In Pursuit of Justice

Check out this sarcastic article by Terry Jones in The Guardian (excerpts below), and this video of Rosie O’Donnell on The View (go Rosie!).

I share the outrage expressed in the British press over the treatment of our naval personnel accused by Iran of illegally entering their waters. It is a disgrace. We would never dream of treating captives like this - allowing them to smoke cigarettes, for example, even though it has been proven that smoking kills. And as for compelling poor servicewoman Faye Turney to wear a black headscarf, and then allowing the picture to be posted around the world - have the Iranians no concept of civilised behaviour? For God’s sake, what’s wrong with putting a bag over her head? That’s what we do with the Muslims we capture: we put bags over their heads, so it’s hard to breathe. Then it’s perfectly acceptable to take photographs of them and circulate them to the press because the captives can’t be recognised and humiliated in the way these unfortunate British service people are.

It is also unacceptable that these British captives should be made to talk on television and say things that they may regret later. If the Iranians put duct tape over their mouths, like we do to our captives, they wouldn’t be able to talk at all. Of course they’d probably find it even harder to breathe - especially with a bag over their head - but at least they wouldn’t be humiliated.

And what’s all this about allowing the captives to write letters home saying they are all right? It’s time the Iranians fell into line with the rest of the civilised world: they should allow their captives the privacy of solitary confinement. That’s one of the many privileges the US grants to its captives in Guantánamo Bay.

The true mark of a civilised country is that it doesn’t rush into charging people whom it has arbitrarily arrested in places it’s just invaded. The inmates of Guantánamo, for example, have been enjoying all the privacy they want for almost five years, and the first inmate has only just been charged. What a contrast to the disgraceful Iranian rush to parade their captives before the cameras!

What’s more, it is clear that the Iranians are not giving their British prisoners any decent physical exercise. The US military make sure that their Iraqi captives enjoy PT. This takes the form of exciting “stress positions”, which the captives are expected to hold for hours on end so as to improve their stomach and calf muscles. A common exercise is where they are made to stand on the balls of their feet and then squat so that their thighs are parallel to the ground. This creates intense pain and, finally, muscle failure. It’s all good healthy fun and has the bonus that the captives will confess to anything to get out of it.

The video below shows footage of the case referred to in this post.

From MIFTAH: 

What does Land Day commemorate?
Land Day, known as ‘Youm al-Ard’ in Arabic, commemorates the bloody killing of six Palestinians in the Galilee on March 30, 1976 by Israeli troops during peaceful protests over the confiscation of Palestinian lands.
It has since become a painful reminder of Israeli injustice and oppression against the Palestinian people, and a day for demonstration linking all Palestinians in their struggle against occupation, self-determination and national liberation. 

What happened on Land Day?
Israeli authorities announced the confiscation of a total of 5,500 acres of land from Palestinian villages in the Galilee, and classified them as “closed military zones.” The expropriated lands later fell subject to heavy illegal settlement expansion.
The confiscation of land led Palestinians within the 1948 borders to hold a general strike of repudiation, protesting the expropriation and colonization of their land.
Israeli army and police responded to the demonstrations with violence, killing 6 Palestinians, in addition to injuring 96 others and arresting over 300.
Arab villages and towns were declared as closed military zones by the Israeli authorities and a curfew imposed on a number of them.

How Much Land has been confiscated by Israel since Land Day in 1976?
Since 1967 Israel has confiscated more than 750,000 acres of land from the 1.5 million acres comprising the West Bank and Gaza.
Most of the land has been confiscated to make space for illegal settlement expansions, and bypass roads that are limited exclusively to Israeli settlers.
In 1948 and the subsequent few years, Israel confiscated nearly 85 percent of the territory within the Green Line from Palestinians. Most of this land was taken from the 800,000 Palestinian refugees, who were evicted or fled for fear of massacres during the 1948 war.

How does Israel confiscate Palestinian Land?
In the areas occupied in 1967, Israel suffices itself with military orders, of which over 1300 have been issued so far, and which can be contested only with great difficulty. No cases of significance are known to have succeeded in reversing Israeli expropriation orders.
For the end of confiscation of lands and properties falling within Israel the Knesset (Israeli parliament) passed dozens of laws facilitating that end, such as the The Absentee Property law and the Development Authority (Transfer of Property) Law.

I was very saddened to hear the news of the kidnapping of BBC’s Alan Johnston in Gaza last week.  Palestinians, including all journalists, civil society and political groups, are against the kidnapping.  I hope the world understands that.  Click here for a Palestinian journalist’s take on the situation.  Below, excerpts from an article published today in The Independent.  Alan Johnston, may your ordeal end soon, very soon.

Mr Johnston, who was due to finish his three-year tour next week and is the only Western journalist permanently based in Gaza, was forced from his rented car at gunpoint as he drove home from his Gaza City office in the late afternoon.

There is speculation that a large Gaza family with criminal as well as shifting factional connections carried out the kidnap, but no-one has admitted responsibility yet.

Palestinian journalists in Gaza have held two 24-hour strikes over Mr Johnston’s kidnap and have set up a protest tent in Gaza City displaying pictures of the captive reporter. Shuhdi Kashef of the Gaza journalists’ union has promised protests will continue until he is freed. Civil Society groups throughout Gaza have also registered strong condemnations of the abduction.

Slowly, but surely, the divestment campaign against Israel is gaining momentum on US campuses.  Below, excerpts from a recent article on the campaign at Stanford.  Also, check out the campaign’s website: Students Confronting Apartheid in Israel.   Expect more coverage of the divestment campaigns on this blog.

“We don’t want our university to profit from abuses of human rights and violations of international law,” said Mr. Shakir, a senior international-relations major who heads Students Confronting Apartheid in Israel.
    His critics, who are legion, say there’s no comparison between South African apartheid, which codified a separate legal system for blacks and whites, and Israel, which has placed some restrictions on Palestinians in self-defense after years of suicide bombings.
    Mr. Shakir disagrees. “The comparison has been made by prominent people like [South African] Bishop Desmond Tutu between Israel’s treatment of the occupied territories and South African apartheid,” he said. “It’s not this fringe idea.”

If Sarkozy wins the upcoming presidential elections in France, our world will become an even more racist place.  Below, excerpts from an article in Haaretz.

French-Jewish philosopher Alain Finkielkraut does not want to disclose for whom he will vote in the upcoming French elections. But what he says in favor of right-wing candidate Nicolas Sarkozy leaves no room for doubt: “Sarkozy is succeeding because he gives no sense of political correctness when he speaks. He speaks his truth, and people listen. But he is being described by the left, and now by the center, as a fascist. He may be elected, but perhaps he will be beaten because of his fascist image. Someone, for example, condemned him on television because he cannot be accepted in the suburbs. As though that were his fault, not that of the violent demonstrators.”

Finkielkraut is a media star in France. A year ago, the weekly Nouvelle Observateur described him as one of the five outstanding intellectuals representing “the new right” (three of them are Jews: Finkielkraut, Bernard-Henri Levy and Andre Glucksmann), the French parallel to the American neo-conservatives. They started their public life with the “new left” of the May 1968 student revolt, and 40 years later are finding themselves very worried by the left and its prevailing tendencies, as Finkielkraut describes them: the crumbling of French nationalism and the legitimization of minorities (mainly Muslims and Blacks) that oppose it.

Asking for an acknowledgement from Hamas of Israel’s ‘right to exist’ is a disingenuous request, rooted neither in international law nor in any constructive political consideration.

As the largest trading partner of Israel, the European Union must reconsider its own position, expressed by the Quartet, at least with regard to this request. The EU should be guided by the even-handedness of international law principles as laid down in the 2004 Advisory Opinion of the ICJ. In this Opinion, the Court held that the obligations towards the international community as a whole violated by Israel are the obligation to respect the right of the Palestinian people to self determination, and certain of its obligations under international humanitarian law.

A Poll sponsored by the Center for the Campaign Against Racism found that half the Jewish population of Israel believe the state should encourage Arab migration.

According to the data, some 50 percent of the participants said they become fearful when they hear the Arabic language spoken around them. 43 percent said they feel uncomfortable, and 30 percent feel hatred. In contrast, last year only 17.5 percent said they feel hatred when faced with spoken Arabic.

The poll participants were also asked about work relations with Arabs. 50 percent said they would refuse to work at a job in which their direct supervisor would be Arab.

The Arab summit is not even worth blogging about, in my opinion. 

But this is an interesting article by Ramzy Baroud (excerpts below).

The power of the lobby and the persisting influence of the neocons have reached new heights when Democratic leaders were obliged to strip from a military spending bill a requirement that the president must gain the approval from the Congress before moving against Iran. Pelosi and others agreed to such a removal “after conservative Democrats as well as other lawmakers worried about its possible impact on Israel,” reported ABC News.

The new horizon of peace — a new term invoked by Condoleezza Rice in her recent visit to the region — is a term that corresponds to the ‘peace process’: significant enough insofar as it yield a sense of hope, but clever enough for it guarantees nothing, since Israel, brimming with its unprecedented clout in the corridors of power in Washington will neither give up its grand plans of territorial conversion (annexing the settlements), nor bring to a halt the construction of its encroaching wall nor surrender an inch from the illegally annexed East Jerusalem, all, predictably key Arab and Palestinian demands.The Arab initiative seemed deliberately vague on the issue of Palestinians made refugee by Israel in 1948 and 1967, and whose plight is as urgent as ever (considering their systematic targeting in Iraq, 500 murdered to date, and Libya’s decision to deport its Palestinians refugees to Gaza, as thoughtless as this may sound.) Yet, to remove any ambiguity, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is “demanding that the leaders of the 22 Arab states excise the right of return from it,” reported Haaretz.

This is an excellent post by Rafik Beekun on the situation of domestic workers in Saudi.

Unfortunately, similar stories occur in the UAE as well as in other “Muslim” countries.

It’s time we take a deep critical look into our lives and try to truely practise Islam, starting with our domestic issues.

The UAE Ministry of Labour’s move to solicit public opinion on the proposed labour law is meant to enhance transparency and stress the importance of considering the views of all parties, including the Human Rights Watch (HRW) group, the Minister of Labour said yesterday.

A good start…

Click here for more on 2006 HRW report on labor issues in UAE.

Anna Baltzer writing from Nablus, Palestine: Existence is Resistance (excerpts below)

My last day in Nablus I got to discover another one of the city’s gems: An-Najah University. I immediately took to the old architecture mixed with modern sculptures on the main campus, but what inspired me most was watching thousands of students return to the frantic bustle of daily university life so soon after soldiers had released the city from hostage. Resilience is a defining character of Palestinian identity in my experience, and I was more impressed than surprised to see Palestinians asserting their determination to get an education even in the most difficult circumstances. Just another example of the ever-pervasive Palestinian nonviolent resistance.

Addawiya told me she wanted to leave as we were walking back from her groves. I asked her where, and she told me it didn’t matter — she wasn’t going anywhere. “Because no country will give you a visa?” I asked, and she shook her head. “Because that’s what they want us to do. They want us to flee as we did in 1948, so that the Jewish National Fund can again expropriate our land and reserve it for Jews only. But I won’t leave. I will stay here because it’s my right and it’s my duty, to myself and to my children.” For Addawiya, even staying in her village and working her land is nonviolent resistance, the kind almost every Palestinian partakes in. It’s not the type of resistance that will make it onto headlines or the six o’clock news, but it is there, it is strong, and it is not going away.

Addawiya’s answer is what you will hear from every child, woman, and man in occupied Palestine. 

“I believe that the guilty ones are the Israeli war minister, the Israeli chief of staff and the Israeli prime minister. They are all guilty. They are allowing their soldiers to commit crimes against the Palestinian people on a daily basis, and they should be tried for war crimes. We should not put sole responsibility for these crimes on the soldiers in the field, who are simply following orders from their political and military leaders,” he said.

Barghouti said that the Palestinian Authority was seriously considering opening a world-wide media campaign to display Israel’s violence against the Palestinian people, especially at IDF checkpoints.

Comments:

i) One thing I like about the new Palestinian cabinet is the assignment of Dr. Mustafa Barghouti.  Definately a good man.

ii) In addition to the video of the IDF beating up a Palestinian boy which Barghouti refers to, there is another disturbing video that was shown on TV yesterday of an IOF dog biting a Palestinian woman at a check point.   I haven’t found the videos yet but will post them as soon as I do (insha’Allah).

iii) What is the PA waiting for?  The world-wide media campaign showing Israeli violence against civilians is LONG overdue.

The UAE Government is currently engaged in a major and multi-faceted campaign to improve the conditions of the expatriate labour force in the country, the Minister of Labour said yesterday.

These [problems faced by labor force], he said, included health and safety concerns, poor quality of accommodation, failure by companies to pay salaries promptly and the heavy burden placed upon workers as a result of the high fees and interest payments demanded by recruitment agencies in their home countries

The ministry is also preparing proposals for the introduction of a minimum wage structure, at first in the construction industry, and then to be expanded to other sectors, Dr Al Ka’abi said.

About time!  I’ll believe it when

i) the proposals and approved

ii) laws are enforced on all companies (regardless of size and ownership)

For more on labor housing, check out this story.

MIT officials are inviting individuals or teams from any country to participate in its “Just Jerusalem” competition. The contest aims to find a way to make Jerusalem just, peaceful and sustainable by 2050 so that Palestinians and Israelis can live side by side in a city both consider their capital.

Interesting project.  Let’s see…end illegal Israeli occupation, confiscation, house demolition, harassement…that should be a good start.

Don’t you love it when scientists think they can solve anything and forget that their great suggestions have to be implemented in the real world first to make a difference? 

At least 150 people arrested in Kenya after fleeing violence in Somalia have been secretly flown to Somalia and Ethiopia, where they are being held incommunicado in underground prisons, human rights groups say.

Finally, some good news for freedom of the press in the Middle East.

The Jordanian parliament on Wednesday endorsed changes to the country’s controversial press and publications law approved earlier this month and abolished a clause envisaging jail terms for journalists.

How can the UAE foreign minister mention Iranian nuclear power without mentioning Israeli nuclear weapons?  How can he stress implementation of Bush’s security plan without stressing the end of the US occupation?  Even lip service to Arab/Muslim core issues like the occupation of Palestine and Iraq is too much to ask from most Arab politicians today. 

The UAE has called on Iran to comply with UN Security Council Resolution No 1737 to avoid further tensions in the region.

The call was made by Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Foreign Minister, during a meeting with British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, in Abu Dhabi yesterday.

On Iraq, Shaikh Abdullah stressed the need to implement the security plan, which must go side by side with an inclusive and constructive national dialogue.

Excerpts from BADIL’s press release:

Thirteen years after the fall of the apartheid regime in South Africa, Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and in Israel still face multiple forms of racial discrimination, including occupation, apartheid and colonization.

In the past few weeks, Israel has come under criticism from both the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) and the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the OPT for its regime of institutionalized discrimination.

Since 1948, Israeli laws have been shaped not only to prevent the return of about 7 million Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons, but also to change the demographic composition of Israel and the OPT.  This population transfer is aided by the Israeli Law of Return, which allows any Jew in the world to ‘return’ to Israel and be granted citizenship.  According to CERD, the denial of the rights of many Palestinians to return and possess their homes in Israel “is discriminatory and perpetuates violations of fundamental human rights.” CERD also applied the concept of apartheid to some of Israel’s practices towards Palestinian citizens of Israel, notably in the managment of land and resources.

Another excellent article on the so-called “sectarian violence” in the Middle East (it’s definitely not the typical NYT garbage).  I don’t think I’m as optimistic about the Sunnis realizing who their real enemy is; do not under-estimate the power of propaganda.

Excerpts:

Of all the hot spots in the region, Iraq is the only place where sectarian tension has tipped over into bloody conflict. But that only happened in the aftermath of the invasion. The US and Britain, having failed to come up with any evidence to justify their aggression, claimed that their aim was to rescue the Shia majority from Saddam’s Sunni regime. In fact, there is no census evidence showing the Shia as a majority nor was there any credibility to the claim that Saddam’s regime was Sunni. It was secular and nationalist, and the ruling Ba’ath party was believed to have more Shias in its ranks than Sunnis. Thirty-two of the 52 names on the US most-wanted list were Shias, and Saddam punished whoever rose against his regime, irrespective of religion or ethnicity.