Letter to Dr Zion Evrony,
Israeli Ambassador to Ireland
Palestine mural updated in BelfastJanuary 03, 2009
Justin Morahan
Source
Dear Ambassador Dr. Zion Evrony,
Further to my telephone call to your office this morning I wish to reiterate some of the points which I made in the conversation with your secretary, and to elaborate on them a little further.
1. I am sick to the teeth of the lies you are telling on RTE and in the Irish media about what is happening in Gaza. Israel has killed over 400 people there on the pretext that a cease-fire had been broken unilaterally by Hamas. You know this is not true.
2. You said that Israel is trying to avoid civilian casualties but that Hamas use their civilians as shields for Hamas soldiers. You know that this is not true. Gaza is smaller in area than our smallest County, Louth, and is over-populated with 1.4 million people, before your country reduced the population with murder from the sky.
3. Your Army invaded Gaza prior to an election and in the interregnum between the Presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. You kill over 400, injure over 1000 and promise more killings and injuries. And you blame Hamas for all of these killings and injuries. You know that it is not true that Hamas are to blame for your murders. You, the State of Israel and the IDF, are to blame for the people you kill and injure, no one else but you.
Protests continue across Ireland:
• Gaza Solidarity March Dublin 2009 - Photo Series and more photos
• About 100 people came out in Limerick today to protest at the ongoing slaughter in Gaza. - photos and report
• Brief video of SF MEP Mary Lou McDonald's speech at the Gaza Solidarity march - news, photos and video
• Cork Protests in ‘Disgust’ at Israel War Crimes - Photos and story
• Palestine Solidarity in Omagh - Photos and details
• 3rd Jan, Derry Protests Against Israel's Attacks on Gaza - Photos and report
• 5th Jan, Lurgan Palestine Solidarity Protest - more news and photos
• 6th Jan, Anti-War protest at the Israeli embassy in Dublin - Photo series
• 7th Jan, Cork does a stall and vigil for Gaza - Photo series
Protests continue across the World:
• Photostory: World demonstrates for Gaza - ElectronicIntifada.net
• Riding on fire and a third intifada, by Ewa Jasieiwcz - read at FreeGaza.org
Government TD calls for Expulsion of Israeli Ambassador
Gaza Invasion Blogging....In the face of protests worldwide, Israel has tonight launched an incursion into the Gaza Strip. Their 'war' continued today with the bombing of a mosque in Gaza. Reports indicate that more than ten people were killed in this latest terrorist attack. Read more Gaza Blogging below....
read the rest of Justin Morahan's Eight Point letter to the Israeli Ambassador to Ireland...
4. You said the upcoming elections had nothing to do with the massacre in Gaza. You know that this is not true. On the eve of the election you deliberately provoked a barrage of rockets from Hamas, even though you knew it would put Israeli lives in danger because you also knew that the Hamas response would give you a pretext to wreak havoc on Gaza and make it appear that it was Hamas' fault.
5. You and other Israeli propagandists keep repeating ad nauseam on RTE and in articles in the Irish Times the question: "What would you do, if you lived in Sderot or Ashkelon and your children had to run from constant rocket fire?" But you never ask the countering questions: "What would you do if you lived in Gaza, besieged by an Israel that denied the legitimacy of your democratically elected Parliament, and where Israel,a hostile power, has ultimate control over every aspect of your life? What would you do when this hostile power has the fourth or fifth most powerful army in the world, complete even with a nuclear arsenal, when it "agrees" to a truce (good public relations) that it breaks at will (no-one will notice the "small" incursions and killings of Palestinians)? What would you do if Israel invaded your little plot of land, murdering men, women and children, including many civilians, from the sky? Would you take your children and run to the sea (there is no other escape in Gaza) or would you think "This is a war against me and my children" and would you resist in whatever way you could?"
6. Do you think that all of the Irish people are stupid enough to believe your propaganda (2) , no matter how often it is repeated?
7. Though not mentioned this morning, your Government has lied about the Israeli navy ramming the Dignity in international waters. The Dignity was carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza and had two Irish citizens on board. I protest against this action also and strongly condemn it
8. As a result of the war crimes which the IDF/Israel has committed in the Gaza Strip and in Palestine, I believe that our Government should call you in, advise you to leave and shut down the Israeli Embassy in Ballsbridge.
I have already written to Minister Mícheál Martin making this precise request.
With best personal wishes
Justin Morahan
2 January 2009
Chains of Solidarity Link Gaza And Derry
Derry plant of Arms manufacturer and Israel
sponsor occupied for 3d time since 2003
January 13, 2009 09:29John Doherty - Derry Anti War Coalition
Source
Nine Women from Derry Make a Stand Against
Raytheon Weapons and its Tools of Occupation 'We call for a criminal investigation into the activities of the Raytheon company in Ireland, Britain and elsewhere with a view to the prosecution of Raytheon executives for complicity in war crimes.' Statement issued by the nine women as they entered the Raytheon premises:
From the Derry Anti War Coalition: From Nine Women Who Have Chained Themselves Inside The Raytheon Building At Springtown Today (January 12Th) At 2.30pm
We have taken this action in an effort to prevent or delay war crimes being committed by the Israeli Defence Forces in Gaza with the use of Raytheon weapons and to try to force a criminal investigation into the activities of the Raytheon company in Derry and elsewhere which, we believe, amount to complicity in war crimes.
Like millions of others, we have watched television pictures of innocent people being slaughtered since the Israeli assault on Gaza began on December 27th, and have wanted it to stop. But nobody with the power to make it stop seems willing to intervene to do so.
Lawyers and international human rights organisations have declared that the Israeli bombing and shelling of Gaza involves war crimes. The bombing of a UN-sponsored school on January 6th, killing at least 40 civilians, including children, has merely been the worst of these war crimes.
Raytheon is one of Israel’s main suppliers of the weapons being used in the attacks on Gaza. The company is either aware or doesn’t care that its weapons are being used to commit war crimes.
Nine Derry Women Updates:
• Police Agree to Investigate Raytheon's Role in War Crimes - Read more, plus photos
• Galway Women's Vigil for Gaza: 'We are Muslim, Jewish, Catholic and women of no religion. From the Middle East and Ireland. Mothers, housewives, students, teachers, office workers, pensioners.' - read more
• Protest as the Israeli ambassador enters Dáil Éireann - Photo series
Raytheon is aiding and abetting Israel in committing these war crimes against the people of Gaza. We are trying to stop them.
We hope that we encourage others to take similar action against other Raytheon plants and against arms companies generally.
We call for a criminal investigation into the activities of the Raytheon company in Ireland, Britain and elsewhere with a view to the prosecution of Raytheon executives for complicity in war crimes.
We call on all political parties, community groups, trades unions, churches and others in the Derry area to say clearly that we do not want a company involved in war crimes in our town and to declare that Raytheon should get out.
Statement Issued By The Women Immediately After Leaving The Building At 6pm.
A deputation from the Derry Anti-War Coalition is to meet with senior PSNI officers this week to present evidence which, they say, warrants a criminal investigation into the Raytheon company.
The coalition says that an agreement by the PSNI to formally consider the evidence was one of the reasons for ending the protest at Raytheon in which nine women chained themselves together inside the building.
A spokeswoman for the nine said: "While inside the building, we had a series of discussions with the Foyle commander of the PSNI, Chris Yates. As a result of these discussions between ourselves and Chief Inspector Yates, it was agreed that he would accept delivery of our dossier of evidence and arrange that it be studied to determine whether a basis exists for criminal charges against Raytheon.
We thank all those who gathered outside Raytheon to support our action. The Derry Anti War Coalition again calls on the local political parties to join us in demanding that Raytheon get out of Derry
The comments on this post are well worth reading. Go to Source
DDoS Attack: Website Monitoring
Military and CIA Planes through Shannon
Military and CIA Planes through Shannon
Screenshot from ShannonWatch.orgattacked repeatedly this week
Well organised, repeated attempts to shut down ShannonWatch.org
January 12, 2009
Source
Shannonwatch.org, a website set up in December 2008 to document US military traffic and rendition flights through Shannon Airport has become the victim of organised international attacks. The attacks which started on January 8th are being repeated, and efforts to keep the website live are currently proving difficult. The website managers are determined that they will not be silenced however, and will continue in one form or another to publish information on military and suspect CIA flights through Shannon.
Related Links:
• Check to see if the Site is online yet: ShannonWatch.org
• ShannonWatch asks Is Ireland facilitating possible genocide at Shannon?
The attacks on ShannonWatch.org indicate that a concerted effort is under way to stop the dissemination of information about US activities in Shannon. According to the Internet Service Provider (ISP) that hosts the website, the ongoing distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks are far more sophisticated and determined than most such attacks. Efforts to make websites unavailable are not unusual, but a spokesperson for the ISP said this was “the second serious one [they have seen] in ten years”. The attacks involve thousands of hits per second, first on the nameserver, then on the server hosting the website, with uploads of hundreds of megabytes designed to bring the entire system down.
After the initial attack on Thursday (Jan 8th), the website was successfully restored. However the attacks were repeated, causing many of the websites hosted by the ISP to become unavailable.
One can only speculate as to exactly why the site is being attacked, and by whom. It may be because it provides a count of planes carrying US troops through Shannon airport on their way to/from an illegal war, or because it documents the number of US military planes landing at Shannon and passing through Irish airspace. Or it may be linked to the fact that the website lists the known CIA-controlled planes that have used Shannon airport since August, along with details of other rendition planes that people should watch out for.
Another possible reason for the attack is that the website identified a recent landing at Shannon that may be connected to the covert transportation of deadly weapons. Shannonwatch.org highlighted the fact that a plane registered to Kalitta Air landed in Shannon on Dec 20th and again on Dec 22nd. Given that this airline company transported laser-guided bombs for the Israeli bombing of Lebanon in 2006 and that it brought these through Prestwick without the appropriate clearance (see http://uk-airport-news.info/prestwick-airport-news-281106.htm), the presence of its aircraft in Ireland merits further investigation.
Shannonwatch.org is maintained by Cosantoiri Siochana, which is a group of human rights and anti-war activists based in the mid-West of Ireland. They are now appealing for assistance towards getting the website up and running again as quickly as possible. Mirrored hosting and/or an ISP that can handle large scale malicious attacks may be required; anyone with suggestions or offers of help is invited to contact shannonwatch[at]gmail.com.
Is Ireland facilitating possible
genocide at Shannon?
4 Hercules C 130 US military aircraft refuelled at Shannon over the past 48 hours
January 10, 2009 Shannonwatch
Source
Israel has been using a huge amount of munitions and explosives in its assault on Gaza. War crimes have been committed during this assault in which over 800 Palestinian people have been killed including as many as 250 children. Over the past 48 hours four Hercules military aircraft landed and were refuelled at Shannon airport. Their destination is not yet known, but in recent times only about four military aircraft were refuelled at Shannon per month. The possibility exists that Israel is being resupplies with munitions expended in its murderous attacks on Palestinians by aircraft transiting through Ireland and Irish airspace with the permission of the Irish Government.
Given that almost six millions Jewish people were killed in the genocide committed in German death camps, known as the Holocaust. I might seem outrageous to now accuse the Jewish Israeli Government of genocide against the Palestinian people. However, an examination of the Genocide Convention 1948 reveals that Israel may well be in serious breach of several aspects of the Genocide Convention in its treatment of and attacks on the Palestinian people since 1948, and in particular in its most recent attacks on Gaza.
Israel is one of the 142 countries that have ratified the Genocide Convention 1948. Given the horrific Jewish experiences of the Holocaust Israel should be one of the strongest supporters of the Genocide Convention, and should be exemplary in its compliance and enforcement of this convention. Yet a study of the behaviour of the state of Israel since its foundation in 1948 shows that the treatment of the Palestinian people by the Israeli state has been in breach of the spirit and in some cases the letter of international laws on genocide.
The full title of the convention is: Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Its first two articles are:
Article I: The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.
Article II: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious groups, as such:
a. Killing members of the group;Israel has been in very serious breach of Article II especially, including in the following respects:
b. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group.
c. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
d. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
e. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
1. The virtual ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their lands and homes in 1948, and is subsequent conflicts, and by other means including restrictive planning, purchase, and destruction of property including farm land and crops.In recent years prominent national leaders and others from several countries, including, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Rwanda and Liberia, have been brought before international courts for crimes against humanity. The leaders of Israel should be no exception, and if any Palestinian leaders have been involved in crimes against humanity, they should also face trial before international courts.
2. The deliberate targeting of religious buildings particularly Mosques.
3. The killing of large numbers of the Palestinian group in a very disproportionate manner (approximately 100:1) contrary to Article II a.
4. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, contrary to Article II b.
5. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, contrary to Article II c.
Peace activist monitoring US aircraft breaching Irish neutralityGiven the above legal situation, it behoves the Irish Government and the Irish people to ensure that Ireland and its territory and airspace are in no way being used to facilitate or be complicit in war crimes that may amout to acts of genocide.
Protest as Israeli ambassador enters Dáil
January 13, 2009
Michael Gallagher
Source
There were 20-30 people protesting at the dáil today, which included members of the public and IPSC, as the Israeli ambassador arrived for a hearing before the Irish foreign affairs committee.
There was a lot of media there also, but the ambassador slipped in through another entrance.
No details were given to any media from the Israeli embassy about his time of arrival or what entrance he was going to use.
Police Agree to Investigate
Raytheon's Role in War Crimes
Raytheon's Role in War Crimes
Nine Women obstruct doors inside Raytheon Plant DerryGeorge Row
Source
Nine women obstructed doors inside Raytheon plant in Derry by chaining themselves together and to the doors. They were protesting against the use of Raytheon's weapons by Israel in the commission of war crimes in Gaza. They also called upon the local police to investigate Raytheon's participation in such crimes.
On Monday 12th Jan. 09 nine Derry women entered the building that houses Raytheon and chained themselves to each other and to the internal doors leading to Rayhtheon's part of the building.
After some time inside they started negotiating with Chief Inspector Chris Yates, of the PSNI.
The women made it clear that they were there to highlight Raytheon's participation in war crimes and that they would come out if the police agreed to investigate the extent to which Raytheon was implicated in the war crimes being carried out in Gaza using weapons created and supported by Raytheon.
At 5:45 pm the women emerged to be greeted by loud cheering and chanting from the anti-war campaigners outside.
Goretti Horgan of Derry Antiwar Coalition spoke briefly to the crowd, saying that as long as Raytheon's weapons continued to be used to kill innocent people they can be assured that Derry people will continue to protest about their presence here.
DAWC issued the following statements:
Statement issued by the women as they entered the Raytheon premises:
DERRY ANTI WAR COALITION
FROM NINE WOMEN WHO HAVE CHAINED THEMSELVES INSIDE THE RAYTHEON BUILDING AT SPRINGTOWN TODAY (JANUARY 12th) AT 2.30PM
We have taken this action in an effort to prevent or delay war crimes being committed by the Israeli Defence Forces in Gaza with the use of Raytheon weapons and to try to force a criminal investigation into the activities of the Raytheon company in Derry and elsewhere which, we believe, amount to complicity in war crimes.
Like millions of others, we have watched television pictures of innocent people being slaughtered since the Israeli assault on Gaza began on December 27th, and have wanted it to stop. But nobody with the power to make it stop seems willing to intervene to do so.
Lawyers and international human rights organisations have declared that the Israeli bombing and shelling of Gaza involves war crimes. The bombing of a UN-sponsored school on January 6th, killing at least 40 civilians, including children, has merely been the worst of these war crimes.
Raytheon is one of Israel’s main suppliers of the weapons being used in the attacks on Gaza. The company is either aware or doesn’t care that its weapons are being used to commit war crimes.
Raytheon is aiding and abetting Israel in committing these war crimes against the people of Gaza. We are trying to stop them.
We hope that we encourage others to take similar action against other Raytheon plants and against arms companies generally.
We call for a criminal investigation into the activities of the Raytheon company in Ireland, Britain and elsewhere with a view to the prosecution of Raytheon executives for complicity in war crimes.
We call on all political parties, community groups, trades unions, churches and others in the Derry area to say clearly that we do not want a company involved in war crimes in our town and to declare that Raytheon should get out.
STATEMENT ISSUED BY THE WOMEN IMMEDIATELY AFTER LEAVING THE BUILDING AT SIX PM.
A deputation from the Derry Anti-War Coalition is to meet with senior PSNI officers this week to present evidence which, they say, warrants a criminal investigation into the Raytheon company.
The coalition says that an agreement by the PSNI to formally consider the evidence was one of the reasons for ending the protest at Raytheon in which nine women chained themselves together inside the building.
A spokeswoman for the nine said: "While inside the building, we had a series of discussions with the Foyle commander of the PSNI, Chris Yates. As a result of these discussions between ourselves and Chief Inspector Yates, it was agreed that he would accept delivery of our dossier of evidence and arrange that it be studied to determine whether a basis exists for criminal charges against Raytheon.
We thank all those who gathered outside Raytheon to support our action. The Derry Anti War Coalition again calls on the local political parties to join us in demanding that Raytheon get out of Derry
Galway Women's Vigil for Gaza
January 13, 2009
Global Women's Strike Ireland
Report on the daily women's vigils
Source
Since last week women have been maintaining a daily vigil for Gaza in the centre of Galway city.
We are Muslim, Jewish, Catholic and women of no religion. From the Middle East and Ireland. Mothers, housewives, students, teachers, office workers, pensioners. Some are members of organisations and some not. Placards include 'Stop killing women, children and men in Gaza’, ‘Boycott Apartheid Israel’, ‘Zionism =Colonialism/Zionists = Racists’, ‘Stop Israel's Genocide in Gaza’, ‘No Peace without Justice’, ‘Gaza Strip=Warsaw Ghetto'.
We have an open mic for anyone who wants to speak or give information and we use our megaphone to speak out for Gaza including chants such as:
No Starvation, No Occupation, No Invasion
Boycott: Israel, Sanctions: Israel, Divestment: Israel
Free, Free Gaza/Palestine: Boycott Israel
Women of Gaza/children of Gaza/men of Gaza: we are with you
We also vary the last one to say we are with women, children and men in Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa and Haiti, with mothers in Gaza who have lost children or who are trying to feed children while being starved by Israel, with Israeli refuseniks, with Arab Israeli people who are demonstrating and being arrested, and with all Israelis who are against the war, with Jewish anti-Zionists around the world, with women demonstrating in Israel and other countries against the war. Following the lead of President Chavez of Venezuela, we chanted: 'Israeli ambassador: out, out, out!'
The Global Women’s Strike called the vigil, and women and men we spoke with on other demonstrations were very supportive and eager for it. Two women proposed that we go to help on stalls by a political party to 'speak with one voice'! But Middle East women in particular did not feel that it is disunity when women come together across divides, supported by children and men, to speak out in support of people in Gaza. If we had joined with a party, whose ‘one voice’ would it have been? Our vigil ensured that women’s voice was not silenced yet again. Apart from the Strike, women from Women in Media and Entertainment, Galway Alliance Against War, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Palestine Children’s Charity , Save Tara campaign and Shell to Sea have also participated.
About 10 of us have kept it going with others joining briefly then leaving; mothers have had to take children home and many cannot come every night but are taking it in turns. Men have also supported women, joined the vigil and spoken out. Passersby stop to listen, support, applaud or even speak among whom were Kurdish and Turkish women and children who wanted to support us and said there was a lot of support from the community from Turkey in Galway for Palestinian people.
Women speak on the mic about why we are there. Of the 1.5 million people imprisoned in Gaza, starved, bombarded and murdered by Israel, women and their children are the majority under attack. But it's also women the main carers who have kept people alive, recently but also during decades of Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people. Israel has targeted women for precisely this reason; to attack women is to attack the whole population. All of us have talked about the fact that it is very clear that Israel just wants to try to kill as many as possible. This is ethnic cleansing; this is genocide. This is racism and colonialism.
We also give others, including those passing, information and news you don’t hear in the corporate media about actions taken by the worldwide movement we are part of – people in Turkey mounting a spectacular shoe protest and stopping a basketball game with an Israeli team, Jewish women in Canada occupying an Israeli consulate, President Chavez of Venezuela expelling the Israeli ambassador, massive marches in London . . .
An Arab mother spoke to let people know how they could boycott Israeli goods in Galway as a way to support people in Gaza. She told us that the bar code for Israeli products begins with 729 and we can all look out for this. Others have added practical information along the same lines, naming products and shops to boycott. We find that we are being asked about this more and more and we’ve decided to hand out leaflets about it.
An Irish woman reminded everyone of the fact that Gaza had been a blockaded prison before Israel's attacks, starved and with little medicine or even anaesthetic in the hospitals. Bombing and invading a trapped population is of course a war crime. She demanded that the Irish government press the EU to break its trade agreement with Israel. They should be excluded from everything – even the Eurovision song contest! Another mother, speaking in support of the mothers of Gaza, said that if Israel can get away with doing this in Gaza none of us are safe. She also brought greetings and support from the Save Tara campaign, fighting destructive development by the M3 motorway. We spoke on the mic about the connections between destruction by war and development, how these wars are for land, oil, gas and other resources, for private sector profit at the expense of lives. Israel’s invasion is also to grab Gaza’s gas.
A 9 year old boy explained to us the different types of bombs that Israel was raining down upon children in Gaza and their mums and dads. He listed other colonialists and empires throughout history and the Nazis: 'What they're doing is the same as Hitler. It's worse because Hitler did it to Jewish people and now Israel is doing it to other people.' He was too upset to continue. The Strike added information on the Zionist history of collaboration with the Nazis and their undermining of the boycott of Germany.
An immigrant man from France spoke about how people opposing Israel used to be called anti-Semitic but you can oppose Zionism and not be against Jewish people, you can be an Israeli refusenik for example. Now everyone is doing it and it is becoming clear. We said that to be against Israel's genocidal actions is to be anti-racist.
A woman from the Strike said that as Irish people we have a long history of fighting colonialism and we know colonial savagery when we see it.
Related Link: http://www.globalwomenstrike.net
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