There appears to be a recent surge in the US for civil disobedience against alleged war criminals.
Recently the Israeli ambassador Michael Oren was heckled.
And now another wonderful example of action against Bush administration lawyer John Yoo who is accused of finding creative legal ways to authorise torture:
A fascinating exchange between Norman Finkelstein and Israeli spokesman and former adviser to Ariel Sharon Raanan Gissan on Russia Today.
The interview really speaks for itself but it’s worth noting the continual need for Gissan to claim that the Jewish people have a biblical claim over Palestine (“for 3000 years”) and this therefore justifies Israeli actions.
How many wild Jews are now operating in the West Bank?
A senior army commander on Thursday accused settler leaders of losing control of West Bank areas under their control after 30 youths attacked soldiers and border guards, injuring three.
A soldier and two Border Police officers were hurt in the hilltop settlement Yitzhar on Wednesday when settlers mistook a military exercise for an attempt to evict them.
“Around 30 youths overcame the security guard at the gate, threw stones and set tires alight,” said Col. Itzik Bar, who accused the settlement movement of “losing control of what is taking place on the ground”.
The Iraq war receives far too little media coverage these days. The “good war” in Afghanistan is leading the bulletins. But reading about this document from an American army medic back from Iraq, the atrocities by the Americans remain largely unknown.
ABC yesterday featured a story and news report about the massive refugee crisis in Jordan, countless men, women and children unable to return to Iraq and trapped in limbo. Many will want to come to Australia:
A leading global migration expert says Australia is likely to see an increase in the number of Iraqi asylum seekers arriving by boat because of a refugee crisis in the Middle East.
Dr Philip Marfleet, from the University of East London, says conditions for thousands of Iraqi refugees across the Middle East are growing worse by the day and he has called on Australia to increase its intake of Iraqi refugees to help ease the situation.
…
“More and more people from Iraq and other crisis zones are likely to seek sanctuary in Australia … I would describe it as a chronic crisis,” he said.
“It’s extremely likely, I think, that over the coming years we will see more and more Iraqis emerging into the smuggling networks.”
Hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled Iraq to Jordan, Syria and other surrounding countries since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Many are teachers, doctors and other professionals with their families.
These issues are discussed in the forthcoming book by my friend Mike Otterman, Erasing Iraq.
Israel’s liberals have become politically invisible. The country is therefore increasingly run by the right and far-right. Hooray for them.
In light of the Jewish state’s shocking global image (aside from the political elites who love its plucky nature and war against Palestinians), the Israeli government has a wonderful idea (it’s truly hard to read this and not laugh):
The Israeli government, deeply worried about the country’s declining international image, began a campaign on Wednesday to turn every Israeli — and ultimately every Jew — into a traveling public relations agent.
With a Web site backed by an advertising blitz, the Information and Diaspora Affairs Ministry began issuing Hebrew-language pamphlets to passengers on Israeli airlines and offering coaching courses to groups heading abroad. The message: “Are you fed up with the way we are portrayed around the world? You can change the picture.”
The information minister, Yuli Edelstein, said in a statement that a poll he had commissioned found that 91 percent of Israelis believed that their country had a poor image and that the vast majority wanted to play a role in improving it.
“To counter the big money invested by Arab states in propaganda against Israel, we have to mobilize our human capital, meaning the residents of Israel,” Mr. Edelstein said.
The new Web site presents a conservative interpretation of the issues over which Israel is most often criticized abroad — its settlements in the West Bank and its treatment of Palestinians, including the war in Gaza a year ago. But it also seeks to puncture what the ministry considers common myths about Israel — that it is a big and primitive country, that its food consists of little more than hummus and falafel, and that Israelis as a group do not seek peace.
…
One main message of the campaign is that Israel is a technically advanced and diverse society and that its government policies are not the source of regional conflict. It notes that a number of important agricultural breakthroughs have occurred here, including drip irrigation and the development of the cherry tomato.
Yep, the wonders of the juicy tomato will really make the world forget about occupation of Palestine.
UPDATE: Just read the response by Americans for Peace Now to this latest initiative :
Unfortunately, what the Ministry of Information offers its amateur ambassadors in the way of explaining Israel’s complex challenges is appalling. It’s a collection of half-truths (if not worse), which in most cases do not address the real, piercing questions that Israeli strategists have to deal with.
Astonishingly, there is nothing about a two-state solution. Israel’s goal, in terms of its relations with the Palestinians, is depicted as “coexistence,” yes, coexistence of Palestinians and Jewish settlers in the West Bank.
There isn’t even recognition that the West Bank is occupied. The discourse in Israel about the West Bank is depicted as evolving around Judea and Samaria’s “strategic value and the question of its being vital to Israel’s security.” C’mon!
Settlements? They are not the question, according to the Hasbara Ministry, and, anyway, Judea and Samaria are the land of the Bible; Jews were there first. So asserts the web site.
How about Israel’s future as a democratic state if the occupation of the West Bank continues? The Israeli hasbara volunteer is advised to argue that the demographic balance is actually a myth because the current numbers of West Bank and Gaza Palestinians – as well as the forecasts – are inflated. Seriously!
The Palestinian’s right for independence and statehood? The site advises the hasbara ambassador to argue that first the Palestinians have to stop inciting to violence against Israel. Then we’ll see about peace.
Uber Zionist Jeffrey Goldberg utters the “a” word:
Israel will one day be considered an apartheid state if it continues to rule over a population of Arabs that doesn’t want to be ruled by Israelis. That is why it is vital for Israel to establish permanent, internationally-recognized borders that more-or-less adhere to the 1967 border…It will be very dangerous for Israel to engineer this pull-back, but it will be, over time, fatal for it to stay in the West Bank.
Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency:
I have told many western friends that they need a training course on Iranian culture. This language of threats is the language used to animals, and therefore whoever uses it is condemned by us as uncivilised. It is a colonialist mentality. By threatening Iran with the Security Council, with sanctions, with military action, you are just making life more difficult for yourself – it doesn’t work.
Need any more evidence why Washington’s supposed desire for Middle East peace is regarded as a joke across the region? Even the Washington Post understands:
According to State’s latest report on Egypt, issued Feb. 25, “the government’s respect for human rights remained poor” during 2008 “and serious abuses continued in many areas.” It cited torture by security forces and a decline in freedom of the press, association and religion. Ms. Clinton was asked about those conclusions during an interview she gave to the al-Arabiya satellite network in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Her reply contained no expression of concern about the deteriorating situation. “We issue these reports on every country,” she said. “We hope that it will be taken in the spirit in which it is offered, that we all have room for improvement.”
Ms. Clinton was then asked whether there would be any connection between the report and a prospective invitation to President Hosni Mubarak to visit Washington. “It is not in any way connected,” she replied, adding: “I really consider President and Mrs. Mubarak to be friends of my family. So I hope to see him often here in Egypt and in the United States.” Ms. Clinton’s words will be treasured by al-Qaeda recruiters and anti-American propagandists throughout the Middle East. She appears oblivious to how offensive such statements are to the millions of Egyptians who loathe Mr. Mubarak’s oppressive government and blame the United States for propping it up.
The extremism of the ultra-Orthodox community is revealed once again in this Der Spiegel article:
The community of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel is half a million strong and growing. They live in a parallel universe cut off from the modern world in tight-knit communities where everything revolves around religion. Only a few dare to abandon this life — and the price for doing so is high.
When she left, she left everything behind — even her name. She no longer wanted to be known as Sarah, the name her parents had given her. She’d felt imprisoned by that name for too long; it made her feel different and subject to laws that others imposed upon her. So, she started her new life with a new name, Mayan, the Hebrew word for “source.”
It’s been seven years since Mayan “landed on planet Earth,” as she puts it. But the 27-year-old doesn’t feel completely at home here yet. She’s a young, modern Israeli woman. Still, despite the dragon tattoo on her shoulder and the loose top offering occasional glimpses of her bra, there are always some moments that betray her past. For example, when her friends talk about old TV series, classic pop music or their first schoolyard crushes, Mayan can’t join in. Until she was 17 years old, Mayan lived in another world, a world where those things simply didn’t exist.
A Life Completely Focused on Religion
The “parallel universe” Mayan used to live in has around 550,000 inhabitants. It is the world of the Orthodox Jews in Israel, whose adherents live in tight-knit communities where everything revolves around religion. They radically shield themselves from modern life. Television is frowned upon, as is non-religious music, telephones and the Internet. News that is important to the community is disseminated via notices posted on walls. Boys and girls go to school, but their education is primarily focused on religion.
“Everyone can read and write, but math was over after simple multiplication,” Mayan says. “When I left school, I didn’t even know what New York was, and I had never even seen a dog because nobody kept any pets.”
According to Irit Paneth, it is this lack of education, in particular, that makes it almost impossible for doubters in these communities to break out of the inflexible corset of their belief. Paneth is a member of Hillel – The Right To Choose, an organization that helps those leaving the Orthodox faith start a normal life. “We are not against the religion,” Paneth explains. “But Ultra-Orthodoxy is more like a cult that intellectually cripples children in the name of religion.” For most young people who break away from the Orthodox life, she explains, it’s like leaping off a cliff into the unknown. “They come without money, without education in the classical sense, without any chance of employment,” Paneth says.
When Muslim children are treated in a similar way the media and wider community are outraged and essentially claim parents are inflicting abuse.
But with Jews, we allegedly tolerate this cult-like behaviour.
I recently posted about an upcoming Supreme Court case that might redefine the ability of American citizens to provide advice to “terrorist” groups wanting non-violent means to achieve their goals.
This article expands on what is at stake and focuses on Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tigers:
The legal dispute arose from advice given by the Humanitarian Law Project to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka. Both groups are listed by the State Department as terrorist organizations.
Recently, Indicted Wall Street hedge fund manager Rajakumara Rajaratnam and his father, J. M. Rajaratnam, knowingly provided financial and other support to the Tamil Tigers, more than 30 victims and survivors of the terrorist group’s attacks alleged, according to a report obtained by the National Association of Chiefs of Police.
In a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey in Newark, NJ, family members of those killed and survivors of bombings committed by the group formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE), alleged that Rajaratnam and the family foundation headed by his father provided millions of dollars in funds used for the deadly and destructive terrorist attacks.
The seven-count complaint, the result of a year-long investigation, was filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789 which grants non-U.S. citizens access to the U.S. Courts to seek justice for violations of “the law of nations,” such as crimes against humanity and terrorism, no matter where they occur.
From 2004 through 2009, the LTTF, or Tamil Tigers, conducted hundreds of attacks, including several suicide bombings and political assassination attempts. According to the FBI, LTTE is responsible for the murders of over 4,000 people since 2006. The terrorist organization was the first to use suicide attacks on a widespread basis, a tactic subsequently adopted by al Qaeda and Hamas, among others. Most of LTTE’s funding and weapons procurement came from a network of international front charities and non-governmental organizations controlled by LTTE.
The complaint documents the transfer of millions of dollars from Rajaratnam and his family’s foundation to the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), which was designated by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2007 as a “charitable organization that acts as a front to facilitate fundraising and procurement for the LTTE.” The TRO’s assets were immediately frozen.
According to the complaint, Rajaratnam gave $1 million to the TRO’s U.S. branch in 2004 in response to LTTE’s calls for renewed funding in anticipation of the “final war.” This money was funneled from TRO-US accounts to TRO headquarters in Sri Lanka. Rajaratnam had previously made a $1 million contribution to TRO following the LTTE’s successful “Elephant Pass” guerrilla campaign. These donations “demonstrate Rajaratnam’s contributions were given with the intent of supporting specific LTTE attacks and operations,” the complaint charges.
The complaint also documents donations from the Rajaratnam Family Foundation to the TRO totaling well over $5 million from 2001 to 2007.
As further evidence that Rajaratnam clearly supported LTTE’s campaign of terrorism, the complaint cites allegations that letters introducing Rajaratnam were provided to LTTE founder and leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran between December 2002 and June 2003. The letters of introduction to Prabhakaran, who was killed in 2009, were arranged by Karunakaran Kandasamy (Karuna), a TRO fundraiser and an LTTE operative who pled guilty in U.S. courts to criminal charges of materially supporting LTTE in June 2009.
In letters to senior LTTE leaders in Sri Lanka, Karuna described Rajaratnam as a wealthy Tamil supporter in the United States who was “among the people who provide financial support for our struggle for freedom” and as someone who “has been working actively on the forefront.”
In November 2002, Rajaratnam, speaking at a fundraiser for the Association of Tamils of Sri Lankan USA (ITSA), called those supporting the Tamils’ struggle in Sri Lanka “terrorists,” later adding that they were not just terrorists but also “freedom fighters.”
In addition, Rajaratnam’s father wrote on ITSA’s web site that “Historically, freedom movements have been labeled as terrorist organizations by the oppressors . . . ‘Terrorists’ have in their lifetime become ‘His excellencies.’” He added, “LTTE has not engaged in any killing that is not justifiable in the context of war.”
The counts brought by the lawsuit are: aiding and abetting terrorist acts universally condemned as violations of the law of nations; aiding and abetting, intentionally facilitating, and/or recklessly disregarding crimes against humanity in violation of international law; reckless disregard; wrongful death; survival; negligence; and negligent and/or intentional infliction of emotional distress.
A Palestinian, Ahmed Moor, writes beautifully and painfully about his people’s post-Oslo “vulture class”, the gangsters, frauds and freaks who largely still speak for their people.
But who do they really represent?
The Dubai murder of a Hamas leader is getting juicier by the day.
Palestinian defectors may well have been involved:
A key security operative of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas was under arrest in Syria tonight on suspicion of having helped an alleged Israeli hit squad identify Mahmoud al-Mabhouh before he was assassinated in Dubai, the Guardian has learned.
Palestinian sources in the Gulf confirmed Nahro Massoud, a Hamas security official, was in detention and under interrogation in Damascus in connection with the 19 January killing, which is now widely assumed to have been mounted by Israel‘s Mossad secret intelligence service.
Britain is allegedly furious (though I find this hard to believe). London has excused Israeli behaviour for decades:
Britain last night fired the first shot in a potentially explosive diplomatic row with Israel by calling in the country’s ambassador to explain the use of faked British passports by a hit squad who targeted a Hamas official in Dubai.
The Israeli ambassador has been summoned to the Foreign Office to “share information” about the assassins’ use of identities stolen from six British citizens living in Israel, as part of the meticulously orchestrated assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.
Britain has stopped short of accusing Israel of involvement, but to signal its displeasure, the Foreign Office ignored an Israeli plea to keep the summons secret. “Relations were in the freezer before this. They are in the deep freeze now,” an official told the Guardian.
The Independent is calling for a more vigorous British response to the alleged outrages committed by Israel.
Collusion. That’s what it’s all about. The United Arab Emirates suspect – only suspect, mark you – that Europe’s “security collaboration” with Israel has crossed a line into illegality, where British passports (and those of other other EU nations) can now be used to send Israeli agents into the Gulf to kill Israel’s enemies. At 3.49pm yesterday afternoon (Beirut time, 1.49pm in London), my Lebanese phone rang. It was a source – impeccable, I know him, he spoke with the authority I know he has in Abu Dhabi – to say that “the British passports are real. They are hologram pictures with the biometric stamp. They are not forged or fake. The names were really there. If you can fake a hologram or biometric stamp, what does this mean?”
The voice – I know the man and his origins well – wants to talk. “There are 18 people involved in the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Besides the 11 already named, there are two Palestinians who are being interrogated and five others, including a woman. She was part of the team that staked out the hotel lobby.” Two hours later, an SMS arrives on my Beirut phone from Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. It is the same source.
“ONE MORE THING,” it says in capital letters, then continues in lower case. “The command room of the operation was in Austria (sic, in fact, all things are “sic” in this report)… meaning the suspects when here did not talk to each other but thru the command room on separate lines to avoid detection or linking themselves to one another… but it was detected and identified OK??” OK? I ask myself.
