A refugee said "I cannot go back to my country because of the following points: 1. Imprisonment and Persecution 2. Torture and punishment 3. Electric torture 4. Beating with the stick on the feet (corporal punishment) 5. threatening me to be killed 6. Lack of human rights organizations which can lobby against human rights violation in the country. 7. Threatening to abuse my family members. 8. Demolition of my house. Due to all that I can’t go back".

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Nov 18, 2009

Reichental to Speak this Thursday


Despite growing concerns and criticism, Tomi Reichental, a self confessed ex-IDF soldier who proudly boasts of fighting in the 1956 land grab and pogrom will apparently speak this Thursday at Gorey Community School. Calls to the Holocaust Educational Trust regarding the suitability of a man who has inflicted suffering, have been met with the incredulous response, ‘he’s not going to talk about his army days’. Well, that’s OK then, why not invite Radovan Karadzic over to speak about crocheting and let’s forget about his genocidal past. Also how a man who joined an offensive force whose leaders saw Arabs as little less than animals can ‘address antisemitism’ is anyone’s guess. Though the woman we spoke to at the Holocaust Educational Trust had some problems understanding how Arabs were Semites too, so that might explain the reticence on their part.

Sadly, the school has chosen to ignore the very obvious political stance allowing this ex-soldier to speak entails, so it now remains the duty of the students to quite rightly demand answers. To help you along, we’ve documented a few of the many atrocities carried out by the IDF in 1956, the pogrom Reichental says he fought in.

• In October–November 1956, the IDF overran the Gaza Strip, where it remained in control until March 1957. During the battle for this heavily populated zone and during the first weeks of occupation, the IDF killed some five hundred civilians, either in actual combat or in a subsequent series of massacres. Elsewhere during the Sinai-Suez War, IDF troops reportedly killed fleeing, and often unarmed, Egyptian troops by the hundreds and there were also reports of the mass execution of Egyptian prisoners of war. For example, at the end of October 1956, the IDF Paratroop Brigade killed some three dozen POWs near the Mitle Pass. Revelation of this affair in 1995 prompted Egyptian protests to Jerusalem and a demand for an investigation (whose results were never made public). It is a war crime to kill POWs, and massacre civilians. This is Reichental’s 1956 campaign.

• 1956: Squads of Israeli soldiers committed a hideous atrocity in the Palestinian village of Kafr Qasim, 47 innocent people were shot down in cold blood. The careful and premeditated mass murders, never received great attention in the West. Although the Israeli courts convicted eight soldiers of murder, they were all released within two years of their trial, and within three years one of them who had been convicted of killing 43 Arabs in an hour, was engaged by the municipality of Ramleh as the “officer responsible for Arab affairs in the city.” In October 1956 Israel, backed by England and France, attacked Egypt to gain control of the Suez Canal. This is Reichental’s 1956 campaign.

• In attacking Egypt, the Israelis levelled schools and factories in broad daylight. There was no excuse for this wanton destruction and it created another 300,000 Arab Christian and Muslim refugees. This is Reichental’s 1956 campaign.

It is morally reprehensible to allow a man who has unapologetically played a role in this ongoing genocide of Arabs to sidestep his past and speak of his alleged suffering. Hold him accountable as they have held aged Nazi criminals accountable. If you don’t then you have condoned the atrocities committed by the Zionist Israelis. In the words of Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Weisenthal Centre, “It’s utterly retarded to feel sorry for these people just because they are old.” We agree 100%, no criminal despite his age should walk scot free, yet we’ve still to see one Zionist Jew held accountable for their war crimes.

We said it would never happen again, which is why we believe a man who helped it happen just a decade later is not the right person to moralize about suffering. Shame on him, shame on all the schools who have invited him and shame on the Holocaust Educational Trust for belittling the suffering of the Palestinians through this man’s actions.

SHAME, SHAME, SHAME



http://mpac.ie/2009/11/17/reichental-to-speak-this-thursday/



Brothers and Sisters, you are not being asked to do much, simply make a call or email your objection to this ex-soldier speaking. Your silence today, strengthens your enemy tomorrow - Speak up and stop their advance.

Anti War Events Tomorrow and This Weekend


There are four Anti-War meetings organised for this weekend as part of the Socialist Workers Party Marxism event. A number of the members of the Irish Anti-War Movement Steering Committee will be speaking at these meetings.

If you are interested please come along to any of them.

The Meeting Organised on 18th November is not part of the Marxism event.

List of Events:
•18/11/2009 - 19:00 [EVENT - LECTURE] Vietnam-Iraq: Language and the Ethics of War and Peace
•21/11/2009 - 10:30 [EVENT] Hamas, Hizbollah and the Taliban: The Left Religion and Resistance Movements
•21/11/2009 - 11:45 [EVENT] How can Palestine Win Freedom
•22/11/2009 - 14:30 [EVENT] World War II: Was Ireland Wrong to Stay Neutral?
•22/11/2009 - 15:45 [EVENT] Afghanistan: Obama’s Vietnam?


Event Details:
[EVENT - LECTURE] Vietnam-Iraq: Language and the Ethics of War and Peace

Start: 18/11/2009 - 19:00

Vietnam-Iraq: Language and the Ethics of War and Peace

International Peace Studies Public Lecture by Ron Large

Wednesday, November 18 at 7 PM

J. M. Synge Theatre
Arts Building
Trinity College Dublin

In this lecture, Ron Large will examine how leaders and policy makers used language to shape the moral world of the Vietnam War and the war in Iraq. Ron Large is an Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Gonzaga College in Spokane, Washington. He is currently a visiting Fulbright Scholar in the International Peace Studies programme at the Irish School of Ecumenics, Trinity College Dublin.

Organised by the International Peace Studies programme at the Irish School of Ecumenics, Trinity College Dublin www.tcd.ie/ise/peace/

All Welcome
Calendar



[EVENT] Hamas, Hizbollah and the Taliban: The Left Religion and Resistance Movements

Speaker: Alex Callinicos

Venue: Ashling Hotel, Dublin (beside Heuston Station)

Date: 10:30 21st November 2009

Calendar



[EVENT] How can Palestine Win Freedom

Speaker: Claudia Saba (Irish Anti War Movement Steering Committee).

Venue: Ashling Hotel, Dublin (beside Heuston Station)

Date: 11:45 21st November 2009

Calendar



[EVENT] World War II: Was Ireland Wrong to Stay Neutral?

Speaker: Liam Cummins

Venue: Ashling Hotel, Dublin (beside Heuston Station)

Date: 14:30 22nd November 2009

Calendar



[EVENT] Afghanistan: Obama’s Vietnam?

Speaker: Richard Boyd Barrett (Chair of the Irish Anti-War Movement)

Venue: Ashling Hotel, Dublin (beside Heuston Station)

Date: 15:45 22nd November 2009

Calendar

Nov 15, 2009

2nd person in Amman to die due to a riot


By Hani Hazaimeh

AMMAN - Police on Sunday said that the situation in the city of Maan was back to normal after intense riots broke out Saturday in response to the death of a citizen allegedly at the hands of police.

Public Security Department Spokesperson Major Mohammad Khatib told The Jordan Times yesterday that there was no escalation in the southern town and things were back to normal, with no confrontations taking place between police and citizens.

Eyewitnesses told The Jordan Times that the security presence in the city was barely noticeable, adding that the police removed a security booth that was burnt by a group of young rioters during Saturday evening's violence.

The eyewitness added that traffic on the Desert Highway to Aqaba, which passes through Maan was blocked by the rioters the night before, was proceeding as usual.

Late Saturday, a number of young people in the southern city attacked and burned a police vehicle and a security booth after opening fire on the policemen manning the station.

The attacks were triggered by the death of a man who had been in a coma since Thursday after allegedly being attacked by a police officer during a clash between police and residents who tried to prevent the arrest of a suspect.

Riots were witnessed in other parts of the city on Saturday as some residents protesting the death of Fakhri Anani Kreishan, 44, who died at Al Hussein Medical Centre in Amman, blocked the Desert Highway leading to Aqaba, the residents said. Gunshots were heard in various parts of the city despite earlier attempts by tribal and local community leaders to calm the angry youths who had started to gather in the town squares. Kreishan was buried yesterday with no reports of unrest during the funeral.

Maan has a history of clashes with authorities, starting in 1989, when violent protests broke out after a national economic crisis caused a rise in commodity and fuel prices.

Last week, six Gendarmerie members were hospitalised in a riot that followed the death of a resident in Hai Al Tafaileh in east Amman. In a similar episode, the deceased was allegedly beaten by police before he went into a coma and died.

In an interview with the Jordan News Agency, Petra, on Sunday, Minister of Interior Nayef Qadi said that incidents such as these are isolated cases and do not reflect on the Kingdom's stability or security.

Without mentioning the incidents in Maan or Hai Al Tafaileh specifically, the minister stressed that police are required to treat citizens in a civilised manner and not to resort to unnecessary or excessive force, adding that public security personnel who violate these regulations are held accountable for their actions.



16 November 2009


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Nov 14, 2009

Palestinian right institute


Palestinian right institute and Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign invites you to participate in the demonstration on Saturday 14th of November @ 2pm, The Spire, O'Connell Street, city centre Dublin.



We are approaching the first anniversary of Israel's brutal attack on Gaza which left over 1,400 people dead, thousands wounded and homeless and totally devastated the already besieged strip, home to 1.5m people. When that 'war' was taking place, people in Ireland mobilised in their thousands to oppose it - it's important that we do so again in order for the world to see that we haven't forgotten, nor have we forgotten the ongoing slow ethnic cleansing and colonial settlement building in the West Bank


مؤسسة الحق الفلسطيني
تدعوكم موسسة الحق الفلسطيني للمشاركة في التظاهر امام البريد المركزي في وسط دبلن يوم السبت القادم 14-11-2009 الساعة الثانية بعد الظهر والتي ستكون بالتنسيق مع
(Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign)

و نحن نقترب من الذكرى السنوية الأولى للهجوم الإسرائيلي الوحشي على غزة والذين ما يزالون يعيشون في الخيام نتيجة الحصار الظالم على غزة و حتى نذكرالعالم بما يجري من جرائم التطهير العرقي الجارية في القدس وغزة المحاصرة وزرع المستوطنات الاستعمارية في الضفة الغربية



--
مؤسسة الحق الفلسطيني

Nov 8, 2009

human rights abuses

New York-based Human Rights Watch probes human rights abuses. Not surprisingly, it is attacked by various governments and interested parties. Recently, its founder, Robert Bernstein, accused it of being selectively tough on Israel. On Tuesday, I spoke by phone to Kenneth Roth, executive director.
Here are some excerpts:
Q: Comment on Mr. Bernstein?
A: He's making three arguments. One, that we should focus only on closed societies, not open societies. But George Bush showed us the danger of that approach. It would undermine the rights movement if we ignored serious abuses just because a society is open. Everybody should be held to the same standard.
Two, that we should hold Israel to a lower standard because it is fighting a war of self-defence. But that's not what the law says. The Geneva Conventions say that everybody be held to the same standard. The reason for that is that everybody thinks they are the defender, not the aggressor.
Three, that Human Rights Watch is focusing too much on Israel. But our Middle East and North Africa division covers 17 countries. The work on Israel constitutes only 15 per cent of the work of that entire division, which is one of our 16 programs. So the work on Israel is a tiny, tiny proportion of our work.
Q: Those who support Israel feel strongly, for obvious reasons. Critics are called anti-Semites or self-hating Jews, etc.
A: The idea that, by describing what Israel did in Gaza, one is an anti-Semite is ridiculous. It is an insult. It cheapens the concept of anti-Semitism. (Benjamin) Netanyahu would like to discuss anything other than what Israel did in Gaza. He'd do anything to change the subject. That's a tacit admission of indefensible conduct. If there were a defence, they would discuss the facts. But they are running away from the facts and hiding behind charges of anti-Semitism.
Q: Travelling the world, one hears about U.S. double standards.
A: This monster has emerged from a number of African governments who are saying: Why is the international community regularly prosecuting African offenders but ignoring the offenders among their allies, such as Israel, Sri Lanka, Russia in Chechnya, the U.S. in Afghanistan?
One emphasis I'd place is for broader ratification of the International Criminal Court Treaty. One reason why the U.S., Israel, Russia or Sri Lanka aren't being investigated by the ICC is that they haven't signed the treaty (100 states have).
Q: The Mideast peace process.
A: Everybody knows what an agreement would look like. But how do you build the trust to get to that?
The greatest obstacle are the attacks, by both sides, on civilians. We're not going to make any progress until we end the attacks on civilians and bring the perpetrators to justice.
Q: That's what (Richard) Goldstone said in his Gaza report.
A: He is right.
Q: Overall, where's the human rights movement?
A: Governments are always tempted to violate human rights. That's a given. The question is: Is the human rights movement strong enough to increase the cost of succumbing to that temptation.
The good news is that the cost of the abuse is much higher. Twenty years ago, there would have been no Goldstone report, there'd have been no outcry over the conduct of Israel in Gaza. That's progress.
Q: And Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, etc. led to Obama's election.
A: Exactly.
Q: His record, so far?
A: He stopped torture and mistreatment by American interrogators. He shut the secret CIA detention facilities where people disappeared and were susceptible to torture.
But he has not been willing to prosecute past torturers. That's an abdication of responsibility. It will only encourage some future president to resort to torture again.
He has also been disappointing on the question of how to close Guantanamo. We urged him to adopt a policy of either prosecute or release. He is insisting on maintaining a third option – prosecuting people not in regular court but before the substandard military commission, or not prosecuting people at all but simply detaining them without trial (just like Bush).
Q: Anything you want to add?
A: I was in Montreal recently talking about Canada's role in the world. I spoke as a long-time admirer of Canada's' tradition of support for human rights, peacekeeping, international institutions, international law. (But) we've seen a disappointing backing away from that tradition in recent years.
hsiddiq@thestar.ca