‘The United Nation's Human Rights Council is looking to appoint John Dugard as a permanent investigator on Israel's actions in the territories, which he has in the past compared to apartheid, Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Yitzhak Levanon, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.

Levanon said the appointment would be part of a move to create a mandate by which to permanently probe Israeli violations of international law in the territories until such time as Israel withdraws to the pre-1967 border.’

’Zionism is a newer name for an ancient racist, expansionist, and imperialist political movement, whose aim was, and still is, the establishment of a strong “Jewish-only” empire (Greater Israel) in the Middle East, which was considered the heart of the ancient world, and the center of all trade.

To accomplish this goal ancient Israelite self-proclaimed “prophets” had introduced false religious beliefs and interpretations of scriptures into Judaism to nationalize the religion, and to misguide the Jews into believing in a prejudiced racist and war-loving god, who favours one group of people over all the rest of his creations, and –as a real estate agent- promised the Jews a piece of land, and promised to protect and to lead their armies to cleanse this promised land (from Nile to Euphrates) from all the heathens (Goyim) through genocide in return he asks them to build him a pathetic temple when he has the whole universe as his house. These false religious beliefs sanctioned theft, murder, torture and exploitation of other people, whom this prejudiced god had allegedly created to be only servants to the Jews.’

Palestine: Israeli Killing Fields

‘In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the news media, more times than not, does not reflect the reality or horrors of the situation on the ground. Just last year, according to Israeli human rights organization, B'Tselem, 660 Palestinians were killed by Israeli Military forces, 21% of which were children. On the Israeli side, Palestinians were responsible for killing 23 Israelis.

With a murder ratio exceeding 28 to 1, the Israeli occupation can no longer be disguised as a security measure in the name of peace.

Through American and Global mainstream media outlets, this story of Palestinian despair and hardship is nameless and remains widely untold. The illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories is completely crushing and destroying the Palestinian people in every way imaginable, and amazingly, it is the Palestinians who receive no emergency aid and little sympathy outside the Arab world.’

The Occupation Of Palestine

‘In the West Bank, including Jerusalem, the Israeli Apartheid Wall, settlements and their road systems are de facto confiscating over half of our land and most of our water resources and agricultural fields. Israeli apartheid is creating something worse than Bantustans: Palestinian residential areas surrounded by 8-meter high cement walls and sealed by gates, checkpoints and terminals.

Never have Israeli crimes been so evident and well-known all over the world. To dozens of UN resolutions has been added the decision of the International Court of Justice calling for the Wall to be dismantled. Violations of human rights and international conventions are reported daily.

Lately, high level officials and envoys from the UN, the US and European states have to line up if they are to receive appointments with the Fatah-wing of the new Palestinian authority “government”. By now, they should be well aware of our ghettoization as well.

The demonstrations and protests all over Palestine for Land Day are thus yet another call to our leadership and the wider region that they at least second, if not lead, the steadfastness and resistance of the people.

Approximately 97 villages in the West Bank are completely isolated and slated for destruction or ethnic cleansing and some 4,500 houses are under demolition order to make space for Israeli colonization. Dispossessed farmers watch industrial estates growing on their land in a system designed to exploit and control. Six out of ten Palestinians live below the poverty line. Yet the calls that lead the demonstrations do not ask for food or survival. It is the calls for dignity and rights – the full implementation of our rights – that brings the people onto the streets.

Another popular Intifada is inevitably building up as long as our rights are ignored and our future confiscated.’

Spotlight On The Palestinian Struggle: New Pressure To Relinquish Rights

‘What will become of the children of Palestine?

They will remember the thundering of Israeli tanks and gunfire, rampaging and ripping through their joyous cries of play and the still of night as they lay awake in bed. They will remember their fathers, many of whom were killed indiscriminately by the occupying power. They will also listen to stories of their mothers, which they never grew to know, who died at military checkpoints giving birth to their stillborn brother or sister. They won't forget their 9 year old schoolmate and friend, Raghda Alassar who endured a fatal bullet in her little head while studying in her Gazan classroom. The children of Palestine won't soon forget Rachel Corrie or Tom Hurndall either, and how they sacrificed their lives resisting home demolitions and killings of innocent women and children.

The children of Palestine haven't forgotten the Intifada, or their peers in Israeli prisons. They won't soon be free of the nightmares, or free from the everlasting image of their strong parents weeping in despair over a heap of rubble that was once, their proud home. They won't look back fondly either, at their bruises from the settlers' stones. They'll remember not to forget the pain of hunger in their empty stomachs and their friends, whose feet will never touch the ground again.’

A Few words About The Children Of Palestine

‘In recent months there has been discussion of a possible renewal or negotiations of the Arab Peace Summit, initiated by Saudi Arabia in 2002. This peace proposal offers Israel normalized diplomatic relations with all Arab nations in exchange for an end to the military occupation of territory outside the green line 1967 borders, evacuation of Israeli settlements in occupied territory, East Jerusalem sovereignty, and a "just" resolution for the Palestinian refugees living in neighboring Arab countries that were driven out of Palestine and what is now Israel upon Israel's state establishment in 1948.

After all that has happened politically and militarily since the establishment of the Israel, the Arab nations (including Iran) are collectively asking for what international law has demanded for several decades now. Unfortunately, it appears that there will be no resolution with Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert in charge of leading discussion with Arab leaders. Mr. Olmert has stated that there will be no return of Palestinian refugees and shows no sign whatsoever of ending the brutal militarization and occupation of the West Bank. And although the Gaza Strip occupation was presumed over in 2005, their borders and roads have been so restricted by the IDF that their economy is virtually nonexistent, leaving the Gaza Strip residents, the most heavily populated region in the world, essentially incarcerated in their own starving and horrendously impoverished communities.

As Palestinian 'citizens' in the occupied territories are living under conditions described by several human rights organizations as a "humanitarian crisis of catastrophic proportions," western media outlets inform the public that Israel is freezing sincere discussion about Palestinian statehood because Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit has not been released. What is not widely publicized is that Israel is holding an estimated 10,000 Palestinians prisoner: men, women, and children, many whom of which are as young as 14 years old.’

Palestine Is Disappearing: The Last Hope

‘There is little question in anybody’s mind about the special relation between Israel and the United States. Israel is the largest recipient of US foreign aid, to the tune of more than $3 billion dollars a year, plus miscellaneous additions like surplus weaponry, debt waivers and other perks. Israel is the only country that receives its entire aid package in the beginning of the fiscal year, allowing it to accrue interest on it during the year.

It is the only country which is allowed to spend up to 25% of its aid outside of the United States, placing such expenditures outside US control. Apart from financial support, the United States has offered unwavering support for the Israeli occupation of Palestine and for the ongoing oppression of the Palestinians, and has systematically supported Israel’s refusal to make any effective peace negotiations or peace agreements.

It has vetoed countless UN resolutions seeking to bring Israel into compliance with international law.

It has allowed Israel to develop nuclear weapons and not to sign the nuclear anti-proliferation treaty and most recently it strongly supported Israel’s attack on Lebanon in July of 2006. Support for Israel cuts across party lines and is extremely strong in Congress where criticism of Israel is rarely, if ever, heard.

It also characterizes almost all American administrations from Johnson onwards, with George W. Bush being possibly the most pro-Israel ever.’

"The Lobby": AIPAC & US Foreign Policy

Whilst rattus was quietly collecting his latest loyalty award from his Zionist friends ….

The International Committee of the Red Cross, in a confidential report about East Jerusalem and its surrounding areas, accuses Israel of a “general disregard” for “its obligations under international humanitarian law - and the law of occupation in particular.”

The committee, which does not accept Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem, says Israel is using its rights as an occupying power under international law “in order to further its own interests or those of its own population to the detriment of the population of the occupied territory.”

Red Cross Report Says Israel Disregards Humanitarian Law

‘The Israeli High Court issued a ruling that allows the Shabak, which is the Internal General Security Service of Israel, to torture with impunity.

The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) published a report condemning the practice of torture that is “derived from the darkness of the Middle Ages” & the Israeli High Court that issued the ruling. The Shabak security agency said in response that its interrogations were “conducted according to the law.

All detainees have the right to file a complaint with the courts or the Red Cross & these will be examined by the Ombudsman of Interogees’ Complaints.”

The depth of the Israeli torture includes crimes against Palestinian children by interrogation methods that commonly included severe beatings, dousing in cold water, putting the detainee’s head in a toilet bowl, threats, and curses. The use of Stress and Duress torture techniques, which is a key component to the US program, was adopted from the Israeli program.

Touted as the shining example of the Democratic Rule of Law, Israel has illustrated contempt for law & the value of human life, or even possessing an ethical standard of moral behaviour with respect to the civil & human rights of the Palestinians. No lessons learned from the crimes committed during the Nazi Holocaust.

Robert Fisk’s World: A brave man who stood alone. If only the world had listened to him

I wish I had met Tom Hurndall, a remarkable man of remarkable principle

Saturday, 28 March 2009

I don't know if I met Tom Hurndall. He was one of a bunch of "human shields" who turned up in Baghdad just before the Anglo-American invasion in 2003, the kind of folk we professional reporters make fun of. Tree huggers, that kind of thing. Now I wish I had met him because – looking back over the history of that terrible war – Hurndall's journals (soon to be published) show a remarkable man of remarkable principle. "I may not be a human shield," he wrote at 10.26 on 17 March from his Amman hotel. "And I may not adhere to the beliefs of those I have travelled with, but the way Britain and America plan to take Iraq is unnecessary and puts soldiers' lives above those of civilians. For that I hope that Bush and Blair stand trial for war crimes."

Hurndall got it about right, didn't he? It wasn't so simple as war/no war, black and white, he wrote. "Things I've heard and seen over the last few weeks proves what I already knew; neither the Iraqi regime, nor the American or British, are clean. Maybe Saddam needs to go but ... the air war that's proposed is largely unnecessary and doesn't discriminate between civilians and armed soldiers. Tens of thousands will die, maybe hundreds of thousands, just to save thousands of American soldiers having to fight honestly, hand to hand. It is wrong." Oh, how many of my professional colleagues wrote like this on the eve of war? Not many.

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Tom Hurndall had stayed in Rafah. He was only 21 where – in his mother's words – he lost his life through a single, selfless, human act. "Tom was shot in the head as he carried a single Palestinian child out of the range of an Israeli army sniper." Mrs Hurndall asked me to write a preface to Tom's book and this article is his preface, for a brave man who stood alone and showed more courage than most if us dreamed of. Forget tree huggers. Hurndall was one good man and true.

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