Israeli Geography 101 by David Rovics

Israeli Geography 101

(click here to listen and watch)

Netanyahu is in a tizzy, his eyes are filled with hate
He said the problem with those Arabs is they won't recognize a Jewish state
He said those Palestinians just won't come around
To accepting Jewish rule on their holy ground
He said the Arabs don't accept their new neighbors in the 'hood
Those ungrateful regimes don't respect us as they should
Well I don't want to upset anyone or to unduly take to task
But if a state wants recognition it seems reasonable to ask
Where are your borders drawn in black and white?
Do they include the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights?

I heard him speaking to the Congress, getting his 29th standing o
He said we need our security from those terrorists, don't you know
If you want security, I wonder if you'd say it's true
That the Palestinians should have security too
'Cause if you want security it seems only fair
That you should also grant it to the people over there
And maybe you could answer, though the question is a sin
Just where your country ends and your neighbors' lands begin
Tell me, where are your borders drawn in black and white?
Do they include the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights?

He said we're the only democracy in the Middle East
Or actually, he said, the only viable one at least
The PA isn't viable 'cause they didn't vote Abbas
They voted for those terrorists that they call Hamas
So we can't recognize them -- though we wish they would agree
That we stole their land quite fairly here by the Mediterranean Sea
We stole it fair and square -- we stole it just like you
If you don't like it you're an anti-Semite -- whether you're a Muslim or a Jew
OK, right. But tell me -- where are your borders drawn in black and white?
Do they include the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights?

Music & Lyrics by David Rovics

(pjesmu poslušajte na linku)

Revenge

Revenge

by Taha Muhammad Ali

At times ... I wish
I could meet in a duel
the man who killed my father
and razed our home,
expelling me
into a narrow country.
And if he killed me,
I'd rest at last,
and if I were ready -
I would take my revenge!

But if it came to light,
when my rival appeared,
that he had a mother
waiting for him,
or a father who'd put
his right hand over
the heart's place in his chest
whenever his son was late
even by just a quarter-hour
for a meeting they'd set -
then I would not kill him,
even if I could.

Likewise ... I
would not murder him
if it were soon made clear
that he had a brother or sisters
who loved him and constantly longed to see him.
Or if he had a wife to greet him
and children who
couldn't bear his absence
and whom his gifts would thrill.
Or if he had
friends or companions,
neighbors he knew
or allies from prison
or a hospital room,
or classmates from his school…
asking about him
and sending him regards.

But if he turned
out to be on his own -
cut off like a branch from a tree -
without a mother or father,
with neither a brother nor sister,
wifeless, without a child,
and without kin or neighbors or friends,
colleagues or companions,
then I'd add not a thing to his pain
within that aloneness -
not the torment of death,
and not the sorrow of passing away.
Instead I'd be content
to ignore him when I passed him by
on the street—as I
convinced myself
that paying him no attention
in itself was a kind of revenge.



DODATNI LINKOVI:
Palestina/Izrael:
B'Tselem's Human Rights in the Occupied Territories Annual Report (1 January 2009 to 30 April 2010)
In its planning policy in East Jerusalem, the Jerusalem Municipality severely violates the Palestinians' right to housing. One-third of the 70 square kilometers annexed to the city in 1967 were expropriated from Palestinian owners in order to build 12 settlements in which, at the end of 2008, almost 194,000 Jews lived. At the same time, Israeli governments and the Jerusalem Municipality have invested great efforts in limiting new Palestinian construction. They did this, in part, by not drawing up outline plans for the Palestinian neighborhoods; by classifying broad expanses of land as “green spaces” on which building is absolutely forbidden; by setting very low building percentages compared to those in the Jewish settlements in the city; and by imposing conditions for beginning the planning process that greatly increased the cost. Israel's policy results in a much higher housing density in Palestinian neighborhoods (11 square meters per person) than in Jewish areas (24 square meters per person). Lacking any real possibility to build lawfully, many residents built without a permit. In 2009, the Jerusalem Municipality demolished 48 buildings in East Jerusalem, in which 247 Palestinians lived, compared with 89 buildings in 2008, in which 404 Palestinians lived. In 2010, until the end of April, the Municipality did not demolish any houses in East Jerusalem.

What the Gaza flotilla probe reveals about Netanyahu, Barak, and Ashkenazi
The disparities between the accounts are not great. All three justified the maritime blockade of Gaza as a security necessity, intended to prevent arms smuggling. They said that the decision-making before the interception of the Turkish flotilla was reasonable and that the hitches were operational in nature, and they made an effort to defend the concept of army investigations and also to afford the soldiers and commanders immunity from criminal responsibility.

30 Italian organizations join Freedom Flotilla 2
30 talijanskih organizacija civilnog društva namjerava se priključiti Flotili slobode 2 (12. kolovoz 2010.)
Više od 30 organizacija civilnog društva i desetci uglednih osoba u Italiji odlučili su sudjelovati u Flotili slobode 2 koja do kraja ove godine namjerava pokušati probiti izraelsku blokadu Pojasa Gaze. Organizacije su oformile odbor koji će uspostaviti odnose između Europske kampanje za okončanje opsade Gaze, koja je jedan od organizatora flotile, i talijanske javnosti i održati niz sastanaka s talijanskim političarima na kojima će tražiti prekid nepravedne blokade Pojasa Gaze. U Europskoj kampanji tvrde da je do sada 10 000 ljudi iz Europe izrazilo želju da sudjeluje u ovoj Flotili slobode 2. Zbog velikog broja brodova i međunarodnih aktivista flotilu će pratiti i velik broj medija. Do sada je više od 35 medija izrazilo želju da s brodova prati predstojeći pokušaj proboja blokade. Organizatorima je cilj da što više medija bude na brodovima kako bi se lakše razotkrila moguća kršenja ljudskih prava aktivista od strane izraelskih vlasti.

Deadly Attack on the Freedom Flotilla Was the Breakthrough That Made the World See Israel's Cruelty in Gaza
The Freedom Flotilla was not able to deliver its 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip, but it accomplished something more important — it finally broke the blockade on the world's understanding of the Gaza crisis. The Israeli attack on the flotilla must be seen alongside the Israeli attack on Gaza in the winter of 2008-2009 as marking the period in which the world's understanding of the Israeli occupation irrevocably shifted. In this opening, the brutality of the Israeli occupation came into full view and the issue of Palestinian persecution was placed on op-ed pages and even legal briefs. In the end, these events may mark when the age of Israeli impunity came to an end. In a generational sense, Operation Cast Lead and the flotilla attack can be understood as the anti-1967 war. It was the 1967 war that helped solidify Israel's image in the eyes of the world, and in particular of American Jewry, as the scrappy underdog beating the odds. That image has now changed forever, and the ongoing siege of Gaza has caused many to consider what Zionism has built in the Middle East. The Goldstone report stands as the defining indictment of this era.

Gaza flotilla video mashup: Internet Killed Israeli PR

Mossad's Brodsky Too Hot for Germany to Handle
Germany decided that helping solve the al-Mabouh assassination was one potato that was too hot to handle when it released Mossad spy “Uri Brodsky” on bail and told him he could leave Germany immediately for Israel. The German 'cave' is breathtaking in its abjectness. I presume that Angela Merkel thinks she already has enough irons in the fire regarding the complexity of the EU-German relationship with Israel, that she wanted nothing to do with further complications like imprisoning a Mossad killer and getting to the bottom of the most breathtaking and doltish international assassination in recent years.

The Tears of Gaza Must Be Our Tears
You may have the bulldozers, planes and helicopters that smash houses to rubble, the commandos who descend from ropes on ships and kill unarmed civilians on the high seas as well as in Gaza, the vast power of the state behind you. We have only our hands and our hearts and our voices. But note this. Note this well. It is you who are afraid of us. We are not afraid of you. We will keep working and praying, keep protesting and denouncing, keep pushing up against your navy and your army, with nothing but our bodies, until we prove that the force of morality and justice is greater than hate and violence. And then, when there is freedom in Gaza, we will forgive ... you. We will ask you to break bread with us. We will bless your children even if you did not find it in your heart to bless the children of those you occupied. And maybe it is this forgiveness, maybe it is the final, insurmountable power of love, which unsettles you the most. And so tonight, a night when some seek to name names and others seek to hide names, let me do some naming. Let me call things by their proper names. Let me cut through the jargon, the euphemisms we use to mask human suffering and war crimes. “Closures” mean heavily armed soldiers who ring Palestinian ghettos, deny those trapped inside food or basic amenities—including toys, razors, chocolate, fishing rods and musical instruments—and carry out a brutal policy of collective punishment, which is a crime under international law. “Disputed land” means land stolen from the Palestinians. “Clashes” mean, almost always, the killing or wounding of unarmed Palestinians, including children. “Jewish neighborhoods in the West Bank” mean fortress-like compounds that serve as military outposts in the campaign of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. “Targeted assassinations” mean extrajudicial murder. “Air strikes on militant bomb-making posts” mean the dropping of huge iron fragmentation bombs from fighter jets on densely crowded neighborhoods that always leaves scores of dead and wounded, whose only contact with a bomb was the one manufactured in the United States and given to the Israeli Air Force as part of our complicity in the occupation. “The peace process” means the cynical, one-way route to the crushing of the Palestinians as a people.

I Rage

I rage

By Rassool Jibraeel Snyman

I rage
I rage
I rage
I rage against
The gods who let the world spin out of control
I rage against the system that deceives us
I rage against the machinery that destroys
Fed by silent people
Acquiescence
Apathy
And trickery
I rage because we should rage
And not be subdued
Or pacified
Or patronized
I rage against the system that watches with glee
As we tear ourselves to pieces
Become monsters that howl at the moon
With bared fangs
And steel claws
I rage because silence kills
I rage because a vote is sometimes
A death warrant
For someone somewhere

I rage
I rage
I rage because our instruments of peace
Have been co opted
Are skewed
Are unjust
And far less than peaceful
I rage because we resurrected Rome from the dead
And gave it powers
To kill
To maim
To create havoc
To veto peace
And turn us all into bloodthirsty beasts
I rage because the colour of my skin
Determines whether I am grieved for
Or ignored
Or blamed
For my own misery and death
I rage silently
I rage openly
I rage with my pen
I rage with my thoughts
I rage
I rage
I rage
I rage because we feel pity for the emperor
And none for the victims
Who litter the fields
Maimed
Brutalized
I rage because we are willfully blind
Consciously deaf
And grieve selectively
I rage at our hypocrisy
And false values
At our double speak
And undying
Unconditional
Love of Rome
Love of the emperor
Love of the slave master
Love of the whip
And love of our own humiliation
Degradation
and descent into bestiality

I rage
I rage
I rage
I rage because children die
Bullets fly
Because we kiss our sanity bye bye
Politicians deny
Because widows cry
Bling bling reflected in every eye
Should I fold my arms and sigh
No
No
No
No
No
I rage
I rage
I rage
I rage because I must
I rage because history
Is not changed by submissive men
Or silent men
But by angry men
Who rage at injustice
And spit in the faces of oppressors
And stand by their truths
Like mountains
Steadfast
Resolute

I rage
I rage
I rage
I rage
I rage
Till I revolt
And burn both palace and dungeon
Come brother
Sister
Mother
Daughter
Comrade
Friend
Give me your hand
Rage with me
The silence is deafening
Apathy kills
More insidiously than bullets
Let the drumbeat
Of justice
Pulsate deep within you
Let your blood boil like lava
And your anger like flames
Flare to the sun
Outshining it
Dwarfing it
For it is so that
Temples of vanity
Are burned to cinder
And power destroyed

I rage
I rage
I rage
I rage
I rage
Until justice is done
And the future of the child assured
Until peace is like the air we breathe
And the fields grow flowers of joy
Not whitened bones
Till the hills of Palestine
Are returned to their rightful owners
And the olive trees sing in the breeze
Symphonies of leaves and birds
Letters of peace
To a war weary people
In need of respite
Until every oppressor
Is harnessed
Fears the rage
Of the people
Until then I must rage
You must rage
We must rage
For perhaps it is through rage
That a better world will be born

(South Africa – January 20, 2009; "Tales of Extreme Sanity")

Nekoliko linkova za Palestinu/Izrael:
Salon Radio: Dr. Mustafa Barghouti on Israeli elections
Radio intervju s Dr. Mustafom Barghoutijem i transkript u cijelosti možete poslušati/pročitati na linku...
Lieberman is a fascist. But, in one way what you're saying is correct, that the only difference between Livni and Netanyahu is that we have two extremists, one with make-up and the other one without make-up. That's how I feel. That's the only difference. But at the same time, accepting the election of Netanyahu, and again accepting this move towards a person like Lieberman, is going to mean that Israel probably will have even larger license to kill Palestinians. During the war on Gaza, Israel conducted several very serious offenses against international law. They launched a war, they created this war, they started it, it wasn't Hamas that started it. They deliberately targeted civilians and killed 1,350 people, most of whom were civilians. They conducted and they still conduct collective punishment. They used illegal weapons like white phosphorus, DIME weapons and the "flashettes." And they prevented even care for the injured people and attacked medical facilities, including thirteen of doctors and nurses who were killed in the attack. And, not only did they use disproportionate force, but Ehud Olmert, the Prime Minister of Israel, comes out declaring - declaring, with full courage - that he is going to continue to use disproportionate force. And not only that he's violating the international law, he's declaring that's he's violating international law. And many world community leaders remain silent. This feeling of impunity is responsible for what is happening. ...

But at the end of the day the world has to see that Abbas and his group, Fatah, represent in the best case scenario only 25% of the Palestinian community. There's a third chunk - less than one third now is with him, one third is with Hamas, and another one third is with us, with people like us, with the democratic opposition in Palestine. And as long as certain countries insist to deal with only 25% of the Palestinian population, they will of course not create a situation where a Palestinian government is capable to develop. And this is an outcome of Israeli-dictated policy, which in my opinion does not want to see any strong leadership in Palestine, they don't want to see unified leadership, and then they can have the excuse and say we cannot have a peace process, because there isn't a leader who can deliver. ...

You are paying, the Americans, the American taxpayers, are paying Israel every rise of the sun every morning, $10 million - every day you pay to Israel, officially. If you count the amounts that American people donate to Israel, it's even larger than that. You're talking about Israel being the largest recipient of American aid money, although it is a rather developed country with a GDP income that is close to United States' income. And still, it is the largest recipient of military aid. It is the country that is allowed to market American military technology worldwide at costs that are less than American costs, so that it would make profits, and the United States has great leverage if it decides it wants to push Israel. ...

But, you see, to strengthen our line of non-violence, we need some different position from the international community. What happened during the war on Gaza was just shameful. They - not only the United States administration, but many, many world leaders simply violated the basic moral standards when they refused to criticize Israel, when they could not tell Israel enough is enough and slaughtering children is not a way of finding a solution. That's why I think, what I tell to my fellow citizens, is that our non-violent approach is the best way, and we're practicing this. But non-violence does not mean you surrender to your oppressors. Non-violence does not mean you give up your right to be free. Non-violence does not mean you become hostages of your occupier, as has happened to the Palestinian Authority under Abbas in the West Bank. That is the issue. Non-violence does not mean that Palestinian government should oppress its own people to prevent them from even non-violently expressing their views and their demands for freedom.

Slike palestinske djece za vrijeme i nakon izraelskog napada na Gazu
Snimio i objavio: Mohammed Fares El Majdalawi

Blog s člancima, akcijama i peticijama na engleskom o Gazi i Palestini/Izraelu.


Ostali linkovi:
Juan Cole: Top Ten Myths About Iraq, 2008
The major reason for the fall in the death toll, however, was that the Shiites won the war for Baghdad, ethnically cleansing hundreds of thousands of Sunnis from the capital, and turning it into a city with a Shiite majority of 75 to 80 percent. (When Bush invaded, Baghdad was about 50/50 Sunni and Shiite). The high death tolls in 2006 and 2007 were a by-product of this massive ethnic cleansing campaign. Now, a Shiite militiaman in Baghdad would have to drive for a while to find a Sunni Arab to kill.

Bush and his cronies must face a reckoning
It shows how the most senior figures in the Bush administration discussed, and sought legal fig leaves for, practices that plainly amounted to torture. They were techniques devised in a training programme known as Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape or SERE, that aimed to teach elite American soldiers how to endure torture should they fall into the hands of pitiless enemies. The SERE techniques were partly modelled on the brutal methods used by the Chinese against US prisoners during the Korean war. Yet Rumsfeld ruled that these same techniques should be "reverse engineered", so that Americans would learn not how to endure them - but how to inflict them. Which they then did, at Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib and beyond. The Senate report cites the memorandums requesting permission to use "stress positions, exploitation of detainee fears (such as fear of dogs), removal of clothing, hooding, deprivation of light and sound, and the so-called wet towel treatment or the waterboard". We read of Mohamed al Kahtani - against whom all charges were dropped earlier this year - who was "deprived of adequate sleep for weeks on end, stripped naked, subjected to loud music, and made to wear a leash and perform dog tricks". Approval for this kind of torture, hidden under the euphemism of "enhanced interrogation", was sought from and granted at the highest level. And that doesn't mean Rumsfeld. The report's first conclusion is that, on "7 February 2002, President George W Bush made a written determination that Common Article 3 of the Geneva conventions, which would have afforded minimum standards for humane treatment, did not apply to al-Qaida or Taliban detainees". The result, it says, is that Bush "opened the door" to the use of a raft of techniques that the US had once branded barbaric and beyond the realm of human decency.

The Noose Tightens
In early December, in a highly unusual move, a federal court in New York agreed to rehear a lawsuit against former Attorney General John Ashcroft brought by a Canadian citizen, Maher Arar. (Arar was a victim of the administration's extraordinary rendition program: he was seized by U.S. officials in 2002 while in transit through Kennedy Airport and deported to Syria, where he was tortured.) Then, on Dec. 15, the Supreme Court revived a lawsuit against Donald Rumsfeld by four Guantánamo detainees alleging abuse there—a reminder that the court, unlike the White House, will extend Constitutional protections to foreigners at Gitmo. Finally, in the same week the Senate Armed Service Committee, led by Carl Levin and John McCain, released a blistering report specifically blaming key administration figures for prisoner mistreatment and interrogation techniques that broke the law. The bipartisan report reads like a brief for the prosecution—calling, for example, Rumsfeld's behavior a "direct cause" of abuse. Analysts say it gives a green light to prosecutors, and supplies them with political cover and factual ammunition.