Boycott Barclays Bank - Barclays Finances Israeli Apartheid

From the Slave Trade to Apartheid South Africa to Zionism in Israel - Barclays is there to make a fast buck

On Saturday Brighton PSC and the Jordan Valley Solidarity Campaign held its 2nd picket of Barclays Bank urging people to tear up their credit cards and withdraw their accounts. Two weeks ago we held our first picket, which forced the bank to close its doors to all but holders of Barclaycard.

A group of people also went inside and held a demonstration (see below).

The reaction we got was fantastic. There wasn't a single angry or hostile response and people queued to sign our petition calling for Barclays to get out of Israel. Clearly the latest mass murders in Gaza were having their effect.

Barclays played a particularly prominent role in supporting Apartheid in South Africa so it is no surprise that Barclays is the biggest investor in Israel. Barclays just loves Apartheid and the accompanying racism and corruption.

But just as 25 years ago the campaign against Barclays was significant in the campaign to overthrow Apartheid South Africa, so the campaign against Barclays is set to do the same to Apartheid Israel.

Barclays has a long and undistinguished record of involvement in the slave trade. Allegations are that not only were the profits of the slave trade used to help found the bank but that the bank itself was involved in financing the slave trade. The standard retort, that Barclay’s founders were Quakers and therefore abolitionists forgets to mention that in the USA, Quakers were both pro and anti the slave trade and certainly Quaker capitalists engaged in the trade.

This is why the motion from the largest student union in Europe, the University of London Union, 10 months ago to boycott Barclays is so important. Just as the Anti-Apartheid solidarity struggle began in the student movement, so this time around also the boycott movement is finding fertile ground in the student movement.

The days of Zionist influence and control in NUS are receding. When they still retained their influence, the Union of Jewish [i.e. Zionist] Students were able to ban even a Jewish anti-Zionist magazine Return. The days of Lorna Fitzimmons, Stephen Twigg and all the other aspiring New Labour supporters of Zionism are mover with the effective sacking of Adrian Porter.

Barclays is the largest global investor in the arms trade and is the market maker for arms company ITT Exelis.

Barclays is also the only high street bank with significant direct investments in Israeli companies.

The Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) calls for companies to divest from Israeli companies. The call also demands an end to investment in companies profiting from Israel's occupation. The arms companies, such as BAE Systems, invested in by Barclays fall into this category.

Barclays also hold shares in Unilever, the owner of Beigel, which runs a manufacturing plant in the Barkan settlement industrial zone in the occupied West Bank.

The bank is also attempting to move in to the Israeli High Street. Barclays has an Israeli HQ and, in 2011, applied to operate branches in Israel. If it is successful Barclays will, like all banks operating in Israel, provide loans to settlers and settler industries.

The text of the successful ULU motion which we recommend other unions to adopt is as follows:

Union notes:

1) to boycott is to target products, companies and institutions that profit from or are implicated in, the violation of Palestinian rights

2) to divest is to target corporations complicit in the violation of Palestinian human rights, as enshrined in the Geneva Convention, and ensure that investments or pension funds are not used to finance such companies

3) to call for sanctions is to ask the global community to recognise Israel’s violations of international law and to act accordingly as they do to other member states of the United Nations

4) that in 2009 the The Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa released a report stating that Israel was practising a form of apartheid in the occupied West Bank, (http://www.hsrc.ac.za/Media_Release-378.phtml)

5) that Israel continues to build a 8 metre high “annexation” wall on Palestinian land inside the post-1967 occupied West Bank, contravening the July 2004 ruling by the International Court of Justice (the highest legal body in the world, whose statutes all UN members are party to) and causing the forcible separation of Palestinian communities from one another and the annexation of additional Palestinian land.

6) that within the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, Israel continues a policy of settlement expansion in direct violation of Article 49, paragraph 6 of the 4th Geneva Convention which declares “an occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into territories it occupies.” 6) that the Gaza Strip continues to face a suffocating siege from land, sea and air by Israel, and continues to suffer military incursions into the territory by the Israeli army

7) that Palestinians living in Israel continue to suffer third-class citizenship and are heavily discriminated against from healthcare, education, landownership and in many cases having ‘unrecognised’ villages completely demolished

8 ) that there continues to be millions of Palestinian refugees throughout the world who are racially discriminated against by not being allowed to return to their homes in Israel and the Occupied Territories, which is legally recognised under international law, including United Nations resolution 194.

9) that ULU and the NUS nationally adopted the call for BDS in the 1980s when it was called for by South Africans fighting racism and apartheid

10) that Ronnie Kasrils, the Jewish South African Minister of Intelligence said “The boycotts and sanctions ultimately helped liberate both blacks and whites in South Africa. Palestinians and Israelis will similarly benefit from this non-violent campaign that Palestinians are calling for.”

11) that the call for BDS has come from over 170 Palestinian civil society organisations, including student organisations, as well as organisations within Israel and across the global; and that the campaign is founded on the basis of anti-racism and human rights for all

Union Believes:

1) that unions should work to support the Palestinian people’s human rights and uphold international law

2) that BDS is an effective tactic, which educates society about these issues, economically pressures companies/institutions to change their practices and politically pressures the global community

3) that unions have a moral responsibility to heed the call of oppressed peoples, like we did so proudly during the BDS campaign to end South African apartheid

4) that the BDS movement has united human rights campaigners from different nationalities, races, religions and creeds across the world

Union Resolves

(1) Institute thorough research into ULU contacts with investments and companies,including subcontractors, that may be implicated in violating Palestinian human rights as stated by the BDS movement

(2) Pressure University of London universities and affiliate students’ unions to divest from Israel and from companies directly or indirectly supporting the Israeli occupation and apartheid policies;

(3) Promote students’ union resolutions condemning Israeli violations of international law and human rights and endorsing BDS in any form;

(4) Actively support and work with Palestine solidarity organisations such as the BDS Movement, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, British Committee for Palestinian Universities , Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions

(5) Affiliate ULU to the Palestine BDS National Committee and engage in education campaigns to publicize the injustice of Israel’s discriminatory policies against the Palestinians and its illegal occupation.

Christians For Israel

Although anti-Semites like the Wandering Fool, aka Gilad Atzmon, believe Israel is a Jewish plot, in fact the most supportive and dedicated lobby in support of Israel is the 30m+ Christians United for Israel group of Pastor John Hagee, a supporter of Hitler no less!

Indeed modern political Zionism owes its origins not to Jewish support but Christian Evangelists – Lords Palmerstone & Shaftestbury, Ernest Laharanne, Disraeli, Lloyd George, Balfour. Most of them were anti-Semites, because where best to send Jews but to Palestine. Today John Hagee, who believes Hitler was acting out the divine will, is the spokesman for CUFI.

Tony Greenstein

Millions of Evangelical Christians Want to Start WWIII to Speed the “Second Coming”

Atheist Neocons are Using Religion to Rile Them Up to Justify War Against Iran

By Washington's Blog, February 18, 2012

Millions of Americans believe that Christ will not come again until Israel wipes out its competitors and there is widespread war in the Middle East. Some of these folks want to start a huge fire of war and death and destruction, so that Jesus comes quickly.

According to French President Chirac, Bush told him that the Iraq war was needed to bring on the apocalypse:

In Genesis and Ezekiel Gog and Magog are forces of the Apocalypse who are prophesied to come out of the north and destroy Israel unless stopped. The Book of Revelation took up the Old Testament prophesy:

“And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.”

Bush believed the time had now come for that battle, telling Chirac:

“This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins”…

There can be little doubt now that President Bush’s reason for launching the war in Iraq was, for him, fundamentally religious. He was driven by his belief that the attack on Saddam’s Iraq was the fulfilment of a Biblical prophesy in which he had been chosen to serve as the instrument of the Lord.

And British Prime Minister Tony Blair long-time mentor, advisor and confidante said:

“Tony’s Christian faith is part of him, down to his cotton socks. He believed strongly at the time, that intervention in Kosovo, Sierra Leone – Iraq too – was all part of the Christian battle; good should triumph over evil, making lives better.”

Mr Burton, who was often described as Mr Blair’s mentor, says that his religion gave him a “total belief in what’s right and what’s wrong”, leading him to see the so-called War on Terror as “a moral cause”…

Anti-war campaigners criticised remarks Mr Blair made in 2006, suggesting that the decision to go to war in Iraq would ultimately be judged by God.

Bill Moyers reports that the organization Christians United for Israel – led by highly-influential Pastor John C. Hagee – is a universal call to all Christians to help factions in Israel fund the Jewish settlements, throw out all the Palestinians and lobby for a pre-emptive invasion of Iran. All to bring Russia into a war against us causing World War III followed by Armageddon, the Second Coming and The Rapture. See this and this

This all revolves around what is called Dispensationalism. So popular is Dispensationalism that Tim LaHaye’s Left Behind series has sold 65 million copies.

Dispensationalists include the following mega-pastors and their churches: Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Billy Graham. They are supported by politicians such as: Newt Gingrich, Joseph Lieberman, John McCain, Texas Senator John Cronyn, Former House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and others

Dr. Timothy Webber – an evangelical Christian who has served as a teacher of church history and the history of American religion at Denver Seminary and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Vice-President at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Lombard, IL, and President of Memphis Theological Seminary in Tennessee – notes:

In a recent Time/CNN poll, more than one-third of Americans said that since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, they have been thinking more about how current events might be leading to the end of the world.

While only 36 percent of all Americans believe that the Bible is God’s Word and should be taken literally, 59 percent say they believe that events predicted in the Book of Revelation will come to pass. Almost one out of four Americans believes that 9/11 was predicted in the Bible, and nearly one in five believes that he or she will live long enough to see the end of the world. Even more significant for this study, over one-third of those Americans who support Israel report that they do so because they believe the Bible teaches that the Jews must possess their own country in the Holy Land before Jesus can return.

Millions of Americans believe that the Bible predicts the future and that we are living in the last days. Their beliefs are rooted in dispensationalism, a particular way of understanding the Bible’s prophetic passages, especially those in Daniel and Ezekiel in the Old Testament and the Book of Revelation in the New Testament. They make up about one-third of America’s 40 or 50 million evangelical Christians and believe that the nation of Israel will play a central role in the unfolding of end-times events. In the last part of the 20th century, dispensationalist evangelicals become Israel’s best friends-an alliance that has made a serious geopolitical difference.

***

Starting in the 1970s, dispensationalists broke into the popular culture with runaway best-sellers, and a well-networked political campaign to promote and protect the interests of Israel. Since the mid-1990s, tens of millions of people who have never seen a prophetic chart or listened to a sermon on the second coming have read one or more novels in the Left Behind series, which has become the most effective disseminator of dispensationalist ideas ever.

***

During the early 1980s the Israeli Ministry of Tourism recruited evangelical religious leaders for free “familiarization” tours. In time, hundreds of evangelical pastors got free trips to the Holy Land. The purpose of such promotional tours was to enable people of even limited influence to experience Israel for themselves and be shown how they might bring their own tour group to Israel. The Ministry of Tourism was interested in more than tourist dollars: here was a way of building a solid corps of non-Jewish supporters for Israel in the United States by bringing large numbers of evangelicals to hear and see Israel’s story for themselves. The strategy caught on.

***

Shortly after the Six-Day War, elements within the Israeli government saw the potential power of the evangelical subculture and began to mobilize it as a base of support that could influence American foreign policy. The Israeli government sent Yona Malachy of its Department of Religious Affairs to the United States to study American fundamentalism and its potential as an ally of Israel. Malachy was warmly received by fundamentalists and was able to influence some of them to issue strong pro-Israeli manifestos. By the mid-1980s, there was a discernible shift in the Israeli political strategy. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the Jewish state’s major lobbying group in Washington, D.C., started re-aligning itself with the American political right-wing, including Christian conservatives. Israel’s timing was perfect. It began working seriously with American dispensationalists at the precise moment that American fundamentalists and evangelicals were discovering their political voice.

* **

Probably the largest pro-Israel organization of its kind is the National Unity Coalition for Israel, which was founded by a Jewish woman who learned how to get dispensationalist support. NUCI opposes “the establishment of a Palestinian state within the borders of Israel.”

***

In their commitment to keep Israel strong and moving in directions prophesied by the Bible, dispensationalists are supporting some of the most dangerous elements in Israeli society. They do so because such political and religious elements seem to conform to dispensationalist beliefs about what is coming next for Israel. By lending their support-both financial and spiritual-to such groups, dispensationalists are helping the future they envision come to pass.

***

Dispensationalists believe that the Temple is coming too; and their convictions have led them to support the aims and actions of what most Israelis believe are the most dangerous right-wing elements in their society, people whose views make any compromise necessary for lasting peace impossible. Such sentiments do not matter to the believers in Bible prophecy, for whom the outcome of the quarrelsome issue of the Temple Mount has already been determined by God.

Since the end of the Six-Day War, then, dispensationalists have increasingly moved from observers to participant-observers. They have acted consistently with their convictions about the coming Last Days in ways that make their prophecies appear to be self-fulfilling.

***

As Paul Boyer has pointed out, dispensationalism has effectively conditioned millions of Americans to be somewhat passive about the future and provided them with lenses through which to understand world events. Thanks to the sometimes changing perspectives of their Bible teachers, dispensationalists are certain that trouble in the Middle East is inevitable, that nations will war against nations, and that the time is coming when millions of people will die as a result of nuclear war, the persecution of Antichrist, or as a result of divine judgment. Striving for peace in the Middle East is a hopeless pursuit with no chance of success.

***

For the dispensational community, the future is determined. The Bible’s prophecies are being fulfilled with amazing accuracy and rapidity. They do not believe that the Road Map will-or should-succeed. According to the prophetic texts, partitioning is not in Israel’s future, even if the creation of a Palestinian state is the best chance for peace in the region. Peace is nowhere prophesied for the Middle East, until Jesus comes and brings it himself. The worse thing that the United States, the European Union, Russia, and the United Nations can do is force Israel to give up land for a peace that will never materialize this side of the second coming. Anyone who pushes for peace in such a manner is ignoring or defying God’s plan for the end of the age.

***

It seems clear that dispensationalism is on a roll, that its followers feel they are riding the wave of history into the shore of God’s final plan. Why should they climb back into the stands when being on the field of play is so much more fun and apparently so beneficial to the game’s outcome? As [one dispensationalist group's] advertisement read, “Don’t just read about prophecy when you can be part of it.”

Not a Problem with Judaism … Or Christianity

Most Americans confuse Zionism and Judaism.

But many devout Jews are against Zionism, and Zionists can be Christian.

Those who say that criticizing Zionism is anti-semitic are misleading people for their own ulterior motives which have nothing to do with ensuring the safety of the Jewish people.

Israeli Zionists are no more true to the cultural heritage of the Jewish people than Christian Zionists are.

Atheist War Hawks Manipulate Believers to Beat the Drums of War

Leo Strauss is the father of the Neo-Conservative movement, including many leaders of the current administration.

Indeed, many of the main neocon players – including Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Stephen Cambone, Elliot Abrams, and Adam Shulsky – were students of Strauss at the University of Chicago, where he taught for many years.

The people pushing for war against Iran are the same neocons who pushed for war against Iraq. See this and this. (They planned both wars at least 20 years ago.) For example, Shulsky was the director of the Office of Special Plans – the Pentagon unit responsible for selling false intelligence regarding Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. He is now a member of the equivalent organization targeting Iran: the Iranian Directorate.

Strauss, born in Germany, was an admirer of Nazi philosophers and of Machiavelli. Strauss believed that a stable political order required an external threat and that if an external threat did not exist, one should be manufactured. Specifically, Strauss thought that:

A political order can be stable only if it is united by an external threat . . . . Following Machiavelli, he maintained that if no external threat exists then one has to be manufactured

(the quote is by one of Strauss’ main biographers

Indeed, Stauss used the analogy of Gulliver’s Travels to show what a Neocon-run society would look like:

“When Lilliput [the town] was on fire, Gulliver urinated over the city, including the palace. In so doing, he saved all of Lilliput from catastrophe, but the Lilliputians were outraged and appalled by such a show of disrespect.” (this quote also from the same biographer)

Moreover, Strauss said:

Only a great fool would call the new political science diabolic . . . Nevertheless one may say of it that it fiddles while Rome burns. It is excused by two facts: it does not know that it fiddles, and it does not know that Rome burns.

So Strauss seems to have advocated governments letting terrorizing catastrophes happen on one’s own soil to one’s own people — of “pissing” on one’s own people, to use his Gulliver’s travel analogy. And he advocates that government’s should pretend that they did not know about such acts of mayhem: to intentionally “not know” that Rome is burning. He advocates messing with one’s own people in order to save them from some “catastophe” (perhaps to justify military efforts to monopolize middle eastern oil to keep it away from our real threat — an increasingly-powerful China?).

What does this have to do with religion?

Strauss taught that religion should be used as a way to manipulate people to achieve the aims of the leaders. But that the leaders themselves need not believe in religion.

As Wikipedia notes:

In the late 1990s Irving Kristol and other writers in neoconservative magazines began touting anti-Darwinist views, in support of intelligent design. Since these neoconservatives were largely of secular backgrounds, a few commentators have speculated that this – along with support for religion generally – may have been a case of a “noble lie”, intended to protect public morality, or even tactical politics, to attract religious supporters.

So is it any surprise that the folks who planned war against Iraq and Iran at least 20 years ago are pushing religious disinformation to stir up the evangelical community?

I’ve recently seen a swarm of spam claiming that all Muslims are evil, that they want to take over the world and establish a Muslim caliphate, and that they want to nuke Iran. They misquote Muslims and use false statements to try to stir up religious hatred.

They are simply promoting the Straussian playbook: stir up religious sentiment – even if you are personally an atheist – to create and demonize an “enemy”, so as to promote war …

Postscript 1: While there are certainly some Arab terrorists, Islam cannot be blamed for their barbaric murderous actions, just as Christianity cannot be blamed for the Norwegian Christian terrorist – Anders Behring Breivik’s – actions.

University of Chicago professor Robert A. Pape – who specializes in international security affairs – points out:

Extensive research into the causes of suicide terrorism proves Islam isn’t to blame — the root of the problem is foreign military occupations.

And the 9/11 hijackers used cocaine and drank alcohol, slept with prostitutes and attended strip clubs … but they did not worship at any mosque. See this, this, this, this, this, this, this, and this.

Postscript 2: Neoliberals and Neoconservatives are very similar in many ways. And because Neocons are not conservative, nothing in this post is meant to criticize conservatism.

Postscript 3: Most evangelicals are not dispensionalists, and so do not want to bring on armageddon.

Amnesty calls for urgent action to protest administrative detention of Palestinian academic Ismael Mohamad

Israel currently holds approximately 300 Palestinians without charge or trial — a practice known as administrative detention.

The human rights organization Amnesty International issued an urgent appeal today regarding the renewed administrative detention order against Palestinian writer Ahmad Qatamesh.

Last week I blogged that Israel had issued its third consecutive order to detain Qatamesh without charge or trial — a practice known as administrative detention.

The Palestinian writer and academic has been held without charge since 21 April 2011, when Israeli soldiers raided his family’s West Bank home, holding his family members hostage at gunpoint until Qatamesh, who was not home at the time, surrendered himself. Qatamesh was held by Israel for more than five years without charge or trial during the 1990s, causing him to miss important years of his young daughter’s life.

In its appeal today, Amnesty International says that the renewed detention order against Qatamesh will be reviewed by a military judge in the coming days, meaning that urgent action is crucial.

Amnesty also says that Qatamesh refused to enter the military court during a hearing on 5 March, stating his rejection of the military court process. Qatamesh’s wife and lawyer say that Qatamesh “has been interrogated for no more than a total of ten minutes” by Israeli authorities.
Israel’s strategy to “put pressure” on PFLP

The alert also states that it is Amnesty’s assessment that Qatamesh is a prisoner of conscience being held by Israel because of his political writing and mentorship of left-wing students and activists, some of whom may be associated with the leftist party Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

According to Amnesty, “As such, his detention may be part of the Israeli authorities’ strategy to put pressure on the PFLP organisation.”

The secretary general of the PFLP, Ahmad Saadat, is currently held in solitary confinement by Israel after he was kidnapped by Israeli forces from a Palestinian Authority prison near Jericho in the occupied West Bank in 2006 (Saadat was detained there for four years without being convicted of a crime). Saadat had been elected general secretary of the PFLP after Israel extrajudicially executed his predecessor, Abu Ali Mustafa, in his Ramallah home in 2001.

In an interview with The Electronic Intifada contributor Asa Winstanley last week, Mourad Jadallah of the Prisoner rights group Addameer noted that Israel had undertaken a campaign of mass arrests of PFLP-affiliated activists after Ahmad Saadat and other PFLP activists led a hunger strike in Israeli prisons last year.

Amnesty International’s full action alert follows:

URGENT ACTION - ACADEMIC RECEIVES THIRD DETENTION ORDER

Palestinian academic Ahmad Qatamesh received a new six-month administrative detention order on 1 March. He has been held without charge or trial since 21 April 2011.

Ahmad Qatamesh was given a third administrative detention order on 1 March, the day that his second administrative detention order was due to expire. At the judicial review of the order, which took place on 5 March 2012, the military prosecutor sought the confirmation of the order by the military judge. It is expected that the military judge will confirm the detention order in the coming days.

Ahmad Qatamesh, together with other administrative detainees at Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank, have declared that they do not recognize the legitimacy of the military courts and administrative detention procedures, and have refused to attend judicial hearings. Because the judicial review normally takes place in the presence of the detainee, the prosecution insisted that Ahmad Qatamesh be brought to the court room on 5 March 2012. He again reiterated his rejection of the military court process and immediately returned to his cell.

According to both his wife and his lawyer, Ahmad Qatamesh has been interrogated for no more than a total of 10 minutes by Israel Security Agency (ISA) officers, who alleged that he was a member of the political office of a leftist Palestinian party which has an armed wing: the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). While Ahmad Qatamesh was a political and intellectual supporter of the PFLP in the 1990s, he says he has not been involved with them for 13 years. To Amnesty International’s knowledge, he has never been involved with PFLP-affiliated armed groups or advocated violence. His latest work focuses on political solutions that put an end to the violent conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, which he calls a “nightmare”.

It is Amnesty International’s assessment that the reasons for Ahmad Qatamesh’s arrest and continued administrative detention are his peaceful expression, in his writing and teaching, of non-violent political views and the fact that he is considered a mentor for left-wing students and political activists, some of whom may be affiliated to the PFLP. As such, his detention may be part of the Israeli authorities’ strategy to put pressure on the PFLP organisation. Therefore, Amnesty International considers him to be a prisoner of conscience and is calling for his immediate and unconditional release.

Please write immediately in Hebrew or your own language: - Expressing concern that Ahmad Qatamesh is a prisoner of conscience, detained solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression, and calling for his immediate and unconditional release; - Calling on the authorities to end the use of administrative detention.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 17 APRIL 2012 TO:

Military Judge Advocate General Major General Avihai Mandelblit 6 David Elazar Street Hakirya, Tel Aviv, Israel Fax: +972 3 569 4526 Email: avimn@idf.gov.il Salutation: Dear Judge Advocate General

Commander of the IDF - West Bank

Major-General Avi Mizrahi GOC Central Command Military Post 01149 Battalion 877 Israel Defense Forces, Israel Fax: +972 2 530 5724 Salutation: Dear Major-General Avi Mizrahi

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Ehud Barak Ministry of Defence 37 Kaplan Street, Hakirya Tel Aviv 61909, Israel Fax: + 972 3 69 16940 / +972 3 691 7915 Salutation: Dear Minister

Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country.

Release All Palestinian Female Political Prisoners

Free Hunger Striker - Hana Shalabit

As the ‘only democracy in the Middle East’ Israel demonstrates its democratic credentials through locking up hundreds of prisoners in Administrative Detention i.e. without trial. Not that the trials are anything but a foregone conclusion but at least they have to present some evidence. In the case of those whose only crime is political opposition to the Occupation, there is no alternative but lock them up without trial.

Tony Greenstein

Free Lina Jarbuni, Wurud Qassem, Salwa Hassan, Alaa Jubeh, Hana Shalabi,Yusra Qaadan and Manal Suwan!

Ramallah, 7 March 2012

Join Addameer and call for the immediate release of all female political prisoners and detainees from Israeli prisons on Women’s Day, 8 March 2012. As of March 2012, seven Palestinian women remain in Israel’s prisons and detention centers, including one woman, Hana Shalabi, currently held in administrative detention and on hunger strike for 21 days.

Over 10,000 Palestinian women have been arrested and detained since 1967 under Israeli military orders, which govern nearly every aspect of life in the occupied Palestinian territory. There were 36 Palestinian female prisoners in Israeli prisons prior to the exchange deal concluded by the Israeli government and Hamas in October 2011. Hamas reported that Israel agreed to include all female political prisoners in the exchange deal. However, two women, Lina Jarbuni and Wurud Qassem, who have been in prison since before the first phase of releases on 18 October 2011, and an additional two women, Salwa Hassan and Alaa Jubeh, who were arrested before the second phase of releases on 18 December 2011, are still in Israeli detention.

Addameer aims to raise awareness about each of the seven women currently detained by Israel, two of whom were arrested just this week, in the hopes that continued international pressure will secure their release:

Lina Jarbuni was arrested on 18 April 2002 and sentenced to 17 years in Israeli prison. She is currently held in Hasharon Prison. She is from Arrabet al-Batoof, in the Galilee region. Lina is 36 years old.

Wurud Qassem was 20 years old when she was arrested on 4 October 2006. She was sentenced to 6 years in prison and is currently held in Damon Prison. Wurud is from Al-Tira, in the Triangle region, and is now 25 years old.

Salwa Hassan was arrested on 19 October 2011, and is currently in Hasharon prison awaiting trial. She is 53 years old and lives in Hebron. Salwa is married and has six children.

Alaa Jubeh was only 17 years old when she was arrested from her home in Hebron on 7 December 2011. She is currently detained in Hasharon prison and has not yet been sentenced. Under Israeli military orders, a Palestinian child’s sentence is decided on the basis of the child’s age at the time of sentencing, and not at the time when the alleged offense was committed. Therefore, because Alaa turned 18 on 29 January 2012, she will now be sentenced as an adult.

Hana Shalabi was re-arrested on 16 February 2012, less than four months after being released as part of the prisoner exchange deal on 18 October 2011. Hana had previously spent over two years in administrative detention. She received a six-month administrative detention order on 23 February 2012, which was reduced to four months on 4 March. Hana began an open hunger strike immediately after her arrest, and will enter her 22nd day without food on Women’s Day. She is currently detained in Hasharon Prison. Hana is from Burqin village, near Jenin, and is 30 years old.

Yusra Qaadan was arrested on 4 March 2012, while visiting a family member in prison. She is currently detained for interrogation in Beersheva. Yusra, 30 years old, is from Qalqilya. She is married and has four children.

Manal Suwan was arrested on 6 March 2012 and is currently under interrogation in Hasharon Prison. Manal, married and a mother of two, is 31 years old. She is from a village near Qalqilya.

Addameer reiterates its concern about the general conditions Palestinian female prisoners and detainees face while in Israeli prisons, which has been carefully documented. Addameer condemns the cruel and discriminatory treatment that Palestinian women prisoners and detainees are subjected to in prison, including sexual harassment, psychological and physical punishment and humiliation, and a lack of gender-sensitive healthcare. These practices are in contravention to international law and must stop immediately.

There are crucial steps that can be taken by the Israeli authorities, particularly the Israeli military and the Israeli Prison Service, to fulfill their obligations under international law in respect to the detention conditions of Palestinian women and in protection of their human rights:

§ End the systematic abuse of administrative detention and provide every female detainee and prisoner with access to the legal support she is entitled to under international humanitarian law;

§ Provide female prisoners with detailed information on the length of their detention and the date of their release without undue delay;

§ Ensure that prison and detention cells meet basic requirements of hygiene and health as required by the UN Minimum Standard Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners;

§ Immediately bring to an end practices of sexual violence, including strip searches and invasive body searches and use of threats and/or other forms of sexual assault;

§ Conduct proper independent and serious investigations into complaints of assault, and provide safeguards until proper investigation outcomes are reached;

§ Allow visits of specialized doctors adequately trained to deliver health care in a prison environment, including mental health doctors, and ensure that hospital/doctor visits are allowed when requested;

§ Allow open family visits and communication with family members via phone.

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ACT NOW!

Here is how you can help these seven Palestinian women prisoners:

§ Attend an event supporting Palestinian female prisoners on Women’s Day. Addameer would like to draw attention to various local actions supporting Hana Shalabi and women’s rights, including a demonstration at Qalandia checkpoint at 12:30pm, a march starting at Damascus Gate in Jerusalem at 2:00pm, and a protest in Haifa.

§ Send a letter with the above statement and recommendations to:

Israeli Prison Service

Ministry of Public Security
P.O. Box 18182
Jerusalem 91181

Brigadier General Danny Efroni
Military Advocate General
6 David Elazar Street
Harkiya, Tel Aviv
Fax: +972 3 608 0366; +972 3 569 4526
Email: arbel@mail.idf.il; avimn@idf.gov.il

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Ehud Barak
Ministry of Defense
37 Kaplan Street, Hakirya
Tel Aviv 61909
Fax: +972 3 691 6940 / 696 2757

Maj. Gen. Avi Mizrahi
OC Central Command Nehemia Base, Central Command
Neveh Yaacov, Jerusalam
Fax: +972 2 530 5741

Col. Eli Bar On
Legal Advisor of Judea and Samaria
PO Box 5
Beit El 90631
Fax: +972 2 9977326

§ Write to your own elected representatives urging them to pressure Israel to release all Palestinian women prisoners.



§ Send letters of support to the women in prison. If you wish to write letters to a detainee – please contact Addameer at info@addameer.ps and we will provide you with details.





Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association
P. O. Box: 17338, Jerusalem
Tel:+972 (0)2 296 0446 / 297 0136
Fax: +972 (0)2 296 0447
Email: info@addameer.ps
Website: www.addameer.org
HANA YAHYA SHALABI

Date of birth: 7 February 1982
Place of residence: Burqin, Jenin
Date of arrest: 16 February 2012
Place of detention: HaSharon Prison

Postal address:
Hasharon Prison
Even Yehuda
P.O. Box 7
40330 Israel

Click here to view this profile as a PDF.

Hana Shalabi was released from over two years in administrative detention on 18 October 2011, as part of the prisoner exchange deal concluded by the Israeli government and Hamas, whereby 1,027 Palestinian political prisoners were released in exchange for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Hana was re-arrested less than four months later on 16 February 2012, and immediately began a hunger strike in protest of her detention.

ARREST

Hana Shalabi was arrested from her family home on 16 February 2012, when 50 Israeli soldiers raided her house in Burqin village, near Jenin, in the early morning. The soldiers were accompanied by an intelligence officer and a large number of dogs and first raided her brother’s home before coming to her house. The IOF moved through his house with the pack of dogs, causing the children of the household to panic. When the soldiers entered Hana and her parents’ house, the intelligence officer commented that it would just be a “five minute visit.” The Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) then ordered Hana and some of her family members to leave the house, while holding her father and older brother in a room by themselves.

After the soldiers searched the house, the intelligence officer announced that they had an order to arrest Hana, without showing any arrest warrant or providing any reason for her arrest. Hana was not permitted to change her clothes. The IOF then proceeded to brutally threaten and abuse Hana and her family. First, Hana’s brother heard the intelligence officer say, “Hana must die.” Next, one of the soldiers grabbed her hand and pulled her. Hana objected and told him that if they needed to hold her, they should bring a female soldier to do it. He completely disregarded her and when she tried to remove his hand, he began to beat her upper body and slap her in the face. Hana’s brother, Omar, attempted to jump in front of her to protect her, but the soldiers attacked him and beat him with their guns. A female soldier was then brought to detain her. Hana was blindfolded and put in a military jeep, where she was made to sit on the ground on her knees. Each time she tried to move, the soldiers ordered her to stay still and shut up.

HUNGER STRIKE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETENTION

Hana was taken to Salem Detention Center and left blindfolded for two hours in a tiny room before being transferred to HaSharon Prison. While at Salem Detention Center she was further subjected to beatings and humiliating treatment. Hana began an open hunger strike on the first day of her arrest in protest of the ill-treatment she was subjected to during and following her arrest. She was kept in solitary confinement for the first three days of her detention, in a section of the prison far from where the other Palestinian women are held.

On the fourth day following her arrest, Hana was transferred to a different section of the prison near the other Palestinian detainees, but was again placed in a room alone. The Israeli Prison Service (IPS) administration attempted continuously to convince her to end her hunger strike, employing such methods of pressure as threatening to place her in solitary confinement for an extended period. Two days later, on 21 February, Hana was transferred back to Salem for interrogation.

After being brought back to HaSharon Prison, she was taken to Salem Military Court on 23 February, where one of her lawyers informed her that she might be placed in administrative detention. She was brought back to HaSharon and was not shown a written administrative detention order. Her lawyers received a copy of the order, which states that she will be put in administrative detention for six months, until 16 August.

On the same day, 23 February, Hana was also sentenced to seven days of solitary confinement as punishment for her hunger strike. The IPS continued to threaten her with prolonged isolation or placing other female prisoners in isolation. After only four days, on 27 February, Hana was transferred out of solitary confinement and into the same section as the other Palestinian female prisoners.

As of 27 February when Addameer lawyer Samer Sam’an visited her, Hana is not ingesting any kind of food or minerals, and is only drinking water. After an initial medical examination, she is now refusing further exams.

The hearing to consider the confirmation of her administrative detention order was supposed to occur on 27 February at Ofer Military Court, but was postponed until 29 February. During the hearing, the military gudge announced that he would not be making a decision and would instead be meeting with an Israeli intelligence officer on 4 March. In the meeting, neither Hana nor her lawyers will be permitted to be present. The military judge will make his decision regarding the confirmation of her order following the meeting.

PERSONAL INFORMATION

On 23 February, Hana’s mother, 65 years old, and father, 67 years old, also began an open hunger strike in solidarity with their daughter.

Hana is one of nine children in a family of farmers in Burqin village, next to Jenin. On 29 September 2005, Hana’s brother Samer was killed by Israeli forces during an incursion in the village. He had been released from prison for only three months after spending nine months in prison when a group of soldiers came to their farm to re-arrest him and instead shot and killed him and his close friend.

After being released from prison on 18 October, Hana planned to study nursing at Al-Rawda College in Nablus. As she was re-arrested less than four months later, she did not have time to enroll.

Prior to her first arrest by the Israeli authorities, Hana was arrested and held by the Palestinian intelligence forces for a week in 2009 for the purpose of interrogation. During this period, Hana was permitted to sleep at home and was kept in detention from 9:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m. each day.

PREVIOUS ARREST AND DETENTION

Hana was first arrested by Israeli authorities from her family home on 14 September 2009. At approximately 1:30 a.m. that morning, Israeli soldiers in 12 military jeeps surrounded her house in Burqin village. The soldiers ordered Hana’s entire family outside of the house and demanded Hana give them her identity card. They then proceeded to conduct a thorough search of the family’s home. During the search, one of the soldiers forcibly removed framed pictures of Hana’s brother Samer, who was killed by the Israeli army in 2005, tore them apart and walked over the pieces in front of the entire family. The soldiers then started shouting and cursing at Hana and her family members. When Hana’s father attempted to intervene and protect his daughter from continued verbal abuse, one Israeli soldier pushed him in the chest with the butt of a rifle. Clearly distressed, Hana’s mother fainted at this scene. The soldiers then handcuffed Hana in painfully tight shackles around her wrists and placed her under arrest.

Hana was then transferred by military jeep to Salem Detention Center. During the transfer, Hana’s abaya, a traditional Muslim religious dress covering the entire body worn by women over home clothes, came open, uncovering her clothes and parts of her body. Some of the male soldiers accompanying her in the jeep took pictures of her at this point, consciously exploiting her situation, knowing she would feel offended and humiliated by such photos. Upon arrival to Salem Detention Center, a doctor gave Hana a quick physical examination. Immediately after the examination, Hana was transferred to Kishon Detention Center inside Israel where her interrogation formally began.

Solitary confinement and abuse

Hana was held in solitary confinement at Kishon Detention Center for eight consecutive days, in a cell measuring six square meters that contained no windows or natural sunlight. The cell contained only a mattress and a bathroom, and was reportedly very dirty. Hana was subjected to exhausting interrogation sessions every day, which lasted from 10:00 a.m. until the late evening hours. The lack of natural sunlight during this period caused her to lose all sense of time and she was often unable to determine whether it was night or day. As this period of isolation and disorientation coincided with the holy month of Ramadan, Hana was unable to monitor time in order to respect her fast. As a result, she decided not to eat at all, refusing meals and drinking water only during the entire eight day period.

Hana was also subjected to sexual harassment and physical violence during her interrogation. Hana told Addameer attorney Safa Abdo of an incident that occurred at end of an interrogation session, in which she did not confess to committing a crime, as her interrogators had expected. In a move that Addameer contends was an effort to provoke Hana, one of the Israeli interrogators called Hana “habibti” (Arabic for “darling”) in a provocative manner. Feeling humiliated and angry at the interrogator’s offensive use of an intimate term, Hana started shouting at him. The interrogators responded by slapping her on her face and beating her on her arms and hands. The guards then took her back to her cell where they tied her to the bed frame and continued humiliating her by taking pictures of her laying in that position.

Addameer filed a complaint regarding these violations and only received a reply two years later from the district prosecution in Haifa that they were closing the file for “lack of evidence,” without informing her lawyers what process had taken place to investigate the complaint. Most complaints of this kind are similarly closed due to the unclear claim of “lack of evidence,” showing a consistent policy that they are not taken seriously by the Israeli courts. Addameer is greatly concerned by the deliberate verbal abuse Israeli detaining authorities display towards Palestinian female prisoners by directing sexual threats towards them and using inappropriate, vulgar language.

Administrative detention

After Hana’s interrogation period concluded, she remained in Kishon Detention Center for nine additional days, which Israeli authorities claimed were necessary for the purpose of investigation.

On 29 September 2009, Israeli Military Commander Ilan Malka issued a six-month administrative detention order against Hana on the premise that she posed a threat to the “security of the area”. The order was set to expire on 28 March 2010. At the judicial review of the order, which took place on 5 October 2009 at the Court of Administrative Detainees in Ofer Military Base, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, military judge Ilan Nun confirmed the order for the entire six month period, but agreed to count the two weeks Hana had already been detained towards her detention period. In his decision, Nun alleged that, based on the “secret information” made available to him by the military prosecution, Hana was intending to carry out a “terrorist attack”. The judge further claimed that Hana had already undertaken initial steps in preparation for the attack, though he provided no proof to support this allegation.

Addameer contends that the judge’s decision raised serious questions and fair trial issues. Seventeen days of investigation by the Israeli Security Agency, including eight days of consecutive interrogation did not prove the suspicions against Hana and no evidence of the alleged “intention” was brought before the court. Moreover, at no point did the court establish Hana’s affiliation with a Palestinian political party or armed group, nor did it establish whether Hana planned to carry out the alleged attack by herself or in partnership with anyone else. Additionally, the nature of a possible partnership was never investigated. Importantly, all suspicions directed towards Hana remained vague and general, leaving her without any legitimate means to defend herself. Although administrative detention orders issued by the Israeli military commander are the subject of review and further appeal by a military court, neither lawyers nor detainees are permitted to see the “secret information” used as a basis for the detention orders, rendering any possible legal defense meaningless.

Hana’s attorneys filed an appeal against her administrative detention order, but the appeal was refused and Hana’s order remained set until 13 March 2010. This was subsequently extended for six months. On 12 September 2010, Hana’s administrative detention order was extended for an additional six month period. In March 2011, her order was again renewed, and in July 2011 it was renewed for a fourth time, due to expire on 9 November 2011.

Hana was released from prison on 18 October 2011, as part of the prisoner exchange deal concluded by the Israeli government and Hamas, whereby 1,027 Palestinian political prisoners were released in exchange for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Though her administrative detention order at the time was set to expire less than a month later, it remains unclear whether or not her order would have been renewed an additional time.

Detention conditions

Prior to her transfer to HaSharon Prison, Hana spent a total of 17 days in Kishon Detention Center, where she was not once given a change of clean clothes. Hana continued to be detained in interrogation-like conditions for three days after her administrative detention order was issued. On 1 October 2009, she was eventually transferred to Section 2 of HaSharon Prison, where, allegedly due to overcrowding in the section where Palestinian female prisoners are detained, she was placed in the same section as Israeli females detained for criminal offenses. This placement was a direct violation of Israeli Prison Service Regulations, which stipulate that administrative detainees are to be held separately from all other detainees and prisoners, including those who have been convicted of a crime. Moreover, while detained in the same sections as Israeli criminal offenders, Palestinian female prisoners are almost always discriminated against, enjoy fewer recreation hours and are often subjected to humiliation and abusive language from Israeli prisoners, who threaten them of physical attack. As a result, Palestinian women live in constant fear and often experience insomnia, and other psychological problems for the entire time they are detained in the same sections with Israeli women.

Addameer attorney Safa Abdo filed a complaint with the HaSharon Prison administration regarding Hana’s detention conditions. On 25 October 2009, after being held for 25 days among Israeli criminal offenders, Hana was finally moved to Section 12 of HaSharon Prison with the other Palestinian female prisoners and detainees.

Hana remained held in Section 12 of HaSharon Prison, one of Israel’s largest facilities, together with approximately 18 other Palestinian female prisoners before being released. The building which now constitutes the prison complex served as the headquarters of the British Mounted Police during the British Mandate in Palestine and, as such, was never designed for the incarceration of women. As a result, Hana suffered from the harsh detention conditions and complained of overcrowding, humidity, lack of natural sunlight and adequate ventilation, as well as poor hygiene standards.

***

Administrative detention is a procedure that allows the Israeli military to hold detainees indefinitely on secret evidence without charging them or allowing them to stand trial. In the occupied Palestinian West Bank, the Israeli army is authorized to issue administrative detention orders against Palestinian civilians on the basis of Military Order 1651. This order empowers military commanders to detain an individual for up to six month renewable periods if they have “reasonable grounds to presume that the security of the area or public security require the detention.” On or just before the expiry date, the detention order is frequently renewed. This process can be continued indefinitely.

For more information about administrative detention and Addameer’s Campaign to Stop Administrative Detention please visit our website: www.addameer.org.

Read Addameer’s report on administrative detention:
Administrative Detention in the Occupied Palestinian Territory: A Legal Analysis Report, July 2010 update

Read Addameer’s report on detention conditions for female prisoners: “In Need of Protection”: Palestinian Female Prisoners in Israeli Detention, November 2008

****
ACT NOW!

Here is how you can help Hana Shalabi:

*Write to the Israeli government, military and legal authorities and demand that Hana Shalabi be released immediately.

Brigadier General Danny Efroni
Military Judge Advocate General
6 David Elazar Street
Harkiya, Tel Aviv
Israel
Fax: +972 3 608 0366; +972 3 569 4526
Email: arbel@mail.idf.il; avimn@idf.gov.il
Maj. Gen. Avi Mizrahi
OC Central Command Nehemia Base, Central Command
Neveh Yaacov, Jerusalam
Fax: +972 2 530 5741
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Ehud Barak
Ministry of Defense
37 Kaplan Street, Hakirya
Tel Aviv 61909, Israel
Fax: +972 3 691 6940 / 696 2757
Col. Eli Bar On
Legal Advisor of Judea and Samaria PO Box 5
Beth El 90631
Fax: +972 2 9977326

*Write to your own elected representatives urging them to pressure Israel to release Hana Shalabi and to put an end to such an unjust, arbitrary and cruel system of incarceration without trial.

Surprising Sanity by the Jewish Chronicle’s Real Zionist

Jenny Tonge ‘will very quickly come to see the virtue of being at a distance from a rapidly sinking political party and its dead in the water leader.’

Now is the time when all good men and women are called to come to the rescue of an endangered species, Jonathan Hoffman. Not only was he attacked by UJS’s Danny Sheldon some time ago, for mixing it with the EDL, it seems the knives are out for for him amongst a wider echelon.

In the wake of Jenny Tonge’s sacking by Nick Clegg we have all the usual Zionist vitriol but a surprising article by someone who titles themselves ‘real Zionist’.

He begins by saying that ‘the relationship between Tonge et al and the Richard Millets and Jonathan Hoffmans of this world is one of truly symbiotic, mutual, self promotional back scratching.’ Well I wouldn’t put it like that but it is an interesting description. RZ describes ‘the Ahava fiasco, and captured for posterity by the infamous video of one of Hoffmans more celebrated performances.’

RZ describes as ‘most interesting’ ‘the reactions of passers by. Hoffman is in a state of extreme agitation throughout,frequently shading off into unedifying rants. And always with a deep scowl on his face. YET ALL THE WHILE trying to shove flyers into the hands of passers by. There is no record of anyone accepting one of these flyers. Would you accept something from someone in an extreme state of agitation that was scowling at you ? Personally I like my salespersons to be smiling.’

Even more interesting is his pouring of cold water on the charges themselves. To anyone who has a few brain cells in working order the statement that Israel can’t last in its present form is a statement of the obvious. Only a coward like Clegg, dancing to the Murdoch and tabloid tunes would instantly react without thinking.

But as RZ said, ‘she will very quickly come to see the virtue of being at a distance from a rapidly sinking political party and its dead in the water leader.’ And that is the true moral of the story!!

And there is that lovely video of Hoffman who looks for all the world as if he has just escaped from whatever the PC term is for a mental asylum. Deranged is not the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBH6XONDpes&list=PL184F6C508064E7BD&index...

On Jenny Tonge without the hysteria


By Real Real Zionist, March 2, 2012

Death by camera and recording.

I have long been exasperated by Jenny Tonge.I don't think she is any sense a racist. I think her heart is in the right place, if only it were so in the case of her head. My quarrel with Jenny is that she is a very poor advocate of " the cause ".

She has little sense of the importance of language, style and association.She has very poor impulse control. She also is apt to be distracted by the competing and incompatible cause of self promotion. Do we know anyone else like that ? A related disability is that, given the inevitable iffyness of some of the company she will be keeping when she puts herself on the platform at these kinds of meetings,in order to maintain a prominence among them, she needs to say the most startling things. So Jenny Tonge has said some pretty stupid things, not least the organ harvesting comments ( almost unbelievable that she did that ).

Her style and habits will only cause her to be heard in the ghetto of BDS and the more extremist fringes of PSC. Regular people don't buy from rabids they sense they can't trust or believe. I wouldn't be seen dead at this kind of meeting. I prefer to spend my time where I might learn something.( Like hanging out on this blog site ha ha.)

There is of course a mirror image of Jenny Tonge and some of her associates in the lunatic fringe of the Zionist Federation. More then that, the relationship between Tonge et al and the Richard Millets and Jonathan Hoffmans of this world is one of truly symbiotic, mutual, self promotional back scratching.

The LFZF won't sell anything either. This was graphically illustrated by the Ahava fiasco, and captured for posterity by the infamous video of one of Hoffmans more celebrated performances. Bear in mind the context when you watch the video ( link below ). Regular anti Ahava demonstrations had been established in an attempt to persuade the public not to buy Ahava products. Then counter demonstrations began to deliver a counter message. In other words to try to sell something to an uninformed public.

What is most interesting is the reactions of passers by. Hoffman is in a state of extreme agitation throughout,frequently shading off into unedifying rants. And always with a deep scowl on his face. YET ALL THE WHILE trying to shove flyers into the hands of passers by. There is no record of anyone accepting one of these flyers. Would you accept something from someone in an extreme state of agitation that was scowling at you ? Personally I like my salespersons to be smiling.

It is interesting to see what did for Jenny Tonge so far as her place in the LIB DEM party is concerned. It seems there were two charges, consisting of something she said and something she didn't say.

She said "Israel won't last forever" or "Israel won't last forever in it's present form", depending on which account you read. Now it seems strange that she should be required to apologise for that. That can be a perfectly respectable position depending on how it is arrived at and delivered. What is wrong with, "If Israel doesn't do a deal soon it will bring about the end of Israel, in the sense of a Jewish majority state." What's wrong with that ? It is a view I hold myself. Of course it wouldn't have come out like that. More likely it came out as an emotive " ISRAEL WON'T LAST FOREVER" with an undertone of "ISRAEL WILL BE DESTOYED !!!!!".

More interesting is the second charge. Apparently O'Keefe said something. She was on the same platform. She remained quiet.She said nothing to challenge him. Well if we can be hung for what we don't say there are members of the ZF who should be considering their position regarding their membership thereof.

Jenny Tonge hasn't gone away. Hopefully she will have learned something and be able to adapt and make a more positive and effective contribution ( I am not holding my breath ). What we can say for sure is she will very quickly come to see the virtue of being at a distance from a rapidly sinking political party and its dead in the water leader.

Is there really anyone in the world that cares whether Jenny Tonge is a member of the LIB DEMS or the Ferret Fanciers Liberation Front ?

Jenny Tonge - Victim of Clegg's Cowardice

Jenny Tonge - a True Friend of Palestine

Principle is a word that is rarely heard these days in the Lib Dems. The most that Simon Hughes can manage is an envelope on which he makes political calculations as to what will most benefit a party headed for extinction. But then Hughes was the willing beneficiary of an anti-gay vote against Peter Tatchell in Bermondsey 25 years ago - despite being gay himself.

If you scratch a Liberal, you will usually find a Tory underneath. The story of the Weimar Republic is the story of the decline of the liberal German Democratic Party into the tiny German State Party. The Staatspartie ended up supporting the Nazi party, since the social basis of both fascism and liberalism is quite similar. Halmjar Schact personified this betrayal.

In Britain it was the Liberals who, under Lloyd Georgem insisted on Partition in Ireland and pushed for a Zionist settlement in Palestine. It was Liberal PM Herbert Asquith who led the battle against women's suffrage with the Cat and Mouse Act. In other words, Clegg wouldn't know what a principle was if it bit him on his nether regions.

Jenny Tong’s real crime, for which she was sacked, was to hold to her principles. This is rare in most political parties and in the Lib-Dems it is unique. The main principle of the Lib-Dems is to hold on to the Tories for fear of something worse, and to seek power and a well-paid sinecure come what may.

Look at Norman Baker, who used to be considered a radical MP for Lewes in East Sussex. He supported all sorts of causes but since becoming a minor Minister, he has jettisoned all his eccentric views in favour of a limousine to park his ample bottom on.

Principle and the Liberal-Democrats are about as compatible as oil and water. Understand that and you understand everything. There is no principle that is too dear for the Lib-Dems to jettison. Remember all those pledges against locking up child refugees? Well forget them because they are still being locked up. Remember theri opposition to control orders? Well they still have them too (but they are renamed!).

There used to be a welfare state which owed its birth in part to the Liberal peer William Beveridge. Today the Lib-Dems are busily tearing it up. NHS? The Lib-Dems have whined and complained but they had a unique opportunity to say no to Tory privatisation and fluffed that. On student fees we all know the u-turn they and Clegg did, despite signing a pledge not to introduce them.

On workers’ rights at employment tribunals, you would think a basic principle of justice for those aggrieved at work, the self-important ex-BP economist Vince Cable has led the charge to deprive the most put upon workers of the most elementary rights and to charge them thousands of pounds into the bargain for the privilege of enforcing such things as the right to be free from sexual or racial harassment.

The glee of Zionist toe-rags like Martin Bright, the Jewish Chronicle’s Political Editor and ex-Observer journalist (who was known for his close relationship to Britain’s Special Branch) goes without saying. Below are a wide variety of reactions but one thing is for certain – Jenny Tonge is held with deep affection for her principled stance on Palestine. Nick Clegg by contrast is held in contempt for dancing to the tune of the Zionist media.

Even by the Jewish Chronicle’s abysmal standards, standards which have immeasurably declined since ex-Express editor, Stephen Pollard, took over, Bright’s article is a disgraceful set of trite and superficial observations.

Jenny Tonge has never said anything hostile to the Jewish community in Britain. Only a liar like Bright (or an anti-Semite – since Bright is not Jewish it is highly likely that his support for Zionism is, as was the case with most non-Jewish Zionists, motivated by anti-Semitism) could confuse British Jews for Zionism and Israeli Jews .

Jenny Tonge said no more than the obvious. A state that feeds off war, that is incapable of coming to terms with its own population, which treats 20% of its own citizens as guests and refuses to acknowledge a unitary Israeli citizenship is not destined long for this world.

Israeli is destined to die, the only question is when. Only a fascist hyena, or an ignoramus like Clegg, would confuse the people of Israel for the state. The state is a racist, apartheid state. It is destined for the funeral pyre and one can only hope that day comes soon. But like South Africa, the people we hope will devise new structures with which to live in peace and equality.

PRESS RELEASE – BARONESS JENNY TONGE

The Liberal Democrat Friends of Palestine regret the resignation of the party whip by Baroness Tonge and offer her their full support. Her resignation follows condemnation of her by the party leadership for remarks she made in a meeting at Middlesex University last week. The condemnation was made before the leadership had heard her side of the story or even spoken to her. That action in itself worries us. She is entitled to an apology.

Her actual words which caused the controversy were “Israel is not going to be there forever on its present performance”. She has confirmed to us that her intention was to imply that Israel’s wilful failure to uphold and respect the human rights of Palestinian Muslims and Christians is behaviour which is likely to lead to its self-destruction. This failure by Israel applies both with regard to its own Arab citizens (whom it discriminates against) and to the people of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (who have endured Israeli occupation for nearly 45 years). We consider that her words, when interpreted in this context, were entirely reasonable.

It is worth noting that her remarks were made at the end of a long and acrimonious meeting in which she was repeatedly barracked by pro-Israeli government hecklers. The video clip which recorded her remarks is incomplete and does not give a full or accurate impression of the debate. What disturbs us most, however, is the selective reporting of her remarks on the blogs by Richard Millet and Guido Fawkes. The three minute clip of her remarks on Guido Fawkes is entitled “LibDem Peer says ‘Israel won’t be there forever’.” This partial quotation would seem very possibly to be deliberate, and has had the effect of fostering a misinterpretation of her views.

John McHugo, chair of Lib Dem Friends of Palestine, says, “This is a witchhunt based on trial by blog. Jenny’s motivation in speaking up for the rights of the oppressed is anger at injustice when others, who have the duty to speak out, pass by silently on the other side of the street. It is also an attempt to make Jenny the story, and to detract attention from the evils of Israel’s occupation.”

Note (from the LDFP website): “The Liberal Democrat Friends of Palestine exist to fight for the rights of the Palestinian People through the medium of the Liberal Democrat Party. We currently support the “two state solution” for an independent and viable Palestinian state, and security for both parties. We therefore call on Israel to renounce all claims to occupied land and to halt all illegal settlement building. If Israel is unwilling to do this, there will come a point at which “the one state solution”, under which Israel will need to offer all Palestinians citizenship in a single, secular State, will become the only way forward. This may be very soon.”

Goodbye Baroness Tonge, it has been a long and troubling ride

By Martin Bright, March 1, 2012

Baroness Tonge has been a one-woman running sore within the Liberal Democrat Party, poisoning relations with the Jewish community with her persistently distasteful and incendiary comments about Israel. Finally she is gone, effectively sacked after refusing to withdraw her statement during an event at Middlesex University that Israel "will not last forever". Now there is reason to believe that wound can begin to heal.

Her career as one of the Palestinian people's least effective champions began while still an MP when she said she might herself have considered becoming a suicide bomber if she found herself under Israeli occupation.

Over the years she has repeatedly evoked classic conspiracy theory language to bemoan the power of the "Israel lobby" - to the intense irritation of her colleagues and the Liberal Democrat leadership. She referred to it again in her resignation statement on Wednesday.

But, astonishingly, she managed to hold on to the whip. When the JC interviewed Nick Clegg in September 2009, he made it clear that he would not remove the whip from the peer, as he did not view her comments at that point as racist.

He later sacked her from the front bench after she called for an inquiry into accusations that the Israeli Defence Forces had been harvesting organs in Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake. But she still held the Liberal Democrat whip.

To give credit to Mr Clegg, he always said he would have no hesitation in removing the whip from the peer if he felt she had overstepped the mark. He has been as good as his word.
There have always been people within the party who have been deeply troubled by the presence of Baroness Tonge within its ranks.

Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel have had to plough a lonely furrow and the organisation deserves credit for keeping up the pressure on the leadership over the issue.

It is no surprise that the now former LibDem peer once again blamed her predicament on "the pro-Israel lobby".

It is certainly true that she was brought down by an irresistible pincer movement of right-wing bloggers. First, the neo-cons at the Commentator picked up on footage of the Middlesex University event posted by the redoubtable Richard Millett and then passed the baton to the conservative attack dogs at Guido Fawkes.

But it was probably coverage in the Guardian, not known for its Zionist views, that finally made it obvious that Nick Clegg could no longer hold on to "Jihad Jenny".

Few will lament the end to her LibDem career, too often punctuated by an irrational hatred of Israel, paranoid conspiracy theory and outright blood libel. Baroness Tonge's views were always on the wilder fringes of British politics, but her position within a mainstream political party gave her the veneer of respectability, albeit increasingly tarnished. Now she has been consigned to the margins, which is exactly where she belongs.

UK: Anti-Israel politician quits

Lady Tonge refuses to apologize after declaring that 'Israel will not be there forever'

Ynet Published: 02.29.12

An outspoken British Liberal Democrat party peer who declared that Israel would not last forever resigned from her post as the party whip on Wednesday after rejecting a call from Nick Clegg to apologize.

Britain's The Guardian newspaper reported that Lady Tonge told the party leadership that she could not accept the ultimatum from the deputy prime minister because she stood by her remarks.

Her move, which came as the Board of Deputies of British Jews condemned Tonge's remarks as "sinister and abhorrent," means she no longer holds the post of Liberal Democrat whip in Britain's House of Lords.

In her statement she said: "The comments I made were in protest at the treatment of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and the treatment of Israeli Arabs."

She added: "I have been asked to apologize but refuse to do so and resign the whip of my party."

Enough is enough?

Clegg said in response: "These remarks were wrong and offensive and do not reflect the values of the Liberal Democrats.

"I asked Baroness Tonge to withdraw her remarks and apologize for the offence she has caused. She has refused to do so and will now be leaving the party."

Tonge, who was fired from a party post in 2004 when she suggested she could consider becoming a suicide bomber, sparked the row after raising questions about the future of Israel.

She told a meeting at Middlesex University last week: "Beware Israel. Israel is not going to be there forever in its present form. One day, the United States of America will get sick of giving 70 billion pounds sterling a year to Israel to support what I call America's aircraft carrier in the Middle East – that is Israel. One day, the American people are going to say to the Israel lobby in the USA: enough is enough."

She added: "Israel will lose support and then they will reap what they have sown."