The Charade Announced: Latest Israeli No-Peace/Peace Talks for September - by Stephen Lendman

On August 21, Haaretz writer Natasha Mozgovaya headlined, "Israel, Palestinians accept US invitation to direct peace talks," saying:

They'll "restart direct talks on Sept. 2 in a modest step toward forging a peace deal within 12 months to create a Palestinian state and peacefully end one of the world's most intractable conflicts."

Another grand illusion is assured, fudged to look real. Henry Kissinger coined the phrase "constructive ambiguity," meaning to give negotiations an appearance of progress. For others, it's putting lipstick on a pig or how Edward Said described the Oslo Accords and Declaration of Principles, saying:

"the fashion-show vulgarities of the White House ceremony, the degrading spectacle of Yasser Arafat thanking everyone for the suspension of most of his people's rights, and the fatuous solemnity of Bill Clinton's performance, like a 20th century Roman emperor shepherding two vassal kings through rituals of reconciliation and obeisance, (and) the truly astonishing proportions of the Palestinian capitulation."

It was unilateral surrender, a Palestinian Versailles, affirming Israel's colonial agenda, giving the Palestinians nothing but the right to be Israel's enforcer. All major issues were deferred, including an independent Palestinian state, the right of return, the future of settlements, borders, water rights, and status of Jerusalem as sovereign Palestinian territory and future home of its capital.

Seventeen years later, they're still unresolved and won't be this time, another grand illusion planned, the same outcome assured - betrayal by unilateral surrender, or as much of it as Abbas dare give.

An earlier article titled, "Peace Process Hypocrisy: Stillborn from Inception," reviewed earlier efforts since the mid-1970s, quoting Netanyahu once calling the peace process "a waste of time," negotiating solely for Israeli dominance, the article accessed through the following link:

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/03/peace-process-hypocrisy-stillborn-from.html

Here we go again, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announcing on August 20 that on September 2, new talks will:

"re-launch direct negotiations to resolve all final-status issues which we believe we can complete in one year. There have been difficulties in the past; there will be difficulties ahead. Without a doubt, we will hit more obstacles. The enemies of peace will keep trying to defeat us and to derail these talks. But I ask the parties to persevere."

In November 2007, the last round in Annapolis got Electronic Intifada co-counder, Ali Abunimah, to compare it to a "big budget Broadway extravaganza; they go on for years, but with each revival the cast changes. What may seem like a tired production to some nevertheless manages to remain fresh to the gullible throngs willing to hand over the price of admission."

Again now, major issues won't be resolved. The conflict's root causes will be unaddressed, and failure will be papered over as success called the most able to be accomplished this time.

Stay tuned. Another round's coming, as futile as this one, the process bogus because Israel and Washington want conflict, not conciliation; photo-ops, not fulfillment; and promises, not a real equitable peace affording Palestinians the same rights as Jews, what millions of them demand, what no Israeli or US leader will give.

September 2010 - The Cast

Included are:

-- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's most extremist leader ever, a man who scorns peace and despises everything not Jewish - a despot, not a democratic peacemaker, determined to avoid it; a man who also publicly called attacking Iran his top priority; in other words, a man who feigns peace but plans war, saying in a statement that reaching a deal will be tough but possible, and that he's approaching the talks "with a genuine desire to reach a peace agreement between the two peoples that will protect Israel's national security interests, foremost of which is security." He said nothing about equity because he won't tolerate it nor will Washington.

-- Mahmoud Abbas, a usurper, not head of state, who (with Israel and Washington) deposed Palestine's democratic government and took over; a delegitimized coup d'etat leader whose presidential term expired on January 9, 2009, but hasn't called new elections; a man serving Israel's interests, not his people's.

-- Barack Obama, holding one-on-one talks with each leader separately on September 1, a man James Petras called "the Greatest Con-Man in Recent History," and "America's first Jewish President, (reflecting his) one-sided and longstanding commitment to the State of Israel and loyalty to" US Zionist power. Under him, like George Bush, Israel generally gets what it wants, Palestinians given quickly broken promises.

-- Hillary Clinton will host the first September 2 session, a woman derisive of peace; a war goddess who told ABC's Good Morning America on April 20, 2008 that:

"I want the Iranians to know that if I'm president, we will attack Iran. In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them," promising the equivalent of 12 holocausts against Iran's 70 million people.

Hamas leader and Palestine's elected Prime Minister Ismail Haniyah is absent, as he was in November 2007, the first time in memory that a legitimate peace partner was excluded from talks. Again now, and that's the problem. How can one side negotiate in good faith without a willing partner, Haniyah criticizing the new talks, saying "nothing has been achieved" to warrant them. His top priority is national reconciliation for all Palestinians before negotiations with Israel, knowing their history of futility.

Other day one attendees include:

-- Tony Blair, a reinvented war criminal, now the Quartet's special Middle East peacemaker representative, faking it like he did as prime minister; and

-- Egyptian despot/President/ Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's dictator/King Abdullah II, both reliably pro-Western, disdainful of Palestinians.

George Mitchell, US Special Middle East Peace Envoy said America's goal is "an agreement that will end the conflict for all time and will result in the establishment of a viable, democratic and independent state of Palestine living side by side in peace and security with Israel. We believe it can be done within a year and that is our objective," adding that subsequent sessions between the two sides will be held in the Middle East, the Washington opener a photo-op, kicking off the process. Asked what Hamas' role would be in the talks, he replied, "None."

Peace or Just Talk?

On August 20, New York Times writer Ethan Bronner suggested the latter, headlining,"In Mideast Talks, Scant Hopes From the Beginning," saying:

Though accepted by both sides, "just below the surface there was an almost audible shrug. There is little confidence - close to none - on either side that the Obama administration's goal of reaching a comprehensive deal in one year can be met," given the futility of trying for the past 35 years, an impossible task for one side with no credible partner.

As a result, "a resigned fatalism (pervades) the air," pitting an intransigent Netanyahu against a feckless Abbas, Al Quds University vice president Zakaria al-Qaq saying, "These direct negotiations are the option of the crippled and the helpless."

Israeli political writer, Nahum Barnea, is also skeptical, stating, "Most Israelis have decided that nothing is going to come out of it, that it will have no bearing on their lives. So why should they care?"

Former Israeli Labor Party and Meretz-Yachad politician, Yossi Beilin, believes "There is not a chance in the world that in a year - or two or three - peace can be achieved. The gap between the sides is too big. Netanyahu did not come to power to divide Jerusalem or find a solution (for) the Palestinian refugees."

Mahdi Abdul Hadi, Palestinians Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs scorned the new talks saying, "Abbas is naked before his whole community. Everyone knows that this Israeli government is not going to deliver anything," so why bother going through the charade, Palestinians expressing that view, head of the Palestinian stock exchange, Ahmad Aweidah saying:

"Peace process? What peace process? That's so nineties. After 18 years, don't they feel silly. There are only two scenarios. The optimistic one is more of the same. The pessimistic one is it's going to get worse."

According to Samir Hulileh, Palestine Development and Investment LTD (PADICO) CEO:

"We are the audience in a theatre. We have memorized the play so many times. It is repeated in different forms, and sometimes with different faces, but it's the same. We know the final outcome. We don't feel hope coming out of it."

Street comments included:

"There has been a lot of talk of peace, but we have seen no results. We no longer have hope."

"It's a failure from the outset. Negotiations in this way cannot lead to a state. We have no hope."

"Netanyahu will not give a thing, not in a year, not in years....the talks will never succeed."

They're both travesty and tragedy, the exclusion of one side and intransigency of the other assures failure. Like before, nothing new will be introduced, the deal always one-sided - capitulation, not resolution, assuring continued conflict because Netanyahu wants it, his way to blame the victims, absolving himself of high crimes, including promises he has no intention of keeping. Nor does Obama, "America's First Jewish President," his subterfuge too shallow to hide.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

Israeli Academic Freedom at Risk - by Stephen Lendman

Born in Haifa, the son of German-Jewish immigrants who fled during the Nazi period, noted historian Ilan Pappe left Israel in summer 2007, telling London Guardian writer Chris Arnot he began "feeling for a while like public enemy No. 1" for his anti-Zionist views and supporting a boycott against Israeli universities, saying:

"I supported (it) because I believe that without pressure, Israel will not end the occupation....I believe that things would change only if Israel receives a strong message that as long as the occupation continues it would not be a legitimate member of the international community, and that until then its academics, doctors and authors would not be welcome. A similar boycott was imposed on South Africa. It took 21 years, but it eventually led to the end of Apartheid."

Now chairing Britain's Exeter University's history department, he explained by the time he left, the Knesset publicly condemned him and Israel's education minister, Yuli Tamir, wanted him sacked.

In addition, death threats came by mail, email and phone, and his picture once appeared in Israel's "biggest-selling newspaper at the centre of a target," the caption reading: "I'm not telling you to kill this person, but I shouldn't be surprised if someone did."

An environment this hostile got him to leave, the same one today afflicting other Israeli academics, opposing policies they don't accept, nor should anyone respecting the rule of law, democratic freedoms, and equal justice, endangered species in Israel for Jews - non-existent for Occupied Palestinians and Israeli Arab citizens.

On August 17, a Haaretz editorial headlined "Politruks (Russian for political commissars) in academia," citing a report submitted by the extremist hard right Im Tirtzu movement to the Knesset and Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar wanting research prohibited unless it:

"complies with the winds blowing in the Knesset and the street....Evidently the report (wants to spread) fear in the universities, further deligitimizing Israeli intellectuals, and undermining" free expression, research and thought, Haifa University Rector/Professor Yossi Ben-Artzi calling it McCarthyist material academia must reject to stay credible.

On August 10, Haaretz writer or Kashti headlined, "Im Tirtzu threatens boycott of Israeli university over 'anti-Zionist' bias," saying:

It threatened Gen-Gurion University of the Negev President/Professor Rivka Carmi in July "to put an end to (its politics and government department) anti-Zionist tilt" or face a donor boycott and campaign to "advise political science students to stay away from the university." Im Tirtzu (IT) gave Carni one month to comply.

Heads of all Israeli universities responded saying:

"No Israeli university has to prove its staff's love of their homeland to any organization, and certainly not to a political one that is trying to present a tendentious, manipulative document as 'research' to advance its own public relations."

Ben-Gurion's Professor David Newman, a tireless Israeli academic boycott campaigner, said IT's threat is "a clear attempt to threaten the university in an era of diminishing financial resources," calling its accusations "very far from the truth."

IT charged 11 permanent faculty members for their "radical left-wing" political activities, six for signing a letter supporting refusal to serve in the military, and two research fellows for their "anti-Zionist worldview." Professor Neve Gordon was included for advocating a "social, economic and political boycott of Israel."

In addition, IT called the department's course syllabi heavily (tilted) toward "anti-national and anti-Zionist content," adding:

The department's large number of "anti-Zionist" faculty "arouses grave suspicions that the main basis for acceptance into and promotion within the department is not professional, but political."

Further, Carni was accused of "apathy that has enabled an academic dictatorship to overpower academic freedom."

Ben-Gurion University didn't respond directly, but called the accusations "scandalous," saying they violate "everything that is sacred to academia. The very act of responding to (Im Tirtzu) would give this right-wing organization legitimacy." It deserves condemnation instead.

On August 19, Haaretz writer Or Kashti headlined, "Right-wing groups join forces to fight 'anti-Zionist bias' in Israeli academia," saying:

Besides Im Tirtzu (IT), Institute for Zionist Strategies (IZS) founding chairman, Israel Harel, "recently drafted a report that accused academic institutions of propagating 'post-Zionist bias' in their sociology departments....The campaign....by the two groups has evoked a firestorm of criticism from educators and university administrators," the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities stating:

"In a democratic state, we must vigorously defend with all available means the independence of academic institutions. As such, we cannot accept attempts by external and foreign bodies to intervene in appointing faculty members, determining curricula, and the manner in which material is taught."

Democratic freedoms have greatly eroded under Netanyahu's extremist government, including by the Knesset's proposed Loyalty Oath bill, requiring all Israeli citizens, including Israeli Arabs, swear allegiance to a "Jewish, Zionist, and democratic State," its emblems and values, and perform military or civic service as a condition for a national identity card signifying citizenship.

On July 20, Israel's cabinet approved it, Netanyahu praising a way to maintain Israel's "Jewish and democratic character." The Israeli Association for Civil Rights condemned it, calling it "racist (and) dangerous." The Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel said it would impede family reunifications and pressure non-Jews to support Zionism, effectively renouncing their heritage by doing so.

Other human rights groups and independent observers call Netanyahu's government Israel's most extremist ever, governing far to the right of center, partnered with Yisrael Beitenu, Israel's ultra-right party under Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, an untranationalist/revisionist Zionist, a man Haaretz called "unrestrained and irresponsible."

A July 18 Haaretz editorial called the loyalty oath "an attempt to light a societal fuse," saying forced allegiance amounts to "tarring several large communities with disloyalty (unjustly) and opening a dangerous channel for revoking citizenship," repressively and arbitrarily, "though that may be precisely what a number of coalition lawmakers would like most."

It may also target dissident academics, Jewish ones, unwilling to pledge loyalty to lawless Israeli practices or relinquish their right to condemn them - to freely express opinions, bedrock democratic values, without fear of recrimination, including loss of citizenship.

Expressing concern, Tel Aviv University's Professor David S. Katz said "we are entering a McCarthyite phase - and I do not exaggerate....There is legislation being discussed that would limit freedom of expression in universities. The education minister has expressed satisfaction with a report that looks at the course content of professors, sniffing out 'anti-Zionist' ideology. The Knesset Education Committee (backs it). It is very bad indeed, and the universities have done little to reject this, apart from" Haifa University Rector Yossi Ben-Artzi, "who was very forthcoming."

Many academics are at risk, like Tel Aviv University's Rachel Giora for strongly supporting the Global BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) movement, backing Palestinian liberation, and being vocally critical of Israeli lawlessness. Others like her include Hebrew University Professor Nurit Peled-Elhannan, peace activist recipient of the Sakharov Prize for Human Rights and Freedom of Speech, and one of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine's founders.

Also Professor Jeff Halper, co-founder and Coordinating Director of the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions (ICAHD) who's organized and led nonviolent direct protests and civil disobedience against Israel's repressive occupation.

Ben-Gurion University Professor Neve Gordon got death threats for supporting BDS, more still for criticizing the Gaza Flotilla massacre, saying "When I walk on campus people ask in jest if I am wearing a bullet proof vest." Regarding loyalty, he says "the appropriate chant is not 'No citizenship without loyalty!' but rather 'Loyalty to every citizen!' "

He and many others defend speech and academic freedoms, hundreds of professors petitioning against Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar intention to punish university lecturers and institutions for freely using them, stating:

"If the higher education system in Israel wants to maintain a high quality, it must also include opinions that are not acceptable to everyone, social and political criticism, and critical and even controversial research and instruction....We have different and varied opinions about solving the difficult problems facing Israel, but there is one thing we are agree on - freedom of expression and academic freedom are the very lifeblood of the academic system."

State measures subverting them violate core democratic principles, inviolable ones essential to defend, preserve, and challenge anyone acting against them.

Among those signing were Haifa University Rector Professor Ben Artzi, Israel Prize laureates Professors Benjamin Isaac and Yehoshua Kolodny, and former education minister, Professor Yuli Tamir. Netanyahu's extremist government opposes them, intolerant of internal opposition, even scholars, intellectuals, and universities demanding speech and academic freedoms.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

Israel's Bogus Construction Moratorium - by Stephen Lendman

Promises made, then broken. Promise peace. Wage war and daily violence throughout the Territories. Announce a settlement construction halt. Keep building, the promised pause (not a freeze) never observed despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's December 8 announced moratorium saying:

"I hope that this decision will help launch meaningful negotiations to reach a historic peace agreement that would finally end the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians," what he relentlessly pursues, spurning resolution for an equitable, just peace, wanting surrender, not conciliation on equal terms, what he'll never agree to or accept.

Despite announcing "a suspension of new permits and new construction in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) for a period of ten months," construction never stopped. Israel's land grab continues. Thousands of new units have been approved, New York Times writer Ethan Bronner, on July 14, headlining, "Despite Settlement Freeze, Buildings Rise," saying:

"....an examination of the freeze after more than seven months suggests that it amounts to something less significant, at least on the ground. In many West Bank settlements, building is proceeding apace. Dozens of construction sites with scores of Palestinian workers are active."

Why? Because "cheating has occurred (and other units were) grandfathered in" to proceed. In addition, huge approval increases preceded Netanyahu's announcement, enough to continue construction unabated, though at a slower pace.

Another promise, another lie like the bogus peace process and claims about regional threats, Israel posing the only one, what everyone knows but won't say.

Peace Now.org (PN) on Israel's Bogus Moratorium

PN "is the leading voice of Israeli public pressure for peace....with over 10,000 members from the Middle East and around the world." On August 8, it launched a anti-settlement campaign, saying:

It's Israel's moment of truth, its "choice between hope and despair; between settlements and the peace process....between international isolation and global support....choosing settlements over peace will have a destructive impact on public support...."

Eight months into the announced moratorium, PN assessed its non-enforcement, explaining:

-- construction began on 600 or more housing units in 60 separate settlements, including 223 permanent structures and 167 caravans or semi-permanent projects;

-- at least 492, announced on the eve of the pause, are in "direct violation," plus another 112 granted since December 8;

-- during an average previous eight-month period, construction on about 1,130 housing units began; and

-- currently, about 2,000 units are being built, most begun before the December 2009 announced pause.

"This means that on the ground, there is almost no freeze or even a visible slowdown, despite the fact that legal construction starts have been prohibited for eight months. It also means that....Israel is not enforcing the moratorium."

Included are small scale and much larger projects, involving dozens of units. For example, 180 have been built in Modiin Ilit, midway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and another 40 in Givat Ze'ev, northwest of Jerusalem, one of the largest settlements with an estimated 10,800 population, a virtual small town.

In addition, other projects broke ground for their infrastructure, including 62 Barkan units in the northern West Bank, about 100 in Neriya, and 60 in Shaarei Tikvah. In total, 16 settlements have large-scale violations, many others smaller ones.

In the past decade, an average 1,700 new housing units were built annually, plus others built illegally. The settlement pause (never a freeze, a word Netanyahu never used)) excluded construction begun before it began. It will expire in October. Unless maintained and enforced, it will perpetuate the peace and conciliation lie, one persisting for decades. The names and faces change. The fraud and deceit remain.

Ending the moratorium in October will amount to another "meaningless, several month delay," nothing more. Continuing construction "cast doubt from the start" on Israel's true intentions. Say one thing, do another, standard practice in its quest for regional hegemony, a Greater Israel, and Jewish only exclusively, one settlement expansion and bulldozed home at a time.

Also Palestine's historic Mamilla cemetery in Jerusalem, its previously untouched graves with roots from the 7th century, Israel's Religious Affairs Ministry (in 1948) recognizing it as "one of the most prominent Muslim cemeteries, where Muslim scholars and seventy thousand Muslim warriors" led by Saladin, the first Egyptian Ayyubid Sultan/ opposition leader against the Franks and other Levant European Crusaders, recaptured Jerusalem in the Battle of Hattin. "Israel will always protect and respect this site." Another promise, another broken.

The plan now calls for Jewish developments to destroy it along with thousands of Palestinian homes and property, Judaization to replace them. The process continues relentlessly, including the Separation Wall, closed military zones, Jewish only infrastructure, and seized Palestinian farmland - to establish "irreversible facts on the ground," putting a lie to serious peace and reconciliation efforts, ideas not in Israel's vocabulary and practically obscene for Netanyahu, a man who abhors everything not Jewish.

Peace Now stands opposed, saying a settlement moratorium is "for Israel's own best interests, regardless of what is happening, or not happening, with regards to Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. (It wants it) extended with no more game-playing....without adding any new exceptions or loopholes, (including) enforcement to stop settlers who" keep building illegally. "Otherwise, the entire debate....is little more than empty words," another Israeli specialty.

Some Final Comments

In a July 23 address in Canada, Palestinian National Initiative founder Dr. Mustafa Barghouti assessed reality today in Palestine, saying:

For over six decades, Israeli apartheid, worse than South Africa's, has persecuted and dispossessed Palestinians for decades. How else can you describe a system under which "Israel controls more than 85 per cent of" Palestine's water, letting settlers use "48 times more than us," where Israeli incomes are 26 times greater than Palestinians, and they're obliged to pay inflated Israeli prices "because of (policy and) an imposed tax."

"We even....pay double" for electricity and water, but don't get enough. After 43 years of occupation, "most of our (West Bank) roads....have been confiscated (and) segregated," used exclusively for Jews, Arabs on them arrested, imprisoned for seven years or shot by trigger-happy soldier or settlers with immunity to commit murder.

The Separation Wall is stealing 12% of the West Bank, depriving Palestinians of their land and freedom, destroying their economy, health system and education.

A woman "stand(s) on the roof of her two-floor building in Bethlehem," her house "surrounded by the wall from all directions." The Israeli military prohibits her going there anymore, saying "she needs a permit" henceforth for her own property.

"I am a medical doctor....I practiced medicine for 15 years in Jerusalem. I was born in Jerusalem. But (for the past) five years, I'm forbidden, like most Palestinians, from entering Jerusalem even with a permit. (It's) horrifying." West Bank husbands and Jerusalem wives can't live in the city together, and if she stays in her husband's residence, she'll lose her Jerusalem citizenship.

"What is apartheid?" It's "when you have two different sets of laws for two different people living in the same area." Jews from Brooklyn or Siberia get immediate Israeli citizenship on arrival to live anywhere in Israel or West Bank or Jerusalem settlements. "If this is not apartheid, then what is....?

Today's horrors negate Jewish suffering by the Nazis, Russian pogroms, the Inquisition or at other times. Before 1948 for decades, Palestine was, in fact, a safe haven for Jews who lived peacefully with Muslims and Christians in harmony, before Zionists wanted it all for themselves.

Trouble then began and never ended. Gaza is repressively besieged. West Bank Palestinians and Jerusalemites are virtually imprisoned by the Wall, checkpoints, permit restrictions, and total military control - a free and open system for Jews, an apartheid one for Palestinians denying them all rights oppressively, by wars, daily violence, home demolitions, land seizures, dispossessions, mass arrests, torture, and death.

The struggle isn't between "two equal sides, and one cannot continue to equate between the Israelis and Palestinians as if this is just a struggle between (them) that cannot find a way to talk" and deal with each other peacefully. It's "a struggle between" an oppressor and the oppressed, "between the culture of power and the power of culture, (our) vision....values, (and) humanity."

Nonviolence doesn't mean "non-struggle. (It) means struggling for your rights. (It's) about not giving in or giving up, not giving up our dignity, even in the most difficult times....They can imprison us...torture us...shoot us, but they can't....take away....our dignity" and determination. "We've learned how not to give up. (We know) resilience." That spirit defies oppression, occupation, injustice and always will, what Israeli might can't ever destroy. "Please don't be silent." Stand with us proudly.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

Palestine: Occupied, Divided, Isolated, Oppressed and Unaided - by Stephen Lendman

Imagine the following:

You're ruthlessly oppressed in an occupied country under a system of institutionalized racism, affording rights solely to Jews. You have no recognized nation, no right of citizenship, no democratic freedoms or civil liberties, including no power over your daily life.

You live in constant fear, collectively punished, politically denied, and economically strangled in a continuing cycle of violence. Military orders deny free expression and movement, enclose population centers, close borders, and impose curfews, checkpoints, roadblocks, separation walls, electric fences, dispossessions, land seizures, and domination over all aspects of life under draconian military orders like the following:

-- No. 92 giving Israel control of all West Bank and Gaza water;

-- No. 158 stipulating that Palestinians can't construct water installations without (nearly impossible to get) permit permission and those built will be confiscated or demolished;

-- No. 1015 requiring Palestinians get permission to plant trees on their own land;

-- No 128 authorizing the IDF to take over any Palestinian business not open during regular business hours;

-- No. 107 prohibiting Arabic grammar, Crusades history and Arab nationalist publications;

-- No. 101 banning gatherings of more than 10 people without advance notice with names of participants;

-- Nos. 811 and 847 letting Jews buy land from Palestinian owners with or without their consent;

-- No. 998 requiring Palestinians get permission to withdraw funds from their bank accounts;

-- No. 818 authorizing how Palestinians can plant decorative flowers;

-- No. 329 preventing the right of return; and

-- Nos. 1649 and 1650 turning all West Bank residents (including native born ones) potentially into "infiltrators," making them vulnerable to deportation, fines or imprisonment without IDF-issued permits.

Overall, your land is occupied, communities isolated, homes invaded, friends and relatives arrested, neighborhoods attacked, homes bulldozed, land stolen, fields uprooted and burned, businesses closed, and livelihoods denied. You're impoverished, unemployed, starved, tortured, murdered, punitively taxed and fined, and demonized for being Muslims in a Jewish state. You endure it daily on your own unaided, yet you go on, hoping others later will do better.

Separation - A Dominant Aspect of Daily Life

The Gisha Legal Center for Freedom of Movement promotes, defends and protects the right of free movement, "guaranteed by international and Israeli law," yet denied Palestinians under a draconian "system of rules and sanctions," restricting the lives of millions in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

As a result, their basic rights are violated, including the right to life, to access medical care, to education, to livelihood, to family unity, and to freedom of religion.

Gisha's new Safe Passage (SP) spg.org web site shows what's "not new and not 'internal' or 'geographical,' but rather intentional, about the separation of Gaza and the West Bank," Israel's draconian control over daily life.

In May, SP examined the affect on families and trade, including legal obligations under international and Israeli laws, spurned with impunity.

Family Separation

Since September 2000 (the start of the second Intifada), travel throughout the Territories (especially between Gaza and the West Bank) has been restricted or denied, notably after Israel's imposed siege. As a result, visiting relatives, pursuing education, accessing medical care, or living normally is virtually impossible, particularly for Gazans wanting to reach the West Bank. "The policy is taking a heavy personal toll on women, men and children, (since) many families have close relatives living in both areas."

ID card addresses affect normal life, including for West Bank natives identified as Gazans, making them subject to dispossession and deportation, separating them from families, husbands from wives, children from a parent, and friends from neighbors - because Israel controls the process, the Palestinian registry, and remains hardline.

Since 1990, Gaza-born Samir Abu Yusef has lived in Qalqilya in the northwestern West Bank. He's a carpenter, married with four children, yet in early 2008 was arrested entering Israel and deported because of his ID card address.

For over two years, he was separated from his family causing immense anguish and hardships, including financial ones. His application to return home was denied because he didn't observe Israel's permit criteria. His wife and children also couldn't visit him for the same reason.

Gisha petitioned Israel's High Court of Justice (HCJ) on his behalf and succeeded, reuniting him with his family in March, Samir saying months earlier:

"Two years have passed since I saw my children. I yearn to touch them, to watch them grow up, to hug them....It's very hard (being) away from them....The holiday season is the hardest time....On the holiday, I stay alone in my room and cry....What have my children done to deserve such a terrible punishment - to live without a father?"

Thousands of others in the West Bank fear the same fate - arbitrary removal, so they restrict their movements, fearing arrest at a checkpoint or by military patrols and deportated.

Gaza-born Ahmed Alul, a Tulkarm resident since 1996, visited his parents and family in Gaza in April 2001. He was then prevented from returning, his wife Samar saying how hard it is "to raise two boys by myself. I am both father and mother to them....no one can (replace their) father."

Unlike most countries and all civilized ones, Palestinians are denied free movement. As a result, Gazan men and women with West Bank spouses can't reunite to be together, yet Israel lets West Bank and East Jerusalem residents move to Gaza, but not return - an option risking livelihoods, land, homes, and family support networks, one few wish to choose.

West Bank-born Gazans face an impossible choice. They can stay with their spouse, detached from West Bank families, or return and be separated from wives or husbands who can't leave. The toll for many is unbearable, living half lives not whole ones.

If allowed, leaving Gaza involves hardships even in extreme cases, such as battered or divorced wives or widows seeking West Bank shelter with parents or other family members. Travel restrictions between the Territories are so strict, that it's easier for Gazans to meet family members abroad than internally, despite the difficulties reaching Egypt through Rafah.

Even Gazans managing to do it can't enter the West Bank via the Allenby Bridge (on the Jordanian side) to reunite with families. Mohammed Abu Aishah's case is tragic. Born in Jordan, his family moved to the West Bank when he was eight, yet his ID card address is Gaza even though he never lived there, because it was his mother's original address.

In February 2007, he visited his brother in Gaza, couldn't leave for over two years, got to Egypt through Rafah, and from there to Jordan. Yet he was denied entry to the West Bank and now lives under impoverished conditions, age 22, "with no future, no profession, no livelihood, no roof over my head. For three years I've (tried) to survive another day."

According to international accords Israel signed, West Bank and Gaza residents live in a single territorial entity. Yet Israel's separation policy creates "an almost impenetrable barrier," disrupting families, including husbands from wives, parents from children, siblings from each other, and friends from neighbors and community ties - in violation of international law and common decency.

Legal Implications of Family Separation

As an occupying power, Israel is required to ensure proper functioning of public life and institutions, including protection and welfare of families. The High Court of Justice (HCJ), in fact, affirmed these obligations because Israel control's Gaza's borders and occupies the West Bank, the populations dependent after decades of military control.

In addition, the Oslo Accords committed Israel to recognize Gaza and the West Bank as a single territorial entity in which free movement (notably safe passage) was allowed between the two by private vehicles or buses through Israel. Crossing permits were required but didn't require residency in either area exclusively.

Yet military orders or regulations separate families, creating inducements to move to Gaza and stay. Family visits, including between spouses, are prohibited, except under specially allowed humanitarian circumstances rarely granted. In addition, Israel now arrests West Bank residents with Gaza addresses, removing them by force. Also, strict criteria restrict Gazans from reuniting with family members in the West Bank, those returning removed by force.

"Understanding this policy requires understanding control over the Palestinian population registry," ostensibly given the Palestinian Authority (PA) under Oslo on these terms:

The PA must "inform Israel of every change in its population registry, including, inter alia, any change in the place of resident of any resident."

Nonetheless, Israel usurped control, treating PA address change notifications as a request it can approve or deny. As a result, since 2000, Israel refused to register them for Gazans who moved to the West Bank. Palestinians relocating thus had no way to record the change. At the same time, West Bank residents with Gaza IDs must get "staying permits" (rarely granted) to remain.

To quality, they must have entered the West Bank before 2000, be married to a resident there, have children, and demonstrate exceptional humanitarian circumstances.

Israel then prohibited Palestinians with Gaza addresses from traveling to the West Bank to reunite with families, except under "extraordinary restrictive circumstances."

Its policy states that family separation alone isn't a qualifying factor, effectively banning reunifications, even for parents and children, spouses, and siblings, with these exceptions:

-- children under 16 seeking reunification with a surviving parent;

-- elderly invalids needing help from a first degree West Bank relative; and

-- chronically ill people needing assistance from a first degree West Bank relative.

Even then, Gazans must prove they have no local relatives to provide care. Only then may they get temporary permits for up to seven years before being able to request an address change. However, if the humanitarian need expires before the permit, it's rescinded. If all conditions are met, Israel conducts a security check before deciding whether or not to grant permission. As a result, "family reunification is nearly impossible." For example:

-- a very young Gazan girl would be prohibited from reuniting with her West Bank mother if any Gaza relative can care for her; if not, hard to get special permission would be required;

-- a elderly invalid would be refused permission to be cared for by a West Bank niece because she's not a first degree relative; if one is there, the applicant must prove no one can provide assistance in Gaza; and

-- if all qualifications are met and permission granted, permits would be rescinded if the humanitarian need expires.

Other obstacles also exist, including the requirement for the Palestinian Civil Affairs Office Director-General to personally transmit requests to the military. In addition, if families are divided between the Territories, West Bank members are prohibited from visiting others in Gaza unless they waive their right to return.

Separation Policy's Damaging Affect on Trade between Gaza and the West Bank

Before closure, Gaza and the West Bank comprised single territorial entity, letting goods produced in one area be sold in the other, some (now destroyed) Gaza factories earning most of their revenue from West Bank sales.

However, during the 1990s, Israel imposed restrictions, to advantage its own companies over Palestine's. By late 2006, trade had markedly declined, and with Gaza under siege, virtually all its exports are prohibited, only limited amounts entering, including minimal amounts of essential to life items.

Excluded are medical equipment, all kinds of spare parts, construction materials, and basic items like books, wheelchairs, pens and pencils, shoes, cleaning and hygiene products to bring the Strip to its knees, induce malnutrition, illness, and systemic hardship for 1.5 million people - in gross violation of international law.

In mid-June, modest easing was announced, though hardly enough to matter, and it won't help the West Bank. Prior to closure, dealers earned a living selling goods in Gaza at affordable prices. Afterwards things changed, restricting items to a limited few, and imposing an expensive, lengthy, uncertain process to operate.

West Bank goods must be bought remotely, without checking for quality, then await permit permission to import them, provide storage, and coordinate with Palestinians and Israeli truck drivers for transportation through Israel to the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.

About 12 days are needed, costing over $2,000 per truck, plus storage costs and the possibility that distribution will be impeded or denied, forcing longer storage, lost sales and spoilage.

Previously, Gaza merchants could travel between the areas freely, selecting goods prior to buying them. No longer, and crippled Gazan industries can't compensate. As a result, unemployment and impoverishment skyrocketed to some of the highest levels globally, making Gazans dependent on humanitarian aid to survive, never enough because Israel restricts amounts and excludes most items, including essential ones.

Unsurprisingly, Gaza - West Bank business relationships have deteriorated, each cut off from the other, one Gaza farmer/fruit and vegetable dealer saying:

"In 2000, I used to export 10 - 12 tons of vegetables to the West Bank every day....Now I....can't export a thing. I had 1.2 acres of land where I grew guavas, among the best (in the Strip). They used to say that someone with a guava orchard is like a king, because they could be exported to the West Bank. Now, guavas mean a loss - the market has completely disappeared....I'm broken inside."

The few remaining Gaza businesses suffer huge losses, and most factories were either destroyed or shut down because West Bank raw material imports are prohibited. As long as the siege continues, a productive economy is impossible. So is earning a living, even one modest enough to survive and support a family.

The announced "economic peace" skipped Gaza, the World Bank saying:

"The West Bank and Gaza are now almost completely delinked, with Gaza starkly transformed from a potential trade route to a walled hub of humanitarian donations."

Besides their damaged societies and economies, the Gaza - West Bank disconnect destroys the possibility of unifying Palestine, the World Bank adding:

"(T)he strategic goal of an economically viable Palestinian state is achievable only if Gaza and the West Bank are maintained as an integral economic entity," what Israel prevents, keeping Gazans under siege and West Bank communities confined to Bantustans, isolated in the Territory's least valued areas, hoping they'll wither, perish or leave, transforming all Palestine into a greater Israel, exclusively for Jews, pressuring Israeli Arabs to comply, move, or be forced out.

A Final Comment

Phillip Weiss and Adam Horowitz blog on Mondoweiss on Israel/Palestine and Middle East issues daily. A July 18 entry related the distaste some Jews have for Arabs, one man saying they're guests as long as they behave. Another called them stinking Arabs ("aravim masrichim"). A third hoped the next war would drive them out because they're the modern incarnation of Amalek, the enemy of God and the Jews, and still another said "We like to be with people who think like we do."

Settlers are especially hostile, notably religious extremists believing they're chosen, Israel given them by God, the Messiah's reemergence imminent once it's entirely gotten, the "infidels" driven out.

With that mindset, American support, and a complicit world community, prevailing is a formidable task, yet achievable with enough tenacity to persist. If Palestinians are committed, can global activists do less and be true to their ethics, principles, honor, and resolve to demand equal justice, self-determination and peace.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

Impact of Israeli Military Order No. 1650 - by Stephen Lendman

Located at the European University Institute (EUI), the Robert Schuman Center for Advanced Studies (RSCAS) conducts "inter-disciplinary and comparative research (on) major issues facing the process of integration and European society."

Prepared by Asem Khalil, its new report is titled, "Impact of Israeli Military Order No. 1650 on Palestinians' Rights to Legally Reside in Their Own Country," accessed through the following link:

http://cadmus.eui.eu/dspace/bitstream/1814/14401/1/CARIM_ASN_2010_46.pdf

Taking effect in April 2010, it defined all West Bank residents as "infiltrators" (including native born ones), requiring they get IDF-issued permits.

Order No. 1650 (Prevention of Infiltration) and Order No. 1949 (Security Provisions) were issued in October 2009 as amendments to a 1969 Order No. 329 (Order regarding Prevention of Infiltration), declaring "infiltrator" state enemies from Jordan, Syria, Egypt and Lebanon would be imprisoned and/or deported.

Potentially, all West Bank and East Jerusalemites risk dispossession and expulsion, part of Israel's longstanding policy to seize all parts of Palestine it wishes, removing indigenous Arabs from their homeland illegally, controlling those remaining under an oppressive apartheid system critics call worse than South Africa's with good reason.

It's a sophisticated form of social, economic, political and racial discrimination, strangulation, and genocide, incorporating the worst elements of colonialism and apartheid as well as repressive dispossession, displacement, and state terrorism to separate Palestinians from their land and heritage, deny them their civil and human rights, and gradually remove or eliminate them altogether.

Apartheid is the worst form of racism, Israel's militarized occupation its most extreme form, incorporating violence, military incursions, land theft, home demolitions, targeted assassinations, indiscriminate murder, mass arrests, torture, destruction of agricultural land, and isolation - measures amounting to slow-motion genocide, including suffocating Gazans under siege.

Military Order No. 1650 amended Order No. 329 (1969), the latter's 10 sections including sentencing armed and unarmed infiltrators, deporting them, evidence, unlawful stay after permit expirations, and obtaining them under false pretenses.

Order 1650 has nine sections, updating nearly all of Order 329, the latter defining an infiltrator as "a person who entered the Area knowingly and unlawfully after having been present (on) the east bank of the Jordan, Syria, Egypt or Lebanon following the effective date."

The new order calls an infiltrator "a person who entered the Area unlawfully following the effective date, or a person who is present in the Area and does not lawfully hold a permit."

Since "knowingly" no longer applies, document irregularities make anyone an infiltrator, subject to expulsion, fines or imprisonment, Israel potentially criminalizing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians as illegals in their home country, unimaginable virtually anywhere else in the world. The new Order corrupts the rule of law, placing all Palestinians at risk. Specifically:

-- any Palestinian without an IDF-issued permit is presumed to be an infiltrator;

-- the order's language is broad and vague, giving the military wide discretion;

-- this action was handled secretly;

-- it violates Fourth Geneva's Article 49 prohibiting:

"Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country...."

-- the military may prosecute, imprison, and/or deport anyone called an infiltrator without judicial review;

-- deportations may be executed within 72 hours of order issuances or sooner, and those affected may be imprisoned until deported;

-- individuals first affected may be Palestinians Israel wishes to transfer to Gaza, even those born in the West Bank or legally relocated there;

-- foreign passport-holding spouses of West Bank residents abroad are likely to be targeted; tens of thousands are affected;

-- foreign nationals called infiltrators may be jailed for up to seven years; and

-- potentially the entire West Bank/East Jerusalem population is vulnerable.

Regulating Residency Status

The term "resident" was first used in Military Order No. 65 on August 18, 1967, referring to those having permanent residency in the "Area." Subsequent Orders applied the term to permanent residents "legally" present, dependent on their having been counted in the September 1967 census. Others became immediately "illegal" for lacking lawful documentation. Henceforth to stay, they needed permits and Israeli authorization to work and engage in commercial activities. As a result, many Palestinians were fined, imprisoned or deported.

Those registered (counted) became candidates for ID numbers, strictly regulated by other Orders, including No. 297 (1969), requiring "males over 16 years old" have an ID card always on their presence to show on demand. Females over 16 were "permitted" to request them.

As later amended, they contained name, address, date of birth, gender, religion, nationality, spouse's name, names and gender of children, and their dates of birth. Order 1206 (1987) issued ID cards to children at birth, their registration linked to mothers, not fathers, perhaps for the greater chance that they were non-residents so authorities could deport them with their parent, Israel having final say. As a result, many children of non-resident parents may be denied registration at the whim of the official in charge.

Regulating Population Access and Exit

In 1967, Palestinians living outside Occupied Palestine and those who fled, can't return, the determinant being residency based on Israel's census. Those counted can stay. Others cannot without prior authorization. Those there "illegally" became aliens in their own land, hundreds of thousands displaced (called nazeheen) as a result.

Consider Israel's logic:

-- Area residents can be readmitted through borders;

-- qualifying requires being counted in Israel's census; yet

-- to be included depended on Area residency at the time it was taken.

Those absent lost it and couldn't return to be counted and registered. As a result, many became stateless. Luckier ones got temporary legal stays abroad, then became unlawful once their authorization expired, yet couldn't return to Palestine.

"Stateless Palestinians, Palestinian refugees, and those denied reentry became 'illegal' and 'unlawful' - and accordingly undesired - wherever they found themselves, no matter what they did."

Thereafter, their very existence became suspect, whether in host countries or the Territories. They were trapped in a no man's land of illegitimacy. Even "legal" residents weren't secure, their status dependent on satisfying whatever conditions Israel imposed.

Residency alone doesn't assure legal status; that is, the "right to have rights," what citizens of other countries enjoy. Israeli military orders explicitly state what non-residents cannot do without authorization. For example, they can't open, manage or work in any commercial activity with permit permission, "implying what Israel will tolerate residents doing without prior authorization. The fact that they are able to do certain things means that their freedom is not a right." Rather, it's what authorities grant.

As a result, restrictions may be imposed at any time for any reason, "even without the explicit suspension of the margins of actions tolerated for legal residents." For Palestinians, status isn't an entitlement or a right, making them vulnerable to lose residency at the whim of Israeli officials, what happened to many for "political" or "security" reasons. Others were denied reentry when they exceeded their alloted time abroad abroad or if their travel document expired while there.

Departure through Israel's airport requires a "Laissez Passer," requiring renewal within a year. Otherwise residency status is automatically revoked. Palestinians exiting through Jordan's Allenby Bridge crossing faced the same fate if staying abroad more than six years.

After the Oslo Accords, Palestinians could get a Palestinian Authority (PA) travel document, valid for three years. However, thousands who lost their ID cards before Oslo were considered non-residents, prohibited from entering the Area without (Israeli-issued) permits as visitors, or in some cases, a newly issued ID number if family unification was granted.

As occupier, Israel holds "supreme power" over borders and internal movement, for both residents and non-residents alike.

Family Unification

Those not "legally" registered can only obtain residency status through family unification, what's extremely hard to get. Otherwise, they need visitor permits for temporary stays, filed indirectly through relatives. Affected persons include:

-- Palestinians present but not counted in the 1967 census;

-- those the war displaced;

-- those outside the Area at the time;

-- those whose residency was revoked for overstaying a trip abroad;

-- children of residents not duly registered; and

-- children of non-resident mothers born between 1987 and 1995.

In all cases, Israel has full authority to grant or deny unifications for any reason. Residency is a privilege, not a right. Even granted, it can be revoked at any time for any reason, Palestinians having no rights in their own land.

Because of restrictive policies and changed rules over time, the number of families affected is high, the largest group being those where one spouse is a non-resident and needs permission to live with the other. At all times, Israel minimizes approvals for political or security reasons, its real agenda to control population growth and reduce it.

Even successful family unifications are complex, long and costly, discouraging many from applying. To enter Occupied Palestine requires temporary visitor permits, granted for three months and requiring renewal. Whenever visitors overstay, they're illegal, subject to expulsion and denial of future permission. Overall, permit issuance is frozen, 200 short visa extensions only issued in 2007, making the likelihood of family unification slim.

Palestinians of Gaza and East Jerusalem

According to Oslo, the West Bank and Gaza are one unit together with East Jerusalem - what's, in fact, denied by de facto and de jure separation, hardened with Gaza under siege.

After the 1967 occupation, both Territories were declared closed military areas while Israel annexed East Jerusalem. In 1972, a "general exit permit" was issued, marking a change in movement in Occupied Palestine. In 1991, during the Gulf War, Israel cancelled it. Thereafter, Palestinians who wanted to enter Israel needed permits.

In March 1993, Israel imposed a "general closure" on the Territories, still enforced, making it difficult to change residency from one area to the other. After the second intifada, conditions worsened, Palestinians failing to update their West Bank residency expelled to Gaza, others as punishment, and some prohibited West Bank entry after visiting Gaza.

In 2007, with Hamas in control, Gaza was declared an "enemy entity," making movement between the Territories nearly impossible. It was also harder to change residency from one area to the other. As a result, Palestinian families holding West Bank and Gaza IDs face similar obstacles to others with non-resident spouses.

Recently, Israel's High Court rejected a petition challenging the 2003 Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law, prohibiting Palestinians from entering Israel and preventing thousands of couples from living normally, most unable to reunite, others residing in Israel without health insurance, work permits, or other social benefits.

According to General Uri Shoham, Israel's Military Advocate General from 1995 - 2000, "all Israeli governments from 1967 to the present have laid down a strict requirement that all activities of the Israeli military in the control of the Territories must adhere to the principle of 'the rule of law,' " the alternative being John Locke's 1690 observation that "Whenever law ends, tyranny begins."

It's why Israel issued military orders to rule, through law as it claims, no matter how repressive. Contrary to General Shoham, "is this what legality is all about and that this is what rule of law means?" Distinguish instead between "rule by" and "through" law and the rule of law. The former can be called "formal conceptions of legality," the latter a "substantial conception of legality."

The former are "value or content-free. Legality is simply converted into respecting certain principles or criteria for making new rules of law and in applying (them) whenever conflict arises." The latter "look beyond the making and attempt to reach the values behind them."

Israel uses law and legality to rule by and through law by carrying out discriminatory policies, using military orders to deny Palestinians registration, treat them as aliens in their own land, prohibit reentry, forbid family unifications, and expel, imprison or fine anyone for any reason. That's how a police state operates, Israeli policy for over 43 years.

As a result, freedom and equality are absent, Palestinians' basic rights denied. "Only a substantial conception of the rule of law - in which freedom and rights are integrated in the same concept of legality - allows law, especially positive law, to be converted into a tool for discrimination, apartheid and colonialism, and reduces legality to legalism," a tool for social, economic and political control.

Using "legality," Israel occupies Palestine oppressively, denying its residents basic freedoms, including civil liberties and human rights, controlled through, not by the rule of law. What must end one day and will. What determined resistance won't tolerate any other way.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

The Progressive Radio News Hour Guests for August 19, 21 and 22, 2010

Thursday, August 19 at 10AM US Central time: Webster Tarpley

Tarpley is an author, journalist, lecturer, and outspoken critic of US foreign and domestic policy. His newest book is titled, "Surviving the Cataclysm: Your Guide Through the Greatest Financial Crisis in Human History," the worst of it yet to come.

Discussion will focus on Tarpley's view of an imminent US/Israeli war against Iran, perhaps an October surprise.

Saturday, August 21 at noon US Central time: William Cook

Cook is a writer, author, and Professor of English at the University of La Verne, CA, where he served earlier as Vice President for Academic Affairs for 13 years.

His books include Cultural Expressions of Evil and Wickedness, Psalms for the 21st Century, and the newest one he edited, titled The Plight of the Palestinians.

Occupied Palestine and his new book will be discussed.

Sunday, August 22 at noon US Central time: Gerald Celente and John Pilger

Pioneer trends strategist Celente founded The Trends Research Institute in 1980. He's also the author of Trends 2000 and publishes the quarterly Trends Journal, providing timely, comprehensive, accurate business, economic, political, social, technology, and other forecasts on "over 300 different trend categories."

His latest world views will be discussed.

Pilger is an award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker. His achievements include years as a foreign and war correspondent, author of 10 books, and other frequent writings. He's also a longtime critic of Western imperialism and believes a "journalist's job, first of all, (is) to look in the mirror of his own society" and report on it accurately.

Major world issues will be discussed.

Gender-Based Violence in Haiti - by Stephen Lendman

The Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) works with grassroots groups there, in America, and the Haitian Diaspora, developing effective human rights advocacy for some of the world's most oppressed, impoverished, and long-suffering people, over 500 years and counting.

In late July, it issued a new report titled, "Our Bodies Are Still Trembling: Haitian Women's Fight Against Rape," a problem Amnesty International (AI) highlighted in March saying:

"Sexual violence is widely present in the camps where some of Haiti's most vulnerable live. It was already a major concern (pre-quake), but the situation in which displaced people are living exposes women and girls to even greater risks," the issue IJDH examined in its report, explaining that Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps "exacerbated the already grave problem of sexual violence," two US lawyer delegations and a women's health specialist investigating the problem firsthand in May and June, interviewing over 50 rape or attempted rape survivors.

IJDH didn't quantify the incidence, but learned that "rapes in the camps are dramatically underreported," women and girls in them extremely vulnerable, dozens of documented cases now known, suggesting the tip of a huge iceberg, worse for lack of security or concern by police, UN Blue Helmets, or Haiti's pro-business, anti-populist government.

"Rape survivors....told interviewers that reporting rape to the police is an exercise in futility, since they could not identify their assailant or assailants," one survivor saying police told her the problem was President Rene Preval's, not theirs, a shocking indifference to a brutal crime - for most women and girls, their worst ever experience, one they'll never forget or get over.

Dismal camp conditions "render women and girls particularly vulnerable...." Overcrowding and inadequate shelter make it easy for predators to take advantage, especially late at night when people are sleeping. Survivors noted the lack of:

-- lighting;

-- privacy even to bathe;

-- tents; and

-- police presence or concern.

When rape crimes aren't investigated or prosecuted, violence is implicitly condoned, making illegal acts normal and justice denied. Most victims are girls under 18 - impoverished, displaced and denied redress under the 2000 UN Resolution 1325 and UN Guiding Principles on International Displacement, requiring a gender-based perspective to ensure their human rights, including preventive measures against rape and other violent acts.

According to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Gen Rec. No. 19, Violence Against Women (1992), gender-based violence (GBV):

"includes violence that is directed against a woman because she is a woman or that affects women disproportionately. It includes acts that inflict physical, mental or sexual harm or suffering, threats of such acts, coercion and other deprivations of liberty."

Structural inequalities pre and post-quake left Haitians vulnerable, especially women and children - surrounded by rubble, homeless with inadequate food, clean water, sanitation, medical care, and protection, leaving them vulnerable to predators.

Most traumatizing is lost loved ones and friends, a support network when most needed, exacerbated by extreme depravation, creating a dangerous GBV environment, rape and other sexual violence its most prominent feature, women and young girls victimized.

Despite no official figures, the evidence is overwhelming. Post-quake, rape escalated dramatically, the Commission of Women Victims for Victims (KOFAVIV) July 19 Preliminary Report on Rape tracked 230 cases in 15 of the hundreds of Port-au-Prince camps. A University of Michigan March survey found 3% of women and girls sexually assaulted since January, half under 18. Doctors Without Borders reported treating 68 rape victims at one Port-au-Prince facility in April. Haitian authorities downplay it, belying documented evidence. The main issues are overcrowding, lack of shelter and security, AI saying:

"inadequate protection (and) lack of measures to prevent and respond adequately to the threat of sexual violence is contributing to the humanitarian crisis."

Even with a security presence, Haitians say it's "not effective largely because of their lack of coordination and failure to engage in partnerships with neighborhood associations and community," on their own to address what authorities won't. Women's organizations have been especially active, but it's not enough without state and UN aid, their neoliberal priorities other-directed, ignoring vital needs, including security.

Rape Incidence in Displacement Camps

Victims ranged in age from five to 60, suggesting a comparable profile throughout the camps, given "the strikingly similar patterns among the testimonies" gotten. Most women reported being raped by two or more unknown assailants, most armed with guns, knives or other weapons.

Though unable to identify them, women believe they're gang members or prison escapees, their motive rape, at times robbery or other crimes as well, mostly committed from 9:00PM - 3:00AM, occasionally during the day. Women repored being attacked in IDP camp tents, under tarps, in latrines, and on nearby streets. One woman was forcibly taken to a house at an unknown location, then gagged and gang raped by an unknown number of assailants for two or three days, repeatedly abused and beaten until she escaped.

Some survivors mentioned widespread transactional sex for food aid cards. When coerced, it's rape, a topic beyond IJDH's investigation.

A March delegation of psychiatrists and trauma victim specialists conducted a psychological evaluation, finding 95.7% of victims suffering from PTSD, including extreme fear, nightmares, suicidal tendencies and depression. Another 53.6% experienced depression alone. Nearly everyone complained of physical discomfort, including stomach pain, headaches, difficulty walking, and vaginal infection and bleeding. At least one woman became pregnant.

Besides being raped, women were beaten, stabbed, and injured in other ways. Their scars, bruises, and other physical signs bore witness to their ordeal. Most hadn't seen a doctor or other medical professional, for some not knowing about free services, for others fearing retaliation, humiliation and stigma. "When victims did reach out, they were often shunned or ignored."

Those getting treated reported quality and type care varied depending on the facility and available supplies. Some offered no HIV prophylaxis or emergency contraception. Waits were excessively long, doctors often not seen. In addition, little privacy and few female health providers were available. Several victims relied on traditional remedies, including special teas and baths.

With one exception, women reporting rape crimes to police were ignored or mocked, one victim saying "only the rich get the attention of the police." For Haiti's poor, they're more enemy than ally, why most Haitians fear and shun them.

Except during Aristide's presidency, government response is hostile. Haiti's long history is infamous for targeting anyone supporting democracy and human rights, women especially vulnerable, including being subjected to gender-based violence, rape its most prominent feature.

After the 2004 coup, AI said it again "became a political weapon by armed insurgents to instill fear and to punish women believed to have supported the democratic government."

A 2006 Athena R. Kolbe/Royce A. Hutson Lancet-published study titled, "Human Rights Abuse and Other Criminal Violations in Port-au-Prince, Haiti" concluded that 35,000 women were raped from March 2004 - December 2006 in Haiti's capital alone, almost 12% of the perpetrators identified as right-wing political supporters.

More recently, authorities took modest steps to address the problem, including adopting the 2006 - 2011 National Plan to Combat Violence Against Women, its objective being a mechanism to collect data, prevent violence, and other measures.

Although progress was made, inadequate resources nor serious concern prevented real change, Haitian women and girls more vulnerable than ever under post-quake conditions, excerbated by a dismissive, pro-business government, rarely ever deploying police inside camps for protection, despite a March 2010 MINUSTAH Human Rights Section "IDP Camp Joint Security Assessment Report," recommending an "IDP Camp Strategic Policing Plan," increasing patrols, especially at night.

Few female officers is another concern, women generally reluctant to report rape crimes to men, notably when they're mocked, treated dismissively, and at times blamed, accused of promiscuity or involvement in domestic violence. As a result, authorities downplay the issue, allocate few resources, and help the rich, not vulnerable Haitians out of luck and on their own, rapists free to seek other victims or the same ones again.

Pre-quake, two women's advocacy organizations took on the issue - Dwa Fanm in New York and ENFOFANM in Port-au-Prince, demanding justice for Haitian rape victims. In late May, the Women's Ministry - Ministere a la Condition Feminine et aux Droits des Femmes (MCFDF), launched a national "End rape in Temporary Settlements!" campaign, encouraging women to come forward and report them to police.

UNICEF and UNFPA (the UN Population Fund) coordinate a Gender-Based Violence Sub-Cluster, addressing the issue during national emergencies like earthquakes, but, in fact, delivering little aid according to victims. Six months post-quake, "the Sub-Cluster still has not effectively implemented" measures it's mandated to undertake...."in large part, (it's) failed to include the voices of poor women living in the camps in planning and leadership roles," or helping victims.

"Haiti's history and the deep fissures within Haitian society between the poor majority and more affluent, educated classes, require attention" so far not provided. In addition, UN officials, like Haiti's police and government, downplay the problem, shirking their responsibility for camp security, leaving it up to grassroots groups like KOFAVIV and others to act in their stead as best they can with limited staff and resources.

Legal Issues

Article 19 of Haiti's 1989 Constitution obligates the State:

"to guarantee the right to life, health, and respect of the human person for all citizens without distinction, in conformity with the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man," including protection against rape and other forms of violence, written in law but enforced only for the rich.

Haiti is also party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (the Women's Convention), mandating domestic law abide by its provisions. In 2005, Executive Decree No. 60 introduced Haitian Penal Code changes, including the classification of rape and penalties, increasing them to 10 years, 15 if victims are under age 16, and life in prison for gang rape, reasserting a previous provision.

Yet legal and enforcement gaps remain because of judicial system corruption and indifference, resulting in lighter sentences when imposed. Most often, however, rapes aren't reported or prosecuted, authorities doing little to address them, Port-au-Prince's General Hospital not issuing medical certificates verifying them, calling them a "non-essential service."

Yet under Haiti's Constitution and international law, authorities are required to address GBV, "prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of sex, protecting the right to bodily integrity, and guaranteeing the right to be free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."

Besides the Women's Convention, Haiti is obligated under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Children's Convention).

As an OAS member, it must also enforce provisions of the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women (the Belem do Para Convention) as well as the American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR). They're automatically Haitian law under the Constitution's Article 19.

Article 1 of the Woman's Convention defines gender-based violence to be "directed against a woman because she is a woman or that affects women disproportionately" - including physical, mental, or sexual harm or suffering; threats of such acts, or coercion.

Gender-based violence also denies women their civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights, guaranteed under Haitian and international law. The 1993 UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women inspired the OAS Belem do Para Convention to affirm "that violence against (them) constitutes a violation of their human rights and fundamental freedoms, and impairs or nullifies the observance, enjoyment and exercise of such rights and freedoms."

Other international standards and UN Resolutions address the same issues, all UN members obligated to enforce them, including gender-based violence against women and girls. The laws are clear, standards high, yet Haiti's government doesn't enforce them for its poor, only the rich. Failing to do so "sends a message of impunity - that such attacks are justified or, at a minimum, will go unpunished."

Enforcing international law falls mostly on States. However, UN members and international organizations share responsibility, especially when local efforts can't adequately do so in emergencies like earthquakes.

In recent years, the international community established important principles to maximize foreign aid effectiveness, including for gender-based issues. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), recognized under customary international law, specifically identify gender equality and empowerment as a key goal, its operational framework prioritizing combating violence against women and girls, especially for the poor, and in conflict and post-conflict situations.

The OECD developed Guiding Principles for Aid Effectiveness, Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment, endorsing global agreements and conventions addressing them.

A Final Comment

Despite Haiti's obligations under international law and its Constitution, authorities have fallen far short, failing to confront issues as vital as gender-based violence, turning a blind eye to a pressing problem, leaving poor women and girls vulnerable to the worst kind of abuse, doing little to address or halt it, and virtually nothing for victims or survivors, often blaming them, not their violators.

America, UN member states, and the world body are more a problem than a solution, Haitian women and girls on their own and out of luck, especially under post-quake conditions when needs are greatest, including security against predatory rapists, what the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Rashida Manjoo, addressed, saying:

"If we are to secure women's rights and their freedom from violence, it is imperative that we adopt an integrated human rights perspective that stresses the equal importance of civil and political rights and economic and social rights. Unless women can develop their capabilities and achieve economic independence, the human rights they are promised will not be realized," especially in Haiti, given its violence-plagued history.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

Obama's Gulf Swim Was Fake - by Stephen Lendman

On August 15, AP reported that Obama gave his "personal assurances of (the) Gulf's safety," saying:

"Beaches all along the Gulf Coast are clean, they are safe, and they are open for business."

He lied.

The same day, Britain's government owned BBC reported:

"Barack Obama has taken a swim in the Gulf of Mexico (to) reassure Americans that the waters are safe despite the recent oil spill."

US corporate media reporters repeated the message, CNN's senior White House correspondent Ed Henry among them, saying "Obama takes (the) plunge, swims in the Gulf (to show it's safe and) open for business."

In fact, area businesses continue to be severely impacted, and the entire region is dangerously unsafe.

As for Obama's swim, on August 16, the London Independent reported that Obama and his daughter, Sasha, swam in a private Panama City Beach, FL beach off Alligator Point in St. Andrew Bay, not part of the Gulf.

Reporters were banned, no TV video permitted. "So....only the White House photographer was allowed to capture proceedings. The official picture was intended to provide evidence that the region's beaches are back to normal."

False. A dangerously toxic oil/dispersant brew contaminates much, perhaps the entire Gulf. It's poisoned and potentially lethal for decades, maybe generations. Nothing in it should be ingested. Millions in the region are at risk. No one should swim in coastal waters or eat any Gulf seafood. Responsible officials should ban it. Instead the all-clear's been given.

Obama, his officials, and BP executives are criminally liable. So are state governors, coastal mayors, and regional health authorities.

Area residents with children should leave. Tourists should avoid the region. A growing catastrophe will continue for decades, including a silent epidemic of cancers and other diseases, as well as lives and livelihoods lost.

That's the major media's unreported reality, worsening, not improving daily.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

The Scott Sisters: Victimized by American Injustice - by Stephen Lendman

Their story is shocking, disturbing, yet common - African Americans indicted, prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned despite their innocence. Nearly always society's most vulnerable are affected, including Muslims by the "war on terror" and people of color - Jamie and Gladys Scott's experience explained below.

Updated information on their case and status can be found on Free the Scott Sisters.blogspot.com, accessed through the following link:

http://freethescottsisters.blogspot.com/

Residents of Forest, Mississippi, they were arrested on December 24, 1993, charged with armed robbery of two Black men. The amount - $11. No one was hurt. The sentence - both given life in prison, a shocking miscarriage of justice if proved guilty. They're not. They're innocent beyond a shadow of a doubt and had no prior convictions. They were aged 22 and 19 respectively at the time, and have been incarcerated since October 1994.

On Christmas eve, 1993, their car broke down after leaving a mini-mart near their home. Two young men drove them there, one they knew. The same evening, three teenagers allegedly robbed two men at gunpoint, netting $11. Police falsely accused the sisters of involvement.

Their mother, Evelyn Rasco, now ailing, believes no robbery occurred, saying from her new Pensacola, FL home:

"This has a lot to do with my family giving testimony against the Scott County sheriff for taking bribes and kickbacks that sent him to prison."

Now it's payback, two innocent women victimized. The price - their lives. The outrage - America's racist/prosecutorial injustice tradition, colluding with state and federal courts stacked with right-wing hacks, serving the privileged, damning others, putting a lie to democratic freedoms, endangering the powerless for any reason or none at all.

At trial, witnesses said Deputy Sheriff Marvin Williams "coerced and threatened them to lie." In addition, Gladys and Jamie were poorly represented, their attorneys Firnist J. Alexander, Jr. and Gail Shaw-Pierson never subpoenaing key witnesses, calling only one to testify when several knew the truth. Also, neither victims or the sisters got to speak for themselves, to set the record straight.

Further, State witnesses gave conflicting testimonies, admitting they disagreed with the sheriff's account, saying he demanded they sign prepared statements misstating the facts.

Moreover, three affidavits not introduced absolved the sisters of culpability, one written by a trustee of the local jail, explaining that a wallet later found contained one victim's photo ID and $60. He also said no robbery occurred, admitting he was threatened with imprisonment if he told the truth. As a result, Gladys and Jamie were framed despite their innocence. Sixteen years later, they remain imprisoned.

Three teenagers eventually admitted guilt (whether or not true), recanting false testimony at trial, and accepted a plea bargain in return for 10 months in prison. The victims also absolved the defendants out of court.

Appeals attorney Chokwe Lumumba later presented a Request for Commutation of Sentence and/or Pardon, arguing insufficient evidence at trial, an overwhelming amount exculpating. However, the appeals court found no procedural errors, affirming the lower court's decision on December 17, 1996.

A Writ of Certiorari to the Supreme Court followed, also denied on May 15, 1997, then an Application for Leave to File Motion to Vacate Conviction pursuant to the Mississippi Post Conviction Collateral Relief Act. Unsurprisingly, the High Court again was unresponsive, rarely ever affording justice to society's most disadvantaged, nearly always supporting the privileged even when guilty of high crimes of war or against humanity.

As a result, for years the family's been "shell-shocked," yet determined "to fight on," believing right will eventually triumph over wrong, freeing Jamie and Gladys. Their mother raised their children. A massive heart attack took their father from the strain.

In addition, because of poor nutrition, inadequate healthcare, and inhumane treatment, Jamie now suffers from kidney failure, other life-threatening conditions, and since January, almost weekly setbacks.

Yet she's gotten sporadic dialysis treatments and shoddy care overall, exacerbating her condition, several times experiencing shock. As a result, she's gravely ill, her kidney failure at Stage 5, the highest danger level before death.

Imprisoned at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility (CMCF), she wrote:

"The injustices that have occurred are patterns within this county and their police departments," symptomatic of America's racist history. "This type of injustice and exploitation has been done to many African Americans (and others of color) who have lived in this county (and nation) for many years. They have been very successful in destroying many lives."

"What began as an implication and outright miscarriage of justice, has catapulted to destroy an entire family. Gladys was a 19 year old pregnant mother, and myself, Jamie, a 22 year old mother during the time of our arrest, conviction and sentencing for a crime we did not commit."

"We are convinced that once this chain of events is exposed and unraveled, the events that occurred, the lives that have been destroyed, the pain and suffering the citizens of Scott County have endured; everyone will be utterly amazed, astonished and compelled to assist us in our plight for freedom. We pray that the people would insist upon an investigation into their misconduct and miscarriage of justice."

Civil Rights Advocate Dr. Adam Reza said:

"The people of Mississippi demand an investigation into the case of the Scott sisters, and we call on Attorney General Jim Hood to personally look into the health of Jamie Scott. This is (America. They're) entitled to their civil rights. We shall pursue legal action against the state of Mississippi if matters are not rectified."

So far, Hood assigned attorney Charles T. Rubisoff to investigate the case. Helpful information should be emailed to chrub@ago.state.ms.us.

Also contact the Committee to Free the Scott Sisters by emailing Mrs. Evelyn Rasco at:

rqueenbee2222@yahoo.com

A Final Comment

America is plagued by prosecutorial and judicial discrimination, Gladys and Jamie supporters sighting their "trial fraught with legal malpractice and witness coercion....Judge Marcus Gordon over(seeing) one of the most blatantly corrupt trials in history, culminating in (a) staggering" injustice.

More than ever today, the pattern repeats across America in federal and state courts, endangering anyone challenging power by revealing truths and defending right over wrong, making us all as vulnerable as the Scott sisters.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

Universal Jurisdiction to Hold Israel Accountable - by Stephen Lendman

The well-established universal jurisdiction principle (UJ) holds that certain crimes are too grave to ignore, including genocide, crimes of war and against humanity.

Thus, under UJ, nations may investigate and prosecute foreign nationals when their country of residence or origin won't, can't, or hasn't for any reason. Israel used it to convict and execute Adolph Eichmann. A US court sentenced Chuckie Taylor, son of the former Liberian president, to 97 years in prison for torture.

In March 2003, the Special Court for Sierre Leone (SCSL) indicted his father, Charles Taylor, for crimes of war and against humanity. His trial at The Hague's International Court of Justice (ICC) remains ongoing.

Though never held accountable for murdering Chileans and committing other human rights abuses, Britain used a Spanish court provisional warrant to apprehend Augusto Pinochet, hold him under house arrest for 18 months, and set a precedent, making other heads of state and top officials vulnerable. Pinochet's bogus ill health claim sent him home, irreparably damaged and disgraced.

Under Article 7 of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg:

"The official position of defendants, whether as Head of State or responsible officials in Government departments, shall not be considered as freeing them from responsibility or mitigating punishment."

No one deserves immunity for high crimes demanding accountability. It's time that applied to America and Israel, the two worst offenders.

In June 2009 at a Madrid, Spain conference, Raji Sourani, Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) Director made the case, saying:

"Today, the Gaza Strip lies in ruins" months after Israel's offensive, killing about 1,500, injuring over 5,000, and causing vast destruction - "an illegal form of collective punishment" ongoing for over three years under siege. "For too long now, Israel has been allowed to violate international law with impunity....This situation cannot be allowed to prevail....It is for this very reason that universal jurisdiction is so important....(It) offers hope to victims throughout the entire world, in many cases, it is their only hope." It's long past time to hold Israel accountable.

The Compelling Case for UC

A recent PCHR publication is titled, "The Principle and Practice of Universal Jurisdiction," explaining it in detail with examples, its highlights discussed below.

Though horrific, Cast Lead was just the latest example of decades of Israeli lawlessness - little discussed, unaddressed and unresolved. "Regrettably, this lack of accountability, and the resultant climate of impunity, has been a longstanding feature of Israel's" illegal occupation. "Israel has been allowed to act as a State above the law."

Yet it exists to be enforced. Otherwise, it's irrelevant. However, Palestinians have "limited judicial mechanisms available." According to the 1995 Israel-Palestine Interim Agreement on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has no jurisdiction over Israel, including its officials, armed forces members, or other citizens.

Nonetheless, Israel is required to investigate and prosecute its citizens accused of international crimes, a responsibility it's ducked with impunity, a glaring deficiency in its judicial system, exempting war criminals from accountability, in violation of inviolable international standards and principles.

"Justice for Palestinians is not attainable within this system." UJ is the remedy, a "stepping stone (to) universal justice," to protect everyone without discrimination, to address crimes too grave to ignore, to set a precedent for future prosecutions, and warn offenders they're vulnerable.

No accountability encourages criminality, offenders knowing they're safe and can act lawlessly with impunity, especially Israel, shielded by America, the West, and regional indifference or complicity. As a result, Palestinians have suffered grievously for decades, world leaders not giving a damn about their rights or the rule of law, breaking it themselves for not caring.

It's high time UJ principles enforce accountability, using Israel as a test case, including its top government and military officials, guilty of high crimes too grave to be ignored, raising hope for all victims of injustice globally.

Above all, "The pursuit of universal jurisdiction is (the) pursuit of justice. It seeks to ensure an effective remedy for victims - combined with the goal of deterrence - and accountability for those responsible for crimes which 'shock the conscience of humanity.' "

The Applicable Legal Framework

Palestine is belligerently occupied. As a result, international law applies, including the four Geneva Conventions, Hague Regulations, other international humanitarian law (IHL), and Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions. As a signatory, Israel is legally bound, including under International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICEPR) provisions such as:

-- Article 2, concerning the right to an effective remedy;

-- Article 14, regarding the right to a fair trial; and

-- Article 26, affirming the right of everyone to protection under the law.

Traditional v. Universal Jurisdiction

Legally, jurisdiction is "the authority of states to prescribe their law, to subject persons and things to adjudication in their courts and other tribunals, and to enforce their law, both judicially and non-judicially," by civil or criminal means.

Five "prescriptive jurisdiction" bases include nationality, territoriality, the protective principle, the passive personality principle, and universal jurisdiction, this discussion focusing on UJ.

It requires "no link of territoriality or nationality between the State and conduct of the offender, nor is the State seeking to protect its security or credit." Only the crime matters, UJ reserved for the worst, ones too serious to go unpunished, their gravity justifying UJ's existence.

Initially for piracy, they were considered outlaws, operating extraterritorially in international waters. Today, international crimes are considered so "threatening to the international community or so heinous in scope and degree that they offend the interest of humanity," all states needing to address them.

However, until post-WW II, UJ applied only to piracy and slave trading, thereafter to genocide, crimes of war and against humanity, as established by the Nuremberg Charter and Judgment, now defined by the ICC to include systematic attacks against civilians, including murder, enslavement, deportation or forcible transfer, false imprisonment, torture, rape, sexual slavery, collective punishment, enforced disappearance, and apartheid.

Guilty parties are considered hostis humani generis - enemies of mankind. War crimes are against the jus gentium - the law of nations, international law established to address them.

The International Law Commission's (ILC) principle VI of the Principles of International Law Recognized in the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal and in the Judgment of the Tribunal, determined that crimes of war and against humanity "rise to the level of international crime," now recognized under customary international law.

A national court exercising UJ acts not in its name, but for the international community - only when responsible countries won't, can't or haven't. In other words, as a last resort.

In addition, various post-WW II Conventions, including the four Geneva ones and their Common Article 1 obligates all High Contracting Parties to "respect and ensure respect for the present Convention in all circumstances;" namely, to apply its principles universally, requiring High Contracting Parties "search for persons alleged to have committed, or to have ordered to be committed, such grave breaches, and shall bring such persons, regardless of their nationality, before its own courts."

At Nuremberg, the concepts of individual and command criminal responsibility were addressed, the Tribunal Principles holding that "(a)ny person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefor and liable to punishment....(c)rimes against international law are committed by men, not by abstract entities, and only by punishing individuals who commit (them) can the provisions of international law be enforced."

The Rome Statute's Article 25 of the ICC codified this principle, affirming the culpability of persons committing crimes of war and against humanity. In addition, commanders and their superiors are specifically culpable if they "either knew or, owing to the circumstances at the time, should have known that the forces were committing or about to commit such crimes, (and) failed to take all necessary and reasonable measures within his or her power to prevent or repress their commission or to submit the matter to the competent authorities for investigation and prosecutions."

Nuremberg established that immunity is null and void, including for heads of state, other top officials, and top commanders. In addition, genocide, crimes of war and against humanity are so grave that statute of limitation provisions don't apply.

Final Comments

UJ is to ensure that individuals committing high crimes are held accountable, essential under the rule of law. Otherwise, it's meaningless. All too often, however, populations, like the Palestinians, are abused for many decades, Israel getting away with mass murder and other grave breaches of law.

As a result, UJ is the only alternative, national courts willing to use it an essential judicial remedy. It's high time they take the first step to universal justice, sending a powerful message that crimes this egregious won't stand, no matter who commits them or shares responsibility.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

Gaza's Poisoned Water - by Stephen Lendman

This article follows an August 6 one discussing Palestinians Denied Access to Water, found through the following link:

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/08/palestinians-denied-access-to-water.html

It explained how Israel exploits Palestinian water resources, using most of it, forcing them to find ways to get by. Water, of course, is essential to life, rights to it natural and usufructuary. Belonging to everyone as part of the commons, it must be used, not owned or abused, an essential truth Israel corrupts.

On August 5, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) published the latest in its "Narratives Under Siege" series, titled "There's Something in the Water: The Poisoning of Life in the Gaza Strip."

"THIS BEACH IS POLLUTED" signs dot Gaza City beaches, posing serious health hazards because of daily raw sewage dumped into the Mediterranean Sea through 16 discharge sites along the coast. Yet thousands fill them despite the dangers, including children, taking advantage of one of their few sources of respite - available, convenient, and free, but not safe.

For Gazans, the sea is part of their lives - to fish, gather with family, swim, and for children, play in the sun on hot days, a joy this writer recalls growing up on America's Atlantic coast. Summers were always the best time. The memories remain.

"Without the sea there is no Gaza," explains Abdel Haleem Abu Samra, Public Relations Officer of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights' Khan Younis Branch. Being unsafe is especially unsettling - its state in some form since 1991, but especially under siege, prohibiting equipment, construction materials, and spare parts to build new wastewater treatment facilities and repair existing ones.

In addition, conditions are exacerbated by an acute fuel and electricity shortage, vital to run waste treatment cycles properly. As a result, about 20,000 cubic meters of raw sewage are dumped daily into the sea, according to Monther Shoblak, Director General of the Coastal Municipality Water Utility, and in some areas it's up to four times that much - a shocking, completely avoidable situation.

Gaza's once pristine shores are polluted, the grave implications clear - "the Gaza Strip is, quite literally, being poisoned," affecting about 90% of its coastal aquifer, the essential source for residents. Yet it's hazardous and undrinkable, given its high nitrate and chloride levels - six to seven times higher than World Health Organization's (WHO) safe levels.

As director of Gaza's water, Monther's job is challenging, forcing him to improvise to make due, managing wastewater created by 1.5 million trapped people, 80% of them in refugee camps, living cramped in the world's largest open-air prison, out of sight and mind to those outside it, except activists, friends, and supporters who care. Plagued also by inadequate infrastructure, creating hazards unimaginable in the West.

Monther compares Gaza's facilities to an old car still in use despite lack of spare parts needed for upkeep. Eventually falling into disrepair, it pollutes heavily, relevant for Gaza where even adulterated gasoline is the normal input for cars.

Compounding things further, Gaza's population is growing rapidly (about 3.6% annually), producing greater amounts of waste, current facilities only able to handle about 32,000 cubic meters a day, about half its needed capacity. As a result, the overage gets dumped, entirely or mostly untreated, much of it washing back onshore, polluting beaches, creating hazardous swimming conditions, and poisoning drinking water.

In northern Gaza's Beit Lahia, deterioration is especially severe, one of its three facilities receiving over 25,000 cubic meters daily, double its operating capacity. Worse still, the facility has no access to the sea, so wastewater flows directly into the surrounding area, creating a 450 dunum sewage lake, untenable contamination, exacerbated in March 2007 when its embankment broke, killing five people by toxic flooding.

High nitrate levels are especially hazardous, Monther calling them "a silent killer"- colorless, odorless and tasteless, its continued intake reducing oxygen to vital tissues like the brain. Children and infants are greatly at risk, their developing organs unable to cope. Severe damage and at times death the result.

The longer-term consequences are worrisome, Sara Roy saying:

"Nowhere else in the world has such a large number of people been exposed to such high levels of nitrates for such a long period of time. There is no precedent, and no studies to help us understand what happens to people over the course of years of nitrate poisoning."

The harm is undeniable because the coastal aquifer along much of the Strip provides about 90% of its water. For Gazans like everyone, it's life, nature's gift, and essential. There's no substitute, making it vital to conserve and keep safe, for drinking and Gaza's agriculture, especially its citrus farms, deservedly famous, now threatened by toxic and dangerous pollution.

Only 10% of Gaza's aquifer is safe, and without changes, Monther fears it'll all be poisoned, making it hazardous for any purpose. A 2009 United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) report warned that today's damage "could take centuries to reverse." Under siege, Gazans have no choice but to cope, pitting them against nature, never a fair fight when it's hostile.

A Final Comment

A July 22 Electronic Intifada report headlined "Gaza's strawberries spoil under siege," explaining:

"The northern Gaza Strip area of Beit Lahiya is famous for its agriculture," an ideal environment for growing fruit under normal conditions, absent under siege. Besides polluted water, farmers like Abdulfattah al-Khateeb worry about his strawberries reaching West Bank, Israeli and European markets, their destination for over 20 years.

Since 2007, however, closure cut him off from the rest of the world, leaving "tons of his strawberries....rot(ting) while waiting in vain at the Israeli border." As a result, he fears his livelihood is being lost.

Before 1967, Gaza's citrus was called "yellow gold," renown for its quality. Under Israeli control, many orange groves were bulldozed, farmers turning instead to flowers and strawberries. They adapted, producing "the best strawberries in the world," according to Abdulfattah, former head of Beit Lahiya's Strawberry Farmers Society.

Now he and others are forced to abandon their crops because of export restrictions. "The effects have been disastrous," farmers reporting a 40% drop in income, losing millions of dollars.

"The Israelis tell us how and what to plant, what to use to plant it, and where the plants we use must come from, (and) when we do what (they) want, they just create another problem," he explains. Half of Gaza's strawberry farmers have given up. The others are threatened, especially by Cast Lead's destruction of nearly half of Gaza's farmland. Relentlessly, Israel is destroying a way of life in Gaza, a little reported story vital to highlight and contest.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

From Goldstone to Uribe - by Stephen Lendman

Despite a credible start, the fix is in. Expect justice again to be denied. After the Gaza War (Operation Cast Lead), the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) appointed Justice Richard Goldstone to lead an independent four-person fact-finding Commission to investigate human rights and humanitarian law violations committed on both sides, Israel doing everything possible to obstruct him in vain.

The Commission conducted 188 interviews, got over 300 reports, submissions and other documents, comprising more than 10,000 pages, 30 videos, and 1,200 photographs, much of it gathered first-hand. Secondary sources added corroboration, in total providing clear evidence of Israel crimes.

On September 15, 2009, the Commission concluded that:

"there is evidence indicating serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law were committed by Israel during the Gaza conflict, and that Israel committed actions amounting to war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity."

"While the Israeli Government has sought to portray its operations as essentially a response to rocket attacks in the exercise of its right of self-defense, the Mission considers the plan to have been directed, at least in part, at a different target: the people of Gaza as a whole."

Rocket attacks were a pretext for well-planned naked aggression. The Commission's findings were conclusively damning despite Israeli war criminals not punished, justice still denied but not forever.

Daily, Israel commits crimes against humanity through targeted assassinations, street violence, mass arrests, torture, regular incursions, land theft, dispossessions, and other law violations, including suffocating Gazans under siege, then attacking humanitarian missions breaking it, most recently on May 31 against Freedom Flotilla participants, murdering targeted activists in cold-blood in international waters, claiming self-defense, a clear bald-faced lie, the evidence overwhelming, conclusive, and damning.

Two UN Commissions Investigating the Flotilla Massacre

On June 2, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) approved formation of an international commission comprised of lawyers and international law and human rights experts, its findings to be presented in September during the Council's three week Geneva session.

Its members include:

-- Desmond de Silva, a UK lawyer and former chief prosecutor for the Sierra Leone Special Court investigation into widespread killings there;

-- Karl Hudson-Phillips, a former International Criminal Court (ICC) judge and former Trinidad and Tobago attorney general and parliament member; and

-- Malaysia's Mary Shanthi Dairiam, active in gender equality issues, including on the UN Development Program's gender equity task force.

In emergency session, the HRC criticized Israel's "outrageous attack on aid ships attempting to breach a blockade on the Gaza Strip," calling it "piracy, (an) act of aggression, (a) brutal massacre, (an) act of terrorism, (a) war crime, (a) crime against humanity - unprovoked, unwarranted, atrocious, (and) brutal," calling activists onboard "peaceful, innocent, noble, unarmed, (and) defenseless, setting a hopeful tone for a Goldstone Commission-like investigation and conclusions.

However, on August 2, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon named his own commission, unsurprisingly showing obvious bias toward Israel after earlier criticizing the HRC for "picking on Israel," a Reuters June 7 report quoting him saying:

"The Secretary-General is disappointed at the council's decision to single out only one specific regional item given the range and scope of allegations of human rights violations throughout the world," the statement omitting Israel or Palestinian Authority (PA) by name.

At the same time, Alejandro Wolff, deputy US permanent UN representative accused the council of "a pathological obsession with Israel," saying "I think the record is starting to speak for itself," a clear reference to the Goldstone Commission.

On July 11, on Press TV, former Iraq UN Humanitarian Coordinator Denis Halliday and former UN chief weapons inspector Scott Ritter accused Ban Ki-moon of being a Security Council (SC) instrument, meaning, of course, a US imperial tool. Halliday said the SC corrupted him, undermining his credibility, shown numerous times, his latest announcement clear evidence.

According to AFP, Ban's commission includes:

-- Geoffrey Palmer, former New Zealand Prime Minister, the commission's chairman;

-- Joseph Siechanover, former head of Israel's Defense Mission to the US and Canada, and Israel's Defense and Agriculture ministries' general counsel;

-- Ozdem Sanberk, former Turkish ambassador and Foreign Ministry Undersecretary; and

-- Alvaro Uribe, former Colombian president, the commission's vice-chairman, a man tainted by corruption and scandal, with close links to his country's drug cartels and paramilitary death squads, responsible for murdering thousands of trade unionists, campesinos, human rights workers, journalists, and others opposing Colombia's narco-state terrorism and ties to US imperialism.

James Petras accused him of conducting "a scorched earth policy (against) Colombia's countryside," murdering thousands criticizing his regime. "Entire regions of the countryside were emptied - like the US Operation Phoenix in Vietnam, farmland was poisoned by toxic herbicides. Over 250,000 armed forces (allied with death squads) decimated vast (areas) where (FARC-EP resistance fighters) exercised hegemony."

Human Rights First accused him and his administration of calling human rights activists "terrorist sympathizers and have insinuated that illicit connections exist between human rights NGOs and illegal armed groups."

Former UN Human Rights Rapporteur, Margaret Sekaggya, visited Colombia in September 2009, then reported in March 2010 on the "Stigmatization (of human rights activists) by public officials and non-State actors; their illegal surveillance by State intelligence services; their arbitrary arrest and detention; their judicial harassment; raids (against their) premises and theft of information," ordered by Uribe, calling them:

-- "rent-a-mobs at terrorism's service who cowardly wave the human rights flag;

-- human rights traffickers;

-- charlatans of human rights;

-- bandits' colleagues; and

-- (the) intellectual front (for) FARC" resistance fighters.

Contemptuous of human rights, international law and justice, his appointment destroys the commission's credibility, guaranteeing bias and whitewash. It's results will be announced in mid-September. HRC's conclusions will be marginalized, Ban's assured top-featured prominence, sanctifying cold-blooded murder.

A Hopeful Sign

On August 10, Haaretz Service reported that Turkey has set up its own Flotilla inquiry to "investigate the attack and the treatment the activists faced." The commission will include "officials from the foreign, justice, interior and transport ministries as well as from the country's maritime agency."

Turkey holds Israel responsible for the massacre, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu saying "No one else can take the blame for killing civilians in international waters." President Recep Erdogan agrees, harshly condemning Israel for the crime.

A Final Note

In late May, Israel's Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi vowed to block the Gaza aid Flotilla, stopping short of explaining how. On August 11, before Israel's Turkel commission, he defended the massacre as "proportional and correct," praising his commandos' calm and morality.

On August 12, he repeated the warning, telling a naval graduation class he'll block future flotillas, saying "There is no doubt that you will manage to stop the nearing threats." Now we know what he has in mind.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

Net Neutrality Threatened - by Stephen Lendman

This article follows two previous ones, accessed through the following links:

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2009/11/struggle-for-net-neutrality.html

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/07/under-threat-free-and-open-internet.html

Free Press.net is a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working for media reform through education, organizing and advocacy - Net Neutrality its defining issue, keeping it free and open, letting users access all content without restrictions, limitations, or discrimination, an online level playing field for everyone, the essence of democratic free speech. Without it, consumer choice will be lost, stolen by corporate predators, making the Internet look like cable TV, letting them decide what web sites, content and applications are available at what cost.

On August 4, New York Times writer Edward Wyatt headlined, "Google and Verizon Near Deal on Web Pay Tiers," saying:

These giants "are nearing an agreement that could allow Verizon to speed some online content to Internet users more quickly if the content's creators are willing to pay for the privilege."

Content producers would pay more for preferential service, but consumers will also be affected, paying higher fees or losing out, sacrificing Net Neutrality, a "sacred tenet....in which no form of content is favored over another."

On August 5, Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires Scott Morrison headlined "2nd Google, Verizon Deny Tiered-Web Deal Report," saying:

Today, the two firms "denied a report saying (they) were to close an agreement that would allow the carrier to speed up the delivery of online content to Internet users if content creators paid for the privilege," subverting Net Neutrality in which all content is equally treated.

Verizon issued a statement saying:

"Our goal is an Internet policy framework that ensures openness and accountability, and incorporates specific FCC authority, while maintaining investment and innovation. To suggest this is a business arrangement between our companies is entirely incorrect."

Google also denied The Times story saying:

"We remain as committed as we always have been to an open Internet.....We have not had any conversations with Verizon about paying for carriage of Google or YouTube traffic."

An earlier Wall Street Journal article said the two companies may soon announce an agreement they hope could be a model for legislation aimed to prevent telephone or cable companies from delaying or blocking Internet traffic. The Times, however, stands by its report.

Broadband companies want maximum customer revenue. Internet ones have long opposed prioritized traffic because it'll cost more, especially for popular sites like YouTube.

An August 6 freepress.com article by its Media Coordinator Jenn Ettinger headlined, "Company (Google) Claims to Support Open Internet but Remains Dodgy About Details of Deal with Verizon," saying:

"Google's 'denial'....leaves out many important details about the policy agreement being negotiated with Verizon....the company (falls short of openness) about its position on fundamental issues like 'managed services,' and how the Internet will be treated on wireless networks. Google has already entered into a lucrative partnership with Verizon to push its Android operating system for mobile phones."

S. Derek Turner, Free Press' Research Director added:

"Google's denial is just damage control, a sleight-of-hand-designed to deflect the growing public outcry against a company that once pledged 'don't be evil.' "

Turner said reports about Google and Verizon are worrisome. They're not denying their wireless network arrangement. "This means (not) only will pay-for priority be allowed, but (also) that companies like Verizon will be permitted to outright block websites that compete with it or its partners like Google."

Google/Verizon "Policy Framework" Announced

Now revealed, the deal is "worse than feared," according to Free Press' Communications Director Liz Rose and Jenn Ettinger, saying in a joint statement with MoveOn.Org Civic Action, Credo Action, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, and ColorofChange.org, all members of the SavetheInternet.com Coalition:

"The Google-Verizon pact isn't just as bad as we feared - it's much worse. They are attacking the Internet while claiming to preserve it. Google users won't be fooled."

Here's their scheme - partial Net Neutrality, what "they'll likely stop investing in," in lieu of a new, deregulated, corporate-controlled Internet via fiber and wireless phones, where they "can pick and choose which sites people can easily view on their phones or any other Internet device using these networks."

It will let them block applications and "divide the information superhighway, creating new private fast lanes for the big players while leaving the little guy stranded on a winding dirt road."

Worse still, it will turn the FCC into a "toothless watchdog, left fruitlessly chasing complaints and unable to make rules of its own."

Net Neutrality will be destroyed, removing the last free and open space, why it's crucial that the administration, Congress and the FCC reject the deal outright. The alternative is too grim to imagine.

Again, it will create two Internets, put two big players in charge, and pave the way for other giants to follow, the public left out entirely.

Free Press CEO/co-founder Josh Silver highlighted the threat in his August 5 article headlined, "Google-Verizon Deal: The End of the Internet as We Know It," asking:

How did this happen? We have (an FCC) that has been denied authority by the courts to police (Internet service provider) activities....because of a bad (Bush-era FCC) decision."

As a result, we have a "pro-industry" chairman cutting back room deals, a president who promised Net Neutrality now silently capitulating, and a Democrat-controlled Congress little more than corporate occupied territory, pushing sweeping, across-the-board-pro-business measures, stiff-arming their constituents.

The stakes are enormous. Digital democracy (the last media frontier) is on the line. If Google, phone and cable companies prevail, it's lost. They'll be self-regulating, able to charge what they wish, and block content freely.

Combined, telecom, broadcast and cable giants have lobbied fiercely for control - to establish online toll roads, or premium lanes, for users wanting speed and access. Others will get slower (and for some no) service, will have to pay for formerly free sites, and whatever corporate interests dislike will be censored or suppressed.

Ahead, all video, radio, phone and other services will be delivered online. Without Net Neutrality, thought control will replace free expression, corporate interests more than ever in control, a nightmarish vision essential to prevent, what only mass public outrage can and must do.

Net Neutrality is the defining issue of our time, preserving it a battle vital to win to maintain corporate-free space, crucial to defend at all costs. The stakes are that high.

After Wall Street, media giants already get more government handouts than any other industry, including:

-- monopoly licenses for radio, TV, satellite TV spectrum, cable TV and telephone, worth hundreds of billions of dollars combined;

-- free industrial spectrum TV, cable and telephone for internal use, worth many billions more;

-- lucrative postal subsidies;

-- federal, state and local film and TV production subsidies;

-- all levels of government advertising worth billions annually;

-- advertising expenditures as a business deductible expense;

-- electoral political advertising amounting to about 10% of TV ad revenue, and in depressed economic times even more;

-- government lobbying for media giants overseas for deregulated markets and subsidies diverted to them and other US companies; and

-- their largest handout - government-created/enforced copyrights, giving media giants monopoly power to consolidate to too-big-to fail status, the trend author Ben Bagdikian documented since 1983 in new editions of his landmark book, "The Media Monopoly," explaining how dozens of media companies combined into a handful of communication giants, controlling television, radio, newspapers, magazines, publishing, films, music, and more, the public be damned for profits.

Now the Internet is up for grabs, the last free expression space, threatened by profiteering predators partnered with a Capitol Hill/administration criminal class.

Highlighting the danger on Free Press, Silver explains that:

"phone and cable monopolies (controlling nearly) all Internet access, want the power to choose who gets access to high-speed lanes and whose content gets seen first and fastest," besides controlling what's published and what's not.

They want unregulated power "to build a two-tiered system and block the on-ramps for those who can't pay," shutting down the last free and open space, stealing it for themselves, a mass-awakening needed to stop them before it's too late.

A Final Comment

Under Title II of the 1934 Telecommunications Act, FCC officials can stop this piracy, using its delegated authority to write rules, not pass the buck to Congress or let industry giants self-regulate. With digital democracy on the line, it's high time public outrage demanded nothing less. The stakes are that high.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

The Progressive Radio News Hour Guests for August 12, 14 and 15, 2010

Thursday, August 5 at 10AM US Central time: Bob Chapman

For over 40 years, Chapman has written articles and analysis on business, finance, economics, and politics, and is currently the owner and editor of the International Forecaster, "a compendium on business, finance, economics, and social and political issues worldwide."

Chapman's latest views on the economy will be discussed.

Saturday, August 14, at noon US Central time: Ellen Brown

Brown is a civil litigation attorney, author, and frequent writer on financial issues. A new edition of her latest book, "Web of Debt," is an essential analysis of the private banking system, how it usurped money creation power, and how we can take it back.

Brown's latest writing will be discussed.

Sunday, August 15 at noon US Central time: Mickey Huff

Huff is a California-based Professor of History at Diablo Valley College and new Director of Project Censored (PC) and the Media Freedom Foundation. MFF supports First Amendment freedoms and investigative research, and works closely with PC and other media related organizations.

PC is the media democracy advocacy group that publishes vital news stories suppressed or censored in the mainstream.

Each year, it ranks the top 25 and publishes them in its yearbook, Censored: Media Democracy in Action. The latest Censored 2010: The Top Censored Stories of 2008 - 09 can be purchased at projectcensored.org/store.

Current world and national issues will be discussed.

America's Gulf: A Toxic Crime Scene - by Stephen Lendman

On August 4, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a Department of Commerce agency, reported that:

"The vast majority of the oil from the BP oil spill has either evaporated or been burned, skimmed, recovered from the wellhead or dispersed, much of which is in the process of being degraded....this is the direct result of the robust federal response efforts."

The same day at an AFL/CIO convention, Obama hailed the news, saying "the long battle to stop the leak and contain the oil is finally close to coming to an end."

False. From the start, the Obama administration conspired with BP, imposing censorship and cover-up, barring the public and news media from coming within 65 feet of clean-up of "booming operations, boom, or oil spill response operations under penalty of law" without Coast Guard-authorized permission.

The agency is a virtual BP arm, now retired Admiral Thad Allen its de facto representative as National Incident Commander, doing its bidding, suppressing the disaster's severity, including enforcing the FAA's mid-June announced no-fly zone, not needed if there was nothing to hide. There's plenty, why journalists and other violators faced up to five years in prison and a $40,000 fine for telling the truth, now mostly hidden, not gone.

On August 4, responding to NOAA, Kieran Suckling, executive director of Center for Biological Diversity said the following:

"The overly rosy tone of (NOAA's) report may leave the false impression that this crisis is somehow nearing an end. But much of the oil that the government refers to has simply been broken apart and remains in the ecosystem. It's like taking separated salad dressing and shaking up the bottle so the oil and vinegar mix. You may not be able to see (it), but it's there."

"That unseen oil, though, is what will foul the Gulf for years, (perhaps generations), eating away at the basic elements of the food chain that are the building blocks for fisheries, birds, sea turtles and mammal populations."

Louisiana State University (LSU) biological oceanographer Robert Carney says scientists are finding plenty of oil, under Louisiana islands, beneath Florida beaches, and in unseen ocean reaches.

Biological oceanographers Markus Huettel and Joel Kostka discovered large oil swaths up to two feet deep on a "cleaned" Pensacola beach. With little oxygen, it'll remain for decades. It gets trapped underground when tiny droplets penetrate porous sand or when waves wash it ashore, burying it. Huettel explained further that previous oil under beaches migrates into groundwater, causing hazards to wildlife and humans, not knowing what they're drinking is contaminated.

He noted also that deep sea spills are "unchartered territory," dispersants for the first time used at depths down to 5,000 feet, settling oil on the seafloor, the mixture suspended and preserved, causing long-term harm for deep-sea animals, and disrupting a large part of the food chain.

University of South Florida (USF) chemical oceanographer David Hollander is also alarmed, calling the 75% claim "ludicrous." USF scientists and Vernon Asper, University of Southern Mississippi oceanographer, were "lambasted" by NOAA and Coast Guard officials when they reported a giant undersea plume, NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco telling them to stop "speculating" when, according to Asper, "We had solid evidence, rock solid."

Hollander said "What we learned completely changes the idea of what an oil spill is. It has gone from a two-dimensional disaster to a three-dimensional catastrophe," NOAA and other government agencies enforcing cover-up, denial, and distorted media reports.

On August 8, Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy Director Carol Browner told NBC's Meet the Press that "the vast majority of oil is gone." On the same day, Thad Allen, on CBS' Face the Nation, congratulated BP for a job well done, criticizing only its PR errors, smoothing the way to end the oil drilling moratorium, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation Director Michael Bromwich saying expect it "significantly in advance of November 30."

Hazardous Toxins Threaten Gulf Coast Residents

Combined with millions of gallons of Corexit, a deadly dispersant, the mix is extremely toxic and dangerous, the Gulf poisoned and potentially lethal for decades, perhaps generations. Nothing in it should be ingested, nor is living close by safe, what BP, Washington and the major media won't explain. As a result, the health and welfare of millions of residents are at risk as well as anyone eating Gulf seafood. Responsible federal and state officials would ban it. Instead the all-clear's been given. Don't be fooled.

Marine toxicologist Riki Ott said if she lived in the area with children, she'd leave. On July 31, she flew over affected parts of the Gulf with a documentary filmmaker and local shrimper, a man who grew up the area, fearing his livelihood was destroyed, saying:

"I've fished in all these waters - everywhere you can see. It's all oiled. This is the worst I've seen. This is a heartbreak...."

At low altitudes, oil was visible everywhere, despite most of it submerged. "As far as we could see: Oil....The official story does not match the reality (below or what local residents report). BP has created a Frankenstein."

Minimally, over 44,000 square miles of ocean are contaminated, an area comparable to Ohio or Pennsylvania. Some estimates say nearly 80,000, more than Florida and Massachusetts combined, the health hazard immense, the waters causing "internal bleeding and hemorrhaging in workers and dolphins alike," according to senior EPA analyst Hugh Kaufman, a rare responsible official.

On Democracy Now, he accused BP and the administration of cover-up and deceit, including using dispersants "to hide the volume of oil that has been released," far more than official reports, to save BP up to billions in fines. "That's the purpose of using dispersants, not to protect the public health or environment. Quite the opposite."

After 9/11, Kaufman was ombudsman investigator for Ground Zero, exposing EPA lies about air safety, causing widespread illnesses and death, seeing a repeat for Gulf residents, "EPA administrators saying the air is safe and the water is safe."

False, because of "dispersants mixed with oil and air pollution." The official lie endangers tens of thousands, maybe millions, retired toxicologist and forensic chemist John Laseter explaining that the oil-solvent mix sticks on biological tissue, wreaking havoc.

Dispersants make oil penetrate more deeply into skin, a "delivery system" into the anatomies of humans and wildlife, the combination more deadly than either alone, some observers believing far greater quantities of dispersants have been used than reported, J. Speer Williams for one in his July 22 Rense.com article titled "Who Killed The Gulf?" accessed through the following link:

http://www.rense.com/general91/who.htm

Explaining the ongoing dark side of a disturbing story, Williams cites Christopher Reddy, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution associate scientist of marine chemistry and geochemistry saying BP used one million BARRELS of Corexit or 42 million gallons, not the two million gallons reported, some reports claiming less. If he's right, the toxicity and long-term threat far exceed the worst estimates of reliable scientists, a hellish nightmare for the entire Gulf coast area, Dr. Seth Forman and others comparing Corexit to Agent Orange, the deadly defoliant used in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

Millions of gallons were sprayed with devastating effects, its deadly dioxin one of the most toxic known substances, a potent carcinogenic human immune system suppressant. It accumulates in adipose tissue and the liver, alters living cell structures, causes congenital disorders and birth defects, and contributes to diseases like cancer and type two diabetes. In the 1960s and 70s, it affected millions exposed, Southeast Asians and Americans alike. Expect a repeat today, what BP, the administration and media suppress.

Hugh Kaufman sees tens of thousands of Gulf coast residents at risk and anyone eating the seafood. They'll "end up with cancer, genetic mutations, or some other mysterious unexplained illnesses (years later)."

After the Exxon Valdez disaster, most workers and others exposed to dispersants and oil died young, their average age about 50, another shocking story never reported, a window into the far greater calamity ahead, the Gulf catastrophe infinitely greater, the equivalent of three - four Exxon Valdez incidents a week, using Exxon's 11 million gallon figure. The state of Alaska's conservative estimate was over 30 million gallons, also unreported.

Today, independent scientists report hazardous levels of oil and dispersants in the Gulf, ashore, and in the air, including carcinogenic benzene and oil vapors (Volatile Organic Compounds - VOCs), as early as 1948, the American Petroleum Institute saying, "The only absolutely safe concentration for benzene is zero."

Now it's off the charts contaminating a wide area, one element in a deadly toxic brew, the administration and BP claiming the threat is over, the environment safe, normality fast returning - the official lie, the Obama administration fronting for BP, complicit in its crimes, contributing to a greater disaster instead of preventing it by enforcing responsible policies in the first place, ones absent, assuring other calamities from future oil drilling operations, especially offshore in deep water, where technology and safety concerns haven't kept up with the rush to plunge deep holes in the earth, damn the hazards and millions of lives at risk.

Final Thoughts

The lives and livelihoods of Gulf residents are at risk, the entire area economically damaged, BP establishing a paltry $20 billion compensation fund for victims, containing a slim $3 billion deposit, the idea being to help BP, not them, claims czar Kenneth Feinberg appointed to assure it, a man notorious for serving wealth and power interests.

Earlier, he managed a similar account for 9/11 victims, then later was appointed pay czar for bailed out Wall Street banks and other companies. Like BP ombudsman Stanley Sporkin, he's a notorious "fixer," fronting for power, not people, earlier negotiating a lawsuit settlement for Agent Orange producers, benefitting them, not affected veterans, getting $1,200 not to litigate.

He later performed similar services for AH Robins, maker of the Dalkon Shield, injuring 235,000 women with potentially lethal pelvic infections, a settlement giving most of them $725 or less.

He's now point man in charge of doing to Gulf residents what he did earlier, saving corporate criminals billions, getting victims to waive their right to sue in return for amounts too meager to matter. In a recent Wall Street Journal interview, he said:

"When I go to the Gulf, I hear a lot about the underground economy. 'Mr. Feinberg, I got paid $5,000 a month all cash. Do I have a claim?' Well, you have to prove your claim. There's nothing illegal about all cash business, but do you have your tax return....Do you have documentary evidence....Will your ship captain vouch for the $5,000....I need something. I can't be paying claims that can't be proven. And I can tell you that this is going to be a big issue."

Indeed it will, reports confirming Feinberg on BP's payroll, his mandate being to deny, deny, deny, or pay minimum amounts, mostly in lump sums, victims waiving their right to litigate, even those losing livelihoods and years of lost income.

Washington is corporate-occupied territory, politicians bribed with millions of dollars, favors, and lucrative revolving door jobs out of office. As long as a government/industry cabal runs America, wealth and power interests alone will matter, letting companies like BP destroy the environment, our welfare and lives, expendable for greater profits, assured under Democrats and Republicans, two wings of the money party.

On May 4, National Geographic asked if the "Gulf Oil Spill (was) a 'Dead Zone in the Making,' " saying if it can't be contained it could happen. An early August update explained that beneath the surface lies:

"a turbid cloud of stirred-up sediment and dead sea creatures. Flaccid jellyfish floated on the flat currents of tiny corpses. On the sea bottom the waters were gray and terribly empty. No coral, no fish, no algae, nothing but the noxious oily streaks of red tides and lethal plankton blooms. Everything in this 7,000 square-mile zone (the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined) has died from lack of oxygen. It (was) if every person in a city were suddenly sucked dry of air and suffocated...."

Other researchers agree, saying the Gulf's dead zone doubled in the last year, and may be larger than estimated. Caused by hypoxia (low oxygen levels), it stretches across the Mississippi River Delta along Louisiana's coastline into Texas. According to the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, it's the world's second largest and growing, covering about 7,700 square miles, an area nearly the size of New Jersey. Marine biologists attribute it to oil and dispersants, as well as nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizer runoffs, soil erosion, animal wastes, sewage, and seasonal weather, notably hurricanes and floods.

They occur globally, but the Gulf's approaches the largest ever recorded in 1985 at just over 8,000 square miles, some scientists believing that number's been eclipsed but not verified, most reputable ones agreeing that a vast area has been poisoned, creating alarming hazards for wildlife and millions of people. It'll be years before the full impact is known, but it's guaranteed to be catastrophic.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

The Charade Begins: Netanyahu's Flotilla Massacre Probe Testimony - by Stephen Lendman

On August 9, Israel's self-appointed Turkel Commission, its planned whitewash, began hearings into the Freedom Flotilla massacre, a humanitarian mission delivering essential aid to besieged Gazans, Israeli officials blaming the victims, not themselves.

After the incident, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said organizers incited the attack. His deputy, Danny Ayalon, connected them to international terrorists, trying to smuggle in arms, bogusly claiming weapons were found on board the mother ship, the Mavi Marmara.

Netanyahu's spokesman, Mark Regev accused the activists of "initiat(ing) the violence," insisting IDF commandos "were attacked with knives, clubs, and even live fire." Chief of Staff General Gabi Ashkenazi said soldiers were forced by violence to open fire.

He and other Israeli officials lied, clear evidence showing commandos attacked peaceful activists even before boarding, shooting others multiple times at point blank range, some in the head. Their well-planned mission was to interdict, attack, assassinate designated targets, seize the ship's cargo, take prisoners, brutalize them, then send them to an Israeli prison for interrogations.

Straightaway, damage control cover-up began, including appointment of the Turkel Commission, Israel's thinly veiled whitewash, hearings now underway - on day one, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the first witness, Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs publishing his full testimony. Let the charade begin.

Deceiving no one, he absolved his government and IDF commandos, saying they:

"conducted themselves in accordance with international law....display(ing) a rare courage in fulfilling their mission and in defending themselves against a real threat to their lives. I have full confidence in our soldiers, and the State of Israel is proud of them. (My) appearance before this committee is the best evidence of the high standards by which Israel's democracy functions."

Democracy or hypocrisy? In Israel, as in America, for the privileged, not others; for Jews, not Arabs; why observers call Israel a failed state, a rogue one - reckless, lawless, and out-of-control, the Flotilla massacre one of many examples, murdering civilians in international waters, the Prime Minister condoning it, his above statement self-explanatory - words of a criminal, not a leader, asserting bald-faced lies, making false accusations, saying:

"Israel has always been different (from other Middle East states) - very different. Israel is a liberal, democratic country governed by the rule of law, with independent courts, a bona fide parliament, and a free press."

False - Israel spurns democracy, the rule of law, and free expression, treating Jews one way, Palestinians another, including 1.5 million Arab citizens, denied their rights, treated like a fifth column in an alien land - persecuted, threatened, and intimidated to leave, perhaps expelled one day if they won't.

Yet Netanyahu cited "unprecedented threats of war and terrorism," his government "defend(ing) the security of its people and protect(ing) its democratic values, (meeting) this challenge for 62 years."

No nations threaten Israel, the region's only nuclear power, its history blood-drenched in violence against neighbors and Occupied Palestinians, living for 43 years under conditions Westerners can't imagine, surviving and persisting nonetheless, determined one day to be free on their own land in their own country, reclaiming just 22% of what Israel stole, or living cooperatively in one state treating Muslims, Jews, Christians and all others equally, renouncing violence to live peacefully, what Israel won't do and never has, its politics driven by violence, its motive - a dominant Jewish-only Greater Israel, dividing and subjugating other regional states, rendering them weak and subservient, what's never acknowledged but true. What the Turkel Commission knows but won't hear or discuss.

Netanyahu then bogusly called Hamas a terrorist organization, "work(ing) toward the destruction of Israel," assisted by Iran, "also (wanting) to wipe Israel off the map....equipp(ing) Hamas with thousands of rockets, missiles, and other weapons, (transforming Gaza) into a terrorist enclave." False, but Turkel Commission members won't dispute it.

Asked by its members to justify military action, Netanyahu called it "a last resort, and the instructions were to conduct it with as little friction as possible." False again. Planned weeks in advance, commandos had names and photos of activists to assassinate. Even IDF video was faked, filmed in advance on a look-alike ship, staged to comply with Israel's version of events, the real ones entirely different, showing intent to commit premeditated murder.

Yet Netanyahu claimed Flotilla activists were terrorists, "interested with clashing with the IDF," saying commandos had a right to defend themselves from violent attacks, the way Israel always blames victims for its crimes, in this case courageous activists delivering humanitarian aid, risking their lives and welfare doing it, knowing the risks, yet committed as are other planned flotillas coming, determined to break Israel's illegal siege.

Haaretz Writer Gideon Levy Comments

On August 8, ahead of Netanyahu's testimony, he headlined, "Missing the forest," saying:

"Does anyone actually know the meaning of the term 'Jewish state'? Wouldn't it be better to live in a just democracy," instead of Israel's fake one?

Levy calls Israel's "forest of political, governmental and institutional racism....dark and deep, (containing many) poisonous trees: Citizenship laws, loyalty laws, conversion laws, the razing of Bedouin villages in the Negev," Israeli citizens losing their homes to make way for Jews, "and even the story of the Arab delivery man who was convicted of rape for pretending to be a Jew."

Few see the "big picture....several times worse than the sum of its components," more than ever today under Netanyahu, Israel's most extremist ever leader, backed by a rogue government - militant, racist, fundamentalist, and dangerous, threatening everyone in the region.

"Defining Israel as a Jewish state condemns us to living in a racist (one). This is the new definition of Zionism," moving relentlessly from one injustice to another, a character "embedded in the state's most fundamental values. There is no other state" where religion is so blatantly one-sided.

"Jewish blood, whether authentic or dubious, is kosher. Other blood....is unacceptable." Does this not reflect "a new kind of 'racial purity....a religious ethnocracy or an apartheid state? Wouldn't it be better to live in a just democracy? And how is it even possible" to call a Jewish state democratic, especially one defiling the rule of law, committing crimes of war and against humanity throughout its history, murdering humanitarian activists in international waters, claiming it's self-defense, suppressing truths too disturbing to reveal under a leader even Jews should fear, Levy earlier saying Israelis should be worried.

Discussing the Flotilla attack, he cited a "chorus singing songs of falsehood and lies," accusing activists of committing "a violent attack on Israeli sovereignty," outrageous propaganda claiming the aid convoy violated international law, not the siege but legitimate aid trying to break it, so stopping it by cold-blooded murder is righteously justified.

"We (are now) portrayed not only as the ones that have blocked assistance, but also as fools who do everything to even further undermine our own standing," Israel's friend, Mario Vargas Llosa saying the "occupation was approaching its grotesque phase."

More astute analysts know that passed long ago, reaching new heights under Netanyahu, Levy calling him "Tricky Bibi," a pathetic outrageous extremist, preaching peace while waging war, practicing deceit, a man "betraying himself in his own words as a con artist," worst of all a dangerous, treacherous one, endangering Jews like Arabs, Exhibit A the Flotilla massacre exposing Israel's true face, revealing what everyone in the region fears, most of all peace and democracy advocates, notions Netanyahu and his colleagues won't tolerate.

A Final Comment

On June 2, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) approved formation of an international committee (like the Goldstone Commission) to probe the Flotilla attack, comprised of lawyers and international law and human rights experts. They'll visit Israel, Turkey, Greece, and the Flotilla coalition, then present its findings in September, during the Council's three week Geneva session. If they investigate as admirably as Judge Goldstone, expect a true account of Israeli lawlessness, exposing the real face of a rogue state.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.