International campaign for Palestinian MP's freedom

KHALIDA JARRAR campaigns for rights by democratic means - so banned by occupiers.

WHILE keeping fingers crossed that the cease fire over Gaza lasts, enabling people there to rebuild and bringing an end to the siege, we must not lose sight of the wider ongoing struggle for Palestinian rights and freedom, without which there cannot be true peace with justice for either Israelis or Palestinians.

It was on the occupied Palestinian West Bank that Israeli forces used the disappearence of three teenagers as pretext to launch a pre-planned campaign of arrests and raids on homes, before they turned on Gaza, and the repression there continues. Now an international campaign has been launched focussing on the case of one particular Palestinian political leader, Khalida Jarrar, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, who has been served with an expulsion order: 

"On August 20 at 1:30 AM, Ms. Jarrar’s Ramallah home was raided by 50 Israeli occupation soldiers who presented her with a “special supervision order,” written in Hebrew and read aloud in Arabic. This military order, signed off by an Israeli military court on the basis of unspecified and secret evidence, orders Jarrar expelled from her Ramallah home and forcibly transferred and confined within the city limits of Jericho for an initial period of six months; it was deemed effective within 24 hours.

"This order is a blatant injustice and is part and parcel of the ongoing Israeli occupation attempt to silence the voices of Palestinian political leaders and to confine and expel Palestinians. From the expulsion of over 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland in 1948 – including members of Khalida Jarrar’s family – and the denial of their right to return for over 66 years; to the attempted deportation of Palestinian mayors outside Palestine; to the stripping of the Jerusalem ID’s of elected PLC members Mohammad Abu Tir, Ahmad Atoun, Mohammed Totah and Khaled Abu Arafah; to this expulsion order, there is a long line of Israeli attempts to threaten Palestinian life through displacement and expulsion.

"Khalida Jarrar has refused to sign the expulsion order, saying 'you, the occupation, are killing our Palestinian people. You practice mass arests, demolish homes, kidnap people from their homes and deport them. It is you who must leave our home.'

"She has moved to stay in a “protest tent” outside the legislative council building in Ramallah. She announced that she is going to stay and continue her work from there until the decision is revoked."

Khalida Jarrar is a political  leader in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which has evolved as a campaigning left-wing party from its past as a guerrilla factions in the Palestinian national movements. Besides being an elected MP she frequently takes part in popular demonstrations, and is a former executive director of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association and member of its board. She chairs the Prisoners’ Committee of the Palestinian Legislative Council.

Khalida Jarrar has been active recently in public protests on the West Bank against the Israeli onslaught on her people in Gaza, protests which have been forcibly repressed by the Israeli occupation forces.  

Unlike Hamas, the secular PFLP has always been noted for supporting women's rights and place in the struggle, and Khalida's supporters say she has been active in the Palestinian women’s movement since her student days.  "A feminist and prominent voice for the defense and expansion of women’s rights, she is a leading organizer of International Women’s Day events in Palestine".

 “Palestinian women are full partners in the Palestinian struggle,” she emphasizes.

Since 1998, she has been forbidden to travel outside occupied Palestine. When she needed medical treatment in Jordan in 2010, she struggled for months in a public campaign before finally receiving her treatment.

Pending the restoration of  Palestinian rights to East Jerusalem, Ramallah serves as the seat of Palestinian institutions including the Legislative Assembly. Telling an elected member they cannot reside there is like banning a British MP from Westminster.

Along with the detention of many MPs and restrictions on travel it is one more way in which "the only democracy in the Middle East", as Israel likes to boast itself, makes sure Palestinian democracy cannot function, and makes a mockery of its supposed agreement towards "two states". 

On the legal aspect, campaigners say : "The forced transfer of Khalida Jarrar violates international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits so-called 'assigned residence' unless it is “absolutely necessary” and forbids forced collective or individual transfer of protected persons from one area of occupied territory to another. The military order for Jarrar’s forced expulsion contains only vaguely worded references to 'intelligence information' and 'protecting the security of the region.'"

They also note: "The invasion of Jarrar’s home and the delivery of the expulsion “special supervision order” took place within so-called “Area A,” allegedly under the complete security control of the Palestinian Authority under the Oslo Agreements. Despite this, Israeli occupying forces were allowed to enter Ramallah and invade Jarrar’s home; as Addameer notes, “the so-called ‘security co-ordination’ between Palestinian Authority security forces and Israeli occupying forces allowed for the expulsion of an elected representative of the Palestinian people, an elected representative who has continuously called for an end to such ‘coordination.’”

Launched by the North American-based Samidoun network for Palestinian political prisoners, the campaign in solidarity with Khalida Jarrar claims support from over 1,000 organisations worldwide, and is winning a wide range of supporters.

http://samidoun.ca/2014/08/over-1000-organizations-and-individuals-support-khalida-jarrar-demand-overturn-of-expulsion-order/

From Gaza to Glenrothes

INHUMAN WEAPONS, PILOTLESS DRONE. This one in Brazilian colours, though as tested by Israel against Gaza.  


SOME of the suffering and steadfast resolve of the Palestinian people will be brought home to Glenrothes, in Fife, today, when supporters of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign and allies march through the town to the Raytheon factory, which manufactures some of the electronic components for Israeli weapons systems that have brought death and destruction to Gaza.

I don't always agree with Scottish PSC (which is separate from the PSC in England) about tactics, timing or targets, but this time I think they are spot on in choosing to go after those who make their profits as merchants of death, helping to murder Palestinians.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/made-scotland-israeli-bombs-used-4031201

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/local/fife/gaza-demonstrators-planning-march-on-glenrothes-raytheon-plant-1.520582

The way was lit for such campaigning earlier this month when a bold group of protesters climbed on the roof of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) plant at  Lyn Lane, Shenstone, near Lichfield, in Staffordshire,   The factory is owned by Elbit Systems, an Israeli arms manufacturer, and produces the engines for the unmanned drones used in surveillance and bombing of Palestinians. 

Only days before the protest one such drone had fired a missile at a school gate in Rafah, killing 10 people who had been queuing to buy sweets and biscuits from a vendor.

The Shenstone protestors, nine of them,  managed to close the plant for two days, assisted perhaps by someone having chained the factory gates shut, and police closing the lane outside before bringing them down from the roof.
 
I'm not too good at climbing on to roofs these days, in fact the last time I was asked to speak at a Palestine rally in Trafalgar Square I had to be helped to climb on to the platform. But taking a break in the Shropshire hills, I was pleased to see the Shenstone protest covered on West Midland TV, and the local MP obliged to make a statement. Recognising a friend taking part in the protest, I could have told the reporters that she is well qualified to speak about Gaza, having ridden with an ambulance crew there during the previous onslaught.

Hopefully the Shenstone Nine will get the chance to talk about things like that when they appear in court on Wednesday. Or better still the charges against them will be dropped. They are accused of Aggravated Trespass, which could bring cutodial sentences, but surely that would have been a more fitting description of the Israeli tanks rumbling into Gaza, with the UAV factory managers aiding and abetting?. There's to be a demonstration outside the court on Wednesday morning, to show solidarity with the protesters, and call for the charges to be dropped. I'm pleased to hear a branch of my  union is hoping to fill a coach from West Bromwich. The call for the demo says  Please Assemble from 9am at The Court House, Wolverhampton Road, Cannock, Staffordshire WS11 1AT. All Welcome.

People who turn to  initiatives like the Shenstone protest sometimes point to their success in gaining and focussing attention, rattling authority, compared to the same old "marches from A-B" (or B-A?) which can seem to get us nowhere. Those who stick to the more conventional demonstrations like those recently over Gaza can point to the huge numbers involved, of all ages, and many of them taking their first steps into political action. I think both types of demonstration are useful and complementary.

One of the advantages of a boycott, too, is that anyone can take part, and there is nothing those in power can do about it.  But what we really need, to take on governments and interfere with the trade in death, is industrial action. It was done in the past, perhaps so long ago people have forgotten , and younger people have never heard of it. Nowadays, besides requiring rebuilt union strength, we'll probably be told it is illegal. But unjust laws were made to be broken, especially when they protect injustice.


The Spring 2014 issue of Jewish Socialist magazine went to press well before the latest Gaza war, but it contains a prescient article by Colin Green looking at the relationship between Western arms manufacturers and their governments and the Israeli state and its wars. Listing some of the munitions and weaponry which the Israel Defence(sic) Forces have tried in Gaza - white phosphorus, depleted uranium, unmanned drones, flechette shells -which scatter deadly arrows - or the Keshet rapid-fire automated mortar, Colin says that besides asserting Western hegemony over Middle East peoples and resources, Israel's wars offer arms companies the chance to promote their wares as "combat-tested".
(Asymmetric Warfare - Is Gaza a Testing Ground?,  JS67, Spring 2014) 

Home from my holiday, I just had time to help draft a letter to the Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn, supporting its stand against Israeli embassy sponsorship of a Jewish film festival (the theatre offered to provide alternative funding) and defending it against unjust accusations of "antisemitism", before I was off again. This time carrying a bundle of Jewish Socialist with me, to Edinburgh where, in the middle of a busy festival fringe where he is performing his own shtik, comic and Jewish Socialists' Group member Ivor Dembina compered a 'Free Gaza' benefit.

Ably assisted by fellow artists Josie Long, Andy Zaltzman,Daniel Kitson and Chris Coltrane, Ivor brought some warmth and humanity to a wet and windy Edinburgh afternoon, as well as delighting a packed 300-strong audience at the Gilded Balloon with humour. They in turn delighted us with their generosity, Besides enjoying the show I was there to help with a bucket collection, and though I did not stay for the count, I can testify that thousands of pounds were raised, mainly for Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), though as we explained -to applause from the audience - we also intend sending something to Gush Shalom in Israel, in appreciation of their principled stand opposed to the war on Gaza, and their courage in defying right-wing violence.

Laughter might not stand much chance against slaughter, but we too have our secret weapons.    .  

http://www.corporatewatch.org/publications/2009/profiting-occupation

http://www.haaretz.com/business/.premium-1.610032
http://www.jewishsocialist.org.uk/index.php

IVOR on stage in Edinburgh.

PS   -  Just thought I'd mention that this was not the only show for Gaza and MAP held in Edinburgh last week. Under Arts News, the Herald reported on August 12:

Stars support concert for Gaza medical aid fund
A LINE-UP of comedians, musicians and Fringe acts are holding a show to raise money for medical aid for Gaza tonight.
The show at the Assembly Rooms venue includes Elaine C Smith - who is compering the event - Frankie Boyle, Shappi Khorsandi, Shooglenifty, The Poozies, The Bevvy Sisters, Dean Owens, Playtime and Black Diamond Express
This one-off concert is taking place to raise money in aid of Medical Aid For Palestinians (MAP).
The benefit night has been put together by Edinburgh-based collective Artists For Gaza.
 www.arfringe.com

I hope this too was a success. Behind the music, irreverence and jokes, some artists care more seriously for humanity than our country's political leaders do.

The Bloody Games They Play

 TEL AVIV, Saturday night July 26. (photo by Dov Khenin). But Netanyahu and IDF carry on, and last night mounted police were out to thwart another demonstration. 

SO, Israeli soldier Hadar Goldin was dead anyway

According to Israel Radio, Goldin, an officer in the Givati Brigade, was part of a group of soldiers who had found a Hamas tunnel in a rural area near Rafah overnight Thursday-Friday, and they were working on decommissioning it when they were attacked on Friday morning.

Goldin’s group was targeted, and two other soldiers close to him, Benaya Sarel and Liel Gidoni, were killed in an explosion, apparently detonated by a Hamas suicide bomber.

Goldin was seized by other gunmen, and other soldiers who reached the scene tried to chase after the kidnappers, into the tunnel, but they were unable to thwart the kidnapping.

IDF troops had been searching throughout Friday and Saturday for Goldin in the Rafah area.

Hamas denied it had any information on a kidnapped soldier.

Read more: Soldier Hadar Goldin is dead, not kidnapped, IDF tells family | The Times of Israel http://www.timesofisrael.com/kidnapped-soldier-hadar-goldin-is-dead-idf-tells-family/#ixzz39K7rhodj
Note, that whereas other armies, and especially the IDF, are allowed to capture their enemies, take prisoners, detain or even "arrest" them in their own homes in occupied land, Palestinian forces can only "abduct" or "kidnap" those they seize in action invading their country. Keep repeating this till you've got the language right and - like many not just in Israel, but more important, Western media, you can become accustomed to the racialism without really trying.

If the IDF had not been sure whether Goldin was dead, their response to his reported capture was to send tanks in to the area around Rafeah, in the southern Gaza strip, shelling it ferociously to flatten an entire neighbourhood, destroying dozens of houses and killing an estimated 50 Palestinians. So while Lieutenant Goldin's father was loyally saying in front of the cameras that he was sure the army would do everything it could to rescue his son, it looked like the Israeli military chiefs were more concerned with saving face than with saving the soldier. If Goldin was still live the barrage of shelling would most likely have finished both him and his captors. Some reports say this was the intention, that the military had adopted what has been called the "Hannibal doctrine", to kill your own  man rather than let him be used as a hostage.
http://coloringthenews.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/has-idf-invoked-covert-and.html

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/did-israeli-army-deliberately-kill-its-own-captured-soldier-and-destroy-gaza  

The report that Goldin was being held prisoner had sufficed to end the ceasefire (for which Obama blamed Hamas, as though the Israeli unit had not been engaged in a military operation when it clashed with the Palestinians), brought calls from both the US and UN Secretary General Ban Ky Moon for the Palestinians to release him, and even awoke the Board of Deputies of British Jews to call on Prime Minister Cameron to help secure his release. (Not to help put pressure on Israel to end the war, although thankfully the Board which used to back Israel whatever it did has been fairly quiet this time).   

By the time the IDF announced that Goldin was dead, late on Saturday, the numbers of Palestinian dead, during what had been supposed to be a three day ceasefire, gad more than doubled. Another UN school had been hit, and the Israeli air force has joined the attack on Rafeah, which is sealed off by the army. Ambulances have been targeted as they tried to reach the injured, and what hospitals are left in Gaza after attack are overwhelmed by the number of casualties coming in.

It seems unclear after the bombardment whether enough bits of Goldin have been found and identified for burial next week. The peace talks that were supposed to open in Cairo could be in the same state. Netanyahu says Israel will continue till it has "achieved its objectives". Some of his supporters are not ashamed to advocate genocide.

While the Israeli prime minister may prefer to wrap his aims in coded language, it is not too difficult to discern a pattern in the way the Israeli military plays its own public, contrary to suggestions that "Bibi" had "lost it". An Israeli friend of mine with long experience and a sense if history remarked some time ago that his country had come to resemble Prussia - not so much a state with an army as an army with a state.   

 We could go back to 1982, when the shooting of Israeli ambassador Shlomo Argov in London, by the Iraqi-backed Abu Nidal group which was hostile to the PLO and Yasser Arafat, was used as an excuse for the invasion of Lebanon with the aim of destroying the PLO and its Lebanese allies. According to then Prime Minister Menachem Begin's son, his father thought he had authorised a limited croos-border operation, but Ariel Sharon had other plans.That the Israelis ended up years later with Hizbollah on its northern border does not seem to taught them anything.

Nor did the Kahane Commission's finding that Sharon was culpable for the Sabra and Shatila massacres prevent him going on to be Israeli prime minister. 

When the three Israeli teenagers were reported kidnapped, from an Israeli-controlled part of the West Bank near Hebron, the Israeli military may have known from early on that they had been killed, and it knew their kidnapping had not been ordered by Hamas; but it suited the military to keep the Israeli public in suspense, hoping the boys might be found alive, while carrying on what was reportedly a pre-planned operation, at least in part, supposedly targeting Hamas. Palestinian homes were raided, many ransacked, people were taken away, and some shot. A Palestinian boy was kidnapped and murdered by settlers in a "revenge" attack.  Tension escalated on the Gaza front and the present war started.


http://972mag.com/in-search-of-teens-soldiers-looted-palestinian-homes/93892/

http://972mag.com/how-the-public-was-manipulated-into-believing-the-teens-were-alive/92865/

http://972mag.com/west-bank-operation-was-planned-ahead-of-time/92295/



And despite all... Although to judge from reports the Israeli military and the government may have succeeded in large part in manipulating Israeli public opinion, and Hamas or Islamic Jihad missiles have probably helped Netanyahu rather than hindering his offensive, this might not last.

What the BBC and other Western media have been less keen to report is that some Israeli Jews and Arab citizens have defied the pressure, and attacks by right-wing thugs, to demonstrate against the war in Gaza. Protest rallies have taken place in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa. A demonstration in Galilee was joined by some kibbutzniks and Palestinian villagers. Mounted police were out last night in Tel Aviv to stop protestors rallying in Rabin Square,

A few days ago I heard that a bus was on its way to the Gaza border carrying volunteers with medical supplies, and scheduled to halt briefly at Sderot for a meeting with local people who reject the war which the IDF is supposedly waging to defend them. These are the people who never catch the eye of visiting reporters, and of course the IDF press officers do not introduce them. I don't know whether that bus will make it past the army, and be able to deliver its messages of peace and solidarity along with practical aid. But I hope so, and salute their courage for trying.

And then there were three...

PROF. STEVE JEFFERYS  SUSPENDED

 CATHERINE MACGUIRE, (centre), Unison branch committee, speaking at Holloway road protest.

IS the management at London Metropolitan University intent on a confrontation with union members and if so, what is behind it? Are they happy to court yet more bad publicity, and make their institution a focus for protests?

On Monday, a crowd of about 150 people gathered outside the University's Tower building premises on the Holloway Road. For a mid-day demonstration, called at fairly short notice, it was not bad. There were members of the public service union Unison employed by London Met, members of the University and Colleges Union (UCU) which represents academics, and several other trades unionists and students.

We were there to back two London Met staff members who have been suspended, one of them Max Watson chair of the Unison branch at London Met, and the other former prisoner Jawad Botmeh, who was facing a hearing that afternoon.  Both men were employed in the University's Working Lives Research Institute (WLRI).

Jawad, the so-called "embassy bomber" who has always protested his innocence, had been in the job for five years, without any complaints from academic staff or post-graduate students who worked with him. He had never concealed his criminal conviction from the university when applying for the job. Indeed, considering it had been a well-publicised case - many say a notorious stitch-up - it would have been hard to make it a secret.

 This year Jawad was overwhelmingly elected as one of two staff representatives on the London Met's Board of Governors. Two weeks later, on February 7, he was suspended. 

Max Watson, as a union member, seems to have been singled out for opposing staff curs and privatisation steps, as well as for his support for colleague Jawad. He too was suspended on February 7.

And now, as reported on the Defend Max and Jawad Facebook page, there are three.

"Professor Steve Jefferys, European employment relations academic, Director of Londonmet’s Faculty Advanced Institute for Research (FAIR) and head of WLRI, was suspended on Wednesday 20 February for ‘potential gross misconduct’. Five years previously, he had agreed that Jawad Botmeh should have the chance of going forward to be interviewed as a part-time casual administrative worker on a temporary three month contract in WLRI, when Jawad had a criminal record (he had served 13 years on a conspiracy charge).

"Jawad Botmeh, after working for five years to the complete satisfaction of all staff and post-graduate students who worked with him, was overwhelmingly elected to the Board of Governors as one of two staff representatives. Two weeks later, on February 7 he was suspended.

"Max Watson, a WLRI administrator who is also Chair of the Londonmet UNISON branch, was also suspended on February 7. Max had been recently singled out by the Vice-Chancellor in an all staff email because of UNISON’s opposition to the involvement of Capita in the university’s Business Process Review.

"Steve, Jawad and Max have broken no university rules. They have all been entirely open and honest with the university. Professor Jefferys had the authority to make casual appointments. There were no procedures suggesting he should discriminate against former prisoners. Jawad had twice informed the university in writing of his earlier prison sentence and conviction and this evidence is on their files.

"The WLRI was set up by Londonmet to undertake ‘academic, applied and socially-committed research and teaching emphasising equality and social justice into all aspects of working lives’. Now is the time for the university to be FAIR to the Institute and its staff.

"These suspensions are an attack on the principles of staff rights and representation, on social justice and on academic freedom"

https://www.facebook.com/groups/207262122749330/.

 I'm wondering whether the London Met was on its own in deciding to move after Jawad Botmeh was elected a staff govenor, or if in the following two weeks someone, somewhere helped it to reach that decision.

I'm also surprised that after a couple of immediate reports in the Times and Telegraph about Jawad Botmeh's suspension this case is not getting much coverage in the media. I'll have to do my best to cover it in this blog. 

No Ease in Zion

THE Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv is no leftie liberal organ, but those Zionist propagandists who monitor the media for any sign of what they call "bias", protesting any piece of news reporting which depicts the Israeli state in an other than favourable light might have missed this front-page headline.

It says, in Hebrew, "Settlers fire on Palestinians, IDF soldiers look on from sideline".

The incident to which it refers was captured on video by the civil rights group B'Tselem, and they managed to get some coverage in Western media this time.

It was also reported by reported by correspondent Haggai Matar in the online +972 news mag:

A 24 year-old Palestinian was hit in the head from a live round of bullets Saturday in the village of Asira al-Qibliya. B’Tselem footage of the event shows the settlers shooting at the young man, and Israeli soldiers standing by them – doing nothing to prevent it.

According to B’Tselem, the incident started at around 16:30 Saturday, when a group of settlers descended from the extremist settlement Itzhar towards the Palestinian village (as seen in the first video below). According to eye witnesses the settlers – some of them masked and some armed – started fires in the fields near the village and threw stones at Palestinians who moved towards them, who also started throwing stones at the settlers.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/21/israeli-settler-fires-gun-stone-thrower?CMP=twt_gu

http://972mag.com/watch-settlers-shoot-palestinian-in-head-as-soldiers-stand-by/46354/
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/video-soldiers-guard-them-israeli-settlers-attack-palestinian-village-shooting

On Sunday, right-wing Israelis marched through Muslim areas of east Jerusalem, waving flags, to mark Jerusalem Day, commemorating the "unification" of the city, that is the conquest of Arab east Jerusalem by Israeli forces in the 1967 war.

Police had told Arab shopkeepers to close for the day to avoid trouble, and security forces were out to deal with any protests. Even the left-liberal Zionist party Meretz was ordered to take down a banner which might give offence to the flag-waving marchers.

As +972 describes it:
Jerusalem Day is meant to be a celebration of the city’s ‘reunification’ following Israel’s victory in the 1967 war. In practice, it is a day for Israeli nationalists, draped in flags, dancing in circles, singing and chanting (including the popular Israeli nationalist chant, ‘death to Arabs’) as they march through the streets of East Jerusalem and the Old City. Many of the Jewish demonstrators are bused in from right-wing yeshivas in Israel and the West Bank.
http://972mag.com/armed-border-officer-chases-10-year-old-palestinian-boy-for-holding-flag/46412/

Here supporters of the Israeli occupation, even those who claim to favour a "two state solution" (from which Jerusalem and its environs are exempt), often hold up their hands in horror at suggestions of Palestinian rights to East Jerusalem, saying "you cannot want to divide the city again?"
Meanwhile Palestinian residents suffer neglect and ethnic cleansing, and more than three quarters live below the poverty line.

The peace group Gush Shalom, which called supporters to join a Palestinian protest by Jerusalem's Damascus Gate, said:

A lie does not become a truth, even if repeated forty-five times. Jerusalem is a not a united city, and has never been a united city in the forty-five years since 1967. East Jerusalem is a Palestinian area under occupation rule. Just so is it treated by the governmental and municipal authorities of the State of Israel, and by the settlers who are dispossessing the Palestinian inhabitants, with the funding and backing of these authorities - as recently happened again in the Beit Hanina Neighborhood.

"Jerusalem Day" is not a holiday to Israel's citizens or to residents of Jerusalem. It is a holiday only for the young settlers, who are given by the Jerusalem Police a free hand to hold a provocative "Flag Dance" throughout East Jerusalem – even though in previous years this "dance" developed into an ongoing chain of racist harassment and violence against Palestinian inhabitants.

It is time to end the lie and erase this ugly stain from the calendar of the State of Israel. The real Jerusalem Day will be the day when the occupation ends and Jerusalem becomes the capital of two states - West Jerusalem the capital of Israel and East Jerusalem the capital of Palestine. Only then can Jerusalem truly be a united city, by the free will of all its inhabitants - Israelis and Palestinians alike.

http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/events/1337464383

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/report-78-of-east-jerusalem-palestinians-live-in-poverty-1.431384

There was one bright moment during Sunday’s Jerusalem Day events, as reported byLisa Goldman. A young Palestinian boy, perhaps about 10 years old, was holding his Palestinian flag when it was snatched from him by an Israeli orthodox settler. The boy tried to rescue his flag, and was struggling with the man when an armed officer of the Israeli Border Police approached.

The boy ran off down the street pursued by the officer, then stumbled and fell. He might have been captured, but as he scrambled back on to his feet, a 22-year old Israeli activist Sahar Vardi from Jerusalem, brilliantly and bravely blocked the officer.

Her intervention and the whole incident was captured in a brilliant series of photographs by Haim Schwarczenberg, and film also appeared on You Tube. It brought the usual stream of hate and threats of violence from right-wing Zionists, some of whom also want to break the cameras and/or the legs of what they call "leftist photographers". But we must not be rude and describe those making such threats as fascists.

There will come a time when Jerusalem is the shared capital of two peoples living in peace as equals. When it does Israelis, and Jewish people in general, will look back in gratitude that our honour was saved by the likes of Sahar Vardi.

.

http://972mag.com/armed-border-officer-chases-10-year-old-palestinian-boy-for-holding-flag/46412/

Oh, and I almost forgot. Veolia, the French-owned utilities company is involved in the transport system linking Jerusalem with illegal settements, which provided "Happy Jerusalem Day" balloons. But that is not political, you understand?
http://yfrog.com/oexv9amuj