One Family in Gaza

One Family in Gaza from Jen Marlowe on Vimeo.

Here is one response to the video which was posted at My Catbird Seat:

"It is a beautiful video, a mythology-shattering piece both compelling and painful. Watching it brought to mind a hasbara tactic that infuriates me, the mythology surrounding incitement, specifically, the assertion by Israel that Palestinian educators and parents teach their children to hate and that is what drives Palestinian violence.

While there are undoubtedly issues with both Palestinian and Israeli textbooks, this tactic is simply noxious. Throughout the telling, the father of this family reflects on how this experience and fear have been ingrained in his children’s blood – this is of course the greatest source of incitement, the killing and traumatizing of civilians, the subjugation of generations, the demolitions of homes and land, and the killing, always the killing.

Until now, I had not seen nor heard this tactic adequately exposed."

DVDs are available on a sliding scale from $10-$50.

$10: discounted price for an individual DVD (for those who need a discount)
$15 regular price for an individual DVD
$30: discounted price for an institutional/educational DVD (for those who need a discount)
$50 regular price for an institutional/educational DVD (or for a public screening)
Proceeds from all DVD sales will go to the Awajah family in Gaza. Make checks out to “donkeysaddle projects” and include a note to indicate the number of DVDs you want, and whether they are individual or institutional DVDs. Include the address to which they should be sent.

Mail checks to: Jen Marlowe, 926 N. 72nd Street, Seattle, WA 98103. In the info line write “For A Family in Gaza”.

For more information or to purchase a DVD or organize a screening, please contact donkeysaddle@gmail.com

Students march as UK parliament says yes to fees hike

By a narrow margin British members of Parliament have approved a controversial plan to raise university tuition fees as thousands of students continue to protest in the streets of London.

The student fee hike has been approved by a reduced majority of 21 votes. Meanwhile, the protestors continued to demonstrate in front of the Parliament. The center of London around Westminster and the Parliament has been closed for traffic for almost the entire day.

The students started to gather at noon and marched toward the Parliament. One of the largest marches ever in London saw tens of thousands of demonstrators gather in the capital’s center. Protests are also taking place across the rest of the country.

Members of the RMT union, one of the most powerful trade unions in the country, have joined the student protests.

Israel faces child-abuse claims

Al Jazeera speaks to Palestinian child who says he was abused by Israeli interrogators.

31 May 2010



An international children's rights charity has said it has evidence that Palestinian children held in Israeli custody have been subjected to sexual abuse in an effort to extract confessions from them.

The Geneva-based Defence for Children International (DCI) has collected 100 sworn affadavits from Palestinian children who said they were mistreated by their Israeli captors.

Fourteen of the statements say they were sexually abused or threatened with sexual assault to pressure them into confessions.

Al Jazeera's correspondent in the West Bank, Nour Odeh, met one of the children, identified only as "N", who said he suffered sexual abuse at the hands of his interrogators.

Dismissive attitude

DCI officials say that when they complain to the Israeli military about the treatment of the children, their allegations are dismissed as untrue.

Now the organisation has submitted its evidence to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture to try and increase pressure on Israel to stamp out the alleged abuse.

According to our correspondent, Israel has two sets of laws: one for its citizens and another for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

All Palestinians, minors and adults, are tried in military courts.

Children between the ages of 12 and 16 are tried in Israeli military courts as children.

From 16 years onwards, Palestinians are tried as adults.

Human-rights groups have criticised Israel's detention policy with regard to children, which denies them access to their families or lawyers during the detention process.

Palestinian children arrested by Israel are not permitted to see their lawyers until they are in court.

There are currently 340 Palestinian children in Israeli jails, mostly convicted of throwing stones.

An Israeli military order stipulates that stone throwing carries a maximum jail sentence of 20 years, and there is no appeals process for decisions by Israeli military courts.

Israeli reaction

The Israeli military, in a written response, rejected DCI's allegations, saying the detention of minors is consistent with international law.

It said all court hearings involving minors in the West Bank were conducted before a special military court which specialises in dealing with issues pertaining to minors.

"Allegations regarding violence in the course of questioning should be raised during the trial or in a formal complaint," the military said.

"Regarding the presence of a lawyer during questioning of a minor, the Youth Law does not require such a presence, even within the state of Israel."

Bana Shoughry-Badarne, head of the legal department at the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, an Israeli human-rights group, says there is a huge issue of impunity in Israel with regard to complaints against the security services.

"Our latest report, from 2009, shows that from the 600 complaints that were submitted to Israel's attorney-general, all of them were dismissed," she told Al Jazeera from Jerusalem.

"There was not even one criminal investigation."

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/05/201053082239109343.html

Shooting Palestinian workers

B'Tselem - November 3, 2010

Over the past year, B'Tselem has documented eleven cases in which soldiers fired at and wounded Palestinian civilians working in areas near the perimeter fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel. In these eleven cases, the gunfire struck civilians who, because of the lack of jobs in the Strip, were compelled to earn a living by collecting building materials for recycling. The lack of jobs has grown since Operation Cast Lead and following the continuing siege on the Strip.

In none of the cases was an attempt made to arrest the workers, so it is unreasonable to think they were suspected of engaging in actions aimed at harming security forces or Israeli citizens; rather, the gunfire was intended, apparently, to remove the workers from areas the army considers no-go zones. In addition to the eleven documented cases, B'Tselem and other human rights organizations know of dozens of other cases.

These cases join a series of instances documented by B'Tselem over recent years in which soldiers have fired at farmers and demonstrators in the vicinity of the perimeter fence, even when they did not present any danger. On 28 April 2010, Ahmad Dib, a young Palestinian, died of his wounds after being shot by the Israeli security forces on the border of the Gaza Strip while he was participating in a demonstration close to the perimeter fence.

Collecting gravel and other building materials is carried out primarily among the ruins of the Erez industrial zone near Erez Crossing. Following the disengagement, in 2005, the army classified the approximately 150-meter strip running from the perimeter fence along the border, which is situated inside the Strip, a no-go zone. After Operation Cast Lead, the army distributed leaflets stating the no-go zone had been increased to 300 meters from the fence. The leaflets state that, “Anybody who approaches endangers his life,” and that measures will be taken against persons who enter, “including by gunfire,” regardless of the person’s identity or actions. Contrary to the High Court of Justice’s ruling, in HCJ 741/05, that “special security areas” must be clearly marked, the no-go zones in the Gaza Strip are not marked in any way. B'Tselem’s investigation has revealed that some of the workers in the area have never seen such a leaflet; in any case, some of them are illiterate.

The sweeping declaration of extensive areas as no-go zones in which the army may open fire at any person found there, even if the person poses no threat, is unlawful. Indiscriminate firing at persons who pose no danger to security forces or to Israeli civilians breaches the central principle of international humanitarian law, the distinction between combatants and civilians.

Furthermore, more than half of the Palestinians injured in the eleven cases were shot when they were more than 300 meters from the fence, and therefore in an area outside the army’s declared no-go zone. In practice, any person working in areas along the perimeter fence, even if outside the no-go zone, risks his life.

.. Full article

The Bible: A Manual for Genocide

Gildas Sapiens - 02 Nov 2010

The philosophical underpinning of Israeli policy:

The Bible: A Manual for Genocide from Gildas Sapiens on Vimeo.

CBC – Global Warming Doomsday Called Off

CBC | 2007

Democracy Now! finally discovers that the War On Terror is a sham