Antony Loewenstein

Laughably inept and almost criminally negligent.

But repeat after me; Israel must be constantly indulged.

This is what passes for comedy in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph.

The message is very clear; be critical of Israel, condemn the occupation and urge Israel to follow international law and be accused of Jew hating and anti-Semitism by the Murdoch thugs. Sydney’s Marrickville council endorsed BDS as a principled and increasingly popular global movement. The Tele’s Joe Hilderbrand – who I used to know many years ago as a student editor in Melbourne when he wouldn’t find the easiest target in a debate – should know better. Then again:

Like most ratepayers, I expect my local council to have a strong foreign policy. I don’t want anyone collecting my garbage until I know their stance on Libya.

So I was delighted when I heard Greens Marrickville Mayor Fiona Byrne was boycotting the state of Israel and any company that comes from, supports or once visited it. It’s about time someone who wasn’t a suicide bomber took a stand on this matter.*

However things took a complicated turn when it emerged that Cr Byrne was not just planning to boycott Israel herself_say by commencing an all-bacon diet_but getting the entire Marrickville Council to do it.

This raised many concerns for me personally, as I have just moved into the Marrickville local government area and, as many white supremacists have cheerfully pointed out over the years, I happen to look a bit like a “kike’’.

The illusion is coming apart; the idea that Jews in general love and back Israel, no matter what.

Jewish Voice for Peace is a US-based progressive, Jewish group aiming to expand debate on Israel/Palestine. Of course the usual suspects don’t like it one bit. For them, Israel is beyond debate and the glorious occupation and racism are simply a price to pay for Zionism.

Times are changing, bigots:

On a recent Wednesday night in New York City, Rebecca Vilkomerson, executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace, an organization that critics label anti-Israel, made the case for her group’s main protest tactic: a targeted campaign of boycott, divestment and sanction — or BDS, as it has become known — against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

BDS, she explained to the audience of about 70 that had gathered in a stuffy basement room of the City University of New York’s Graduate Center, in Midtown Manhattan, was just like the movement against South African apartheid in the 1980s, the 1960s civil rights struggle and the fight for union organizing before that. It is a nonviolent approach to dealing with an immoral situation.

“We can even see BDS as part and parcel of the Arab spring,” Vilkomerson said, referring to the wave of revolutions roiling the Middle East.

For many within the Jewish community, JVP’s readiness to use BDS tactics — and its refusal to support a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict — places this group far outside the American Jewish consensus. But to the consternation of other Jewish groups, JVP has been insisting that it represents a significant strain of Jews concerned about Israel who deserve a communal niche, rather than treatment as pariahs.

“It is troubling that Judaism and support for Israel have become so inextricably linked,” Vilkomerson said at the New York event. “We are trying to create a space in the Jewish world where we can express our criticism as Jews without needing to apologize for ourselves.”

That is a distinction that even many liberals do not embrace. “JVP is characteristically slippery on the question of one state or two states,” said Ben Cohen, a writer who has focused on American Jewish responses to Israel. “But it is clear that many of their members dream about one state, and for those of us under the communal tent, one state is a code word for genocide.”

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

A few weeks after the start of the Iraq war in 2003, I talked to a senior editor at The Sydney Morning Herald and asked her why there were basically no Iraqi voices in the paper, either for or against the conflict. “I never thought of that”, she replied.

Eight years later, we still barely hear or see any Arabs in the Australian media.

I’ve been thinking about this recently during the created “scandal” by the Murdoch press over the NSW Greens embracing boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, a grassroots Palestinian-led movement now backed by many groups globally.

There have been dozens of articles in the Australian recently calling the Greens “extremists”, implying the party is anti-Semitic, claiming BDS is akin to genocide, extensively quoting the Labor and Liberal parties (who unsurprisingly both condemn BDS) and the Zionist lobby (who again oppose it).

Today there are two more articles in the paper that only feature anti-BDS and Anglo voices and force Federal Human Services Minister Tanya Plibersek to distance herself from mildly critical comments she made against Israel many years ago.

Former Labor MP Julia Irwin was harassed and abused for simply daring to advocate Palestinian rights, as she told Crikey in 2010.

No dissent must be allowed in the Australian Parliament, uniformity of opinion is central to maintain the illusion of unqualified backing for Israel (despite public support moving in the opposite direction).

It’s comical to read today union leader Paul Howes condemn the Australian unions who support BDS as “divisive” when none of those unions are actually heard in the story.

Greens leader Bob Brown has also condemned BDS, in all likelihood because he sees the issue as a risk politically, doesn’t want to take on the Zionist lobby, is not fully across the apartheid conditions suffered by Palestinians under Israeli occupation or isn’t listening to the wide section of the Australian community who have publicly backed BDS (including churches, civil society groups and major unions). Sadly, many of these people have remained publicly silent during the recent onslaught by the Murdoch press, despite being approached for comment.

The media coverage has neglected to mention the reality on the ground in Palestine, including pogroms against Arabs in the West Bank and the rise in Christian fundamentalists wanting to join the IDF and live in illegal colonies.

Palestinians or Arabs have been entirely absent from the discussion. Dissident Jews are nowhere to be found.

For example, the public advocate for Australians for Palestine, Palestinian Samah Sabawi, with a long track record of publishing related articles, has had none of her articles published. Last night’s ABC TV news reported the BDS story and ignored all Arab perspectives.

The Australian, which has led the demonization campaign against the Greens, Fairfax and most of the ABC have either pummelled the issue (in the case of the Murdoch broadsheet, while rejecting counter views) while the others are simply absent from the field. It’s a combination of gutlessness, reliance on the usual (read conservative, pro-Zionist and white) sources and continued refusal to feature the Arab voice.

Then there was yesterday’s story in The Australian and The Daily Telegraph on BDS in Sydney.

Marrickville council decided in December to back BDS and next week a report will be released outlining how the council can implement the policy. Both papers claimed residents of Marrickville would have to pay $4 million as a result of cutting ties with businesses linked to Israel. Mayor Fiona Byrne disputed the figure but this didn’t stop a long line of critics, including NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell, coming out to slam the proposal.

The council is today being threatened with the sack unless it rescinds the plan.

The official council report simply provided only unrealistic and very expensive options and ignored the founding principles of BDS that any successful campaign must be strategic and achievable rather than heroic. The council must clearly take some responsibility for not better explaining and selling the BDS decision. The most expensive suggestions for boycott in the council report (such as Holden and Hewlett Packard) aren’t even a major focus of the BDS campaign.

Like a local council supporting a boycott of Burma – something pushed by Marrickville in years past – local government can continue to pursue BDS without any cost to the taxpayer. What remains vital is the original commitment to BDS and its support for non-violent resistance to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine.

Want examples? Sanctions, such as refusing to meet with Israeli mayors (on the rare chance one comes to Marrickville) would cost nothing but have great moral power. Also cultural and sporting boycotts cost nothing and show solidarity with occupied Palestinians.

There are three key lessons from this story. The Murdoch press is determined to obsess over the Greens on almost every day in an attempt to paint the party as a group of disorganised, rabid loons, although internal party divisions over Middle East policy have been exposed.

How was this week’s front-page Australian story about NSW Greens Senator-elect Lee Rhiannon marching at a rally last year with Islamic cleric Taj Din al-Hilali even remotely a relevant story now? The “facts” in the article were known since the event occurred; media coverage at the time revealed all. Yesterday Rhiannon pledged to continue pushing BDS.

The Australian Jewish News also refuses to publish any dissenting opinions.

The ever-increasing line of politicians and journalists making their sponsored pilgrimage to the Zionist homeland — this week was Sydney Morning Herald international editor Peter Hartcher, “reporting” from Tel Aviv; he’s a repeat offender, as I wrote in Crikey in 2009 — furthers throws the coverage into question.

BDS is now a major topic of discussion in the Jewish community and mainstream media in mature democracies, unlike ours.

The Australian media is revealed as a parochial bunch that prefers to mostly give air-time to white men from think-tanks, academia or the press (there are some exceptions). Today the Arab world is alive with new and exciting voices and yet where are the Iraqi, Afghan, Libyan, Egyptian, Tunisian, Palestinian or Syrian voices in our press, in their own voices, not filtered through a Western reporter’s lens?

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

CORRECTION: In the original story it was stated that Paul Howes has taken Zionist funded trips to Israel. Paul Howes has never been to Israel. The story has been amended to correct the record.

From a recent “debate” between Julian Assange and NYT editor Bill Keller:

Keller did get his dander up after Assange said that watching the American news media cover international events is like watching a goldfish bowl where readers pay little attention to outside perspectives.

Keller seemed to take that as a slight against the prestigious New York Times overseas correspondents. “I have to object to the idea that we’re not interested in what happens outside the U.S.,” he said. “We have 40 correspondents and stringers overseas, and we have four people who have been killed covering the wars.”

Assange said he meant no disrespect to the work of Times correspondents  living or dead. But he did get the last word on that topic.

“I say that 40 people covering the entire world in the New York Times, which is the opinion leader of the United States, is a state of desperation,” he said.

Australian citizen Mamdouh Habib was tortured by American and Egyptian officials post 9/11 and was smeared and shunned by the corporate press for years. He demands justice and deserves it. He talked to me about these issues in February, including the involvement of Egypt’s new Vice-President, Omar Sulaiman.

A few days ago I was contacted by an Egyptian human rights worker and lawyer looking to contact Habib directly to being proceedings in the post-Mubarak country. Things are moving quickly (and of course, not a peep about prosecuting Sulaiman in the US or Australia, as he was their nice, torturing bitch):

Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib is suing Egypt’s new Vice-President, Omar Sulaiman, over his incommunicado detention and torture in Cairo in 2001, in what is shaping as an important human rights test case in the post-Mubarak era in Egypt.

Cairo lawyers acting for Mr Habib have notified the Egyptian Attorney-General they are launching proceedings against General Sulaiman, who heads Egyptian intelligence, along with the country’s former interior minister, Habib al-Adly, and Jamal Mubarak, the son and lieutenant of former president Hosni Mubarak, who resigned amid anti-regime protests in February.

A summary filed by the Cairo lawyers says Mr Habib was detained without charge for six months and subjected to “the most horrible torture methods” including electric shock, cigarette burns, attack by dogs, sexual violation and water torture.

The documents allege some of Mr Habib’s interrogations were conducted personally by General Sulaiman, who has been Egypt’s intelligence chief since 1993, and that torture occurred in the presence of Jamal Mubarak, who was a senior official in the ousted regime.

The lawyers have petitioned the Egyptian Attorney-General to have the country’s embassy in Canberra arrange for Mr Habib to travel to Cairo to give evidence.

Mr Habib does not have a current Australian passport as he is still deemed by the security agency ASIO to be a security risk. He told The Australian he had asked the federal government to issue temporary travel documents to enable him to travel to Egypt to testify, but was awaiting an answer.

Satire is clearly dead.

Weeks of media coverage of Israel/Palestine in Australia and the BDS campaign pushed by the NSW Greens and Sydney’s Marrickville council and not a peep from Arabs or Palestinians. I mean, why should they be heard? It’s only about their land in the Middle East but let’s not focus on details. It’s clearly too much to expect journalists to actually, you know, call people who aren’t white and Anglo.

Last night’s ABC Radio PM (no Arabs there), today’s Murdoch Australian (obviously no Palestinians here or here), nothing on ABC news today (except Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd just saying BDS is “nuts”, clearly a man who gets his talking points from the Israeli Foreign Ministry) and another story on ABC radio this morning; nobody supporting the Palestinians.

A lone and brave voice:

Greens senator-elect Lee Rhiannon says she will continue to advocate for a trade boycott on Israel, despite being reprimanded by her party’s leader, Bob Brown.

Ms Rhiannon backs the so-called BDS policy – boycott, divestment and sanctions – which is also backed by several Greens councillors on inner Sydney’s Marrickville council.

Senator Brown says a trade boycott of Israel is not party policy and says the issue cost the Greens votes at the recent New South Wales election.

But on Sky News, Ms Rhiannon has defended her position.

“It’s not an anti-Israel position at all. It is about a boycott to bring forward policies that will work for Palestinians because at the moment, Palestinians just don’t have a lot of the human rights we take for granted,” she said.

Ms Rhiannon acknowledges there is a difference between her stance and that of some of her federal colleagues.

But she says the issue has only been highlighted by News Limited newspapers to try to damage the Greens.

Another version of this interview features Rudd’s instructive comments on BDS:

Kevin Rudd has branded as “nuts” a NSW Greens call for a boycott of Israel, as Greens senator-elect Lee Rhiannon vowed to continue to support the policy.

Amid a growing split within Greens ranks on the issue, Ms Rhiannon backed the Marrickville council’s proposed Israel boycott, which could see the Sydney council sacked by NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell.

Mr Rudd said the council should focus on removing rubbish and cleaning local parks.

“The action by the Greens frankly is just nuts. The bottom line is that any local authority in the country should get on with the business of what they are paid by ratepayers to do,” Mr Rudd told the ABC.

“Foreign policy is the province of the national government and for any element of the Green party to go out there and call upon the nation’s government to engage in a campaign to boycott goods and services, be it from Israel or China or any other country, is as I said plain nuts.”

But Ms Rhiannon said she would not abandon the policy, which Greens leader Bob Brown recently condemned as a mistake which had cost the party votes at the NSW election.

“Yes, we have that position in New South Wales and I’ll support the New South Wales position. But it’s not something we’re taking to the federal parliament. There are clear priorities,” Ms Rhiannon told Sky News.

She said while Senator Brown was the party’s foreign affairs spokesman, she would continue to advocate the policy.

She said it had a long history in various Australian communities, with the Wollongong council pursuing the policy in the 1970s.

Courage is sorely lacking in our political and media elites.

Oh:

The three co-authors of the damning United Nations report on the 2008-2009 Gaza war rejected on Thursday an op-ed by the fourth member and chairman Richard Goldstone in which he retracted key conclusions of the report – in particular saying that Israel had not intentionally targeted civilians during the war.

In an article in the British daily The Guardian, the three members – the Pakistani human rights lawyer Hina Jilani; Christine Chinkin, professor of international law at the London School of Economics; and former Irish peace-keeper Desmond Travers maintained that the conclusions of the report remain valid despite Goldstone’s shift and subsequent calls to retract the report in the UN.

“There is no justification for any demand or expectation for reconsideration of the report as nothing of substance has appeared that would in any way change the context, findings or conclusions of that report with respect to any of the parties to the Gaza conflict,” they wrote.

Israeli Arab politician Hanin Zoabi has a long history of taking on racism within the Zionist state. She was very impressive during her visit to Australia in 2009.

Her latest thoughts are calling for a new Palestinian intifada to rival the Arab Spring (a mass, non-violent movement is already feared by the Zionist state);

“I hope the Palestinians launch a massive popular resistance, one that is political and strategic, like the First Intifada,” Knesset member Hanin Zoabi (Balad) said Wednesday.

In an interview with Mynet, the Balad MK stated that in her opinion, Judge Richard Goldstone was bullied into his latest actions, the rocket which hit an Israeli school bus in the south was actually Israel’s fault and Israeli Arabs should take notes from Egyptian protesters.

Comparing the First Intifada with the Al-Aqsa Intifada, Zoabi said that “the second Intifada was much more violent. The first one was better. Tahrir Square should be the Arab youths’ new model. I would like to see them mount a popular resistance against the occupation, because occupiers cannot expect to lead normal lives.”

As for the incident which saw a rocket hit an Israeli school bus, leaving one teenager critically injured, Zoabi said that “Palestinians were killed before that incident and Palestinians were killed after it. You don’t count the dead Palestinians, only the dead Israelis. It is immoral for only the occupier to be seen as the side entitled to lead a normal life.”

What are good friends for?

Legal loopholes in the Health and Social Care Bill could leave health services open to exploitation by profiteering outsiders [such as Serco], and to misinterpretation by politicians and interest groups keen to capitalise on its uncertainties, according to independent policy experts.

The Bill is permissive, not prescriptive, allowing a variety of interpretations to be put upon it by critics and supporters – as well as those keen to profit from the opportunities – said Nick Goodwin, a senior fellow at the King’s Fund health policy think-tank.

There is nothing in the legislation that allows GPs to charge for NHS services, as Labour claims, but GPs are already permitted to charge for items outside their NHS duties – such as providing insurance medicals and travel vaccinations – and these might be extended.

Bless the corporate media.

Here’s the 2011 TIME 100 Poll featuring Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Whoever wrote this blurb clearly doesn’t care about the serious war crimes allegations against his government:

Since ending Sri Lanka’s 26-year-long war against the Tamil Tigers in 2009, and grabbing control over once independent institutions like commissions on human rights and elections, Mahinda Rajapaksa has come to dominate the institutions of his nation more than any other democratically elected head of state. He challenged the U.S., the European Union and the U.N. to prosecute him for war crimes, confident that Russia, China and India would not support it — the latter two have billions of investment at stake in Sri Lanka.

Ten years after 9/11, one of the shameful legacies:

A new study by the American Red Cross obtained exclusively by The Daily Beast found that a surprising majority—almost 60 percent—of American teenagers thought things like water-boarding or sleep deprivation are sometimes acceptable. More than half also approved of killing captured enemies in cases where the enemy had killed Americans. When asked about the reverse, 41 percent thought it was permissible for American troops to be tortured overseas. In all cases, young people showed themselves to be significantly more in favor of torture than older adults.

Torture has been around as long as there have been wars, but media coverage of enhanced interrogation techniques has risen the visibility of torture since the attacks of September 11. Could the generation who came of age since the towers fell have a different notion of what’s acceptable in a time of war? “Over the past 10 years, they’ve been exposed to many new conflicts,” says Isabelle Daoust, who heads ARC’s humanitarian law unit. “But they haven’t been exposed to the rules.”

The reasons may be even more nuanced than that—a combination of social and political factors new to the national conversation since the Bush administration claimed that today’s enemy was different from the ones we’ve fought in the past. Intelligence attained through controversial interrogation techniques, Bush’s lawyers at the Department of Justice argued, may be the only way to save American lives. A 2006 dossier detailing the U.S. government strategy to combat terrorism described the difficulty of pursuing new enemies who constantly “evolve and modify their ways of doing business.” As a result, the document suggested, the military would have to evolve its understanding and treatment of the enemy.

Legal scholars see societal influences that may be responsible for de-stigmatizing torture, including increasingly graphic media. “I think it suggests the national conscious is becoming more and more corroded and more accustomed to the violation of fundamental principles of human rights and international law,” says Lawrence Tribe, a constitutional law professor at Harvard, who blames programs like 24 that trivialize serious issues. (Tribe, along with nearly 300 legal colleagues, sent President Obama a letter last month decrying the prison conditions of Bradley Manning, the army private accused of leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks.)