NPK-info 08-08-2006


______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ NPK-info 8 augustus 2006 - Nederlands Palestina Komitee / www.palestina-komitee.nl Today in Palestine! http://www.theheadlines.org ______________________________________________________________________ Wij hadden succesvolle weekend-demonstraties; wereldwijd werd grootschalig gedemonstreerd voor een onmiddellijk onvoorwaardelijk staakt het vuren. Ken Livingstone steunde de `ceasefire now' demonstratie te London. http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=12414 Eis vrijlating van Palestijnse ministers en parlementsleden! Roep onze ministers en parlementariërs op, zie www.tweededekamer.nl. Zie http://www.palestinechronicle.com/story-080706133739.htm en http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5429.shtml (Detention PLC-Speaker,PCHR 6-8-2006) Zie actie Israelische anti-oorlogs-activisten die Israelische luchmachtbasis blokkeren (bijlage). Bij ons gaat Israelisch oorlogstuig via Schiphol. Zie ook http://www.groenlinks.nl/2ekamer/nieuws/Nieuwsbericht.2006-08-03.0114 Discussies (details in bijlage) - 11-8 Den Haag 19.30 uur debat in De Kronkel, Westeinde 425. - 13-8 Amsterdam 19.30 uur: Debat Stop de Oorlog http://www.internationalesocialisten.org/agenda/index.html#agenda_2 Achtergrondinformatie - Goliath Pretending to be David, The Deadly US-Israeli Shell Game at the UN, Jonathan Cook http://www.counterpunch.org/cook08072006.html - Israel, not Hizbullah, is Putting Civilians in Danger on Both Sides of the Border August 07, 2006, Jonathan Cook http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=11081&CategoryId=5 - When the skies rain death http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/806/op2.htm - Where Does Palestine Fit in the Present Conflict in Lebanon? August 05, 2006, Daoud Kuttab http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=11072&CategoryId=5 - U.S. Ripped for Inaction on Syrian, Israeli Front August 04, 2006, Ori Nir http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=11052&CategoryId=5 Boycot! - The Case for Boycotting Israel, Boycott Now! Virginia Tilley http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5435.shtml - Palestinian Filmmakers, Artists and Cultural Workers Call for a Cultural Boycott of Israel, August 4, 2006 http://www.pacbi.org/boycott_news_more.php?id=315_0_1_0_C Ook voetbal? http://www.nieuws.nl/264994/Uefa_stuurt_Hapoel_Tel_Aviv_naar_Nederland NPK/WL, 8-8-2006 P.S. NRC (zaterdags bijvoegsel 5-8-2006, Jannetje Koelewijn) plaatst het begin van de Palestijnse vluchtelingenkampen in .... 1967. ______________________________________________________________________ Het Haags Vredes Platform organiseert een informatie-, discussie en actiebijeenkomst over Libanon, Palestina en Israel. Vrijdag 11 augustus vanaf 19.30 uur. Locatie: Dienstencentrum De Kronkel, Westeinde 425 te Den Haag Bereikbaar met tram 2 vanaf Den Haag CS (10 minuten) Inleiders - Wim Lankamp (NPK) over Palestina met focus op Gaza - Robert Soeterik (MERA) over Libanon - Kassem Fouani (Stichting Gibran Khalil Gibran) over humanitaire Libanon-actie Na inleidingen volgt discussie. Nadere informatie: Jose van Leeuwen (06-24.70.65.59) En zie ook http://www.haagsvredesplatform.nl/ ______________________________________________________________________ 13 augustus \| Forumdebat: Stop de oorlog! http://www.internationalesocialisten.org/agenda/index.html#agenda_2 Aansluitend op de Anti-Capitalista Zomerschool organiseren de Internationale Socialisten op zondagavond 13 augustus een forumdebat over de oorlog en crisis in het Midden-Oosten: Libanon, Palestina, Irak, Afghanistan Crisis in het Midden-Oosten: STOP DE OORLOG! Met het bloedige Israëlische offensief in Libanon en Palestina heeft de crisis in het Midden-Oosten een nieuw dieptepunt bereikt. Vijf jaar na het begin van Bush' 'War On Terror' staan het Midden-Oosten en Centraal-Azië in brand. Waarom steunt het Westen Israël? Wat bedoelen George Bush en Condoleeza Rice met een 'Nieuw Midden-Oosten'? Dreigt er ook een aanval op Syrië en Iran? Wat zijn de wortels van deze crisis? Hoe stoppen we deze oorlog en hoe zorgen we dat er rechtvaardigheid komt voor de bevolking van Libanon, Palestina, Irak en Afghanistan? Sprekers zijn onder anderen: - Tariq Shadid (Palestijnse Gemeenschap Nederland) - Jaap Hamburger (Een Ander Joods Geluid) - Zaher Srour (Libanese Gemeenschap Noord-Nederland) - Miriyam Aouragh (Internationale Socialisten) Zondag 13 augustus Amsterdam IVKO-school, Plantage Middenlaan 27 Zaal open 19.30 uur / Aanvang 20.00 uur Entree gratis ______________________________________________________________________ From http://www.counterpunch.org/ August 7, 2006 Goliath Pretending to be David The Deadly US-Israeli Shell Game at the UN By JONATHAN COOK Nazareth. If there were any remaining illusions about the purpose of Israel's war against Lebanon, the draft United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a "cessation of major hostilities" published at the weekend should finally dispel them. This entirely one-sided document was drafted, the Hebrew-language media have reported, with close Israeli involvement. The top adviser to the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, talked through the resolution with the US and French teams, while the Israeli Foreign Ministry had its man alongside John Bolton [yet another of Israel's men, Eds ] at the UN building in New York. The only thing preventing Israeli officials from jumping up and down with glee, according Aluf Benn of the daily Haaretz newspaper, was the fear that "demonstrated Israeli enthusiasm for the draft could influence support among Security Council members, who could demand a change in wording that may adversely affect Israel." So no celebration parties till the resolution is passed. Instead, in a ploy familiar from previous negotiating processes, Israel submitted to the US a list of requests for amendments to the resolution. When Israel agrees to forgo these amendments, it will, of course, be able to take credit for its flexibility and desire to compromise; Lebanon and Hizbullah, on the other hand, will be cast as villains, rejecting international peace-making efforts. The reason for Israel's barely concealed pleasure is that Hizbullah now faces an international diplomatic and public relations assault in place of the unsuccessful Israeli military one. Israel, and the United States, are trying to set a series of traps for Hizbullah -- and Lebanon too -- that will justify Israel's reoccupation of south Lebanon, the further ethnic cleansing of the country, and a widening of the war to include Iran, and possibly Syria. The clues have not been hard to decode. The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, characterized the aim of the resolution as clarifying who is acting in good faith. "We're going to know who really did want to stop the violence and who didn't," she said. Or, in other words, we are going to be able to blame Hizbullah for the hostilities because we have offered them terms of surrender we know they will never agree to. The main sticking point for Hizbullah is to be found in the resolution's requirement that it must stop fighting and begin a process of disarmament at a time when Israeli forces are still occupying Lebanese territory and when there may be a lengthy, if not interminable, wait for their replacement by international peacekeepers. Not only that, but the resolution allows Israel to continue its military operations for defensive purposes: Hizbullah only has to look to Gaza or the West Bank to see what Israel is likely to consider falling under the rubric of "defensive". Hizbullah has been stockpiling weapons since Israel's withdrawal in May 2000 precisely to create a "balance of deterrence", to make Israel more cautious about sating its appetite for occupying its neighbors' lands, particularly when the neighbor is a small country like Lebanon without a proper army and divided into many sectarian groups, some of which, for a price, may be willing to collaborate with Israel. This time, however, as Israeli troops struggle back towards the Litani River and their initial goal of creating a "buffer zone" similar to the one they held on to for nearly two decades, the Lebanese are rallying behind Hizbullah, convinced that the Shiite militia is their only protection against Western machinations for a "new Middle East". Israel and Washington, however, may hope that, given time, they can break that national solidarity by provoking a civil war in Lebanon to deplete local energies, similar to Israel's attempts at engineering feuds between Hamas and Fatah in the occupied Palestinian territories. Certainly, it is difficult to make sense otherwise of Israel's bombing for the first time of Christian neighborhoods in Beirut and what looks like the intended ethnic cleansing of Sunni Muslims from Sidon, which was leafletted by Israeli war planes at the weekend. On the US-Israeli view, a nation of refugees living in an open-air prison cut off from the outside world and deprived of food and aid -- a more ambitious version of the Gaza model -- may eventually be persuaded to take their wrath out on their Shiite defenders. Hizbullah understands that the proposal to bring in a force of international peacekeepers is another trap. Either the foreign troops will never arrive, because on these Israeli-imposed terms there can be no ceasefire, or, if they do arrive, they will quickly become a proxy occupation army. Israel will have its new South Lebanon Army, supplied direct this time from the UN and subsidised by the West. If Hizbullah fights, it will be killing foreign peacekeepers not Israeli soldiers. But Israel knows the international force is almost certainly a non-starter, which seems to be the main reason it has now, belatedly, become so enthusiastic for it. Senior Israeli government officials were saying as much in the Hebrew media on Sunday. Israel's Justice Minister, the increasingly hawkish Haim Ramon, summed up the view from Tel Aviv: "Even if it is passed, it is doubtful that Hezbollah will honor the resolution and halt its fire. Therefore we have to continue fighting, continue hitting anyone we can hit in Hezbollah, and I assume that as long as that goes on, Israel's standing, diplomatically and militarily, will improve." Israel hopes it will be able to keep hitting Hizbullah harder -- at less cost to its troops and civilians, and with improved diplomatic standing -- because in the next phase, after the resolution is passed, the Shiite militia will find that one arm has been tied, figuratively speaking, behind its back. Not only will Washington and Israel blame Hizbullah for refusing to agree to the ceasefire but they will seek to use any retaliation against Israeli "defensive" aggression -- including, presumably, further invasion -- as a pretext for widening the war and dragging in the real target of their belligerence: Iran. This subterfuge was voiced at the weekend by Israel's ambassador to the UN, Dan Gillerman, who told the BBC that if Hizbullah fired at Tel Aviv -- which it has threatened to do if Israel continues attacking Beirut -- this would be tantamount to an "act of war" that could only have been ordered by Iran. In other words, at some point soon Israel may stop blaming Hizbullah and turn its fire -- defensively, of course -- on Iran. This linkage is being carefully prepared by Olmert. On Monday, according to the Hebrew press, he told some 50 government spokespeople what message to deliver to the foreign media: "Our enemy is not Hezbollah, but Iran, which employs Hezbollah as its agent." According to Haaretz, he urged the spokespeople "not to be ashamed to express emotion and appeal to feelings". So in the coming days, in the wake of this US-Israeli concoction of an impossible peace, we are going to be hearing a lot more nonsense from Israel and the White House about Iran's role in supposedly initiating and expanding this war, its desire to "wipe Israel off the map" and the nuclear weapons it is developing so that it can achieve its aim. The capture of two Israeli soldiers on July 12 will be decoupled from Hizbullah's domestic objectives. No one will talk of those soldiers as bargaining chips in the prisoner swap Hizbullah has been demanding; or as an attempt by Hizbullah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, to deflect US-inspired political pressure on him to disarm his militia and leave Lebanon defenceless to Israel's long-planned invasion; or as a populist show of solidarity by Hizbullah with the oppressed Palestinians of Gaza. Those real causes of hostilities will be ignored as more, mostly Lebanese, civilians die, and Israel and the US expand the theatre of war. Instead we will hear much of the rockets that are still landing in northern Israel and how they have been supplied by Iran. The fact that Hizbullah attacks followed rather than precipitated Israel's massive bombardment of Lebanon will be forgotten. Rockets fired by Hizbullah to stop Israeli aggression against Lebanon will be retold as an Iranian-inspired war to destroy the Jewish state. The nuclear-armed Goliath of Israel will, once again, be transformed into a plucky little David. Or at least such is the Israeli and U.S. scenario. Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. He is the author of the forthcoming "Blood and Religion: The Unmasking of the Jewish and Democratic State" published by Pluto Press, and available in the United States from the University of Michigan Press. His website is www.jkcook.net ______________________________________________________________________ From: media@palsolidarity.org Reply-To: ism-media-owner@googlegroups.com To: "International Solidarity Movement - Media Alerts" ism-media@googlegroups.com Subject: [ISM Media Group] Israelis Arrested for Blocking the Road to Air force Base Date: Tue, 08 Aug 2006 02:06:32 -0700 > >FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE > >Today, August 8th, tens of leftist Israeli activist are blocking the >road to the Israeli air force Ramat David area, close to Haifa. Police >have already arrested more than ten activists. > >The group issued a press release stating their motives which is >translated below: > >The international law requires of every human being the duty of >resistance to war crimes using every possible means. At this moment, >when the rockets are falling, the war crimes are committed, the victims >buried, it is time to fight to stop the war. > >The activists are carrying a clear message: >Stop civilian killings, Stop the war crimes, Stop the Israeli >government criminal policies. > >It is a duty for every soldier to refuse serving the war crimes orders. >The support by the Israeli people of this criminal government means >they are participants in committing the war crimes. > >The number of dead is continuously increasing. The Israeli air force >attacks are planting death, destruction and hate. In Palestine, the >occupation continues killing and torturing Palestinians. And in Israel >the civilians of the North Israel are used as human shields and they >are paying their lives as a price to serve the ego of the generals who >are even unable to acknowledge failure and defeat. > >The war crimes are committed everyday, hundreds of kids have been >killed. The number of the killed is over 1000. There are tens of >thousands of injured and over one million refugees and Israel continues >the air strikes, the killing, the destruction, the annihilation to >prove who is powerful in the region. > >We repeat and we say what is known for everyone, there is no military >solution. We are calling on the Israeli government and its people to >wake up and behave in a moral way. > >We must stop the war machine and the destruction. we demand an >immediate ceasefire, an exchange for the prisoners, and the release the >political prisoners in Israel. > >for more information: >0544 486 667 >052 355 4815 >0546 327 736 > > >--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ >The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) is a Palestinian-led non-violent resistance movement committed to ending Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian land. We call for full compliance with all relevant UN resolutions and international law. > >For specific media inquires such as interview requests, photo usage, etc. please email the ISM Media Office at media@palsolidarity.org > >To unsubscribe from this group, send email to ism-media-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com >-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~--- > ______________________________________________________________________