June 18, 2010 at 8:20AM AuthorGilad Atzmon
Hold your breath. This in not a joke, this is not a satire. It is real almost as much as it is pathetic. Israeli Ynet just reported that the images of captured Israeli commandos published in Turkish papers opened “…old wounds among those Israeli commandos involved in similar circumstances. Thus far, at least four combat soldiers have reported worsening of their (mental) condition”
thegoodwilljourney1 — 6 mai 2010 — Israeli bulldozers today destroyed a garden and childrens playground in Beit Jala, and 100 fruit and olive trees in Al Walaja and Beit Jala, both in the Bethlehem district, to make way for the continued construction of their illegal apartheid wall. Soldiers present used violent force to remove Palestinian, Israeli and international activists who attempted to prevent the destruction. Two Israelis were arrested immediately, and six internationals were later arrested.
CONTACT: CONNIE BAKER, 630-363-7713
End the Occupation, Northern Illinois Conference of the United Methodist Church
ST. CHARLES, ILL. June 15, 2010 – At its annual conference, the Northern Illinois Conference (NIC) of the United Methodist Church (UMC) voted to divest all holdings in three international corporations that profit from the occupation of Palestine. This action is in response to a plea by Palestinian Christians for action, not just words.
Divestment is a nonviolent form of economic protest long-used by churches and other shareholders to encourage companies to end unjust practices. By selling its investments in Caterpillar (CAT), General Electric (GE) and Terex (TEX), the NIC expresses its commitment to do no harm with its investments and affirms the call of the UMC Book of Discipline to “avoid investments that appear likely, directly or indirectly, to support violation of human rights” (Paragraph 716).
These three companies are among 20 targeted by many UMC conferences across the country because they (1) have a presence on occupied land, (2) are involved with the physical settlements, checkpoints and the separation wall, or (3) support activities of the Israeli military in the occupied territories.
Connie Baker from the End the Occupation Task Force of the Board of Church and Society which brought forth the resolution stated: “We are resolute in our support of peace for both Israelis and Palestinians in the Holy Land and the rights of each to co-exist according to the principles set forth in the Geneva Conventions. It is a small step, but an important one.”
The conference will also send a list of the 20 identified companies to the nearly 400 local churches in Northern Illinois and encourage them to consider divestment from any corporations on the list.
For the list of targeted corporations, which was compiled by the New England Conference (UMC) Divestment Task Force, please see: http://www.neumc.org/pages/detail/375.
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http://www.bloggersunite.org/event/bloggers-unite-for-gaza
July 09, 2010
Objective:
On 9 July, we are urging bloggers to make a simple promise: “Gaza, We Will Not Forget You”.
Humanitarian aid cannot address the hardship faced by Gaza’s 1.5 million people. The only sustainable solution is to lift the closure. The blockade imposed on Gaza is about to enter its fourth year, thwarting any real chance of economic development. As Gazans endure unemployment, poverty and warfare, the quality of their health care has reached an all-time low.
Israel’s raid on the Gaza aid flotilla brought the issue to international attention. We must act now to put an end to the humanitarian crisis once and for all.
On 9 July 2004, the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion condemning Israel’s infringement of the Palestinian right to self-determination and violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The ICJ explicitly affirmed the international community that the burden also falls on them not to recognise or assist the illegal situation.
This year, on 9 July 2010, remind your own government of its own obligations not to recognise or assist Israel’s violations of international law. Urge that there must be an independent and international inquiry into the attacks on the Gaza aid flotilla. And make a simple promise: “Gaza, We Will Not Forget You.”
HRLAF — 14 juin 2010 — Urgent Appeal – Legal Action on Gaza Aid Flotilla – by Palestine Legal Aid Fund (http://www.humanrightsfund.org )
Mary Nazzal-Batayneh of the Palestine Legal Aid Fund urges you to support the appeal for legal action following Israel’s attack on the Freedom Flotilla.
As soon as Israeli commandos attacked, the need for an international effort to secure and preserve evidence from passengers was clear.
A single donation to the Palestine Legal Aid Fund was all that was necessary to give the go ahead to UK-based lawyers to start preparing advice for the detainees, and coordinating the international collection of evidence for use in any future legal case or UN fact-finding mission.
The legal cases will not only seek justice for those killed, injured and detained on the flotilla. They will hold Israeli authorities legally accountable, and provoke an examination of the illegal blockade and humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Your help is needed to support this vital work. Through making a donation, fundraising in your community, or showing your support in another way, you can ensure this work continues, and that the strongest possible case reaches court. Take action: sign up at http://www.humanrightsfund.org
info@humanrightsfund.org
By Issandr El Amrani
This is quite funny:
Moshe Yatom, a prominent Israeli psychiatrist who successfully cured the most extreme forms of mental illness throughout a distinguished career, was found dead at his home in Tel Aviv yesterday from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. A suicide note at his side explained that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been his patient for the last nine years, had “sucked the life right out of me.”
“I can’t take it anymore,” wrote Yatom. “Robbery is redemption, apartheid is freedom, peace activists are terrorists, murder is self-defense, piracy is legality, Palestinians are Jordanians, annexation is liberation, there’s no end to his contradictions. Freud promised rationality would reign in the instinctual passions, but he never met Bibi Netanyahu. This guy would say Gandhi invented brass knuckles.”
[. . .]
Yatom was apparently working on converting his diary into a book about the Netanyahu case. Several chapters of an unfinished manuscript, entitled “Psychotic On Steroids,” were found in his study. The excerpt below offers a rare glimpse at the inner workings of a Prime Minister’s mind, at the same time as it reveals the daunting challenge Yatom faced in seeking to guide it to rationality:
Monday, March 8
“Bibi came by at three for his afternoon session. At four he refused to leave and claimed my house was actually his. Then he locked me in the basement overnight while he lavishly entertained his friends upstairs. When I tried to escape, he called me a terrorist and put me in shackles. I begged for mercy, but he said he could hardly grant it to someone who didn’t even exist.”
neverbeforecampaign — 10 juin 2010 — The three year old siege on the Gaza Strip and its 1.5 million inhabitants is a testament to the Israeli regime’s disregard of law, decency and morality. This siege amounts to collective punishment, an action outlawed by various conventions and humanitarian laws. This is not to mention the suffering and humanitarian crisis caused by this law. This siege has been disgracefully condoned by the “international community” and justified by the “free world” as a measure that safegurads the security of the Israeli regime.
The same position was applied to the various humanitarian aid ships that were attacked and abuducted in international waters, and the aid carried by those ships confiscated. The killing of 9 Turkish activists on the the Freedom Flotilla on 1 June brought an abrupt end to international silence regarding the siege. It is unfortunate that the world needed to see the blood of those brave men to realize the brutality of the siege and of the besieger.
Nevertheless, it is our duty to finish what the brave men and women of the Freedom Flotilla and the campaigns that preceded it. It is time to brieak the siege.
neverbeforecampaign — 4 avril 2010 — When the Israeli regime feels that it has to create a ministry for propaganda, you know that they are worried. This concern is shared by dedicated Zionists and other misled people all over the world. Their concern is simple: the world is begginning to realize that the Israeli regime and its policies are nothing better than any other, past or present, discriminatory/apartheid regime.
No amount of spinning tactics or communications strategies will reverse this long overdue awakening. Yet, the Zionists and their regime persist. Over the past few years we have seen initiative after initiative, document after document, and campaign after campaign, to revert to the old pereceptions that the Israeli regime represents the values of freedom, liberty and equality. This regimes latest move, an initiative to turn every citizen into a PR ambassador highlights the desperation of its spin masters and PR firms.
Along these lines, many documents have been compiled to guide anyone willing to defend the Israeli regime and its policies. Most striking, and what we have been seeing for years by Israeli politicians and advocates, is the focus on the audacious claim that the Israeli regime, and its occupation army, actually cares about the Palestinian people.
It is the same old story for all oppressors eventually their image comes to fall, and soon afterwards, so do they.
Many of the photos are by:
“Michael Ramallah”: http://occupiedlove.blogspot.com/
Ahmad Mesleh: http://www.ahmadmesleh.wordpress.com
Solving the problem of Israel/Palestine isn’t rocket science: the solution is obvious. We just have to get serious about it
By Roger Tucker
18 June 2010
Roger Tucker outlines the case for a one-state solution to the Palestine-Israel conflict, arguing that this is the only formula that would provide peace, justice and security for Jews and Palestinians and avoid a possible catastrophe for the rest of the world.
