When Israel announced the formation of an independent commission to investigate the Flotilla debacle, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs issued a statement welcoming the news and noting that
“the structure and terms of reference of Israel’s proposed independent public commission can meet the standard of a prompt, impartial, credible, and transparent investigation.”
In the time since then, it has emerged that Amos Horev, one of the three Israeli panel members, helped castrate an Arab in the mid-1940s who had been accused of attempting to rape a Jewish woman. The act of castration inspired a popular song in Hebrew.
It has also emerged (thanks to Richard Silverstein) that another member of the panel, Shabtai Rosenne, helped David Ben-Gurion brainstorm lies which would cover up the Israeli military’s massacre at Qibya, in which Ariel Sharon led a force that murdered 60 Palestinian civilians, an act that outraged the world in 1953.
Richard Goldstone was subjected to the most savage obloquy for his work as a judge under the Apartheid South African regime.
If he had personally castrated a Black South African or helped cook up lies to exculpate the South African government for the Sharpeville massacre, maybe he would have been treated a little more gently?
An Israeli presence at this greatest of global sporting spectacles would have been guaranteed to attract an unrelenting wave of protests, PR stunts and bad publicity.
By Daniel Levy
As the World Cup progresses, Israelis might consider sending thank-you bouquets to the national soccer teams of Switzerland and Greece, who knocked Israel out at the qualifying stage.
Of course, it would be nice to wrap ourselves in blue and white, and cheer on the likes of Yossi, Guy and Ben. But on this occasion, one should probably be thankful that we didn’t make it.
There were large demonstrations in Cape Town last week following the Mavi Marmara incident. An Israeli presence at this greatest of global sporting spectacles would have been guaranteed to attract an unrelenting wave of protests, PR stunts and bad publicity.
In the days since Operation Sky Winds, Israel has been able to get a glimpse of the future and into the abyss that awaits if we continue on our current course. It is a future replete with both insecurity and the indignity of global opprobrium and sanctions.
Palestine has now irrefutably become a global cause. That is certainly inconvenient for Israel and maybe unfair.
Popular consumer, labor union, and cultural boycotts are gathering new momentum. Israel’s predicament will not be rectified by better PR or a new foreign minister; it has become structural and therefore far more worrying.
The logic of the kind of unarmed resistance represented by flotillas to Gaza is to shine a light on the wrongdoings of an offending party. Ideally, one will succeed in appealing to the better nature, to the humanity, of the offending party (Israel), and its behavior (in this case, the blockade on Gaza) will be corrected. If not, then one may seek to shame that party in the court of global public opinion. Any over-reaction or additional offensive behavior will only serve to strengthen the case of the light-shiner and “prove” the original premise of wrongdoing.
In this instance, Israel’s leadership played its role with Lionel Messi-like perfection.
In short, the game is up. This is not defeatism – it’s an acknowledgment of a reality that, by ignoring, causes Israel to imperil itself. It cannot be reversed by a good YouTube video or by cloning President Peres. An occupation that just entered its 44th year and entails denying basic rights to millions of Palestinians can no longer be sanitized. As long as Israel maintains that occupation, the costs will become increasingly burdensome.
Having lost the world, Israel’s focus turns in on itself. The country’s leadership has to work harder to keep its own public on board for the occupation project. This requires a growing suppression of dissent, further ostracizing Israel’s Palestinian minority, and ever-more aggressive appeals to Jewish national pride. Democratic norms are thereby eroded, further feeding the tarnishing of Israel’s image. This is the vicious cycle in which Israel is embroiled.
It is true that there will almost certainly always be unjustified prejudice toward Israel. Whatever it does, some people will always be out to get us. But prejudice is not what motivates the vast majority of those mobilizing in solidarity with the Palestinians. The occupation is the oxygen of their campaign, and the vast majority seek an end to it – not to Israel itself. An Israel that fails to appreciate this and which sustains the occupation is the single most proximate cause of its own delegitimization.
It is still in our power, however, to change all of this. We can genuinely end the 1967 occupation and live up to our declared democratic ideals.
But if Israel does not take the lead, then let us at least hope that our remaining friends in the world will step forward with their own proposals and that we in turn will have the wisdom to say yes to them.
Enjoy the World Cup, and let’s look forward to Israel’s qualification in 2014 being all about soccer and blissfully devoid of politics.
Every year, consumers the world over unwittingly spend billions of dollars on diamonds crafted in Israel, thereby helping to fund one of the world’s most protracted and contentious conflicts. Most people are unaware that Israel is one of the world’s leading producers of cut and polished diamonds.
As diamonds are normally not hallmarked, consumers cannot distinguish an Israeli diamond from one crafted in India, Belgium, South Africa or elsewhere. The global diamond industry and aligned governments, including the EU, have hoodwinked consumers into believing the diamond trade has been cleansed of diamonds that fund human rights abuses, but the facts are startlingly different.
In July 2000, the global diamond industry set up the World Diamond Council (WDC). The WDC was established as a response to public outrage about the use of diamonds to fund bloody conflicts in western African countries and it includes representatives from the World Federation of Diamond Bourses and the International Diamond Manufacturers Association.
The council’s ultimate mandate is “the development, implementation and oversight of a tracking system for the export and import of rough diamonds to prevent the exploitation of diamonds for illicit purposes such as war and inhumane acts.” Significantly, the WDC limits its concern about human rights violations to those funded by rough diamonds only. Israel currently chairs the Kimberly Process.
The notion of self-regulation by any industry that is intrinsically linked to the violations it purports to want to eliminate is something that neither governments nor the general public should tolerate. It is impossible for the public to have confidence in the diamond industry’s attempt to self-regulate as long as it facilitates the trade in diamonds crafted in Israel, which, if the Kimberly Process applied the same standards to all diamonds, would rightly be classified as blood diamonds and treated accordingly.
The diamond industry is a major pillar of the Israeli economy. No other developed country is so heavily dependent on a single luxury commodity and the goodwill of individual consumers globally. Anything that threatens the carefully-nurtured image of diamonds as objects of desire, romance and purity could have serious consequences for the Israel diamond industry and the country’s ability to continue funding its illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories, the construction of illegal colonies and other associated criminal activities that render it the pariah of the modern age.
The international BDS campaign needs to focus global attention on the diamond trade that facilitates Israel’s ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people and its neighbors in the region. The high-value end of the diamond industry is the main artery of the Israeli economy, accounting for more than 30 percent of Israel’s total manufacturing exports worth nearly $20 billion in 2008 (“Trade Performance HS: Exports of Israel” accessed 25 March 2010). By comparison, the budget for Israel’s Ministry of Defense was $16 billion in 2008. http://electronicintifada.net/v2/arti…
by Peter Beinart Info
Don’t blame the commandos for the flotilla disaster. Blame Israel’s leaders, who enforce the cruel and corrupt Gaza embargo, and their supporters in America.
“If the soul is left in darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin but he who causes the darkness.” In the late 1960s, when America’s cities burned, Martin Luther King often quoted that line, which he borrowed from Victor Hugo. But it applies equally well to the catastrophe that occurred yesterday in international waters off the Gaza Strip.
It is not the Israeli naval commandos who should be judged guilty. Upon dismounting their helicopter onto the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara, they found themselves, unexpectedly, in the belly of an armed mob. Anyone who thinks American troops would have acted with greater restraint should cast their mind back to October 1993, when U.S. Special Forces rappelled down from their Black Hawk helicopters into a sea of Somali militiamen, and killed or wounded perhaps a thousand of them as they shot their way to safety.
In the name of solidarity, we have practiced denial. In the name of anti-terrorism, we have justified the brutalization of innocents.
One of UK’s largest unions votes for boycott, expelling Israeli envoy.
One of Britain’s largest trade unions passed a motion at its annual conference in Bournemouth last week accusing Israel of lying over the Gaza flotilla incident and has called for a complete boycott of Israel and for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador, it was confirmed on Thursday.
The emergency motion was introduced on the third day of the annual conference of UNISON, the largest public sector union with around 1.4 million members. It said Israel was “brazenly lying” over the flotilla incident, as it “attempted to define it as an attempted lynch mob of its troops by passengers on the boats. “This is a further sign that Israel does not respond to words of condemnation, only action will have any effect,” the motion states.
One attendee said that the few Unison members who spoke against the motion were heckled.
UNISON member Lilach Head, a care worker from Devon, spoke against the motion and was heckled. She said the atmosphere was intimidating and the vote was called before more people could speak against it.
“Only three people were able to speak against the motion, there were six others waiting but then the vote was called. There was no hope,” she said.
The union will now support a full boycott of Israel – economic, cultural and sporting; it has joined the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign and will suspend ties with the Histadrut.
In addition to these measures, UNISON is calling for Britain to expel the Israeli ambassador.
“Conference reaffirms the support for an economic, cultural and sporting boycott of Israel and call on Unison to join the scores of unions around the world who have endorsed the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel. Further to that as an immediate sanction for the illegal attack on the flotilla, we call on the government to expel the Israeli ambassador,” the motion states.
The union had already banned a organization that promotes Israeli-Palestinian trade union cooperation from having a stall at its conference.
UNISON’s deputy general secretary, Keith Sonnet, a pro-Palestinian activist and patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign – a fringe group that advocates a one-state solution and major player in the boycott and delegitimization campaign against Israel – wrote to Trade Union Friends of Israel (TUFI) saying the union was unable to offer the organization a stall because “we have no ongoing work with the TUFI, nor are we affiliated to the organization.”
“More than 2,000 delegates to UNISON’s national conference, representing our 1.4 million members, did indeed carry a motion condemning the Israeli attack on the Gaza freedom flotilla, in which nine people were reportedly killed,” a union spokesperson told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.
“The motion noted that the boats were carrying much needed humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza [and that] the passengers on the boats were civilians.”
Asked if the wording and the sentiments expressed in the motion were a fair and honest reflection of the views of the members, the spokesperson said: “Our 2,000 delegates were well aware of the words in the motion before it was carried. We have constantly called for an end to the Israeli blockade of Gaza and have pushed the case for a peaceful settlement – including an end to the bombings, on both sides.”
Asked how the motion would be implemented, the spokesperson said: “Our international committee will be taking forward the actions called for in the motion when it meets in the next couple of weeks.”
“Again, this is making accusations before the facts have been established and an investigation into this tragic incident have been completed,” said Stephen Scott, director of TUFI. “The outrageous attack on their fellow trade unionists in the Histadrut, who have called for a lifting of the blockade restrictions and the resumption of final-status peace talks, is counterproductive.
The Israeli embassy in London said the motion was “misleading” and “dishonest” and an “outrageous attempt” by anti-Israel activists to manipulate the union to serve their agenda.
“We categorically reject this misleading and dishonest motion. This is yet another outrageous attempt by anti-Israel elements to manipulate a union into serving their agenda.
“At a time when public sector workers face unprecedented challenges to their jobs and conditions, it is bizarre that the union’s leadership is focusing an emergency meeting on an overseas situation of which they are so clearly ignorant and prejudiced,” the spokesman said.
The Trade Unions Linking Israel and Palestine (TULIP), a movement working to unite trade unions and non-governmental organizations to counter boycott calls of Israel, said the motion presented an “utterly one-sided view” and could have easily been written in Iran.
“UNISON continues to speak with two voices,” said TULIP spokesman Eric Lee. “On the one hand, the union’s official policy remains support for a two-state solution, which was reaffirmed by the union leadership – and the union has actually done some good work on the ground, promoting Jewish-Arab peace and reconciliation.
“However, this resolution was hastily drafted and even more hastily adopted; it contradicts the union’s own long-standing position and instead presents an utterly one-sided view of the conflict. It fact, it so demonizes Israel that it could easily have been written in Teheran,” Lee added. source
Report by Björn Borg, Chairperson of the Swedish Dockworkers Union
Erik Helgeson, Ombudsman, local 4 Gothenburg
translation: Jonatan
Published in translation: 25/06/10
(This article was published before the start of the blockade. Some minor edits have been made during the translation process)
From the 23rd of June, the Swedish Dockworkers’ Union members will no longer load or unload Israeli ships or goods to and from Israel. The time-limited blockade will hopefully stop Swedish sea born trade with Israel until the 29th of June. The action of the Swedish Dockers is not an isolated event. We act in coherence with other dockworkers’ unions around the world in this international effort to promote two self-evident demands to the state of Israel: 1. Lift the siege of Gaza. 2. Allow an independent international investigation of the violent boarding of the Freedom-Flotilla.
The Dockworkers’ action has already made an echo around the world. Thousands have contacted us to show sympathy, at the same time we also receive different forms of criticism and threats. Therefore, as the debate tend to focus on everything but the issue of concern, we wish to clarify the reasons behind the decision made by the Swedish Dockworkers’ Union:
1, 5 million Palestinians inside the small Gaza strip have been effectively cut off from the outside world for over three years. The blockade is maintained partly by the almost complete Egyptian closure of its border to Gaza, but mainly because the state of Israel with military means prevents people as well as goods to enter or exit the area. During the war on Gaza in 2008/09, vital infrastructure war bombed into ruins and Israel’s ban on imports of both construction materials and raw materials for industrial purposes, has prohibited all recovery.
The government of Israel has until today’s date claimed that the policy of isolation is aimed at the elected Hamas government and the movements’ firing of rockets into Israel. Our union does not sympathize with Hamas nor their acts towards Palestinian and Israeli civilians. However, today there can be no question about the actual consequences of the Gaza-siege. The power base of Hamas seems unthreatened, while many of Gaza’s children are living at the brink of malnutrition. Unemployment is estimated at about 80 percent, the ports are wiped out and our dockworker colleagues, just like a whole generation of Palestinian youths, are lacking hope and prospects for the future. Regardless of Israel’s intentions, it is obvious that the policy of the Israeli government is de facto collectively punishing of the civilian population. The siege of Gaza constitutes an ongoing attack on the respect for human rights. Despite that the UN as well as the EU repeatedly have established that the blockade and Israel’s actions are in conflict with international law and depletes the civilian population, the situation still hasn’t changed.
It is in relation to this that the Swedish Dockworkers have now followed the request of the joint Palestinian union movement for support actions amongst dockworkers to make Israel lift the blockade on Gaza. We, as part of the international labour movement, want to do what we can to promote change. Therefore, as a way of contributing to the international pressure on the Israeli government, we will not concern ourselves with Israeli goods during a week of solidarity.
The Swedish Dockworkers Union makes no secret of the fact that we have been inspired by the example set by the Swedish Ship to Gaza. During an intense year following the Gaza-war, hundreds of volunteers organized fundraisers and support events around this country. The organization then managed, together with its’ Greece sister organization, to buy a ship bound to bring long-awaited aid to Gaza. At the final stages, we were in contact with our comrades in Greece, who free of charge loaded the cargo ship “Sofia“ with electric wheelchairs and cement at the port of Pireus. Meanwhile we could see how the eyes of the world were finally turned towards the isolated population of Gaza. Even the night before the Israeli military violently stormed the Freedom Flotilla, this international initiative had done more to bring attention to the catastrophic situation of the people of Gaza, than all the diplomatic moves, declarations and resolutions put forward in the last years. That also inspires us and our colleagues in ports around the world to take action.
Unfortunately it now seems that the attention of the media once again is turning away from the ravaged population of Gaza. Instead, public debate is heavily focused on Israeli governmental and military accusations towards the hundreds of people who were onboard the ship “Mavi Marmara“ of the Freedom Flotilla when Israel boarded and nine people were shot dead. The Swedish Dockworkers Union will not take part in this shift of focus from the main issue and thus ascertain the following:
It is a natural requirement from dockworkers as well as all followers of basic legal principles, that an investigation of the Israeli boarding, the killings and the entire course of events must be conducted by an independent, internationally composed committee.
Israel today claims that it has support in international law for the boarding of ships carrying humanitarian aid on international waters. They also claim that “Mavi Marmara“ carried terrorist-sympathizers that illegally provoked violence and tried to kill Israeli soldiers. If that is the case, all the films, pictures and sound materials that Israel has confiscated from journalists and human right activists onboard should be made public to support that claim. An independent international investigation would be able to confirm the official Israeli story, and bring criminals amongst the passengers to justice.
However, If the boarding in fact constitutes a flagrant Israeli crime against international law and at least nine unarmed activists were killed during an illegal act of piracy against an aid convoy, then an international independent investigation would be able to prove that and bring the ones responsible to justice.
The Swedish Dockworkers’ Union have previously acted as pioneers in Swedish boycotts against the military dictatorship in Chile and the apartheid regime of South Africa. From the 23rd of June we will no longer handle containers with Israeli wines, vegetables och fruits by the brands of Jaffa, Carmel or Top, vegetarian pre-fabricated foods from Tivall or the carbonation-machine Soda Stream. Neither will we contribute to the Swedish export of Volvo buses, which were used by Israel to transport the hundreds of human right activists from the Freedom Flotilla to Israeli prisons.
The demands of this international dockworkers action is in line with the ones put forward by the UN, the International Red Cross and many world leaders. But we move from words to action. Power should never be confused with right, regardless of Israel’s history or military force. Therefore we take a stand against the siege of Gaza, demanding that all air, land, and most importantly, seaways into the area must be opened.
Björn Borg, Chairperson of the Swedish Dockworkers Union
Erik Helgeson, Ombudsman, local 4 Gothenburg
About the authors
Björn Borg is president of The Swedish Dockworkers’ Union. Erik Helgeson is ombudsman for the Swedish Dockworkers’ Union local 4 in Gothenburg. Soon after the founding of the Swedish Ship to Gaza project, the dockers discussed collaboration with the organizers. The dockers have also been preparing voluntary interventions as to load ships headed for Gaza free of charge from Swedish ports.
The working class movement in Turkey is starting to join the Boycott Against Israel Campaign. While the working class movements around the world has escalated the campaign against Israel by refusing to unload Israeli cargo ships, the Dock Workers Union “Liman-Is“ is the latest union in Turkey joining the anti apartheid, anti racist campaign against the state of Israel.
The recent campaign against Israel started by the left and progressive organizations is beginning to get support from the workers’ unions as well. The movement against Israeli apartheid was successful in bringing the entire spectrum of the left against Israel’s racist and imperialist regime. However now, the movement is starting to gain support within the working class organizations as well.
The Boycott Against Israel/movement aims to cut all ties, military, economic, diplomatic, academic and cultural, with the state of Israel.
Following the Physicians’ Association of Turkey which had endorsed the campaign from the very beginning, the dock workers’ union Liman- Is is now also calling for a comprehensive boycott against the reactionary state of Israel. The movement had organized a successful symposium for Palestinian rights and against Israel where the representatives from the world had gathered to discuss the the strategy of such a boycott. During the discussions, the Chamber of Agricultural Engineers of Turkey, a participant in the symposium, announced it was joining the boycott against Israel.
The statement from Liman-Is union is below:
“Humanity is once again confronted with the bloody face of Israel when it attacked, murdered, and wounded many innocent civilians who were on their way to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza.
“This attack by Israel, which had for years displayed the most brutal and barbaric terror in Palestine, is now aimed towards the third party civilians. This must be taken as an assault against all of humanity.
“The attack that was protested throughout the world and condemned harshly by the UN also brought people out to the streets in Turkey. The government’s announcements indicate that further sanctions against Israel is to be expected.
However, Israel needs to be replied not only through the channels of the government, but through all institutions and organizations that direct societies, most of all, through NGO’s and unions.
“Our union Liman-Is, has decided to boycott the ships from Israel which has become a machine of death and torture. In the framework, no member of our union will give service to Israel in any docks that we are organized at.
“Liman-Is union invites all unions and NGO’s organized in our country and throughout the world to join this boycott and protest campaign.
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