Credible Voices declare Palestine Besieged Not Forever

“Only extreme arrogance” believes a beleaguered people will forever tolerate 
intolerable cruelty

Editing by Carolyn Bennett

  

What we are doing in the Middle East and against the peoples of these great lands falls far short of America’s promise as a great nation. Outstanding political activist Hanan Ashrawi says what many others think. “So far, the United States has not lived up to any expectations. …   

As they (the United States) should be on the side of genuine peace and human rights, everything we have seen from the United States has been fully supportive to Israel and the Israeli violence and occupation against Palestinians.

 Ismail Haniyeh

Palestinian National Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh

“The demands of our people are clear,” Ismail
Haniyeh says. “The aggression must be stopped, and a guarantee should be given [that] it would not be repeated.

“This unjust blockade that our Palestinian people are living in… the blockade must be lifted.”

Ismail Haniyeh was born in the Al-Shati refugee camp in the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Ismail Haniyeh’s parents became refugees after fleeing their homes, which were located close to what is now Ashkelon, Israel.  He attended United Nations-run schools and in 1987, graduated from the Islamic University of Gaza with a degree in Arabic literature.

Redress

I

   n an interview with U.S. interviewers on Sunday July 20, 2014, Hanan Ashrawi said that she cannot take the “language,” “the propaganda,” “the mantra that Israel has a right to defend itself.

“Against whom,” she asks: “Against innocent civilians? More than 80 children torn to bits-- Is this self-defense?” These, she said, “are war crimes being committed before the world, before the eyes of the whole world and I just cannot understand how people sit back and say [it is] self-defense.”

Hanan Ashrawi, Palestinian legislator, activist, scholar, Member of the PLO Executive Committee

Palestinians to UN

International Criminal Court in The Hague

International Court for Justice at UN

International Criminal Court

Two years ago Hanan Ashrawi spoke of Israeli crimes, the prosecution of these crimes, justice for Palestinians and their self-determination.

“If Israel is not guilty of war crimes or crimes against humanity, then it has no reason to worry and to fear the International Criminal Court and International Court for Justice. 

“…The attack on Gaza indicates that finally we do need to deal with the real causes. We need a real solution. We don’t need ceasefires and we don’t need bandage treatments. It is time that the Palestinians gain their freedom and their right to self-determination.”

Going to the United Nations, “we do not believe can in any way be misconstrued as being unilateral; it is not. It is a commitment to international law and to responsibility as an equal player on the international arena and if there are to be negotiations then this would form the basis of negotiations because international law should be the basis of negotiations -- something Israel has rejected and Netanyahu has refused to acknowledge. That means that Israel will be a neighbor negotiating with a state and occupying another state, rather than pretending that our territory is up for grasp or is  only disputed.”

“We don’t have unrealistic expectations, we know the occupation will not disappear, we know that there might be certain consequences because Israel or the U.S. feels that they have to punish us.… Lately Canada feels like it has to outdo Israel in terms of its positions; they are also threatening to cut aid and relations.… [However]

As we are moving ahead, Israel and the U.S. and a handful of countries will find themselves on the wrong side of morality, justice, and on the wrong side of the law ….

“Hopefully, [the United States] will grasp the opportunity quickly to show that they can rectify their position and undo a serious mistake that has undermined the American standing and interest throughout the region, and that they can demonstrate that they really are for those principles that they say they support in the ‘Arab spring’ and yet they deny us as Palestinians those principles and rights.”

Hon. Hanan Ashrawi

Hanan Ashrawi is author of Anthology of Palestinian Literature (ed); The Modern Palestinian Short Story: An Introduction to Practical Criticism; Contemporary Palestinian Literature under Occupation; Contemporary Palestinian Poetry and Fiction; Literary Translation: Theory and Practice; This Side of Peace: A Personal Account.

Her activism extends to the early 1970s. Ashrawi serves on advisory boards of the World Bank Middle East and North Africa (MENA), United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), the International Human Rights Council and others. She received academic (undergraduate, graduate, doctoral) credentials at the American University of Beirut and the University of Virginia (USA).

Beleaguered Forever?

T

oday, Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman asked what constitutes the siege of Gaza. “When you talk about the siege,” she said, “it is not something that’s covered very much in the United States.  Can you just elaborate more fully what you mean when Palestinians say ‘lift the siege.’?” Sharif Abdel Kouddous, who is an Egyptian-born journalist and Democracy Now correspondent answered.

Palestinians can’t get in or out of Gaza.

They are prevented by Israel.

They are prevented by Egypt-- which largely executes U.S. and Israeli policy.

Foods, basic goods, the right to import and export, all of these things are [prohibited]

This has devastated Gaza’s economy. It has devastated people’s lives. People feel trapped. They often speak of how they live in the biggest open-air prison in the world.

Even access to the sea, fishermen cannot go out more than a couple of kilometers (2 kilometers are equivalent to 1.2 miles) to go fish, where Israeli warships await them.

This war exacerbates all those effects, he said.

You feel [and] hear drones in the air. You hear the booms of the ships.

Even if you wanted to leave, you couldn’t. Even if journalists wanted to leave today, they couldn’t. Erez crossing was closed, the border with Israel, and the Egyptian border is closed, as well. There are no shelters.

Walled out and walled in

Wikipedia notes: “Entry into the Gaza Strip by land is through five crossing points: the northern Erez Crossing into Israel, the southern Rafah Crossing into Egypt, and the eastern Karni Crossing used only for cargo. Other cargo crossing points are the Kerem Shalom Crossing on the border with Egypt and the Sufa Crossing farther north.”  [To attempt passage for goods and services, tunnels have been built.]

“The Israel−Gaza barrier is a border barrier first constructed by Israel in 1994 between the Gaza Strip and Israel. The barrier was extended in 2005 to cover the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt (the Egypt-Gaza barrier). The fence-- made up of wire fencing with posts, sensors and buffer zones on lands bordering Israel, and concrete and steel walls on lands bordering Egypt-- runs along the entire land border of the Gaza Strip.” [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_Gaza_Strip_barrier]

Sharif Abdel Kouddous continues

There is no air defense system, no sirens [to alert the people]. There is nowhere to run. You don’t know where is safe.

People are dying inside their homes and inside hospitals—not from their wounds, but from being bombed and wounded again by the Israeli military.

Sharif Abdel Kouddous is an Egyptian-American journalist based in Cairo, a correspondent for Democracy Now and a fellow with the Nation Institute (USA). Before his current position, according to a Wikipedia article, “Kouddous was an investment banker in the leveraged buyout division of Bank of America and volunteered with Democracy Now then became a full-time DN producer and occasional correspondent and co-host. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharif_Abdel_Kouddous]

Cruelty not forever endured

Also in interview today on Democracy Now was Israel-born Gideon Levy who marveled at what the Israeli siege of Gaza did or did not accomplish. “Any siege can be broken for certain purposes,” he said, “but the siege breaks the people of Gaza and pushes them again and again to the corner --to the corner of violence and to the corner of desperation.”

“Israel has to react and has to defend itself, but,” Levy, directing a series of questions to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, asks “Where did it start?

[Did] those rockets fall on our heads just by chance?  

[Is] there no context to this?

[Was there not] the breaking of the political negotiations by the Israelis refusing to release some few veteran prisoners?

[Was there] not a war declared on Hamas in the West Bank after the kidnap and the murder of three Israeli youngsters, arresting 500 Hamas activists who were not involved in this kidnap?

Gideon Levy

Did Israel not stop the salaries—stop the transfer of the salaries to 40,000 Hamas workers, employees in Gaza?

What did Israel think?

Wasn’t Israel against the [Fatah-Hamas] unity government?

Did Israel think that all this will pass like nothing and Hamas will accept everything?

 “I have news,” Levy concludes, “Those who believe that nothing will happen were either extremely arrogant or blind or both.”

Gideon Levy was born in Tel Aviv, the son of Heinz Loewy, who had been born Czechoslovakia and had fled the Nazis in 1939. In 1974, Levy was drafted into the Israeli Defense Forces and served as a reporter for Israel Army Radio. He later was an aide to then Israeli Labor Party leader, Shimon Peres. IN the early 1980s, he began his work as a journalist with the Israeli daily Haaretz and he is quoted saying it is here that his views on Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians began changing. Today Gideon Levy is credited with being an Israeli journalist who writes opinion pieces and a weekly column for the newspaper Haaretz that often focus on the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gideon_Levy]. Today Levy told Amy Goodman that he has to have security around him because his life is often threatened because of his writings.

Sources and notes

Ismail Haniyeh translation excerpted at Democracy Now July 22, 2014, http://www.democracynow.org/2014/7/22/what_does_hamas_really_want_israeli

“Ashrawi: Israel Commits War Crimes in Gaza: RAMALLAH, July 21, 2014 (WAFA) - PLO executive committee member Hanan Ashrawi described during a TV interview the Israeli killing of Palestinians in Gaza as ‘war crimes’ and a ‘deliberate massacre.’” http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=25948

“Ashrawi: Voting for Palestine, is Voting for Justice and Peace” by: Tala Al-Rimawi,

 http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=21195

PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi speaking Ramallah, November 28, 2012 (WAFA)

“‘A Place of Indescribable Loss’: As Ceasefire Talks Begin, Israel Bombs Hospital, Mosques and Homes,” July 22, 2014, http://www.democracynow.org/2014/7/22/a_place_of_indescribable_loss_as

“What Does Hamas Really Want? Israeli Journalist Gideon Levy on Ending the Crippling Blockade of Gaza,” July 22, 2014, http://www.democracynow.org/2014/7/22/what_does_hamas_really_want_israeli

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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Plant 2,000 Olive Trees, Open UNGA fully to Palestinians

Beyond reach of law, Israeli armed forces, settlers commit continual assault on Palestinian farm families; Palestinians reach for UN status

Palestinian woman hugs
olive tree
uprooted by Israelis

Edited by Carolyn Bennett

  

U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation reports.

Israel’s military occupation enters year 45 and the work of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation is more vital than ever. Contributions to the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation help:

Produce and distribute educational resources to tens of thousands of people throughout the United States and support the community organizing work necessary to change U.S. policies.

West Bank village
Man picks olives

Continue support for boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaigns and build on recent successes in those campaigns.

Challenge U.S. military aid to Israel at every level of government ─ from city councils and school boards to Capitol Hill and the White House

Plant trees for Palestinian farming families.

The U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation is the largest and most diverse coalition working to change U.S. policy toward Palestine/Israel to support human rights, international law, and equality.

Israeli Occupation repression:

Palestinian farmer

Increase in settler violence against Palestinian civilians since 2010:  39 percent

Increase in settler violence against Palestinian civilians since 2007: 315 percent

Palestinian trees vandalized (estimated number) by Israeli settlers in 2012: 7,500

Palestinian trees uprooted (estimated number) by Israel since 1967: 1.2 million

Palestinian families in the occupied territories who rely on farming for their livelihood:  80,000

Palestinian farmers’ applications for permits to access olive groves behind Israel’s apartheid wall DENIED: 42 percent

Gaza’s agricultural land rendered inaccessible because of Israel’s ‘buffer zone’:  30 percent

Suspects indicted out of 162 documented complaints of settler attacks against Palestinian trees: 1

Israeli settler burns
Palestinian olive trees

The U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation has partnered with the Palestinian fair trade association to plant olive trees for Palestinian farming families.  

Toward a goal of 2,000 olive trees this year, the Campaign needs help to fund the planting of an additional 1,804 trees for Palestinian farming families.

UN General Assembly
193 Member States

In today’s news, the China Daily reports

Palestinians' UN bid

Despite the U.S. opposition to the Palestinian bid for non-member observer status in the United Nations, President Abbas affirms, “There is nothing preventing us from getting the incomplete membership in the UN.”

The permanent observer of Palestine to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, said yesterday in a press conference ─ 

You give me an impression that you are ready for a historic event on the 29th of November.

Palestinian rights
Palestinian liberation

[The] historic event will take place when our president, President Mahmoud Abbas, with a large Palestinian delegation contribute to the efforts with all our friends and the General Assembly to legislate recognition of the State of Palestine at the United Nations and also change our status to a non-member observer state.

That will be a historic moment in the struggle of the Palestinian people, and a historic moment in the history of the United Nations.

The UN General Assembly on November 29, 1947, adopted Resolution 181, the China News article recalls, “which recognized the need to establish a Jewish state alongside an Arab state in the former British Mandate territory of Palestine.”

As soon as the Palestinian state’s membership is secured, President Abbas said, “The Palestinian side is ready to return to the negotiating table.” Before more time passes, he said, “This might be the last chance for making peace in the Middle East.”

Sources and notes

Contact information: officemanager@endtheoccupation.org or call 202-332-0994.

https://npo1.networkforgood.org/Donate/Donate.aspx?npoSubscriptionId=1004565

Education for Just Peace in the Middle East (registered to do business as the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, Tax-ID # 42-1636592).

http://www.endtheoccupation.org/section.php?id=300

The U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation conducts boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns and needs help to redouble its efforts in opposing unconditional military aid and diplomatic support for Israel.

“Palestine’s UN bid ‘historic moment’: envoy ─ UNITED NATIONS - Riyad Mansour, the permanent observer of Palestine to the United Nations, said yesterday that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will submit the Palestinian bid for a non-member state status to the UN General Assembly tomorrow as planned. This will be ‘a historic moment’ for both the Palestinians and the 193-member states body.” (Updated: 2012-11-28 07:45, Xinhua), http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2012-11/28/content_15964928.htm

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
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Agreed internationally … revoked internationally: PRC’s Nasim Ahmed

UNSPEAKABLE CRUELTY
Editing, re-reporting by Carolyn Bennett

Palestinian Return Centre senior researcher Nasim Ahmed told Press TV there is a campaign afoot to further devastate displaced Palestinian

U.S., UK decide fate of uprooted Palestinians

 The U.S. State Department deciding in 2013 the number of Palestinian refugees from 1948 and those who are the descendents of the original refugees is, Nasim Ahmed said, “another ploy to dissolve the rights of Palestinian refugees; and Britain is jumping on this bandwagon.”

But he says this flies in the face of international law. It is “contrary to everything that is understood under international law as to who is a refugee and who is not a refugee.” The definition of refugee promulgated by the primary refugee body of the United Nations, the UNHCR, “is that any refugee —from Afghanistan or Senegal or Liberia— if they are refugees, their descendents will continue to be refugees until their situation is resolved by their return or some kind of resolution of their situation in agreement with the refugees.”

This is the agreed definition under international law but the United States is somehow trying to go against that. This is an unspeakable cruelty that leaves thousands of people wandering homeless, stateless.

 Humanity discarded

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) provides assistance, protection and advocacy for some five million registered Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the occupied Palestinian territory, pending a solution to their plight. But, Nasim Ahmed said

Palestinian refugees are simply not covered by UNRWA and there are also other classifications of refugees: those from 1967 and those who are continually being made refugees; there are 230,000 Palestinian homes that were demolished since 1967, which means an additional 150-200 thousand Palestinians who are not covered by UNRWA. 

Palestinians flee West Bank
The reason Palestinians are leaving the West Bank is that conditions under occupation are “intolerable.” Among the fleeing, this land’s brain drain, are people who are “highly educated, graduates, young people” seeing endlessly intolerable conditions under occupation in the next 10, 15, 20 years; and wanting something out of their lives. So they are fleeing.

Stateless in Norway, South America 

Refugees from Gaza flee settler violence in the occupied territory and find themselves in limbo in Norway. They cannot move freely, Nasim Ahmed said: “one of the points of being stateless is that when you’re seeking asylum, you’re not being allowed to leave the country until your status is somehow resolved.”

Stateless people can be forced out of Norway by the Norwegian government; but those who are stateless are prohibited from leaving “by their own accord. It would be extremely difficult for them,” he said. 

This situation was evident in images and reports emerging from the Arab Spring. Palestinians from Libya and Palestinians from Syria who are refugees from 1948 and living in exile are now being forced to neighboring countries. But they have nowhere to go. Some have fled to Brazil and some as far away as Argentina.

Being stateless means no country recognizes you.

“What is agreed internationally,” Nasim Ahmed concludes, “can only be revoked internationally: the rights of refugees, the rights of return.”



Sources and notes

“U.S., UK seek to dissolve Palestinian refugee rights,” July 2, 2012, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/07/02/249034/us-uk-seek-to-dissolve-palestinian-refugee-rights/

Nasim Ahmed is a senior researcher at the Palestine Returns Center. He says the United States and Britain “have attempted to rewrite the definition of a Palestinian refugee, going against the definition established by the United Nations.”

The Palestinian Return Centre specializes in the research, analysis, and monitoring of issues pertaining to the dispersed Palestinians and their internationally recognized legal right to return. It is an independent consultancy focusing on the historical, political and legal aspects of the Palestinian Refugees. The organization offers expert advice to various actors and agencies on the question of Palestinian Refugees within the context of the Nakba: The catastrophe following the forced displacement of Palestinians in 1948. The PRC also serves as an information repository on other related aspects of the Palestine question and the Arab-Israeli conflict. http://www.prc.org.uk/newsite/en/about-prc/prc-mission.html

United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East http://www.unrwa.org/etemplate.php?id=47

http://www.prc.org.uk/newsite/en/media/features-stories/2190-Educators-can’t-stay-silent-about-Israeli-apartheid.html
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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
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Democracies like these threaten world

Year 11
U.S. War on Afghanistan

Allies with tyrants, commits endless war on inhabitants: United States persists in violence, impedes nonviolence, diplomacy

News re-reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett

Allied in violence: Middle East-Horn of Africa

Press TV reports

Middle East

Palestinians under siege 

JUNE 22-23

PALESTINE

U.S.-allied Israel against Palestinians

An Israeli airstrike hit al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza on Friday leaving a six-year-old Palestinian child dead and two others wounded. The Gaza Strip is blockaded by Tel Aviv.

JUNE 22

Gaza

The casualty count of Palestinians killed in Gaza by Israeli airstrikes in the past five days has rose to nine and was still rising on Saturday. On Wednesday, an Israeli drone attack hit the Gaza City’s Zaitoun neighborhood killing a child.

“Gaza has been under Israeli siege since 2007, causing a decline in the [Gazans’] standard of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty. Last week, fifty international aid groups and UN agencies urged Tel Aviv to open borders of Gaza, saying the blockade has harmed Gazans.”

Press reports say, “Israeli military frequently bombs the Gaza Strip [and claims these] actions are being conducted for defensive purposes. However, disproportionate force is always used, in violation of international law, and civilians are often killed or injured.”

JUNE 20

This was day three of Israel’s nonstop warplane and assassination drone attacks on the people of the Gaza Strip. At this point, the number of Palestinian casualties had risen to eight dead, seven wounded.

Palestinian Flag

More than 1,400 Palestinians, mostly women and children, died in an earlier Israeli offensive that began on December 27, 2008, and lasted 22 days. In addition to the dead, thousands of Gazans were injured, hundreds of homes were destroyed, a large swath of Gaza’s infrastructure was devastated, and thousands of people were thrown further into poverty.

Four years later, Israel’s continuing unchecked blockade on 1.5-million people and its constant ground and air assaults on them portend no end to the torment of a suffering people.

  

SYRIA

 

JUNE 23

U.S.-allied Saudi Arabia against Syrians

The Saudi princes are reportedly paying the salaries of “the terrorist Free Syrian Army amid ongoing attacks carried out by armed groups inside Syria.”

Sourcing a June 22 Guardian (UK) story, “Saudi authorities will pay the armed rebels to encourage ‘mass defections from the military and… pressure’ the Damascus government.”

JUNE 22

A political analyst reported by Press TV has said the United States [as in Iraq, Libya] “aims to change the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.”

Quoting a Beirut-based international lawyer, Franklin Lamb, the report said “‘the goal is nothing less than regime change.’”

Iran warned that foreign interference in Syria and the flow of weapons to the country’s armed gangs will further escalate the months-long crisis in Syria.

“Speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of the Rio+20 Earth Summit in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro on Thursday, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that such measures will only increase bloodshed, hatred and hostilities in Syria.”

JUNE 21

Several sources said this week that Britain and the United States “have begun efforts to openly derail the UN and Arab League envoy Kofi Annan’s six-point plan for ending the violence in Syria.” They are reportedly “pressuring Annan to change plans and seek ouster of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.”

Baghdad

JUNE 22

IRAQ

U.S.-occupied, War’s not over

Twin bomb attacks hit Baghdad on Friday morning leaving an estimated 17 people dead. Among the dead were three police officers; more than a hundred people suffered injuries in Iraq’s capital city.

The assault hit a northeast Baghdad neighborhood’s open-air market.

JUNE 22

Bahrainis protest

BAHRAIN

U.S.-doubly allied with despotic

Against people’s protest for change

Anti-government protesters in the capital, Manama, came under attack by Saudi-backed Bahraini forces.

Regime forces’ tear gas, sound bombs, rubber bullets and birdshot injured several peaceful demonstrators, including three senior opposition leaders, on Friday in the capital’s Bilad al-Qadeem area.

Asia

Afghanistan

JUNE 22-23

AFGHANISTAN

U.S. war allied against people

Today a bomb explosion at a music market in Afghanistan’s eastern city of Jalalabad left two people dead and two injured. Yesterday an explosion in a Kabul hotel left nineteen people dead. A U.S. NATO soldier also died, according to Press TV reports.

“Taliban-linked violence” is said to be “taking a large toll on the Western military alliance.”

Pakistan

JUNE 23

PAKISTAN

U.S. war allied against people

Eight people (est.) from central Punjab Province died and another person suffered wounds when “unknown” shooters opened fire “in Pakistan’s troubled southwestern Balochistan Province.”

The shooters were reportedly on motorcycles when they “sprayed bullets into a laundry in a busy area of Quetta city, the capital of Baochistan Province.

JUNE 23

KOREA SOUTH

U.S. provocation

The United States with South Korea today began massive joint naval drills in the Yellow Sea amid high tensions on the Korean peninsula.

Involved in this three-day provocation are ten South Korean warships and submarines along with the USS George Washington, a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

Africa

JUNE 22

Drones on Somalia

SOMALIA

U.S. allied against Somalis

Thirty-nine people (est.) died and dozens suffered injuries yesterday when two U.S. assassination drones hit Somalia.

Somalia, Horn of Africa
Middle East
Persia

The illegal, extrajudicial, cold-blooded assassination attacks had reportedly targeted an al-Shabab training base on the outskirts of Somalia’s densely populated capital, Mogadishu.

  

Sources and notes

News reports on U.S. hostilities in Middle East, http://www.presstv.ir/section/3510202.html

News reports on U.S. hostilities in Asia, http://www.presstv.ir/section/3510204.html

News reports on Africa (U.S. drones), http://www.presstv.ir/section/3510205.html

Press TV photos; Worldatlas maps
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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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“Take a Stand” September urges End Israeli Occupation Campaign

From:  uscampaign@endtheoccupation.org 

Excerpts, re-reporting, minor editing by Carolyn Bennett

Will Palestine this fall become the newest member of the United Nations? As the opening of the UN General Assembly draws near, this question looms above the rest.

UN Security Council: five permanent members hold veto power (Peoples Republic of China, France, Russian Federation, United Kingdom, United States)

The answer to this question may depend on the position of our [the U.S.] government. If the United States uses its veto in the UN Security Council as promised, then Palestine’s full membership in the UN will be difficult, if not impossible, to achieve.

In that case, the General Assembly may admit Palestine as a ‘non-member state,’ a status held by the Vatican.

Palestine’s bid for UN membership has engendered many opposing reactions, with some believing that it could advance the cause of Palestinian human rights, while others think it could set it back.  Get a variety of political perspectives from U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation’s website [http://endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=3023].

Whether you support or oppose this initiative, or are neutral toward it — the U.S. Campaign takes no position (read more in frequently asked questions, FAQ, page http://endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=3022 — there are a few things we can all agree on:

• ·    Palestinians are entitled to all of their individual and national rights, including self-determination, freedom, justice and equality.

• ·     The biggest obstacle to Palestinians attaining these rights is U.S. diplomatic and military support for Israeli occupation and apartheid policies toward Palestinians (whether they are living under military occupation, as Israeli citizens, or as refugees denied their right of return to their homes).

• ·     The United States should not use its veto at the UN to shield Israel from accountability for its illegal policies and actions, nor should the United States sanction Palestinians for pursuing their long-denied rights.

Last month, U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation delivered to the U.S. State Department  an open letter signed by more than 125 groups, including 30 national organizations, and petitions signed by more than 25,000 people urging the Obama Administration not to veto Palestine UN membership if the issue comes up in the Security Council
[http://blog.endtheoccupation.org/2011/08/media-release-125-groups-25000.html ].

National organizations CODEPINK, Grassroots International, Jewish Voice for Peace, and Just Foreign Policy contributed petition signatures to the overall count. [Petition site: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/641/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=7340].

Yet the State Department refused to discuss its position with the Campaign, ignoring their concerns (More about the Obama Administration’s position in essay by Campaign National Advocacy Director Josh Ruebner at http://dissidentvoice.org/2011/08/straining-every-nerve-against-un-membership-for-palestine/).

Organizing is critical to exert more pressure and to make voices heard more clearly.

Campaign member organizations and individual activists are taking to the streets in protest of U.S. diplomatic and military support of Israel. 

PALESTINE Britannica image

• ·       September 10, the North Texas Boycott, Divest, and Sanction of Israel Campaign rallies in Fort Worth to protest the potential U.S. veto in the Security Council [http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=177939215613262] 

• ·      September 15, a coalition of dozens of New York-based organizations, many of which are members of the U.S. Campaign, rally and march  at the UN in support of Palestinian self-determination. [http://uspcn.org/2011/08/08/ny-september-15-rally-for-palestine-and-the-right-of-return/ ] [http://uspcn.org/2011/08/08/ny-september-15-rally-for-palestine-and-the-right-of-return/] 

• ·      September 15, coinciding with the International Day of Democracy, activists around the country are planning demonstrations opposing U.S military aid to Israel and U.S. interference with Palestine’s quest for UN membership. Phoenix, AZ, San Francisco, CA, Washington, DC, Urbana, IL, Omaha, NE, Pittsburgh, PA, and Austin, TX had announced plans for events as of September 1 [http://www.facebook.com/pages/September15/216475758396747?sk=events] 

• ·      September 16, several organizations plan demonstrations at the federal building in Los Angeles to protest the threatened U.S. veto. [http://codepinkalert.org/calendar.php?id=3911]  [http://codepinkalert.org/calendar.php?id=3911] 

September 16-19 in Washington D.C. the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation holds its 10th Annual National Organizers’ Conference [http://www.endtheoccupation.org/section.php?id=377]

Sources and notes

“Take a Stand: Join a September Action or Organize One in Your City” posted September 1, 2011, by U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, http://endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=3099

 

Subject:  Protest U.S. Diplomatic & Military Support of Israel as UN Vote Nears

From:  uscampaign@endtheoccupation.org 

http://www.un.org/sc/members.asp

UN SECURITY COUNCIL 

Membership in 2011

The UN Security Council is composed of five permanent members (Peoples Republic of China, France, Russian Federation, United Kingdom, and United States); and 10 non-permanent members (below alphabetically with year of end of term):

Bosnia and Herzegovina (2011)

Brazil (2011)

Colombia (2012)

Gabon (2011)

Germany (2012)

India (2012)

Lebanon (2011)  

Nigeria (2011)  

Portugal (2012)

South Africa (2012)

The General Assembly elected Colombia, Germany, India, Portugal and South Africa to serve as non-permanent members of the Security Council for two-year terms starting on 1 January 2011. The newly elected countries have replaced Austria, Japan, Mexico, Turkey and Uganda.

In the English alphabetical order of their names, members of the Security Council hold the Presidency of the UN Security Council in turn. Each President holds office for a single calendar month.

The UN General Assembly elects ten non-permanent members for two-year terms. They are ineligible for immediate reelection. The number of non-permanent members increased from six to ten by an amendment of the Charter, which came into force in 1965.

Each Council member has one vote. 

• ·       Decisions on procedural matters are made by an affirmative vote of at least nine of the 15 members. 

• ·       Decisions on substantive matters require nine votes — including the concurring votes of all five permanent members. This is the rule of ‘great Power unanimity,’ —often referred to as the ‘veto’ power.

Under the Charter, all Members of the United Nations agree to accept and carry out the decisions of the Security Council.

While other organs of the United Nations make recommendations to Governments — the Council alone has the power to take decisions, which Member States are obligated under the Charter to carry out. http://www.un.org/sc/members.asp

UN General Assembly is the main deliberative organ of the UN. Decisions on important questions, such as those on peace and security, admission of new members and budgetary matters, require a two-thirds majority. Decisions on other questions are by simple majority. http://www.un.org/en/ga/about/index.shtml

There are 193 United Nations (UN) member states. Each of them is a member of the United Nations General Assembly [Wikipedia].

How does a country become a Member of the United Nations?

Membership in the Organization, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, “is open to all peace-loving States that accept the obligations contained in the United Nations Charter and, in the judgment of the Organization, are able to carry out these obligations”. States are admitted to membership in the United Nations by decision of the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council.

How does a new State or Government obtain recognition by the United Nations?

The recognition of a new State or Government is an act that only other States and Governments may grant or withhold. It generally implies readiness to assume diplomatic relations. The United Nations is neither a State nor a Government, and therefore does not possess any authority to recognize either a State or a Government. As an organization of independent States, it may admit a new State to its membership or accept the credentials of the representatives of a new Government.

Membership in the Organization, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, ‘is open to all peace-loving States which accept the obligations contained in the [United Nations Charter] and, in the judgment of the Organization, are able to carry out these obligations.’ States are admitted to membership in the United Nations by decision of the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council. The procedure is briefly as follows: 

1. The State submits an application to the Secretary-General and a letter formally stating that it accepts the obligations under the Charter. 
2. The Security Council considers the application. Any recommendation for admission must receive the affirmative votes of 9 of the 15 members of the Council, provided that none of its five permanent members — China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America — have voted against the application.
3. If the Council recommends admission, the recommendation is presented to the General Assembly for consideration. A two-thirds majority vote is necessary in the Assembly for admission of a new State.
4. Membership becomes effective the date the resolution for admission is adopted. http://www.un.org/en/members/about.shtml

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