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Zionism – Features

Waging peace from afar divestment and Isaraeli occupation

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By Phyllis Bennis

(source: Just News)

A growing grassroots movement is using the techniques of the anti-apartheid movement to challenge U.S. support for Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.

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When Israeli commandos launched their assault on the unarmed flotilla of ships carrying hundreds of humanitarian aid workers and 10,000 tons of supplies for the besieged Gaza Strip, killing at least nine activists and injuring scores more, part of the operation was “Made in the USA.”

Decades of uncritical U.S. financial, military, and diplomatic support has ensured that Israel’s military power—nuclear and conventional—remains unchallengeable. A U.S. pattern of using UN Security Council vetoes to protect Israel from accountability has ensured that Israel can essentially do whatever it likes with those U.S.-provided weapons, regardless of what U.S. or international laws may be broken.

Israel has long relied on the numerous U.S.-made and U.S.-financed Apache and Blackhawk war helicopters in its arsenal—it’s a good bet those were in use in the May 31st assault in international waters. Use of U.S.-provided weapons is severely limited by our own laws: The Arms Export Control Act (AECA) prohibits any recipient from using U.S. weapons except for security within its own borders, or for direct self-defense. And no amount of Israeli spin can make us believe that an attack by heavily-armed commandos jumping onto the decks of an unarmed civilian ship in international waters has anything to do with self-defense.

So yes—our tax dollars and our politicians’ decisions play a huge part in enabling not only the flotilla attack but Israel’s violations of human rights overall. But increasingly, across the country, people and organizations are standing up to say no to U.S. support for those policies of occupation and apartheid.

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Interview with wikileaks spokesman kristinn hrafnsson

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“The Iraq documents give a picture of the war that has been hidden until now”

By Jerry White

(source: World Socialist WebSite)

On October 22, the web-based whistle-blower organization WikiLeaks released nearly 400,000 internal US military reports that provide damning evidence of war crimes committed by the US government against the people of Iraq.

The “Iraq War Logs”—the largest leak of classified military material in history—consist of Significant Action or SIGACT reports filed by US Army soldiers between January 2004 and December 2009, which WikiLeaks notes, “detail36as seen and heard by the US military troops on the ground in Iraq and are the first real glimpse into the secret history of the war that the United States government has been privy to throughout.”

Among the major revelations contained in the documents are reports of at least 15,000 previously undisclosed civilian deaths and the killing by US forces of 834 people at military checkpoints, including at least 681 civilians and 30 children. They also detail US complicity in the torture of prisoners by the Iraqi stooge army and police. (See: “The WikiLeaks documents and the rape of Iraq”)

For its release of these documents—and previous material related to the Afghan War, along with a video showing the murder of Iraqi civilians by a US Apache helicopter crew in 2007—WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange have come under vicious attack by the US military, the Obama administration and the news media, led by the New York Times. An article by right-wing journalist Jonah Goldberg published in the Chicago Tribune over the weekend was headlined, “Why is Assange still alive?”

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Sa journo takes on Isaraeli authorities

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By Ilham Rawoot & Jazmin Acunna

(source: Mail & Guardian, pg16, 28/01/2011)

The only South African passenger on the Mavi Marmara, one of the Gaza-bound ships intercepted at sea by the Israelis in May last year, has laid a formal complaint with the national director of public prosecutions about her alleged suffering at the hands of the Israeli army.

If the National Prosecuting Authority acts on the complaint of Gadija Davids, a Cape Town-based journalist, top Israeli politicians and soldiers could face arrest if they visit South Africa.

This is the second attempt by locals in two weeks to call members of the Israeli executive to account in South Africa. Two local organisations called for the arrest of former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni, who was due to arrive in the country last week. Her trip was cancelled at the last minute, although the South African Jewish Board of Deputies ascribed this to a strike by diplomats at the Israeli embassy.

Davids alleges that she was assaulted and that fellow passengers were subjected to inhumane treatment and torture after Israeli soldiers boarded the Mavi Marmara, which was carrying supplies to blockaded Gaza. She wants the perpetrators prosecuted. Nine Turkish nationals were killed in the raid. Israel said the killings occurred in self-defence and an Israeli inquiry found that the raid did not breach international law.

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