NOVANEWS
Posted By: Sammi Ibrahem
Chair of West Midland PSC
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Israeli NGO to Goldstone: Your statement is already being used to justify and legitimize future crimes
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Juliano, mourned
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Goldstone headed to Israel in July, hosted by Israeli minister criticized in Gaza report for advocating collective punishment
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Bed, Bath and…Settlements?!
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The education of Richard Goldstone
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On the vital strategic matter of terrorist chickens
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Brandeis students heckle Knesset members for support of war crimes and racist legislation
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The island to nowhere
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Goldstone and the tribe
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Rebels consolidate position in Ajdabiya
Israeli NGO to Goldstone: Your statement is already being used to justify and legitimize future crimes
Apr 05, 2011
Coalition of Women for Peace
Dear Justice Richard Goldstone,
The recent escalation in the Israeli army incursions into the Gaza strip is of grave concern to us at the Coalition of Women for Peace. The prospect of yet another flare out of large scale violence against civilians is alarming. Your recent comments on the Goldstone report are already interpreted by Israeli officials and the mainstream media channels as complete and full absolution of Israel’s military conduct in its entirety. Yet, the conclusions drawn from your statement with respect to Israel’s conduct during the Cast Lead military campaign and especially its aftermath are not backed by any new facts or findings. This seriously undermines the international, Israeli and Palestinian civil society struggle for accountability and against impunity from grave violations of human rights and humanitarian law.
You state that “we know more today about what happened in Gaza.” Which new facts have been uncovered? We who monitor the Israeli government and the situation closely on the ground know that no information was brought out to contradict the meticulous documentation of the fact finding mission you headed. In fact, it is the international pressure generated by the publication of the Goldstone report that has forced Israel to launch a significant number of investigations in the first place. These investigations corroborate what the Israeli and Palestinian civil societies already know: Israel systematically fails to conduct thorough and impartial investigations meeting international standards. As a matter of fact, most investigations prompted by the Goldstone report have not been completed yet, and those which have been completed generated only three rather minor indictments of lower rank soldiers. Considering the scope of destruction and the civilians killed during operation Cast Lead, it cannot be said that those responsible for grave violations that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity have been brought to justice.
A key contribution of the Goldstone report to the public comprehension of the Israeli/Palestinian reality has been its readiness to approach seriously the actual context of the outbreak of violence in Gaza. This is the persistent blockade imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip, and its continued control on Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. The recommendations to Israel – carrying your distinguished signature as a world renowned jurist – clearly addressed the blockade on Gaza, calling on Israel to immediately cease the border closures and allow free passage of goods and people to and from the Strip. The report recommends that Israel release Palestinian political prisoners, and cease actions that limit the expression of dissent by civil society organizations. The innovation of the report was precisely its readiness to acknowledge the overwhelming responsibility of the powerful party in the conflict.
Israel ignored the report and its recommendations, and did not lift the blockade or stop the persecution of Palestinian civilians and human rights defenders. The only notable change in the status quo was the escalation, immediately following the publication of the Goldstone report, of government attacks and the campaign of de-legitimization of human rights organizations and civil society. The Israeli government is currently promoting legislation, which aims at curbing our freedom of expression, freedom of association and basic social and political liberties. This political persecution is further marginalizing and excluding Palestinian and Jewish women in Israel, who oppose the militarized political establishment.
The Goldstone report gave an official international force to the ever increasing demand to hold Israel accountable for grave violations of international law. Your statements undermine the credibility of the United Nations and its ability to effectively enforce international standards of conduct and international humanitarian and human rights law. Now more than ever the stakes are high for those struggling for accountability and against impunity in Israel/Palestine. Your statement raises the stakes further by granting Israel legitimacy it so desperately needs to continue its aggressive campaigns of repression of dissent on the domestic and international front.
Dear Justice Goldstone, we are asking you to do all that is in your power to enable the international community to hold Israeli leaders accountable. Only a serious commitment to accountability, which would end Israel’s impunity can prevent the next war. As it stands now, your statement is already used to justify and legitimize future crimes, even before the next war has started.
Coalition of Women for Peace (Israel)
cwp@coalitionofwomen.org
www.coalitionofwomen.org
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Juliano, mourned
Apr 05, 2011
Philip Weiss
From a twitpic: “A stunning photo of Palestinians holding posters of Juliano Mer-Khamis, a map of Palestine targeted on his heart.”
Here is a statement from the Palestinian Popular Committees against the wall:
In memory of our beloved friend Juliano Mer-Khamis
Juliano Mer-Khamis embodied the uncompromising struggle for freedom and for dignity. With his brutal murder the Palestinian struggle has lost a brilliant charismatic and courageous fighter for justice and freedom. Both parts of his life’s work were seamlessly joined. His art was inseparable from his political commitment. The dignity and humanity which his art sustained were just as important to Palestinian resilience -sumud as his explicitly political work. His life was tragically cut short but he nevertheless managed to live a life full with purpose and meaning. In his typical way he fully dedicated himself to realizing his principles and gave up the comfort of life in Haifa to move to Jenin.
The Freedom theater which Mer-Khamis founded enriched the lives of countless young participants who all loved Juliano and their audience. It demonstrated the resilience of Palestinians, who transcended the most difficult situations to create a lasting legacy of art and consciousness. The effect of the Freedom theater reached far beyond Jenin and even the West Bank. People throughout the world were inspired to support the work of the theater and Palestinian solidarity in general.
We offer his family our condolences and support. We will always remember and miss him. His legacy will continue to inspire us to struggle for dignity and liberation. We will follow Juliano’s example in his work and in his spirit.
Democracy Now had several remembrances of Mer-Khamis this morning. Here is a great statement from New York theater leaders:
The murder of Juliano Mer-Khamis, actor, director, founder of the Jenin Freedom Theater, in the Jenin Refugee Camp, is an assault on art and artists, peacekeepers and the creative lives of young people who live under the constant threat of violence.
As American theater makers whose work is dedicated to understanding of the other and the self, we condemn this unspeakable act. We condemn the policy of targeted assassination which is widely practiced, by militant non-state actors, and by governments.
Karen Malpede
George Bartenieff
Theater Three Collaborative
James Nicola
Linda Chapman
New York Theater Workshop
Here is Gideon Levy in Haaretz:
This tall, strapping, handsome man who oozed charisma, a Jew and an Arab on account of his parents – perhaps a Jew in the eyes of the Arabs and an Arab in the eyes of the Jews – decided to devote his life to Jenin, where he lived as an Israeli and as a human being. One of the most talented theater actors to ever emerge here was also the most courageous of them. The seven bullets extinguished the light of courage that he radiated. “Jule was murdered,” a trembling voice belonging to a refugee camp resident on the other end of the phone told me..
Ilene Cohen observes:
It is noteworthy that no Israeli government official that I’ve seen has bothered even to comment on the murder of an Israeli citizen in occupied Palestine. This is, sadly, not surprising, since Juliano was not a beloved settler but an activist whose life was dedicated to opposing the occupation. For Israelis, I would imagine, he was therefore beyond the pale.
Goldstone headed to Israel in July, hosted by Israeli minister criticized in Gaza report for advocating collective punishment
Apr 05, 2011
Adam Horowitz
Ynet is reporting that Richard Goldstone will be headed to Israel in July to tour Sderot and other Israeli towns effected by missile fire from Gaza. Mind you, Goldstone had wanted to visit these towns all along as part of the fact-finding mission into Operation Cast Lead and Israel refused to allow him to enter the country. Now, after his infamous Washington Post op-ed, Israel is waiting for him with open arms.
It’s not clear whether Goldstone will actually actively participate in Israeli hasbara efforts around the report, but it is worrisome that he seems open to possibily undermining it within the UN. Ynet reports:
[Israel’s former ambassador to the UN, Dan Gillerman] urged Goldstone to take additional measures to make sure that the UN Human Rights Council and other human rights organization take heed of his statement.
Goldstone suggested in response to first let the dust settle, but said that he would look into what goes on in the UN council.
This is obviously an ambiguous statement (and most likely based on Gillerman’s interpretation of the conversation), but any intervention Goldstone would make to discredit the report within the UN would be incredibly damaging.
The invitation to Goldstone has been extended by Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai, who also wrote Goldstone a letter following the recent Jerusalem bus bombing and Itamar attack to excoriate him for not speaking out. Yishai wrote in part:
This report that you publicized is what gives legitimacy to terror organizations to continue the cruel and indiscriminate shooting toward civilian settlements in the areas of the state. This report is what calms murderers without a conscience when they come to slaughter innocent children, knowing that they can always be assumed to be sacrifices afterwards.
Where is your voice now, Mr. Goldstone? Where is your voice when Hadas, a baby girl 3 months old, Elad, 4 years old, and Yoav, 11 years old, were slaughtered in their sleep – not by accident – but in cold blood by a despicable murderer?
This might explain why Goldstone made the strange and passing mention to Itamar in the Washington Post op-ed (“So, too, the Human Rights Council should condemn the inexcusable and cold-blooded recent slaughter of a young Israeli couple and three of their small children in their beds.”). I say it was strange because there has still not been any conclusive answer to who committed the murders in Itamar. To raise it in the context of war crimes committed by Hamas was misleading and irresposible.
Interesting enough, the Goldstone report specificaly quotes Yishai to demonstrate how Israeli leaders were calling for war crimes to be committed in Gaza during Cast Lead. The following is from Chapter 16 of the report which looks at the “objectives and strategy of Israel’s military operations in Gaza“:
The issue that is of special concern to the Mission is the conceptualization of the “supporting infrastructure.” The notion is indicated quite clearly in General Eisenkot’s statements in 2006 and reinforced by the reflections cited by non-serving but well-informed military thinkers.
On 6 January 2009, during the military operations in Gaza, Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai stated: “It [should be] possible to destroy Gaza, so they will understand not to mess with us.” He added that “it is a great opportunity to demolish thousands of houses of all the terrorists, so they will think twice before they launch rockets.” “I hope the operation will come to an end with great achievements and with the complete destruction of terrorism and Hamas. In my opinion, they should be razed to the ground, so thousands of houses, tunnels and industries will be demolished.” He added that “residents of the South are strengthening us, so the operation will continue until a total destruction of Hamas [is achieved].”
On 2 February 2009, after the end of the military operations, Eli Yishai went on: “Even if the rockets fall in an open air or to the sea, we should hit their infrastructure, and destroy 100 homes for every rocket fired.”
The report concludes:
To the extent to which statements such as that of Mr. Yishai on 2 February 2009 indicate that the destruction of civilian objects, homes in that case, would be justified as a response to rocket attacks (“destroy 100 homes for every rocket fired”), the Mission is of the view that reprisals against civilians in armed hostilities are contrary to international humanitarian law. Even if such actions could be considered a lawful reprisal, they do not meet the stringent conditions imposed, in particular they are disproportionate, and violate fundamental human rights and obligations of a humanitarian character.
Of course, Goldstone could use this trip to question Yishai on this call to collective punishment. The Ynet article would seem to indicate he has another agenda on his mind.
Bed, Bath and…Settlements?!
Apr 05, 2011
Rae Abileah
Last Wednesday, March 30, was The Palestinian Land Day, which marked the murder of six unarmed Palestinian protesters in 1976, and the Palestinian Boycott National Committee called for boycott actions around the world to commemorate this day. West Coast activist groups working for justice in Palestine coordinated to make this a regional day of action. From Seattle to Los Angeles, over a dozen actions happened on March 30. Actions included art installations, divestment teach-ins, a billboard unveiling, and creative demonstrations. West Coast activists participated in the international launch of a new campaign aimed at stopping the infamous land theft organization, the Jewish National Fund, by revoking it’s charity tax status (see www.stopthejnf.org). And around the world, from Montreal to Berlin, activists coordinated BDS actions, see http://bdsdayofaction.net/. What follows is a report from one coordinated campaign aimed at big box store Bed Bath & Beyond.
On Wednesday, March 30, activists with CODEPINK and Global Exchange delivered a letter with over 2,500 signatures to the management at 15 Bed Bath & Beyond stores asking the retail chain to discontinue sales of products manufactured in illegal Israeli settlements, namely Ahava cosmetics and SodaStream home carbonation systems. These products are fraudulently labeled as “Made in Israel”, but are in fact produced in illegal settlements under the conditions of the military occupation in the West Bank, outside the internationally-recognized borders of Israel. The petition addressed Bed Bath & Beyond CEO Steven Temares, and activists hope he hears their plea and stops selling products that are in clear violation of international law.
Ahava cosmetics are manufactured in the illegal settlement of Mitzpe Shalem in the occupied Palestinian West Bank. Ahava’s fraudulent labeling is under investigation in the UK and in The Netherlands. The Stolen Beauty Boycott and international boycott pressure have been successfully pressuring stores to drop Ahava. Stores that have pulled Ahava from their shelves include Canada’s major department store The Bay, UK retailer John Lewis, the National Cathedral in DC, the U.N. commissary in Vienna, and many more.
A recent report by the Israeli research project Who Profits from the Occupation describes SodaStream’s illegal settlement activities, exposes its fraudulent labeling practices and investigates its exploitative labor practices. SodaStream is another occupation profiteer located the illegal industrial zone called Mishor Edomim, one of the largest land expropriations of Palestinian land in the West Bank, which prevents a future contiguous Palestinian state. The SodaStream factory employs Palestinian workers under the discriminatory and exploitative conditions of the occupation. SodaStream’s own reports to the U.S. Security Exchange Commission discuss the relative weight of international consumer boycotts and negative publicity against the economic benefits of manufacturing in a settlement industrial zone. On February 25th, 2010, In a ruling against SodaStream’s distributor in Germany, Brita, the European Court of Justice stated that settlement products are not “Made in Israel”, and therefore they cannot benefit from the trade agreements with the State of Israel.
SodaStream is marketed as an environmentally responsible product, but the destruction of life, land and peace brought about by this settlement industrial zone is anything but environmentally responsible. Save a few plastic bottles at the expense of trashing Palestinian land and people? We don’t think so.
The Bed Bath & Beyond website provides an impressive “Code of Conduct” for all its vendors and suppliers, demanding nondiscrimination in hiring practices, fair workers’ wages and benefits, environmental protections and many more legal requirements, which are clearly violated by settlement producers. To be in compliance with its own policies, Bed Bath & Beyond must stop selling Ahava and SodaStream.
Activists in cities through the US delivered the petition. In San Francisco a group of CODEPINK and Global Exchange activists, including Israeli founder of “Who Profits?” Dalit Baum, delivered the petition and spoke at length with the manager at Bed Bath & Beyond.
In Gainesville, FL, three generations of women delivered the petition. Activist Abigail explained: “My mother, my niece and I delivered the petition… the manager listened politely to our explanation of why carrying such a product in their store is unethical and said he would be sure his ‘higher-ups’ were informed.”
At Bed Bath & Beyond in Canoga Park, CA, Sanaa asked the manager to: “consider how Bed Bath & Beyond is making a statement of their support of the Israeli occupation of Palestine by carrying these products and how doing that inevitably alienates a substantial consumer base that has joined the boycott movement to fight for human rights.”
Kristen wrote from West Los Angeles: “I was jazzed by my visit… the clerk highlighted pertinent bits of our letter, engaged with the information, and thumbed through the pages of signatures… The manager was kind and interested, and called in another who expressed impress by our approach and overall campaign strategy… it seemed that had they been in a position to decide, we would have another store on our list of those that support Palestinian human rights.”
Jeff in Portland described his local manager as “very cordial and curious…” and Sandy in Largo said the manager had read an article about SodaStream and boycotts and was “very friendly & receptive.” That seems to be the overall sentiment of the day. As CODEPINK LA noted in a report-back from an action at an Ahava retailer in Santa Monica: “People are becoming interested; they want to know. The Israeli occupation will not survive the truth.”
CODEPINK’s Stolen Beauty campaign will continue to collect and deliver signatures to get illegal Israeli settlement products Ahava and Soda Stream out of Bed, Bath & Beyond.
On Land Day other Ahava boycott actions included the delivery of a petition to ULTA headquarters in Chicago asking them to drop Ahava, actions at a DC pharmacy and at Ricky’s in Brooklyn, both of which stock Ahava products, and in Prague, activists coordinated a picket of the Czech Ahava store.
The international boycott of Ahava celebrated a success this week when a news article revealed that the AHAVA shop in London’s Covent Garden, which has been the subject of ongoing and escalating boycott actions for years, will close its doors. And a Los Angeles retailer has vowed to stop stocking AHAVA, after CODEPINK explained it was violating Palestinian human rights by stocking it.
As Jewish Voice for Peace wrote in a statement last month, The escalation of killing in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Israel reminds us that to end the Israeli occupation, our best hope is supporting the inspiring nonviolent Palestinian movement for change, the Global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.”
Rae Abileah is a 28-year-old Jewish-American of Israeli descent and is a national organizer with CODEPINK Women for Peace and its Stolen Beauty boycott of Ahava cosmetics. She lives in San Francisco, CA and can be reached at rae@codepink.org.
The education of Richard Goldstone
Apr 05, 2011
Ahmed Moor
Judge Richard Goldstone made a mistake.
An ardent Zionist, he believed that he could alter the course of the Jewish state’s trajectory. Undoubtedly pained by the actions of his Zionist fellows – and earnestly knowing that it doesn’t have to be this way – he pointed at the ugly things they’ve done and said, “Look.”
The problem, he knew, was not about supremacist ideology. It wasn’t about willful blindness, callous indifference or jingoistic bloodlust either. The Jews of Israel are good and moral, and they just don’t know. If they did, he reasoned, they’d change.
Judge Goldstone would show them what they’ve done, and they’d repent. Or at least they wouldn’t do it again.
But he was wrong.
They knew what they’d done – how could they not? Some of them were willfully blind, or callously indifferent, or were active participants in the massacre.
The Zionists knew their crimes, but more importantly they knew that they’d been betrayed. Didn’t Goldstone know that blood is thicker than truth and integrity? Or that Zionist arms are sanctified by God? Or that his words would rend the community? Young Jews would leave the tribe because of him. He was destroying the Jewish people and Israel would wither and die because of him.
The education of Richard Goldstone began at the age of 71. He aimed to lead the Zionists of Israel out of their barren humanity. And he was savaged for his efforts; he was excommunicated and vilified. Shining a light in the mirror, he saw their bared teeth.
“The Zionists aren’t broken,” they snarled, “You’re broken.”
The Zionists aren’t misguided, they are actively destructive, he learned.
And they were right that Richard Goldstone was broken. He sought to do his job. He applied the same standards he applied everywhere. His methodology was good. But he was still wrong, somehow.
The fallout showed him just how wrong he was. That was when things began to be clearer. Being a Zionist meant that the truth is subordinate, he learned. Israel comes first! In Everything! And then you can do your job, Goldstone! And Never Again, too!
Confronted with a choice – the Tribe or the Truth – he buckled and folded. He repented in the most medieval way, with a public recantation. He took to the pages of the Washington Post to write: “Believe the Zionists; it was my own eyes that lied.”
Now he stands with his beloved community. But will they take him back? Is there a doggie door large enough for him to crawl through?
It’s impossible to know how the judge lost his integrity. Maybe it had to do with the prospect of being buried in a lonely cemetery. Or maybe it’s something more prosaic. Like the pain of not receiving a much-anticipated invitation to something. Perhaps it was the University of Johannesburg’s recent decision to break with apartheid (“You did this to us, Goldstone!”).
Whatever the cause, Goldstone’s shameful behavior has demonstrated that Zionists are not fit to produce and disseminate the truth. Any doubts of the inherent contradictions of the two should be laid to rest now. Goldstone went about as far as any one of them is permitted to and he’s snapping back into the velveteen fold, double-time.
So, Zionism and truth; Zionism and decency; Zionism and integrity; Zionism and liberalism; Zionism and humanity are deeply contradictory. Richard Goldstone’s education began at 71, and lately he’s begun to teach.
On the vital strategic matter of terrorist chickens
Apr 05, 2011
Philip Weiss
From Rick Congress’s discussion of Goldstone’s statement:
We have to address the vital strategic matter of terrorist chickens. One of the seemingly bizarre acts of the IDF in Gaza was the killing of 31,000 chickens. These chickens were being raised commercially for eggs and food. Such businesses along with others, a cement factory, fishing boats,etc. and civil facilities such as power plants, public schools and water purification plants were destroyed by the IDF. These sorts of acts (targeting civilian infrastructure) are known to be violations of the Geneva Convention, UN resolutions, and are rightfully condemned world-wide. Condemned as what? As punishing the civilian population — collectively, and intentionally.
One line of reasoning in Israel’s defense would be that these chickens provide nutrition for Gazans, and that the more Gazan children have to eat, the more likely they are to survive and grow up to become if not actual terrorists then “demographic terrorists,” who by their very existence and tendency to reproduce, threaten the future of the Jewish state by staying alive in sufficient numbers to give credibility to the idea that Palestinians actually exist (another terrorist threat to Israel’s existence) and might need a place to live, besides Jordan or Lebanon.
So now we can classify these actions of the IDF as combating terrorism, not of targeting civilian infrastructure.
Brandeis students heckle Knesset members for support of war crimes and racist legislation
Apr 05, 2011
Philip Weiss
Release from Elisha Baskin of Brandeis Students for Justice in Palestine on Monday night:
WALTHAM, MA – Members of Brandeis Students for Justice in Palestine (BSJP) disrupted a panel discussion of six Members of the Israeli Knesset tonight at Brandeis University.
The action targeted MK Avi Dicther, an international war criminal wanted for crimes against humanity and violations of the Geneva Convention. Dichter ordered the tortures of detained Palestinians while he served as head of Shabak, the Israeli Intelligence Services. In July 2002, Dichter ordered the assassination of a Hamas commander by dropping a one-ton bomb on his home in a residential area, causing the deaths of 15 people, including 9 children, and injuring dozens more.
When Dicther spoke, a dozen Brandeis students stood and demanded that he turn himself in to authorities, distributing warrants for his arrest. In English and in Hebrew, the students listed charges against Dichter, including torture and the bombing of civilians. They ended their disruption by chanting in Hebrew “Don’t worry Avi Dicther, we’ll meet you in the Hague.”
The action aimed to alert the Brandeis community to the presence of a war criminal on campus. “We believe that Avi Dichter must be put to trial for his crimes against humanity,” said participant Liza Behrendt.
Participant Paraska Tolan stated, “War criminals have a right to speak on our campus, but students also have the right to hold them publicly accountable for their crimes. This serves as a message that Dichter should not feel welcome, even at Brandeis University.”
Lisa Hanania, a Palestinian student at Brandeis and member of SJP, said that she was extremely disturbed by the racist comments from some of the MKs. “MK Tzipi Hotovely claimed that ‘Arabs have a different D.N.A. that lacks humanity.’ As a citizen of the Israel, I am deeply concerned that claims as such pave the way for the state to slide into an openly racist ethnocracy.”
Noam Lekach, a first-year from Israel, stated, “Brandeis claims to promote social justice, but today they invited legislators who openly espouse racist attitudes towards Palestinians.”
The students emphasize that, although they targeted Dichter specifically, all MKs should be held accountable for recent racist legislation such as the “Loyalty Oath,” the criminalization of Nakba commemoration, and the institutionalization of residential discrimination.
The island to nowhere
Apr 05, 2011
annie
The plot thickens. It was reported last week, Netanyahu says Abbas must choose peace w/ Hamas or Israel in response to Abbas’s efforts to plunge ahead with his plans to seek UN recognition either from the UN Security Council or General Assembly in September. JPostreports: “According to Israeli officials, the US is also trying to convince various countries to oppose the move.” There seems to be a little hitch.
But diplomatic officials said that it would be easier to lobby support if Israel had an alternative plan of where things were going.
Oh wow why didn’t I think of that? Want to hear the latest plan?
Channel 2 reported that one plan that was being considered – and has even been discussed in the security cabinet – wasthe construction of a 2 km.-by-4 km. artificial island built 4.5 km. off the coast of Gaza and linked by a bridge. According to the plan, Gaza’s exports and imports would go though this island, which would include a port and an airport. The island would be under the security control of NATO or another international body that would search the cargo going in and out of the Gaza Strip. …….. According to the report, the project – spearheaded by Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz – would cost between $5 billion and $10b. and take some six years to build. Katz spoke a number of months ago about the idea with Netanyahu, who told him to develop a plan. Some 17 similar models from around the world were studied and discussed.
Shall we file this under “Throw everything against the wall and see what sticks?”
For news more grounded in rationality emanating from the report:
Nimer Hammad, political adviser to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, accused Israel of practicing “political thuggery” against the UN. He said that the international community could no longer tolerate Israel’s “arrogance” and “disrespect” for international laws……… The spokesman also brushed aside the Israeli warnings about a unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state by the UN. He said that the number of countries that recognize Palestine is bigger than those who don’t, and added that all West Bank settlements would be dismantled “sooner or later,” just as they were in the Gaza Strip.
Goldstone and the tribe
Apr 05, 2011
Hatim Kanaaneh
The call issued by angry human rights diehards, incensed by judge Richard Goldstone’s rebuttal of his own former ruling, solidified in its original undiluted form by his well-paid UN position, confirming Israel’s criminality in its attack on Gaza civilians, to dismiss him as a victim of senility makes my blood boil for reasons beyond my age-related infirmity of intentionality, the said judge being my junior by over five hundred days and much more capable of grammatical contortions in hiding what he wants to say so that you are at a loss as to where the subject of his sentence ends or senility sets in. Got that? And I am not a lawyer, mind you. If you didn’t get my drift, let me delve a bit deeper. Here is what the man says in a nutshell:
Although the Israeli evidence that has emerged since publication of our report doesn’t negate the tragic loss of civilian life, I regret that our fact-finding mission did not have such evidence explaining the circumstances in which we said civilians in Gaza were targeted, because it probably would have influenced our findings about intentionality and war crimes.