Khalid Amayreh

[URUKNET] Muzzling Freedom of Expression in Palestine.

When the Beirut-based Al-Quds satellite television interviewed me last week on the recent genocidal Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip, it never occurred to me that the few sound bites I uttered would land me in a slimy prison cell at the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority (PA) Preventive Security Apparatus (PSA) in Hebron.

During that interview, I was asked why the American-backed regime in Ramallah was not allowing large protests in solidarity with the Gaza Strip. I answered that the PA didn't want things to get out of control and that it didn't wish to antagonize Israel.

Interestingly, Israel itself had allowed a massive demonstration against the war on Gaza to take place in the Israeli Arab town of Sakhnin where as many as 150,000 people, including some Jewish peace activists, took to the streets to protest the nauseating killings and bombings of civilian targets all over the coastal enclave.

Read more »

Dr. Elias Akleh

Commenting on the latest Israeli one-directional onslaught against the Palestinians of Gaza Strip, the Israeli 10th TV channel has disclosed that the Israeli genocidal forces had used half of its air force and had launched at least 2500 air raids against Gaza Strip. The television military correspondent stated that the Israeli warplanes had dropped more than a thousand tons of explosives, including white phosphorous and DIME (Dense Inert Metal Explosive) bombs, during three weeks on the virtually unarmed densely populated 360 square Kilometers Strip. He added that the shells fired by tanks, artillery, gunboats, and infantry were not included in those fired by the air force.

Read more »

Todd Gordon

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, center,
hugs a supporter after speaking at an event
marking the 60th anniversary of the creation
of the state of Israel by the United Israel
Appeal of Canada in Jerusalem, Friday,
May 9, 2008.

When other diplomatic allies can’t be found, Israel knows it can count on Canada.

That’s certainly the message it received Monday, when Canada earned the ignominious distinction of being the only country at a United Nations human rights council in Geneva to vote against a motion condemning Israel’s attack on Gaza – an attack that, as of January 15, has killed nearly 1,000 people (292 of them children), injured more than 4,250 and caused 90,000 Gazans to flee their homes. Thirteen countries, mostly from Europe, abstained, while the U.S. doesn’t sit on the body. The non-binding motion calls for an investigation into human rights violations by the Israeli army.

Canada’s representative at the council, Marius Grinius, criticized the motion for failing to acknowledge that the invasion was the result of rockets fired by Hamas into Israel. Never mind that the rockets actually came after several Israeli incursions into Gaza that left dozens dead during and immediately following five months of ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, or that Israel has imposed a suffocating blockade on Gaza for the last eighteen months, cutting off desperately-needed humanitarian relief to the million and a half people living in the open air prison, or that Israel’s invasion of Gaza has done far more damage to civilians and critical infrastructure than Hamas’s rockets could ever do in Israel. It’s all the fault of Hamas.

Read more »

Jay Janson

"What are we doing in Iraq? Invade Pakistan! YEEE-HAW!"

[URUKNET] Would rather like to point out Obama mistakes as one still hopeful for better future Obama executive orders and leadership, than to complain.

Closing Guantanamo, ending torture policies, restoring Executive Order 12667, directing federal regulators to grant states the right to set strict automobile emissions and fuel efficiency standards, are all positives.

As the news rolls in, we who wait patiently, and hope Obama will eventually be an exception to the frightful imperialism of corporate governance in spite of knowing that it was the backing of the banks and corporations that allowed for his election success, we must, especially if we want to give Obama the benefit of the doubt, help him by reacting loudly to aberrations, if that is what these following notated points be:

Read more »

Ramzy Baroud

When former President George W. Bush departed for his final trip home, that very moment represented an end of a long and unbearable nightmare, one that Bush epitomized until his last day in office.

Americans may decry what we can finally dub as the ‘Bush legacy’, for it brought economic ruin, but also pushed the country into avoidable, if not completely preventable wars, disgracing the collective history of a nation that for far too long imposed its sense of moral authority on the world.

Read more »

Kevin MacDonald

It is something of an axiom of Jewish life that “Is it good for the Jews?” remains the litmus test of Jewish communal activity — in other words, interest over principles. A good example is free speech. There can be little doubt that the organized Jewish community sees free speech as a problem because it may be used to criticize the behavior of Jewish organizations and especially Israel.

In Canada the response of the organized Jewish community to recent demonstrations against Israel was to attempt to invoke Canada’s restrictions on free speech in order to silence their critics. The Canadian Jewish Congress complained that protests against Israel’s incursion into Gaza contained images that were "uncivil, un-Canadian, that demonize Jews and Israelis." They are asking the police to investigate the matter for referral to the Canadian Human Rights Commission which is in charge of enforcing laws that infringe on free speech. Although the organized Jewish community in Canada has strongly supported the thought crime legislation (see below), Bernie Farber, the head of the CJC, stated “we are firm supporters and believers in the need to be able to demonstrate passionately in free and democratic societies.”

Read more »