A scene with Norman Finkelstein from American Radical (a documentary about his work and life) where he refuses to be silenced when audience members at a university claim he unfairly compares Israel to Nazi Germany.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak:
The lack of defined boundaries within Israel, and not an Iranian bomb, is the greatest threat to our future. We have a paramount interest in establishing defined borders between ourselves and the Palestinians that will set the stage for two states for two peoples. It must be understood that if between the Jordan and the (Mediterranean) sea there is only one political entity, called Israel, it will by necessity either not be Jewish or not democratic and we will turn into an apartheid state.
During the recent Gaza Freedom March, I spent time with the wonderful 85 year old anti-Zionist Jew Hedy Epstein who spoke powerfully against Israeli crimes in Palestine.
I remember meeting a number of Scottish participants in Cairo and noting the deep commitment to Palestinian human rights.
Here’s another voice of reason:
Dr Hajo Meyer, 86, who survived 10 months in the Nazi death camp, spoke out as his 10-day tour of the UK and Ireland – taking in three Scottish venues – got under way. His comments sparked a furious reaction from hardline Jewish lobby groups, with Dr Meyer branded an “anti-Semite” and accused of abusing his position as a Holocaust survivor.
Dr Meyer also attended hearings at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Thursday, where five pro-Palestine campaigners are accused of racially aggravated conduct after disrupting a concert by the Jerusalem Quartet at the city’s Queen’s Hall.
Speaking as his tour got under way, Dr Meyer said there were parallels between the treatment of Jews by Germans in the Second World War and the current treatment of Palestinians by Israelis.
He said: “The Israelis tried to dehumanise the Palestinians, just like the Nazis tried to dehumanise me. Nobody should dehumanise any other and those who try to dehumanise another are not human.
“It may be that Israel is not the most cruel country in the world … but one thing I know for sure is that Israel is the world champion in pretending to be civilised and cultured.”
…
Dr Meyer’s claims met with a furious reaction from pro-Israel groups, who branded him “a disgrace”.
Jonathan Hoffman, co-vice-chairman of the Zionist Federation, said: “I shall be telling him he is abusing his status as a survivor, and I shall be telling him that if Israel had been created 10 years earlier, millions of lives might have been saved.
“Whether he is a survivor or not, to use Nazi comparisons in relation to Israel’s policies is anti-Semitic, unquestionably.”
The tour was cynically timed, Mr Hoffman added, to coincide with Holocaust Memorial Day on January 27.
Dr Ezra Golombok, Scottish spokesman for the Israel Information Office, accused the anti-zionist lobby of “exploiting” Dr Meyer, who he described as someone “who’s got into a situation he doesn’t understand”.
“This is a propaganda exercise by Mick Napier and his friends, and nothing more. It’s preposterous to compare Israel with Nazi tactics.”
The following statement was released on 26 December by a host of Israeli human rights groups:
Adalah — The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel | Association for Civil Rights in Israel | B’tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories | Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement | Hamoked – Center for Defence of the Individual | Physicians for Human Rights – Israel | Public Committee Against Torture in Israel | Yesh Din – Volunteers for Human Rights | Rabbis for Human Rights
26.1.10
Press Release –for immediate publication
Human rights community to Israeli Prime Minister:
Time is running out. Establish independent inquiry into Operation Cast Lead
Human rights organizations in Israel reissued their call to the Government of Israel to establish, without delay, an independent and impartial investigation mechanism to thoroughly examine the allegations raised regarding violations of international law during Operation Cast Lead. In a letter addressed to the Prime Minister and members of his cabinet, heads of the organizations today (Tuesday, 261.1.10) called on Israel to take advantage of the short time still remaining before the UN deliberated on the Goldstone report’s implementation.
The organizations specify in their letter why the military’s internal examination, which includes operational debriefings and approximately 30 Military Police investigations, does not satisfy Israel’s obligations to investigate. These examinations do not conform to the demands set by the Goldstone fact-finding mission, that Israel and Hamas each investigate suspected violations of international law during Cast Lead. Therefore, they will not be accepted as an appropriate response to the Goldstone report. Furthermore, the organizations warn that Israel’s refusal to hold an independent investigation will expose military officers and members of the previous government to investigation and legal proceedings likely to take place outside Israel.
In light of the above, the organizations called on the Prime Minister to establish, without further delay, an impartial investigative body which will conduct an independent and effective investigation of incidents in which allegations have been raised that Israel violated the provisions of international law during Operation Cast Lead. In order that the investigation will be seen as credible, the organizations believe that a foreign expert on international humanitarian law should be a part of this process. The investigation should examine Israel’s conduct during Operation Cast Lead, including an examination of accountability on the political and command level. Likewise, the investigative body should be charged with preparing the legal groundwork for future military conduct.
This morning the Israeli media reported that the PM is considering appointing a legal team to review the military’s investigations and debriefings. The organizations clarify that only an independent and transparent investigation will satisfy Israel’s international obligations.
The extent of damage to the civilian population during the operation was unprecedented. The allegations raised regarding the military’s conduct are serious and grave. The Israeli public has the right to an explanation of the actions taken in its name in the Gaza Strip. This is an essential issue at the heart of Israeli society.
For additional information: Sarit Michaeli, B’Tselem +972(0)50-5387230
Libby Lenkinski Friedlander +972(0)54-2457682
The full letter:
January 25, 2010
To:
Mr Benjamin Netanyahu
Prime Minister
Jerusalem
As human rights organizations in Israel, we reissue our call to the Government of Israel to establish, without delay, an independent and impartial investigation mechanism to thoroughly examine the allegations raised regarding violations of international law during Operation Cast Lead. We do so once again, despite the negative responses we have received to date, because we believe this is an essential issue at the heart of Israeli society. A year has passed since the conclusion of the military operation, and soon deliberations will begin in UN institutions regarding implementation, by both parties, of the recommendations of the Goldstone Commission Report. One of the primary recommendations was for an independent Israeli investigation of the allegations regarding violations of international law.
Recently, the Military Advocate-General stated that to date 27 investigations have been opened by the Criminal Investigation Division of the Military Police regarding different incidents. The rest of the allegations are being investigated through “operational debriefings.”
However, these debriefings and Military Police investigations do not fulfill Israel’s investigative duty nor do they achieve its goals. Firstly, criminal investigations by the Military Police examine deviations from orders issued. As such, they are only suitable for cases where the allegation is that acts were committed that contravened military orders. On the other hand, significant information has come to light thus far, including through research conducted by Israeli and international organizations, alleging that most of the harm to civilians, property and civilian buildings during Operation Cast Lead was a result of policies determined at the senior government and army levels, with the approval of the Military Advocate-General. Therefore, the investigation must include an examination of the orders and instructions given prior to the operation and throughout its duration. In order to investigate the allegations that illegal orders were given, or that the combat strategy violated international humanitarian law, it is necessary to appoint someone or some mechanism that is not subordinate to decision-makers and which was not involved in the formulation of the orders and instructions prior to the launch of the offensive.
Secondly, most of the allegations are being investigated, as noted, through “operational debriefings” only. This refers to debriefings conducted by senior officers, which are forwarded to the Military Advocate-General for review. This system of inquiry is flawed in three major ways:
- Lack of Independence – It involves inquiries conducted by “interested parties” who are not impartial but rather are the people whose decisions and actions are supposed to be under investigation. This is particularly the case when the Military Advocate-General, who was involved in making the decisions prior to the launch of the operation and throughout its duration, is the same official who is now the primary adjudicator on the matter;
- Lack of Transparency – Operational debriefings are closed matters and there is no possibility of monitoring them. As a consequence, as an investigative process there is no real way to supervise them for credibility or seriousness;
- Lack of Effectiveness – Those conducting the debriefings are not professional investigators, and the goal of the investigations is not to uncover violations of the law but rather to identify operational failures. Therefore, in addition to the fact this process is not independent and not transparent, it is clear that the investigation process via these debriefings cannot lead to objective findings regarding accountability for actions in any reasonable manner.
Indeed, the UN Commission headed by Justice Goldstone noted the inadequacy of the operational debriefings and Military Police investigations as a tool for appropriate investigation. It emphasized the State of Israel’s obligation to facilitate an independent and effective inquiry, which would not have the flaws of these two investigative mechanisms. Because the investigative proceedings initiated by Israel subsequent to the publication of the Goldstone Commission Report are no different from those that preceded its publication, we understand that the problems noted by the UN Commission remain unaddressed today.
In light of the above, we call on you to establish, without further delay, an impartial investigative body which will conduct independent and effective investigations of incidents regarding which allegations have been raised that Israel violated the provisions of international law during Operation Cast Lead. We believe that a foreign expert on international humanitarian law, who will add credibility and weight to the investigation, should be a part of this process. The investigation should examine Israel’s conduct during Operation Cast Lead, including an examination of accountability on the political and command level. Likewise, the investigative body should be charged with preparing the legal groundwork for future military conduct to ensure that orders and instructions given will be consistent with Israel’s obligations under international law.
We are approaching the deadline set by the Goldstone Commission Report for both sides to hold independent investigations, before the investigation of the allegations is transferred to international and foreign forums. The State of Israel’s refusal to hold an independent investigation will expose military officers and members of the previous government to investigation and legal proceedings likely to take place outside Israel.
The extent of damage to the civilian population during the operation was unprecedented. This population is still subject to the closure policy and collective punishment, which is preventing reconstruction and normal life even after the fighting ended. The allegations raised regarding the army’s conduct are serious and grave. The Israeli public has the right to an explanation of the actions taken in its name in the Gaza Strip.
Signed:
Hagai El-Ad
Executive Director
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel
Jessica Montell
Executive Director
B’Tselem
Adv. Sari Bashi
Executive Director
Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement
Dr. Ishai Menuchin
Executive Director
Public Committee Against Torture in Israel
Roi Maor
Executive Director
Yesh Din
Dalia Kerstein
Executive Director
HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual
Adv. Hassan Jabareen
General Director
Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel
Hadas Ziv
Executive Director
Physicians for Human Rights – Israel
Rabbi Arik W. Ascherman
Executive Director
Rabbis for Human Rights
This is encouraging and proves that a few elements of humanity are not infected by the Zionist lobby:
Fifty-four members of the U.S. Congress have signed a letter asking President Barack Obama to put pressure on Israel to ease the siege of the Gaza Strip.
The letter was the initiative of Representatives Jim McDermott from Washington and Keith Ellison from Minnesota, both of whom are Democrats. Ellison is the first American Muslim to ever win election to Congress.
McDermott and Ellison wrote that they understand the threats facing Israel and the ongoing Hamas terror activities against Israeli citizens but that “this concern must be addressed without resulting in the de facto collective punishment of the Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip.”
“We ask you to press for immediate relief for the citizens of Gaza as an urgent component of your broader Middle East peace efforts,” they wrote, adding that the siege has hampered the ability of aid agencies to do their work in Gaza.
The congressmen urged Obama to pressure Israel to ease the movement of people into and out of Gaza, especially students, the sick, aid workers, journalists and those with family concerns, and also to allow the import of building materials to rebuild houses. Israel has warned that such materials would be used to rebuild Hamas infrastructure and not civilian homes.
The great Akiva Eldar’s new headline in Haaretz:
Only an idiot would say Israel has frozen settlement activity
Microsoft founder Bill Gates seems a little too keen to keep the Chinese authorities as friends by grossly ignoring the Communist state’s sophisticated censorship program:
You’ve got to decide: do you want to obey the laws of the countries you’re in or not? If not, you may not end up doing business there. Chinese efforts to censor the internet have been very limited. It’s easy to go around it, so I think keeping the internet thriving there is very important.
The longer of prisoner’s families in Gaza is like torture with Israel illegally refusing to allow regular visits:
Umm Faris Baroud of Shati refugee camp in western Gaza City wakes up early every Monday in the hope that she will be allowed to visit her son Faris, serving a life sentence in one of Israel’s prisons.
With poor knees and a stooped back, Umm Faris, aged 88, moved slowly as she welcomed us to her modest home.
“For the past two and a half years I have been able to visit Faris,” she explained. “Every Monday, I participate in a weekly protest along with many other families including mothers, wives and children of detainees, at the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross [ICRC]. We demand a fair right: seeing our beloved children.”
On her way to the ICRC office, located about two kilometers from Shati refugee camp, Umm Faris was joined by her neighbor Umm Mahmoud al-Rayis, who is also waiting to see her son Mahmoud, also sentenced for life.
…
Israeli authorities have not given a specific justification for their decision to deny Gaza families permission for prison visits, according to the ICRC spokesman, though he stressed that it was a humanitarian matter.
Palestinian human rights groups have demanded all relevant parties — particularly foreign states — to pressure the Israeli government to abide by its obligations under international humanitarian law (IHL), particularly the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention. Israel violates IHL by transferring detainees from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip to prisons inside Israel, and Palestinian detainees are subjected to substandard conditions and inhuman treatment and torture.
The Tamils are once again an electoral force in Sri Lanka, despite the atrocities committed against them.
But the memory of homeland continues:
Shanaathanan Thamotharampillai is a Tamil artist from Sri Lanka who is currently completing his PhD in art history at Jawaharlal Nerhu University, New Delhi.
When asked by the curator of the Museum of Anthropology how he would describe imaging home in terms of a question it asks, Shanaathanan answered, “How do the emotional and material boundaries of a Diasporic home exist? And how do they interact and transform each other?”
With the help of the Vancouver Tamil community at large and the Canadian Tamil Congress’s Vancouver chapter, the artist started the project in September of 2009. The finished project is now on display at the Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver under the title “Imag(in)ing ‘Home”:
A fascinating story, reported in Canada’s National Post, about the ways in which a handful in the Tamil Diaspora backed, armed and funded Tamil resistance against Sinhalese nationalism in Sri Lanka:
Satha Sarachandran was an unlikely international arms dealer. Quiet and studious, he was a software engineer who volunteered at a Toronto youth group. He had no criminal record.
But in 2006, FBI agents caught the 30-year-old Canadian shopping for surface-to-air missiles in Long Island, New York, and Friday afternoon he was sentenced to 26 years in prison.
An important development sent by a key organiser of the BDS movement, Omar Barghouti:
Israel’s ambassador to Denmark says Danske Bank follows a Middle East policy with a disproportionate focus on Israel by dropping investments in two companies involved in settlements.JERUSALEM: Danske Bank’s decision to abandon investments in two companies because of their activities in the occupied West Bank is politically motivated and focused disproportionately on Israel. Israel’s ambassador to Denmark, Arthur Avnon, characterized the decision as “unfortunate”.
“What they are really doing is playing with politics and not, as they say, to worry about moral values or violations of international norms. In the case of the administered territories and the settlements it is a purely political matter to be resolved in negotiations between the parties in the Middle East conflict, “says Arthur Avnon.
Danske Bank publishes today that they exclude the two Israeli companies, Elbit Systems and Africa Israel Investments from the companies they invest in. The reason is that the two companies violate international norms. Elbit provides surveillance equipment for the separation wall, which the international court has condemned, and Africa Israel builds houses in the Jewish settlements that are internationally regarded as illegal.
Arthur Avnon relates not to the two companies specifically, but does not believe that the argument about breaches of international standards provides.
“Who defines what international norms are? If the UN, with 192 countries, most of which are not democracies and where the Islamic and Arab countries have an automatic majority, shall adopt resolutions condemning the only democracy in the Middle East and ignoring the real abusers of human rights, will you then define the resolutions as an international standard? “asked Avnon who feel Israel is disproportionate attention.“They [Danske Bank] should at least be honest and answer to whether they would take the same decision about their business with real human rights abusers like Saudi Arabia, Iran or some big countries in Asia, which I do not like to mention by name, “says Avnon.
He will not criticize the Danske Bank, if the decision is strictly business-based.
“Businesses have the right to make their own calculations and the only thing they have to report to their shareholders. Above them they must respond to how the company will have the financial advantage of the decision,” says Arthur Avnon.
Fascinating evidence in London about the criminality of the Iraq war (though this begs the question: why didn’t more senior officials resign before the invasion?)
The invasion of Iraq was illegal, a senior government lawyer told the Chilcot inquiry into the war today.
Sir Michael Wood, legal adviser to the Foreign Office in the run-up to the invasion, said he “considered that the use of force against Iraq in 2003 was contrary to international law”.
“In my opinion, that use of force had not been authorised by the [United Nations] security council, and had no other legal basis in international law,” he said in a witness statement to the inquiry.
Wood told the inquiry panel that Jack Straw, the foreign secretary before and during the war, remarked that international law was “pretty vague” and offered a certain amount of leeway. When Wood disagreed, Straw said he was being “dogmatic”.
Wood’s opinion of the illegality of the war was echoed by Elizabeth Wilmshurst, the government lawyer who was the only British civil servant to resign over the Iraq war.
In a statement to the inquiry, released ahead of her appearance this afternoon, Wilmshurst said the invasion was not only illegal but would damage the reputation of the UK as a law-abiding nation.
Declassified documents released by the inquiry show that Wood warned ministers three months before the invasion that it was not certain if military action would be legal.
George Monbiot is raising money online to fund a citizen’s arrest of Tony Blair for his key role in initiating the supreme war crime of invading Iraq.
