On the War Path, and other news

As Israel keeps threatening the regional countries with war, Egyptian maritime sources say the Israeli navy has deployed two missile ships to the Persian Gulf. Source

plus this (from a few days ago)

The reports say the United states is also beefing up its naval presence in the region with special ships with the ability to shoot down missiles .source

Clever wording that. Self defense and all.

Do you all feel safer yet? No? Maybe this little bit of political lying will help you sleep better at night.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought Sunday to further calm the war of words between Israel and Syria, telling his cabinet that Israel aspired to peace with all its neighbors, and that he was open to fresh talks with Syria.Source

And for a laugh,

We can achieve this with two conditions: The first is that we hold negotiations without preconditions.........

You knew there was a catch right?

Conflict of Interest at NYT's (no kidding?)

Ethan Bronner's Conflict With Impartiality

By ALISON WEIR

Ethan Bronner is the New York Times Jerusalem bureau chief. As such, he is the editor responsible for all the news coming out of Israel-Palestine. It is his job to decide what gets reported and what doesn’t; what goes in a story and what gets cut.

To a considerable degree, he determines what readers of arguably the nation’s most influential newspaper learn about Israel and its adversaries, and, especially, what they don’t.

His son just joined the Israeli army. More.

Isreal Defrauds Palestinian Workers

Thanks to Plight of the Unpeople for posting this. I missed it originally.

Jerusalem, February 4, 2010 (Pal Telegraph; reprinted from The National, by John Cook) - Over the past four decades Israel has defrauded Palestinians working inside Israel of more than US$2 billion (Dh7.4bn) by deducting from their salaries contributions for welfare benefits to which they were never entitled, Israeli economists revealed this week. Emphasis mine. Original Source

Bad enough on its own merit, the article continues to expose the exploitation of Palestinian workers by the Histradut (Israeli Labor Federation) :

which levies a monthly fee on Palestinian workers, even though they are not entitled to membership and are not represented in labor disputes.

Histradut also agreed to an additional 2 percent tax increase which helps to train newly arrived Soviet Jews for the construction industry. These "alien to the land" Jews of course replace "native to the land" Palestinians in the workforce.

I have been reading a bit about how boycott is "harming" Palestinians. Some collaborators and hasbaras who dare use the Palestinian persona online are fighting against boycott because they argue that this leads to more suffering of our beloved people.

When you hear or read that argument, please do not let it deter you. At the very least ask yourself, or the impersonator, these questions: "What conditions do Palestinians who work for Israeli companies endure? What pay to they receive? What guarantees do they have that they will be able to travel to their jobs on a daily basis? If taxes are docked from their pay, what benefits do the Palestinian workers stand to receive? What are their rights? How many actually have jobs in the first place? etc. etc. etc. "
This report from B'Tselem is brief but discloses a great deal.

From American experience, I know that one can compare these work conditions to those faced by illegal immigrants in the U.S. But Palestinians are not illegal citizens in Palestine, they are Occupied and as such, are supposed to be protected not blatantly exploited by a nation full of greedy bastards.

al-Mabhouh Killers Are Taking The Piss

Really angry here. Israel tries to blame Ireland for murder. I’m just after reading the rubbish about the murdering scumbags who killed Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai. The Zionist Supporting killers used Irish Passports to avoid suspicion and no doubt as some sort of insult to the Irish, who are staunch supporters of Palestine and have been for many years. No Irishmen would have been involved in such a disgraceful act. Additionally the Irish have good standing with Muslim people in the Middle East because we respect them. . People in those countries like the Irish, and to “some other people” this can be useful for nefarious reasons.More after this:

The assassins of senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who was found dead January 20 in Dubai, traveled to the Gulf country using Irish passports.

Up to seven people were said to have been involved in Mabhouh's killing, four of whom used Irish passports to enter Dubai and who later fled to a "European country" after the killing, police sources in Dubai told the newspaper.

Very curious indeed. Many British who have ancestral links to Ireland obtain Irish passports to travel with because Ireland is a neutral country, we don’t go round invading countries or murdering others who are oppressed or have been oppressed like us.

Britain does not have this respect in the world because their armies are occupying the lands of Iraq and Afghanistan right now, and should the US venture into another war for Israel with Iran, the British will be right there as well. The tactic of using Irish passports to gain acceptance is well known. But here’s an example that happened months ago and I never wrote about it then because I was busy at the time, but it made me mad at the time and was very strange indeed. And note the curious nature of this report as well. Firstly, why such a huge operation for one journalist, secondly, note that 4 innocent people died in the operation to get one British “journalist” freed. The British journalist in question was using an Irish passport, not his British passport. See here:

LINK New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell was freed unhurt. His Afghan colleague Sultan Munadi was killed along with a UK soldier and two Afghan civilians.

Mr Farrell, who holds British and Irish nationality, was "extracted" by "a lot of soldiers", the New York Times said.

The reporter told his newspaper he ran outside with Mr Munadi, reportedly a 34-year-old father-of-two who worked as an interpreter with Mr Farrell.

He said Mr Munadi had shouted "Journalist! Journalist!" before he fell to the ground in a hail of bullets.

Mr Farrell said he did not know whether the shots had been fired by their rescuers or the militants.

The head of the Afghan Independent Journalists' Association, Rahimullah Samandar, told the BBC that the raid showed international forces did not care about Afghan reporters.

Mr Samandar said it was not the first time a kidnapped Afghan journalist had been killed while a Western colleague was freed.

I remember at the time there was quite a lot of backlash in England over this operation because a Brit soldier died along with the other three. Even British people were asking why this "reporter" was so important that he warranted such an operation to free him. Also, he was told not to go into that area, he went anyway. And this is not the first time he was "kidnapped."

One thing I know regarding this Dubai murder, is either those Irish passports were fake or people from a "European country" who have ancestral ties with Ireland used this to obtain Irish passports to commit murder for Israel and sully the name of the Irish. MORE HERE

Americans, listen up!

It was considered a tragedy when one of my own kin joined a high school program called Junior Reserve Officers Training in high school. That this program professes to not recruit children and in fact are barred from doing so in public high schools has been contradicted by former students who signed on for the war in Iraq in recent years. Some have served their time and now dedicate their lives telling the truth. They were in fact not only recruited while still minors in high school, but also were encouraged and rewarded (sometimes monetarily, per head) for recruiting other children.

The program is used in place of the physical education requirements we have in the U.S. and the commitment is said to be a very loose two year one. If a child wants out, they say, "No Problem", but then the regular high school staff raise a fuss and state they have no room in regular classes for anybody who wants out of JROTC. That is how they enforce the commitment.

The embedding of this program in public schools has drawn protests from parents and anti war groups. Entire regular schools have been shut down, their student body displaced only to reopen as Military Academies. Both the JROTC and the military academies are funded by the public as well as the respective arms of the military (also funded by the public) that run them. Its part of a larger privatization of public education plan better known as "school reform".

School closures are largely in ethnic or economic minority neighborhoods. The U.S. military has a disproportionate amount of these populations serving in the real military and recruitment bases are usually in very close proximity to high schools with large ethnic populations, something anti war protesters are trying to change.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan was the mastermind that spawned these academies when he ran Chicagos public education system but other cities have followed this model proudly. They call it "opportunity" and "choice". One of the first things Obama stated as President was that he would be closing 5000 schools nationwide in order to "reform" them. This is just the tip of the iceberg. More closings will follow.

Americans are buying the school reform issues and sadly, sending their children to the military academies under the assumption that these academies are going to keep their kids out of street gangs, in the case of the ethnic and poor victims of the plan. I have news for these parents- gangs have made their way into the military, into the police force and other allegedly "safe" American institutions. They have legit branches. Our kids are in double jeopardy.

Make that triple jeopardy. Because the biggest gang of all- the neocon Zionists- are the leading force behind any supposedly "American" agenda. While Obama is hypnotizing his politically correct followers with plans to pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. has it's eyes on Iran on behalf of Israel, as we know, but to the ordinary American, its for our own good, to keep our American way alive (that this way collapsed, perhaps permanently,still hasn't fully sunk in to many, but all the more reason to support the militarization of our society).

Most Americans believe that Iran (the current proxy for Zionist genocidal rage) poses a danger to our nation. The War On Terror is a winning formula for the masters and we are its puppets. School reform via JROTC and military academies, is just one way we are being eased into the process of perpetual war.

Make no mistake, one day it will be your children coming home in body bags. And there will be nothing to be proud of, the sacrifice will not produce a safer world, but a more dangerous one.

While our children are being slaughtered, Israeli children grow up to fight an unarmed, occupied and imprisoned population. Safe and sound in comparison to what our own children will face. Our children will face war tribunals one day. Israeli children will not. We should be ashamed when we let our children don a uniform, even in the playtime that is JROTC.

My children will not fight for the U.S. of Israel. I will not hate on its behalf. Be clear about who the real enemy is. And if you are a patriot, start working towards leadership with American interests. Israel is a big boy now, a fully armed and dangerous psychopathic bully. Let Israel take care of its own dirty business all on its own. Leave our children out of it.

News, good bad and ugly

Bethlehem - Ma'an - Founder of the political party the Palestinian National Initiative Mustafa Barghouthi was nominated for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize by Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate and co-founder of Peace People in Northern Ireland.


Do you all think that Israel is going to take this news sitting down or will they send out the Hasbara Discreditation Unit to create something "fishy" about Barghouti? Should we place bets?

And since my last post was about exile, have a read here, the story on how Israel can use "years spent in America" as a reason to deport native born Palestinians who come home. The irony! Its killing me!


Here is an interesting article about how Israel claims that they "cannot control" activists (Friends of Shalit) out protesting "across the country" on behalf of Gilad Shalit. I suppose not being able to control these activists has to do with hands being tied in East Jerusalem and all along the Apartheid Wall where brutal attempts at "control" are in full swing.
Here is one of the tactics being used by the mass movement to free Shalit (from the article).

Activists for Shalit's release went to Karni and Kerem Shalom, two Israel-Gaza border crossings, to try (unsuccessfully) to block the entry of fuel containers into Gaza. The family was not involved in this initiative.

In the meantime the Shalit family makes a wordy statement to Hamas about holding Palestinians hostage in Gaza. You see, its all their fault, nothing to do with Israel at all. What would of been appropriate for the Shalit family to comment on while they were at it is (since they voiced concerned for Gazans in their statement) would have been to chastise the "Friends etc" about the humanitarian grief they would of caused should their efforts to stop transport of fuel were successful.

Do you want peace or do you want to continue to never lose an opportunity to spew Zionist bull?

Experience in Exile

People ask me all the time what it's like to be Palestinian. Its as if we are an experience all our own, outside humanity itself and I suppose we are outsiders to a certain extent. The question itself doesn't offend me because it's intended as a bridge to understanding usually.

I can't explain what its like to be Palestinian in Occupied Palestine. I hardly remember that, but I can tell what its like to be Palestinian in Exile. Yet, something in me won't allow this to be the bigger picture. There are others who suffer so much more than me outside Palestine.

The other day, I was at an Arabic grocery store with an American friend. I needed lamb and she wanted to explore what she considers exotic fare. I asked the clerk for the best lamb, all the while noticing how knowledgeable he was about the cuts of meat and how skilled a butcher he actually was. I was aware that he was very shy and further, not very old, perhaps 16.

I struck up a conversation and found out that he too was Palestinian, as I had suspected. He had just arrived a few months before with his younger brother who stood quietly to the side and blushing every time I spoke to him. They had left their parents and siblings behind and were wards of their uncle now.

Since they hailed from my home town we spent time trying to determine if we were related or knew anybody in common. Failing that connection, we tried local ones and found that my great uncle is a freind of the family. Palestinians in the states generally have to know something about you and if we connect with family, that is the ideal but if we don't, then we continue on until we find a sense of belonging to each other somehow, some way. And when we do find that connection we hold each other closely and forever. Diaspora.

My friend, when finding out that the boys were recently arrived congratulated them! She said, "That is good, you are better off here.", meaning well. The boy smiled and nodded politely. I told her, "It's good yes, they are safer here, but its bad because they can never go back to live and they left their entire identities behind." The boy nodded again in agreement but this time, he had sorrow in his beautiful eyes. "Do you not miss it?" he asked.

The sadness overwhelmed me because I understood that it was more than being homesick, it was more than missing the people he loved so much. It was the fact that he and his brother, as young as they are, had taken a step in which there was no turning back and they took that step as if they were adults, but prematurely. They are 15 and 17 respectively. Once in diaspora, always in diaspora as long as there is no Right to Return. Even these children understand this much. But I still had to answer his question.

Its rather hard to say after 40 years that I too can miss my country, but I do. Yet, because I don't live in fear, I don't see the atrocities first hand and if I were to be victimized, I can fight back without fear of retribution. I can achieve justice, its my inalienable right, one that I am free to execute. Further, I came with my parents and because of that, I didn't have to prematurely learn a skill to support myself. I was able to concentrate on studying, not survival. I was very young and had time to adjust at home before being thrown into a school (the boys begged me to find them friends their age who understood what they were going through). While I struggle with survivor guilt, I don't dare claim to be suffering in comparison.

I therefore told the boy, "I have no right to miss it in the same way you do but I do miss it and no matter where I am in the world, no matter what passport I carry, I am always first and foremost, Palestinian. You will never stop missing your family and you will always want to touch the land of your childhood memories with your bare hands, but that also means you will never forget who you are and if you don't forget, you won't abandon our people."

For a fleeting moment, his smile partnered with the sorrow in his eyes.

"SHOCK AND AWE" IN GAZA

No, the US has not invaded Gaza................yet. Instead the "shock and awe" is in relation to this; One year later in Gaza, One member of FATAH visits Gaza and says this; 'I am in contact with my brothers in Hamas' and we say "About effing time" and where's the rest of the "brothers"

link Nabil Shaath, a member of the central committee of the secular Fatah, said he hoped to meet representatives from all the Palestinian factions including democratically elected Hamas, which seized Gaza control in June 2007.

"I want to see the citizens and their situation in Gaza. I am coming to part of the (Palestinian) homeland and I don't need a visa," he told reporters after passing through the Erez border crossing from Israel.

Ok right there is telling, call me, well... call me "skeptical" as the Zionists let him in. What does Israel get out of this, it's always about what Isarel can "get."

"I am in contact with my brothers in Hamas and all the Palestinian factions, and all of them know about this visit. I am not on a secret mission.

Time will tell why he has visited, suddenly, now, after one year, with Zionist permission to pass through Erez.

The Battle Of Jerusalem

Make sure to go and check out parts 2 and 3 while they are still up on youtube.
I could analyze the content to death, but suffice it to say that I was born in East Jerusalem before it was annexed and I completely relate to not being able to go back to the land and city of my birth as a free citizen.

Culture of Hate

GUEST POST AND BIG WELCOME to Fikkyra, our new member here at irish4palestine. Fikkyra will be blogging with us here and is a Palestinian in Exile:

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon today (1 February 2010) participated in a press conference with the TaxPayers' Alliance, a London-based advocacy group, to highlight how international donor funds provided to the Palestinian Authority are being directly used for incitement and hate education. Source

He goes on to state that Fatah and PA invest funding in "education to violence". Later on, Matthew Sinclair gives examples of this alleged investment by pointing out that a lone Imam was calling for violence and hate on a Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation television show. He doesn't name the Imam, the television show or provide a date that the show aired.

He reiterates that its the concern of all British and EU taxpayers because its their money that funds such hate speech. Naturally, "we must put a stop to this" is implied. But stop what exactly? Free speech or funding in order to further undermine the Palestinian cause based on very vague information?

I also would like to see a transcript to this alleged speech by a lone imam or better yet, a video of this program. I can speak and understand Arabic better than the average Zionist. I'd rather do my own translations on such matters rather than read Israeli translated lies in the subtitles.

I certainly don't condone hate speech but being an American, I value Freedom of Speech highly. In the U.S. even the KKK have a right to their 10 minutes of fame. Why? Its called democracy. Something that Israel has redefined first for itself and then for Palestinians.

NEW FILM OUT~HOPE CONVOY TO GAZA

Our readers may remember the writers of this blog covered the "Hope Convoy" to Gaza back in May 2009 directly from the Irish delegation who were on the convoy and were successful in getting into Gaza. We received updates and photographs continually throughout the ordeal of getting in, and we continued our coverage once they finally got in. The new "Hope Convoy" film is just out now for a first hand account of the story of the convoy, excellent stuff:

PART 1

PART 2

Those who missed reading about the convoy we have included the Diaries below:

Al Arish to Rafah
Canadian Code Pink at Rafah
#1 Into Gaza
#2 Shifah Hospital
#3 Kahn Younis-Nasser Hospital
#4 Waiting to Die-Trauma Unit
#5 UNWRA School for Visually Impaired
#6 Convoy Meets Gaza Government
#7 Prisoners & Families
#8 Zionist War Crimes

MONDAY'S ISRAELI CRIMINAL ACTIVITY ROUNDUP

Much Israeli criminal activity to write about this morning. First, Those of you who voted for “Hope and Change” should immediately ask the DNC to refund your money which was obtained fraudulently:

link Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon declared Monday that Israel's relations with the United States have "never been better.”

"What makes the U.S. special is the fact that it has maintained its good relations with Israel over the years," Ayalon declared "Its support is not based on the financial pockets of the Arab states.

He's right, it’s not based on the financial pockets of the Arab states, it’s based on lunatic Christian Zionists who are hell bent on taking the world out, along with their Israeli counterparts. Both of which are akin to Al Qaeda. Speaking of these lunatic so called “Christians” I just wonder what America’s response would have been had, if Oh let’s say a proselytizing Muslim group entered America under the guise of helping in a natural disaster like Katrina, and then attempted to kidnap 33 American children saying they were orphans when they had family members alive:

link “One of the elder girls told us, ‘I’m not an orphan. I still have my parents,’” he added. “She thought she was going on a summer holiday vacation given by friendly people from America and the Dominican Republic.”

The group said its “Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission” was an effort to help abandoned children by taking them to an orphanage across the border in the Dominican Republic.
The Baptist group planned to scoop up 100 kids and take them by bus to a 45-room hotel at Cabarete, a beach resort in the Dominican Republic, that they were converting into an orphanage, Silsby told the AP.

And it’s not just the Zio-Christian lunatics who think they are above the laws of this world with regards to kidnapping. But the answer is that both groups need to be held accountable under the law. And in Lebanon, they get it right, let’s hope Haiti follows suit:

Link Israeli returned earlier on Monday the Lebanese citizen who was kidnapped by Jewish soldiers on Sunday in the border area of the two countries, Lebanon's state- run National News Agency (NNA) reported.

The NNA quoted a statement issued by the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) as saying that "at 2:00 a.m. (GMT 0000), citizen Rabih Mohammed Zahra was recovered after he was abducted by an Israeli patrol last night in the vicinity of Bastra farm in the outskirts of Kafarshouba town."

NNA reported on Sunday that the shepherd "who was tending his flock of sheep in the area was taken away by the Israelis for interrogation at their Zibdeen military outpost," on the borders with Israel. It added that the 17-year-old Zahra was badly battered during his detention and the marks were clearly visible in his face and neck.

Lebanese government lodged a complaint to UN security council against Israel late Sunday, saying it a violation of resolution 1701 and Lebanon's sovereignty and its citizen's personal liberty.

Moving on to Israel's war crimes, I wonder if any “so called” news channel have the “chutzpah” to get Mark Regev ( the Israeli liar extraordinaire) back on air, to then re-play the load of bollox he repeated ad –nauseum during Israel’s genocide on Gaza where he said “Israel did not use White Phosphorous” even whilst the videos showing it falling from the sky were being seen around the world. Then ask him why he said that when even Israel has no admitted the truth, again under legal threat of Goldstone Report:

link Two senior Israeli army officers have been disciplined for ordering white phosphorus shells to be fired towards a United Nations relief compound during last year's incursion into the Gaza Strip, the Israeli government has revealed.

Brigadier General Eyal Eisenberg, the Gaza Division Commander, and Colonel Ilan Malka, the Givati Brigade Commander, were named in a report handed over to the UN last night as responsible for authorising the use of the controversial munitions, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

The report states that Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) headquarters staff had judged that the two commanders were guilty of "exceeding their authority in a manner that jeopardised the lives of others".

The artillery attack by 155mm cannon, which took place while more than 700 Palestinian civilians were taking refuge inside the UN compound, set ablaze a warehouse that stores aid for more than 1 million Gazans and destroyed thousands of kilos of food and other supplies.

Last month Israel paid $10million compensation to the UN for the destruction of its Gaza compound, without admitting liability.

Israel's purpose in its latest submission to the UN appears to be to stave off the UN's threat of launching war crimes proceedings if it fails to carry out an independent investigation into the military’s conduct in Gaza.

White Phosphorous: The munitions disperse hundreds of pieces of felt soaked in the incendiary chemical, which sticks to buildings and flesh and burns for many hours, causing appalling injuries.

So are you wondering what sort of "punishment" Israel meted out to these war criminals? Well I was watching Presstv and they reported that the grave punishment will amount to a "note" placed in their "personal Military files." So there ya go, I should assume now that Israel would accept the same sort of punishment for members of the Al Quassam brigades who fought for Gaza, a note in their military files. But surprise! No! Instead Israel breaks all international laws (again) and enters Dubai in a Mafia Gangster Al Qaeda hit and commits murder, and no one cares..............

And lastly, here is a nice wee White Phosphorous timeline:

Israel and white phosphorus

January 5 2009: The Times first reveals that Israel is using the controversial munition

January 8 2009: The Times publishes pictures of white phosphorus shells ready for use by the IDF, and reveals that civilians are suffering horrific burns

January 12 2009: Pressure on Israel increases as doctors reveal they are treating 50 injured by white phosphorus in a single incident

January 15 2009: UN headquarters in Gaza is hit / Human Rights Watch condemns use of white phosphorus

January 20 2009: Mahmoud, 14, blinded in both eyes by phosphorus

January 24 2009: IDF admits for the first time that white phosphorus was used in Gaza / Amnesty accuses both Hamas and IDF of war crimes

April 23 2009: Israel inaccurately claims it stopped using white phosphorus on January 7 because of the Times report

September 16 2009: Goldstone report accuses Israel of war crimes and of reckless use of phosphorus in Gaza