Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Santa comes to Bethlehem for non-violent protest
On the 21st of December Santa joined the weekly nonviolent protest. This protest takes place in the Southern villages of Bethlehem every Friday and it includes Palestinians, internationals and Israeli nonviolent activists working together to oppose the military occupation. Every Friday, the nonviolent protest is faced with tens (sometimes hundreds) of heavily armed Israeli soldiers. This Christmas Friday was not any different and even Santa was not surprised.
In a procession calling for “peace on earth starting with peace in the Holy Land,” Santa led the march to where the confiscation of land and the construction of the Wall were taking place. The Israeli army, in its normal response, used violence and heavy arms to block the peaceful procession. Several protestors were injured and one Palestinian was arrest (later released).
Even in the midst of the violent response Santa called on the Israeli soldiers to seek peace and end violence and the occupation. He called upon these young Israeli soldiers to recognize that they have the right to refuse to serve in this brutal military and that this refusal is the greatest gift they can give themselves, their family and even their people. Israeli soldiers were ordered not to talk to or interact with any of the protestors, even Santa, but he knew that in their heart they heard the message of hope.
After the protest was over Santa disappeared. We assume he went back to his busy gift giving schedule. He came here to give hope but left with a smile knowing that hope for peace and justice exists in the Holy Land and this is the gift we give to all nations this Christmas season.
Filed under: Bethlehem, Faith, Middle East, News on Nonviolence, Nonviolent Resistance, Palestine, nonviolence
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Six wounded in nonviolent Anti-wall protest in Bil'n
Friday December 21, 2007 21:45 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News news at imemc dot org
Palestinians from the village of Bil'in, near Ramallah in the central West Bank, along with their international and Israeli supporters conducted their weekly protest against the Israeli Annexation Wall on Friday midday. Shortly after the midday Friday prayers, the protestors marched towards the location of the illegal wall built on the village's land.
Among those injured was Iyad Bornat the head of the popular committee against the wall and settlements in Bil'in village.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Christmas in Bethlehem; a time for Joy and Resilience
It would have been easy and even justified for Bethlehem and its families not to do anything this Christmas and Eid season and to just sit back and complain about how bad things are. It would have been accepted if people say we can not afford anything because unemployment is at it highest level in years. It would have made sense if people complained that the Separation Wall and barriers (build by the Israeli government and now surrounding the entire city) have cut them of from the world and broken their spirit. It would have been justified to blame the Israeli occupation, its aggressive military, and checkpoints for destroying any hope for any future, but that will not happen in Bethlehem.
Bethlehem has chosen to overcome all obstacles and stand resilient in the face of all challenges. Bethlehem has chosen to stand committed to its historic role and responsibility as the bearer and the keeper of the Christmas spirit. Bethlehem has decided to be the place where hope for peace is born once again.
Land may be stolen for building illegal settlement, walls may be built to imprison entire communities, the body may be broken with acts of violence and torture, but the spirit of Bethlehem will never surrender.
This Christmas season remember Bethlehem … Remember Bethlehem not for the pain and violence it faces but for the joy and resilience it possesses.
Posted on December 16, 2007 by Sami Awad
Realizing God’s dream for the Holy Land
October 26, 2007
WHENEVER I am asked if I am optimistic about an end to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, I say that I am not. Optimism requires clear signs that things are changing - meaningful words and unambiguous actions that point to real progress. I do not yet hear enough meaningful words, nor do I yet see enough unambiguous deeds to justify optimism.
However, that does not mean I am without hope. I am a Christian. I am constrained by my faith to hope against hope, placing my trust in things as yet unseen. Hope persists in the face of evidence to the contrary, undeterred by setbacks and disappointment. Hoping against hope, then, I do believe that a resolution will be found. It will not be perfect, but it can be just; and if it is just, it will usher in a future of peace.
My hope for peace is not amorphous. It has a shape. It is not the shape of a particular political solution, although there are some political solutions that I believe to be more just than others.
Neither does my hope take the shape of a particular people, although I have pleaded tirelessly for international attention to be paid to the misery of Palestinians, and I have roundly condemned the injustices of certain Israeli policies that compound that misery. Thus I am often accused of siding with Palestinians against Israeli Jews, naively exonerating the one and unfairly demonizing the other.
Nevertheless, I insist that the hope in which I persist is not reducible to politics or identified with a people. It has a more encompassing shape. I like to call it “God’s dream.”
God has a dream for all his children. It is about a day when all people enjoy fundamental security and live free of fear. It is about a day when all people have a hospitable land in which to establish a future. More than anything else, God’s dream is about a day when all people are accorded equal dignity because they are human beings. In God’s beautiful dream, no other reason is required.
God’s dream begins when we begin to know each other differently, as bearers of a common humanity, not as statistics to be counted, problems to be solved, enemies to be vanquished or animals to be caged. God’s dream begins the moment one adversary looks another in the eye and sees himself reflected there.
All things become possible when hearts fixed in mutual contempt begin to grasp a transforming truth; namely, that this person I fear and despise is not an alien, something less than human. This person is very much like me, and enjoys and suffers, loves and fears, wonders, worries, and hopes. Just as I do, this person longs for well-being in a world of peace.
God’s dream begins with this mutual recognition - we are not strangers, we are kin. It culminates in the defeat of oppression perpetrated in the name of security, and of violence inflicted in the name of liberation. God’s dream routs the cynicism and despair that once cleared the path for hate to have its corrosive way with us, and for ravenous violence to devour everything in sight.
God’s dream comes to flower when everyone who claims to be wholly innocent relinquishes that illusion, when everyone who places absolute blame on another renounces that lie, and when differing stories are told at last as one shared story of human aspiration. God’s dream ends in healing and reconciliation. Its finest fruit is human wholeness flourishing in a moral universe.
In the meanwhile, between the root of human solidarity and the fruit of human wholeness, there is the hard work of telling the truth.
From my experience in South Africa I know that truth-telling is hard. It has grave consequences for one’s life and reputation. It stretches one’s faith, tests one’s capacity to love, and pushes hope to the limit. At times, the difficulty of this work can make you wonder if people are right about you, that you are a fool.
No one takes up this work on a do-gooder’s whim. It is not a choice. One feels compelled into it. Neither is it work for a little while, but rather for a lifetime - and for more than a lifetime. It is a project bigger than any one life. This long view is a source of encouragement and perseverance. The knowledge that the work preceded us and will go on after us is a fountain of deep gladness that no circumstance can alter.
Nothing, however, diminishes the fear and trembling that accompany speaking the truth to power in love. An acute awareness of fallibility is a constant companion in this task, but because nothing is more important in the current situation than to speak as truthfully as one can, there can be no shrinking from testifying to what one sees and hears.
What do I see and hear in the Holy Land? Some people cannot move freely from one place to another. A wall separates them from their families and from their incomes. They cannot tend to their gardens at home or to their lessons at school. They are arbitrarily demeaned at checkpoints and unnecessarily beleaguered by capricious applications of bureaucratic red tape. I grieve for the damage being done daily to people’s souls and bodies. I have to tell the truth: I am reminded of the yoke of oppression that was once our burden in South Africa.
I see and hear that ancient olive trees are uprooted. Flocks are cut off from their pastures and shepherds. The homes of some people are bulldozed even as new homes for others are illegally constructed on other people’s land. I grieve for the land that suffers such violence, the marring of its beauty, the loss of its comforts, the despoiling of its yield. I have to tell the truth: I am reminded of the bitter days of uprooting and despoiling in my own country.
I see and hear that young people believe that it is heroic and pious to kill others by killing themselves. They strap bombs to their torsos to achieve liberation. They do not know that liberation achieved by brutality will defraud in the end. I grieve the waste of their lives and of the lives they take, the loss of personal and communal security they cause, and the lust for revenge that follows their crimes, crowding out all reason and restraint. I have to tell the truth: I am reminded of the explosive anger that inflamed South Africa, too.
Some people are enraged by comparisons between the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and what happened in South Africa. There are differences between the two situations, but a comparison need not be exact in every feature to yield clarity about what is going on. Moreover, for those of us who lived through the dehumanizing horrors of the apartheid era, the comparison seems not only apt, it is also necessary. It is necessary if we are to persevere in our hope that things can change.
Indeed, because of what I experienced in South Africa, I harbor a vast, unreasoning hope for Israel and the Palestinian territories. South Africans, after all, had no reason to suppose that the evil system and the cycles of violence that were sapping the soul of our nation would ever change. There was nothing special or different about South Africans to deserve the appearance of the very thing for which we prayed and worked and suffered so long.
Most South Africans did not believe they would live to see a day of liberation. They did not believe that their children’s children would see it. They did not believe that such a day even existed, except in fantasy. But we have seen it. We are living now in the day we longed for.
It is not a cloudless day. The divine arc that bends toward a truly just and whole society has not yet stretched fully across my country’s sky like a rainbow of peace. It is not finished, it does not always live up to its promise, it is not perfect - but it is new. A brand new thing, like a dream of God, has come about to replace the old story of mutual hatred and oppression.
I have seen it and heard it, and so to this truth, too, I am compelled to testify - if it can happen in South Africa, it can happen with the Israelis and Palestinians. There is not much reason to be optimistic, but there is every reason to hope.
Desmond Tutu is the former archbishop of Cape Town, chairman of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
International Human Rights Day
--From Mazim Qimseyeh
Today is the International Human rights day that celebrates the passage of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. It is a remarkable document initially drafted by a Jewish
Frenchman (a universal humanist and non-Zionist) right after the atrocities of WWII. The
document should constitute the real road map to peace (instead of the fake "road
map" that Bush is pushing and that in 2218 words does not even mention "Human
Rights" and "International Law").
I took the time to note very briefly Israel's violations of just about every article of
the declaration. For further documentation of these violations, readers can google for
data from Israeli and International human rights organizations and International agencies
(e.g. Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, B'Tselem, Association for Civil Rights in Israel,
Physicians for human Rights, UN Human Rights Commission etc). My brief notes are in
brackets below the articles of the Universal Declaration.
Please note that many countries including the US and Israel adopted this document yet many
violate it (to varying degrees). The reason we highlight Israel is because it gets
billions of dollars of our tax money (the largest recipient of US foreign aid). Note also
that Congress passed a law to prohibit aid to countries that persistently violate human
rights and yet thanks to the Israeli-apologist lobby, we are not enforcing US law. We can
do it by education, action etc. Lighting a candle is better than cursing the dark. And
silence is complicity.
Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
http://justicewheels.org
http://qumsiyeh.org
----------------------------------------
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
December 10, 1948
[Mazin Qumsiyeh comments in Brackets on Israel's violations]
PREAMBLE
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all
members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,
Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have
outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall
enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as
the highest aspiration of the common people,
Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort,
to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the
rule of law,
Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,
Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in
fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal
rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better
standards of life in larger freedom,
Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United
Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and
fundamental freedoms,
Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance
for the full realization of this pledge,
Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every
individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall
strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by
progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective
recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among
the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.
Article 1.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with
reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
[Israel does not recognize this. Instead Zionism (here meaning Political Zionism, see
note at end on my use of this term) is built on the foundations of exceptional rights
(presumed available to members of one religion). Zionism claims that Jews are chosen,
have suffered exceptionally, and that they are chosen to go live in Palestine, take land
from native people and treat them as subhuman. Of the 10 million Palestinians in the world
today, 7 million are refugees and displaced people and millions suffer as tenth class
citizens or as non-citizens under illegal Israeli occupation in the West Bank (including
East Jerusalem and Gaza strip.]
Article 2.
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without
distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other
opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no
distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international
status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent,
trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
[Zionism from its inception declared its interest in promoting exceptionalism. Israel is
unique among the nations in not being a country of its citizens but of “Jewish people
everywhere”. No other country defines itself as a country for members of a particular
religion (including converts) regardless of where they live. No other country has
supranational entities that have authority superceding state authority and native people
rights. For example, the JNF is not a state agency but it has on its own website the
amazing statement that “The Jewish National Fund is the custodian of the land of Israel on
behalf of its owners Jewish people everywhere.” 91% of the land (most taken from the 530
Palestinian towns and villages depopulated between 1947-1949) is not privately owned but
turned over from the custodian of “absentee property” to the JNF (Jewish Agency before)
for lease by Jews. More recently some of this land was turned over for “management” by
the Israel Lands authority. I am very familiar with the latter group’s “work” with the
Israeli government in reclassifying Palestinian lands (including near my own village) to
“Green areas” (or taking over areas classified as military Zones) and then reclassifying
them as “residential” and then building Jewish only settlements/colonies on them.]
Article 3.
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
[Tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians were killed in the past few decades. In
trying to terrorize all the natives into leaving between December 1947-1950 over 35
massacres of civilians were committed. Terrorism was actually initiated in Palestine not
by Palestinians but by Zionist underground forces in the 1920 and 1930s. These forces
actually set the stage for International terrorism by being the first to use letter bombs,
the first to detonate bombs on civilian buses, the first to bomb markets, etc.]
Article 4.
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be
prohibited in all their forms.
[Israel forced Palestinian political prisoners to do hard labor in its prisons for many
years only discontinuing the process relatively recently. But on e could also talk of
economic slavery as Palestinian means of livelihood was slowly eroded with land
confiscation and economic strangulations forcing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to
work over decades for substandard wages to build Jewish colonies and settlements and to
work to service their Zionist masters.]
Article 5.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment.
[Israel engaged in massive inhumane treatment of Palestinians and collective punishment of
civilian populations for decades. See palestineremembered.com. See human rights reports
on humiliation, degrading treatments, and punishments of Palestinians on the internet
(search "Israeli human rights violations"). For torture issues and its history
in Israel, see the Public Committee against Torture in Israel http://stoptorture.org.il Fo
r other relevant issue examples by video, see http://hub.witness.org/en/seeit/browse?keywo
rd=palestine&kinds= ]
Article 6.
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
[After ethnically cleansing most Palestinians in what became Israel in 1949, Israel
occupied the West Bank and Gaza in 1967 and for 40 years refuses to recognize these
residents as "persons before the law." Jewish settlers in the West Bank
(including Jerusalem) are subject to common Israeli law where as Palestinian Christians
and Muslims are subject to another set of Israeli laws that deny them basic rights. Gaza,
still Israeli occupied per International law, is treated as an "enemy entity"
and is basically a large open air prison.]
Article 7.
All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal
protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in
violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
[Israel clearly violates that with regards to Christian and Muslim Palestinians under its
jurisdiction. See above and search for Israeli discrimination against Palestinians.]
Article 8.
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts
violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
[Israeli Knesset laws were passed that forbids Palestinians from suing Israeli armed
forces or the Israeli state for damages including loss of life, home and property. Blanket
immunity is given to acts committed by Israelis. Many Zionists wanted for murder and
terrorism became Israeli prime ministers and other leaders (e.g. Shamir, Begin).]
Article 9.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
[Most Palestinians live in exile or in internal displacement. Over 10% of Palestinian men
in the West Bank and Gaza have spent time in Israeli jails. Today 11,000 Palestinian
Christians and Muslims are held in Israeli jails, many in administrative detentions
without charges. Most for simply rejecting the illegal occupation of their land, hundreds
perhaps thousands for non-violent resistance (BTW even violent resistance to illegal
occupation is actually supported and encouraged by international law). See http://www.ifam
ericansknew.org/stats/prisoners.html]
Article 10.
Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and
impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal
charge against him.
[Obviously violated by Israel. There are no impartial tribunals. Palestinians are
judged, when and if they are, by Zionist Jews who are raised to think that Palestinians
are Arabs who do not belong in this "land of Israel." Also Israel engaged in
hundreds of extra-judicial executions just in the past few years alone, and thousands more
before.]
Article 11.
(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until
proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees
necessary for his defense.
[See above. This has been violated regularly and as a matter of law. From arrest and
torture for months without trials to extrajudicial execution, Israel is violating this
article. See reports over the past 20 years by Btselem as examples.]
(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission
which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time
when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was
applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.
[Palestinians living on their land for hundreds of years were considered guilty of living
on Jewish lands supposedly owned by Jews 2000 years before. They were punished by being
removed and prevented from returning. Their lands confiscated and turned over to the
"Jewish Agency" to use to settle European and other Jews.]
Article 12.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or
correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honor and reputation. Everyone has the right to
the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
[Need we mention the hundreds of ways in which Israel and Zionists in general violate
this? Israeli soldiers regularly ransacking thousands of Palestinian homes without cause
let alone warrants. Israel has no laws to prevent warrantless wiretapping, spying, or
violating privacy of any Palestinian (such laws do exist for Israelis). To the contrary
laws exist that encourage and promote such violations (see Israeli laws bundled under the
rubric of "security").]
Article 13.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each
state.
[Palestinians even from Bethlehem cannot visit or pray in Arab East Jerusalem, a mere 7
miles distance. They cannot even travel freely from any one of the 10 remaining
Palestinian Ghettos (Bantustans) to the other ghettos.]
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his
country.
[Israel's basic laws deny Palestinian refugees the right to return to their lands and
confiscates land without compensation (so called “absentee property law”). So far 2/3rds
of the native Palestinians are refugees and displaced people (all simply for being of the
wrong religion). This is a continuing process since just in the past 6 years alone 35,000
more Palestinians were made homeless by home demolitions and land confiscations.]
Article 14.
(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from
persecution.
[Israel routinely rejects asylum for persecuted people (unless they are Jewish). We are
not even talking about the obvious persecuted Palestinians. Even when Zionists led the
efforts to demonize the government in Sudan for Darfur, Israel deported Darfur refugees
who managed to sneak into its borders from Egypt.]
(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from
non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United
Nations.
Article 15.
(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change
his nationality.
[Palestinians were expelled from their lands and those who tried to sneak back in where
shot in the hundreds. All were denied the nationality and remained as refugees without
nationality. For example, 350,000 Palestinian refugees are in Lebanon without nationality
because Israel refuses to give them their inalienable right to return to their homes and
lands.]
Article 16.
(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or
religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights
as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
[Israeli Knesset passed a unique law that prevents Israeli citizens who marry Palestinians
from living together in what they consider Israel (including East Jerusalem). But even
Israeli citizens who marry non-Palestinians face two standards: Israeli Jews have simple
and automatic family reunifications whereas Christians and Muslims wait years and have to
wade through much more bureaucracy.]
(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending
spouses.
(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to
protection by society and the State.
Article 17.
(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
[See above. Suffice it to quote Moshe Dayan, famous Israeli General "Jewish villages
were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab
villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist, not only do the
books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahlal arose in the place of
Mahlul; Kibbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta; Kibbutz Sarid in the place of Huneifis; and
Kefar Yehushu'a in the place of Tal al-Shuman. There is not one single place built in this
country that did not have a former Arab population." See also on looting http://www.p
alestineremembered.com/Acre/Palestine-Remembered/Story680.html ]
Article 18.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes
freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with
others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice,
worship and observance.
[Freedom of though was and is regularly violated by Israel. In the occupied areas, all
manner of communications is controlled by the Israeli authorities including access to
airwaves etc. Freedom of religion is regularly prohibited by Israel. Hundreds f mosques
and churches were demolished (among the 530 villages and towns depopulated and well after
that). Palestinian Muslims and Christians in the West Bank (with rare exceptions) are
denied the right to go to Jerusalem to pray at their holiest sites. The Islamic Holy sites
in Jerusalem are the third holies to Islam and yet Muslims from around the world are also
denied the right to visit (even many US Muslims are denied entry at Israeli borders).
Jewish anti-Zionists or those Jews deemed supportive of Palestinian rights are also denied
entry to visit even if they are religious.]
Article 19.
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom
to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and
ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
[See above. Israeli apologists in the US frequently silenced free speech and caused
people who speak out to lose their jobs, e.g. Cynthia McKinney, Norman Finkelstein etc.]
Article 20.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
[Peaceful assembly was routinely attacked. During the first Intifada even clandestine
assembly by students to attend schools was busted. Associations and non-governmental
organizations were routinely disbanded and their leadership thrown in jail. There are
also many more recent examples. Take the weekly peaceful Bil'in demonstration that is
regularly attacked by the Israeli occupation forces with many peaceful demonstrators
injured and arrested See http://www.bilin-village.org/english/discover-bilin/ ]
Article 21.
(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or
through freely chosen representatives.
(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will
shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal
suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
[Israel defines itself as a "Jewish" and "democratic" country. The
problem is that there is a contradiction. Non-Jews were thinned out by ethnic cleansing
when Israel was established. Israeli law was then extended from the Jordan to the
Mediterranean after Israel occupied the remaining 22% of Palestine. Laws were introduced
to keep things in limbo so that Israe continues to import new Jewish immigrants and hope
to expand its Jewish majority while denying the Palestinians their basic rights. When
Palestinian birth rate and failure of Israel's policies of economic strangulation to cause
massive additional Palestinian decrease in population, Israel and its allies pushed for a
two state solution (really a state and Palestinian Ghettos called "state"). But
this talk has now dragged on for 17 years and in the meantime Israel continues to violate
the provisions of this article.]
Article 22.
Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to
realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with
the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights
indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.
[Palestinians ethnically cleansed and those in the West Bank and Gaza obviously have no
such right. The Palestinian minority within the Green line (those who managed to stay and
eventually get Israeli citizenship) suffer discrimination in social and health services.
See Association for Civil Rights in Israel http://www.acri.org.il and Israel Legal
resource center http://www.stopisraeliapartheid.org ]
Article 23.
(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable
conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
[Israel confiscated and destroyed most Palestinian ways of making a living. The few jobs
that remains are inaccessible to Palestinians because of drastic movement restrictions,
checkpoints etc.]
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
[When Palestinians were allowed to work for Israelis for example in settlement
constructions, their employers were exempt from complying Israeli minimum wage laws and
other worker protection laws]
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for
himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if
necessary, by other means of social protection.
[see above]
(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his
interests.
[Israel busted Palestinian trade unions on numerous occasions in the past six decades]
Article 24.
Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working
hours and periodic holidays with pay.
[Palestinians can't even get a day of peace from Israeli incursions, extrajudicial
assassinations, land confiscations, settlement expansions etc...]
Article 25.
(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being
of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and
necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment,
sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances
beyond his control.
[ Per Capita income for Jewish Israelis $19,000, Israeli Arabs $6000 and Palestinians
under Israeli occupation
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Eric is again censoring me on his blog so here are my posts he has deleted
Hypocrites!
Christmas gave the world the most incredible holiday ever seen on earth! No other religion on earth has the power of the Christian's Christmas to inspire giving of one's self. Hannakah is a minor and inferior ethnic cult celebration of an ethnic cult' victory for the ethnic cult's pleasure alone whereas Christmas is for all humanity.
That's always been the difference between Judaism and Christianity and Islam. Judaism is a religious cult for Jews only while Christianity and Islam are universal for all peoples.
If eric deletes this post, please go to my blog site where I will repost it.
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
DECLARATION OF WORLD AGAINST WAR CONFERENCE
Agreed unanimously by 1200 delegates from 26 countries attending the World Against War
Conference on Saturday 1 December 2007.
This conference of delegates from peace, anti-war, anti-imperialist and liberation
movements across the world declares its opposition to the "endless war"
prosecuted by the US government against states, peoples and movements in all parts of our
planet.
We oppose the interference of the US and its allies in sovereign states, and assert the
right of all peoples to self-determination. We support all people fighting for peace and
against imperialism.
In particular, we demand:
* An immediate end to the illegal military occupation of Iraq, which has caused hundreds
of thousands of deaths and displaced millions of people, a withdrawal of all foreign
troops and the full transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqi people and their
representatives.
* A halt to all preparations for an attack against Iran, and a commitment to solve any
issues through exclusively diplomatic means.
* A withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan, allowing the Afghan people to determine
their own future.
* Justice for the Palestinian people, and an end to Israeli aggression throughout the
Middle East.
* An end to plans for US missile defence, and that all states
actively pursue nuclear deterrence.
We affirm the solidarity of all those fighting for peace, social justice and
self-determination worldwide, and commit ourselves to strengthening our unity and
developing new forms of co-operation.
We therefore designate the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq as a worldwide day of
action in support of the demands NO ATTACK on IRAN and TROOPS OUT OF IRAQ/ and AFGHANISTAN
and call on all national anti-war movements to hold mass protests and demonstrations on
that day.
http://www.stopwar.org.uk/
NEC propaganda piece in today's E.R.
NEC, like EPIC, like EF!, like Humboldt Watershed Council, are not in business to protect our environment. They are there to attack the timber industry by painting a false picture of commercial timber operations. They are there to provide economic livelihoods for career activists. Greg King will no doubt set himself up for the rest of his activist career like his predecessor did, creating NEC as almost a private organization.
This is what these activists do--they set themselves up in supposedly good cause non-profit organizations but one sees that the "good cause" consistently consists of giving false environmental protection information that is so heavily biased against our commercial timber industry as to be totally worthless.
Case in point-the tired lie repeated over and over and over again that the timber industry is over in Humboldt County, we don't need timber industry jobs. Draper's version of the enviro mantra goes like this:
"For a while, the timber industry (like gold mining) provided good jobs. That’s over now, and the economy, the dollar and the nation are not looking so hot. Humboldt County does not need more suffering, but it may get it anyway."
It sure will if there's no timber industry jobs which follow the growth of trees here which contain some of the fastest growing conifer forests in the world. Enviros have been saying this propaganda for the past 20 years and it seems our trees don't pay attention and keep on growing.
And here's the Big Lie from political action groups pretending to be environmental protectors. The lie that old growth trees are sequestering more carbon than the commercial harvesting of old growth which automatically entails replacement by young vigorously growing, carbon trapping young conifer forests.
We don't need these liars promoting false environmental information that is serving only their funding sources where NEC and EPIC pose as "protectors of the environment". In reality, they are political action organizations that use environmental issues for throwing lawsuits at our local corporate timber industry.
These lawsuits cost all of us time and money and divert the whole of Humboldt County's environmentally conscious population from the real No. 1 ecological damage issue, the unregulated environmental negative impact of over 10,000 homesteaders in rural subdivisions such as the type Bob McKee creates. Bob, one notices right away, is the local corporate capitalist who never gets criticized directly because he provides enviro orgs with their needed donations from pot growers.
In a last flare of hypocrisy, NEC's Margaret Draper states, "I urge Mr. Campbell, now that he has left Maxxam and is working as a public official in Fortuna, to avoid using blame. It just causes more suffering. Instead of name-calling, let’s unite and protect nature — she protects us. Defeatism is a luxury we cannot afford."
Sure, let's not call names, let's be big about this, let's refrain from such gross hyperbole as Ms. Draper's accusation that old John "caused species extinction, water and air pollution and, finally, global warming. "
John Campbell and Palco caused global warming. Now we all know.
Monday, December 03, 2007
Oil spill column was all wet
by Steven Morris, 12/2/2007 |
Pete Nichols wrote a recent Forum article titled “Reflections on the San Francisco oil spill.” Mr. Nichols really used his article to trash the elected officials in our county rather than teach us something new about the environment of the Humboldt Bay. First, the more I read, hear and learn about Humboldt Baykeeper, the more I realize that they are a political group disguised as environmentalists. I know this because I am a guy who used to belong to the Sierra Club. Win or lose an election, most candidates gracefully thank their supporters and the other candidates for a well-run race that helped to bring out the issues to the voters (that last part is called good sportsmanship). Although Mr. Nichols was not running for office, a candidate he supported was running. During that election, Mr. Nichols and his supporters wrote and said whatever they wanted, but that was not enough. Now, Mr. Nichols comes out after the election and further trashes the former incumbent and other elected officials as if they were responsible for the recent San Francisco Bay oil spill. He implied that it is incumbent Commissioner Ollivier’s kind of thinking that will eventually cause the same thing to happen here. What? The incumbent losing the election wasn’t good enough for Mr. Nichols? He seems to have a need to keep blaming Mr. Ollivier and other officials for action they had nothing to do with. I’d say that’s bad sportsmanship. Let’s just forget about the good service these elected men and women have given to our community in their efforts to create sustainable and consistent jobs. They do not agree 100 percent with the Humboldt Baykeeper political agenda, so let’s just work on getting anyone who even slightly disagrees with Baykeeper out of office. It is my hope that Nichols and his newly elected candidate-elect will instead use this golden opportunity to work with those around them. This time, try working with all those who have a vested interest in the bay and the economy, and not just your agenda. Do not use this time you been given to point fingers at others who do not agree with a “no-growth” policy for our community, and thereby continuing to further polarize residents of this community. If this does not work for you, then perhaps, Mr. Nichols, you should try running for office yourself. Maybe that is what you are thinking about in any case. On the other hand, maybe you should stick with being Humboldt Baykeeper executive director and point fingers at others because from what I now know about your group, it is the only thing — besides suing those who disagree with you — that you seem to be good at. Let me be the first to say that you and your candidate-elect have already made one mistake. You and he interpret the recent election results as a mandate from the people of Humboldt County to stop all development on the bay. I suggest you step back and take a good look at what happened in the election. If not, I think your newly elected candidate will find himself out of office in four years. I further suggest that you and your candidate-elect take the time to learn to work with those other elected officials in and around the bay. If you do not, you may soon find that winning a skirmish (this month’s election) is not the same as winning the war (the future of the bay). Lastly, Mr. Nichols, I personally worked very hard in the military overseas to protect your right and mine to freedom of speech. That freedom comes with responsibility and accountability to tell the truth and not to use scare tactics or, as your candidate did, promise the good people of this county something he will not be able to deliver. (Steven Morris lives in Fortuna.) |
Sunday, December 02, 2007
International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People
General Assembly (UNGA) December 2, 1977 as a reaffirmation of implementing Palestinian
rights and International Law.
The UNGA stated unequivocally and by an overwhelming
majority of countries voting yes that they are:
"Reaffirming that a just and lasting
peace in the Middle East cannot be established without the achievement of a just solution
of the problem of Palestine based on the attainment of the inalienable rights of the
Palestinian people, including the right of return and the right of national independence
and sovereignty in Palestine, in accordance with the Charter of the United nations".
Is the U.S. behind this U.N. General Assembly mandate? Read your newspapers and look at the News on TV and you tell me what side America has chosen.
"Under a 1975 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) the USA guaranteed all Israel’s oil
needs in the event of a crisis. This Memorandum of Understanding is quietly renewed every
five years. It commits U.S. taxpayers to maintain a strategic U.S. reserve for Israel,
equivalent to $3 billion in 2002 dollars. Special legislation was enacted to exempt Israel
from restrictions on oil exports from the USA. Moreover, the U.S. government agreed to
divert oil from the USA, even if this causes domestic shortages. The U.S. government also
guaranteed delivery of oil in U.S. tankers if commercial shippers become unable or
unwilling to carry oil from the USA to Israel..."
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2007/11/15/us-guarantees-israel-oil-supply/
Steve Lewis Blog
We are Holy One
Blog Archive
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2007
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December
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- Merry Christmas!
- Santa comes to Bethlehem for non-violent protest
- Six wounded in nonviolent Anti-wall protest in Bil'n
- Christmas in Bethlehem; a time for Joy and Resilience
- Realizing God’s dream for the Holy Land
- International Human Rights Day
- Eric is again censoring me on his blog so here are...
- DECLARATION OF WORLD AGAINST WAR CONFERENCE
- NEC propaganda piece in today's E.R.
- Oil spill column was all wet
- International Day of Solidarity with the Palestini...
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December
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About Me
- Steve Lewis
- Prophesy bearer for four religious traditions, revealer of Christ's Sword, revealer of Josephine bearing the Spirit of Christ, revealer of the identity of God, revealer of the Celestial Torah astro-theological code within the Bible. Celestial Torah Christian Theologian, Climax Civilization theorist and activist, Eco-Village Organizer, Master Psychedelic Artist, Inventor of the Next Big Thing in wearable tech, and always your Prophet-At-Large.