Peace and Justice Post

Gaza TV,  May 15,  2011.

Today can only be described as “Bloody Sunday” following the deaths of 21 people, and over 200 injured by Israeli forces. 10 people are reported dead in Lebanon, 8 in Syria, 2 in Gaza, and 1 in the occupied West Bank.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians marked the Nakba anniversary by marching to the borders with Israel in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. They were demanding their right of return to the homes and lands they were force to flee in 1948.

In Gaza, thousands of people marched to the Erez border crossing where they were met by a barage of bullets and shells fired from tanks. A 17 year old was killed, and 60 were injured. Most of those injured were children, with wounds to their legs. Another man was killed later in the eastern area of Gaza. Currently, F16′s, Apache Helicopters and unmaned drones are roaming the skies above the besieged area.

In Lebanon, thousands marched to Maroun el Rass, the border with Israel. Demonstrators were fired upon by Israeli troops leaving 10 dead and 70 injured, according to local reports. Thousands protested for hours before dispersing peacefully.

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Leaked documents have revealed that US-led forces in Afghanistan have made extensive use of white phosphorus bombs in densely-populated areas.
A review of the Afghan military documents revealed more than 1,100 instances of US-led forces — including Danish troops — having used white phosphorus (WP) grenades, rockets and bombs, the Danish daily Information reported.
According to one document, US-led forces fired 20 to 50 WP rockets at a single target. Many of the WP munitions have often been used in residential areas, the Press TV quoted the report as saying.
White phosphorus is a substance that burns upon coming into contact with human flesh; it sticks to the skin and continues to burn as long as there is oxygen. The result is severe and possibly lethal chemical burns.
According to international conventions the use of white phosphorus is to be restricted exclusively to areas that are not densely populated.
However, the leaked documents from Afghanistan indicate that the WP has been used as an attack weapon in populated areas, including zones where the Danish troops are deployed.

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Osama Bin Laden is dead, but every other claim originally made by the Obama administration about his last minutes was a lie. To prove he’s a tough guy, the U.S. President in whom so many invested so much hope is living down to his predecessors’ morality. Welcome, macho Baracko!

Until they were forced to acknowledge the truth, the formidable Washington propaganda machine churned out an entire triumphalist narrative notable for being dishonest in every last respect. It claimed there was a fierce and prolonged firefight, that Bin Laden was armed, that he was shamefully hiding behind his wife, that their home was a luxurious million-dollar mansion. In fact, Bin Laden was murdered/executed in cold blood by Navy Seals carrying out a clear mandate to do exactly that. Capture or kill — wink wink, nudge nudge.

The CIA had been closely monitoring the house for months so they surely knew there was only a single armed man within the run-down building. That couldn’t have made for much of a firefight, since he was quickly killed. The Seals were never fired on again. Bin Laden himself was unarmed although, so it was reported, he had apparently been ready to resist, possibly — who knows with these people? — by hurling a deadly Koran at the most feared, best-equipped soldiers in the universe. He was unceremoniously gunned down. In all, five people were killed, including an unarmed woman and several unarmed men, while a Bin Laden wife and daughter, both unarmed, were wounded. You don’t screw with the Seals, man!

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AHRC, May 13, 2011

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION – URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-094-2011

13 May 2011
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PAKISTAN: Five more disappeared persons bullet riddled bodies are found in Balochistan

ISSUES: Extrajudicial killings; abduction; disappearance; impunity; rule of law
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that the bodies of five disappeared persons have been found in different areas of Balochistan. The bodies bore bullet wounds, drill marks and other signs of torture. The victims were abducted from Balochistan province and Karachi, Sindh province at different times and their bodies were found in different areas of Balochistan.

CASE NARRATIVE:

Three decomposed bodies of disappeared persons including a prominent leader of the Baloch Student Organization were found from Panjgoor province Balochistan.

On 15 August 2010 Mr. Abid Shah Baloch along with his two friends Abdul Sattar Blaoch and Safeer Baloch were allegedly abducted by the law enforcement agencies from Mand, district Panjgoor. Mr. Abid Shah Baloch was the former vice chairman of the Baloch Students Organization Azad (BSO, Azad). He was the resident of Panjgoor. Safeer Baloch was the former district organizer of Baloch National Movement (BNM). He was also a resident of Panjgoor district. Abdul Sattar was a government teacher and the chairman of government teachers association (GTA), and activist of Balochistan National Party (Awami). He was a resident of Balochistan province. On 11, May 2011 their bodies were found together from the mountainous area of Farwan district Panjgoor. It is estimated that they had been partially buried one month earlier and the bodies were decomposed. The victim families identified them with the help of Balochi shoes and clothes. Families of the victims stated that they were abducted by security forces and after sever torture they were extra judicially killed. The first information report (FIR) of their disappearance was filed against the security forces.

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A Review of Forged by Bart D. Ehrman

by Walter C. Uhler, Dissident Voice,  May 14th, 2011

The Bible is a book that has been read more and examined less than any book that ever existed.

– Thomas Paine

Professor Bart Ehrman has done something that more than 99 percent of American Christians have failed to do. He has devoted much of his adult life to a serious study of the New Testament.

Ehrman commenced his studies at a fundamentalist Bible college, Moody Bible Institute, before completing his undergraduate education at Wheaton College. While at Wheaton, Ehrman did what every serious student of the New Testament must do; he studied Greek. As he explained in Forged: Writing in the Name of God–Why the Bible’s Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are, “I took Greek, so that I could read the New Testament in its original language.” [p. 4]

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As these days mark the 63rd memory of the Nakba, our people all around the world, revolt, and object to the injustice and hatred we are met with on a day to day basis, just because we’re Palestinians and just because we exist.

I urge your humanity and your conscience, to spread on this video, so the 15th of May 1948, wouldn’t ever be forgot, and so Palestinians would once more have their freedom and rights back; especially the right of return.

Since Obama came to office in January 2009, U.S. security assistance to the Yemeni regime has gone up 20-fold.  Despite such large-scale unconditional support, however, the 32-year reign of autocratic President Ali Abdullah Saleh may finally be coming to an end. Yet the Obama administration has been ambivalent in its support for a democratic transition in this impoverished but strategically important country.

Saleh’s behavior has gotten increasingly bizarre. He has begun claiming that an unlikely coalition of Israel and Qatar has incited and financed the pro-democracy struggle, and that women in leadership positions in the pro-democracy struggle and even men and women protesting in the streets together is somehow “un-Islamic.”

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ReutersThe King of Bahrain has so far avoided the criticism of Western leaders

Christopher Hill, a former US secretary of state for east Asia who was ambassador to Iraq – and usually a very obedient and un-eloquent American diplomat – wrote the other day that “the notion that a dictator can claim the sovereign right to abuse his people has become unacceptable”.

Unless, of course – and Mr Hill did not mention this – you happen to live in Bahrain. On this tiny island, a Sunni monarchy, the al-Khalifas, rule a majority Shia population and have responded to democratic protests with death sentences, mass arrests, the imprisonment of doctors for letting patients die after protests and an “invitation” to Saudi forces to enter the country. They have also destroyed dozens of Shia mosques with all the thoroughness of a 9/11 pilot. But then, let’s remember that most of the 9/11 killers were indeed Saudis.

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Egypt’s ruling military council has forbidden solidarity convoys aiming to reach Rafah ahead of the Palestinian Nakba Day on Sunday

 Salma Shukrallah, Al Ahram Online,  Saturday 14 May 2011

  

Hundreds of enthusiastic Egyptian young men were prevented from going to Gaza

Starting 9am, several hundred stood in Tahrir Square waving Palestinian and Egyptian flags, hoping to march towards Gaza to stage a sit-in on Sunday, 15 May, which marks the Palestinian Nakba Day, or day of catastrophe, in reference to the founding of Israel in May 1948. The convoy was not able to leave Cairo.

May Shahin, one of the organisers of the convoy, said “We have been preparing for this for the past month and a half now. We wanted to have a convoy in memory of the Palestinian Nakba. It was supposed to be a mass march towards Palestine. After realising that entering Gaza might be a risk for the Palestinians, we decided to head only to the Rafah border. We were surprised, then, to know that all tourism offices refused to rent buses to reach Rafah and canceled our contract. They told us that this was an order from the ruling military council. Under the Mubarak regime we were able to organise a convoy from Cairo to reach Rafah. Now, after the revolution, we are banned.”

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Michael Young, The National, May 12, 2011

Amid mass arrests throughout Syria, the partisans of President Bashar al Assad now believe that they have gained the upper hand over the burgeoning protest movement. That may be true, although this seems far from being a foregone conclusion. But repression will not solve Mr al Assad’s dilemma: his regime has shown itself to be utterly incapable of reforming, so the forcible silencing of Syrian society may lead only to an extended, debilitating stalemate that leaves the country’s problems unresolved, and irresolvable.

When the uprising in Syria began earlier this year, foreign governments urged Mr al Assad to introduce reforms. However, in the Syrian context, reform is shorthand for the collapse of the Assad-controlled order. If the leadership was to implement reform by opening up the political system and allowing free elections, permitting independent media, introducing the rule of law, ending the paramount role of the Baath Party and cutting the powers of the myriad security agencies, that would be tantamount to political suicide. Mr al Assad never had any intention of taking such measures, and will not do so at present, especially if he crushes the revolt.

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