Debate on Israeli crimes grow in West

Fri Aug 19, 2011 6:27PM GMT

Interview with Sarah Colborne, Director of Palestinian Solidarity Campaign

The debate over the Israeli occupation of Palestine is growing across Britain and some other Western countries. 

 

Moreover, some British officials are also divided on the official relationship with Israel. That is brought upon by a growing awareness among the general population of Israel’s brutality towards Palestine.

Press TV talks with Sarah Colborne, Director of Palestinian Solidarity Campaign in London in a discussion that centers on a book entitled ‘Gaza in Crisis’ written jointly by Professor’s Noam Chomsky and Israeli historian Ilan Pappe. Following is an approximate transcript of the interview.

Press TV: Reviewing the book by Noam Chomsky, ‘Gaza in Crisis’, what did you make of it and did you find it informative?

Sarah Colborne: It was very interesting and for me some of the most interesting material was the historic material around 2006-2007 because we tend to forget – we remember the major issues like Operation Cast Lead, but – we forget the build up to it and because the Israeli media have so much of a free reign you forget about facts.

For example, the same day that Shalit (Gilad Shalit, a French Israeli soldier taken by Hamas) was taken there were two Palestinian civilians kidnapped from Gaza and dragged into Israel, which was a far greater crime under international law and those sorts of detail you forget and so those details were very important for me to get out of this book.

Press TV: The Western news media doesn’t follow much of what happens in Palestine perhaps as so much is happening with other wars in the Middle East. You experienced this with the peace convoy in terms of how the media report things. It is difficult to get a balanced sense of reporting, isn’t it?

Sarah Colborne: Yes it is and there are stories in this book that are not widely known because of this, for example, why the Palestinian fishermen can’t fish further than three miles outside Gaza. And it links very clearly to the decision to reduce the space they have for fishing to the discovery of the oil field and Israel’s need to control those natural resources.

And so there are stories behind the immediate headlines and the problem is that we get immediate headlines like a few rockets coming from Gaza; what we don’t get – and that we get in this book – is that during the months prior to the taking of Gilad Shalit there were 7,700 rockets that had been fired from Israel into Gaza.

We often don’t get the entire story and this is why this book is very useful as we don’t normally get to read between the lines or behind history. Even people who are sympathetic to the Palestinians, you do need to understand what’s going on.

Press TV: The professors authors highlight in the book that it’s not just about the economic pressures, but it’s almost an attitude by Israel as well – that phrase of ‘exterminate the brutes’ which sort of jumps out at you from this book, this attitude that the Arabs in that part of the world are a lesser race, they’re not humans. And you’d think the Israelis of any race on the earth shouldn’t have that attitude; it’s horrifying when you see it expressed by very intelligent people…

Sarah Colborne: Absolutely, and this is becoming increasingly openly said with the drift even further to the right in Israeli society. But it is not something limited to the experience of Israel; this is something that has happened during all previous occupations.

For instance, the way that Britain always occupied countries to do it because they said the population were incapable of governing themselves – that’s always the arguments that’s used… and I think what is important to encourage now is the way that that lie is being completely exposed – with the Arab spring- because the populations of the region are rising up and declaring they want to have their right to determine their own society and their own futures and this is all impacting into the Palestinian struggle as well.

Press TV: There are certain views projected in the many who are pro-Israel and I find it slightly scary that this attitude decries international law completely about the effect on civilians. I mean, if there is somebody holding a gun OK it’s a fair target, but the vast areas of children and women and residential areas that have been attacked by Israeli forces and according to some with entire justification – it’s quite scary…

Sarah Colborne: It is scary, but I think also what is important in the book is the justification by Israeli military generals and politicians of the targeting of civilians and it explicitly says in the book that this is because you terrorize the civilian population into submission – that is the way that Israel believes it should handle the conflict rather than abiding by international law, ending the occupation, giving refugees the right of return and those sort of issues. And so the targeting and killing of civilians is not an accidental issue it’s a deliberate strategy.

But I think the future doesn’t need to be as bleak because although the situation on the ground in Palestine is horrific, there is far more awareness and far more activity to support the Palestinian cause and combined with the steadfastness of the Palestinians themselves, that is what gives me hope for the future.

Press TV: In this book the two professors don’t always agree – what’s your idea about the academic boycott?

Sarah Colborne: We are very clearly in support for the Palestinian boycott and divestment and sanctions and that includes academic boycott. And I think the tide is very clearly turning in favor of boycott. One of the issues that Chomsky raises in his book is he doesn’t believe there is support for it, but I think given what we have seen in support of boycott of Israeli goods and campaigns against complicit firms that are cooperating with Israel’s crimes… we’re seeing mass support for those campaigns now…

It’s a bit like in the situation of apartheid in South Africa, one of the key issues there was they took particular pride in their sporting prowess. With Israel, one of the key issues they take particular pride in is their academic prowess and so for them the academic boycott is a very key issue that they are campaigning against.

And I think it is obviously working when the Knesset are passing laws that ban Israelis from supporting a boycott. That is a bizarre attack on the freedom of speech and that reaction must indicate it is having some effect.

The point that Ilan Pappe makes at the end is that the movement for justice and for freedom for Palestinians is massively increasing worldwide, but the problem is that our governments do not reflect those views reasons and therefore the issue of what civil society can do by methods such as boycotting Israeli goods are very important and that’s the reason why the movement has grown so much because it is something everybody can do and they can act together to make a change.

Press TV: The UN can’t do anything because America will blocking everything so the UN is fairly toothless when it comes to the people in Palestine and Gaza…

Sarah Colborne: Yes it is. But I think there is also a discussion and debate happening not only in the US, but in Britain about whether it is in the US government’s or British government’s strategic interest to tie themselves so closely to Israel.

For example, you’ve had a number of reports from the British governments, from the Foreign Affairs committee and other bodies that really are questioning why Britain is not prepared to act in accordance with international law.

So I do think that the more pressure that we can put in civil society to change government’s policies, the more fertile ground we’ve got. And that’s the reason why by approaching each individual MP we have a great advantage here as we do have constituencies; we can elect or deselect our MP and bringing in the issue of Palestine as a key issue can make the big difference.

SC/JR

Click here to watch the video

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/194742.html

Eretz Yisrael: Lawless, Corrupt and Dysfunctional ~ by Stephen Lendman

by Stephen Lendman on August 19, 2011

What do you call a country that persecutes occupied people and one-fifth of its own population for not being Jewish? An illegal occupier for over 44 years, suffocating over 1.6 million Gazans under siege! A nation practicing torture, persecution, and racism as official policies! A modern day Sparta, glorifying wars and violence!

A country spurning rule of law principles! An unparalleled regional state terrorist! A nuclear armed global threat! A society of extreme social inequality! A nation with no legitimacy for all of the above reasons, besides having stolen another people’s nation violently!

It’s called Eretz Yisrael – Israel, a nation where thousands of fed up Jews vote with their feet and leave regularly. Like America, Israel isn’t fit to live in. One day perhaps that will be its epitaph.

Many Jews and analysts believe Zionism is destroying Judaism. In his book “Overcoming Zionism,” Joel Kovel explained how it fosters “imperialist expansion and militarism (with) signs of the fascist malignancy,” adding that it turned Israel “into a machine for the manufacture of human rights abuses.”
Author Alan Hart calls Zionism “the real enemy of the Jews,” an ideology contemptuous of moral and ethical principles. Others call it corrosive, destructive, racist, extremist, undemocratic and hateful, espousing violence, not peaceful coexistence.

Nations living by the sword in the end die by it. Israel and America aren’t exceptions. They’ve, in fact, partnered on a self-destructive mission, perhaps taking planet earth with them before they’re through.
Daily snapshots make the case. Multiple US wars rage, spending trillions of badly needed dollars waging them, besides diverting billions more annually to support Israel’s out-of-control militarism. They endanger every other nation and their own, at the same time sacrificing homeland needs.
Lawless, corrupt and dysfunctional barely describe what some call a blight on humanity, threatening it by its presence with its Washington paymaster/partner.

In mid-August, one of its prominent rabbis, Yosef Elitzur, co-author of the controversial book “The King’s Torah,” was denied UK entry for advocating discrimination against gentiles and killing them. The book states:

“Anywhere where the presence of a gentile poses a threat to Israel, it is permissible to kill him, even if it a righteous gentile who is not responsible for the threatening situation.”

In January 2010, co-author Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira, head of a prominent yeshiva in the West Bank Yitzhar settlement, was arrested for torching a Palestinian Yasuf village mosque. Later, however, he was released uncharged.

In August 2010, Elitzur was also arrested for his advocacy of violence, though he, too, was released and charges against him quietly dropped.

However, their extremism isn’t unique. On August 19, 2010, Ynet News said “(d)ozens of rabbis, educators, public figures and right-wing activists attended” a rally for Rabbis Dov Lior and Yaakov Yosef “who refused to report for police questioning over their endorsement of” Elitzur and Shapira’s book.

Senior rabbis support them, believing it’s OK to kill non-Jews, a shocking indictment of what too many in Israel believe, including top officials.

It plays out daily in real time, including on August 16 when Israeli soldiers shot and killed a mentally disabled child, 400 meters inside the border separating Israel from Gaza, east of Deir al-Balah. In fact, 10 bullets struck his head and chest. He never had a chance.

Israeli radio merely said soldiers observed someone approaching the security fence, opened fire and shot him.

The same day, other shelling and shooting incidents occurred, killing one man and seriously wounding two others in Gaza City. In addition, another man and a child were wounded in Khan Yunis and Rafah in southern Gaza.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) called these incidents “part of a series of war crimes (regularly) committed by” Israeli forces in Occupied Palestine, reflecting the “total disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians.”

When state-sponsored violence is institutionalized, is it surprising that perhaps many prominent Israelis (including influential rabbis) endorse racism and killing non-Jews!

What better example of a sick society, deserving universal condemnation, especially by righteously indignant Jews wanting no part of what’s so lawlessly repugnant. In fact, growing numbers of Jews and others understand what’s happening and reject it.

Numerous daily examples highlight the problem. On August 18, Haaretz covered several, including Netanyahu again refusing to apologize to Turkey for murdering nine of its citizens during the infamous May 2010 Mavi Marmara attack in international waters.

At the time, universal outrage condemned it. In contrast, Israeli officials, like their Washington counterparts, believe they never have to say they’re sorry, even when caught red-handed and denounced.

A second Haaretz article quoted Netanyahu’s outgoing director general, Eyal Gabai, saying “(t)he current government will not deliver Israelis a welfare state,” despite weeks of mass protests across Israel demanding it, wanting years of social injustice reversed.

Combined, neoliberalism and Zionism are suffocating Israel, a topic an August 18 Gideon Levy commentary addressed titled, “Israel’s swinish Zionism ought to be stopped,” saying:

As an MK, Shimon Peres coined the term “swinish capitalism,” referring to then finance minister Netanyahu. “It’s worth remembering that there is also swinish Zionism,” Levy added.

Ads

“Swine are insatiable….gorg(ing) themselves until they die.” Capitalism and Zionism are no different. What began as a national movement to establish a Jewish homeland ended up “caus(ing) grave injustice to the previous inhabitants of the land….” And for years, it’s neoliberal version has been harming Jews.

Perhaps if Zionism “stop(ped)….reined in its lust and greed, atoned for the original injustices in 1948 and changed direction, it would have become an admired movement.” Because it didn’t, “Israel is only beginning to pay the price.”

Many of Israel’s wealthy “also started out well….But here too,” their appetite proved insatiable. The time of reckoning has arrived. People want redress. “The word ‘tycoon’ has become a curse and ‘wealthy’ has nearly become despicable.”

Today a new awakening is emerging. Israel’s wealthy are “beginning to pay the price.” Zionism so far escaped. Calling it swinish is heretical.

“But when the time for the reckoning comes we’ll ask: Why didn’t we stop (it) in time,” especially its reliance on violence, occupation, racism, social injustice, and lawlessness.

Policies that extreme can’t go on forever, and won’t! Not in Israel, America or anywhere!

A Final Comment

On August 18, Maan News reported two shooting attacks on buses near Eilat, Israel, killing at least seven and injuring dozens more. Israel’s Channel 10 said three militants armed with Kalashnikovs opened fire on one bus from a car.

A second incident occurred near Netafim, Israel, injuring others. In addition, an explosive device wounded more.

“Assailants also attacked a second bus and a car soon after,” according to Al-Arabiya, killing five.
“In a third incident, mortars were reportedly fired at Israeli forces near the southern border causing injuries, although initial reports were ambiguous about” their origin.

Israel’s knee-jerk reaction came as expected, Defense Minister Ehud Barak blaming Hamas, saying “(w)e will exhaust all measures against the terrorists.”

Senior Hamas official Salah Bardawil rejected Barak’s accusation, saying Israel, ahead of another Gaza attack, blamed Hamas and other Gaza groups to deflect attention from its own internal problems.
Since mid-July, unprecedented numbers of Israelis have rallied for social justice so far denied. It thus begs the question whether these attacks may have been a false flag diversions, to focus attention on “terrorist” threats, not economic hardship.

So far, the identity of attackers is unknown. Nonetheless, Haaretz said “Israeli Defense Forces struck targets in (Gaza) Thursday evening, hours after the earlier incidents.”

Reports indicate at least six killed, others injured. Giving no details, Israel confirmed the strikes, saying operations were underway in southern Gaza.

Explaining nothing about daily atrocities US forces commit against innocent civilians in multiple wars, Hillary Clinton “condemn(ed) today’s attacks in southern Israel and all acts of terrorism in the strongest terms,” calling them “brutal” and “cowardly.”

As expected, she added that America “stand(s) by Israel as our friend, partner, and ally – now and always,” omitting mention of their state-sponsored terrorism against victims unable to fight back.
What better description of two global bullies, rogue state sponsors of intimidation, terror and torment as standard operations. Calling them democracies is ludicrous and offensive.

* Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon

http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2011/08/19/eretz-yisrael-lawless/

#Gaza …. and Another Child Martyr – in pictures

August 19, 2011 by occupiedpalestine 0 Comments

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Gaza Under Attack | Aug 19, 2011 - in pictures

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Shaheed Mahmoud Abu Samra, 13 years old

Shaheed Malek Shaath, 2 year old

Shaheed Mahmoud Abu Samra, 13 years old

How many more dead corpses of Palestine’s Children does the international community need to see in order to act? 

How many more cruelties and violations of Human Rights, Regulations and International Law will be needed to intervene so this ongoing warcrime is being stopped once and for all.

How many corpses and traumatized people, does the world need, to stop this ongoing genocide on Palestine, which is happening under the noses of the ignorant kept world for 63 years now.
Ignorance is over. The media silent, but we will not forget the Shuhada.

http://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2011/08/19/gaza-and-another-child-martyr-picture/

Blame the Gazans— Punish them

Submitted by Mohammed Suliman on Fri, 08/19/2011 - 07:19

 

According to the Palestine Papers, Saeb Erekat, the so-called chief Palestinian negotiator, once stated, “”If someone sneezes in Tel Aviv, I get the flu in Jericho.”

That was probably the only thing that makes sense Erekat ever said regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Except it wasn’t actually true, unless we think of Erekat, at the moment he made that statement, as every Palestinian in Gaza and replace “Jericho” with “Gaza”. So “if someone sneezes in Tel Aviv, Palestinians in Gaza were soon to be blame for it.”

Yesterday, as I woke up to the news of an attack that took place in Eilat, some 20 kilometeres south of Israel, the first thing that ever came to my mind was, “who the hell did it?”

As my brother excitedly narrated to me the details of the oddly mysterious incident, I was asinine enough to wish the assailants weren’t from Gaza. I naively said to my brother, “let’s hope they don’t turn out to be Gazans.”

Immediately then, I frenziedly went through reports of the incidents on the internet, hoping against hope the blame wouldn’t be placed upon Gaza or at least by some miraculous power, some organization outside of Gaza would officially adopt the attacks and relieve the Gazans of this insane irrationality where the Palestinians in Gaza would be eventually held responsible and “pay a heavy price” for the crimes they never committed.

Only on my previous post on this blog, I wrote, “I was being punished for a misdemeanor I never committed in the first place,” Of course, I didn’t know then that my words were as prognostic as to come into play a couple of days afterwards. 

Soon enough, I was skimming a bit of news related to the incident under the title, “Barak: Gaza is the source of terrorist attacks on southern Israel”

My mind at that exact moment was this way, “but man, wait, that’s not true. I mean no one in Gaza claimed responsibility for the attack, you know, Hamas would have done, had it been them but err, I mean, you can’t just say it’s Gaza when it’s not bla bla bla”

Baloney. He wouldn’t listen. Or he wouldn’t have to listen. And he wouldn’t believe me. And he wouldn’t bother who claimed responsibility and who didn’t. And to be more accurate, that’s exactly what the so-called IDF wanted; that’s what they had been waiting for. An excuse, no matter how lame, baseless and prejudiced it might be, to exercise its favorite habit of bombing, demolishing and killing Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.

In fact, Israel never needed a pretext to start bombing Gaza. Israel’s warplanes do every day shell the hell out of Gaza. This was a pretext for exercising extrajudicial execution the outcome of which is still on the rise. And yes, it didn’t take long for the aerial, ground and naval operation to get under way. You can’t tell me Israel would miss this chance.

I tweeted, “”Gaza is the source of terrorist attacks on southern Israel” is as well founded as “Gaza is the source of the Ozone hole” but, yea, whatever!”

Who cares on what basis Barak’s accusing finger is pointed— exactly the same way Netanyahu’s is pointed in the photo of the above piece— toward the Palestinians in Gaza claiming they perpetrated the Eilat attacks? No basis whatsoever except the very one on which Israel is truthfully regarded as an Apartheid state: the Palestinians in Gaza are no Jews.

But what if by any means Palestinian militants in Gaza are behind the Eilat attacks? Why would Israel kill two little children? Collateral damage? Could one, then, consider the six Israeli civilians killed in the attacks as collateral damage, given the fact that two Israeli soldiers were also killed?
Of course, not. I wondered whether my little sister was a bit stupid when she innocently (naively?) commented on the Eilat attacks saying, “ya haram!” (oh pity!)? Or was that the honest and unimpeachably good-natured involuntary reflex of an innocent girl commenting on the death of another?

I knew I had the same feelings as she did, but after all it wasn’t thoughtful to display such emotions publicly this way. At least for the memory of the several would-be martyrs paying the “heavy price” the Israeli prime minister referred to.

Couldn’t it be that Mahmoud— a boy aging thirteen years just like my sister who made the above remark is— had the same comment, the same feelings, when he came to know Israeli civilians were killed in the attack— Off record:  three massive bombs just hit the area nearby, and Israeli warplanes are intensely flying over Gaza city at the moment.

Why was Mahmoud killed then?

Is that the way Israel will keep lashing out, indiscriminately killing innocent civilians in blind retaliation? Isn’t this “violence, brutality and a cowardly act of terrorism against innocent civilians”, Mrs. Clinton?

Or perhaps this is a life not worth feeling sorry for— oh dear, I can say I literally write under the fire. That was one of our missiles, you know.  Why wouldn’t the U.S. president and his secretary offer their “deepest condolences” for the families of these little children as well?

Indeed, that Obama is the first Black American president was the biggest lie in the U.S. presidential history. He looks awfully whiter than the other wealthy Zionist white congressmen.

Gaza is a Palestinian territory occupied by Israeli military forces and has been living under siege for more than five years. Those people living in the Gaza Strip are the real victims. They are the real oppressed. There is a humanitarian crisis, a collective punishment, injustice, and occupation that needs to be addressed. Israel should be held accountable for its crimes against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip before we go about criticizing the people for firing few missiles onto their oppressor as an act of protest and defiance. Violence is never inflicted by the oppressed. US-made F16s, Apaches, unmanned overhead drones, gigantic warships, Merkava and other tanks and this whole massive war machine are the real sources of violence.

Indeed, as a friend put it, “the only ‘self-defense’ justified by a colonial occupier is to withdraw from those occupied lands. Very, very simple.” And “Israel justifying this massacre as self-defense is like a robber justifying killing the victim because they wouldn’t hand over their wallet.”


http://electronicintifada.net/blog/mohammed-suliman/blame-gazans-punish-them

 

Mohammed Rabah Suliman, 21, is a Palestinian student and blogger from Gaza. Mohammed is an English Literature graduate and will undertake graduate studies at the London School of Economics this September. He blogs at Gaza Diaries of Peace and War, and can be followed on Twitter.

Fake flexibility from London’s Israel lobby

Submitted by david on Fri, 08/19/2011 - 03:53

 

Predictably, the European Union responded quickly to yesterday’s violence in Southern Israel. “I condemn unreservedly all such acts of terror,” the bloc’s foreign policy chief Catherine Asthon said.
Will Ashton be issuing another statement today to denounce the Israeli military in similarly strong terms for murdering an infant in Gaza a few hours later? Or for ending a teenager’s life in the early hours of this morning? I’m sure that she won’t. The most we can expect is that she will call for “restraint” (that weasel word which diplomats have rendered meaningless through overuse).

And did she post something on her website expressing revulsion at how Israeli troops shot dead Sa’d al-Majdalwai, a 17 year old with a mental disability, also in Gaza earlier this week? Of course, she didn’t. Why? Because he was too low down in the hierarchy of victims to get noticed. And because the European Union applies different standards to the Israeli forces of occupation and the Palestinians who resist them. Violence by Israel is “regrettable” (or, in most cases, elicits no comment); violence by Palestinians is always categorized as “terrorism”.

A phony plea for understanding

Ashton may try to appear balanced — she has repeatedly criticized the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank — but, in reality, there is little to distinguish her from former colleagues in the British parliament such as Lorna Fitzsimons. Who, you might ask? Fitzsimons was an elected representative of the Tony Blair-led Labor Party in Westminster between 1997 and 2005. After losing her seat, she took up a job running a propaganda outfit called the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM).

Fitzsimons had an opinion piece published by The Guardian in London this week, in which she sought to come across all reasonable. Purporting to be a big fan of mutual understanding, she patted her own back for organizing a “roundtable discussion” recently, where representatives of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud and the Palestinian party Fatah chatted amiably. She proceeded to illustrate how she has no interest in understanding the concerns of Palestinians by insisting “there cannot be a mass return of Palestinian refugees to [present-day] Israel.”

War criminal in London

BICOM’s team includes a “senior visiting fellow” named Michael Herzog. He is a retired brigadier-general from the Israeli army. During Operation Cast Lead, that relentless three-week assault on Gaza’s civilians in late 2008 and early 2009, Herzog was chief of staff to Ehud Barak, Israel’s defense minister. As he was involved in planning that operation and advising on strategy, Herzog must be held accountable for the war crimes committed in its execution. Next time he pops into BICOM’s London offices for a cup of tea and some blue-sky thinking, the police should be alerted and be ready to arrest him.

Herzog has at least done one good thing: he has proven that BICOM’s declared belief that Israel should display “considerable flexibility” (as Fitzsimons wrote in her Guardian article) amounts to waffle. In a new briefing paper for the center, Herzog contends that any future Palestinian state would have to be non-militarized but that Israel would maintain a long-term military presence along the Jordan River.

So while the Palestinians could have nothing more destructive in their arsenal than pea-shooters, the West Bank would remain surrounded by one of the world’s most powerful armies. That, it appears, is what the Israel lobby means by flexibility.

http://electronicintifada.net/blog/david/fake-flexibility-londons-israel-lobby

 

David Cronin is the author of Europe’s Alliance With Israel: Aiding the Occupation (Pluto Press, 2011). He has written for a wide variety of publications, including The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal Europe, European Voice, the Inter Press Service, The Irish Times and The Sunday Tribune. As a political activist, he has attempted to place both Tony Blair and Avigdor Lieberman under citizen’s arrest for crimes against humanity.