No surrender to injustice

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Another Israeli West Bank land grab: “the latest step in what appears to be an ongoing process of land expropriations, settlement expansions and legalisations of outposts . . .” [US State Department spokesman John Kirby]

On 8 March 2016 the Palestine Solidarity Network issued a Press Release critical of the New Zealand Government for failing “to live up to its international human rights obligations”. The National Government has signed a film production co-operation agreement with Israel that lends respectability to the Zionist regime just when the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has scored a massive victory for human rights protection. BDS activity has caused the British private security giant G4S to announce plans to sell its entire Israeli business within the next 12 to 24 months. G4S provides equipment and services to Israeli prisons and detention centres, in which thousands of Palestinian prisoners are tortured and held in captivity, some without even charge or trial. Israel violates international law by incarcerating Palestinians (including children) outside of the Occupied territory in which they were taken prisoner. The company also has contracts with the Israeli Occupation to provide equipment and services at checkpoints, which are an integral part of Israel’s annexation Wall. The world-wide condemnation of Israel’s conduct is exemplified in action by the United Methodist Church, the largest protestant church in the USA, to divest from G4S as morally indefensible. The Palestinian BDS National Committee spokesperson Mahmoud Nawajaa says, “We believe strongly that our ethical approach and just cause will prevail”. While the New Zealand Government wastes its precious opportunity to speak out for justice at the Security Council, it is left to others in New Zealand to act.

Janfrie Wakim, a spokesperson for the Palestine Solidarity Network, said of the National Government’s agreement to co-operate on film production, “this could not be a worse message to send to Israel.” She also said that “world-wide the Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is isolating Israel to pressure it into conforming to international law on human rights, return of Palestinian refugees and withdrawal from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The New Zealand Government is going in the other direction. It’s putting money into an agreement to help Israeli propagandists sugar-coat the reality of Israeli racism and Occupation. These are for films the Israeli Government funds or approves.” As the Palestine Solidarity Network points out, New Zealand is getting itself into an agreement that will make us a party to the continuing Occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Janfrie Wakim noted that, “In 2004 the International Court of Justice called on States Parties to the Geneva Conventions, such as New Zealand, to not do anything to assist the Israeli Occupation.” A government-to-government agreement with Israel that places film-makers in the Occupied Territories has the appearance of legitimising the Israeli Occupation.

Moving away from collusion
There was a move away from collusion with Israel when New Zealand’s Superannuation Fund disinvested from some Israeli companies that profit from the Occupation but now there seems to be a change of direction. The Palestine Solidarity Network Press Release also drew attention to the Zionist regime’s recent destruction of an entire Palestinian West Bank village. Janfrie Wakim said: “The Israeli Army destroyed all of Ein al-Rashash just last month so that Jewish settlers could replace the Palestinian inhabitants. These Palestinians were first made refugees in 1948 by Israel and now their homes have been destroyed again. They have nowhere to go in the middle of winter. The UN figures show Israel destroyed more Palestinian homes last month than for any month since it began keeping records in 2009. They do that so they can replace them with illegal Israeli settlements.” Collaboration with Israel encourages the Zionist regime to believe that its impunity is unassailable.

Bedouin villages
Israel does not confine its ethnic cleansing practises solely to militarily-occupied Palestinian territory. For example, in Israel itself the Bedouin villages of Atir and Umm al-Ḥīrān in the Negev Desert are designated “unrecognised”. The villagers had already been ‘relocated’ by the Israeli military in 1956 and now the State of Israel is striving to have the villages destroyed altogether. The Zionist regime plans to establish a new Jewish settlement, named Hiran, over the remains of the villages. On 17 January the villagers lost their appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court to be left unmolested and allowed to remain. The residents of these villages have explained that they wish to live in peace with their Jewish neighbours, pointing out that there is adequate land close to their villages for a new Israeli township. The decision to destroy two villages in order to plant a forest and establish a new Jewish town is racist and inhumane.

Gaza ceasefire violations – Israeli air strike kills 2 children
Israel claims that its periodic blitzes on the Gaza Strip, with their massive tolls of slaughter and economic sabotage, are necessary to stop missiles from Gaza being fired towards Israel. What the mainstream news media fail to report and the National Government chooses to ignore is that, in between every spate of missile firings from Gaza, Israel does its utmost to provoke Palestinian retaliation. An Israeli air strike on 12 March caused the deaths of a 10-year-old Palestinian boy and his six-year-old sister. The boy was identified as Yassin Abu Khoseh. His six-year-old sister Issra died in hospital later. Medics said the pair were hit by fragments from a missile fired by Israeli aircraft. The children’s brother, Ayyoub (13), suffered moderate injuries in the air strike. The children’s father said that he was asleep when their home was hit and awakened by the blast, rushed to see if the children had been hurt. “My boy was killed instantly, drowning in his own blood; my daughter was very seriously injured.” His other son said that when he looked at his brother and sister, he found them bleeding heavily from injuries to their heads and various parts of their bodies.

The Israeli attack was in response to rockets fired from Gaza that landed harmlessly in open areas in southern Israel, causing no deaths or injuries. The missiles fired from Gaza were themselves a response to over 240 ceasefire violations by Israel aimed at civilian targets, mostly farmers and fishing boats, since 1 January this year. Israel does its utmost to provoke missile launchings from Gaza. From 1 January to 10 March, there were just three Palestinian Gaza ceasefire violations. They all had been directed at Israeli blockade-enforcing military, taking place on 23 January, and 2 and 7 March.As a result of Israeli aggression in Gaza there have been, so far this year, four Palestinian deaths, including those of three children. Fifty-three Palestinians have been wounded and, in addition, Israel has hijacked five Palestinian fishing boats.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

Negotiations cannot restrain Occupation settlement of West Bank
On 15 March, New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully announced that Wellington was circulating a draft United Nations resolution to force Israelis and Palestinians back to table. McCully said in Sydney that Israel’s settlement activities are behind the disappearing viability of the two-state solution with the Palestinians. McCully admitted that: “As an elected member of the Council, we have a responsibility to make contributions.” What Murray McCully is actually asking for though, is that the Palestinian victims of Israeli military Occupation should be required to negotiate away, under duress, their rights under the provisions of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. There is no justice in accommodating yet further Israel’s desire for territorial expansion. In 2011 the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz quoted Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak acknowledging the unsustainable nature of the Israeli Occupation by saying, “We have been ruling over another nation for 43 years . . .

McCully’s acknowledgement of illegal settlements is useful but we’ve heard it all before – years of ‘negotiations’ have achieved nothing more than the buying of time for Israel to consolidate its present annexations and prepare for the next round. On 16 January, In an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report, the Israeli ambassador to New Zealand reminded listeners of Israel’s withdrawal of illegal settlers from Gaza. So why not from the West Bank? It is quite clearly possible.

The call for negotiations evades the principle that violations of international law can never be justified or given validity. Human rights are non-negotiable. On 29 November 2015, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu declared that there are no plans to deliver any land from West Bank Area C to Palestinians. In a meeting for Likud ministers, he stressed that there will be no transfer of land to the Palestinian Authority, “not 40 thousand dunams, not 10 thousand, not one metre.” How ‘diplomatic’ is that? According to the Times of Israel the President of the Zionist Federation of Australia, Danny Lamm, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency: “The New Zealand Foreign Minister is unfortunately misguided and in his attempt to promote peace has [passed off] blame on Israel when in fact there is no peace for one reason only: Israel’s enemies don’t want peace.”

Yet another Israeli land grab
As recently as 16 March there was yet another example of Israel’s insatiable taking of Palestinian land. COGAT, the Israeli military body that rules the daily lives of Palestinians living under Occupation, declared that about 580 acres (235 hectares) of West Bank land near the city of Jericho was now Israeli Government land. The latest violation of international law occurred just as US Vice President Joe Biden was ending a visit to Israel, according to a copy of the land declaration obtained by The Associated Press, and it drew a severe rebuke from the United States. US State Department spokesman, John Kirby, said that it was “the latest step in what appears to be an ongoing process of land expropriations, settlement expansions and legalisations of outposts . . .” The UK Foreign Ofice also said “We condemn the Israeli government’s decision to take over 585 acres of land in the West Bank as ‘state land’.” The International Court of Justice News reported that Israel has appropriated a large tract of fertile land and declared it as ‘state land’.

The Palestinian people have a right to expect the Security Council to live up to its name. BDS has set a non-violent example; an alternative to violent resistance that is supported by most of humanity. The Security Council should heed world opinion and itself impose sanctions in order to restrain Israel. The Zionist state must also be forced to understand that it will face suspension and ultimate expulsion from UN membership if it continues to violate the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the human rights of Palestinians.

27 COMMENTS

  1. Once again Leslie you seem to be focussing on terribly minor issues in the middle east that ‘just happen’ to be the fault of Jews.

    I look forward to a post by yourself condemning the horrors committed by Muslims against other Muslims.

    • Andrew, there is nothing ‘terribly minor’ about the extreme cruelty imposed on the Palestinians by Zionists. And by the way, the most articulate, well-informed, passionate supporters of the Palestinian cause, are Jews..famous ones like Noam Chomsky and Naomi Klein, Max Blumenthal.and many more not as well known.

      • No country is perfect, but Israel is the only country in the Middle East that received a number one rating from the Freedom House, which evaluates democracy and freedom around the world.

        Back to my point: When will I see the Left face its progeny – Medieval Islam?

        • Andrew, you do realise that Hamas was elected in a multi-party election, and was elected with popular support?

          So your claim that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East is patently ill-informed garbage.

    • “I look forward to a post by yourself condemning the horrors committed by Muslims against other Muslims.”

      You know – I just don’t get the impression that Leslie is into religious matters. This is about nationality – Israeli and Palestinian. Plain and simple. About the theft of land and resources and a policy of fantasy around ‘right of return’ for people who never came from there in the first place. About displacing people who go back generations.

      I don’t wish to be harsh at all – many earnest people ‘condemn’ and I suppose it keeps the pot warm. It does nothing to abate the fury and despising that abound between these two nations. It ‘feels good’, perhaps. Nothing more.

      However, these posts are bringing a version of information forward about matters that are rarely mentioned in this country’s mainstream. The facts can be verified and the opinions can be offered.

      The lazy taunt of ‘racism’ – it’s very nineteenth century and is there with phrenology as interesting, but. And it’s unfortunately morphing toward losing its clarity. Pity, but overuse can do that.

      The Middle East abounds with different ethnicities, tribes and clans, ranks and statuses, histories and matters about which outsiders can guess from their own nations but can never be solidly sure. Tucking them all under one blanket and chittering about ‘racism’ – yeah, nah. Nation against nation – as always.

      • ANDREA: “This is about nationality – Israeli and Palestinian.”

        You’re living in a fantasy land.

        This is about Muslims wishing to kill all Jews. First in Israel and then globally. This is why they attack Jews in Europe.

        Hypothetically, if Israel handed the entire country to the Muslims do you think it would stop their terrorism?

        If you’re not a Muslim, they may tolerate you in a future global caliphate but you will have to pay a tax for being ‘kufur’.

        • “This is about Muslims wishing to kill all Jews”

          You are either a troll, idiot or both – who can (if ‘indulged’) suck the life blood out of a well respected blog such as this one, by your ill informed, clearly biased views on Zionist ‘Israel’ and its relentless abuse of the Palestinians over SIX decades – in breach of countless UN resolutions, which MOST right thinking people find utterly repugnant. The fact YOU do not, tells me all I need to know about you. Not worthy of debate.

        • This is about Muslims wishing to kill all Jews. First in Israel and then globally. This is why they attack Jews in Europe.

          You really are paranoid, Andrew.

          The only way muslims could “kill all Jews” is if they possessed atomic weapons. They don’t.

          The only nation in the Middle East with weapons of mass destruction is – Israel.

    • The standard Zionist tactic, when faced with evidence that cannot be directly refuted, is to divert attention from the issues raised by changing the subject. It is a sure sign of desperation and bankruptcy of argument.

    • Yet another example of a right winger trying to make international violations and war crimes into a race related issue. Jews against Muslims.

      No wonder the world is at war and so many people are being displaced.

      It the world wants to solve the middle east wars, they need to start with Israel and their international violations and being propped up with US aid.

      And when we have Trump now advocating building a wall to keep the Mexicans out of the USA, that is precisely the thinking that Israel has maintained for the last 20 years and seen the rise in terror attacks and suicide bombers around the world as well as the seizure of land from Palestine.

      World leaders should be careful, by not carrying out due care on the security council and maintaining fairness in decisions related to race and power, they are removing their own power and creating less world security.

      People are sick of the double standards.

      If Trump gets in, then the ‘war of terror’ MSM and governments have maintained to justify illegal wars, will reach the likely outcome. We have a US population that believes they are in danger and will act and vote accordingly and they have nuclear weapons, like Israel.

      The security council has been asleep at the wheel for too long.

      They are dreaming if they think NZ on the security council will help. Our own government has been overtaken with neoliberal sheep who will just vote with any way they are told and can’t even get a convention centre built or a public transport system in their own country.

  2. What we need is a “free trade deal” with Israel.
    With the ISDS provisions meaning we could sue them into compliance. Maybe have one with the Palestinians too, that way they can be rewarded for not firing rockets into Israel. We could get them to have “stab free Saturdays”.

  3. Try Jonkey who is Jewish as another criminal!!!

    As he conspired with NY noted currency trader Andy Krieger (another of Jewish ancestry) in 1987 to bankrupt NZ by causing a run on the NZ dollar effectively bankrupting NZ which was described as the most “bold currency move wall St had ever seen????

    • ‘CleanGreen’ whoever you are, that sort of comment is not acceptable. you should withdraw it.

      • @ Lois Griffiths ? So you say. @ Cleangreens comments are perfectly acceptable to me so fuck off.

        • Israel behaves like that because they’re Jews? Is that really what you two are trying to imply? Please, do go on.

        • Leslie Bravery’s article was nothing to do with currency ..nothing to do with any ‘conspiracy theories’ , nothing to do with the PM. What I dislike about the anonymous ‘CleanGreen’ is that it could easily be construed as anti-Semitism’. I know many people who speak out on behalf of the Palestinians; none of them is anti-Semitic, some are Jewish. Pro-Israelis like to scare people off by trying to equate opposition to Zionism , a political agenda originating in eastern Europe, with anti-Semitism. So who are you two, cleangeen and countryboy? You are not on the side of ‘justice for Palestine’.

          • JUSTICE is the word.

            I’m with Lori. Conflating Jewishness with JK or Israel is as racist as ISIS=Muslim, however incidental.

            Let’s get the narrative to justice-seeking vs justice-averse, I bet we outnumber them.

      • How could this candidate become PM?????

        Exhibit 1/

        National Business review 2008

        Key trust to get $36,000 from Tranz Rail payout

        NZPA | Monday September 01, 2008 | 1 comment

        National Party leader John Key is to receive $36,000 of a $27.7 million Tranz Rail — now government-owned KiwiRail — insider trading settlement.

        Thirty former Tranz Rail shareholders, including Mr Key’s family trust, are to receive up to $1.20 per share each in compensation with a further 3100 investors getting about 10 cents a share in the country’s biggest ever insider trading settlement, BusinessDay.co.nz reported.

        The payouts stem from the $27.7m six defendants, including expatriate businessmen David Richwhite and Sir Michael Fay, agreed to pay to settle with the Securities Commission without admitting liability.

        Mr Key’s family trust, the JP and BI Key Family Trust, bought 30,000 Tranz Rail shares from a company owned by Mr Fay and Mr Richwhite in February, 2002.

        The trust sold the shares in June 2002 by which time they were trading at just $1.02 each. The trust paid $3.60 each for the Tranz Rail shares meaning he still loses about $43,000 on the investment.

        More by NZPA

        Sign up to free NBR email alerts here
        ———————————————————————-
        Exhibit 2/

        http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2008/11/10/financial-markets/keys-house

        MARKETS: Shadow banking in the spotlight

        John Key is living proof that not all heads of derivatives operations for large US investment banks end up in the dog house. Some get to run their own country.

        Key was elected prime minister of New Zealand last weekend after his National Party achieved a crushing victory over the incumbent Labour government of Helen Clark.

        The timing of his elevation, in the midst of a financial crisis, may be quite prophetic. After all, Key’s rise to prominence in foreign exchange circles came after he struck a rewarding relationship at Bankers Trust with Andy Krieger, a daring New York-based trader who launched a legendary raid against the NZ dollar in 1987.

        Krieger reportedly bet more than the country’s entire money supply against the currency, forcing it down sharply and taking massive profits in what is still described as one of the finest forex plays ever completed.

        Key’s role in this raid is not entirely clear. The timing of his arrival at BT suggests he might not have had a great deal to do with it, but he benefited from Krieger’s continuing interest in the currency, which helped Key lift BT to top of the local currency tables and attract interest from international investment banks.

        New Zealand’s new leader also knows a lot about job losses, having by his own admission earned the reputation of being the “smiling assassin” during his short stint at the Sydney offices of Merrill Lynch in 2001 when he reportedly helped fire some 500 staff.

        He had been through this process before, after Merrills incurred massive losses as a result of the Asian crisis. Key, then head of the bank’s forex operations in London, is credited by former colleagues for his ability to hold a demoralised team together, even while sacking, in his own words “dozens fewer than 100”, a comment that reveals an early talent for political spin.

    • Lois;

      I am of Jewish ancestry too!

      I am not stating Jews are bad!

      He is not like every Jew.

      Jews he follows are those who idolise money, Andy Krieger for example.

      Have you seen the line-up Key met at Bilderberg secretly?

      Incidentally my Great Grandmother was a Jewish German immigrant in 1880’s.

      But she would even turn in her grave if she saw what Key (a second generation) has done to this country as a recent citizen!!!

      He is a Corporate carpetbagger for certain, is that is simple for you to understand???

      He has no morals or respect for those pioneers who forged this land and broke their backs doing it and happy to lie to us saying he doesn’t want us to be “tenants in our own land” remember?

      He does not care about the provinces like Northland, wasteland, east coast or HB, so we can see he only likes the major speculative regions as he just idolises money not God.

      Now he is setting the farming sector up to become bankrupt so his rich foreign buddies at Bilderberg can come in and buy us all at fire sale prices.

  4. Andrew; “This is about Muslims wishing to kill all Jews”

    You are either a troll, idiot or both – who can (if ‘indulged’) suck the life blood out of a well respected blog such as this one, by your ill informed, clearly biased views on Zionist ‘Israel’ and its relentless abuse of the Palestinians over SIX decades – which MOST right thinking people find utterly repugnant. The fact YOU do not, tells me all I need to know about you. Simply not worthy of debate.

  5. The people of Brussels are now finding out what it’s like to be an Israeli.

    Watch attitudes harden in Europe!

    Once again you guys will be on the wrong side of history.

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