Can you just imagine the outcry if Iran's President Ahmadinejad came out with comments like wanting to send somewhere back to the Middle Ages.
What if he talked about inflicting a holocaust on a particular people? And then had his ministers scuttling around saying he didn't quite mean it like that. He really only meant "disaster". Yeah, because inflicting disaster on people is just fine.....
Well, there would be resolutions and murmurings and outrage and endless condemnation. And these things wouldn't be unjustified. That's absolutely no way to talk about anyone. Military objectives driven by destructive emotions are not a good thing.
Except it's not Iran saying these things. It's Israel. About the Palestinians in Gaza. Sure, Hamas shouldn't be firing rockets into Israel, but nor should Israel have such scant regard for the dreadful suffering its disproportionate response is causing.
So, where's the international condemnation? These comments by two Israeli ministers are unacceptable and I want to see Obama, Clegg, Cameron, the EU and the UN calling them out. I won't be holding my breath.
Update: There is, however, something useful you can do. Save the Children say that children are suffering the biggest impact of the Israeli bombardment. They've set up an emergency fund and are making sure that kids in Gaza have clean water and something to eat. Please give here if you can.
Showing posts with label Gaza. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gaza. Show all posts
Monday, November 19, 2012
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Just stop the killing in Gaza
Ok, I've had enough. Will somebody please take Israel by the scruff of the neck and get them told that bombarding Gaza, causing immense suffering and a humanitarian crisis, is just not on. I'm looking at you, Barack Obama and William Hague. Then can they just get all the key players together and not let them out until a peaceful way forward has been found?
Israel needs to understand how its actions have contributed to the current situation over many years. There's no evidence that they are learning anything. If any member of our Government said that our forces wanted to return anywhere to the Middle Ages, then I'd hope they would not only be unequivocally sacked, but made to resign from Parliament as well. That's not the case for the Israeli Minister of the Interior who still appears to have a job after making such a shameful comment about Gaza.
That says to me that the agenda goes way beyond defending Israel from Palestinian violence. In the Middle Ages there was no electricity, technology, antibiotics, surgery to speak of, hospitals, hygiene, education if you weren't rich. How could anyone wish a return to that sort of society on any other human beings? Talking about them with such obvious hatred is not remotely acceptable and surely it should be dawning on the Israeli Government that treating these people badly is counter-productive. Israel has been getting away with way too much over the last 40 years with impunity because its powerful mates let it. Enough is enough. I just don't want to watch this tortuous cycle of the people of Gaza suffering blockade, bomardment, picking themselves up only for more innocent lives to be lost.
We're not going to get any sort of lasting peace in the region without Israel giving some stuff up and they are going to have to be made to do it. And the only way they will be made to do it is if people like you and I lobby our governments to drive this forward. Write to your MP, to William Hague, take to the streets if there's a protest march near you. It's time to sort this troubled region's problems out once and for all.
Israel needs to understand how its actions have contributed to the current situation over many years. There's no evidence that they are learning anything. If any member of our Government said that our forces wanted to return anywhere to the Middle Ages, then I'd hope they would not only be unequivocally sacked, but made to resign from Parliament as well. That's not the case for the Israeli Minister of the Interior who still appears to have a job after making such a shameful comment about Gaza.
That says to me that the agenda goes way beyond defending Israel from Palestinian violence. In the Middle Ages there was no electricity, technology, antibiotics, surgery to speak of, hospitals, hygiene, education if you weren't rich. How could anyone wish a return to that sort of society on any other human beings? Talking about them with such obvious hatred is not remotely acceptable and surely it should be dawning on the Israeli Government that treating these people badly is counter-productive. Israel has been getting away with way too much over the last 40 years with impunity because its powerful mates let it. Enough is enough. I just don't want to watch this tortuous cycle of the people of Gaza suffering blockade, bomardment, picking themselves up only for more innocent lives to be lost.
We're not going to get any sort of lasting peace in the region without Israel giving some stuff up and they are going to have to be made to do it. And the only way they will be made to do it is if people like you and I lobby our governments to drive this forward. Write to your MP, to William Hague, take to the streets if there's a protest march near you. It's time to sort this troubled region's problems out once and for all.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
So what exactly is the point in protesting?
Both Malc and Jeff have questioned the point of going on protests like yesterday's Gaza march. They argue that it's futile cos it's not going to change anybody's mind and it just leaves the authorities a whole load of stuff to clean up.
While I am not naive enough to think that George, or Gordon, or Tony, or David, or Barack or Hillary are going to say "Wow, look at all those people in the streets. Maybe we should get tough with Israel, I haven't quite lost so much of my idealism that I've turned into Victor Meldrew before my time:-).
These are the reasons why I think standing up for what you believe in and making your voice heard is important:
The Martin Neimoller thing - you know:
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I was not a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
On a similar vein, there's the old one about All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing’
To raise awareness of an issue. There's nothing like 8000 or whatever people with banners walking past you while you do your shopping to make you aware of something. Maybe yesterday's protest caused people to look into the issue, contact their MPs, donate medicine or money to the humanitarian effort for Gaza. I'm hoping that the medicines I gave in will benefit someone in Gaza at some point.
To show solidarity I mentioned yesterday about the Palestinian family who thanked my 9 year old for caring about their country. If that march has given them some comfort, then surely that's a good thing. Also, now that the world is a much smaller place, people in Gaza may get to here that there are thousands across the world who want their situation to change. It can only help community relations in this country. There was a broad band of organisations supporting this demo and improving links between people like the Scottish Islamic Federation and Jews for a Just Peace must be a good thing, surely.
Also in terms of passing things on to the next generation, my daughter has been full of questions about the Palestinians and the history of it all. Thank goodness for people like John Pilger and Robert Fisk, that's all I can say.
Because we can We are lucky to have the rights of freedom of association and to protest against our Government. I just think that when you feel really strongly about something, then you should use this right. It's part of your responsibilities as a citizen to engage in the political process in a way that suits you.
Ok, so somebody might have had to pick up some paint and some shoes as a result of this demo. I think the Police didn't need to be there in as huge numbers as they were. It was all very peaceful and that's not because the crowd was cowed and deterrred by the Police, but because they genuinely wanted to make their point peacefully.
How much vomit and other bodily fluids and violence and general unpleasantness must the Police encounter over the course of a normal weekend? I guess the paint and the shoes were nothing in comparison.
Can anyone think of any other reasons?
LibDig This!
While I am not naive enough to think that George, or Gordon, or Tony, or David, or Barack or Hillary are going to say "Wow, look at all those people in the streets. Maybe we should get tough with Israel, I haven't quite lost so much of my idealism that I've turned into Victor Meldrew before my time:-).
These are the reasons why I think standing up for what you believe in and making your voice heard is important:
The Martin Neimoller thing - you know:
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I was not a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
On a similar vein, there's the old one about All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing’
To raise awareness of an issue. There's nothing like 8000 or whatever people with banners walking past you while you do your shopping to make you aware of something. Maybe yesterday's protest caused people to look into the issue, contact their MPs, donate medicine or money to the humanitarian effort for Gaza. I'm hoping that the medicines I gave in will benefit someone in Gaza at some point.
To show solidarity I mentioned yesterday about the Palestinian family who thanked my 9 year old for caring about their country. If that march has given them some comfort, then surely that's a good thing. Also, now that the world is a much smaller place, people in Gaza may get to here that there are thousands across the world who want their situation to change. It can only help community relations in this country. There was a broad band of organisations supporting this demo and improving links between people like the Scottish Islamic Federation and Jews for a Just Peace must be a good thing, surely.
Also in terms of passing things on to the next generation, my daughter has been full of questions about the Palestinians and the history of it all. Thank goodness for people like John Pilger and Robert Fisk, that's all I can say.
Because we can We are lucky to have the rights of freedom of association and to protest against our Government. I just think that when you feel really strongly about something, then you should use this right. It's part of your responsibilities as a citizen to engage in the political process in a way that suits you.
Ok, so somebody might have had to pick up some paint and some shoes as a result of this demo. I think the Police didn't need to be there in as huge numbers as they were. It was all very peaceful and that's not because the crowd was cowed and deterrred by the Police, but because they genuinely wanted to make their point peacefully.
How much vomit and other bodily fluids and violence and general unpleasantness must the Police encounter over the course of a normal weekend? I guess the paint and the shoes were nothing in comparison.
Can anyone think of any other reasons?
LibDig This!
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Chat with John Barrett MP
That nice John Barrett, MP for Edinburgh West bought Stephen and I coffee and a mincemeat tart as reward for getting cold and wet waiting till the end of the Gaza rally to hear him speak.
It was great to catch up because I haven't seen him for ages, but I thought this observation he made was worth sharing with you all:
"I was in London at the time of the July 7 bombings. These bombers came from Leeds. We haven't built a wall round Leeds and then started bombing Leeds."
LibDig This!
It was great to catch up because I haven't seen him for ages, but I thought this observation he made was worth sharing with you all:
"I was in London at the time of the July 7 bombings. These bombers came from Leeds. We haven't built a wall round Leeds and then started bombing Leeds."
LibDig This!
Gaza Protest in Edinburgh - an emotional afternoon
I'm just back in and am thawing and drying out after the Gaza march and rally in Edinburgh. Due to a meeting over-running this morning, I didn't catch up with the march until it came back on to Princes Street after the trip to the US Consulate.
I was really pleased to see so many people had turned out. The Police estimate was around 5000 but it looked and felt like more. Bob reckoned that there would have been at least 6000 when the march formed on East Market Street.
I found Bob, Anna (who had been very good for the almost two hours she was out in the cold) and Stephen pretty quickly. Bob and Anna soon went off to get something to eat but Stephen and I continued on to the rally at the Ross Bandstand. Bob and Anna actually met a Palestinian family in Pizza Hut who, when they saw the Palestinian flag Anna was carrying, thanked her for caring about their country. She now feels that she did something worthwhile today.
Bob and Stephen both commented on the excessive number of police taking photographs of participants. The march was very well behaved and peaceful so I'm not quite sure why this was so necessary, particularly in an area of town that already has huge coverage with CCTV cameras.
There was only one MP there at the rally - John Barrett, Liberal Democrat member for Edinburgh West. He was the last to speak and we stuck it out to the end, despite the cool, dry Winter's afternoon turning nasty. By the time we left, it was pouring with rain and there was a really driving wind. Stephen had to get out the strawberry lip balm at one point for himself.
The rally started though with a child of around 7 or 8 going up on stage and starting a chant "George Bush where are you? We want to throw a shoe at you" which apparently they had made up on the way round. She made the whole crowd laugh.
We heard from a huge variety of speakers from trade unions, Jews for a Just Peace, the Scottish Islamic Federation, a doctor talking on the phone direct from Gaza describing the humanitarian crisis, MSPs Sandra White and Pauline MacNeill and John Barrett.
One telling point made by the Scottish Islamic Federation speaker is that they would unequivocally condemn any bombings by terrorists in any western country as they don't advocate violence by anybody - yet the US fails to condemn these appalling raids on Gaza.
Pauline MacNeill spoke about how she had gone to observe the elections which saw Hamas come to power in 2006. She said that Hamas wouldn't have been her choice, nor many other people's, but they were the legitimate choice of the Palestinian people and the influential countries in the world needed to engage with them. Pauline was the first person to really help me to understand the plight of the Palestinian people over 20 years ago when she was President of NUS Scotland and I was just a naive and innocent first year student.
John spoke about how he had asked Gordon Brown about the number of civiians who had been killed in Iraq since the war there had begun and how he had been given the chilling answer "it's not for us to count these things." He reiterated how Nick Clegg had been the only UK leader to speak out against the Israeli action and called for a million people to take to the streets when Barack Obama visits here in February to show our opposition to these awful attacks by Israel in the same way as we did for the Iraq war. He said that everybody who felt strongly about this should go and visit their MP and reminded us that Gordon Brown's constituency was only a little bit to the north and Alistair Darling's was 5 minutes away from where we were.
The more I have looked into this the more passionately I feel for the plight of the Palestinian people. The Israelis have spent a fortune raining down bombs on these poor people. They force them to live in appalling conditions, often without electricity or running water. What if they spent the same amount of money giving them schools, hospitals, clean, safe water and reliable electricity? That humanitarian gesture would do so much for the cause of peace.
Let's hope that once Obama takes office he uses his authority to take action to end this, so that we never again have the disgraceful display we saw the other night when the US abstained on a relatively tame resolution calling for a ceasefire.
LibDig This!
Friday, January 09, 2009
Israel accused of War Crime in Gaza
So, just imagine it. You're a Palestinian family, in your home, such as it is, probably without electricity and running water. You're absolutely terrified of it being destroyed by the Israelis in one of their vicious air assaults.
Then an Israeli soldier comes to call - tells you to get out for your own safety and leads you to another building.
With a sinking feeling you know that you'll lose everything that you own as your house will be destroyed, but at least you'll all be safe.
Then, within a day, Israeli shells start pummelling the so called place of safety.
Maybe your family isn't going to survive this after all.
Scaremongering? Exaggeration?
Not according to the Guardian.
Whoever is responsible for this heinous act, which killed 30 including 9 members of one family, needs a one way ticket to the War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague. Immediately.
LibDig This!
Then an Israeli soldier comes to call - tells you to get out for your own safety and leads you to another building.
With a sinking feeling you know that you'll lose everything that you own as your house will be destroyed, but at least you'll all be safe.
Then, within a day, Israeli shells start pummelling the so called place of safety.
Maybe your family isn't going to survive this after all.
Scaremongering? Exaggeration?
Not according to the Guardian.
Whoever is responsible for this heinous act, which killed 30 including 9 members of one family, needs a one way ticket to the War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague. Immediately.
LibDig This!
Scottish Parliament backs Gaza ceasefire call
The Scottish Parliament yesterday backed calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and recognised the work of charities and NGOs trying to help improve the plight of the Palestinians.
The text of the motion was
S3M-3179 Nicola Sturgeon: The Humanitarian Disaster in Gaza—That the Parliament expresses its concern over the loss of all lives in the conflict in Gaza; joins the international community in calling for a ceasefire; acknowledges the unfolding humanitarian disaster in Gaza; recognises and welcomes the role being played by those in Scotland involved in the humanitarian response, and supports the work of all charities and NGOs in Scotland that are responding to this situation.
and it was supported by everybody except the Tories. How you could actually fail to support something calling for a ceasefire is beyond me, but they managed it.
Jim Tolson, MSP for Dunfermline West, and Hugh O'Donnell, who went to Gaza in November on a Parliamentary visit were the Liberal Democrat contributors and I thought that their contributions were worthy of reproducing here.
Jim Tolson (Dunfermline West) (LD): Like millions of other people, I am absolutely shocked by the huge scale of the Israeli attacks that have been taking place since 27 December and which we have seen on the worldwide television news. With 1.5 million people crammed into the Gaza strip, high levels of civilian casualties were inevitable. There is no credibility in the Israeli statement that the Palestinians have used people as human shields, because it is impossible to have human shields when so many people are crammed into such a small space anyway.
In December, I attended the cross-party group in the Scottish Parliament on Palestine. The feedback from Hugh O'Donnell, Sandra White and Pauline McNeill on their audacious boat trip to Gaza was absolutely heartbreaking. There was also feedback from Palestinian people, many of whom had suffered for years in their homeland at the hands of the Israelis. There was feedback, too, from aid workers who had been attacked and harangued out of Gaza, and from Scots who had lived in Gaza and had felt that in many ways they were living under occupation. We heard heartbreaking points from all. We heard that no spare parts are allowed for sewage systems and how Israeli gunboats force fishermen to remain close to the shore and to fish in waters that are contaminated with sewage, which inevitably contaminates the food chain.
I decided to be no armchair supporter. I was sufficiently moved to join 2,000 demonstrators in Glasgow last Saturday. A cross-party group of MSPs was there in support of the demonstration, although there were no Tories. The demonstration, which was on behalf of and in support of the people of Gaza and Palestinians worldwide, was peaceful but vociferous. The heartbreaking news about what has been going on in Gaza, particularly since 27 December, was well elocuted by many. I cannot condone the rocket attacks on Israel, but the Israeli response is utterly disproportionate. All violence must stop now and not just for three hours per day. Violence breeds violence and only a democratic settlement will bring lasting peace.
Nicola Sturgeon was absolutely right that almost all Scots are concerned about the situation. As she said, the violence is shattering and hopes for a long-term peace are the way ahead. I back those sentiments fully. The motion's focus on charities and NGOs pulling together is the right approach. The one point on which I agree with Ted Brocklebank is that that is one response that Scotland can make, whereas we cannot act on many other matters. Nicola Sturgeon also referred to the MSPs' trip to Gaza in November. That was a brave and audacious attempt by our colleagues to provide aid. They definitely managed to do that and I am glad that they did. At the end of the day, as Nicola Sturgeon said, we hope that the Parliament will speak with one voice on the issue. It is crucial that we do so.
Pauline McNeill was one of the members who went on the trip to Gaza. She talked about how Scotland can respond to the crisis in humanitarian ways. We heard much about that at the demonstration last Saturday. People can comment here and elsewhere on what is happening to try to ensure that the Palestinians' story gets out to a worldwide audience. We can also comment on the scale of the suffering, which has been going on for many years and not just since 27 December. Pauline McNeill rightly suggested that the public expect us to add our voice to that of others. The world focus must be on an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. Some Israelis, and even George Bush, have denied that there is a humanitarian crisis. There is no credibility whatever in that statement. I am glad that Mr Bush is going, but I wish that I could believe that the Israeli Government will be more reasonable in the future. I do not hold out too much hope of that.
Ted Brocklebank's speech was sad indeed. Although he deplored the tragic deaths of civilians in Gaza, including those of 200 children, he soured the debate somewhat, which was rather sad to witness. Hamas is not just a militant organisation—no more than the Tories are in the Parliament. It is unfortunate that Ted Brocklebank took that line. My colleague Hugh O'Donnell, who took part in the trip to Gaza, made a good speech. I am glad that he congratulated the organisations that are taking practical steps to help people in Gaza. The Liberal Democrats' UK leader, Nick Clegg, has called on the UK Government to stop arming the Israelis. I certainly back that call.
Hugh O'Donnell (Central Scotland) (LD): The Palestinian people are paying a dear price for Europe's guilt about what happened to European Jews. I find Mr Brocklebank's comments completely inappropriate but unsurprising, given the fact that the Conservatives did everything that they could to prevent the debate from taking place, notwithstanding what the cabinet secretary said.
I congratulate all the organisations in Scotland that are taking practical steps to help the people in Gaza. Even those of us who were there recently can have only a limited understanding of what has gone on in the past two weeks. We have watched in horror as the conflict in Gaza has claimed innocent victim after innocent victim. We have watched the UN schools, for which the Israelis have the co-ordinates, being completely destroyed. The past two weeks have been a telling indictment of the international community. We have an outgoing United States President who is giving Israel carte blanche to do what is being done to the people of Gaza and, regrettably, an aching silence from the President-elect. We also have a European Union that is encumbered by clumsy decision making and confused messages.
Nevertheless, there is a glimmer of hope, which has been referred to by other members. It is the short respite in the bombing that has been promised by Israel, along with the talk of a cease-fire. The three hours to which Nicola Sturgeon referred is barely enough time to do anything—let alone to feed a population of 1.5 million—but it is a start, even if it is intended only to deflect growing international criticism of what Israel is doing.
As other members have said, Israel has every right to defend itself, but its current approach is self-defeating and conveniently ignores the roots of its existence in the Stern gang and Irgun. There is no more a military solution to this situation than there was to the situation in Northern Ireland. We must get the sides to talk to each other. We were brave enough to talk to the Irish Republican Army, so why can we not make the Israelis brave enough to talk to Hamas and Hamas brave enough to talk to the Israelis?
The overwhelming use of force by Israel and the unacceptable loss of civilian lives are radicalising moderate Palestinians. We are now seeing Hezbollah launching attacks from Lebanon.
Britain must condemn unambiguously Israel's tactics, just as it has rightly condemned the Hamas rocket attacks. We must lead the European Union towards using its economic and diplomatic influence in the region to broker peace. That includes, if necessary, cancelling the preferable trade agreement that it is currently negotiating with the Israelis.
Finally, the world's leaders must accept that the response to the election of Hamas has been a strategic failure. Attempts to divide and rule the Palestinians by isolating them and collectively punishing an innocent civilian population in Gaza will not succeed. No terrorist organisation has ever been bombed into submission. To secure peace in the middle east, Hamas must turn its back on its terrorist activities to help to create Palestinian unity and Israel must recognise that the people of Palestine have as much right to exist on that land as the Israelis do. In Scotland, we must do all that we can to support the humanitarian efforts for the civilians in Gaza.
LibDig This!
The text of the motion was
S3M-3179 Nicola Sturgeon: The Humanitarian Disaster in Gaza—That the Parliament expresses its concern over the loss of all lives in the conflict in Gaza; joins the international community in calling for a ceasefire; acknowledges the unfolding humanitarian disaster in Gaza; recognises and welcomes the role being played by those in Scotland involved in the humanitarian response, and supports the work of all charities and NGOs in Scotland that are responding to this situation.
and it was supported by everybody except the Tories. How you could actually fail to support something calling for a ceasefire is beyond me, but they managed it.
Jim Tolson, MSP for Dunfermline West, and Hugh O'Donnell, who went to Gaza in November on a Parliamentary visit were the Liberal Democrat contributors and I thought that their contributions were worthy of reproducing here.
Jim Tolson (Dunfermline West) (LD): Like millions of other people, I am absolutely shocked by the huge scale of the Israeli attacks that have been taking place since 27 December and which we have seen on the worldwide television news. With 1.5 million people crammed into the Gaza strip, high levels of civilian casualties were inevitable. There is no credibility in the Israeli statement that the Palestinians have used people as human shields, because it is impossible to have human shields when so many people are crammed into such a small space anyway.
In December, I attended the cross-party group in the Scottish Parliament on Palestine. The feedback from Hugh O'Donnell, Sandra White and Pauline McNeill on their audacious boat trip to Gaza was absolutely heartbreaking. There was also feedback from Palestinian people, many of whom had suffered for years in their homeland at the hands of the Israelis. There was feedback, too, from aid workers who had been attacked and harangued out of Gaza, and from Scots who had lived in Gaza and had felt that in many ways they were living under occupation. We heard heartbreaking points from all. We heard that no spare parts are allowed for sewage systems and how Israeli gunboats force fishermen to remain close to the shore and to fish in waters that are contaminated with sewage, which inevitably contaminates the food chain.
I decided to be no armchair supporter. I was sufficiently moved to join 2,000 demonstrators in Glasgow last Saturday. A cross-party group of MSPs was there in support of the demonstration, although there were no Tories. The demonstration, which was on behalf of and in support of the people of Gaza and Palestinians worldwide, was peaceful but vociferous. The heartbreaking news about what has been going on in Gaza, particularly since 27 December, was well elocuted by many. I cannot condone the rocket attacks on Israel, but the Israeli response is utterly disproportionate. All violence must stop now and not just for three hours per day. Violence breeds violence and only a democratic settlement will bring lasting peace.
Nicola Sturgeon was absolutely right that almost all Scots are concerned about the situation. As she said, the violence is shattering and hopes for a long-term peace are the way ahead. I back those sentiments fully. The motion's focus on charities and NGOs pulling together is the right approach. The one point on which I agree with Ted Brocklebank is that that is one response that Scotland can make, whereas we cannot act on many other matters. Nicola Sturgeon also referred to the MSPs' trip to Gaza in November. That was a brave and audacious attempt by our colleagues to provide aid. They definitely managed to do that and I am glad that they did. At the end of the day, as Nicola Sturgeon said, we hope that the Parliament will speak with one voice on the issue. It is crucial that we do so.
Pauline McNeill was one of the members who went on the trip to Gaza. She talked about how Scotland can respond to the crisis in humanitarian ways. We heard much about that at the demonstration last Saturday. People can comment here and elsewhere on what is happening to try to ensure that the Palestinians' story gets out to a worldwide audience. We can also comment on the scale of the suffering, which has been going on for many years and not just since 27 December. Pauline McNeill rightly suggested that the public expect us to add our voice to that of others. The world focus must be on an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. Some Israelis, and even George Bush, have denied that there is a humanitarian crisis. There is no credibility whatever in that statement. I am glad that Mr Bush is going, but I wish that I could believe that the Israeli Government will be more reasonable in the future. I do not hold out too much hope of that.
Ted Brocklebank's speech was sad indeed. Although he deplored the tragic deaths of civilians in Gaza, including those of 200 children, he soured the debate somewhat, which was rather sad to witness. Hamas is not just a militant organisation—no more than the Tories are in the Parliament. It is unfortunate that Ted Brocklebank took that line. My colleague Hugh O'Donnell, who took part in the trip to Gaza, made a good speech. I am glad that he congratulated the organisations that are taking practical steps to help people in Gaza. The Liberal Democrats' UK leader, Nick Clegg, has called on the UK Government to stop arming the Israelis. I certainly back that call.
Hugh O'Donnell (Central Scotland) (LD): The Palestinian people are paying a dear price for Europe's guilt about what happened to European Jews. I find Mr Brocklebank's comments completely inappropriate but unsurprising, given the fact that the Conservatives did everything that they could to prevent the debate from taking place, notwithstanding what the cabinet secretary said.
I congratulate all the organisations in Scotland that are taking practical steps to help the people in Gaza. Even those of us who were there recently can have only a limited understanding of what has gone on in the past two weeks. We have watched in horror as the conflict in Gaza has claimed innocent victim after innocent victim. We have watched the UN schools, for which the Israelis have the co-ordinates, being completely destroyed. The past two weeks have been a telling indictment of the international community. We have an outgoing United States President who is giving Israel carte blanche to do what is being done to the people of Gaza and, regrettably, an aching silence from the President-elect. We also have a European Union that is encumbered by clumsy decision making and confused messages.
Nevertheless, there is a glimmer of hope, which has been referred to by other members. It is the short respite in the bombing that has been promised by Israel, along with the talk of a cease-fire. The three hours to which Nicola Sturgeon referred is barely enough time to do anything—let alone to feed a population of 1.5 million—but it is a start, even if it is intended only to deflect growing international criticism of what Israel is doing.
As other members have said, Israel has every right to defend itself, but its current approach is self-defeating and conveniently ignores the roots of its existence in the Stern gang and Irgun. There is no more a military solution to this situation than there was to the situation in Northern Ireland. We must get the sides to talk to each other. We were brave enough to talk to the Irish Republican Army, so why can we not make the Israelis brave enough to talk to Hamas and Hamas brave enough to talk to the Israelis?
The overwhelming use of force by Israel and the unacceptable loss of civilian lives are radicalising moderate Palestinians. We are now seeing Hezbollah launching attacks from Lebanon.
Britain must condemn unambiguously Israel's tactics, just as it has rightly condemned the Hamas rocket attacks. We must lead the European Union towards using its economic and diplomatic influence in the region to broker peace. That includes, if necessary, cancelling the preferable trade agreement that it is currently negotiating with the Israelis.
Finally, the world's leaders must accept that the response to the election of Hamas has been a strategic failure. Attempts to divide and rule the Palestinians by isolating them and collectively punishing an innocent civilian population in Gaza will not succeed. No terrorist organisation has ever been bombed into submission. To secure peace in the middle east, Hamas must turn its back on its terrorist activities to help to create Palestinian unity and Israel must recognise that the people of Palestine have as much right to exist on that land as the Israelis do. In Scotland, we must do all that we can to support the humanitarian efforts for the civilians in Gaza.
LibDig This!
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Scotland Wide Gaza Demo this Saturday
Hopefully we will have more luck at attending this demo on Saturday. It's Scotland-wide and being supported by everyone from the Stop the War coalition to Scottish Jews for a Just Peace to the Muslim Council of Scotland.
The Meeting Point is East Market Street at 12.30 pm and march to the US consulate, then back to Princes Street for a rally with speakers.
Don't forget to take in date medicines, sealed in their original containers, to send to Gaza.
LibDig This!
The Meeting Point is East Market Street at 12.30 pm and march to the US consulate, then back to Princes Street for a rally with speakers.
Don't forget to take in date medicines, sealed in their original containers, to send to Gaza.
LibDig This!
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Nick Clegg calls for end to arms exports to Israel
I am very heartened to see Nick Clegg being very firm in today's Guardian, saying unequivocally that we must stop arming Israel.
In this European election year, it was also good to see him show the important role the EU could have in helping to resolve the crisis, and in fact stating that the removal of the EU presence in Egypt in response to Hamas' election was counter productive in that it has made it easier for those who are firing rockets at Israel to obtain them.
Oh, and Happy Birthday to both Nick and my cousin David, who is celebrating his first birthday in his new home in Canada.
LibDig This!
In this European election year, it was also good to see him show the important role the EU could have in helping to resolve the crisis, and in fact stating that the removal of the EU presence in Egypt in response to Hamas' election was counter productive in that it has made it easier for those who are firing rockets at Israel to obtain them.
Oh, and Happy Birthday to both Nick and my cousin David, who is celebrating his first birthday in his new home in Canada.
LibDig This!
Sunday, January 04, 2009
A thoughtful persepctive on the Gaza situation
An old friend of mine, Adrian Cruden, posted the article below on Facebook last night. I thought it was brilliant and deserved circulating to a wider audience. I first knew Adrian through Scottish Young Social Democrats back in the day. He's now with the Greens and stood in a Council by-election for them a couple of months ago in Dewsbury.
"they will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah (holocaust)", by Adrian Cruden
A tiny area, packed with tens of thousands of people in cramped, inadequate, decaying buildings; with no one allowed in or out; water supplies cut and barely enough food allowed in; with one of the highest rates of infant mortality and deaths in childbirth…packed in together, with a mighty army surrounding this place to keep its inhabitants incarcerated, the head of the army proclaiming that soon he will unleash a holocaust on that place.
Where is this? The Jewish ghetto in Warsaw in 1941? Or Vilnius in 1942?
It could have been – but it is neither. It is Gaza, squeezed between Israel and Egypt. And the time is…now.
Gaza is a strip of land 25 miles long and 4 miles wide, with 1,600,000 people squashed into its confines. They are nearly all refugees or the children and grandchildren of refugees – the Palestinians thrown out of their lands in what is now Israel in 1948.
After the peace accords signed in 1993, the territory fell under the administration of the Palestinian National Authority, which also has jurisdiction over various enclaves in the West Bank. In both areas, however, the Israeli Defence Force (IDF), retained military control and withdrew from Gaza only in 2005.
Elections to the Palestinian Parliament in 2006 brought Hamas, a fundamentalist Islamic religious party, to power, its electoral triumph defeating the previous regime of the PLO-Fatah party of the late Yassir Arafat. Although if I was a Palestinian I think I'd not want much to do with Hamas, it was nevertheless the clear choice of the Palestinian electorate (under the title "Change & Reform" http://psephos.adam-carr.net/countries/p/palestine/palestine2006.txt ). Yet the EU and USA joined Israel in refusing to recognise or deal with them – democracy it seemed mattered to the West only as long as it produced the right result. After clashes between supporters of Hamas and Fatah, the Palestinian lands fractured, with Hamas in control of Gaza and Fatah in control of the West Bank territories.
Israel began a blockade of Gaza, restricting food and water and medicine. The densely populated territory suffered greatly as a result, and a UN report just a few weeks ago found massive addiction to painkillers and antidepressants among all age groups as the only things which helped the inhabitants cope with day to day life. Gaza is a ghetto just as much as the ones the Jews of Poland were crushed into ahead of their deportation to the gas chambers.
Under the circumstances, it seems of little surprise that some Gazans resorted to firing homemade rockets with fertiliser incendiaries into Israel. Over the last six years, this led to 19 Israeli deaths. Hamas encouraged this, and Israel responded – with massive raids by its airforce and its army, the fourth largest in the world. Several thousand Palestinians have been killed over the same period (around 2,300 in Gaza alone, including nearly 400 children). Past Israeli tactics have included bulldozing rows of houses in the close quarters of Gaza, often with little or even no notice to the residents. Now, tonight, their army has launched a land assault.
Earlier today, like thousands in cities around Britain, I joined about 350 others to march and protest in Leeds City Centre to call for peace in Gaza. Under a steel grey sky, in the bitter chill of an early January afternoon, we walked along the Headrow as shoppers watched, most of them seeming mildly bemused by this interruption to their post-Christmas Sales shopping, a few more hostile, shouting abuse, especially at the Muslim women in their headscarves. The police filmed us carefully every step of the way.
Why should it matter? Why does it matter, what happens hundreds of miles away?
Aside from the moral and ethical case, if these are not enough, there is the self-interest of stopping violence between humans: what happens there could happen anywhere, given the right (or wrong) conditions. And with its arms supplies to Israel, the UK is more involved than probably any of these shoppers might imagine.
The USA bankrolls both the Israeli army and pumps a huge economic subsidy into Israel - some estimates as high as $5.5 billion pa. ( http://www.hotpolitics.com/tax4israel.htm ) In addition, the UK is one of the IDF’s arms suppliers ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2006/apr/06/israel.armstrade ). Both could exert a huge influence on what is happening if they chose. But both Bush and Brown (and of course the Middle East Peace Envoy, Tony Blair) have at best equivocated, somehow putting the puny rocket attacks on a par with the assault launched by the fourth most powerful army in the world; more than that, they have effectively backed Israel to the hilt, leaving little room for hope they might broker true and just peace.
US President, George Bush, has claimed this latest bloodshed is the inevitable and justified Israeli response to Hamas terrorism: Barak Obama, by his craven silence at this critical time, has in effect endorsed this view, even although the first shots were fired several weeks ago by Israeli forces and although as far back as 29 February, the Israeli Defence Minister was promising to unleash a “shoah”, a holocaust, on Gaza.
http://www.counterpunch.org/cook03082008.html
That the Israeli elections are only a few weeks ago and the poll ratings of the two Government parties – Kadima and (shame on them) Labour – have soared since the offensive began is clearly more than coincidence. Likewise, this can be seen as Bush’s last anti-Muslim hurrah, a proxy assault by his allies rather than the no longer possible assault on Iran he dreamt off, just as his dad, Bush senior, invaded Somalia at the equivalent point in the dying days of his Presidency in 1991/92. Just as Clinton was incapable of sorting out the mess in Mogadishu, it seems hard to see how Obama will ever draw peace out of the Palestinian pyre.
But then perhaps that would suit some of these scheming politicians – for Hamas is very much the creation of the Israelis. Back in the 1980s, PLO-Fatah, a vaguely socialist, wholly secular party led by Yassir Arafat, was in the ascendancy among Palestinians and recognised around the world as their legitimate voice. Israel decided on an approach of divide and conquer and so began to sponsor, fund and train Hamas as a religious alternative for Palestinians in order to undermine Fatah and Arafat. That Hamas went on to win the elections and subsequently for the Palestinian Authority to be effectively divided in two is something that will suit those who wish no peace that involves Israel surrendering an inch of land. It may bring no peace or security, but the low grade incursions Hamas makes into Israel may well be seen as a price worth paying by those who seek endless confrontation.
(US article - "Hamas: Son of Israel" - http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=8449 )
Today, one speaker hit the nail on the head for me: when he saw children weeping amid the ruins of their homes, he thought of his children; when he saw an old woman bleeding in a hospital, he thought of his own mother; when he saw houses turned to rubble, with people trying to dig their neighbours out, he thought of his own neighbours. I think it is this, the commonality of suffering, that should bind us together in campaigning for peace - by marching, by writing to MPs, emailing newspapers, by talking to any who will listen.
Only by accident are we born where we are born; but we are all part of humanity, and there is only one earth. What happens anywhere should concern us all – enough at least to stop shopping and start shouting.
The land attack has begun – there will be more demonstrations in the UK and around the world in the days to come. These will all be chances for us to make our voices heard to save Gaza, and all of us.
When the Nazis came for the communists
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I was not a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
- Pastor Martin Niemoller
Shout loud - peace and justice almost happened before; we can make it happen again...
LibDig This!
"they will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah (holocaust)", by Adrian Cruden
A tiny area, packed with tens of thousands of people in cramped, inadequate, decaying buildings; with no one allowed in or out; water supplies cut and barely enough food allowed in; with one of the highest rates of infant mortality and deaths in childbirth…packed in together, with a mighty army surrounding this place to keep its inhabitants incarcerated, the head of the army proclaiming that soon he will unleash a holocaust on that place.
Where is this? The Jewish ghetto in Warsaw in 1941? Or Vilnius in 1942?
It could have been – but it is neither. It is Gaza, squeezed between Israel and Egypt. And the time is…now.
Gaza is a strip of land 25 miles long and 4 miles wide, with 1,600,000 people squashed into its confines. They are nearly all refugees or the children and grandchildren of refugees – the Palestinians thrown out of their lands in what is now Israel in 1948.
After the peace accords signed in 1993, the territory fell under the administration of the Palestinian National Authority, which also has jurisdiction over various enclaves in the West Bank. In both areas, however, the Israeli Defence Force (IDF), retained military control and withdrew from Gaza only in 2005.
Elections to the Palestinian Parliament in 2006 brought Hamas, a fundamentalist Islamic religious party, to power, its electoral triumph defeating the previous regime of the PLO-Fatah party of the late Yassir Arafat. Although if I was a Palestinian I think I'd not want much to do with Hamas, it was nevertheless the clear choice of the Palestinian electorate (under the title "Change & Reform" http://psephos.adam-carr.net/countries/p/palestine/palestine2006.txt ). Yet the EU and USA joined Israel in refusing to recognise or deal with them – democracy it seemed mattered to the West only as long as it produced the right result. After clashes between supporters of Hamas and Fatah, the Palestinian lands fractured, with Hamas in control of Gaza and Fatah in control of the West Bank territories.
Israel began a blockade of Gaza, restricting food and water and medicine. The densely populated territory suffered greatly as a result, and a UN report just a few weeks ago found massive addiction to painkillers and antidepressants among all age groups as the only things which helped the inhabitants cope with day to day life. Gaza is a ghetto just as much as the ones the Jews of Poland were crushed into ahead of their deportation to the gas chambers.
Under the circumstances, it seems of little surprise that some Gazans resorted to firing homemade rockets with fertiliser incendiaries into Israel. Over the last six years, this led to 19 Israeli deaths. Hamas encouraged this, and Israel responded – with massive raids by its airforce and its army, the fourth largest in the world. Several thousand Palestinians have been killed over the same period (around 2,300 in Gaza alone, including nearly 400 children). Past Israeli tactics have included bulldozing rows of houses in the close quarters of Gaza, often with little or even no notice to the residents. Now, tonight, their army has launched a land assault.
Earlier today, like thousands in cities around Britain, I joined about 350 others to march and protest in Leeds City Centre to call for peace in Gaza. Under a steel grey sky, in the bitter chill of an early January afternoon, we walked along the Headrow as shoppers watched, most of them seeming mildly bemused by this interruption to their post-Christmas Sales shopping, a few more hostile, shouting abuse, especially at the Muslim women in their headscarves. The police filmed us carefully every step of the way.
Why should it matter? Why does it matter, what happens hundreds of miles away?
Aside from the moral and ethical case, if these are not enough, there is the self-interest of stopping violence between humans: what happens there could happen anywhere, given the right (or wrong) conditions. And with its arms supplies to Israel, the UK is more involved than probably any of these shoppers might imagine.
The USA bankrolls both the Israeli army and pumps a huge economic subsidy into Israel - some estimates as high as $5.5 billion pa. ( http://www.hotpolitics.com/tax4israel.htm ) In addition, the UK is one of the IDF’s arms suppliers ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2006/apr/06/israel.armstrade ). Both could exert a huge influence on what is happening if they chose. But both Bush and Brown (and of course the Middle East Peace Envoy, Tony Blair) have at best equivocated, somehow putting the puny rocket attacks on a par with the assault launched by the fourth most powerful army in the world; more than that, they have effectively backed Israel to the hilt, leaving little room for hope they might broker true and just peace.
US President, George Bush, has claimed this latest bloodshed is the inevitable and justified Israeli response to Hamas terrorism: Barak Obama, by his craven silence at this critical time, has in effect endorsed this view, even although the first shots were fired several weeks ago by Israeli forces and although as far back as 29 February, the Israeli Defence Minister was promising to unleash a “shoah”, a holocaust, on Gaza.
http://www.counterpunch.org/cook03082008.html
That the Israeli elections are only a few weeks ago and the poll ratings of the two Government parties – Kadima and (shame on them) Labour – have soared since the offensive began is clearly more than coincidence. Likewise, this can be seen as Bush’s last anti-Muslim hurrah, a proxy assault by his allies rather than the no longer possible assault on Iran he dreamt off, just as his dad, Bush senior, invaded Somalia at the equivalent point in the dying days of his Presidency in 1991/92. Just as Clinton was incapable of sorting out the mess in Mogadishu, it seems hard to see how Obama will ever draw peace out of the Palestinian pyre.
But then perhaps that would suit some of these scheming politicians – for Hamas is very much the creation of the Israelis. Back in the 1980s, PLO-Fatah, a vaguely socialist, wholly secular party led by Yassir Arafat, was in the ascendancy among Palestinians and recognised around the world as their legitimate voice. Israel decided on an approach of divide and conquer and so began to sponsor, fund and train Hamas as a religious alternative for Palestinians in order to undermine Fatah and Arafat. That Hamas went on to win the elections and subsequently for the Palestinian Authority to be effectively divided in two is something that will suit those who wish no peace that involves Israel surrendering an inch of land. It may bring no peace or security, but the low grade incursions Hamas makes into Israel may well be seen as a price worth paying by those who seek endless confrontation.
(US article - "Hamas: Son of Israel" - http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=8449 )
Today, one speaker hit the nail on the head for me: when he saw children weeping amid the ruins of their homes, he thought of his children; when he saw an old woman bleeding in a hospital, he thought of his own mother; when he saw houses turned to rubble, with people trying to dig their neighbours out, he thought of his own neighbours. I think it is this, the commonality of suffering, that should bind us together in campaigning for peace - by marching, by writing to MPs, emailing newspapers, by talking to any who will listen.
Only by accident are we born where we are born; but we are all part of humanity, and there is only one earth. What happens anywhere should concern us all – enough at least to stop shopping and start shouting.
The land attack has begun – there will be more demonstrations in the UK and around the world in the days to come. These will all be chances for us to make our voices heard to save Gaza, and all of us.
When the Nazis came for the communists
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I was not a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
- Pastor Martin Niemoller
Shout loud - peace and justice almost happened before; we can make it happen again...
LibDig This!
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Clegg calls for EU action against Israel over Gaza
Glad to see that our leader, Nick Clegg, is urging the EU to suspend a proposed co-operation deal with Israel.
It would be a start and a major signal that a significant body of international opinion opposes Israel's continued and disproportionate action in Gaza.
LibDig This!
It would be a start and a major signal that a significant body of international opinion opposes Israel's continued and disproportionate action in Gaza.
LibDig This!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
LinkWithin
