7 February, 2009
Majdi al-Athanma describes how the recent Israeli offensive has shattered his life again
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Day: February 7, 2009
Liebermania By Yotam Feldman: The Growing Trend Toward Fascism in Israel
[The chilling article below, from this weekend’s (February 6th, 2009) Haaretz, appears at first to be disturbing simply for what it says about a growing segment of Israel’s next generation of voters—an open, even proud, racism and an attraction to fascism, in the form of support for Avigdor Lieberman, chairman of the Israel Beitenu party, which is poised to become Israel’s third largest party in Tuesday’s election. The key selling point of the party in this election is a “loyalty oath” that would be a prerequisite for citizenship rights, clearly directed at Israel’s Palestinian Israeli citizens.
But the article illuminates (or darkens) far more. Such as the horrifying prospect of highschoolers campaigning for Lieberman by screaming “Death to the Arabs!” in the streets and consciously explaining that this helps them prepare to enter the army. As the article quotes:
“Sergei Leibliyanich, a senior, draws a connection between the preparation for military service in school and student support for the right: “It gives us motivation against the Arabs. You want to enlist in the army so you can stick it to them. The preparation gives you the motivation to stick it to the Arabs and we want to elect someone who’ll do that. I like Lieberman’s thinking about the Arabs. Bibi [Benjamin Netanyahu] doesn’t want to go as far.”
By Andrew Wander: Passengers of freighter seized by Israel return home with tales of abuse
7 February, 2009
Passengers of freighter seized by Israel return home with tales of abuse
BEIRUT: A group of activists arrested after the Israeli navy seized an aid ship bound for the devastated Gaza Strip were expelled from Israel on Friday, a day after being detained by the military. Fifteen of the Togolese-flagged Tali’s crew members were deported back to Lebanon and Syria early on Friday, and three others were preparing to fly to London.
Nine Lebanese and a Palestinian were handed over at the border with Israel to the UN peacekeeping force responsible for monitoring stability in southern Lebanon.
The freed crew told how they were beaten and handcuffed after Israeli gunboats fired on the ship and sailors stormed the vessel, arresting everyone on board. The boat was then towed to the Israeli port of Ashdod where it was searched.
Haiti policy statement for President Obama and Congress
27 January, 2009
Marguerite Laurent, Esq., president, Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network
The issues for development of the Southern Hemispheric nations are very similar. As in Africa, Haiti has been ravaged by neocolonialism and its attendant power grabs through the tools of endless debt to the former colonial powers, their plundering of resources, and unfair trade that promotes famine and dependency. The U.S. Congress and new U.S. president should support the institutionalization of the rule of law, human rights, workers’ rights and food sovereignty and stop supporting global corporate interests that promote coups d’etat, instability, financial colonialism and containment-in-poverty. Ideology of all sorts, including “democracy,” “neo-liberalism,” “free trade,” “globalization” and all such “privatization” schemes ought not to be more important than the welfare of humanity, peaceful co-existence, environmental protection and the future survival of humanity and Planet Earth.
PalestineJustice: Articles of Occupation 7 February, 2009 Part 2
1) Israeli forces seize Gaza aid ship Al Jazeera
2) Gazan children denied treatment abroad Jonathan Cook
3) Gaza Burn Victims Exhibit Signs Of White Phosphorous Wounds By Amira Hass
4) Army Won’t Confirm Or Deny Sale Of Arsenal’s Phosphorous To Israel By Amy Riggin
1) Israeli Forces Seize Gaza Aid Ship
Aljazeera
The Israeli navy has captured and diverted a ship from Lebanon carrying more than 60 tonnes of aid to the Gaza Strip.
Al Jazeera’s correspondent aboard the Al-Ikhwa (The Brotherhood) ship said the navy first opened fire, then five Israeli soldiers boarded the ship, beating and threatening the passengers.
“They are pointing guns against us – they are kicking us and beating us. They are threatening our lives,” Al Jazeera’s Salam Khoder said.
Communications with the ship broke off shortly thereafter.
Palestinejustice 7 February, 2009: ARTICLES OF OCCUPATION
1) The philosopher who gave the IDF moral justification in Gaza
Amos Harel
2) ‘Myth of Exile’: Justifying Slaughter in Gaza
Janine Roberts
3) Did the Israeli army wage a Jewish jihad in Gaza? Religious extremists’ rapid rise through the ranks
Jonathan Cook
1) The Philosopher Who Gave The IDF Moral Justification In Gaza By Amos Harel
February 6, 2009
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1062127.html
When senior Israel Defense Forces officers are asked about the killing of hundreds of Palestinian civilians during the fighting in the Gaza Strip, they almost all give the same answer: The use of massive force was designed to protect the lives of the soldiers, and when faced with a choice between protecting the lives of Israeli soldiers and those of enemy civilians under whose protection the Hamas terrorists are operating, the soldiers take precedence.
A Commodity Called Misery By Joe Bageant
Our authorized sanities are so many Nembutals. “Normal” citizens with store-dummy smiles stand apart from each other like cotton-packed capsules in a bottle. Perpetual mental out-patients. Maddeningly sterile jobs for strait-jackets, love scrubbed into an insipid “functional personal relationship” and Art as a fantasy pacifier… And we all know this… Slowly, very slowly we are led nowhere. — San Francisco Digger Papers, 1965
HOPKINS VILLAGE, BELIZE — Sitting down here in Central America happily abusing my health, occasionally, between the hangovers and the bouts with sand fleas and mosquitoes comes an insight or two, or at least what passes for insight in my lowbrow take on life. One of these is just how damned lucky the Third World is that it cannot afford a sophisticated mental health system. By that I mean the kind in the “developed countries,” where murder and suicide rates are quintuple what they are here in this village. Not that we are without own village resources. My Garifuna buddy Eljay, was in what we would call a depressed state a few months ago, and went to a local “spirit doctor.” The wizened old spirit mojo man cured Eljay with a single utterance: “Quit smokin da ganja for one month.” It worked. Total cost: About $2.50 and a pound of red beans. They say the old spirit doctor also treats such things as sexual dysfunction, though I sure as hell cannot detect much evidence of dysfunction, judging from the noises in the village cabanas and under beachside palms at night.
The New Dark Age 