In honor of the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall
Palestinians defy another one, by climbing Israel’s wall. Can’t think of a better way to pay tribute to the day. Filmed by Haitham al Katib
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U.S House Resolution 867 passes with 16 glaring falsehoods about the UN Fact Finding Report on Gaza
Richard J. Goldstone sets the record straight on his UN Fact Finding Report on war crimes in Gaza. The United States House of Representatives passed Resolution 867 in spite of several obvious pieces of misinformation, ranging from sweeping generalizations, factual inaccuracies and misleading statements. Not a surprise coming from the political body responsible for the war in Iraq.
One sample:
HR 867: “Whereas the mandate of the `fact-finding mission’ makes no mention of the relentless rocket and mortar attacks, which numbered in the thousands and spanned a period of eight years, by Hamas and other violent militant groups in Gaza against civilian targets in Israel, that necessitated Israel’s defensive measures;”
Justice Goldstone: “This whereas clause is factually incorrect. As noted above, the expanded mandate clearly included the rocket and mortar attacks. Moreover, Chapter XXIV of the Report considers in detail the relentless rocket attacks from Gaza on Israel and the terror they caused to the people living within their range. The resulting finding made in the report is that these attacks constituted serious war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity.”
Read: Israel-Palestine: The Missing Headlines
And…
Also, be sure to check out Washington State Congressman Brian Baird’s remarks on Hr 867. He was one of 36 in the House of Representatives to not lie (via voting in favor of it) to voters about the true nature of the Gaza siege. If your congress creature was on that very short list, do send them a letter of thanks.
Snip:
“What will it say about this Congress and our country if we so readily seek to block “any further consideration” of a human rights investigation produced by one of the most respected jurists in the world today, a man who led the investigations of abuses in South Africa, the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Kosovo and worked to identify and prosecute Nazi war criminals as a member of the Panel of the Commission of Enquiry into the Activities of Nazism in Argentina?” — Brian Baird
H. Res. 867: Calling on the President and the Secretary of State to poke out their eyes with sharp sticks
H. Res. 867, calls on the President and the Secretary of State to pretend Israel never attacked Gaza last year with all the weapons the U.S. sold to it and to blame Palestinians for being killed in the attack in order to drum up anti-Israel sentiments.
Thanks to the 36 representatives who voted against it. From Washington State, Brian Baird and Jim McDermott voted against it. Many of the people voting against the UN report also voted for the Iraq war. I’m sure their reasons for rejecting this report had something to do with being confronted by the actual existance of accurate facts about the situation, which must have been very scary for them.
This all centers around Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, otherwise known as the Goldstone Report, or in some circles rightwing circles in Israel, “that self-hating, traitor basterd’s scribblings.” For short, please just refer to it as “the facts.” Word has it that the U.S. was most upset that it’s suggested edits, which blacked out every sentence not starting with the word “Hamas” was rejected. Will President OBama actually sign up and voluntarily blind himself remainst to be seen. It would be a forgone conclusion under Bush, but as the current president can read, his endorsement or rejection of this slop will offer some insight whether the White House wants to continue bombing Palestinians via the Israeli military or not.
via GovTrack.us
“The United States won Israel a reprieve on the Goldstone report, so now it must ensure that Israel genuinely investigates allegations of abuse. If this doesn’t happen by March, then the US should endorse the Goldstone report’s call for international mechanisms of accountability.” — Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch
American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein
Another film I’m likely not going to see until it hits the £3 rack at Fopp, but am looking forward to none the less. Anything that gets Prof. Finkelstein some widely needed attention in the U.S. is a good thing.
Palestine in Photos: Israel attempts to discredit human rights groups
Via IMEU
Update: BBC reports on B’Tselem’s findings of IDF under-reporting of Gaza civilian deaths…
Free Palestinian political prisoner Mohammad Khatib!
I’m donating this post for an urgent call of action in solidarity with Mohammad Khatib, and all Palestinian political prisoners, issued for Friday, August 14 at noon at the Indigo Bookstore on the corner of St. Catherine & McGill college in Montreal, Canada. Actions like this should be happening all over.
For more information on Mohammad Khatib’s case, as well as the issues which face his West Bank village of Bil’in, visit www.bilin-village.org. Mo Khatib is a friend of mine and several other friends of mine. He is an individual whose drive, creativity, self-reliance and relentless campaign work — not just to save his own village from settlement expansion and loss of territory to the apartheid barrier, but for all of occupied Palestine — are constanly awe inspiring.
His enginuity for continous direct, disruptive nonviolent action has kept media attention on Bil’in far longer than is usually the norm in areas where land is being co-opted by annexation policies, and has even led to legal rulings in Israel against the military and pro-occupation policies. It is no wonder that he is considered such a threat. He now joins the ranks of political prisoners around the world, kidnapped and detained for exercising their rights under international law.
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“I have no emotional obligations to the practices of an ancestral religion and even less to the small, militarist, politically aggressive nation-state which asks for my solidarity on racial grounds.”