"Civil action Filed in US Against Former Israeli PM Barak over Gaza Flotilla Death"

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IT SHOULD BE A CRIMINAL COURT, BUT AT LEAST THERE WILL BE SOME KIND OF ACCOUNTABILITY FOR FURKAN!  LINDA

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/civil-action-filed-us-against-former-israeli-pm-barak-over-gaza-flotilla-1843731484#block-disqus-disqus-comments

Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak is being sued in a US federal court for his involvement in the Israeli army's raid on the Gaza flotilla in 2010, a team of lawyers announced on Wednesday.

The lawsuit is being brought by the family of Furkan Dogan, a 19-year-old American citizen, who was on board the flotilla filming when he was shot five times, including once at point blank range in the head, the lawyers said.

The complaint accuses Barak of "international terrorism".

"This is a case brought by the parents Furkon Dagan," Dan Stormer, one the lawyers representing the Dogan family, told reporters in a news conference on Wednesday evening.

Stormer added that case will be brought under a host of different US laws, including Alien Tort Claims Act, the Torture Victims Protection Act, and the Anti-Terrorism Act.

On 31 May 2010, Israeli security forces raided the flotilla in international waters. According to lawyers representing the Dogan family, these soldiers were led and commanded by Ehud Barak, the minister of defence at the time. The attack killed 10 activists on the Mavi Mamara, one of the flotilla's ships.

The lawyers also stressed that the soldiers took command of the floatilla and towed every ship to the port of Israel, where they arrested the activists for illegally being in an Israeli port. The lawyers added that activists were tortured during that time.

"They left people in stress positions for as long as 12 hours, they prevented them from having access to family members. They prevented them from having toilet facilities, they beat them they tortured them, they gave them no medical treatment, and they treated them in a way that can only be described as torture," said Stormer.

Unprecedented lawsuit

Barak was giving a speech in southern California on Tuesday night when he was served with legal papers, according to a press release from the lawyers involved in the case.

This marks the first time in which an Israeli and former prime minister has been sued in the US.

Rodney Dixon, another lawyer representing the Dogan family, said: "We have for a number of years since the attack in 2010 been pursuing every possible legal avenue to obtain justice for the victims on the floatilla. We have gone to the International Criminal Court in the Hague, the ICC, and we have gone to several national jurisdictions to seek to launch criminal proceedings."

"Our legal work has been based on the long line of international precedents based on Nuremburg and Tokyo and recently Ugoslavia and Rwanda tribunals, which have all consistently held military and political leaders are not beyond the law. They can be held accountable for their actions. They are not entitled to indiscriminately target civilians as occurred that night on the flotilla," he added.

However, this suit does not necessarily mean Barak will be arrested. If he is charged guilty in court, he will most likely have to pay some sort of compensation, said Haydee Dijkscal, an American lawyer who works at the Hague and is part of the international team representing the Dogan family.

"There is not a long history of these types of cases. I can’t imagine that this will be anything less than tens of millions. It will be a massive reward," added Stormer.

Barak knew floatilla was solely humanitarian

As part of the flotilla, more than 700 human rights activists travelled on six ships in an attempt to bring humanitarian supplies to Gaza. The complaint argues that Barak planned and commanded the attack and interception of the flotilla. 

"Barak is responsible and liable of the common plan, design and scheme unlawfully to attack the six vessels of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and the civilian passengers on board which constituted ascts of international terrorism and result in extrajudicial killings, torture and cruel inhuman and other degrading treatment in violation of customary international law," the complaint filed in a US Federal Court in Central California says. 

Stormer believes that Israel deliberately knew that the floatilla was a humanitarian effort prior to the attack.

"They had every reason to believe that there are unarmed civilians who were there solely for purposes of humanitarian aid. They had every reason to believe that there are approximately 700 unarmed people solely for humanitarian purposes. Did they know that this particular young man was there? Not only did they not know, they did not care who they shot. They did not care who they killed, they did not care who they tortured. They did it to everyone on that flotilla," he told MEE.

According to Hakan Camuz, a spokesperson for the Dogan family, the stuff confiscated by Israeli soldiers during was "all humanitarian aid, including toys for children as well as pharmaceutical materials".

 

Barak has admitted responsibility for the attack.

- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/civil-action-filed-us-against-former-israeli-pm-barak-over-gaza-flotilla-1843731484#block-disqus-disqus-comments

Long-time Friend of Stand Up Seattle Ivy Williams on Cover of Real Change Newsletter -- Ivy Is Fighting Against Slumlords

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I didn't happen to pick this one up so it was a surprise!  I met Ivy at the Demo mentioned in the article.  Slumlord Carl Haglund was greeted with outrage!

http://realchangenews.org/issue/october-14-2015

There are few such great fighters for the working class than Ivy!

She works with http://safeinseattle.org.

"Violence In Israel And The Palestinian Territories: It's The Occupation"--Seattle Vigil Against Occupation, Saturday, 10/17, Noon-2pm

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https://youtu.be/Z4th92-J32Q

VIGIL AGAINST ISRAEL'S OCCUPATION

Saturday, Noon-2pm

4th & Pine St. Seattle

VoicesforPalestine.org

H/T Mai Odeh

WHEN I SEE THEM I SEE US -- Black Palestinian Solidarity

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https://youtu.be/xsdpg-9cmSw

"America's Unofficial Religion — The War on an Idea" -- @AbbyMartin on The Empire Files

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https://youtu.be/VTr0Gom85wg

Obama, Bring Leonard Peltier Home! Seattle Demands Clemency for Leonard Peltier NOW! #FreeLeonardPeltier

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"Reproducing State Violence: Planned Parenthood, the Hyde Amendment and Indigenous Struggle" -- Kelly Hayes -- BRILLIANT!

Tweet Link to original (written by Kelly Hayes):  http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/33045-reproducing-state-violence-planned-parenthood-the-hyde-amendment-and-indigenous-struggle

Reproductive care has always been a complex topic for people of color in the United States. Since the beginnings of colonization - through the horrors of slavery and the forced sterilization efforts of the last century - our ability to control whether or not we bring life into the world and how we are allowed to interact with our offspring once they are born has been either challenged or completely wrenched from our grasp. It is not surprising that this set of varied experiences, tied together by a thread of oppression, would yield different responses by those affected. Some of us reject any effort to impose any further control of our bodies, and some view abortion as being inextricably connected to this country's long-term efforts to control the number of Black and Brown children born into it.

I know that some view all life - including the unborn - as sacred, and oppose abortion on such grounds. I am further aware that some fervently debate when life actually begins. So to simplify what I am trying to convey, I will plainly offer that, in my opinion, life does begin at conception, and that this does not alter my position on abortion in the least. I am pro-choice. I do not believe that all life is sacred, or that we live in a world in which such a principle is treated as fact in any instance outside of societal efforts to control what happens inside the bodies of those who are able to bear children.

As an Indigenous woman, I view any state control of my body as an act of colonial violence. I see restrictions on abortion access no differently than the forcible sterilization of Native women or the mass theft of our children. When the same force that has occupied our land and raped and ravaged our communities - the very force that has robbed us of our heritage and made a mockery of our culture - attempts to control any aspect of our bodies, that act is nothing short of state violence. It is the oppressive will of a power structure that would occupy both our land and our bodies.

Reproductive domination is the theft of Native agency, which has always been at the heart of our experiences as Native people living the grotesque realities that this society masks with its myth of US greatness. As Nicolle Gonzales, a Diné midwife and health-care advocate recently reminded us, the government's efforts to annihilate us through forced sterilization continued through the 1970s, when "the Indian Health Service oversaw the nonconsensual sterilization of approximately 40 percent of women of childbearing age."

This theft of Native reproductive agency is a culturally and historically embedded aspect of the colonial experience.

Last week, Pope Francis captivated much of the country with his visit to the United States. Like many liberals who are enthusiastic about topics like combating climate change, the pope established during his visit that he is unwilling to do anything more than pay lip service to Native struggle. His canonization of Junípero Serra was an insult to Native people everywhere, and proved that any claims the pontiff might make about regretting the crimes committed against Indigenous people are utterly hollow. It's important to note, however, that the Catholic Church's position on reproductive rights and care also reflect that same reality.

From the doctrine of discovery's influence of manifest destiny, to the Church's present support of legal measures that would control how and when women - especially Brown and Black women - bring life into the world, or choose not to, the hierarchy of the Catholic Church has been representative of oppression and social control grounded in supremacy. Acknowledging as much is not a condemnation of Catholics as individuals. It is merely a statement of fact conveyed by one whose people have been subject to that oppression and control, and its horrific consequences, ever since colonialism and Christianity reached our shores.

The fact is, the Catholic Church's relationship with Native peoples has both fed and mirrored that of the US government. Just as Serra's missions perpetuated the enslavement, torture, rape and murder of Native people, so too, has the power structure of this society.

And now, the issue is forced birth and access to reproductive health care. Both conservatives within this government and a pope celebrated by a liberal fandom the world over are demanding that those who can bear children - including those whose ability to do so has already been historically twisted, controlled and stolen - submit to the will of a hierarchy of white men who would decide what happens to our bodies.

This is colonial violence. It is domination. It is the suppression of our liberation. And it cannot be permitted.

If Native people who are able to bear children embrace faiths or ideologies that steer them away from abortion, that is their right - a right that should be protected by any means necessary. But the same is true for all aspects of reproductive choice. We must reclaim our bodies from the state. We must defend ourselves against the further infliction of colonial violence.

We must not allow any aspect of our humanity to be the province of this government.

Every Native life is a victory against colonialism, but so is every act that affirms our self-determination. We are freedom fighters, born in resistance, and this government continues to make battlefields of our bodies. We must repel their invasion. We must do this because the survival of our people is not enough. We must have the freedom to choose how we live and what we bring into this world.

As a Native woman, my liberation demands that the Hyde Amendment be abolished, and that efforts to defund Planned Parenthood be thwarted. Native people must be free to decide the course of our own destinies because our freedom will never be realized as long as the state-sanctioned control of our bodies is allowed to continue.

#Enough! Inviting You to See Afghans Differently. STOP THE BOMBING!

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https://youtu.be/OnO5ITUoBjY

Roger Waters to Jon Bon Jovi: “You stand shoulder to shoulder with the settler who burned the baby”

Tweet ORIGINAL:  http://www.salon.com/2015/10/02/roger_waters_to_jon_bon_jovi_you_stand_shoulder_to_shoulder_with_the_settler_who_burned_the_baby/

Letter to the pop group Bon Jovi:

Dear Jon Bon Jovi, David Bryan, and Tico Torres,

Often in the past I have written detailed, and sometimes even persuasive, letters to colleagues in the music business, encouraging them not to give succor to the Israeli government’s apartheid policies by performing in Israel. Having read Jon’s comments last week in Yedioth Ahronoth, I won’t waste my time drawing parallels with Apartheid South Africa and the moral stand that so many artists took then and that thousands are taking now in the face of decades of Israeli oppression of Palestinians.

So the die is cast, you are determined to proceed with your gig in Tel Aviv on October 3. You are making your stand.

You stand shoulder to shoulder

With the settler who burned the baby

With the bulldozer driver who crushed Rachel Corrie

With the soldier who shot the soccer player’s feet to bits

With the sailor who shelled the boys on the beach

With the sniper who killed the kid in the green shirt

And the one who emptied his clip into the 13-year-old girl

And the Minister of Justice who called for genocide 

You had a chance to stand

On the side of justice

With the pilot who refused to bomb refugee camps

With the teenager who chose eight prison terms over army service

With the prisoner who fasted for 266 days until freedom

With the doctor banned from entry for saving lives 

With the farmer who was cut down marching to the wall

With the legless child growing up in the rubble

And the 550 others who won’t grow up at all

Because of the missiles and tank shells and bullets we sent

The dead can’t remind you of the crimes you’ve ignored. But, lest we forget, “To stand by silent and indifferent is the greatest crime of all.”

Roger Waters

CHRIS HEDGES - CALLING ALL REBELS: THE MORAL IMPERATIVE TO REVOLT - SEPT 20, 2015 - HD

Tweet I guess youtube and google aren't playing well together.  Cannot embed videos anymore.  Please copy link below and watch a good barnburner by Chris Hedges.

https://youtu.be/0vJJnKEc-JY

IF YOU CAN'T WATCH THE WHOLE THING, JUST WATCH THE BEGINNING UP TO 5 MINUTES OR SO. YOU WILL SEE ONE OF THE STRONGEST STATEMENTS IN DEFENSE OF PALESTINE EVER BY CHRIS HEDGES!

Local World Council of Churches Groups Display in Seattle Demands: "Netanyahu, Take Down This Wall"

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Israel's Apartheid Wall replica in Westlake Park

Passers by Stop At Information Table

More messaging for people passing by Westlake Park

Lloyd Johnson who built the portable wall (which will be used at other events this week)

Ed & Amin from Voices for Palestine help assemble the wall.

Lloyd & Amin working on the wall.

It is the World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel, called for by the World Council of Churches.  More info here:  http://www.oikoumene.org/en/press-centre/events/world-week-for-peace-in-palestine-israel

"Obama's Response to the Refugee Crisis: Regime Change in Syria" - [Obama's Newest War]

Tweet Shamus Cooke at http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article42861.htm

EXCERPT:

The Guardian reports:

"...Barack Obama for the first time portrayed his plans for US military action [in Syria] as part of a broader strategy to topple [Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad, as the White House's campaign to win over skeptics in Congress gained momentum."

The resolution would allow a a 90 day window for U.S. military attack in Syria, where both ISIS and the Syrian government would be targeted; with regime change in Syria being the ultimate objective.

The U.S. public has virtually no knowledge of these new developments. A field of candidates campaigning for President haven't mentioned the subject. The U.S. media's silence on the issue is deafening. 

[ET TU, BERNIE?]

Albert Woodbox Fighting for his Freedom in Two Courts -- Free #AlbertWoodfox

Tweet ORIGINAL STORY AT:
http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?ca=ee75806c-d885-4b22-99fe-d78625174a5b&c=e6804ed0-356e-11e3-9fd4-d4ae52754dbc&ch=e7cb1e50-356e-11e3-a062-d4ae52754dbc

Though it is an incredibly unusual, and often confusing situation, the legal reality is that Albert is fighting for permanent, unconditional release concurrently on two separate legal tracks - one in federal and the other in state court.  As we all wait to hear whether the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will uphold federal Judge Brady's June 8th "unconditional Writ," a third attempt to prosecute Albert in state court for the crime he continues to maintain he's innocent of is already, simultaneously, underway. Next Monday, September 21st at 9:30am at the Courthouse in St. Francisville, the state court track will take a huge leap forward as Judge Carmichael of West Feliciana Parish's 20th Judicial District Court decides what a new playing field will look like after each side presents what they believe to be the key ingredients needed to ensure a just potential third trial. Over the summer, Albert's state court legal team (Rob McDuff and Billy Sothern) filed a slate of 16 motions that began this process of defining the evidentiary and procedural ground rules for a potential retrial.  In addition to a comprehensive and convincingly argued request for change of venue, the bulk of the filings seek to construct a legal landscape where Albert has at least a chance of being fairly retried--where all of the now impeached, debunked, and discredited testimony, statements, and evidence presented at previous trials is excluded. Albert's team also asks the court compel the State to allow modern DNA testing of all remaining physical evidence and to compare the potentially exculpatory fingerprints from the crime scene, already proven not to be Albert's, against the prison's own inmate fingerprint archives from the 1970s and the FBI's recently expanded AFIS fingerprint identification system.  Though it seems obvious that these simple tests could have long ago helped to identify the real culprit, the Attorney General told NPR as recently as 2008 he didn't see a need.  "A fingerprint can come from anywhere," Caldwell explains. "We're not going to be fooled by that." Most fundamentally though, Albert's legal team argues that the 2015 indictment should itself be quashed and the case dismissed because all the key prosecution witnesses have passed away, as have all the key witnesses for the defense and the leaders of the initial investigation, making it impossible for Albert to exercise his constitutional right to confront and cross-examine them about the many inconsistencies, obfuscations, and procedural missteps later uncovered.  His attorneys conclude: "Albert Woodfox is 68 years old, less than two years away from turning 70. He has been severely punished for the last 43 years for a crime in which none of the physical evidence implicates him and the State's proof is highly questionable. The circumstances of this case are such that he cannot receive a fair trial 43 years after the fact. The motion to quash should be granted and this case should be dismissed." We will keep you updated as to how these issues play out if you are unable to attend on the 21st and won't stop fighting until justice for our friend is finally realized.

Write Albert:   Albert Woodfox #72148              West Feliciana Parish Detention Center PO Box 2727 St. Francisville, LA 70775

With Regard to Alison Weir: Letter from Ann Arbor Friends Meeting Palestine Israel Action Group to U.S. Campaign to End Israeli Occupation & Jewish Voice for Peace

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Link to letter on website:  http://www.quakerpi.org/Perspectives/Letter%20to%20USC%20JVP%20IAK.htm

Palestine Israel Action Group    

A Subcommittee of the Peace and Social Concerns Committee of Ann Arbor Friends Meeting 

1420 Hill Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48104-3106

                                                                                                            August 4, 2015

To:       Yousef Munayyer, Director, US Campaign 

Anna Baltzer, National Organizer, US Campaign  

Josh Ruebner, Policy Director, US Campaign

            Felicia Eaves, US Campaign Steering Committee Co-Chair

            Andrew Kadi, US Campaign Steering Committee Co-Chair

            Rebecca Vilkomerson, Executive Director, Jewish Voice for Peace

            Alison Weir, If Americans Knew

Dear Friends,

We Ann Arbor Quakers in the Palestine-Israel Action Group (PIAG) support the pro-Palestinian work of the US Campaign, Jewish Voice for Peace, and If Americans Knew. Their quest for Palestinian human rights and freedom is our quest, as well. We hope to remain working within all three organizations for that good cause – in solidarity, rather than in perfect agreement.  

We fully agree with USC’s Common Principles, standing “opposed to Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, all forms of racism, and any other expressions of bigotry directed at any person or group."  We are troubled, however, when pro-Palestinian organizations spend time and energy investigating their coalition members for possible instances of deviation from these principles. This effort can be divisive and diversionary, undermining our movement's ability to achieve the goal of Palestinian human rights and freedom.

We urge that USC and JVP’s investigations of coalition members will end. Can you give us assurance in this regard?

In peace,

Helen Fox, PIAG Convener

Marilyn Churchill

Karen Deslierres

Ed Morin

Anne Remley

Ruth Zweifler

*NOTE FOR QUAKERPI READERS*:
PIAG is sad to report that US Campaign is unable to give the assurance they requested in the final line above.  Policy Director Josh Ruebner stated in a conference call with PIAG that if any further group were to request the ousting of another member, US Campaign’s standard procedures would mandate that such a request be duly considered.

*************************************************

FROM LINDA at SIRATYST BLOG:

As someone who has signed a defense of Alison Weir 

(SIGN HERE https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1oyHWpfZtMvDez5XThztcbRMbgzQqMnCibkVk4Rjh3Hw/viewform) 

along with many other Palestine solidarity activists, I applaud the efforts of the Ann Arbor Friends Pal/Israel group to bring a halt to this witch hunt.  I echo their concern that this habit the solidarity community has of picking fights with those in the movement who do not share the same tactics will inevitably hobble our work unnecessarily by fear-mongering people interested in supporting Palestine liberation.  I urge the U.S. Campaign and JVP to reconsider their exile of Alison Weir (and If Americans Knew).

Linda Jansen, Seattle, WA

From Cindy Sheehan's Blog, The Soapbox

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"Dozens Of Palestinians, Including Children, Injured In Jerusalem" IMEMC

Tweet http://www.imemc.org/article/72994
via http://angryarab.blogspot.com

Dozens of Palestinians, including children, have been injured on Friday evening and early night hours, in Silwan town, in occupied East Jerusalem, during clashes that took place after Israeli fanatics assaulted an 8-year-old child, while Israeli soldiers invaded homes and fired gas bombs, concussion grenades and rubber-coated metal bullets.

Image By Wadi Hilweh Information Center - Silwanic

The Wadi Hilweh Information Center in Silwan (Silwanic) said the assailants attacked Zeid Abu Qweider, 8 years of age, in Batn al-Hawa neighborhood, repeatedly beating and kicking him, before a young man noticed the attacked and intervened.

It added that approximately twenty Israeli extremists then assaulted a group of Palestinian children, 5-14 years of age, and sprayed their faces with pepper-spray.

Eyewitnesses told Silwanic that several guards of illegal colonies in Silwan also invaded the neighborhood, and hurled gas bombs and concussion grenades.

Medical sources said resident Abdullah Abu Naab, 60, and Mahdi Rajabi, 14, suffered burns in their faces and were unable to breathe, before medics arrived at the scene, provided first aid and moved them to the al-Makassed Hospital.

The attack also led scores of injuries, especially among the children, while a pregnant woman was also wounded.

Some of the wounded have been identified as Zeid Abu Qweider, 8, Adam Rajabi, 9, Rahaf Abu Qweider, 5, Odai Rajabi, 12, Hamza Rajabi, 12, Yazan Rajabi 12, Walid ash-Sha’er, 16, Asma’ Rajabi (pregnant in her ninth month), 29, and ‘Adel Tawfiq Gheith, 75 years of age.

In addition, five children and their parents suffered severe effects of gas inhalation after the Israeli guards hurled a gas bomb into their homme.

The oldest of the wounded children is 13, and the youngest is only seven months of age.

Another family, including an infant, also suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation, medical sources said.

In addition, clashes took place in Batn al-Hawa neighborhood in Silwan, after a number of Israeli fanatics invaded it, while Israeli soldiers later invaded the area, and declared it a closed military zone.

Furthermore, soldiers attacked dozens of Palestinians in the protest tent in the neighborhood, and hurled gas and concussion grenades on them, before attacking the tent and smashing many chairs.

Many teenagers and children were injured after the soldiers attacked them in Batn al-Hawa; the army also fired several gas bombs at a number of homes, while many soldiers started banging on doors causing anxiety attacks among families, especially the children.

A young man, identified as Saleh Kash’am, suffered various cuts and bruises after the soldiers repeatedly kicked him in the neighborhood.

Clashes also took place in the at-Tour town, after dozens of soldiers invaded it; media sources said local youths hurled a Molotov cocktail that struck one of the invading police vehicles, and that one officer was injured.

The police fired gas bombs, concussion grenades and rubber-coated metal bullets at random, Silwanic said.

"Invisible War Crimes – The Corporate Media On Yemen" -- Media Lens

Tweet http://medialens.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=801:invisible-war-crimes-the-corporate-media-on-yemen&catid=53:alerts-2015&Itemid=247

EXCERPT:

As Daniel Larison, senior editor of The American Conservative, writes:

'After more than five months of depriving the civilian population of basic necessities and preventing their access to humanitarian aid, I don't think this needs to be qualified by saying that this "may" be a war crime. It seems clear at this point that the blockade is a deliberate and sustained effort to inflict punishment on the civilian population in violation of international law. I have said this before, but it bears repeating that U.S. participation in this cruel and unnecessary campaign is indefensible and disgraceful.'

Tom Engelhardt, founder and editor of TomDispatch.com, notes that 'though no viewer would know it from' television coverage, 'all across the region -- from Yemen to Syria to Iraq -- U.S. arms are fueling conflicts and turning the living into the dead.'

In an article titled 'Total War in Yemen Totally Ignored by Western Media', Tony Cartalucci observes:

'After NATO's attempt to invoke the "responsibility to protect" (R2P) as justification for the destruction of Libya, it became clear that NATO was merely hiding behind the principles of humanitarian concern, not upholding them.'

He continues:

'However, R2P is conveniently absent amid what little talk of Yemen that does take place in the Western media. US-backed blockades and months of aerial bombardments have tipped Yemen toward a humanitarian catastrophe.'

Iona Craig explains why the US is especially keen to keep Saudi Arabia amenable at this particular moment:

'America's continued support of Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen comes as Saudi-U.S. relations have been strained by President Obama's pursuit of a nuclear deal with the Kingdom's regional nemesis, Iran.'

Craig quotes Adam Baron, a visiting fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations, who suggests that the US has been more eager than usual to appease Saudi Arabia, 'because they want them and the other Gulf States to at least not actively oppose the Iran deal.'

Despite the nuclear deal, the West still regards a stable and strong Iran as a threat to its hegemony in the region. Why? Noam Chomsky says:

'The answer is plain: the rogue states that rampage in the region and do not want to tolerate any impediment to their reliance on aggression and violence. In the lead in this regard are the U.S. and Israel, with Saudi Arabia trying its best to join the club with its invasion of Bahrain (to support the crushing of a reform movement there) and now its murderous assault on Yemen, accelerating a growing humanitarian catastrophe in that country.'

The overarching framework, Chomsky points out, is the so-called Clinton Doctrine, named after former US president Bill Clinton. The doctrine asserts that United States is entitled to the 'unilateral use of military power' to ensure 'uninhibited access to key markets, energy supplies, and strategic resources'. This entitlement is dressed up as alleged 'security' or 'humanitarian' concerns.

"Regime Change Refugees: On the Shores of Europe" -- Vijay Prashad

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Original is at:

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/09/04/regime-change-refugees-on-the-shores-of-europe/

"Terrible pictures arrive onto social media of refugees from Syria and elsewhere, washed up on the shores of Europe. One in particular is particularly ghastly – the body of young Aylan Kurdi. He was only three. He was from the Syrian town of Kobane, now made famous as the frontline of the battle between ISIS and the Kurdish militias (largely the YPG and PKK). Aylan Kurdi’s body lay in a fetal position. Few dry eyes could turn away from that photograph.

The Jordanian cartoonist Rafat Alkhateeb drew an image of Aylan Kurdi. The infant’s body lies on the other side of a barbed wire fence that separates him from the continents of the world.

Cartoon by Rafat Alkhateeb.

Children like Aylan Kurdi are disposable in the world’s imagination. Untold thousands of Syrian children have died in this conflict. Tens of thousands of children die in conflicts around the world. The United Nations estimates that half of all deaths in conflict zones are of children. In 1995, UNICEF reported that two million children had died in conflicts over the previous decade. The rate has not decreased. The statistic harms the consciousness. But it is the picture of Aylan Kurdi that has unsettled our ethics – does the world really care about the damage done to children as a result of war and diabolical trade policies? The evidence suggests that the world does not care at all. What care there is comes in the brief instance when we glance at a photograph such as that of the dead body of Aylan Kurdi. He breaks our heart. But he will do little to change our politics.

The West believes that it is acceptable for it to intervene to influence the political economy of the Third World – to force IMF-driven “reforms” on these states. Capital is allowed be borderless. That freedom does not apply to labour – to people. Migration is forbidden. It is hateful. Racist ideas allow fortresses to be built against the natural movement of people. Barbed wire fences and concentration camp towers outline the US-Mexico border, just as such fences and the Mediterranean Moat block the passage into Europe. If Capital destroys the society here, its people cannot be allowed to migrate there.

The West believes that it is acceptable for it to overthrow governments and bomb its enemies in the lands of the Third World. It sees this as the limit of its humanitarianism. It calls this humanitarian interventionism or, in the language of the UN, “responsibility to protect” (R2P). When it breaks states, as it did in Libya, the West takes no responsibility for the broken lives of the people in those zones. Bombs are borderless. But war refugees must stand in queues and be held in concentration camps. They are not allowed freedom of movement.

Hypocrisy is central to elite Western ethics. It uses words like “freedom” and “equality” but mostly means its opposite. The freedom of human beings and equality between human beings is not relevant. More important is the freedom of Money. It is Money that cannot have its liberty impinged.

Both Europe and the United States want to build walls to prevent the free movement of people. The Statue of Liberty in New York harbor bears the words, “Give me your tired, your poor; your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” This is Emma Lazarus’ poem from 1883. No longer do these words make sense. There is no exhortation to send the tired, the poor, the huddled masses to safety. There is mostly the State-led jingoism that sets up barriers and threatens deportations. The more appropriate song is by Woody Guthrie, Deportee, from 1961: “They chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like thieves. We died in your hills, we died in your deserts, we died in your valleys and died on your plains.” He would have added, we died on your shores.

Such toxic lineages are not alone. There is also the people’s ethics – banners in Germany unfurled at football games to welcome refugees, convoys of ordinary British nations to Calais (France) to help feed and clothe the refugees, demonstrations of radical internationalists in Eastern Europe against the neo-fascists and the racists. There are also, in the United States, the Dream Defenders and United We Dream who fight for undocumented residents, who formed part of the massive pro-immigrant rallies that have now adopted May Day as their day. These indications of the good side of history are often ignored by the press, which has a tendency to hype up the bad side to boost ratings. Such gestures of solidarity tell us what is possible in the West. [Emphasis added]

Aylan Kurdi is dead. Many other Aylan Kurdis remain. Our outrage at this callous death should drive us deeper into a politics that calls for a drawdown of the violence in Syria and for a serious peace process in Libya, that forces us to be resolute in our fight against IMF and NATO destruction of societies and states. In essence, this is a call for a resolute anti-imperialism. Imperialism, after all, is extra-economic force such as war or the unequal drafting of trade rules to allow a small capitalist minority to sequester the largest share of globally produced social wealth. Refugees such as Aylan Kurdis are “climate change refugees,” “regime change refugees” and “IMF refugees.”

The West’s managers will only talk about tragedies and security. For them people are migrants and deportees, those whose mobility must be constrained. This is a limited imagination. They will not want to talk about the causes of the problem – the wars and economic policies that throw millions of people into the status of refugee. That is our job. In the name of Aylan Kurdi."

"Give All Refugees A Free Ticket To Brussels" -- Automatic Earth

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from Automatic Earth

A few days ago, I joked to Nicole that Paddypower should by now have a bet open on how much longer the Schengen open border treaty will be valid in Europe. Didn’t check if they actually had one, mind you. 

But it can’t be long anymore, so it wouldn’t be a big money maker even if it existed. I give it a few days at most. Italy just announced it wants guards at Brennero, one of its main border posts with Austria. One down, a few hundred to go, and they may go at a rapid clip. 

Europe’s countries are not each other’s enemies yet, but they will shut borders. Germany pulled a fast one yesterday by telling Hungary to stop the trains from rolling west, but now Budapest has a big problem. They should have just allowed the refugees to board the trains and leave. Put them on a train, give them food and drink and make them first Austria’s and then Germany’s problem. 

And Germany’s a fine place for the refugees to go, since Berlin is sort of the de facto capital of the EU, at least when that seems a profitable position to be in, but it’s not the perfect place to go, because Merkel and her ilk will denounce their leadership claims whenever that looks more beneficial in the polls.

Merkel and Schäuble can screw over Greece three ways to Sunday, but they’re like this Bill Pesek headline on Bloomberg two weeks ago about the Chinese leadership that said something to the effect that they like the power but not the responsibility. That’s at least as true for Europe as it is for Beijing. 

And that makes it hard to call any supposed leaders on any of their responsibilities. It’s also why thousands of refugees have drowned and not one of the ‘leaders’ have lifted a finger. They’re there for the power, not the other stuff. 

And that, as I’ve said a hundred times before, is embedded in the EU model, in its design, its regulations, its laws, the whole shebang. When I read that Yanis Varoufakis wants a pan-European anti-austerity movement, I’m thinking he doesn’t understand how it’s set up. The whole bureaucracy was made to resist change, democracy, and any challenges to its ‘belief’ system.

It’s no use saying the EU should do something or another in the refugee crisis, because it won’t. And what it may do will always be way too late and way too little. It’s how it was structured. The EU is geared towards accumulating more power, not solving its own problems. 

But at the same time, Brussels is still the only capital the EU has. And that’s why all refugees, wherever they are at the moment, Hungary, Greece, Italy, Serbia, Macedonia, should be allowed to board trains, with enough humane facilities and provisions, bound for Brussels. 

They should all be directed towards the European Parliament and/or other posh buildings – they recently opened a €1.2 billion one, that should facilitate a few refugees -, and stay there until the EU is forced to solve the issue. 

And every single cameraman on the planet should be there to register what happens. How long they will be allowed to go without food, water and shelter. How long they will go without proper medical treatment. 

Let’s see how Brussels deals with 50,000 -100,000 people in its streets and parks, with more coming every day, while the whole world is watching live on a hundred news channels.

And I know Strasbourg will want to dispute the claim that Brussels is the capital, and you know what?, I’m willing to send half of the refugees there too. Just so the French don’t feel left out or insultée or have their pride hurt. 

And something tells me that the citizens of Belgium and France, like their Greek peers, will have the decency to feed and shelter the Syrian and Libyan mothers and children on their doorsteps while the ivory towers diddle. 

It looks to me to be the only way to expose the EU for what it is, and then put an end to the macabre monstrosity it has become. 

We would need to convince the refugees that by doing things this way, they would open the way for those who come after them, of which there will undoubtedly be many. 

The Italian, Hungarian, Greek etc. governments should issue rail tickets from their countries to Brussels and tell the refugees that that’s where the European capital is, and to apply there for visas, asylum, and everything else.

Brussels lives by the adage of divide and rule. And that serves only the bureaucrats that inhabit the institution. Not the refugees, and not the people of Europe.