Bendib: Corporate Hypocrisy

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http://www.bendib.com/newones/2009/may/small/5-25-Cayman-Islands.jpg

Video: Farmers, Activists Beaten and Arrested in Saffa

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http://palestinesolidarityproject.org/2009/06/15/farmers-activists-beaten-and-arrested-in-saffa/

This Saturday, as has been done every Saturday for over a month, International and Israeli activists joined Hamad and Jabber Soleiby and their families as they worked their land in Saffa, near Bat 'Ain settlement. This Saturday, however, both the Israeli army and settlers from the right-wing extremists were ready and waiting.

While soldiers stood by and watched, settlers threw rocks at the farmers and solidarity activists and rolled boulders down into the agricultural land. Soldiers then shouted across the small valley to the solidarity activists, telling them it was a closed military zone and the people would have to leave. While the farmers and solidarity activists agreed they would leave if ordered to, attempting to avoid a confrontation such as those that had occurred the previous two weeks, they still demanded that the settlers were forced to leave at the same time, fearing they would do damage to the agricultural land after the farmers left the area.

After the solidarity activists and farmers began to leave the area, soldiers and border police ran up from behind the group and grabbed the youngest farmer. When international and Israeli activists from Palestine Solidarity Project and Anarchists Against the Wall objected, the soldiers began indiscriminately beating the solidarity activists. Internationals were placed in choke-holds, thrown to the ground and had their heads smashed into rocks. Israeli activists were dragged by their hair and all were beaten with batons while trying to protect the Palestinian farmer.

Finally, the soldiers managed to pull the Palestinian farmer away from the activists, who were held on the ground by several soldiers and border police. In the end, the Palestinian was only questioned and asked to show his ID before being released, while one American-Israeli from Palestine Solidarity Project, and a Scottish National and a German national from International Solidarity Movement were all arrested and accused of attacking soldiers and border police.

While in custody, the Scottish national was attacked again by one of the border policemen, who grabbed him by the throat and threw him against the wall while in the Qiryat Arba police station.
Even though the aggression and violence was clearly on the part of the border police and soldiers, the three activists were still brought before a judge in the Jerusalem "peace" court, where they were all given conditional releases pending a further investigation of the allegations.

Reminder: Save Gaza Vigil & Nakba Commemoration at Greenlake

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Please join us and bring family and friends

What: Save Gaza Vigil & Nakba Commemoration

When: Saturday June 13, Noon- 4:00pm

Where: Greenlake Park. ( N. 66th St. & E. Greenlake Way N.).

Amin Odeh
VoicesofPalestine

"Stand up for what is right, even if you are standing alone"

Turning Up the Volume on a Boycott of Israel -- Anne Paxton

Tweet Local activist Anne Paxton writes about her recent trip to Palestine (portion below; whole article here: http://www.eatthestate.org/13-20/TurningUpVolume.htm):

I have just returned from an eight-day trip through the West Bank with a group of peace activists, nearly all of us Irish, who see striking parallels between the historic treatment of Ireland by England and that of Palestine by Israel. The sense of a colonial power imposing its will on the native residents is oppressive in Palestine. Since the US government has confirmed it is unable or unwilling to stop Israel's brutality against the Palestinians, the international community including average Americans must take responsibility by uniting behind the international campaign of boycotts, divestment, and sanctions against Israel.

To travel through the West Bank and see what life is like for Palestinians is to understand the profound deceit in Israel's public statements about the peace process. Israel, with the world's fourth largest army, is in a race to see how much of Palestinians' land and resources it can grab and how degraded a state it can impose on Palestinians before the world catches on and stops it.

"Palestine is a fenced-in, walled-in, ghettoized society traumatized by an incredible level of violence and deprivation of basic services," says Gerard Cassidy, an activist with the Palestine Action Group of Cork, Ireland. "The policy of the state of Israel is to create facts on the ground where the demographics suit a Jewish state. They want to create unlivable conditions in the West Bank, so if the Palestinians stay, they're out of sight of the settlements. The Jewish settlers don't have to see them, they don't have to interact with them; they're like goats walking in the hills, or like any other animals you come across."

Given the massive attacks and war crimes perpetrated against Gaza in December and January, one surmises that the scale of oppression in that sealed-off, open-air prison--which the international community as well as Israelis are all but barred from witnessing--is even more appalling.

Contrary to international law, scores of UN resolutions, and all human decency, Israel accelerates its confiscation of Palestinians' land, packing the West Bank with Jewish settlements and multiplying police-state checkpoints as part of a strategy to reduce Palestinians to the status of cave dwellers beneath a Jewish enclave. A considerable amount of additional Palestinian land has been seized by Israel since the UN partitioned the land in 1948. In 2009, the thefts have become even more brazen--continuing exactly according to the plan of Ariel Sharon, who stated in 1973: "We'll make a pastrami sandwich of them. We'll insert a strip of Jewish settlement, in between the Palestinians, and then another strip of Jewish settlement, right across the West Bank, so that in 25 years time, neither the United Nations, nor the United States, nobody, will be able to tear it apart."

Israelis to Obama: "Save Us From Ourselves!"

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Support Israeli Human Rights Activist Ezra Nawi - www.supportezra.net

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Two Years of Gaza Closure by the Numbers

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gisha via Angry Arab Newservice

http://gisha.org/index.php?intLanguage=2&intItemId=1529&intSiteSN=113

Two Years of Gaza Closure by the Numbers

June 2007- June 2009 à Crossings Closed; Supplies Restricted

Þ Percentage of goods permitted to enter Gaza, relative to demand: 25% (approximately 2,500 truckloads/month instead of 10,400/month prior to June 2007).

Þ Supplies of industrial diesel permitted to enter Gaza, relative to need: 63% (2.2 million liters/week rather than the 3.5 million liters/week needed to generate electricity).

Þ Average length of power outages in Gaza: five hours per day.

Þ Current number of people without access to running water in Gaza: 28,000.

Compare and Contrast:

Þ Number of food items Israel's Cabinet Resolution promised to permit to enter Gaza: Unlimited.

Þ Number of food items actually permitted into Gaza: 18.

Þ Amount of money pledged for reconstruction aid at the March 2009 Donors Conference: $4.5 billion.

Þ Quantity of building materials permitted to enter Gaza: Zero.

Þ Unemployment rate in Gaza in 2007, the year the closure was imposed: 30%.

Þ Unemployment ratein Gaza in 2008: 40%.

No development, no prosperity, only "minimum humanitarian" items allowed.

Þ The Israeli military permits margarine in individual packets to enter Gaza, but margarine in buckets is banned, because it could be used for industry (i.e. by factories producing food and providing jobs).

Þ The Israeli government clarified that its March 22, 2009 Cabinet decision authorizing the "unrestricted" supply of food into Gaza "has been given a restrictive interpretation" and that the government "did not intend to remove the restrictions, which were imposed in the past, on the entrance of food and supplies into Gaza". Translation: Food supply continues to be restricted.

Þ Among the food items banned from entering Gaza: Halva, tea, juice powder.

Þ Among the nonfood items banned from entering Gaza: soccer balls (footballs), guitars, paper, ink.

People trapped:

Þ Number of days Rafah Crossing has been open for regular traffic: Zero.

Þ Number of people unable to travel through Rafah each month: 39,000.

Þ Criteria for passage through Erez Crossing: exceptional humanitarian cases.

---

10th June 2009 Free Gaza News -- Amazing Update on New (& Old) Voyages

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Action Boycott Israel: Pittsburgh

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Single-Payer vs. Obama Public Option -- thanks, Rik

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Gaza: Living in the Rubble

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Support the people of Palestine at Greenlake this Saturday (June 13) from Noon to 2 p.m. Between 65th & 66th at Greenlake Way. Look for the Nakba display of tents and Save Gaza banner.

Bendib: Trip to Egypt

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http://www.bendib.com/newones/2009/june/small/6-6-Egypt-Trip.jpg

"How Much Really Separates Obama and Netanyahu? " -- Jennifer Loweinstein

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Portion below; whole article here:  http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=15179

The Palestinian ‘islands’ will remain demilitarized; they will be surrounded by military checkpoints, watchtowers and roadblocks. The Gaza Strip will remain under siege, permanently disconnected from the “West Bank” until the democratically elected Hamas leadership is either wiped out, assassinated to the point of being completely ineffectual, or voluntarily steps down to make room for the Palestinian Authority under Israeli command. Where are Obama’s demands that the racist, colonial-settler state infrastructure be dismantled so that a viable, sovereign Palestinian state with territorial contiguity, national unity and economic viability can succeed?

Reading on in Obama’s speech we find that he (rightly) condemns the resort to violence by Hamas, the party that rules in Gaza whether we recognize it or not. In particularly harsh language he excoriates those who would “shoot rockets at sleeping children, or … blow up old women on a bus. That is not how moral authority is claimed; that is how it is surrendered. Now is the time for Palestinians to focus on what they can build.”

What about what Israel can build –rather than what it can obliterate unopposed? What about the three quarters of a million children of Gaza who were unable to sleep normally during the nightly aerial bombardments of Gaza for three weeks on end; whose trembling bodies were immune to the embraces and desperate attempts at consolation by their parents, themselves terrified as their children asked, “Are they going to kill us?” What about the illegal use of white phosphorous on the densely populated neighborhoods of Gaza City and beyond? The cluster bombs and fleschettes? The rocketing, fire-bombing and bulldozing of entire neighborhoods? Why didn’t Obama excoriate the Israelis for the unspeakable destruction and suffering it wrought on the imprisoned population of the Gaza Strip for three weeks straight this winter, when the scarcity of water, heat and electricity was at its highest? Why didn’t he rail against the IDF for its attack on hospitals, schools, ambulances, UN buildings and shelters, food warehouses, businesses, factories and family homes? Why doesn’t he demand that Israel pay for the rebuilding of Gaza rather than the international donor community – which repeatedly pays for Israel’s successive devastations? Where is Obama’s insistence that Israel comply with the UN fact-finding mission on the commission of war crimes during its relentless assault? Why doesn’t Obama suggest Israel resort to peaceful rather than violent means of settling its disputes? Why doesn’t he mention that while ‘self defense’ against the firing of rockets is understandable, the use of force is illegal and was completely unnecessary? Why was there no condemnation of Israel for breaking the ceasefire and –we now know—of planning Operation “Cast Lead” six months prior to its beginning, or when the ceasefire was still in effect? What other country can unleash the military might of a superpower on a defenseless society, killing 1400 people, 85 per cent of whom were civilians and approximately 400 of whom were children?

Of course, there is one other country whose actions out-do those of its ally: the United States –which would explain why Israel is allowed to pursue the same pattern of destruction and murder with such impunity and, indeed, with the applause of the US Congress, the pro-Israel lobby, and its many friends in the media, academia and elsewhere across the country.

Before moving on to discuss other important topics such as Iran, which has the legal right under the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty to complete the cycle of uranium enrichment that would include developing the capacity to produce nuclear weapons (but not necessarily to do so) and to discuss the importance of democracy in the Middle East (from Cairo, remember), Obama urges the Palestinians “to choose progress over a self-defeating focus on the past.” 

Perhaps someone ought to point out to him the irony that his next stop after Cairo is not Gaza City or Beirut where he might help to heal the very recent and very real wartime wounds inflicted on these tortured societies, but Buchenwald, a death camp from the Nazi era, located in the now former East Germany? Certainly Obama ought to be the first to practice what he himself preaches by showing compassion to the recent and innocent victims of an entirely illegal and premeditated slaughter than by rushing off for photo ops at one of the mighty symbols of a depraved Holocaust industry? --one whose finely tuned ideology seeks justification for every act of inhumanity based on the grievance of past inhumanity?

Barack Obama has sent Benjamin Netanyahu the message he most seeks, whether Netanyahu recognizes it or not: continue your colonial-settler project as you have been doing; just change the vocabulary you use to describe it. Then nobody will get upset or notice that the status quo will persists. In the meantime Nasrallah and his followers in Lebanon will be shaking their heads in disbelief at the service Obama has just performed on Hizbullah’s behalf.

"Feeling the Hate In Jerusalem on Eve of Obama's Cairo Address"

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"Obama's Speech Followed by A Murder" Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD

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Israeli occupation forces murdered our friend Aqel Srur (age 35) yesterday in the nonviolent demonstration in Ni’lin the day after many people showed excitement about Obama’s "peace" speech without carefully analyzing it (see below).

Israelis get four-fifths of scarce West Bank water, says World Bank. Palestinians losing out in access to vital shared [sic] aquifer in the occupied territories
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/27/israel-palestinian-water-dispute/print

Obama's speech shows little real change. In most regards his analysis maintains flawed American policies
By Ali Abunimah 4 June 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/04/barack-obama-middleeast

Yet, and as is expected people who are 98% supportive of Israel will be attacked for not being 100% supportive (remember the Pope’s visit?). So in this Video we see young people in Jerusalem express their opinions (this is not just revealing about Obama but about racism in general)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uxt9HwfPwPo

A Palestinian friend reacted to this footage thus: “Within the Palestinian Community, I can say that these attitudes translate into an evil apartheid system that has destroyed our communities and our livelihoods and that continues to perpetrate enormous violence on defenseless civilians. 80% of Israelis supported the recent bombing of Gaza, and that 80% support comes out of attitudes that are shown in this footage. These attitudes also explain how and why Avigdor Lieberman has risen to power in Israel today.”

"Israeli education ministry" worried about the few teachers who might (God forbid) let students know a tiny bit of the suffering of Palestinians http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1090345.html
Action: Break the siege: Schedule in Palestine (both sides of the green line)
http://www.radicalendar.org/calendar/all/all/display/85240/index.php?view=event&fulldate=2009-06-05

Silence is complicity

Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
A Bedouin in cyberspace, a villager at home
http://qumsiyeh.org
Asks the Possible of the Impossible, "Where is your dwelling-place?" "In the dreams of the Impotent," comes the answer. Rabindranth Tagore
Join us in Palestine for the Palestine Summer Celebration
http://www.sirajcenter.org/

Reminder: Save Gaza Vigil- Saturday June 6, Noon-2:00pm

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　http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMMPwio8gGc&feature=channel_page

 

 

What:  Save Gaza Vigil

When: Saturday June 6, Noon - 2:00pm

Where: Westlake Center on 4th & Pine

 

====================================================

Amin Odeh 
VoicesofPalestine.org

Theaacc.org

"Stand up for what is right, even if you are standing alone"

 

Drop Charges in 38-year-old Murder Case -- Cindy Sheehan

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On Monday, San Francisco will see the opening of legal proceedings in the case of the seven former members and associates of the Black Panther Party charged in connection with the 1971 death of Sgt. John Young and conspiracy to commit murder. This surely will be one of the city's historic trials - if indeed it goes to trial.

At the heart of this 38-year-old case are confessions obtained under torture. Much like detainees in Abu Ghraib and Bagram air base, defendants in this case were blindfolded, covered with wool blankets drenched in boiling water, subjected to suffocation with plastic bags, beatings and electric shocks to the genitals.

In this case, the torture was carried out in 1973 in New Orleans. FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover had deemed the Black Panther Party "the greatest threat to internal security of the country," and there were no holds barred when law enforcement retaliated against the Panthers for their challenge to police brutality in the black community.

The torture of some of the defendants in New Orleans included the participation of San Francisco police officers, who extracted forced signatures from them on "confessions" written by the police. All of the men who were tortured repudiated these documents when allowed to see defense attorneys and a magistrate.

In subsequent years, courts in Louisiana and California rejected the admissibility of this tortured testimony.

There is another eerie parallel with the war in Iraq. There, after the United States could not capture al Qaeda members with provable ties to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, many innocent Iraqis have borne the brunt of the government's determination to make someone (who at least looked like the culprits) pay dearly.

And here in San Francisco, the new attempt to prosecute this old case seems to have been generated less by any new evidence than by the atmosphere of fear fostered by the war on terror, led by a government willing to condone torture in the name of security.

The world is waiting to see if the Obama administration will hold accountable those high level officials who normalized terror. As a mother and citizen who has felt the terrible cost of a war justified by officials who claimed to have intelligence that later proved to be distorted by torture, I cannot stand silent when the same evil is practiced at home.

I join with the Nobel Peace laureates the Rev. Desmond Tutu and Mairead Corrigan Maguire, the San Francisco Labor Council, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and many others in their call to drop the charges against these men. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has gone on record as opposing torture. I call on all officials to do so as well, to reject prosecution based on the results of torture and to defend the human rights of these men who have been subjected to such injustice.

Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Casey Sheehan, an American soldier killed in Iraq, co-founder of Gold Star Families for Peace, and author of "Peace Mom: A Mother's Journey Through Heartache to Activism."

Abortion Is a Woman's Right

Tweet Portion below; whole article here: http://www.counterpunch.org/sweet06012009.html

A courageous woman physician, who provides abortion care to rural, young and poor women, even if they have no money, is one of the successors of Dr. Tiller. She wrote today:

“Abortion has been legal in this country for 36 years and it is harder for a woman to access this vital medical care now than it was when I started providing abortion care 21 years ago. The combination of fewer feminist women’s health clinics, restrictive laws and the hijacking of the rhetoric surrounding abortion has made for an empty promise of “choice” for many women. Even our pro-choice President in his speech at Notre Dame said that “abortion is a heart-wrenching decision for any woman to make.”

I so strongly disagree. For the bulk of my patients it is a moral, responsible decision to make. The most common emotion expressed directly after an abortion and again at the follow up exam is one of relief. If anything, they express guilt for not feeling guilty. Why is the “pro-life” movement so intent on putting out a message to women that they should feel guilty and remorse and shame for taking control of their lives? Why do we LET them define who we are and tell us how we should think?

And then there is the issue of “common ground” between those that support and those that oppose legal abortion. I say this; until those that oppose abortion will agree with and support the notion that the best way to PREVENT unintended pregnancies in the first place (isn’t that the goal?) is to provide ALL women of childbearing age with scientifically accurate, comprehensive information about, and ready access to birth control of all types, there is no common ground. The notion that sexual relations can and will happen only between married, heterosexual couples that wish to conceive is absolutely ridiculous. Abstinence-only education results in higher STI rates, more teen pregnancies, more teen births AND more abortions. Letting religious based individuals and organizations with a totally unrealistic view of teen sexuality into our schools has been a huge mistake. It must stop.

Unfortunately, there is not, to my knowledge, a single “pro-life” organization that supports women using any method of birth control except natural family planning. And what do I call couples that rely on natural family planning? Pregnant.”

This woman gives me hope. We—everyone who cares about the humanity of women—should form a solid wall of support around her and other abortion providers.

Vigil Tonight at Cal Anderson Park for Dr. George Tiller

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Please join Planned Parenthood Votes! Washington, allied pro-choice organizations, and your fellow pro-choice community members for:

A Vigil to Remember and Honor Dr. George Tiller

Today, June 1, 6:00PM

Cal Anderson Park, Capitol Hill - South End of the Reflecting Pool

1635 11th Ave, Seattle (map)

The entire Planned Parenthood family is deeply saddened by the murder of Dr. George Tiller. He was a respected, loved member of our community and his loss is felt by all of us.

Dr. George Tiller was committed to providing women vital health care in the most adverse conditions. He was a compassionate doctor whose dedication and courage was unsurpassed. This is a tragedy for his family and those close to him - and also for our nation.

We hope that you can join us today, Monday, June 1st at 6pm at Cal Anderson Park.

In Peace,
Dana Laurent and the Planned Parenthood Votes! Washington Family

Gaza is Worse Than the [Penn.] Prison She Worked In -- Philip Weiss

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Link to original:  http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/05/i-asked-her-why-she-said-gaza-is-worse-than-the-prison-she-worked-in-back-in-pennsylvania.html

My group is leaving Gaza over the next couple of days. A few of us don’t want to leave. We feel connected to the place, and the people have been universally welcoming. They all say the same thing. They want to be part of the world, their cause has been cast away by the world. 

A number of us feel guilty that we half-believed the propaganda about Gaza. I did myself. I thought it was a fearful place and I was taking my life in my hands. One friend is angry at herself for worrying about her safety constantly before she left. Now it feels egotistical next to these people's safety. John Ging of the U.N. said that if the people were really indoctrinating their children with hatred in the schools, then how come we have been safe everywhere we go?
We had a meeting of the group tonight to go over tomorrow's schedule, and someone asked for people to reflect and Susan Johnson, whose picture is below, spoke about how wrenching it was to meet so many intelligent people whose largest desire is to live a normal life. 
“I’ve done work in prison,” she said. “This is worse than being in prison. How people can be so cruel to other people-- I don’t understand, I just don’t understand it. I can understand how people in the United States don’t know it’s as bad as it is. That's because of the press, and we’re probably at this point the best hope these people have for getting the word out. I look on that as a really big responsibility. I don’t want to let them down. I’m not ready to leave.”
Later I asked Susan why Gaza is worse than the prison she'd worked in, Graterford, in Pennsylvania. She said that the prisoners get along with the guards generally; they all understand the system and the routine and the rules. Here, she said, the guards are miles away. They drop leaflets or white phosphorus. She went on, When a bird's in a cage, it doesn't try to fly out; it knows it's in a cage and accepts the fact. But these people are in a cage and they can't fully believe it. They're like birds with their wings cropped who are walking around on the ground and keep flapping on to a branch trying to fly. 
Susan and I were both disturbed by the meeting we'd had in the afternoon with a bunch of students who can't leave to go to schools that have given them scholarships overseas. They're incredibly appealing kids; I'm going to be putting up some videos of them in days to come and telling their stories. Seven of them came to our hotel just to talk to us. None of them was angry at us; they've suffered a lot though, and now and then the stark frustration and fear played on their faces. Hazem Abukaresh, below, told me how important it is to get his Ph.D. in computer science before he's 30. He's 24, and has been stopped at the border four times now--just trying to get out, to Europe, China, Malaysia, and Jordan, where schools were expecting him. 
Susan said:
"Those kids just want to meet people, that's all. They want to go places. And they can't go anywhere. They graduate from college and then they can't go anywhere."
Susan asked me for my reflections. I told her I felt bad about my own prejudice against these people ahead of time, and for being so concerned with my own Jewishness, the Jewish future, and the Jewish image in the world. Here that concern feels stupidly selfish. The people of Gaza are persecuted. Full stop. 
For me to agonize about my Jewishness when I know about the degree of persecution is actually indulgent and a dodge. Yes this place touches on Jewishness and the important issue of how to reimagine Jewishness, to recover it from this horror, but as my roommate Sammer, an Arab-American, points out, the work ahead of us is political now, trying to move American minds, American policies. A big part of that is in the Jewish community, of course; and I can't wait to get home and begin to tell people what I saw here, the cruelties perpetrated in the name of the Jewish people; and let Hazem tell his story for himself.
That's down the road. I have a couple of days left. I'm going to spend that time listening to Gazans...