You are currently browsing posts tagged with Palestine
Posted on Wednesday, 18 August, 2010 By yours truly | TOOLS: Talk or Share
Those tuning in to Monday night’s Panorama on BBC may have finished the episode under the impression that a Turkish ship had attacked a group of Israeli pleasure boaters somewhere off the coast of Tel Aviv. In fact, it was meant to be an exposé on the Israeli military’s deadly attack on a civilian vessel flying under a Turkish flag in international waters carrying an international crew and passengers and aid shipments bound to Gaza in an attempt to break a siege there that defies international law. See how easy that was? The show’s lead reporter, Jane Corbin wasn’t able to actually explore that in any depth the entire half-hour slot she had.
Corbin is a member of the Panorama documentary team and a self-styled “renowned expert on the al-Qaeda network and Islamist threat” that faces us all. I know this because it’s how she advertises herself. She even wrote a book on it.
Corbin ostensibly set out in Monday’s docu-drama to answer the question of what happened on the ship Mavi Marmara that led to the deaths of nine of its passengers by the guns of the Israeli commandos that stormed it. Spoiler alert: After a half an hour, the viewer is none the wiser. 80% of the program was devoted to commandos who killed 9 civilians while, at the most, 20% was devoted to all other comments. Her lengthy, fawning interviews with Israeli Navy flacks and TV-approved commandos failed to provide a definitive answer. The scant time dedicated to eye witnesses who had been aboard the Mavi Marmara on the night of May 31 also apparently failed to suit her narrative of choice. As a result, what we the TV audience received was pure propaganda. 
Get some more of this post
Posted on Saturday, 31 July, 2010 By yours truly | TOOLS: Talk or Share
“When the United States is on the side of injustice, it harms our country, it harms our integrity, it harms our principle, it harms our standing in the world. People want to believe that we, as the world’s leading superpower, live up to our highest virtues. And when we fail to do that, it threatens, and endangers, and undermines us.”
— Rep. Brian Baird, speaking at the 9th Annual National Organizers’ Conference for the US Campaign to End the Occupation
Hey Brian,
I hear you’re stepping down from Congress soon. Sorry to hear about it, really. It seems like you’ve finally arrived to a place where I could vote for you again, and now the whole process has to start over and I have to listen to a new representative get it wrong for years upon years. Perhaps you’ve decided that your awakening has come with the unfortunate side effect of being unable to win another election while also saying what you believe. That may be true, but so what?
I think that’s the best time to run for re-election. As much as possible, we need it on the public record how many people actually vote and campaign against rationality. Elections are when these people out and say things which can be recorded. We need that. When need to know which fellow Democrats, Republicans and other parties will or won’t do so, because more importantly than serving democracy for yet another election cycle, we can measure public reaction and see exactly where your part of the United States stands.
So, put it to the test and run again. You’ve got nothing to lose.
Posted on Friday, 11 June, 2010 By yours truly | TOOLS: Talk or Share
Delegitimize.com is a new media library project by Nigel Parry that plans to publish a series of both topic-specific and current event-focused archive websites, with the help of the pro-Palestinian community and beyond.
The Gaza Flotilla archive is a freely-available research resource on the events that took place in international waters off the coast of Gaza on 31 May 2010.
Posted on Wednesday, 9 June, 2010 By yours truly | TOOLS: Talk or Share
Tony Blair takes a photo of himself in front of the human rights travesty he helped create in Iraq.
Dear Tony Blair,
Shut the hell up. Here’s what you had to say on the Israeli massacre of nine humanitarian aid activists from Turkey and the illegal boarding and abduction of others in international waters and the theft of their cargo legally bound for Gaza under international law: “I am 100% on Israel’s side.” … “There are no questions at all. There have been rockets fired from Gaza, there are people in Gaza who want to kill innocent Israelis.” (entirely unrelated) … “When it comes to security, I am 100% on Israel’s side.”
Thus, Tony Blair, you are in 0% support of international law, human rights, a peace process, the United Nations or common sense. People need to stop blathering on about Helen Thomas and look at a real hate monger: You.
Quite the envoy of “The Quartet” you are in the name of coming up with some sort of solution to a conflit: A war criminal with a great smile. I don’t get why so many in Labour actually seem to miss you. I’m waiting for someone to actually explain to me what you brought to the table that could be identifiable as “helpful.” You pretty much delivered UK foreign policy to the White House, dragged your country into the most ridiculously insane war in modern history that Iraq is still in ruins from, and you did so knowingly based on false information.
And is now here you are proselytizing for Israel’s right to ethnic cleansing and apartheid and to pop a bullet in the head of anyone it wants to in international waters. You display nothing but disdain for the poeple in the entire region of the Middle East it seems, and you’ve managed to propel this into a profitable business opportunity for yourself. Way to go, you.
Posted on Thursday, 3 June, 2010 By yours truly | TOOLS: Talk or Share
IMEU has a great synopsis with regardss to the various laws that Israel’s attacks on the Free Gaza flotilla are in violation of, as well as the legal status of the Gaza blockade and occupation…
Some of the participants of the humanitarian flotilla. (Maan Images)
Israel exercises “effective control” over Gaza and as such remains an occupying power. Under international law Israel’s blockade of Gaza is illegal. Its attack on the humanitarian aid flotilla – meant to enforce an illegal blockade – is illegal as well.
1. Why is Israel’s siege of Gaza illegal under international law?
2. Why does the international community continue to consider Israel an occupying power in Gaza?
3. If Israeli claims to have ended its occupation of Gaza were true would the blockade still be illegal?
4. Did Israel have the legal right to prevent the passage of the humanitarian aid flotilla?
5. Did Israel have the right to board the flotilla ships in international waters?
6. Can maritime blockades be imposed in international waters?
7. Did Israel’s actions constitute self-defense?
Posted on Tuesday, 1 June, 2010 By yours truly | TOOLS: Talk or Share
It’s actually very simple. Men with guns descend from helicopters onto boats in international water. Civilian passengers on boats killed. Done. Another vessel in the Free Gaza movement, The MV Rachel Corrie is set to arrive in Gazan waters soon. Israel has threatened to attack this legal shipment of humanitarian aid as well with similar deadly violence. What follows are some facts of the case with sources provided.
UPDATE: MV Rachel Corrie crew is requesting a UN escort and has said they will allow UN observers to inspect cargo for anything that is outside of international law. That should be sufficient for Israel . I’m still in favor of the Turkish option.
Products (source: the Israeli human rights organization Gisha) barred from Gaza by the Israeli occupation. Graphic by that bastion of the radical left, The Economist
“UN statistics show that around 70% of Gazans live on less than $1 a day, 75% rely on food aid and 60% have no daily access to water. Humanitarian aid is in theory allowed in, but UN agencies and charities claim that the Israelis have banned any items that are humanitarian in nature but could be put to alternative use. Items said to face delays getting into Gaza include shelter kits, health and paediatric hygiene kits, bedding, kitchen utensils, school textbooks and stationery. The World Bank estimates that 80% of Gaza’s imports are smuggled in by tunnel. The goods, which are taxed by Hamas, attract inflated prices that are out of the reach of most ordinary residents.” — The Guardian
freegaza.org
The embargo on goods to Gaza is illegal under international law. The United Nations Security Council has called for it to be lifted. — UN Security Council Resolution 1860
The Israeli embargo meets the definition of “collective punishment,” a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention. “Art. 33. No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.” — ICRC
No foreign power, even an occupying power, has the authority to restrict delivery of Humanitarian aid under any circumstances according to the Fourth Geneva Convention. — ICRC
“Israel has no right to control Gaza’s sea as its own territorial waters and to stop aid convoys arriving that way. In doing so, it proves that it is still in belligerent occupation of the enclave and its 1.5 million inhabitants. And if it is occupying Gaza, then under international law Israel is responsible for the welfare of the Strip’s inhabitants. Given that the blockade has put Palestinians there on a starvation diet for the past four years, Israel should long ago have been in the dock for committing a crime against humanity.” — Jonathan Cook
A ship delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza was flying under the Turkish flag when it was attacked by Israeli commandos last night leading to a still unknown number of civilian deaths. Turkey is a member of NATO. Article 5 of the NATO charter declares that armed attacks against any NATO member in Europe or North America will be considered an attack against all of them, with each taking action. Article 6 lists the Mediterranean Sea as one location where an attack will bring about a response. — NATO
The Law of the Sea also applies to the attack on the Turkish vessel, and the U.S. was wrong to suggest in the UN that Israel should lead (or even take part) in any investigation of the incident. In international waters, the applicable laws are those of the country whose flag the ship where the altercation took place was flying. It was a Turkish ship, hence it’s Turkish territory and Turkish laws and jurisdiction apply. — The Law of the Sea
Unless…
Because the action took place on open waters, one of two scenarios currently exists provided by Craig Murray (citation link at bottom):
- ” Possibility one is that the Israeli commandos were acting on behalf of the government of Israel in killing the activists on the ships. In that case Israel is in a position of war with Turkey, and the act falls under international jurisdiction as a war crime.”
- “Possibility two is that, if the killings were not authorised Israeli military action, they were acts of murder under Turkish jurisdiction. If Israel does not consider itself in a position of war with Turkey, then it must hand over the commandos involved for trial in Turkey under Turkish law.”
So, if Israel isn’t at war with Turkey then it should turn over any suspects to Turkish authorities. If Israel claims it has the authority, it’s an act of war. — Craig Murray, former British Ambassador and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Lancaster School of Law
Taking all this into account, you’d think the MV Rachel Corrie would find some smooth sailing into the Port of Gaza. But then you’d be thinking about a government that was behaving in a rational manner. Think again.
« Older Entries
I’m doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won’t be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing since april, and is starting to get ready. I’d like any feedback on things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat (same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons) among other things).
