Palestinians ‘treated like animals’: Agence France-Presse
From correspondents in Gaza City
Courier Mail June 17, 2009
FORMER US president Jimmy Carter today met Hamas leader Ismail Haniya in the Gaza Strip, where he called for a lifting of Israel’s blockade, saying Palestinians are being treated “like animals”.
Following the talks, Mr Carter called for an end of “all violence” against both Israelis and Palestinians.
“This is holy land for us all and my hope is that we can have peace… all of us are children of Abraham,” he said at [a meeting] with Mr Haniya, prime minister of the Hamas government in the Palestinian enclave.
Mr Haniya in turn said Hamas supported the creation of a Palestinian state in the territories Israel has occupied since the 1967 Six-Day war.
While Hamas has made similar statements in the past, it has more often insisted that the future state should encompass not only the West Bank and the Gaza Strip but also all of Israel.
“If there is a real plan to resolve the Palestinian question on the basis of the creation of a Palestinian state within the borders of June 4, 1967 and with full sovereignty, we are in favour of it,” Mr Haniya said.
He also praised US President Barack Obama’s June 4 speech in Cairo to the Muslim world.
“We saw a new tone, a new language and a new spirit in the official US rhetoric,” he said. Such praise is rare coming from Hamas, a group pledged to the destruction of the Jewish state and which is listed as a terrorist group by the United States, Israel and the European Union.
The Islamist movement violently seized power in Gaza two years ago, ousting forces loyal to the secular and Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.
Mr Carter also passed to Hamas a letter from the parents of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier seized by Gaza militants including Hamas in a cross-border raid almost three years ago, and who remains in captivity.
“I met earlier with Noam Shalit. He asked me to ask them (Hamas) to accept a letter from him to his son. They accepted the letter,” Mr Carter said in Tel Aviv. “My conviction at this moment is that he is alive and well,” Mr Carter said of the soldier whose father he met in Jerusalem on Friday.
Earlier Mr Carter denounced the Israeli blockade and the destruction wrought by its 22-day military offensive against Gaza in December and January. “My primary feeling today is one of grief and despair and an element of anger when I see the destruction perpetrated against innocent people,” Mr Carter said as he toured the impoverished territory.
“Tragically, the international community too often ignores the cries for help and the citizens of Palestine are treated more like animals than like human beings,” he said.
“The starving of 1.5 million human beings of the necessities of life – never before in history has a large community like this been savaged by bombs and missiles and then denied the means to repair itself,” Mr Carter said at a UN school graduation ceremony in Gaza City. The United States and Europe “must try to do all that is necessary to convince Israel and Egypt to allow basic goods into Gaza”, he said. “At same time, there must be no more rockets” from Gaza into Israel, said Mr Carter, who brokered the historic 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. “I have to hold back tears when I see the deliberate destruction that has been wracked against your people,” he said at a destroyed American school, saying it was “deliberately destroyed by bombs from F16s made in my country”.
Israel’s offensive killed more than 1400 Palestinians and left large swathes of the coastal strip sandwiched between Israel and Egypt in ruins. Thirteen Israelis also died in the conflict. “I feel partially responsible for this as must all Americans and Israelis,” Mr Carter said.
Criticising Israel? Is he antisemitic? Maybe he is just human.
Independent Jewish Voices (Canada) Joins Campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Against Israel
Ottawa – Independent Jewish Voices (Canada) voted to join the growing international campaign in support of the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, at its first Annual General Meeting this past weekend. This decision makes IJV the first national Jewish organization in the world to do so. The adopted resolution states that IJV will “Support the Palestinian call for a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and complies with the precepts of international law, including the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.”
“Independent Jewish Voices has voted to join the international boycott campaign because we stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and support their right to self-determination,” says Diana Ralph, Co-Chair of IJV. “We are calling on the Canadian government and all Members of Parliament to push for immediate sanctions on Israel.”
“The time has come for people around the world to rise to the challenge in Israel/Palestine, as we did for South Africa,” says Fabienne Presentey, Steering Committee member of IJV. “All voices that can be raised against this injustice must be.”
The resolution, which passed with the support of 95% of voting delegates, also calls on the Canadian government to “1) cease its one-sided and uncritical support for Israel and 2) insist that Israel abide by international law”.
The international call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions originated from 170 Palestinian civil society organizations and has sparked a growing global movement, modeled on the international campaign that successfully ended South African Apartheid. Many prominent organizations around the world have joined the BDS campaign, including the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), UNISON (UK), Transport and General Workers’ Union (UK), Canadian Union of Postal Workers, Canadian Union of Public Employees-Ontario, six Norwegian trade unions, Irish Congress of Trad Unions, Scottish Trades Union Congress, and Intersindical Alternativa de Catallunya.
Independent Jewish Voices is a member-led organization, with chapters in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa, Montreal, and Halifax.
Report: Palestinian Child Prisoners: Defence for Children International – Palestine
The systematic and institutionalised ill-treatment and torture of
Palestinian children by Israeli authorities
Defence for Children International – Palestine Section (DCI-Palestine) is a
national section of the international non-governmental child rights
organisation and movement, Defence for Children International (DCI),
established in 1979, with consultative status with ECOSOC. DCI-Palestine
was established in 1992, and is dedicated to promoting and protecting the
rights of Palestinian children in accordance with the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), as well as other
international, regional and local standards. As part of its ongoing work
to uphold the rights of Palestinian children, DCI-Palestine provides free
legal assistance, collects evidence, researches and drafts reports and
conducts general advocacy targeting various duty bearers. For further
information please contact a DCI-Palestine advocacy officer.
A. Executive summary
The Israeli military court system in the Occupied Palestinian Territory has
operated for over 42 years almost devoid of international scrutiny. Each
year an average of 9,000 Palestinians are prosecuted in two Israeli
military courts operating in the West Bank, including 700 children.
From the moment of arrest, Palestinian children encounter ill-treatment and
in some cases torture, at the hands of Israeli soldiers, policemen and
interrogators. Children are commonly arrested from the family home in the
hours before dawn by heavily armed soldiers. The child is painfully bound,
blindfolded and bundled into the back of a military vehicle without any
indication as to why or where the child is being taken. Children are
commonly mistreated during the transfer process and arrive at the
interrogation and detention centres traumatised, tired and alone.
During interrogation, children as young as 12 years are denied access to a
lawyer and visits from their families. These children will generally not
be permitted to see a lawyer until after they have provided a confession to
the interrogator. Whilst under interrogation children are subjected to a
number of prohibited techniques, including the excessive use of blindfolds
and handcuffs; slapping and kicking; painful position abuse for long
periods of time; solitary confinement and sleep deprivation; and a
combination of physical and psychological threats to the child, and the
child’s family. Most children confess and some are forced to sign
confessions written in Hebrew, a language they do not comprehend. These
interrogations are not video recorded as is required under Israeli domestic
law.
Children as young as 12 years are prosecuted in the Israeli military courts
and are treated as adults as soon as they turn 16, in contrast to the
situation under Israeli domestic law, whereby majority is attained at 18.
In 2008 the most common offence Palestinian children were charged with
under Israeli military law, was stone throwing. This charge was made in
26.7% of cases and under Israeli Military Order 378 carries a maximum
penalty of 20 years imprisonment. In 91% of all cases involving
Palestinian children, bail was denied.
Proceedings in the military courts disregard many basic fair trial rights
and general principles of juvenile justice are simply not applied. In
almost all cases, the primary evidence against the children is the
confession extracted during a coercive interrogation. With no faith in the
system and the potential for harsh sentences, approximately 95% of cases
end in the child pleading guilty, whether the offence was committed or not.
Once sentenced, the overwhelming majority of Palestinian children are
detained inside Israel, in clear contravention of the Fourth Geneva
Convention. Many children receive no family visits whilst in prison and
limited education is only provided in two out of five of the prisons used
to detain Palestinian children.
The ill-treatment and torture of Palestinian children by Israeli
authorities is widespread, systematic and institutionalised. This system
operates within a general culture of brutality and impunity. Between 2001
and 2008, over 600 complaints were filed against Israeli Security Agency
(ISA) interrogators for alleged ill-treatment and torture. To date, there
has not been a single criminal investigation.
Unless and until there is some level of accountability for what amounts to
serious breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention, the UN Convention Against
Torture and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, both at the
domestic and international level, the ill-treatment and torture of
Palestinian children at the hands of Israeli authorities will continue
unchecked.
Demonstration at the offices of Gary Goodyear – protest attacks on academic freedom
Thursday, June 18, 2009
11:00-11:45am
Gary Goodyear’s constituency office
1425 Bishop Street N, Unit 3, Cambridge Ontario
Van leaves downtown Hamilton 9:30am and returns 12:30pm – please email for details.
-Against political interference by government in the legitimate autonomy of SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council)
-Against McCarthyist silencing of critical voices on Palestine/Israel
-Against the Conservative Party’s attack on Canada’s critical and artistic communities and institutions
-For academic freedom, and freedom of speech around Palestinian rights
-For fully funded post-secondary education
-For Goodyear’s immediate resignation
The Political Action Committee of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, local 3906 (representing over 2,400 precarious academic workers at McMaster University) as well as Faculty4Palestine, a pan-Canadian network with over 400 members in over 40 universities and 10 colleges, is asking concerned members of the academic, labour and social justice communities in Southern Ontario to join us in demanding the immediate resignation of Minister of State for Science and Technology Gary Goodyear at his Cambridge, ON constituency office at 11am on June 18th.
This protest comes in response to the minister’s unprecedented interference in academic freedom last week when he personally called the president of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) (the main funding body for academic research in Canada) and demanded they reconsider their funding of a peer-reviewed conference at York University titled “Israel/Palestine: Mapping models of statehood and paths to peace,” a demand to which the SSHRC president, in part, acquiesced.
SSHRC’s funding of projects like this conference are the result of a rigorous and well-established “blind” peer-review process in which at least two highly qualified specialists examine and evaluate each funding application (without knowing who submitted the application) to ensure the highest degree of quality. This peer-review meets or exceeds all global standards for academic integrity and has helped Canadian researchers gain international recognition.
While there are significant problems with the individualist “academic capitalism” approach the SSHRC funding system tends to promote, the principle of academic freedom that this system represents is a central pillar of the Canadian democracy that the Conservative Party claims to be exporting (militarily) around the world.
This interference by a federal minister in the peer-reviewed process is an unacceptable threat to the principle and practice of academic freedom and to the democratic project of the university as a space for critical reflection on society, immune from political intimidation.
It comes hot on the heels of other Conservative measures to undermine freedom of expression in Canada, especially on issues related to policies of the state of Israel which are clear violations of international law (eg. settlements in occupied territories, the apartheid wall). These include the arbitrary and unilateral stripping of funding from the Canadian Arab Federation for their stance against Israeli war crimes in Gaza and the refusal to allow British MP and outspoken advocate of Palestinian human rights George Galloway to enter the country.
It is clear that Harper’s contempt for democratic dialogue in Canada, and the Conservatives’ targeting of critical voices on Israel and in defense of Palestinian rights, must be challenged.
Indeed, the Conservative agenda to silence free expression on issues of contemporary importance, and to submit all critical expression to the hypocritical and arbitrary scrutiny of a fundamentalist interpretation of “Canadian values,” is intimately linked with the same party’s commitment to the outdated and globally discredited neoliberal agenda that aims to drastically reduce federal funding to the arts and university sectors or to use federal funding and policy to shape these sectors to serve corporate, rather than public interests.
The Harper Conservative’s ideological crusade to submit every aspect of Canadian society to the dictates of the free market necessitate the silencing of the critical voices which would challenge this backwards vision of the future. Harper’s attacks on academic freedom cannot be separated from his attacks on public sector workers, his eagerness to gut medicare and other aspects of the social safety net, his drive to deregulate telecommunications and other industries, his pathological addiction to the ecologically catastrophic oil sands project, his moves to privatize water and other “natural resources,” his internationally condemned free-market cowboy approach to indigenous rights, his sneering antagonism towards efforts to address systemic racism, sexism and homophobia in Canadian society, his unconstitutional abuse of the Security Certificate program and tolerance for secret trials, his reprehensible attacks on immigrants, refugees and those without status, his complete acquiescence to the worst aspects of the Bush doctrine of racist continental “security,” and the zeal with which he cuts social programs to fund an increasingly deadly and imperialistic Canadian foreign policy.
Join us, then, in demanding Goodyear’s resignation.
For more information on Goodyear’s McCarthyist approach, please see the links in the article below.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/goodyear-questions-mideast-forum-funds/article1175909/
For more information about the planned demonstration, please contact Max Haiven at the Political Action Committee of CUPE local 3906: 905-865-3075, politicalaction@cupe3906.org or Mary-Jo Nadeau at Faculty4Palestine: faculty@caiaweb.org.