Peace and Justice Post

Dissident Voice, May 17, 2008

by Jonathan Cook

Nazareth — It has been a week of adulation from world leaders, ostentatious displays of military prowess, and street parties. Heads of state have rubbed shoulders with celebrities to pay homage to the Jewish state on its 60th birthday, while a million Israelis reportedly headed off to the country’s forests to enjoy the national pastime: a barbecue.

But this year’s Independence Day festivities have concealed as much as they have revealed. The images of joy and celebration seen by the world have failed to acknowledge the reality of a deeply divided Israel, shared by two peoples with conflicting memories and claims to the land.

They have also served to shield from view the fact that the Palestinians’ dispossession is continuing in both the occupied territories and inside Israel itself. Far from being a historical event, Israel’s “independence” — and the ever greater toll it is inflicting on the Palestinian people — is very much a live issue.

Away from the cameras, a fifth of the Israeli population — more than one million Palestinian citizens — remembered al-Nakba, the Catastrophe of 1948 that befell the Palestinian people as the Jewish state was built on the ruins of their society.

As it has been doing for the past decade, Israel’s Palestinian minority staged an alternative act of commemoration: a procession of families, many of them refugees from the 1948 war, to one of more than 400 Palestinian villages erased by Israel in a monumental act of state vandalism after the fighting. The villages were destroyed to ensure that the 750,000 Palestinians expelled from the state under the cover of war never return.

But in a sign of how far Israel still is from coming to terms with the circumstances of its birth, this year’s march was forcibly broken up by the Israeli police. They clubbed unarmed demonstrators with batons and fired tear gas and stun grenades into crowds of families that included young children.

Continued . . .

By David Halpin | Redress, May 17, 2008

David Halpin looks at the litany of crimes for which former British Prime Minister Tony Blair will have to account sooner or later.

On the same day the BBC reported that former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz was to go on trial after five years in prison over the deaths of a group of Baghdad merchants in 1992, it was rumoured the former prime minister of Britain will be indicted for crimes against humanity. The list of charges is long and not confined to the many alleged crimes in Iraq. Mr Blair’s whereabouts are uncertain; he has been sighted occasionally in occupied East Jerusalem where he is acting as “peace” envoy for the “Quartet”. Most recently, he has been facilitating industrial zones for the employment of Palestinians and for the removal of a few of the over 500 Israeli Occupation Force roadblocks.

The charge list includes:

Examination of this picture shows Ali Abbas was subjected to radiated heat

Breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention from the time he became prime minister in 1997 until March 2003 during whichtime draconian sanctions were being applied to the civilian population of Iraq. These sanctions prompted the resignation of Denis Halliday and Hans von Sponeck who served as assistant secretaries-general of the UN. The former stated that the effect of those sanctions was genocidal. It was established that there was an excess mortality of babies and children of at least 500,000 between 1992 and 2003. This had to do with foul water, poor nutrition and deteriorating medical services, all of which were satisfactory before the sanctions took hold.

Conspiracy to join with another power in aggressive war, the supreme international war crime, contrary to the Nuremberg Rules and the provisions of the Charter of the United Nation. This was first made public when he joined Mr George Bush, President of the United States of America, and Britain for bloodied steaks over a barbecue at Crawford Ranch in April 2002.

High treason (betrayal of one’s country, sovereign or government) in manufacturing a case for war, the central one of which was the alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction by Iraq. This in itself gave no grounds because the possession of such was no basis for a military assault on a sovereign country. Three aggressive nations, the US, UK and Israel, have held weapons of mass destruction for decades; no attempt has been made to disarm them. The grounds for UK military action against Iraq changed as the unlawful operation proceeded under the guise of liberation of the people and Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. The part played by the “sofa cabinet”, three of whom were unelected, in promulgating a war fought on behalf of Her Majesty is being minutely examined by law officers. One such cabinet member, Mr Charles Powell, recently stated on BBC TV that the aim of the war was the removal of Saddam Hussein from power. He would know that was an illegal aim. Ann Clywd MP was appointed Mr Blair’s human rights envoy in Iraq. She has continuously claimed a virtuous aim … [but the fact is that] at least a million Iraqis have been killed, about 40 per cent of whom will have been children. Using a conservative ratio, at least two million will have been maimed.

Ali Abbas’s trunk, hands and forearms were incinerated

Mr Blair is charged with a litany of war crimes that followed the invasion, one of which is the failure of the “coalition of the willing” to halt the further deterioration in the quality and quantity of medical services in Iraq which had already worsened during the 12 years of sanctions. Another obligation of an occupier is to maintain security for the populace. The very opposite happened. Disbanding the Iraqi army and other Baathist structures was central to the violent chaos which followed the invasion. Protecting the heritage of a country is another obligation of an occupier in international law. Mr Blair failed as leader to meet these and he is so charged.

The general charges in this indictment are followed by an annex which details names in which there has been death or extreme injury.

The charges also include collusion in a military and political coalition which has used banned weapons. The use of white phosphorus at Fallujah by the US was admitted. Armour-penetrating tank and cannon shells, as well as “bunker busting” bombs and missiles, have used depleted uranium. Uranium U238 is dispersed widely as a very fine dust; it has been detected as far away as the UK. Iraqi doctors claim that there have been dramatic rises in grotesque deformities in babies born prematurely, in leukaemia and in other malignancies.

Continued . . .

By J. Sri Raman
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Friday 16 May 2008

A 12-hour encounter between a group of militants and security forces left eight persons dead in the Samba sector of the India-administered State of Jammu and Kashmir on May 11. Earlier, heavy firing across the India-Pakistan Line of Control had been reported from the same area, fortunately without any casualty figures.

On May 13, a series of seven bomb blasts shook the crowded and colorful city of Jaipur, capital of India’s State of Rajasthan, taking an immediate toll of at least 60 lives and leaving hundreds injured. The victims included members of all communities and many children. The firings and the blasts across the border are fraught with graver and more far-reaching consequences for Pakistan’s fledgling democracy than the issue of judges hogging the headlines for quite some time now.

There, of course, is no denying the importance of the issue threatening the unity of the coalition thrown up by the democratic process in the country after eight long years of military dictatorship. Ministers representing the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) have rendered their resignations from Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani’s government over the issue. The protracted talks between former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan People’s Party Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari in Pakistan, Dubai and London have failed to find an agreed way to implement the Murree Declaration of March 9, envisaging reinstatement of former Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and other judges sacked by a fiat of Pervez Musharraf in his days of unchecked power.

Continued . . .

By Ziga Vodovnik, CounterPunch. Posted May 17, 2008.

Howard Zinn, 85, is a Professor Emeritus of political science at Boston University. He was born in Brooklyn, NY, in 1922 to a poor immigrant family. He realized early in his youth that the promise of the “American Dream”, that will come true to all hard-working and diligent people, is just that — a promise and a dream. During World War II he joined US Air Force and served as a bombardier in the “European Theatre.” This proved to be a formative experience that only strengthened his convictions that there is no such thing as a just war. It also revealed, once again, the real face of the socio-economic order, where the suffering and sacrifice of the ordinary people is always used only to higher the profits of the privileged few.

Although Zinn spent his youthful years helping his parents support the family by working in the shipyards, he started with studies at Columbia University after WWII, where he successfully defended his doctoral dissertation in 1958. Later he was appointed as a chairman of the department of history and social sciences at Spelman College, an all-black women’s college in Atlanta, GA, where he actively participated in the Civil Rights Movement.

From the onset of the Vietnam War he was active within the emerging anti-war movement, and in the following years only stepped up his involvement in movements aspiring towards another, better world. Zinn is the author of more than 20 books, including A People’s History of the United States that is “a brilliant and moving history of the American people from the point of view of those who have been exploited politically and economically and whose plight has been largely omitted from most histories” (Library Journal).

Zinn’s most recent book is entitled A Power Governments Cannot Suppress, and is a fascinating collection of essays that Zinn wrote in the last couple of years. Beloved radical historian is still lecturing across the US and around the world, and is, with active participation and support of various progressive social movements continuing his struggle for free and just society.

Continued . . .

Pakistan protests suspected US missile strike on border village

ZARAR KHAN
AP News

May 16, 2008 12:14 EST

Pakistan’s army lodged a formal protest Friday to “allied forces” in neighboring Afghanistan over a suspected U.S. missile strike this week that killed 14 people in a Pakistani border village.

Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said Pakistan concluded that Wednesday’s attack on a house in Damadola village was launched by drones from Afghanistan.

Abbas said a formal protest was lodged Friday with “allied forces” in Afghanistan, an apparent reference to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force that is fighting the Taliban-led insurgency there. The U.S. is among the nations contributing to ISAF.

Abbas said 14 people died in the attack.

It was unclear if any foreign militants were killed because local tribesmen had sealed off the area in the aftermath and buried the victims, he said.

Islamist parties, regional lawmakers and the governor of Pakistan’s volatile North West Frontier Province have already condemned the attack as a violation of the country’s sovereignty. Gov. Ovais Ahmed Ghani warned that it would undermine public support for Pakistan’s efforts against terrorism.

It was the first such strike since Pakistan’s new civilian government took power six weeks ago. A similar air strike in 2006 by a CIA drone targeted, and missed, al-Qaida’s No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri.

The government’s response so far has been low-key, suggesting it may be extending the kind of cooperation to the U.S.-led fight against al-Qaida as the former administration of President Pervez Musharraf.

But in a sign of tensions such attacks can spark, Islamic militants killed a Pakistani paramilitary soldier in revenge for the attack.

Authorities found the bullet-riddled body of the soldier early Friday about 6 miles north of Damadola. Mawaz Khan, a local government official, said a letter found near the soldier’s body explained that militants killed him to avenge the strike.

Continued . . .

The New York Times, May 15, 2008

By Michelle York

CENTRAL SQUARE, N.Y. — On Wednesday, Charlie Price was smoking a cigarette and sitting outside his restaurant, Charlie’s Place, on a two-lane stretch of highway on the outskirts of town.

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Mary Buttolph for The New York Times

Peace marchers in Mexico, N.Y., on their way to Fort Drum, where they plan to rally on Saturday, which is Armed Forces Day.

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Mary Buttolph for The New York Times

Joseph C. Godfrey encouraged peace marchers. One of his sons suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after a tour in Iraq.

He watched as a small group protesting the war in Iraq marched toward him, carrying peace signs and waving at the cars and tractor-trailers whizzing by. “I don’t think it’s going to do any good,” Mr. Price said of their efforts. “I want to get out of there, too, but I don’t think this is the way.”

Yet once the protesters, headed for Fort Drum, more than 50 miles away, reached him, Mr. Price eagerly offered them water and a place to rest — a more pleasant welcome than they had received from many others along the way.

Carmen Viviano-Crafts, 23, of Syracuse, who was carrying a small cardboard sign that read, “Bring home my boyfriend,” said that some people “gave us the finger and stuff like that.”

Since the war in Iraq began five years ago, the Second Brigade at Fort Drum has put in four tours.

For the past week, opponents of the war have taken several routes through the conservative and largely rural reaches of upstate New York — small communities that have sent many of their young men and women into the military right after high school and have paid a disproportionate price.

On Saturday, which is Armed Forces Day, protesters ranging from peace activists to Iraq Veterans Against the War will hold a daylong rally outside Fort Drum. What they lack in numbers — there were only about 40 on the road on Wednesday — they have made up for in passion, having walked about 80 miles so far.

Continued . . .

With a terrible record of torture and disappearance, Sri Lanka doesn’t deserve a seat on the UN human rights council. It should be voted out

By Desmond Tutu | Information Clearing House, May 16, 2008

It would seem self-evident that a country which tortures and kidnaps its own people has no place on the world’s leading human rights body. Apparently not: Sri Lanka, despite repeated criticism for its human rights record, is running for re-election to the UN human rights council, with a vote to be held in New York on May 21.

Governments owe it to Sri Lankan human rights victims – and to victims of human rights abuses around the world – to ensure that the Sri Lankan bid fails. This will be an important test of the 47-member council, to show that the UN’s standards for it will be honoured.

If Sri Lanka is defeated this year, that will be important not just for the Sri Lankan human rights leaders who, at great personal risk, have called for Sri Lanka’s defeat, and for Sri Lankan civil society. In combination with the humiliating defeat last year of Belarus, it will send an important signal for the future: governments with track records of serious human rights abuses do not belong on a body set up to protect the victims of such abuses.

Sri Lanka has failed to honour its pledges of upholding human rights standards and cooperating with the UN since joining the council two years ago. Indeed, its human rights record has worsened during that time. The Sri Lankan idea of cooperation with the UN, meanwhile, has been to condemn senior UN officials (including the high commissioner for human rights, Louise Arbour, and the under secretary general for humanitarian affairs, John Holmes) as “terrorists” or “terrorist sympathisers.”

Continued . . .

Al Arabiya News Channel, May 15, 2008

Dr Salim Nazzal

Let me seek to define three types of European colonial settlement projects seen in the past three hundred years. My intention in focusing on the roots of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is to demonstrate that the Zionist project is a corrupt copy of other colonial projects, which occurred in previous periods. The common factor between these colonial projects is the same, the crimes against the native peoples of these countries. Due to the limitation of time, however, I must do this without going into complex analyses of the similarities and differences between these colonial projects.

The first paradigm is the white European colonial settlement of what was called the ‘New World,’ that is, the USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. In this example, the native populations were overwhelmed by waves of overseas European immigrants turning the indigenous peoples into a minority. The second paradigm is the white European settlers in what were known as Rhodesia and South Africa; in this colonial model, the white immigrants continued being the minority and in the end lost their power due to the indigenous people’s struggle. It is no coincidence that the state of Israel, which came into being in1948, maintained close ties with the white regimes of South Africa and Rhodesia, supplying both with arms.

The third paradigm is the Zionist colonial project in Palestine. The Zionist project did not conclude, as in North America, with the colonizers becoming the majority, nor as in apartheid South Africa where whites continued to be the minority. Despite the ethnic cleansing which took place in 1848 when the Zionist terror organizations expelled around 70 percent of Palestinians from their ancestral homes and lands and from more than 418 villages and towns, and despite the Israeli so-called right of law of 1951 allowing any Jew in the world to come to live in the state of Israel and to immediately acquire full citizenship while denying the Palestinian natives who became refugees by the same right, the current number of Palestinians living in historic Palestine is almost the same number as Israelis.

Continued . . .

The New York Times, May 16, 2008

By REUTERS

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The United States and Israel agree on the need for “tangible action” to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s spokesman said after a visit by U.S. President George W. Bush.

“We are on the same page. We both see the threat … And we both understand that tangible action is required to prevent the Iranians from moving forward on a nuclear weapon,” Olmert spokesman Mark Regev said on Friday.

Regev described diplomatic efforts so far to exert pressure on Iran as “positive,” but added: “It is clearly not sufficient and it’s clear that additional steps will have to be taken.”

Asked about the option of using military force, Regev said: “Leaders of many countries have talked about many options being on the table and, of course, Israel agrees with that.”

Bush ratcheted up his rhetoric toward Tehran in a speech to Israel’s Knesset on Thursday, saying critics’ calls for talks with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were comparable to the “appeasement” of Adolf Hitler before World War Two.

Bush vowed that Washington would stand with Israel in opposing Iran’s nuclear ambitions, saying it would be “unforgivable” if Tehran were allowed to get the bomb.

Iran has said it will not stop uranium enrichment, which it says is for generating electricity only. In a separate development on Friday, the United States said it would sign an agreement with Saudi Arabia to help the kingdom develop peaceful nuclear energy.

(Reporting by Adam Entous; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)