Over 6000 People attended the Stand up for Gaza Demo today one of the main speakers was Archbishop Atallah Hanna of Sebastia, from the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem see attached pictures
Today’s Demo in Glasgow with Archbishop Atallah Hanna of Sebastia, from the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem as the main speaker
Pictures from today’s demo in Glasgow supported by over 4000 people who marched to the BBC well done Glasgow
Free Palestine
Sat 12 July – Stop Attacking Gaza
1pm corner of Gordon Street, Buchanan Street, Glasgow
Palestinians blockaded inside Gaza (the largest open air prison in the world) have been facing a massive onslaught from the Israeli Occupation Force, one of the most powerful militaries in the world.
Stop the Attack on Gaza! End the Siege. End Israeli Apartheid. End the Occupation. Free Palestine!
Demo called by various activists, not by any particular organisation. Everyone welcome
https://www.facebook.com/
The protest called last week at very short notice was well-attended, lively, determined and welcoming. Let’s make this one even better.
Just before noon Tarek Abu Khdeir, the 15-year-old American-Palestinian who was brutally beaten by Israeli police last Thursday, walked into court wearing the same clothes he had on when arrested. After a brief closed deliberation, with media corralling in the narrow hallway of the Jerusalem District Court, he was released under the conditions of spending nine days under home arrest and a $880 (3,000 NIS) fine, despite not being charged with any crime. During arraignment, prosecutors for the police originally requested Abu Khdeir remain in the country for 15 days– an additional six days past his scheduled flight out– during which time an investigation against him will continue. Police have sealed the details of the on-going inquiry.
The youth will be remanded to a relative’s house in nearby Beit Hanina, East Jerusalem, as the judge issued a stay away order against his uncle’s home where he was apprehended. Indeed it is a family vacation gone terribly awry, leaving the high schooler at risk of detention in a foreign prison, and his parents mystified.
“They are holding him under investigation to try to pin something on him and I’m not happy with that,” said the youth’s mother, Suha Abu Khdeir outside of the Jerusalem District Court. If police decide to charge Abu Khdeir, he will not be allowed to exit Israel on July 16th as planned. “Why should he have to stay here,” she continued, “my son almost died from that beating.”
Police assert Abu Khdier was detained because he threw rocks during a demonstration. However his family rejects the claim, maintaining he was picked up at random in a sweep during a demonstration near their home. There is a video of the arrests that a neighbor filmed, which picks up with Abu Khdeir already lying on the pavement, with police striking his body until he lost consciousness.
Tarek Abu Khdeir following his injuries. (Photo provided and published with consent from the Abu Khdeir family)
“He’s very badly injured. He’s not recognizable,” said Suha Abu Khdeir. “I burst out into tears for the first time seeing him. They haven’t let me see him in three days. This is my first time seeing him. He doesn’t look like himself. He was crying as well,” she continued.
Tarek Abu Khdeir is only 15, and an American citizen of Palestinian background. He is not a resident of Jerusalem, where he was beaten and arrested days ago by Israeli police, yet his detention last Thursday has thrust him to the center of the on-going struggles in Shuafat. It is the neighborhood of his family, one of the largest in the middle-class East Jerusalem area, and the focal point of near continuous clashes that have spread across the city since a Palestinian youth– in fact Tarek’s first cousin Mohammed Abu Khdeir– was abducted and burned alive days ago.
Since Monday, clashes have taken hold of Shuafat and nearly every Palestinian hamlet in East Jerusalem following the abduction of Mohamed Abu Khdeir, 16. The teen was abducted on Tuesday and burned to death in an apparent revenge killing after the bodies of three Israeli youths were found in the West Bank outside of Hebron the day before. Eyal Yifrach, Gilad Shaar and Nafatli Fraenkel were forced into a car in the Gush Etzion settlement block three weeks ago, setting into motion a series of anti-Arab retaliation attacks. Aside from Tarek and Mohammed, there was also an attempted kidnapping in Shuafat days ago; Mousa Zalum, 10, just managed to escape.
Pictures from Free Palestine Demo today 5/07/2014 in Buchanan street, Glasgow over 200 people got together from many Palestinian Groups and Golitical Groups to protest about the media bias from the BBC over it’s lack of of coverage over Palestinian deaths
DEMONSTRATION SATURDAY, 5TH JULY.
CORNER OF GORDON STREET, BUCHANAN STREET, GLASGOW
FREEDOM FOR PALESTINE. END COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT. END MEDIA BIAS. END THE OCCUPATION. 1PM
in Nablus, Reports April 20, 2014
20th April 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team| Madama, Occupied Palestine
On Friday 18th April, during the night in the village of Madama, settlers from a nearby illegal settlement entered a Palestinian farm and sat fire to a newly built chicken house. The damage totaled $12,500 for the 3,500 chickens and their food, as well as $100,000 for the building itself. The Palestinian owner of the chicken house sold his car and some of his land in order to buy this costly farm, it is now completely destroyed.
The farmer described the day this incident occurred, stating how he finished his work and went home, passing two Israeli military jeeps on the road. When he returned to the farm at 4am on Friday, he found his chicken farm burnt to the ground, all 3,500 chicks dead. The fire was started near a window of the farm, most likely started with gasoline.
The owner said that he recently brought a lot of new chicks, and that he felt the attack was probably was planned. As a result of this attack the farmer now has no income.
The village of Madama has been continually attacked by settlers from the nearby illegal settlement of Yizhar, as have the nearby villages of Burin and Assira. In Madama, the settlers have recently burned several cars, two houses, and several olive trees; vandalism on Palestinian property is unfortunately common.
The illegal settlement of Yizhar is notorious for its violent settlers, in 2011, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recorded the largest number of attacks against Palestinians from this settlement.
Photo by ISM
Sign the petition: www.addameer.org/gatesdivest
Palestinian human rights organisations have criticised Bill Gates after it emerged that his charitable foundation is heavily invested in G4S, a private security company that helps Israel run prisons at which Palestinian political prisoners are held without trial and subjected to torture.
In an open letter to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation published today, Palestinian human rights groups argued that the foundation was undermining international law and its stated commitment to human rights with its $170m investment in the company that makes it one of the company’s biggest shareholders.
British security company G4S has a contract with the Israeli Prison Service to run and install security and management systems at six prisons Palestinian political prisoners, including children, are routinely subjected to torture, according to human rights organisations.
“It is completely unacceptable for a charitable foundation to be investing in a company that participates in gross human rights violations against Palestinian political prisoners. The Gates Foundation talks about every life having equal value, but what about the political prisoners, are their lives not of equal value?” said Sahar Francis, director of Palestinian prisoner and advocacy organisation Addameer.
More than 500 children are ‘are arrested, detained and prosecuted in the Israeli military detention system each year’, according to Defence for Children International – Palestine. Three out of every four of child detainees face physical violence during detention and interrogation, much of which takes place in facilities G4S helps to operate.
Palestinian student and father-of-two Arafat Jaradat died in custody last year after being tortured in Megiddo Prison, a facility that G4S helps to operate.
“Bill Gates is the richest man in the world, why does his charity have to fund itself by profiting from the torture of children and the use of detention without trial?” Francis added.
Israel illegally transfers prisoners from the occupied Palestinian territories to inside Israel despite this being prohibited by Article 76 of the Geneva Convention. Campaigners argue that G4S is complicit in this violation of international law.
A petition that has been backed by 20 Palestinian organisations and more than 100 organisations from across the world has also been launched today.
Sign the petition: www.addameer.org/gatesdivest
G4S has already lost contracts worth millions of dollars as trade unions and universities and other public bodies in Europe and South Africa cancel their contracts over concerns about the firm’s role in Israel’s prison system.
Hollywood actor Scarlett Johansson was embroiled in controversy and was eventually forced into resigning her role as an Oxfam ambassador earlier this year after she endorsed SodaStream, an Israeli company that manufactures drinks machines in an illegal Israeli settlement. Celebrities including Pink Flyod’s Roger Waters, Massive Attack’s Robert del Naja and Maxi Jazz from Faithless have backed a cultural boycott of Israel.
In April 2012, more than 2,000 Palestinian political prisoners went on hunger strike to protest conditions in Israel’s jails and the use of administrative detention, a form of detention without trial. There are currently three prisoners who remain on hunger strike, two of whom have gone without food for almost 80 days.
Palestinian human rights groups say that Israel uses mass incarceration to dissuade Palestinians from protesting against Israel’s occupation and apartheid policies. Israeli military orders make a whole range of activities illegal, including joining a political party or organising a demonstration.
There are more than 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners currently held in Israeli jails, including 183 children and 175 held under administrative detention, a form of detention without trial that Israel uses to hold Palestinians on secret information indefinitely.
– See more at: http://www.bdsmovement.net/2014/bill-gates-slammed-over-links-to-israel-prison-torture-11944?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+bdsmovement+%28Palestinian+BDS+National+Committee%29#sthash.MQyYI6CW.dpuf
Carter reiterated the necessity to abide by UN resolution 242, which was accepted by the former Israeli PM Menachem Begin as part of the Camp David peace accords
Former American President Jimmy Carter has warned the US Secretary of State John Kerry of violating international law in his potential peace framework agreement between the Palestinians and the Israeli occupation.
He also expressed his concerns about the remarks of Kerry’s senior aides Martin Indyk, which were delivered before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and other Jewish groups.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority (PA)’s official news agency Wafa said Carter had shown the letter he sent to Kerry to the PA President Mahmoud Abbas. The letter included efforts to save the peace process and stressed on reaching an agreement to be accepted by the two sides.
According to Wafa, Carter warned of formulating an agreement which “in any form, breaches international law and the reinforced international precedents regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict which have been accepted since 1967.”
Carter reiterated the necessity to abide by UN resolution 242, which was accepted by the former Israeli PM Menachem Begin as part of the Camp David peace accords and supported by the Quartet, Arab League and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference.
The sponsor of the first peace treaty between Israel and the Arabs said: “Official US proposal to cancel or breach international law will make it impossible for the Palestinians in the Holy Lands, or outside, to accept the framework agreement as a new basis for peace talks.”
Israel’s academic institutions are complicit with Israel’s violations of international law and abuses of Palestinian human rights, making them a legitimate target for boycott.
At a Palestine Solidarity Campaign event on Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, journalist and activist Ben White used this argument to make the case for the academic boycott of Israel.
The main points of Ben White’s speech are summarised here by Jas Irbal:
The intrinsic link between Israeli academic institutions’ promotion of propaganda, and active involvement in the occupation, cannot be ignored. The complicity of such institutions is a strategic component to the state tools used in apartheid that are responsible for the daily oppression faced by Palestinians.
These are a few examples of how Israeli universities are both complicit and actively involved in the occupation:
• The Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) helped to develop a remote control bulldozer that is used by the Israeli army in occupied territories.
• The Technion also has ‘tailored programmes’ which it offers to the IDF and Israel Ministry of Defence.
• Tel Aviv University is proud of its role at the ‘front line of the critical work to maintain Israel’s military and technological edge’
• The University of Haifa has a National Security Studies Centre which offers a special programme in national security and graduate studies that has trained hundreds of senior officers in the Israeli army.
• During the massacre in Gaza (2008-2009) Ben Gurion University gave a special government benefit for every day that students partook in reserve service in the defence forces.
• Hebrew University has an army base on campus for science students working with the defence forces.
• Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University both offer programmes in Hasbara (a public relations method to promote Israel internationally, A.K.A propaganda). The programmes are linked to different departments in the Israeli government.
• Hebrew University sent out an advert to encourage students to take part in a leadership and public diplomacy programme. The programme was an initiative of the pro-Israeli advocacy group Stand With Us and the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
There are of course, many more examples of Israeli academic institutions’ complicity in the occupation, but the few given highlight some of the ways in which this complicity is manifested.
These institutions actively contribute towards the oppression of Palestinians, as seen in the practical use of technology developed by the Technion and the fellowship between the Israeli army and academic institutions.
Furthermore they help to perpetuate the state ideology that keeps the occupation going and continues to see Israel violating international law and Palestinian human rights.
All of the above breeds a hostile environment for Israeli students and academics who support the Palestinians and an end to the occupation. The difficulties of speaking out against this, as an Israeli pro-Palestinian academic, are explored by Illan Pappe, who works to protect the memory of the Nakba.
His book Out of the Frame: The Struggle for Academic Freedom in Israel gives a first-hand account of Israeli academic institutions’ consistent participation in propaganda and their strong affiliation with the Israeli government and army.
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How to join the boycott:
If you study or work at an institution that has links with an Israeli academic institution – eg research links – you can explain to your institution why it should sever those links.
If you’re invited to visit or speak at an Israeli academic institution, please remember the Palestinians’ call for an academic boycott of Israel.
You can access the video of Ben White’s full talk (2012) here:http://www.palestinecampaign.org/the-case-for-cultural-academic-boycott-of-israel-with-intro-by-ken-loach/
Palestine Solidarity Campaign: http://www.palestinecampaign.org