Category: News

The
bizarre and pointless Israeli assault
on Gaza has exposed the extent to which Israeli pressure has undermined
American institutions. That corruption should be of deep concern to every
American. Both here and abroad, we will eventually pay an enormous price for
it. Notice the following facts.

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Letter to the editor from Javier Bardem on the slaughter in Gaza

Only geopolitical alliances, the hypocritical mask of business-for example, the sale of arms-explain the embarrassing position of U.S., EU and Spain

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=es&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http://www.eldiario.es/zonacritica/Carta-Javier-Bardem-masacre-Gaza_6_285281480.html&edit-text=&act=url
The horror is happening in Gaza should be NO neutrality or equidistance. It is a war of occupation and extermination against a people without means, confined in a minimum territory without water and where hospitals, ambulances and children are white and suspected terrorists. Difficult to understand and impossible to justify. And shameful stance of Western international community allow such genocide.

I do not understand this barbarism that horrible history of the Jewish people become even more cruelly incomprehensible. Only geopolitical alliances, the hypocritical mask of business-for example, the sale of arms-explain the embarrassing position of U.S., EU and Spain.

I know that you always would reject my right to review personal issues, so I want to clarify the following points:

Yes, my son was born in a Jewish hospital because I have very dear and close people who are Jewish and because being Jewish is not synonymous with support this slaughter, like be Hebrew is not the same as being a Zionist and Palestinian self is not to be a Hamas terrorist. That’s as absurd as saying that German will be akin to Nazism.

Yes, I work also in the USA where I have Jewish friends and acquaintances who reject such interventions and policies of aggression. “You can not invoke self-defense while murdering children,” one of them told me by phone yesterday. And others that discuss openly found on our positions.

Yes, I’m European and I am ashamed to say represent a community with its silence and no shame.

Yes, I live in Spain I pay my taxes and do not want my money to fund policies that support this barbarism and arms trade with other countries that are enriched killing innocent children.

Yes, I am disgusted, embarrassed and hurt by so much injustice and murder of human beings. These children are our children. It is the horror. Hopefully you have compassion in the hearts of those who kill and clear this poison murderer who only creates more hatred and violence. Those Israelis and Palestinians who only dream of peace and coexistence may one day share your solution.

I encourage you to read these links:
http://www.msf.es/noticia/2014/gaza-israel-debe-dejar-bombardear-civiles-atrapados

http://iniciativadebate.org/2014/07/21/santiago-auseron-juan-perro-radio-futura-el-horror-que-se-disfraza-de-creencia/

NEWS ITEM

For immediate release            July 25, 2014

           PORTLANDERS SAY “NO MORE US BOMBS ON IRAQ”
  US Policy Stokes Flames of War from Libya and Israel/Palestine to
  Pakistan and Ukraine
  Saturday, July 26, 2014, 12:00 Noon, Terry Schrunk Plaza SW 3rd & Madison

  At noon on Saturday, July 26, Portland area groups will gather
  at Terry Schrunk Plaza, SW 3rd and Madison, across from Portland’s
  Federal Building, to raise the cry “No More US Bombs on Iraq.”

  As of July 9, President Obama had sent at least 800 US troops,
  ostensibly “advisors,” to Iraq.[1] Although it is claimed they
  will not engage in combat, there has already been talk of using
  drones, cruise missiles, and Apache attack helicopters piloted by some
  of these “advisors.”[2] The potential for the situation to engulf
  a much broader conflict is heightened by the fact that Syria[3],
  Iran[4], and Russia[5] already have actively engaged
  militarily in Iraq on the same side the US wishes to support, even
  though the US’ position on those countries’ stance in next door
  Syria’s civil war is completely opposite.
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Petition to stop selling SodaStream products

Please print out a copy and have your friends and family sign it!

Dear  Target  Galleria  /  Macy’s  /  Kitchen  Kaboodle  Store  Manager,  
As a person of conscience, I call on you to stop selling SodaStream carbonation devices

SodaStream devices are made in an Israeli settlement in occupied Palestine.
These settlements exploit Palestinian land, labor and resources.
They are illegal under international law and are obstacles to peace.

An open letter for the people in Gaza
Paola Manduca, Iain Chalmers, Derek Summerfield, Mads Gilbert, Swee Ang, on behalf of 24 signatories
“We are doctors and scientists, who spend our lives developing means to care and protect health and lives. We are also informed people; we teach the ethics of our professions, together with the knowledge and practice of it. We all have worked in and known the situation of Gaza for years.

On the basis of our ethics and practice, we are denouncing what we witness in the aggression of Gaza by Israel.
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Statement about the Crisis in Gaza by African
Americans for Justice in the Middle East and North Africa

July 24, 2014

Contacts:     Bill Fletcher          billfletcherjr@gmail.com

                  Felicia Eaves         felicia.eaves@gmail.com

 

African Americans for Justice
in the Middle East and North Africa (AAJMENA) has put out a statement on the
crisis in Gaza. Please feel free to distribute to your networks:

 

The African Americans for
Justice in the Middle East and North Africa (AAJMENA) urges President Obama to
intercede to end the slaughter of innocent Palestinians in Gaza.  Israel’s practice of collective punishment
and its detestable killing of large numbers of Palestinian children and entire
families is simply unacceptable by any standards of international law and
morality.  AAJMENA stands united in
condemning the collective killing of hundreds of Palestinians who are besieged
and confined, unable to take refuge from Israel’s military aircraft, tanks,
bombs and naval shelling.

 

AAJMENA deplores the
aggression being carried out by the Israel Defense Force.  The people of the United States can no longer
stand by as the government of the United States continues to both justify and
fund Israel’s war of aggression, its seven year siege of Gaza, and its multiple
decades long illegal occupation of Palestine. 
The silence of the people of the United States in the face of this
horror implicates the United States in Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian
people.

 

We of AAJMENA urge President
Obama to make every effort possible to end the Israeli administered, and U.S.
sanctioned, siege of Gaza.  Israel must
agree to an immediate cease fire and start negotiating in good faith for the
end of its illegal occupation and settlements policy

 

Only through a just peace
agreement that recognizes the right of the Palestinian people to national
self-determination will the predictable cycle of violence end; a violent cycle
which is the outcome of Israel’s long-standing, illegal occupation–and Gaza
blockade–that we, the tax payers of the United States have sanctioned and
funded.

###

               Palestinians fired from SodaStream in Ramadan dispute did not receive hearings

In violation of labor laws, 60 employees at West Bank plant were dismissed without written notice or preliminary hearings

By Haim Bior     | Jul. 24, 2014 | 6:23 AM

http://www.haaretz.com/business/1.606836

The 60 Palestinians who were fired earlier this month from the SodaStream plant in the West Bank settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim received verbal notice only prior to being axed and were not given pre-dismissal hearings, as required by law. In addition, they were barred from entering the factory even before receiving written notice of dismissal, which was the result of a dispute over the food provided by the company to break the day-long fast during the month of Ramadan.

The dispute began in early July, when Palestinians working the night shift at the factory that makes the popular home soda machines claimed that the food they received was insufficient and demanded larger rations. They had the support of WAC-MAAN, the independent trade union that represents them. When management did not answer their demands, employees said it would be difficult for them to work through the night without more substantial food. In response, the shift supervisor sent the workers home, telling them he was cancelling that day’s night shift.

The next day, a SodaStream executive called each worker and informed them that they were being terminated and must return their employee IDs and their uniforms. In a recording, obtained by TheMarker, of the call to Alaa Rawidi, the executive reads out a dismissal letter. It says the workers were terminated for refusing to return to work, an act that harmed the company. Rawidi was told that if he failed to return his uniform and ID immediately he would be charged 500 shekels ($145).

When Rawidi asks the executive why he wasn’t given the opportunity of a hearing, he is told: “Because of the seriousness of the matter, we will deliver a dismissal letter either to your home or by hand, whichever you prefer.”

WAC-MAAN director Assaf Adiv contacted SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum this week and demanded that the workers be reinstated. Adiv argued that they were long-time employees with no major disciplinary infractions in the past. In a letter to Adiv, SodaStream VP Human Resources Mika Mazor rejected the demand, stating in part that the unplanned work stoppage caused “major economic damage” to the factor. In effect, she wrote, the employees carried out a “wild rebellion,” knowing they were disrupting work at the plant “without authority and contrary to instructions, while causing deliberate damage.” The workers’ conduct “bordered on violence,” Mazor said.

SodaStream has been targeted by foreign boycotts because of the factory’s location — in Mishor Adumuim, the industrial zone of Ma’aleh Adumim. Company officials have countered that the plant employs many Palestinians.

In a related case, Palestinian workers at the Zarfati garage in Mishor Adumim are striking to protest the firing of the garage’s union head. The WAC-MAAN coordinator for Jerusalem, Yoav Tamir, was arrested yesterday at the site for disturbing the peace.

Scaling the Heights of Hypocrisy              by Gilbert Schramm

The ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza has unveiled new heights of Israeli hypocrisy. Yesterday I was especially struck by the bizarre Israeli government response to the FAA’s suspension of US flights into the Israeli war zone.

In the wake of the tragic downing of a Malaysian airliner in the Ukraine, any rational human being would hope that civilian airliners would avoid war zones. Au contraire!!! Israel is complaining vigorously against the suspension of US flights into Tel Aviv.

That’s right! After pleading to Americans all week about how intent he was on minimizing Palestinian civilian casualties as he conducts the vicious and unnecessary incursion into Gaza that has killed over 700 Palestine (75% civilian by UN reports), Netanyahu then demonstrated how little he really cares about potential Israeli, European and American civilians.

For in spite of a rocket landing only a mile or so from Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport, Israeli spokespeople railed against the FAA suspension of flights and insisted that the Airport was perfectly safe!  It is a supremely odd argument to make after the whole Israeli PR establishment has railed all week about the dire existential danger posed to the entire state of Israel by Hamas rockets.

I hope we can all agree on one thing: being in range of Hamas rockets (Tel Aviv is only 53 miles from Gaza) should certainly rule out any and all civilian air traffic unless and until there is a lasting peace in the area.

Yet Israeli officials were today stuck desperately making the case that the airport is one of the most secure places in Israel. There were rumors that Netanyahu himself pleaded with the US state department to reverse the FAA ruling. So it seems that Netanyahu is quite willing to openly place US civilians at risk. (Unless of course you are cynical enough to believe that he is just lying about the risk posed by Hamas rockets…)

The facts are clear—Netanyahu can no more guarantee the safety of a plane coming into or out of Israel than he can predict a lightning strike. Ben-Gurion Airport might well be safe from any Hamas ground attack, yet Israel certainly knows that a Hamas rocket could land anywhere almost anytime.

Now I’m sure that Hamas was not targeting the airport any more than it is really targeting Israeli civilians. It must take a good deal of planning to fire 2000 rockets in a few days and only kill 2 civilians (actually, one of them was delivering food to Israeli troops). If he had been on the other side he would have been labeled a “Hamas supporter” and therefore a terrorist.

But these nasty little wars all have unintended and sometimes quite unexpected consequences. For example, Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982 led to the creation of Hezbollah. The first Intifada in 1987 led to the first violent resistance against Israel by Hamas. Israel’s attack on Lebanon in 2006 made Hezbollah into a regional force.

Netanyahu’s “Protective Edge” operation has now exposed a vital flaw in Israel’s defenses.

From now on Hamas need not bother with trying to maintain the charade that it is trying to kill Israeli civilians. It can cripple Israel’s economy by merely claiming it is aiming rockets at the Ben-Gurion airport. First, the airport is a big enough target that even unguided Hamas rockets might (possibly) be able to come close to it regularly. The greater advantage is that you can probably hit it often without really hurting anybody. Finally, Israel set the precedent by bombing Lebanon’s airport in 2006.

Further, Israel has argued all week that the people of Gaza themselves are guilty for all the deaths that have clearly been caused by the Israeli attack. If that is true, then IF a chance Hamas rocket were to hit a plane coming into or out of Ben-Gurion international airport the victims—including the governments that permitted it and the airlines that participated— would have only themselves to blame!

So thanks to the unintended consequence of Netanyahu’s misguided war, he has handed Hamas a perfect strategy that will finally give them real leverage: the ability to close down Israel’s main air link to the world can cripple Israel’s high-tech industries, the produce industry, and the tourist industry virtually at will.  All of these, and doubtless many others, depend heavily on reliable air service. Ninety percent of Israel’s international air traffic goes through that one place. This jugular vein that Netanyahu’s policy has exposed will make Israel an increasingly risky place to invest in.

I predict that this event will emerge as a game changing moment. It will be interesting to see how Netanyahu addresses the issue going forward. Clearly, he would like the airport to remain open—even if it means placing US lives at risk to make Israel appear safe (or, as his spokesman put it, to avoid “giving a prize to terror.”

Will Israel continue to portray Hamas rockets as an enormous existential threat, or will Israel suddenly present itself, (as it started to do yesterday) as supremely safe and open for business as usual—thus exposing the threat of Hamas as a sham and thereby completely undermining Netanyahu’s rationale for inflicting massive civilian casualties in Gaza?

After all, you can’t have it both ways…at least not forever. In the meantime, I hope you will all join me in urging the FAA continue to suspend all US flights to Israel until there is a just, comprehensive and lasting peace in Palestine.

(Gilbert Schramm is a peace activist and international educator who lives in Oregon. He has studied Middle Eastern affairs for almost 35 years.)

An Open Letter to Senator Jeff Merkley

July 22, 2014
By Gilbert Schramm

Senator Merkley,

As a former supporter of yours, I was angered and saddened to see your response to my concerns about the Gaza conflict. Your position is simply not good enough. It is cowardly and enables pointless Israeli violence. In view of the fact that you voted for S Res 498, I cannot view you as worthy of the distinguished leadership position that Oregonians have conferred on you. 

Like many progressives, I worked hard for your election. I will now suspend my work and contributions on your behalf—you clearly don’t have the good of our nation in focus.

Your statement decries the deaths on both sides, but the resolution you signed (S Res 498) is a one sided travesty that places a US seal of approval on the ongoing Israeli occupation and oppression of the Palestinian territories and the ongoing war crimes that are the direct result of that occupation.

The truth is that Israel is the guilty party here. This is a war of choice by Israel. Your statement misinforms your constituents by blurring that reality.

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