Saturday 31 October 2009

Gaza Freedom March








The law is clear. The conscience of humankind is shocked. Yet, the siege of Gaza continues. It is time for us to take action!






The Gaza Freedom March, organised by the International Coalition for the End of the Illegal Siege of Gaza, 27 December 2009 to the 2 January 2010


In the days that mark the first anniversary of the Israeli assault and massacre in Gaza, hundreds of international activists will attempt to break the siege to participate in a nonviolent demonstration, marching alongside the population of Gaza on 31 December 2009.

The Gaza Freedom March will be a demonstration of solidarity which also aims to refocus attention of the humanitarian crisis and on the illegality of the siege, calling on the International Community to put an end to it.







Amnesty International has called the Gaza blockade a "form of collective punishment of the entire population of Gaza, a flagrant violation of Israel's obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention." Human Rights Watch has called the blockade a "serious violation of international law." The United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, Richard Falk, condemned Israel’s siege of Gaza as amounting to a “crime against humanity.”



Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter has said the Palestinian people trapped in Gaza are being treated "like animals," and has called for "ending of the siege of Gaza" that is depriving "one and a half million people of the necessities of life."



One of the world's leading authorities on Gaza, Sara Roy of Harvard University, has said that the consequence of the siege "is undeniably one of mass suffering, created largely by Israel, but with the active complicity of the international community, especially the U.S. and European Union."



Appeal of the Internazional Coalition for the End of the Illegal Siege of Gaza

Israel’s blockade of Gaza is a flagrant violation of international law that has led to mass suffering. The U.S., the European Union, and the rest of the international community are complicit.




The law is clear. The conscience of humankind is shocked. Yet, the siege of Gaza continues. It is time for us to take action! On Dec. 31, we will end the year by marching alongside the Palestinian people of Gaza in a non-violent demonstration that breaches the illegal blockade.


Our purpose in this March is lifting the siege on Gaza. We demand that Israel end the blockade. We also call upon Egypt to open Gaza’s Rafah border. Palestinians must have freedom to travel for study, work, and much-needed medical treatment and to receive visitors from abroad.



As an international coalition we are not in a position to advocate a specific political solution to this conflict. Yet our faith in our common humanity leads us to call on all parties to respect and uphold international law and fundamental human rights to bring an end to the Israeli military occupation of Palestinian territories since 1967 and pursue a just and lasting peace.


The march can only succeed if it arouses the conscience of humanity.

We invite you all to join us


Last month, the UN Human Rights Council approved the Goldstone Report on the violations of international law and crimes against humanity committed durign the Israeli "Cast Lead" offensive. Not a single member state of the EU voted in favour. Italy followed the USA to vote against.

This complicity isn't surprising. As Israeli President Shimon Peres said, criticising British universal jurisdiction leglislation for war crimes: "Great Britain and the United States used similar tactics in their operations in Iraq and Afganistan." So, since our governments are also involved in war crimes, we can't wait for them to act against other criminals. We must act.







Join the Gaza Freedom March! For further information...

Thursday 22 October 2009

Against all racism - we reject the politics of oppression and exploitation




The Republic recognises and guarantees the inviolable rights of the person, whether as an individual or within the social groups where the human personality is expressed

Article 2, Constitution of the Italian Republic






Italy, land of emigrants in times not so long past has become a place of immigration - though in smaller measure than in other European countries, the presence of foreigners has become consistent.



So, in our daily relationships - family, school, work, trade - we meet people from a different background, with different cultures and concerns. We didn't immediately realise, but our life has changed: we learn languages and far-away places, and for those who understand the value of diversity, these new experiences enrich us greatly.








For the economy, people who have immigrated support important sectors: construction, agriculture, family and we all know that without their contribution there would be economic and social collapse.


These people - immigrants - from different origins but with the same humanity, should have been welcomed to a society in evolution, respectful of the rights of all, but that isn't what happened. The economically powerful used them as cheap labour, in the black economy, at times forcing them into conditions of slavery. The Italian government used women and men from the immigrant communities to offload the responsibility for the current conditions that are difficult for all, building up fear and hostility in citizens, and then imposing emergency laws that limit the freedom of us all.



For some time, we have been witnessing a veritable turn towards racism. Today, in Italy, racism is spreading because those who practise it find support in the xenophobic policies of the Berlusconi government, which , with the approval of the Security Law (DDL 733), has without ambiguity taken the path of incitement to hatred against "the foreigner", "the different".





There are dynamics, fed by the strong impact of the platform of extreme right-wing parties on government policies and on the public perception. The media also manipulates and legitimises racism and xenophobia, exploting the multicultural process that the Italian society is experiencing.


Doudou Diène, special rapporteur of the UN in his report on the situation in Italy with respect to the phenomena of racism, social discrimination and xenophobia.












The growing incidence of discrimination and violation of fundamental human rights against the immigrant population in the country is evident. We note that racism and xenophobia persist in attitudes towards immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees, including the Rom. We call on the government to intervene effectively to combat the climate of intollerance and to guarantee protection to migrants whatever their status may be.



From the report of the International Labour Organisation, 2009












The turning back of immigrants, as it is being effected today in the Mediterranean, is not in line with Italian law, since Italian law, though it does indeed provide for expulsion but with some guarantees: the person must be identified, must receive an expulsion order and can appeal. Turning back of immigrants on the seas is indiscriminate and collective, and calls into question the right to asylum.


Laura Boldrini, spokeksperson for the Italian section of the UN High Commission for Refugees.








The measures and the proposals that have been adopted attack the most elementary human rightsand are a list of barbarities:
  • The crime of clandestinity, which makes a crime of a condition of life that is linked to a particular mement in the existence of a migrant, is a dangerous step towards the normalisation of social inequalities and towards the legalisation of racism.
  • The policy of expulsion and the criminal agreements with Lybia cause veritable slaughters of innocents
  • The facility for the public health services to denounce illegal immigrants is completely contrary to the ethical code of doctors and to the constitution (art. 32: “The Republic safeguards the health as a fundamental right of the individual and as being in the interest of the collectivity and guarantees free care to the poor. ”)
  • The registration of those without fixed address, a first step towards the discrimination of a sector of the population that evokes memories of the horrors of the fascist and Nazi past.
  • The institution of the CIE (Centre of Identification and Expulsion) in Lampedusa;
  • The instituion of vigilante patrols, which ferment a climate of suspicion and are contrary to the right of all to be protected with the instruments at the disposition of the democratic institutions.


As Women in Black, we reject these racist measures as fatal to our freedom and we refuse:



  • the ideology of intolerance
  • xenophobia and racism
  • The politics of exclusion of the "other" that transforms others into enemies
  • The violence contained in any law and in any attitude that denies the humanity of the "other",
  • The "security scam" that not only threatens our freedom and our lives, but also masks the real causes of social insecurity, traceable to the logic of the neoliberal system, which makes work precarious, increases poverty, destroys the social state, makes it impossible to plan for the future







We will not obey laws in which we do not recognise ourselves because they violate the most elementary human rights.






























































Friday 16 October 2009

Freedom for Mohammed Othman

More than three weeks ago, Palestinian activist Mohammad Othman was arrested, when he reentered the West Bank after a visit to Norway. Mohammad, who is active in the nonviolent movement against the Apartheid Wall and in the Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment campaign (BDS), is still in detention, in solitary confinement. He still doesn't know why he has been arrested!

On Monday, 19 October he appeared before a military tribunal without even being informed of the charges against him. The judge extended his detention for another 11 days. Since then he has appeared before the tribunal again, and once again the detention has been extended though no charges have been brought.

In solidarity with the international appeal "If you want to stop the BDS movement, you'll have to arrest us all!" launched by Stop the Wall following Mohammed's arrest, we are sending an avalanche of mails demanding his immediate and unconditional release !

Click here to send a mail.

Mohammed comes from the villager of Jayyus in the West Bank. Jayyus has been devastated by the building of the Apartheid Wall and by the Zufim settlement, and it is one of the principle villages involved in the nonviolent popular movement against the wall, started four years ago in the village of Bi'lin. He's not the only activist from the popular nonviolent movement to be detained. Dozens of Palestinians from Bi'lin, Ni'lin are Jayyus are being held in Israeli prisons, many taken from their beds during night raids by Israeli soldiers, their faces covered by masks.

The response of the Israeli armed forces to the weekly protests in the villages has been brutal repression: unarmed civilians have to confront soldiers armed with firearms and with new experimental weapons.

In his Cairo speech, President Obama told the Palestinians to renounce violence. Unfortunately, he didn't direct the same words to the Israeli government and nor did he recognise the nonviolent struggle in the Palestinian villages.

In the last four years, 16 people have been killed and more than 1500 wounded, some seriously.

Let's give a future to the Palestinian popular resistance and to the nonviolent option for ending the occupation!

For more information about Israeli repression of the popular nonviolent movement, read the report Repression Allowed. Resistance Denied.
Repress

Friday 2 October 2009

President Obama, support the recommendations of the Goldstone report on Gaza

Open letter from Dr. Eyad El-Sarraj President of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program.





Dear President Obama,

Our wounds in Gaza are still open, our justice still denied. Israel's 23 day offensive (28 December 2008- 19 January 2009) has left our children afraid to return to school, and feeling unsafe in their beds.

The war, and the continued closure of the Gaza Strip, has undermined the capacity of mothers and fathers to act as protectors and providers. As a community, we will struggle for decades to live with the consequences. Along with our children we feel that justice has been too long abandoned.

For many reasons we Palestinians have felt that the world has ignored us. The international attention following the war on Gaza gave us hope. The investigation led by Justice Goldstone was a cause for optimism. We felt that this respected judge and prosecutor - who has served at the highest level and consistently demonstrated his independence in upholding the rule of law - was one of the few people who had the credentials and experience to take on this legally complex and politically charged mission. We came to believe that the world actually cared.

The statement of your ambassador to the UN, Ms. Susan Rice, sent a different message: that the world, or at least the United States, does not care.

Ms. Rice suggested that the focus should be on the future and not the past and that the task at hand must be to cement progress towards the resumption of the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.








This separation of justice and peace is misguided; the two are intertwined. If there is one thing that history teaches us, it is that when the powerful are allowed to escape accountability, they will continue to violate the law, and innocent people will pay the price.

In Cairo you said that "America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own." You also spoke of the desire for the rule of law and the equal administration of justice, stating that these "are not just American ideas, they are human rights, and that is why we will support them everywhere". These were welcome words, but they demand action. Accountability and criminal responsibility are fundamental components of justice. All those responsible must face trial; victims' rights must be upheld; suffering cannot be ignored.

President Obama, as you once said quoting Dr. Martin Luther King: `


'the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice, but it doesn't bend on its own unless each and every one of us puts our hands on the arc.' '.

Support the recommendations of the UN Fact Finding Mission.


The report of the mission led by Richard Goldstone includes these conclusions:

  • The Israeli forces committed human rights violations and violations of humanitarian law that correspond to war crimes and, in some cases, to crimes against humanity. In particular, the investigations into the numerous attacks on the civilian population and civilian targets have revealed that these were intentional and that some were launched with the objective of spreading terror among the civilian population and without any justifiable military objective. Moreover, the Israeli forces used Palestinian civilians as human shields;
  • Israeli forces committed grave violations of the IV Geneva Convention, in particular carrying out killings, torture and inhuman treatment, deliberately provoking great suffering and serious physical injury and damage to health, causing enormous destruction of property, not justified by military necessity, in an illegal and reckless manner. For these actions, individual responsibility must be established;
  • Israel violated the obligation to respect the right of the population of Gaza to an adequate standard of life, that includes access to food, water and adequate shelter. The report refers in particular to actions that deprived the inhabitants of Gaza of sustenance, of work, of housing, of water, as well as the freedom of movement and the right to enter and leave their own country, and finally to have limited access to effective help. The combination of these actions could amount to the crime of persecution, which is a crime against humanity;
  • Palestinian armed groups violated the principle of distinction by launching rockets and mortars that could not be directed with sufficient precision against military objectives. These attacks, against civilian settlements that in no way could be considered military objectives constitute deliberate attacks on civilians and as such are war crimes and in some cases could amount to crimes against humanity.
  • Palestinian armed groups have not always acted in such as way as to distinguish themselves from the civilian population and so have exposed the latter to needless risks, launching rockets from places situated near to civilian housing or protected buildings.
  • There is no evidence to support the accusations that Palestinian armed groups transferred the civilian population to zones that were under Israeli attack or that they forced them to remain there, nor is there evidence that hospitals were used by the de facto Hamas administration or by Palestinian armed groups to conceal military activity or that ambulances were used to transport combatants or that Palestinian armed groups took part in military activities inside hospitals or UN structures that were used as shelters.


>To read the full report, click here

>To read the executive summary, click here.

We are all Honduran Women in Resistance


Since the first day of the military coup, 29th June 2009, the media policy of the coup regime has been to try to present the image of absolute normality. The enormous protest marches are a simple expression of some lunatics who have lost contact with reality.

Following the international condemnation, the principal media have abandoned the country. The continuing mobilisations by social, popular, and trade union organisations aren't news. The international community seems unwilling to pass from words and proclamations to concrete facts. It remains tied to a mediation process that has no future, that depends on the ambiguity of the US government and that is part of the process of normalisation of the coup.
The international silence has opened the doors to a harsh repression against the popular organisation that continue to demand the restoration of constitutional order, and as always it is the women who are most vulnerable. Women involved in the resistence are subjected to sexual violence and insults.


But the protests have continued, and the response has been ever harsher repression. On 22nd September, Feminists in Resistance, who have taken an active part in the resistance from the first day, have published this appeal. :



By this means Feministas en Resistencia denounce the brutal repression that has been committed today against the people who had peacefully gathered outside the Brazilian Embassy in Honduras, on learning that President Manuel Zelaya had taken refuge there.

The people were attacked in the early morning hours with hot gases, water and a device that emits a deafening noise. Some people were injured and had to be taken to hospital.

Yesterday the de facto government declared a nationwide curfew beginning at 4:00 pm, when most of the Honduran workers are still at their jobs. The curfew lasted until today at 7:00 am. In the meantime, the government announced a new curfew from 7:00 am until 6:00 pm. of today.

We want to inform as widely as possible that we fear for our lives due to the steady and progressive aggression shown by the army against the people that demand the restoration of the constitutional order.




In recent days, the situation in Honduras has worsened. On September 28 a decree was enacted that permits arrests and searches without charges or warrants, and which abrogates the rights of freedom of assembly, freedom of movement, freedom of the press, and freedom of speech.

Canale 36 and Radio Globo were closed down on 29th after the de facto governent issued a decree suspending 6 articles of the constitution for a period of 45 days. The two stations were invaded by the armed forces and police at 5.30am. Files and equipment were seized from Radio Globo. Canale 36 was surrounded by the army and transmissions were blocked. Some journalists had to escape through the windows.

The decree authorises the closure of "any media that threatens peace and public order" or that "attacks the human dignity of public officials or decisions of the government.” It calls for the arrest of "persons considered suspect" adding that they must be taken to "legally established detention centres"

It is said that the government has ordered the arrest of activists and their detention in the stadium.

Hundreds of soldiers dispersed a demonstration at the Francisco Morazán National Pedagogic University, where hundreds of people had gathered to march towards the Brazilian embassy. Soldiers were deployed in key points of Tegucigalpa and in the entire country to stop people attempting to go to the demonstration.

For further information: Ni Golpe de Estado, Ni Golpes Contra Las Mujeres