Tibet.....

The Great Wall of Shame

Bil'in - Mohammad Katib under the boot of the topdog! -

It's been awhile, I know.. But somehow days gets lost in their "everydayness" and I have precious little to show for the existence of my being, after these summer days came and went...

If I lived in other places on the globe, things would be very different.

If I lived say, in Gaza or the West Bank, then my whole life would be nothing but an uphill struggle I guess.... This letter from the "Free Gaza" movement tells of a part of that struggle:

"At 3AM on Monday, August 3, the Israeli army raided Bil’in and arrested Mohammad Khatib, along with six other Palestinian community activists and one American human rights observer from the village. This move is an attempt by Israeli authorities to silence a popular resistance movement gaining international attention and inspiring other Palestinian communities. This West Bank agricultural village, known for its weekly protests against the Israeli apartheid wall, has become a symbol for the Palestinian popular resistance to Israel’s ongoing military occupation.

While many are quick to condemn Palestinians when they resort to armed resistance, Israel has been left free to harass, imprison and sometimes kill Palestinians who nonviolently resist the confiscation and destruction of their land in Bil’in and elsewhere.

In June 2009, Mohammed Khatib traveled to Canada for preliminary hearings on an historic lawsuit launched by Bil’in village against two Quebec-based companies, Green Park International and Green Mount International. Both companies are building illegal Israeli-only settlements on Bil’in’s land.

Mohammad’s arrest is just one in a series of many carried out by the Israeli military in Bil’in since June 2009, coinciding with the beginning of these legal proceedings. Video of the ongoing struggle in Bil’in, including interviews with Mohammad Khatib and Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard, can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TySr95aKSlU.

To date, 25 people (most under 18) have been arrested, and 18 of them remain in detention. Having experienced Israel's interrogation/ intimidation/torture tactics, two of the arrested minors 'confessed' that the Bil'in Popular Committee urges the demonstrators to throw stones. Then based on these forced 'confessions', Israeli forces arrested Mohammad Khatib and other leaders in Bil’in. They have been charged with "incitement to damage the security of the area."

An August 13, 2009 statement issued by the Bil’in popular committee declared that Mohammad Khatib, Adeeb Abu Rahmeh and other leaders of the Palestinian popular struggle, “are being targeted because they mobilize Palestinians to resist non-violently. "Israel is stealing our land from us and then prosecuting us as criminals because we struggle non-violently for justice," said the statement.

In September 2007, after four years of Friday afternoon protests in Bil’in that underscored the violence and injustice of the Israeli occupation, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled in favor of the village. Contrary to the Opinion of the International Court of Justice, the Israeli Supreme Court did not find the apartheid wall was illegal. But it did find the wall’s route through Bil’in was not designed to separate settlers from potential Palestinian terrorists; it was designed to make Modi’in Illit, the giant orthodox Jewish settlement next to Bil’in, bigger by about 2,000 dunams of farmland owned by Bil’in villagers. The Court ordered the army to reroute the fence and give the people of Bil’in back at least part of the land taken from them.

The very next day, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled to legalize the Israeli settlement of Mattiyahu East (part of Modi’inIllit’s expansion), built on Bil'in's land to the west of the wall, which separates the village from 60% of its farming land. The villagers vowed to continue their resistance against the wall and settlements on its land and hundreds of them along with other Palestinians, international and Israeli supporters are still protesting every week.

Israeli soldiers are still injuring and killing them every Friday afternoon with Billy clubs, tear-gas canisters fired at close range, and rubber bullets. With no justice from Israeli courts, the villagers of Bil’in turned to the international arena and, with the help of Canadian lawyers and backed by the Canadian solidarity movement, filed litigation in Canada.

Mohammad Khatib’s arrest is an attempt by Israel to thwart such international support for justice for Palestinians.

Mohammad Khatib joins an estimated 11,000 Palestinian prisoners – including over 400 children -detained by Israeli authorities, many without charge or trial. According to a recent report from Amnesty International, many Palestinian prisoners “face medical negligence, routine beatings, position torture and strip searches by Israeli prison authorities.” According to the Palestinian section of Defense for Children International, “each year, hundreds of Palestinian children are arrested, interrogated, abused and imprisoned by the Israeli military authorities often amounting to torture.”" -

Here's some links for people who want to know more;

Ma'asara; Good Friday demo

Free Gaza

A Facebook group against children and teens incarcerated (This is a global issue USA, Iran, UK, Israel - everywhere.... But in Norway they have a very different approach to this with some amazing results loads of links here!)

Some great Blogs;

Tadamon

OmarMosleh

It's things and 'news' like these that gets me out of my existence-slumber.... Oh, and some shameful Danish issues on human rights violations and such, which you no longer can take for granted in this a-here little peace-loving nation.... But more on this later....

Who's afraid of ..... a small, sweet lady?

Sign the petition to free all political prisoners in Burma - If you  live in the UK- Get free campaign material.... 

Link to Burma. org

                                                                    

Burma - One tends to forget the forgotten!

Burma is still in the grip of the "Mad generals"!!

2 UN envoys fails to change anything - Read here

Black winds blowing...

Okay, Rumsfeld isn't known as the most cultivated guy, but his flippant remark to the looting and destruction of The Iraq National Museum; "stuff happens" seemed cynical to all of us, who'd already shed tears when the bombing of The National Library in Sarajevo burned down thousands of irreplaceable old manuscripts.

But being a long distance witness to the greedy looting of the National Museum in Baghdad in 2003, while US troops and their allies stood idle by, was more than some us could bear. As in Sarajevo it's our history, that's forever lost - And for the peoples of the nations involved, it's a catastrophe beyond words - when you lose your past.

Thousands of works, some over 3.000 years old are lost! Artifacts, Jewelry and object's d'art, some of our civilizations earliest, are gone forever. They are now sitting in secret vaults all over the world, now only for the pleasure of the very few.

The Museum is now (partly) opened, but only half of the sad remains of this invaluable collection will be at display and only for VIPs ?!?

A lot of Iraqis showed up for the big opening, clinging to the iron gates surrounding the Museum. These people were not hoping to see the small exhibition, but rather to get a glimpse of the Prime Minister, while shouting out their needs and their despair. Most of the women there, being some of Iraq's 740.000 widows, most who do not have roof over their heads, neither them nor their fatherless children. These are the true victims of the Iraqi violence. remember the celebrated "shoe thrower"? He did this stunt for the Iraqi war widows and the orphans.

These women was before protected by the extended support system of family, neighbours and mosques. But as the war drag on and on the needs far exceed available help. Iraqi charities are closing down one by one as no help comes from the government or anywhere else.

Some of these widows becomes homeless beggars sifting through garbage, standing outside the mosques asking for handouts or they become prostitutes and some joins the insurgents, becoming suicide bombers for money.

The vast majority are forced into "temporary marriages" - ( Shi'ite trad.) often based on sex, some for hours, some for years, and in this way gets help from government, religious or tribal leaders. A war widow neither has the money nor the clout to pay the bribes needed to oil the offices, where war widow benefits are distributed [50$ a month]

The latest plan from the director of "Baghdad Displacement Committee" is to pay men to marry widows. When asked , why not give the money directly to the women instead? He laughs this preposterous idea off with a; " They'll only spend the money unwisely because they are uneducated and don't know about budgets!" ?!?!

It's the women and the children who pays the full burden of war, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza or anywhere else in world where violence is the order of the day...

Read more in The New York Times

Oh, Brother..... How can you and we go on?

Okay, Back to reality;

 

The Israeli armed forces are still fighting door to door in Gaza city. Now thoroughly trained in Urban warfare, as one proud Israeli General answered, when she was asked of the difference between the estimated outcome of the Gaza invasion now and the military failure 2 1/2 years ago in South Lebanon! Hundreds of dead has been reported on both sides - as usual mostly Palestinians... like in 400 Palestinians to 4 Israeli....

 Oceans of Sorrow out there.... Rivers of Tears.... Lakes of Blood... 

Oh, Humanity or lack of it... 

                                                             

Sign the Avaaz.org petition here ; Stop the siege and invasion of Gaza

And if you understand Danish and are a part of Facebook; Join this Facebook group