This weekend, Israel and Hamas agreed separately to a cease-fire and Israel has begun to withdraw its troops from the occupied Gaza Strip. Since December 27, Israel killed more than 1,250 Palestinians, more than half of whom were civilians according to the UN, medical sources, and human rights organizations, and injured more than 5,000. 13 Israelis were killed, including 10 soldiers, four of whom died in a ‘friendly fire’ incident. As of this morning, Israel is closing border crossings into the Gaza Strip, thereby preventing the unimpeded access of humanitarian goods in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1860.
Day: January 19, 2009
Video: Dr. MLK Jr: Struggling not to lose him
http://widgets.vodpod.com/w/video_embed/Groupvideo.1985385
From SleptOn.com: Too often, we are treated to a view of a romanticized and whitewashed Dr. King in order to fit the man and his struggle neatly within the prevailing political and economic power structures in a largely uncritical and non-threatening manner. This portrayal of Dr. King has been mass marketed as an accommodationist figure and is now so pervasive in our schools, media, etc. that it threatens to neutralize and placate the most ambitious, daring and challenging of King’s critique along with his struggle to confront and organize against not only racism, but economic exploitation and militarism-imperialism as well. Due to such, SleptOn.com offers “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: Struggling Not To Lose Him” as a direct challenge (as he would have it) to the views and practices of those who celebrate a thoroughly pacified legacy of a man. A familiar refrain, as of late, has been Rosa sat, King walked so that he (Obama) could run or some variation thereof. Was that the goal of King’s struggle?
Posted with vodpod
Nassar Ibrahim: “Resistance Should be our Strategic Choice” An Analysis of the Palestinian Political Situation in the Wake of the Gaza Attack
19 January, 2009
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas meets with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at the Presidential palace in Cairo. Egypt actively supported Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip.
The following is an interview with Nassar Ibrahim, Policy Director of the Alternative Information Center. The interview was conducted on 16 January 2009 by Enrico Bartolomei
What is going on in the West Bank in relation to the Israeli attack on Gaza? Why is the reaction not so strong?
The reaction in the West Bank is strongly affected by the internal Palestinian split: the power in the West Bank is presently held by Fatah and the Palestinian Authority. Soon after the 2006 election in which Hamas won, the antagonism between the former Fatah-led PA and the new Hamas government became manifest. This opposition can be read as the difference between two strategic choices: the one represented by the Fatah leadership and supported by many Arab regimes loyal to the USA power, which sees the peace negotiations and the involvement of international institutions as the only way to solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Ilan Pappe: State of Denial: Israel, 1948-2008
The excellent Israeli historian Ilan Pappe writing on the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and why Israel cannot face up to her crimes. Worryingly Pappe states that ‘The moral implication [of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine] is that the Jewish State was born out of sin—like many other states, of course—but the sin, or the crime, was never admitted. Worse, among certain circles in Israel, it is acknowledged and, in the same breath, advanced as a future policy against Palestinians wherever they are.’
Betraying the Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King By Andrew Hughes
Martin Luther King Day precedes the historic inauguration of America’s first African American President
Global Research, January 18, 2009
Martin Luther King Day in 2009 precedes the dawn of the historic inauguration of America’s first African American President. This inauguration is lauded as the realization of Dr. King’s dream, a defining moment in the cultural paradigm, a tectonic shift in race relations and a beacon of real change for the plight of the poor and oppressed. Infusing the dreams and ethos of Dr. King in to the presidential persona demands a confluence of ideals and actions to truly deserve the association. To betray the dream, to profit from the sacrifice is to insult the legacy. To be worthy of the torch demands integrity.
“Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor in America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours.”
Another Nakba in the Making?
18 January, 2009
Under cover of announcing humanitarian relief for injured Palestinians, it is now emerging that Israel is planning the transfer of tens of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza into Egypt.
Evidence of the Israeli transfer plan has been sent to London based Islington Friends of Yibna** [IFY]. Earlier today, Sat 17 Jan 09, IFY received a photo of tents outside the main hospital in Egyptian Rafah, near the border with Gaza.
The white tents with no markings are being erected by the Egyptian Army, starting last night, Fri 16 Jan 09. The photo was taken this morning [Sat 17 January 09]. The soldiers stated that 5,000 tents were planned for refugees from Gaza.
The Newsletter of the Free Gaza Movement, January 19, 2009
Free Gaza Movement: Israel Ready to Shoot at Emergency Boat
More than 1.300 dead in Gaza and the world opinion is changing. Yet, this has not stopped the carnage and it cannot make us forget the dead, the injured, and the damage. Also, anti-Jewish tendencies rise in the world, because the butchers of Gaza claim to speak for all the Jews – while Jewish activists chain themselves to the Israeli Consulate building in Los Angeles in protest and many others stand up against this crime against humanity. More than twenty prominent British Muslim leaders have signed a letter denouncing the rise in anti-Semitic attacks resulting from the violence of “Operation” Cast Lead and calling on Muslims to help prevent assaults on Jews in the UK. Israel’s free ride ends, analysts say, and indeed: resistance doubles and triples in view of the barbaric and obscene atrocities. The Free Gaza Movement, a human rights group, sent two boats to Gaza in August 2008. These were the first international boats to land in the port in 41 years. Since August, four more voyages were successful, taking Parliamentarians, human rights workers, and other dignitaries to witness the effects of Israel’s draconian policies on the civilians of Gaza. The sixth and the seventh voyages were aggressively and violently stopped by Israel. Read the article below. Also in this issue: a reader’s mail about the last trip, an eyewitness report by Caoimhe Butterly, Israel admits breaking the ceasefire, fishermen and natural gas deposits, and the quotes of the week.
The New Dark Age 