Antony Loewenstein

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

Soon after Sydney’s Marrickville council announced in December to embrace boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel to force the Jewish state to abide by international law —   Greens and Labor councillors supported the move — federal Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese entered the debate.

In a news story in The Australian and an opinion piece in the same paper, the supposedly left-wing politician damned Marrickville’s decision as “unfortunate and misguided”.

But neither he nor the Murdoch broadsheet saw it relevant to mention a key part of the story; Albanese’s wife, New South Wales deputy premier Carmel Tebbutt, is running in the upcoming election against the Greens mayor of Marrickville and Greens Marrickville candidate Fiona Byrne.

It was the kind of dishonesty all too apparent in this very public debate. Crikey has investigated the story and uncovered a litany of untruths told by the Labor Party, Jewish youth groups, the local Zionist lobby and the NSW Liberal Party against Byrne in a campaign she may well win on the March 26 election.

Opponents have stooped to using push polling and fake phone surveys to discredit Byrne.

Putting aside the fact that BDS is a non-violent tactic increasingly adopted by civil society groups across the world, including in Australia, in the face of ongoing Zionist colonisation in the West Bank, a key criticism of Marrickville has been the supposed cost of debating and implementing the move. Wild figures have been thrown around.

NSW Liberal MP Chris Hartcher, the shadow special minister of state, issued a press release on  March 3 that alleged Marrickville council “has wasted up to $40,000 on this silly, offensive endeavour. That is simply staggering.” He pledged, if his party won government, to use state legislation to stop local councils “wasting ratepayers’ money on this sort of thing”.

Crikey asked Hartcher for the source of his figure and he said that it was “an informed estimate given to us privately by council staff who have been involved in implementing the BDS”.

In fact, Marrickville council haven’t yet enforced BDS with its staff currently writing a report to be released in April on ways the council can implement the policy.

NSW Attorney-General John Hatzistergos tweeted the $40,000 amount in mid-February, letter writers to the Daily Telegraph repeated the number, a Telegraph columnist smeared Greens mayors for daring to care about issues beyond fixing potholes, and the Australian Jewish News simply rehashed Hartcher’s number.

However, there was a slight problem; the figure wasn’t true. Crikey has spoken to a Marrickville councillor and I attended this week’s council meeting to hear from the general manager about the issue. The general manager said that there has been “no expenditure spent on BDS, just a little staff time but it’s impossible to put a figure on it. The local media has made up any figures”.

When Crikey asked Hartcher about Marrickville’s previous embrace of a boycott against Burma, and whether he found this “offensive” as well, he told me that “Australia’s foreign affairs are the responsibility of the federal government, not local councils”.

During the dark days of apartheid South Africa, local, state and federal levels of government eventually took a stand against the regime there and nobody complained. Nor when Burma was targeted for its gross abuses.

The issue here is the perceived democratic nature of the Zionist state, despite its increasingly fascist actions against Arabs and Palestinians. This reality is ignored in the corridors of mainstream power. And the power of the Zionist lobby is legendary in the halls of power.

During Tuesday night’s Marrickville council meeting, when councillors considered an application for a new, local Jewish group to hire a space in the area to host an Australian Rules football team with connections to Israel, several Jewish speakers spoke passionately against Marrickville’s embrace of BDS.

One woman, an Israeli, said that she felt “threatened in my own community” and urged the council to “chose a more positive path” towards backing Middle East peace. Another woman, also an Israeli, claimed that BDS was a “festering, infectious wound” and the council had to rescind BDS immediately.

Such comments suggest a fundamental misunderstanding of BDS. The local Zionist lobby has been spreading distortions against the policy, claiming Marrickville was anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish and anti-Israel. They fear the threat of a good example in Marrickville may catch with other councils (a real possibility in NSW and other states, Crikey has heard).

Federal Labor MP Michael Danby damned the BDS motion — he refused to answer questions from Crikey — and I understand that AUJS (the Australian Union of Jewish Students) were behind anti-Greens posters seen during Mardi Gras around Sydney.

One message read, “‘Do the NSW Greens oppose gay rights? By boycotting Israel, the NSW Greens are boycotting the only country in the Middle East where homos-xuality is not a capital offence or even a crime. Choose Freedom — Don’t Vote Greens on 26 March”.

Other signs included: “Do the Greens support terror?” “Do the Greens hate Christians?” “Do the Greens hate gays?”

These messages are condemned by many queer Israeli and Palestinian groups in Israel and Palestine, which accuse Zionist groups and Israel of attempting to normalise the Israeli occupation and anti-Arab discrimination.

Furthermore, anti-Muslim groups in Australia have joined in attacking Marrickville council over BDS and the Jewish establishment apparently has no issue siding with the far-right because the common love is Israel. No Zionist organisation has publicly condemned these anti-Muslim activists. One website calls Fiona Byrne a “Hamas harlot”.

This fits perfectly with the growing trend of Europe’s fascist parties being warmly embraced by Israel’s Zionist mainstream.

Against the backdrop of a vocal and bigoted minority, who demand local councils don’t take sides in the Middle East then back Zionist policies themselves, citizens across the world have backed Marrickville’s BDS decision and signed a petition in great numbers. Crikey has seen a list of signatories and supporting statements and they include key unionists, lawyers, writers and many residents of Marrickville.

Just this week it was announced that security firm G4S will no longer supply gear in occupied Palestinian territory. That’s because of consistent BDS pressure in Denmark.

During the Marrickville council meeting this week, prominent public campaigner Father Dave told the assembled crowd that BDS was essential in enabling justice and “when peace comes to the Middle East, with Jews and Palestinians living together, let us remember that Marrickville council took an early stand, not the political leaders who will take credit”.

*Antony Loewenstein is an independent journalist and author of My Israel Question and The Blogging Revolution.

Yet another example of a Western government giving bogus reasons to try and censor material in the public interest. Similar claims were made against Wikileaks. The issue here is the state being embarrassed and ashamed. They should be:

This is the state of human rights against faceless asylum seekers in Australia. Justified frustration, after months and years of waiting for decisions, is met with violence. And under-staffed Serco are the battering rams of the failed policy?

From yesterday’s ABC’s The World Today:

BRENDAN TREMBATH: Refugee advocates and the Greens say they’re horrified that Australian Federal Police officers used so called “bean-bag” bullets to quell a demonstration at the Christmas Island immigration detention centre.

The rounds are supposed to stun someone without killing them.

The bean-bag bullets were used along with tear gas to break up a protest by around 300 people on Saturday night at the North West detention centre.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen says the AFP officers were acting within their use of force guidelines and he respects their decision.

From Canberra, Naomi Woodley reports.

NAOMI WOODLEY: The Immigration Minister revealed on Monday that officers from the Australian Federal Police Organisational Response Group used tear gas to break up a protest by around three hundred asylum seekers at the Christmas Island detention centre on Saturday night.

The AFP has now revealed that officers also used synthetic bullets known as “bean bag” bullets – fired out of a 12 gauge shotgun.

The Immigration Minister, Chris Bowen.

CHRIS BOWEN: They have confirmed that they used what is known as a bean bag bullet and like you I needed some education as to what a bean bag bullet is. But as it has been explained to me, it is a bullet which the worse damage that can be done is bruising. It is like a little mini beanbag which comes out of a gun-like weapon.

NAOMI WOODLEY: He says the police were responding to a genuine fear about a protest which he’s described as violent.

Chris Bowen says it left immigration officers and staff from the centre’s operators, Serco, in need of help.

CHRIS BOWEN: Certainly there was a fear and an indication that there was a violent protest on that particular night, that it was necessary to do that and that (inaudible) and Serco officials needed the assistance of AFP because there was a very volatile situation on the evening.

NAOMI WOODLEY: Chris Bowen says around 70 detainees escaped from the centre on Friday night, and 100 on Saturday. He’s confident they’ve all been returned.

CHRIS BOWEN: My advice is that the vast majority are in. Of course, there are ongoing headcounts just to confirm that everybody is in. But certainly my advice is that all, almost all detainees are inside the centre.

NAOMI WOODLEY: The Minister says there was another protest overnight, but it was peaceful. He acknowledges the situation there is tense, and frustration levels among detainees are high.

The executive director of the Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre, David Manne, says long wait times in detention are causing asylum seekers enormous stress.

DAVID MANNE: Why is processing taking so long? What are so many people being held for so long when the policy that the Government announced promised that people would be released from detention for the duration of processing after initial checks for health, security and identity?

The second question is, why is it necessary to keep so many people under these sorts of conditions in remote incarceration?

NAOMI WOODLEY: The AFP says the use of the bean bag bullets will be subject to a routine investigation, and the Minister Chris Bowen has already announced an “arms length” inquiry into the way the weekend’s events were handled by Serco and the department.

David Manne says he doesn’t know of the bullets being used before in immigration detention centres before, and an independent inquiry is urgently needed.

DAVID MANNE: It is critical that there be a full independent enquiry with terms of reference which are broad enough to look at the context which has created this situation and as part of that, to look at how it is that the use of force came into play and why.

NAOMI WOODLEY: The Minister, Chris Bowen, says he respects the decision of the officers on the ground, and the AFP says it’s acting within its guidelines for the appropriate use of force.

But the Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young says the Government has some obvious questions to answer.

SARAH HANSON-YOUNG: Who indeed authorised this type of force to be used? When was the minister made aware of- that people were planning on using this type of action – and of course, what on earth could be used to justify this type of action and justification for this type of action on vulnerable asylum seekers?

Example one:

The Israeli security firm Hashmira, which is owned by the Danish concern G4S, announced last weekend it will stop providing equipment to security installations over the Green Line.

The move comes in the wake of public pressure in Denmark following a report from the Coalition of Women for Peace, which runs the “Who Profits?” project monitoring Israeli companies operating in the territories.

The report, released in November, says that Hashmira provides baggage scanning equipment and body scanners for the Qalandiya, Bethlehem, Sha’ar Efraim and Eyal checkpoints.

It also provided the Ofer base near Ramallah a peripheral security system installed on the security prison walls, and the central control room for the entire compound, which includes a jail for Palestinian prisoners, a lockup and a military court.

Hashmira also installed a security system for the Judea & Samaria district police headquarters in the E1 area near Ma’aleh Adumim.

The report aroused public criticism in Denmark among several elected officials, including the Danish minister of foreign affairs.

In addition, the city of Copenhagen decided to consider its continued investment in the company.

In 2002, G4S faced public pressure over its acquisition of the Israeli company Hashmira, which then provided security services to settlements, including armed guards.

…

In its announcement G4S said it intends to terminate contracts with security facilities in the territories as soon as possible. The company stated, however, that it recognizes its contractual obligations toward its customers and will take these into account.

Example two:

The Gaza Truck Drivers Union called strike action against the Israeli decision on 2 March to permanently close the Karni commercial crossing in the Gaza Strip.  Citing increased logistics costs and insufficient capacity at the only other commercial crossing left open for Gaza’s trade, the truck drivers’ action has highlighted the fact that, since 2007, Israel has now permanently closed three of the four trade & aid goods crossings into the Gaza Strip – an action in violation of international agreements, and which further seals the Gaza Strip and its 1.5 million Palestinian population off from the rest of the world.

In support of International Transport Federation (ITF) policy which calls for “the opening of facilities to provide land, air and sea points of entry and exit for trade for the Palestinian people free from interference by the Israeli occupying power”, AUSPalestine calls on Australian transport unions to write to the Israeli Ambassador - and copy letters to the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU), and the Histadrut – to condemn Israel’s actions against the Palestinian people which severely limit their legitimate access to trade and economic relations with the outside world and to demand Israel’s compliance with international agreements and immediately open all commercial crossings into the Gaza Strip to allow full economic freedom for the Palestinian people.

In the West Bank, Palestinian unions joined women’s rallies in support International Women’s Day.  The Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) utilised this opportunity to launch their national campaign seeking minimum wage and social protections for all Palestinian workers.

In the international union arena, fresh new calls in support of the Palestinian call for BDS against Israel were seen from the largest Brazilian trade union confederation – the Central Única dos Trabalhadores; and the global union federation, Union Network Internation (UNI) - which represents 20 million workers in 900 unions around the world – issued a strong resolution to join the BDS call at its 3rd World Congress in late 2010.  UNI affiliates in Australia include the Shop Distributive & Allied Employees Association (SDA), the Finance Sector Union (FSU), the Australian Services Union (ASU), the Media Entertainment Arts Alliance (MEAA), and the Communications, Electrical & Plumbing Union (CEPU).

He’s right (though probably exaggerates the influence of Wikileaks in the Arab revolutions):

The internet is the “greatest spying machine the world has ever seen” and is not a technology that necessarily favours the freedom of speech, the WikiLeaks co-founder, Julian Assange, has claimed in a rare public appearance.

Assange acknowledged that the web could allow greater government transparency and better co-operation between activists, but said it gave authorities their best ever opportunity to monitor and catch dissidents.

“While the internet has in some ways an ability to let us know to an unprecedented level what government is doing, and to let us co-operate with each other to hold repressive governments and repressive corporations to account, it is also the greatest spying machine the world has ever seen,” he told students at Cambridge University. Hundreds queued for hours to attend.

He continued: “It [the web] is not a technology that favours freedom of speech. It is not a technology that favours human rights. It is not a technology that favours civil life. Rather it is a technology that can be used to set up a totalitarian spying regime, the likes of which we have never seen. Or, on the other hand, taken by us, taken by activists, and taken by all those who want a different trajectory for the technological world, it can be something we all hope for.”

Assange also suggested that Facebook and Twitter played less of a role in the unrest in the Middle East than has previously been argued by social media commentators and politicians.

He said: “Yes [Twitter and Facebook] did play a part, although not nearly as large a part as al-Jazeera. But the guide produced by Egyptian revolutionaries … says on the first page, ‘Do not use Facebook and Twitter’, and says on the last page, ‘Do not use Facebook and Twitter’.

“There is a reason for that. There was actually a Facebook revolt in Cairo three or four years ago. It was very small … after it, Facebook was used to round-up all the principal participants. They were then beaten, interrogated and incarcerated.”

Assange said that cables released by WikiLeaks played a key role in both fomenting unrest in the Middle East and forcing the US government not to back former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

Assange said diplomatic cables concerning US attitudes to the former Tunisian regime had given strength to revolutionary forces across the region.

“The Tunisian cables showed clearly that if it came down to it, the US, if it came down to a fight between the military on the one hand, and Ben Ali’s political regime on the other, the US would probably support the military.”

He continued: “That is something that must have also caused neighbouring countries to Tunisia some thought: that is that if they militarily intervened, they may not be on the same side as the United States.”

Assange, who is appealing against his extradition to Sweden on alleged sex charges, said the WikiLeaks releases had also forced the US to drop their tacit support of Mubarak.

“As a result of releasing cables about Suleiman [the vice-president of Egypt under Mubarak], the US and Israel’s preferred option for regime takeover in Egypt, as a result of releasing cables about Mubarak’s approval of Suleiman’s torture methods, it was not possible for Joseph Biden to [repeat his earlier claim that Mubarak was not a dictator]. It was not possible for Hillary Clinton to publicly come out and support Mubarak’s regime.”

This happened:

The Palestinian national soccer team faced Thailand on Wednesday in an Olympic qualifying match deep in symbolism: It’s the first time the Palestinians have hosted a competitive match at the international level, and for excited fans in this conflict-ridden area, it marks an important step in their struggle for independence.

Following a 1-0 loss in the first leg in Bangkok, the Palestinian team needs to score at least two goals at Faisal Al-Husseini International Stadium in the West Bank town of Al-Ram to advance to the next round in regulation. The Palestinians scored the first goal Wednesday just before halftime.

The game means much more to the home team than merely wins and losses.

“The world now will see Palestine in different eyes, in sports eyes,” said Jibril Rajoub, a former West Bank strongman who now heads the Palestinian soccer union. “This is a new launch for the Palestinian people toward freedom and independence.”

Last night I was interviewed on Channel 10 TV’s Sports Tonight (yes, my first appearance on a sports show about anything!) talking about the importance of the game but reminding people that Palestine was still occupied by Israel.

Why would we?

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is believed to have been tipped off more than seven months ago about Australian intelligence scrutiny of his whistleblowing activities.

Senior government ministers yesterday claimed to have no knowledge of co-operation between Australian intelligence agencies and the United States government concerning Assange after WikiLeaks began publishing thousands of secret documents leaked from the US Defence Department.

But sources within Wikileaks have told The Age that an Australian intelligence official privately warned Wikileaks on August 11 last year that Assange was the subject of inquiries by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, and that information relating to him and others associated with Wikileaks had been provided to the US in response to requests through intelligence liaison channels.

The Australian intelligence official is also claimed to have specifically warned that Assange could be at risk of ”dirty tricks” from the US intelligence community, including the possibility of sexual entrapment.

The information is said to have been provided to WikiLeaks by means of a submission through the website’s electronic ”drop box” on the day Assange flew from London to Stockholm to speak on freedom of the press.

And who really believes them?

Quantico is a military brig, not a prison, and it is not a maximum security facility. http://www.quantico.usmc.mil/activities/display.aspx?PID=588&Section=SECBN

Manning, however, is considered a maximum custody detainee. He is not “under isolation 23 hours a day.” Here are the facts of his pre-trial confinement:

PFC Manning is not in solitary confinement. He has a single-occupancy cell, like all of the other detainees.

PFC Manning is not in isolation.

PFC Manning is a maximum custody detainee in a prevention of injury status.

PFC Manning is not currently on suicide watch.

PFC Manning is being held in the same quarters section with other pre-trial detainees.

PFC Manning is allowed to watch television and read newspapers.

PFC Manning is allowed one-hour per day to exercise.

PFC Manning is provided well-balanced, nutritious meals three times a day.

PFC Manning receives visitors and mail and can write letters.

PFC Manning routinely meets with doctors and his attorney.

PFC Manning is allowed telephone calls.

PFC Manning is being treated just like every other detainee in the brig.

Also, there is no ‘daily disrobing and various other humiliations.’ In recent days, as the result of concerns for PFC Manning’s personal safety, his undergarments were taken from him during sleeping hours. PFC Manning at all times had a bed and a blanket to cover himself. He was not made to stand naked for morning count but, but on one day, he chose to do so. There were no female personnel present at the time. PFC Manning has since been issued a garment to sleep in at night. He is clothed in a standard jumpsuit during the day.

In fact, Manning is being treated horribly; it shames a so-called democratic nation.

While most Australian journalists dutifully followed Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard around the US recently – remind me why so many hacks travel there and do nothing but report on press conferences and fawning speeches in Congress? – Inner City Press at the UN in New York asks real questions:

Sri Lankan citizen Palitha Kohona is the subject of a filing with the International Criminal Court for his role in presumptive war crimes in the final stages of the conflict in Sri Lanka. When contacted by the press, Kohona has refused to “dignify” the case.

On March 9, Inner City Press asked Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard about this filing against Kohona, who has also represented Australia before he represented Sri Lanka, and about the UN’s and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s handling of his Panel on Sri Lanka, which has not visited the island. Video here.

“I’m not personally aware of all details of that case,” she answered. “We are a supporter of the ICC and a supporter of proper legal procedure and practice, one rule… is that political leaders should not comment on legal matters that are underway.”

While some of the journalists traveling with Prime Minister Gillard later called this a dodge, it’s more than the UN has had to say.

The recent murder of Jewish settlers in the West Bank was an appalling act of terrorism. No ifs or buts.

But watch the debased response of the Zionist state to this outrage. Haaretz editorial: