The Bombing of Gaza University

One of the aspects of the Israeli attack on Gaza that received little publicity this year was the razing to the ground of Gaza University. Of course for the Zionists, any aspect of public or civil life in Gaza was a ‘terrorist’ target, since the people of Gaza – all of them – were likewise seen as ‘terrorists’.

The pictures below show some of the devastation but it worthwhile asking what a site, set up to defend ‘academic freedom’ and which has been vociferous in attacking the Academic Boycott for that reason, has said. I refer to the Zionist Engage site.

Sad to tell this is one form of academic boycott and attack on academic freedom that Engage has nothing to say about. Which is strange. The Engage site is clear that the reason it was set up was in order ‘to arm people with arguments and facts that they could use to counter the propaganda of the boycott campaign within the Association of University Teachers.’ It’s strange because Engage not only describes itself as a ‘left wing campaign.' But it says that they

‘"support" neither Israel nor Palestine;... We are not a "Jewish" campaign, whatever that might mean. We do not speak "as Jews" but as socialists, liberals, trade unionists or academics. A number of the people centrally involved in Engage are not Jewish.’

Of course Engage goes on to then say that it ‘is a single issue campaign. It focuses on one issue, antisemitism’ which is strange for a group that doesn’t call itself Jewish but less that pass. The fact is that Engage has based its arguments against an Academic Boycott both on anti-Semitism – a Boycott of Israel is apparently an attack on Jewish people here – but also notions of academic freedom.

So what has Engage had to say about the bombing of Gaza University? Has it condemned it, picketed about it etc? Truth to tell it has said nothing whatsoever. Attacks on Palestinian academic freedom are none of its concern. The pictures speak for themselves.

Tony Greenstein

When is Comment NOT Free? When Zionists are Offended!

The Guardian’s Comment is Free was one of the first newspaper Internet blogs. When it was set up a few years ago, it deliberately courted controversy under editor Georgina Henry. For example it became the site of the launch of Independent Jewish Voices in the UK.

The Zionists were outraged and soon pressure was applied, Georgina was replaced and establishment toady Matthew Seaton appointed in her place with a remit to clamp down on anything 'offensive' [to Zionists that is]. So Seaton has promoted the views of contributors like the ‘soft’ British settler Seth Freedman, who Seaton thought was a peacenik until Freedman came out in full throated support for the Gaza blitzkrieg. Comparisons between Zionism and the Nazis, which are the commonplace of Israeli discourse and actions [see the settler graffitti such as ‘Arabs to the Gas Chambers'] are off-limits lest they cause said Zionists 'offence'.

Because just as Israel's first, genuine, bona fide fascist has become Foreign Minister, so even greater efforts are needed by establishment scribes like Seaton to protect readers from the truth. So when I posted a comment to a thoughtful article by Antony Lerman, a Jewish establishment critic on CIF bemoaning how a widely syndicated cartoon by Pat Oliphant had been attacked as, well, anti-Semitic of course, my comment was 'moderated' i.e. censored by the obsequious Seaton.

Comment is Free? NOT.

Tony Greenstein

Letter to Editor of Guardian Comment is (Un)Free

Dear Mr Seaton,

I refer to the article published by Antony Lerman in the Guardian’s Comment is Free blog last Thursday 2nd April.

The article argued that the cartoon by Pat Oliphant, showing a ‘headless Nazi-like, goose-stepping, jackbooted figure, with one arm raised and outstretched, holding a sword, and the other wheeling a head in the form of a Star of David’ may have been offensive but it was not anti-Semitic.

Lerman argued that ‘political cartoons are often very offensive, and offensive – even when it involves comparing Israelis with Nazi’ but that ‘does not automatically mean antisemitic.’
It is an argument which is, I would have thought self-evident. Especially when, as Lerman goes on to point out:

‘The effect of the complaints of antisemitism made by the American Jewish organisations is to attempt to protect Israel from legitimate, if deeply unpleasant, criticism…. All it seems to be doing is devaluing the currency. If the ADL and the Wiesenthal Centre don't like or agree with the comparison, why can't they just argue that it's wrong?.. This only makes it increasingly difficult to raise concern about genuine instances of antisemitism and to develop effective means to prevent them.’

This was a well argued article about the pernicious effects of labelling critics of Israel and Zionism as anti-Semitic. I therefore wrote in to support the main thrust of the article and to point out the hypocrisy of those who label others as anti-Semitic when they don’t hesitate themselves to make comparisons between their opponents and the Nazis. In particular I highlighted:

The fact that Israeli soldiers returning home from Gaza had tee-shirts printed legitimising the killing of children and in particular one which showed a pregnant woman in the cross-hairs of a rifle with the slogan ‘one bullet, two kills’. The Nazi mentality behind such thinking should be obvious to all.

The comparisons that have regularly been made between Palestinians and Arabs and the Nazis by Zionists and gave Begin’s comparison of Arafat in Beirut with Hitler in his bunker as but one example.
I recalled the fact that even internal critics of Israel, Zionists themselves, had drawn comparisons to earlier massacres such as that at Kfar Quassem, and the Nazis. I cited Aharon Zisling, later to become a Mapam Minister in the Israeli government who said of the above massacre that ‘Nazi acts have been committed by Jews as well, and I am deeply shocked.’

I noted that on no occasion have those, like Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League ever criticised Zionist comparisons between Palestinians and the Nazis as anti-Semitic.

I drew attention to the trip that Baron von Mildenstein, Head of the Gestapo’s Jewish desk, made a journey in 1933 to Jewish Palestine for 6 months at the invitation of the Labour Zionist movement. Now I wouldn’t expect you to know this, clearly you don’t, but it is documented in Jacob Boas’ ‘A Nazi Travels to Palestine’ which was printed in the January 1980 edition of History Today, a journal which isn’t usually considered on the wilder fringes of the political spectrum.

And finally I drew attention to the fact that those who deprecate comparisons between Zionism and the Nazis have no hesitation in making just such comparisons themselves eg. between BDS campaigns against Israel today and the Nazi ‘Boycott’ of Germany in the 1930’s. Indeed the very same people who objected to Oliphant’s cartoon make this comparison.

I cited as a source for the Zisling and other quotes, the book, 7th Million, by ex-Haaretz journalist, Tom Segev, about the survivors of the Holocaust who emigrated to Palestine/Israel after 1945.

I posted this comment at 1.09 pm last Saturday 4th April and, because of previous experiences of censorship at the Guardian’s Comment is Free site, took the precaution of saving it. Sure enough, when the same petty-minded censors of CIF ( ‘moderators’) got round to dealing with the inevitable Zionist complaint, my comment was removed.

Now I understand that moderators can fulfil a useful function of removing libellous, defamatory and generally ad hominem comments, whose only purpose is to disrupt debate. But my comment was a contribution to, not an attempt to disrupt, a debate. Clearly this is a difference you are having trouble with. Nor was it in any sense anti-Semitic, though its logic was certainly bound to offend our narrow minded opponents and your tiny-minded moderators.

There was a time when CIF, under Georgina Henry, had no hesitation in encouraging debate such as this. It would seem that you on the other hand were brought in as Editor of CIF precisely in order to clamp down on controversial debate, CIF having been subject to a concerted campaign by the Zionist Federation and their allies who were and are afraid of any debate they cannot control.

I look forward to an apology for the deletion of this comment and failing that I would hope that you are honest enough to rename CIF to something more appropriate such as ‘Comment is Free Except When We Censor It’ or ‘Comment is Free (in moderation)’. At the moment CIF is a tribute to Orwell’s Newspeak where censorship is called free debate.

Regards

Tony Greenstein

The Offending Comment that Matthew Seaton and his 'Moderators' Deleted
The concern of Mr Foxman and all the other slavish apologists for Israel's actions about a cartoon, stand in marked contrast to their silence, indeed their exculpation of the murder of over 400 Palestinian children in Gaza.

Just imagine - 400 Jewish children slaughtered by an intensive air, land and sea bombardment in an attack against their ghetto (which is what Gaza is)? The hypocrisy is breathtaking.

Oh we know the excuse. Hamas are hiding behind civilians - just like Haganah, the Zionist pre-state militia. Presumably the British would have been right to shell kibbutzim, synagogues (where weapons were definitely stored).

But at least the soldiers who committed the atrocities in Gaza were honest. The children will only grow up to be 'terrorists' hence why killing them too is legitimate. The tee shirts Israeli soldiers had made up to 'celebrate' their deeds - such as the picture of a pregnant Palestinian woman in the cross-hairs of a gun sight - 'one bullet 2 kills' is indeed an example of the Nazi mentality. As are slogans such as 'we have come to annihilate you'.

But of course this misses the point. For years Zionists and apologists for everything the Israeli state does to the Palestinians have done so in the name of fighting the Nazis. The settlers invoke the Nazis and ‘never again’ to justify their deeds, the attack on Beirut was likened by Begin to an attack on Hitler’s bunker.

And likewise the Israeli opponents of their State’s barbarism also resort, quite correctly, to analogies with the Nazis. ‘We must demand of the entire nation a sense of shame and humiliation. That soon we will be like Nazis and the perpetrators of pogroms," wrote Rabbi Benyamin’. This was written after the cold-blooded murder of 46 Palestinians at the Kfar Quassem village just prior to the Suez War. Likewise, after some of the events of the 1947-9 war Aharon Zisling, later to become Minister of Agriculture for the Zionist Mapam said at a cabinet meeting that ‘I have not always agreed when the term Nazi was applied to the British. I would not want to use that expression with regard to them, even though they committed Nazi acts. But Nazi acts have been committed by Jews as well, and I am deeply shocked.’ [Tom Segev, the 7th Million, pp. 300-1]

And yet I cannot recall Foxman or the Hoffmans of this world criticising the use of Nazi analogies to demonise the Palestinians because that is their view too. It is only when the victims use such analogies that they are verboten. Strange that.

But maybe the apologists for Israel’s latest slaughter in Gaza have forgotten that it was in 1933, when the Head of the Gestapo’s Jewish Department, Baron von Mildenstein visited the Yishuv, Jewish Palestine, for 6 months, that he not only wrote a series of laudatory articles in Der Angriff when he returned to Germany, having been the guest of Histadrut and the Kibbutzim, but he even had a coin minted – with the Swastika on one side and the Star of David on another. But this was when the World Zionist Organisation had decided that parleying with the Nazis was better than the anti-fascist boycott of them!

But I forget - boycotts too have been compared these days to Nazi ‘boycotts’. And who has made the comparison? Ah yes, the same people who object to such comparisons when the Palestinians make them!!!

Tony Greenstein
04 Apr 09, 1:09pm

The Boycott Works - Scottish TUC Recommends BDS

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Israel continues to experience the fall-out from their genocidal attack on Gaza. As the articles below demonstrate, the devastation wreaked upon Jabaliya refugee camp is worse than anyone can have imagined. The time for talk and appeasement has passed. As the Israeli peace camp grows weaker, with even the ‘left’ Zionist party Meretz supporting the attack on Gaza, those who support the ‘peace [i.e. war] process’ and talk of ‘2 States’ act as a cover for further barbaric attacks on the Palestinian people.

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The proposals of the Scottish TUC are significant. If the Scottish TUC endorses the Report, then pressure will mount on the British TUC to start doing something more than mere talking. To date the British TUC has done nothing more than pay lip service to support for the Palestinians. Each year Brendan Barber, the TUC’s right-wing General Secretary, flits between the Trade Union Friends of Israel meeting at Congress to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign meeting in order to denounce the Boycott. Barber, another in a line of useless time-servers that the TUC appoints to lead it, speaks instead of ‘2 States’, knowing full well that if it was ever possible in the past, the growth of the settlements and a far-right Government in Israel, led by its fascist Foreign Minister Lieberman, means that even the possibility of a Palestinian Bantustan is a pipe-dream.

Those who talks of 2 States and Israel's 'right to exist' are really talking about Israel's right to continue its wars of expansion and transfer. Because 2 States is a Transfer Solution.

The 2 articles from the Guardian are extremely encouraging as they shows that the consumer boycott of Israeli goods is beginning to bite, especially in the UK, as ordinary people think twice about buying produce stained with the blood of Palestinians.

It is particularly gratifying that Britain is seen as "a special problem' in respect of the Boycott! And the criticism by Nehemia Stressler and Israeli manufacturers of Israel's Government for its bombardment, because of its effect on exports, gives the lie to those who say Boycotts don't work. On the contrary, appeasement and sweet talk doesn't work and never has worked. The only thing that Zionism and its representatives understand is the language they employ in respect of the Gazan population, who have been subjected to a forcible boycott for over 3 years. BOYCOTT WORKS!!!

Tony Greenstein

Israeli exporters are hit by European boycotts
Rachel Shabi Tel Aviv, The Guardian, 4th April 2009

Israeli companies are feeling the impact of boycott moves in Europe, according to surveys, amid growing concern within the Israeli business sector over organised campaigns following the attack on Gaza.

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Last week, the Israel Manufacturers Association reported that 21% of 90 local exporters who were questioned had felt a drop in demand due to boycotts, mostly from the UK and Scandinavian countries. Last month, a report from the Israel Export Institute reported that 10% of 400 polled exporters received order cancellation notices this year because of Israel's assault on Gaza.

"There is no doubt that a red light has been switched on, " Dan Katrivas, head of the foreign trade department at the Israel Manufacturers Association, told the Maariv newspaper this week.

"We are closely following what's happening with exporters who are running into problems with boycotts. " He added that in Britain there exists "a special problem regarding the export of agricultural produce from Israel".

The problem, said Katrivas, is in part the discussion in the UK over labelling goods that come from Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. Last week British government officials met with food industry representatives to discuss the issue.

In recent months, the Israeli financial press has reported the impact of mounting calls to boycott goods from the Jewish state. Writing in the daily finance paper, the Marker, economics journalist Nehemia Stressler berated then trade and Industry minister Eli Yishai for telling the Israeli army to "destroy one hundred homes" in Gaza for every rocket fired into Israel.

The minister, wrote Stressler, did not understand "how much the operation in Gaza is hurting the economy".

Stressler added: "The horrific images on TV and the statements of politicians in Europe and Turkey are changing the behaviour of consumers, businessmen and potential investors. "

In February, another article in the Marker reported that Israelis with major business interests in Turkey hoped to remain anonymous to avoid arousing the attention of pro-boycott groups.

The paper said that, while trade difficulties with Turkey during the Gaza assault received more media attention, Britain was in reality of greater concern.

Gil Erez, Israel's commercial attache in London, told the paper: "Organisations are bombarding [British] retailers with letters, asking that they remove Israeli merchandise from the shelves. "
Finance journalists have reported that Israeli hi-tech, food and agribusiness companies suffered consequences following Israel's three-week assault on Gaza, and called for government intervention to protect businesses from a growing boycott.

However, analysts stressed that the impact of a boycott on local exporters was difficult to discern amidst a global economic crisis. "If there was something serious, I would have heard about it, " said Avi Tempkin, from Globes, the Israeli business daily.

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Consumer boycotts in Europe have targeted food produce such as Israeli oranges, avocados and herbs, while in Turkey the focus has been on agribusiness products such as pesticides and fertilisers. The bulk of Israeli export is in components, especially hi-tech products such as Intel chips and flashcards for mobile phones. It is thought that the consumer goods targeted by boycott campaigns represent around 3-5% of the Israeli export economy.

Scottish TUC Delegation Calls for Boycott, Disinvestment & Sanctions

The Scottish Trade Union Congress's (STUC) delegation to Palestine finally issued its report:

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They met with many Israeli officials and TU officers, as well as with PGFTU, Birzeit University staff, the BDS National Committee, PA officials, a women's union, among others. The PGFTU's message throughout the report is not helpful, to say the least, as far as BDS is concerned; but at least they did not speak against BDS and even acknowledged that BDS is very popular among Palestinians.

Despite all the typical Israeli misinformation and propaganda that were fed to the delegation, they did not wash. The delegation saw the truth at checkpoints, during visits to the Wall, from stories or ordinary Palestinian children, men and women who suffer under occupation, and they heard a loud voice from Palestinian society calling for BDS. As a result, the report is recommending that STUC in its upcoming Congress approve BDS against Israel!! (See excerpts below)

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The Israel Lobby will now go into full gear to prevent this from happening, at all costs. Like us, they know fully the significance of such a motion passing.

If STUC passes a pro BDS motion, they will become the first TU federation in Europe to do so and the second in the world, after COSATU. Truly historic prospects.

Omar

Here are the main recommendations in the report:

In the light of what we witnessed and heard in our meetings in Israel and the Occupied Territories, it is the delegation's view that the General Council should recommend to the Annual Congress the need to take a position of supporting boycott and disinvestments, and calling for sanctions against Israel because of the Israeli state’s violation of human rights.

The delegation also wishes to encourage positive investments in the occupied territories, and greater dialogue to build solidarity and understanding of the situation facing Palestinians. The delegation recognises that it is vital to take forward more work on this campaign, to raise greater awareness of all of these issues, to make any BDS campaign meaningful for trade union members in Scotland, and appropriate for their own workplace situations.

STUC General Council Delegation to Palestine and Israel
April 2009.

Israeli exports hit by European boycotts after attacks on Gaza

A fifth of Israeli exporters report drop in demand as footage of Gaza attacks changes behaviour of consumers and investors

Rachel Shabi, in Tel Aviv, Friday 3 April 2009 16.16

Israeli companies are feeling the impact of boycott moves in Europe,according to surveys, amid growing concern within the Israeli businesssector over organised campaigns following the recent attack on Gaza.

Last week, the Israel Manufacturers Association reported that 21% of 90 local exporters who were questioned had felt a drop in demand due to boycotts, mostly from the UK and Scandinavian countries.

Last month, areport from the Israel Export Institute reported that 10% of 400 polledexporters received order cancellation notices this year, because of Israel's assault on Gaza.

"There is no doubt that a red light has been switched on," Dan Katrivas, head of the foreign trade department at the Israel Manufacturers Association, told Maariv newspaper this week.

"We are closely following what's happening with exporters who are running into problems with boycotts." He added that in Britain there exists "a special problem regarding the export of agricultural produce from Israel".

The problem, said Katrivas, is in part the discussion in the UK over how to label goods that come from Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.Last week British government officials met with food industry representatives to discuss the issue.

In recent months, the Israeli financial press has reported the impact of mounting calls to boycott goods from the Jewish state. Writing in the daily finance paper, the Marker, economics journalist Nehemia Stressler berated then trade and industry minister Eli Yishai for telling the Israeli army to "destroy one hundred homes" in Gaza for every rocket fired into Israel.

The minister, wrote Stressler, did not understand "how much the operation in Gaza is hurting the economy".

Stressler added: "The horrific images on TV and the statements of politicians in Europe and Turkey are changing the behaviour of consumers, businessmen and potential investors. Many European consumers boycott Israeli products in practice.

"He quoted a pepper grower who spoke of "a concealed boycott of Israeliproducts in Europe".

In February, another article in the Marker, titled "Now heads are lowered as we wait for the storm to blow over", reported that Israelis with major business interests in Turkey hoped to remain anonymous to avoid arousing the attention of pro-boycott groups.

The paper said that, while trade difficulties with Turkey during the Gazaassault received more media attention, Britain was in reality of greater concern.

Gil Erez, Israel's commercial attache in London, told the paper: "Organisations are bombarding [British] retailers with letters, asking that they remove Israeli merchandise from the shelves."

Finance journalists have reported that Israeli hi-tech, food and agribusiness companies suffered adverse consequences following Israel's three-week assault on Gaza, and called for government intervention toprotect businesses from a growing boycott.

However, analysts stressed that the impact of a boycott on local exporters was difficult to discern amidst a global economic crisis and that such effects could be exaggerated.

"If there was something serious, I would have heard about it," said Avi Tempkin, from Globes, the Israeli business daily.

Israeli companies are thought to be wary of giving credence to boycott efforts by talking openly about their effect, preferring to resolve problems through diplomatic channels.

Consumer boycotts in Europe have targeted food produce such as Israeli oranges, avocados and herbs, while in Turkey the focus has been on agribusiness products such as pesticides and fertilisers.

The bulk of Israeli export is in components, especially hi-tech products such as Intel chips and flashcards for mobile phones. It is thought that the consumer goods targeted by boycott campaigns represent around 3% to 5% of the Israeli export economy.

Israel on Trial

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Well for once the Israeli Army held an 'Inquiry' without being asked. Of course it was forced to do so by the spate of revelations by its soldiers of the atrocities that it had committed, such as directing a woman down the wrong road and then executing her and her child by sniper fire as she walked.

But of course this was an 'inquiry' with but one purpose - to try and restore Israel's battered image. As the Independent reported on 31st March:

'The Israeli military closed an investigation into two cases of alleged killings of Gaza civilians yesterday, saying there was insufficient evidence and the accounts were based on hearsay.'

As the photographs above demonstrate, the Israeli State launched the attack on Gaza with all the fury of a vicious animal that has lost all restraint upon its behaviour. The use of chemical weapons, which is what phosphorous bombs are, on schools and hospitals, shows the depths to which Zionism has sunk.

The idea that the very war criminals who perpetrated the savagery in Gaza are capable of inquiring into their own crimes is an irony too far. No doubt Goring should have been left to conduct the Nuremburg Trials too!

It's not often that we reprint an article, albeit an Op Ed piece, from the New York Times. The fact that this piece appeared demonstrates the extent of the political defeat that Israel has experienced as a result of its attack on Gaza. Out of even the greatest evil some good arises.

Tony Greenstein

Israel on Trial
By GEORGE BISHARAT
San Francisco, April 4, 2009

CHILLING testimony by Israeli soldiers substantiates charges that Israel’s Gaza Strip assault entailed grave violations of international law. The emergence of a predominantly right-wing, nationalist government in Israel suggests that there may be more violations to come. Hamas’s indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israeli civilians also constituted war crimes, but do not excuse Israel’s transgressions. While Israel disputes some of the soldiers’ accounts, the evidence suggests that Israel committed the following six offenses:

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• Violating its duty to protect the civilian population of the Gaza Strip. Despite Israel’s 2005 "disengagement" from Gaza, the territory remains occupied. Israel unleashed military firepower against a people it is legally bound to protect.

• Imposing collective punishment in the form of a blockade, in violation of Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. In June 2007, after Hamas took power in the Gaza Strip, Israel imposed suffocating restrictions on trade and movement. The blockade — an act of war in customary international law — has helped plunge families into poverty, children into malnutrition, and patients denied access to medical treatment into their graves. People in Gaza thus faced Israel’s winter onslaught in particularly weakened conditions.

• Deliberately attacking civilian targets. The laws of war permit attacking a civilian object only when it is making an effective contribution to military action and a definite military advantage is gained by its destruction. Yet an Israeli general, Dan Harel, said, "We are hitting not only terrorists and launchers, but also the whole Hamas government and all its wings." An Israeli military spokeswoman, Maj. Avital Leibovich, avowed that "anything affiliated with Hamas is a legitimate target."

Israeli fire destroyed or damaged mosques, hospitals, factories, schools, a key sewage plant, institutions like the parliament, the main ministries, the central prison and police stations, and thousands of houses.

• Willfully killing civilians without military justification. When civilian institutions are struck, civilians — persons who are not members of the armed forces of a warring party, and are not taking direct part in hostilities — are killed.

International law authorizes killings of civilians if the objective of the attack is military, and the means are proportional to the advantage gained. Yet proportionality is irrelevant if the targets of attack were not military to begin with. Gaza government employees — traffic policemen, court clerks, secretaries and others — are not combatants merely because Israel considers Hamas, the governing party, a terrorist organization. Many countries do not regard violence against foreign military occupation as terrorism.

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Of 1,434 Palestinians killed in the Gaza invasion, 960 were civilians, including 121 women and 288 children, according to a United Nations special rapporteur, Richard Falk. Israeli military lawyers instructed army commanders that Palestinians who remained in a targeted building after having been warned to leave were "voluntary human shields," and thus combatants. Israeli gunners "knocked on roofs" — that is, fired first at corners of buildings, before hitting more vulnerable points — to "warn" Palestinian residents to flee.
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With nearly all exits from the densely populated Gaza Strip blocked by Israel, and chaos reigning within it, this was a particularly cruel flaunting of international law. Willful killings of civilians that are not required by military necessity are grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, and are considered war crimes under the Nuremberg principles.

• Deliberately employing disproportionate force. Last year, Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, head of Israel’s northern command, speaking on possible future conflicts with neighbors, stated, "We will wield disproportionate power against every village from which shots are fired on Israel, and cause immense damage and destruction." Such a frank admission of illegal intent can constitute evidence in a criminal prosecution.

• Illegal use of weapons, including white phosphorus. Israel was finally forced to admit, after initial denials, that it employed white phosphorous in the Gaza Strip, though Israel defended its use as legal. White phosphorous may be legally used as an obscurant, not as a weapon, as it burns deeply and is extremely difficult to extinguish.

Israeli political and military personnel who planned, ordered or executed these possible offenses should face criminal prosecution. The appointment of Richard Goldstone, the former war crimes prosecutor from South Africa, to head a fact-finding team into possible war crimes by both parties to the Gaza conflict is an important step in the right direction. The stature of international law is diminished when a nation violates it with impunity.

George Bisharat is a professor at the University of California Hastings College of the Law.

Kosher Pigs and Israel Railway's Sacking of Arab Workers

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Below is an update from Haaretz to the article on how Jewish Labour is alive and kicking in Israel Railways. It should be stressed that Histadrut, the settler Jewish 'union' has so far remained entirely silent because it knows full well that everything Israel Railways has done, it too has done when it was a major employer. In practice Histadrut, being the representative of Jewish workers and committed to the Zionist ideal supports the actions of Israel Railways.

It should also be remembered that Histadrut and its Secretary-General Ofer Eini, was prime among those urging the Israeli Labour Party to JOIN the coalition of Netanyahu and Lieberman.

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As the Independent 25.3.09. reported:

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'The deal reached between Mr Barak and Mr Netanyahu.... was strongly promoted by a key Labour Party figure, Ofer Eini, the chairman of the Histradrut, Israel's TUC, who declared after yesterday's meeting in Tel Aviv: "I'm happy that party delegates have decided to enter the government."

To expect this pathetic settler representative of a settler working class to object to settler racism is akin to expecting kosher pigs to fly.

Tony Greenstein

They did not wait for Lieberman
By Avirama Golan

The dismissal letters sent to 40 Arab employees of Israel Railways did not come as much of a surprise. For weeks now, the company had been seeking the legal phrasing that would allow the layoffs to proceed. First, it announced fresh demand for several roles, mostly having to do with security, such as watchmen for the train tracks. All candidates would have to have served in the Israel Defense Forces.

When it turned out this contravened the principle of equality in employment, the company tried to argue that the jobs in question had a specific security aspect. But a letter sent by Palestinian rights organization Adalah to the company's management and the Transportation Ministry reveals that this argument is just as flawed, contravening the Basic Law on Freedom of Occupation.

Now the company says it only wanted to encourage the employment of recently demobilized soldiers, and that it will do its best to relocate the laid-off Arab workers to other, non-security positions. The workers, who know plenty of Jewish and other colleagues who didn't serve in the army but got to keep their jobs, can find some solidarity in the experiences of their relatives and neighbors, who will have gone through similar experiences at other companies and even at some ministries.

A dreamed-up security demand is one of the oldest tricks to reject Arab candidates in job interviews. It happens to ordinary workers as well as to outstanding researchers and scientists who cannot find work in their field and are forced to retrain as nurses and physicians.

Since the electoral success of Avigdor Lieberman's campaign slogan "No loyalty, no citizenship," many people say the country has been hit by a dangerous wave of racism. But excluding Arab workers from Israeli society in general and the job market in particular did not begin last week, and Israel Railways, along with the interior and finance ministries, did not wait for Lieberman for them to be discriminatory.

In the past few years, organizations like Adalah, Kav Mashve, Mossawa and Sikkuy have confronted the system; they dedicate considerable resources to integrating Arabs into the job market and bringing about gradual change. In 2008, 8 percent of the employees at ministries and state-owned companies were Arabs, compared with 0.1 percent a decade earlier. True, many of the workers are in the middle and lower ranks, and the number of Arab directors in state-owned companies is close to zero, but the trend is positive.

This trend was contravened this week. The railway layoffs may not have been inspired by Lieberman, but the spirit he contributes makes them look particularly ominous. New entries into the job market will be more wary, and suspicion and insult will trump both hope and trust.

The integration of Arabs into Israeli society is no meager task; Arab haters denounce them as "separatists" while worrying they might integrate. These critics reach for separatism as an excuse for excluding them. Every withdrawal from the achievements of recent years will sow the seeds of radicalization and despair.

Jewish Labour Lives On - On Israel's Railways

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Jewish Labour was the cornerstone of the campaign to found the Israeli state. Jewish Labour meant exclusion of Arab Labour. It was no different from the Colour Bar in most British colonies - with one crucial difference. The Colour Bar normally reserved the higher skilled, well paid jobs to the colonial working class. In the pre-state Yishuv, Jewish Labour meant that no Arabs should work in the Jewish sector, i.e. be employed by Jews. It was an apartheid situation that was more apartheid than South Africa, where Blacks did the labouring, unskilled jobs. In Israel no Arabs should work and no Arabs should live. Transfer is the goal of Zionism and its more honest adherents.

Today in Israel this 'problem' has been solved by the simple expedient of importing cheap labour from Asia - Philipenes, Korea etc. Without any rights or trade union representation, they can be deported in an instant. In this sense, Israel is following the practice of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf sheikhdoms.

But those who pretend that Zionism is part of the past - and they vary from 'peaceniks' who pretend that Zionism has disappeared and all we need are pragmatic solutions 'idiot Zionists' - to another idiot - the anti-Semite Gilad Atzmon

'The word Zionism is almost meaningless in Israel and within the Israeli discourse it is actually non-existent."

fail to explain why it is that the policies of pre-state Zionism - redemption of land, Jewish labour etc. - still continues. Why the settlement mission of the 1920's is present today on the West Bank and in the Negev.

The following story describes one of the favourite methods of discriminating against Arabs. There is no need to have posters 'Arabs not wanted' or 'Arabs need not applys' when there are more subtle ways of achieving the same objectives.

One of the favourite methods has been to link entitlement to having served in the Army. It's what in Europe is called 'indirect discrimination.' And Israeli is the land of indirect discrimination, except that to its victims, there is little difference.

Indirect discrimination is an ostensibly neutral provision, practice or policy the effect of which is to discriminate against a particular group. Barring those without children from entering a club is another way of saying gays are not welcome. Of course some gays would qualify and many hets would be barred, but the overall effect would be clear. Likewise demanding that everyone do night-work, whilst in theory neutral, bars women in practice from certain jobs.

In Israel, except for the Druze, Arabs don't serve in the army and are not allowed to serve in the army. Hence making places at university or jobs on the railways dependent on army service is a way of saying 'Arabs not wanted'. This was first tried out in an obscure piece of legislation called the 'Discharged Soldiers Amendment Act' of 1969. This Act entitled relatives of soldiers to greater child allowances. The purpose was clear. To encourage Jewish births and to disencourage non-Jewish births.

It had one problem though. The sector of the Jewish population with the greatest birth-rate is the Orthodox Jewish population, whose children also don't, by and large, serve in the Israeli army. What to do? Grant equal child benefits to all mothers, regardless of the status of the fathher or other relatives was a non-starter. After all if babies in Israel started off their lives as equals who knows where it might lead. The answer was found to this conundrum. Give an extra grant to the Ministry of Religion (Jewish of course) and they could hand it out to the Orthodox Jewish community. As you can imagine this caused immense relief to Israel's demographers, like the satanic Professor Arnon Sofer of Haifa University.

But in more mundane areas such as Israel's railways, Arabs are now being fired to make way for Jewish workers. Because this has always been the way - when unemployment rises in Israel it is Arabs who are sacked.

And Histadrut, Israel's racist 'trade union' doesn't lift a solitary figure to defend Arab workers because it pioneered 'Jewish Labour'.

The story below, from Israel's right-wing daily Yediot Aharanot, is about the mass sacking of Arab workers from Israel's railways. Ironic because the first mixed Jewish-Arab union, which Histadrut consciously sought to ethnicise, was the Union of Railway, Postal and Telegraph Workers which was a bastion of the political left with a mixed Arab and Jewish membership.

Israel Railways fires Arab workers
Some 100 employees who did not serve in IDF receive letters stating they will be dismissed on April 1. MK Tibi: Company's name should be changed to 'Yisrael Beiteinu Railways'

Sharon Roffe-Ofir
Published: 03.30.09, 08:33 /

Some 100 Hashmira company workers, who are currently employed in an Israel Railways project, received letters Sunday informing them that their contracts would be terminated due to the fact that they did not serve in the Israel Defense Forces.`We`re okay for checking vehicles in shopping malls,` one of them protested.

`Pursuant to our oral agreement,` the letter said, `your work at the train junction project will end on April 1. You are asked to visit our office for a new work placement.` The project, which began about three years ago following several grave railway accidents, employs 260 workers, about 60% of whom are Arab.

Up to now military service was not a precondition for getting the job, but Israel Railways recently decided to promote IDF veterans – a move which hurt Arabs working as observers or patrolmen.

Although they anticipated this move, the workers were enraged by it. `This is a 100% discriminatory decision,` one of them said. `I know that 40 workers have received letters of dismissals so far, and the rest will get the letters tomorrow at the latest.`

An Israel Railways official said that according to information received from Hashmira company, a total of 100 workers were discharged.

Knesset Member Ahmad Tibi (United Arab List-Ta`al), who was approached by the workers, raised the matter for discussion at the Knesset last week. Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, who was present at the plenum, promised to look into the issue, but in the meantime, the dismissal letters have already been sent.

`This is a racist and discriminatory decision,` said Tibi, who promised to take part in the workers` struggle. `The company`s name should be changed from Israel Railways to `Yisrael Beiteinu Railways,` he added sarcastically.

Israel Railways confirmed the details, saying in a statement that `this year`s tender has a new criterion stating that candidates must have completed military service.`

Nonetheless, we will continue reserving about 30 positions for members of minority groups who have not served in the army, in train junctions where knowledge of the Arab language is needed.` Hashmira company said in response, `Israel Railway`s threshold conditions as part of the new tender state that people employed for supervision services must have, at the least, completed military service in the IDF.`

In accordance with this rule, the company is working to locate candidates who meet these threshold conditions, and will do everything possible in order to continue employing workers who do not meet these demands in other places.`

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Arabs slam 'racist' Israel Railways policy

Israel Railways introduces new policy allowing only ex-soldiers to serve as safety inspectors
Sharon Roffe-Ofir Published: 03.18.09, 19:07 /

Israel Railways has announced that it will require all safety inspectors patrolling its tracks to present a IDF discharge certificate as a condition for employment.

The new policy has provoked deep resentment among Arab employees, who will apparently no longer be able to serve as safety inspectors. The company providing Israel Railways with its safety manpower said the new policy means 60% of current inspectors to lose their jobs.
Assad Salame,from the Arab town of Qalansuwa said 260 employees were currently working for Israel Railways on behalf of the manpower company, including 20 from his town.

"There are 80 observation posts and eight patrol points, and each of these is manned by three guards," said Salame.

At first, he said, the manpower company announced that inspectors' wages would be increased by 15%, but later they had discovered that the raise would only be given to employees who met the new requirements. The others, he said, were to be let go.

Salame said the manpower agency had told the outraged employees that the demand for prior army service had been introduced by the railway company, and that the agency had complied in order to maintain its contract.

"We feel betrayed and discriminated against," he said. "Now that they want to improve the salaries, they remembered that we didn't serve in the army. It's a racist, discriminatory, and outrageous decision. We feel like third-rate citizens."

Kadi Abed al-Karim, another resident of Qalansuwa who is employed as an inspector by the train company, was also incensed at the announcement. "This reeks of racism," he said. "The train company knows very well that most Arabs will not be able to continue to work."

The employees appealed to MK Ahmad Tibi (United Arab List-Ta'al,) who came to their aid. He sent a letter to Israel Railways CEO Yitzhak Harel, Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, and Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, charging that the aim of the new policy is "to cleanse the train from its Arab employees."

"Needless to say, this conduct is illegal, discriminatory, and racist," Tibi wrote. "It is an especially grave matter as this is a public company whose operations are meant to benefit all citizens."

The manpower agency said that it would make every effort to employ the guards elsewhere.
Israel Railways said that the new policy was aimed at helping former soldiers to secure employment. In a statement, the train company said would also set aside guarding positions for Israeli Arabs who had not necessarily performed army service.

Israel’s Fascist Foreign Minister

The Israeli State has chalked up a unique and golden milestone. It has appointed a kosher fascist, paid-up racist as well as small-time thug to be its next Foreign Minister.

Of course this is not the views of everyone. Russian-Israeli-Swedish anti-Semite, Israel Shamir, whom Gilad Atzmon once described to me [e-mail 12.6.05] as ‘an extremely charming man and rather entertaining… a unique and advanced thinker.’ [this correspondence has been omitted in Atzmon’s edited version of a correspondence we had, and also in what Atzmon calls the ‘unabridged version’.

Shamir criticises Saree Makdisi's The Rise of Israel's Avigdor Lieberman for his claim in 2006 that "Avigdor Lieberman, leader of YB, is the real winner of the Israeli elections and a potential kingmaker". Shamir argued that ‘the reality is very different: Lieberman’s party has a great difficulty to enter any coalition, neither it is sought by Olmert or Peretz, the leaders of the biggest Israeli parties. Far from being "a potential kingmaker", Lieberman is an outsider…’

In fact Lieberman joined Olmert’s coalition in October 2006 as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategic Threats. Apparently Makdisi’s claim that YB is a "racist party" was nothing less than ‘weird’ because ‘YB is the least Jewish nationalist party in the Knesset outside the Arab block, as it is the party of the Russian, heavily non-Jewish community in Israel.’ Apparently Russian Christians claiming to be Jews are somehow not racist whereas the opposite is the case. Their being white Europeans is why they were in effect fasttracked into being Israeli Jews. Liberman’s meteoric rise, and the willingness of the shameless Israeli Labour Party to sit in a coalition with him, which Histadrut’s Chairman, Ofer Eini , urged [surely the death of any idea that ‘Labour’ = ‘socialist’ or even progressive?] is another watershed for Zionism.

In fact, contrary to Shamir's crazy views (a case of one racist defending another) Lieberman was a member of the youth wing of Meir Kahane's Kach Party, an openly Jewish Nazi party that called for the criminalisation of sexual relations between Jews and non-Jews. Such is the background to Israel's Foreign Minister.

Tony Greenstein

Avigdor Lieberman: Israel`s shame

Neve Gordon 26 March 2009

Thanks to Binyamin Netanyahu`s overweening ambition, Israel is to be saddled with a foreign minister who is a national disgrace.Imagine a country that appoints someone who has been found guilty of striking a 12-year-old boy to be its foreign minister. The person in question is also under investigation for money-laundering, fraud and breach of trust; in addition, he was a bona fide member of an outlawed racist party and currently leads a political party that espouses fascist ideas. On top of all this, he does not even reside in the country he has been chosen to represent.

Even though such a portrayal may appear completely outlandish, Israel`s new foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, actually fits the above depiction to the letter.• In 2001, following his own confession, Lieberman was found guilty of beating a 12-year-old boy. As part of a plea bargain, Lieberman was fined 17,500 shekels and had to promise never to hit young children again.• In 2004, Lieberman`s 21-year-old daughter Michal set up a consulting firm, which received 11m shekels from anonymous overseas sources. Lieberman, according to the police, received more than a 2.1m-shekel salary from the company for two years of employment. In addition, according to an investigation by Haaretz, he allegedly received additional severance pay – amounting to hundreds of thousands of shekels – in 2006 and 2007, while he was minister of strategic affairs and deputy prime minister. According to Israeli law, this is illegal.•

Lieberman is an ex-member of Meir Kahane`s party, Kach, which was outlawed due to its blatantly racist platform. Moreover, his views towards Arabs do not appear to have changed over the years. In 2003, when reacting to a commitment made by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to give amnesty to approximately 350 Palestinian prisoners, Lieberman declared that, as minister of transport, he would be more than happy to provide buses to take the prisoners to the sea and drown them there.•

In January 2009, during Israel`s war on Gaza, Lieberman argued that Israel `must continue to fight Hamas just like the United States did with the Japanese in the second world war. Then, too, the occupation of the country was unnecessary.` He was referring to the two atomic bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.•

Lieberman does not live in Israel according to its internationally recognised borders, but rather in an illegal settlement called Nokdim. Legally speaking, this would be like US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton residing in Mexico and UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband living on the Canary Islands.And yet, despite these egregious transgressions, newly-elected Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has no qualms about appointing Lieberman to represent Israel in the international arena. Netanyahu`s lust for power has led him to choose a man who actually poses a serious threat to Israel. Both Lieberman`s message and style are not only violent, but have clear proto-fascist elements; and, as Israeli commentators have already intimated, he is extremely dangerous.

Politics being politics, most western leaders will no doubt adopt a conciliatory position towards Lieberman, and agree to meet and discuss issues relating to foreign policy with him. Such a position can certainly be justified on the basis of Lieberman`s democratic election; however much one may dislike his views, he is now the representative of the Israeli people. Those who decide to meet him can also claim that ongoing diplomacy and dialogue lead to the internalisation of international norms and thus moderate extremism.These justifications carry weight.

However, western leaders will also have to take into account that the decision to meet Lieberman will immediately be associated with the ban on Hamas, at least among people in the Middle East. In January 2006, Hamas won a landslide victory in elections that were no less democratic than the recent elections in Israel. While Hamas is, in many respects, an extremist political party that espouses violence, its politicians are representatives of the Palestinian people and are seen as struggling for liberation and self-determination.If western leaders want to be conceived as credible, they must change their policy and meet with Hamas as well. Otherwise, their decision to meet Lieberman will be rightly perceived as hypocritical and duplicitous, and the pervasive perception in the region – that the United States and Europe are biased in Israel`s favour – will only be strengthened.

Neve Gordon is chair of the department of politics and government at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and author of Israel’s Occupation (University of California Press, 2008).

The Destruction of Al Quds Hospital - Zionist Barbarism

Below are a few photographs of Israel's civilising mission, as is appropriate for 'the most moral army in the world.'

As people will be aware, Zionist propagandists are having to do their best to explain away the stories of their own soldiers that they shot civilians in cold blood. Every excuse is being trotted out including the fact that it's all a bit of bravado. Unfortunately they have over 1,400 bodies (including that of 400+ 'terrorist' children) to explain away.

Tony Greenstein