Activists refuse to send Gaza aid via Israel
By Romen Bose – AFP – 27/05/2011
KUALA LUMPUR — Activists on a Malaysian aid ship that had been bound for Gaza refused to hand their cargo to Egypt on Thursday, saying they feared it would end up in Israel.
They had tried to land in Gaza last week but changed course when the Israeli navy fired warning shots.
Matthias Chang, who is heading the mission for the Perdana Global Peace Foundation, told AFP the group was not consulted when the Malaysian and Egyptian governments worked out a deal to end the impasse.
Chang said Egypt had insisted the cargo be discharged and transported via Kaern Shalom, at the Israeli border in Gaza.
“We are not assured that this cargo would in fact be delivered to Gaza, as in the past… most of the humanitarian aid was laid to waste in Israel,” he added.
Chang also questioned Cairo’s refusal to allow the cargo, consisting of 4.6 miles of sewage pipes, to be transferred via the Rafah crossing — Gaza’s only crossing that bypasses Israel — given that it would be open this weekend.
“This turn of events demonstrates the insincerity of the Egyptian government and their implicit endorsement of the illegal siege when they explicitly stated they would permanently open the Rafah crossing,” Chang said.
Egyptian state media have said the Rafah border crossing would open on a daily basis starting Saturday.
Perdana Foundation adviser Mukhriz Mahathir, a son of former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad, told AFP they were unhappy with Cairo’s actions.
“We are disappointed that it has come to this as we were hopeful that with the new government there would be substantial change in regard to the way they treat Palestinians and Gaza but this is clearly not the case,” he said.
“We urge the Egyptian government to allow the aid ship to dock and unload the pipes and ensure that they are delivered to Gaza via the Rafah crossing,” Mukhriz added.
However, Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said Kuala Lumpur and Cairo were working to enable the MV Finch, which has been refused entry to El-Arish for the last 10 days, to dock and unload its aid, according to a statement.
Anifah and his Egyptian counterpart urged “the parties concerned not to resort to any unnecessary action that could further aggravate the situation.”
The 12 activists and crew onboard the MV Finch aborted their second attempt to land in Gaza on Monday after engine trouble, and are anchored in a waiting area off the Egyptian port of El-Arish. … Full article
Everything seems possible in “Second Day of Rage”
Marches in Cairo, Alexandria and Suez and a sit-in in Tahrir are among activists’ plans for tomorrow’s day of rage
Ekram Ibrahim | AhramOnline | 26 May 2011
Believing that Egypt has not witnessed revolutionary change, many Egyptian activists and revolutionaries are calling for a “Second Day of Rage” (referring to the first on 28 January) tomorrow at Tahrir square. “I haven’t felt the change; I’m heading to Tahrir,” repeated several activists on social media sites calling for the protest.
Some political forces announced their participation, others refused to take part and very few of those attending agree on the specific demands. The main callers for the Second Day of Rage remain unknown.
Activism criticizing the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) heated up this week as Egyptian bloggers organized a blogging day on 23 May against the SCAF in which more than 375 bloggers participated.
Many of the leading activist groups, including the 6 April Youth movement, the Coalition of Revolutionary Youth, Al-Masry Al-Hurr, ElBaradei Campaign, the Egyptian movement for change, the Maspero Copts movement, the Muslim Brotherhood Youth wing and expected presidential candidate Bothaina Kamel have all announced their intention to take part.
Moreover, on the Second Anger Egyptian Revolution Facebook page which is calling for tomorrow’s protest, 27,000 thousand confirmed their participation, five thousand indicated they may be attending and 18 thousand said they would not attend, by the time this article was published. The anonymous group announced they were collecting money to set up a stage in Tahrir square tomorrow so their identity will be revealed then.
The 6 April Youth movement was the first group to call on the Egyptian people to take to the streets, to “put pressure on the SCAF” to ensure the prosecution of former president Hosni Mubarak and other senior officials of his regime.
There is no one demand that unites all participants, but the chief ones are: replacing the military council with a presidential one that would rule the country until the coming elections, designing a new constitution before parliamentary elections, holding former regime figures and above all ousted president Hosni Mubarak accountable through prompt fair trials, releasing all political detainees arrested in the last three months by military police, ending the trials of civilians in military courts, abolishing the emergency law, and lifting censorship from state-owned media.
Regarding the plan for the day, the Coalition of Revolutionary Youth call the day “Friday of political corruption” to begin after Friday prayers at 1p.m. and end by 6p.m. However, 6 April movement and other independent activists are calling for a sit-in ending only when all demands are met.
Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood and other less influential political groups refuse to take part in the protest. Among those groups are Free Egypt Coalition, Egypt Protesters Coalition, The Egyptian Awareness Coalition, Field Rescue Committee, Islamic Group and Tahrir Youth Party.
A statement released by the MB on the 27 May protest asked: “The Muslim Brotherhood group is very worried about Friday protests and we ask to whom is this anger directed now?”
The statement says the group sees these protests as either a revolution against the majority of the Egyptian people or a dispute between the Egyptian people and the military represented by the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF). They asked Egyptian people to stop this.
The call for the protest was also rejected by many Salafist groups on Facebook who described the invitation as “a call for incitement and for sabotaging the country.”
For its part, the SCAF used several tactics to prevent people from joining the protest, from sending ousted president Mubarak and his two sons to criminal court, releasing statements on Facebook saying suspicious elements were asking people to protest and playing on the relationship between the people and the army, and finally yesterday arresting activists leafleting about the 27 May protests.
In response to the SCAF statement (56) on Facebook, the Second Anger Egyptian Revolution Facebook group announced they would organize popular committees to protect Egyptian buildings as hospitals and police stations. “We are neither vandals nor suspicious elements; we are creating popular committees to protect the country,” according to their statement on Facebook.
Four activists were arrested yesterday and today while leafleting for the second day of rage. Activists were sent to military police, making people more angry and determined to participate in tomorrow’s protest. “Detaining activists leafleting for protests is similar to what used to take place during Mubarak’s era,” read a press statement issued by the 6 April movement commenting on the arrest of one of its members Wednesday while leafleting for 27 May.
Moreover, Facebook groups opposed to tomorrow’s protests (such as “we are all against second rage”) say protesters should respect the people’s vote against a presidential council, referring to the constitutional referendum on 19 March in which 77.2 per cent of Egyptians voted.
Outside Cairo, some governorates appear ready for Friday’s protest but for different reasons. In Alexandria, youth movements are going to protest for the sacking of the new governor and call for holding the police officers involved in killing protesters during the 25 January Revolution accountable.
In some governorates demands will be focused on dissolving local municipal councils dominated by former ruling National Democratic Party members.
In Suez the organizers of the protests say they will have shields to protect their march which they expect to be the biggest since the ouster of Mubarak. Other popular committees have been formed to protect public properties.
It is not clear how big the demonstrations will be this Friday but both supporters and detractors agree it will not be just another Friday march.
Bahrain Sentences Four People for ‘Protesting’
Al-Manar – May 26, 2011
A military court in Bahrain has sentenced four protesters to one year in prison for taking part in anti-government protests, a human rights group says.
The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights said on Wednesday that in a series of closed-door trials in Bahrain’s military courts, three of the four defendants were convicted a day earlier on charges of participating in anti-government protests, the Associated Press reported.
The fourth Bahraini protester was ruled guilty on Wednesday for possessing pamphlets calling for the overthrow of the country’s ruling system.
The rights group has also raised concerns about a 15-year-old boy being tried in the same court. He faces charges of “rioting” and gathering in a group of more than five people without authorization.
Meanwhile, regime forces raided a women’s salon in the Bahraini island of Sitra on Wednesday.
In Diraz, one Bahraini person was also arrested by regime forces after being dragged out of his house.
The Bahraini regime has unleashed a massive brutal crackdown on protesters since the beginning of the demos since February.
Campaign to vilify Gaza flotilla underway in Europe
David Cronin – The Electronic Intifada – 25 May 2011
A campaign of vilification against the flotilla that will soon try to break Israel’s siege of Gaza appears to be gathering momentum in Europe.
Over the past few weeks newspapers in the Netherlands have published articles alleging that some Dutch organizers of the flotilla are “terror supporters.” The main focus of these smears was Rob Groenhuijzen, chairman of the Netherlands Gaza Foundation, who was imprisoned for radical activities more than thirty years ago.
In the annals of political violence, Groenhuijzen — convicted of being a threat to the Dutch state — probably merits no more than a footnote. Red Youth, the left-wing group to which he was linked in the 1970s, carried out several bombings but never killed anyone. The renewed interest in his past, Groenhuijzen argues, is a sign of desperation on the part of Israeli diplomats and the network of lobbyists who wish to prevent the flotilla from setting sail.
“They don’t have the political or legal means [to stop the flotilla] and that’s why they try to criminalize the flotilla’s participants,” he told me.
Unfortunately, the government in The Hague has proven receptive to the anti-flotilla campaign. A Dutch office of the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (known by the acronym IHH) was recently placed on a national list of banned organizations.
Uri Rosenthal, the Netherlands’ foreign minister, gave a circuitous explanation for the ban in an interview with The Jerusalem Post (“Dutch government places IHH on terror list,” 1 May 2011). He hinted that the assets of IHH Netherlands were being frozen because it had transferred money to IHH representatives in Germany, who were suspected of funding Hamas.
The Center for Information and Documentation on Israel (CIDI) is the most influential Zionist lobby group in the Netherlands. A member of the CIDI’s staff told The Electronic Intifada that “We are not campaigning [against the flotilla] as such. It’s just that we don’t agree with the idea of a flotilla. We don’t think it is in any way conducive to solving the problem. We have pretty much the same stance as the one the [Dutch] government has taken.”
The IHH has announced that it will be sending a ship filled with medicines, construction materials and other essential goods to Gaza on 31 May. That date will be exactly one year after Israeli troops boarded the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish-flagged ship, in international waters, killing nine peace activists.
Although the 2010 attack was condemned by top-level representatives of the European Union, supporters of Israel wasted no time trying to convince the EU that the IHH should be outlawed. On 4 June last year, the European Jewish Congress (EJC) issued a statement calling for the IHH to be placed on the Union’s list of terrorist organizations (“European Jewish Congress wants Turkish Islamist group IHH banned in Europe,” World Jewish Congress, 4 June 2010).
The case made by the EJC rested entirely on the conclusions of a 2006 paper by the Danish Institute for International Studies, which accused the IHH of having contacts with al-Qaeda (“The Role of Islamic Charities in International Terrorist Recruitment and Financing,” Danish Institute for International Studies, 2006 [PDF]).
The arguments made to justify labeling the IHH as “terrorist” in that paper included the group’s involvement in “large and raucous protest rallies” ahead of the war against Iraq in 2003. “Even after the initial US invasion of Iraq, the IHH has continued to bitterly oppose the presence of Western troops in Mesopotamia,” that report noted, implying there was something unreasonable about abhorring wars of aggression.
Although the EU has not (yet) bowed to the Israel lobby’s pressure by banning the IHH, it has effectively called for the flotilla not to go ahead. Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said in May this year “I do not consider a flotilla to be the right response to the humanitarian situation in Gaza” (“Catherine Ashton EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs …”).
Dror Feiler, a spokesman for the Swedish Ship to Gaza, explained that “When Baroness Ashton says the flotilla is not a proper act, I would ask her what is a proper act? The blockade of Gaza is considered collective punishment.”
“Collective punishment is forbidden according to international law,” Feiler added. “When you see such acts go on for four years, you cannot as an international citizen be silent. It is our duty to act. Ashton is trying to continue with passivity, probably because of Israeli pressure. The EU’s politicians seem to be letting themselves be intimidated. They seem to be letting Israel dictate how to act.”
Ashton’s comments followed those of Ran Curiel, Israel’s ambassador in Brussels, who described the flotilla as “clearly a political provocation since there’s no need for a flotilla to aid Gaza” (“Israel’s EU Ambassador: Flotilla ‘Political Provocation’,” Israel National News.com 11 May 2011). Curiel added that “You can pass whatever you want to Gaza through normal channels.”
His assurance was dishonest. The UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) has documented how a piecemeal easing of the blockade over the past twelve months has not halted the deterioration of health services in Gaza. “The persistent restrictions on the importation of medical supplies and equipment, and on the movement of health staff between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, hinder the provision of quality health services,” UNRWA says in its newly published annual report (“The Annual Report of the Department of Health 2010,” 2011 [PDF]).
“Supplies of electricity, fuel and other consumables for the maintenance of the basic health infrastructure have not significantly improved since the adjustment of the blockade. Hospital treatment is increasingly curtailed because of the inability of hospitals to run procedures when they have limited access to electricity supplies, spare parts and equipment,” UNRWA adds in the report. … Full article
Meeting senseless aggression face-to-face
NABI SALEH 13-5-2011
By Gershon Baskin | The Jerusalem Post | 25 May 2011
For months I have been hearing about disproportionate use of force by the army against weekly demonstrations in Nabi Saleh – a small pastoral Palestinian village northwest of Ramallah. Last week, I watched several YouTube videos filmed by activists in the village, providing vivid visual images of the forceful arrests of protesters by the army. I was disturbed because all of the clips showed how the demonstrations ended; none showed how they began. I was convinced that there must have been stone-throwing by the shabab in the village which provoked the violent army responses. So I decided I had to see for myself.
When I contacted the Israeli activists who regularly participate in the Nabi Saleh demonstrations, I was warned that it was dangerous… continue
‘Spirit Of Rachel Corrie’ –little engine that could
By annie | Mondoweiss | May 25, 2011
On May 11th The Spirit of Rachel Corrie, (officially the MV Finch) a Malaysian owned ship sponsored by the Perdana Global Peace Foundation (PGPF), left Port of Piraeus, Greece bound for Palestine on a humanitarian mission carrying 7.5 kilometres of UPVC sewage pipes to help restore the devastated sewerage system essential for the rebuilding of Gaza’s infrastructure destroyed during the Gaza Massacre ’08-’09 .
PGPF is chaired by the former Prime Minister of Malaysia Mahathir Mohamad.
On May 16th an IDF naval patrol circled them and fired warning shots. The boat was only 400 meters away from land when it came under fire from the Israeli Navy, forcing it to retreat and seek anchorage. Reproduced below is the transmission by Matthias Chang onboard the ship ‘The Spirit of Rachel Corrie’ to Perdana during the attack.
“10:54am KL, Gaza 5:54am: We have been intercepted by Israeli ship and Egyptian ship. We are disobeying the orders and sailing ahead to Gaza.
“10:57am KL, Gaza 5:57am: One Israeli warship coming to us very fast! We are in international waters, therefore they have no right to attack us. We are still sailing ahead.
“10:59am KL, Gaza 5:59am: They are opening fire across our ship! We are still sailing ahead.
“11:09am KL, Gaza 6:09am: They are shooting all over the place. We can’t continue …
“11:35am KL, Gaza 6:35am: They circled our ship twice and fired across our ship. Machine guns. No one was injured. One of the fishing nets caught the propeller, so we can’t move now.
“11:37am KL, Gaza 6:37am (Derek Graham): The Israeli ship was coming from one end and the Egyptian ship was coming from another end. Firing. We are just stalled now. Everybody is okay. No one is injured.”
The Egyptian Naval ship intercepted and escorted the ship and crew to Egyptian territorial water. They anchored off the port of El Arish where they have been for over a week. Initially an Egyptian navy gunboat ordered them to leave.
“They are preventing the ship from berthing,” said Bernama journalist, Mohd Faizal Hassan, who is one of the 12 passengers and crew on board the MV Finch, in a SMS note to Bernama’s headquarters here Thursday night. According to Mohd Faizal, the MV Finch has been ordered not to come within a three nautical mile radius of the port. He also reported that fresh rations and water supply were fast running out. He said the ship was still waiting for permission from the port authority to berth. “We do not know when the permission will be given,” he said.
According to Global Research, which was in touch with the ship:
The Spirit of Rachel Corrie is without fuel, without water and without food, despite empty promises by the Egyptian port authority to allow for the ship to be resupplied. Meanwhile, we call upon people’s organizations in Egypt and around the World to act forcefully and in solidarity with The Rachel Corrie.
Mission To Gaza Expected To Continue On Land
EL-ARISH, May 24 (Bernama) — The mission to send PVC pipes to Gaza is expected to continue by land following the Egyptian authorities’ decision to allow the MV Finch carrying humanitarian aid to berth and unload the cargo at El-Arish Port. Bernama reporter Mohd Faizal Hassan via SMS text to the national news agency’s headquarters in Kuala Lumpur texted: “It is understood that the Egyptian foreign minister has given permission (for the ship) to berth and unload the goods today…InsyaAllah (God willing), we will be on land.” The MV Finch has been stranded outside El-Arish Port for a week, waiting for the Egyptian authorities to allow it to berth at the port and now the ship’s engine has broke down. On May 16, the cargo ship carrying 12 passengers and crew members, as well as two Malaysian reporters had to cancel its plan to use the Palestinian waters to send the aid to Gaza when Israeli soldiers fired warning shots at the ship. Mohd Faizal said at the moment, Egyptian naval vessels were near the MV Finch to control the situation as there were also Israeli naval ships in the vicinity. The objective of breaking the siege has been pursued since Monday and the PVC pipes are expected to be sent today to Gaza via the land route.
This has been a long arduous journey for The spirit of Rachel Corrie and surely Rachel’s spirit is guiding them in their persevering, steadfast determination. It took days for the Egyptian authorities to allow them to berth, days of no fuel or water and uncertainty.
A huge shout out to the mission’s team leader Matthias Chang, the ship captain Abd Jalil Mansor, Irish activist Derek Graham, first officer Mohammad Jafri Arifin, chief engineer Zainuddin Mohamed, and two Indian crewmen Pal Satya Prakash and Sharma Chandan.
Let’s put our hearts together and say a prayer for The spirit of Rachel and for the essential cargo to flow thru Egypt. I think I can I think I can I think I can…..The ship’s engine may not make it to Gaza but the engine running this mission, Rachel’s Spirit, is as strong as ever. She can and it will, I know it will.
A call to march towards Jerusalem on the first Friday and Sunday of June
Palestine Information Center – 25/05/2011
WEST BANK — The Muslim Youth League in the West Bank has called on the Palestinian people to march towards occupied Jerusalem in June as part of activities “Jerusalem and Return Intifada” to mark the 1967 occupation of Jerusalem.
The League said in a statement “We have a date on Friday 3rd June and Sunday 5th June to scorch the land underneath the feet of the occupier in occupied Jerusalem and Khalil al-Rahman, near the separation wall, at occupation roadblocks in Hawwara, Qalandia and Attara and bypass roads.”
“Today, after 44 years of shame and defeat, after two intifadas of the Palestinian people, after the Arab people’s revolutions and after the return marches.. it is time to wash the shame of June .. let us move for the liberation of the Aqsa Mosque, release it from its chains, foil Zionist schemes and demolish [their hopes of building the] temple [on the ruins of the Aqsa Mosque].
On 5th June 1967 Israeli occupation tanks rolled into the holy city, the rest of Palestine, the Golan Heights and the Sinai. They desecrated the holy Aqsa Mosque, demolished the Magahrbeh quarters, adjacent to the Aqsa Mosque and since then the occupation has been relentlessly working to Judaize the holy city.
“Move Over AIPAC” Activist Injured By AIPAC Members
By Kevin Murphy – IMEMC and Agencies – May 25, 2011
A “Move Over AIPAC” activist who interrupted Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu during his speech to US Congress has been hospitalised due to injuries received. The protester claims she was beaten by AIPAC activists before being detained.
Rae Abileah, a 28 year old Jewish American of Israeli descent, heckled Netanyahu from the gallery of US Congress. Abileah shouted “stop Israeli war crimes”. She was confronted by American Israel Public Affairs Committee members in the gallery who tackled her to the ground before she was led out by security.
“They assaulted me and I fell on the floor. The activists strangled me and beat me. Then I was dragged out by police who arrested me,” Abileah said. According to JNet, she was hospitalised with suspected neck and shoulder injuries and released into police custody after some hours.
Having travelled to Gaza last year, the activist from Codepink, one of the members of the “Move Over AIPAC” coalition, said she felt compelled to speak out against what she views to be Israeli war crimes. “As a Jew and an American taxpayer, I can’t be silent when these crimes are being committed in my name and with my tax money” she said.
The Move Over AIPAC coalition is a coalition of over 100 civil society organisations in America organised to hold counter demonstrations during Benjamin Netanyahu’s six day visit to the US.
Abileah’s actions highlighted a recent problematic phenomenon for Netanyahu; a vocal and persistent movement of mainly young Jewish people critical of Israeli policy in Palestine. The activist said, “we are a young generation of Jews who don’t intend to sit by in silence and allow prime ministers who commit crimes against humanity speak,”.
“Let Them Starve in the Desert”
Words From the First Intifada
By DANIEL DRENNAN | CounterPunch | May 23, 2011
In 1987, after the First Intifada started, I remember sitting in a coffee shop in New York and overhearing words that stung and burned and never left me. I wrote down my thoughts in a sketchbook at the time, but never brought them forward; I forever regret not having said anything at the time. Last Sunday, two-and-a-half decades later, I took part in the debut of the Third Intifada in Maroun Ar-Ras at the border between Lebanon and Palestine. I recall these words now, updated as the occasion warrants.
“Let them starve!”, you said, slamming your coffee down; “let them starve in the desert!” you said, speaking, as you were, of a desert ancient as time, of a far away desert you never knew, that you never left for never having been and that nonetheless you claim, that now is left bereft of its bedouin, as the land your fellow gentry occupy is left cleansed of its people, abandoned of its owners now set adrift. The land grieves its diaspora, screams aloud their names, remembers each and every name writ in the spilt blood of the countless thousands you’ve disappeared and murdered in vengeful sprees ghastly in their forethought, stunning in their exactitude. “Let them starve!”, you said, defining in the negative your willed absence of a people from a place that yet denies this forgetting, this ground sodden with the tears of all lifetimes.
“Let them rot!” you said, your vague pronoun spat out; “let them starve in the desert!” you said, the fact that “they” exist apparently crime enough, the fact that “they” resist seemingly criminal enough for your judgment, your sentence, your execution; and thus you complete your discrete logic: the annihilation of those who, to you, never were; a double negative that sums up your false positive. And so is unleashed your displacement, your dispossession, your theft, your will to kill, and you, come unhinged. Of all people. And so fly unfettered your noisome epithets, your ghettos, your destruction, your murderous zeal. You, of all people.
You slammed your coffee down and spat out said menace, and I stopped, and I turned, and I caught your eye. I thought: What is so easily said is much more easily done. “Let them starve in the desert! Let them rot in the sun! “Let them riot in Gaza!” you said, and our eyes met, and I saw you, and I saw you seeing me, and I completed your thought, computed your equation; I arrived at your horrid calculus, infinitely revealed in your possessing, usurping, stealing, as well as in your means and ways and methods. And you coldly enacted your endeavor, and you plotted your task, with a bureaucrat’s precision, a mild surprise only that you stop not to collect the shoes, nor the watches, nor the spectacles, while you seem to so value the skin, and the bones, and the eyes. You, of all people.
And although many years have passed since hearing these words, I hereby hasten to inform you that there is no tiring the returnee; and there is no fatigue in these steps six decades after Catastrophe; there is no slowed pace of the generations who follow in their path and who spite the locks and their lockmasters, who despite your barbed wires and barricades are destined to see brethren delivered gleefully through your doors, are ordained to witness the dispersed masses come smiling across your borders, are primed and ready to overtake your gauntlets and gates; if need be receding to re-gather strength, a reclaiming, a repossession, a retaking, a return, and a recalling of your own very prescient warning: “A people which fights against the usurpation of its land will not tire so easily.” You are thus haunted by your very own words, henceforth made manifest.
“Let them riot in Gaza!” you said, and I saw you, and I saw you seeing me, and in that held gaze was a promise, and in my pause was a covenant, and I wrote those words down to forever remind me, I noted down your threat which is hereby reciprocated with interest accrued a hundred-thousand-fold. And now, 25 years later, I keep this promise by coming down to that border with those thousands upon thousands who would come down; by accompanying those who have left their square-kilometer meager allotment, who have decamped to this false demarcation, who have descended to this no-man’s-land falsely partitioned, to this bogus border; to return with those who will one day soon, the grace of God willing, come home.
And be further informed that we will riot in Gaza; we fully intend to riot in Gaza, and in Golan, in Maroon Ar-Ras and in Naqoora; in Rafah, Ramallah, and Karameh. And soon must come your avowal, your acknowledgment, your surrender. Then must come the dismantling, the demolishing, the unsettling. Then must come the great pause, and the gathering, and the Return. And I vow for those who elseways have traversed your hellish gates, who elsewise have suffered your deadly portals, an endless patience, a constant and determined descent, a third and final wave with no end, a divesting, a de-mining of obstacles, an end to the debacle, an existence in resistance. And your day is come. And you will bear the burden of your crimes.
~
Daniel Drennan is founder of the Jamaa Al-Yad artist’s collective. He lives and works in Beirut, Lebanon. He can be reached at info@jamaalyad.org.
Students boycott University of Bahrain
Press TV – May 24, 2011
Hundreds of students have reportedly quit the University of Bahrain to protest against the ruling regime’s brutal crackdown on their anti-government peers.
Students say they left classrooms due to the government’s so-called protection measures and tight security at the campus.
Classes at the University of Bahrain resumed a couple of days ago after authorities installed new surveillance cameras across the university.
The facility was ransacked around two months ago during the unrest that has gripped the Persian Gulf state for over three months.
All students must now re-register with the university and sign a code of conduct. Each student is given a compulsory identification card that must be worn at all times on campus.
According to Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR), the University of Bahrain is planning to accept only pro-government students and those refusing to sign a pledge of loyalty to the government will be expelled from the only national higher education institution in the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom.
Since the beginning of anti-regime protests in Bahrain in mid-February, Manama has launched a harsh crackdown on anti-government protesters, rounding up senior opposition figures and activists in dawn raids and arresting doctors, nurses, lawyers and journalists who have voiced support for the protest movement.
Scores of protesters have been killed and many others have gone missing since the protests broke out.
Refugee ‘return rallies’ planned for June 5
Ma’an – 21/05/2011
JERUSALEM — Masses of Palestinian refugees will march to Israel’s borders and ceasefire lines again on June 5, organizers of the May 15 “return rally” said. […]
The committee organizing the “return rallies” said Saturday that the May 15 protests were “just the beginning.”
In a statement, the group called on all Palestinian refugees living in exile to march peacefully to the borders of historic Palestine on June 5. The date marks the anniversary of the 1967 war, when Israel occupied southern Lebanon, the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank.
Thousands of refugees will march to the ceasefire lines in the West Bank and Gaza as well as borders with Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, the committee said.
“The Israeli occupation should remain on alert because rallies will not stop until Palestinian refugees return to Haifa, Haffa, Al-Majdal, Bi’r As-Sab and all occupied Palestinian towns,” the statement added. … Full article
Saudis show solidarity with Bahrainis
Press TV – May 20, 2011
Protesters in Qatif demand the release of political prisoners
Saudi protesters have poured into the streets in the eastern city of Qatif, condemning Manama’s brutal crackdown on anti-regime demonstrators.
Expressing solidarity with Bahraini protesters, Saudi demonstrators on Friday urged the government to stop helping Manama in suppressing the uprising in the neighboring country and immediately withdraw its troops.
Since the deployment of Saudi troops in mid-March, Bahrain has launched a harsh crackdown on anti-government protesters, rounding up senior opposition figures and activists in dawn raids and arresting doctors, nurses, lawyers and journalists who voiced support for the protest movement.
Last week, Bahraini authorities announced that Saudi troops would remain in the Persian Gulf kingdom even after the state of emergency is lifted in June.
Despite, international condemnation of Saudi occupation of Bahrain, a Saudi official said, “This is the initial phase and Bahrain will get whatever assistance it needs. It’s open-ended.”
Saudi demonstrators also called for human rights reform, freedom of expression and the release of political prisoners some held without trial for more than 16 years.
Saudi Arabia’s east has been the scene of anti-government protests over the past months and authorities have arrested scores of people, including bloggers and writers, for taking part in protest rallies.
According to Human Rights Watch, more than 160 dissidents have been arrested since February as part of the Saudi government’s crackdown on anti-government protesters.
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Book Review
Alarmist climate science as a textbook example of groupthink
By Paul MacRae | May 1, 2012
… Groupthink was extensively studied by Yale psychologist Irving L. Janis and described in his 1982 book Groupthink: Psychological Studies of Policy Decisions and Fiascoes.
Janis was curious about how teams of highly intelligent and motivated people—the “best and the brightest” as David Halberstam called them in his 1972 book of the same name—could have come up with political policy disasters like the Vietnam War, Watergate, Pearl Harbor and the Bay of Pigs. Similarly, in 2008 and 2009, we saw the best and brightest in the world’s financial sphere crash thanks to some incredibly stupid decisions, such as allowing sub-prime mortgages to people on the verge of bankruptcy.
In other words, Janis studied why and how groups of highly intelligent professional bureaucrats and, yes, even scientists, screw up, sometimes disastrously and almost always unnecessarily. The reason, Janis believed, was “groupthink.” He quotes Nietzsche’s observation that “madness is the exception in individuals but the rule in groups,” and notes that groupthink occurs when “subtle constraints … prevent a [group] member from fully exercising his critical powers and from openly expressing doubts when most others in the group appear to have reached a consensus.”[2]
Janis found that even if the group leader expresses an openness to new ideas, group members value consensus more than critical thinking; groups are thus led astray by excessive “concurrence-seeking behavior.”[3] Therefore, Janis wrote, groupthink is “a model of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members’ strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action.”[4]
The groupthink syndrome
The result is what Janis calls “the groupthink syndrome.” This consists of three main categories of symptoms:
1. Overestimate of the group’s power and morality, including “an unquestioned belief in the group’s inherent morality, inclining the members to ignore the ethical or moral consequences of their actions.” [emphasis added]
2. Closed-mindedness, including a refusal to consider alternative explanations and stereotyped negative views of those who aren’t part of the group’s consensus. The group takes on a “win-lose fighting stance” toward alternative views.[5]
3. Pressure toward uniformity, including “a shared illusion of unanimity concerning judgments conforming to the majority view”; “direct pressure on any member who expresses strong arguments against any of the group’s stereotypes”; and “the emergence of self-appointed mind-guards … who protect the group from adverse information that might shatter their shared complacency about the effectiveness and morality of their decisions.”[6]
It’s obvious that alarmist climate science—as explicitly and extensively revealed in the Climatic Research Unit’s “Climategate” emails—shares all of these defects of groupthink, including a huge emphasis on maintaining consensus, a sense that because they are saving the world, alarmist climate scientists are beyond the normal moral constraints of scientific honesty (“overestimation of the group’s power and morality”), and vilification of those (“deniers”) who don’t share the consensus. … Read full article
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