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Professor Richard Falk seminar: The Israeli assault on human rights

Public seminar by Professor Richard Falk | Middle East Monitor | 1 December 2010

Professor Richard Falk, the UNHCR’s Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, spoke on the issue of The Israeli Assault on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories on Wednesday 1st December.

Professor Falk spoke about his findings over the past few years about the blatant discrimination and oppression Palestinians face every day, including the torture and persecution inflicted upon them by the occupying state of Israel. According to Prof. Falk, the two-state solution is no longer an option and will only create more friction and bloodshed in the region; in his opinion, there can be only two possible outcomes:

  • a “unified democratic secular state that respects the rights of all people within its borders”; or
  • the exact opposite, and we will witness “an intensification of the existing apartheid situation”.

Among the throngs of supporters of Palestine were a handful of pro-Zionists, some of whom sought to disrupt the professor mid-lecture; others tried to monopolise the Question and Answer session at the end. Professor Falk, as always, answered with eloquence and grace.

Professor Falk begins at 19 minutes:

Parts 2 and 3

December 17, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture, Timeless or most popular, Video, War Crimes | Leave a comment

WikiLeaks sets the stage for the ‘No Send List’

By Richard K. Moore | Aletho News | December 17, 2010

Hillary Clinton has called WikiLeaks “an attack on the international community”. Coming from her, we must assume that is meant in all seriousness. We must compare it to what we saw on our screens on 9/11: “America under attack”.

When a Secretary of State announces that we are ‘under attack’, it follows without saying that we can expect some kind of response to that attack. Indeed the word ‘attack’ is more or less reserved for occasions where a response is planned. Otherwise the statement would be interpreted as reflecting weakness and impotence.

When America was ‘under attack’, we got the Patriot Act domestically, and never-ending war internationally — the Constitution was shredded along with international law. That was a very big response. What kind of response can we expect when the ‘international community’ is declared to be ‘under attack’, because a website has revealed a few relatively harmless secrets?

If the State Department really felt that the WikiLeaks operation was a serious threat to national security, or even a serious embarrassment politically, they could have shut it down at any time. They have their ways. And they could have ‘gotten to’ Assange in one way or another, as they got to David Kelly, who really was a threat, with his testimony that WMDs did not exists, testimony that was never heard about again, after he ‘committed suicide’.

Instead, with WikiLeaks, we have Assange at large flaunting it, and we see the leaks being published in the mainstream media, both in print and online, conveniently indexed. What’s wrong with this picture? If the leaks are harmful, why are they doing everything they can to make sure everyone, including any ‘potential terrorists’, sees them?

The WikiLeaks affair has become a major dramatic story line on the stage of the global mass media. It’s very much like the launch of a new television series. We’ve got a dramatic personality at the center, seen by some as a super hero and others as a super demon, who is able to reveal a million secrets at a single bound. We’ve got increasing dramatic tension, as the attack alarms ring, the secrets keep coming out, and… nothing decisive is being done. Something must be done! That’s clearly where this story line is leading.

By doing nothing decisive, and with Assange out on bail, the message between the lines is that new legislation is needed. Perhaps new legislation is already being discussed; I haven’t been following that part of the story. But as the dramatic tension mounts in the media, so that it becomes ‘obvious’ that something must be done, we can be sure we will end up with a draconian Cyber Terrorism Act, akin to the Domestic Terrorism Act.

Clearly, the provisions of this act will be very far-reaching. That has been the consistent pattern with each of our various ‘terrorism’ acts. Currently, anyone can be arbitrarily declared a domestic terrorist, and be locked up forever incommunicado. That hasn’t been happening on any significant scale, yet, but the provisions are that far reaching.

Similarly, in a Cyber Terrorism Act, we’ll get a provision that any website can be arbitrarily declared ‘in aid of terrorism’, closed down, and anyone involved with it can be treated as a domestic terrorist. The Act will be that far-reaching, but we probably won’t see a lot of such closures happening. Instead, we’ll get hit in more subtle ways. Websites will simply be seized, without fanfare, and that’s already been happening, under the logo of Homeland Security.

I think we can take a clue from the TSA experience at airports, as regards what we can expect at ‘net ports’. Consider, for example, the ‘no fly’ list. If you’re on the list, you can’t fly, they don’t give you any reasons, and they even seem to flaunt how arbitrary the list is. They are arbitrarily restricting your ability to connect with people face to face.

Similarly, from what might be called the Communications Security Administration (CSA), we can expect a ‘no send’ list. If you’re on the list, you can’t send or post messages, and no reasons will be given. They will be arbitrarily restricting your ability to connect with people remotely. Already, I’ve been encountering problems with sending, where my IP address has been mysteriously tagged as a spam source, and my ISP claimed to have no explanation.

Consider also the invasive screening process at airports. Everyone is treated as a potential terrorist, until they pass the invasive screening process. Similarly, every message anyone tries to send will be treated as a ‘potential cyber threat’, until it passes an invasive ‘threat filter’. Google is already deploying such a filter, and calling it a spam filter. Currently, with manual intervention, you can rescue a message from the filter. The CSA’s filter will simply delete your message, end of story, before it even gets to your ISP.

Air travel and the Internet have been the ‘great global connectors’, of people and of ideas. The thrust of ‘security’ measures has had little to do with terrorism, and everything to do with making ‘connection’ more and more difficult. Same story when you try to cross a border in your car.

WikiLeaks is indeed the 9/11 of the Internet. The leaks themselves are an inside job, just like the Twin Towers, with the leaks carefully selected to avoid anything really damaging, or anything embarrassing to Israel. And just as they didn’t scramble the interceptors, they didn’t close down the WikiLeaks site. They let both events play out, down on Highway 61, and then they splashed them all over the media. Such things are always done for a purpose.

Richard K. Moore can be contacted at rkm@quaylargo.com

December 17, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Deception, Full Spectrum Dominance, Timeless or most popular | Leave a comment

Been to Israel/Palestine lately? The FBI may come knocking on your door.

By Cecilie Surasky | MuzzleWatch | December 15 2010

By the time she was in high school, Sarah Smith had already been named one of the 100 most influential women in Chicago by Chicago’s business magazine, Crain’s. Now Smith, who happens to be Jewish, has been subpoenaed by the FBI to appear before a grand jury on January 25 to explain her trip to Israel-Palestine with two Palestinian women friends. (As terrifying as this whole episode is for everyone involved, it says something about Palestinian safety that only Smith has come forward publicly.) All three young Chicago residents have been subpoenaed, joining ranks with 14 other peace activists from the Midwest who have been similarly targeted in recent months.

Here is Sarah Smith’s full statement from a December 6 press conference:

Friday morning, December 3, I received a phone call from an FBI agent. He asked if I had about 30 minutes to sit down and speak with him so he could ask me some questions. I asked about what and he said he “was not at liberty to discuss it.” I then asked if I needed a lawyer present and he said it was up to me but that I was not in any trouble and that they just had a few questions.

I felt something suspicious about him telling me he wanted to ask me some questions, but he would not tell me what these questions were. So I said that I had to consult a lawyer and check my schedule and that I would get back to him. I reiterated that it would be easier for me to meet him if I knew why an FBI agent wanted to sit down with me. He then said that it had to deal with the trip I took this summer. He then emphasized, “I think you know which one I’m talking about.”

The trip I took last summer was to Israel and Palestine. I am Jewish and wanted to see first hand what life is like for Israelis and Palestinians. If I went on the standard tour to Israel, I would not be shown how Palestinians live. So I went on a tour that showed me both worlds, Israel, and the Israeli occupied Palestinian West Bank. I went with 2 Palestinian-American friends. You would think Jews and Palestinians going together to visit Israel and Palestine is something the U.S. government would encourage.

Instead, we are now being ordered by the FBI to go before a Grand Jury for going on that trip. The US government says it supports peace between Israel and Palestine. It says it supports separate Israeli and Palestinian states.

So why does the FBI investigate us because we went to see the Palestinian land? Top US government leaders meet with Palestinian leaders, so why does the FBI investigate us because we talked to average Palestinians on the street?

I went there so I could make up my own mind and talk about what I saw. It seems to me our government wants to hide what Israel is doing to Palestinians. I would like to thank the Committee Against Political Repression for standing up for me and my friends. You can learn about case at stopFBI.net, and please make a donation there. Or you can make a donation for our legal expenses: to NLG Foundation, memo line: FBI raids and mail it to Sarah Smith, 2961 S. Bonaparte, Chicago, IL 60608

Smith’s father, Stan Smith,  added “I think Patrick Fitzgerald, the US District Attorney, Robert Parker of the FBI need to see my daughter and her friends and apologize to them. And I think President Obama, who was elected in 2008 because he said he would stop this sort of thing, should make a point on his next trip to Chicago to personally apologize to my daughter and her friends for how his government is intimidating them.”

Meanwhile, there are actions across the country to protest this crackdown on peace activists (sign the petition here). Firedoglake’s Kevin Gosztola has this report:

The hunting down of activists began on September 24th when the FBI raided homes and offices of activists from Minneapolis and Chicago. Computers, phones, documents and other personal items were seized and the FBI officially subpoenaed 14 activists to appear before a Grand Jury. The FBI began to contact members of the “peace community” and ask them what they knew about the subpoenaed activists’ “material support for terrorism.”

The attorneys representing the activists have noted “the current definition of “material support’ can cover just about anything, like providing humanitarian aid that ends up in the hands of a group tagged as ‘terrorist’ by the US government, or posting a link to an informational website. The implications of this law, as it is being used, are troubling to anyone who does community organizing, or anyone who does journalistic reporting or academic research on wars, conflicts or controversial movements.”

Months later, the activists in Minneapolis and Chicago have not been charged with a crime, but they continue to face possible jail time if they refuse to go before a Grand Jury and participate in this “witch hunt.” They have yet to have their belongings, which were seized by the FBI, returned.

Democracy anyone?

December 16, 2010 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Solidarity and Activism, Timeless or most popular, Wars for Israel | Leave a comment

Yugoslavia: How Holbrooke Lied His Way into a War

By Sam Husseini | Global Research | December 9, 2008

This article was originally published while Richard Holbrooke was being considered for the position he held in the Obama administration.

Shortly before the bombing of Yugoslavia began in late March 1999, Richard Holbrooke met with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. By his own account, Holbrooke delivered the final ultimatum to Milosevic — that if Yugoslavia didn’t agree to the Rambouillet text, NATO would begin bombing.

The Rambouillet text called for a de facto occupation of Yugoslavia. On major U.S. media, after the bombing of Yugoslavia began, Holbrooke claimed that what was called for in the Rambouillet text, despite Serbian protests, “isn’t an occupation”. Several weeks later, when confronted by a journalist familiar with the Rambouillet text, Holbrooke claimed: “I never said that”. This was a lie, it was also a tacit admission that the Rambouillet text did call for an occupation (why else would Holbrooke deny saying it when he had?) So the U.S. demanded that Yugoslavia submit to occupation or be bombed — and Holbrooke lied about this crucial fact when questioned about the cause of the war.

Here are the specifics:The Rambouillet text of Feb. 23, 1999, a month before NATO began bombing, contained provisions that provided for NATO to basically occupy the entire Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), not just Kosovo. Excerpts from Appendix (B) (I attempted to draw attention to this at the time when I became aware of it.):

7. NATO personnel shall be immune from any form of arrest, investigation, or detention by the authorities in the FRY.

8. NATO personnel shall enjoy… free and unrestricted passage and unimpeded access throughout the FRY including associated airspace and territorial waters.

11. NATO is granted the use of airports, roads, rails and ports without payment…

15. [NATO shall have] the right to use all of the electromagnetic spectrum…

On April 6, 1999, about two weeks after the bombing began, Holbrooke appeared on the Charlie Rose show and was asked about what started the war. (Video is here, approximate times in the interview are provided):

[3:45] “The 81 pages of the Rambouillet agreement, which the Serbs rejected, contain all the elements of a really solid interim solution. … Although Rambouillet itself was rejected, the principles embodied in the Rambouillet agreement make a hell of a lot of sense. …”

[13:00] “The [Yugoslavian government] decision was to trigger the bombing of their own country instead of accepting this very reasonable political offer.” …

[14:00] Asked how to explain the actions of the Serbs, Holbrooke claims the Serbs said: “The choice you’ve given us is to have our sacred soil violated by an invading force. I said this isn’t an invasion, it isn’t an occupation, it’s an international peacekeeping force that will save the Serb minority in Kosovo. …”

[15:00] “We walked the last mile for peace.”

[17:00] “The bombing must continue and must intensify until the Yugoslav leadership realizes they have to change their positions.”

On April 23, 1999, journalist Jeremy Scahill of Democracy Now questioned Richard Holbrooke as he was leaving the Overseas Press Club’s 60th anniversary dinner:

Holbrooke: “One question.”

Jeremy Scahill: “You’ve said, since you gave the ultimatum to President Milosevic, that the Rambouillet accords do not call for the occupation of Yugoslavia. In –”

Holbrooke: “I never said that. That’s the end of that. You got the wrong person and the wrong quote. That’s your question.”

Scahill: “Do the Rambouillet accords … Are the the Rambouillet accords a call for the occupation of Yugoslavia — how do you reconcile that with Appendix B?”

Holbrooke: “I was not at Rambouillet. You’ll have to address it to the people –”

Scahill: “You delivered the ultimatum, you’re familiar with with the text –”

Holbrooke: “I did not discuss that detail with him. That’s your question.”

Scahill: “You haven’t answered the question though.”

Holbrooke: “I have answered the question. Good night.” (See the April 23, 1999 Democracy Now, especially beginning at 29:00.)

It’s tempting for many to think that the current Bush administration and the 2003 invasion of Iraq are totally unique. They’re not, the methods of the U.S. government lying its way into a war are long standing and many of the culprits are still very much part of the political structure.

December 16, 2010 Posted by | Militarism, Progressive Hypocrite, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | Leave a comment

Tears of Gaza

whereisthejustice1 | July 27, 2011

Scandinavian documentary about Gaza available for showing in US:

From the website:

FILM SUMMARY

In a rough style, by way of unique footage, the brutal consequences of modern wars are exposed. The film also depicts the ability of women and children to handle their everyday life after a dramatic war experience. Many of them live in tents or in ruins without walls or roofs. They are all in need of money, food, water and electricity. Others have lost family members, or are left with seriously injured children. Can war solve conflicts or create peace? The film follows three children through the war and the period after the ceasefire.

OFFICIAL DESCRIPTION

Disturbing, powerful and emotionally devastating, Tears of Gaza is less a conventional documentary than a record – presented with minimal gloss – of the 2008 to 2009 bombing of Gaza by the Israeli military. Photographed by several Palestinian cameramen both during and after the offensive, this powerful film by director Vibeke Løkkeberg focuses on the impact of the attacks on the civilian population.

The film shuttles between the actual bombings and the aftermath on the streets and in the hospitals. The footage of the bombs landing is indelible and horrifying, but it is on par with much of the explicit imagery on hand. White phosphorous bombs rain over families and children, leaving bodies too charred to be identified. The footage here is extremely graphic and includes children’s bodies being pulled from ruins. Recounting the horrors she has witnessed, one young girl collapses and sinks out of the frame.

Years of economic embargo have left the area deprived of resources and have strained an already impoverished infrastructure. The wounded are carried to hospital for lack of ambulances, and an absence of fire trucks leaves home owners to put out fires on their own. What’s immediately apparent is that decades of military activity have made the population angry, nihilistic and vengeful. As one young boy says, “Even if they give us the world, we will not forget.” Løkkeberg contrasts these scenes with footage of bachelor parties, weddings and visits to the beach – social activities that epitomize daily life in Gaza during more peaceful times.

Tears of Gaza makes no overriding speeches or analyses. The situation leading up to the incursion is never mentioned. While this strategy may antagonize some, it’s a useful method for highlighting the effects of the violence on the civilian population. Similar events certainly occurred in Dresden, Tokyo, Baghdad and Sarajevo, but of course Gaza isn’t those places. Tears of Gaza demands that we examine the costs of war on a civilian populace. The result is horrifying, gut-wrenching and unforgettable.

More:

In a rough style, by way of unique footage, the brutal consequences of modern wars are exposed. The film also depicts the ability of women and children to handle their everyday life after a dramatic war experience. Many of them live in tents or in ruins without walls or roofs. They are all in need of money, food, water and electricity. Others have lost family members, or are left with seriously injured children. Can war solve conflicts or create peace? The film follows three children through the war and the period after the ceasefire.

http://www.nfi.no/english/norwegianfi…

The director, Vibeke Løkkeberg, about the film

Witnessing the maiming and killing of children in a war, without being able to do anything about it, is a great challenge.
 The short glimpses of children’s faces displayed on my TV set, after they had lived through the war, was my motivation for making Tears of Gaza. A protest against all wars grew inside me. Wars are senseless, destructive, unworthy of mankind. Wars are never a solution to bilateral problems in the long run.
In my films, I have always been concerned with the fate of the victims.
 In the Gaza-Israel conflict, there are presumably two victimized parties.
A responsibility which both the USA and Europe will have to shoulder.
 My hope is that this film will arouse the same feelings of protest among the audiences, and that it will bring inspiration to continue the seemingly endless struggle against poverty, suffering and war.
 In the film, I quote a father who sits with his phosphorous injured child: 
”What God do these people believe in, who can do this against children? And how can I gather the strength to forgive?”
This film has been a year in the making, and it’s a pleasure to let its world premiere take place in Toronto.
I started my career as a documentary filmmaker. From the 1970’s on, I made feature films.
In this film, I have chosen to make use of the implements of fiction, and the cinema theatre as venue. In contrast to TV, the cinema theatre provides the opportunity of absorption.
 My hope is that this emotional approach will spur protest, and the desire to contribute to making a better world.
There are major obstructions inherent in the presentation. The cinema theatres constitute a fantastic arena for communication which to a great extent has been taken over by the entertainment industry. – Vibeke Løkkeberg

Vibeke Løkkeberg (b. 1945) has become one of Norway’s most well-known personalities and leading feminist artists; as actor, director, screenwriter and author. She has directed five features and written five novels. She has starred in her own films as well as films by Pål Løkkeberg.

http://tabibqulob.blogspot.com/2010/1…

http://www.facebook.com/GazasTarer?v=…

December 14, 2010 Posted by | Subjugation - Torture, Timeless or most popular, Video, War Crimes | Leave a comment

Sex, Lies, Iran, Israel and WikiLeaks

alawson911 | December 12, 2010

WikiLeaks has given the mainstream media yet another opportunity to vilify Iran. A typical headline, from the New York Times was: “Around the world distress over Iran.” And, ironically, it is true, but not in the way the headline writer meant. Around the world there is distress over Iran, distress at the way it is being cast in the role of the Evil Doer, when all but the most ignorant observers realise that it is nuclear-armed Apartheid Israel that is the real threat to world peace, not Iran.

With thanks to: 7hevo1d for the amazing graphics
Debbie Menon: http://mycatbirdseat.com/
James Linton: http://crimesofzion.blogspot.com/
for their research contributions

December 13, 2010 Posted by | Deception, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Timeless or most popular, Video, Wars for Israel | Leave a comment

Palestine solidarity activist describes FBI raid on her apartment

MiloWolf | December 10, 2010

Tracy Molm, a Minneapolis-based Palestine solidarity activist, describes what happened during the recent FBI raid on her apartment in September, its aftermath, and her solidarity work for Palestinians. Her subpoena has now been reactivated by the grand jury in this assault on First Amendment rights of peace activists. Her presentation was made at the Dec. 4, 2010 People’s Thanksgiving Dinner in Chicago. For more information on the solidarity campaign: http://www.stopfbi.net.

December 11, 2010 Posted by | Solidarity and Activism, Timeless or most popular, Video, Wars for Israel | Leave a comment

Video: Israel’s unwanted citizens

Al-Jazeera | December 10, 2010

Palestinian citizens of Israel are complaining about a string of policies, which they say are designed to drive them out of Israel.

First, a bill requiring them to pledge allegiance to a Jewish state was passed by the Israeli cabinet.

Now the Knesset is debating whether to stop Arab Israelis from living in cities where there’s a Jewish majority.

So who are Palestinian-Israelis and how did they become citizens of a state that doesn’t want them?

Al Jazeera’s Sherine Tadros reports.

December 11, 2010 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular, Video | Leave a comment

Selling the wars

RTAmerica | December 07, 2010

The Pentagon budgets half a billion dollars to market its wars in the US. Call it public relations or call it propaganda, it’s meant to win the hearts and minds of Americans.

December 9, 2010 Posted by | Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Timeless or most popular, Video | Leave a comment

Video – The Chilcot Inquiry: Britain’s 9/11 Commission

argonium79 | November 30, 2010

All too often, official inquiries are conducted by the very people who should themselves be under investigation. In this respect, Britain’s Chilcot Inquiry on the Iraq war bears a distressing similarity to the 9/11 Commission. In a remarkable symmetry, both … continue

December 8, 2010 Posted by | False Flag Terrorism, Timeless or most popular, Video, Wars for Israel | Leave a comment

“GOD-TV” evangelical Christian channel funds Israeli ethnic cleansing

By  Neve Gordon | Redress | 4 December 2010

Despite the fact that it was the seventh demolition since last July, this time the destruction of the Bedouin village of Al-Arakib in the  Israeli Negev was different. The difference is not because the homeless residents had to deal this time with the harsh desert winter; nor in the fact that the bulldozers began razing the homes just minutes before the 40 children left for school, thus engraving another violent scene in their memory. Rather, the demolition was different because this time Christian evangelists from the United States and England were involved.

I know this for a fact because right next to the demolished homes, the Jewish National Fund (JNF) put up a big sign that reads: “GOD-TV FOREST, a generous donation by God-TV made 1,000,000 tree saplings available to be planted in the land of Israel and also provided for the creation of water projects throughout the Negev.” GOD-TV justifies this contribution by citing the book of Isaiah: “I will turn the desert into pools of water and the parched ground into springs.”

The JNF’s objective, however, is not altruistic, but rather to plant a pine or eucalyptus forest on the desert land so that the Bedouins cannot return to their ancestral homes. The practice of planting forests in an attempt to Judaize more territory is by no means new. Right after Israel’s establishment in 1948, the JNF planted millions of trees to cover up the remains of Palestinian villages that had been destroyed during or after the war. The objective was to help ensure that the 750,000 Palestinian residents who either fled or were expelled during the war would never return to their villages and to suppress the fact that they had been the rightful owners of the land before the State of Israel was created. Scores of Palestinian villages disappeared from the landscape in this way, and the grounds were converted into picnic parks, thus helping engender a national amnesia regarding the Palestinian  Nakba.

For several years, I thought this practice had been discontinued, but thanks to the JNF’s new bedfellows and the generous donation of  Rory and Wendy Alec, who established the international evangelical television channel GOD-TV, within the next few months a million saplings will be planted on land belonging to uprooted Bedouins.

God-TV can afford such lavish gifts, since it boasts a viewership of nearly half a billion people, with 20 million in the United States and 14 million in Britain. The television channel regularly features evangelical leaders such as Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland and John Hagee, at least some of whom espouse  Christian Dispensationalism and believe that all Jews must convert to Christianity before the “Second Coming”.

The viewers are asked to open their wallets in order to “sow a seed for God”. In this case, the donations seem to have actually been allocated toward sowing seeds, but these seeds are ones of hate and strife. They are antithetical to Isaiah’s prophecy about the people beating their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Indeed, if Isaiah were alive today, he would probably be among the first to lie in front of the bulldozers in an effort to stop the destruction of the Bedouin homes.

December 4, 2010 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular | Leave a comment