Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Obama bombs Yemen.


Obama bombs Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia.


Obama bankrolls Israel, as it destroys Gaza.


___________________________

Yes, Obama makes war on Yemen, too.

But the
U.S, U.K, and Israel already destroyed Yemen's development (1962-1980's).

Before that, the U.K. militarily occupied Yemen from 1839 to 1967.



Look:


Source-- Britain and the Yemen Civil War, 1962-1965: Ministers, Mercenaries and Mandarins, by Professor Clive Jones, published in 2004 by Sussex Academic Press (Brighton, Great Britain; and Portland, Oregon), page 36.


Professor Jones was a senior visiting research Fellow at the University of Haifa, Israel in 2002.




Mercenary forces, supplied by the U.K. & Israel, destroyed Yemen’s chance at independence from British occupation (1962-1965)

Source: Britain and the Yemen Civil War, 1962-1965, page 36:



The U.S. has intervened in Yemen since President Kennedy flew jet fighters to the Yemeni border:


In 1962, the British-supported Yemeni monarchy was overthrown. So in March 1963, U.S. President Kennedy agreed to deploy a squadron of U.S. Air Force F-4s to Saudi Arabia, to fly close to the Yemeni border, and to train Saudi pilots, as a demonstration of U.S. support for Saudi Arabia, as it fought to restore the overthrown Yemeni monarchy. U.S. naval visits to Saudi Red Sea ports were also increased, and U.S. training of the Saudi military was stepped up. The U.S.A.F. personnel also trained Saudi pilots.


-- Source: Uncle Sam, Supreme Guardian of the Saudi Crown”, By Herman F. Eilts, U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia (1965 to 1970), in the Spring 2000 issue of American Diplomacy.


__________________________________


The U.K., Israel, and the U.S. kept South Yemen under military & economic siege until the 1970’s:



--Source: “Women and Development in the Republic of Yemen”, by Helen Lackner, in Gender and development in the Arab world-- women's economic participation: patterns and policies (Published by Zed Books Ltd. for the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research, 1995; page 73.

__________________________________



Carter allowed Saudi Arabia to buy tanks and fighter jets for use against South Yemen.


Carter also trained exiles to invade South Yemen (1979)


Weeks after U.S. President Carter allowed Saudi Arabia to buy tanks and fighter jets for North Yemen, fighting broke out between the North and South Yemen. Then the U.S. increased its arms package for North Yemen (allied with Saudi Arabia and the United States) and rushed a portion of it there, along with military advisers who would train North Yemen in their use.

Carter sent an aircraft carrier task force and surveillance planes to the region; and he offered U.S. fighter jets to Saudi Arabia to expand Saudi Arabia’s ability to use air power in North Yemen.

Carter also agreed to a plan that involved training personnel who had been exiled from South Yemen inside Saudi Arabia and using them to invade South Yemen. That operation was blown, as the exile force was captured and confessed as to U.S. involvement.


--Sources: “Yemen, Sudan to Get Added Arms,” New York Times , 12 February 1979; also other articles, 27 February, 6, 8, 13, 20, 29 March, 1 April 1979, 6 February 1980; “Carlucci Launched CIA Operation in Yemen That Collapsed,” Washington Post , 4 December 1986.

__________________________________


Ronald Reagan then claimed that South Yemen is likely to send Cuban forces to attack Oman! (1980)




Source: AP story in the “Lakeland Ledger” (Florida), February 8, 1980, page 5A.

__________________________________


Monday, December 28, 2009

500 demonstrators demand:


"Freedom for Palestine and boycott for Israel"




"Call for Permanent Boycott of Israel for Palestine:

"Activists in Istanbul demonstrated for a boycott against Israel because of the country's attacks on Gaza one year ago. The demonstrators criticized that Turkey is acting on double standards regarding the issue of Palestine."


BİA News Center
Istanbul, Turkey
December 28, 2009

On the Web at:



On the first anniversary of Israel's attacks against Gaza, demonstrators in Istanbul called for a boycott of the middle-east country. Approximately 500 human rights defenders gathered on Istanbul's centrally located Istiklal Avenue yesterday (27 December) and claimed that Israel should be protested in any aspect, e.g. in the areas of economy, politics, culture, academics and military.


Israel carried out military operations in Gaza starting from 27 December last year and lasting for a total of 3 weeks. 1,500 people were killed during the attacks, 5,300 were injured. More than 20,000 houses were damaged. Israel imposed an embargo on the region which is still in effect till today.


"Erdoğan acts hypocritical"


The demonstrators demanded a Boycott Initiative against Israel for Palestine and protested the country's intervention, which they called a massacre.


Walking down Istiklal Avenue, the demonstrators carried a banner saying "Boycott against Israel for lifting the Gaza blockade, ending the occupation, tearing down the wall of shame, and for the refugee's right to return". The crowd was continuously shouting slogans such as "Freedom for Palestine and boycott for Israel", "Tear down the wall and lift the blockade", "Don't deceive in Davos, Israel is here" or "Field exercise in Konya [city in central Anatolia], disaster in Gaza". The protest march was supported by the applause of many bystanders.


The crowd walked towards Taksim Square, where Ali Çerkezoğlu, member of the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) Central Council, made a press release on behalf of the group at the end of the protest march. Çerkezoğlu declared, "A drama is being experienced on Palestine territory for more than 60 years, the peoples of the world are united in solidarity for the Palestinian people".


Mentioning that Turkey and its ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) are maintaining relations with Israel, Çerkezoğlu pointed out that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan acts hypocritically on this issue.


"It will be the most significant step for Turkey as the most important ally in the region to organize a boycott campaign against Israel and against Zionism for a consistent and influential international solidarity for the Palestine people against anti-imperialism and Anti-Zionism", Çerkezoğlu stated.


The Initiative of a Boycott against Israel for Palestine declared at the demonstration that their boycott against Israel has started. The Initiative emphasized that the boycott does not only cover products but also targets isolation of areas such as military, politics, economics, culture or academics. (BÇ/VK)


______________________________________




Friday, December 18, 2009

CIA considers its trained force of torturers, in Palestine, to be CIA property:


http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/cia-link-to-torture-of-hamas/story-e6frg6so-1225811878445


RAMALLAH: Palestinian security agents who had been detaining and allegedly torturing supporters of the Islamist organisation Hamas in the West Bank had been working closely with the CIA, reports said yesterday.


Less than a year after US President Barack Obama signed an executive order that prohibited torture and provided for the lawful interrogation of detainees in US custody, The Guardian reported the CIA was co-operating with Palestinian security agents whose continuing use of torture had been widely documented by human rights groups.


The relationship between the CIA and the two Palestinian agencies involved - Preventive Security Organisation and General Intelligence Service - was said by some Western diplomats and other officials in the region to be so close that the US agency appeared to be supervising the Palestinians' work, the report said.


One senior western official told the paper: "The agency considers them as their property, those two Palestinian services."


A diplomatic source added that US influence over the agencies was so great they could be considered "an advanced arm of the war on terror".


The CIA and the Palestinian Authority deny the US agency controls its Palestinian counterparts, but neither denied that they interact closely in the West Bank.


Details of that co-operation were emerging as some human rights organisations questioned whether US intelligence agencies may be turning a blind eye to abusive interrogations conducted by other countries' intelligence agencies with whom they were working, The Guardian said.


According to the Palestinian watchdog al-Haq, human rights in the West Bank and Gaza have "gravely deteriorated due to the spreading violations committed by Palestinian actors" this year.


Most of those held without trial and allegedly tortured in the West Bank have been supporters of Hamas, which won the Palestinian elections in 2006 but is denounced as a terrorist organisation by the PA, the US and EU.


In the Gaza Strip, where Hamas has been in control for more than two years, there had been reports of its forces detaining and torturing Fatah sympathisers in the same way, the paper said.


Among the human rights organisations that had documented or complained about the mistreatment of detainees held by the PA in the West Bank were Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, al-Haq and the Israeli watchdog B'Tselem, it said.


Even the PA's human rights commission had expressed "deep concern" over the mistreatment of detainees.


The most common complaint is that detainees are severely beaten and subjected to a torture known as shabeh, during which they are shackled and forced to assume painful positions for long periods, the report said. There have been reports of sleep deprivation, and of large numbers of detainees being crammed into small cells to prevent rest.


Instead of being brought before civilian courts, almost all the detainees enter a system of military justice under which they need not be brought before a court for six months.


According to PA officials, 400 to 500 Hamas sympathisers were held by the PSO and GI, The Guardian said.


Some of the mistreatment has been so severe that at least three detainees have died in custody this year. The most recent was Haitham Amr, a 33-year-old nurse and Hamas supporter from Hebron who died four days after he was detained by GI officials last June.


Extensive bruising around his kidneys suggested he had been beaten to death.


While there is no evidence the CIA has been commissioning such mistreatment, human rights activists told the paper it would end promptly if US pressure were brought to bear on the Palestinian authorities.


A diplomat in the region told the paper that "at the very least" US intelligence officers were aware of the torture and not doing enough to stop it.


_____________________________



Thursday, December 17, 2009

Boycott of Israeli film festivals is pushed in India


British academic: Boycott Israel film festivals


Baiju NT [December 16, 2009, 1:30:28 PM]


In MALAYALAM GALATTA (India), at:


http://malayalam.galatta.com/entertainment/malayalam/livewire/id/British_academic_urges_to_boycott_Israel_film_festivals_33532.html



Tom Hickey, a British academic and leading member of the international campaign for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel, urged Kerala on Tuesday to boycott major Israeli events such as film festivals as a mark of solidarity with the Palestinian cause.


Tom was speaking at an open forum on ‘Cine, Truth and Resistance’, organized as part of the ongoing 14th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) in Thiruvananthapuram.


Being one of the leading centres of progressive activism, Kerala should take the lead in declaring the boycott, he said. Kerala should take the cue from film-maker Ken Loach, who refused to allow screening of his film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival till an Israeli entry was withdrawn, he pointed out.


Kerala Culture Minister M.A. Baby, film-makers Prasanna Vithanage and Saeed Mirza and writer Beatriz Florez Silva participated in the forum.

__________________________________

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Boycotting Israel across Great Britain--

"Electrifying" tour of union leaders, and anti-apartheid fighters, pushes boycott hard.


" ‘Electrifying’ tour calls for Israel boycott"


by John Rose

December 19, 2009


On the Web at:

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=19841



Leaders from South Africa’s freedom struggle joined a key Palestinian activist for an electrifying tour of meetings last week.


Representatives of the African National Congress (ANC) and Cosatu, the South African trade union federation, spoke alongside Omar Barghouti, Palestinian spokesperson for the call for Boycott, Disinvestment & Sanctions (BDS) on Israel, at meetings in London, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh and Glasgow.


The UCU lecturer’s union had brought this international team to London for a special conference, agreed at the union’s annual congress.


The meetings, arranged by BRICUP – the British committee for solidarity with Palestinian universities – discussed how to build an international anti-apartheid type movement.


Israel recently showed its nervousness at the growth of BDS with a hysterical reaction to mild British government suggestions that supermarkets clearly label illegal West Bank settlement goods.


An official Israeli spokesman denounced the move as “a slide towards a more general boycott”.


At the meetings, Ronnie Kasrils – a leader of Jewish origin of the ANC’s underground military wing and an ex- South African ANC government minister – warned that Zionism was worse than apartheid because it wanted to force the ethnic exclusion of Arabs from their own country or reduce them to a status of native Americans. Apartheid, he said, had “merely” exploited black labour along ethnic lines.


He insisted that a boycott movement was an essential tool of solidarity that sometimes tipped the balance in the battle against apartheid.


The powerful presence of Cosatu leaders Bongani Masuku and George Mahlangu symbolised the centrality of organised labour in the struggle against Israeli oppression.


Earlier this year Cosatu-backed dock workers refused to unload an Israeli ship.


Tarek Moustafa, from the newly independent tax collectors’ union in Egypt, joined the panel for the London meeting. He talked about how the emergence of free trade unions in Egypt increased prospects for solidarity with Palestine.


Palestinian boycott leader Omar Barghouti helped shape the UCU conference final statement. Omar stressed the four demands of the Palestine Boycott National Committee, which has united all factions in Palestine: end the occupation, apply international law, end racial discrimination in Israel, the right of return for refugees.


Omar also pressed conference on the need to sever relations with the Histadrut, the official Israeli trade union, which serves as an arm of the Israeli state in its oppression of the Palestinians.


The Scottish TUC, which hosted the Glasgow meeting, will identify practical targets and mount pressure on the Scottish government. Omar Barghouti welcomed this, pointing to successful pressure on Norway’s government to disinvest a major pension fund from the Israeli company Elbit which provides security systems for the Israeli Apartheid Wall.


So successful says Omar that Israel arrested anti-Wall activist Mohammed Ottman for no other reason than “revenge”.


The British TUC Congress call for BDS now needs to move beyond resolutions and into action.




"British student solidarity with Gaza"

Some of the goods won by the student occupations for Gaza – which swept Britain’s universities at the start of this year – are on their way to Palestine.


Equipment promised by universities in response to the student actions have been packed on board the Viva Palestina convoy, which is travelling to Gaza in time for 27 December – a year after the start of Israel’s bombing campaign.


The London School of Economics (LSE) student union has voted to twin with the Islamic University of Gaza as part of a continuing campaign of solidarity.


Students at other many other universities have raised money for the goods to be transported on the convoy.


____________________________________



Friday, December 11, 2009

March on Washington:

"U.S. Out of Afghanistan and Iraq Now!"

"Free Palestine!"



Click on poster to enlarge it.

________________________



Israeli aircraft join the occupation of Afghanistan --


"10 Israeli UAVs headed for Afghanistan"


Dec. 10, 2009

by Yaakov Katz , THE JERUSALEM POST

On the Web at:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1260447411166&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter


"Ten new Israeli-made unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will debut in Afghanistan in the coming weeks, after the Israel Aerospace Industries made the first delivery of the Heron UAV to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) on Thursday.


"Under the $91-million lease, the RAAF will receive 10 Heron UAVs, mission payloads, Automatic Ground Control Stations as well as spare parts. Canadian company MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) already provides maintenance for the Canadian Air Force - which operates Herons in Afghanistan - and will support the RAAF mission as well.


"The Heron was also recently leased to the German military and last month the Brazilian government announced that it was prepared to sign a $350-million deal to purchase Heron UAVs to patrol its cities and borders, and provide security for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games.


"The first UAV was delivered to the RAAF during a ceremony at the Ein Shemer landing strip in the North attended by the Canadian military attaché, Col. Geordie Elms, the Australian military attaché, Col. Wayne Fleming, and representatives from the Ministry of Defense, MDA and Israel Aerospace Industries.


"The RAAF chose the Heron from among a number of competitors after it successfully completed a series of tests of its intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities. Under the deal, the Heron will begin operations in early 2010 for one year, with an option for an additional two years...."


________________________________________

Monday, December 7, 2009

Zionists try to silence fighters against Apartheid Israel


From COSATU, the South African labor union federation, comes news that Bongani Masuku, a COSATU leader who is attending a Palestine Solidarity Conference in London, is facing Zionist demands to prevent him from speaking there.

Masuku is campaigning for the worldwide effort to boycott the Apartheid state of Israel:





Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)



07 December 2009

On the Web at:


http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71654?oid=153738&sn=Detail




"SAHRC errs in hate speech ruling against COSATU's Bongani Masuku"


The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the Palestine Solidarity Movement in South Africa are shocked and appalled by the decision of the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), which found that COSATU's International Relations Secretary, Bongani Masuku, is guilty of hate speech and called on him to apologise to the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD).

In a submission to the SAHRC, the SAJBD had accused Bongani of hate speech for comments he made during a lecture at the University of the Witwatersrand, hosted by the Palestine Solidarity Committee and the Young Communist League, as well as comments he had made on a Zionist blog and in a personal email to a Zionist detractor.

As Bongani's response to the SAJBD complaint illustrates, none of his comments can be regarded as hate speech in terms of the South African Constitution. Furthermore, his comments, in the main, referred to South Africans who supported the illegal Israeli military occupation - irrespective of their religious or ethnic backgrounds.

These comments were certainly a trenchant critique of Israel and its apologists and supporters in South Africa, but were not directed at the Jewish community or any other ethnic group.


Section 16 of the South African Constitution, the section on Freedom of Expression, states:

(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, which includes-

§ freedom of the press and other media;

§ freedom to receive or impart information or ideas;

§ freedom of artistic creativity; and

§ academic freedom and freedom of scientific research.



(2) The right in subsection (1) does not extend to-

§ propaganda for war;

§ incitement of imminent violence; or

§ advocacy of hatred that is based on race, ethnicity, gender or

§ religion, and that constitutes incitement to cause harm.


None of Bongani's statements can be regarded as being ‘advocacy of hatred' based on ‘race, ethnicity, gender or religion'. He did not refer to Jews, as is being alleged. The gleeful and smug comment by the SAJBD (see here), following the SAHRC decision, is simply untrue. Their claim that Bongani's comments ‘advocate and imply that the Jewish and Israeli community are to be despised, scorned, ridiculed and thus subjecting them to ill-treatment on the basis of their religious affiliation' is a pack of lies.

It is through such lies and intimidation that the SAJBD, the South African Zionist Federation, and other apologists of Israel have sought to chill free expression in South Africa and to prevent any critique of Israeli war crimes. Their repeated accusations of ‘hate speech' against criticisms of Israel have become wasteful of public resources, and trivialise the very serious charge of ‘hate speech'.

Furthermore, their constant, frivolous, and false accusations of ‘anti-Semitism' against critics of the state of Israel and the calumny of ‘self-hating Jews' against those Jews who support the just struggle of the Palestinian people against racism and oppression is an attempt to silence and intimidate those who, using their own experience of racism and oppression in Apartheid South Africa, feel they can contribute to a just resolution of the problems in the Middle East.

Indeed, we believe that SAJBD's statement during the Gaza massacre of December 2008-January 2009, wherein it defended all Israeli actions in that massacre - including the use of white phosphorous against civilians, the bombing of United Nations buildings, the murder of civilians, the bombing of civilian infrastructure such as schools, hospitals and places of worship - violates Section 16 of the Constitution in attempting to incite South Africans (especially South African Jews) to violence against Palestinians, and in being clear and obvious propaganda for war.

We are shocked that the SAHRC, after receiving a written complaint and a written response to that complaint, saw fit to make such a finding - with the potential weighty precedent that it can set - without even entertaining a hearing on this matter. We do not believe this constitutes due process and believe it to be unprocedural in terms of the manner in which the Commission should operate and in terms of its mandate to ensure the realisation of Constitutional rights - including the right to free expression. We are also surprised that the Commission made such a decision which blatantly contradicts previous rulings it has made on similar issues.

Bongani, with the support of COSATU and various solidarity organisations in South Africa, will study the SAHRC ruling and decide whether there are grounds for an appeal. We shall defend Bongani's right to free expression - as guaranteed by our Constitution - in the Equality Court and in any other court in South Africa.

COSATU also condemns attempts to silence Comrade Bongani Masuku, who is attending a Palestine Solidarity Conference in London to take forward the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. Pro-Israeli elements are trying to get his invitation withdrawn, on the basis of the SAHRC ruling, which was issued the day before the event started.

COSATU is consulting its lawyers on the SAHRC ruling and how it can be dealt with.


--Statement issued by the Palestine Solidarity Committee and the Congress of South African Trade Unions, December 4 2009

_________________________________________


Sunday, December 6, 2009

Saturday, December 5, 2009

"most of the weapons that the South African government used to enforce apartheid were supplied by Israel... Even the water cannon..."


"...most of the weapons that the South African government used to enforce apartheid were supplied by Israel in violation of an international arms embargo on South Africa. Even the water cannon that they used to suppress demonstrations were made in a kibbutz in northern Israel."

--Ali Abunimah, speaking at the Campus Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions conference at Hampshire College in Massachusetts, November 21, 2009.


On the Web at:

http://mondoweiss.net/2009/12/abunimah-there-is-a-tremendous-struggle-to-be-waged-that-will-force-israeli-introspection-and-change.html


__________________________________________________