Saturday 28 February 2009

What (a) Wonderful World?

Sometimes I am brought to question my faith in Humanity. A question that comes to my mind more and more these days is "What kind of World are we living in?". Reading the papers and online reporting I am really unsettled.

I love this Planet, and I do believe we live in a wonderful world. Its a pity that some people and governments seem to have given up on their fellow man, and hold themselve above others.

As some of you may know, Tibet is under Chinese rule, and the Tibetan people are unfairly treated. China has for a long time been known to have a bad track record with Human rights, and this continues with the treatment of Tibet. However what I read in the news today is a sad sad st
ory.

It is a common practise for Tibetan monks to set themselves alight, as a form of peaceful protest. Residents of the town of Aba, in the south west Sichuan Provice, witnessed a Monk waving the Flag of Tibet, douse himself with Petrol and set himself alight. However uncommonly they then witnessed Police shoot the protester. His name was Tapay. The protest came after a gathering to Celebrate the Tibetan new year, which the Chinese Government had ba
nned. It is also nearing the 50th Anniversary of the uprising that led the Dalai Lama to flee to India.

On the other side of the world, Palestinian militants have fired five Rockets into Southern Israel, hitting the coastal town of Ashkelon, damaging a school but causing no injuries. A general strike was called across the occupied West Bank territory, with schools and shops remaining shut, to protest against the 1,500 to be evicted.

The United States, Israel and Canada have shamefully refused to attend a conference on Racism, to be held in Geneva, becuase documents for the conference make reference to Zionism. Tzipi Livni, the current foriegn minister, has used the typical trick of the United States and Israel. Anyone who speaks out agianst Zionism is labelled antisemitic, despite the fact that Zionism is not Judaism.

"Under the fig leaf of combating racism, this conference is blatantly anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli" - Tzipi Livni

Obviously Pro Israeli groups are supporting the move also. The Netherlands and France have voiced concern but are not yet boycotting the conference. In other Palestine related news Israel have blocked a Pasta shipment to the Gaza strip. Food, a basic human right.

Why do I question humanity?? Well this is the cliff hanger. I question humanity, cause no one seems to give a .... well you know. Currently the Tibetan, Burmese, Palestinian, Tamils, Basque and Irish people, to name very very few, live under illegal occupation, and/or are opressed in one form or other.

In Tibet, it is illegal to even fly the flag. In Burma, the legally elected Government are held in detention by a military force government. Read my previous blogs, you'll see that to even be Palestinian is a crime according to Israel. In the Basque region any Basque affiliated Political parties are banned. In the Occupied Ireland we can't even get equal standing for our language.

And No one seems to care.

Those that do care are penalised, by being branded as Racist or antisemitic. In Canada too colleges banned posters calling for an end to Israeli aparthied.

I don't know where I'm going with this so I guess I'll leave it here.

God Bless
Peace

Monday 23 February 2009

Amnesty International calls for an Embargo

Amnesty International has called for all countries to freeze arms sales to Israel and Palestinians, in particular Hamas. THe reasoning behind this, is that both have used weapons which they sourced from friends across borders and seas in the recent Israeli driven slaughter in Gaza. It further states, reasonably so, that these weapons were used indiscriminately against the civilian population of Israel and Gaza.

Now I'm a little unsure about how I feel on the weapon front. I believe that yes the world should stop selling weapons to Israel. But should weapon trade with Hamas be stopped, leaving Hamas completely unarmed, whilst Israel remains heavily armed? I'm unsure on my stance on that one. Of course I would prefer that neither were armed heavily, or even armed at all.

It has went as far as to call for an Embargo, by the UN Security Council. Now Embargo by definition is, "is the prohibition of commerce (division of trade) and trade with a certain country, in order to isolate it and to put its government into a difficult internal situation, given that the effects of the embargo are often able to make its economy suffer from the initiative" (Wikipedia). So this is in effect, by my niave understanding, a boycott.

Now why should the people of Palestine have a boycott against them? They have little enough trade as it is, when their natural resources, like the that of the Dead Sea, are illegally sold to make money for Israel, and their Olive groves are uprooted to build Israels illegal aparthied wall. I fully back a boycott of Israel while it continues to ignore international law, and the rights of the Palestinian people.

Anyway the report from Amnesty International has accused Israel breaking humanitarian law, highlighting the substancial amount of evidence to prove the illegal use of White Phosphorus Gas, also stating that this was supplied by the USA. Hamas have been condemned for firing unguided missiles into civilian area's of Israel.

Mark Regev is not one of my favourite people, and has claimed that the Amnesty International report is hugely flawed because they also spoke with Hamas. Obviously the only way to write a fully accurate report, would be to ask the people guilty of War Crimes wether or not they committed war crimes, against a people that they fully hate. Am I Right? No I'd be mentally unstable to believe that. The fact is that Israel has admitted to War crimes, without the world even acknowledging it.

The International Committee of the Red Cross - guardian of the Geneva Conventions on which international humanitarian law is based - defines a combatant as a person " in hostilities". Benjamin Rutland told the BBC that their "definition is that anyone who is involved with terrorism within Hamas is a valid target. This ranges from the institutions and includes the directly engagedstrictly military political institutions". To attack the Political institutions is against Humanitarian War crimes, which insists that civilian death are to be a minimum. A civilian, in accordence to these laws is someone that is not a combatant. The definition of which I have already given.

In the words of Philippe Sands, a professer of international law in London, "Once you extend the definition of combatant in the way that IDF is apparently doing... it becomes an open-ended definition, which undermines the very object and purpose of the rules that are intended to be applied".

In other news, the terrorist Primeminister, Ehud Olmert has suspended the Hamas ceasefire negotiator. Amos Gilad has recently been negotiating the release of the Israeli Militant soldier Gilad Shalit.

God Bless
Peace

Sunday 22 February 2009

Evictions, Uprootings, Deaths and Border Opening


More than 1,500 people are to be left homeless after Israeli forces issued eviction notices to the Palestinians living in East Jerusalem. The Israelis have informed the owners that the houses, which have been there since before the 1967 war, are illegal. Since 2004 aprox. 350 houses have been demolished for being illegal, according to human rights organisation B'Tselem.

In accordence to international law, East Jerusalem is not recognised as Israeli territory, but occupied land. This being fact, makes the demolishing of these houses illegal:

Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention: Extensive destruction and appropriation of property not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly, is a grave breach of the Convention.

Art. 23 of the Hague Convention of 1907: In addition to the prohibitions provided by special Conventions, it is especially forbidden to destroy or seize the enemy's property, unless such destruction or seizure be imperatively demanded by the necessities of war;

Also the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of, December 10, 1948, Article 17: 'No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.'

In other news, 300 Olive saplings have been uprooted in Jab'a, Western Bethlahem. Bulldozers uprooted the saplings, because Israeli Occupation Forces claim t to be state land, and so it would be illegal for the owners to cultivate it. The land is owned by four families, who have inherited it from their fathers, and who own official ownership papers and so Israeli forces can not claim it as state land, and cultivation of the land is not illegal.

A further 25 Olive Trees where uprooted in Ni'lin, leading to clashes between residents and soldiers. Rubber bullets and Tear gas were fired on the civilians, and one civilian was shot in the face.


For the 2nd time this month, Arab tents have been demolished, and water tanks confiscated by the occupation forces of Israel. These tents had be provided to the families by the Red Cross, as Israeli forces originally demolished their tents on the 3rd of February.


Two fighters in Gaza have been killed by Israeli gunfire, early on Saurday morning. The inncedent occured in the Bureji Refugee camp. Israeli military have denied firing but claim that Israel was hit by two mortars from Gaza over night.

Around 9am on Sunday morning, Eygpt opened the Rafah border, which was expected to stay open for just 3 days.

"The mood here for the first time in an awful long time is one of great happiness for those few who are being able to cross the border" - Todd Baer, Al Jazeera

God Bless
Peace

Monday 16 February 2009

Gaza shakes under Israeli Terrorism




By now I'm fed up highlighting the ProIsraeli stance of the BBC. Once again the BBC failed to report an Inncedent, which Israeli spokes people have commented on. This is because of the antipalestinian roots to the inncedent. Israeli shells hit a target in Palestine, killing one person. The Israeli armed forces cliamed that they did not know about the shells, and that they would carry out a full investigation into why it happened.
However this afternoon the BBC have a report on the recent Gaza attacks, following rockets on Israel.

These rockets where once again not connected to Hamas, and yet Israel have chose to punish Hamas and the Palestinians, by bombing the only source of Food and Fuel that is available to them; The Smuggling Tunnels bordering with Egypt.
The responsibility for the Rockets was cliamed by "Hezbollah Brigades, Palestine". The rockets resulted in no injuries, and Israel responded by bombing the southern Gazan town of Rafah.

This comes following recent announcements from Hamas and Israeli spokespersons regarding the Peace talks. Hamas spokespersons made an announce ment, saying that they expected results soon, resulting in at least a year long Ceasefire. However an Israeli spokeperson later denied this.

Israel have demanded the release of an Israeli Soldier, Gilad Shalit, held prisioner by Hamas since 2006. According to Hamas this had not been brought up during the Egyptian Peace talks, and is now appeared as a truce was beginning to look positive. The release of said prisioner was appearently part of other talks, involving the release of Palestinian POWs. As for the Peace talks Hamas want the borders opened and the Siege to end.

Whatever the future holds for these people, it does not seem peaceful, especially since a more Right Wing party is likley to aggrovate the situation.


God Bless
Peace

Sunday 8 February 2009

Palestine Update

Well due to headaches and such this week I've failed to post again, so here's just a wee update on what has been going on and why we must continue to boycott Israel, and demand the re-opening of the Borders.

The BBC once again does not come out looking to good in this blog. Now maybe the BBC in this situation just don't see the Palestinian story important, but the way they report only makes me feel they are just Pro-Israeli.
At the beginning of the week reports announced that Israel had fired on a Lebanon Ship, bringing aid to Gaza. The BBC reported this as a side story online with the headline "Israel 'attack' Gaza aid ship", insinuating that this is only an alleged incident. Al Jazeera had the story as breaking news.

Now the truth is a little hazy to me, however Palestinians on the ship say Israel fired, and Israel have denied it. Either way the BBC has failed to report the story effectively. Israel however did admit to boarding the boat. The Aid and the Activists were expelled, but blood products were brought by road.
Reports claim that men on the boats were beaten and kicked, though once again Israel denies this.

Also following the seizure of aid, by HAMAS, the UN has decided to cease sending Aid. Hamas has said the seizure of the Aid was a mistake, and that the aid will be returned. The UN are currently still waiting.

In the early hours of Friday morning, Israeli forces fired four missiles on to the Gazan smuggling tunnels. The attacks came following two rockets fired onto southern Israel from Gaza.

Also Israeli forces killed a man in the West Bank, but I will not claim to have enough knowledge of the situation to make any statements about it.

The world can not seriously believe that there is still a ceasefire in Gaza. Israel has broken that ceasefire, and is still forcing Palestinians to live in abject poverty. The Siege of Gaza must end, and it must end now. The only way to make a lasting effect on Israel is to boycott their goods. The EU governments must urge for an end to Israeli - EU trade.


Does the world want to see Israel successfully complete their Ethnic Cleansing of the Palestinian People? If they refuse to recognise the crimes of the Israeli state, and recognise the plight of the Palestinian people then that is exactly what will happen. The World vowed "Never Again", and yet they stand by and ignore this Ethnic Cleansing. Disgraceful.


God Bless

Peace

Wednesday 4 February 2009

The World Vowed Never Again. Why then did it happen?

"On occasions such as this, rhetoric comes easily. We rightly say 'never again.' But action is much harder. Since the Holocaust the world has, to its shame, failed more than once to prevent or halt genocide." - Kofi Annan

After the truely horrific events, now known as the Holocaust, became common knowledge the world vowed that this would never happen again; that the world could not let this happen again. However the world has systematically failed time and time again to prevent history repeating itself.

On many occasions, the suposed, powers of the world have wasted time discussing "Is the term Genocide applicable?" or that the Rules of intervention are not clear and thus they do not know if they can act. Whatever the excuse the world has failed.

  1. Bangladesh 1971: 10 months of fighting led to the slaughter of 500,000 Hindus. No one was ever held to account.
  2. Burundi 1972: the Tutsi tribe slaughtered 80,000 Hutus.
  3. East Timor 1975: 200,000 East Timorese were slaughtered. Violence continued in 1999. UN took no action.
  4. Guatemala 1981-83: 200,000 Mayan victims were slaughtered.
  5. Bosnia 1992-1995: 200,000 Muslims slaughtered. UN Troops did nothing.
  6. Rawanda 1994: 100 days of Genocide leave 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus dead at the hands of the Hutu. UN troops where ordered to withdraw once violence started.
  7. Darfur 2003-Present Day: Janjaweed and Sudan Government Have slaughtered 300,000 in Darfur.
  8. Palestine 1948: Since 1948 Israeli forces have taken part in an ethnic cleasing of Palestinian Arabs. In 22 Days of terrorism, 1,300 Palestinians were Slaughtered, 400 of them Children. The UN did nothing.
Some experts are known to have said that 37 incidents have occured, where the world have not acted, and allowed the slaughters and Genocides to continue, under the disguise of a single word... War.

What about Tibet? Burma? Iraq? Afghanistan? Ireland? The list goes on and on.

I don't really know what point to end on here. Its a sad realistion that the world has let this happen. Furthermore rich countries ignore starvation and disease, in developing countries.

We must not let the world fail again. This is why we must urge the UN, the EU and our own nations to begin a boycott of Israel. They need to cut down on the money wasted on weaponry, and help the poor and the starving and the opressed. The world can be a better place, if only enough people want it to be.

In the words of Frank Turner "Come on Old Friends to the Streets". Stand up for what you believe in, and shout if you have too.

God Bless
Peace



Tuesday 3 February 2009

Violent Unrest continues...

As stated in my last blog, Palestinian militants fired rockets on the south of Israel, and in response Israel promised isproportionate response. Well within a few hours of making this promise, the Israeli Airforce carried out raids on the South of Gaza. At this stage Hamas had not yet ended their ceasefire. Israel broke first.

However last night more rockets where fired on southern Israel, and no Palestinian group has accepted responsibility.

This again highlights to me the Pro-Israeli Stance of the BBC. When the rockets where fired on Israel, it was quickly reported. The airraids carried out by Israel reported by Al Jazeera, however the BBC left their reports until after it had been revealed that only one person had been killed. To me this shows that the BBC were waiting for an excuse to downplay the action. Rather than report the news as it happened, as the BBC cliam they do.

Where does this leave Palestine? After Israel's attack of the Gaza strip the people on both sides of the divide, have been left in the same place they were beforehand, echoing the worries of an Israeli civilian interviewed by the BBC.

On a terrible note, for the Palestinian People, Tzipi Livni has hopes to be appointed Primeminister. She has already ruled out any suggestions of negotiation with the rulers in the Gaza region. Livni has said "Terror must be fought with force, and lots of force". Throughout history one has seen that force against Freedom Fighters has only proved to be an incentive to keep fighting. This is clearly an attempt to justify her use of extreme terror and murder, against the Palestinian people. She has insisted continuing action against Palestine, "until they get the message". This is clearly not the mentality of a state leader. It is the same mentality of a playground bully. She is a murderer, and she is a terrorist.

Another candidate for the Priministerial office is Benjamin Netanyahu, who has said the only discussions between Israel and Palestine should be for economic reasons.

What hope do the Palestinian people have. They should erect a plaque above all border entries stating in German, "Work Shall Set You Free". Anyone educated in WWII history should get that reference

What gets me about this whole thing, is why the Israeli terrorist forces continue to make hate speeches against Hamas and refuse to talk to them. The recent attack on the South of Israel was cliamed by Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of Fatah, led by Mahmoud Abbas, whom is currently involved in the Egyptian talks with the Israeli people.

This leds me to believe that the attacks on Gaza, are not only racially based, but also economic. There is a rather large Oil reserve of the Gaza coast and clearly Israel are looking to cliam it. This of course is a biased niave cliam, and so I will merely mention it and move on.

Lets Continue our Boycott, let us not help fuel Israeli Terrorism!

God Bless
Peace

Sunday 1 February 2009

A promise for the future...

Well I've just returned from a few days in the Free State, and now back in the Occupied Territory I decided to immediately read up on the going ons in Palestine. Its heart breaking to see that News Channel, such as the Biased and uncaring BBC, no longer see the event's there suitable for frontpage news. The News one finds after surfing to the Middle East Specific page, strenghtens my belief that the BBC are Anti-Palestine.

The headline read "Israel Vows Tough Rocket Response". This is a promise, that the Israeli state will intentionally act violently and strongly against the people of Gaza. How is this not worthy of a frontpage story?

The speech made by Ehud Olmert, to his Cabinet, promises a "severe and disproportionate response". For many this was what brought attention to the crisis. People, not completely agreeing with Palestine's cause, still believed that Israel were wrong for their disproportionate action. This is a promise that admits they will not be acting as a responsible government, but will take revenge. It is almost an admittal that more Civilians will die.

Now it is clear that Rockets have been fired onto the south of the Israeli state. Responsibility for these rockets have been cliamed by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs, according to Al Jazeera. This means that Hamas have not broken the ceasefire. Why then does Israel continue to make threats against Hamas, and the Palestinian people that elected them? The words of Taher al-Nunu seem to make sense to me.

"This is an attempt to find a false excuse to escalate the aggression against the Palestinians, to destroy the egyptian efforts to improve the calm and to use the pressure against the Plaestinian people to accept Israeli conditions in those talks"

I can only hope that the Israeli elections, taking place on the 10th of February, can produce a governing body, lest racist than that of Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni the "Foreign" minister. I unfortunately can't see this happening, as many candidates have already stated their intention to continue the illegal siege and the threat of illegal military action.

On a positive note, the UN has called for an independant body to carry out War Crimes. I'm not a fan of the United Nations. Is it not up to them to defend the people of the world? Can they not do more than make a suggestion? Well appearently they can. The United Nations have announced that an investigation will take place into the attacks of the UN Headquarters. Not a perfect solution, but it is a start.

I am suprised to read of Ban Ki-moon's statement, at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

"Over the past several weeks, unacceptable and terrible situations have taken place against the civilian people and against particularly the United Nations compounds, where many civilians were sheltered"

Ban Ki-moon also launch an appeal to raise money to help the rebuild of Gaza, and to provie aid to the 50,800 left homeless and the 400,000 left with out clean drinking water. However he stated that his aim for $613 Million would only cover the next six months of required aid. I'm may be one of only a few, but I don't see Egypt as innocent parties in this whole conflict, however I am please to hear that they intend to raise $2 Billion for Gaza.

However the United States, another nation that seems these days to be anti Islam and anti Palestinian has tried to throw yet another spanner in the works. Even with the new Leadership for whom so many held hope. Susan Rice, the new US ambassador to the Security Council has suggested that any Investigations should be carried out by the Israeli Government. She said

"We expect Israel will meet its international obligations to investigate and we also call upon all members of the international community to refrain from politicising these important issues"

How ridiculous it is, to actually try and convince the people of the World, that a State that indiscriminately destroyed the lifes of at least 1,000 families, by killing 1,300 people including men women and children, will carry out fair investigations into its own crime and punish itself. That is not only ridiculous, but an insult to the intellegance of the public, worldwide.

The 53 member body of the African Union has also called for investigations into the series of "massive, idiscriminate and disproportionate raids", and condemned Israeli action. The Irish Times has printed a full page of names for the IPSC, calling for justice. Over 350 people signed, and the add was paid for by the signatories.

To close here I would like to make a very harsh set of statements. Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni are murderers. They are two of a vast amount of Israelis who are. I am not calling Israelis murderers, but the men and women that helped to murder innocent civilians.

The United States, Sky TV, BBC, Dead Sea Spa, Marks and Spenser, Starbucks amoung many many more are sponsers of the murders, and are infac accessory to murder.

So people I urge you, for the cause of innocent people, to support the continuing Boycott of Israel, and their trade, which by International law, is actually illegal. I urge you to call on the governing bodies of your countries and states to condemn the Israeli treatment of Palestinian people, and to stop there trade with Israel and expel the Israeli ambassadors, just like Chavez. If you believe in Prayer, then pray for justice.

God Bless
Peace