Israeli attack on aid flotilla

Feel shock, anger, outrage and sadness at the news of the attack that appears to have left at least 10 civilians dead.
Civilians , trying to deliver aid, facing the might of armed professional Israeli commandos.

For fuck sake, this was an aid ship. It was a humanitarian mission, helping bring much needed food to Gaza.

Key words; unarmed, civilians, aid ship, humanitarian .

No justification at all . This was not defence by Israel.

Lots being written across the blogosphere, check out Dave , Jim , Phil , Anna and Charlie for starters .

New Term, New Refusers

Click here for news of more Israeli teenagers refusing to serve in the army.

Another Win in the Fight to Defend Arab Rail Workers in Israel

Regular readers will know about the campaign to stop Israel Railways discriminating against Arab workers. Here is the latest from the campaign ... and it's good news!

09/09/2009 17:04:00
CAMPAIGN UPDATE: Arab railway workers keep guarding Israels level crossings!

Tel Aviv Labour Court issues interim injunction against firing Arab employees of Israel Railways

Today is a day of great success for the Arab railway workers struggle. This morning, Tel Aviv Labour Court ruled that until a final court decision, Israel Railways cannot lay off any Arab railway crossing guard as a consequence of its new employment policy.

Though only an interim injunction and not a final decision, the ruling is extremely important. First of all, the court ruled that military service as an employment condition discriminates against Arab workers. It further noted that there is no relation between the employment conditions required by Israel Railways and the qualifications needed for a job as railway crossing guard. It specifically stated that military service is not a relevant requirement for such a job. Finally, the judge addressed another crucial aspect namely the alternative criteria (1) proposed by Israel Railways - and ruled that also the new employment conditions are discriminatory because they automatically qualify anyone who served in the army and have virtually the same effect as the original policy.

The workers and their lawyers from Sawt el-Amel, Adalah The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, and the Tel Aviv University Law Clinics are very pleased with todays ruling.

The struggle continues.

The trade union case against a consumer boycott of Israeli goods

This should provoke some debate ...

After years of bloody oppression and the appalling scenes of Palestinian death and suffering as a result of Israel's brutal assault on Gaza at the beginning of this year, we all want to do what we can to express our outrage, to stop this ever happening again and to support the Palestinians. It is important that we consider the most effective ways of doing this.

This could include demonstrations, supportive links with Palestinian and Israeli trade unionists and campaigners, support for Israeli army refusers and other action. It could also include stopping arms sales to Israel or perhaps targeted boycotts of firms directly involved with violent, oppressive policies, but in my view, it should not include trade unions advocating a general consumer boycott of Israeli goods, which may be superficially appealing but which in practice could be counter-productive.

Here are some reasons why we should support solidarity not boycott:

1. Positive solidarity achieves much more than passive boycott. Moreover, a boycott can obstruct that solidarity. When the 'cultural boycott started, among the first targets were anti-occupation films, boycotted because they were made by Israelis.

2. As trade unionists, we should seek to help Israeli workers to get unionised, and to unite Arab and Jewish workers in tackling oppression. In contrast, a boycott of Israeli goods could drive companies out of business and workers out of work. Boycotting Israeli goods would punish Israeli workers for the actions of the Israeli government. This is not what trade unionism should stand for.

3. Many trade union and progressive organisations in Israel/Palestine do not want us to boycott Israeli goods (although some do), because they feel that a boycott would cut them off from international links and solidarity.

4. There are some Israeli products that we would positively want people to buy. For example, Sindyanna is an organisation led by women, supporting Arab workers in the Galilee region of northern Israel and Palestinian growers and producers from the Occupied Territories. Sindyanna also carries out community work, is linked with the Workers' Advice Centre, and wants trade unions such as ours to help their work by promoting their products.

5. A boycott of Israeli goods is divisive. The issue divides the Palestinian/Israeli trade union movement, and it divides trade unionists and campaigners in Britain. It would be much better for us to unite around positive solidarity.

6. Although the vast majority of people who support a boycott are sincere anti-racists and are not motivated by anti-semitism in any way, it is unfortunately the case that a boycott would be supported and latched on to anti-semitic groups and used to target Jews. It can also lead to people being boycotted simply for being Israeli nationals, and it is hard to see how this is not racist.

7. Pro-boycott campaigners want us to boycott products and companies including Disney, Marks & Spencer, Arsenal FC, AOL Time Warner, Intel (who make the processors inside most personal computers), and lots more well-known brands and products. Trade union which pass policy for a boycott should expect their reps to urge members to boycott all these. I think that union reps would prefer to inform members about the issue and encourage them to support protests and campaigns rather than give them a list of things not to buy.

Protesting Somewhere Near-ish the Israeli Embassy

Here we are, protesting against Israel Railways' threat to sack Arab workers.

I had been told in advance that we would be stuck in a pen on the other side of the road. But I had assumed that this meant the other side of the road that the Israeli embassy was on. Oh no: it was the other side of a completely different road! We couldn't even see the embassy!

When Bob Crow tried to knock on the embassy's door to follow up his letter asking for a meeting, he was stopped by a couple of serious-looking chaps carrying what looked very much like sub-machine guns.

Nonetheless, we made some noise and alerted passers-by to the issues. More importantly, Israeli and Palestinian trade unions and campaigners know that we organised this action, which will boost their fightback against this racist policy.

The pressure of the workers' campaign and the international support it is attracting may be starting to gain results. The Labour Court has ordered Israel Railways to review its policy giving consideration to equalities legislation. Israel Railways has submitted a new policy, which backs down a little, but still discriminates against Arabs, and will still lead to some Arab railworkers losing their jobs. So it is round one to the workers, but with some more rounds to go before we win outright.

I am particularly pleased with this protest because it comprised trade unionists taking action directly in support of trade unionists in another country. That might not sound a big deal, but it is actually quite different from what most unions do. How so? Most trade unions 'contract out' international campaigning by simply funding campaign groups and circulating their stuff. It gets them out of having to do something more practical and effective.

Moreover, on the issue of Israel, many unions are content to support boycotts instead of taking action, as though encouraging a few members to have an ethically-pure shopping list is enough to not have to bother with any real solidarity.

As in most unions, no doubt, many RMT members can be cynical about international campaigns, especially if the union is not doing enough to win better pay and conditions for its own members, seeming pre-occupied with 'irrelevant' matters abroad. But a campaign such as this one can overcome that cynicism, as it is in direct solidarity with people like them - with rail workers facing discrimination and threats to their jobs.

Protest: Stop Israel Railways Sacking Arab Railworkers

I blogged a little while ago about Israel Railways' new policy that level crossing guards require a firearms licence, which threatens the jobs of Israeli Arab railworkers.

On my suggestion, RMT is holding a protest at the Israeli embassy in London on Monday lunchtime (11th May, 1pm - nearest station High Street Kensington).

Bob Crow has asked for a meeting with the Israeli ambassador, so an RMT delegation can discuss our objections to this attack on our fellow railworkers. The embassy has not yet replied to the request.

If you can, please come down to the embassy to show your support for RMT's protest and your solidarity with Israeli Arab railworkers.

More details here.

Two Campaigns In Support of Palestinian Workers

From Labour Start ...

East Jerusalem workers appeal for support

Twenty one Palestinian workers from East Jerusalem who have been employed by the Israeli Antiquities Authority have lost their jobs in a bid by the employer to get around the law. They are victims of the kind of outsourcing many of you will be familiar with in your own countries. They've launched an international appeal for support and it's important that we flood their employer with messages of protest from around the world.

Please click here to send off your message today -- and spread the word!

Arab railway workers in Israel face discrimination, job loss

We've received an appeal from Sawt el-Amel, an NGO based in Nazareth, protesting the decision by Israel Railways to deny employment to railroad crossing guards who lack a permit to carry weapons. As such permits are usually only issued to army veterans, 150 Arab employees now face the sack. To learn more and to send off your message of protest, please visit the Sawt el-Amel website.

Meet Tamar Katz, Israeli Army Refuser

One of the things that has kept me away from blogging over the last couple of weeks has been my involvement in the forthcoming visit to Britain by Tamar Katz, a young woman who has refused to serve in Israel's army.

Don't miss this if you can possibly help it.


The Shministim speak: Israeli student jailed for refusing to serve in army tours Britain, 5-14 March 2009

British activists are hosting a speaker tour with Tamar Katz, one of the Shministim, Israeli high school students jailed for refusing to fight in the occupied Palestinian territories. She is being brought over by Workers’ Liberty students, but the meetings are being hosted by a variety of organisations.

Tamar, 19, was jailed three times, for a total of 51 days at the end of 2008, for refusing to take part in military service. She explained why:

“I refuse to enlist in the Israeli military on conscientious grounds. I am not willing to become part of an occupying army, that has been an invader of foreign lands for decades, which perpetuates a racist regime of robbery in these lands, tyrannizes civilians and makes life difficult for millions under a false pretext of security.

“I oppose the anti-Palestinian policy of attrition and the oppression, not because I prefer the Palestinian society to the Israeli one, but out of an understanding that this policy has led us down a dead-end road politically and to immorality, forced especially on soldiers stationed in the Occupied Territories. I am not willing to become one of those holding the gun pointed indiscriminately at Palestinian civilians, and I do not believe that such actions could bring any change except ever more antagonism and violence in our region.”

This is an excellent opportunity for student and trade union activists who opposed the war in Gaza to learn more about the ‘other Israel’ – Israeli anti-war activists, students and workers who desperately need our support and solidarity.

Tamar will be speaking at universities across the UK, as well as to some trade union meetings, including the rail union RMT’s London Transport Region, which is sponsoring the tour.

More information as and when:

7pm, Thursday 5 March – LONDON
Meeting and reception hosted by RMT London Transport Region and Finsbury Park RMT
The Twelve Pins pub, 263 Seven Sisters Rd, London N4 2DE (next to Finsbury Park tube)
For more information email Janine

Lunchtime, Friday 6 March - BRIGHTON
Sussex University – email Koos

7pm, Friday 6 March - LONDON
“International Solidarity for Women’s Liberation” – meeting to celebrate International Women’s Day hosted by Feminist Fightback, Organisation of Women’s Freedom in Iraq and others
Room 3a, University of London Union, Malet Street
Email Rebecca
Facebook event here

2.30pm, Saturday 6 March - NEWCASTLE
RMT Women's Conference, Grand Station Hotel Email Janine

1pm, Monday 9 March – MANCHESTER
MR1, University of Manchester Students' Union, Oxford Road - email Hazel Kent
Facebook event here

6pm, Monday 9 March – BRADFORD
Richmond Building, Bradford University, hosted by University of Bradford Union - email Lloyd
Free tickets here

Evening, Tuesday 10 March - CAMBRIDGE
Cambridge University, hosted by Workers’ Liberty – email Patrick

1pm, Wednesday 11 March – NOTTINGHAM
A40 Clive Granger, University Park, Nottingham University, hosted by Nottingham Student Peace Movement - email Adam
Facebook event here

7:30pm, Wednesday 11 March – SHEFFIELD
Arts Tower Lecture Theatre 6, Sheffield University, hosted by Workers’ Liberty – email Daniel
Facebook event here

6.30pm, Thursday 12 March - EDINBURGH
Edinburgh University – email Darcy Leigh.

1pm, Friday 13 March – LONDON
The Underground, East Building, Houghton Street, LSE, hosted by LSESU Palestine Society – email michaeldeas@gmail.com
Facebook event here

For more information about the tour in general, email Heather Shaw or ring 07969 597 251
For more about the Shministim, visit www.december18th.org

Edinburgh University Student Occupation for Gaza

There have been a spate of university occupations over Palestine in Scotland over the past couple of weeks, so far all have been sucessful!

Edinburgh Uni occupation just released a final statement:Press Release – Edinburgh University Student Occupation for Gaza

At 8:45 on the morning of Monday 16/02/2009 the student occupation of George Square Lecture Theatre will come to an end.We, the occupying students have secured the following…

• A complete end to Eden Springs bottled water on campus by the start of the next academic year (2009/10).

• An opportunity to bring our case regarding the university’s unethical investments directly to the University Court.

• Scholarships for 5 Palestinian students in Gaza to study at Edinburgh University, with consideration for fee waivers, reduced accommodation fees, travel allowances and visa support.

• A collaboration between the university management, student body and an NGO to collect various materials for shipping to Gaza and to fundraise for the implementation of this.

• A lecture and debate series, involving university staff and guest speakers, on various subjects relating to the Palestine/Israel conflict. There has already been interest in this from prominent scholars Ilan Pappe and Noam Chomsky.

We feel that this is only the beginning of the movement to end the university’s role in the occupation and oppression of Palestine by the Israeli government and military. There remain serious issues to which the university’s response was completely inadequate, including the active role of arms and defence companies in university research and on-campus recruitment.The occupation also provided a place to stage educational events, encouraging active engagement and participation about the issues in question.

Highlights included a discussion on the ongoing occupation of Palestine, with the participation of the President of Scottish Jews for a Just Peace and a workshop on ‘direct action’ with ways of defusing confrontational situations. As the week progressed, we at times numbered over 60 students, with a total of several hundred passing through the theatre doors.We feel it’s important to emphasize that the student occupation should be understood not simply as a tactic or a bargaining chip in getting our demands. Within the space that we took control of, we used consensus decision making to initiate a radically non-hierarchical way of making collective decisions. At it’s best, the occupation provided a space for a process far more democratic than what conventional university structures are able to achieve. The changes we want to see will be attained through our direct action but also by creating such spaces, and expanding them indefinitely.

Two key outcomes of the occupation…

• A planned open forum for reflection and discussion on the student occupation and the university’s reaction in the context of the Gaza conflict.

• An online network to consolidate the occupation group, welcome all who wish to be involved in future action and to take the movement forward immediately and effectively.We would like to extend a huge thank you to the countless groups and individuals who provided us with material and moral support.Lastly, we wish to assure Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank that we will struggle alongside them in solidarity until such time as they are a free and sovereign people.Please follow the blog for updates… http://edinburghunioccupation.wordpress.com

Jewish Socialist Group meeting : After the War on Gaza

See below for details. Looks interesting and I hope to attend:


Wednesday 11th February


7.30pm Tudor Room, Imperial Hotel, Russell Square, London WC1B 5BB
Public meeting - all welcome

After the War on Gaza
What next for the Palestinians?
And how can Jews here and in Israel help to bring about a just peace?
Speakers:
Karma Nabulsi, Gerald Kaufman MP, Yishay Mor, David Rosenberg

Karma Nabulsi is an Oxford-based academic who formerly worked
as a PLO diplomat at the UN and in Beirut, Tunis and Britain.

Gerald Kaufman has been a Labour MP since 1970 and has been
an outspoken supporter of a just peace in Israel/Palestine.

Yishay Mor is an Israeli activist for peace and social empowerment

David Rosenberg is a member of the editorial committee
of Jewish Socialist magazine

There is also a statement on their website.

Tony Benn gives the BBC what for !

Good old Tony got all stroppy and did his own Gaza appeal on the BBC,very politely saying he wasn't going to be stopped, and he wasn't !



First John McD and the mace, now Tony not doing what he is told, life in the old dogs yet. Keep it up !

Israelis Oppose War on Gaza

This first film is of a demonstration of thousands of Israelis against their state's war on Gaza.



This is a superb display of principle in the face of government warmongering and pressure on Israel's population to support the war. As well as the placards and banners denouncing the war, you might spot a couple of Israeli flags alongside Palestinian flags, and you may hear some criticism of Hamas in the same breath as opposition to the military assault. Quite right. It's a good job that sections of the British 'left' are not there to drive these people off the protest!

The second film is about Israelis refusing to serve in the army, interviewing many of the brave and principled people who are doing so.



Wathcing these two films, it saddens me to hear reports from meetings in Britain purportedly in support of the Palestinians in which people have dismissed Israeli opposition to their government as irrelevant and not worth the effort in publicising or supporting.

Guest post by David Rosenberg - The Left need to keep the bigger picture in view

I am bumping this post up to the top. David kindly wrote it for us and it got a bit lost over the weekend . I hope it will spark a debate about how the left engages with the bigger picture and Gaza.

Thanks to David for writing this guest post for the blog .


While the Israeli bombardment continues unabated wreaking a terrible toll in human lives, there have been important developments on the Home Front too. Justifiable anger at Israeli actions and their total disrespect for civilian lives is being directed at soft targets. There are increasing reports of antisemitic incidents against Jewish institutions and individuals in Britain and France. Meanwhile the self-important and self-proclaimed political heads of the Jewish community – the Board of Deputies and the thoroughly unelected “Jewish Leadership Council“ are swinging into action calling a pro-Israel demonstration for Trafalgar Square on Sunday 11th January the day after the second National Emergency Demonstration of anti-war protesters parades through London.

Individual members of synagogues, most probably, holding a wide range of views on the conflict from acute embarrassment and dismay through to total unthinking support, have received letters from their synagogues demanding their attendance, with no hint that there is anything to debate. They are trying to corral a divided community into an “Israel right or wrong” straitjacket and seeking to present a united Jewish front in support of Israel’s policy to the outside world – a policy which continues to be, as the late Harold Pinter expressed it, both murderous and suicidal. They are in denial. Many Jews supported the anti-war demos in London and other cities last weekend. And the very night that Israeli forces began their ground invasion into Gaza, 10,000 Israeli marched to a very different beat through the streets of Tel-Aviv, damning the war, proclaiming solidarity with the victims and declaring that Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies.

There is a depressing symmetry among those who wish to blame any and every Jew for what is happening and those who wish to claim the support of any and every Jew for a war that, as well as taking a huge toll in civilian lives, has managed to make even long-suffering refugees in miserable refugee camps homeless again.

These developments have implications for the solidarity movement with the oppressed and targeted. In the way it politically engages with the conflict the Left has a responsibility to ensure that it does not fall into traps that benefit the Armageddon tendency in Israel and America. And it must avoid taking positions that can weaken those who wish to give maximum support to the Palestinians in the present, and who wish to further their longer-term aspirations for self-determination, statehood and equality.

If the left either by commission or omission does anything to entrench a view that this conflict is essentially one between Muslims and Jews it will only benefit the Israeli warmongers and give succour to antisemites. I was relieved that on the first big demonstration last weekend I only saw one banner proclaiming, "We are Hamas”. This contrasted considerably with the demonstrations around the Lebanon War and the widespread proclamation “We are Hezbollah” aided and abetted by George Galloway, who always chooses his words very carefully though sometimes very stupidly.

I was not Hezbollah and I am not Hamas. Neither are many of the people I know were marching last week. I am though fully cognisant that they are in the frontline of militarily trying to hold back the Israeli war machine. But they are a political tendency and they do not have ownership of the Palestinian people. And when you look at the bigger picture, this war is, in far greater proportion, a war against the Palestinian people and their aspirations than a war against Hamas. Don’t be fooled into thinking that Israel wants to completely destroy Hamas. It likes having a divided enemy, and is certainly keen to maintain, albeit in weakened form, a significant branch of the enemy that will utilise religious rhetoric and fall into the clash of civilizations and its local translation Islam versus Judaism to offset the secular branch of the enemy.

Hamas is a formidable body. They were smart enough to stand against Fatah politically by regurgitating traditional Fatah positions that it seemed to have been retreating from, rather than pose a fundamentalist religious challenge to Fatah’s politics. When Hamas won its election against Fatah (a significant victory in seats though much less so in popular votes) it stood on a determination to resist occupation; the demand that Palestinian prisoners languishing in Israeli jails without being charged, are released; the demand that Palestinian refugees have a right to return; and a call for the dismantling of settlements. And they could say it with a radical swagger from the streets that Fatah’s leaders mired in maintaining their own privileged positions could not.

But that does not mean that Hamas has abandoned its reactionary social agenda – homophobic, anti-women’s equality, antisemitic, anti-trade union, anti-left and more. Unlike some elements of the Left who think Hamas is now the only true voice of the Palestinian street, I won’t forget the fact that Israel had a major hand in encouraging Hamas to come into being. Nor will I ignore the reasons for it.

From the 1960s, under the leadership of Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction, secular rather than religious demands dominated Palestinian political life. In the late 1970s and early 1980s the “Peace Now” movement emerged within Israel calling for an end to the occupation, and more radical Israeli peace groups were opening dialogue with Palestinian representatives. The “war” camp and “peace camp” could not be divided simply by religion or ethnicity. Israel’s clandestine response, revealed later by former CIA officials, was to encourage the growth of religious groups among the Palestinians as a counterweight to the secular PLO.

Israel allowed funds to be channeled to them from outside, while blocking funds to the secular PLO. It was trying to divide the Palestinian movement. Hamas, which still prides itself today on its rhetorical refusal to recognise Israel, was actually legally registered in Israel in 1978, by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, as an Islamic association called Al-Mujamma al Islami. No doubt many ordinary Israelis see it is a Frankenstein monster, as does a tendency in the Israeli military-political establishment. After all, Yassin was assassinated by an Israeli helicopter gunship in 2004. But Israeli strategists also know that any compromise for peace by Fatah whch will require compromise by Israel too, will be torpedoed by Hamas rejectionists, leaving the status quo unaltered, except for Israel building more settlements and doing more land-grabbing.

Israel cries crocodile tears about towns like Sderot that suffer indiscriminate Hamas rocket attacks while undertaking the very actions in the Occupied Territories that will provide justification in the eyes of those launching the rockets. And Israel will not evacuate the children from the areas that suffer rocket attacks.

Fatah have been a no win situation for several years now and are walking a tightrope where they appear to be acquiescing, but the picture is undoubtedly more complicated and nuanced. They still have the allegiance of many Palestinians and still hold the prospect of a secular, human-rights based, politics for seeking a solution to the wider Israel/Palestine conflict. Instead of playing Israel’s game by accentuating the division between Hamas and Fatah, and in knee-jerk fashion saying “Hamas good, Fatah bad”, the Left should be doing all it can to enable the reemergence of a strong and united Palestinian movement able to resist and move forward while holding together differing and contradictory political tendencies.

Above all the Left needs to stand with the Palestinian people against this wanton destruction that is taking place, and ensure that the anger and political demands of the solidarity movement are focused on the right targets.

Hamas’s tactics of lobbing rockets against Israeli civilians (ironically those poorer Israelis originating in Arab countries treated as second class citizens in Israel) makes little impact in terms of winning back land. In comparison with a few days of Israeli fire power their efforts are pretty pitiful, but they have handed Israel a PR gift for seeking popular support for their war.

The real responsibility though for the carnage, 800 dead in two weeks, thousands wounded, tens of thousands homeless, lies with the Israeli military-political establishment who want to put off for as long as possible the inevitability of coming to terms with the demand for Palestinian self-determination, equality, and dignity. And it lies too with the British and American governments that are supplying the weaponry for the carpet bombings of Palestinians people and the destruction of Palestinian hopes.

That is where we should be directing our anger and our pressure.

Discussion meeting: How can we best support the Palestinians?

I don't routinely post details of AWL events here, but given how much discussion there has been on the Israel/Gaza issue, and the rather spooky amount of blogging on the AWL-CPGB ding-dong about Iran a couple of months back, I thought I'd make an exception for this important one ...

London AWL/Worker-Communist Party of Iraq (UK) forum: How can we best support the Palestinians?

Thursday 15 January 2009

19:00 (note, earlier than our usual meeting time of 19:30)

At: the Social Centre, 39 Clarges Mews, London W1J 5BY (near Green Park Tube)

A public meeting sponsored by Workers’ Liberty and the Worker-communist Party of Iraq (UK).

We are mobilising to oppose Israel’s brutal war in Gaza. But on what political basis?
• What is our attitude to Hamas, and to political Islam more generally? 
• Should we advocate an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel?
• What about boycotts of Israel?
• What is our attitude to the anti-war and workers’ movements inside Israel?

Speakers: Robin Sivapalan (Workers’ Liberty); Muayad Ahmed  (Worker-communist Party of Iraq); activist from a London Palestine solidarity network.

Scottish Palestine Demo

Photo by Eddie Truman

Fantastic demo todayin Edinburgh, I would estimate between 8,000 and 10,0000. It was a vibrant march, marching to the American embassy where some shoe chucking, a young member of the SSP threw a shoe which did hit a police man but she was contrite and cried a bit so was a llowed to go without being arrested, thankfully. I think the shoe throwing bit could have been orgnaised a bit better because unless you were a olympic shot puter to throw the shoes so far and high, anyway a couple of police officers were hurt but there were no arrests. You can read the BBC report here

There are more photos here

After the American Embassy we marched to Princes Street Gardens for the rally.

SSP had a good prescence - lots of banners, comrades and placards. Great day! The anti-war movement is till there and ver angry about what is happening in Gaza.

Jewish Socialists Group on the bombing of Gaza

There were quite a few Jewish groups on saturday's national demo in London. The JSG were handing out a leaflet and Charlie has reprinted it on his blog. I thought I would post it up here for comment:



Jewish Socialists condemn the Israeli siege and bombing of the Palestinian people in Gaza. We express our solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza, and in the occupied territories, and with those Israelis who oppose their government and its war.

We support those young Israelis who would rather go to jail than serve in the armed forces of occupation and war.

We call upon our own and other governments to cease supporting Israel's aggression, and put pressure on Israel's leaders to halt this war, lift the blockade, and end the occupation of Palestinian lands.

The Jewish Socialists' Group has many differences with the politics of Hamas. This war, on a largely defenceless people, is not about Hamas. It was Israeli forces that broke a four-month long ceasefire with a raid killing six Palestinians on November 4. This attack was launched as Hamas and Fatah were agreeing a unified approach. On November 5, Israel stepped up its siege of Gaza, on land and sea, which has brought warnings of human and environmental disaster.

Even so, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh told a European parliamentary delegation that Hamas was prepared to declare a long-term truce with Israel, and negotiate for a Palestinian state within 1967 borders. (Amira Hass, Haaretz (November 15)
Evidently, Israeli leaders, including Labour Defence Minister Ehud Barak, were not interested. They had already planned this war. A couple of days after Haniyeh's spech the Israeli navy seized Palestinian fishing boats and crews.

Israel's military-political elite don't care about poorer Israelis, mainly from Arab countries, whom they shoved out to exposed places like Sderot. They have not even evacuated the children. They did not care about captured soldier Gilad Shalit, whose release they could have negotiated long ago, had they and their US backers not preferred a pretext for war, in Gaza and then Lebanon, where Washington wanted to test its latest bombs.

Every people has the right to resist occupation. But the tactic of hitting civilian targets like Sderot is wrong, and the Israeli government has used it to raise public support for war against the Palestinian people. Even so,

*500 Sderot residents petitioned asking the government not to escalate the conflict but to seek peace.
*A majority of Israelis thought their government should negotiate with Hamas or whoever else the Palestinian people elected.
*A majority of people on both sides wanted the cease fire to continue, and would be prepared to share this land in a just peace.


But forty years of occupation have so poisoned Israeli politics that Barak and Olmert are competing with the far-right Benyamin Netanyahu to show who is best at waging war. The Israeli Right has been encouraged by neo-cons and right-wing Christian fundamentalists in the United States, who want Israel to spearhead a major Middle East war.

The majority of Americans, including more than 75 per cent of American Jews, voted for Barack Obama and change. Obama's wooing of the unrepresentative Zionist lobbyists AIPAC, and Hillary Clinton's pledge that if Israel was attacked, America would "obliterate" Iran, suggest change is yet to come. The Israeli forces may have timed their attack before Obama takes office, but he has said only that he "understands" them. EU leaders have urged a ceasefire, but Israel continues to enjoy EU trade privileges and a promised closer relationship".

If we want to help the Palestinian people and those Israelis who want a genuine peace, we have to change our own government's policies. Jewish Socialists, together with our friends in European Jews for Just Peace, and similar bodies in the United States and Canada, are campaigning for this.

Alongside solidarity with the Palestinian people, we have a special job - to challenge leaders who claim to speak for the Jewish community, but subordinate its interests to Israeli policy and its reactionary allies. We say politicians must stop listening to the Zionist Lobby - and stop using it as an excuse!

Jewish Socialists stand for peace, freedom and equality in the Middle East, and for unity to fight antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism and every other kind of prejudice here and now.

Edinburgh demonstration against teh attacks on Gaza

Demo gathered at the Mound beside the National Art Gallery.

Marching to Bute House, First Minister's - Alex Salmond's -House


Demo starts to march along Princes Street, about 1000 on the demo.

Woman and daughter on the march, just liked this photie

Just before the march starts off


About 1000 on the march in Edinburgh, pleased to see Edinburgh demo was on the Ten O'Clock news. Great demo and a wide and varied participation. Marched to Bute House then the Caledonian Hotel which seemingly is owned by an Israeli company!

It was freezing! so after about 2 hours people started going home but that is fair enough. More activity planned by the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Will keep youse updated about what is happening north of the border

Which Placard to Pick?

I didn't make it to today's demonstration against the bombardment of Gaza, but was very much there in spirit. When I did join a protest at the Israeli embassy last week, I had a camera in one hand and a six-year-old boy in the other, so carrying a placard was not an option. This saved me from having to pick from not a great choice.

To start on a good note, here is one that I would wouldn't have minded carrying:













This one's kind of sweet, but a bit, you know, wussy - nice sentiment, but it hardly offers a concrete way forward.








But this one, no.


Firstly, it is just factually inaccurate. The hundreds of deaths caused by Israel's bombardment are terrible, but this is not the same as 6 million fatalities in industrial death factories. The holocaust was unique in history - and, hopefully, will remain so - and its uniqueness should not be diluted or denied.

Secondly, it seems likely that the word 'holocaust' has been chosen because Israel is the state involved. Maybe some people think they can appeal to Israelis to oppose military aggression on the basis of the history of anti-semitic persecution, but in reality, the effect (and for some, the intention) of slogans like this is to wind up many Jews. If, say, Russia bombed Chechnya and killed hundreds of people, would the protest placards read 'no holocaust in Chechnya'? Possibly, but less likely, I'd say. So why prod the Jews about the holocaust, when many of them will have lost family members in the Nazi extermination? If the Palestinian solidarity movement wants to involve a significant number of Jews, it has to avoid offensive slogans like this.

Looks like when I do get to go on a protest with my hands free, I might have to make my own placard.

Israel's Responsibility for the War in Gaza

Happy New Year to you all. And for my first post of 2009, here is an article from the Israeli socialist journal, 'Challenge'. The opening bit is a little hard to follow without seeing the article or the argument referred to, but once you get into the meat of it, it soon starts making sense.

=====

Issue 112, November/December 2008
talking politics
Israel's Responsibility for the War in Gaza

by Yacov Ben Efrat
A Clarification

Yacov Ben Efrat

My article "Israel over Gaza" has aroused, to my surprise, many reactions, including some that disagreed with my placing responsibility exclusively on Israel. In so short a piece, admittedly, it was not possible to present the comprehensive analysis of a war whose roots lie far back in 1967. I had to make do, on occasion, with generalizations that may require a more detailed justification.

According to the conventional wisdom, in 2005 Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip, dismantling and destroying all its settlements there. Despite this, Hamas fired rockets on Israeli towns in the Negev. Since it is clear that such a violation of sovereignty demands a response, the present operation is justified, even at the price of massive killing that includes many innocent people.

In addition, those who oppose my position claim that I completely exonerate the Hamas regime, either because I am motivated by hatred of Israel as a conqueror and occupier, or because the Palestinians are so downtrodden that they're not responsible for their actions. Let me state clearly, then, that in placing exclusive responsibility on Israel, I do not overlook the misdeeds of the other side. Since 1993 the Palestinian leaders have committed every mistake in the book. They agreed to sign the Oslo Accords, which did not promise an independent state or dismantlement of settlements. They established a corrupt regime that collaborated with the Occupation. They lost the trust of their people, which shifted toward the extremist religious movement, Hamas.

Hamas, which promotes martyrdom for the sake of paradise, has undertaken a war of total annihilation against Israel. It uses armed struggle as a tool to raise its prestige among the Palestinian people, which has lost all hope, and, in particular, to take over the Palestinian Authority (PA). Hamas sees itself as the spearhead of the Islamic Awakening. It views its takeover in Gaza (June 2007) as a small step in the Muslim Brotherhood's march to conquer the region from Egypt to Jordan, from Syria to Saudi Arabia. The arrogant behavior of its leaders, and their strategic judgments, may appear indeed to be motivated by hatred of the Jews, but Hamas stores an equal if not greater hatred against the Arab secular regimes. It views them as an enemy as deadly as Israel—or deadlier. The cruel violence of the Gaza takeover was evidence of this hatred.

If all this is so, however, why place the blame exclusively on Israel? The reason is simple: It was and is exclusively in Israel's power to prevent what has happened and is happening in Gaza. Its economic and military power is enormous compared to the PA's. During decades of occupation, however, Israel did all it could to thwart Palestinian development. While ruling Gaza, it trampled it into the poverty and backwardness we see today. This is a reality that the use of force cannot improve.

Moreover, Israel used the Oslo Accords as a springboard to strengthen its hold on the West Bank. While negotiating with the Palestinians, it allowed new settlements to spring up, placed outposts on every hilltop, and massively expanded the settlement-neighborhoods around Jerusalem. (In this way it sliced the city off from the remainder of the West Bank while cutting the latter in two.) Without scruple, Israel closed its gates to thousands of commuting Palestinian workers; it did this after decades of flooding their home markets with its own goods, blocking the development of an economy that could employ them. Israel increased unemployment and poverty among Palestinians to a level that rivals the worst of the third-world countries. It has compensated for the missing labor by importing migrants under slavery conditions. In addition, Israel lent a hand to establishing a corrupt PA, through which it could control what went on in the Territories.

This shaky structure, the Oslo "peace," collapsed in late September 2000, after Ariel Sharon made a provocative tour of the al-Aqsa Compound in Jerusalem. Not long after, Israelis elected the same Sharon as Prime Minister. In his new capacity he decided to bring down the PA and place a blockade around its president, Yasser Arafat. The death of Arafat left the PA on the skids. Into the vacuum rushed Hamas, which had paved its way to power by carrying out suicide attacks in Israeli cities. Israel's response was to build the Separation Barrier, which remains a focus of violent confrontation. When all this did not do the trick, Sharon came up with the idea that lies at the heart of the present dispute: unilateral disengagement from Gaza.

Why unilateral? Why was Israel not smart enough to exploit this very significant measure in order to reach a comprehensive agreement with the PA? The answer is that Sharon did not want to negotiate on the fate of the West Bank and Jerusalem. On the contrary, he wanted to get rid of Gaza in order to strengthen his hold on much of the West Bank.

Because of its unilateral character, the disengagement from Gaza in August 2005 had the effect of further weakening PA President Abu Mazen's Fatah movement. Hamas won the parliamentary elections of January 2006. In short, unilateral disengagement—which won the support of all center, left and Arab Knesset members—turns out to have been the opening volley in the present war. Readers of Challenge and its sister publication in Hebrew, Etgar, will recall that we strongly opposed the unilateral approach, seeing where it would lead.

Today Israel's government concludes that once again there is no one to talk to. It has wasted two years in pointless palaver with Abu Mazen, where the two sides sit and sketch the portrait of a virtual Palestinian state. The real purpose of such idle talk is to postpone the day of reckoning. Israeli leaders explain the sterility of the talks in a manner that seems quite logical: Abu Mazen is weak, Hamas rules Gaza by force, and so there is no real partner. We persist, however, in asking our question: Who bears the main responsibility for this state of affairs?

When we raise the question of responsibility, we don't refer only to what Israel could have done and failed to do in the past. We also ask what can be done today, at once, before the tanks break through the fence and sow more destruction. We demand of Israel that it make an express commitment to withdraw from all the territories that it took in 1967, as well as announce its readiness to talk with every Palestinian and Arab factor that is willing to end the conflict.

The moment Israel commits itself in this way, the Hamas regime will lose its public support—unless, of course, it drastically changes. Such a commitment from Israel's side will enable the Palestinians to elect a leadership with a mandate to enter peace talks. The separation barrier will fall, and the distorted relationships between the two peoples will be transformed into normal relations between two states.

However, as long as Israel refuses to commit itself to such a program, as long as it seeks to strengthen its hold by hook or crook on the West Bank and Gaza, as long as it controls the gateways and prevents the establishment of a port or airport, as long as the Shin Beth runs life in the Territories by remote control, Israel has no moral right to massacre Palestinians. It has no right to defend its sovereignty while denying the sovereignty of the people next door. What's worse, the bloodshed is for nothing. As long as the Occupation lasts, resistance will last as well. This is the lesson which Israeli governments have obstinately refused to learn.

www.challenge-mag.com/en/article__228
02.01.2009, 12:01

Arab Construction worker killed and 9 wounded as missile hits Israeli city

This is from WAC-MAAN, the Workers' Advice Centre (Ma'an in Arabic) which works to unite Israeli and Palestinian workers.

=====

WAC-MAAN – Nazareth www.wac-maan.org.il

Press release: December 30, 2008

Arab Construction worker killed and 9 wounded as missile hits the Israeli city of Ashkelon on Monday

WAC-MAAN calls upon trade unions and the international labor movement to pressure their governments to stop Israel’s war on Gaza

On Monday morning, Dec. 29, a Grad missile launched in Gaza hit a construction site in the Israeli city of Ashkelon. It killed Hani al Mahdi, 27 years old, from the Arab town of Aarara in the Negev. It also injured nine workers from the Arab village of Kufr Manda in Galilee.

These men, who were working to gain a decent life for their families, fell victim to Israel's war on Gaza, which started Saturday and has so far killed 300 in Gaza, as well as injuring 1000. Among the killed and wounded are many civilians.

Israel claims that it is defending its citizens in the South. But these people are working-class, and the government has shown by its policies that the lives and security of workers mean nothing to it: its priorities are with the rich.

WAC-MAAN, an independent trade-union association, has been active for many years in Kufr Manda. Many construction workers, including those who were injured on Monday, are members and supporters of WAC, which acts day and night to defend the rights of workers in Israel, especially Arabs.

We know from our members that they have to travel 200 kilometers each day, like the nine who were injured in Ashkelon, just to find a place that is willing to hire them. Their tenuous job situation has caused them, in recent years, to work without social benefits at sites that threaten their safety and health. The government encourages the formation of a “precarious work force” in order to help employers and investors.

The same government that started the present war has sent tens of thousands into unemployment, while destroying the social security net in accordance with its neoliberal agenda.

WAC-MAAN opposes the war on Gaza and calls for an immediate cease fire. After the war ends, we know, hundreds of thousands on both sides of the border will remain poor and unemployed. Palestinian workers are shut jobless behind the separation wall, while their families languish in poverty and hunger. Israeli workers, for their part, are starting to feel the pinch of the global financial crisis, with higher levels of unemployment and further attacks on earlier social gains.

The killing of Hani al Mahdi on Monday brings to mind the situation of 1.2 million Arab citizens of Israel, whom the establishment routinely brands as disloyal. In reality, half the Arab families here live below the poverty line, although the national average is 20%. They live in towns without infrastructure or job opportunities, a result of discriminatory policies implemented since Israel was established 60 years ago.

WAC-MAAN calls upon trade unions around the world to pressure their governments for action that will force Israel to end its brutal attack on the Palestinians in Gaza, stop its occupation of Palestinian lands and accept the right of the Palestinians to self determination and peace.