SIRATYST (Stuff I Read and Thought You Should Too) -- “To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace.” (Calgacus, as quoted by Tacitus, Agricola 30-31)"
Tuesday, August 05, 2014
Activists Have Shut Down An Israeli Arms Factory Near Birmingham, UK!
Tweet
Activists have shut down an Israeli arms factory near Birmingham, UK. Doors have been chained shut and roof occupied. pic.twitter.com/njDt5yroUu
Sunday, August 03, 2014
Saturday, August 02, 2014
Seattle Out Again Today for #FreePalestine and End to #GazaUnderAttack
Tweet
 |
| Nannicke from Bellingham, Native American supporter of Palestine and Gaza. |
 | |
|
 |
| WA State House Candidate Jess Spear At Gaza Rally. @VoteSpear August 5! |
Friday, August 01, 2014
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Aug. 2 National March On The White House: Stop The Massacre In Gaza!
Tweet
http://popularresistance.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413&id=45af29d6bd&e=e3b748c43b
Saturday, Aug. 2, 1:00pm
Gather at the White House
Washington, D.C.
Transportation is being organized from all over the country (see the transportation center section for downloadable flyers and posters)
Gather at the White House
Washington, D.C.
Transportation is being organized from all over the country (see the transportation center section for downloadable flyers and posters)
On July 16, Israeli Defense Forces deliberately targeted a group of children playing soccer on a Gaza beach, killing four from the same family and maiming the others—another war crime committed against the Palestinian people.
Join thousands of people in a National March on the White House on Saturday, August 2 at 1:00pm to condemn the Israeli massacre in Gaza.
We have been in the streets every day in cities around the country. What is needed now is a massive National March on Washington.
Israel receives $4 billion in “aid” from the United States each year. This money is being used to commit war crimes against the Palestinian people in Gaza. We are demanding that all U.S aid to Israel be ended now!
More than 200 people in Gaza have been killed and more than 1,500 have been wounded from Israeli bombs and missiles. This has to end!
Join us to demand:
- Stop the massacre in Gaza! End the blockade of Gaza!
- End all U.S. aid to Israel!
- End the colonial occupation!
Sunday, July 27, 2014
Saturday, July 26, 2014
Friday, July 25, 2014
Thursday, July 24, 2014
"A Legal and Moral Case for Hamas Rocket Fire" Jonathan Cook (reblog from Cooks blog)
Tweet
http://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2014-07-24/a-legal-and-moral-case-for-hamas-rocket-fire/
(see original at link above)
(see original at link above)
Two leading intellectuals make separate and eloquent cases that the people of Gaza have the right to resist by any means – including by firing rockets – Israel’s efforts to slowly extinguish their right to self-determination, and possibly to life itself. They argue that the Palestinians have this right most certainly at a moral level, but also almost certainly at the level of international law.
I recommend reading each article in its entirety but, knowing the constraints on readers’ time and attention, I have extracted the most salient points they make.
Norman Finkelstein:
It is not altogether clear what constitutes an indiscriminate weapon [a reference to Human Rights Watch's judgment that all Palestinian rockets from Gaza are war crimes by definition because they are not "precise"]. The apparent standard is a relative one set by the available technology: If an existing weapon has a high probability of hitting its target, then any weapons with a significantly lower probability are classified as indiscriminate. But, by this standard, only rich countries, or countries rich enough to purchase high-tech weapons, have a right to defend themselves against high-tech aerial assaults. It is a curious law that would negate the raison d’être of law: the substitution of might by right. …
The United States and Britain, among others, have staunchly defended the right of a state to use nuclear weapons by way of belligerent reprisal. By this standard, the people of Gaza surely have the right to use makeshift projectiles to end an illegal, merciless seven-year-long Israeli blockade or to end Israel’s criminal bombardment of Gaza’s civilian population. Indeed, in its landmark 1996 advisory opinion on the legality of nuclear weapons, the [International Court of Justice] ruled that international law is not settled on the right of a state to use nuclear weapons when its “survival” is at stake. But, if a state might have the right to use nuclear weapons when its survival is at stake, then surely a people struggling for self-determination has the right to use makeshift projectiles when it has been subjected to slow death by a protracted blockade and recurrent massacres. …
Fully 95 percent of the water in Gaza is unfit for human consumption. By all accounts, the Palestinian people now stand behind those engaging in belligerent reprisals against Israel. In the Gaza Strip, they prefer to die resisting than to continue living under an inhuman blockade. Their resistance is mostly notional, as makeshift projectiles cause little damage. So, the ultimate question is, Do Palestinians have the right to symbolically resist slow death punctuated by periodic massacres, or must they lie down and die?
Chris Hedges:
If Israel insists, as the Bosnian Serbs did in Sarajevo, on using the weapons of industrial warfare against a helpless civilian population then that population has an inherent right to self-defense under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. The international community will have to either act to immediately halt Israeli attacks and lift the blockade of Gaza or acknowledge the right of the Palestinians to use weapons to defend themselves. …
Violence, even when employed in self-defense, is a curse. It empowers the ruthless and punishes the innocent. It leaves in its aftermath horrific emotional and physical scars. But, as I learned in Sarajevo during the 1990s Bosnian War, when forces bent on your annihilation attack you relentlessly, and when no one comes to your aid, you must aid yourself. When Sarajevo was being hit with 2,000 shells a day and under heavy sniper fire in the summer of 1995 no one among the suffering Bosnians spoke to me about wanting to mount nonviolent resistance. …
The number of dead in Gaza resulting from the Israeli assault has topped 650, and about 80 percent have been civilians. The number of wounded Palestinians is over 4,000 and a substantial fraction of these victims are children. At what point do the numbers of dead and wounded justify self-defense? 5,000? 10,000? 20,000? At what point do Palestinians have the elemental right to protect their families and their homes? …
The Palestinians will reject, as long as possible, any cease-fire that does not include a lifting of the Israeli blockade of Gaza. They have lost hope that foreign governments will save them. They know their fate rests in their own hands. The revolt in Gaza is an act of solidarity with the world outside its walls. It is an attempt to assert in the face of overwhelming odds and barbaric conditions the humanity and agency of the Palestinian people. There is little in life that Palestinians can choose, but they can choose how to die.
Tagged as: Israel war crimes
- See more at: http://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2014-07-24/a-legal-and-moral-case-for-hamas-rocket-fire/#sthash.tRBqpsVY.dpuf
Sunday, July 20, 2014
Seattle Confronts People Who Support Bombing Babies with F16s -- @Voices4Pals
Tweet
 |
| People in Seattle who favor bombing little babies with F-16s. |
 |
| Some of the people in Seattle who object to the above. |
 |
| We win because Palestine Lives and resists, which means we all have a chance against this wretched capitalist system! Viva Palestine! |
Saturday, July 19, 2014
Seattle Says Put an End to Israel's Putting #GazaUnderAttack
Tweet
 |
| In Seattle, 500 hundred people voiced their anger over the complicity of the U.S. government in the funding of Israel's massacre of the people in Gaza, 80% of whom are civilians and many of whom are children. |
Saturday, July 12, 2014
Friday, July 11, 2014
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Demonstration for #GazaUnderAttack and #FreePalestine -- Seattle, 4th & Pine, Saturday, July 12, 12-2pm
Tweet
Please join us this Saturday to demand an END to the ISRAELI GENOCIDE in Gaza. The Israeli Terrorist Government and its Army have killed at least 53 Palestinians, including many children and women, and wounded more than 450 innocent civilians.
We can’t be silent while the people of Palestine are being massacred by ISRAEL with the blessing and support of President Obama and our Congress. Our politicians who are owned by the Israeli lobby (AIPAC) should be held accountable for supporting ISRAELI WAR CRIMES!
Come join us to demand an END to the ISRAELI AGGRESSION ON GAZA!
When: Saturday July 12, noon till 2:00pm
Where: Downtown Seattle- Westlake park on 4th & Pine
Thank you for your support!
Amin Odeh
Voices for Palestine
Tuesday, July 08, 2014
Saturday, July 05, 2014
Thursday, July 03, 2014
Palestine Lives
Tweet
for more pictures from The Month in Pictures from Electronic Intifada: http://electronicintifada.net/content/month-pictures-june-2014/13519
A
Palestinian
protester waves his national flag during clashes with Israeli forces following a weekly protest against the expropriation of Palestinian land in the West Bank village of Kufr Qaddum, near Nablus, 13 June.
Nedal Eshtayah / APA images)for more pictures from The Month in Pictures from Electronic Intifada: http://electronicintifada.net/content/month-pictures-june-2014/13519
Protest this Saturday to demand an end to Israeli War Crimes in the West Bank and Gaza -- 4th & Pine, Seattle
Tweet
Join us this Saturday to demand an end to Israeli War Crimes in the West Bank and Gaza.
Where: Westlake, 4th & Pine
When: Saturday July 5, noon-2pm
Our people in Palestine urgently need your support as they are facing the killing machines of the Israeli Occupation.
Thanks for your support and hope to see you all at Westlake this Saturday!
Amin
Wednesday, July 02, 2014
Monday, June 30, 2014
Friday, June 27, 2014
Friday, June 20, 2014
Presbyterians Vote to Divest Holdings to Pressure Israel -- NYTimes (I bet they hated writing this!)
Tweet
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/21/us/presbyterians-debating-israeli-occupation-vote-to-divest-holdings.html?_r=0
EXCERPT:
EXCERPT:
DETROIT — After passionate debate over how best to help break the deadlock between Israel and the Palestinians, thePresbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted on Friday at its general convention to divest from three companies that it says supply Israel with equipment used in the occupation of Palestinian territory.
The vote, by a count of 310 to 303, was watched closely in Washington and Jerusalem and by Palestinians as a sign of momentum for a movement to pressure Israel to stop building settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and end the occupation, with a campaign known as B.D.S., for Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) — one of a handful of historic mainline Protestant denominations and the church of many American presidents — is the largest yet to endorse divestment at a churchwide convention, and the vote follows a decade of debate — and a close call at the assembly two years ago, when divestment failed by only two votes.
Thursday, June 19, 2014
PALESTINE DREAMS OF A CHILD -- #churchdivest #bringbackourboys #bringbackourgirls
Tweet
http://youtu.be/gW378WuFQJI
Very sad; request at end is to do something so forward to folks who might be on the fence.
http://youtu.be/gW378WuFQJI
Very sad; request at end is to do something so forward to folks who might be on the fence.
Saturday, June 14, 2014
"The Fog Machine of War" -- Chelsea Manning in NYTimes
Tweet
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/06/15/opinion/sunday/chelsea-manning-the-us-militarys-campaign-against-media-freedom.html?referrer=
FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. — WHEN I chose to disclose classified information in 2010, I did so out of a love for my country and a sense of duty to others. I’m now serving a sentence of 35 years in prison for these unauthorized disclosures. I understand that my actions violated the law.
However, the concerns that motivated me have not been resolved. As Iraqerupts in civil war and America again contemplates intervention, that unfinished business should give new urgency to the question of how the United States military controlled the media coverage of its long involvement there and in Afghanistan. I believe that the current limits on press freedom and excessive government secrecy make it impossible for Americans to grasp fully what is happening in the wars we finance.
If you were following the news during the March 2010 elections in Iraq, you might remember that the American press was flooded with stories declaring the elections a success, complete with upbeat anecdotes and photographs of Iraqi women proudly displaying their ink-stained fingers. The subtext was that United States military operations had succeeded in creating a stable and democratic Iraq.
Those of us stationed there were acutely aware of a more complicated reality.
Military and diplomatic reports coming across my desk detailed a brutal crackdown against political dissidents by the Iraqi Ministry of Interior and federal police, on behalf of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. Detainees were often tortured, or even killed.
Early that year, I received orders to investigate 15 individuals whom the federal police had arrested on suspicion of printing “anti-Iraqi literature.” I learned that these individuals had absolutely no ties to terrorism; they were publishing a scholarly critique of Mr. Maliki’s administration. I forwarded this finding to the officer in command in eastern Baghdad. He responded that he didn’t need this information; instead, I should assist the federal police in locating more “anti-Iraqi” print shops.
I was shocked by our military’s complicity in the corruption of that election. Yet these deeply troubling details flew under the American media’s radar.
It was not the first (or the last) time I felt compelled to question the way we conducted our mission in Iraq. We intelligence analysts, and the officers to whom we reported, had access to a comprehensive overview of the war that few others had. How could top-level decision makers say that the American public, or even Congress, supported the conflict when they didn’t have half the story?
Among the many daily reports I received via email while working in Iraq in 2009 and 2010 was an internal public affairs briefing that listed recently published news articles about the American mission in Iraq. One of my regular tasks was to provide, for the public affairs summary read by the command in eastern Baghdad, a single-sentence description of each issue covered, complementing our analysis with local intelligence.
The more I made these daily comparisons between the news back in the States and the military and diplomatic reports available to me as an analyst, the more aware I became of the disparity. In contrast to the solid, nuanced briefings we created on the ground, the news available to the public was flooded with foggy speculation and simplifications.
One clue to this disjunction lay in the public affairs reports. Near the top of each briefing was the number of embedded journalists attached to American military units in a combat zone. Throughout my deployment, I never saw that tally go above 12. In other words, in all of Iraq, which contained 31 million people and 117,000 United States troops, no more than a dozen American journalists were covering military operations.
The process of limiting press access to a conflict begins when a reporter applies for embed status. All reporters are carefully vetted by military public affairs officials. This system is far from unbiased. Unsurprisingly, reporters who have established relationships with the military are more likely to be granted access.
Less well known is that journalists whom military contractors rate as likely to produce “favorable” coverage, based on their past reporting, also get preference. This outsourced “favorability” rating assigned to each applicant is used to screen out those judged likely to produce critical coverage.
Reporters who succeeded in obtaining embed status in Iraq were then required to sign a media “ground rules” agreement. Army public affairs officials said this was to protect operational security, but it also allowed them to terminate a reporter’s embed without appeal.
There have been numerous cases of reporters’ having their access terminated following controversial reporting. In 2010, the late Rolling Stone reporter Michael Hastings had his access pulled after reporting criticism of the Obama administration by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal and his staff in Afghanistan. A Pentagon spokesman said, “Embeds are a privilege, not a right.”
If a reporter’s embed status is terminated, typically she or he is blacklisted. This program of limiting press access was challenged in court in 2013 by a freelance reporter, Wayne Anderson, who claimed to have followed his agreement but to have been terminated after publishing adverse reports about the conflict in Afghanistan. The ruling on his case upheld the military’s position that there was no constitutionally protected right to be an embedded journalist.
The embedded reporter program, which continues in Afghanistan and wherever the United States sends troops, is deeply informed by the military’s experience of how media coverage shifted public opinion during the Vietnam War. The gatekeepers in public affairs have too much power: Reporters naturally fear having their access terminated, so they tend to avoid controversial reporting that could raise red flags.
The existing program forces journalists to compete against one another for “special access” to vital matters of foreign and domestic policy. Too often, this creates reporting that flatters senior decision makers. A result is that the American public’s access to the facts is gutted, which leaves them with no way to evaluate the conduct of American officials.
Journalists have an important role to play in calling for reforms to the embedding system. The favorability of a journalist’s previous reporting should not be a factor. Transparency, guaranteed by a body not under the control of public affairs officials, should govern the credentialing process. An independent board made up of military staff members, veterans, Pentagon civilians and journalists could balance the public’s need for information with the military’s need for operational security.
Reporters should have timely access to information. The military could do far more to enable the rapid declassification of information that does not jeopardize military missions. The military’s Significant Activity Reports, for example, provide quick overviews of events like attacks and casualties. Often classified by default, these could help journalists report the facts accurately.
Opinion polls indicate that Americans’ confidence in their elected representatives is at a record low. Improving media access to this crucial aspect of our national life — where America has committed the men and women of its armed services — would be a powerful step toward re-establishing trust between voters and officials.
Sunday, June 08, 2014
Wednesday, June 04, 2014
Tuesday, June 03, 2014
Seattle Workers, Community Activists, and Kshama Sawant, Combine to Get $15 Minimum Wage!
Tweet
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-seattle-minimum-wage-20140602-story.html
Seattle City Council Member Kshama Sawant, right, looks on as Stephanie Sucasaca holds up a fist as Sawant had just done while interpreting Sawant's remarks into Spanish on May Day. (Elaine Thompson / Associated Press)
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-seattle-minimum-wage-20140602-story.html
EXCERPT:
“Seattle is setting the stage for future movements,” Sawant said. “Seattle will be the place with the highest minimum wage in the country. But how will we expect workers in other cities to fight big business if we don't set the right tone?
“It is true that we will not win everything,” she said as her amendments went down to defeat. “But people's movements today are not being defeated by business. They are being defeated by the elected leadership of this city.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)