Volvo equipment enabling torture, facilitating occupation. By David Cronin

Via: The Electronic Intifada.

Volvo prides itself on being a byword for sturdiness, safety and reliability. After a careful examination of the vehicle-maker’s investment in Israel, perhaps it should also become synonymous with enabling torture.

The Swedish company has a direct shareholding of 26.5 percent in the Israeli company Merkavim, manufacturer of the Mars Prisoner Bus. This bus has been specifically designed for use by the Israeli Prison Authority to transport Palestinians apprehended in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip to facilities within Israel’s internationally-recognized borders. The remainder of Merkavim is owned by Mayer’s Cars and Trucks, which doubles up as the exclusive representative of Volvo in Israel.

Evidence amassed by human rights monitors indicates that torture is widespread within Israeli detention centers. Although the country’s high court ruled in 1999 that some interrogation methods should be outlawed, Israel continues to approve torture in cases where it is deemed “necessary,” Amnesty International has found. An important loophole in the court’s ruling indicated that torture is permissible in cases where Israeli security forces face an imminent threat. Israel’s attorney general has been all-too-willing to invoke that loophole in order to approve the use of torture, despite how Israel has ratified the United Nations Convention Against Torture.

Each year Israel locks up an average of 700 Palestinian children, often for offenses no more serious than throwing stones. The organization Defence for Children International-Palestine Section (DCI-PS) says that ill-treatment is common while detainees are being transported to prison. “All are subjected to verbal threats and insults,” Rifat Kassis, director of DCI-PS’s office in the West Bank city of Ramallah, said. “Some are beaten up, kicked, made to sit in an uncomfortable way. We have children who are handcuffed and blindfolded as well. All of these are methods of restraining children in a painful way.”

During September, three children were reportedly given electric shocks by Israeli interrogators in the Jewish-only settlement of Ariel in the West Bank. One of the children was only 14 years of age. A recent investigation by DCI-PS and other anti-torture groups found that out of a sample of 100 children arrested by Israeli forces last year, 69 percent were beaten and kicked and 12 percent threatened with rape or another form of sexual assault.

U.S., U.N. & cholera out of Haiti! By G. Dunkel

Via: Workers World.

Rebellion grows against occupiers

For more than a week, mass protests against the U.N.’s occupation have broken out throughout Haiti, especially in Cap-Haïtien on its northern coast and Port-au-Prince, the country’s capital. Protests have also taken place in southern cities like Cayes and in the center of the country in Gonaïve.

What fueled these protests, which involved burning barricades, trenches, trees and rock piles placed across National Route 1 and city streets, as well as militant marches, were the raging cholera epidemic and the widespread belief among the people that U.N. troops have introduced the disease into their country. By Nov. 20, more than 1,100 Haitians had died of cholera, and nearly 20,000 were hospitalized.

However, it was clear from the protesters’ slogans, such as “Down with American imperialism! U.N. and cholera out of Haiti!” that there is an understanding that while the troops on the ground wear blue helmets embossed with ‘U.N.,’ it is the U.S. which calls the shots. (French TV5 news, Nov. 18).

The U.N.’s official role in Haiti has been to ensure stability, which is why its 12,000-member armed force, the Minustah, is officially called the U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti.

Minustah has been the main military force in Haiti since June 2004, when it took over from a coalition of U.S., French and Canadian imperialist troops that occupied Haiti two months earlier. This was after the second coup against democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, when U.S. Special Forces kidnapped him to the Central African Republic. (See “Haiti: A Slave Revolution.”)

Sarah Palin and the missing “F” word. By Alan Hart

Via: Alan Hart.

Sarah Palin (or her publisher) chose a title for her latest book with three “F” words -America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith and the Flag. But surely there’s something missing. Another “F” word. One with four letters. What could it be? (My answer in a moment).

As she embarks on a 16-state tour to promote her new book, Republican leaders are said to be in a state of panic and asking themselves what the hell they can do to stop her emerging as the party’s frontrunner for the race to the White House in 2012. They fear that if she did secure the nomination, it would almost certainly guarantee a second term for Obama if he seeks it or a first term for Hillary Clinton if he doesn’t. (My own guess is that while Republican leaders are agonizing about how to stop Palin, Democratic party leaders are considering whether or not they should seek to prevail upon Obama to stand down in favour of Hillary).

I think it’s not unreasonable to speculate that more than a few of Israel’s deluded leaders would welcome a Palin presidency if that was the alternative to a second-term Obama. They must have been delighted with the answer she gave a year ago when Barbara Walters asked her what she thought about the (illegal) West Bank settlements. Palin said:

“I disagree with the Obama administration on that. I believe that the Jewish settlements should be allowed to be expanded upon, because that population of Israel is, is going to grow. More and more Jewish people will be flocking to Israel in the days and weeks and months ahead. And I don’t think that the Obama administration has any right to tell Israel that the Jewish settlements cannot expand.”

Sarah Palin and international law are clearly complete strangers.

The War You Don’t See: John Pilger Film Opening

Via: Pacific free Press.

The Official Trailer for John Pilger’s

New Film, ‘The War You Don’t See’

by John Pilger

In UK cinemas from 13 December 2010 and on ITV the following evening at 10.35pm

“War Criminals” Leak Strikes at Heart of Israeli Society by Paul Larudee

Via: Dissident Voice.

When unknown elements in Israel leaked the name, rank, identification number and other information about two hundred Israeli military personnel who reportedly participated in the 2008-2009 invasion of Gaza, the effect was sudden and profound, according to sources in Israel.

Although the first site on which it appeared was taken down by the host, it has continued to circulate via email, and has appeared on at least one other site. The Israeli military and other Israeli agencies are reportedly doing all they can to shut down every site on which it appears, and to prevent it from “going viral.” At least one popular blog that links to the site has received a record number of death threats.

What is so special about the list? As several critics have pointed out, it doesn’t even state the crimes that the listed individuals are alleged to have committed.

The root of the problem, according to the sources in Israel, is a poorly kept secret – namely, that it is hard to serve in the Israeli military without committing war crimes, because such crimes are a matter of policy. What Israeli soldier has not ordered a Palestinian civilian to open the door to a building that might house armed militants or be booby-trapped? Who has not denied access to ambulances or otherwise prevented a Palestinian from getting to medical care, education, or employment?

Some, of course, have gone much farther, and deliberately targeted unarmed civilians (as in the “buffer zones” along the border of the Gaza Strip), tortured detainees, and have either ordered or participated in massive death, injury and destruction at one time or another. These acts have all been heavily documented by numerous credible agencies, such as the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Amnesty International, the Goldstone Commission, Human Rights Watch, and B’tselem.

What has been missing in large measure is accountability.

A Follow Up on My Fifth Grade Essay: Education at Gunpoint. By Ramzy Baroud

Via: The Palestine Chronicle.

Problems facing education in Palestine have compounded to unforeseen levels.

I recall the first sentence of my fifth grade essay on ‘Education and Youth’. Written with the occasional aid of my father, and dotted with clichés, it might have read something like this:

“Youth is the backbone of any nation, and education is essential to arm the youth with the knowledge they need to lead their societies toward change, progress and prosperity.”

The grayish blue pencil I used to write my essay with was one of several items handed annually by United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff to refugee children in many schools scattered throughout the Gaza Strip. My Arabic teacher was Abu Kamal al-Hanafi, a wonderful man with a terrible temper, who was also the Imam of the local mosque. My classroom had exactly 62 students. My desk was as old as the Israeli occupation of Gaza, if not older. The roof was filled with holes, creating an exciting spectacle as birds flew in and out, often nesting in available spaces. Watching these scenes made the brutish Arabic grammar lessons bearable, and eased the fear caused by Abu Kamal’s bouts of anger and the occasional Israeli gunfire in and around the refugee camp.

While the introduction to my “Education and Youth” essay was clichéd and I may not have known what many of the terms actually meant, its overriding sentiment remains as true for me now as it ever was.

I remembered my essay as I read about the first World Education Forum (WEF) in Palestine, which took place in several regions throughout historic Palestine, including Jerusalem, Nazareth, Jaffa, Bethlehem and the Gaza Strip. Those who were denied access by Israeli authorities had their own conference in Lebanon. The event, which started on October 28, lasted four days.

The problems faced by the education system in Palestine were difficult enough during my childhood. Now they have compounded to unforeseen levels, with the educational sector divided between two educational ministries in Gaza and the West Bank, the former under Israeli siege and the latter under military occupation. Were it not for UNRWA, the already severe obstacles would have become completely insurmountable long ago. But today even UNRWA is struggling with depleting funds and political haggling between competing Palestinian authorities and an ever atrocious Israeli occupation.

Al-Qaeda’s Christian Massacre — Aiding and Abetting the Occupation of Palestine. By Maidhc Ó Cathail

Via: Media Monitors Network.

If we are to believe the voice on those Osama bin Laden tapes, the elusive al-Qaeda leader cares deeply about Palestine. Yet the actions of the terrorist network he supposedly still directs all too often belie its statements of concern for their “brothers” under Israeli occupation.

The massacre of Iraqi Christians at Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad also makes one wonder about claims that the group has “a great sense of timing.” The slaughter of Catholic Mass-goers occurred just one week after church leaders from across the Middle East had forcefully condemned Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.

More than 200 members of 14 different churches had gathered in Rome for a papal synod to address concerns about Christian emigration from the region. However, as one commentator observed, “Time and again, they turned the discussions … towards the Palestinian question.”

In their final communiqué, the bishops urged the international community to apply UN Security Council resolutions and take “the necessary legal steps to put an end to the occupation of the different Arab territories.” Significantly, they charged the Israeli occupation with causing tensions that have led to the exodus of Christians from the Middle East.

In a follow-up news conference, the archbishop in charge of the committee that drafted the communiqué, Cyrille Salim Bustros, rejected any biblical justification for the Zionist project. “The concept of the promised land cannot be used as a base for the justification of the return of Jews to Israel and the displacement of Palestinians,” he said. “Sacred scripture should not be used to justify the occupation by Israel of Palestine.”

Not surprisingly, Tel Aviv was none too pleased with this serious challenge to the legitimacy of the self-described Jewish state. The following day, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon issued a statement condemning the bishops. The synod, he said, had been “hijacked by an anti-Israel majority,” turning it into “a forum for political attacks on Israel in the best history of Arab propaganda.” In particular, his government was “appalled” by Archbishop Bustros’ “outrageous comments,” describing them as “a libel against the Jewish people and the State of Israel.”

Bush At Large. By Ralph Nader

Via: The Nader Page.

George W. Bush is on a roll—a money roll with a $7 million advance for his book Decision Points and a rehabilitation roll to paint his war crimes as justifiable mass-slaughter and torture.

His carefully chosen interviewers—NBC’s Matt Lauer and Oprah Winfrey—agreed to a safe pre-taping to avoid demonstrations and tough questions. Requests for him to speak are pouring in from business conventions and other rich assemblages willing to pay $200,000 for “the Decider’s” banalities. This is “Shrub’s” month in the sun.
In his first week of book promotion, he was asked about anything he would have done had he known then what he knew now—especially regarding Iraq and its encircled dictator. Well, he deplored receiving “false intelligence” about Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction which was one of several false claims he fed the American people before invading Iraq in 2003. But he has no regrets, saying that “the world was undoubtedly safer with Saddam gone.”

But was it safer for over a million Iraqis who lost their lives due to the invasion, over 4 million refugees, 4500 American soldiers lost, 1100 amputees, tens of thousands injured, sick and tens of thousands more GIs coming back with trauma to lost jobs, broken families and permanent damage to their health.

Was it worth a trillion dollars to blow apart the country of Iraq and incur many more enemies? Was it worth starting a war paid for by a massive debt handed to our children so that George W. and Dick Cheney could give themselves and their rich buddies a massive tax cut? Ex-presidents possess self-excusing delusions, but this is non compos mentis run amuck.