Genocide.

     

         Surely the only subject matter that should be grabbing our attention today, is the genocide of the Palestinian people by the colonialist Zionist apartheid state of Israel. Over the centuries the human race has witness many brutal and savage events, but for the 21 century, what is happening to the Palestinian people must shock every fibre of humanity. A genocidal act of inhuman savagery, driven by a fanatical religious group hell bent on claiming Palestine as a Zionist state, cleared of Arabs. Since the creation of the phoney Zionist state of Israel, the Palestinian people have been displaced in their millions to refugee camps in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and elsewhere. The last remaining Palestinians in their own country are in refugee camps in the largest open air prison in the world, the occupied territory of Gaza and the West Bank, and the are at this very moment being crushed by one of the most powerful military states in the world. All humanity must stand up and demand an end to this savage genocide and justice and freedom for the Palestinian people. 

Image courtesy of Morning Star.

From SubMedia.

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Usual UK Political Ballerinas Ignorance And Arrogance.

         I found this article to be a little breath of fresh air, in the midst of all the brexit fog, illusion and delusion our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media pours out. It is by Paul Walsh and is taken from Ceasefire:

       For Siegfried Sassoon, the frontline was the one place he could get away from the war. For the UK government, the Brexit negotiations are the one place they can get away from Brexit, as this is where their strategy of ignorance is deployed, a strategy which has turned these negotiations into something resembling an out-of-control drinking game — with round after round of insults, half-truths, and accusations — rather than the most important political and economic event in a generation. The process has descended into rhetorical trench warfare.
       So when UK leaders compare the process to a divorce they have a point, of sorts. There are important decisions to make, there are bills to settle, and worse still, lawyers to pay. Yet when a couple divorces, splitting the dog and car in half, divvying up the CDs and tallying up the tablecloths, they tend not to argue about what divorce means as a concept, as a phenomenon, and as a thing. Although there may be an emotional war, there’s no epistemological gulf to bridge. A divorce — messy, soft, hard or amicable — means a separation and a reckoning for both parties.
       Divorce means divorce. And we know this because we have dictionaries and Google. Just imagine the confusion otherwise. Divorce loses its meaning in a sudden freak accident, and one person is taking out cardboard boxes to the car (‘I’m leaving you!’), while the other flicks through travel brochures (‘How about a European River Cruise this year?’) You’d have two people living in two different semantic spheres, each with a completely different understanding of reality and events. Sounds familiar?
         This semantic dementia explains how the UK government, like a modern Miss Havisham, has morphed into a person avoiding the pressures of a real breakup; someone who prefers to wallow in the warm nectar of the past, the nostalgia of yesteryear — a nostalgia that can, in English minds ever susceptible to flickering daydreams of Empire, inflate to unmanageable proportions and like a balloon, just float away.
       This is the misty, nostalgic dream-world of the jilted lover; stranger still, the jilted lover who campaigned for the separation, voted for the breakup, yet who is dumb-founded by the reckoning. This is magical thinking, denial thinking, and the stuff of dreams.
And in that other dream-world of Alice in Wonderland, at the end of a race in which everyone runs in circles, whichever way they like, for however long they like, the Dodo announces: ‘Everybody has won and all must have prizes.’
        And so maybe the Dodo and the ardent Brexiteers are right. Maybe there will be prizes for all after Brexit. Control over immigration. Sovereignty. New trading relationships and new ties. New opportunities. New neighbours! (Who will become, inevitably, good friends.) Why can’t we have a ‘global Britain’ and a leaner, fitter EU?
         Yet as this divorce of separate semantic spheres spins out; as the pound keeps sinking, prices keep rising, and the economy splutters, it’s unclear whether the prize is worth the risk.
And the questions to ask are these: Are you ready to be taken ‘over the top’ by the Brexit officer class of Boris Johnson and co? Are the blithe reassurances and Cheshire cat grin of David Davies, Michael Gove’s invitation to “take back the billions we give to the EU […] squandered on grand parliamentary buildings and bureaucratic follies”, and Liam Fox’s promise of the “glorious joy of free trade” really enough? Or is this officer class simply deluded?
        Perhaps when thinking of the coming Brexit journey, we might heed the words of soldiers serving in the real trenches of Ypres, a hundred years ago: “This farce promises to be a great success and a long run is expected.”
        So be warned. As we fight across a no man’s land of our own making, the distant goal of national strength regained may turn out, on closer inspection, to be mere post-imperial frailty in disguise. And somewhere between now and March 2019, the UK government will realise that the rhetorical trenches from which they fire, and in which they hide, offer no escape from a Brexit reality growing more dangerous and absurd by the day.

Paul Walsh is a teacher, writer, and precarious worker. He writes mainly on grassroots politics, social movements, and neoliberalism. Find him on twitter:@josipa74

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

Hold Israel Accountable.

        So Israel has agreed to open the border of Gaza to let in humanitarian aid and reconstruction materials, how generous. What about normal legal trade, freedom of travel to and from Gaza? I suppose now that they have conceded to the most basic minimum, that will be that. No reparations for 50 days of horrendous, brutal destruction and over reaction, more than 2,000 dead, with more than 70% civilians, including approximately 500 children, 17,000 Palestinian homes destroyed and 25% of the people of Gaza now displaced. Then there is the matter of 40% of Gaza's infrastructure destroyed, schools, hospitals, power station and water works, leading to no sewage disposal, and little or no electricity, for what?

     The cease fire should not be the end of the matter, Israel must be held responsible for its policy of genocide, its ruthless destruction, its continual stealing of Palestinian land, and its imprisonment of the Palestinian people. Of course the American administration, by its words and deeds, is complicit in this on going slaughter and destruction. Recently US Congress passed a resolution backing Israel's actions, and voted to send more money for arms for the Israeli state, while at the same time sending jet fuel, grenade rounds and artillery. Meanwhile Secretary of State, John Kerry, referred to Israel's actions as, " appropriate and legitimate."

       Of course the UK government is also in on the money from bloodshed, as we continue to supply Israel with all manner of equipment to assist them in the genocide of the Palestinian people.

     The British government will not block companies exporting arms to Israel, despite previous warnings that arms licenses would be rescinded if fighting in the Middle East continued.

     Despite a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas being broken on Tuesday, a government spokesperson said the licenses have not been suspended.

      “We said we would suspend licenses if there was a significant resumption of hostilities,” a government spokesperson said.

Business as usual: UK arms factories 'profit' from Palestinian bloodshed

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'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.