3 mar 2019
Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the United Kingdom Labor Party and the country’s opposition, on Friday, called upon the UK to freeze arms sales to Israel and to condemn it for killing Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
In a tweet, Corbyn said, “The UN says Israel’s killings of demonstrators in Gaza – including children, paramedics and journalists – may constitute ‘war crimes or crimes against humanity’.”
He added, according to WAFA, that the “UK government must unequivocally condemn the killings and freeze arms sales to Israel.”
Corbyn’s statement came after UN investigators accused Israeli forces of intentionally firing on civilians and committed war crimes in their lethal response to Palestinian demonstrations in Gaza.
The independent Commission of Inquiry, set up last year by the UN’s human rights council, said that Israeli forces killed 189 people and shot more than 6,100 others with live ammunition near the fence that divides the two territories.
The panel said in a statement that it had found “reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli snipers shot at journalists, health workers, children and persons with disabilities, knowing they were clearly recognizable as such”.
02/27/19 Israeli Interference in British Politics: Targeted against Corbyn
In a tweet, Corbyn said, “The UN says Israel’s killings of demonstrators in Gaza – including children, paramedics and journalists – may constitute ‘war crimes or crimes against humanity’.”
He added, according to WAFA, that the “UK government must unequivocally condemn the killings and freeze arms sales to Israel.”
Corbyn’s statement came after UN investigators accused Israeli forces of intentionally firing on civilians and committed war crimes in their lethal response to Palestinian demonstrations in Gaza.
The independent Commission of Inquiry, set up last year by the UN’s human rights council, said that Israeli forces killed 189 people and shot more than 6,100 others with live ammunition near the fence that divides the two territories.
The panel said in a statement that it had found “reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli snipers shot at journalists, health workers, children and persons with disabilities, knowing they were clearly recognizable as such”.
02/27/19 Israeli Interference in British Politics: Targeted against Corbyn
28 feb 2019
February 28, 2019 / By Israeli Apartheid Week / Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America
The 15th Annual Israeli Apartheid Week of actions will take place all around the world between March 18th and April 8th 2019 under the theme “Stop Arming Colonialism”
Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is an international series of events that seeks to raise awareness about Israel’s apartheid regime over the Palestinian people and build support for the growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. It now takes place in over 200 cities across the world, where events such as lectures, film screenings, direct action, cultural performances, postering, among many more help in grassroots organizing for effective solidarity with the Palestinian liberation struggle.
Israel is able to maintain its illegal occupation and apartheid regime over Palestinians partly due to its arms sales and the military support it receives from governments across the world. The United States alone is the single largest supplier of arms and military aid to Israel, followed by European states.
These directly sustain Israel’s oppression and human rights violations.
In the Global South, Israel has been known to supply weapons to genocidal regimes [pdf] in Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and elsewhere. Presently, Israel is a major arms exporter to right-wing, authoritarian regimes from Brazil [pdf] to India, the Philippines and beyond.
These weapons are promoted as ‘field-tested’, which means they have been used to kill or injure Palestinians. In fact, Israel is already promoting the technology it has used to repress the Great March of Return in Gaza calling for the right of refugees to return home and an end to the siege.
These arms deals finance Israel’s apartheid regime and its illegal occupation while simultaneously deepening militarization and persecution of people’s movements and oppressed communities in countries where they are bought.
The Palestinian-led BDS movement has reiterated the demand for a military embargo on Israel in the light of Israel’s violent repression of the Great March of Return. International human rights organizations such as Amnesty International have also responded to the Israeli massacre in Gaza with this demand. The UK Labour Party, in its conference in September 2018, passed a motion condemning Israel’s killing of Palestinian protesters in Gaza and called for a freeze of arms sales to Israel.
Ending arms trade, military aid and cooperation with Israel will undercut financial and military support for its regime of apartheid, settler-colonialism and illegal occupation. It will also end the flow of Israeli weapons and security technology and techniques to governments that suppress resistance of their own citizens, people’s movements and communities against policies that deprive them of fundamental rights, including the right to the natural resources of their country.
A military embargo on Israel is a measure for freedom and justice of Palestinians and oppressed peoples in many parts of the world. It can successfully be achieved with massive grassroots efforts, similar to the sustained global mobilization that eventually compelled the United Nations to impose a binding international military embargo against South Africa’s apartheid regime.
For more info, plus action links, see original article.
The 15th Annual Israeli Apartheid Week of actions will take place all around the world between March 18th and April 8th 2019 under the theme “Stop Arming Colonialism”
Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is an international series of events that seeks to raise awareness about Israel’s apartheid regime over the Palestinian people and build support for the growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. It now takes place in over 200 cities across the world, where events such as lectures, film screenings, direct action, cultural performances, postering, among many more help in grassroots organizing for effective solidarity with the Palestinian liberation struggle.
Israel is able to maintain its illegal occupation and apartheid regime over Palestinians partly due to its arms sales and the military support it receives from governments across the world. The United States alone is the single largest supplier of arms and military aid to Israel, followed by European states.
These directly sustain Israel’s oppression and human rights violations.
In the Global South, Israel has been known to supply weapons to genocidal regimes [pdf] in Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and elsewhere. Presently, Israel is a major arms exporter to right-wing, authoritarian regimes from Brazil [pdf] to India, the Philippines and beyond.
These weapons are promoted as ‘field-tested’, which means they have been used to kill or injure Palestinians. In fact, Israel is already promoting the technology it has used to repress the Great March of Return in Gaza calling for the right of refugees to return home and an end to the siege.
These arms deals finance Israel’s apartheid regime and its illegal occupation while simultaneously deepening militarization and persecution of people’s movements and oppressed communities in countries where they are bought.
The Palestinian-led BDS movement has reiterated the demand for a military embargo on Israel in the light of Israel’s violent repression of the Great March of Return. International human rights organizations such as Amnesty International have also responded to the Israeli massacre in Gaza with this demand. The UK Labour Party, in its conference in September 2018, passed a motion condemning Israel’s killing of Palestinian protesters in Gaza and called for a freeze of arms sales to Israel.
Ending arms trade, military aid and cooperation with Israel will undercut financial and military support for its regime of apartheid, settler-colonialism and illegal occupation. It will also end the flow of Israeli weapons and security technology and techniques to governments that suppress resistance of their own citizens, people’s movements and communities against policies that deprive them of fundamental rights, including the right to the natural resources of their country.
A military embargo on Israel is a measure for freedom and justice of Palestinians and oppressed peoples in many parts of the world. It can successfully be achieved with massive grassroots efforts, similar to the sustained global mobilization that eventually compelled the United Nations to impose a binding international military embargo against South Africa’s apartheid regime.
For more info, plus action links, see original article.
22 feb 2019
Palestinian Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, from Jerusalem, has revealed that Israeli occupation authorities issues permits to large pharmaceutical firms to carry out tests on Palestinian and Arab detainees, the Felesteen news site reported, according to Al Ray.
The Hebrew University lecturer also revealed that Israeli military firms are testing weapons on Palestinian children and carry out these tests in the Palestinian neighbourhoods of occupied Jerusalem.
Speaking at Columbia University, in New York City, Shalhoub-Kevorkian said that she collected the data while carrying out a research project for the Hebrew University.
“Palestinian spaces are laboratories,” she said. “The invention of products and services of state-sponsored security corporations are fueled by long-term curfews and Palestinian oppression by the Israeli army.”
In her talk, entitled “Disturbing Spaces – Violent Technologies in Palestinian Jerusalem”, the professor added: “They check for which bombs to use, gas bombs or stink bombs. Whether to put plastic sacks or cloth sacks. To beat us with their rifles or to kick us with boots.”
Last week, Israeli authorities refused to hand over the body of Fares Baroud, who passed away inside Israeli prisons after suffering from a number of diseases. His family fears that he could have been used for such tests and Israel is afraid that this could be revealed through forensic investigations.
5,000 tests on prisoners
In July 1997, Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported remarks for Dalia Itzik, chairman of a parliamentary committee, acknowledged that the Israeli Ministry of Health had given pharmaceutical firms permits to test their new drugs of inmates, noting that 5,000 tests had already been carried out.
Robrecht Vanderbeeken, the cultural secretary of Belgium’s ACOD trade union, warned in August 2018 the population of the Gaza Strip is being “starved to death, poisoned, and children are kidnapped and murdered for their organs.”
This follows previous warnings from Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour who said the bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces “were returned with missing corneas and other organs, further confirming past reports about organ harvesting by the occupying power.
The Hebrew University lecturer also revealed that Israeli military firms are testing weapons on Palestinian children and carry out these tests in the Palestinian neighbourhoods of occupied Jerusalem.
Speaking at Columbia University, in New York City, Shalhoub-Kevorkian said that she collected the data while carrying out a research project for the Hebrew University.
“Palestinian spaces are laboratories,” she said. “The invention of products and services of state-sponsored security corporations are fueled by long-term curfews and Palestinian oppression by the Israeli army.”
In her talk, entitled “Disturbing Spaces – Violent Technologies in Palestinian Jerusalem”, the professor added: “They check for which bombs to use, gas bombs or stink bombs. Whether to put plastic sacks or cloth sacks. To beat us with their rifles or to kick us with boots.”
Last week, Israeli authorities refused to hand over the body of Fares Baroud, who passed away inside Israeli prisons after suffering from a number of diseases. His family fears that he could have been used for such tests and Israel is afraid that this could be revealed through forensic investigations.
5,000 tests on prisoners
In July 1997, Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported remarks for Dalia Itzik, chairman of a parliamentary committee, acknowledged that the Israeli Ministry of Health had given pharmaceutical firms permits to test their new drugs of inmates, noting that 5,000 tests had already been carried out.
Robrecht Vanderbeeken, the cultural secretary of Belgium’s ACOD trade union, warned in August 2018 the population of the Gaza Strip is being “starved to death, poisoned, and children are kidnapped and murdered for their organs.”
This follows previous warnings from Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour who said the bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces “were returned with missing corneas and other organs, further confirming past reports about organ harvesting by the occupying power.
7 feb 2019
Despite compelling evidence of genocide against its Muslim minority, Israel continues to allow weapons sales to Myanmar's military, Haaretz daily has warned.
Myanmar’s treatment of its Rohingya Muslim minority has earned the country widespread condemnation in recent years. A United Nations investigator and the U.S. House of Representatives have warned that the Myanmar military’s recent ramping up of violence against the group constitutes genocide.
Last August, the U.S. State Department tallied atrocities in the Buddhist-majority country’s northern Rakhine State, concluding that violence there was “extreme, large-scale, widespread, and seems geared toward both terrorizing the population and driving out the Rohingya residents.” Some 1.1 million Rohingya have fled Myanmar.
Despite the widespread condemnation, however, Israel remains on friendly terms with Myanmar and has remained relatively silent on what even the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has called “compelling evidence” of genocide in the country that straddles South and Southeast Asia.
According to Haaretz, Israel also allowed its arms companies to sell weapons to Myanmar’s military through the fall of 2017, long after most Western countries had banned such sales by its firms. It remains unclear if the Israeli firms are still supplying Myanmar’s military with assistance besides weapons, including surveillance technology, training and intelligence.
Most of the firms refused to clarify on their current sales. One firm, TAR Ideal Concepts, refuted reports that it had sold arms to Myanmar.
Observers say Israel’s cooperation and selective silence reflects both Israel’s closeness with Myanmar and its demonstrated foreign policy preference for prosaic diplomacy over human rights.
“A general trend of Israel’s foreign policy is to give priority to interests over values,” David Tal, an Israeli historian who chairs the University of Sussex’s Modern Israel Studies program, said. “Having good relations with Myanmar … I would assume is worth any moral price Israel accrues.”
In 2011, Yaron Mayer, then the Israeli ambassador to Myanmar, told Moment magazine that Myanmar was “one of Israel’s few, true friends.”
In December 2017, Myanmar’s ambassador to Israel, U Maung Maung Lynn, said that Israel was still selling weapons to his country. Israel promptly reprimanded and “rebuked” the ambassador, who soon apologized and retracted his statement.
Myanmar’s treatment of its Rohingya Muslim minority has earned the country widespread condemnation in recent years. A United Nations investigator and the U.S. House of Representatives have warned that the Myanmar military’s recent ramping up of violence against the group constitutes genocide.
Last August, the U.S. State Department tallied atrocities in the Buddhist-majority country’s northern Rakhine State, concluding that violence there was “extreme, large-scale, widespread, and seems geared toward both terrorizing the population and driving out the Rohingya residents.” Some 1.1 million Rohingya have fled Myanmar.
Despite the widespread condemnation, however, Israel remains on friendly terms with Myanmar and has remained relatively silent on what even the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has called “compelling evidence” of genocide in the country that straddles South and Southeast Asia.
According to Haaretz, Israel also allowed its arms companies to sell weapons to Myanmar’s military through the fall of 2017, long after most Western countries had banned such sales by its firms. It remains unclear if the Israeli firms are still supplying Myanmar’s military with assistance besides weapons, including surveillance technology, training and intelligence.
Most of the firms refused to clarify on their current sales. One firm, TAR Ideal Concepts, refuted reports that it had sold arms to Myanmar.
Observers say Israel’s cooperation and selective silence reflects both Israel’s closeness with Myanmar and its demonstrated foreign policy preference for prosaic diplomacy over human rights.
“A general trend of Israel’s foreign policy is to give priority to interests over values,” David Tal, an Israeli historian who chairs the University of Sussex’s Modern Israel Studies program, said. “Having good relations with Myanmar … I would assume is worth any moral price Israel accrues.”
In 2011, Yaron Mayer, then the Israeli ambassador to Myanmar, told Moment magazine that Myanmar was “one of Israel’s few, true friends.”
In December 2017, Myanmar’s ambassador to Israel, U Maung Maung Lynn, said that Israel was still selling weapons to his country. Israel promptly reprimanded and “rebuked” the ambassador, who soon apologized and retracted his statement.
6 jan 2019
"Israeli army bombards densely populated Gaza in 2014"
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has published an expose on a Jewish charity in Canada, which has been under investigation for using donations to build infrastructure for the Israeli army in violation of the country's tax rules.
According to CBC, the Jewish National Fund (JNF) of Canada, one of the country's long-established charities, has been the subject of a Canada Revenue Agency audit after a complaint was filed in October 2017.
The JNF of Canada funds numerous projects in Israel, such as reforestation efforts in areas hit by wildfires, but according to official accusations leveled against it, it has also funded infrastructure projects at Israeli army’s ground, air and naval bases,.
Such JNF activities has violated the Canadian law which prohibits charitable funds to be used for supporting a foreign army.
CBC's article details many troubling aspects of the charity's projects which, along with funding infrastructure on Israeli military bases, it has also contributed directly to the construction of at least one hilltop settler outpost in the occupied West Bank, where Israel’s settlement activities are considered illegal under international law.
The Jewish group, which disclosed to donors last year that it has been under audit by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), claimed it stopped funding those projects in 2016.
However, a complaint, which was submitted in October 2017 with the support of Independent Jewish Voices Canada (IJV), presented detailed evidence that JNF of Canada still works in violation of the Income Tax Act and contravenes Canadian foreign policy in numerous ways.
According to CRA guidelines, funding for projects intended to increase the "effectiveness and efficiency" of a foreign military cannot be considered charitable and therefore should not be tax-deductible.
"It is unconscionable that Canadians are subsidizing an organization that has used tax-deductible donations to support the Israeli military, especially when that army has killed nearly 200 unarmed protesters in Gaza this past year, including medical personnel, members of the media, and children," CBC quoted Canadian Rabbi David Mivasair, one of four complainants, as saying.
According to IJV, JNF of Canada has funded well over a dozen projects to support the Israeli forces in the last few years alone, and has officially partnered with the Israeli forces and the Israeli ministry of defense.
Its military projects include "the new planned [Israeli military] training base city in the Negev" desert and "helping the development of the Bat Galim (naval) training base complex area", according to CBC.
In 2014, JNF of Canada held a Negev Gala dinner, where proceeds were to "develop three areas of the Negev's Tse'elim army base, the largest military training facility in Israel and the national center for ground forces training.
JNF of Canada has also funded security roads along Israel's borders with Lebanon and Gaza, which in the words of JNF itself, are designed to "enhance military activity" in these border regions.
Fifteen million dollars of tax-deductible Canadian funds have also contributed towards building JNF Canada's flagship project, Canada Park, along with a new adjacent Israeli settlement.
The park was built on militarily occupied territory, over the ruins of three Palestinian villages which Israeli forces depopulated and demolished in 1967 as well as the lands of a fourth, IJV was quoted as saying.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has published an expose on a Jewish charity in Canada, which has been under investigation for using donations to build infrastructure for the Israeli army in violation of the country's tax rules.
According to CBC, the Jewish National Fund (JNF) of Canada, one of the country's long-established charities, has been the subject of a Canada Revenue Agency audit after a complaint was filed in October 2017.
The JNF of Canada funds numerous projects in Israel, such as reforestation efforts in areas hit by wildfires, but according to official accusations leveled against it, it has also funded infrastructure projects at Israeli army’s ground, air and naval bases,.
Such JNF activities has violated the Canadian law which prohibits charitable funds to be used for supporting a foreign army.
CBC's article details many troubling aspects of the charity's projects which, along with funding infrastructure on Israeli military bases, it has also contributed directly to the construction of at least one hilltop settler outpost in the occupied West Bank, where Israel’s settlement activities are considered illegal under international law.
The Jewish group, which disclosed to donors last year that it has been under audit by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), claimed it stopped funding those projects in 2016.
However, a complaint, which was submitted in October 2017 with the support of Independent Jewish Voices Canada (IJV), presented detailed evidence that JNF of Canada still works in violation of the Income Tax Act and contravenes Canadian foreign policy in numerous ways.
According to CRA guidelines, funding for projects intended to increase the "effectiveness and efficiency" of a foreign military cannot be considered charitable and therefore should not be tax-deductible.
"It is unconscionable that Canadians are subsidizing an organization that has used tax-deductible donations to support the Israeli military, especially when that army has killed nearly 200 unarmed protesters in Gaza this past year, including medical personnel, members of the media, and children," CBC quoted Canadian Rabbi David Mivasair, one of four complainants, as saying.
According to IJV, JNF of Canada has funded well over a dozen projects to support the Israeli forces in the last few years alone, and has officially partnered with the Israeli forces and the Israeli ministry of defense.
Its military projects include "the new planned [Israeli military] training base city in the Negev" desert and "helping the development of the Bat Galim (naval) training base complex area", according to CBC.
In 2014, JNF of Canada held a Negev Gala dinner, where proceeds were to "develop three areas of the Negev's Tse'elim army base, the largest military training facility in Israel and the national center for ground forces training.
JNF of Canada has also funded security roads along Israel's borders with Lebanon and Gaza, which in the words of JNF itself, are designed to "enhance military activity" in these border regions.
Fifteen million dollars of tax-deductible Canadian funds have also contributed towards building JNF Canada's flagship project, Canada Park, along with a new adjacent Israeli settlement.
The park was built on militarily occupied territory, over the ruins of three Palestinian villages which Israeli forces depopulated and demolished in 1967 as well as the lands of a fourth, IJV was quoted as saying.
3 jan 2019
U.S. pushes Israel to strip off sophisticated electronic and radar systems it added to fighter jets it bought from Washington some 30 years ago, but these upgrades were crucial in Croatia’s decision to buy them from Israel rather than the U.S.
Croatia on Thursday urged Israel to overcome a rare disagreement with the U.S. and confirm whether it can carry through on a deal to sell 12 used F-16 fighter jets, adding that otherwise the purchase will be annulled.
Croatia’s Defense Ministry said it needs an answer from Israel by January 11.
The tentative $500 million deal to buy the upgraded F-16 Barak fighter jets from Israel was made in March last year pending U.S. approval allowing Israel to sell the American-made jets to a third party. The deal ran into trouble after the U.S. State Department hinted that Israel needs to strip off the upgrades that were added after Israel bought the planes from the U.S. some 30 years ago.
Israel has upgraded the jets with sophisticated electronic and radar systems, which was crucial in Croatia’s decision to buy the planes from Israel rather than from the U.S.
“If the planes are not in accordance with what we have agreed, the deal will not be carried out and we will have another purchase bid,” Croatia’s parliament speaker Gordan Jandrokovic said.
Relations between the Trump administration and Israel have been very close, particularly on defense issues. But the sale of the jets to Croatia appear to be one of the rare disagreements between the two countries. They were not overcome even after a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday in Brazil, according to the Israeli media.
“We are expecting final and clear stands from both Israel and the United States on this issue and then we will make a final decision,” Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said.
The deal is Croatia’s largest single military purchase since it split from the Yugoslav federation in the 1991-95 war.
NATO member Croatia faces a mini arms race with Russian ally Serbia, which recently received six used Russian MiG-29 fighter jets.
Croatia on Thursday urged Israel to overcome a rare disagreement with the U.S. and confirm whether it can carry through on a deal to sell 12 used F-16 fighter jets, adding that otherwise the purchase will be annulled.
Croatia’s Defense Ministry said it needs an answer from Israel by January 11.
The tentative $500 million deal to buy the upgraded F-16 Barak fighter jets from Israel was made in March last year pending U.S. approval allowing Israel to sell the American-made jets to a third party. The deal ran into trouble after the U.S. State Department hinted that Israel needs to strip off the upgrades that were added after Israel bought the planes from the U.S. some 30 years ago.
Israel has upgraded the jets with sophisticated electronic and radar systems, which was crucial in Croatia’s decision to buy the planes from Israel rather than from the U.S.
“If the planes are not in accordance with what we have agreed, the deal will not be carried out and we will have another purchase bid,” Croatia’s parliament speaker Gordan Jandrokovic said.
Relations between the Trump administration and Israel have been very close, particularly on defense issues. But the sale of the jets to Croatia appear to be one of the rare disagreements between the two countries. They were not overcome even after a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday in Brazil, according to the Israeli media.
“We are expecting final and clear stands from both Israel and the United States on this issue and then we will make a final decision,” Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said.
The deal is Croatia’s largest single military purchase since it split from the Yugoslav federation in the 1991-95 war.
NATO member Croatia faces a mini arms race with Russian ally Serbia, which recently received six used Russian MiG-29 fighter jets.
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