Gaza’s Ark Statement regarding Greta Berlin and the Free Gaza Tweet

http://www.gazaark.org/2012/10/05/gazas-ark-statement-regarding-the-free-gaza-tweet/

______________________________________________________________________________

An unfortunate mistake resulted in a message – perceived as antisemitic rhetoric – being sent on Free Gaza’s official Twitter feed.  The sender of the message was Greta Berlin, co-founder and board member of Free Gaza.

It was later revealed that the message being tweeted was taken out of context.  It was a personal Facebook message intended for a private discussion among a group of people exchanging about propaganda and racism.  Greta’s Facebook account was linked to the Free Gaza Twitter feed which resulted in the message being tweeted unintentionally and, more importantly, out of context.

Gaza’s Ark is disturbed by this mistake that should not have happened and believes that measures should be taken so such a mistake would never be repeated.

This said, we are satisfied by Greta’s apology and explanation.  We have known Greta for many years, we have never witnessed any sign of racism or antisemitism in her work and we appreciate her many contributions in the struggle for justice and human rights. These contributions and years of work cannot be wiped out because of such an incident.

Meanwhile we are dismayed by the way some media took the issue out of context, ignored Greta’s explanation and tried to smear her and any group she is or was affiliated with, unjustly.

We assert that we denounce in the strongest terms all forms of antisemitism, racism and/or hate mongering. It is our raison d’être as a movement to stand firmly against such ills that are the root cause behind most suffering on earth.

We urge all people of conscience to focus on the real issue at hand: ending the suffering and misery for all peoples and making the world a better, safer and more just place.

Gaza’s Ark Steering Committee

Relevant information:

Greta’s statement: http://www.freegaza.org/en/home/56-news/1369-statement-from-greta-berlin

Free Gaza’s statement: http://www.freegaza.org/en/home/56-news/1367-apology-regarding-tweet

Human Rights Watch: Abusive System – Failures of Criminal Justice in Gaza

Human Rights Watch: Abusive System – Failures of Criminal Justice in Gaza

 http://othersite.org/human-rights-watch-abusive-system-failures-of-criminal-justice-in-gaza/

Introduction by Dr Gabi Weber: Readers of this new report by Human Rights Watch may take into consideration the fact that  HRW is funded by George Soros´ Open Society Foundation as some Zionist right wing sources reveal.

You should also bear in mind that many of the NGOs operating in Palestine are also heavily supported by Soros´ Open Society and similar organisations.

If you want to learn more about Open Society Foundation´s goals in the Middle East (Arab Regional Office) click here. You will then be able to find out what are the liberal Zionist´s plans for the people of Arabia.

This is what interventionism is all about.

Gabi Weber

 

 

Human Rights Watch Report

Summary

This report highlights the failure of the criminal justice system in Gaza under Hamas rule, including security forces, prosecutors, and judges, to uphold the law and protect the rights of detainees and criminal defendants and hold those responsible for serious abuses accountable.

Based on interviews with former detainees, lawyers, human rights groups, and reviews of case files and court judgments the report documents how Hamas security services in Gaza routinely conduct arrests without presenting warrants, refuse to promptly inform families of detainees’whereabouts, deny detainees access to a lawyer and torture detainees in custody.

In August 2008, Abdel Karim Shrair was arrested by members of the al-Qassam brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, which detained and allegedly tortured him at an unknown location for three weeks before transferring him to the custody of the police. The military prosecutor then ordered Shrair’s detention and interrogation by the Internal Security service, and later charged him with collaborating with Israel, in part on the basis of information that his lawyer alleged was obtained under torture. Internal Security interrogators also tortured Shrair, his family said, and prevented them from seeing him until October. Shrair’s mother said that when she was first able to see him, his legs and face were bruised, his feet were swollen, his hands and arms had rope marks and his chest had burn marks. The military courts did not adequately address Shrair’s claims of torture. The courts held that the prosecutor, by subsequently ordering Shrair’s detention and interrogation, had retroactively “corrected” prior gross violations including Shrair’s warrantless arrest and incommunicado detention. Shrair was sentenced to death and executed by firing squad in May 2011. His mother said that Hamas authorities had prohibited the family from burying him, and that police beat her when she tried to hold his body during the interment.

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Screening: Gilad & All That Jazz + Q&A Frontline Club, London

Book early,,, it will be sold out!

Date: October 15, 2012 7:00 PM

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Gorliz Kolahi, producer David Alamouti and Gilad Atzmon will also be present to answer questions.

Watch trailer: https://vimeo.com/24659402

Gilad and all that Jazz [TRAILER] from David Alamouti on Vimeo.

 

Gilad Atzmon is a world renowned saxophonist, a well respected musician and a controversial public critic of Israel. Born into a pro-Zionist family and serving briefly in the first Lebanon War, Gilad had a dramatic turnaround. He quit the army, picked up his instrument and moved to London, declaring himself an enemy of the Israeli state.

Besides producing some of the modern era’s greatest Jazz albums he also published the controversial book The Wandering Who. He is blunt and outspoken in his political and philosophical ideas and his views on Jewishness provoke both the left and ring wing in Israel.

In Gilad and All that Jazz director Golriz Kolahi explores the music, ideas and motivations that drive Gilad Atzmon. Through interviews with supporters, opponents and admirers a complex picture is drawn that makes you wonder: "Should music and politics be mixed?"

Directed by Golriz Kolahi and produced by David Alamouti
Duration: 66'
Year: 2012

http://www.frontlineclub.com/events/2012/10/screening-gilad-all-that-jazz.html

TOUR DATES -October November

TOUR DATES

October

8 with Nick Hill @ The  Bedford Arms 


12 Gilad Atzmon & The OHE at  Ropetackle Arts Centre, Shoreham-by-Sea  

 

13 Gilad Atzmon &The OHE @ Marsden Jazz Festival

15  Screening: Gilad & All That Jazz + Q&A, Frontline Club, London http://www.frontlineclub.com/events/2012/10/screening-gilad-all-that-jazz.html


19 The Blockheads 35th Anniversary Tour, Waterside Arts Centre

 

20 The Blockheads 35th Anniversary Tour,  Mill Arts, Banbury 


21 The Blockheads 35th Anniversary Tour,  The Apex, Bury St Edmunds

 

26 Jazzys Café, 28 Shore Road, Sandbanks  

 

30 Valencia, Spain Gilad Atzmon Trio (+ book event)*

 

31 Madrid, Spain, Gilad Atzmon Trio (+ book event)*

 ---

November


1 Madrid, Spain, Gilad Atzmon Trio (+ book event)*

 

2 Workshop in Saarbrucken, Germany

 

3 Gilad Atzmon & the OHE , Gütersloh, Germany  

 

5 Gilad Atzmon & the OHE, Saarbrucken, Germany

 

6  Gilad Atzmon & the OHE , Inoui, Luxemburg, 

 

7 Gilad Atzmon & the OHE,  Böblingen, Germany

 

9 The Blockheads 35th Anniversary Tour, Concorde 2,  Brighton

 

10 The Blockheads 35th Anniversary Tour, Corn Exchange, Hertford

 

15 With Sarah Gillespie, Alexander Chester

 

16 The Blockheads 35th Anniversary Tour, Picturedrome, Holmfirth

 

17 The Blockheads 35th Anniversary Tour, The Flowerpot, Derby

 

18 With Sarah Gillespie at,The Pheasantry, The London Jazz Festival 2012

 

22 With Nicolas Meier Quartet, Wakefield Jazz

 

23 Gilad Atzmon & the OHE at the Vortex, London

 

24 Gilad Atzmon & the OHE at the Vortex, London

 

29 With Tali Atzmon and Yaron Stavi, Ajani Café, London

 

30 With Sarah Gillespie, Albion Beatnik Bookshop, Oxford

 

Pre-Show Talk - The Road To Bop

*Ahead of this concert, Gilad will give a talk about his first encounter with Jazz music and its impact on his ethical and philosophical stand. The talk will explore different aspects of music and their direct link with Gilad’s views on morality. A rare chance to engage with a star musician who is an equally popular writer and political commentator.


 

 

Gilad Atzmon's New Book: The Wandering Who? A Study Of Jewish Identity Politics is due on 30th September

Jewish identity is tied up with some of the most difficult and contentious issues of today. The purpose in this book is to open many of these issues up for discussion. Since Israel defines itself openly as the ‘Jewish State’, we should ask what the notions of ’Judaism’, ‘Jewishness’, ‘Jewish culture’ and ‘Jewish ideology’ stand for. Gilad examines the tribal aspects embedded in Jewish secular discourse, both Zionist and anti Zionist; the ‘holocaust religion’; the meaning of ‘history’ and ‘time’ within the Jewish political discourse; the anti-Gentile ideologies entangled within different forms of secular Jewish political discourse and even within the Jewish left. He questions what it is that leads Diaspora Jews to identify themselves with Israel and affiliate with its politics. The devastating state of our world affairs raises an immediate demand for a conceptual shift in our intellectual and philosophical attitude towards politics, identity politics and history.

 

You can now order the book on Amazon.com  or Amazon.co.uk

Mandating Indigenous Holocaust Education

Dr. June Terpstra


Historicle American icon, Christopher Columbus, and his brother Bartholomew,
mass murdered some two million of the Taino people on the island of
Hispaniola in just four years. In their quest to kill and torture as many people
as possible they built extremely wide gibbets, hanging victims with feet barely
touching the ground amidst fire caused a slow strangling burning death.

On yet another USA manufactured “holiday” where schools close to honor the savage conquistador, Christopher Columbus, who ushered into history the holocaust of approximately 11 million native north American “Indians” I propose a mandate for indigenous holocaust education, K-12. Like the new federal legislation introduced in congress to mandate education of the Jewish holocaust, I also propose we replace not only senior citizens arts and crafts but pre-school arts and crafts with education workshops developed to examine the denial of Indian genocide and removal; the denial of African Diaspora genocide and slavery, past and present; and, the genocide of Arabs and Muslims occurring in Palestine today.

Currently being reviewed by committees in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, the Simon Wiesenthal Holocaust Education Assistance Act – if passed – would provide select organizations nationwide with competitive grants to be used to develop Holocaust curriculum guides as well as training for teachers. http://www.libertyforum.org/
showflat.php?Cat=&Board=news_news&Number=295765930&page=
0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=21&part=1

Never Forget

A common expression of white men and women in the USA regarding their barbaric history towards Africans and Native Americans is for “them to just get over it”! The sloganeering of remembering history in order to avoid extermination, removal, kidnapping, enslaving, lynching does not apply to non-Jews. Yet the history of Europe’s program of extermination of the Jews is now introduced in the US Congress to be mandated education in public schools with an official curriculum written and sponsored by Jewish historians. Mandated education on all holocausts only seems fair and right in the “democratic, truth loving land of equality”. Everyone should know the history of the mass murders and removals of Native Americans and the countless Africans killed through the middle passage and their slavery and savage treatment by the Euro-Americans. The truth about all genocides should be mandated education for everyone everywhere.

 

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Paul Larudee on the Abunimah - Berlin Affair

Dispel the Doubts?  What Doubts?
 
I am not going to waste my time trying to liberate Palestine by prosecuting Greta Berlin for the offense of – in essence – turning onto a one-way street against the traffic.
 
Doing so gets a lot of attention, and the drivers heading towards you will say a lot of nasty things.  However, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you secretly harbor a desire to sabotage the traffic or that you are part of a movement to end one-way streets.  It means that you weren't paying attention to the road signs.
 
Greta has apologized for the error.  According to Ali Abunimah, however,  “many people” want to “dispel the doubts” by having Greta publish the full conversation in which the offending video link occurs.
 
What doubts?
 
This is not a rhetorical question.  What exactly is the accusation, if any?  I have to stretch my imagination quite a bit to even guess the intention of this statement.  That Greta is a closet racist?  A spy?
 
Or is this just a fishing expedition?  A grand jury?  A House Unpalestinian Activities Committee investigation, looking for anything that might lead to an indictment?

What Ali and Co. are asking (to continue the analogy) is to know who else was in the car, what the contents of the trunk (boot) may have been, the car specifications and legal ownership, any outstanding liens, the time of day and weather conditions, etc.
 
I disagree with Greta on substantive issues and other real concerns, but that is just the point.  Let us disagree on and discuss substance, not this foolishness.  There is enough disunity already.  Can we please set these matters aside and just liberate Palestine?

Abunimah Did It Again

By Gilad Atzmon

Is it really possible that not a single Palestinian or Palestinian solidarity activist would stand for Greta Berlin, one of the founders of the Free Gaza Movement and its spokesperson for the last several years? Is it possible that not a single peace activist would rush to defend the person who was directly and physically involved in every naval attempt to break the siege on Gaza? Apparently, yes.

A few days ago Greta Berlin had been subject to a vile Israeli and Zionist smear campaign following her facebook post containing the following message: “Zionists operated the concentration camps and helped murder millions of innocent Jews”. Berlin also added to her facebook post a link to a video of a lecture by Eustace Mullins. I am not familiar with the work of Mullins but I guess that he is far from being a popular political thinker in Tel Aviv or Golders Green.

Zionists and Hasbara agents were very quick to slander Berlin. They tagged her as an ‘anti Semite’ and a ‘Holocaust denier’. But clearly there is no Holocaust denial in Berlin’s message. Furthermore, the views expressed by her are consistent with many experts including Jewish Marxist archivist Lenni Brenner who tells the same story in his book 51 Documents: Zionist Collaboration With the Nazis. Hanna Arendt also reached a similar conclusion in her invaluable epic book A Report On The Banality Of Evil. I guess that Greta Berlin has a problem, unlike Arendt and Brenner: she’s not a Jew, she is a Shiktze, and Shiktzes better keep quiet. They are not supposed to talk, let alone tell the truth.

It didn’t take much Zionist pressure before the Free Gaza Movement grovelled and published a humiliating apology. It also didn’t take much time for the usual suspects within the movement to disassociate themselves from one of the most dedicated solidarity activists on the planet.

Yet, one would expect that after his recent failed attack on myself and my work, Kosher Commissar Ali Abuminah, would think twice before he allies himself with the darkest Zionist and Israeli Hasbara forces around.

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Hot off the press: IAF shoots down suspicious drone over north Negev

Ynet reported just a few minutes ago that an unmanned, unidentified aircraft infiltrated Israeli airspace Saturday morning; IAF fighter planes intercepted the aircraft shortly after. The unidentified Aircraft didn't depart from Gaza Strip and didn’t carry explosives

The Israeli Air Force intercepted an unmanned and unidentified aircraft that entered Israel's airspace early today.  The aircraft was shot down in an open area in the northern Negev region, and its remains were scattered in an open area in the south Mount Hebron region.

For decades, Israeli drones have been spreading fear over Gaza, seemingly the Jewish State is now tasting its own medicine.  

Paul Larudee - How al-Aqsa Mosque Became a Refugee from Jerusalem

 

Once upon a time, some people wanted to destroy al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. So the mosque asked its friends, “Will you help save al-Aqsa?”  We’re over a thousand years old and need your help.

“Not us,” said the Palestinians still living in Jerusalem.  “We’re trying to keep our own houses and land.”

“Not us,” said the Palestinians with Israeli citizenship.  “We’re already a persecuted minority in Israel.”

“Not us,” said the West Bank Palestinians.  “We’re trying to save what we still have.”

“Not us,” said the Gaza residents.  “We don’t want another Israeli pogrom.”

“Not us,” said the Palestinian Muslims.  “We don’t want to be called terrorists.”

“Not us,” said the Palestinian Christians.  “Our churches are being defaced and burned by the same people.  We have our own problems.”

“Not us,” said the NGOs.  “We only provide social services.”

“Not us,” said the diaspora Palestinians.  “We have a hard enough time keeping people from noticing that we’re Palestinian.”

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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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