TRADITION NO LONGER SACRED IN THE HOLY LAND

May 30, 2014 at 11:59 (Irony, Israel, Religion)

What ever happened to …..

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One of many traditions that seemed to have gone astray is the handling of notes placed in the Western Wall by worshipers. Tradition has it that these notes are meant for God’s eyes ONLY ….

In fact, Based on the cherem of Rabbeinu Gershom which prohibits reading another person’s mail, it is halakhically forbidden for a Jew to read a note that has been inserted in the Western Wall.

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BUT …..

In the case of a note left by Barack Obama, it was not only removed from the Wall, but it was made public.

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This week, the ‘new tradition’ involved the note placed by Pope Francis …. proving that nothing is sacred here any longer…

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Pope Francis Leaves ‘Lord’s Prayer’ at Western Wall

Holy Father Placed Note Between Stones at Kotel

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GETTY IMAGES

By JTA VIA

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Pope Francis wrote the Lord’s Prayer in Spanish on a note he left in the Western Wall.

The Western Wall Heritage Foundation released the contents of the note placed between the stones of the Kotel during the pope’s visit on Monday.

The note, signed “Francis,” was written on papal letterhead.

The Lord’s Prayer, also known as “Our Father,” is a central prayer in Christianity.

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If their own traditions are not kept and respected, one can only wonder about attitudes toward other peoples’ …

 

 

1 Comment

ISRAELI WOMEN IN TRAINING ~~ PHOTO ESSAY

May 30, 2014 at 10:23 (Israel)

Pardon the expression, but in the civilised world when we think of girls in training, the phrase is followed by the word ‘bras’ ….

Not so in Israel …

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In pictures: IDF’s female fighters finish training

 Caracal Battalion is 70% female and offers Israeli woman chance to serve as full on combat soldiers, charged with patrolling the Israeli-Egyptian border – see stunning images from their final training mission before they are official inducted into battalion.

Reuters VIA

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9 Comments

WATCH WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS ~~ THEN AND NOW

May 29, 2014 at 13:16 (DesertPeace Exclusive, Ethnic Cleansing, Holocaust, In Memoriam, Irony, Israel, Palestine, Poetry)

For Maya Angelou OBM

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THEN …

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NOW …

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And a letter from Rachel Corrie OBM …

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I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS OF FREEDOM …

2 Comments

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE WAILS AT THE WALL

May 29, 2014 at 09:13 (Boycott Israel, DesertPeace Editorial, Israel, Palestine)

Unlike Pope Francis, Justin Timberlake took time out to visit just one of the many walls in the Holy Land.

What seems to be a mini competition with the Pope, he posted This photo on his Instagram Page ….

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JUSTINTIMBERLAKE VIA INSTAGRAM ‘The Holy Land… What an experience. I will never forget this day. #Israel’ Justin Timberlake posts on his Instagram page.

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This angered many Palestinians and pro Palestinian activists. 

Timberlake’s visit to the Western Wall comes at an especially heated time as Wednesday is Jerusalem Day, the 47th anniversary of the Israel’s unification of the city that’s considered a holy site for Jews, Muslims and Christians.

Pope Francis also prayed at The Western Wall, the most sacred site in Judaism, a day earlier.

Timberlake is in the country on his “20/20 Experience” World Tour, but unlike most of his other destination, his Tel Aviv stop comes with plenty of baggage.

Palestinian activists – including Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters – have demanded that musicians boycott the Middle Eastern nation over its policies towards Palestinians. (FROM)

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Waters explained his calls for a cultural boycott of Israel as a reasonable method of fighting for Palestinian independence. “[T]he occupation, the ethnic cleansing and the systematic racist apartheid Israeli regime is unacceptable… I would not have played for the Vichy government in occupied France in WWII, would not have played in Berlin either during this time. Many people did, back in the day. There were many people that pretended that the oppression of the Jews was not going on. From 1933 until 1946. So this is not a new scenario. Except that this time it’s the Palestinians being murdered.”

When asked why many anti-war musicians “do not touch the issue of Palestine,” Waters responded by describing the effects of Israel’s ”propaganda machine” on the American public opinion. “Netanyahu’s bluster is poured all over the United States, not just Fox but also CNN and in fact in all the mainstream media. It’s like a huge bucket of crap that they are pouring into the mouth of a gullible public in my view, when they say “we are afraid of Iran, it is going to get nuclear weapons…” It’s a diversionary tactic.” (FROM)

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Bottom line is …. we must add Justin Timberlake to our list of artists to boycott. If he chose not to boycott Israel, then we have no choice but to boycott him.

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5 Comments

BELLA CIAO MAYA ANGELOU

May 28, 2014 at 19:08 (Celebration of Life, Civil Rights, In Memoriam)

An Angel she was ….. truly one of my favourites.

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Maya Angelou, celebrated US poet and author, dies aged 86

Angelou, who was also prominent in the civil rights movement, died at home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Jessica Glenza in New York FOR

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Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou in 2008. Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP

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Maya Angelou, the American poet and author, died at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on Wednesday. She was 86.

Her son, Guy B Johnson, confirmed the news in a statement. He said: “Her family is extremely grateful that her ascension was not belabored by a loss of acuity or comprehension.

“She lived a life as a teacher, activist, artist and human being. She was a warrior for equality, tolerance and peace. The family is appreciative of the time we had with her and we know that she is looking down upon us with love.”

Johnson said Angelou “passed quietly in her home” sometime before 8am on Wednesday.

Bill Clinton, at whose inauguration Angelou read her On the Pulse of the Morning, said in a statement: America has lost a national treasure, and Hillary and I a beloved friend.”

Angelou’s failing health was reported as recently as Tuesday, when she canceled an appearance honoring her with a Beacon of Life Award because of “health reasons”. The ceremony was part of the 2014 MLB Beacon Award Luncheon, in Houston, Texas, part of Major League Baseball’s Civil Rights Games.

Last month, forced to cancel an appearance at a library in Arkansas, she wrote: “An unexpected ailment put me into the hospital. I will be getting better and the time will come when I can receive another invitation from my state and you will recognize me for I shall be the tall Black lady smiling. I ask you to please keep me in your thoughts, in your conversation and in your prayers.”

Angelou was born Marguerite Annie Johnson, in St Louis, Missouri, in 1928. She described in an NPR interview how her brother’s lisp turned Marguerite into Maya.Contribute

She survived several personal trials: she was a child of the depression, grew up in the segregated south, survived a childhood rape, gave birth as a teenager, and was, at one time, a prostitute.

She wrote wrote seven autobiographies, including the 1969 memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and was a playwright, director, actor, singer, songwriter and novelist.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was an indictment of the racial discrimination she experienced during her childhood. “If growing up is painful for the southern black girl,” she wrote, “being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat. It is an unnecessary insult.”

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings has had a wide appeal, particularly to younger female readers and continues to appear on school and university reading lists in the US and the UK.

In 1993, she read On the Pulse of the Morning at President Clinton’s first inauguration, a performance that made the poem a bestseller. The poem celebrates the diversity of ethnic groups in the US, and calls on the nation to leave behind cynicism and look forward to a new pride in itself, and a new dawn for the country.

Clinton on Wednesday said he would “always be grateful for her electrifying reading … and even more for all the years of friendship that followed.”

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Angelou was a long-time Clinton supporter. One month before his inauguration, she told the New York Times: “Since the election, I have found it easier to wake up in the morning,” and “there seems to be a promise in the air.”

And her loyalty to Hillary Clinton has been steadfast, even as Barack Obama campaigned to be America’s first black president.

“I made up my mind 15 years ago that if she ever ran for office I’d be on her wagon. My only difficulty with Senator Obama is that I believe in going out with who I went in with,” she told the Guardian.

And as news of her death spread, actors, writers, directors, activists and politicians tweeted thankful and mournful notes reacting to Angelou’s passing.

JK Rowling called her “utterly amazing”; Lena Dunham thanked Angelou for “your power, your politics, your poetry. We need you more than ever.”

Angelou had lived in North Carolina since the early 1980s, when she became a professor at Wake Forest University, a private liberal arts college. A statement from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem called Angelou “a national treasure whose life and teachings inspired millions around the world”.

The mayor of Winston-Salem, Allen Joines, said the town would probably remember Angelou best for her commitment to health and theatre.

She supported the founder of the National Black Theater Festival in Winston-Salem, and eventually became its first chairperson in 1989. In 2012, the Maya Angelou Women’s Health and Wellness Center opened in the city. A street in Winston-Salem is named after Angelou.

Despite her many accomplishments, the mayor said small moments seemed to touch the poet.

In April 2008, the town threw Angelou an 80th birthday party. Despite entertainers and speakers present at the party, the mayor said, “The thing that seemed to touch her the most was a group of little kids.”

 

2 Comments

THE STORY BEHIND THE PHOTO OF THE POPE AT THE WALL OF APARTHEID

May 28, 2014 at 18:44 (Apartheid, Israel, Occupied West Bank, Palestine)

In an effort to resist the Bethlehem Municipality’s efforts to beautify a section of the Apartheid Wall where Pope Francis was scheduled to pass, Local activists from Aida Refugee Camp gathered to paint slogans both against Israeli occupation and welcoming His Holiness, on the eve of his arrival, on May 24th 2014.  

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Palestinian Refugees Welcome The Pope: The story behind the iconic photo at the Separation Wall

Kelly Lynn (Source and photos)
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In an effort to resist the Bethlehem Municipality’s efforts to beautify a section of the Apartheid Wall where Pope Francis was scheduled to pass, Local activists from Aida Refugee Camp gathered to paint slogans both against Israeli occupation and welcoming His Holiness, on the eve of his arrival, on May 24th 2014.  

“Why do we have to make it beautiful?  It’s not,” said 23-year-old Mohammed Abu Srour, one of activists involved.

The group successfully maneuvered past a few PA security personnel to reach the wall and defame a newly painted military gate, a sliver of the wall and the paint-bombed sniper tower near Rachel’s Tomb.  Israeli soldiers opened the gate after several minutes and activists backed off before soldiers retreated and closed the gate.  One activist started again tagging, “Welcome Pope,” but was chased down the street by several Israeli soldiers who emerged from a re-opened gate.

Palestinian Authority officials then addressed the Israeli soldiers at the gate, proceeding to talk for several minutes.  When asked why they were present, they responded by saying they were only there to secure the visit of an Orthodox leader that day, who would eventually pass in a six car caravan through the gate around 1:10 PM.  Soon after, armed PA soldiers blocked the sidewalk to anyone trying to reach the gate.  The activists went home, and their slogans in red and black popped against the uniform canvas of slate grey.

That evening, word came to Abu Srour that their work had been painted over.

The next morning, the Pontiff arrived via helicopter, landing near Dheisheh Refugee Camp in Bethlehem and the children of Aida Camp assembled.  They marched toward the repainted section and waited for “Baba” to arrive.  Beats from the Aida Youth Center’s Keshafa program, a youth drum line, echoed through hot air.  Local leaders from the Al Rowwad and Lagee Centers dispersed signs to children declaring prisoner rights, dreams and freedom, the usual.  

A few minutes before Pope Francis arrived, spray cans surfaced and activists from the previous day’s action began to paint over the newly, newly-painted wall and gate.  Mohammed climbed his friend’s shoulders and because of the frenzy, security personnel could not be bothered. “They painted all of the wall silver, you couldn’t see anything we did yesterday, so we decided to write again for the Pope.  We want him to pay attention to our issues as normal Palestinians,” explained Abu Srour.

And then, in a glass-covered pristine white pick-up truck, he came.

“I didn’t expect the Pope to go down and start to read the sentences and meet the children and people there.  He shocked us,” said Abu Srour.

He stepped onto the red-carpeted stairs of his custom ride and down onto the severed Jerusalem-Hebron Road, where he walked deliberately toward the gate, as if it was actually planned (it was not according to his security team).  One must have a little more experience with His Holiness to know if his face is always so somber.  But it was somber.  He didn’t ignore the two young girls to his right but his solemn focus was on the gate, the Wall.  Initially, he seemed to express awe as he reached out his hand to touch just under Abu Srour’s hurried handiwork,  “Pope, Bethlehem look like Warsaw ghetto.”

He stayed for several minutes as guards kept the distance between him and the mostly cell phone photographers jockeying for a shot.  An Israeli soldier could be seen observing the situation from the sniper tower above.  

His head bowed, the Pontiff touched his forehead to the monolith before slowly retreating back to his car and continuing his route to the Nativity Church.  It was an undeniable picture of solidarity for Palestinians who have suffered under the wall and its effects for a decade now.  

Later he performed Mass to thousands of locals and baseball-capped international tourists in Manger Square, along with Mahmoud Abbas and his entourage, though they left early.  The massive backdrop depicted the Pontiff greeting Mary and Joseph and the infant Jesus, swaddled in an unmistakable Palestinian keffiyeh.  Walkways and rooftops teamed with press, but it was his prayer at the 8-meter high Apartheid Wall that made headlines from the BBC to TIME.  

That afternoon, he made his way to Dheisheh Refugee Camp for a ceremony and meeting with mostly children from the camp including participants from neighboring Azza and Aida camps.  As his caravan entered the camp, local kids clamored against a metal barrier for a glimpse and held signs that read in English, “Every year, Israel arrests over 500 children.”  After the ceremony, he was whisked away in a helicopter, rising slowly above families who had brought chairs and children to their roofs to wave.

The Pope supports President Mahmoud Abbas, but Abu Srour says the Palestinian Authority’s stance on promoting a two state solution doesn’t address his circumstances or hopes as a refugee.

“My original village – it’s in Beit Nattif.  It’s outside the West Bank.  They occupied it in 1948 and by that I will lose my right as a refugee.  I will represent my case better than anyone. Because I feel – I live in that situation everyday.”   

Still, no one seemed disappointed with “Baba’s” unexpected display.

“We just thought he will pass in front of us and just say hi or something and go to the Nativity Church, but he came and stood in front of the Wall and prayed there…it was a good thing for us as Palestinians.  He’s supporting us and he respects us and he respects our suffering,” Abu Srour said.

4 Comments

AS DEATH TOLL RISES, TURKEY CONTINUES TO SEEK JUSTICE IN FLOTILLA MURDERS

May 28, 2014 at 12:12 (Gaza, Humanitarian Aid Flotilla, Israel, Turkey)

IHH said Monday that a 51-year-old activist who had remained in a coma following the incident died on Saturday, bringing the number of victims to 10.

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Bringing the total murdered to 10

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Turkish court orders arrest of Israeli top brass over Gaza ship raid
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Turkish ship Mavi Marmara arrives at Istanbul’s Sarayburnu port as
people wave Turkish and Palestinian flags on Dec. 26, 2010
(AFP/File Mustafa Ozer)
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ANKARA (AFP) — A Turkish court on Monday ordered the arrest of four former Israeli military chiefs over a deadly 2010 maritime assault, in a move which could jeopardize reconciliation efforts between the countries.The court in Istanbul will ask Interpol to issue international arrest warrants for four men involved in a deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship, Cihat Gokdemir, a lawyer working on the case, told AFP.

The ruling is part of an ongoing criminal trial in absentia of the four men on charges brought by aid group IHH and the victims’ families in 2012, which has been denounced as a “show” by Israel.

It also follows months of negotiations between former allies Turkey and Israel to end a diplomatic row sparked when nine activists were killed after Israeli commandos boarded the Turkish-flagged ship.

An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the court’s decision on Monday as a “ridiculous provocation.”

“If this is the message that the Turks want to send to Israel, it was perfectly well understood,” said the official, declining to elaborate further on what this meant for the reconciliation process.

Turkish officials recently said they were close to a deal that would see Israel pay compensation for the deaths. Local media said Israel had insisted any deal be conditional on the lawsuits against the soldiers being dropped.

Turkish prosecutors are seeking life sentences for former military chief of staff Gaby Ashkenazi, former navy chief Eliezer Marom, former military intelligence head Amos Yadlin, and former air force intelligence chief Avishai Levy.

Nine Turkish activists died aboard the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara, the largest ship in a flotilla dispatched by Turkish relief agency Humanitarian Relief Foundation to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip on May 31, 2010.

IHH said Monday that a 51-year-old activist who had remained in a coma following the incident died on Saturday, bringing the number of victims to 10.

“Suleyman Ugur Soylemez became a martyr on Saturday,” a member of the NGO told AFP.

The assault sparked widespread condemnation and provoked a major diplomatic crisis between the two countries.

Ankara expelled the Israeli ambassador, demanded a formal apology and compensation and an end to the blockade on the Gaza Strip, which is run by Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist group.

An Israeli probe found that the raid did not violate international law, in a conclusion which Turkey said lacked credibility.

‘We won’t give up’

Talks on compensation began a year ago after Israel extended a formal apology to Turkey in a breakthrough brokered by US President Barack Obama.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause, said in April he was prepared to normalize ties with Israel.

Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said in February that a deal with Israel was “close,” adding: “When we say okay, an international agreement will be concluded and it will set a precedent.”

Turkish media have said any agreement would have the status of an international agreement and would give the Israeli military immunity from any liability over the assault.

Under the Turkish constitution, international treaties take precedence over domestic law if there is a disagreement.

It was not immediately clear what political repercussions the court’s verdict would have on the negotiations.

“We don’t know yet how an agreement will address the issue of criminal charges against the former Israeli commanders,” said Ozdem Sanberk, a retired ambassador who represented Turkey on a UN panel investigating the Mavi Marmara raid.

“In principle, the judiciary is independent and we must say that the judicial process is independent from the diplomatic track,” he told AFP.

But Serkan Nergis, spokesman for IHH, said the group would continue to fight in the court. The trial is due to continue, with the next hearing expected n December.

“We will not drop the lawsuits. We believe criminals must be put on trial,” he told AFP on Monday.

“Even if we do give up, victims’ families will not.”

There have been several other attempts to reach the Palestinian territory by boat since 2010, all of which have been stopped by Israel without bloodshed.

 

Source

2 Comments

ART AS A WEAPON AGAINST OPPRESSION

May 27, 2014 at 15:43 (Canada, Israel, Palestine, People's Art, zionist harassment)

First, from Wikipedia ….. Art may be characterized in terms of mimesis (its representation of reality), expression, communication of emotion, or other qualities. During the Romantic period, art came to be seen as “a special faculty of the human mind to be classified with religion and science”. Though the definition of what constitutes art is disputed and has changed over time, general descriptions mention an idea of imaginative or technical skill stemming from human agency and creation.

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Second, Kudos to the City of Ottawa for the following …

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(Right under Stephen zio Harper’s big lying nose)

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Ottawa Won’t Shut Down Palestinian Art Show in Canada Capital City Hall

‘Invisible’ Focuses on Occupation — Jews Blast Incitement

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COURTESY OF REHAB NAZZAL

By JTA Via

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The City of Ottawa will not close an art exhibit denounced as a glorification of terror by Israel’s embassy and the local Jewish community.

“Invisible,” the creation of Toronto-based Palestinian artist Rehab Nazzal, focuses on “Palestine … and its military occupation by Israel,” according to a gallery brochure. The exhibit, which is scheduled to end June 22, has been on display at a gallery inside Ottawa City Hall since May 9.

Israel’s embassy in the Canadian capital said the exhibit “reflects a culture of hate and incitement that contradicts the values of Canada as a guardian of peace and champion against terror.”

Rafael Barak, Israel’s ambassador to Canada, met last week with Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson to discuss “the problematic nature of the exhibit, especially because it does not portray ‘artists, activists, writers and leaders,’ as is presented in the pamphlet, but known terrorists,” said a statement from the embassy a day after the meeting.

The statement added that the artist is a relative of Khalil Nazzal, who masterminded the Maalot school massacre in Israel that took place 40 years ago this month that killed 22 children and three adults.

While Barak was “pleased” to learn through his meeting with the mayor that the exhibit “does not reflect his values or the City of Ottawa,” he said the artworks “provide Canadians with a window into what lies at the root of terrorism and the obstacles in Israel’s quest for peace: the Palestinian glorification of terror, the incitement of violence and the refusal to accept the State of Israel.”

The embassy provided background information on seven Palestinian suicide bombers, hijackers and terrorism operatives presented in the exhibit as artists, writers and “leaders.”

The Jewish Federation of Ottawa and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs called on the mayor to remove the “inappropriate” exhibit, which is “hurtful to the Jewish community and offensive to any peace-loving person, including non-Jewish Canadian victims of terror,” the federation said in a statement last week.

But the city advised the federation that it was unable to remove the exhibit, “citing deficiencies in its own selection process,” said Jewish Federation of Ottawa president and CEO Andrea Freedman.

In a statement to JTA, Steve Kanellakos, Ottawa’s deputy city manager, said, “To exhibit a work of art is not to endorse the work or the vision, ideas, and opinions of the artist. It is to uphold the right of all to experience diverse visions and views.”

Kanellakos added that “the artist’s works and the artist herself benefit from [Canada’s] protection of freedom of expression.”

 

 

 

4 Comments

TODAY’S SPOOF ON THE EU ELECTIONS

May 27, 2014 at 09:46 (Associate Post, Cartoons, European Union, fascism)

Image ‘Copyleft’ by Carlos Latuff

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Who is Marine Le Pen?

Click HERE to find out …..

3 Comments

POPE’S VISIT TO HOLY LAND WAS AS REALISTIC AS THIS SOUTH PARK EPISODE

May 27, 2014 at 08:32 (Collective Punishment, DesertPeace Exclusive, Extremism, Israel, Occupation, Palestine, YouTube, zionist harassment)

Watch this in full …. there IS a message there.

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Here is the ugly reality just a day after the Pope left …

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Israel okays 50 new settler homes in East Jerusalem

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Settlers uproot 30 olive trees near Nablus

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Israeli forces shoot, injure Palestinian in northern Gaza

 

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Israeli forces level land, issue confiscation notices in Salfit

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Same old murders, land theft and destruction ….. all in the name of Peace [sic]

It will obviously take more than a Papal visit or the arrival of the Red Heifer to establish a just and lasting peace in this area. 

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1 Comment

PHOTOS OF PALESTINIAN CHILDREN ‘GREETING’ THE POPE

May 26, 2014 at 11:46 (Apartheid, Oppression, Palestine, Photography)

natale palestina

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What would Jesus say about apartheid?

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Source and more photos AT

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POPE VISITS THE WARSAW GHETTO DURING TRIP TO PALESTINE

May 26, 2014 at 10:25 (Apartheid, Associate Post, Cartoons, Corrupt Politics, Israel, Occupied West Bank, Palestine)

Latuff’s spoof of the Pope at the Warsaw Bethlehem Ghetto Wall …

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Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD, adds the following from Bethlehem …

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The Pope at the Wall

The children of Al-Rowwad from Aida Refugee Camp delivered a message to the Pope when he stopped to pray at the apartheid and annexation wall. They emphasized prisoners plight and the right to return home. This impromptu stop was in my opinion the most memorable part of the Pontiff’s visit to Bethlehem. The Pope recognized “The State of Palestine” (Google just did it too!) and also met with refugee children at Dheisheh and shared food with some family members who each had a story to tell him about horrific suffering under Israel’s colonial occupation. Christians and Muslims here were all genuinely touched by the visit of this more humble Pope and his gestures of understanding and solidarity. But most said they wished he would use his influence more to pressure the Zionist regime. The Western Zionist dominated media tried to hide things including the Pope’s gestures of solidarity with us but social media was prominent and the story could not be ignored. See pictures here
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The Pope later went on to Tel Aviv to be was sandwiched between two Zionist Polish liars who continue to build walls of hate and destruction: Persky (aka Peres) and Mileikowsky (aka Netanyahu). The Pope had to listen as both atheists said that God gave this land to the Jews and that Israel was “the land of the Jewish people” and is a “democracy that guarantees freedom of religion”! Unfortunately, the Pope is also forced to lay a wreath at the tomb of Theodore Herzl (in addition to the obligatory stops at “Yad Vashem” and Herod’s retaining wall). Herzl is another atheist who is “credited” with organizing a world-wide Zionist movement that resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths (not counting those crimes committed by its subservient armies like the US army killing Iraqis etc). It is a movement that has created millions of refugees and continues to commit crimes against humanity as it consolidates an apartheid system here while money laundering billions of illicit financial gains money. Israel continues to demolish homes and lands.  Just to welcome the Pope: Israel murdered Palestinian youth, imprisoned many, destroyed over 1500 trees in the Land of the Nassar family (called Tent of Nations) and more. Israeli Jewish “activists” even distributed flyers calling for destruction of Churches (claiming Christians worship idols according to Jewish law), and some sprayed graffiti on Churches that “Mary is a Cow” and “Jesus: a son of a Whore”!
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Who are these Zionist leaders that brilliantly brainwashed Jews to support racist Zionism and pressured some Gentiles to do the same?
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Shimon Peres was born as Shimon Perski in Vishniva, Poland (now Belarus). He and his parents came to Palestine in 1934 (under British rule). He joined the underground terrorist group the Haganah, and served as a chief of its manpower division in the 1940s and participated in the ethnic cleansing of 1948-1949. He is the architect of Israel’s nuclear program. Appointed in 1953 as director general of the ministry of defense, he immediately started exploring the nuclear development.  In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Israel developed its nuclear program primarily with the help of France while maintaining the Peres doctrine of “ambiguity.”  The US and Britain and other countries looked the other way. He is known as a slick politician able to lie with ease claiming wanting peace but rejecting any responsibility for his ethnic cleansing of Palestine and rejecting the rights of refugees to return to their homes and lands. He was awarded (with Rabin and Arafat) the Nobel Peace Prize for their disastrous Oslo accords. Many Nobel committee members later signed a letter regretting their awarding Perski the Nobel Peace Prize (based on his actions as member of the Sharon government during its war crimes spree).
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Benyamin Mileikowsky (aka Netanyahu) was born to Benzion Mileikowsky (later changed names to Netanyahu), a polish immigrant. His Americanized father became secretary to terrorist leader Vladimir Yevgenyevich Zhabotinsky (aka Zeev Jabotinsky) founder of “revisionist” Zionism and supported groups like Irgun terrorist organization during the mandate in Palestine. His son continues to idolize these early Jewish terrorists. Both Benjamin and his brother served in units of the Israeli forces responsible for assassinations on foreign lands (in violations of international law) and committed war crimes. Benjamin Miliekowsky (Netanyahu) is known both among Israelis and globally as a consummate liar who refused to accept the Oslo accords (even though they were partial to Israel) and has gotten rich off of his political activities. Here is a video of him thinking the camera was off explaining his true contributions during his first stint as Israeli prime minister in the 1990s.

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see also this
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This is after all the same terrorist who gave a speech to dozens of
Likud Party members in Eilat in which he admitted this is his strategy. According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz (15 July 2001): “…giving his audience a bit of advice on how to deal with foreign interviewers (Netanyahu said):’Always, irrespective of whether you’re right or not, you must always present your side as right.’ In 2011, the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, described Netanyahu as a liar in a private exchange with US President Barack Obama at the G20 summit (it was inadvertently broadcast to journalists). “I cannot stand him. He’s a liar,” Sarkozy told Obama. The US president Obama responded by saying: “You’re fed up with him? I have to deal with him every day.”
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Other Zionist leaders have even more interesting backgrounds. See
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But in very good news, and inspite of sending in legions of professional
propaganda men to DePaul University, the students there voted to support Boycotts, Divestment, and Sanctions.
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The BDS campaign must grow. Other forms of resistance must grow. Injustice must end. Join the struggle.

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2 Comments

IMAGE OF THE DAY ~~ POPE PRAYS AT WEST BANK’S ‘WESTERN WALL’

May 25, 2014 at 17:21 (Apartheid, Israel, Occupied West Bank, Palestine)

In an image likely to become one of the most emblematic of his trip to the holy land, Francis rested his forehead against the concrete structure that separates Bethlehem from Jerusalem, and prayed silently as a child holding a Palestinian flag looked on.
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Hello Palestine: Pope Francis prays at Israeli separation wall in Bethlehem.

GETTY IMAGES Hello Palestine: Pope Francis prays at Israeli separation wall in Bethlehem.
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Pope Francis Endorses ‘Palestine’ on Surprise Visit to Israeli West Bank Wall

Pontiff Speaks of Peace Below Anti-Israel Graffiti

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(Reuters) — Pope Francis made a surprise stop on Sunday at the wall Palestinians abhor as a symbol of Israeli oppression, and later invited presidents from both sides of the divide to the Vatican to pray for peace.

In an image likely to become one of the most emblematic of his trip to the holy land, Francis rested his forehead against the concrete structure that separates Bethlehem from Jerusalem, and prayed silently as a child holding a Palestinian flag looked on.

He stood at a spot where someone had sprayed in red paint “Free Palestine”. Above his head was graffiti in broken English reading: “Bethlehem look like Warsaw Ghetto”, comparing the Palestinians’ plight with that of the Jews under the Nazis.

Such imagery seemed likely to cause unease among Israel’s leaders, who say the barrier, erected 10 years ago during a spate of Palestinian suicide bombings, is needed to secure its security. Palestinians see it as a bid by Israel to partition off territory and grab land they want for their future state.

On the second leg of a three-day trip to the Middle East, Francis delighted his Palestinian hosts by referring to the “state of Palestine”, giving support for their bid for full statehood recognition in the face of a paralyzed peace process.

But, speaking at the birthplace of Jesus in the Palestinian-run city of Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, he made clear that a negotiated accord was needed, calling on leaders from both sides to overcome their myriad divisions.

Francis invited the Israeli and Palestinian presidents to come to the Vatican to pray for an end to the enduring conflict, just a month after the collapse of U.S.-backed peace talks.

“In this, the birthplace of the Prince of Peace, I wish to invite you, President Mahmoud Abbas, together with President Shimon Peres, to join me in heartfelt prayer to God for the gift of peace,” the Pope said at an open-air Mass in Bethlehem.

Peres and Abbas both accepted the invitation, their respective staff said. Palestinian official Hana Amira said the encounter would take place on June 6, just under two months before the veteran Israeli leader leaves office.

But it seemed unlikely that Peres would receive any mandate from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to negotiate with Abbas on renewing direct talks.

Netanyahu has said Israel would not consider resuming the negotiations unless Abbas reneged on a unity pact with Hamas, one of its most bitter enemies which rules in Gaza. Abbas has said a new government envisaged by the accord would be committed to peace.

 

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WHAT WE TEND TO FORGET ON MEMORIAL DAY

May 25, 2014 at 12:19 (History, Holidays, In Memoriam, Poetry)

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Memorial Days

By Tom Karlson

they sang and prayed,
naming that day in May, Decoration day
they dis-interred 257 Union men
mass graved, dumped, piled
broken bodies twisted,
a Charleston North Carolina Guernica
forgotten men dug up, re-interred
with honor, memory, celebration
by 10,000
in 1866 that first Memorial Day
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it is
Memorial Day 2010
the Turkish flotilla
bringing aid to Gaza
the attack, nine dead,
Americans, Turks
no aid delivered
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Memorial Day1937,
steelworkers striking Little Steel,
strikers with families march toward the Republic steel mill gate
police-guards open fire
ten dead
thirty shot
one hundred clubbed
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today we are at Jones beach
it is Memorial Day
we are fifty souls
remembering our dead, the dead
hundreds of Long Islanders
thousands of North Americans
more than a million Iraqis and Afghanis
families stroll past
some look, others see without vision
all have come to eat, drink
and celebrate that insatiable beast
today the Blue Angles
spin flip dive swoop
begging boys and girls to sign up
the navy, the marines want you
as we call out the named and nameless
let us remember these days
past, present, and future

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WHAT THE MEDIA IS NOT REPORTING ABOUT FLOODS IN SERBIA

May 25, 2014 at 10:07 (Corporate Media, Cover Up, Media Blackout, Serbia)

The rain has stopped, yet the water is still rising, and the media has only just begun to cover the worst flooding to afflict Serbia and neighboring states in recorded history.

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HOW TO HELP THE VICTIMS ….

Click HERE
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Media Failure FROM

The Untold Story of the Floods in Serbia

by ILIJA M. TROJANOVIC

Two kilometers away from the Tamnava River near downtown Obrenovac, Snezana Hasanovic didn’t think the flood waters would reach her neighborhood. During the Yugoslav War in 1992, she fled Sarajevo along with her husband and young son, and never thought she’d have to be an evacuee twice in her life

“On Friday at around 1:30am my parents came knocking at my door telling us to get out of the house immediately. The water was now surrounding the house, when an hour earlier my husband and I were watching news of the flood on TV and it wasn’t near us.”

Little did Hasanovic know, both rivers around Obrenovac burst their banks, the Sava and the Tamnava, and by now the “water was almost up to our knees, it was raining, there was a foul odor, and I simply could not believe that we would be leaving our house without anything once again.”

“We are homeless again,” said Hasanovic, who works at the International School of Belgrade – Serbia’s leading school in English.

The rain has stopped, yet the water is still rising, and the media has only just begun to cover the worst flooding to afflict Serbia and neighboring states in recorded history.

As Serbia sinks further into oblivion in front of an international community selective about the natural disasters they choose to assist, scores of people are dying and thousands are displaced. Hasanovic’s hometown of Obrenovac, a sleepy town not to far from the capital, Belgrade, now resembles an Eastern European version of Venice – minus the pulchritude – as bodies are floating across the streets – err, canals.Ninety percent of the city is under water.

The region’s worst flooding coupled with the fact that Serbia is one ofEurope’s poorest countries spells a gloomy conclusion to one of mother nature’s worst disasters so far this year. To make matters worse, the international community slept on the story for more than 3 days before really covering it. In those overlooked three days, 3 months of rainfallplummeted on Serbia and the Bosnian state of Republika Srpska.

Even when news outlets like the BBC or CNN began taking the story ‘seriously’, the only reporting came from meteorologists, whose airtimeon the respective channels are both minimal compared to anchors and foreign correspondents. Only after the Serbian tennis champion Novak Djokovic lambasted the two news channels did they pick up their reportages.

Understandably, the biggest democratic election was wrapping up inIndia, Turkey witnessed its worst mining disaster, and 300 innocent girls were kidnapped by terrorists in Nigeria, so flooding in Serbia – at least on the first day – was behind in the pecking order. After three days of minimal reports (i.e. news tickers), and a mainstream media estimate of 40 dead and 25,000 displaced, the devastating floods clearly did not receive the right publicity.

According to people on the ground, there has been more than the reported amount of deaths and the number of displaced soars well into the hundreds of thousands. The only correct sum being reported is theamount of aid which will be in the range of hundreds of millions if not a billion dollars.

Had a correspondent been sent to the hardest hit places, the correct figures may have been conveyed to the masses, which in turn would have speeded the delivery of foreign aid to Serbia. With the exception of Al-Jazeera Balkans’ extensive coverage, there are only a handful of reporters on the ground, and due to this sad reality more than just a modicum of media integrity is being washed down the drain.

The hurricane in Tacloban received wide media coverage, as did the floods that hit south Britan and Ireland in 2012, so the question beckons, why have the floods in Serbia not been taken seriously by the media?

In the end, it’s political, as always seems to be the case. Instead of highlighting the nation’s plights such as widespread corruption or human trafficking, the mainstream media – in other words Western media – only dwells on the past tribulations of the war that split up Yugoslavia, and only the mistakes of the Serbs. Every few years Serbia is back in the headlines for someone accused of being a war criminal, and the world is reminded of Serbia as the cruelest of nations. Even calling Serbia a nation is comical, because the West – and not with bombs or guns anymore, but with their weapon of choice which is the press – is dismantling Serbia slowly and delicately. First Montenegro. Then Kosovo. Who’s next, Vojvodina or Sandzak?

As a result, the perpetual castigation of Serbia and its people have tarnished the reputation of a country that was pivotal in the Allies victory in WWII. Even Hollywood has jumped on the smear campaign with movies such as ‘The Hunting Party’, which depicts Serbs as cannibals.

Serbs love meat, fair trade, but we prefer swine over homo sapien.

In the end, the media had to step in, on ethical grounds at the very least. Arguably still being underreported, and with more deathly drops of rain scheduled for Thursday, Serbia will only receive two types of publicity: negative publicity or diminutive publicity. Because the spin can’t blame Serbia (Serbs didn’t flood themselves), the type of publicity is clearly the latter. This intentionally shy approach by Western media will forever keep Serbia in the dark, and in the doldrums.

“I lost any sense of time and could not feel anything at all. At one moment I thought that all this could not be happening, it had to be a nightmare,” Hasanovic added, echoing the sentiments of many other Serbs suffering the repercussions of the floods, but also a fair rendition of pre-submerged Serbia.

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Also see THIS report

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PAPAL PRAYERS FOR PEACE ARE NOT ENOUGH

May 25, 2014 at 09:32 (Argentina, Collective Punishment, Israel, Palestine, Soldier Brutality)

Pope Francis is under the illusion that his prayers will bring Peace to the Holy Land ….

More than prayers are needed.

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Here is a photo of the Pope taken at the Vatican…

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Pope Francis kisses a man on a wheelchair as he greets the crowd after his general audience at St Peter’s Square


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And the reality in Palestine …

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Army Kidnaps A Disabled Palestinian, Throw His Wheelchair

 by Saed Bannoura – FOR

Israeli soldiers violently attacked and kidnapped a disabled Palestinian man, in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, after forcing him into their jeep, and threw his wheelchair away.

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Amjad Najjar, head of the Hebron branch of the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS), stated undercover soldiers of the Israeli military kidnapped Kamal Khairy ‘Aabdeen, 40 years of age, and took him to an unknown destination.

Najjar added that ‘Aabdeen is paralyzed, cannot move without his wheelchair, and that the soldiers left his wheelchair in the middle of the street in Ras al-Jouza area, in Hebron.

‘Aabdeen was shot in his spine during the Ibhrahimi Mosque massacre in Hebron.

The massacre took place on February 25, 1994, when an American-born fanatic Israeli settler, identified as Baruch Goldstein, stormed Hebron’sIbrahimi Mosque and opened fire, killing 29 worshipers and injuring 125, many of the wounded became disabled.

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Why are these sentiments not being echoed by thousands in Israel/Palestine?

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A MOST UNWELCOME VISIT BY POPE FRANCIS TO THE HOLY LAND

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PHOTO ESSAY ~~ TO LOVE HUMANITY IS TO SAFEGUARD THE ENVIRONMENT

May 25, 2014 at 08:36 (Activism, Associate Post, Corporate Crime, Environment, Photography)

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And the food we eat!

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Large protest at New York’s Union Square against Monsanto and GMO

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Photos © by Bud Korotzer

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Related Report of other demos … FROM

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Global anti-GMO action: People unite against Monsanto dominance

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Over 400 cities worldwide will see millions marching against the US chemical and agricultural company Monsanto in an effort to boycott the use of Genetically Modified Organizms in food production.

Marches are planned in 52 countries in addition to some 47 US states that are jointing in the protest.

Follow RT’s LIVE UPDATES on March Against Monsanto

“MAM supports a sustainable food production system. We must act now to stop GMOs and harmful pesticides,” said Tami Monroe Canal, founder of March Against Monsanto (MAM) in a press release ahead of the global event.

The movement was formed after the 2012 California Proposition 37 on mandatory labeling of genetically engineered food initiative failed, prompting activists to demand a boycott of the GMO in food production.

“Monsanto’s predatory business and corporate agriculture practices threatens their generation’s health, fertility and longevity,” Canal said.

The main aim of the activism is to organize global awareness for the need to protect food supply, local farms and environment. It seeks to promote organic solutions, while “exposing cronyism between big business and the government.”

Activists claim that Monsanto spent hundreds of millions of dollars to “obstruct all labeling attempts”while suppressing all “research containing results not in their favor.”

Birth defects, organ damage, infant mortality, sterility and increased cancer risks are just some of the side-effects GMO is believed to cause.

“That is what the scientists have learned about, that the genetically modified foods will increase allergies that they are going to be less nutritious and that they can possibly or very contain toxins that can make us ill,” Organic Consumers Association’s political director Alexis Baden-Mayer told RT.

GMOs have been partially banned in a number of countries, including Germany, Japan, and Russia but yet in most countries across the globe still feed GMOs to their animals.

Citing the US example, Baden-Mayer told RT that “it is hard to distinguish the company Monsanto from the players in the US government.”

“Most of the genetically modified crops grown in the US, almost all of them end up in factory farms, concentrated in animal feeding operations,” stating that US has enough grassland to pasture and raise“100 percent grass-fed beef” and produce even more grass fed beef than is raised on “modified corn and soy.”

One year ago over 2 million people in 436 cities in 52 countries worldwide marched against the largest producer of genetically engineered seeds.

3 Comments

A NEW ISRAELI WAR ~~ AGAINST PALESTINIAN BANKS THIS TIME

May 24, 2014 at 18:53 (Collective Punishment, Economy, Israel, Palestine)

One such measure is that Israel informed the Palestinian side that it would no longer allow Palestinian banks to transport their surplus Israeli currency to the Israeli Central Bank, an act that is unheard of in the world of banking. Israel is refusing to serve its own currency. In effect, Israel is declaring war on the Palestinian economy, risking the collapse of the thriving Palestinian banking sector, and disrupting the flow of basic goods such as electricity, petroleum, and natural gas into Palestine.

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Israel Declares War On Palestinian Banks

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AP Photo / MURAD SEZER
SAM BAHOUR  FOR

Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip use the Israeli currency, the New Israeli Shekel, for their daily business. However, as the peace negotiation efforts of Secretary John Kerry stumbled (many would say failed) in late April, Israel took many punitive measures to punish Palestinians for not accepting full political submission.

One such measure is that Israel informed the Palestinian side that it would no longer allow Palestinian banks to transport their surplus Israeli currency to the Israeli Central Bank, an act that is unheard of in the world of banking. Israel is refusing to serve its own currency. In effect, Israel is declaring war on the Palestinian economy, risking the collapse of the thriving Palestinian banking sector, and disrupting the flow of basic goods such as electricity, petroleum, and natural gas into Palestine.

Given the Palestinian economy is an extension of the Israeli one, due to the prolonged state of military occupation, Palestinians import over 85 percent of their goods and services from Israel and sell over 80 percent of their exports to Israel. From a purely economic perspective, given Palestine is still a state in the making and, as such, lacks its own currency, using the Israeli currency is expected.

The Palestinian economy in the West Bank and Gaza Strip was purposely made structurally dependent on Israel ever since the Israel military occupied the area in 1967. This Israeli-crafted structural dependency took many shapes and forms, starting with Israel creating a captive Palestinian consumer base for its products and services by militarily controlling all the borders between the occupied territory and the outside world, all the way to installing the Israeli currency, the Israeli Shekel, as the daily currency among Palestinians. Before the Oslo Peace Accords, within the Accords itself, and all the way through today, this forced dependency has been maintained.

The Israeli currency enters Palestine from multiple sources, primary among them being the salaries received from Palestinian workers who receive Israeli military permits to seek employment in Israel. There are 47,350 Palestinian workers who enter Israel legally (quota as of March 2014) with an estimated additional 15,000-20,000 who enter illegally without permits. Prior to the era of the Oslo peace process, which introduced a physical separation barrier between the two economies, the total number of Palestinian workers from the West Bank and Gaza Strip who used to work in Israel reached 120,000. These workers are paid in New Israeli Shekels and usually return home to the occupied territory every night where they spend their money in the Palestinian economy.

When Palestinians purchase the goods and services they consume, such as electricity, petroleum, natural gas, foodstuffs, medical care at Israeli hospitals, etc., they are required to pay Israeli suppliers in their home currency, the New Israeli Shekel (NIS). These payments are made on behalf of Palestinian clients from the Palestinian banking system to Israeli suppliers via the Israeli banking system. For example, the Palestinian Authority (PA) consumes 70-80 million NIS every month from the Israeli electric company for the electricity that is purchased for the occupied territory, including Gaza; 500-600 million NIS is purchased from the Israeli petroleum refineries every month to cover all the petroleum products consumed; and 25 million NIS is paid monthly to Israeli health care providers. As can be seen, the magnitude of these purchases is enormous given the $6 billion Palestinian economy purchases over 85% of its goods and services from Israel.

As these Israeli-supplied goods and services are sold in the Palestinian market, retailers collect and accumulate New Israeli Shekels and then deposit them in their bank accounts. Subsequently, either the Palestinian retailers or their Palestinian suppliers (the PA in the case of electricity and petroleum since these are centrally bought by the PA government and resold to Palestinian retailers), request their banks to make payments to their Israeli suppliers.

When Palestinian banks make an electronic transfer to Israeli banks they must back up such a transfer with actual cash, New Israeli Shekels. It is common practice in the world of banking that countries respect their own currency. Actually, not only is it common practice that a country respect its own currency but the norm is for it to actually pay what is called seignorage to other counties who adopt their currency to compensate for the profits the home country makes from others using their currency, thus increasing its value. Israel has always refused to pay seignorage to Palestinians and now has gone one step further and has declared that Palestinians cannot physically transfer their surplus Israeli currency to the Israeli Central Bank.

The expected results of this punitive measure are many. First, given the Palestinian bank safes are now overflowing with their clients’ Shekels the banks will need to stop accepting deposits. Secondly, as Palestinian businesses will not be able to make electronic transfers, they will be forced to move large sums of cash directly to their Israeli suppliers. Given most Palestinians do not have access to cross the illegal Israeli separation wall, they will need to look for intermediaries to transfer the cash to their Israeli suppliers, causing not only the creation of a black market, but a dangerous security situation.

The equivalent of a central bank in the Palestinian Authority is the Palestine Monetary Authority (PMA) and they are not accepting this Israeli administrative punishment sitting down. The PMA Governor, Dr. Jihad Al-Wazir, has made it public that he is looking to use this regrettable situation to further advance structural changes in the Palestinian monetary system. One such immediate change is the possibility to “dollarize” the Palestinian economy and stop using Israeli currency altogether Another possibility is the issuing of an independent Palestinian currency, which is a much larger project that has been in the works for quite some time and may be accelerated in response to these latest Israeli measures.

In the meantime, the Israeli “Civil” Administration (the branch of the Israeli Ministry of Defense, which is responsible for managing the occupied territory) is negotiating with Palestinian authorities and bankers to restart, incrementally, the flow of Shekels to the Israeli Central Bank. Sadly, Palestinians are all too familiar with having to negotiate these administrative issues just in order to survive.

It is not a secret that Israel and Israeli banks have used Israel’s occupation to not only reap huge financial benefits, but also to allow Israeli banks to further advance the occupation itself. The Coalition of Women for Peace, an Israeli organization of women activists which created the Who Profits from the Occupation website, has addressed this Israeli banking complicity with the occupation in their report, Financing the Israeli Occupation (October 2010). Since this report was issued many things have changed, mainly, the Palestinian side has since been recognized as a member state in the United Nations, which places at its disposal many more diplomatic tools to hold Israelis directly accountable for its illegal practices.

Many believe that the Israeli military occupation is comprised only of tangible items, like settlements, walls, checkpoints, warplanes and the like, whereas the reality is that the weight of the occupation is actually comprised of myriad administrative rules and restrictions. These administrative elements of the occupation are ones that cannot be photographed, things like a permit system, which dictates Palestinian movement and access; control of Palestine’s electromagnetic spectrum, which deprives Palestinians of 3G mobile services; prohibitions on the ability to dig wells, which limits not only our ability to build a proper agricultural sector, but deprives many of us of drinking water; and, of course, military dictates that have the power to collapse an entire banking sector.

The international community is starting to wake up to the three-dimensional reality of the Israeli military occupation. For those who prefer to remain in their deep slumber, Palestinians, acting in their capacity as a state, will be reminding them of their obligations under international law to not allow Israel to continue to act in the rogue fashion that has become commonplace. Israel’s ongoing actions are jeopardizing any possibility for a negotiated settlement between Palestinians and Israelis.

3 Comments

EVEN CNN REFUTES ISRAELI DENIAL OF RECENT WEST BANK MURDERS

May 23, 2014 at 13:41 (Corporate Media, From The Media, Israel, Occupied West Bank, Palestine)

FINALLY! Israeli lies get mass media coverage!!

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Mohammed Udeh lies on the ground after being shot by Israeli forces  Photo: ABBAS MOMANI/AFP/Getty Images

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The original video …

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Related Report from Mondoweiss

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A MOST UNWELCOME VISIT BY POPE FRANCIS TO THE HOLY LAND

May 23, 2014 at 11:29 (Argentina, Complicity, DesertPeace Editorial, Israel, Palestine)

‘What’s that you said? …. I seem to have a problem seeing or hearing about evil’.

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Traffic and lives will be disrupted in Jerusalem on Sunday and Monday due to the visit of Pope Francis.

How can anyone even think that he will speak out for Palestinian rights when he remained silent and complacent about the rights of his own people in Argentina during the fascist coup? That was not his only silence …

During the coup, over twenty two thousand people were either murdered or ‘simply’ disappeared, including dissident priests allegedly turned over to the authorities by then Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

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The marred criminal history of Pope Francis makes him the perfect candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize [sic], NOT POPE!

Shame on the Vatican for putting such a man in charge of the flock.

Best he stay home and pray for forgiveness, surely he won’t find that here.

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Mazin Qumsiyeh PhD adds …

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Pope, Israeli lies

The Pope is coming to Palestine, a country under a regime of apartheid and colonialism. The Zionists are greeting him by insisting that they will continue to occupy the site of the last supper and insisting that he visit “Yad Vashem” (a museum exploiting one tragedy to create more holocausts), and “Mount Herzle” named after the guy who is a key architect of ethnic cleansing and colonialism here that cost hundreds of thousands of Arab lives. Christians here (and all other people) have become more and more active in boycotts, divestment, and sanctions against the Zionist regime. Meanwhile Palestinian leadership in Ramallah still seems mired in its old ways of sanctifying pope Abu Mazen. Text of signs here in Bethlehem initially welcomed the Pope as a guest of Abu Mazen not the guest of Palestine; this text was changed after some uproar though Abu Mazen’s pictures remained.  The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and many others complained about the unilateral moves and decisions by Abu Mazen without consulting the Palestinian people (and not just his key financially connected yes-men from Fatah). PFLP was promptly denied its financial share from the PLO umbrella (small as it maybe since the PLO was subsumed to the Palestinian Authority and its corrupt officials).These issues and problems portray a liberation movement gone awry after Oslo treacherous agreements. Yet, this does not take away from the justice of the Palestinian cause or the fact that it is inevitable that truth and freedom will prevail. Meanwhile we continue here struggling and sacrificing. Below are glimpses of reality and in particular please note the plight of youth assassinated and prisoners in “administrative detention”. Maybe the Pope will say something about this continuing suffering and the lies and mythology that make it all possible. Israeli military commit crimes and are caught lying (again). This is not the first time the Israeli army assassinates Children and lie about it. In this case two young people are shot with live ammunition and Israeli military said they posed direct threats and that they only used rubber bullets.

 

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