Smile Don't Frown

Joan Humphries, whose grandson Kevin Elliot was killed in Afghanistan in August last year, spoke at a public meeting in Worcester on Monday night (28^th June). Joan said that 100,000 Afghan civilians have died as a result of the war, 60,000 of whom were women and children, There have been 7,000 coalition forces deaths.

At the inquest into her grandson’s death Joan was told that the person who killed Kevin ought to be charged with murder. She asked the question, “How can someone who’s defending their country be accused of murder?”, and made the comparison with French Resistance fighters killing Nazis invaders.

Joan spoke of the “export of western terrorism to the second poorest country in the world” and said, “I lay the blame for the death of my grandson at the floor of the present and past US and UK governments.” She said that the war “is nothing to do with protecting British citizens…It is about capitalism and imperialism”. Joan concluded by saying that “getting the troops out is the best way to support them”.

Here is a video of Joan speaking at an anti-war rally in Trafalgar Square:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emKhD7ngQgA

So I’m still wound up about Alastair ‘what depleted uranium?’ Campbell doing his charity thing earlier, when I watch a piece on District Six following the Brazil v Ivory Coast game. [1]

Somewhat surreally, Gary Lineker wonders aloud, “How could civilized people do this?” I want to scream “Palestine!” at the telly. Archbishop Desmond Tutu has accused Israel of practising apartheid in its policies towards Palestinians and said after visiting Israel that “it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa”. [2]

But sadly this link wasn’t made by the compassionate footballers. And while the BBC are happy to let Alastair Campbell help raise money for Leukaemia and Lymphoma sufferers, they’re not so happy to let the DEC broadcast a campaign for victims of what Desmond Tutu called “war crimes” in Gaza. [3]

A few days ago Jonathan Marcus of the BBC instructed me to feel “very proud” of the BBC for its coverage of the Israeli attack on the Gaza aid flotilla. Very proud of the BBC? Give me strength…

[1] http://www.southafrica.info/about/history/districtsix.htm

[2] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/1957644.stm

[3] http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/news/press_releases/2009/february/dec_gaza_decision.shtml

So I’m aimlessly flicking through the channels, waiting for the Brazil game, when I see Alastair Campbell fronting a charity campaign. [1]  Campbell says:

“Every week the parents of ten children in the UK are told that their son or daughter has Leukaemia or Lymphoma – forms of blood cancer that can strike at any age.”

But Alastair, every week the parents of children in Iraq are told that their son or daughter has cancer because the US/UK military have continued to use depleted uranium weapons. [2]

Campbell goes on:

“This charity has spent millions of pounds on vital research that has transformed the lives of thousands of people.”

Alastair, the government has spent billions of pounds on war that has transformed the lives of thousands of people. [3]  Indeed, you said, “I think that Britain as a country should feel incredibly proud” of its part in the Iraq war. However, I think it’s difficult to feel proud of causing deformities in newborn babies. It’s difficult to feel proud of causing cancer. It’s difficult to feel sane when listening to Alastair Campbell ask me to donate money to help fight cancer when his lies led to the deaths of over a million people and the displacement of four million more. [4]

Campbell claims to stand by every word of the September 2002 ‘dodgy dossier’. I stand by my assertion that Campbell is a war criminal and I urge you to donate time and energy into calling for him to be put on trial for war crimes at The Hague. [5]

[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/charityappeals/programmes/lifeline/index.shtml

[2] http://www.thewe.cc/weplanet/news/depleted_uranium_iraq_afghanistan_balkans.html

[3] http://www.metro.co.uk/news/831818-cost-of-afghan-and-iraq-wars-20bn

[4] http://iraqdossier.com/

[5] http://www.the-hague.info/court/

70 people attended the Palestine Solidarity meeting in Worcester last night, which is the biggest turnout we’ve had since Moazzam Begg a couple of years ago.  

Ebrahim Musaji spoke about his experiences on board the Mavi Marmara on 31^st May when it was attacked by the Israeli military. He told the packed hall that the first person to be killed was a Turkish journalist standing ten metres from him. Ebrahim said that initially the Israelis “shot whoever was taking pictures or filming – they didn’t even board”. He took the body of the Turkish journalist to the middle of the deck, where other bodies were. Ebrahim said that a Turkish charity activist was shot even though he put up a white flag, as did other activists on the boat. A British man, originally from Palestine, was shot in the head, and has survived but with dreadful injuries.

Ebrahim said that the £3.5 million of aid on the ship was taken by the Israelis, as well as phones, laptops, recording equipment, passports and credit cards. He was taken to Israel and interrogated for an hour and told to “watch out for your life”. Ebrahim said that if you support the Palestine cause the Israeli military “will treat you just like they treat the Palestinians”.

Enass al-Bittar, a student at City University in London who grew up in Gaza, told the packed hall that her house was damaged by Israeli bombs that hit other houses nearby, then on another occasion it received a direct hit from an Israeli tank. She also spoke of her experiences at the Gaza-Egypt border, which she said opens once every two months for three days. She and others were kept at the border for two days before being told to return to Gaza. Enass said: “Hope is the only thing Israel can’t take away from us.”

In September a double aid convoy (by bus and boat) will travel to Gaza in another attempt to break the illegal Israeli blockade.

BBC News article on Ebrahim:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/8715373.stm

Flotilla raid Israeli myths debunked:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufZkZIrsKFU

www.freegaza.org
www.palestinecampaign.org

Meeting in Worcester tonight, at which Ebrahim Musaji will be speaking. Ebrahim was on board the Gaza aid flotilla. [1]  Also on board was the Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell (I must admit that I’d never heard of him until recently), who called a spade a spade:  “I think the Israeli military went out to commit murder”. [2] The Guardian pathetically referred to an ‘alleged attack’ despite also quoting Sarah Colborne, director of campaigns and operations at Palestine Solidarity Campaign: “There were bullets flying all over the place. We asked for the Israelis to stop the attacks…It was terrifying…If you talked they pointed a gun at you.” [3]

Not content with implying that the flotilla activists were to blame for being attacked, the BBC – or should I say Jonathan Marcus – wrote that “the deaths threaten to make what was always going to be a potential public relations disaster for Israel into a fully-fledged calamity”. [4] John Pilger wrote soon afterwards that “The BBC was so intimidated that it reported the atrocity primarily as a “potential public relations disaster for Israel”, the perspective of the killers, and a disgrace for journalism.” [5]  I wrote to Jonathan Marcus about his ‘bad PR’ report and he replied that he has ‘a responsibility to be as fair as I possibly can in what I write’. If I had a pound for every time I’d read that line from a BBC journalist I’d have enough to pay for a 10,000 tonne flotilla myself.

Last word goes to Sarah Colborne:
“We are hoping that the horrific deaths of the people will not be in vain. We are hoping this will act as a wake up call internationally…We can’t sit by and watch Israel violate international law every day. We want the British government to take action, ensure there is no future attacks on humanitarian aid convoys, to ensure there is a search carried out for those that remain missing, to ensure that those people who have been detained illegally will be released and most importantly to end the siege of Gaza.”
 

[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/8715373.stm

[2] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/03/gaza-flotilla-attack-henning-mankell

[3] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/03/british-survivor-gaza-flotilla

[4] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/10198737.stm

[5] http://www.johnpilger.com/page.asp?partid=578

Norman Finkelstein says, “I think everyone can agree that there’s no possibility, there’s no way to justify using armed force against what were clearly unarmed humanitarians trying to relieve an illegal siege of Gaza…” [1]

I wonder if he’s aware of Melanie ‘Mad Mel’ Phillips, who has called the Gaza aid flotilla an ‘Islamist terror ambush’ and an ‘armada of hate’? [2] Like Tzipi Livni during the Israeli bombardment of Gaza in Dec 2008 – Jan 2009, Phillips says “there is no starvation or humanitarian crisis” in Gaza. Here are some more gems from her latest Spectator blog entry:

“This flotilla was but the latest jihadi attack, deploying the Islamists’ signature strategy of violence and media manipulation.”

“The soldiers used non-lethal measures to disperse the crowd. The activists, according to an IDF report, succeeded in stealing two handguns from soldiers and opened fire, leading to an escalation in violence.”

“One IDF soldier had his weapon snatched away by one of the ‘peace activists’ on board, that this weapon was then turned against the IDF soldiers, who came under fire, and that they had no choice but to shoot back in self-defense.”

“It is also becoming clearer as the day wears on that, far from storming the boats in order to attack those on board, the Israelis were hopelessly ill-prepared for the violence they encountered. Israel’s Channel 10 and IDF radio have reported that the Israeli naval commandos were equipped with paint ball rifles to ensure minimum casualties among the flotilla terrorists, with their hand guns to be used only as a last resort….Only when the terrorists beat the soldiers with iron rods, stabbed them with knives and tried to lynch them did the soldiers respond. The Israeli commandoes were pushed down stairs, thrown overboard, and shot at.”

“Here is a report by an Israel army radio reporter on board: ‘The activists had many things ready for an attack on the soldiers,’ Lev-Rom said, ‘including, for instance, a box of 20-30 slingshots with metal balls; these can kill. There were also all sorts of knives and many similar things. These are what they call “cold” weapons…”

“The soldiers were told they were to verbally convince activists who offer resistance to give up, and only then use paintballs. They were permitted to use their handguns only under extreme circumstances.”

“At one point, the attackers nabbed one commando, wrested away his handgun, and threw him down from the top deck to the lower deck, 30 feet below. The soldier sustained a serious head wound and lost his consciousness.”

“Only after this injury did Flotilla 13 troops ask for permission to use live fire. The commander approved it: You can go ahead and fire.”

“If those media and governments refused to swallow the lies and instead called operations like this and the players behind it for what they actually are, such terrorist operations would not happen. The Islamist strategy of war against Israel is carefully calibrated to deploy the most effective weapon in its armoury in the cause of jihadi violence – the western media.”

Phillips bends over backwards to portray Israel as the victim –  so much so on this occasion that she almost breaks her spine (it’s only a matter of time, surely…) Phillips says that “the Israelis were hopelessly ill-prepared for the violence they encountered”, though Finkelstein disagrees:

“What happened with the Gaza flotilla was not an accident. You have to remember that the Israeli cabinet met for fully a week. All the cabinet ministers discussed and deliberated how they would handle the flotilla. There were numerous reports, numerous suggestions, numerous recommendations about what to do… (The Israeli government) decided on a night-time armed-commando raid on a humanitarian convoy. Israel is now a lunatic state. It’s a lunatic state with between 200 and 300 nuclear devices. It is threatening war daily against Iran and against Hezbollah in Lebanon…”

Even the Financial Times has said:

“Israel claims the activists had links with extremist groups and that some attacked Israeli soldiers with knives and sticks (and in some accounts the odd light firearm). Even if true, this would not justify the illegal capture of civilian ships carrying humanitarian aid in international waters, let alone the use of deadly force.” [3]  

I think everyone can agree that anyone who attempts to justify the murder of people trying to deliver aid to people who are starving is beyond contempt.

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB_CKL5h2_8&feature=player_embedded

[2] http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/6044639/peace-convoy-this-was-an-islamist-terror-ambush.thtml

[3] http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cab86fe0-6cde-11df-91c8-00144feab49a.html