Antony Loewenstein

APHEDA is the aid arm of Australia’s biggest union, the ACTU.

Yesterday they released the following statement:

Union Aid Abroad–APHEDA study tour to the Middle East

Union Aid Abroad–APHEDA, the overseas humanitarian aid agency of the ACTU, led a study tour of trade union officials and members to the Middle East from Monday 1st March to Monday 15th March, 2010.

The purpose of the study tour was:-
• To examine Union Aid Abroad–APHEDA’s aid projects with Palestinian refugees in Bourj el-Barajneh camp in Beirut, Lebanon; food security and agriculture projects with Palestinian families in the West Bank and Gaza Strip; and projects of medical assistance to the El Wafa Medical Rehabilitation Hospital in Gaza.
• To meet with Palestinian and Israeli trade unions and workers’ organisations

Study tour participants came from NSW, Queensland, Victoria and the ACT, and unions represented were the Teachers Union, the Construction Union, the Australian Services Union, the Health Services Union, the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union, and Unions ACT.

The study tour visited Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Meetings were
held with:
• Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU), Nablus and Jericho branches
• Histadrut (General Federation of Labour in Israel), Tel Aviv
• The Australian Ambassador to Israel, Tel Aviv
• The Australian Representative to the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Ramallah
• United Nations Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Mr Maxwell Gaylard, Jerusalem
• United Nations Relief & Works Agency Gaza Director, Mr John Ging
• UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs – Hebron, Mr Hamed Qawasmeh, Hebron
• Four members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Ramallah
• Representatives from the Palestinian Negotiations Support Unit, Jerusalem
• International Trade Union Confederation (Jordan), Mr Nezam Qahoush, Amman
- General Union of Palestine Workers (GUPW), Ramallah
• Federation of Independent Unions of Palestine (FIUP), Ramallah
• Democracy and Workers’ Rights Centre (DWRC), Ramallah
• Palestinian BDS National Committee, Ramallah
• MA’AN Development Centre, Ramallah & Gaza City
• El Wafa Medical Rehabilitation Hospital, Gaza City
• Women’s Humanitarian Organisation, Beirut
• The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), Jerusalem
• Workers’ Advice Centre, Tel Aviv
• Kav La’Oved (Workers’ Hotline), Jericho

The tour was led by Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA’s Middle East Project Officer, Lisa Arnold, and volunteer Yusuf Douer, and assisted by Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA’s Executive Officer, Peter Jennings.

Participants were:-

Sally McManus Secretary, ASU     NSW
Kim Sattler  Secretary, Unions ACT    ACT
Mal Tulloch  Assistant Secretary, CFMEU C&G   NSW
Leonore Hankinson Industrial Officer, NSW Teachers Federation NSW
Evan Moorhead ALP State Member for Waterford   Qld
David Forde  Labor 4 a Just Palestine & CFMEU C&G  Qld
Wendy Turner  ALP Vice President & LHMU    Qld
Ross Franks  Organiser, CEPU – ETU Division   Qld
Phil Monsour  State Council Rep., Qld Teachers Union  Qld
Ginny Adams  Organiser, HACSU No 2 Branch   Victoria

Of particular concern to the participants were these issues:-

1. Sanctions against Gaza
Israel has imposed a blockade and economic sanctions against Gaza since June 2007.  These sanctions are illegal, inhumane and counter-productive.  They are illegal because they contravene international law such as the Geneva Conventions.  They are inhumane because they are resulting in great poverty and immense suffering for 1.5 million people, and as usual, women and children suffer the most.  They are counter-productive because they actually strengthen Hamas, who control goods smuggled through the tunnels from Egypt into Gaza, and charge a tax upon these goods.

2. Illegal settlements in the West Bank
The growth of illegal settlements of people from Israel into the West Bank and East Jerusalem continues apace, and the methods used to drive Palestinians off their land and from their homes as part of a deliberate Israeli Government policy of creating circumstances to force people out has been described as ethnic cleansing.  Adding to the dispossession of Palestinians from their land, these illegal settlements are generally surrounded by no-go zones that vary in size from a couple of hundred meters to approximately one kilometre, and are connected by settler-only highways which also have wide no-go zones for Palestinians.  With almost 60% of the West Bank now taken by the settlements, settler-only roads and the Separation Wall, Palestinians are increasingly squeezed into a small number of “districts” or “ghettos” or “bantustans”.  The Palestinian chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, claims that the illegal settlements are now reaching a “tipping point” and soon a one-state solution will be the only option, and Ehud Barak, former Israeli Prime Minister and current Defense Minister, has stated that “Israel will be an apartheid state if no peace deal is reached”. (Haaretz, March 7th, 2010)

3. The Wall
A 700 kilometre long, 9 metre high Wall is being built throughout the West Bank.  The vast majority of the Wall’s route does not follow the pre-1967 “Green Line” international border between Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, but rather cuts through Palestinian land, taking approximately 10% of the West Bank as it snakes between illegal Israeli settlements and Palestinian communities.  It frequently cuts through Palestinian communities, separating families, and cutting farmers off from their land.  Families trapped between the Wall and the internationally-recognised border are subjected to the most extreme conditions, including restrictions on food and access to land and external medical facilities in emergency situations.

4. The Checkpoints
There are over 550 military checkpoints throughout the West Bank and East Jerusalem.  Palestinians on their way to work or even children on their way to school are often kept waiting at these checkpoints for lengthy periods, often hours, before being permitted to proceed by the Israeli soldier.  We ourselves witnessed many Palestinians being humiliated in this way before being permitted to proceed through the checkpoint, including an elderly man on his way to worship in the mosque at Hebron.

5. Workers’ Rights
Although we were assured by the Israeli Trade Union Federation, the Histadrut, that, following an Israeli High Court decision in 2007, there is now no discrimination in Israeli Labour Laws between Israeli and Palestinian or other migrant workers, we were also informed by the PGFTU, the GUPW, the FIUP and all workers’ rights organisations we spoke with, that there still exists five strata amongst workers, with differing wages, conditions and rights.  There are Israeli citizens, Israeli citizens who are Arabs, Palestinian workers with permits to enter Israel or the illegal settlements to work, Palestinian workers who work in Israel or the illegal settlements without permits, and Asian migrant workers.

6. Political Prisoners
It is estimated that there are over 7,000 Palestinian political prisoners in Israel, over 300 of them are children, and one-third of the elected Palestinian Legislative Council are still in Israeli prisons. Many prisoners are held in administrative detention for periods of up to 6 months without charge and with limited access to legal representation.

7. Palestinian Refugees
There are over 422,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, more than half of whom reside in 12 United Nations-administered refugee camps throughout the country.  The camps have no proper infrastructure, and suffer very high levels of overcrowding, poverty and unemployment.  The Lebanese constitution explicitly forbids integration for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.  They have no social and civil rights (they cannot obtain Lebanese citizenship), very limited access to government-provided public health or educational facilities, and no access to public social services.  Palestinian refugees are also prohibited by law from working in 72 trades and professions, hence their high levels of unemployment. Consequently, Palestinian refugees remain dependent on United Nations agencies or local non-government organisations to provide services, which remain grossly inadequate for the growing refugee population in Lebanon.  The minimum demand from these refugees is their right of return or to receive compensation, as guaranteed in UN General Assembly Resolution 194 (1948).

Conclusion
The study tour group believes that both countries, Israel and Palestine, have the right to exist within internationally-accepted borders in accordance with United Nations Resolutions.

The study tour group acknowledges Israel’s right to security, but believes that true security will only come about when Israel has the courage to make a just peace with its Palestinian neighbours, rather than attempting to crush them, humiliate them at checkpoints and drive them off their land.

Does anybody still respect Tony Blair?

Tony Blair waged an extraordinary two-year battle to keep secret a lucrative deal with a multinational oil giant which has extensive interests in Iraq.

The former Prime Minister tried to keep the public in the dark over his dealings with South Korean oil firm UI Energy Corporation.

Mr Blair – who has made at least £20million since leaving Downing Street in June 2007 – also went to great efforts to keep hidden a £1million deal advising the ruling royal family in Iraq’s neighbour Kuwait.

In an unprecedented move, he persuaded the committee which vets the jobs of former ministers to keep details of both deals from the public for 20 months, claiming it was commercially sensitive. The deals emerged yesterday when the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments finally lost patience with Mr Blair and decided to ignore his objections and publish the details.

News of the secret deals fuelled fresh accusations that Mr Blair is ‘cashing in on his contacts’ from the controversial Iraq war in what one MP called ‘revolving door politics at its worst’.

They will increase concerns that Mr Blair is using his role as the West’s Middle East envoy for personal gain.

The revelations also shed fresh light on his astonishing earnings, which include lucrative after-dinner speaking, consultancies with banks and foreign governments, a generous advance for his forthcoming memoirs, as well as the pension and other perks he enjoys as a former Prime Minister.

America’s leading Zionist lobby, AIPAC, is currently hosting its annual conference in Washington. Even Jeffrey Goldberg thinks the schedule is too right-wing:

The dearth of speakers who approach the most contentious issues of the Middle East from a left-Zionist perspective is noticeable. Most American Jews voted for Obama; most American Jews are liberal; and most American Jews understand the difference between the legitimate security needs of the State of Israel and the theological, political and economic needs of the small minority of Israelis who have settled the West Bank. So would it hurt to bring in speakers from the Meretz Party, from the kibbutz movement, from the New Israel Fund, from the Reform Movement, so that the AIPAC attendees could hear for themselves the views of Zionists who disagree with the policies of Israel’s right-wing parties?

Not to worry, the Obama administration is coming bearing gifts of love for the Jewish state. Here’s Hillary Clinton:

“For President (Barack) Obama, for me, and for this entire administration, our commitment to Israel’s security and Israel’s future is rock solid,” Clinton said.

AIPAC President Lee Rosenberg gave the Obama administration a piece of his mind Sunday and the AIPAC faithful loved it. Who is at fault for, well, pretty much everything? Those pesky Arabs:

A message from a friend in America:

When you wake up today, you will have woken up in a country that has finally passed hugely significant, though incremental, health care reform. Hundreds of millions of your fellow Americans (fellow human beings) will benefit concretely from these changes, and we will all be several big steps closer to living in a nation that meets infirmity with compassion and care.

Though there have been times in the past year where I looked backed in uncertainty on my zeal for Obama’s election, that has been washed away by this historic accomplishment. I weep with joy when I think of all the people, real people, who will no longer be denied coverage due to a pre-existing condition, and for all the people who can no longer have a lifetime cap placed upon their insurance coverage (just as there is no lifetime cap upon the amount a person can SPEND on their insurance).

And then I think of all the people who were not able to provide healthcare for themselves or their loved ones, lived in fear that they or their loved ones might grow ill with no money for treatment, or even worse, were forced to endure such a REALITY. I think of all the people who could have hoped for no other fate than a slow, painful death under the previous system configuration, yet who now can afford to purchase insurance.

It’s truly a historic day. I am grateful that, for all its failings, our government can still pull it together and make a stand for its people. Just as my faith in the people of this nation was restored on November 5th of 2008, it is further enervated with this milestone. As long as we can still pass legislation that addresses the issues that really matter, that affect the fate of those least fortunate among us in progressive way, there is great hope that our nation will emerge from a long and painful learning process as strong, healthy, and prosperous as our great potential allows.

Find at least one moment today to celebrate this historic accomplishment. And remember: if you cast your vote for Barack Obama on that day in November 2008, this victory belongs also to you. This is an example of what we can accomplish when we are united.

If you didn’t cast your vote for Obama, even if you don’t support this legislation or if you remain concerned about its effectiveness, watch and see. Even if you admit it to no one else aloud, take a moment to think of all the good this bill will do. Remember the less fortunate among us who, all politics aside, will see their load lightened and their lot improved. Let their joy be your joy, let their triumph be your triumph, and let our victory be a victory for you and yours as well.

Rumblings, rising anger, Israeli complicity and seeming global inaction:

Doctors who treated two Palestinian youths shot dead by Israeli troops in the West Bank have refuted the army’s claim that they had used rubber bullets and said the medical evidence showed that live ammunition had been fired.

…

The Israeli military said on Saturday that it had opened an investigation into the shootings but also insisted that soldiers had responded with tear gas and rubber bullets to a “violent and illegal riot” and added: “Live fire was not used.”

But a hospital X-ray released by the Israeli human rights agency Btselem and also shown to The Independent by doctors at Nablus’s private Speciality hospital show what appears to be a conventional metal bullet lodged in the brain of Osaid Qadus, who died there of his injuries at about 3am yesterday.

An editorial in the latest edition of Middle East Report on the issue of dwindling water resources in the region:

The Middle East is running out of water.

It is a statement that may seem both banal and unduly apocalyptic. Most of the land in this arid region is desert. Large oil-exporting states like Saudi Arabia and Libya exhausted their indigenous renewable water supply decades ago. The desalination plants of the Gulf are well known; the Great Manmade River constructed by Libya is notorious. At the same time, water runs freely from the tap in most heavily populated areas of the region. Though it has endured more than its fair share of war, the Middle East has mostly been spared the murderous drought and famine that has accompanied civil strife in the Horn of Africa. The inter-state “water wars” that have been predicted for some time have never been fought and, though the predictions keep coming, these conflicts are not on the horizon.

But the Middle East has entered a new water era, one in which its relative lack of fresh water supply will bump up against growth in demand. The total population of the region—defined as North Africa, Sudan, Somalia, the Levant, the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq and Iran—is expected to climb from 309 million in 2000 to about 651 million in 2030. Rising living standards, attained by at least portions of these populations, translate into more water consumption per capita. During the same period the absolute supply of water is projected to decrease, due to drops in precipitation and river flows induced by climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the most prestigious body examining the matter, has forecast that “annual rainfall is likely to decrease in much of Mediterranean Africa and northern Sahara, with the likelihood of a decrease in rainfall increasing as the Mediterranean coast is approached.” An independent study published in Nature magazine likewise estimated that regional rainfall could decrease by 10–30 percent by the year 2050.

Zionism in the 21st century:

The Israeli government passed at least 21 bills aimed at discriminating against the country’s Arab citizens making the current Knesset as being the most racist Israeli parliament since the country’s founding, according to a report released Sunday by civil rights groups.

The Coalition Against Racism and the Mossawa Center, which works to promote equality, claimed that the proposed legislation seeks to de-legitimize Israel’s Arab citizens by decreasing their civil rights. The report’s data show that in 2008 there were 11 bills defined as racist presented to the Knesset while in 2009 there were 12 such bills.

In 2010, the report’s authors claim, there were no less than 21 bills proposed that included discriminatory elements against the country’s Arab citizens.

My following article appears in today’s edition of Crikey:

Christmas Island is a “pressure cooker”, according to one recently-returned refugee advocate. And the situation will blow up completely if the federal government is allowed to deport asylum seekers back to strife-torn Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.

As more boats arrive at the offshore immigration processing centre — and more accommodation is hastily built for the more than 2000 residents — the federal government will come under more pressure to deny visas after a review of international protection guidelines by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

The agency has hinted at revising its rulings on Sri Lanka. Regional representative Richard Towle told the ABC the humanitarian situation in the country is “moving in the right direction and we think any review of the guidelines needs to reflect these positive changes”.

That could be devastating to those languishing on Christmas Island, according to Sonia Caton. The former director and principal solicitor at the Refugee and Immigration Legal Service is concerned by the possibility of  “refugee politics” within donor countries influencing the guidelines anticipated by the UNHCR, potentially putting asylum seeker’s lives at risk.

“The government is doing the job we signed up to do under the Refugee Convention and it is doing it well. But people need to be brought on-shore –- the place is a pressure cooker,” Caton told Crikey last week after returning from the island.

“It is currently only working because the largely Hazara asylum seeker population see people receive visas, so they sit and wait in crowded conditions because they have hope. Take that hope away and the management of the detention centre will change overnight.”

Caton says she knows of no illegitimate refugee claimants — “maybe there are a few opportunists, but I didn’t come across any” — and hopes the UNHCR will take into account current information from NGOs in Afghanistan to arrive at an accurate assessment of a very volatile and dangerous situation.

“Most of the 2000 asylum seekers in detention are Hazaras,” Caton said. “Those I represented were mostly farmers from the Ghazni Province. The Taliban are increasingly active there and have co-opted the Kuchi and Pashtuns to target ‘infidel’ Hazaras. Hazaras are starving and cannot access medical help because travelling on Taliban controlled roads is a dice with death or serious harm — hence the outflow of asylum seekers fleeing Refugee Convention persecution.”

Caton praised Immigration Minister Chris Evans for greatly improving the conditions of refugees in mandatory detention since 2008 though she still despairs at the increasingly long periods in detention offshore and presence of children in detention, despite departmental denials.

UNHCR does constantly update its country assessments. The last thorough examination of Sri Lanka was nearly one year ago, before the end of the 26-year-long civil war. But a number of other refugee experts have told Crikey it is highly unlikely the UNHCR will recommend the cessation of all refugee claims from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, allowing neither the Rudd government nor Liberal opposition to make credible claims of vastly improved security situations in both countries.

Caton said that the relatively few refugees reaching our shores is insignificant compared to the Iraqi and Afghan refugees sitting in countries like Jordan, Syria, Iran and Lebanon: “The [Australian] migration program has literally exploded over the past six to eight years, yet the humanitarian intake remains static year in and year out at a pathetic 14,000 a year, give or take 500…”

In 2002 Australia contributed more than $19 million to UNHCR and was its 12th largest donor. In 2008 this increased to $28 million but the ranking dropped to 13th. The Immigration Department says about 660 asylum seekers detained on Christmas Island have been given refugee status so far this year — more than half of the total 1,130 offered visas in 2009.

Antony Loewenstein is a freelance journalist and author of My Israel Question and The Blogging Revolution

Don’t let anybody believe that the opposition in Iran isn’t still alive. From a contact:

I want to share with you a film of a crowd gathered last night in the shrine of the Persian poet Hafez seeing the Iranian New Year in Shiraz. They can be heard chanting “An Iranian would rather die and live under subjugation” and “yah Hossein- Mir-Hossein”:

A positive sign in many ways and shows that not all Western firms will always bow to Beijing’s demands. Of course, the flip argument is that the departure of Google will leave one less non-Chinese company in the country, a group that may sometimes challenge strict web censorship:

Google will today set out plans to close down its Chinese search engine after refusing to comply with China’s strict censorship laws.

The company is expected to announce that google.cn will close as soon as April 10 after the Chinese government refused to acquiesce to demands that it stop self-censorship of the site.

It is understood that Google will continue to operate other services in the country and will maintain its research and development operations.

A propaganda war short from the perspective of the US-backed Afghanistan Special Forces, Strike Force Lion, “who describe their own personal reasons why they continue to fight the war against terrorist threats within their country”.

These films are undeniably interesting but they’re utterly without context. How much support do such forces have in the country? The Kabul-based government is essentially a corrupt body held up with Western backing.

Then again, propaganda (from any side) is not supposed to be about objective reporting but pushing a particular agenda.

Why We Fight from Tyler Ginter on Vimeo.

This is how the editor of the Jerusalem Post, David Horowitz, views the recent oh so mild pressure from America:

By deliberately inflating the [settlement] Ramat Shlomo issue into a public crisis of faith in its ally, the Obama administration has encouraged Israel’s enemies.