The Gaza Concentration Camp.

      A recent report by three international bodies, EuroMid Observer for Human Rights, Palestinian Return Centre in London and the Malaysian Consultative Organization, states that the Gaza Strip is living through dreadful shortages of medical supplies and extreme difficulties in freedom of movement. The also state that the situation is unsustainable. What this means to the people of Gaza is abject deprivation, deteriorating health and increasing injustice. It is easy to draw parallels with the way that the Nazis treated the people in their concentration camps, to the way that the Israeli state is treating the people of Gaza, it is illegal collective punishment. It is in effect a large concentration camp run by the Israeli military.

        This from  Occupied Palestine:

     Thousands of Palestinians and foreigners wanting to leave the Strip as well as thousands wanting to enter face major difficulties because of the closure of the crossing the report said. The report, which had a detailed look at the effects of the siege since its early stages, summarised the current deterioration in living conditions in Gaza as being at its worst since November 2008, when Israel launched a full-scale military operation, Cast Lead.
      The unemployment rate in Gaza has hit 35.5 per cent, according to the report, and the rate is set to continue to rise as more tunnels are being closed day by day. As a result of the shortage of fuel and electricity, only a quarter of households receive running water for a couple of hours on a daily basis. People started to feel the shortage of clean drinking water as mass filters cut daily work hours.

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Anarchism In Palestine.

       We hear of anarchist activity from countries across the globe but not a lot from that land that can be described as the world's largest open air concentration camp, the occupied lands of Palestine. However, since anarchism is a very natural approach to he way we want to live, it will obviously be there in daily actions. Though its anti-state stance will be directed not at the home grown state, since there isn't one, but at the  state of an occupying military force, but self determination is still the desire of the individual and the group. The Institute for Anarchist Studies has an interesting article by Joshua Stephens on anarchism in Palestine.

      In Palestine, elements of popular struggle have historically often been self-organized. Even if not explicitly identified as “anarchism” as such, “People have already done horizontal, or non-hierarchical, organizing all their lives,” says Beesan Ramadan, another local anarchist, who describes anarchism as a “tactic” yet questions the need to attach a label. She continues, “It is already there in my culture and in the way Palestinian activism has worked. During the First Intifada, for instance, when someone’s home was demolished, people would organize to rebuild it, almost spontaneously. As a Palestinian anarchist I look forward to going back to the roots of the First Intifada. It did not come from a political decision. It came against the will of the PLO.” Yasser Arafat declared independence in November 1988, after the First Intifada began in December 1987, Ramadan says “…to hijack the efforts of the First Intifada.”

Read the full article HERE:

'A Period Of Calm'?

This is an extract from an Ajazeera article first published in 22 February, 2013. It gives some insight to what the people Gaza have to live under on a daily basis. What a 'period of calm' looks like in the Occupied Territories

Three months after the last major Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip, the "period of calm" is only "calm" for Israel.         Three months have passed since the ceasefire that brought an end to Israel's eight-day attack on the Gaza Strip known as Operation "Pillar of Defence". This infographic depicts the number of attacks on the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military during this three-month period, as well as the number of Palestinian attacks emanating from Gaza. Since late November, Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip have averaged over one a day, everyday. These include shootings by troops positioned along the border fence, attacks on fishermen working off the Gaza coast, and incursions by the Israeli army. Read the full article HERE:

[Illustration and design: Rachele Richards] Ben White is a freelance journalist, writer and activist, specialising in Palestine/Israel. He is a graduate of Cambridge University.The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy. Visit ann arky's home.

Holocaust Mark2.

        Day and daily the repression and the genocide goes on and on. It couldn't go on without the American support and the rest of the Western world turning a blind eye. There is no rhyme or reason to the policies of the Israeli state, except the creation of the Greater Israeli State by expanding its borders and the banishing of the people of Palestine. Victims of the Holocaust are the perpetrators of the new Holocaust.

ann arky's home.

When You're A Non-People.

      Our silence lets the blood flow.

-->

Published on Jan 19, 2013

      This is what Israel is doing to Palestinians on a daily basis in their own lands which I$rael is illegally occupying in defiance of over 65 UN Resolutions, the Geneva Convention on Human Rights and International Law. 

ann arky's home.

The Leader Has Spoken.

     The following is a statement that I think a very large segment of the population might agree with, "saddened that the Jews, who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution during the Holocaust, could within a few years of liberation from the death camps, be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians in the new State of Israel and continue to do so on a daily basis in the West Bank and Gaza".

       It was spoken by a LibDem MP, David Ward, However, the Holocaust Educational Trust. thought fit to complain to the LibDem leader Nick Clegg, who withdrew the party whip from the MP. Is this a case of the LibDem party leader being ignorant of what is happening in that part of the world, or was it a case of him bowing to a powerful Israeli lobby group? Either way it shows the uselessness of that establishment, The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, where an elected representative can be silenced by an unelected bunch with vested interests, and where a widely held opinion can be silenced by the authority of the "party leader".

        Democracy can never be born through the party system, party lines throttle individual opinions. However capitalism thrives in the party system, the corporate world simply buys the parties and things are shaped to suit that corporate world. Any hierarchical system is an anathema to democracy. Democracy demands horizontalism, equality among individuals, the right to voice your opinion free from the over-riding power of "the leader". As long as the people support a party political system, the longer our freedom will be in chains.

ann arky's home.

"Anti-Semitic", "The Holocaust".

      You've heard them a million times, "anti-Semitic" and "the holocaust" the twin defences of the Zionist state of Israel. They rebuke any form of criticism, they silence any argument. They conceal the crimes of apartheid and genocide, and supposedly put the stamp of legitimacy and the savage and barbaric treatment of the Palestinian people. 

ann arky's home.

Zionist Myths.

      Most states are built on myths, usually this takes some considerable time. The modern state of Israel is different, it was done with greater rapidity and brutality. The myths are painted in the blood of the Palestinian people, its monuments are built with the bones of those same Palestinian people.

ann arky's home.

I Am Israel.

Hi,

     just back from a few days away, spent a them in beautiful Perthshire and feeling great.

 

  Just to get started:

ann arky's home.

Israeli Justice.

Israeli Justice, a cross between thuggery, racial hatred and ethnic cleansing.

ann arky's home.

WE ASSIST IN BOMBING GAZA.

          On 14 November 2012, the Israeli army began attacking Gaza with drones, Apache helicopters, F-16 fighter jets and naval vessels. For 8 days, civilian areas of Gaza were bombarded by Israel from air and sea with over 150 men, women and children losing their lives. 

Tell the British government to stop funding Israel's brutal attacks on innocent people.
This attack was only made possible through the continued financial, military and diplomatic support Israel receives from Western states - including the British government. Take action to help end this suffering for good.
By selling arms to Israel, the British government is giving direct material support for Israel's aggression against the Palestinian people and sending a clear message of approval for its actions.
Call on Foreign Secretary William Hague to introduce an immediate arms embargo on Israel until it ends its violations of international law.

Thanks you for taking action.

ann arky's home.

JEWS AGAINST THE OCCUPATION.

       Another voice that our babbling brook of bullshit, the media, don't give much publicity to, if any, but it is there, and thankfully, it is getting louder.

ann arky's home.

THE NEVER ENDING ISRAELI LAND GRAB.

            While the Western world is pre-occupied with saving the Euro, deficit reduction and increasing the banking system's liquidity, Israel continues with its policy of purloining Palestinian land, while at the same time pursuing its agenda of genocide against the Palestinian people. If you have a look at an old map and look at the territory that was marked as Palestine and compare it with what is now considered Palestinian land you get quite a shock. Not only is the land just a fraction of what it was, this land grab by Israel has been allied to thousands of Palestinian deaths at the hands of the Israeli state. In man's blood soaked history I doubt if there has been a longer, more one-sided war. On the one side you have one of the most modern, powerfully equipped military machines in the world, on the other a people armed with second rate makeshift rockets, improvised home-made weaponry and stones, and after approximately 50 years, still the uneven struggle continues. None of this could happen if it was not for the financial and military support of America. What is happening in Palestine is part and parcel of American foreign policy in the Middle East, all the West is also complicit in the death of the the Palestinian people, the destruction of their farms and property and the grabbing of their land.

This from US Palestinian Community Network:

On May 15, across the shatat and in the homeland, Palestinians marked the 64th anniversary of the Nakba of 1948 in a multitude of ways. We rallied, we held vigils, and we took a quiet moment to remember, reflect, and mourn. On this anniversary, we particularly honored our heroes in Israeli prisons, who conducted the longest, and one of the largest, hunger strikes in history. In our long march to liberation and return, it has always been our people, their undiminished courage, and their towering fortitude, that have carried our struggle through. We are honored to be Palestinian, proud of our people, and the nobility of our cause.

It is therefore with grave concern that we issue this letter expressing our dismay at the continued disregard and disrespect for our struggle and our people by the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP), and its President, Ziad Asali.

At this time of remembrance, two photos were widely circulated of Asali embracing Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren at a celebration of Israel’s independence hosted by the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC. While Palestinians were mourning the destruction of 531 of our villages, and the expulsion of nearly 800,000 of our people, Asali saw fit to attend a celebration of that moment, and shake the hands of a man whose task it is to silence us and defend the destruction of our homes, theft of our land, starvation of our prisoners, and elimination of our people.

Indeed, this incident is merely the culmination of a long history of ATFP’s betrayal of our people. Since its inception in 2003, with Asali as its President, ATFP has consistently found itself the focus of the Palestinian community’s ire, and the organization’s history carries a string of resignations by one Board member after another in disgust. In the wake of Israel’s 2008-2009 war on Gaza, several Board members stepped down in protest of ATFP comments to CNN effectively absolving Israel of responsibility for its crimes. In his resignation letter to the Board, one member wrote:

Continue READING:

ann arky's home.

ROSA PARKS LIVES.

      

       Another post on the Palestinian's fight against the Israeli state's apartheid. Apart from all its other injustices against the Palestinian people, the country that shouts about being the only democracy in the Middle East, doesn't let Palestinians ride on the same buses as Israeli settlers, and those courageous individuals that set about challenging that injustice have been forcibly removed from the buses by the Israeli army and the Israeli police, then arrested. Democracy my arse. This report from the CodePink Group.

Dear John,

       I just returned home to Washington after spending 72 hours in Israeli prison. Why? Because I was aboard the Canadian boat that tried to sail to Gaza, part of the most recent “Freedom Waves” flotilla that was intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters, breaking international law. I was the only American civilian delegate* on the boat and am returning to the US with a clear message for our lawmakers: Tell Israel to lift the unlawful blockade on Gaza and stop enabling Israeli war crimes!

        There’s another dangerous passage – this time over land – that just happened this morning: six courageous Palestinian activists boarded a settler-only public bus and attempted to sit down and ride it from the Ramallah area into East Jerusalem, in the great tradition of the Freedom Rides that challenged segregation in the South. At approximately 5:15pm in the occupied West Bank today Israeli military forces boarded the buses and violently arrested the Freedom Riders. They were taken to a detention center at Atarot Prison and held for hours. Replay the livestream here.

► URGENT: Send a letter to the State Department.► Tweet this!
► Find local actions planned around the US today here. CODEPINKers plan to join actions in NYC, DC, LA, and SF.

       Want to do more? Palestinian Freedom Riders will be riding Veolia and Egged buses – Veolia is the target of an international BDS campaign. Are there Veolia buses, offices, or SuperShuttle (a Veolia subsidiary) in your city? Click here to download an organizing toolkit from Jewish Voice for Peace and find out how to participate in the Veolia boycott here. You can also make your local bus a vehicle for change: Join DC CODEPINK, Committee for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine, Sabeel and allies to bring this ad campaign to your public transit.

        This courageous action is part of the Week Against the Apartheid Wall. Last week the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, held in South Africa, concluded that the situation in Palestine and Israel is apartheid. Read the findings here. Testimony on Ahava by CODEPINK’s Nancy K and Rae is included in a new book from the Russell Tribunal titled Corporate Complicity in Israel's Occupation.

* Would you like me to speak in your community or school? Email me at marnykit@gmail.com – I’m eager to share my experience on the flotilla, and also during past trips to Gaza with CODEPINK.

Riding the waves of change,
Kit Kittredge

… and the CODEPINK Middle East Team: Alli, Kristen, Nancy K, Medea, Rae, Sasha, and Tighe
PS: More breaking news: Occupy Wall Street was raided by police last night. Support the national day of action at the Occupy near you Thursday, Nov 17. Follow @womenows for the latest updates.

ann arky's home.

ISRAELI APARTHEID.

 

         Day and daily the Palestinian people face the harsh and brutal repression of the Israeli apartheid system. It took many years of struggle by the people of South Africa to dismantle the apartheid system in that country, and let's not forget the civil rights movement in America to break down such a system in that country, here we are in the 21 century and the stench of apartheid has not been removed from the earth. The fact that such an inhumane system is still pursued is not just an indictment against the Israeli state, but also an indictment against the international community, that includes you and I.

This is an appeal for support for the Palestinian people from AVAAZ.

  

Dear friends,

In hours, brave Palestinians will risk attack and arrest to board public buses that are forbidden to Arabs. This could be the beginning of a game-changing, non-violent Palestinian spring -- direct action to win freedom and a new state. Avaaz is webcasting the action LIVE -- click to watch, and provide the global solidarity the activists need to win:

     In the next few hours, history could be made in Palestine. A small number of brave Palestinians will risk attack and arrest to commit a forbidden act -- they will board a public bus.
     Lacking their own state, Palestinians are forbidden to use buses and roads reserved for non-Arabs -- part of a host of race-based rules that US President Jimmy Carter has called "apartheid". 50 years ago, African-Americans in the US challenged these rules by simply and non-violently refusing to follow them. In a few hours, Palestinians will take the same approach, and their actions will be live webcasted by Avaaz teams at the link below.
    As diplomats stall in the fight for a Palestinian state, the Palestinian people are taking the fight into their own hands, one public service at a time. And they're doing it with the simple, elegant and unstoppable moral force of non-violence in the tradition of Gandhi and Martin Luther King. The Palestinian spring begins right now - click below to watch it LIVE, register support, and give these brave activists the global solidarity and attention they urgently need to win:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/palestine_freedom_riders/?vl

     Non-violence is the game-changing force in this long-standing conflict. Boarding buses is a symbolic act, but so was Gandhi's salt march, and Rosa Park's own courageous ride on a segregated bus in the US. Just as non-violent protest was able to topple dictators in Egypt and Tunisia, so can it finally free the Palestinian people from 40 years of crippling military oppression by a foreign power.
     There are many dangers. Israel has been arming the extremist settler population, a tactic which is likely, if not intended, to provoke awful violence that will draw the news cameras away from the brave acts of non-violence. Even the Palestinian authorities are pushing back on the action which they fear will start a democratic protest movement that they cannot control. But these few brave Palestinians have had enough, and if we stand with them now, we can help them ignite a flame that will burn its way all the way to a free and peaceful Palestinian state:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/palestine_freedom_riders/?vl

     We have no idea what will happen in the next 24 hours. Maybe the authorities will crush this brave action. Maybe it will spark into a massive conflagration. Maybe it will sow the first seed of an unstoppable movement with tremendous integrity. But we can watch it live, and lend our voices to the effort. And maybe one day, we can tell our grandchildren that we were there when Palestinians boarded the buses that would ultimately take them to freedom.

With hope and determination,
Ricken, Emma, Alice, Raluca, Pascal, Diego and the rest of the Avaaz team

 

Sources:
I Woke Up This Morning with My Mind Set on Freedom
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/clarence-b-jones/i-woke-up-this-morning-wi_b_1087407.html

Freedom Riders: 1961 and the struggle for racial justice
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/19/books/review/19foner.html

Palestinian Freedom Rides echo the Civil Rights Movement
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/topics/news/3888-freedom-rides

'Freedom Rides' to Resume in Palestine
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=17242

---

 

ann arky's home.

ISRAEL AND APARTHEID.

         Recently the Israeli government has stated that it will speed up the building of settlements on the occupied territories in the West Bank. This is deemed necessary to show the Palestinian people that Israel will be firm because of the Palestinians' horrible crime of seeking membership of UNESCO. There is no country in the world would get away with treating any other people the way that the Israeli government treats the Palestinian people. Israel seems to put itself outside international law, outside the United Nations, and continually puts two fingers up to its main banker, the United States of America. Is it guilty of apartheid? Is it guilty of ethnic cleansing? It certainly is guilty of some of the most brutal blanket punishment handed out to any people in modern times. It is encouraging to see that there are still people who are trying to bring some form of international condemnation on the Israeli government for its treatment of the Palestinian people. The following is a short extract from an interesting article.

Israel cannot be held accountable for its actions by any international tribunal as it refuses to accept the jurisdiction of either the International Court of Justice or the International Criminal Court. The Russell Tribunal seeks to remedy this weakness in the international system of justice by providing for accountability by a court of international opinion. It does not seek to obstruct the peace process. On the contrary, it wishes to promote it. But there can be no peace without justice. This is a basic principle that Richard Goldstone, who has written an op-ed criticising the Russell Tribunal (Israel and the Apartheid Slander, New York Times, October 31, 2011), has devoted much his life to, as prosecutor before the Yugoslavia Tribunal.    READ the full article.

 ann arky's home.

SETTLERS - ARMY OF OCCUPATION.

        Like most rational people I have always seen the Israeli settlers  in the Palestinian lands as part of the Israeli army, an army not wearing the usual uniform, but still an army of occupation. They move in, occupy and secure the foreign territory and defend it against the rightful owners, the Palestinians. If need be, they call in reinforcements in the shape of the unformed Israeli army. It seems now that even the Israeli army is admitting this, as they are starting to train the settlers to defend the land they have occupied. Settlers occupying land frees up the uniformed army to get on with the job of repressing the local indigenous people. A similar type of genocide that was pursued by the settlers on the indigenous people of that land we call America, but with a much more efficient weaponry. Palestine is the "Wild West" and the Palestinians are the "indians" of the 21st century.

ann arky's home.

THE POPE OF HOPE, THE PRINCE OF PEACE!!!

     

      The President of America, once the Pope of Hope, the man of change, is visiting the UK next week. He will be visiting the Queen at Buckingham Palace, he sure knows where the power lies in this country. Far from bringing an end to George. W. Bush's marauding wars, the man of change has lived up to his promise and changed in to a higher gear when it comes to wars and killing. Drone attacks in Pakistan have dramatically increased during his term, with the resultant massive increase in innocent deaths from these attacks. He has presided over attacks in Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia and Libya and continues to occupy Afghanistan and Iraq. Remember all the euphoria when this man was elected? At last, an end to the macho war stance of George W. Bush, enter the Prince of Peace, St. Obama. Well this man of peace is spending more on military operations than any other president of America.

      His latest waft of wind to come from his mouth, the rhetoric about reaching out to the Muslim world and finding a path to peace for the Palestinians, while at the same time involved in bombing and occupying three Muslim countries. This reaching out, also involves supporting and propping up ruthless dictators across that same Muslim world, while supporting Israel in its land grabbing and genocide of the Palestinian people and supporting Israel financially and military as they flaunt countless international laws. The violence inflicted on the Palestinian people by Israel is never criticised let alone condemned by this reaching out, path way to peace, president of America.

    I always refer to Libya as Cameron's war, every prime minister and president seems to want their own war, but he couldn't have got his way without the wink and nod from the Prince of Peace, St. Obama. We in the West belong to an empire of violence, the West will bomb and occupy any country that has resources that we want if that is the best way to get those resources. We live in a world of corporate fascism. For our corporate beasts to grow they must have all those cheap resources and the states put their stamp of legitimacy on the brutal conflicts to grab what the corporate world demand.

      There is an alternative, a world free from the grip of corporate greed, a world of co-operation, mutual aid and sustainability based on the needs of all our people. A world free from the profit motive that belongs to the people, a world that we would be proud to hand to the next generation, our kids and our grand kids. A world free from the fear of exploitation and deprivation. First we have to stop looking to leaders, Popes of Hope, Princes of Peace and take control of our own lives, control our own communities and in federation with other communities take control and shape our own world. It is their world, or it is our world, there is no compromise.

ann arky's home.