Boy, Five, Begs Soldiers Not To Take His Dad

"Diamonds Are Forever But So Are Cockroaches"

"Diamonds are a girl's best friend." Really? Whoever made that statement, had not met this girl. There are two primary diamond criticisms that served as obstacles to my wanting one.

1) "Blood diamonds"
Blood diamonds are also referred to as conflict diamonds. The term is used to describe diamonds that are mined in war zones and are often sold to fund these war efforts. As if that weren't bad enough for a peacenik like myself, there is more. There are also serious allegations that conflict diamonds are mined unethically, which includes concerns of child labor and worker abuse. The solution? The Kimberly Process, maybe. This process was put into place to ensure greater transparency in diamond mining and selling. Ideally, what it would have done was certify diamonds that were mined ethically and outside of conflict zones. Unfortunately, there were holes in the process and there have been numerous allegations about the access to loopholes.

"Some say the Kimberley Process amounted to little more than a public relations stunt for the diamond industry, and recent reports by Global Witness and other NGOs have found little evidence of genuine attempts to deliver on industry commitments."
More at: Global Policy

2) Apartheid Israel
Is there something disconcerting about the fact that the Apartheid State of Israel participates in the Kimberly Process?

Apartheid Israel is one of the leading world producers in cut and polished diamonds, and most customers won't be able to distinguish a diamond cut in Israel versus one cut elsewhere. According to BDS activists, the very same issues "blood diamond" activists are concerned with are happening in Israel as well. Revenues from Israel's diamond industry fund genocide against Palestinians.

"The WDC fails to mention that the much more lucrative, high-value end of the diamond industry is the main artery of the Israeli economy, accounting for more than 30 percent of Israel's total manufacturing exports worth nearly $20 billion in 2008 ("Trade Performance HS: Exports of Israel" accessed 25 March 2010) (See Figures 3 and 4). By comparison, the budget for Israel's Ministry of Defense was $16 billion in 2008."
More at: BDS Movement

So what's a girl to do? What alternatives are there to satisfy one's desire for pretty things, but ensure that we didn't start out on our life together with blood on our hands?

While there are several options available, we chose Moissanite.

"If Only the Uighurs Were Buddhist and China Was Israel"

From Mona Eltahawy's piece, titled "If Only the Uighurs Were Buddhist and China Was Israel," at HuffPo.:

Following the news that did make it out of Xinjiang, I thought if only the Uighurs were Buddhists like the Tibetans with whom the Uighurs share almost mirror grievances against Beijing. If they were Buddhists, Bjork, Sting, Bono and all those other one-named saviors of the world's poor and oppressed would have held "Free Xinjiang" concerts already. But the West continues to largely ignore the Uighurs. Maybe they're not as cuddly as the Tibetans or their leader the Dalai Lama.

AND

That's precisely the problem -- the Uighurs are no Palestinians and the Chinese are not Israel. Many Muslims -- Arab Muslims especially -- pay attention only when the U.S. and Israel are behaving badly. Palestine followed by Iraq always take precedence leaving little room for other Muslim grievances.

Look at Darfur, where the suffering goes ignored because those who are creating the misery are neither Americans nor Israelis but instead fellow Arab Muslim Sudanese.
China is coincidentally one of Sudan's biggest trade partners and sells Khartoum plenty of weapons which Darfuris complain are used against them. So it's unlikely Sudanese President Omar Bashir, who declared himself the guardian of Islam in 2007 by putting on trial a British teacher for insulting Muslims when she named a class teddy bear "Mohammed", will condemn Chinese oppression of Uighurs.

Perhaps Israel can save the day and invade Xinjiang.

Additional stories on the situation:
"Mute Muslims" (Foreign Policy)
"Unrest in Xinjiang: Where's the Muslim Outrage?" (CS Monitor)

A Letter/Telephone Call from Prisoner 88794 (Cynthia McKinney)

If she runs for President in 2012, I'm voting for her AGAIN.

A LETTER FROM PRISONER 88794
Letter from an Israeli Jail
By Cynthia McKinney

This is Cynthia McKinney and I’m speaking from an Israeli prison cellblock in Ramle. [I am one of] the Free Gaza 21, human rights activists currently imprisoned for trying to take medical supplies to Gaza, building supplies - and even crayons for children, I had a suitcase full of crayons for children. While we were on our way to
Gaza the Israelis threatened to fire on our boat, but we did not turn around. The Israelis high-jacked and arrested us because we wanted to give crayons to the children in Gaza. We have been detained, and we want the people of the world to see how we have been treated just because we wanted to deliver humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza.

At the outbreak of Israel’s Operation ‘Cast Lead’ [in December 2008], I boarded a Free Gaza boat with one day’s notice and tried, as the US representative in a multi-national delegation, to deliver 3 tons of medical supplies to an already besieged and ravaged Gaza.

During Operation Cast Lead, U.S.-supplied F-16’s rained hellfire on a trapped people. Ethnic cleansing became full scale outright genocide. U.S.-supplied white phosphorus, depleted uranium, robotic technology, DIME weapons, and cluster bombs - new weapons creating injuries never treated before by Jordanian and Norwegian doctors. I was later told by doctors who were there in Gaza during Israel’s onslaught that Gaza had become Israel’s veritable weapons testing laboratory, people used to test and improve the kill ratio of their weapons.

The world saw Israel’s despicable violence thanks to al-Jazeera Arabic and Press TV that broadcast in English. I saw those broadcasts live and around the clock, not from the USA but from Lebanon, where my first attempt to get into Gaza had ended because the Israeli military rammed the boat I was on in international water ... It’s a miracle that I’m even here to write about my second encounter with the Israeli
military, again a humanitarian mission aborted by the Israeli military.

The Israeli authorities have tried to get us to confess that we committed a crime ... I am now known as Israeli prisoner number 88794. How can I be in prison for collecting crayons to kids?

Zionism has surely run out of its last legitimacy if this is what it does to people who believe so deeply in human rights for all that they put their own lives on the line for someone else’s children. Israel is the fullest expression of Zionism, but if Israel fears for its security because Gaza’s children have crayons then not only has Israel lost its last shred of legitimacy, but Israel must be declared a failed state.

I am facing deportation from the state that brought me here at gunpoint after commandeering our boat. I was brought to Israel against my will. I am being held in this prison because I had a dream that Gaza’s children could color & paint, that Gaza’s wounded could be healed, and that Gaza’s bombed-out houses could be rebuilt.

But I’ve learned an interesting thing by being inside this prison. First of all, it’s incredibly black: populated mostly by Ethiopians who also had a dream ... like my cellmates, one who is pregnant. They are all are in their twenties. They thought they were coming to the Holy Land. They had a dream that their lives would be better ... The once proud, never colonized Ethiopia [has been thrown into] the back pocket of the United States, and become a place of torture, rendition, and occupation. Ethiopians must free their country because superpower politics [have] become more important than human rights and self-determination.

My cellmates came to the Holy Land so they could be free from the exigencies of superpower politics. They committed no crime except to have a dream. They came to Israel because they thought that Israel held promise for them. Their journey to Israel through Sudan and Egypt was arduous. I can only imagine what it must have been like for them. And it wasn’t cheap. Many of them represent their family’s best
collective efforts for self-fullfilment. They made their way to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. They got their yellow paper of identification. They got their certificate for police protection. They are refugees from tragedy, and they made it to Israel only after they arrived Israel told them “there is no UN in Israel.”

The police here have license to pick them up & suck them into the black hole of a farce for a justice system. These beautiful, industrious and proud women represent the hopes of entire families. The idea of Israel tricked them and the rest of us. In a widely propagandized slick marketing campaign, Israel represented itself as a
place of refuge and safety for the world’s first Jews and Christian. I too believed that marketing and failed to look deeper.

The truth is that Israel lied to the world. Israel lied to the families of these young women. Israel lied to the women themselves who are now trapped in Ramle’s detention facility. And what are we to do? One of my cellmates cried today. She has been here for 6 months. As an American, crying with them is not enough. The policy of the United States must be better, and while we watch President Obama give 12.8
trillion dollars to the financial elite of the United States it ought now be clear that hope, change, and ‘yes we can’ were powerfully presented images of dignity and self-fulfilment, individually and nationally, that besieged people everywhere truly believed in.

It was a slick marketing campaign as slickly put to the world and to the voters of America as was Israel’s marketing to the world. It tricked all of us but, more tragically, these young women.

We must cast an informed vote about better candidates seeking to represent us. I have read and re-read Dr. Martin Luther King Junior’s letter from a Birmingham jail. Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever imagined that I too would one day have to do so. It is clear that taxpayers in Europe and the U.S. have a lot to atone for, for what they’ve done to others around the world.

What an irony! My son begins his law school program without me because I am in prison, in my own way trying to do my best, again, for other people’s children. Forgive me, my son. I guess I’m experiencing the harsh reality which is why people need dreams. [But] I’m lucky. I will leave this place. Has Israel become the place where dreams die?

Ask the people of Palestine. Ask the stream of black and Asian men whom I see being processed at Ramle. Ask the women on my cellblock. [Ask yourself:] what are you willing to do?

Let’s change the world together & reclaim what we all need as human beings: Dignity. I appeal to the United Nations to get these women of Ramle, who have done nothing wrong other than to believe in Israel as the guardian of the Holy Land, resettled in safe homes. I appeal to the United State’s Department of State to include the plight of
detained UNHCR-certified refugees in the Israel country report in its annual human rights report. I appeal once again to President Obama to go to Gaza: send your special envoy, George Mitchell there, and to engage Hamas as the elected choice of the Palestinian people.

I dedicate this message to those who struggle to achieve a free Palestine, and to the women I’ve met at Ramle. This is Cynthia McKinney, July 2nd 2009, also known as Ramle prisoner number 88794.

---
Cynthia McKinney is a former U.S. Congresswoman, Green Party presidential candidate, and an outspoken advocate for human rights and social justice. The first African-American woman to represent the state of Georgia, McKinney served six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, from 1993-2003, and from 2005-2007. She was arrested and forcibly abducted to Israel while attempting to take humanitarian and reconstruction supplies to Gaza on June 30th. For more
information, please see http://www.FreeGaza.org

Obama, Take Away the Pain in My Stomach

An open letter to Obama, from an Israeli woman:

Stop the Starvation of Gaza!

Dec 19, 2008

Senator Barbara Boxer
Constitution Avenue and 2nd Street, NE
Washington, DC 20510-0505

Dear Senator Boxer,

I join with people all over the world in condemning [apartheid] Israel's deliberate starvation of the Palestinian people in Gaza. The U.S. government sends $15 million each day to [apartheid] Israel. In addition to the military attacks against the people of Gaza, Gaza City residents are without electricity for up to 16 hours a day and half the city's residents receive water only once a week for a few hours. These are war crimes, and crimes against humanity. I demand that the United States end all funding for [apartheid] Israel.

Sincerely,

Ms. Zahra Billoo
1505 4th St Apt 203
San Francisco, CA 94158-2270

Send your own letter, it's the LEAST we can do: Act Now

Sen. Joe Biden on Apartheid Israel

Doesn't this just make the Obama ticket sound even more appealing?

Second Job

I've been toying with the idea of a second job for a while now. The non-profit legal sector pays the bills, but just barely. It likely won't work out given the weekend travels and such, but I thought I'd still check to see if I found anything worth applying to. I think I may have:

Reply to: HR@sfjcf.org
Date: 2008-07-02, 11:19AM PDT

TITLE:
[Apartheid] Israel and Jewish Peoplehood Commission Coordinator

REPORTS TO:
[Apartheid] Israel and Jewish Peoplehood Commission Senior Planner

GENERAL DESCRIPTION:
Assist with management and coordination of the daily activities of the Jewish Community Federation’s [Apartheid] Israel and Jewish Peoplehood Commission operations, including the Federation’s [Apartheid] Israel Office . Provide administrative support for the Senior Planner, staff and lay leadership of the Peoplehood Commission.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES INCLUDE:

General Administrative Assistance:

• Word processing: write drafts of meeting minutes, memos, letters, grant summaries, mail-merge, labels
• Mailings: prepare and mail correspondence to commission members
• Filing: keep files organized/accessible for supervisor; create new files and filing systems when required; keep existing files current; file incoming/newly generated material as appropriate.
• Phone reception: provide information/referral over phone; perform switchboard relief when necessary.

Assist with Communications and Coordination with JCF’s [Apartheid] Israel Office:

• Faxing or preparing emails to the [Apartheid] Israel Office as needed for ongoing communication.
• Filing and tracking correspondence from [Apartheid] Israel Office related to accounting and expenses.

Assist with Management of JCF San Francisco [Apartheid] Israel and Jewish Peoplehood Commission:

• Maintaining close communication with Accounting Department. Set up for meetings including ordering catering, creating and maintaining name cards, entering meeting set up forms, supervising meeting set up.
• Take notes at meetings and draft minutes.
• Help to draft operating budget

Visit Coordination

• Help to develop and coordinate itineraries for overseas visitors
• Help to develop and coordinate itineraries for consultation visits overseas
• Staff overseas visits
• Responsible for overseas visits follow-up including paying invoices, billing participants

PostingID: 740472422

Any volunteers to help me tailor/polish my resume and draft a cover letter?

Happy Birthday!

"Happy" 60 Years of Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, Mass Murder, Rape, War Crimes, Oppression, and Illegal Occupation!

May 15, 2008 marks the 60th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, when Palestinians were forced from their homes and ethnically cleansed en masse in a premeditated and organized campaign carried out by armed Zionist militia.

Source: International Middle East Media Center

The events of 1947-49, and specifically 1948 itself, are known as Al-Nakba, the Catastrophe. It was the time of the forced expulsion of at least 750,000 Palestinians by Zionist militias, but has the catastrophe now finished? Another year has now passed, this one marks the 60th since May 1948, and the pain is no less now than it was all those years ago. Once again 15 May has come around without answers and justice. Still millions wait for their rights. Still millions are forced to live crowded together in the refugee camps of Palestine and surrounding countries. But while some are marking this as the 60th year since the Nakba, should we not be marking this as the 60th year of the ongoing Nakba?

Source: Redress Information & Analysis

Sixty years on, the state of Israel has given the world the Palestinian Nakba, the killing of Palestinian children for sport, the targeted assassinations of innocent Palestinians, the Apartheid Wall, and house demolition. Israel has given the world the most racist state in modern history, characterised by laws for Jews and discriminatory laws for none-Jews. Israel has given the world Zionist Jews who appropriating the Nazi Holocaust for shameful ends and too often tried to tar any legitimate criticism of Israel with the cliché of “anti-Semitism”. Israel has also given the world war criminals such as David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, Ariel Sharon, Ehud Barack, Shimon Peres, and Isaac Shamir, to mention just a few achievements.

Source: Counter Currents

There is Palestinian Blood on Our Motorola Cell Phones

To whom it may concern:

I am deeply disappointed in Motorola’s response to the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre’s invitation to respond to the US Campaign to End the [Apartheid] Israeli Occupation allegations that Motorola’s products and services to Israel are in breach of international law and violate human rights.

Rather than refute any of their carefully documented allegations, outlined in a letter to CEO, Greg Brown (dated February 26, 2008), of your corporation’s profiteering from [apartheid] Israeli military occupation and human rights abuses, you choose to shroud yourself in empty, moralistic pieties of “ethical business conduct”. A corporation which is truly committed to human rights and ethical business conduct would take these allegations seriously, not sweep them under the rug as you did in your letter. You have made clear that your corporation has chosen to continue its morally bankrupt position of profiteering from and supporting Israel’s illegal military occupation and human rights abuses rather than acting to prevent future ill-gotten profits. Failure to act once a corporation becomes aware of immoral corporate practices and behavior in this case at the very least constitutes support for violence and at worst, complicity in practices of apartheid and military occupation, collective punishment of an entire group of people, and the destruction of any viable attempt for a sustained peace in Palestine.

I ask Motorola to respond to the allegations outlined below:

Fuses for aerial devices and munitions-Motorola [apartheid] Israel:
a fully-owned subsidiary of Motorola Incorporated—produces the 980 Low Altitude Proximity Fuse for the MK-80 series of high explosive bombs. On July 30, 2006, during its war on Lebanon, the [apartheid] Israeli Air Force dropped an MK-84 high-explosive bomb on an apartment building in Qana, Lebanon killing at least 28 civilians, many of whom were children.

Can you explain how this does not violate Motorola’s Human Rights policy?

Communication devices for military occupation:
The $100 million contract used to develop and supply the ‘Mountain Rose’ secure cell phone communication system to the [apartheid] Israeli military directly enhances the coordination and monitoring capabilities of the occupying forces in their illegal military operations in the Palestinian territories. [Apartheid] Israel routinely engages in gross patters of human rights violations in its military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, including but not limited to the killing and injuring of civilians, torture, extra-judicial assassinations, the deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure, acts of collective punishment and economic warfare.

Can you clarify how this does not violate Motorola’s own Code of Business Conduct www.motorola.com/code?

Radar detection devices for [apartheid] Israel’s illegal Wall:
Motorola Israel supplies Israel with the Wide Area Surveillance System (WAAS) to monitor and maintain the illegal wall/fence barrier it has constructed in violation of the July 2004 International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion.

How does this honor the spirit of Motorola’s own Human Rights Policy www.motorola.com/humanrights policy?

Radar Detection devices for [apartheid] Israel’s Illegal Settlements:
Motorola Incorporated set up advanced radar detection devices and thermal cameras in 47 [apartheid] Israeli settlements. According to the Fourth Geneva Conventions, Article 49, it is considered a war crime for an Occupying Power to transfer its civilian population into an Occupied Territory. Motorola Incorporated provision of these systems helps to entrench Israel’s illegal settlements on expropriated Palestinian territory, in direct violation of international law.

Finally, can you describe how Motorola’s Code of Business Conduct Expectations for Suppliers Policy www.motorola.com/supplierexpectations- is not being violated?

It is clear from the US Campaign’s research and findings that Motorola [apartheid] Israel, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Motorola Inc, profits from human rights violations. And although we welcome Motorola’s proactive efforts to review policies for corporate responsibility and accountability, your company’s support for Israel’s human rights abuses negates attempts to establishing a just and lasting peace.

If Motorola is serious about serving as a responsible corporate citizen, then all of Motorola’s activities both in the United States and abroad, including [apartheid] Israel/Palestine, must adhere to a human rights policy that promotes human rights and international law, not contribute to their violations.

In your response, Motorola stated that your Code of Business Conduct is currently under review and the process includes studying internationally recognized human rights standards. Can you give us a specific date as to when you plan to complete your review?

Furthermore, how does your corporation plan to change your practices should your internal investigation reveal that your corporate practices enable the violation of internationally recognized human rights standards?

I request that Motorola respond substantively to allegations of war profiteering and financially benefiting from [apartheid] Israel’s illegal military occupation.

I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,
Zahra Billoo

Send your own letter ASAP: Democracy in Action

Taxes

My paperwork is sitting with the family accountant. He's got my W-2, my 1099-MISC and a 1098-T as well. As a result, my conscience is killing me. I'm filing taxes for the purposes of abiding by the law of the land, but dang it by doing so I'm perpetuating my role as a silent partner in war crimes.

The US Campaign to End the [Apartheid] Israeli Occupation says: "in 2007, the United States gave Israel $2.34 billion in military aid to enforce its illegal military occupation and siege of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. That amounts to each individual tax payer giving on average $8.56 to [apartheid] Israel to commit its human rights abuses."

Mind you, this is just Apartheid Israel. Imagine if we added the cost of imprisoning folks for non-violent crimes (in this country), Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. etc.

A Picture/Drawing is Worth a Thousand Words

Talking Points on the Gaza Drama

(Hijab tip: American Muslims for Palestine)

We call on the US government, as a contracting party to the 4th Geneva Convention, to take immediate steps to end the on-going War Crimes directed at Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip and the West bank.

We are distressed by the news of the continuing violence and killing directed at the civilian population in the Gaza Strip and the imposition of an illegal blockade on all border crossings. Since the beginning of the year, the [apartheid] Israeli actions included cutting off supplies for electricity and fuel, which renders the whole human services infrastructure in Gaza Strip in great impairment and itself constitute a crime against humanity. This action as well as the continued disproportionate use of violence is a major violation of the 4th Geneva Convention. [Apartheid] Israel is responsible for the well-being and safety of all occupied civilians, including the Gaza Strip.

In his most recent statement Professor John Dugard, the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories, called [apartheid] Israeli government's actions "serious war crimes" for which its political and military officials should be prosecuted and punished. The killing of civilians violates, he said, "the strict prohibition on collective punishment contained in the Fourth Geneva Convention. It also violates one of the basic principles of international humanitarian law that military action must distinguish between military targets and civilian targets." Indeed, the very legal framework invoked by the Israeli government to carry out this illegal and immoral act - declaring Gaza a "hostile entity" within a "conflict short of war" – has no basis or standing in international law.

We call on the US government, as a signatory of the 4th Geneva Convention, to act immediately to put a stop to [apartheid] Israel's actions and, revive the diplomatic process, to end all attacks on civilians, including the continuing demolition of Palestinian homes at an alarming rate and building of settlements. As we mark the 60 anniversary of the Nikba (the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine) we are reminded of the continued dispossession and violence directed at Palestinian refugees and their families, a fact that must be addressed as we deal with the current unfolding war crimes.

1. Under International law and standing UN conventions, destroying a people in part or in full is considered ethnic cleansing.
2. The escalation in Gaza was forewarned by [apartheid] Israel's deputy defense minister Matan Vilnai of a "greater Shoah" the Hebrew work for the Nazi Holocaust.
3. The full siege of Gaza is leading to deaths due to lack of access to medical essentials, sickness, lack of sanitation, lack of access to basic resources that are there and protected as basic human rights.
4. [Apartheid] Israel is the occupying power and uses air, sea and land US made weapons to bomb civilians in one of the most densely populated areas in the world, a clear violations of rules of engagement in armed conflicts.
5. Palestinians have the right to defend themselves. This right is protected by International Law.
6. Palestinians dying in Gaza were forced out by [apartheid] Israel, forcefully and illegally in an effort to ethnically cleanse Palestine. Now [apartheid] Israel is killing them inside the refugee camps.
7. Peace can only be achieved when Israeli apartheid is ended and Palestinians are granted their national, political and civil rights, as well as the right to return.
8. As of March 4th, 2008, [apartheid] Israel killed 128 Palestinians, injured 350, and 28 of those killed are children, the youngest being a 20 day old infant.
   
   

Hamas Fighters Battle On

To Israel and its allies, Abu Mohammed and his comrades are Jew-hating terrorists. But Abu Mohammed sees himself on a mission from God to rescue his people from 60 years of misery as refugees since the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948.

Full Story: Reuters

If You're Going to Insist on Voting for Obama . . .

. . . as a responsible voter, you should at least attempt to hold him accountable.

ACTION ALERT:
Call the Obama Campaign: "Understand" [Apartheid]Israel's starvation

THE UN SAYS:

• Israel is allowing only 41% of Gaza's food requirements

• Israel grants only 1 in 7 patients access to urgent treatment outside Gaza

• Israel denies medication and hospital supplies to Gaza

• Israel is not allowing enough fuel to treat and pump clean water in Gaza

• Israel's cruelty has caused more than 70 deaths of untreated Gaza patients since June

BARACK OBAMA SAYS: "We have to understand why [apartheid] Israel is forced (sic) to do this"

PLEASE CALL THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN TO SAY YOU ARE OUTRAGED!
(866) 675-2008

TALKING POINTS:

• Denying food to 1.5 million civilians is a crime! It is irresponsible for Obama to encourage it.

• Denying medicine to sick and dying people is a crime. It is NOT self defense.

• [Apartheid] Israel's actions are collective punishment. Why does Obama not condemn it?

• Denying food, medicine and other essential supplies does nothing to harm fighters or the Hamas government in Gaza. It only harms civilians, one half of whom are children. Does Obama consider them disposable?

Obama's callous defense of [apartheid] Israel's cruelty deserves your action. Presidential candidates are sensitive to criticism. Your calls have the potential to make Palestinian rights an issue. Now is the time!

Following is the text of Obama's letter to the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Zalmay Khalilzad. A photocopy of the signed letter is at Jewish Standard.

1.23.2008

Dear Ambassador Khalilzad,

I understand that today the U.N. Security Council met regarding the situation in Gaza, and that a resolution or statement could be forthcoming from the Council in short order.

I urge you to ensure that the Security Council issue no statement and pass no resolution on this matter that does not fully condemn the rocket assault Hamas has been conducting on civilians in Southern [apartheid] Israel for over two years.

All of us are concerned about the impact of closed border crossings on Palestinian families. However, we have to understand why [apartheid] Israel is forced to do this. Gaza is governed by Hamas, which is a terrorist organization sworn to Israel's destruction, and Israeli civilians are being bombarded by rockets on an almost daily basis. That is unacceptable and [apartheid] Israel has a right to respond while seeking to minimize any impact on civilians.

The Security Council should clearly and unequivocally condemn the rocket attacks against Israel, and should make clear that [apartheid] Israel has the right to defend itself against such actions. If it cannot bring itself to make these common sense points, I urge you to ensure that it does not speak at all.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama
United States Senator

Creative Activism Makes Me Happy

Egyptian player Mohamed Abou Traika wears a tee shirt reading "Sympathize with Gaza" as he celebrates his goal 1-0 against Sudan in Kumasi 26 January 2008 during the African Cup of Nations football championship. STR/AFP/Getty Images

Three Days to the Postmark Deadline!

A Palestinian civilian has been killed and over 40 injured in an [Apartheid] Israeli missile attack that destroyed the deserted, Hamas-run interior ministry in Gaza City.

The building, destroyed on Friday, was situated in the heart of a residential neighborhood but had been vacant since it was severely damaged in a air raid two years ago.

A woman was killed and at least 46 other civilians were injured in the attack, hospital officials said.

Full Story: Al Jazeera English

How do you read that and not do something? Start with baby steps - register to vote. If you're a CA voter, you've got three days to get your application postmarked!

Election 2008 - How Will You Make Palestine Matter?

Sen. Clinton's behavior is hardly unusual among the candidates for president. Barack Obama, who expressed some sympathy for the Palestinians before he set his sights on the White House, now has little to say about their plight, and he too said little about what should have been done at Annapolis to facilitate peace. The other major contenders are ardent in their declarations of support for Israel, and none of them apparently sees a two-state solution as so urgent that they should press both sides to reach an agreement. As Zbigniew Brzezinski, a former U.S. national security advisor and now a senior advisor to Obama, noted, "The presidential candidates don't see any payoff in addressing the Israel-Palestinian issue." But they do see a significant political payoff in backing Israel to the hilt, even when it is pursuing a policy -- colonizing the West Bank -- that is morally and strategically bankrupt.

Full Story: LA Times

So tell me: have you, as a self-proclaimed supporter of the Palestinian people, at least registered to vote in the upcoming elections?

Al-Awda Statement On Annapolis Conference

For Immediate Release
November 26, 2007

Al-Awda Statement On Annapolis Conference

With the upcoming US-sponsored international conference in Annapolis MD, Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, reiterates once again that a just and lasting peace can only be achieved with the return of all Palestinians to their original homes, towns, and villages, with full restitution of all of their confiscated and destroyed property, and compensation. The Palestinian Arab people, regardless of their religious affiliation, are indigenous to Palestine. Therefore, they are entitled to live anywhere in their homeland Palestine which encompasses present-day [apartheid] "Israel", the West Bank and Gaza Strip. No agreement, negotiations or parties which purport to trade away these rights or any other inalienable rights can have any legal basis and cannot bind or compel the Palestinian
people to end the struggle for the fulfillment of all of their rights.

The definition of [apartheid] Israel as a "Jewish state", granting exclusive rights to citizenship and land to any Jew from anywhere in the world, while denying the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine their fundamental rights, is part and parcel of the racism inherent in the colonialist Zionist ideology which underlies the policies and laws of the settler state of [apartheid] "Israel". Any sacrifice of any part of our land and culture will represent a blow to the entire Arab peoples and the lands of West Asia and Africa.

The US government subsidizes [apartheid] Israel's injustices with billions of dollars annually. Any Palestinian and other Arab participating in accommodation with
the Zionist and US regimes in order to promote normalization and put an end to the Palestinian liberation struggle, stand exposed naked before the world as traitors to our people.

Until all Palestinians exercise their right to return and self determination, Al-Awda calls on all its members and supporters to redouble their efforts, working for and demanding:

1. An end to all US political, military and economic aid to [apartheid] "Israel"
2. The divestment of all public and private entities from all Zionist corporations, and American corporations with subsidiaries operating within [apartheid] "Israel"
3. An end to the investment of Labor Union members' pension funds in[apartheid] "Israel"
4. The boycott of all [apartheid] "Israeli" products

The 60 year commemoration of the Palestinian Nakba will take place in May 2008. Al-Awda's 6th Annual International Convention will take place in Anaheim, California, May 16-18, 2008. The convention will be dedicated to renewing our struggle to return and to reclaim our land no matter what deals are made in Annapolis.

Until Return

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
PO Box 131352
Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA
Tel: 760-685-3243
Fax: 360-933-3568
E-mail: info@al-awda.org
WWW: http://al-awda.org

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition (PRRC) is the largest network of grassroots activists and students dedicated to Palestinian human rights. We are a not for profit tax-exempt educational and charitable 501(c)(3) organization as defined by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the United States of America. Under IRS guidelines, your donations to PRRC are tax-deductible. To make a donation, please go to http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html

Corrie v. Caterpillar: Political Question

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of CCR’s case charging Caterpillar, Inc. with aiding and abetting war crimes and other serious human rights violations on the grounds that the company provided bulldozers to Israel knowing they would be used unlawfully to demolish homes and endanger civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

[The] decision from a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals found that it did not have jurisdiction to decide the case because Caterpillar’s bulldozers were ultimately paid for with money from the United States. Because of the U.S. government’s decision to grant military assistance to Israel, any decision regarding whether Caterpillar aided and abetted war crimes would impermissibly intrude upon the executive branch’s foreign policy decisions. In today’s decision, the Court did not rule on the question of whether Caterpillar aided and abetted Israeli war crimes.

“We are extremely disappointed with the Court’s refusal to decide whether Caterpillar violated the law, essentially because it did not want to question the U.S. decision to pay for the bulldozers,” said CCR Senior Attorney Maria LaHood. “The Court has a constitutional duty to uphold the law, and the law prohibits aiding and abetting war crimes - regardless of who’s footing the bill.”

Source: The Rachel Corrie Foundation

(With respect to the concern of whether or not I will ever need to know the workings of the "political question" doctrine, the answer appears to be "YES!")

And the injustice continues . . .