While Occupation and blockade are business as usual for Israel, there should be no business with Israel

In Occupied Palestine

Zionism in practice

Israel’s Daily Toll on Palestinian Life, Limb, Liberty and Property

24 hours to 8am 25 July 2010

Main source of statistics: Palestinian Monitoring Group (PMG).

13-year-old boy beaten and injured by Israeli soldiers

Palestinians beaten at checkpoint and at peaceful protests

Night peace disruption and/or home invasions in 14 towns and villages

23 raids including home invasions – 8 beaten – 8 injured

5 taken prisoner – 16 detained – 87 restrictions of movement

Palestinian attack: Northern Gaza – one missile fired towards the Green Line.

Palestinian attack: Northern Gaza – evening, two missiles fired towards the Green Line.

Raid – beatings – injuries – hospitalisation: Bethlehem – 16:55, villagers Anwar Muhammad Fouzi Awwad and Tamer Sufian Zeid were admitted to hospital with severe injuries following beatings by Israeli soldiers during a raid on the forest area in the village of Wadi Fukin.

Beating – injury – hospitalisation: Bethlehem – 16:10, kidney patient, Taysir Isma’il Al Jamal, was admitted to hospital with severe injuries following a beating by Israeli troops at the As Sawahira Ash Sharqiya checkpoint.

Non-violent resistance – beatings – injuries – tear gas casualties – tear gas grenade wounding: Nablus – 13:00, in the village of Iraq Burin 13-year-old Baha Mahmoud Qadus and one other person were beaten and left with severe injuries during an Israeli Army assault on a peaceful protest against the theft of Palestinian land for illegal Occupation settlement building. Another person, Husam Faqih, was struck and wounded by a tear gas grenade. A number of demonstrators were overcome by Israeli tear gas.

Non-violent resistance – injuries – tear gas casualties: Hebron – 11:20, a British woman and a French man were injured by Israeli Occupation troops during an attack on an international protest on farmland belonging to the town of Beit Ummar. Protesters were demonstrating against violence and agricultural sabotage perpetrated by Zionist militants from the nearby Occupation settlement of Karmi Tsur. A number of people, including 65-year-old Khadr Zeidan Sabarneh and journalist Najeh Al Hashlamoun, were overcome by Israeli tear gas.

Non-violent resistance – beatings – injuries: Hebron – 16:45, a number of protesters at an international demonstration in the Old City were beaten and injured by Israeli Occupation soldiers wielding clubs and rifle butts. The demonstration had been organised to protest against the segregation of Ash Shuhada Street and other restrictions on the movement of Palestinians.

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Open letter dated 25 July 2010 to New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully from PHRC:

Dear Mr McCully,

The hospitalisation on 23 July of three-year-old Bassam Shafee’ Sa’adeh after Israeli checkpoint troops beat up a bus-load of women and children at the As Sawahira ash Sharqiya checkpoint near Bethlehem is shocking enough but the action should raise alarm and serious misgivings, particularly among OECD members. The violence, after all, was perpetrated by a newly admitted member of the organisation that had already carried out a fatal assault on passengers aboard a Gaza aid flotilla vessel in international waters.

The weekend also saw Israeli population transfer orders (ethnic cleansing) against the villages of Arab ar Ramadin and Arab Abu Farda, near Qalqilya in the West Bank. The villagers have been trapped by Israel's annexation Wall near the Occupation settlement of Alfei Menashe, south of the city. These communities have suffered confinement since what Israel calls a 'separation barrier', which went up in 2004, separated and isolated the villagers from the West Bank. Israel's Wall has caused daily life in Arab ar-Ramadin to become a constant struggle and there have been many house demolitions. Villagers suffer constant harassment and much village land has been lost to the Wall, illegal settlements, settler-only segregated roads, checkpoints and a complex of military orders.

As you have previously said that actions such as admitting Israel to membership of the OECD lead to useful dialogue in engaging Israel regarding its failure to abide by its international obligations, we ask you to tell us about the dialogue you have had with Israel and what successes you believe have resulted from such contact.

It would seem from Israel's behaviour that admission to membership of the OECD has given Israel a heightened sense of impunity. If you disagree with that assessment please let us know why.

We would like to know your opinion concerning the checkpoint assault on the women and children aboard the bus and what representations the New Zealand Government has made concerning the action.

What is your government's position regarding the plight of the villagers separated from their fellow Palestinians, their land and the outside world by a Wall that has been condemned by the International World Court?

Yours sincerely,

Leslie Bravery

For Palestine Human Rights Campaign  www.palestine.org.nz

25 July 2010

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US taxes are off to war

More than half the money taken from US taxpayers will go to the military, according to a report by RandomNonviolence (www.dailykos.com/story/2010/3/8/123728/5092). The report contains charts that show how US income tax dollars were spent in the year just completed — FY2009 — which ended last September 30 (data from Budget of the United States Government: Historical Tables Fiscal Year 2011, Table 8.7). The US government sent $657 billion or 53.1% of all discretionary funds to the military. This represents an average of about $5615 from each of the 117 million households in the US. In the current year (FY2010), the US government estimates that $714 billion will be spent on the military. This is more than twice as much as the $295 billion spent in FY2000 (73% more when adjusted for inflation). Despite these gigantic past increases, President Obama’s budget calls for further increases in the military budget in FY2011 to $744 billion. The report notes that much of the national debt was caused by discretionary military spending in earlier years.

Increases for Nuclear Weapons

A detailed analysis [in .pdf form] by Tri-Valley CARES finds: The Administration’s budget... contradicts President Obama’s pledge to reduce the nuclear weapons threat by working toward their elimination... Instead, the spending plan boosts funding for nuclear weapons production facilities by $625 million from last year...

The FY2011 National Nuclear Security Administration’s budget includes huge funding increases for nuclear weapon “modernisation” (like an additional $200 million for B-61 bomb’s “stockpile system,” and funding for the CMRR Nuclear Facility at Los Alamos and the Uranium Processing Facility at Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, both large scale nuclear weapons production facilities.)

US Military Spending in the Past 70 Years

Military spending in inflation-adjusted dollars, according to the report, is now greater than at any time during the Cold War and even greater than during the peak spending years of the Vietnam War, the Korean War and the Persian Gulf War.

The United States is now the largest supplier of weapons to the world. According to a Congressional Research Service report [in .pdf form], in 2008 the US sold $37.8 billion in arms to other countries — nearly 70% of all weapons sales around the world. These weapons, often subsidised by the US government and sold to undemocratic countries and human rights abusers, may lead to future wars. Some of these weapons may end up being used against the US military or against civilians, as they have in the past (for example: Iraq 2004/5, the Philippines 2007, Afghanistan 2009, Israel 2009). RandomNonviolence asks:

Is Massive Spending on the Military Needed?

The report states that the United States now has the most powerful military that has ever existed in the history of the world, having more than enough fire power to obliterate any enemy. The nuclear weapons in the US arsenal are powerful enough to destroy much of the planet and make our world completely uninhabitable. The US has over 800 military bases around the world and 11 aircraft carrier battle groups circling the planet (and no potential adversary has more than one). The US spends almost as much on the military as all the rest of the world combined. The US spends vastly more on its military than any possible enemies: roughly six times as much as China, ten times as much as Russia, 99 times as much as Iran, and almost 55 times as much as the combined spending of the six “rogue” states (Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria).

The report finds that despite this massive amount of spending on the military, 47% of Americans are still fearful that the US military is somehow inadequate. Most mainstream commentary on the military is provided by pro-military retired generals, many of them on the payroll of military contractors.

President Eisenhower warned, in his farewell speech in 1961 to be wary of the military-industrial complex:

“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes.”

Congress (especially the House and Senate Committees on Armed Services), the Department of Defence (DoD), and military contractors have forged an 'Iron Triangle' that provides money and power for all of them — at the expense of US taxpayers. Military contractors spend enormous amounts lobbying and giving large campaign contributions to Congress and, in turn, Congress provides them with lucrative, often no-bid, contracts and weak oversight. Military contractors also lobby top DoD administrators and offer them high-paying jobs after they leave the government (revolving door syndrome) and, in turn, DoD administrators lobby Congress for more weapons and overlook contractor cost overruns.

"Star Wars” missile defence programme colossal waste and failure:

According to the Pentagon, since its inception in 1983, missile defence has cost $150 billion. Twenty years after proponents of the system could no longer justify its Cold War purpose, 'missile defence' still does not work. It is the single most expensive weapons programme (after nuclear weapons) and has never yielded a significant result. It is the military equivalent of throwing money, in tens of billions of dollars, down the toilet that reveals a political corruption that is even at odds with actual Department of Defence procurement objectives.

The report concludes that spending on military force, in inflation-adjusted dollars, has grown to a level about 26 times as high as it was in 1940. Much of these expenditures have been used, not to protect US citizens from harm, but to invade and occupy other countries, support dictatorships, topple democratically-elected governments and otherwise “project power” and secure US “national interests” by controlling the rest of the world. In reality, this has undermined US security and bankrupted the country. If the US concentrated on actually defending itself the military budget could be as low as $50-$100 billion/year. The US would be better employed, the report says, in devoting more resources to efforts that would actually make the US safer: such as: supporting international bodies like the United Nations and the World Court, building the US economy (especially local, renewal energy), protecting the environment, providing aid to impoverished countries, supporting human rights throughout the world and providing support for civic movements that use non-violent action to challenge and undermine repressive regimes.

Read the report at: www.dailykos.com/story/2010/3/8/123728/5092

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Behind the Wall

Rich Wiles is a photographic artist who has been living and working in Palestine for some years. His photographic work has been shown around Europe, the US, Australia and in Palestine itself. Since 2006 he has been writing from Occupied Palestine under the title Behind the Wall. Much of this work is based in and around the refugee camps in Palestine, highlighting daily life and memories of refugees who still live in forced exile for over 60 years since Al Nakba (The Catastrophe). www.richwiles.com

Palestinian Resistance

Ali Kazak's newsletter Occupied Palestine: News and Articles This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it contains many news summaries that include both armed and non-violent methods of resistance to the Occupation. The newsletter also contains much other useful reporting.