ISRAEL CONTINUES TO CLAIM IT IS ‘THE GOOD GUY’

December 18, 2019 at 14:34 (Associate Post, Britain, Israel, Palestine)

HOWEVER……

What we are experiencing at the moment is beyond all dirt, denunciation, false accusations and blows against freedom of speech.

We are the good guys – win elections with anti-Semitism club and Israel lobby

By Evelyn Hecht-Galinski

What we are experiencing at the moment is beyond all dirt, denunciation, false accusations and blows against freedom of speech. German Christian politicians and church leaders complain about the worldwide persecution that Christians are suffering from, but make no mention of the Christian Palestinians in illegally occupied Palestine / Gaza. Christians in the Gaza Strip will not be allowed to visit holy cities like Bethlehem and Jerusalem to celebrate Christmas there. Gaza Christians only receive permission from the occupiers to travel abroad, for example to Jordan via the Allenby Bridge, but no one is allowed to travel to the “Jewish State” or the occupied West Bank. As usual, the occupier regime put forward “security concerns” as the reason for the restrictions.

1,000 Christians are also imprisoned in the Gaza concentration camp

Around 1,000 Christians live among a population of around two million people in the Gaza concentration camp, who are just as caught as their Muslim companions. This year’s decision is another taboo break. After all, almost 700 Christians from Gaza were allowed to visit Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth and other holy sites with permission. While thousands of pilgrims and tourists are welcomed by the occupying regime, the indigenous Palestinians are locked out. Anyone who continually tries to lie the phrase “the only” democracy in the Middle East should be punished for fake propaganda. Religious freedom in the “Jewish apartheid state” has been trampled on for a long time and only applies to Jews. This Judaic regime is trying by all means.

As the Israeli human rights group Gisha emphasized, this year’s ban can only be seen with an increasingly strict separation policy between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The regime tries with all means to anchor this wall of separation more and more. No prayer helps to defy this regime, only foreign pressure and sanctions help. It would be helpful if the pilgrims and foreign tourists who traveled to these sites would think about whether they would “make Jesus a joy” or not, rather, with their uncritical visit, upgrade the occupiers and bring them foreign currency, which they would then use again in crew, attacks, checkpoints and walls.

Germany in the “anti-Semitism and climate frenzy”

Where’s the solidarity of Christian politicians, media and churches? It is a shame how they drop and forget their brothers and sisters. Where is the protest of the Pope, Cardinals, Bishops and Believers? And why is Chancellor Merkel, the “pastor’s daughter”, who is so important to freedom of belief so silent? With Palestine and its endangered Christians (Muslims anyway!), Their faith ends. The many Jewish medals on the chest are probably such a burden and the reasoning for the “Jewish state” is so serious that there is no longer any room for solidarity with the Palestinians. Would all of this happen in Turkey – the country that saved the lives of so many Jews during the Nazi era – that Christians shouldn’t pray and be locked out then I can imagine the media agitation and the shit storm of the anti-Erdogan agitation. But everything is allowed in the “Jewish state”, after all everything is only for “security”.

Germany is now so “intoxicated with anti-Semitism and climate” that it is easy for agitation and defamation to find a way into the media. A terrifying article about “Anti-Semitism in Turkey” published the woman of all people who made her first career as “IM” Victoria. It borders on a “Christmas miracle” that Anetta Kahane was even allowed to enter Turkey. This has shown how democratic Turkey is in contrast to Kahane. (1) (2)

GB: Helped the Torys to victory in the election by means of Zionist lies about Corbyn

However, what happened in Britain and how the Torys and Johnson won the election with the help of the Jewish lobby is a disaster. The Guardian’s Jewish Chronicle, Jonathan Freedland, put lies about Corbyn on paper that shouldn’t be without consequences. When the British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvish asked the British Jews not to choose Corbyn, the measure was full. We are accustomed to defamation as Zionist Hasbara propaganda, but manipulating it so successfully creates fear. People fall for populists so quickly, and when they come in the form of the “chief rabbi”, it reminded me of brown times in Germany, when German clergymen preached from the pulpit against Jews and for Hitler. With the Labor Party’s “anti-Semitism crisis”, a popanz was built that will continue until all pro-Palestinian members have been silenced. As a thank you, Johnson immediately brought a new anti-Semitism regulation to parliament, just like his friend Trump. Meanwhile, the author of the controversial “Anti-Semitism Definition” (IHRA), the “Anti-Semitism Code”, warns Kenneth Stern of its abuse by “right-wing Jews,” who use this new weapon to suppress criticism of Israel. (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) Meanwhile, the author of the controversial “Anti-Semitism Definition” (IHRA), the “Anti-Semitism Code”, warns Kenneth Stern of its abuse by “right-wing Jews,” who use this new weapon to suppress criticism of Israel. (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) Meanwhile, the author of the controversial “Anti-Semitism Definition” (IHRA), the “Anti-Semitism Code”, warns Kenneth Stern of its abuse by “right-wing Jews,” who use this new weapon to suppress criticism of Israel. (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9)

One could count on Jeremy Corbyn appearing as No. 1 on the Wiesenthal Center’s notorious “anti-Semitism list”. But when the German UN ambassador Heusgen landed on the list in 7th place, even the federal government felt it was too colorful. After all, after so many abstentions, Heusgen had finally only followed the orders of the federal government (and the United States) and voted against Israeli international law crimes at the UN. She stood behind Heusgen, by the way also the Israeli ambassador to Germany, who was so embarrassed by the story that he also stood behind the “colleagues”. (10) (11)

When the anti-Semitism club was swinging, German media did not want to stand aside either, and came into the same horn – such as online mirrors on election day, December 12th. Under the title “The Dark Side of Red Corbyn”, Alexander Sarovic presented his Israeli theses to the readers about the “anti-Semitism problem” from Labor to Feed – just one sad example among many. We get the dark side of the mirror every week when we are panting against Turkey or Russia. The scandal surrounding Relotius is still well in our memory. It seems to me that after a very gratifying critical report about Israel lobbyism in Germany, Spiegel has now had extreme Hasbara headwinds, that it now writes “refined” only uncritically and “Israel lobby-like”. (12) (13) (14)

Do not tolerate journalism of one-sidedness and omission!

We are facing difficult times. Britain was just the beginning in times of anti-Semitism clubs as powerful campaign helpers. Coming soon is the dirt and the Zionist corruption deficiency in the “Jewish state” and its election campaign, as well as Trump’s politics, which brought this dirt into the election campaigns and inspired Zionist and populist friends.

Trump has also managed to arrest 3,750 Palestinians from occupied Jerusalem since he declared Jerusalem to be the capital of a “Jewish state”. These included 1,070 children under the age of 18, in addition to 171 women and girls, including injured women and mothers – and all because they had organized a peaceful “sit-in” in the Al-Aqsa mosque. These waves of arrests spread like a tsunami across occupied Palestine, to all the villages, towns and districts of Jerusalem; unprecedented, and how unleashed since Trump’s support. What do we read about it in the German media? NOTHING. They are just too busy with their anti-Turkey Erdogan research, their agitation, and with their Russia and Putin defamation, that there is no time left for such explosive news. This journalism of one-sidedness and omission, which does not fulfill its duty to report truthfully, should make us all angry and thoughtful.

Don’t be intimidated by the anti-Semitism club in the Israel lobby!

In the struggle for freedom of expression and the freedom of Palestine, we must courageously put those who are struggling with the anti-Semitism club in its place. They must not succeed in distracting them from really important political issues – such as the Zionist occupation, the war threats against Iran, the other threats such as regime change and US influence contrary to all democratic customs. We must not let up and, above all, not be intimidated by the anti-Semitism club in the Israel lobby.

footnotes:

(1) https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/politik-gesellschaft/antisemitismus-in-der-tuerkei-li.3287

(2) https://www.fr.de/meinung/tuerkei-tagung-antisemitismus-istanbul-13335884.html

(3) https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191126-uks-chief-rabbi-urges-voters-not-to-back-labours-jeremy-corbyn/

(4) https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191114-guardian-columnist-peddles-fake-news-to-accuse-corbyn-of-anti-semitism/

(5) https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191216-labours-anti-semitism-crisis-will-continue-until-all-pro-palestine-members-are-silenced/

(6) https://www.jpost.com//International/Boris-Johnson-to-pass-anti-BDS-law-official-says-611044

(7) https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/11/donald-trump-antisemitism-israel-colleges-order

(8) https://www.jpost.com//International/Boris-Johnson-to-pass-anti-BDS-law-official-says-611044

(9) https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191216-controversial-anti-semitism-code-being-weaponised-by-pro-israel-groups-warns-drafter/

(10) https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/inland/berlin-vorwuerfe- gegen-christoph-heusgen-waren-grosser-fehler-16538459.html

(11) https://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/vorwurf-des-antisemitismus-nach-israel-kritik-israels-botschafter-verwehrigt-un-diplomaten-heusgen/25336388.html

(12) https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/jeremy-corbyn-labour-der-parteichef-und-antisemitismus-a-1300722.html

(13) https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft/fall-claas-relotius-schlussbericht-der-aufklaerungskommission-a-1269110.html

Originally posted AT

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‘LORD’ JONATHAN CONTINUES THE SMEARING OF JEREMY CORBYN

September 4, 2018 at 13:22 (anti-Semitism, Britain, zionist created anti_Semitism, zionist Slander)

Earlier this week Rabbi Jonathan Sacks made himself look foolish, tarnishing his worldwide reputation as a man of considerable Jewish learning and wisdom by making outlandish criticism of the Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn.

“Anti-Semitism is a virus that survives by mutating. In the Middle Ages, Jews were hated because of their religion. In the 19th and 20th centuries they were hated because of their race. Today they are hated because of their nation state, Israel. Anti-Zionism is the new anti-Semitism.”

The smearing of Jeremy Corbyn, by Katie Miranda

Rabbi Sacks’ attack on Corbyn damages the standing of the British Jewish community

Robert Cohen

This morning, on the BBC Andrew Marr Show, he did it again:

“He [Corbyn] implies the majority of British Jews are essentially alien to British culture…he is as great a danger as Enoch Powell.”

For younger readers and those less familiar with U.K. political history, Enoch Powell was a Conservative Member of Parliament from the 1950s through to the early 70s who Andrew Marr explained to his viewers is “probably the most reviled British figure of the 20th century”.

The former Chief Rabbi of Britain has chosen to storm into the issue that’s dominated U.K. politics over the summer (far more so than Brexit) – the accusations of antisemitism against Jeremy Corbyn.

As the Jewish establishment’s war against Corbyn goes on, I’ve become more convinced by the day of the damage it’s doing to the standing of the Jewish community and our ability to challenge antisemitism and confront racism more broadly by making common cause with other minority groups.

Every spin, twist and distortion applied Corbyn’s meetings, comments and speeches confuses and undermines public understanding of antisemitism. It’s coming to the point where the very word ‘antisemitism’ will lose all meaning and allegations of antisemitism will become discounted as mere political lobbying or dismissed as inconsequential.

The latest example of phoney Corbyn antisemitism, and the one which prompted Sacks to make his Enoch Powell comparison, centred on the news that Corbyn had accused British Zionists of failing to understand English irony despite living in this country for many years. The mainstream media ran with the story, happy to promote the idea that Corbyn was speaking in code and actually meant all British Jews, and not some British Zionists, were not truly British. It took online commentators, such as the Jewish Studies professor Jerry Haber, to examine the proper context of what Corbyn had said, go back to the text of the speech by Manuel Hassassian, the Palestinian Authority representative to the UK, which Corbyn was referencing, and reveal the obvious and deliberate distortion that had taken place.

[Jerry Haber, Facebook post Saturday 25 August 5pm]

— Did you hear that Jeremy Corbyn, in a speech in 2013, said that British Jews weren’t really British even if they were born there?

— Really? He said that?

— Well, he intimated that British Jews couldn’t grasp English irony and didn’t understand history.”

— Really? He was referring to Jews?

— Well, he didn’t SAY Jews, but he said that about UK Zionists, which is a leftwing code term for British Jews.

— Hang on, he made a reference to UK Zionists as a group?

— Well, not exactly. Actually, he was referring to some pro-Israel members of the audience who came up and started arguing with the Palestinian ambassador who had presented the history of Palestine and used irony when he said, “You know I’m reaching the conclusion that the Jews are the children of God, the only children of God and the Promised Land is being paid by God! I have started to believe this because nobody is stopping Israel building its messianic dream of Eretz Israel to the point I believe that maybe God is on their side. Maybe God is partial on this issue.”” which apparently some of the Zionists thought he meant without irony (We do not have a transcript of what they said) . And Corbyn referred to “the Zionists in the audience.”

— So, you mean to say he did not refer to British Zionists as a whole, but he was saying that the Palestinian ambassador, who is Armenian Palestinian, had a greater grasp of English irony, than these Brits who had lived in England all their lives?

— Yes, that’s about it.

— So, in effect, he accused pro-Israeli members of the audience, whom he referred to as “Zionists”, which they are, and who argued with the Palestinian ambassador, with being humorless and misunderstanding history, compared with the Palestinian ambassador.

— Yep.

— Well, that makes the man clearly an anti-Semite, doesn’t it?

Content to believe the national media’s shoddy journalism, Rabbi Sacks gave his interview to the New Statesman magazine saying Corbyn’s comments about British Zionists were: “the most offensive statement made by a senior British politician since Enoch Powell’s 1968 ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech”.

Here’s what I wrote on Facebook as the news of Sacks’ comments were being picked up by the national media allowing ‘Labour’s ‘antisemitism crisis’ to continue to dominate the daily news cycle:

[Robert Cohen, Facebook post Tuesday 28 August 11.23pm]

Every time a Jewish leader (this time Rabbi Jonathan Sacks) makes a preposterous statement about Jeremy Corbyn and antisemitism, it weakens the Jewish community’s ability to make common cause with other minorities facing prejudice and discrimination in the U.K.

By comparing Jeremy Corbyn to Enoch Powell it gives the appearance that Lord Sacks has no understanding of the contrasting experience of the Jewish community here (largely privileged, empowered, economically successful) and that of the immigrant communities from the British Commonwealth – the target of Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech 50 years ago – still experiencing institutional prejudice and economic discrimination linked to class and skin colour. Look at Grenfell. Look at the Windrush scandal.

Just because the Jewish community is now a largely privileged minority does not mean it does not suffer from racial prejudice. It does. Antisemitism remains in our society. And our current position of security could easily be reversed just as it was for the privileged and successful Jews of Germany who in the 1920s thought only further progress would lay ahead.

But by having nothing to say about Israel’s daily persecution and dispossession of Palestinians and by dismissing the global criticism of the new Nation State Law, Jonathan Sacks calls into question his moral authority and his right to criticise Corbyn. Antisemitism undoubtedly exists on the left in the U.K. And far more so on the right. But, as things currently stand, we are a minority that suffers little compared to the minorities around us.

If I were a Muslim or from an African Caribbean heritage and knew something of what has happened to the Palestinian people, I would be thoroughly confused by the stand Sacks is taking and his deployment of Enoch Powell as a point of reference for Jewish U.K. experience. It’s just wildly inappropriate. And indeed, insensitive to the lived experience of non-white minorities in this country.

The only explanation that makes any sense to me is the fact that Israel has become merged with modern Jewish identity in a way that now skews our moral compass. How to untangle this mess is the Jewish challenge of our Age, along with the need to find new ways to ensure Jewish security not dependent on the oppression of others.

In the U.K. (and around the world) it would be better to use our current success and privilege to demand greater attention to the racism and discrimination other groups experience every day, whether it be job opportunities, housing, health or gaining a prominent voice in mainstream media. Our Jewish experience of institutional and cultural oppression makes us well suited to build bridges with those suffering from this today.

As it happens I’m currently reading Sacks’ book ‘Lessons in Leadership’ in which he takes biblical figures and draws ethical conclusions from the Torah about what good leadership should look like. This extract (about Noah) makes me wonder (once again) why Sacks never applies his thinking to Israel and the suffering of the Palestinian people:

“It is not enough to be righteous if that means turning our backs on a society that is guilty of wrongdoing. We must take a stand. We must protest. We must register dissent even if the probability of changing minds is small. This is because the moral life is the life we share with others.”

These words inspire me to take the position I do as a U.K. Jew in solidarity with the Palestinian people and desperate for justice to come to the Holy Land – for all who call it home. I wish Rabbi Sacks would feel the same way when he reads his own writing.

Within 48 hours this Facebook commentary had been shared more than 2,500 times.

The ‘mutation’ argument

Rabbi Sacks chooses to make his Corbyn/Powell comparison because he’s determined to argue that anti-Zionism – Zionism being the thinking that underpins support for the State of Israel as it’s currently constituted – is nothing more than the latest mutation of antisemitism. As he wrote in 2016

“Anti-Semitism is a virus that survives by mutating. In the Middle Ages, Jews were hated because of their religion. In the 19th and 20th centuries they were hated because of their race. Today they are hated because of their nation state, Israel. Anti-Zionism is the new anti-Semitism.”

It’s an idea Sacks was keen to repeat to Andrew Marr this morning and it’s a conflation encouraged and reinforced by Israel’s leaders and by the Jewish communal and religious establishment around the world. As a theory it has traction because it’s a presentation of antisemitism, and indeed Jewish history and Judaism itself, that’s unchallenged by most Jews. In great part, the Jewish embrace of the conflation is an understandable response to the Holocaust. Jewish long-term global security is seen as absolutely contingent on the safety and security of the Jewish State of Israel. So to attack Israel, or question the logic or reality of Zionism in any way, is to attack and question all Jews.

The constant assertion that anti-Zionism is no more than a mutation of antisemitism and Zionism has been no more than a noble endeavour with a religious and historically necessary validation, enables the shutdown of legitimate criticism. The whole debate about Israel’s behaviour becomes a discussion (or row) about antisemitism that allows no room for talking about international law, or human rights or the undeniable Palestinian experience of racism that would not have taken place without Zionism.

IHRA definition

The Israel related illustrations in the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism are an example of the conflation/mutation argument being used as a political lobby tool rather than a code to help the understanding of antisemitism.

This is the case even with the IHRA use of caveat words like “might” which attempt to recognise the need for context. The document leaves the onus on the critic of Israel and Zionism to prove they are innocent of antisemitism. Even the author of the illustrations, Kenneth Stern, has voiced his concern that the code works against freedom of speech.

It’s important to recognise that the left is not entirely innocent in all of this. But the behaviour of some is clearly part of the problem caused by the conflation itself.

Some left wing critics of Israel (a tiny but visible minority mostly confined to social media) feed off, or are fooled by, the conflation theory themselves. They draw on traditional antisemitic tropes (such as Jewish control of the media or international finance) to express an ignorant and deeply misguided analysis of the Middle East. It’s clumsy, stupid and racist and needs to be constantly called out and firmly corrected. It also does enormous damage to the cause of Palestinian freedom. But Jewish leaders like Sacks need to recognise that this is the ugly flip side of their insistence that all things Israel are all things Jewish.

While leaders like Jonathan Sacks continue to speak as if Zionism is, was, and forever will be, an innocent and holy endeavour, we will be stuck with a devalued and discounted understanding of antisemitism. And the muddle, confusion and politicisation of antisemitism will continue to undermine our ability to challenge it or understand the suffering of the Palestinian people.

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IF DERSHOWITZ SAYS THIS, THEN IT’S REALLY THAT!

August 24, 2018 at 09:22 (anti-Semitism, Britain, Chutzpah)

Image by Carlos Latuff

Netanyahu and the Israel Lobby try to take down Jeremy Corbyn

Now we know the truth!

Jeremy Corbyn is NOT an anti Semite!

Dershowitz: Corbyn a virulent anti-Semite

Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz tells British journalists not to lecture Americans on politics while Jeremy Corbyn leads Labour party.

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BEFORE BREXIT ~~ WHY BRITAIN JOINED THE EU IN THE FIRST PLACE

April 4, 2017 at 11:07 (Britain, DesertPeace Exclusive, Humour, Videos)

Too funny not to share …..

FROM

Comments Off on BEFORE BREXIT ~~ WHY BRITAIN JOINED THE EU IN THE FIRST PLACE

TIME FOR AN APOLOGY

February 25, 2017 at 18:48 (Action Alert, Associate Post, Britain, Cartoons, Palestine, Petition)

Image by Carlos Latuff

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HOW BALFOUR’S ‘PROMISE’ AND BRITAIN DESTROYED PALESTINE

November 3, 2016 at 08:16 (Britain, Collective Punishment, History, Israel, Nakba, Palestine)

Ninety-nine years later, the British government is yet to possess the moral courage to take responsibility for what their government has done to the Palestinian people.

Ninety-nine years later, Palestinians insist that their rights in Palestine cannot be dismissed, neither by Balfour, nor by his modern peers in “Her Majesty’s Government”.

“The Zionists claimed Palestine and renamed it ‘Israel'” [Getty Images]

How Britain Destroyed the Palestinian Homeland

Ninety-nine years since Balfour’s “promise”, Palestinians insist that their rights in Palestine cannot be dismissed.

Ramzy Baroud

When I was a child growing up in a Gaza refugee camp, I looked forward to November 2. On that day, every year, thousands of students and camp residents would descend upon the main square of the camp, carrying Palestinian flags and placards, to denounce the Balfour Declaration.

Truthfully, my giddiness then was motivated largely by the fact that schools would inevitably shut down and, following a brief but bloody confrontation with the Israeli army, I would go home early to the loving embrace of my mother, where I would eat a snack and watch cartoons.

At the time, I had no idea who Balfour actually was, and how his “declaration” all those years ago had altered the destiny of my family and, by extension, my life and the lives of my children as well.

All I knew was that he was a bad person and, because of his terrible deed, we subsisted in a refugee camp, encircled by a violent army and by an ever-expanding graveyard filled with “martyrs”.

Decades later, destiny would lead me to visit the Whittingehame Church, a small parish in which Arthur James Balfour is now buried.

While my parents and grandparents are buried in a refugee camp, an ever-shrinking space under a perpetual siege and immeasurable hardship, Balfour’s resting place is an oasis of peace and calmness. The empty meadow all around the church is large enough to host all the refugees in my camp.

Finally, I became fully aware of why Balfour was a “bad person”.

Once Britain’s Prime Minister, then the Foreign Secretary from late 1916, Balfour had pledged my homeland to another people. That promise was made on November 2, 1917, on behalf of the British government in the form of a letter sent to the leader of the Jewish community in Britain, Walter Rothschild.

At the time, Britain was not even in control of Palestine, which was still part of the Ottoman Empire. Either way, my homeland was never Balfour’s to so casually transfer to anyone else. His letter read:

“His Majesty’s government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”

He concluded, “I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.”

Ironically, members of the British parliament have declared that the use of the term “Zionist” is both anti-Semitic and abusive.

The British government remains unrepentant after all these years. It has yet to take any measure of moral responsibility, however symbolic, for what it has done to the Palestinians. Worse, it is now busy attempting to control the very language used by Palestinians to identify those who have deprived them of their land and freedom.

But the truth is, not only was Rothschild a Zionist, Balfour was, too. Zionism, then, before it deservedly became a swearword, was a political notion that Europeans prided themselves to be associated with.

In fact, just before he became Prime Minister, David Cameron declared, before the Conservative Friends of Israel meeting, that he, too, was a Zionist. To some extent, being a Zionist remains a rite of passage for some Western leaders.

Balfour was hardly acting on his own. True, the Declaration bears his name, yet, in reality, he was a loyal agent of an empire with massive geopolitical designs, not only concerning Palestine alone, but with Palestine as part of a larger Arab landscape.

Just a year earlier, another sinister document was introduced, albeit secretly. It was endorsed by another top British diplomat, Mark Sykes and, on behalf of France, by François Georges-Picot. The Russians were informed of the agreement, as they too had received a piece of the Ottoman cake.

The document indicated that, once the Ottomans were soundly defeated, their territories, including Palestine, would be split among the prospective victorious parties.

The Sykes-Picot Agreement, also known as the Asia Minor Agreement, was signed in secret 100 years ago, two years into World War I. It signified the brutal nature of colonial powers that rarely associated land and resources with people that lived upon the land and owned those resources.

The centrepiece of the agreement was a map that was marked with straight lines by a china graph pencil. The map largely determined the fate of the Arabs, dividing them in accordance with various haphazard assumptions of tribal and sectarian lines.

Once the war was over, the loot was to be divided into spheres of influence:

– France would receive areas marked (a), which included: the region of south-eastern Turkey, northern Iraq – including Mosel, most of Syria and Lebanon.

– British-controlled areas were marked with the letter (b), which included: Jordan, southern Iraq, Haifa and Acre in Palestine and a coastal strip between the Mediterranean Sea and the River Jordan.

– Russia would be granted Istanbul, Armenia and the strategic Turkish Straits.

The improvised map consisted not only of lines but also colours, along with language that attested to the fact that the two countries viewed the Arab region purely on materialistic terms, without paying the slightest attention to the possible repercussions of slicing up entire civilizations with a multifarious history of co-operation and conflict.

The agreement read, partly:

“… in the blue area France, and in the red area Great Britain, shall be allowed to establish such direct or indirect administration or control as they desire and as they may think fit to arrange with the Arab state or confederation of Arab states.”

The brown area, however, was designated as an international administration, the nature of which was to be decided upon after further consultation among Britain, France and Russia. The Sykes-Picot negotiations finished in March 1916 and were official, although secretly signed on May 19, 1916. World War I concluded on November 11, 1918, after which the division of the Ottoman Empire began in earnest.

British and French mandates were extended over divided Arab entities, while Palestine was granted to the Zionist movement a year later, when Balfour conveyed the British government’s promise, sealing the fate of Palestine to live in perpetual war and turmoil.

INTERACTIVE: A century on – Why Arabs resent Sykes-Picot

The idea of Western “peacemakers” and “honest-brokers”, who are very much a party in every Middle Eastern conflict, is not new. British betrayal of Arab aspirations goes back many decades. They used the Arabs as pawns in their Great Game against other colonial contenders, only to betray them later on, while still casting themselves as friends bearing gifts.

Nowhere else was this hypocrisy on full display as was in the case of Palestine. Starting with the first wave of Zionist Jewish migration to Palestine in 1882, European countries helped to facilitate the movement of illegal settlers and resources, where the establishment of many colonies, large and small, was afoot.

So when Balfour sent his letter to Rothschild, the idea of a Jewish homeland in Palestine was very much plausible.

Still, many supercilious promises were being made to the Arabs during the Great War years, as self-imposed Arab leadership sided with the British in their war against the Ottoman Empire. Arabs were promised instant independence, including that of the Palestinians.

The understanding among Arab leaders was that Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations was to apply to Arab provinces that were ruled by the Ottomans. Arabs were told that they were to be respected as “a sacred trust of civilization”, and their communities were to be recognised as “independent nations”.

Palestinians wanted to believe that they were also included in that civilization sacredness, and were deserving of independence, too. Their conduct in support of the Pan-Arab Congress, as voting delegates in July 1919, which elected Faisal as a King of a state comprising Palestine, Lebanon, Transjordan and Syria, and their continued support of Sharif Hussein of Mecca, were all expressions of their desire for the long-coveted sovereignty.

When the intentions of the British and their rapport with the Zionists became too apparent, Palestinians rebelled, a rebellion that has never ceased, 99 years later, for the horrific consequences of British colonialism and the eventual complete Zionist takeover of Palestine are still felt after all these years.

Paltry attempts to pacify Palestinian anger were to no avail, especially after the League of Nations Council in July 1922 approved the terms of the British Mandate over Palestine – which was originally granted to Britain in April 1920 – without consulting the Palestinians at all, who would disappear from the British and international radar, only to reappear as negligible rioters, troublemakers, and obstacles to the joint British-Zionist colonial concoctions.

Despite occasional assurances to the contrary, the British intention of ensuring the establishment of an exclusively Jewish state in Palestine was becoming clearer with time.

The Balfour Declaration was hardly an aberration, but had, indeed, set the stage for the full-scale ethnic cleansing that followed, three decades later.

In his book, Before Their Diaspora, Palestinian scholar Walid Khalidi captured the true collective understanding among Palestinians regarding what had befallen their homeland nearly a century ago:

“The Mandate, as a whole, was seen by the Palestinians as an Anglo-Zionist condominium and its terms as instrument for the implementation of the Zionist programme; it had been imposed on them by force, and they considered it to be both morally and legally invalid. The Palestinians constituted the vast majority of the population and owned the bulk of the land. Inevitably, the ensuing struggle centreed on this status quo. The British and the Zionists were determined to subvert and revolutionise it, the Palestinians to defend and preserve it.”

In fact, that history remains in constant replay: The Zionists claimed Palestine and renamed it “Israel”; the British continue to support them, although never ceasing to pay lip service to the Arabs; the Palestinian people remain a nation that is geographically fragmented between refugee camps, in the diaspora, militarily occupied, or treated as second-class citizens in a country upon which their ancestors dwelt since time immemorial.

While Balfour cannot be blamed for all the misfortunes that have befallen Palestinians since he communicated his brief but infamous letter, the notion that his “promise” embodied – that of complete disregard of the aspirations of the Palestinian Arab people – is handed from one generation of British diplomats to the next, the same way that Palestinian resistance to colonialism is also spread across generations.

In his essay in the Al-Ahram Weekly, entitled “Truth and Reconciliation“, the late Professor Edward Said wrote: “Neither the Balfour Declaration nor the Mandate ever specifically concede that Palestinians had political, as opposed to civil and religious, rights in Palestine.

The idea of inequality between Jews and Arabs was, therefore, built into British – and, subsequently, Israeli and US – policy from the start.”

That inequality continues, thus the perpetuation of the conflict. What the British, the early Zionists, the Americans and subsequent Israeli governments failed to understand, and continue to ignore at their own peril, is that there can be no peace without justice and equality in Palestine; and that Palestinians will continue to resist, as long as the reasons that inspired their rebellion nearly a century ago, remain in place.

Ninety-nine years later, the British government is yet to possess the moral courage to take responsibility for what their government has done to the Palestinian people.

Ninety-nine years later, Palestinians insist that their rights in Palestine cannot be dismissed, neither by Balfour, nor by his modern peers in “Her Majesty’s Government”.

More photos and videos at SOURCE

9 Comments

BREXIT TOONS ~~ POST VOTE RACISM GONE RAMPANT

June 30, 2016 at 09:43 (Associate Post, Britain, Collective Punishment, Extremism, Islamophobia)

Images by Carlos Latuff

Racist Attacks After Brexit Referendum

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SUNDAY’S TOONS ~~ A LOOK AT THE NEW BRITAIN

June 26, 2016 at 08:19 (Associate Post, Britain, Cartoons)

Images by Carlos Latuff

Brexit, the British Wall of Separation

And Trump’s advice …

Donald Trump has some advice for Brexit voters

And what exactly is Brexit?

Brexit is an abbreviation of “British exit”, which refers to the June 23, 2016 referendum by British voters to exit the European Union. The referendum roiled global markets, including currencies, causing the British pound to fall to its lowest level in decades. Prime Minister David Cameron, who supported the UK remaining in the EU announced he would step down in October.

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY FROM ONE WAR CRIMINAL TO ANOTHER

April 22, 2016 at 13:00 (Britain, Cartoons, Corrupt Politics, Humour)

Former Israeli President Shimon Peres wishes Queen Elizabeth happy 90th birthday

Carlos Latuff adds ….

Happy Birthday Your Majesty from Ireland and Scotland

*
The Queen’s views on retirement ….

2 Comments

BRITAIN AND THE BDS MOVEMENT ~~ CONTRADICTIONS IN POLICY

February 25, 2016 at 09:30 (Apartheid, Boycott Israel, Britain, Double standards, Israel, Palestine, zionist harassment)

Britain MUST make up its mind!

If this is the case …..

British PM slams Israel: ‘Situation in East Jerusalem is genuinely shocking‘

David Cameron criticizes Israeli construction beyond the Green Line and the ‘effective encirclement of East Jerusalem, occupied East Jerusalem.’

British Prime Minister David Cameron slammed Israeli construction in East Jerusalem on Wednesday evening, saying the situation in the capital was “genuinely shocking.”

More HERE

Then WHY DID THEY GO FOR THIS?

Israel “quietly” pushed for anti-BDS legislation in US, UK

Ali Abunimah

The Israeli government played a direct role in recent policy and legislative moves in the US, UK and other countries to suppress the free speech rights of citizens calling for the boycott of Israel over its human rights abuses.

Israel is now planning to significantly step up its efforts to thwart the Palestine solidarity movement, through its embassies in key capitals.

A 23 February article in Israel’s Ynet takes to task Israeli politicians for making too much public noise about the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.

It cites as an example the fuss Israeli politicians made about the “subvertisements” Palestine solidarity activists placed on the London Underground this week.

Ynet claims that Israeli politicians helped the activists achieve their goal by giving them free publicity.

“The government, which prefers to deal with BDS activists quietly and under the radar, is now forced to deal with local politicians who threaten to ‘hijack’ this work to serve their local political interests,” the article states.

“Successes”

While it is no surprise that Israel and its lobby groups are backing the heavy-handed censorship of the Palestine solidarity movement around the world, Ynet provides confirmation of the Israeli foreign ministry’s direct lobbying and political interference in domestic legislation in several countries.

“In cooperation with Jewish and pro-Israeli organizations, the ministry convinced several American states to pass legislation against the boycott of Israel,” Ynet states.

This is a reference to a raft of federal and state-level legislation that aims to penalize companies or blacklist individuals who support boycott or divestment from Israeli or other companies or institutions complicit in Israel’s violations of Palestinian rights.

Human rights defenders say the initiatives violate a landmark US Supreme Court ruling that boycotts and related activities to bring about political, social and economic change are political speech, occupying “the highest rung of the hierarchy of First Amendment values.”

The Israeli government is also claiming credit for new UK regulations aimed at stopping public bodies, including democratically elected local municipalities and public universities, from boycotting Israel.

“The Israeli embassy in London succeeded through quiet and effective work in convincing the British government to pass a directive prohibiting municipalities and public bodies from taking decisions to boycott Israel,” Ynet reports.

The policy is not an outright ban, but threatens public bodies with civil court cases which could result in “severe penalties” if they take ethical investment or purchasing decisions to exclude companies from World Trade Organization member states that violate human rights.

Israel is a member of the World Trade Organization.

Riya Hassan of the Palestinian BDS National Committee said that the government of Prime Minister David Cameron “is going further than Margaret Thatcher ever went to defend South African apartheid.”

Ynet cites other “successes” for Israel’s anti-human-rights strategy, in Luxembourg, Sweden and France, including a vote by the Paris city council to condemn the BDS movement.

“An additional specialization of Israeli embassies is the use of existing legislation against boycott: in several countries there exists legislation against boycott and discrimination,” Ynet observes. “The embassies were requested to check how it is possible to use local law to curtail boycott initiatives.”

Ramping up

Israel’s efforts to sabotage and attack the BDS movement are not new.

It is already known, for instance, that Israeli military intelligence spies on “overseas organizations” that advocate BDS as a strategy to support Palestinian rights.

And in 2013, Israel beefed up its London embassy with staff dedicated to fighting BDS.

According to Ynet, these kinds of efforts are about to be dramatically ramped up.

Last year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed Gilad Erdan as minister with the responsibility to combat the movement for Palestinian rights, and armed him with a budget of $30 million.

Following the London Underground posters incident, Erdan announced that he intends to allocate $1 million “to create ten BDS coordinator positions in important Israeli embassies throughout the world,” Ynet states.

“The coordinators will collect and coordinate information from the ground concerning boycott movement threats” and “will further assist in promoting projects for positive Israel branding.”

As part of this work, Ynet reports, Israel will “hire local citizens – Jews and non-Jews – who will work in the framework of the Israeli embassies.”

Pushing back

While there is no doubt that Israel’s bullying and harassment of those calling for full rights for Palestinians is going to increase, it is doubtful that it will do much to gain Israel any public sympathy.

Israel’s problem is not the marketing, but the product: brutally enforced occupation, settler-colonialism, war crimes and state-sanctioned racism.

As long as Israel is unwilling to end these practices, it will only generate more opposition both to its policies and its smear and censorship tactics.

In the latest example, 22 Jewish academics, artists and activists published a letter in The Guardian objecting to bogus claims of anti-Semitism made by anti-Palestinian activists after the Oxford University Labour Club decided to support Israeli Apartheid Week.

“Those who deliberately confuse anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism give comfort and aid to the real anti-Semites in our society,” the letter states. “Like the boy who cried wolf, they ensure that if anti-Semitism does rear its ugly head, people will assume that this is just another false accusation.”

Connie Hackbarth contributed translation.

3 Comments

FOLLOWING CHICAGO’S EXAMPLE, CITY OF LONDON ERODES THE RIGHT TO CRITICISE ISRAEL

February 22, 2016 at 13:34 (Anti Apartheid Week, Apartheid, Boycott Israel, Britain, International Solidarity, Israel)

While in Chicago the 1st Amendment was literally slaughtered by zionist pressure, the people of London still have the right to condemn Israeli apartheid via posters, or at least they thought they did 😦

Transport for London, the body that oversees the London Underground, said in a statement that it had not approved the ads. “These are not authorized adverts,” read the statement. “It is fly posting and therefore an act of vandalism which we take extremely seriously. Our staff and contractors are working to immediately remove any found on our network.”

Anti-Israel ads cover London Underground trains

Millions of passengers encounter BDS ads slamming “Israeli apartheid”, accusing it of massacres and torture, and claiming the BBC is biased towards Israel.

Millions of Monday morning passengers on the London Underground were greeted with a number of ads taken out by the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement accusing Israel of torturing and massacring Palestinians and slamming UK companies with links to the Jewish state.

The posters were made for what anti-Israel activists dub “Israel Apartheid Week”. One claims that British-made arms were used by Israel to “massacre Palestinians” in Operation Protective Edge, while another says the BBC’s reporting is biased towards Israel, and a third criticizing security company G4S for working in Israel.

More HERE

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GEORGE ORWELL ON BDS

February 21, 2016 at 08:43 (Boycott Israel, Britain, Cartoons)

Some background to the following can be seen in THIS post

Steve Bell at The Guardian shows us what George Orwell would say about this … (Click on link)

Freedom of Speech and such: Orwell Quotes

The tree represents the Conservative Party, whilst the words “ORWE’LL DO YOU” have an obvious double meaning – the warning “we’ll do you” (in effect, “We’ll get you!”) is written in a manner visually reminding readers of George Orwell, likely suggesting that the anti-boycott law runs afoul of Orwell’s warnings about the erosion of free speech.

Protesters in London calling for a boycott of Israeli goods Rex Features … The protests WILL continue despite Britain’s new ruling

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DAILY SPOOF ~~ BRITAIN CRIMINALIZES THE BDS MOVEMENT

February 18, 2016 at 10:23 (Associate Post, Boycott Israel, Britain, zionist harassment)

Image by Carlos Latuff

UK government criminalizing BDS from the classroom to the courtroom

Related FROM

British schoolboy questioned for pro-Palestine badge and pro-BDS pamphlet

By Annie Robbins

The UK government’s assault on public support for Palestinians has invaded the classrooms. According to a recent report from the Independent, Anti-terror police question schoolboy for wearing pro-Palestine badge. Note that BDS, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, was apparently a factor in the case:

Rahmaan Mohammadi’s teachers at Challney High School for Boys in Luton referred him to police under Prevent – the controversial government anti-radicalisation programme, which critics have claimed is heavy-handed, discriminatory and ineffective.

As well as wearing pro-Palestine badges and wristbands, Mohammadi was in possession of a leaflet advocating Palestinian rights by pressure group Friends of al-Aqsa. He had also asked for permission to fundraise for children affected by the Israeli occupation.

The child had a pamphlet in his belongings from the well-known UK based non-profit, Friends of Al-Aqsa, (FOA) a BDS supporting NGO with an international support base that’s been around for almost 20 years. With 12 UK locations FOA describes itself as “concerned with defending the human rights of Palestinians and protecting the sacred al-Aqsa Sanctuary in Jerusalem.”

Mohammadi described his experiences at a meeting of campaign group Students Not Suspects at Goldsmiths University in London. He alleged that police warned him not to talk about Palestine in school, and further claimed that staff members had approached his 14-year-old brother and pressured him to to tell Rahmaan to “stop being radical”.

The anti-terrorism police force, after visiting the child’s home determined that Mohammadi– whose age was not given– was not-at-risk! While this case was pursued on alleged radicalization grounds, boycott is coming under greater and greater pressure from the British government and they are now set to criminalize support for BDS.

Read more at SOURCE

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HAS JEREMY CORBYN LOST HIS MIND OR DOES HE THINK THE REST OF US LOST OURS’

November 23, 2015 at 17:18 (Britain, Corrupt Politics, DesertPeace Editorial)

Allow me to start this post with some reflections on a past incident …..

The year was 1962. It was October, the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis. I was invited one evening to attend a performance of Swan Lake. The Bolshoi Ballet Company were the stars. I was invited by a Soviet friend of mine who was working as a press agent in New York.

When we arrived at Madison Square Garden I was seated next to the Soviet Foreign Minister, Anastas Mikoyan. He was in New York to address the United Nations General Assembly during the crisis.

A few minutes after we were seated another guest arrived, Adlai Stevenson, the US Ambassador to the United Nations.

He walked up to Mikoyan with arms outstretched and they both hugged and kissed each other like long lost brothers.

That very afternoon the two of them ‘went at each other’ in scenes watched by millions on TV.

Adlai Stevenson shows aerial photos of Cuban missiles to the United Nations, October 25, 1962.

Stubborn person that I am I refused to even shake the hand of Stevenson. I remember Mikoyan whispering in my ear at that point that ‘I would never become a diplomat’. He was right, but in all these years I never lost my integrity either, which is more important.

All of the above prove the immortal words of William Shakespeare;

All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then, the whining school-boy with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then, a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then, the justice,
In fair round belly, with a good capon lined,
With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws, and modern instances,
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

And now, the above connection to today’s post ….

Note that the stage settings are different today and there are new ‘script writers, but all else remains the same.

The following is a headline from today’s Ynet News

Labour boycotts company with Israel ties

That’s fine ….. but the rest of the article leaves much to be desired. Hopefully it is merely a zionist initiated BEX Alert and not true, fabricated because of his expressed support for the Palestinian Struggle. Otherwise, The Labour Party will definitely not receive any forthcoming endorsement from this Website.

UK’s second-largest party voted to boycott a major company with commercial ties to Israel while party head Jeremy Corbyn calls for negotiations with ISIS.

Negotiations with ISIS???? Does he not know who they are? Does he think we don’t know either??

Made in Israel and the USA …
Believe it or don’t!

One does NOT negotiate with the likes of ISIS. One exposes them which will lead to their eventual destruction!

As was posted a few days ago, The best way for Americans to defeat the Islamic state is to end support for Jewish nationalism SEE

Shame on Jeremy Corbyn for thinking otherwise.

While the party was busy boycotting a company for its ties to Israel, the party’s leader, Jeremy Corbyn, was calling for negotiations with the Islamic State terror organization. We should not be “drawn into responses that feed a cycle of violence and hate,” Corbyn said yesterday.

“The dreadful Paris attacks make the case for a far more urgent effort to reach a negotiated settlement of the civil war in Syria and to end the threat from ISIS,” he concluded.

Full Ynet Report HERE

3 Comments

TO BOYCOTT OR NOT ~~ BRITISH ACADEMICS AT ODDS

October 27, 2015 at 10:15 (Boycott Israel, Britain, International Solidarity)

British academics call for Israel boycott in Guardian ad

343 British scholars call for all-encompassing academic boycott of Israel in response to an ad published in the same paper on Friday opposing a cultural boycott.

The ad was in response to THIS letter that appeared in the Friday edition

343 British academics pledged to uphold an academic boycott of Israeli Universities due to their “support for Israeli violations of international law and support for the occupation,” in a full page advertisement published in Tuesday’s edition of the Guardian.

Full report HERE

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BRITISH JEWS INVOKE THE HOLOCAUST TO SAVE SYRIAN REFUGEES

September 23, 2015 at 19:36 (Britain, Humanitarian Aid, International Solidarity)

Obviously some have not forgotten

In a letter to British Prime Minister David Cameron, the rabbis and cantors referenced the 10,000 Jewish children that the United Kingdom rescued from the Nazis between 1938 and 1940.

Once we were on the same boat

Citing Kindertransport, 100 British Rabbis Demand Open Door for Refugees

JTA

More than 100 British Jewish clergy signed a letter urging the United Kingdom to take in more Syrian refugees.

In a letter to British Prime Minister David Cameron, the rabbis and cantors referenced the 10,000 Jewish children that the United Kingdom rescued from the Nazis between 1938 and 1940.

Two of the people delivering the letter Monday were themselves members of the Kindertransport rescue operation that brought Jewish children to the U.K, the British newspaper The Guardian reported.

Many of those who signed identified themselves as the children of Holocaust refugees.

“(W)e know that now it is our turn to open our gates to refugees who are fleeing from tyranny and evil, often with only the clothes on their backs, and their children in their arms,” the letter stated.

“We were heartened to hear that 20,000 refugees will be welcomed into the U.K. over the next five years,” the letter continued. “Yet we look again to World War II where we find that immediate action could have saved many more children’s lives. Let the Kindertransport be our inspiration. 10,000 legitimate refugees, at the very minimum, should be offered asylum in Great Britain in the next 6 months.”

The letter, which also urged the government to allow refugees to work in the U.K., said the British Jewish community is willing to find homes for refugees and raise money to feed, clothe and educate them. It was organized by Tzelem UK, an activist group that organizes Jewish clergy on social and economic justice issues

The letter also referenced the Exodus from Egypt: “As Rabbis and Cantors we regularly read the story of a band of refugees who escaped from a tyrant with only the clothes on their backs and a bit of flat bread. They crossed a sea, and they dreamed of a promised land. We call this the exodus, and it is our founding beacon for hope, and our constant reminder in every generation to open our hearts and our doors to the stranger at our gates.”

12 Comments

BRITAIN AWAITS NETANYAHU’S VISIT

September 9, 2015 at 10:14 (Activism, Associate Post, Britain, Cartoons, Gaza, Genocide, Israel, Palestine, Petition, War Crimes)

Image by Carlos Latuff

UK petition calling for Netanyahu to be arrested for war crimes reaches 100,000 signatures

Click HERE to sign petition

On August 7, UK citizen Damian Moran posted a petition on the UK Government and Parliament E-petition website calling for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “be arrested for war crimes upon arrival in the U.K for the massacre of over 2000 civilians in 2014”. The petition spread swiftly on social media and as of September 4th it has garnered over 99,000 signatures. The UK government has promised to respond to all petitions over 100,000 signatures including considering them for debate in Parliament.

5 Comments

GUINNESS RECORDS LONGEST CASE OF CONSTIPATION IN BRITISH HISTORY TODAY

September 9, 2015 at 08:10 (Britain, Humour)

The Throne Room

Today, September 9 2015, Queen Elizabeth ll will overtake Queen Victoria to become Britain’s longest reigning monarch with a reign of more than 63 years 216 days on the throne.

Queen Elizabeth II will mark 63 years and 217 days on the throne today, September 9

This might help HRM ….

1 Comment

JEREMY CORBYN ~~ MENTCH* EXTRAORDINAIRE

August 31, 2015 at 07:11 (Britain, Guest Post, Irony, zionist created anti_Semitism)

*mentch

noun

(literally) A human or person.
A person with integrity and concern for others.
A gentleman.

Etymology: Yiddish (mentsh), an honorable person, from German Mensch (person).

Jeremy Corbyn, MP.

When a bunch of neo-Nazis and antisemites threatened to march in Golders Green a few months ago, a wide campaign was organised to stop them with a counter-demonstration. Only one of the current candidates for the Labour Party leadership sent a message of support to the counter-demonstrators.

Jeremy Corbyn, MP.

Yet this same Jeremy Corbyn has been the target of an ugly smear campaign attempting to brand him an enemy of Jewish people, by means of contrived “association” with antisemites. As Corbyn moved from outsider to a favourite to win, addressing huge rallies of supporters, one Jewish newspaper even claimed Jews in Britain “feared” what might happen if he became leader of the Labour Party.

“Jews for Jeremy” was launched as a Facebook group by Ian Saville, primarily in response to the smear campaign, in order to counter the lies, spread awareness, and provide a rallying point for Jewish people who refuse to be regimented by such artificial “fear”.

Members have agreed the following statement –

A group of several hundred members of the British Jewish community has launched Jews for Jeremy, a group to support Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign for leadership of the Labour Party.

Some members of the group live in Jeremy Corbyn’s constituency, some have worked with him on various campaigns, and many know him from his reputation and his tireless work for the disadvantaged in society, including migrants and asylum seekers, over the past 32 years. They are convinced that his policies are the right ones for the Labour Party to pursue both domestically and internationally at this time.

The Conservative government is implementing harsh austerity measures that are harming the British economy and the lives of British people. Members of Jews for Jeremy believe that Jeremy Corbyn’s policies would be more likely to bring both fairness and prosperity. Jeremy Corbyn’s economic plans have been endorsed by more than forty leading economists in a letter to the Observer this week, and members of the group believe they are sound, fair and realistic. They believe, as do many economists and commentators, that they will resonate with the British people, and that they will be popular with the electorate. They are impressed by Jeremy Corbyn’s pledge to bring more democracy to the Labour Party, and to seek to bring in candidates for office from a wider range of backgrounds. They note that Jeremy Corbyn was the only leadership candidate to respond in full to questions from the environmental charity Friends of the Earth, with an environmental policy which is progressive and responsible.

In international relations, the group asserts that Jeremy Corbyn’s policies offer the best hope for peaceful resolution of conflicts both in the Middle East and the rest of the world. Members applaud his efforts to bring together opposing parties to many conflicts in dialogue in a constructive way, and are dismayed that in some cases this has been held against him. The group notes that even Tony Blair and the Israeli government have very recently engaged in such dialogue, and it is unfortunate that it was not begun much earlier.

Crucially, as Jews, members of the group are alarmed that some unscrupulous sections of the media have sought to label Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite, or a knowing associate and supporter of antisemites. Those who know Jeremy Corbyn and have worked with him believe that this is an absurd charge. Jeremy Corbyn has a long history of principled anti-racism, and has a close and amiable relationship with the Jewish community in his constituency. He has long had friendly contact with Jewish organisations throughout the UK and abroad. Members of Jews for Jeremy believe that these accusations are a cynical attempt to damage Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign, and do not think they amount to legitimate political criticism or debate.

The group appeals both to Jews who are Labour members or supporters and to those who support Jeremy Corbyn from outside Labour to join with them. For those who quite legitimately support other candidates, or are critical of left politics in general, members of the group are happy to debate or argue in a respectful and friendly manner, but hope to dispense with the smears which have characterised some of the debate so far.

Read more @ http://jewsforjeremy.org/

Sent by Charles Pottins

If THEY hate him, then YOU gotta love him!

2 Comments