New aid convoy to leave Scotland in coming weeks
by Saed Bannoura
A new convoy carrying medical and humanitarian supplies will be leaving Scotland in the coming weeks heading to the Gaza Strip. Scottish parliamentarian, Pauline McNeill,will be heading the convoy.
Pauline McNeill has been campaigning for peace and justice in Palestine since she was a student leader in the 1980s.
Hamas official hails British MP George Galloway as ‘hero’ in Gaza
By The Associated Press
A Hamas official on Monday hailed controversial British MP George Galloway as a "hero" upon the lawmaker’s arrival in the Gaza Strip.
Galloway entered Gaza from Egypt with an aid caravan. About 50 British volunteers and 100 vehicles carrying food, clothing and medicine passed through Egypt’s Rafah border crossing with him, a Hamas border official said.
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A public stoning in Germany
Raymond Deane
Hermann Dierkes is a respected politician with an honorable record of campaigning for social and political justice in the German Rhineland city of Duisburg. He represented his party Die Linke (The Left Party) on Duisburg City Council, campaigning tirelessly on anti-racist and anti-fascist issues. Most recently, he was his party’s candidate for the post of Lord Mayor.
On 18 February 2009 Dierkes addressed a public meeting on the question of Palestine. To the question of how to take action against the injustice being suffered by Palestinians, he responded that the recent World Social Forum in Belem, Brazil had proposed an arms embargo, sanctions and the boycott of Israeli exports. He added: "We should no longer accept that in the name of the Holocaust and with the support of the government of the Federal Republic [of Germany] such grave violations of human rights can be perpetrated and tolerated … Everyone can help strengthen pressure for a different politics, for example by boycotting Israeli products."
Dispatch publishes major probe into Somali killings
by Kenichi Serino
The articles are being published online concurrently with the print edition of the newspaper, under the series headline “Dying to live”. The newspaper’s lead story, headlined “Why I killed”, is based on an interview with a man jailed for the murder of Somalis.
In a front-page editorial, the paper wrote South Africans were giving the lie to the constitutional promise that the country belongs to all who live in it, united in diversity. "Instead, we behave like dogs snarling at a suburban gate when strangers come to call. Our series exposes the prejudice and hatred we hold in our hearts against those who are not one of ‘us’.
"Government policy is utterly inadequate, the system corrupt, and political leadership on this question is practically non-existent – and why, after all, should politicians care?" the editorial asks.
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