Utterly Shameful Stand of Gordon Brown on Israel

Workers' Daily Internet Edition: Article Index :

Utterly Shameful Stand of Gordon Brown on Israel

London Protest Calls for Free Palestine

Time is Running Out for Israel

Hamas: Bush's visit is blatant defiance of the Palestinian people's feelings

The Historic Wronging of Palestine

Largest Key in the World Created to Re-open the Land of Palestine

Vigil: Sixty Black Balloons for Sixty Years of Nakba

Friends of Lebanon
Resistance and Liberation Day Event

On the eve of the 60th anniversary of  the Nakba, the catastrophe that befell the Palestinian people with the creation of the Zionist state of Israel, Gordon Brown delivered a speech in which he spoke of how honoured and privileged he was to join with others “at the celebration of one of the greatest achievements of the 20th century”.

            The creation of the state of Israel was brought about by the dispossession of the Palestinian people of their homeland. Between 1947 and 1948 alone, over two thirds of the Palestinian people were brutally driven from their homes and more than 500 villages and neighbourhoods were totally destroyed in order to create the state of Israel. Today, as is well known, there are some 6-7 million Palestinian refugees, still denied a homeland, while many others are oppressed and discriminated against within Israel’s borders, or subject to military attack and occupation. Today the denial of the right of the Palestinian people to their own homeland and to self-determination ranks as one of the key problems for solution in the world. Yet the Prime Minister of Britain is prepared to make a speech which totally ignores these rights and this reality, preferring to celebrate the creation of one of the most oppressive states in the world, which today continues to brazenly breach UN resolutions and international law and which remains one of the main causes for instability not just in the Middle East but throughout the world.

            In making such comments, the Prime Minister was restating what has long been the policy of British governments, which have supported Israel, economically, politically and militarily since its creation in 1948. The conclusion must be drawn that he has deliberately and shamefully chosen to do so at this crucial juncture when the clash between what is just and what is unjust is coming to a head, and the democratic forces are taking a stand to uphold the right to be of the Palestinian people. Britain, the US and the other big powers have long viewed Israel as a cat’s paw in the Middle East, a means to destabilise and dominate that region, to wage war against its neighbours and to create the pretext for continuing interference and intervention by the big powers themselves. By their actions in continued support of Israel, the governments of Britain, the US and other countries are guilty of great crimes against the Palestinian people and are themselves in breach of international law.

            In his speech Gordon Brown also made much of the fact that in 1995 he willingly accepted an invitation to visit Israel and deliver a lecture celebrating the infamous Balfour Declaration, the letter issued in 1917 by the then Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, on behalf of the British government, which declared its support for “Zionist aspirations” and the establishment of “a national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine. Once again it speaks volumes that today the Prime Minister can talk of celebrating such an event, an announcement by a British government that it would take up the banner of Zionism and renege on agreements previously made to the Arab people with a lack of principle typical of its colonialist outlook. Between 1917 and 1947 Palestine was governed by British governments that illegally and systematically dispossessed the Palestinian people of their lands and pursed the policy of “establishing a national home for the Jewish people” through violence and terror. As the Division for Palestinian Rights, established by the General Assembly of the United Nations, has put it, the Balfour Declaration, which was adhered to be successive British governments after 1917, “can be considered the root of the problem of Palestine…It ultimately led to partition and to the problem as it exists today.”

            Brown’s sycophantic comments about Israel’s creation and history, his praise for the crimes that it has carried out and his promise that Britain will remain its “true and constant friend in good times and bad” should be resolutely condemned. They merely serve to expose once again the hypocrisy of a government which claims that it is also concerned to create a “peaceful Middle East” and what is referred to as a “viable Palestinian state”. They also place the British government, as US President Bush sojourns with the Israeli regime and affirms that the US imperialist project is at one with the Zionist project, firmly as part of the Anglo-US alliance.

            Gordon Brown’s speech celebrating the creation of the Zionist state of Israel and the criminal actions of British governments over the past 90 years, demonstrates that this government remains the enemy of the Palestinians and all the peoples living in the Middle East and that it continues to pursue the same reactionary path as its predecessors. It demonstrates the necessity for the working class and people to find the means of empowering themselves, so as to take Britain in a different direction. What it required is a foreign policy based on the interests of the majority, which prohibits criminal intervention and interference in the affairs of others; one that recognises and supports the inalienable rights of all peoples to live within their own homeland and determine their own future.

Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) Media Release

15,000 demonstrated in London on Saturday, May 10, sixty years after the Palestinian Nakba, to demand an end to the siege on Gaza, an end to Israeli occupation, and for the right of return of refugees.

            The demonstration, organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, British Muslim Initiative and the Palestinian Forum in Britain, was supported by trade unions UNISON, Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), Unite the Union, Communication Workers Union, GMB, TSSA, RMT, Fire Brigades Union, and the National Union of Miners, who joined organisations such as the Association of Palestinian Community UK, Amos Trust, Friends of Al Aqsa UK, Palestinian Return Centre, War on Want, Jewish Socialist Group, Pax Christi, Stop the War Coalition, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, Britain Palestine Twinning Network, ICAHDUK, Friends of Lebanon, Federation of Student Islamic Societies, and Midlands Palestinian Community Association.

            Dr Mustafa Barghouti, elected Palestinian Legislative Council member, told the rally of the situation of Apartheid existing in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories: "Israeli citizens make 30 times what Palestinians do, settlers take 48 times the water of Palestinians, Palestinians are denied entry to Jerusalem..." He said that the “peace process” of Annapolis was an illusion: "Since then Israeli attacks have tripled and even more checkpoints have been set up." He stressed the importance of re-establishing Palestinian unity and accused western governments of hypocrisy, in undermining democracy in Palestine, but supporting an Apartheid state.

            Speakers also included Richard Burden MP, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Palestine, who reminded people of the ongoing plight of the refugees from 1948, especially those in Gaza: "Gaza is dotted with masses of cesspits of raw sewage, as deadly as any bomb or missile." Like many speakers, he called for the lifting of the siege of Gaza and withdrawal from all the Occupied Territories: "The peace process cannot work while people are imprisoned in their own land." Both he and Caroline Lucas stressed Israel cannot continue to enjoy a privileged trading relationship with Europe while it persists in violating international law.

            Referring to the founding of Israel, Tony Benn said: "Nothing that happened in the WWII can justify Israel's seizure of Palestinian land." He found room some optimism: "Wherever you go you find people understand increasingly what is happening to the Palestinian people. There will never be peace in the Middle East till the Palestinians are treated decently."

            Manuel Hassassian, the General Delegate to the UK, said: "Our problem is not a humanitarian problem, it is a political problem, which must have a political solution." He also said: "The right of return is a sacred right for the Palestinians. Jerusalem is our capital, and we will never compromise on Jerusalem."

            Respect MP George Galloway reminded the crowd of Britain's historic responsibility for the tragedy inflicted on the Palestinian people, from the time of Balfour onwards, and remembered the "thousands upon thousands of martyrs" created over decades; he also demanded the release of Marwan Barghouti and other political prisoners, and declared: "If there is no justice in Palestine there can be no peace in Palestine, and peace in Palestine is the key to peace throughout the Middle East."

            Video messages came from a PLC member from Gaza, Dr Jamal Al-Khoudary, and from Ismail Haniyeh.

            View report on Al Jazeera English http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxh4HUDaoaU

By Gilad Atzmon*, May 13, 2008

Something positive is happening, I would even call it a shift of awareness, a realisation that the Palestinian struggle is leading somewhere after all.

            Yesterday, at Exeter University, to a very crowded theatre, in an event of that was a commemoration of 60 years of the Nakba, I had a chance to listen to Dr Manuel Hassassian, the Palestinian Ambassador to Britain. I may as well say it, Palestinian eloquence cheers me up and fills me with hope and pride and Dr Hassassian has plenty of it.

            These days it is rather rare to hear or see a  PLO spokesman who lets his fierceness and rage be seen. The Ambassador was angry, he was furious, yet, at the same time, astonishingly measured and considered.

            “Enough is enough”, was his message. He admitted that twenty years of negotiation with the Israelis led his people nowhere. America is not a true honest negotiator and this may not change in the near future. America and Israel have locked themselves into a Catholic marriage, they can have a spat, sometimes they do not talk for weeks but somehow, they always stay together.

            “We the Palestinians,” said the Ambassador, “tried our very best to secure a peace deal. In 2002, the Arab League offered a peace imitative, this didn’t lead anywhere either. All we hear about is the Israelis seeking security.” As pathetic as it does sound, he had to bring to our attention the absurdity of the fact that the state with the world’s 4th largest army is seeking security from occupied Palestine! The crowd burst into laughter.  Apparently the Israelis think they are close to exhausting the patience of the Palestinians, suggested the Ambassador. However, in his view, they are really miscalculating the balance of power. The future belongs to the Palestinian people.

            “True, they, the Israelis, have a ‘nuclear bomb’, but we,” said the Ambassador, “have a ‘demographic bomb’.”  Again, the audience cracked into laughter and believe me, there is nothing more cheerful than seeing a big theatre crowded with Palestinian solidarity activists having a laugh at the expense of almighty Israel. In less than 12 years the Palestinians are going to be the majority on the ground. If the Israelis believe that 22 Arab states and billions of Muslims will let them get away with their daily atrocities, they are really fooling themselves.

            Though the Ambassador didn’t say it, the message was clear.  As far as the Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims are concerned, the window of opportunity is closing down. The doomed fate of the Jewish state is written on the wall. You have to be blind not to see it. In Exeter University Theatre everyone could see it. Needless to say, Rabin, Peres, Sharon and Olmert   have read it as well.  Apparently, the looming reality has been far stronger than their political power.

            Yesterday in Exeter I saw a room full of students of very many nationalities including of course very many young Palestinians and Arab students. Many British people of all ages were present, including the very supportive community of the local PSC branch.

            The Exeter Friends of Palestine may have got the recipes right. They have combined an academic and intellectual discussion with a cultural event and a culinary break. After three talks, one given by a PhD student Aida Es-Said,  one by Dr Manuel Hassassian and the third by myself, the audience was invited to attend a concert featuring Nizar Al Issa, Mohammed Diab, a local folk dance group and my own Orient House Ensemble. On the way to the concert the entire crowd was introduced to the best of Palestine cuisine:  Humus, Tabuleh, Falafel, Grape leaves and so on.

            There wasn’t even a hint of the old anachronistic dogmatic leftist clichés.  No one insisted upon telling us what we should talk about. No one mentioned ‘anti-semitism’. It wasn’t at all about Jews and their suffering, but rather about Palestine and the ongoing genocide committed by the Jewish state.  The event was all about Palestinians who stood up and say: this is who we are, this is our Nakba, this is what we think, here is what we eat, this is what we listen to and this is how it looks when we break into dancing.

            If you like what you see, hear or eat, then Salam Alekum.

            If you don’t, no worries, don’t waste your time, just move on, go somewhere else.

* Gilad Atzmon is a jazz musician, composer, producer and writer.

The Palestinian Information Centre (PIC), Gaza, 14/05/2008

The Hamas Movement stated that the visit of US president George Bush to the occupied Palestinian lands on the sixtieth anniversary of the Nakab of Palestine is blatant defiance of the feelings of the Palestinian people and a continuation of blind support for the racist project.

            In a press statement received by the PIC, Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, underscored the American blessing of the idea of a Jewish state on the ruins of Palestinian dreams of justice is a strong blow to all believers in the option of regaining Palestinian rights through negotiations and normalisation with Israel.

            The spokesman also underlined that Bush's visit is not welcome and a bad omen for the Palestinian people, pointing out that Hamas do not pin any hopes that such visit will bring justice to the Palestinian cause, but rather it expects that the visit will be followed by further Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people and their holy shrines.

By David Morrison, The Village Magazine, Ireland’s Current Affairs Website

The state of Israel came into existence 60 years ago on 14 May 1948. In the months before and after this declaration, Jewish forces drove around 750,000 Palestinians from their homes. Over 500 villages were emptied of their Palestinian population and most of them were destroyed so that those expelled had no homes to return to.

            Anybody who doubts that ethnic cleansing took place on this scale should read The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe. In it, he describes Plan Dalet (D in Hebrew), which set out the areas to be cleansed and the methods to be employed by Zionist forces in carrying out the cleansing. Here is a sample of the latter:

            “These operations can be carried out in the following manner: either by destroying villages (by setting fire to them, by blowing them up, and by planting mines in their debris) and especially of those population centres which are difficult to control continuously; or by mounting combing and control operations according to the following guidelines: encirclement of the villages, conducting a search inside them. In case of resistance, the armed forces must be wiped out and the population expelled outside the borders of the state.”

            The plan was approved by the Zionist leadership on 10 March 1948, and put into operation immediately.

* * * *

            The Zionist movement to establish a homeland for Jews in Palestine began in Europe in the late 19th century, when Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire. It was given impetus by the Balfour Declaration in 1917, which stated that Britain viewed with favour “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people” and undertook to use its “best endeavours” to bring it about. The Declaration also made the incompatible commitment that “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine”. At that time, the “existing non-Jewish communities” constituted around 90% of the population.

            During World War I, Britain also promised to recognise an Arab state in the Middle East, in exchange for Arab assistance in overthrowing Ottoman rule. However, Britain made a conflicting agreement with France – the Sykes-Picot Agreement – for joint control of the Middle East. So, instead of the promised Arab state, Britain and France balkanised the Middle East into a series of states under their control. Britain was granted a mandate to administer Palestine by the newly formed League of Nations. The mandate incorporated the Balfour Declaration’s commitment to a homeland for the Jews in Palestine.

            Under British rule, the Jewish colonisation of Palestine gathered pace and by the mid 1930s Jews made up nearly 30% of the population compared with around 10% twenty years earlier. As the unlimited extent of the colonisation became evident, Arab opposition rose and led to the Arab Revolt from 1936-39, in which around 5,000 Arabs, and 400 Jews, were killed.

            In 1937, the Peel Commission set up by Britain proposed for the first time the partition of Palestine and the establishment of a Jewish state. Arab opposition led to the proposal being dropped and to Britain severely restricting further Jewish immigration into Palestine in 1939. This restriction continued throughout World War II at a time when Jews were desperate to escape Nazi persecution in Europe.

            In 1947, Britain announced its intention to give up the mandate and to withdraw from Palestine on 15 May 1948. The newly formed UN set up a commission which recommended another partition scheme. This was endorsed by the UN General Assembly in resolution 181 passed on 29 November 1947 by 33 votes to 10, despite the opposition of the Palestinians and all Arab states. It is worth noting that, unlike UN Security Council resolutions, General Assembly resolutions are not binding on UN member states.

            The partition plan divided Palestine into three parts. It was extraordinarily generous to the Jews, who at the time made up about a third of the population and owned less than 6% of the total land. Despite this, the partition plan allocated almost 56% of the land to a Jewish state, in an area in which there were about 500,000 Jews but also 440,000 Arabs. On 42% of the land, 800,000+ Arabs were to have a state with a small Jewish minority (10,000) and a small area around Jerusalem was to be under international control.

            The Zionist leadership accepted the partition plan publicly, but with the clear intention of working against it, understandably so, since it was impossible to establish a Jewish state in an area where nearly 50% of the population was Arab. “Transfer” of Arabs was necessary in order to establish a viable Jewish state. That’s what happened in the months before and after the declaration of the state of Israel in May 1948. The territory allocated to the Jewish state was expanded to include more than 78% of mandate Palestine and around 750,000 Palestinians were expelled into the rest of Palestine and the surrounding Arab states, where they and their descendants live today. That is how a viable Jewish state was established in Palestine in 1948.

* * * * *

            The transfer of the Arab population out of Palestine was on the agenda of the Zionist movement from an early stage – since its presence got in the way of the establishment of a Jewish state. One of the movement’s liberal thinkers, Leo Motzkin, put it this way in 1917:

            “Our thought is that the colonization of Palestine has to go in two directions: Jewish settlement in Eretz Israel and the resettlement of the Arabs of Eretz Israel outside the country. The transfer of so many Arabs may seem at first unacceptable economically, but is nonetheless practical. It does not require too much money to resettle a Palestinian village on another land.” (The Motzkin Book, p 164)

            David Ben-Gurion was the leader of the Zionist movement from the mid 1920s and the first Prime Minister of Israel. He told a meeting of the Jewish Agency Executive on 12 June 1938:

            “I am for compulsory transfer. I see nothing immoral in it.”

            It should be said that Zionist leaders were not alone in denying the Palestinians’ right to live in the land of Palestine. Here is an extract from evidence by a famous Briton to the Peel Commission in 1937:

            “I do not agree that the dog in a manger [the Palestinians] has the final right to the manger even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race, has come in and taken their place.”

            The author was Winston Churchill. In his eyes, the native peoples of America and Australia, and Palestine, were lesser breeds, whose “place” could be taken over by superior breeds.

* * * *

            The Zionist project did not stop at the 1949 armistice line, the so-called Green Line. Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel has occupied the rest of mandate Palestine – the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem – and continued its colonising mission in these areas. Today, there are nearly 500,000 Jewish settlers on confiscated Arab land in the Occupied Territories.

            Israel has ignored Security Council resolutions demanding that it cease colonising the Occupied Territories. Colonising occupied territory is contrary to the Fourth Geneva Convention, Article 49, paragraph 6 of which states:

            “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”

            Shamefully, the Security Council has not taken any enforcement action – economic sanctions, for example – to compel Israel to implement these resolutions. This is in stark contrast to the Security Council’s action in respect of, for example, Iraq and Iran.

            (Israel is in violation of over 30 Security Council resolutions that require action by it alone, for example, resolutions 252, 267, 271 and 298 that require it to reverse its annexation of East Jerusalem, resolution 487 that calls upon it to place its nuclear facilities under IAEA supervision, resolution 497 demands that Israel reverse its annexation of the Golan Heights that belong to Syria, as well as resolutions 446, 452 and 465 that demand it cease settlement building. The Security Council has taken no enforcement action in respect of any of these.)

* * * *

            The Zionist colonisation of Palestine, undertaken with the support of the West, has brought endless suffering to the Arab people of Palestine and deprived them of the enjoyment of their land. Had it not been for the Zionist colonisation, there would be no conflict in Palestine. Yet, remarkably, the colonisers are constantly portrayed in the Western media as the victims of Palestinian aggression.

            A settlement in Palestine requires a recognition that an historic wrong has been done to the Arab people of Palestine and that appropriate redress has to be made.

The Aida Youth Activity Centre is located in northern Bethlehem’s Aida Refugee Camp. It launched a project to build a gigantic structure in the shape of keyhole, in addition to a iron key which goes next to it. The key is 10 meters long and weighs two tons The keyhole structure is about 12 meters high.

            The key represents the symbol of right of return of the Palestinian refugees and marks the 60th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (The Catastrophe) in 1948.

            Mr Munther Ameera, the Director of the Centre, asserts that this campaign aims at raising awareness to the unsolved and forgotten problem of Palestinian refugees.

            It also aims at making the international world more active in pressuring the Israeli occupation to yield to the UN’s many resolutions, particularly UN resolution 194, which grants Palestinian refugees their Right of Return to their homes and lands from which they have been expelled.

            On May 8 in Bethlehem, the key was used as the centre of attention in a demonstration marking 60 years of the Nakba. At least 700 Palestinians from the southern West Bank district marched side by side next to the largest key in the world. The event, which was organised by the Palestinian Committee for commemorating the 60th Nakba year, started at around midday from the Duhyisha Refugee camp located in the southern part of Bethlehem.

            The event started as a truck arrived with the largest key in the world, and then people followed all the way to Al Azah refugee camp then to Ayidah refugee camp were the key was installed on a concert gate.

            The demonstration protested against the ongoing occupation and its manifestations such as the Wall which surrounds this refugee camp from two sides. In addition, Munther Ameera hopes that by building this Key Monument it will be entered into the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest key in the world.

            He said, "We need to pressure the world to make the solving of the refugees issue, who are still hoping to return to their lands and homes and to end their long misery as it is their legal and moral right granted by the UN and international law, a priority."

            Speeches were delivered as the key was installed on top of the gate; the first speech was delivered by an old man, Haj Abu Ahmad, who witnessed the Nakba first hand. Later, speeches were given by local MPs and political leaders that retorted the Palestinian demand of right of return.

  (sources: Desertpeace, Palestinian News Network, IMEMC News)

May 15th 4:30 to 6:00

Balloon Release at 5:30

Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester

Israel refers to May 15, 1948, as its “Day of Independence”, but for Palestinians it symbolises Al-Nakba (the Catastrophe), the dispossession, displacement, and uprooting of over 720,000 Palestinians from their homes in what then became Israel. Many of these refugees and their descendants, who now number more than 4 million, still languish in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza and the rest of the world. While Al-Nakba embodies the first major wave of forced expulsion of Palestinians from their land, Israel’s premeditated campaign of ethnic cleansing continues to this very day.

Palestine Lives in Manchester 2008

Albert Square between 1-4 pm on June 7

Palestine Lives 2008 is a celebration of Palestinian art, culture, history and experience. It will bring together artists, poets and musicians from Palestine and England to celebrate the fact that Palestine and its culture still exists despite the 60 years of the Nakba.

            There will be stalls informing people of the issues facing the people of the Middle East as well as peace organisations campaigning not just for peace in the region but against nuclear weapons and all war.

            During the event there will be music, food, a march around the city centre, all in celebration of solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Action Palestine

Saturday, 24 May 2008, 18:00—20:00

University of Westminster Old Cinema

309 Regent Street, London W1B 2UW

(tube Oxford Circus)

 

Resistance and Liberation Day has its origins in the May 2000 liberation of Southern Lebanon from a 22-year Israeli occupation.  But what is the significance of the concept of resistance in today’s world? It has been often said that “When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.”  In this age of continual conflict, who decides where justice lies and how it should be achieved?  What, after all, is resistance?  

 

The evening will feature:

-A Summer Not to Forget, documentary film on the 2006 War on Lebanon,

with director/producer Carol Mansour

-Dr Abdul-Rahman Bizri, Mayor of Saida, Lebanon

-Baroness Emma Nicholson, MEP, and Executive Chairman of

The AMAR International Charitable Foundation

-Mr George Galloway, MP Respect Party

Attendance Notes:

Given the nature of the documentary and the length of the programme, we would advise that small children not attend this event. Wheelchair accessible.