Oxford University invests £630,000 in US cluster bomb manufacturers
Moqawama | October 18, 2011
The Independent has revealed that the leading British Oxford University has invested £630,000 ($990,045) in the US arms manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, which is still involved in the cluster-bomb industry.
Information further revealed that the Oxford University Endowment Management (OUEM) has invested more than £2 million ($3.143 million) in several arms and war companies including Northrop Grumman and European Aeronautics Defense and Space.
Although Britain is one of the some 100 nations who have signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster bombs, however, the UK-based Oxford University used a loophole which states that financial institutions and private citizens can continue to back cluster-arms manufacturers, as long as they do not directly invest in the bombs.
According to the university’s spokesperson, there is a committee that checks if companies are violating the UK law regarding cluster bombs, further noting that “Lockheed Martin” is not on the prohibited investment list.
This year’s olive harvest in Walaja may be the last
By Nigel O’Connor | The Palestine Monitor | October 17, 2011
This week, the olive harvest began across the West Bank, with people returning to villages from city jobs to assist with the picking.
Many farmers face restrictions, imposed by the Israeli Defence Forces, on when and where they can harvest due to the proliferation of Israeli settlements and outposts.
For villagers in al-Walaja, a village near Bethlehem, the harvest is overshadowed by the fact that next year they will be separated from their land when Israel completes the construction of the Seperation Wall. The route of the Wall will completely encircle the village, save for one access road.
On 23 August, Israel’s Supreme Court rejected a petition against the proposed route of the Wall, that effectively annexes nearly 5,000 dunums, or 1,250 acres, of the village’s agricultural land.
On Friday, in a show of support, Palestinians and internationals assisted farmers in gathering the olives from trees that lie beyond the planned path of the wall.
The solidarity action was organized through the International Solidarity Initiative, an organization founded by former Palestinian presidential candidate, Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi.
Dr. Barghouthi attended the harvest and thanked volunteers for the strong turnout.
“We are here because the Israeli wall will prevent the people from harvesting here,” he said. “The wall is surrounding the village and completely isolating the villagers from their community.”
On Saturday morning, Israeli soldiers had gathered close to the harvest site and it was expected farmers would be told to leave the land.
Dr. Barghouthi believed the strong international presence prevented them from taking any action. “This was a very important act of solidarity,” he said.
Speaking to The Palestine Monitor in September, al-Walaja resident Sheerin al-Araj said her village represented a microcosm of Palestine’s recent history.
“Originally our village owned 18,000 dunams of land,” she said, while protesting the construction of the Separation Wall. “Israel’s War of Independence in 1948 took 11,000 dunams.” The Wall will reduce the village’s land mass further.
Following the 1967 Six-Day War and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries were expanded to take more land. The settlements of Gilo and Har Gilo were established.
“After 1967 we have two settlements, a road and a train line. With the Wall being built we will be left with only 2,200 dunams,” Sheerin said.
Since the Second Intifada and the subsequent crippling of the West Bank’s economy, many Palestinian have a greater dependence on the harvest reaped from their family farms.
In the lead up to the olive harvest, Israeli settlers often target adjacent villages by uprooting, destroying or burning trees. For al-Walaja, it is the IDF, with the complicity of Israel’s Supreme Court, that will cut the villagers off from their trees and land.
“I was 1-day-old when my father was jailed”
By Shahd Abusalama – The Electronic Intifada – 18 October 2011
Gaza City – A very confusing feeling passes through me after hearing about the exchange of 1,027 Palestinian detainees for the only Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, who was held captive by the Palestinian resistance fighters. I don’t know whether to feel happy or sad.
Gazing at the faces of the prisoners’ families in the solidarity tent in Gaza City, I see a look that I have never seen before: eyes glittering with hope. These people have attended every event in solidarity with our detainees, have never given up hope that their freedom is inevitable someday, and have stayed strong during their loved ones’ absence inside Israeli cells. Thinking about those women whose relatives are most likely to be released and seeing their big smiles makes me happy. But at the same time, thinking about the other 5,000 detainees who will steadfastly go on with their resistance in the prisons makes my heart break for them.
Hearts aching for those still in jail
When I arrived at the tent on 12 October, the wife of the prisoner Nafez Herz, who was sentenced to life-long imprisonment and has been jailed for 26 years, shook hands with me and said very excitedly that she had heard that her husband would be freed. Then she said, “But you can’t imagine how much my heart aches for those families whose prisoner will not be released in this exchange deal. All prisoners’ families have become like one big family. We meet weekly, if not daily in the Red Cross, we share our torments, and we understand each other’s suffering.” I grabbed her hands and pressed them while saying, “We will never forget them, and God willing, they will gain their freedom soon.”
While I was writing this article among the crowd of people at the Red Cross building, I suddenly heard people chanting and clapping and could see a woman jumping with joy. While on the phone, she said loudly, “My husband is going to be free!” Her husband is Abu Thaer Ghneem, who received a life sentence and spent 22 years in prison. As I watched people celebrating and singing for the freedom of the Palestinian detainees, I met his only son, Thaer. He was hugging his mother tight while giving prayers to God showing their thankfulness. I touched his shoulder, attempting to get his attention. “Congratulations! How do you feel?” I asked him. “I was only one day old when my father was arrested, and now I am 22-years-old. I’ve always known that I had a father in prison, but never had him around. Now my father is finally going to be set free and fill his place, which has been empty over the course of 22 years of my life.”
His answer was very touching and left me shocked and admiring. While he was talking to me, I sensed how he couldn’t find words to describe his happiness at his father’s freedom.
The celebration continues for an hour. Then I return to my former confusion, feeling drowned in a stream of thoughts. The families of the 1,027 detainees will celebrate the freedom of their relatives, but what about the fate of the rest of the prisoners?
Don’t forget the hunger strike
I have heard lots of information since last night concerning the names of the soon-to-be-released prisoners, but it was hard to find two sources sharing the same news, especially about Ahmad Saadat and Marwan Barghouti and whether they are involved in the exchange deal. I’ve always felt spiritually connected to them, especially Saadat, as he is my father’s friend. I can’t handle thinking that he may not be involved in this exchange deal. He has had enough merciless torment inside Israeli solitary confinement for over two and a half years.
Let’s not forget those who are still inside the Israeli occupation’s prisons and who have been on hunger strike, as this hunger strike wasn’t held for an exchange deal, but for the Israeli Prison Service to meet the prisoners’ demands. The people who joined the hunger strike in Gaza City has included those with loved ones in prison. We have to speak out loudly and tell the world that Israel must address our living martyrs’ demands. We will never stop singing for the freedom of Palestinian detainees until the Israeli prisons are emptied.
Shahd Abusalama is an artist, blogger and English literature student from the Gaza Strip. Her blog is called Palestine from My Eyes.
Iran and the Hollywood Script: A Collaborative Effort
By Daniel McAdams on October 16, 2011
According to FBI director Robert Muller, the latest FBI-created-and-miraculously-defeated terror threat — this time straight out of Iran and straight from the top — was something “straight out of a Hollywood script.” Well, he should know so we’ll take him at his word.
Although the same neocons who are probably writing these Hollywood scripts are screaming “this means war!!”, we cannot help but wonder just how deep is the manipulation of our media and our government by shadow forces both foreign and domestic pushing us covertly toward another war.
Considering the latest news out of the UK, where the male partner of recently-departed-in-scandal Defense Secretary Liam Fox is revealed to have been working covertly with the Mossad to overthrow the Iranian government, these speculations should no longer be written off as the conspiratorial thinking of feverish minds.
Disgraced Secretary Fox had been jet-setting all over the world with his “best man,” Adam Werritty, in tow; Werrittty passed himself off as Fox’s de facto chief of staff, and it is in this capacity that he has been engaged over the past several years covertly bumping up the Iranian “opposition” — the same Green Movement that some of us were attacked for suggesting had a very, umm, Western flavor — and attempting to overthrow the Iranian regime.
Just the outlandish suggestion that a booze-addled Iranian immigrant used car salesman was plotting to have the Saudi ambassador assassinated was enough to have the media, ThinkTankistan, and the Left/Right interventionists screaming that an “act of war” had been committed by Iran and demanding an invasion. Yet why is it never an act of war when Western spooks go into Iran in a blatant attempt to overthrow its government and foment phony “Green Revolutions” where scores are killed?
With the Fox scandal breaking big in the UK, it is increasingly obvious that these scripts written to bring the US and its allies to a disastrous war on Iran are more of a collaborative effort, perhaps Hollywood, Langley, and Tel Aviv.