Israel poisons Palestinian water

Caption: Now you just have to imagine the room with a different color scheme, hardwood floors, and all these people living in the street and the six year-old shot through the head and the rest of the family acting crazy as if things could have been handled differently.

Nothing Israel does surprises me anymore. Zionists seem to be able to justify any atrocity as long as it serves their interests. Must be lovely to tell oneself all actions are mandated by God. I am sure they are not the first to do this.

I can't do much about it: but I can boycott their products. Read Naomi Klein's renewed call for Israeli boycott and spread the word. The only way to hurt Israel is talk their language: money.

Israel Poisons Palestinian Water

29 June 2009
Source

Ya know, wouldn't it be grand to wake up one day and not have to read where Zionist Racists murdered a non-Jew, attacked a non-Jew, attempted to kill a non-Jew, stolen land from a non-Jew, perpetuated crimes against humanity on a non-Jew. Until they can learn to become humans perhaps they should all be shot into space, yes, that's it!! And be given their own rocky desert planet, so they can live with only their kind forever and always, which, is of course their dream to expel everyone "not" like them from the middle east. Don't they know there is a word for that? "Racist"

Israeli soldiers poured dirt, stones and toxic chemicals in the only well in the hamlet of Khirbat Makehl near the village of Ya’bad in the northern West Bank overnight on Saturday, according to Palestinians in the community.

The village’s official representative, Walid Hamdan, said soldiers riding in three military jeeps entered the community overnight and sabotaged the well. The chemicals caused the water to change color and taste, he said.

The 80 cubic-meter well is the only source of water for the village of 70 to 80 families, Hamdan said.

He also said that, since the village lies near the Israeli settlement of Hermesh, the armed guards of the settlement often harass and assault Palestinians, particularly herders who venture near the edges of the settlement. Israeli forces also sometimes close the road leading to the community, preventing deliveries of food.


Related:

Picture of demolitions in Palestine
REALITY CHECK; ILLEGAL CHECKPOINTS IN PALESTINE NOW OPERATED BY PRIVATE COMPANIES
GAZA gets "Lip Service" but NO JUSTICE

Obama, Gaza and Chomsky

I am not a particularly eloquent writer but I am rarely lost entirely to express my joy, fear or loathing on any subject matter. Except when it comes to the fetid psychology underlying the alliance between Israel and the USA and the propaganda they condescendingly forcefeed the global media. I will therefore leave the expose of this to those far more talented and informed than I.

For those of you Zionists scanning the net for criticism of Israel's atrocities, I hope you shall meet with consequences of your actions in the same magnitude as your arrogance and savage mindset which has caused so much pain to so many people. I cannot think of words befitting the loathing which I feel toward your atrocities.

So here is Noam Chomsky, who manages to expose your atrocities with the cool clearness of rational rhetoric. The lies of Israel fool noone anymore but its own supporters.

Chomsky: Obama OKed Israel's Gaza war

By Press TV
Source
February 21, 2009
Renowned US intellectual Noam Chomsky says Barack Obama did not comment on Israel's war on Gaza, as it was part of the "premeditated" plan. We have been informed by an Israeli source that the recent invasion of the Gaza Strip was completely premeditated, Chomsky said in an interview with the French Al-Ahram daily.

The plan was to deliver the maximum blow to Gaza before the new US president took office, so that he could put these matters behind him added the famous intellectual, referring to Obama's pledge to resolve the Israeli Palestinian conflict.

According to Chomsky, while Israel was pounding the Gaza Strip -- during which over 1300 Palestinians were killed --, Obama excused his silence by saying that "There's only one president at a time."

This, however, did not prevent the then president-elect from commenting on other leading issues of US domestic and foreign policy, Chomsky argued.

The recognized political analyst also criticized Obama for repeating the notion that defending Israel is a US priority. He predicted that during the Obama presidency US will hold the same policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel is a Terrorist State by Definition: Chomsky

Following is an excerpt of Professor Chomsky’s interview with Christiana Voniati, who is head of International News Department POLITIS Newspaper, Nicosia, Cyprus.

By Christiana Voniati
Source
February 21, 2009 "Countercurrents"

Voniati: The international public opinion and especially the Muslim world seem to have great expectations from the historic election of Obama. Can we, in your opinion, expect any real change regarding the US approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

Chomsky: Not much. Quite the contrary: it may be harsher than before. In the case of Gaza, Obama maintained silence, he didn’t say a word. He said well there’s only one president so I can’t talk about it. Of course he was talking about a lot of other things but he chose not to talk about this. His campaign did repeat a statement that he had made while visiting Israel six months earlier –he had visited Sderot where the rockets hit- and he said “if this where happening to my daughters, I wouldn’t think of any reaction as legitimate”, but he couldn’t say anything about Palestinian children. Now, the attack on Gaza was at time so that it ended right before the inauguration, which is what I expected.

I presume that the point was so that they could make sure that Obama didn’t have to say something, so he didn’t. And then he gave his first foreign policy declaration, it was a couple of days later when he appointed George Mitchell as his emissary, and he said nothing about Gaza except that “our paramount interest is preserving the security of Israel”. Palestine apparently doesn’t have any requirement of security. And then in his declaration he said of course we are not going to deal with Hamas -the elected government the US immediately, as soon as the government was elected in a free election the US and Israel with the help of European Union immediately started severely punishing the Palestinian population for voting in the “wrong way” in a free election and that’s what we mean by democracy.

The only substantive comment he made in the declaration was to say that the arab peace plan had constructive elements, because it called for a normalization of relations with Israel and he urged the arab states to proceed with the normalization of relations. Now, he is an intelligent person, he knows that that was not what the arab peace plan said. The arab peace plan called for a two state settlement on the international border that is in accord with the long standing international consensus that the US has blocked for over 30 years and in that context of the two state settlement we should even proceed further and move towards a normalization of relations with Israel.

Well, Obama carefully excluded the main content about the two state settlement and just talked about the corollary, for which a two state settlement is a precondition. Now that’s not an oversight, it can’t be. That’s a careful wording, sending the message that we are not going to change their (Israel’s) rejectionist policy. We ‘ll continue to be opposed to the international consensus on this issue, and everything else he said accords with it. We will continue in other words to support Israel’s settlement policies- those policies are undermining any possible opportunity or hope for a viable Palestinian entity of some kind. And it’s a continued reliance on force in both parts of occupied Palestine. That’s the only conclusion you could draw.

Voniati: Let us talk about the timing of the assault on the Gaza Strip. Was it accidental or did it purposefully happen in a vacuum of power? To explain myself, the global financial crisis has challenged the almost absolute US global hegemony. Furthermore, the attack on Gaza was launched during the presidential change of guard. So, did this vacuum of power benefit the Israeli assault on Gaza?

Chomsky: Well, the timing was certainly convenient since attention was focused elsewhere. There was no strong pressure on the president or other high officials of the US to say anything about it. I mean Bush was on his way out, and Obama could hide behind the pretext that he’s not yet in. And pretty much the same was in Europe, so that they could just say, well we can’t talk about it now, it’s too difficult a time.

The assault was well chosen in that respect. It was well chosen in other respects too: the bombing began shortly after Hamas had offered a return to the 2005 agreement, which in fact was supported by the US. They said, ok, let’s go back to the 2005 agreement that was before Hamas was elected. That means no violence and open the borders. Closing the borders is a siege, it’s an act of war……… not very harmful but it’s an act of war. Israel of all countries insists on that.

I mean Israel went to war twice in 1956 and 1967 on the grounds, it claimed, that its access to the outside world was being hampered. It wasn’t a siege, its access through the Gulf of Aqaba was being hampered. Well if that is an act of war then certainly a siege is, and so it’s understood.

So Khaled Mashaal asked for an end of the state of the war, which would include opening the borders. Well, a couple of days later, when Israel didn’t react to that, Israel attacked. The attack was timed for Saturday morning – the Sabbath day in Israel – at about 11:30, which happens to be the moment when children are leaving school and crowds are miling in the streets of this very heavily crowded city… The explicit target was police cadets… Now, there are civilians, in fact we now know that for several months the legal department of the Israeli army had been arguing against this plan because it said it was a direct attack against civilians. And of course, plenty civilians will be killed if you bomb a crowded city, especially at a time like that. But finally the legal department was sort of bludgeoned into silence by the military so they said alright. So that’s when they opened –on a Sabbath morning. Now two weeks later, Israel – on Saturday as well- blocked the humanitarian aid because they didn’t want to disgrace Sabbath. Well, that’s interesting too. But the main point about the timing was that there was an effort to undercut the efforts for a peaceful settlement and it was terminated just in time to prevent pressure on Obama to say something about it. It’s hard to believe that this isn’t conscious. We know that it was very meticulously planned for many months beforehand.

Voniati: In a recent interview with LBC, you said that the policies of Hamas are more conducive to peace than the US’s or Israel’s.

Chomsky: Oh yes, that’s clear.

Voniati: Also, that the policies of Hamas are closer to international consensus on a political peaceful settlement than those of Israel and the US. Can you explain your stance?

Chomsky: Well for several years Hamas has been very clear and explicit, repeatedly, that they favor a two state settlement on the international border. They said they would not recognize Israel but they would accept a two state settlement and a prolonged truce, maybe decades, maybe 50 years.

Now, that’s not exactly the international consensus but it’s pretty close to it. On the other hand, the United States and Israel flatly reject it. They reject it in deeds, that’s why they are building all the construction development activities in the West Bank, not only in violation of international laws, US and Israel know that the illegal constructions are designed explicitly to convert the West Bank into what the architect of the policy, Arial Sharon, called bantustan.

Israel takes over what it wants, break up Palestine into unviable fragments. That’s undermining a political settlement. So in deeds, yes of course they are undermining it, but also in words: that goes back to 1976 when the US vetoed the Security Council resolution put forward by

the arab states which called for a two state settlement and it goes around until today. In December, last December, at the meetings of the UN’s General Assembly there were many resolutions passed. One of them was a resolution calling for recognition of the right of self-determination of the Palestinian people. It didn’t call for a state, just the right of self-determination. It passed with 173 to 5. The 5 were the US, Israel and a few small pacific islands. Of course that can’t be reported in the US. So they are rejecting it even in words, as well as –more significantly- in acts. On the other hand, Hamas comes pretty close to accepting it. Now, the demand which Obama repeated on Hamas is that they must meet three conditions: they must recognize Israel’s right to exist, they must renounce violence and they must accept past agreements, and in particular the Road Map. Well, what about the US and Israel? I mean, obviously they don’t renounce violence, they reject the Road Map – technically they accepted it but Israel immediately entered 14 reservations (which weren’t reported here) which completely eliminated its content, and the US went along. So the US and Israel completely violate those two conditions, and of course they violate the first, they don’t recognize Palestine. So sure, there’s a lot to criticize about Hamas, but on these matters they seem to be much closer to –not only international opinion- but even to a just settlement than the US and Israel are.

Voniati: On the other hand, Hamas has been accused of using human shields to hide and protect itself. Israel insists that the war was a matter of defense. Is Hamas a terrorist organization, as it is accused to be? Is Israel a terrorist state?

Chomsky: Well, Hamas is accused of using human shields, rightly or wrongly. But we know that Israel does it all the time. Is Israel a terrorist state? Well yes according to official definitions. I mean, one of the main things holding up cease fire right now is that Israel insists that it will not allow a cease fire until Hamas returns a captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit - he’s very famous in the West everybody knows he was captured. Well, one day before Gilad Shalit was captured, Israeli forces went into Gaza City and kidnapped two Palestinian civilians (the Muamar Brothers) and brought them across the border to Israel in violation of international law and hid them somewhere in the huge Israeli prisons. Nobody knows what happened to them since. I mean, kidnapping civilians is a much worse crime than capturing a soldier of an attacking army. And furthermore this has been regular Israeli practice for decades. They’ve been kidnapping civilians in Lebanon or on the high seas…They take them to Israel, put them into prisons, sometimes keeping them as hostages for long periods. So you know, if the capturing of Gilad Shalit is a terrorist act, well, then israel’s regular practice supported by the US is incomparably worse. And that’s quite apart from repeated aggression and other crimes. I don’t like Hamas by any means, there is plenty to criticize about them, but if you compare their actions with US and Israel, they are minor criminals.

Voniati: Though of Jewish decent, you have been repeatedly accused of anti-Semitism. How do you respond?

Chomsky: The most important comment about that was made by the distinguished statesman Abba Eban, maybe 35 years ago, in an address to the American people. He said that there are two kinds of criticism of Zionism (by Zionism I mean the policies of the state of Israel). One is criticism by anti-Semites and the other is criticism by neurotic self-hating Jews. That eliminates 100% of possible criticism. The neurotic self-hating Jews, he actually mentioned two, I was one and I.F. Stone, a well-known writer was another). I mean that’s the kind of thing that would come out of a communist party in its worst days. But you see, I can’t really be called anti-semite because I’m jewish so I must be a neurotic self-hating Jew, by definition. The assumption is that the policies of the state of Israel are perfect, so therefore any kind of criticism must be illegitimate. And that’s from Abba Eban, one of the most distinguished figures in Israel, the most westernised … praised, considered a dove.

Voniati: How do you comment on the Davos incident concerning Erdogan’s verbal attack against Peres?

Chomsky: It was impolite. You are not supposed to behave like that at Davos. But the idea that Peres was given 25 minutes to justify major atrocities and aggression, that’s what’s shocking. Why have that at Davos? I mean, do you allow Saddam Husein in such a gathering to justify the invasion of Kuwait? So Erdogan reacted, in my view, not in accord with the gentile atmosphere of the collection of the people who but basically appropriate under the circumstances.

Voniati: Have you, by any chance, been informed about the Cypriot-flagged vessel "Monchegorsk" that is docked in Limassol and seems to have been carrying weapons to the Hamas-run Gaza Strip? Israel and the United States requested that the vessel be stopped...

Chomsky: I don’t know about the Iranian vessel but I do know that right in the middle of the Gaza attack, Dignity was blocked in international waters and attacked by the Israeli navy and almost sunk. Now, that’s a major crime. That’s much worse than piracy off the coast of Somalia for example. If the Iranian vessel was stopped in international waters, that’s completely illegitimate. Israel has no authority to do anything in international waters. And the talk about not sending arms to Gaza …I mean, do they stop sending arms to Israel? I mean right in the middle of the Gaza war, the pentagon announced that it was sending a huge shipman of armaments to Israel. Did anybody stop that? They should say that those armaments are not intended for use by the Israeli army. The pentagon also announced that they are being prepositioned, that is, that they re being placed in Israel for the use of the US army In other words what they re saying is –and it’s been true for a long time- is that the US regards Israel as an offshore military base of its own, which they can use for their aggressive acts throughout the region.

Avram Noam Chomsky, 80, is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, political activist, author, and lecturer. He is an Institute Professor emeritus and professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Chomsky is well known in the academic and scientific community as the father of modern linguistics. Since the 1960s, he has become known more widely as a political dissident, and a libertarian socialist intellectual. Christiana Voniati is head of International News Department POLITIS Newspaper, Nicosia, Cyprus. E-mail: christiana.voniati@politis-news.com - Blogspot: www.voniati.blogspot.com

Ireland calls on EU to cut ties with Israel

Never underestimate the power of the Ire in Ireland.

148 Irish academics issue call
for EU to cut links with Israel

23 Jan 2009
Source
In a letter published today, Friday, 23rd January in the Irish Times(text below), over 140 Irish academics from a wide variety of disciplines called for a moratorium on EU support of Israeli academic institutions until Israel abides by UN resolutions and ends the occupation of Palestinian territories.

The letter was organised in response to the Israeli attack on Gaza and the Palestinian call for an academic and cultural boycott. The letter demands that the EU cease funding collaborative projects with Israeli institutions and "and an end to the EU's practice of treating Israel as a European state for the purposes of awarding grants and contracts".

The letter accuses Israel of destroying the Palestinians right to education as guaranteed by international law. It states: 'we note that during its recent offensive Israel expressly targeted educational institutions including the Islamic University, the Ministry of Education, the American International School, and 3 UN schools which were destroyed with massive loss of civilian life. During the illegal sealing off of the Gaza Strip that preceded the current aggression, Israel had prevented numerous Palestinian students from leaving Gaza to avail of Fulbright scholarships to the USA"

The ongoing Israeli occupation has meant that educational establishments are closed off for many Palestinians. The checkpoints, closures and curfews Israel has imposed, as well as the ongoing harassment of academics and students, have played havoc with university life. In addition, military attacks on universities and schools and the occupation of many schools by Israeli soldiers have turned education into a life-threatening activity.

The letter is signed by 148 academics. Prominent names include author and critic Seamus Deane, poet and academic Louis de Paor, UCD academic Kathleen Lynch, cultural critics Luke Gibbons and Joe Cleary, Israeli political scientist Ephraim Nimni, and former TUI (Teachers Union of Ireland) head Paddy Healy. It follows a similar letter in September 2006 signed by 61 academics.

Text of letter with signatories
There has been widespread international condemnation of Israel's bombardment and subsequent invasion of Gaza, which has been defined by international lawyers as a violation of the 4th Geneva Convention. No civilians, Israelis or Palestinian should be subjected to attack whether from rockets from Gaza or bombs and bullets from Israel. However, while every government has both the right and responsibility to defend its civilian population, we believe that Israel's violent actions are disproportionate and constitute collective punishment of a civilian population.

We also note that Israeli spokespersons themselves have admitted that prior to Israel's killing of 6 Hamas members in the Nov 4 attack on Gaza, Hamas appears to have abided by its ceasefire agreement with Israel, firing no rockets and trying to prevent other groups from doing so. This begs the question: what is the real reason behind the onslaught?

In addition, we note that during its recent offensive Israel expressly targeted educational institutions including the Islamic University, the Ministry of Education, the American International School, and 3 UN schools which were destroyed with massive loss of civilian life. During the illegal sealing off of the Gaza Strip that preceded the current aggression, Israel had prevented numerous Palestinian students from leaving Gaza to avail of Fulbright scholarships to the USA.

We believe that it is time to renew the call made by Irish-based academics in September 2006 for a moratorium on the funding of Israeli academic institutions by national and European cultural and research institutions, and an end to the EU's practice of treating Israel as a European state for the purposes of awarding grants and contracts. Such a moratorium should continue until Israel ends its repressive policies against Gaza, and abides by UN resolutions (which include the ending of the occupation of all Palestinian territories).

We believe that opposition to such a move based on the principle of academic freedom has lost the last semblance of validity in view of the above-mentioned violations of the right to education enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (art. 26), the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (Article 28) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (art. 14).

Yours sincerely

1. Dr Kieran Allen, School of Sociology, UCD
2. Professor James Anderson, Dept of Geography, Queen's University Belfast, Co-Director, Centre for International Borders Research (CIBR)
3. Dr Iain Atack, Lecturer and Programme Coordinator, International Peace Studies, Irish School of Ecumenics, (TCD)
4. Dr David Atkinson, Dept. of Languages and Cultural Studies, University of Limerick
5. Professor Ibrahim Banat, Faculty of Life and Health Sciences, University of Ulster
6. Darius Bartlett, Department of Geography, University College Cork
7. Professor James Bowen, Computer Science, UCC, Cork
8. Dr. Barbara Bradby, Department of Sociology, TCD
9. Dr. Colin Breen, School of Environmental Sciences, University of Ulster
10. Dr Keith Breen, School of Politics, International Studies & Philosophy, Queen's University Belfast
11. Dr Pat Brereton, Dublin City University.
12. Harry Browne School of Media, DIT
13. Carlos Bruen, Dept of Epidemiology & Public Health Medicine (Division of Population Health Sciences) Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
14. Audrey Bryan School of Education, UCD
15. Noreen Byrne, Department of Food Business and Development, UCC
16. Dr Rachel Cassidy, School of Environmental Sciences, University of Ulster
17. Professor Joe Cleary, Department of English, NUI Maynooth
18. Dr. Steve Coleman Department of Anthropology, NUI Maynooth
19. Dr. Maeve Connolly, School of Creative Arts, Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technology, IADT
20. Eddie Conlon, Department of Engineering Science and General Studies, DIT
21. Dr Colin Coulter, Dept of Sociology, NUI Maynooth
22. Dr. Laurence Cox, Dept of Sociology, NUI Maynooth
23. Dr Patrick Crowley, Department of French, University College Cork
24. Tony Cunningham, Department of Sociology NUI Maynooth
25. Charlie Daly, School of Computing, DCU.
26. Dr Kelly Davidson School of Business and Humanities, Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technology, IADT
27. Cormac Deane, School of Business and Humanities, IADT Dun Laoghaire
28. Professor Seamus Deane, University of Notre Dame
29. Dr. Teresa Degenhardt, School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work Queens University Belfast
30. Dr Louis de Paor, NUI Galway
31. Derek Dodd, Centre for Public Culture Studies, IADT.
32. Dr Bill Dorris, Dept. Of Communications, DCU
33. Collette Doyle, School of Social Justice, UCD
34. Dr. Paul Dunlop, School of Environmental Sciences, University of Ulster 35. Mary Eldin, University College Dublin
36. Ray English, School of Manufacturing and Design Engineering, DIT
37. Dr. Adel Farrag, Department of Electronic Engineering, ITT Dublin
38. Angela Farrell, Dept. Languages and Cultural Studies University of Limerick
39. Mike FitzGibbon, Food Business and Development Department, University College Cork 40. Richard Fitzsimons, School of Media, DIT
41. Professor Tadhg Foley Department of English & Chair of the Board, Centre for Irish Studies, NUI Galway
42. Dr Oona Frawley, School of English, NUI Maynooth,
43. Malcolm Garland. Senior Lecturer in Psychiatry, RCSI and Consultant Psychiatrist/Post-Graduate Tutor, St Ita's Hospital.
44. Dr Mark Gardiner, Dept of Archaeology, Queen's University Belfast
45. Professor Luke Gibbons, University of Notre Dame
46. Dr. Paula Gilligan, Dept. of Humanities, IADT Dun Laoghaire
47. Professor Robbie Gilligan, School of Social Work and Social Policy, TCD
48. Dr Kathy Glavanis-Grantham, Department of Sociology, UCC
49. Liam Greenslade, National College of Art and Design
50. Fergal Goulding, Cork Institute of Technology
51. Brian Hand, Wexford Campus IT Carlow
52. Dr Brian Hanley, School of History, Queens University Belfast
53. Seán Harrington, Dublin School of Architecture, DIT,
54. Mike Haslam, Dublin School of Architecture, DIT
55. Deena Haydon, School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Justice, Queen's University Belfast
56. Paddy Healy, School of Physics, DIT
57. Goretti Horgan, School of Policy Studies, University of Ulster
58. Professor Jane Horgan Dublin City University
59. Dr Kevin Hourihan, Dept of Geography, UCC
60. Dr. John Karamichas, School of Sociology, Social Policy & Social Work, Queen's University Belfast
61. Dr Brian Kelly, School of History and Anthropology, Queen's University Belfast
62. Dr. Sinéad Kennedy, Department of English, NUI Maynooth
63. Dr. Dorothy Kenny, School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies, DCU
64. David Landy Department of Sociology, TCD
65. Dr Fintan Lane. Historian
66. Zoe Lawlor, Dept. of Languages and Cultural Studies, University of Limerick
67. John J. Lauder, Dublin School of Architecture, DIT
68. Dr. Ronit Lentin, Dept of Sociology, TCD
69. Martin McCabe, School of Media, DIT
70. Professor Madeleine Leonard, School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work, Queen's University Belfast
71. Tom Lonergan, Dublin City University
72. Professor Kathleen Lynch, Equality Studies Centre, School of Social Justice, University College Dublin
73. Piaras MacEinri, University College Cork
74. An Dr. Seosamh Mac Muirí, Grág na Fearna, Droim Dhá Thiar. Co. Liatroma.
75. Professor John Maguire Professor Emeritus, UCC
76. Dr. Hussain Mahdi, Department of Electronic & Computer Engineering, University of Limerick
77. Dr. Sean Marlow, School of Electronic Engineering, Dublin City University,
78. Dr. Chandana Mathur, Dept of Anthropology, NUI Maynooth
79. Dr Cillian McBride, School of Politics, International Studies and Philosophy, Queen's University Belfast
80. Dr Cathal McCall, School of Politics, International Studies and Philosophy, QUB
81. Dr Gerard McCann, European Studies, St Mary's College, Queens University Belfast 82. Dr Conor McCarthy, Department of English, NUI Maynooth
83. Professor John McCloskey, School of Environmental Sciences, University of Ulster
84. Professor Terrence McDonough, Dept of Economics, NUI Galway
85. Dr. Karen McElrath, School of Sociology, Social Policy & Social Work, Queens University Belfast
86. Dr Des McGuinness, School of Communication, Dublin City University
87. Dr. Martina McKnight, Queens University Belfast
88. Dr Gerard McMahon, Business Faculty, DIT
89. Dr Bill McSweeney, International Peace Studies, Trinity College Dublin
90. Rosie Meade, Dept. of Applied Social Studies, UCC
91. Dr. Pat Meere, Department of Geology, UCC.
92. Professor Stephen Mennell, School of Sociology, UCD
93. Mick Monk, Department of Archaeology, UCC
94. Anna Maria Mullally, Dept. of Humanities, ITT Dublin.
95. Tony Murray, School of Media, DIT
96. Professor Patrick Murphy, Dept of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, UCC
97. Dr. Suleyman S. Nalbant, School of Environmental Sciences, University of Ulster
98. Tom O'Connor, School of Media, DIT
99. Dr. Ephraim Nimni, School of Politics, International Studies & Philosophy, Queen's University Belfast
100. Dr. Emer Nolan, Dept of English, NUI Maynooth
101. Dr. John O'Brennan, Department of Sociology, NUI Maynooth
102. Gerard M. O'Brien, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Ulster, Coleraine
103. Dr Barra O'Donnabhain, Department of Archaeology, University College Cork
104. Dr Ruan.O'Donnell, Historian
105. Professor Liam O'Dowd, School of Sociology, Social Policy & Social Work, Queens University Belfast
106. Professor Patrick O'Flanagan, Dept of Geography, UCC
107. Dr Feilim O Hadhmail, Dept of Applied Social Studies, UCC
108. Professor Denis O Hearn, School of Sociology, Queen's University Belfast
109. Dr. Theresa O'Keefe, Department of Sociology, NUI Maynooth
110. Dr. Des O'Rawe, School of Languages, Literatures and Arts, Queen's University Belfast
111. Dr. Jacqui O'Riordan, Dept. Applied Social Studies, UCC
112. Dr K.C. O'Rourke, Dublin Institute of Technology
113. Eddie O'Shea Head, Department of Architecture+Urban Design, Dublin School of Architecture, DIT
114. Joan O'Sullivan, Dept of Languages and Cultural Studies, University of Limerick
115. John O'Sullivan, Dept. of Languages and Cultural Studies, University of Limerick
116. Maria Parsons, Department of Humanities, IADT
117. Dr Mark Phelan, School of Languages, Literatures and Performing Arts, Queen's University Belfast
118. Professor Barbara Pierscionek, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Ulster 119. Dr Lionel Pilkington, Dept of English, NUI Galway
120. Professor John Pinkerton, School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work, Queens University Belfast
121. Professor Paschal Preston, School of Communication, DCU
122. Rory Quinn, School of Environmental Sciences, University of Ulster
123. Dr Mary Roche, Department of Geography, UCC
124. Jim Roche, Dublin School of Architecture, DIT.
125. Professor Bill Rolston, Department of Sociology, University of Ulster
126. Eilish Rooney, School of Sociology & Applied Social Studies, University of Ulster
127. Sima Rouholamin, School of Architecture, Dublin Institute of Technology.
128. Pól Ruiséal, Ionad na Gaeilge Labhartha, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Corcaigh
129. Brigid Ryan, Dept. of Languages and Cultural Studies, University of Limerick
130. Dr Colin Sage, Department of Geography, UCC
131. Dr Tam Sanger, School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work, Queen's University Belfast
132. Professor Phil Scraton, Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice, School of Law, Queen's University Belfast
133. Liz Shannon, Dept of Languages and Cultural Studies, University of Limerick
134. Professor Helena Sheehan, School of Communications, Dublin City University
135. Dr Sally Shortall, School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work, Queen's University Belfast
136. Ailbhe Smyth, WERCC, School of Social Justice, UCD
137. Professor Mike Scott, School of Computing, DCU
138. Dr. Lisa Smyth, School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work, Queen's University Belfast
139. Andy Storey, Centre for Development Studies, UCD
140. Karen Sugrue, Department of Humanities, Limerick Institute of Technology
141. Prof. Alan Titley Roinn na Nua-Ghaeilge, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Corcaigh
142. Dr Gavan Titley, Dept of Media Studies NUI Maynooth
143. Prof. Mike Tomlinson, School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work, Queens University Belfast
144. Hilary Tovey, Dept of Sociology, TCD
145. Dr Simon Trezise, Department of Music, TCD
146. Theresa Urbainczyk, School of Classics, UCD
147. Judy Walsh, School of Social Justice, UCD
148. Dr Gillian Wylie, International Peace Studies, Irish School of Ecumenics (TCD)

Irish people stand with Gaza and Palestine

Let there be no doubt that the little people of Ireland stand with Gaza and Palestine. We are well used to bloated tyrants using barbaric force. I am reminded of the Irish woman who was so mad at rendition flights refueling here, six years ago, she took a hatchet to a US military plane at Shannon airport. We might be small but we are mighty. Only a drop of Irish blood in your heritage will give ye a bit of courage now.

Letter to Dr Zion Evrony,

Israeli Ambassador to Ireland

Palestine mural updated in Belfast

January 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 09:29
John 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

Screenshot from ShannonWatch.org

attacked 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;
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.

Israel has been in very serious breach of Article II especially, including in the following respects:

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.
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.

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.

Peace activist monitoring US aircraft breaching Irish neutrality

Given 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

Nine Women obstruct doors inside Raytheon Plant Derry

January 13, 2009
George 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

The Spoils of Africa

AFRICOM China and
Congo Resource Wars

04-12-2008
By F. William Engdahl
Source
Just weeks after President George W. Bush signed the Order creating a new US military command dedicated to Africa, AFRICOM, events on the mineral-rich continent have erupted which suggest a major agenda of the incoming Obama Presidency will be for the son of a black Kenyan to focus US resources, military and other, on dealing with the Republic of Congo, the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea, the oil-rich Darfur region of southern Sudan and increasingly the Somali ‘pirate threat’ to sea lanes in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. The legitimate question is whether it is mere coincidence that Africa appears just at this time to become a new geopolitical ‘hot spot’ or whether it has a direct link to the formal creation of AFRICOM.

What is striking is the timing. No sooner had AFRICOM become operational than major new crises broke out in both the Indian Ocean-Gulf of Aden regarding spectacular incidents of alleged Somali piracy, as well as eruption of bloody new wars in Kivu Province in the Republic of Congo. The common thread connecting both is their importance, as with Darfur in southern Sudan, for China’s future strategic raw materials flow.

The latest fighting in the eastern part of the Congo (DRC) broke out in late August when Tutsi militiamen belonging to the Congrès National pour la Défense du Peuple (CNDP, National Congress for the Defense of the People) of General Laurent Nkunda forced loyalist troops of the Forces armées de la République démocratique du Congo (FARDC, Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo) to retreat from their positions near Lake Kivu, sending hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians fleeing in the process and prompting the French foreign minister, Dr. Bernard Kouchner, to warn of the imminent risk of ‘huge massacres.’

Nkunda, like his mentor, Rwanda’s Washington-backed dictator, Paul Kagame, is an ethnic Tutsi who alleges that he is protecting the minority Tutsi ethnic group against remnants of the Rwandan Hutu army that fled to Congo after the Rwandan genocide in 1994. MONUC UN peacekeepers reported no such atrocities against the minority Tutsi in northeast, mineral rich Kivu region. Congolese sources report that attacks against Congolese of all ethnic groups are a daily occurrence in the region. Laurent Nkunda's troops are responsible for most of these attacks, they claim.

Strange resignations
The stage for political chaos in Congo was further set in September when the Democratic Republic of Congo’s 83 year old Prime Minister, Antoine Gizenga, resigned after two years. Then at end of October, with suspicious timing, the commander of the United Nations peacekeeping operation, the Mission de l'Organisation des Nations-Unies au Congo (MONUC, Mission of the United Nations Organization in the Congo), Spanish Lieutenant General Vicente Diaz de Villegas, resigned after less than two months on the job, citing, ‘lack of confidence’ in the leadership of DRC President Joseph Kabila. Kabila, the Congo’s first democratically elected President, has also been involved in negotiating a major $9 billion trade agreement between the DRC and China, something which Washington is clearly not happy about.

Nkunda is a long-standing henchman of Rwandan President, US-trained Kagame. All signs point to a heavy, if covert, USA role in the latest Congo killings by Nkunda’s men. Nkunda himself is a former Congolese Army officer, teacher and Seventh Day Adventist pastor. But killing seems to be what he is best at.

Much of Nkunda's well-equipped and relatively disciplined forces are from the bordering country of Rwanda and the rest have been recruited from the minority Tutsi population of the Congolese province of North Kivu. Supplies, finance and political support for this Congolese rebel army come from Rwanda. According to the American Spectator magazine, ‘President Paul Kagame of Rwanda has long been a supporter of Nkunda, who originally was an intelligence officer in the Rwanda leader's overthrow of the Hutu despotic rule in his country.’

As the Congo News Agency reported on October 30, ‘Some have bought into the pretext of an endangered Tutsi minority in Congo . They never fail to mention that Laurent Nkunda is supposedly fighting to protect "his people". They have failed to question his true motives which are to occupy the mineral-rich North-Kivu province, pillage its resources, and act as a proxy army in eastern Congo for the Tutsi-led Rwandan government in Kigali. Kagame wants a foothold in eastern Congo so his country can continue to benefit from the pillaging and exporting of minerals such as Columbite-Tantalite (Coltan). Many experts on the region agree today that resources are the true reason why Laurent Nkunda continues to create chaos in the region with the help of Paul Kagame.’

The USA role and AFRICOM

Evidence which was presented in a French court in a ruling made public in 2006 claimed that Kagame was responsible for organizing the shooting down of the plane carrying Hutu President of Rwanda, Juvénal Habyarimana, in April 1994, the event that set off the indiscriminate killing of hundreds of thousands of people both Hutu and Tutsi.

The end result of the killings in which perhaps as many as a million Africans perished was that US and UK backed Paul Kagame—a ruthless military dictator trained at the US Army Command-General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth Kansas—was firmly in control as dictator of Rwanda. Since then he has covertly backed repeated military incursions by General Nkunda into the mineral-rich Kivu region on the pretext it was to defend a small Tutsi minority there. Kagame had repeatedly rejected attempts to repatriate those Tutsi refugees back to Rwanda, evidently fearing he might lose his pretext to occupy the mineral riches of Kivu.

Since at least 2001 according to reports from Congo sources, the US military has also had a base at Cyangugu in Rwanda, built of course by Dick Cheney’s old firm, Halliburton, conveniently enough near the border to Congo’s mineral-rich Kivu region.

The 1994 massacre of civilians between Tutsi and Hutu was, as Canadian researcher, Michel Chossudovsky described it, ‘an undeclared war between France and America. By supporting the build up of Ugandan and Rwandan forces and by directly intervening in the Congolese civil war, Washington also bears a direct responsibility for the ethnic massacres committed in the Eastern Congo including several hundred thousand people who died in refugee camps.’ He adds, ‘Major General Paul Kagame was an instrument of Washington. The loss of African lives did not matter. The civil war in Rwanda and the ethnic massacres were an integral part of US foreign policy, carefully staged in accordance with precise strategic and economic objectives.’

Now Kagame’s former intelligence officer, Nkunda, leads his well -equipped forces to take Goma in the eastern Congo as part of an apparent scheme to break the richest minerals region away from Kinshasha. With the US military beefing up its presence across Africa under AFRICOM since 2007, the stage was apparently set for the current resources grab by the US-backed Kagame and his former officer, Nkunda.

Today the target is China
If France was the covert target of US ‘surrogate warfare’ in 1994, today it is clearly China, which is the real threat to US control of Central Africa’s vast mineral riches. The Democratic Republic of Congo was renamed from the Republic of Zaire in 1997 when the forces of Laurent Désiré Kabila brought Mobutu's 32 year reign to an end. Locals call the country Congo-Kinshasa.

The Kivu region of the Congo is the geological repository of some of the world’s greatest strategic minerals. The eastern border straddling Rwanda and Uganda, runs on the eastern edge of the Great African Rift Valley, believed by geologists to be one of the richest repositories of minerals on the face of the earth.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo contains more than half the world’s cobalt. It holds one-third of its diamonds, and, extremely significantly, fully three-quarters of the world resources of columbite-tantalite or “coltan” -- a primary component of computer microchips and printed circuit boards, essential for mobile telephones, laptops and other modern electronic devices.

America Minerals Fields, Inc., a company heavily involved in promoting the 1996 accession to power of Laurent Kabila, was, at the time of its involvement in the Congo’s civil war, headquartered in Hope, Arkansas. Major stockholders included long-time associates of former President Clinton going back to his days as Governor of Arkansas. Several months before the downfall of Zaire’s French-backed dictator, Mobutu, Laurent Desire Kabila based in Goma, Eastern Zaire had renegotiated the mining contracts with several US and British mining companies including American Mineral Fields. Mobutu’s corrupt rule was brought to a bloody end with the help of the US-directed International Monetary Fund.

Washington was not entirely comfortable with Laurent Kabila, who was finally assassinated in 2001. In a study released in April 1997 barely a month before President Mobutu Sese Seko fled the country, the IMF had recommended "halting currency issue completely and abruptly" as part of an economic recovery programme. A few months later upon assuming power in Kinshasa, the new government of Laurent Kabila Desire was ordered by the IMF to freeze civil service wages with a view to "restoring macro-economic stability." Eroded by hyperinflation, the average public sector wage had fallen to 30,000 new Zaires (NZ) a month, the equivalent of one US dollar.

According to Chossudovsky, the IMF's demands were tantamount to maintaining the entire population in abysmal poverty. They precluded from the outset a meaningful post-war economic reconstruction, thereby contributing to fuelling the continuation of the Congolese civil war in which close to 2 million people have died.

Laurent Kabila was succeeded by his son, Joseph Kabila who went on to become the Congo’s first democratically elected President, and appears to have held a closer eye to the welfare of his countrymen than did his father.

Now, in comes the new US AFRICOM. Speaking to the International Peace Operations Association in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 27, General Kip Ward, Commander of AFRICOM defined the command's mission as, ‘in concert with other US government agencies and international partners, [to conduct] sustained security engagements through military-to-military programs, military-sponsored activities, and other military operations as directed to promote a stable and secure African environment in support of US foreign policy.’

The ‘military operations as directed to promote a stable and secure African environment in support of US foreign policy,’ today, are clearly aimed squarely at blocking China’s growing economic presence in the region.

In fact, as various Washington sources state openly, AFRICOM was created to counter the growing presence of China in Africa, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, to secure long-term economic agreements for raw materials from Africa in exchange for Chinese aid and production sharing agreements and royalties . By informed accounts, the Chinese have been far shrewder. Instead of offering only savage IMF-dictated austerity and economic chaos, China is offering large credits, soft loans to build roads and schools in order to create good will.

Dr. J. Peter Pham, a leading Washington insider who is an advisor of the US State and Defense Departments, states openly that among the aims of the new AFRICOM, is the objective of ‘protecting access to hydrocarbons and other strategic resources which Africa has in abundance ... a task which includes ensuring against the vulnerability of those natural riches and ensuring that no other interested third parties, such as China, India, Japan, or Russia, obtain monopolies or preferential treatment.’

In testimony before the US Congress supporting creation of AFRICOM in 2007, Pham, who is closely associated with the neo -conservative Foundation for Defense of Democracies, stated:

‘This natural wealth makes Africa an inviting target for the attentions of the People’s Republic of China, whose dynamic economy, averaging 9 percent growth per annum over the last two decades, has an almost insatiable thirst for oil as well as a need for other natural resources to sustain it. China is currently importing approximately 2.6 million barrels of crude per day, about half of its consumption; more than 765,000 of those barrels—roughly a third of its imports—come from African sources, especially Sudan, Angola, and Congo (Brazzaville). Is it any wonder, then, that…perhaps no other foreign region rivals Africa as the object of Beijing’s sustained strategic interest in recent years. Last year the Chinese regime published the first ever official white paper elaborating the bases of its policy toward Africa.

This year, ahead of his twelve-day, eight-nation tour of Africa—the third such journey since he took office in 2003—Chinese President Hu Jintao announced a three-year, $3 billion program in preferential loans and expanded aid for Africa. These funds come on top of the $3 billion in loans and $2 billion in export credits that Hu announced in October 2006 at the opening of the historic Beijing summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) which brought nearly fifty African heads of state and ministers to the Chinese capital.

Intentionally or not, many analysts expect that Africa—especially the states along its oil-rich western coastline—will increasingly becoming a theatre for strategic competition between the United States and its only real near-peer competitor on the global stage, China, as both countries seek to expand their influence and secure access to resources.’

Notably, in late October Nkunda’s well-armed troops surrounded Goma in North Kivu and demanded that Congo President Joseph Kabila negotiate with him. Among Nkunda’s demands was that Kabila cancel a $9 billion joint Congo-China venture in which China gets rights to the vast copper and cobalt resources of the region in exchange for providing $6 billion worth of road construction, two hydroelectric dams, hospitals, schools and railway links to southern Africa, to Katanga and to the Congo Atlantic port at Matadi. The other $3 billion is to be invested by China in development of new mining areas.

Curiously, US and most European media neglect to report that small detail. It seems AFRICOM is off to a strong start as the opposition to China in Africa. The litmus will be who President Obama selects as his Africa person and whether he tries to weaken Congo President Joseph Kabila in favor of backing Nkunda’s death squads, naturally in the name of ‘restoring democracy.’.

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