of Bin Laden has worn off perhaps it might reflect that the two greatest threats to its own security come from its own greed. It’s greed for oil which has made it dependant on the Saudi tyranny and its greed for cocaine which has created violent corrupt narco states in South America, in North America (Mexico) and in Afghanistan. Perhaps the greedy and incontinent consumer has to take some responsibility for the consequences of their own prolifigate greed? When considering Bin Laden perhaps the US and Israel should remember that before 1948 “Nakba” referred to the cynical partition of the Arab World into dependant statelets by France and Britain, two of the most enthusiastic interventionists in Libya. Not for nothing did Osama Bin Laden start his denunciations with the shameful Treaty of Sevres – a murderous medievalist he may have been but mindless he was not.



There is no going back; the Arab Spring will affect the Arab World, Israel and the children of the Nakba equally. Israel and Modern Judaism will have to reflect if a people who greet each other with “Shalom” and part with the words 'l'chayim' are really on a sustainable path to peace and security? And if the United States want to move on from the immoral and failed neo-colonial policy it has adopted to the Arab World and Islam then it should not despair because somebody called Thomas Jefferson has already come up with a better policy;

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed;”

Nakba

Today marks the 63rd anniversary of the Nakba - the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. In human terms, 1948 saw the mass deportation of 700,000 Palestinians from their cities and villages, massacres of civilians, and the razing to the ground of hundreds of Palestinian villages. Mention of the word 'Nakba' in Israeli textbooks was banned by the Israeli Ministry of Education in 2009. The vast majority of Palestinian refugees, both those outside the 1949 armistice lines at the war's conclusion and those internally displaced, were barred by the newly declared state of Israel from returning to their homes or reclaiming their property. This dispossession and dispersal of the Palestinian people is known to them as al-Nakba, meaning "the catastrophe," or "the disaster.

The reporting of the continued suffering of the Palestinian people in the Prison of Gaza and in the Occupied West Bank riddled with illegal settlements occupied by Jewish racists from Brooklyn has been abysmal with absolutely no attempt at explanation and the usual photogenic IDF Spokesperson explaining that Israel only shot “very specific targets.” This of course in the occupied Golan Heights and in “Shabba Farms”, two villages equally illegally occupied by Israel when it withdrew from Lebanon.


Palestinian girl in a protest on Nakba Day 2010 in Hebron, West Bank. Her sign says "Surely we will return, Palestine." There are 788,108 Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA in the West Bank, most of whom are the descendants of people whose families hail from areas incorporated into Israel in 1948.

Today, the UN reports that there are more than 4.75 million registered Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza. Of these, nearly 1.4 million live in 58 UN-operated refugee camps. The total number of Palestinian refugees worldwide is estimated to be 5.5 million—the largest population of refugees in the world. Yet Israel has consistently refused to recognize the Palestinians’ right of return, as expressed in UN General Assembly Resolution 194, Article 11. Moreover, Israel’s expulsion and internal displacement of Palestinians continues to this day, albeit on a much smaller scale than in 1948. In a very real sense, the Nakba never really ended.

I wrote last December in relation to the tragedy of Gaza;

“Let us not forget in our PC world why Gaza exists is two words never used in Israel; Ethnic Cleansing. Gaza exists because the Palestinians who lived in Ashkelon and the fields around it – Askalaan in Arabic – were dispossessed from their lands in 1948 when Israel was created and ended up on the beaches of Gaza. They – or their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren – are among the one and a half million Palestinian refugees crammed into the cesspool of Gaza, 80 per cent of whose families once lived in what is now Israel. This, historically, is the real story: most of the people of Gaza don't come from Gaza.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/12/free-gaza-free-palestine-free.html

The Wikileaks cables show the complete lack of concern by American diplomats for the people of Palestine, they confirm that America is acting in this region with no moral purpose when it come to the Palestinian people and that it is utterly uninterested in the so called “Two States Solution” allowing Israel to set 100% of the agenda to stop a Palestinian State being a reality. Better to withdraw its 1.1 Bn Dollar military aid to Israel which is totally contrary to the US’s strategic interests. Better to withdraw its $1. 0 Bn a year aid to Egypt which allows the Pharaoh Murbarak and the military elite to run a repressive farce pretending to be a democracy. Why, America will really be surprised when Egypt implodes and the US loses another great ally? Far better to cut both these payments by America’s hard pressed taxpayer and divert the resources to addressing the results and righting the wrongs of the 1948 ethnic cleansing and making the “Two Nation” solution a reality.

Malnourished children, restrictions on Gaza-fisherman, lacklustre sewage and water systems, and the confiscation of $4.5 billion in international aid will not improve Israel’s security in the long run. It will only increase the popularity of the Hamas Movement, decrease the effects of counterterrorism throughout the globe, and create the next generation of dangerous faith-based ideologues.”



Well the world has moved on since I wrote that. It may now be time for the State of Israel to start abiding by the concept of universal human rights. Not only would such activities have the symbolic effect of furthering international unity towards tolerance and respect (despite religion, ethnicity, or background), but may strengthen Israel’s right to exist by severely diminishing Arab hostility towards the Jewish people.



For there is only one Middle Eastern “rogue state” which has attacked each and every one of its neighbours including destroying the EU funded infrastructure of Gaza, dismembering Lebanon, occupying the sovereign territory of Syria, occupying East Jerusalem and the West Bank which it is illegaly settling and applying collective punishment to the civilian population (in defiance of the “quaint” Geneva Conventions), which has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty and which has developed nuclear weapons. And did I mention that its previous Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, had personally led a terrorist massacre of women and children? During the raid on Qibya, Jordan in 1953, a total of 69 Palestinians were killed and forty-five houses, a school, and a mosque were blown-up. The act was condemned by the US State Department, the UN Security Council, and by Jewish communities worldwide. And the previous Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s father was Quartermaster of the Irgun terrorist organisation (you know the guys who killed both the British and UN Peace Envoys and hanged three British soldiers including a Jewish lad from the East End). Former Foreign Minister’s Tzipi Livni’s father was the leader of the Irgun group which carried out the King David Hotel massacre which killed 92 people including 17 Jews.




King David Hotel massacre

And did I mention that another previous Israeli Prime Minister, Menachim Begin, was the Irgun leader who gave the order? But less of rogue states with terrorist links whose support by the US is entirely contrary to America’s strategic interests. But perhaps Barack might suggest to Israel’s leadership that if it is to survive and prosper it will not do so by military means and it is now a time for change?

I am not anti- Jewish, indeed quite the opposite. I document elsewhere in this Blog the Jewish communities of Prague, Krakow, Marrakech and Kos and the killing machine of Auschwitz-Birkenau. I am not anti-Semitic and abhor racism in all its forms. I do not equate Zionism with racism and I would never support in any circumstances any boycott of Israel, no matter how it is dressed up. I would never support it because I understand the resonance in Jewish history of boycotts and recognise that Theodor Herzl’s advocacy of Zionism was a valid response to the bullying and suffering Jewish people were suffering in 19th Century Europe. After the events of The Shoah there is no way I could look a Jewish person in the eye and argue in favour of assimilation, even though 60% of world Jewry lives outside of Israel.



But you do not fight racism and oppression by yourselves becoming the racists and the oppressors. Israel must acknowledge its terrorist origins and the part played by massacres of the Palestinians in the exodus of Arabs from Palestine, acknowledge the evil of the Deir Yassin massacre: the murder of roughly 100 Palestinians villagers by Zionist paramilitaries on April 9, 1948, and the other indefensible events in that tragic period.

For the only way forward for Israel is a genuine Two State Solution reverting to the 1949 Line of Control and internationalising Jerusalem. There is no long term strategic interest for the United States in having Israel as its proxy military power in the Middle East and for Israel to rely on military might subsidised by a foreign power for its long term security. And for the United States perhaps when the sugar rush from the killing of Bin Laden has worn off perhaps it might reflect that the two greatest threats to its own security come from its own greed. It’s greed for oil which has made it dependant on the Saudi tyranny and its greed for cocaine which has created violent corrupt narco states in South America, in North America (Mexico) and in Afghanistan. Perhaps the greedy and incontinent consumer has to take some responsibility for the consequences of their own prolifigate greed? When considering Bin Laden perhaps the US and Israel should remember that before 1948 “Nakba” referred to the cynical partition of the Arab World into dependant statelets by France and Britain, two of the most enthusiastic interventionists in Libya. Not for nothing did Osama Bin Laden start his denunciations with the shameful Treaty of Sevres – a murderous medievalist he may have been but mindless he was not.



There is no going back; the Arab Spring will affect the Arab World, Israel and the children of the Nakba equally. Israel and Modern Judaism will have to reflect if a people who greet each other with “Shalom” and part with the words 'l'chayim' are really on a sustainable path to peace and security? And if the United States want to move on from the immoral and failed neo-colonial policy it has adopted to the Arab World and Islam then it should not despair because somebody called Thomas Jefferson has already come up with a better policy;

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed;”

Free Gaza, Free Palestine, Free Palestinians

Today 27th December marks the 2nd Anniversary of the massacre of around 1,400 old men, women and children at GAZA in 2008. This war crime was committed by the powerful army of an occupying power equipped with American weapons’ and financed by £1.1 Bn dollars per annum of American military aid.

At 11:30am on December 27, 2008, Israel launched Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip with the stated aim of suppressing rocket fire from Gaza into Israel. Israel opened the attack with a surprise air strike against the Gaza Strip on December 27, 2008. Israeli forces attacked civilians, police stations, schools, universities, mosques, and governmental buildings. Israeli forces attacked civilians and used white phosphorus munitions in densely populated areas.



Israel claims that it was targeting Hamas armed fighters and infrastructure, ostensibly in response to the firing of homemade rockets from Gaza into Israel. However, field investigations by the Gaza-based human rights organization Al Mezan show that United Nations-administered schools, mosques, universities, emergency medical crews, private homes and other civilian objects have all been in Israel's sights.

Among those killed on the first day of bombing, when more than 100 tons of bombs were dropped on the tiny coastal enclave, included police officers who were attending a graduation ceremony, school children heading home after a day of study, and other Gazans killed without warning as they were conducting their normal business.



Entire families have been wiped out during the air strikes and shelling, including that of Hamas leader Nizar Rayyan who was extra judicially executed along with his family in their home in a Gaza refugee camp. More than 40 were killed on 6 January when Israeli forces shelled the United Nations-administered Fakhoura School in the Jabalia refugee camp, where families who had been displaced by the bombing were seeking shelter. The UN has demanded an independent investigation and its spokespersons assert that GPS coordinates of all UN locations were given to Israel to prevent such an atrocity. Israel recanted its claim that resistance fighters released fire on Israeli soldiers from the school, which has been categorically denied by UN officials.



The bloody operation in Gaza came after the expiration of a six-month-long ceasefire between Israel and resistance groups in Gaza, including Hamas. Israel had broken the ceasefire on 4 November, when it extra judicially executed six Palestinians in Gaza whom it said was digging tunnels to Israel. During the five previous months of the ceasefire, Hamas had refrained from firing rockets and prevented other groups from doing so. However, Israel failed to ease the nearly two-year-long embargo on the Gaza Strip that has crippled economic life and brought the area to the brink of a humanitarian crisis — one of Israel's obligations under the ceasefire.

On January 18, 2009, the war ended in a ceasefire, Israel completed its withdrawal on January 21. Israel killed 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and other 5500 were injured while 13 Israelis, 10 of them soldiers, were killed.



As I have pointed out before the democratically elected Hamas administration in Gaza has had a brilliant master stroke in appointing the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as its recruiting sergeant. Rarely has an organisation had a more effective recruiter in a territory which has been systematically destroyed by Israel (The Airport, Port, Hospitals, Factories, Government offices, power generators, etc ;) in flagrant breach of International Law including the Geneva Conventions on administration of occupied territories, protection of non-combatants and two UN Resolutions.

Let us not forget in our PC world why Gaza exists is two words never used in Israel; Ethnic Cleansing. Gaza exists because the Palestinians who lived in Ashkelon and the fields around it – Askalaan in Arabic – were dispossessed from their lands in 1948 when Israel was created and ended up on the beaches of Gaza. They – or their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren – are among the one and a half million Palestinian refugees crammed into the cesspool of Gaza, 80 per cent of whose families once lived in what is now Israel. This, historically, is the real story: most of the people of Gaza don't come from Gaza.





The Wikileaks cables show the complete lack of concern by American diplomats for the people of Palestine, they confirm that America is acting in this region with no moral purpose when it come to the Palestinian people and that it is utterly uninterested in the so called “Two States Solution” allowing Israel to set 100% of the agenda to stop a Palestinian State being a reality. Better to withdraw its 1.1 Bn Dollar military aid to Israel which is totally contrary to the US’s strategic interests. Better to withdraw its 1. 0 Bn a year aid to Egypt which allows the Pharaoh Murbarak and the military elite to run a repressive farce pretending to be a democracy. Why, America will really be surprised when Egypt implodes and the US loses another great ally? Far better to cut both these payments by America’s hard pressed taxpayer and divert the resources to addressing the results and righting the wrongs of the 1948 ethnic cleansing and making the “Two Nation” solution a reality.





The mission concluded that actions amounting to war crimes and possibly, in some respects, crimes against humanity, were committed by the Israel Defense Force (IDF). The mission finds that the conduct of the Israeli armed forces constitute grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention in respect of willful killings and willfully causing great suffering to protected persons and as such give rise to individual criminal responsibility…

It [the UN mission] also finds that the direct targeting and arbitrary killing of Palestinian civilians is a violation of the right to life.

(source: Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, UNO, Sept. 15, 2009)

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed;

The opening lines of the United States Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776




We must never forget what happened to GAZA two years ago or to the people of Palestine in 1948.

For the background to Nakba - The ethnic cleansing of Palestine see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2011/05/nakba.html

Free Gaza, Free Palestine, Free the Palestinian People.


See also;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/06/free-gaza.html

Free Gaza, Free Palestine, Free Palestinians

Today 27th December marks the 2nd Anniversary of the massacre of around 1,400 old men, women and children at GAZA in 2008. This war crime was committed by the powerful army of an occupying power equipped with American weapons’ and financed by £1.1 Bn dollars per annum of American military aid.

At 11:30am on December 27, 2008, Israel launched Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip with the stated aim of suppressing rocket fire from Gaza into Israel. Israel opened the attack with a surprise air strike against the Gaza Strip on December 27, 2008. Israeli forces attacked civilians, police stations, schools, universities, mosques, and governmental buildings. Israeli forces attacked civilians and used white phosphorus munitions in densely populated areas.



Israel claims that it was targeting Hamas armed fighters and infrastructure, ostensibly in response to the firing of homemade rockets from Gaza into Israel. However, field investigations by the Gaza-based human rights organization Al Mezan show that United Nations-administered schools, mosques, universities, emergency medical crews, private homes and other civilian objects have all been in Israel's sights.

Among those killed on the first day of bombing, when more than 100 tons of bombs were dropped on the tiny coastal enclave, included police officers who were attending a graduation ceremony, school children heading home after a day of study, and other Gazans killed without warning as they were conducting their normal business.



Entire families have been wiped out during the air strikes and shelling, including that of Hamas leader Nizar Rayyan who was extra judicially executed along with his family in their home in a Gaza refugee camp. More than 40 were killed on 6 January when Israeli forces shelled the United Nations-administered Fakhoura School in the Jabalia refugee camp, where families who had been displaced by the bombing were seeking shelter. The UN has demanded an independent investigation and its spokespersons assert that GPS coordinates of all UN locations were given to Israel to prevent such an atrocity. Israel recanted its claim that resistance fighters released fire on Israeli soldiers from the school, which has been categorically denied by UN officials.



The bloody operation in Gaza came after the expiration of a six-month-long ceasefire between Israel and resistance groups in Gaza, including Hamas. Israel had broken the ceasefire on 4 November, when it extra judicially executed six Palestinians in Gaza whom it said was digging tunnels to Israel. During the five previous months of the ceasefire, Hamas had refrained from firing rockets and prevented other groups from doing so. However, Israel failed to ease the nearly two-year-long embargo on the Gaza Strip that has crippled economic life and brought the area to the brink of a humanitarian crisis — one of Israel's obligations under the ceasefire.

On January 18, 2009, the war ended in a ceasefire, Israel completed its withdrawal on January 21. Israel killed 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and other 5500 were injured while 13 Israelis, 10 of them soldiers, were killed.



As I have pointed out before the democratically elected Hamas administration in Gaza has had a brilliant master stroke in appointing the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as its recruiting sergeant. Rarely has an organisation had a more effective recruiter in a territory which has been systematically destroyed by Israel (The Airport, Port, Hospitals, Factories, Government offices, power generators, etc ;) in flagrant breach of International Law including the Geneva Conventions on administration of occupied territories, protection of non-combatants and two UN Resolutions.

Let us not forget in our PC world why Gaza exists is two words never used in Israel; Ethnic Cleansing. Gaza exists because the Palestinians who lived in Ashkelon and the fields around it – Askalaan in Arabic – were dispossessed from their lands in 1948 when Israel was created and ended up on the beaches of Gaza. They – or their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren – are among the one and a half million Palestinian refugees crammed into the cesspool of Gaza, 80 per cent of whose families once lived in what is now Israel. This, historically, is the real story: most of the people of Gaza don't come from Gaza.





The Wikileaks cables show the complete lack of concern by American diplomats for the people of Palestine, they confirm that America is acting in this region with no moral purpose when it come to the Palestinian people and that it is utterly uninterested in the so called “Two States Solution” allowing Israel to set 100% of the agenda to stop a Palestinian State being a reality. Better to withdraw its 1.1 Bn Dollar military aid to Israel which is totally contrary to the US’s strategic interests. Better to withdraw its 1. 0 Bn a year aid to Egypt which allows the Pharaoh Murbarak and the military elite to run a repressive farce pretending to be a democracy. Why, America will really be surprised when Egypt implodes and the US loses another great ally? Far better to cut both these payments by America’s hard pressed taxpayer and divert the resources to addressing the results and righting the wrongs of the 1948 ethnic cleansing and making the “Two Nation” solution a reality.





The mission concluded that actions amounting to war crimes and possibly, in some respects, crimes against humanity, were committed by the Israel Defense Force (IDF). The mission finds that the conduct of the Israeli armed forces constitute grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention in respect of willful killings and willfully causing great suffering to protected persons and as such give rise to individual criminal responsibility…

It [the UN mission] also finds that the direct targeting and arbitrary killing of Palestinian civilians is a violation of the right to life.

(source: Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, UNO, Sept. 15, 2009)

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed;

The opening lines of the United States Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776




We must never forget what happened to GAZA two years ago or to the people of Palestine in 1948.

For the background to Nakba - The ethnic cleansing of Palestine see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2011/05/nakba.html

Free Gaza, Free Palestine, Free the Palestinian People.


See also;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/06/free-gaza.html

ISRAEL'S CRIMES & THE BROADER ISSUE OF WORLD PEACE

With its recent deadly attack on a peaceful vessel in international waters, the Israeli government has once again flaunted its disregard for international law and human life.

And yes, I do mean "Israeli government." As in all nations, I'm sure that the vast majority of the people of Israel just want to live in peace. Although, also in common with citizens of all nations, it is incumbent upon those citizens to prevail upon their government to behave humanely. And to their credit, many of them have: coming out in protest over the aforementioned act of terrorism.

Originally I was going to discuss the attack and all the offshoot events related to it. But the point of "House On Fire" is to really look at the Big Picture.

So I decided to use the Israeli government's crimes as a springboard to the big-picture issue of world peace.

Israel, with its power-hungry patron the United States, represents a perfect example of why the idea of world peace seems so daunting.

To achieve such a lofty -- though I do not believe impossible -- goal, we need democratic and effective institutions to make it happen. Well, we have them -- sort of.

If you go to the website of the United Nations (http://www.un.org/), the very first sentence of the overview reads: "The United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945 after the Second World War by 51 countries committed to maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations and promoting social progress, better living standards and human rights."

That's a pretty clear objective.

The U.N. nowadays has 192 member states -- or pretty much the whole world depending on whose country count you go by.

The problem is the U.N. is an emasculated body in many respects, bullied and defied by the United States, often in tandem with its sidekick Israel.

It is not really a democratic body because, for example, the United States is a permanent member of the Security Council: the part of the U.N. that makes the decisions about crises like the flotilla attack. But the U.S. (and Israel) has an abysmal voting/veto record when it comes to anything that affects its "interests." Not how democracy works, right?

The U.S. pours a fortune in aid and weapons into Israel because it regards it as a strategic ally. And it generally refuses to seriously censure Israel at the U.N., something it has failed to do once more with this latest attack on the aid-carrying vessels.

We also have the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. And yet there is so much individual -- and state-perpetrated -- international crime on the planet that it's almost a free for all.

All of these bodies have done some good. Sure. But they are shackled or owned or influenced. Ditto that for the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), which generally do much more harm than good.

What is the answer?

It seems to me when we look at the truly overarching issues the answer is that such institutions must radically change or disappear and be replaced.

We the people must put as much pressure as we can on our governments and the U.N. to do what is right, to behave in the common interests of the world community, or get out of the way. Serious, prolonged pressure. If we care enough, we'll do it.

All the while we must rally ourselves, unite in peace, reach out, network and, over time, develop our own way of doing things and our own truly democratic institutions that make the old systems obsolete. Then we will take action into our own hands and deliver peace to Palestinians, Iraqis, Ugandans, Afghans... to all.

This isn't just a dream. All things are possible. If we really want them badly enough.

The only path to the future, if we are to have one at all, is through peace.

Take care,
Adrian Zupp

IF YOU FOUND THIS BLOG POST INTERESTING you might like to take a look at THE MASS MURDERERS OF WASHINGTON D.C.

Free Gaza

The democratically elected Hamas administration in Gaza has had a brilliant master stroke in appointing the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as its recruiting sergeant. Rarely has an organisation had a more effective recruiter in a territory which has been systematically destroyed by Israel (The Airport, Port, Hospitals, Factories, Government offices, power generators, etc ;) in flagrant breach of International Law including the Geneva Conventions on administration of occupied territories, protection of non-combatants and two UN Resolutions. The United Nations (unlike Israeli Spokesmen engaged in truth distortion) has no doubt what is happening in Gaza stating in the Security Council resolution adopted last Wednesday;

“Stressing that the situation in Gaza was not sustainable, the Council re‑emphasized the importance of the full implementation of resolutions 1850 (2008) and 1860 (2009). In that context, it reiterated its grave concern at the humanitarian situation in Gaza and stressed the need for the sustained and regular flow of goods and people to Gaza, as well as unimpeded provision and distribution of humanitarian assistance throughout the enclave. The Council also expressed support for the proximity talks.”



Turkey’s Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, said he was distraught by the incident, which was a grave breach of international law and constituted banditry and piracy — it was “murder” conducted by a State, without justification. A nation that followed that path lost its legitimacy as a respectable member of the international community. The children of Gaza, meanwhile, did not know where their next meal was coming from; they had received no education and had no future. Today, many humanitarian workers returned home in body bags. Israel had “blood on its hands”.
High-seas freedom, he said, freedom of navigation, was one of the oldest forms of international law; no vessel could be stopped or boarded without the consent of the captain or flag State. Any suspected violation of the law did not absolve the intervening State under international law. To treat humanitarian delivery as a hostile act and to treat aid workers as combatants could not be deemed legal or legitimate. Any attempt to legitimize the attack was futile.

The strangely entitled Israeli Defence Forces commandeered the Irish flagged ship Rachel Corrie & Hundreds of thousands of protesters marched! Israel engaged in a fresh act of piracy on the high seas at the weekend taking over an Irish-flagged aid ship bearing desperately needed supplies for the Gaza Strip. The crew of the Rachel Corrie included Nobel Peace Prize-winner Mairead Maguire and former UN assistant secretary-general Dennis Halliday. As planned they put up no resistance when the ship was seized in international waters during an early-morning raid by Israeli soldiers. The ship, named after a US activist killed by Israeli forces, was taken at gunpoint to the Israeli port of Ashdod where its cargo of essential supplies to 1.5 million Palestinians illegally imprisoned in the Gaza Strip was seized and its crew imprisoned pending deportation. Dublin had demanded safe passage for its vessel. Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign reacted angrily to news of this latest breach of international law. "For the second time in less then a week, Israeli forces stormed and hijacked an unarmed aid ship, kidnapping its passengers and forcing the ship toward Ashdod port," it said. Its fury was reflected at a demonstration on the streets of the Irish capital in scenes repeated across the world involving tens of thousands of people.


MV Rachel Corrie

In Palestine protesters marching towards Gaza's border scattered as Israeli forces opened fire with live rounds. And in a show of international solidarity following Israel's deadly assault on a Gaza aid convoy last week Swedish dockworkers will begin a week-long blockade on Saturday of Israeli ships and goods. The Swedish Port Workers Union was among the groups which backed the Ship to Gaza campaign involved in the flotilla. "The reason for the blockade is the unprecedented criminal attack on the peaceful ship convoy," the union said. Elsewhere, veteran alt-rockers The Pixies have become the latest musicians to cancel a planned gig in Israel. The band did not issue a statement but a local promoter linked the pullout with the attack on the Gaza flotilla. Israeli human rights activists from Boycott! urged the band three months ago to cancel the gig, saying: "As much as some of us are huge fans and would love to hear your show, we won't cross the international picket line that is growing in numbers steadily nowadays to come and see you." A flotilla activist who had a gun pointed at her head by Israeli commandos has said that the "horrendous" ordeal made her "more determined to get back out there." At a demonstration against the flotilla raid in Edinburgh, Scottish postal worker Theresa McDermott said to the crowd of 5,000: "If we sit back and don't go, that allows their intimidatory and aggressive tactics to work.”Our governments might not be doing anything but it won't stop the normal people from these countries from going back and trying to get the aid in because we could see the suffering in Gaza. "The people of Palestine need to know that they have not been forgotten by the outside world. We are standing with them and we're going to do our best to get the next flotilla in."



Demonstrators marched through the city centre to the US consulate and ended outside Bute House, First Minister Alex Salmond's official residence. Ms McDermott was on board the Challenger when it was taken over during the fatal attack on the flotilla by Israeli soldiers last Monday. She told a Scottish tabloid after returning to the Scottish capital following her release from Israeli prison: "It was needless brutality. "We were telling them they had an obligation to the people of Gaza to let us in. But they wouldn't listen and I even had a cocked gun pointed at my head." Scottish activists who were on the flotilla will hold a press conference on Monday about the raid of the three different ships they were on. They will also speak about their own experience of beatings, torture and detention in Israel. Hundreds of thousands of protesters marched through cities around the world on Saturday over the Israeli killing of nine Turkish activists last week aboard an aid ship bound for Gaza. Rallies took place in London, Sheffield, Edinburgh and other British cities as part of an international day of action which also saw demonstrations in Turkey, Lebanon, Spain, Ireland and Gaza itself.



In London, 20,000 protesters marched from Downing Street to the Israeli embassy to express outrage at the killings on the Mavi Marmara aid vessel and the seizure of the MV Rachel Corrie, another aid ship trying to break the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza, by Israeli forces on Saturday morning. As demonstrators left Downing Street they waved Palestinian flags and placards saying: "End The Siege" and "For Freedom We Sail." Others chanted: "Stop Israeli piracy." Among the protesters was Sarah Colborne of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, who was aboard the Mavi Marmara and was in Israeli custody for almost two days before being deported to Britain. "Israel cannot be allowed to continue to commit these crimes without being brought to justice," said Ms Colborne. "It cannot board boats in international waters which have nothing but humanitarian aid and peace activists, to murder nine people and to hold us hostage, to kidnap us effectively. "What we need to happen is for humanitarian aid to freely go into Gaza, for the siege to be lifted, for an independent investigation to take place into the events of the last few days and for Israel to end its violation of international laws." Green MP Caroline Lucas, who joined the demonstration, also called for an independent inquiry into Israel's "murder and piracy."

Stop the War Coalition convener Lindsey German said the event showed that victims' "deaths have not been in vain - what it has done is bring the world's attention to the terrible crime of the blockade of Gaza." Protester Ali Seylan, who said his brother had been aboard the flotilla, told the rally: "Israel made a big mistake. Israel's government managed to make all Turkish people the enemy of Israel." Former Respect MP George Galloway told the London rally that new Viva Palestina land and sea convoys to break the siege of Gaze would soon set off. He said after "extensive discussions in Istanbul I can announce that a land convoy will leave Britain in September.”At exactly the same time a flotilla of boats will be leaving to tour the countries of the Mediterranean before heading for Gaza." Around 5,000 Scottish protesters marched through central Edinburgh, ending in a rally where SNP MSP Sandra White read out a message on behalf of the Scottish government. She declared: "We have added Scotland's voice to that of the wider international community in condemning" the Israeli attack. The statement also demanded "the immediate lifting of the Israeli blockade of Gaza." International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell announced on Sunday that Britain would award £19 million in aid for refugees in Gaza to be spent on health care, education and other services.

This is Rachel Corrie a 23 year old peace activist who was killed on March 16, 2003 when she was crushed by a bulldozer on the Gaza Strip by the Israeli Army, while trying to prevent the demolition of the house of a Palestinian doctor. This is her 5th grade speech at school. The Irish ship intercepted trying to break the illegal Gaza Blockade (UN Resolution and Geneva Conventions) was named after her.



Malnourished children, restrictions on Gaza-fisherman, lacklustre sewage and water systems, and the confiscation of $4.5 billion in international aid will not improve Israel’s security in the long run. It will only increase the popularity of the Hamas Movement, decrease the effects of counterterrorism throughout the globe, and create the next generation of dangerous faith-based ideologues. As Cynthia McKinney, Mairead Maguire, and Betty Williams argue, it may be time for the state of Israel to start abiding by the concept of universal human rights. Not only would such activities have the symbolic effect of furthering international unity towards tolerance and respect (despite religion, ethnicity, or background), but may strengthen Israel’s right to exist by severely diminishing Arab hostility towards the Jewish people.

The solution is rather straightforward: allowing food and medicine into the Strip will help the PEOPLE escape the poverty that has dominated their lives thus far. Who knows, perhaps lifting the embargo and easing the life of the Palestinian people will save the world from the next wave of suicide bombers. Over to you recruiting Sergeant Benjamin Netanyahu? O one more point, during the past week has anybody anywhere heard a single word from the Special Middle East Peace Envoy, Tony Blair? Obviously nothing too much was happening to interest him?

Free Gaza

The democratically elected Hamas administration in Gaza has had a brilliant master stroke in appointing the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as its recruiting sergeant. Rarely has an organisation had a more effective recruiter in a territory which has been systematically destroyed by Israel (The Airport, Port, Hospitals, Factories, Government offices, power generators, etc ;) in flagrant breach of International Law including the Geneva Conventions on administration of occupied territories, protection of non-combatants and two UN Resolutions. The United Nations (unlike Israeli Spokesmen engaged in truth distortion) has no doubt what is happening in Gaza stating in the Security Council resolution adopted last Wednesday;

“Stressing that the situation in Gaza was not sustainable, the Council re‑emphasized the importance of the full implementation of resolutions 1850 (2008) and 1860 (2009). In that context, it reiterated its grave concern at the humanitarian situation in Gaza and stressed the need for the sustained and regular flow of goods and people to Gaza, as well as unimpeded provision and distribution of humanitarian assistance throughout the enclave. The Council also expressed support for the proximity talks.”



Turkey’s Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, said he was distraught by the incident, which was a grave breach of international law and constituted banditry and piracy — it was “murder” conducted by a State, without justification. A nation that followed that path lost its legitimacy as a respectable member of the international community. The children of Gaza, meanwhile, did not know where their next meal was coming from; they had received no education and had no future. Today, many humanitarian workers returned home in body bags. Israel had “blood on its hands”.
High-seas freedom, he said, freedom of navigation, was one of the oldest forms of international law; no vessel could be stopped or boarded without the consent of the captain or flag State. Any suspected violation of the law did not absolve the intervening State under international law. To treat humanitarian delivery as a hostile act and to treat aid workers as combatants could not be deemed legal or legitimate. Any attempt to legitimize the attack was futile.

The strangely entitled Israeli Defence Forces commandeered the Irish flagged ship Rachel Corrie & Hundreds of thousands of protesters marched! Israel engaged in a fresh act of piracy on the high seas at the weekend taking over an Irish-flagged aid ship bearing desperately needed supplies for the Gaza Strip. The crew of the Rachel Corrie included Nobel Peace Prize-winner Mairead Maguire and former UN assistant secretary-general Dennis Halliday. As planned they put up no resistance when the ship was seized in international waters during an early-morning raid by Israeli soldiers. The ship, named after a US activist killed by Israeli forces, was taken at gunpoint to the Israeli port of Ashdod where its cargo of essential supplies to 1.5 million Palestinians illegally imprisoned in the Gaza Strip was seized and its crew imprisoned pending deportation. Dublin had demanded safe passage for its vessel. Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign reacted angrily to news of this latest breach of international law. "For the second time in less then a week, Israeli forces stormed and hijacked an unarmed aid ship, kidnapping its passengers and forcing the ship toward Ashdod port," it said. Its fury was reflected at a demonstration on the streets of the Irish capital in scenes repeated across the world involving tens of thousands of people.


MV Rachel Corrie

In Palestine protesters marching towards Gaza's border scattered as Israeli forces opened fire with live rounds. And in a show of international solidarity following Israel's deadly assault on a Gaza aid convoy last week Swedish dockworkers will begin a week-long blockade on Saturday of Israeli ships and goods. The Swedish Port Workers Union was among the groups which backed the Ship to Gaza campaign involved in the flotilla. "The reason for the blockade is the unprecedented criminal attack on the peaceful ship convoy," the union said. Elsewhere, veteran alt-rockers The Pixies have become the latest musicians to cancel a planned gig in Israel. The band did not issue a statement but a local promoter linked the pullout with the attack on the Gaza flotilla. Israeli human rights activists from Boycott! urged the band three months ago to cancel the gig, saying: "As much as some of us are huge fans and would love to hear your show, we won't cross the international picket line that is growing in numbers steadily nowadays to come and see you." A flotilla activist who had a gun pointed at her head by Israeli commandos has said that the "horrendous" ordeal made her "more determined to get back out there." At a demonstration against the flotilla raid in Edinburgh, Scottish postal worker Theresa McDermott said to the crowd of 5,000: "If we sit back and don't go, that allows their intimidatory and aggressive tactics to work.”Our governments might not be doing anything but it won't stop the normal people from these countries from going back and trying to get the aid in because we could see the suffering in Gaza. "The people of Palestine need to know that they have not been forgotten by the outside world. We are standing with them and we're going to do our best to get the next flotilla in."



Demonstrators marched through the city centre to the US consulate and ended outside Bute House, First Minister Alex Salmond's official residence. Ms McDermott was on board the Challenger when it was taken over during the fatal attack on the flotilla by Israeli soldiers last Monday. She told a Scottish tabloid after returning to the Scottish capital following her release from Israeli prison: "It was needless brutality. "We were telling them they had an obligation to the people of Gaza to let us in. But they wouldn't listen and I even had a cocked gun pointed at my head." Scottish activists who were on the flotilla will hold a press conference on Monday about the raid of the three different ships they were on. They will also speak about their own experience of beatings, torture and detention in Israel. Hundreds of thousands of protesters marched through cities around the world on Saturday over the Israeli killing of nine Turkish activists last week aboard an aid ship bound for Gaza. Rallies took place in London, Sheffield, Edinburgh and other British cities as part of an international day of action which also saw demonstrations in Turkey, Lebanon, Spain, Ireland and Gaza itself.



In London, 20,000 protesters marched from Downing Street to the Israeli embassy to express outrage at the killings on the Mavi Marmara aid vessel and the seizure of the MV Rachel Corrie, another aid ship trying to break the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza, by Israeli forces on Saturday morning. As demonstrators left Downing Street they waved Palestinian flags and placards saying: "End The Siege" and "For Freedom We Sail." Others chanted: "Stop Israeli piracy." Among the protesters was Sarah Colborne of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, who was aboard the Mavi Marmara and was in Israeli custody for almost two days before being deported to Britain. "Israel cannot be allowed to continue to commit these crimes without being brought to justice," said Ms Colborne. "It cannot board boats in international waters which have nothing but humanitarian aid and peace activists, to murder nine people and to hold us hostage, to kidnap us effectively. "What we need to happen is for humanitarian aid to freely go into Gaza, for the siege to be lifted, for an independent investigation to take place into the events of the last few days and for Israel to end its violation of international laws." Green MP Caroline Lucas, who joined the demonstration, also called for an independent inquiry into Israel's "murder and piracy."

Stop the War Coalition convener Lindsey German said the event showed that victims' "deaths have not been in vain - what it has done is bring the world's attention to the terrible crime of the blockade of Gaza." Protester Ali Seylan, who said his brother had been aboard the flotilla, told the rally: "Israel made a big mistake. Israel's government managed to make all Turkish people the enemy of Israel." Former Respect MP George Galloway told the London rally that new Viva Palestina land and sea convoys to break the siege of Gaze would soon set off. He said after "extensive discussions in Istanbul I can announce that a land convoy will leave Britain in September.”At exactly the same time a flotilla of boats will be leaving to tour the countries of the Mediterranean before heading for Gaza." Around 5,000 Scottish protesters marched through central Edinburgh, ending in a rally where SNP MSP Sandra White read out a message on behalf of the Scottish government. She declared: "We have added Scotland's voice to that of the wider international community in condemning" the Israeli attack. The statement also demanded "the immediate lifting of the Israeli blockade of Gaza." International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell announced on Sunday that Britain would award £19 million in aid for refugees in Gaza to be spent on health care, education and other services.

This is Rachel Corrie a 23 year old peace activist who was killed on March 16, 2003 when she was crushed by a bulldozer on the Gaza Strip by the Israeli Army, while trying to prevent the demolition of the house of a Palestinian doctor. This is her 5th grade speech at school. The Irish ship intercepted trying to break the illegal Gaza Blockade (UN Resolution and Geneva Conventions) was named after her.



Malnourished children, restrictions on Gaza-fisherman, lacklustre sewage and water systems, and the confiscation of $4.5 billion in international aid will not improve Israel’s security in the long run. It will only increase the popularity of the Hamas Movement, decrease the effects of counterterrorism throughout the globe, and create the next generation of dangerous faith-based ideologues. As Cynthia McKinney, Mairead Maguire, and Betty Williams argue, it may be time for the state of Israel to start abiding by the concept of universal human rights. Not only would such activities have the symbolic effect of furthering international unity towards tolerance and respect (despite religion, ethnicity, or background), but may strengthen Israel’s right to exist by severely diminishing Arab hostility towards the Jewish people.

The solution is rather straightforward: allowing food and medicine into the Strip will help the PEOPLE escape the poverty that has dominated their lives thus far. Who knows, perhaps lifting the embargo and easing the life of the Palestinian people will save the world from the next wave of suicide bombers. Over to you recruiting Sergeant Benjamin Netanyahu? O one more point, during the past week has anybody anywhere heard a single word from the Special Middle East Peace Envoy, Tony Blair? Obviously nothing too much was happening to interest him?