July 15, 2014, Issue
204
ACTIVIST
NEWSLETTER
jacdon@earthlink.net
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1. Israel Bombs Gaza
Civilians, Again
2. Gaza: Misleading
Headlines, Phony ‘Cease-Fire’ Offer
3. Did Israel Spark
Gaza Violence?
4. Obama, Israel and
Liberal Capitulation
5. White House Backs
Illegal Gaza War
6. Gaza Bombing
Protest in Upstate New York
7. More Protests Set
in the Mid-Hudson Region
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EDITOR’S NOTE
We recommend a documentary video titled “Stone Cold Justice”
to all our readers who care about the treatment of children, no matter where
they stand on the question of Israel and Palestine. It is 46 minutes long and
worth every eye-opening minute. The video was produced by a collaboration
between The Australian, a respected daily newspaper, and the Australian
Broadcasting Company. They sent a reporting and TV team to Israel recently to
investigate how the Israeli military and police were treating Palestinian
children. This video, which has been
shown on Australian TV, is available at http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2014/02/10/3939266.htm.
––––––––––––
 |
| Pro-Palestinine picket line in Woodstock, N.Y., one of hundreds worldwide. (See items 6 & 7 below for local actions). Photo by Donna Goodman |
1. ISRAEL BOMBS GAZA CIVILIANS, AGAIN
By the Activist
Newsletter
Once again, Israel has found a pretext to viciously bomb
Gaza. The UN wants the bombing to end, deploring that 80% of the 200 Palestinians
who have been killed so far have been civilian women, children and men.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who leads the right wing
settler government, claims Israel acted in “self-defense” after three Israeli
young men were murdered by Hamas, the elected government in Gaza. He then
declared Hamas launched an unprovoked rocket barrage. Israel therefor had no
choice.
We have heard this before, most recently in late 2008 and
early 2009 when Israel virtually crushed the tiny territory and its 1.7 million
inhabitants, killing 1,400 Palestinians. Ten Israeli soldiers died, half from
friendly fire. The same story was told in 2012. There are many good reasons to
question Israel’s justifications for its current violence in Gaza, just as
there were in its earlier episodes.
1. First,
there has been no evidence as to who killed the three Israelis. The Hamas
government may not have been involved. Some other group or an individual acting
without any authorization from Hamas may have committed this crime.
2. Second,
between the three deaths and the rocket firing several days later, there was
Israeli violence, mass imprisonments, house burnings and other outrageous
repression. These are the reasons Hamas says it fired rockets two years after a
2012 cease-fire agreement with Israel. Hamas also argues Israel has reneged on
several other earlier commitments, such as allowing the territory’s inhabitants
the freedom to trade, travel and rebuild a shattered infrastructure.
3. Third,
the principal motive for launching an illegal war mainly against civilians was
neither the deaths nor the rockets. The Israeli regime’s main purpose was to
destroy the impact of the extremely important new unity between the political
leaderships of the occupied Palestinian territories of West Bank and Gaza. Such unity, after years of separation, would
have generated a more formidable Palestinian and international opposition to
Netanyahu, the leading antagonist to a two-state solution.
There is much more to say — and it will be said in the
articles that follow.
———————
2. GAZA: MISLEADING HEADLINES, PHONY 'OFFER'
 |
| ANSWER Coalition contingent in lively pro-Palestine protest in Washington last week. |
By Ben Becker,
Liberation News, July 15, 2014
All the major media this morning are in sync about the
latest developments in Gaza: “Hamas rejects, Israel accepts Gaza truce
proposal” (CBS); “Israel accepts truce plan; Hamas balks” (Washington Post);
“Israel’s Security Cabinet Accepts Proposal for Cease-Fire” (NY Times). And so
on.
Millions of people will glance at these headlines and go
about their days thinking, “Israel wants peace, Hamas wants war.” It is a
completely false picture — a deception in fact — about what is really happening.
But it will help Israel get off the hook as it resumes bombing this afternoon,
pledging to make the people of Gaza “pay the price” for rejecting the one-sided
Egyptian peace plan.
The problem is that Hamas, the elected leadership and
political authority in Gaza, was not even consulted about the terms of the
cease-fire. It is clear why. The proposed “cease-fire” maintains the
Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza, a deliberate attempt to cripple and starve
the Palestinians, until “the security situation becomes stable.”
This “cease-fire” says to Hamas, in other words, “You stop
shooting back, and we will indefinitely impose devastating economic war on your
people — until we decide to stop it. If you continue to resist, we will unleash
greater airstrikes and you will be to blame for it.”
This is not a “cease-fire.” It is a demand for surrender,
which would achieve Israel’s strategic objectives. Hamas’ military wing quickly
responded to the sham proposal with a statement that “it is not worth the ink
that wrote it.”
Israel and Egypt knew Hamas would reject such a
“cease-fire.” This was a public relations stunt from the beginning, designed to
create the very headlines we are seeing this morning.
Egypt’s military rulers, which this week repressed pro-Palestinian
demonstrations and recently banned Hamas activity as part of its crackdown on
the Muslim Brotherhood, clearly coordinated the stunt with the Israeli rulers
and the U.S. government. They are not the neutral third party they claim to be.
As the images continue to come out of the horrific Israeli
massacres of Palestinians — at least 185 confirmed dead, including 38 children,
1,390 wounded — the media is now directing the public to blame these atrocities
not on those who perpetrated them, but on Hamas for abstaining from peace.
Only one Israeli has been killed so far been killed so far.
The people of Gaza have been subjected to a one-sided war, enduring constant
airstrikes in the most densely populated city on the planet. The demand for
peace must be directed not at those under bombardment, but at the war criminals
in Tel Aviv, and their backers in Washington.
There have been demonstrations against the Israeli assault
in dozens of cities across the United States, and throughout the Middle East,
Asia, Latin America and Africa. Worldwide, people are seeing through the
propaganda, and identifying with the Palestinian struggle as the front-line
battle against colonialism and racism.
———————
3. DID ISRAEL SPARK GAZA VIOLENCE?
 |
| Israel, the most powerful military force in the Middle East, "defends itself" against Hamas. |
It is widely thought that the flare-up in Israel and the
Occupied Territories began with the kidnapping of three Israeli teens in the
West Bank just more than a month ago. But our guests — Norman Finkelstein,
author and scholar, and Mouin Rabbani, senior fellow at the Institute for
Palestine Studies — argue that such a
narrative ignores the broader context of decades of occupation and recent
events highlighting the expansionist goals of the Israeli government in the
Palestinian land under its control.
"Whenever the Palestinians seem like they are trying to
reach a settlement of the conflict — which the [Fatah-Hamas] unity government
was — at that point Israel does everything it can to provoke a violent
reaction, in this case from Hamas, to break up the unity government,”
Finkelstein says. Rabbani and Finkelstein are co-authors of the forthcoming
book, "How to Solve the Israel-Palestine Conflict."
 |
| Family members at Gaza funeral July 15. |
AARON MATÉ: We turn now to the roots of the latest
crisis and what can be done to avoid another in the future. It is widely
thought the flare-up began with the kidnappings of three Israeli teens in the
West Bank just over a month ago. But our
next guests argue the narrative ignores the broader context of decades of
occupation and recent events highlighting the expansionist goals of the Israeli
government in the Palestinian land under its control.
AMY GOODMAN: For more, we’re joined by Norman Finkelstein,
author and scholar. His most recent books are “Old Wine, Broken Bottle: Ari
Shavit’s Promised Land” and “Knowing Too Much: Why the American Jewish Romance
with Israel Is Coming to an End.” And we’re joined by Mouin Rabbani, a
Palestinian political analyst, formerly with the International Crisis Group.
Today, both Norman Finkelstein and Mouin Rabbani have co-authored a forthcoming
book, How to Solve the Israel-Palestine Conflict.
We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Mouin Rabbani, we’re
speaking to you over at The Hague. Can you respond to this latest news of the
Egyptian ceasefire, Israel accepting and Hamas weighing this [and rejection an hour later]?
MOUIN RABBANI: Well, I think Amira explained it quite well. [A
reference to Amira Hass, Ha’aretz correspondent for the occupied Palestinian
territories, who appeared earlier in the program. Her points are also expressed
this interview.] So far as we can tell, Hamas has been neither directly nor
indirectly consulted on a proposal that basically the Egyptians have concocted
together with Tony Blair and the Israelis and some other parties, the purpose
of which appears to be something that Hamas cannot accept and that can then be
used to legitimize an intensification of the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip.
The problem for Hamas is twofold. On the one hand, as Amira
explained, it basically restores an acceptable status quo, while, on the other
hand, it has been endorsed by the Arab League, by the PA in Ramallah, by most
of the Western powers and so on. So it will be difficult for them to either accept
or reject it, so to speak, while at the same time I think the parties that are
proposing this ceasefire are making it clear that they’re not really interested
in any further negotiation of its terms.
AARON MATÉ: Norman Finkelstein, give us a sketch of the
broader context for how this latest flare-up began.
NORMAN FINKELSTEIN: Well, before I do, I’m going to just
briefly comment on the ceasefire. The ceasefire, first of all, says nothing
about the rampages by Israel against Hamas in the West Bank. And it was those
rampages which caused the current conflict to escalate. It gives Israel a green
light to continue arresting Hamas members, blowing up homes in the West Bank,
ransacking homes and killing Palestinians, which was the prelude to the current
fighting.
Secondly, if you look at the ceasefire, it’s exactly what
was agreed on in June—excuse me, June 2008 and the same ceasefire that was
agreed to in November 2012. Namely, in both cases, it was said that there would
be a relaxing of the illegal blockade of Gaza. In both cases, after the
ceasefire was signed, the blockade was maintained, and in fact the blockade was
escalated. So now, in the current version of the ceasefire, it said the
blockade will be lifted after there has been calm restored and the security
situation has been established. But if Israel says Hamas is a terrorist
organization, then the security situation can never be calm in the Gaza, and
therefore there will be never a lifting of the blockade of Gaza. So we’re right
back to where we were in June 2008, November 2012. Of course Hamas is going to
reject that kind of agreement. It means it legalizes, it legitimizes the
brutal, merciless, heartless, illegal blockade of Gaza.
 |
| Israeli jet bombing civilian housing in Gaza. |
At this point, Netanyahu virtually went berserk, and he was
determined to break up the unity government. When there was the abduction of
the three Israeli teenagers, he found his pretext. There isn’t a scratch of
evidence, not a jot of evidence, that Hamas had anything to do with the kidnappings
and the killings. Nobody even knows what the motive was, to this point. Even if
you look at the July 3rd report of Human Rights Watch, they said nobody knows
who was behind the abductions. Even the U.S. State Department, on July 7th,
there was a news conference, and the U.S. State Department said, "We don’t
have hard evidence about who was responsible." But that had nothing to do
with it. It was just a pretext. The pretext was to go into the West Bank,
attack Hamas, arrest 700 members of Hamas, blow up two homes, carry on these
rampages, these ransackings, and to try to evoke a reaction from Hamas.
This is what Israel always does. Anybody who knows the
history, it’s what the Israeli political scientist, the mainstream political
scientist—name was Avner Yaniv—he said it’s these Palestinian "peace
offensives." Whenever the Palestinians seem like they are trying to reach
a settlement of the conflict, which the unity government was, at that point
Israel does everything it can to provoke a violent reaction—in this case, from
Hamas—break up the unity government, and Israel has its pretext. "We can’t
negotiate with the Palestinian Authority because they only represent some of
the Palestinian people; they don’t represent all of the Palestinian people."
And so Netanyahu does what he always does—excuse me, what Israeli governments
always do: You keep pounding the Palestinians, in this case pounding Hamas,
pounding Hamas, trying to evoke a reaction, and when the reaction comes—well,
when the reaction comes, he said, "We can’t deal with these people.
They’re terrorists."
AMY GOODMAN: Mouin Rabbani, on this issue of the Israeli
teens who were kidnapped and then killed, when did the Israeli government
understand that they had been murdered, as they carried out the siege to try to
find them?
MOUIN RABBANI: Well, what we know is that one of these
youths called the police emergency line immediately after they were abducted
and that gunshots can be clearly heard on the recording of that telephone
conversation. On that basis, the Israeli security establishment concluded that
the three youths had been killed almost as soon as they were abducted. And this
information was, of course, known to the Israeli government. Nevertheless,
Netanyahu deliberately suppressed this information, using the broad censorship
powers that the Israeli government has, and during this period launched into
this organized rampage—
AMY GOODMAN: Put a gag order on reporters from reporting
this?
MOUIN RABBANI: Basically, yes, that, you know, this was treated
as sensitive security information subject to military censorship. And there
were only allusions to it, and only days after, by some Israeli journalists,
and then only referring to some elliptical statements that were being made by
Israeli military commanders suggesting that, you know, this is not a hostage
rescue situation, as Netanyahu was presenting it, but is more likely to be a
search for bodies, which is of course how it turned out. And the reason that
Netanyahu suppressed this information is because it gave him the opportunity to
launch this organized rampage throughout the West Bank, to start re-arresting
prisoners who had been released in 2011 in the prisoner exchange between Hamas
and Israel, to intensify the bombing of the Gaza Strip, and generally to whip
up mass hysteria within Israel, which of course resulted in the burning death
of the 16-year-old Palestinian from Jerusalem several days later.
AARON MATÉ: Mouin, you’ve interviewed Hamas leaders. The
response from the Israeli government is always that Hamas is committed to
Israel’s destruction, so therefore how can we possibly negotiate with a unity
government that includes them? What’s your sense of Hamas’s willingness over a
long term to reach some sort of agreement or a long-term truce with Israel?
MOUIN RABBANI: I think Hamas, or at least the organization
and not necessarily all of its members, but its key leaders, have long since
reconciled themselves with a two-state settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. I think what’s been surprising in the past several months has been
that the Hamas leadership has gone well beyond that, in the context of the
reconciliation agreement signed on 23 April between Fatah and Hamas. In that
agreement, they agreed to the formation of a new government, in which neither
Hamas nor Fatah would enter the Cabinet, but that the political program of that
government would be the political program of the PA president—at the moment,
Mahmoud Abbas. And what you basically had was Abbas stating publicly that he not
only accepts the so-called Quartet conditions, but that in addition he would
continue security coordination with Israel and, you know, was making these
statements almost on a daily basis. And Hamas, more or less, looked the other
way and didn’t withdraw from the government. [The Middle East Quartet, with Tony Blair as special
envoy, consists of the UN, U.S., EU and Russia.]
 |
| Gaza victim and her doll share hospital bed. |
AMY GOODMAN: Norman Finkelstein, why do you think Israel has
hesitated to launch the invasion? Their, you know, thousands of soldiers are
lined up along the Gaza border.
NORMAN FINKELSTEIN: Well, it’s interesting, because all
the—there are a large number of theories that are being spun, in particular in
the Israeli press. The answer, I think, to that question is pretty obvious. The
Israeli domestic population won’t tolerate a large number of Israeli combatant
casualties. That’s out. Israel likes to fight—not unlike President Obama,
Israel likes to fight high-tech—likes to commit high-tech massacres, and it
doesn’t want to fight a real war. And in 2008, Israel carried out, executed the
big high-tech massacre in Gaza, killed about 1,400 Palestinians, up to 1,200 of
whom were civilians, left behind 600,000 tons of rubble, dropped the white
phosphorus and so forth. And for the first time, the international community
reacted very harshly to it. The climax, of course, was the Goldstone Report.
And at that point, Israel was placed in a very difficult
position, because on the one hand, it can’t stop the rocket attacks unless it
conducts a ground invasion, which is exactly the situation it faced in Lebanon
in 2006 also. The air force can’t knock out these rockets. They’re short-range
rockets, mostly. They’re not even rockets, but we’ll call them that. The air
force can’t knock them out. The only way to get rid of them—exactly as in
Lebanon in 2006, the only way to get rid of them is by launching a ground
invasion. However, the domestic population won’t accept a large number of
casualties. And the only way you don’t have a large number of casualties is if
you blast everything in sight within a mile’s radius, which is what Israel did
in 2008, '09. There were only 10 Israeli military casualties; of those 10, half
of them were friendly fire, Israelis accidentally killing Israelis. But after
the Goldstone Report and after 2008, ’09, they can't do that again. They can’t
carry out that kind of massive destruction, the 22 days of death and
destruction, as Amnesty International called it. They can’t do that again. A
new constraint has been placed on Israel’s political and military echelon.
So, that’s the dilemma for them. Domestically, they can’t
tolerate large numbers of combatant casualties, but the only way to prevent
that is blasting everything in sight. The international community says you
can’t do that. You kill 150, even kill 200, Human Rights Watch said killing 200
Palestinians in Gaza, that’s not a war crime, they said. That’s just collective
punishment. Only Hamas commits war crimes, because one woman apparently died of
a heart attack while—Israeli woman apparently died of a heart attack while
trying to enter a shelter, so that’s horrible, awful: That’s a war crime. But
when you kill 200 Palestinians, 80 percent of whom are civilians, about 20
percent of whom are children, according to Human Rights Watch, that’s not a war
crime. But the international community will accept that much, 200. But even
Human Rights Watch won’t accept if you go in and you do 2008, '09, again. And
so, the Israeli government is faced with a real dilemma. And that's the problem
for Netanyahu. Domestically, he loses if there are large number of casualties,
combatant casualties; internationally, he loses if he tries to do 2008, ’09,
all over again.
 |
| A home stood here hours earlier. |
NORMAN FINKELSTEIN: 2008, '09, as I said, was about 1,400,
of whom about up to 1,200 were civilians, I say 600,000 tons of rubble. They
just left nothing there. And by the way, that was demanded by Tzipi Livni. On
June 8th—excuse me, on January 18th, Tzipi Livni, the foreign minister then,
the justice minister now, the person who's called a moderate by J Street, Tzipi
Livni boasted—she went on TV and boasted, "We demanded hooliganism in
Gaza. That’s what I demanded," she said, "and we got it."
According to J Street, she’s the moderate.
AARON MATÉ: Norman, as we wrap, what needs to be done?
NORMAN FINKELSTEIN: What needs to be done is perfectly
obvious. Amnesty International, which is a real human rights organization,
unlike Human Rights Watch—Amnesty International issued a statement. It said,
number one, there has to be a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel and
Palestine—perfectly reasonable because, under international law, it’s illegal
to transfer weapons to countries which are major violators of human rights. So,
comprehensive arms embargo on Israel and Palestine. Number two, international
investigation of war crimes on both sides.
And I’m saying number three. Number three has to be—there
has to be the imposition of sanctions on Israel, until and unless it negotiates
an end to the occupation according to international law. Now, that’s not my
suggestion. I’m basing it on the International Court of Justice. South Africa
occupied Namibia. The International Court of Justice said in 1971, if South
Africa does not engage in good-faith negotiations to end its occupation of
Namibia, that occupation is illegal under international law. Israel has refused
to engage in good-faith negotiations to end the occupation of Palestine, just
like in the case of Namibia. It is now an illegal occupier of Palestine, and
there should be a comprehensive sanctions imposed on Israel, until and unless
it ends the occupation of Palestine under the terms of international law.
— The one-hour Democracy Now program airs at 8 a.m. EST. It
may be heard on selected radio stations throughout the day or any time at
democracynow.org. It streams online about an hour after its live broadcast ends
at 9 a.m. It is also available in video and text soon after.
———————
4. OBAMA, ISRAEL AND LIBERAL CAPITULATION
 |
| Israeli Warlord confurs with his Enabler-in-Chief. |
We’ve been waiting now for nearly seven years to uncover
that streak hidden deep in
the heart of President Barack Obama. But one drone strike after another, one
dead child piled upon another and any glimmer of hope that Obama would put the
breaks on U.S. extremism has finally come to an end.
Not only has Obama refused to alter the bloody foreign policy of his predecessors, he has vowed to continue its most extreme elements. In no other instance has this been more true than with the case of Israel and Palestine.
This reality has likely come as a surprise to many who
placed their aspirations in our first black president, a man who at one point
early in his career believed Palestinians had a right to not only exist, but to
reside in their own country. Yet, time and again President Obama has put his
foot down when the global community was ready to honor a Palestinian state, as
he did at the UN Security
Council in 2011 and again when the US vetoed a
UN resolution that would have condemned Israel’s illegal settlement
building. Now, as bombs fall on innocent Palestinians, Obama reasserts the US
role in defending Israel.
Last week in an op-ed for Haaretz, Israel’s oldest [and most
liberal] newspaper, Obama wrote that while “restraint” was needed on both
sides, the U.S. would continue to provide assistance to Israeli defense,
unconditionally. Just as Obama’s piece appeared, the U.S and Israel were
working hard behind the scenes to prevent the
UN Security Council from condemning Israel’s air-strikes.
“As I’ve said time and again, neither I nor the United
States will ever waver in our commitment to the security of Israel and the
Israeli people, and our support for peace will always remain a bedrock
foundation of that commitment,” wrote Obama in Haaretz. “Budgets in Washington
are tight, but our commitment to Israel’s security remains ironclad. The United
States is committed to providing more than $3 billion each year to help finance
Israel’s security through 2018.”
Not one dollar for Detroit, but billions for Israel. And what about Palestine’s right to security and peace, which is certainly in far more peril than Israel’s? One need not be an expert on the Middle East to understand Palestinians live in a land prison, surrounded and occupied by Israel. Electricity, water and healthcare essentials are controlled by their oppressor. Indeed, Palestinians are a people without a country, simply fighting to survive.
The same can be said for the indiscriminate missiles Israel
launches into Gaza: the bombing of a
Mosque, countless homes destroyed, hundreds injured, nearly two
hundred killed – many of whom have been children. And what for?
How many deaths will it take for Israel to stop its bombardment? How many lost
lives before Obama tells Israel to stop its assault? Perhaps more importantly,
when will the American people say ‘enough is enough’? Sure, Obama has offered
up the United States to broker a cease-fire, but how can a true cease-fire be
brokered when the mediator supports the military of one side over the civilians
of another?
It’s all a farce of course. Obama doesn’t really care to see
the violence end – if he did he would pay more than lip-service to Palestinian
statehood and support the matter when it counts – on the global stage in
front of the UN.
We live in a sad and desperate time in the United States,
yet fair-minded folks, many who oppose Israeli and U.S. aggression, refuse to
break from the strangle of the Democratic Party because Republicans are more
blatant in their repulsiveness. It is this cowardly embrace that lets Democrats
off the hook (next up Hillary Clinton) and allows Israel to operate and
murder with impunity.
— Joshua Frank is managing editor of CounterPunch. He
is author of “Left Out! How
Liberals Helped Reelect George W. Bush." (Common Courage Press,
2005), and along with Jeffrey St. Clair, the editor of “Red State
Rebels: Tales of Grassroots Resistance in the Heartland,” and “Hopeless:
Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion,” both published by
AK Press. He can be reached at brickburner@gmail.com.
———————
5. WHITE HOUSE BACKS ILLEGAL GAZA WAR
By the Activist
Newsletter (sources below)
While the rest of the international community is aghast at
the deaths of some 200 Palestinians, the White House
is cheering the ongoing conflict, saying Israel’s killing of
large numbers of civilians is not “disproportionate” to the one Israeli killed
in the fighting in Gaza.
With the UN and other international groups pushing for a
settlement of the conflict, the Obama Administration maintains Israel has every
right to continue attacking the long oppressed tiny strip of ancient land called Gaza,
According to an article in The Hill July 14: “The White
House said there was no evidence Israel is acting disproportionately as it
carries out airstrikes in the Gaza Strip despite criticism over civilian
casualties. Israel has launched military operations allegedly to stem Hamas rocket
attacks. ‘No country can accept rocket fire aimed at civilians, and that's the
reason that we support Israel's right to defend itself,’ White House press
secretary Josh Earnest said Monday.”
The U.S. perspective hasn’t changed an iota since the 2012
onslaught against Gaza's Palestinian population. At the time President Obama declared, “No country on Earth would tolerate missiles
raining down on its citizens from outside its borders” — as though these mainly symbolic weapons
In an echo of Israeli officials, Obama sought to frame Israel's
aerial missile strikes against the 139-square mile Gaza Strip as the just use
of armed force against a foreign country. Israel's ability to frame its assault
against territory it occupies as a right of self-defense turns international
law on its head.
An article in Jadaliyya has pointed out, however, "A state cannot simultaneously exercise control over
territory it occupies and militarily attack that territory on the claim that it
is 'foreign' and poses an exogenous national security threat. In doing
precisely that, Israel is asserting rights that may be consistent with colonial
domination but simply do not exist under international law.
"Admittedly, the enforceability of international law largely
depends on voluntary state consent and compliance. Absent the political will to
make state behavior comport with the law, violations are the norm rather than
the exception. Nevertheless, examining what international law says with regard
to an occupant’s right to use force is worthwhile in light of Israel's
deliberate attempts since 1967 to reinterpret and transform the laws applicable
to occupied territory.
"These efforts have expanded significantly since the eruption
of the Palestinian uprising in 2000, and if successful, Israel’s
reinterpretation would cast the law as an instrument that protects colonial
authority at the expense of the rights of civilian non-combatants."
— This information is based on reports in Jadaliyya, The
Hill, and Antiwar.com.
———————
6. GAZA BOMBING PROTEST IN UPSTATE NEW YORK
By the Activist
Newsletter
Nearly 60 pro-Palestine activists demonstrated in Woodstock,
N.Y., July 13 against the Israeli bombing of Gaza and the occupation of
Palestinian territories. Sponsors of the action were Middle East Crisis
Response (MECR) and Hudson Valley BDS. The Activist Newsletter is in solidarity
with these two local groups.
 |
| Woodstock protest, July 13. (Photo Donna Goodman) |
The Woodstock demonstration took place at the Village Green
— a busy center of this bustling tourist town in the Mid-Hudson Valley. Protesters
held such signs as “Free Gaza,” “ Stop Genocide in Gaza,” and “End U.S. Aid to
Israel” —handing out leaflets to passersby. The public response was positive,
reflecting a growth in support for the Palestinian cause in this
community.
Village Green is also opposite the town's single bus stop,
and people waiting for buses joined the line for the duration of their wait.
One woman who was headed to an event to break the Ramadan fast, spotted the
vigil and quickly joined with her children. The occasional vulgar gestures and
charges of "anti-Semite" were greatly outnumbered by peace signs,
thumbs-up gestures and shouts of "thank you."
————————
7. MORE PROTESTS SET IN THE MID-HUDSON REGION
Sponsored by the Middle East Crisis Response.
Information, http://www.mideastcrisis.org,
(845) 876-7906.
Wednesday, July 16, WOODSTOCK: Vigil to End the Genocide in
Gaza will be held from 5:30-6:30 p.m. at the Village Green in Woodstock. This
is a call to all residents of the Hudson Valley to stand in opposition to the U.S.
involvement in the slaughter of Palestinian civilians. No more funding the
Israeli war machine. No more protection of Israel in the UN.
Sunday, July 20, RHINEBECK: Vigil to End the Genocide in
Gaza will beheld from 11 a.m.–12 noon in front of the CVS in Rhinebeck
—————————
