The American Indian Movement and the Free Palestine Movement announced that Bill “Jimbo” Simmons will be a member of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla Delegation.

Tony Gonzales of AIM-WEST in San Francisco said Sunday that Simmons, Choctaw, joins the flotilla in solidarity to break the blockade.

“AIM representative Jimbo Simmons, in solidarity with the Palestine Freedom Movement, is among the Gaza Flotilla delegates heading off in an effort to break the blockade,” Gonzales said.

“Watch this action unfold as AIM enters international waters bringing peace and extending its hand in friendship. Our prayers go out with the flotilla and with our brother Bill ‘Jimbo’ Simmons.”

The Free Palestine Movement said that the American Indian Movement West (AIM-WEST) contains “a spirit of resistance to colonization, respect for traditional knowledge and self-determination, and a commitment to inter-tribalism.”

“Among the objectives of AIM-WEST is to raise awareness on issues that concern or impact upon Indians of the Americas on a daily basis,” the Free Palestine Movement said.

Those issues range from racism in sports and public schools, to protection of sacred sites, mining and water contamination, youth and the rights of the child, honor and respect for treaties and agreements, political prisoners, police brutality, immigration and militarization of the borders, climate change, and green economy conversion for sustainable futures.

AIM-WEST is also pressing for the implementation of the recent adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Free Palestine Movement said.

As the flotilla prepared to leave from Mediterranean ports this week, the US increased threats to halt the US boat and Greece officials intervened to stop the boat. Meanwhile, Israel warned international journalists that they could be banned from entering Israel for ten years and their equipment confiscated.

Late last week, the US State Department issued increasingly threatening statements to US passengers on the flotilla, ultimately threatening fines or imprisonment. Then, six Congressmen urged the State Department to ensure safe passage for US citizens. Finally, Greece officials intervened and said the US boat, the Audacity of Hope, was not seaworthy.

Late Saturday, passengers on the U.S. boat to Gaza asked Greek government officials to clarify their actions concerning the boat they are leasing. Greek officials said the boat was blocked because of an anonymous request of a private citizen concerning the seaworthiness of the ship.

However, US passengers asked whether a political decision has been made by the Greek government in response to U.S. and Israeli government pressure.

Passengers said they specifically want to know if the U.S. is using its leverage at the International Monetary Fund, over the implementation of an ongoing bailout of European banks with massive Greek debts, to compel the Greek government to block the U.S. Boat to Gaza from leaving Greece.

On the morning of June 23, the American passengers learned that a “private complaint” had been filed against the U.S. Boat to Gaza. On June 25 a police order declared that until the complaint is resolved the boat will not be permitted to leave, according to the passengers statement.

Ann Wright, retired colonel and voice against the war in Iraq and US torture, is a passenger, along with author Alice Walker. Passengers include Tucson border activist Gabriel Schivone, 27, member of the humanitarian border group No More Deaths; Hedy Epstein, an 86-year-old Holocaust survivor, and Medea Benjamin of Code Pink.

Wright, a former US Ambassador, resigned from the State Department in 2003 to protest the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

On Saturday, Wright said, “We have a right to protest the blockade of Gaza.”

“To its credit, the Greek government, like the Red Cross, Amnesty International, and Oxfam, agrees with us that the blockade on Gaza must be lifted. But for years, the only effective international action to challenge the illegal blockade has been freedom flotillas.

“We call upon the Greek government, which agrees that our cause is just, not to stand in the way of our peaceful protest in pursuit of our shared goal of lifting the blockade. The boat we are leasing for this journey, after its refitting for the voyage to Gaza, was surveyed by a professional surveyor and successfully completed its sea trials.

“There is no reason for any further delays on this matter, we are ready to sail.”

Six Congressmen wrote Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urging safe passage.

“A year ago, Israel took military action against the ‘Gaza flotilla’ in international waters, which resulted in the deaths of nine civilians, including one American citizen. In addition, ten Israeli commandos and more than 20 passengers were injured in this tragic incident. In order to avoid another confrontation this year, we urge all parties to practice maximum restraint and avoid violence.

“We wholeheartedly support Israel’s right, and indeed its duty, to protect its citizens from security threats. The measures it uses to do so, as in the case with any other nation, must conform to international humanitarian and human rights law. We are encouraged that The Audacity of Hope organizers have stated that their cargo ‘is open to international inspection’ and that they ‘are fully committed to nonviolence and the tenets of international law.’”

The six Congressmen were:  Representative Dennis Kucinich, OH-10; Representative William Lacy Clay, MO-1; Representative Sam Farr, CA-17; Representative Bob Filner, CA-51; Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC) and Representative Barbara Lee CA-9.

The passengers of The Audacity of Hope are: Nic Abramson, Johnny Barber, Medea Benjamin, Greta Berlin, Hagit Borer, Regina Carey, Gale Courey Toensing, Erin DeRamus, Linda Durham, Debra Ellis, Hedy Epstein, Steve Fake, Ridgely Fuller, Megan Horan,Kathy Kelly, Kit Kittredge, Libor Koznar, Melissa Lane, G. Kaleo Larson, Richard Levy, Richard Lopez, Ken Mayers, Ray McGovern, Gail Miller, Carol Murry, Robert Naiman, Henry Norr, Ann Petter, Gabe Schivone, Kathy Sheetz, Max Suchan, Brad Taylor, Len Tsou, Alice Walker, Paki Wieland and Ann Wright.

By Brenda Norrell

Watch for updates at Censored News:

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

“If the aim of the blockade policy was to weaken the Hamas administration, the public employment numbers suggest this has failed,” a UNRWA spokesman said Tuesday as the UN marks Gaza’s fifth year under intense Israeli siege.

Commenting on a report released by the UN agency charged with providing care and services for the one million refugees living in the Gaza Strip, on the fifth anniversary of the siege, spokesman Chris Gunness added “it has certainly been highly successful in punishing some of the poorest of the poor in the Middle East region.”

According to UNRWA, wages in Gaza fell 34.5 per cent since the first half of 2006, while unemployment reached 45.2 percent in the second half of 2010.

“These are disturbing trends,” Gunness said, “and the refugees, which make up two thirds of Gaza’s 1.5 million population were the worst hit in the period covered in this report. It is hard to understand the logic of a man-made policy which deliberately impoverishes so many and condemns hundreds of thousands of potentially productive people to a life of destitution.”

On 14 June 2006, militants in the Gaza Strip captured an Israeli soldier patrolling its border. In retaliation for the capture of a soldier, Israeli forces entered the West Bank and abducted eight Hamas ministers and 21 party lawmakers from their homes and offices. Imports and exports into and out of Gaza were scaled down to a fraction of normal levels in an attempt to pressure the ruling party Hamas to return the soldier.

Hamas, negotiating on behalf of the factions which captured the soldier, are demanding the release of 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in return for his release.

Israel tightened the siege, restricting access to coastal fishing waters in October 2006, reducing the fishing limit from 20 nautical miles down to six. Then following Israel’s offensive on Gaza in the winter of 2008-9, the fishing limit was reduced to three nautical miles, effectively quashing the industry.

Imports between 2006-2010 were restricted to a short list of goods, with reports suggesting calculations had been made to import only the minimum necessary food supplies to sustain the population. After an international aid flotilla sailed to Gaza in June 2010 and Israeli commandos shot and killed nine of the activists on board, world outcry against the siege prompted a slight easing, with more commercial goods permitted in.

Prohibitions on industrial goods and building materials remain, however, making reconstruction of the 6,000 homes destroyed during Israel’s winter offensive impossible without intervention from international agencies.

Israel says materials used in construction of homes could be used to manufacture weapons.

A massive tunnel import industry grew in the southern Gaza Strip after the blockade was imposed, allowing building materials, cars foodstuffs and weapons to be brought into Gaza. The goods are too expensive for most Palestinians in the Strip to afford.

Exports of goods and produce from Gaza have effectively been stopped, with only a few hundred loads of strawberries and carnations having been exported to Europe under a Dutch government program since the imposition of the siege.

During the past five years, UNRWA noted in its report, that the private sector had been hit particularly hard in comparison with the public sector. While private businesses were forced to cut nearly 8,000 jobs in the second half of 2010, the Hamas dominated public sector grew by nearly three percent over the same period.

“Our research indicates that since 2007, Hamas has been able to increase public employment by at least one-fifth,” said Gunness. “Even more striking, in what should have been a relatively good year for the Gaza private sector with the supposed easing of the blockade, the public sector generated 70% of all net job growth as between second-half 2009 and second-half 2010.”

UNRWA has stated that it will continue to operate in the health and education sectors in Gaza, with some 213,000 children currently attending UNRWA run schools. However, the report stated that since the start of the blockade, the number of people living on less than one dollar a day has tripled to nearly 300,000 since the blockade was imposed.

“With many reconstruction projects still awaiting approval, the future looks bleak” Gunness said.

Ma’an

by Joe Catron, Gaza.

On a warm, sunny afternoon, I met Eman Sourani and Rana Baker in an airy outdoor café several blocks from the port of Gaza. Both are members of the Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel (PSCABI). Sourani, a 22-year-old English literature student at Al-Aqsa University, co-founded the group after Operation Cast Lead in January 2009, while Baker, a 19-year-old blogger and a business administration student at the Islamic University of Gaza, joined it during Israeli Apartheid Week, a global event in March 2011.

PSCABI is the student arm of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), itself part of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) National Committee. Since its July 2005 founding by Palestinian organizations from Israel, the occupied Palestinian territories, and the diaspora, BDS has grown into a formidable global movement with an impressive record of victories.

In the last month alone, the University and College Union (UCU) and the University of London Union (ULU), respectively the largest academic labor union in the United Kingdom and the largest student union in Europe, voted to support it and sever their ties with Israeli institutions;  UK Prime Minister David Cameron quietly resigned his post as Honorary Chairman of the Jewish National Fund, implicated in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian lands; students at the United States’ DePaul University voted by a nearly 80% margin (although without reaching the necessary quorum) to remove Sabra hummus, linked to the Israeli military, from their campus; the French-Belgian bank Dexia announced the impending sale of its Israeli subsidiary, “even at a loss;” and musicians Andy McKee and Marc Almond cancelled appearances in Israel.

Although not all acknowledged the role of the campaign in their decisions, each was a target of it. Meanwhile, battles rage against the US pension fund TIAA-CREF; Israeli national institutions like the Histadrut and State of Israel Bonds; the Israeli produce exporter Carmel Agrexco; the French construction firms Alstom and Derail Veolia; the beauty suppliers Ahava, Estee Lauder, L’Oréal, and Seacret Dead Sea; and dozens of other institutions complicit in Israeli crimes, as well as performers like Paul Simon  and Jello Biafra, who plan to violate the cultural boycott by playing Tel Aviv.

“Even some South Africans like Desmond Tutu have said that what they did in thirty years, the Palestinians did in three,” Sourani told me over tea. “The boycott is a lesson of the success of the South Africans. And why not? Nothing is impossible. When people hear that Palestinians are doing something like this, that we are taking action, they believe in the idea and the issue much more.”

Baker agreed with her about the importance of South Africa. “We like to address apartheid,” she said. “We like to use this word, because it really emphasizes what is happening. Of course we have the apartheid wall. We have the checkpoints like they had in South Africa. What does an apartheid wall represent but apartheid? What else do checkpoints represent?”

“We think that BDS is a very effective way to resist Israel,” Baker continued. “Why? Because the pillars of BDS represents all Palestinians. The core issues of the Palestinian cause are the right to return, the ending of the occupation, and equality between Palestinians and Jews within the Israeli state or borders. So we think that being a real Palestinian-led movement that represents all Palestinians is very important. And this makes it able to grow, makes it able to expand within each and every cause. It represents every Palestinian in Gaza, in the West Bank, in Israel, and in the diáspora. BDS is established on those pillars. And the most important pillar, in my opinion, is the right to return. This movement, the march of return, is also a powerful campaign to make people understand that we have not forgotten our right to return. When Ben-Gurion said that old would die and the young forget, he was totally mistaken! Of course the old will die, but they have children, they have grandchildren, and we will never forget. We are Palestinian.”

”We have Palestinian identity, and Palestinian identity is a great responsibility,” Sourani added. “So we have to act. We have to fight Zionism. We have to be aware of what is going on, because being aware means that we are alive. It gives meaning to our lives. I myself give the definition that life is politics here in Gaza. It is all of what we live.”

How does PSCABI fight Zionism, I asked? “We as youth and students address youth and students about the academic boycott, and connect it with the cultural boycott,” Sourani answered. “We make videos to send to universities and have video conferences with them. We just tell people that we are here. You should know about Gaza, and you should know about Israel and the reality of its apartheid. Some of our biggest successes are the University of Johannesburg boycotting Ben Gurion University, or the biggest student union in London refusing to deal with Israel.”

“We also write letters to celebrities who are going to perform in Israel, asking them not to entertain apartheid, and we are actually succeeding in this,” said Baker. “Many, many of them have been stopped from performing in Israel, and some actually became BDS advocates.”

How do they work with BDS activists elsewhere? “I think is important that we talk with them, that we have a discussion about BDS here and BDS there,” said Baker.” We want to see what they do there and learn from them, and they might also see what we do and learn from us. So we can share our experiences in BDS, our stories, and they can use our stories and spread them out to gain more support for BDS.”

“The young Palestinians nowadays are very creative, in writing, blogging, video making; many, many things,” said Sourani. “I am very proud of my generation. They are so creative, really. I meet and talk to anyone who does anything: maybe blogging, a site, a Facebook account, a Twitter. Youth everywhere are doing fantastic things. They just need to be linked with Palestinians ourselves.”

“We want more links with people outside,” said Baker. “We want more actions and more communication. The more you communicate with people, the more the idea becomes big and it grows. And BDS is growing. Citizens, and students, and young, and old, are engaging themselves in BDS, outside and inside and everywhere. It is actually, in its core, a popular struggle, and it is civil resistance.”

What do they ask of outsiders? “The important thing is that they take action,” Sourani replied. “This is what we are looking for. We don’t look for passion, we don’t look for tears, we don’t look for romantic speech. We just look for actions. Whatever small action you can take is something beautiful. This is the basis of BDS, that we don’t wait for talk.”

“Let’s mention here the the recent action taken by people in the United States diring the AIPAC speech,” said Baker. “I think this was really effective, when young students stood up and spoke out for Palestine, students who had no relation to Palestinian identity, except that they understood the issue, they understood what is right and what is wrong, and they took action. Even if they knew that they might be harmed, or might get fired from somewhere. We think that this is really important, and this is a success for BDS.”

“An important thing we do at the end of every video conference is to give them a request: Come to Gaza,” said Sourani. “People will not act before understanding. You can come, live with us, and see how students can’t get get books, how students can’t get scholarships abroad, how students would die to go, but have nightmares about Rafah Border before going to London, for example. We can’t go to places in our own country! We can’t study, for example, in Bethlehem, in Ramallah, in Najah University. I actually was planning for that, but of course it is imposible.

“This is about human rights and international law, how the world Works,” she added. “As you live there peacefully, Palestinians have the right to live. The rights your students have to move, to learn, to travel everywhere, to get scholarships, we also need. So we need people to understand, to study the issue, and to act. This is what we are doing.”

And other Palestinians? “I want all Palestinians, not only us in BDS, to engage in boycotting Israel,” Baker replied. “I want all of them to become politically aware. And this is also something we work on in BDS. We don’t just discuss BDS in the meetings of our core group. We talk about it in our universities. We invite people to our events. In the future, we really hope that each and every Palestinian becomes aware of BDS, and implements BDS so that it becomes a part of his or her life.

“We also like to participate in events that are held worldwide, like Israeli Apartheid Week,” she said. “We had one here this year, and it was really successful. We try talk to many academics and important activists, like Ilan Pappé and Ramzy Baroud. It’s really good how many people here want to know about BDS. They really want to listen.”

“The amazing thing about PSCABI is that all the political blocs here support it and agree on the academic boycott,” added Sourani.

What else, I asked in closing? “We want people to know that we’re not dying of hunger,” said Baker. “We’re not begging. We’re not shedding tears. We’re taking action on our own behalf. We’re trying to raise awareness, to link people, to make them understand and make them more involved in independent political groups that are peacefully resisting Israel and the occupation.”

“BDS is a Palestinian voice,” said Sourani. “This is what people need to hear, to listen to everywhere. We refuse occupation. I’m proud of doing this work. I’m a Palestinian; I’m not silent. That is the idea.

“I don’t want peace before justice. I’m looking for justice. And justice means the end of apartheid, the end of racism, and the end of occupation. So I need justice first, and then, when we are all equal people, we will look for peace.”

Joe Catron is a resident of Brooklyn, New York and a current member of the International Solidarity Movement – Gaza Strip. He writes in a personal capacity.

Foreign Ministry documents outline instructions to envoys to thwart international recognition of Palestinian state.

Israel has started mobilizing its embassies for the battle against UN recognition of a Palestinian state in September, ordering its diplomats to convey that this would delegitimize Israel and foil any chance for future peace talks.

Envoys are being asked to lobby the highest possible officials in their countries of service, muster support from local Jewish communities, ply the media with articles arguing against recognition and even ask for a call or quick visit from a top Israeli official if they think it would help.

	Director of the Middle East Department of the Foreign Ministry Yaakov Hadas.
	Photo by: Tomer Appelbaum / Baubau

Foreign Ministry Director General Rafael Barak and the heads of various ministry departments sent out classified cables outlining the battle plan to the embassies over the past week, after earlier ordering all the country’s diplomats to cancel any vacations planned for September. The contents of the cables reached Haaretz and are reported here in full.

“The goal we have set is to have the maximum number of countries oppose the process of having the UN recognize a Palestinian state,” Barak wrote to Israel’s ambassadors in his cable, which was sent June 2. “The Palestinian effort must be referred to as a process that erodes the legitimacy of the State of Israel…

“The primary argument is that by pursuing this process in the UN, the Palestinians are trying to achieve their aims in a manner other than negotiations with Israel, and this violates the principle that the only route to resolving the conflict is through bilateral negotiations.”

Each envoy was ordered to prepared a focused plan for the country in which he or she serves and present it to the Foreign Ministry by today, June 10.

“The goal is to get the country in which you serve to vote against recognizing a Palestinian state,” Barak wrote. “Your plan must include approaching the most senior politicians, mobilizing the relevant force multipliers [such as local Jewish communities, nongovernmental organizations], using the media, influencing local public opinion, and public diplomacy aimed at all the relevant communities.”

Barak also informed the emissaries that the ministry had established a “September Forum” headed by the director of its Middle East Department, Yaakov Hadas.

“This team is analyzing possible Palestinian moves and the options open to Israel to foil the process, and is putting together a diplomatic, public diplomacy and media plan,” Barak wrote. “You are to report on your activities to the September Forum once a week.”

“The mission that has been assigned to us is not an easy one,” the cable concluded. “But I’m sure that by joining forces, we will do the best we can to achieve the goal we’ve set for ourselves.”

A Foreign Ministry source said the directive issued to ambassadors by both Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and the ministry director general is not to give up on any country in advance, and to work to obtain a hearing with the highest possible officials in each country.

This past Sunday, June 5, the head of the ministry’s Western Europe department, Naor Gilon, sent a follow-up cable to embassies in all European Union countries. A similar cable was sent by the head of the Eurasia Department, Pinhas Avivi, to representatives in the EU countries of eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

In his cable, Gilon asked the ambassadors to prepare plans “that will lead the country in which you serve to oppose or abstain during a UN vote.” It divided the EU countries into three groups:

* Countries that have already voiced objections to unilateral Palestinian action. A Foreign Ministry source put Germany and Italy in this category.

* Countries whose stance is unclear, particularly members of the former Eastern Bloc that had recognized a Palestinian state back in 1988. These include the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. In two weeks, Lieberman and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are planning to make separate trips to these countries in an effort to persuade them to vote against a Palestinian state.

* Countries that tend to automatically side with the Palestinians and are expected to support a Palestinian state, among them Sweden, Ireland, Belgium and Portugal.

Gilon wrote that the Foreign Ministry believes the 27 EU members “will have difficulty reaching a consensus decision on recognizing a Palestinian state, as happened with regard to [recognizing] Kosovo. Even so, it’s clear that the EU bureaucracy in Brussels will try to enter into a dialogue with the Palestinians in an effort to moderate the [UN] resolution so that EU members could support it.

“Everyone knows where the country he serves in stands,” Gilon wrote. “Our goal is to create momentum against recognition of a Palestinian state in September by creating a significant bloc of EU states that voice their opposition as early as possible to unilateral Palestinian action.” Another goal is to try to persuade those countries which have already said they will vote in favor of the Palestinian move to refrain from publicly stating their position.

Gilon tasked the ambassadors with trying to spur as many politicians and opinion-makers as possible to either make public declarations or issue statements opposing unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. He also instructed them to generate negative media reports and op-eds objecting to the Palestinian moves.

The ambassadors were asked to inform the September Forum of any requests they receive from their respective countries’ leaders to speak by phone with President Shimon Peres, Netanyahu or Lieberman, and to indicate whether a diplomatic visit by senior Israeli officials before September might be helpful in persuading top officials in the countries where they serve.

But one senior Foreign Ministry official said that regardless of what efforts are made, only a few countries will vote against recognizing a Palestinian state in a General Assembly vote, including the United States, Canada and a few European countries. The ministry’s assessment is that most Asian, African and South American countries will vote in favor.

Haaretz

UN chief Ban Ki-moon called Friday “on all governments” in the region to use to their influence to push against a new flotilla of ships expected to try to break the blockade on Gaza.

The secretary general was said to be “following with concern media reports of potential flotillas to Gaza,” said his spokesman Martin Nesirky.

Some 1,500 activists are expected to take part in the convoy that will embark at the end of June, seeking to break the blockade of the Gaza Strip, a year after a deadly Israeli raid on a similar fleet.

Ban “called on all governments concerned to use their influence to discourage such flotilla, which carry the potential to escalate into violent conflict.”

The UN chief also called on “all governments, including the government of Israel, to act responsibly and with caution to avoid any violent incident.”

On May 31 last year, Israeli marines swarmed aboard the Mavi Marmara, the flagship of an international aid flotilla bound for Gaza, killing nine Turkish activists in international waters and plunging relations with Ankara into deep crisis.

Ma’an

The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, stated Friday that he has resigned his position as an Honorary Patron of the Jewish National Fund (JNF), the body which owns 90% of the land in present-day Israel.

Cameron is the latest of a string of high-profile political figures to abandon the JNF, a trend which has been cheered by the international movement to Boycott, Divest and Sanction Israel for what the movement calls apartheid policies by Israel.

In England, all three major political parties have had high-level politicians serving as patrons of the Jewish National Fund, whose stated mission is to ‘develop and settle the land of Israel’. Now, all three have dropped out, indicating a change in attitude toward the Jewish National Fund at the highest levels of British politics.

According to Dick Pitt, a spokesperson for the Stop the JNF Campaign, “Cameron was the only leader of the three major parties remaining as a JNF Patron. This decline in political support for the JNF at the highest levels of the political tree may be a sign of the increasing awareness in official quarters that a robust defense of the activities of the JNF may not be sustainable.”

The news of Cameron’s move has reached Palestinians in refugee camps, people whose land is under the control of the JNF. Salah Ajarma in Bethlehem’s Aida Refugee Camp was “delighted to hear the news that the British Prime Minister has decided to withdraw his support for this sinister organisation involved in ethnic cleansing. My village, Ajjur, was taken by force from my family and given to the JNF who used money from JNF UK to plant the British Park on its ruins. For the Palestinians who were evicted from their villages and have been prevented from returning, Cameron’s withdrawal is another victory on the road to achieving justice and freedom for the Palestinians”.

The JNF considers itself to be a pioneer of the “historic Zionist dream”. The registered charity claims their work, especially in the Negev region of Israel, deals with “the rising demographic challenges faced by Israel”. In recent months the JNF’s activities in the Negev have received extensive international media coverage, linking them to the demolition of Palestinian Bedouin villages and confiscation of the land of the village.

Campaigners report that “even Israeli courts have criticized the JNF as an organization that discriminates against non-Jews and there is mounting evidence of the JNF’s involvement in Israel’s program to change the ethnic composition of areas inside 1948 Israel as well as in Jerusalem and the Occupied Territories. It is not acceptable that such an organization is allowed to operate in the UK, much less to enjoy charity status”.

Michael Kalmanovitz, UK co-ordinator of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, said “Cameron’s patronage of the JNF lent parliamentary credibility to a criminal organisation backed by a highly-equipped occupying army and masquerading as a ‘humanitarian charity’. Now parliamentarians who are ‘Friends of Israel’ must consider how much longer they can defend Israeli apartheid and worse.“

SOME 20 leading Israeli leftists have signed a petition urging European leaders to support Palestinian statehood at the United Nations.

The petition, delivered yesterday to European ambassadors based in Israel, said UN endorsement of Palestinian statehood would not harm Israeli interests. “Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech in Washington and the sweeping support he received from the US Congress shows that the peace process has reached its end,” the statement said, stressing that Israel has a choice between recognising a Palestinian state or a renewed wave of violence.

Among those signing the petition were the former speaker of the Knesset parliament, Avraham Burg, former foreign ministry director general Alon Liel, a Nobel laureate, writers and academics.

Mr Liel said he was worried about Israel becoming an apartheid state if the diplomatic stalemate continued. “I think that if there is no vote in September on recognising a Palestinian state, we shall find ourselves sliding even more rapidly into the slippery slope of a shared state, which I view as a true catastrophe.”

The signatories argued that given the mutual suspicions between the sides and current foot-dragging, a Palestinian declaration of independence was not just a right, but also a positive, constructive step.

The petitioners said that, as Israeli citizens, they will support a Palestinian declaration of statehood based on the 1967 lines, with agreed land swaps. The petition also called for Gaza , which is controlled by Hamas, to be included as part of a future Palestinian state as long as it is ruled by a Palestinian leadership that recognises Israel’s existence.

The petition followed weekend surveys in the Israeli newspapers that showed solid support for Mr Netanyahu’s hawkish speech to Congress, and a 13 per cent rise in his popularity compared to recent polls taken before his trip to the US.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said Palestinians are not seeking to isolate Israel on the international stage, but will pursue their unilateral drive for UN recognition of statehood unless peace talks resume. “We do not want to isolate Israel or to delegitimise it. On the contrary, we want to co-exist with it,” he said.

Speaking in Doha ahead of today’s meeting of Arab leaders to discuss the diplomatic deadlock, Mr Abbas said negotiations remained the best option as far as the Palestinians were concerned.

“We will review the steps we will take – persisting with negotiations as the fundamental way to achieving a resolution,” he said. “If we fail in reaching this solution, then we confirm that we will go to the United Nations.”

The Palestinians are expected to ask the UN general assembly in September to endorse an independent state, even without signing a peace agreement with Israel. It is expected a large majority of UN member states would vote in favour of such a resolution. Both Mr Netanyahu and US president Barack Obama have criticised such a move, arguing that bilateral negotiations are the only way to end the impasse.

The Irish Times

Several lawyers and legal experts have announced that they will file the lawsuits on behalf of the families of those who were wounded or killed by Israeli gunfire.

In Lebanon, at least 10 people were killed and some 30 injured during protests on Nakbah Day marking the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland Palestine by Israel.

The Israeli forces on the “Blue line”, the withdrawal line of the Israeli army in the year 2000, fired at the protesters who marched towards the bordering fence which is still not an internationally recognized border.

Legal experts say that they have enough judicial evidences for a case, and the victims have decided to go all the way. Mohammad is one of those Palestinian refugees who were protesting near the border. He said, he would stop at nothing to return back.

Many western activists who took part in the Nakba protests blamed the western powers’ support for Israel. They say this support is allowing Israel to continue with such aggressive behavior.

Over 14 Palestinians were killed during the protests to mark the 63th anniversary of Nakbah Day in Lebanon and Syria.

The lawsuits which will be filed by the victims against Israel will not be the first, and although many of the victims fear that their rights will not be achieved only through the judicial system, they do believe that this will add to Israel’s disrepute of constantly violating human rights.

Press TV

Israel’s navy fired on fishing boats late Thursday, injuring three Palestinians, medics said.

The fishermen were transferred to Ash-Shifa hospital for treatment of moderate injuries, medical official Adham Abu Silmiya said.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said the army had no record of such an event.

Fishermen in Gaza are calling for protection after four years of siege.

At a sit-in Thursday in Gaza’s port, a group of fishermen rejected Israel’s blockade policy, which for four years has limited their ships to the near coast at risk of being fired upon.

The sea off Gaza has been mostly off limits since June 2006 when Israel imposed a tight blockade on the territory after militants there snatched Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who is still being held.

The blockade was tightened a year later when the Islamist Hamas movement seized control of the territory, ousting forces loyal to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.

Israel took steps to ease the measure last summer following a wave of international pressure after its troops staged a botched raid on an aid flotilla which was trying to break the embargo, killing nine Turkish activists.

On Thursday, fishermen appealed to the UN and human rights organizations to end the naval siege and pressure Israel to increase the area of fishing as well as “bring Israel into account for its crimes.”

Mohammad Al-Hisi, one of the fishermen, told Ma’an that “the occupation’s forces destroyed my small boat, which I depend on for my livelihood. And no one cares. I just want my livelihood.”

The fishermen say they want international protection against Israeli attacks at sea.

Mustafa Al-Jarbu, another protester, explained that the sit-in was in protest of the “vicious acts” carried out by the Israeli army against fishermen, which have injured hundreds and killed dozens.

Ma’an

Gaza fishermen have asked the international community to intervene to lift the maritime siege imposed upon them by the Israeli government, reduce restrictions on their operations, and provide them with international protection.

Tens of fishermen organized a sit-in in the port of Gaza and chanted for an end to piracy and shooting by the Israeli navy.

Fisherman Mohammed Bakr, speaking on behalf of other fishermen, said the international community needs to force Israel to open up more maritime territory. He added that what is hurting them is the ongoing sea blockade that prohibits them from travelling more than three miles from shore, and being chased by occupation forces.

He said that fishermen suffer financially, and due to the severe violations they are subjected to by Israeli occupation forces they no longer feel safe going out to work.

Gabr added that the situation at sea is so bad that it is impossible to imagine what is taking place there. The moment they pass the three-mile perimeter, says Gabr, the Israelis open fire.

He asked that international security be provided while they are fishing and that Arab countries support the fishermen against Israel’s violations.

The Israeli navy imposes a naval security ring around Palestinian fishermen. Its naval boats attack Palestinian fishing boats that pass the limit on a daily basis, wounding tens of fishermen and damaging their vessels.