صلح Pax سلام שלום Pace Hasîtî Barış 和平 Мир Peace Mir Friede Paix
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Thousands of people marched through the streets of London yesterday to show their support for the Palestinian cause. The demonstrators were calling for an end to the siege on Gaza, the right of return for Palestinians, and an end to Israeli occupation. Looks like Neturei Karta were there as well (1:41)
“These fools do not learn from their past mistakes. When they withdrew from Lebanon, they continued to occupy the Shebaa Farms and kept our brothers in custody. Had they released them when they left Lebanon, there would not now be a ‘prisoner issue’ between Lebanon and the enemy. They opened the door for us.”
– Hassan Nasrallah, January 2004, during a welcome home ceremony for Lebanese and Arab detainees as a result of a Hezbollah-Israel swap.
As discussed below, and contrary to conventional wisdom, the Bush administration is prepared to concede that Hezbollah keep its weapons. Even though it encourages its marionettes to foment this issue, and does so itself publicly, the Bush Administration knows that Hezbollah is not going to disarm until the Question of Palestine is settled to the satisfaction of the Palestinians. Yet it feels that focusing on Hezbollah’s militia is still a good pre-negotiation bargaining chip. Read the rest of this entry »
What really leapt out in this Guardian piece from Geoffrey Robertson is that the English Fabian Socialists, almost always looked up to by many of us in the labour movement and culturally lionised, were eugenicists who advocated the assimilation or “humane eradication” of what they saw as “lesser races”. It is surprising that George Bernard Shaw, who I otherwise quite like as a playwright and political commentator from that era, is among this group that includes Sydney and Beatrice Webb, Virginia Woolf, DH Lawrence and others. Even making allowances for the prevalent modes of thought of the time in which they lived, this is a revelation. As late as 1934, a British Department of Health report recommended compulsory sterilisation of the “feeble-minded’, as Robertson points out. Ironically, he adds that it was opposition from Labour MPs that quashed the recommendation, “who feared that working-class people would be the real victims of the Fabian intelligentsia.” Read the rest of this entry »
Dr Ibrahim Mousawi speaking at the World Against War international peace conference in London, December 2007 (10:13)
by Franklin Lamb in Beirut and Ann El Khoury in Sydney
You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?
– Joseph Welch to Senator Joseph McCarthy, April 1954
In a US Senate hearing just over fifty years ago, Boston lawyer Joseph Welch famously rebuked Senator Joseph McCarthy with these now immortal words. They have been immortalized because they have helped furnish what we understand McCarthyism to mean: extreme, mean and unreasonable persecution of people by means of witch-hunts and other tactics including guilt by association or through simple prejudice. This is done in order to achieve a political objective of silencing dissent and preventing the public from learning inconvenient truths. Read the rest of this entry »
Amid the illegal occupation and the murderous blockade of Gaza by the IOF, here’s some inspired dissent. Artist Peter Kennard meets members of a new generation of artistic dissenters in a movement spearheaded by artist Banksy, whose art has featured in Occupied Palestine as well as his native UK.
Art attackby Peter Kennard | New Statesman | 17 January 2008
Banksy attracts the press attention, but around him is an increasingly influential movement of political artists operating outside the mainstream
The phone rings; the number is withheld. It’s Banksy. He wants to know whether I can go to Bethlehem over Christmas. He is putting on an exhibition, bringing together like-minded artists from all over the world to raise awareness of the situation in Palestine. Like the annual guerrilla art shows that have taken place in London for the past six years, it will be called “Santa’s Ghetto”. Two weeks later, I find myself involved in an experience that transforms my ideas about what artists can do in the face of oppression.
I present Hersh’s latest New Yorker article in full here not because I treat his articles as gospel — one should always treat every piece, especially those who purport to have insider knowledge, critically — but because of the salient facts and administration ‘mood’ gleaned from the following.
In a series of public statements in recent months, President Bush and members of his Administration have redefined the war in Iraq, to an increasing degree, as a strategic battle between the United States and Iran.
“Shia extremists, backed by Iran, are training Iraqis to carry out attacks on our forces and the Iraqi people,” Bush told the national convention of the American Legion in August. “The attacks on our bases and our troops by Iranian-supplied munitions have increased. . . . The Iranian regime must halt these actions. And, until it does, I will take actions necessary to protect our troops.” He then concluded, to applause, “I have authorized our military commanders in Iraq to confront Tehran’s murderous activities.”
The President’s position, and its corollary—that, if many of America’s problems in Iraq are the responsibility of Tehran, then the solution to them is to confront the Iranians—have taken firm hold in the Administration. This summer, the White House, pushed by the office of Vice-President Dick Cheney, requested that the Joint Chiefs of Staff redraw long-standing plans for a possible attack on Iran, according to former officials and government consultants. The focus of the plans had been a broad bombing attack, with targets including Iran’s known and suspected nuclear facilities and other military and infrastructure sites. Now the emphasis is on “surgical” strikes on Revolutionary Guard Corps facilities in Tehran and elsewhere, which, the Administration claims, have been the source of attacks on Americans in Iraq. What had been presented primarily as a counter-proliferation mission has been reconceived as counterterrorism.
The shift in targeting reflects three developments. First, the President and his senior advisers have concluded that their campaign to convince the American public that Iran poses an imminent nuclear threat has failed (unlike a similar campaign before the Iraq war), and that as a result there is not enough popular support for a major bombing campaign. The second development is that the White House has come to terms, in private, with the general consensus of the American intelligence community that Iran is at least five years away from obtaining a bomb. And, finally, there has been a growing recognition in Washington and throughout the Middle East that Iran is emerging as the geopolitical winner of the war in Iraq. Read the rest of this entry »
An interesting UK-based ITV documentary narrated by Melvin Bragg about how Jesus is viewed in Islam. Most of us know Jesus is viewed as an important prophet in Islam rather than the Son of God as he is in Christianity; other than this difference in the recognition of divinity, this documentary reveals other fascinating facts about how Jesus and other prominent biblical figures such as Mary are viewed by Muslims. The Qur’an does affirm the Immaculate Conception, for example, and there has been a major Iranian film on Mary’s life.
Directed and produced by Irshad Ashraf. R/T: 45mins (disregard the eye-rollingly sensationalist first 45 seconds—otherwise its a great bridge-builder).
UPDATED: many thanks to Jenny Tonge for kindly responding to a query about full Hansard transcript availability which has allowed me to feature more of her address. Parliamentary debate transcripts at both the House of Commons and House of Lords can be found on the Hansard link here by date and member name.
Liberal-Democrat peer Jenny Tonge spoke out for justice in Palestine in a House of Lords speech last month, predictably earning the ire of Israel-apologists (see J-Post)
Here’s an excerpt of her speech:
The Palestinians have been brought to their knees. A cultured and well educated society with high skill levels has been reduced to a third-world country. The statistics are there for all to see. If noble Lords do not believe me or any of the other speakers, the Select Committee for International Development in the other place produced a good report this year. I hope that noble Lords will read it. It tells of injustice—injustice to Palestinians.
The new Government talks of rebuilding the economy in Palestine and of getting the Palestinians back to work, which is very welcome. But how will they do that with road blocks, checkpoints and Bantustans divided by settler-only roads? How can an economy work in this situation?
Even education is being destroyed as children are terrorised by raids on their schools. Exams in Nablus, for example, were disrupted only last week by the IDF. An unskilled and illiterate generation will emerge, capable of very little except low-wage labour. The economy cannot be rebuilt unless Israel changes its policies.
Therefore, the problem remains—how do we persuade Israel to change? We want Israel to be a secure and prosperous state—and I say that sincerely. How can anyone in Israel believe that the present situation will give them what they want, long-term security. I am not anti-Semitic, but I am appalled by the racist, apartheid state of Israel. I use the word “apartheid” in its literal sense—it means separation—because that is what is going on.
Policies of the western countries towards Israel must change. Israel must be made to understand. We must consider trade sanctions and boycotts, if necessary, to make that country obey international law. The present situation is a disaster for Palestinians. It is a disaster for Israel. It is a disaster for the whole world. It has to change.
Thank you, Jenny Tonge. Hope you are holding up well with the usual character smears and pathetic denigration this kind of speaking truth to power elicits from the Likudnik ideologues. Of course, unlike them, Dr Tonge has actually been to Gaza and seen conditions for herself. Dr Tonge, who cites her proudest achievement in parliament since 2001 as “highlighting the plight of the Palestinians under occupation by Israel”, is a treasure.
In other positive developments, Ha’aretz reports that Germans have protested the sale of food from West Bank settlements. Read the rest of this entry »
Depleted uranium as a direct result of US-UK-Israeli neocon policy is wreaking ruin over Iraq, infecting civilians and especially children and lowering their immunity to other diseases such as the measles, infecting livestock, the air and environment, and the serving soldiers as well.
From the web-video intro:
1,000-2,000 TONS DU Spread Over Iraq’s Cities: The President of the United States, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and the Prime Minister of Israel must acknowledge and accept responsibility for the willful use of illegal uranium munitions—their own “dirty bombs”—resulting in adverse health and environmental effects. A shell coated with depleted uranium pierces a tank like a hot knife through butter, exploding on impact into a charring inferno. As tank armour, it repels artillery assaults. It also leaves behind a fine radioactive dust with a half-life of 4.5 billion years. More on DU: http://www.apfn.org/apfn/DU.htm
18 minutes
Can you imagine a similar TV ad campaign now?
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Another valuable and urgent piece on Somalia with thanks to Amina Mire for sending it. She writes about the underexamined role of China’s scramble for Africa’s natural resources, in addition to African Union (AU) troops in Somalia serving as a mercenary army in service to foreign forces determined to “gain ownership over Somalia’s unexplored natural resources and install a puppet US friendly regime”.
“A Prayer of Shame:” In Somalia, It’s The Blood Money, Stupid!
Africa’s Leaders Are Shoulder to Shoulder and Hips on Hands with Meles Zinawi..1 Read the rest of this entry »
Thanks to Agent 99 for pointing out the updated link, the first location of which had lapsed (also updated on audio page). I’ve taken the opportunity to upload this talk again by Johan Galtung which I attended last year. His hybrid-but-mostly-Norwegian accent may make him sound like Inspector Clousseau as our friend notes, but his reflections are always worthwhile and enriching. (RT 81 m)
Galtung talks about enacting a positive peace through meaningful dialogue, about spiritual syncretism and an alliance of civilisations, with reference to the Danish cartoon controversy and other topical conflicts. This elder spokesman and founder of peace studies delivered this address at the Brisbane Festival of Ideas on the 31 March 2006.
Relevant links:
TRANSCEND Peace and Development NetworkFurther links: Conflict transformation
Tariq Ali addressed a Sydney Ideas audience this week, with a lecture on lessons for the Middle East from Latin America, entitled Latin America and the Arab World: Resistance and Occupation. While one region serves to some degree as a good model of regional autonomy and has broken away from becoming a laboratory of neoliberalism, the other is struggling less successfully, so far, against the designs of neoconservatism.
RT: 1h 36 m, Tariq Ali starts 6 minutes in after short introduction; Q and A follows the initial 50 minute address.
The Melbourne Age has compiled an interesting Top Ten Digital Cities List, and 6 of the ‘tech capitals’ of the world are in Asia.
The top 10 digital cities are ranked according to the following criteria: Broadband speed, cost and availability; Wireless internet access; Technology adoption; Government support for technology; Education and technology culture and Future potential. Arjun Ramachandran writes:
Asian cities scored well on broadband speed and availability, mainly because they have concentrated populations in a small land area. Seoul’s excellent wireless coverage, along with government programs such as Seoul Digital City, gave the city top billing.
Stockholm, San Francisco and Silicon Valley lack the affordability of fast broadband in Asian cities but enjoy high levels of education and a culture in favour of technology. In New York, a leading financial hub, access to wireless hotspots is also exceedingly good.
Tallinn and Beijing are cities to watch. Tallinn’s government already leads the way in e-government, while Beijing continues to roll out technology through the city ahead of the Beijing Olympics.
Upon completion, New Songdo will likely be the ultimate digital city. Even as a work in progress, it makes the list.
TOP 10 DIGITAL CITIES
1. Seoul, Korea
2. Singapore
3. Tokyo, Japan
4. Hong Kong
5. Stockholm, Sweden
6. San Francisco and Silicon Valley, USA
7. Tallinn, Estonia
8. New York, USA
9. Beijing, China
10. New Songdo City
New Songdo City?, I hear you ask. As well you might — New Songdo City is a $31 billion city-in-the-making 60 km south of Seoul. Due for completion in 2010, it is an ambitious development on 600 hectares of reclaimed land that will be one of the world’s first cities in which all information systems are linked. One wonders: where do the Luddites go?
Read the Age article for more.
Conversely, also check out this interesting and important overview article on the global Digital Divide featured at Ben’s place
