Israel marks anniversary of humanitarian attack on IDF commandos
May 31st, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Found on board the Mavi Marmara
From the point of view of the rational world, today is the one-year anniversary of the IDF commando massacre of 9 Turkish humanitarian activists on board the Mavi Marmara, part of the aid flotilla endeavoring to peacefully break the siege of Gaza.
From the point of view of the Israeli regime, by contrast, today is the one-year anniversary of the violent attack by humanitarian activists on board the Mavi Marmara against IDF commandos endeavoring to peacefully descend upon the aid ship while firing bullets. The activists died because they wanted to accrue headlines for their cause, not because the commandos killed them.
In support of the latter version of events, the Israeli Foreign Ministry dutifully uploaded a photo series entitled “Weapons found on Mavi Marmara” to its Flickr account in the aftermath of the attack, featuring snapshots of marbles, keffiyehs, binoculars, and a metal pail. An image of slingshots colorfully decorated with stars and the label “Hizbullah” is specified as having been taken on February 7, 2006—i.e. over four years prior to being discovered on the Mavi Marmara.
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Freedom for Palestine
May 31st, 2011 § 6 Comments
Some of our favourite artists and campaigners–Maxi Jazz (Faithless), Dave Randall (Slovo/Faithless), LSK, the Durban Gospel Choir, members of the London Community Gospel Choir, Jamie Catto (1 Giant Leap) and many more–join the OneWorld campaign to bring you the following new single.
Palestine is in crisis. Today Palestinians face daily human rights abuse and live in crushing poverty in refugee camps and under Israeli Occupation.
In response to this injustice, a group of international musicians are releasing the song Freedom for Palestine by OneWorld.
Marching In Step with AIPAC
May 30th, 2011 § 3 Comments
Israeli-American anti-Zionists Keren Carmeli and Ava interview delegates outside the 2011 AIPAC conference.
WikiLeaks: Saudis Often Warned U.S. About Oil Speculators
May 30th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Further evidence of the vacuity of the ‘war for oil’ argument. Much of the price for oil is today determined in the derivatives market by Wall Street speculators rather than by producers or suppliers. The underlying commodity usually has a minimum impact on the actual price. But the Commodity Futures Trading Commission will not investigate this for the same reason why it was prevented from investigating the banks. Because Wall Street owns the executive branch. (Don’t miss the excellent Inside Job and this post by Pat Lang).
Kevin Hall: The Saudis have been saying for years something should be done to curb the influence of banks that are speculating on the price of oil.
Wikileaks is still around
May 30th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
In 2010 Time magazine defied the judgment of its readers to select Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg over Julian Assange as its person of the year. In a readers’ poll Assange had secured 382,000 votes to Zuckerberg’s 18,000. It had been some years since Facebook was big news; some therefore suggested Time had really chosen 2007’s person of the year. Explaining his choice, Time managing editor Richard Stengel confidently declared that ‘Assange might not even be on anybody’s radar six months from now…I think Assange will be a footnote five years from now.’ This was a day before Mohamed Bouazizi set himself alight. It was also before Tahrir Square. It’s over six months since Stengel’s daring prediction yet Assange still remains on the radar and his list of media partners has expanded to over 60—and its growing. Wikileaks has yet to release a much anticipated tranche of documents on the banking sector. It is safe to assume that Wikileaks will be with us for some time to come. But given the present state of publishing, it is likelier that Time will be a footnote five years from now. Here are some recent interviews with Assange:
1.5 million Honduran thugs give hero’s welcome to Copa Airlines
May 29th, 2011 § 3 Comments
Thuggery at Toncontin airport, 5/28/11 (Photo: Belén Fernández)
A few days prior to the return to Honduras of former president Mel Zelaya, overthrown in a June 2009 coup d’état and subsequently exiled to distinguished guest-hood in the Dominican Republic, I met with the director of the state-owned Radio Honduras, Gustavo Blanco. Previously a top employee with anti-coup Radio Globo, Blanco’s ideological incompatibility with Globo’s political orientation was once again underscored when he informed me that the anti-coup National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP) was composed largely of violent troublemakers and uneducated poor people who didn’t even understand why they were resisting the coup.
Our ensuing debate resulted in a number of additional claims on Blanco’s part, such as that 59-year-old Honduran teacher Ilse Velasquez—who this past March was struck in the face by a police-fired tear gas canister and then promptly run over and killed by a press vehicle—was actually to blame for her own demise given that she should have understood that her body type was not compatible with street protesting:
ME: People of a certain body type do not have rights?
BLANCO: She was fat.
Zelaya’s Return: Neither Reconciliation nor Democracy in Honduras
May 29th, 2011 § 1 Comment
Credit: FNRP
by Adrienne Pine
This article was first published in NACLA.
Over the past few weeks U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and latter-day media “experts” have hailed Manuel Zelaya’s return to Honduras and the pending reintegration of the country into the OAS as a restoration of democracy. Here in Honduras, it is clear that such claims could not be further from the truth. Despite the triumphal language of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos, Honduran president Porfirio Lobo, and even Zelaya himself following their signing of the Cartagena Accords, Honduras today is no closer to reconciliation than it was in the months following the June 28, 2009 military coup.
As Dana Frank points out in The Progressive on May 27, the Cartagena Accords ensure the reinstatement of Honduras into the OAS in return for only one “concession” that is not already ostensibly guaranteed: that the trumped-up charges, leveled against Zelaya by the same court that legitimated his unconstitutional expulsion from the country, be dropped. That this should be sufficient for Honduras’s return is perplexing, given that the country was expelled under Article 21 of the OAS Democratic Charter, which reads in part:
When the special session of the General Assembly determines that there has been an unconstitutional interruption of the democratic order of a member state, and that diplomatic initiatives have failed, the special session shall take the decision to suspend said member state from the exercise of its right to participate in the OAS by an affirmative vote of two thirds of the member states in accordance with the Charter of the OAS.
Pakistan: A Hard Country
May 28th, 2011 § 2 Comments
Anatol Lieven discusses his new book Pakistan: A hard country, which I shall review here shortly.
The people want…
May 28th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Part of Al Jazeera’s The Arab Awakening series.
“The people want the fall of the regime” is the shared slogan of the Arab uprisings. In this episode an array of characters from across the region explain what they want and what they expect for the future.
