NSW police initiated a Supreme Court action against the pro-Palestine Al-Nakba commemoration march to be held in Sydney this Tuesday, 15th May. The police are seeking a court order prohibiting the public assembly and procession. Protest organisers state that they will not be intimidated and will defend the right to protest in court.

Independent journalist and author of My Israel Question, Antony Loewenstein, says, 'the right to peacefully protest is a cornerstone of a democratic society. Supporting Palestinian rights is even more essential today in an age where our political and media elites choose to ignore Israeli apartheid right in front of their eyes."

Sylvia Hale, Former Greens MLC, stated: “It is critical, at a time when Israel has gaoled hundreds of Palestinians without charge or trial for protesting at Israel's illegal occupation of their land, that we show our support for them and the thousands of other political prisoners in Israeli gaols. Australia must cut all military ties with Israel until the Israeli government abides by international law and ends its racist policies of ethnic cleansing."

By attempting to ban the commemoration, the NSW police have shown they care more about assisting Israel in hiding from its past then upholding the democratic rights of Australian citizens.

May 15th marks the day of “The Catastrophe” ('Al-Nakba' in Arabic) where the state of Israel was created on the murder and dispossession of the Palestinian people. Within Israel, the state has attempted to silence protesters from speaking out against the oppression of the Palestinians and remembering this historic event. This has included intimidation and arrests of protestors and cutting funding of NGO’s involved in Al-Nakba events.

The march is planned for Tuesday the 15thof May at Sydney Town Hall beginning at 6pm. The rally will include speakers from the General Union of Palestinian Workers, Jews against the Occupation and many other pro-Palestinian activists.

Press Release: 12/5/2012

Commemorate Al-Nakba: Protest Against Israeli Apartheid! <http://www.facebook.com/n/?events%2F372597589448606%2F&mid=617&n_m=nilgiri%40y7mail.com> 

A representative of the protest organisers has been summoned to a hearing at the Supreme Court at 10am on Monday 14th May to contest the police actions.

Please attend if possible Queens Sq Macquarie St and TUESDAY RALLY

A big victory today with the NSW police failing in their bid to have the protest tomorrow night banned!

Great work from Socialist Alternative's Patrick Langosch, who argued the case in the Supreme Court along with the support of many others.

All the more reason for us to exercise our rights & get out to the rally tomorrow, especially as thousands of innocent Palestinian prisoners continue their hunger strikes, the biggest & longest the world has ever witnessed, to the deafening silence of our corporate media.

JOIN THE MARCH TO TAKE A STAND AGAINST INTIMIDATION OF PRO-PALESTINE ACTIVISM!

6pm Tuesday the 15th of May

Sydney Town Hall

The rally will include speakers from the General Union of Palestinian Workers, Jews against the Occupation & many other pro-Palestinian activists.

http://www.facebook.com/events/372597589448606/

Should Israel be worried? Very much so, for the age of total impunity is coming to an end. Critical voices of the Israeli occupation and mistreatment of Palestinians are rising - not only within civil society circles, but among world governments as well.

The picture may seem grim if seen through the prisms of the recent US Republican and Democratic National Conventions. But the world is not the United States’ government, which is defined by self-serving politics and a quisling corporate media that often places Israeli interests over those of the US itself. Now with the decline of the US as an economic superpower, and as other countries and regional blocs jockey for an advanced position in the new world order, Israel is sure to suffer further isolation in coming years.

Almost daily new evidence is emerging to demonstrate this increasingly stark reality. Israel’s friends are fully aware of this, as are Israeli politicians. The emerging new realization is that money and power are larely enough to buy legitimacy. South Africa is expectedly leading the way towards that new global paradigm shift, and others countries are following suit.

Recently, South Africa’s cabinet passed a decision requiring Israel to distinguish between products made in Israel and those made in illegal Jewish colonies in the West Bank. The decision was both politically sound and morally consistent with the country’s anti-apartheid legacy. It was also a natural progression of South Africa’s policies, which have reflected impatience with Israel through the years.

It is clear that Israel has chosen the apartheid option, not just as a de facto outcome of its military policies, but through a decided legal and political pattern. South Africa’s decision, however, was not just motivated by political necessity. Veterans of the anti-apartheid struggle have had numerous influences on the country’s civil society. Even the new generation is intoned with a freedom discourse that unites most sectors of society. ‘Freedom for Palestine’ was a natural fit in that powerful discourse and no amount of Israeli propaganda has been enough to deter South Africans from standing in solidarity with Palestinians. The feelings are, of course, mutual.

The total output of Israeli trade with South Africa was modest to begin with. Since 2009, trade volumes dipped significantly, and political ties became colder than ever. This had much to do with the Israel war on Gaza (2008-09) and what was seen as an act of Israeli piracy against the Turkish ship the Mavi Marmara in May 31, 2011. South Africa, along with few other countries, withdrew its ambassador from Israel in protest of the deadly raid which killed nine peace activists.

The matter is of greater significance than dollars and cents. The latter will become a major factor when a global boycott reaches a critical mass. The real danger is the precedence that South Africa continues to set, which will provide other countries with legal and political references.

Soon after South Africa’s decision – which followed remarks made by various officials discouraging their nationals from visiting Israel, and was followed by another major university voting for divestment and boycott – pro-Israel officials have tried to mobilize. Denis McShane, British MP and Policy Council member for ‘Labour Friends of Israel’, reacted by making dismaying and historically inconsistent parallels between South Africa and Nazi Germany. Writing in the Jewish Chronicle on September 6, Moira Schneider said that MacShane “likened the boycott of Israeli products to the kauf nicht bei Juden imperative of Nazi Germany.”

“Criticism of Israel is perfectly legitimate, but we have to be clear that the new antisemitic trope is beyond the pale of legitimate criticism,” he was quoted as saying. “The notion of Israel as an apartheid state is deliberately promoted because an apartheid state cannot exist.”

While the flawed logic has been uttered numerous times in the past, MacShane’s alarm now can be explained outside the political context of South Africa, but rather in terms of what is happening in his own country. Indeed, there has been a string of statements pointing at efforts underway in several European countries to enact laws relevant to the illegality of the Jewish settlements.

Some recent statements include British Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt "dropp(ing) the strongest hint yet that the UK may be moving towards a ban on goods from illegal Israeli settlements." (The Electronic Intifada, July 5, 2012). Towards the end of last year, Ireland's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade renewed his country's commitment to the exclusion of settlement products from the EU. More recently, on September 5, Israel's daily Haaretz reported on the Norwegian Foreign Minister's comments regarding the import of goods produced in the settlements, “which we consider illegal according to international law.”

Still more, on September 7, The Jerusalem Post reported that “the European Union is considering instituting a ban on imports of products made in Israeli settlements, a Greek Foreign Ministry official was quoted as saying to a group of Israeli and Palestinian journalists in Athens...”

Such a shift in language would never have been achieved without the civil society mobilization that occurred in several countries. As in South Africa, governments are being held accountable by vigilant and tireless groups, collectively pushing for Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). They will not reduce their efforts until Israel changes course, respects international law, and frees Palestinians from decades-long military bondage.

Unable to fathom the global paradigm shift, Israeli politicians are responding with an incoherent strategy. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, Yigal Palmor accused the government of South Africa of ‘exclusion and discrimination.’ The Israeli government decried the “blatant discrimination,” claiming it was “based on national and political distinction”. Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon went even further, accusing South Africa of exactly that which was alleged of Israel.“Unfortunately it turns out that the changes that took place in South Africa over the years have not brought about basic changes in the country, and it remains an apartheid state,” Ayalon said (Jerusalem Post, August 23).

But angry words aside, the world is changing. Israel, however, is digressing into a dark corner where racism and apartheid are still applied with impunity. Many Israelis are refusing to attest to their country’s fall into the abyss. A wakeup call can only arrive when the world treats the Israeli government in the same way that South Africa’s apartheid regime was once treated.

Growing Isolation: Boycott Of Israel Crosses To Governments’ Realm

Sadly, positive change comes much more slowly in awstrayla these days …

I can remember when this country supported sanctions against South Africa in protest against its apartheid laws & behaviour yet, today, it is South Africa which leads the way in introducing sanctions against the same behaviour perpetrated by the Zionist Israeli government against the people of Palestine & there is not a peep from Australia.

Indeed, whilst our politicians seem forever ready to lecture the rest of the planet on how they should behave (constantly tug forelock to the US), they have nothing to say about Israel’s crimes.

Hardly surprising, I suppose, when we consider the number & frequency of free trips they receive to Israel.

But, of course, our policticians, as always, will inevitably find themselves on the opposite side of public opinion. 

from Crikey ….

Life under an Israeli watchtower: postcard from South Hebron

RICK SMITH

ISRAEL, PALESTINE, THE WEST BANK

Children walking to school have guns trained on them by the army. Religious youths harass Palestinians as they pick olives in the fields. Helicopters of soldiers arrive in the middle of the night to rouse residents. Watchtowers sit on every hilltop.

This is the reality of life for some Palestinians on the West Bank.

Some time in the next fortnight, the Palestinian Authority, an interim body created in 1993, will apply to the UN to become a "non-member observer state". This will be an upgrade on the "observer entity" status it currently holds, but less than the "member state" it wants. It looks likely to succeed (despite US and Israeli opposition). Palestine would be allowed to join such UN agencies as the International Criminal Court, where it will probably bring a case against Israel for a bewildering array of war crimes. If that happens, I may be a witness.

I am monitoring human rights in Palestine with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel. I am based in the South Hebron Hills (SHH), in one of seven placements around the West Bank. My task is to provide protective presence for Palestinians, to monitor the humanitarian situation and to advocate on their behalf.

What do I do? Besides monitoring two checkpoints five times a week, a few regular support visits and constantly trailing behind the Israeli Defence Force reporting on its many and varied human rights violations, there are two serious issues in the SHH right now.

The first, chronic issue is the imminent displacement of Susiya village. Since their land was declared an archaeological site in 1986 and they were evicted en masse, the residents have lived in tents nearby which are under the constant threat of demolition. As the occupying power, Israel is responsible for administering the territory for the benefit of civilians. Yet it has not granted building permits for the inhabitants of Susiya. In this way it claims the legal right to demolish illegal homes.

This is merely a legislative trick by which the people are pressured into leaving the land. Israel also has a responsibility to provide for the everyday needs of civilians, yet Susiya gets electricity from German-funded solar panels and water from rain-fed cisterns.

Meanwhile, in the illegal Settlement of Suseya, founded in 1983, pleasant two-storey homes sit in green gardens arranged in neat rows along well-paved streets. There is a school, a grocery store and a branch of a national health insurance company. But don't be fooled.

There is violence surrounding Suseya, and some residents have harassed the Palestinians with virtual impunity for decades. I have seen broken cisterns and watched a group of obviously religious youths come to shout at Palestinians as they harvest olives. In the past, stone throwing and beatings have been caught on camera, but nary an arrest has been made.

Children walking to school have guns pointed at them by the army, who tell the children to go home, scaring them and wasting their education. Indeed, watchtowers on every hilltop observe the minutiae of Palestinian life: the chickens scratching in the dust, serving tea under the shade of a grapevine, herding sheep or watering the herb garden.

The situation is emblematic of villages all over the West Bank. If Susiya falls, the whole south will be gone. To this end, the Israeli settler organisation Regavim has begun stepping up a media campaign against the village.

The second major issue is the proposed Firing Zone 918. Initially declared in the early 1980s, it fell into disuse until recently. Now it is used heavily, with live ammunition and artillery fire booming quite near civilian homes all day long. Twelve communities numbering around 1200-1500 people are at risk of forced eviction, which is another way Israel empties sections of land of Palestinians.

The whole emptiness of the Negev is just a few kilometres away. Why don't they train there? FZ 918 is also strategic for a variety of reasons. Since an Israeli green group managed to prevent the Separation Barrier being built here because it would prevent seasonal migration of deer (who, unlike the Palestinians, are allowed to have two homes and encouraged to move freely) it is possible to sneak into Israel without a permit through the town of Jinba or nearby.

As a result, residents are frequently woken in the middle of the night as helicopters of soldiers arrive to photograph people in front of their houses, accusing them of smuggling people or drugs. They use these villages for training purposes rather than go to the expense of building a Potemkin village filled with actors. Small children do not understand that the solider will not shoot when he points his gun into the window.

Life in the Firing Zone is already hard: the people make do with much less water than World Heath Organisation minimum standards, the summer is hot and dusty, the winter cold and muddy. Their livelihoods come from herding and some rain-fed agriculture. Their partly cave-dwelling lifestyle is at serious risk of dying out; their fate will be decided at a court case on December 16.

*Rick Smith is a graduate of International Studies, Economics and German at the University of Adelaide and is volunteering with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel, which is under the auspices of the World Council of Churches