Lawfare – Breaking News

MEDIA ALERT: Latest Report on Gaza Atrocities

An independent fact-finding mission of medical experts commissioned by Physicians for Human Rights – Israel and the Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS) published their final report in Brussels, early in April 2009.Two South Africans: Professor Sebastian Van As Head, Trauma Unit, Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital, Cape Town and Professor Shabbir Ahmed Wadee Head/Professor/Chief Specialist, Department of Health, Western Cape and University of Stellenbosch, Division of Forensic Medicine accompanied the 5 person mission.

In their report on the Israeli offensive in the Gaza in December 2008 / January 2009, the experts secured testimonies from 44 civilians who experienced Israeli brutality during this period. Medical staff who were prevented by the members of the Israeli Occupation Force (IOF) from carrying out their humanitarian duties were also interviewed. The population of Gaza, already weakened by the two-year economic blockade, were susceptible and defenceless and exposed.

Samples of human tissue, drinking water, vegetation a well as soil samples were collected and sent to laboratories in United Kingdom and South Africa for analysis. The finding of this assembly of experts confirms the use of unconventional and chemical weapons by the IOF in its goal to annihilate and decimate the Gazan Population.

For the full report on the findings visit our web site: www.mediareviewnet.com  and click our ‘links’ tab on main menu and view external link ‘Physicians for Human Rights-Israel’

Dr Firoz Osman
Secretary: Media Review Network

Read More »Media alert latest report on Gaza atrocities

Does anyone actually know the meaning of the term ‘Jewish state’? Wouldn’t it be better to live in a just democracy?

By Gideon Levy

(source: Haaretz)

Sometimes you really can’t see the forest for the trees. The forest of political, governmental and institutional racism in Israel is dark and deep. One particular tree in that forest happens to have Israelis all riled up: The state’s handling of the children of migrant workers. In the shade of a nearby tree is the state’s handling of these children’s parents, but this excites the Israelis somewhat less. And there are many other poisonous trees in the forest: Citizenship laws, loyalty laws, conversion laws, the razing of Bedouin villages in the Negev and even the story of the Arab delivery man who was convicted of rape for pretending to be a Jew. Each one galvanized parts of society into action, and this is well and good; but few see the big picture, and the big picture is several times worse than the sum of its components.

Enlightenment came from an unexpected direction; it was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, of all people, who accurately defined the problem. In deciding on these children’s future, he said, the cabinet is torn between humanitarian considerations on one hand and Zionist considerations on the other. The prime minister of Israel himself presents them as a contradiction, and this is the story in a nutshell.

Read More »Missing the forest

Sri Lanka: Distant Voices, Desperate Lives – John Pilger

The Sri Lankan government used Israel’s actions in Gaza as their model for slaughter, Pilger writes.

In the early 1960s, it was the Irish of Derry who would phone late at night, speaking in a single breath, spilling out stories of discrimination and injustice. Who listened to their truth until the violence began? Bengalis from what was then East Pakistan did much the same. Their urgent whispers described terrible state crimes that the news ignored, and they implored us reporters to “let the world know”. Palestinians speaking above the din of crowded rooms in Bethlehem and Beirut asked no more. For me, the most tenacious distant voices have been the Tamils of Sri Lanka, to whom we ought to have listened a very long time ago.

Read More »Sri lanka distant voices desperate lives

By Ali Abunimah

(source: Electronic Intifada)

In recent weeks, the US- and Israeli-backed Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) has made a show of calling on Palestinians to boycott goods manufactured in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Despite the rhetoric of defiance and resistance, and exaggerated screams of anguish from Israeli settler groups, the PA effort actually appears designed to co-opt, undermine and abort the much broader Palestinian civil society campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS), and to reassure Israel of the continued docility and collaboration of its puppet regime in Ramallah.

As part of his daily routine of publicity stunts, unelected Ramallah-based "Prime Minister" Salam Fayyad has been seen tossing bundles of settler-produced goods onto bonfires. As for PA "President" Mahmoud Abbas, he recently signed the "Karama" (dignity) Pledge — promising not to allow settlement goods into his house and encouraging others to do the same. PA volunteers have been going door-to-door in the occupied West Bank to distribute lists of settler-made consumer goods that should be avoided.

Read More »The pas disingenuous boycott campaign