Paul Larudee: has Palestine been Abandonned By Its Own Leadership?

Introduction by Gabi Weber

http://othersite.org/palestine-abandonned-by-its-own-leadership-letter-from-paul-larudee-to-al-awda-list/

Paul Larudee, the co-founder of the Free Palestine Movement and one of the leading Pro-Palestinian activists in America, posted the following text on the  Al Awda list. It seems as if BDS has given up on the most essential and crucial  Palestinian principles.

While BDS was initially committed to the opposition of colonisation of all Arab lands, the current BDS' goal statement merely opposes only the colonisation of Arab lands occupied in 1967.

The BDS clearly changed its goal statement.

The following text raises serious questions. Perhaps one of our readers can provide the answers.

 

 

"Dear friends,

It is with great sadness that I must propose withdrawal of al-Awda endorsement from the BDS Campaign led by the BNC until the change in its mission statement has been corrected and until a public explanation is provided for the reasons for the change as well as the procedure by which the change was implemented.  A more transparent public explanation of BNC finances is also recommended.

Obviously, this is not a proposal to stop boycott, divestment and sanctions.  However, BDS actions and practices do not require endorsement of a particular movement.  Everything that undermines the racist Zionist state deserves our support.  Nevertheless, under no circumstances can we support any statement or action that legitimates such a state, which is the problem with the BNC-led BDS Campaign.

As I reported on July 10, the original BDS mission statement reads:

"1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall"

In fact, it still reads that way on one part of the website: http://www.bdsmovement.net/call.  Unfortunately, that part of the website is historical, and reports what the original mission statement was when it was issued in 2005 (when al-Awda endorsed it), and not what it is today, which is found at http://www.bdsmovement.net/bdsintro, which reads:

"1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands occupied in June 1967 and dismantling the Wall" (emphasis added)

 When did this wording change?  By what procedure was it amended?  Were endorsers like al-Awda consulted or even notified about the change?  What was the reason for the change?

 

1.  When did the wording change? 

Sorry, but I have no idea about this, and I doubt that anyone else on this list does, either.  This is problematic.  How can a change of this magnitude be made without the permission of its endorsers?  How can endorsers be made to say something that they never endorsed?  This is deception at its worst.

2.  By what procedure was the statement amended?

One would think that such a change would require a proposal to and ratification by the governing committee of the BNC.  However, there is no evidence that such a procedure was observed.  Lacking evidence to the contrary, we must conclude that it was amended unilaterally by someone with control over the website.

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Stuart Littlewood: Has Israel groveller David Miliband changed his spots?

Introduction by GA: David Miliband, a listed Israeli Propaganda Author as well as the British Foreign Secretary who gave the Israelis a green light to operation Cast Lead, suggesting that “Israel should, above all, seek to protect its own citizens,” is now invited to speak at a Medical Aid for Palestine’s  (MAP) Annual Gala Fundraising Dinner. Stuart Littlewood exposes it all.

millibandhasbara1

 

Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) has been providing vital help to vulnerable Palestinian communities ever since the Sabra and Shatila massacre 30 years ago.

Eyebrows therefore shot up when MAP announced that former British Foreign Secretary David Miliband will be speaking at its Annual Gala Fundraising Dinner on Thursday 20 September held in the posh Sheraton Park Lane Hotel.

It seems he’ll be talking about his visit to the West Bank and Gaza.

Grovelling to Israel

Miliband will be forever remembered as the British foreign secretary who shamelessly grovelled to Israel’s gangsters for forgiveness for their running the risk of arrest if they set foot in London.

And he’ll be remembered for not having the guts to go visit Gaza, or even Iran, while in office.

Back in 2009 Ehud Barak, Tzipi Livni and retired General Doron Almog, cancelled engagements in London for fear of being arrested. Israel complained bitterly

Miliband actually apologised to Livni and Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman for the arrest warrant issued against Livni. He promised Lieberman to begin working immediately to change the UK laws relating to “universal jurisdiction”. He asked Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Justice Minister Jack Straw to find an urgent solution.

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Beloved Jerusalem

By Nahida Izzat

http://nahidaexiledpalestinian.wordpress.com

Ten measures of sorrow God gave to the world

Nine to Jerusalem and one to the rest

Ten measures of pain God gave to the world

Nine to Jerusalem and one to the rest

Ten measures of agony God gave to the world

Nine to Jerusalem and one to the rest

Ten measures of heartache God gave to the world

Nine to Jerusalem and one to the rest

Ten measures of suffering God gave to the world

Nine to Jerusalem and one to the rest

Ten measures of trauma God gave to the world

Nine to Jerusalem and one to the rest

Ten measures of patience God gave to the world

Nine to Jerusalem and one to the rest

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Gilad Atzmon on THE BEN FELLOWS RADIO SHOW

http://www.thebenfellowsradioshow.com/#!home/mainPage

Zionism, Jewish Identity politics, Jewish Lobby, AZZ, Israel Palestine and the next World War...

On today's show Gilad Atzmon, author of the best seller - "The Wandering Who" joins Ben in a facinating conversation about Jewish identity. For more information about Gilad visit - www.gilad.co.uk

The Wandering Who? A Study Of Jewish Identity Politics, Jewish political interest, and the Jewish Lobby..

The book can be  ordered  on Amazon.com  or Amazon.co.uk

Berlin rejects Israeli pressure over submarine sales to Egypt

By Agence France-Presse
 
A German-built Type 209 attack submarine (AFP_File, Rodger Bosch)
 

German Defence Minister Thomas de Maiziere dismissed Israeli pressure not to sell two submarines to Egypt, while acknowledging the country was “not as stable” as he would like in an interview published Saturday.

“No country in the world has the right of veto to decisions taken by the German government,” the minister told the Frankfurter Rundschau when asked to comment on the probable sale of two Type 209 attack submarines.

Questioned specifically about Israeli pressure not to go through with the deal, he repeated: “Nobody has the right of veto.”

However he admitted that Egypt “is not as stable as I would like”, while stressing this was a “personal point of view” and had “nothing to do with any possible transaction over submarines.”

German arms sales to foreign countries have to be approved by a federal security commission, whose discussions and decisions are not disclosed.

The Internet site of the weekly Der Spiegel on Tuesday revealed that the commission was due to discuss the proposed sale again even though it gave the green light in November 2011.

The agreement for Germany to supply Egypt with the two conventional diesel-electric submarines manufactured by ThyssenKrupp was first revealed by the commander in chief of the Egyptian Navy Osama al-Gindi two weeks ago in an Egyptian newspaper.

A few days later the Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot quoted government sources as saying there had been “a marked deterioration in relations between Israel and Germany” over the deal.

The German government denied to the local media that there had been any such deterioration, while refusing to comment on the proposed sale.

Already in July last year Berlin sparked a row over its sale to 200 Leopard combat tanks to Saudi Arabia. Germany has always insisted that any arms sales to foreign governments are conditional on Israel’s security and respect for human rights.

Source: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/09/15/berlin-rejects-israeli-pressure-over-submarine-sales-to-egypt/

A Preventable Massacre

By SETH ANZISKA

ON the night of Sept. 16, 1982, the Israeli military allowed a right-wing Lebanese militia to enter two Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut. In the ensuing three-day rampage, the militia, linked to the Maronite Christian Phalange Party, raped, killed and dismembered at least 800 civilians, while Israeli flares illuminated the camps’ narrow and darkened alleyways. Nearly all of the dead were women, children and elderly men.

Thirty years later, the massacre at the Sabra and Shatila camps is remembered as a notorious chapter in modern Middle Eastern history, clouding the tortured relationships among Israel, the United States, Lebanon and the Palestinians. In 1983, an Israeli investigative commission concluded that Israeli leaders were “indirectly responsible” for the killings and that Ariel Sharon, then the defense minister and later prime minister, bore “personal responsibility” for failing to prevent them.



While Israel’s role in the massacre has been closely examined, America’s actions have never been fully understood. This summer, at the Israel State Archives, I found recently declassified documents that chronicle key conversations between American and Israeli officials before and during the 1982 massacre. The verbatim transcripts reveal that the Israelis misled American diplomats about events in Beirut and bullied them into accepting the spurious claim that thousands of “terrorists” were in the camps. Most troubling, when the United States was in a position to exert strong diplomatic pressure on Israel that could have ended the atrocities, it failed to do so. As a result, Phalange militiamen were able to murder Palestinian civilians, whom America had pledged to protect just weeks earlier.

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No ‘Red Line’ for Israel

By Gilad Atzmon

Israeli news outlets reported today that President Obama rejected an appeal by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to set a specific “red line” to stop any further Iranian uranium enrichment.

According to reports, in an hour-long conversation on Tuesday, Obama deflected Netanyahu’s proposal to make the size of Iran’s stockpile of close-to-bomb-grade uranium the threshold, the crossing of which would trigger a US military strike on the Islamic Republic's nuclear facilities.

But it seems that, this time at least, President Obama has decided against launching a world war on behalf of the Jewish State and its powerful lobby.

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