THE EMPIRE OF "THE CITY" (World Superstate)

City of London + City of Vatican + City of columbia are the 3 independent states within states which composes the empire of the city. The first is financial control over earth economy, the second is religion control over the earth and the third one is military control over the earth. Together they make the very unholy trinity which forms the Egyptian pyramid that we can see on the back of the privately owned federal reserve note that is used as American dollar to maintain the colony in debt and under the Queen. Many people realize that this mystifying situation, in which an alleged democratic and self-governing nation is actually controlled against the will of the people, is a clear indication that there must be a very powerful and well-financed occult organization which plans and directs world affairs, and for lack of a more specific identification the suspected secret organization is popularly referred to as the International Financiers, Banksters cartel or "The Crown corporation".

Part 1



Part 2

VOCES INOCENTES

Last night on TV I watched this Film, for some reason the Italian station changed the name of the film to "Figli della guerra". The film is about the war in El Salvador and the impact it has on the kids.

After watching the film I looked on Google for the real name of the film and tried to find more information about it since it is a Biography and found some really interesting information.

The film, set in El Salvador during the years of civil war in the ‘80s, is told through the voice and eyes of 11-year old Chava. He lives with his mother, two brothers and a sister in a cardboard-house in a village, and at age 12 will be ‘eligible’ to be taken into the “ejercito” (army). He tries to avoid it so that he can have a “normal” childhood. Winner of many awards.

Voces inocentes (English title: Innocent Voices) is a 2004 Mexican film directed by Luis Mandoki. The plot is set during the Salvadoran Civil War in 1980s, and is based on writer Oscar Torres's childhood. The film serves as a general commentary on the military use of children. The movie also shows injustice against innocent people who are forced to fight in the war. It follows the story of the narrator, a boy named Chava.

Here is the official website on which you can watch the trailer.

And this is the best part that I found on youtube.



At the moment I`mtrying to find a version of the film with English Subtitles

MUSIC VIDEO TRIBUTE Israel Kamakawiwo'ole

Israel "Iz" Kaʻanoʻi Kamakawiwoʻole (May 20, 1959 -- June 26, 1997) (pronounced [ka-maka-vi-vo-ole]) was an Hawaiian musician.

He became famous outside Hawaii when his album Facing Future was released in 1993 with his medley of "Over the Rainbow" and "What a Wonderful World", which was subsequently featured in several films, television programs, and commercials.

From childhood, his family called Israel by his Hawaiian middle name, Kaʻanoʻi, the "beloved one". His name would later become the title name of his first solo album, Kaʻanoʻi, and also foretells the greatness of this "cherished one". It is interesting to note here that part of his name, anoʻi, when simplified to noʻi may be a contraction of the Hawaiian word, nohi. Nohi means "bright-colored, vivid, as the rainbow" (see Hawaiian Dictionary, Pukui and Elbert). Nohi, rainbow, beloved one, and cherished one are powerful symbols in his life. Iz's recording of the song "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" would become renowned throughout the world and continues to garner high acclaim. The song has come to be known as Izʻs "signature song", the most renowned of all his songs.

Kamakawiwo`ole was nicknamed "The Gentle Giant" by his admirers. He was described as always cheerful and positive, and he was best known for his love of the land and of the people of Hawaiʻi. Through his consummate ukulele playing and incorporation of other idioms (such as jazz and reggae), Iz remains one of the major influences in Hawaiian music over the last 15 years.

Israel's recording of "Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World" reached #12 on Billboard's Hot Digital Tracks chart the week of 1/31/04 (for the survey week ending 1/18/04), possibly due to its use in the Adam Sandler film 50 First Dates, and the Brad Pitt film Meet Joe Black.

In 2006, a version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", in an arrangement based on Iz', was performed by The Worthless Peons in "My Way Home", the 100th episode of Scrubs, over the closing montage. A recording of the same song by Iz was used in the closing scenes of the final episode of Life on Mars (TV Series). It is also a featured song in the movie Finding Forrester. In 2002, the song was used to powerful effect in the closing scenes of Anthony Edwards' last appearance in ER as Dr. Mark Greene, in the episode "On the Beach". On week 8 of American Idol (season 7), Jason Castro performed his own version of this song except that he left out the "What a Wonderful World" line, but still gave credit to Israel for the song.

DEATH:
Throughout the later part of his life, Iz was obese and at one point carried 758 pounds (344 kg) on his 6 feet 2 inches (1.9 m) frame. He endured several hospitalizations and died of weight-related respiratory illness on June 26, 1997 at 12:18 am at the age of 38.

The Hawaiʻi State Flag flew at half-staff on July 10, 1997, the day of Iz's funeral. His koa wood coffin lay in state at the Capitol building in Honolulu. He was the third person in Hawaiian history to be accorded this honor (the other two were Governor John A. Burns and Senator Spark Matsunaga) and the only non-politician. Over 10,000 people attended his funeral. Thousands of fans gathered and cheered as his ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean at Mākua Beach on July 12, 1997.

On September 20, 2003, hundreds paid tribute to Iz as a 200-pound bronze bust of the revered singer was unveiled at the Waianae Neighborhood Community Center on O'ahu. The singer's widow, Marlene Kamakawiwo'ole, and sculptor Jan-Michelle Sawyer were present for the dedication ceremony.

I would like to dedicate this blog to my friend Lino who died last Saturday at the age of 55

The picture that shames Italy

By Peter Popham in Rome
Tuesday, 22 July 2008

It's another balmy weekend on the beach in Naples. By the rocks, a couple soak up the southern Italian sun. A few metres away, their feet poking from under beach towels that cover their faces and bodies, lie two drowned Roma children.

The girls, Cristina, aged 16, and Violetta, 14, were buried last night as the fallout from the circumstances of their death reverberated throughout Italy.

It is an image that has crystallised the mounting disquiet in the country over the treatment of Roma, coming after camps have been burnt and the government has embarked on a bid to fingerprint every member of the minority. Two young Roma sisters had drowned at Torregaveta beach after taking a dip in treacherous waters. Their corpses were recovered from the sea – then left on the beach for hours while holidaymakers continued to sunbathe and picnic around them.

They had come to the beach on the outskirts of Naples on Saturday with another sister, Diana, nine, and a 16-year-old cousin, Manuela, to make a little money selling coloured magnets and other trinkets to sunbathers. But it was fiercely hot all day and, about 2pm, the girls surrendered to the temptation of a cooling dip – even though they apparently did not know how to swim.

"The sea was rough on Saturday," said Enzo Esposito, the national treasurer of Opera Nomadi, Italy's biggest Roma organisation. "Christina and Violetta went farther out than the other two, and a big wave came out of nowhere and dashed them on to the rocks. For a few moments, they disappeared; Manuela, who was in shallow water with Diana, came to the shore, helped out by people on the beach, and ran to try and get help."

Other reports said that lifeguards from nearby private beaches also tried to help, without success. "When Manuela and Diana came back," Esposito went on, "the bodies of her cousins had reappeared, and they were already dead."

It was the sort of tragedy that could happen on any beach. But what happened next has stunned Italy. The bodies of the two girls were laid on the sand; their sister and cousin were taken away by the police to identify and contact the parents. Some pious soul donated a couple of towels to preserve the most basic decencies. Then beach life resumed.

The indifference was taken as shocking proof that many Italians no longer have human feelings for the Roma, even though the communities have lived side by side for generations.

"This was the other terrible thing," says Mr Esposito, "besides the fact of the girls drowning: the normality. The way people continued to sunbathe, for three hours, just metres away from the bodies. They could have gone to a different beach. It's not possible that you can watch two young people die then carry on as if nothing happened. It showed a terrible lack of sensitivity and respect."

The attitudes of ordinary Italians towards the Roma, never warm, have been chilling for years, aggravated by sensational news coverage of crimes allegedly committed by Gypsies, and a widespread confusion of Roma with ordinary, non-Roma Romanians, who continue to arrive. The Berlusconi government has launched a high-profile campaign against the community, spearheaded by the programme announced by the Interior Minister, Roberto Marroni, to fingerprint the entire Roma population. The move has been condemned inside Italy and beyond as a return to the racial registers introduced by the Fascist regime in the 1930s. The fingerprinting of Roma in Naples began on 19 June.

The most senior Catholic in Naples, Cardinal Crescenzo Sepe, was quick to point out the coarsening of human sentiment which the behaviour on the beach represented. But the Mayor of Monte di Procida, the town on the outskirts of the city where Torregaveta beach is located, defended his citizens' behaviour.

When the Roma girls got into difficulties, he said: "There was a race among the bathers and the coastguard and the carabinieri to try and help them." He rejected the claim that the indifference of the bathers was due to the fact that the girls were Roma.

The two cousins were given a Christian Orthodox funeral service in the Roma camp in Naples, attended by 300 Roma and city and regional representatives.

In a speech yesterday, Mr Maroni proposed, "for humanitarian reasons", granting Italian citizenship to all Roma children in Italy abandoned by their parents.

The Italians and the Roma

Roma have been living in Italy for seven centuries and the country is home to about 150,000, who live mainly in squalid conditions in one of around 700 encampments on the outskirts of major cities such as Rome, Milan and Naples. They amount to less than 0.3 per cent of the population, one of the lowest proportions in Europe. But their poverty and resistance to integration have made them far more conspicuous than other communities. And the influx of thousands more migrants from Romania in the past year has confirmed the view of many Italians that the Gypsies and their eyesore camps are the source of all their problems. The ethnic group is often blamed for petty theft and burglaries. According to a recent newspaper survey, more than two thirds of Italians want Gypsies expelled, whether they hold Italian passports or not.

The Independent

Myanmar hints at Suu Kyi release

The Myanmar ruling military has hinted that it might release pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in six months time. But critics argue the words are just empty rhetoric.

Al Jazeera's Hannah Belcher reports.

MAD WORLD

Gary Jules Lyrics
Mad World Lyrics

NOW THAT THE STRIKE IS OVER

Now that from today the public transport is back in service let`s analyze what had caused all that happened.

First of all no Government should make promises that he knows he cant keep and the one with the transport authorities was not the only one.

Before the Election Letters like the one sent by the ex minister Jesmond Mugliette where sent from basically every department to all kinds of people with all kinds of promises.

It was only days after the election that young couples found out that the "Equity Sharing scheme" in which new couples could have saved thousands of Euros when buying a new apartment was stopped, the next thing was He did not want to negotiate with the University staff about there agreement ( And they ended up with industrial action as well) .

On another note he said that he will fix things up at MEPA ( Malta Environment Planning Authority) just a few days ago they issued a press release about the permits for Fort Cambridge before that the same MEPA held a public meeting to hear what the area residents had to say.

Now just last week we had Mr John Dalli saying that "Mater Dei" the Hospital that took 17 years to be built and is supposed to be a "state of the Art" kind of hospital is only a part time hospital and that the waiting lists are unacceptable, in the mean time these waiting lists keeps growing.

Now that the Opposition party have a new Leader and by next week will have all the people that are taking other places in the party hopefully it will move in some direction because till know it had not done much, One thing I would like to know from the Labour Party is the real reason why it had agreed with the Lisbon treaty, A treaty that everybody knows is not much more than the EU constitution under a different name the same constitution that was rejected where it was put to a referendum.

Malteseken ,Friday July 18 ,2008

Back to work

Malta Bus Drivers

Hi everyone,

What we Maltese people had to witness today is something that should not happen in this day and age, Everybody should have a right to Strike but nobody have the right to stop other people from doing their Job, nobody have the right to block the roads and nobody should consider himself above the law.

On these video`s you can see some of the inconvenience that has been caused to day all over Malta .



Bus Drivers, Taxi drivers, Mini bus drivers trying to go in the Prime Minister`s office.



Buses , white Taxis and Mini Buses Blocking the Roads going in and out of Valletta



Bus drivers stopping a private Coach full of tourists from entering Valletta.

Some private coaches has had their windscreens broken and other mini buses had been attacked as well. These actions should be condemned and whoever took part should be prosecuted. Every body knows that bus drivers in Malta along with Taxi drivers hardly have any manners and that all efforts done by authorities to upgrade the service giver have4 resulted in nothing.I think it`s about time that these people have to be stopped. You cant have a public service run by a bunch of people with manners that you only can compare them with old time Pirates.

Inakadate Rice Fields

Yesterday a friend of mine EMDexreme on the Virgin Radio Community where apart from listening to good music you can create your own blog as well shared with us some really nice pictures of the rice fields in Inakadate so I decided to do some more research about this.



To tell you the truth this was something that I never heard about, that`s why I decided to do a little bit of searching and to share it over here, While doing my search I found a blog called Life in Inakadate which have more information on many other aspects about the culture and the people of Inakadate.

Another good article that I found is called Homegrown art on The Japan Times by Yoko Hani a journalist that writes a lot about agriculture among other articles which you can find here on this link.

EARTHLINGS

EARTHLINGS is a feature length documentary about humanity's absolute dependence on animals (for pets, food, clothing, entertainment, and scientific research) but also illustrates our complete disrespect for these so-called "non-human providers." The film is narrated by Academy Award nominee Joaquin Phoenix (GLADIATOR) and features music by the critically acclaimed platinum artist Moby. With an in-depth study into pet stores, puppy mills and animals shelters, as well as factory farms, the leather and fur trades, sports and entertainment industries, and finally the medical and scientific profession, EARTHLINGS uses hidden cameras and never before seen footage to chronicle the day-to-day practices of some of the largest industries in the world, all of which rely entirely on animals for profit. Powerful, informative and thought-provoking, EARTHLINGS is by far the most comprehensive documentary ever produced on the correlation between nature, animals, and human economic interests. There are many worthy animal rights films available, but this one transcends the setting. EARTHLINGS cries to be seen. Highly recommended! Other languages and download at: http://veg-tv.info/Earthlings



Earthlings official website

Exclusive: secret film reveals how Mugabe stole an election

A film that graphically shows how Robert Mugabe's supporters rigged Zimbabwe's election has been smuggled out of the country by a prison officer. It is believed to be the first footage of actual ballot-rigging and comes as Zimbabwe's president faces growing international pressure.

Shepherd Yuda, 36, fled the country this week with his wife and children. He said that he hoped the film, which was made for the Guardian, would help draw further attention to the violence and corruption in Zimbabwe.

Much of the footage was shot inside the country's notorious jail system. Yuda, who has worked in the prison service for 13 years, was motivated by the intensifying violence directed towards the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and the murder, two months ago, of his uncle, a MDC activist.

Initially he intended to chronicle secretly what life was like inside Zimbabwe's jails but he found himself present when a war veteran and Mugabe supporter organised the vote-rigging by getting prison officers to fill in their postal ballots in his presence.

Using a hidden camera, Yuda filmed for six days prior to last Friday's run-off election in which Mugabe claimed victory with 90% of the vote. Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader, had earlier said his party would not be participating in the run-off because of intimidation.

"I had never seen that kind of violence before," said Yuda, of the run-up to the election. "How can a government that claimed to be democratically elected kill its people, murder its people, torture its people?"

The film, made for Guardian Films, shows how Yuda and his colleagues at Harare central jail had to fill in their ballots in front of Zanu-PF activists.

Yuda also obtained footage of Zanu-PF rallies where voters were told they should pretend to be illiterate so that an official could fill in their ballot for them on behalf of Mugabe.

He was able to film the MDC's general secretary, Tendai Biti, in leg irons in jail. Biti, now on bail, faces treason charges which carry the death penalty.

Having completed filming, Yuda left Zimbabwe with his family for a new life and is now at a secret destination.

"I don't regret doing this, although it is a painful decision I have taken," he said. "We can live without the memories of seeing dead bodies in the prison, dead bodies in the street, dead bodies in my family.

"I've lost my uncle. My father was also beaten by Zanu-PF. I am praying to God: please God deal with Zanu-PF ruthlessly."

Mugabe has now been sworn in for a sixth term as Zimbabwe's president, a process which Tsvangirai described as "a complete joke". More than 130,000 voters spoiled their ballot papers in the election.

International pressure is mounting against Mugabe. It emerged yesterday that a US draft resolution to the UN will call for sanctions against Mugabe and demand that his government immediately begin talks with the MDC.

If adopted by the Security Council, the resolution would freeze the financial assets of Mugabe and 11 other Zimbabwean officials and ban them from travelling.

Duncan Campbell and Paul Lewis

The Guardian, Saturday July 5 2008

Woman left to die on hospital floor

After the good news of yesterday about Ingrid Betancourt release today I decided to check Sitemeter and I found out that my blog has been visited by the (IOWA HEALTH SYSTEM) because of a blog that I did about how the people that wanted to return home after the flooding where treated by the so called strike teams.

What irritated me today is that the Health system in the states can find people to can spend the whole day looking at blogs but cant find decent people to employ in their own hospitals.


A women was left to die in the Hospital waiting room with nobody doing nothing for more than an hour after that she fell from the chair she was sitting on.



A shocking video shows a woman dying on the floor in the psych ward at Kings County Hospital, while people around her, including a security guard, did nothing to help.

After an hour, another mental patient finally got the attention of the indifferent hospital workers, according to the tape, obtained by the Daily News.

Worse still, the surveillance tape suggests hospital staff may have falsified medical charts to cover the utter lack of treatment provided Esmin Green before she died.

"Thank God for the videotape because no one would have believed this could have happened," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

"There's a clear possibility of criminal wrongdoing with regard to recordkeeping, and that has to be investigated."

The city Department of Investigation is part of a sweeping probe that has brought some changes to the ward known as G Building.

A federal suit filed last year in Brooklyn alleged neglect and abuse of mental patients at the hospital. The suit sparked an investigation by the Brooklyn U.S. attorney's civil rights unit before the June 19 death.

Two different security guards spotted Green, a native of the island of Jamaica, prone on the floor and did nothing, the tape shows. They have been fired, along with four other staffers.

Green, 49, taken to the unit for "agitation," keels over out of her chair at 5:32a.m., according to the time stamp on the video. She had been sitting about 3feet from an observation window. Two other patients were in the room.

Green is lying facedown on the floor, her legs splayed, when a security guard strolls by at 5:53 a.m., looks at her for about 20 seconds and then walks away.

She is writhing on the floor, thrashing her legs, about 6 a.m., when her medical chart contends she was "awake, up and about, went to the bathroom."

Green rolls on her back at 6:04a.m. She stops moving at 6:08 a.m., but two minutes later a security guard pushed his chair into camera view.

He never gets out of the chair, but looks at Green and scoots away. A female patient who was in and out of the room finally brings a clinic staffer to check the woman and a crash cart is summoned.

The medical chart claims she was "sitting quietly in [the] waiting room" at 6:20 a.m., although she was already dead. The cause of death is still under investigation.

"We are shocked and distressed by this situation," the Health and Hospitals Corp. said in a statement.

BY JOHN MARZULLI
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

read more on Metro news uk

FREE AT LAST

Today like everybody else I was very happy to hear about the release of Ingrid Betancourt. Since I found the Flash news on BBC rss feed I first started checking other news sites just to check if it`s true. Then started checking all the TV news channel and on one of them there was a conference from her sister Astrid and her two children Lorenzo and Melanie.

Just now on Al Jazeera English they are showing, Ingrid Betancourt and the other 14 hostages that where released, She looks a lot better than the last video that was released and she thanked one of the other hostages wich she said was her doctor in the jungle where they where being held captive for the last six years.

While checking for any videos on youtube for the latest events I didn`t find any, but there was this video wich is (Hommage à Ingrid bétancourt et à toutes les femmes otages dans le monde) dedicated to Betancourt and all the other women held captive in the world.

THE GIRL WHO SILENCED THE WORLD FOR 5 MINUTES

Raised in Vancouver and Toronto, Severn Cullis-Suzuki has been camping and hiking all her life. When she was 9 she started the Environmental Children's Organization (ECO), a small group of children committed to learning and teaching other kids about environmental issues. They were successful in many projects before 1992, when they raised enough money to go to the UN's Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Their aim was to remind the decision-makers of who their actions or inactions would ultimately affect. The goal was reached when 12 yr old Severn closed a Plenary Session with a powerful speech that received a standing ovation.

Mercosur anger at EU migrant laws

Leaders attending an Argentine summit of South American trade bloc Mercosur are expected to strongly criticise new European Union immigration laws.

A directive passed by the EU last month could see illegal immigrants detained for up to 18 months and if expelled they face a five-year ban on re-entry.

There are hundreds of thousands of South Americans working in EU countries, many of them illegally.

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has called the EU measures "shameful".

The Bolivian leader, Evo Morales, said they did nothing to combat discrimination and racism, while Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana said the region did not accept the concept of migration as a crime.

South American leaders often find it difficult to reach agreement on many things but they appear to be united in their anger at the new EU immigration rules, reports the BBC's Daniel Schweimler from Argentina.

Most of South America's leaders are in the Argentine city of Tucuman where their summit plans to issue a declaration condemning the EU measures.

The European Union last month adopted the rules, which could come into force in 2010.

The law will oblige EU members to choose between issuing residency permits to the estimated 500,000 illegal immigrants who enter each year, or returning them to their country of origin.

Under the new rules, an illegal immigrant can be detained for a maximum of six months. This period is extendable by a further 12 months under certain conditions if, for example, the immigrant fails to co-operate with the authorities.

The rules allow for a 30-day voluntary departure period for illegal immigrants before their expulsion.

Once expelled, they may be barred from re-entering the EU for a five-year period.

Food shortages

On other issues, Mercosur says it is taking a big step towards regional integration by lifting visa restrictions, which will allow South Americans to travel freely between member and associate countries showing only their ID cards.

Other topics being addressed at the meeting which began on Monday and runs until Tuesday are regional and international food crises and on this there is no unity, our correspondent says.

The summit host, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who has been facing farmers' strikes over her proposals to raise tariffs on food exports, blamed poor wealth distribution for food shortages.

"The chief cause of the world food shortage is poorly distributed wealth by oligopolies and financial institutions and lack of market access," she said on Sunday.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is against tariffs, argues that producing more food would solve the crisis.

"The more (food) we produce, the more food security we'll have. With fair prices you can increase exports," he said.

BBC NEWS

OHIO TEACHER BURNS CROSS ON CHILD`S ARM

A public school teacher preached his Christian beliefs despite complaints by other teachers and administrators and used a device to burn the image of a cross on students' arms, according to a report by independent investigators.

Mount Vernon Middle School teacher John Freshwater also taught creationism in his science class and was insubordinate in failing to remove a Bible and other religious materials from his classroom, the report said.

School board members were scheduled to meet Friday afternoon to discuss the findings by consulting firm H.R. On Call Inc., hired by the district to investigate. The report was released Thursday.

School Superintendent Stephen Short wouldn't comment on the report before Friday's meeting, his office said. A message seeking comment was left for Freshwater's attorney, Roger Weaver.

The report comes one week after a family filed a federal lawsuit in Columbus against Freshwater and the school district, saying Freshwater burned a cross on their child's arm that remained for three or four weeks.

Freshwater's friend Dave Daubenmire defended him.

"With the exception of the cross-burning episode ... I believe John Freshwater is teaching the values of the parents in the Mount Vernon school district," he told The Columbus Dispatch in a story published Friday.

comcast.netNEWS

THE REAL FACE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

The EU has been sold to Britain as our best hope for the future . . . But behind the scenes, has another, more unsettling agenda been unfolding? The European Economic Community (EEC) began for Britain as a free-trade agreement in 1972. Today's European Union is well on its way to becoming a federal superstate, complete with one currency, one legal system, one military, one police force – even its own national anthem. In this shocking new documentary featuring EU insiders and commentators, independent author Phillip Day covers the history and goals of the European Union, as well as the disturbing, irrevocable implications this new government has for every British citizen. Whether the viewer is for or against Britain's participation, this film asks the troubling questions the mainstream media has refused to confront.

Google videos

THE REAL FACE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

Ohio board votes to ax teacher accused of branding

Dahr Jamail: Iraq and U.S Military expansion

Posted on June 27, 2008 by dandelionsalad

talkingsticktv

Talk by independent journalist Dahr Jamail author of “Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq” given June 7, 2008 in Seattle.



see

Iraq

Israel Lobby

Jamail-Dahr

GI Resistance

It’s March 19 and Blogswarm Day! Posts on Iraq War by Lo (list of Winter Soldier posts)

Respect the Irish Vote: Aftershock in European Parliament

European Parliament (Strasbourg) 16-18 June 2008.
Reactions to the Irish No to the Lisbon Treaty.

In order of appearance:

- Hans-Gert Pöttering MEP, EPP-ED, President of the European Parliament (16.06.2008)
- José Manuel Barroso, EU Commission President (13.06.2008; 18.06.2008; 10.07.2007)
- Nigel Farage MEP, Co-President, Independence/Democracy Group (IND/DEM) (17-18.06.2008)
- Martin Schulz MEP, President, PES Group (18.06.2008)
- Margot Wallström, Commission Vice-President (18.06.2008)
- Daniel Hannan MEP, non-attached (formerly EPP-ED) (18.06.2008)
- Hanne Dahl MEP, IND/DEM Group (18.06.2008)
- Kathy Sinnott MEP, Co-President, IND/DEM Group (18.06.2008)
- Philip Bushill-Matthews MEP, EPP-ED (18.06.2008)
- Poul Nyrup Rasmussen MEP, President of the Party of European - Socialists (PES)(18.06.2008)
- Tobias Pflüger MEP, European Left - GUE/NGL (18.06.2008)

NOTE - The MEPs wearing the "Respect the Irish Vote" shirts are from various countries and from different groups.

Note on the rejected EU Constitution and Lisbon Treaty:

The people of France and the Netherlands rejected the proposed EU constitution in the 2005 referendums. After this, other countries cancelled a promised referendum and the EU Constitution was re-written as an "amending treaty" or a "reform treaty" and named "Treaty of Lisbon".

On the basis of this deceit, they claimed that no referendums are necessary on the Lisbon Treaty. Ireland was constitutionally required to hold a referendum and on the 12 June 2008 the people of Ireland gave a resounding No to Lisbon. Yet this vote is not being respected and the rule of law is being ignored. The EU leaders agreed at the June 19-20 EU Summit that ratifications must go on. Moreover, no other government is asking the people.

The Lisbon Treaty establishes a new "European Union" with joint citizenship - an EU "federal" State that is technically and politically empowered to centralize more power in Brussels. The treaty also stipulates the militarisation of the Union in order to 'police the world' just like the US does today.

Credits:

- Hemicycle scenes: Audio Visual, European Parliament
- Barroso excerpt (10.07.2007) from EUX.TV (http://www.eux.tv ): "Barroso: European Union is 'empire' (short version)". Watch video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2Ralo...

- Music: Cornerstone Cues: Requiem For A Tower Mvt. II; Reprogram. From "El Morro": Drum Train, Burning Touch, Undefeated. From "Air Lyndhurt": Dark Rise, Velvet Choker.
..................................

Obama Camp Closely Linked With Ethanol

Senator Barack Obama last July in Adel, Iowa. His strong support of ethanol helped propel him to his first caucus victory there.

By LARRY ROHTER

When VeraSun Energy inaugurated a new ethanol processing plant last summer in Charles City, Iowa, some of that industry’s most prominent boosters showed up. Leaders of the National Corn Growers Association and the Renewable Fuels Association, for instance, came to help cut the ribbon — and so did Senator Barack Obama.

Then running far behind Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in name recognition and in the polls, Mr. Obama was in the midst of a campaign swing through the state where he would eventually register his first caucus victory. And as befits a senator from Illinois, the country’s second largest corn-producing state, he delivered a ringing endorsement of ethanol as an alternative fuel.

Mr. Obama is running as a reformer who is seeking to reduce the influence of special interests. But like any other politician, he has powerful constituencies that help shape his views. And when it comes to domestic ethanol, almost all of which is made from corn, he also has advisers and prominent supporters with close ties to the industry at a time when energy policy is a point of sharp contrast between the parties and their presidential candidates.

In the heart of the Corn Belt that August day, Mr. Obama argued that embracing ethanol “ultimately helps our national security, because right now we’re sending billions of dollars to some of the most hostile nations on earth.” America’s oil dependence, he added, “makes it more difficult for us to shape a foreign policy that is intelligent and is creating security for the long term.”

Nowadays, when Mr. Obama travels in farm country, he is sometimes accompanied by his friend Tom Daschle, the former Senate majority leader from South Dakota. Mr. Daschle now serves on the boards of three ethanol companies and works at a Washington law firm where, according to his online job description, “he spends a substantial amount of time providing strategic and policy advice to clients in renewable energy.”

Mr. Obama’s lead advisor on energy and environmental issues, Jason Grumet, came to the campaign from the National Commission on Energy Policy, a bipartisan initiative associated with Mr. Daschle and Bob Dole, the Kansas Republican who is also a former Senate majority leader and a big ethanol backer who had close ties to the agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland.

Not long after arriving in the Senate, Mr. Obama himself briefly provoked a controversy by flying at subsidized rates on corporate airplanes, including twice on jets owned by Archer Daniels Midland, which is the nation’s largest ethanol producer and is based in his home state.

Jason Furman, the Obama campaign’s economic policy director, said Mr. Obama’s stance on ethanol was based on its merits. “That is what has always motivated him on this issue, and will continue to determine his policy going forward,” Mr. Furman said.

Asked if Mr. Obama brought any predisposition or bias to the ethanol debate because he represents a corn-growing state that stands to benefit from a boom, Mr. Furman said, “He wants to represent the United States of America, and his policies are based on what’s best for the country.”

Mr. Daschle, a national co-chairman of the Obama campaign, said in a telephone interview on Friday that his role advising the Obama campaign on energy matters was limited. He said he was not a lobbyist for ethanol companies, but did speak publicly about renewable energy options and worked “with a number of associations and groups to orchestrate and coordinate their activities,” including the Governors’ Ethanol Coalition.

Of Mr. Obama, Mr. Daschle said, “He has a terrific policy staff and relies primarily on those key people to advise him on key issues, whether energy or climate change or other things.”

Ethanol is one area in which Mr. Obama strongly disagrees with his Republican opponent, Senator John McCain of Arizona. While both presidential candidates emphasize the need for the United States to achieve “energy security” while also slowing down the carbon emissions that are believed to contribute to global warming, they offer sharply different visions of the role that ethanol, which can be made from a variety of organic materials, should play in those efforts.

Mr. McCain advocates eliminating the multibillion-dollar annual government subsidies that domestic ethanol has long enjoyed. As a free trade advocate, he also opposes the 54-cent-a-gallon tariff that the United States slaps on imports of ethanol made from sugar cane, which packs more of an energy punch than corn-based ethanol and is cheaper to produce.

“We made a series of mistakes by not adopting a sustainable energy policy, one of which is the subsidies for corn ethanol, which I warned in Iowa were going to destroy the market” and contribute to inflation, Mr. McCain said this month in an interview with a Brazilian newspaper, O Estado de São Paulo. “Besides, it is wrong,” he added, to tax Brazilian-made sugar cane ethanol, “which is much more efficient than corn ethanol.”

Mr. Obama, in contrast, favors the subsidies, some of which end up in the hands of the same oil companies he says should be subjected to a windfall profits tax. In the name of helping the United States build “energy independence,” he also supports the tariff, which some economists say may well be illegal under the World Trade Organization’s rules but which his advisers say is not.

Many economists, consumer advocates, environmental experts and tax groups have been critical of corn ethanol programs as a boondoggle that benefits agribusiness conglomerates more than small farmers. Those complaints have intensified recently as corn prices have risen sharply in tandem with oil prices and corn normally used for food stock has been diverted to ethanol production.

“If you want to take some of the pressure off this market, the obvious thing to do is lower that tariff and let some Brazilian ethanol come in,” said C. Ford Runge, an economist specializing in commodities and trade policy at the Center for International Food and Agricultural Policy at the University of Minnesota. “But one of the fundamental reasons biofuels policy is so out of whack with markets and reality is that interest group politics have been so dominant in the construction of the subsidies that support it.”

Corn ethanol generates less than two units of energy for every unit of energy used to produce it, while the energy ratio for sugar cane is more than 8 to 1. With lower production costs and cheaper land prices in the tropical countries where it is grown, sugar cane is a more efficient source.

Mr. Furman said the campaign continued to examine the issue. “We want to evaluate all our energy subsidies to make sure that taxpayers are getting their money’s worth,” he said.

He added that Mr. Obama favored “a range of initiatives” that were aimed at “diversification across countries and sources of energy,” including cellulosic ethanol, and which, unlike Mr. McCain’s proposals, were specifically meant to “reduce overall demand through conservation, new technology and improved efficiency.”

On the campaign trail, Mr. Obama has not explained his opposition to imported sugar cane ethanol. But in remarks last year, made as President Bush was about to sign an ethanol cooperation agreement with his Brazilian counterpart, Mr. Obama argued that “our country’s drive toward energy independence” could suffer if Mr. Bush relaxed restrictions, as Mr. McCain now proposes.

“It does not serve our national and economic security to replace imported oil with Brazilian ethanol,” he argued.

Mr. Obama does talk regularly about developing switchgrass, which flourishes in the Midwest and Great Plains, as a source for ethanol. While the energy ratio for switchgrass and other types of cellulosic ethanol is much greater than corn, economists say that time-consuming investments in infrastructure would be required to make it viable, and with corn nearing $8 a bushel, farmers have little incentive to shift.

Ethanol industry executives and advocates have not made large donations to either candidate for president, an examination of campaign contribution records shows. But they have noted the difference between Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain.

Brian Jennings, a vice president of the American Coalition for Ethanol, said he hoped that Mr. McCain, as a presidential candidate, “would take a broader view of energy security and recognize the important role that ethanol plays.”

The candidates’ views were tested recently in the Farm Bill approved by Congress that extended the subsidies for corn ethanol, though reducing them slightly, and the tariffs on imported sugar cane ethanol. Because Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama were campaigning, neither voted. But Mr. McCain said that as president he would veto the bill, while Mr. Obama praised it.

Published: June 23, 2008

Two Injured in Bilin Weekly Protest

Israeli troops attack peace activist in Bil'in - file 2008– Photo by IMEMC's Hitham Al Khateb

Friday June 20, 2008 16:55 by Abedallah Abu Rahma - Bil'in - IMEMC News

On Friday, villagers from Bilin, located near the central West Bank city of Ramallah, along with their international and Israeli supporters marched in their weekly nonviolent protest against the illegal Israeli wall built on the village's land.

Protesters carried banners demanding the removal of the Israeli wall and settlements and calling upon the international community to help Palestinians retain Jerusalem. Protestors also carried photos of Ibrahim Burnat who was injured during last week's protest by three live bullets fired by an Israeli soldier at a close range. Burnat He is still receiving treatment in the hospital.

The protests started after the mid-day Friday prayers were finished in the mosque, participants marched towards the separation Wall which separates the village from its land.

Immediately after the protest reached the gate of the Wall, soldiers showered the protestors with tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets. Scores of protesters were treated for gas canisters. Israeli troops used a new tear gas launcher which fires thirty canisters in one barrage. They also used a high pitched ‘scream’ device in an attempt to disorientate demonstrators. Two people were injured as a result of the rubber-coated steel bullets; Muheeb Albarghutee a journalist from Al Hayyat Al Jadeedah newspaper and Ranny Burnat a local activist.

In addition tear gas canisters started several fires in the olive orchards burning many of the old trees. The fields belonged Rashid Muhammed Abu Rahma and Muhammed Ali Yasin, local sources reported.

Last night Israeli occupation forces forcibly removed Palestinians inside an outpost built to monitor attempts to seize more land from the village. At midnight Abdullah Abo Rahma, Ahmad Ibrahim Abo Rahma and Farhat Ibrahim Burnat were beaten and detained before being forced back to the other side of the fence. Israeli soldiers also attacked the house of Muhammed Tawfiq Al Khatib and arrested his son Tariq.

In related newes After a joint request by residents of Bilin and Jayyos villages supported by the Adalah-NY coalition UNICEF confirmed this week that it would no longer accept financial or other support from Liv Leviev or his corporate entities.

Leviev is a financial supporter of the illegal settlements of Modin Eilat and Zofim. Modin Eilat is built on land from Bilin village and Zofim settlement is built on land from Jayyos village and Abu Ghnaim Mountain. Representatives from Dubai have also been successfully petitioned to deny Leviev permission to open two stores there.

Ramallah

Non violent action

News report

ghassanb at imemc dot org

Government “Strike Teams” Invade Homes, Harass Flood Victims

People who attempt to gain access to their home before it has been "cleared" by authorities are being apprehended, and those who attempt to drive around police checkpoints that have been set up in the affected areas are arrested at gunpoint.

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Shocking footage out of Cedar Rapids Iowa shows cops and government employee "strike teams" breaking into houses of flood victims and threatening anyone who questions their actions in complete violation of the 4th amendment right that protects against unlawful search and seizure.

No warrant, no knock home invasions are being carried out on the flimsy pretext of "checking for structural damage" as cops harass and threaten with arrest people who refuse to have their homes ransacked by thugs in uniforms.

Cedar Rapids police chief Greg Graham promised residents over the weekend that "Law enforcement officers are not entering homes," and that firefighters would only enter homes through unlocked doors and windows yet the video clearly shows locked houses being broken in to.

People who attempt to gain access to their home before it has been "cleared" by authorities are being apprehended, and those who attempt to drive around police checkpoints that have been set up in the affected areas are arrested at gunpoint.

"Each strike team consisted of six or seven people, including police, firefighters, utilities workers, andcity employees," reports the Iowa Gazette.

Angela Tague, a member of the STAR 1 search and rescue team from Ames, ran into any angry homeowner on E Avenue NW.

"He was saying ‘Where do you live?’ and ‘How would you like it if someone busted your door open?," Tague said.

Police Officer Josh Bell later had a heated exchange with the man, and told him that if he didn’t go back inside his house and stop harassing the strike team, he would be escorted out of the area.

The man was visibly agitated about his broken door and pointed at Bell.

"It’s wrong," the man said, over and over.

So people who are uncomfortable with jackbooted thugs breaking down their door without even knocking and express their distaste for it are to blame for "harassing the strike team"?

Respondents to the You Tube clip and the newspaper article expressed their outrage at the behavior of those in the video tasked with "helping" flood-stricken people yet doing nothing more than intimidating and invading their homes.

"You break down the door of my private residence and when I object you threaten to escort me off my own property. Fine example of police work. Did anyone think to knock first? Thomas Jefferson said that the main reason for citizens to be armed was to protect themselves from tyrannical government. If this isn’t tyranny then I don’t know what is. A man’s home is his castle," states Steve Delaloye.

"A sad day for America when government thugs abuse the trust of the citizenry like this," writes one.

"So these cops and fire fighters are part time structural engineers, or what?? What are they inspecting for in the structures? Gas and electric could be shut off at the source, and any spills are so diluted they wont catch fire. The police chief said no police would enter any homes, and what do you know, mr fat ass cop goes piling through the window thinking he’s T.J Hooker. Damn, this is just sad, sad , sad," adds another.

One Iowa resident expresses her anger that authorities will not let her re-enter her home.

"I sit here with tears streaming down my face. I have been trying to be patient and await to enter my home. Now today, I am told there will be no re-entry’s until further notice. I cannot express how ****ing mad I am. I understand the houses can be unsafe. Just let me at least see my house, so that I can assess if it hit my top floor. I have pictures and memories on my top floor of my deceased mother, all I want to do is rescue those," she writes.

As we reported in 2005, Hurricane Katrina was exploited by the federal government and used as a martial law drill while victims were abused and treated like rats in a laboratory.

Door to door gun confiscations were ordered and cops ransacked homes and took weapons from multi-million dollar homes which were in the high and dry areas and completely unaffected by the hurricane. In some cases, residents were kicked out of their own homes for no reason.

Outrageous footage showed cops seizing handguns from the home of a grief-stricken old women as they assaulted and punched her in the face.

Where does the government think it derives the authority from to break into people’s homes whose lives have already been devastated by massive floods on the flimsiest of pretexts?

The 4th amendment states, "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Even if there was a legitimate reason to inspect homes, why on earth do they not even bother to knock on the door?

Cops immediately attempt to break in or climb through windows uninvited because this procedure is all about sending a message - when a crisis unfolds we are the bosses and you - the peasants - will yield to our tyranny.

Lawsuits need to be filed immediately by people in Iowa and elsewhere who have had cops invade their homes in complete violation of the 4th amendment and a pretext needs to be set that will put a stop to the government’s routine exploitation of natural disasters as an opportunity to impose martial law measures on needy victims that have already had their lives devastated.

With reports indicating that the Mississippi river is in danger of bursting its banks, the precedent that was set with Hurricane Katrina could be set to advance as government minions and jackbooted thugs across the country lick their lips at the prospect of kicking down more doors and harassing innocent people.

Contact the Iowa ACLU and demand they pressure the authorities to stop these illegal home invasions immediately.

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Kites rise above the divisions in Gaza

Children flying kites in the Gaza Strip. (Mohammed Omer)

GAZA CITY, 15 June (IPS) - Mahmoud Abu Teior, 13, knows it's Abdullah's kite up in the skies, though he has never seen Abdullah. But that kite rises into the skies from across the Egyptian side of the border across from Gaza. And, Mahmoud knows Abdullah's voice because they speak sometimes. They have never met, and likely never will, but they are connected through their kites.

It's that time of the year. The holidays bring scores of children to play together -- across the dividing line. And despite the iron wall of separation, they form friendships.

Mahmoud has always known the border as a playground. This is where the family home was before it was demolished by Israel to make room for the border wall. "I always come here because this is where our house used to be," he says, launching his kite.

Most children still play from "home," where Block O, Yebna, Block J, or the al-Salam neighborhood used to be. The playground is that strip of no man's land known as the Philadelphia corridor, where more than 2,400 homes were razed ahead of the "disengagement" by Israel in 2005. That same "disengagement" made about 16,800 people homeless here, according to UN figures.

Only kites can now cross the border. And up in the skies one can tell some of the Gaza kites apart. They are the ones made with newspapers and plastic bags, with some thorns stuck on for the dogfight that happens in the sky. The usual materials like paper and glue used to make a kite are scarce in Gaza.

Khalid Zanoun, 12, like the others, always picks the spot where his house once stood. Up in the skies, he suddenly loses his kite in a dogfight. "He ran away from me!" he screams, looking at his disappearing kite, fists clenched. But soon he is beaming again, preparing another kite for the next battle with his unseen mates on the other side.

Curiosity led him some time back to scale the wall and see what his mates look like. "This is not allowed any more," he says. "The Hamas guards on our side and the Egyptian border guards on the other stop us."

Not entirely, though, because boys will be boys. If nothing, they climb up just to say hello to the Egyptian guards.

It's the better world on the other side. The Egyptian boys have better kites, and they have shoes. In Gaza, most children run barefoot on the sizzling hot soil. Shoes have been priced out of reach for most people, as so many things are nowadays as a result of the Israeli siege.

Mahmoud has four brothers working in Egypt. He dreams of joining them one day, of working in Egypt as an engineer, and not as day laborers as they do. "I have been to Egypt once," he says. That is when the border was breached for a few days in January. "I loved it."

But he's not so sure he can become an engineer. The family has no money to send him to university. His family came here as refugees in 1948 when Israel was created on the land where they lived. Now they have become homeless again, and are back in a refugee camp.

The UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, helped re-house the families, and helps even to make some summer games possible for children. But it is hard to provide for about a quarter of a million children in Gaza.

Another boy comes up to join Mahmoud. He lifts his shirt to show a wound he received from shrapnel during an Israeli assault. He too lost his home. Everyone knows why. But for the moment, his thoughts are on his kite.

Mohammed Omer, The Electronic Intifada, 16 June 2008

Israeli Army Uses Live Rounds on Peaceful Protest.

Warning

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This video may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war/violence and should only be viewed by a mature audience.

Posted on 15th June 2008 by DANDELION SALAD

emadbornat

Bilin Weekly Protest- Israeli Army Uses Live Rounds on Peaceful Protest.

F.F.J. June 13 2008- Today a young man from Bilin was shot with live rounds during the weekly Bilin Protest. Ibrahim Burnat who was shot in his right thigh was taken directly to Sheik Zaid Hospital in Ramallah and was described by doctors as being in critical condition. Ibrahim posed no threat to Israeli soldiers who shot him with live rounds simply for attempting to scale the Apartheid Wall as a symbolic gesture against the ongoing illegal occupation.

The protestors were shot with tear gas, rubber coated steel bullets, and finally live ammunition as the protest wound down. The Israeli peace activist Lee Lorian was injuried with a rubber bullet in the chest and another more seriously injured. In addition dozens were treated for tear gas inhalation.

Locals where joined by International activists this week to protest against the Apartheid Wall and the expansion of Israeli Settlements. The weekly protestors raised the Palestinian flag and slogans against the occupation. The signs demanded the dismantling of the Apartheid Wall, land confiscation, and the expansion of Israeli Settlements. The protesters also demanded an end to Israel’s killing of unarmed Palestinian civilians, the closure of roads in the West Bank, and large scale imprisonment as a form of collective punishment.

h/t: Jewish Peace News

The Irish People have spoken. Lisbon Is Dead

On Friday, Ireland delivered a knockout punch to European elites and corporatists shattering their plans for an EU Superstate. The so-called Lisbon Treaty was nothing more than a repackaging of the European Constitution that was defeated by French and Dutch voters in 2005. The treaty was loaded with the typical "democratic" gobbledygook to conceal the vicious neoliberal policies at its heart. If it had passed, the treaty would have paved the way for greater privatization of public services, diminished workers rights, less state control over trade policies and civil liberties, and an aggressive plan to militarize Europe. Ireland's entire political and corporate class stood foursquare behind the treaty, but the Irish people shrugged off the fear-mongering and bogus promises of prosperity and voted No. The referendum results showed 53.4% voted No, while 46.6% voted Yes. Despite the massive public relations campaign; the vote was not even that close.

A spokesperson for the No campaign put it like this:

“The Irish people have spoken. Contrary to the predictions of social and political turmoil, we believe that hundreds of millions of people across Europe will welcome the rejection of the Lisbon Treaty. This vote shows the gulf that exists between the politicians and the elites of Europe, and the opinions of the people. As in France and the Netherlands, the political leaders and the establishment have done everything they could to push this through – and they have failed. The proposals to further reduce democracy, to militarize the EU and to let private business take over public services have been rejected. Lisbon is dead. Along with the EU Constitution from which it came, it should now be buried.” (Socialist Worker online)

News of the defeat has not been well received in England where the neoliberal government of Gordon Brown has already indicated that it will reject the election results and "press ahead" in an effort to ratify the treaty. Neither Brown nor his friends in Brussels are likely to be deterred by anything as trivial as the will of the people. Labour MP and former Europe Minister Denis MacShane summed it up like this:

"I personally think that a vote in a foreign country should not determine the democratic decisions taken in the British Parliament."

MacShane's view is apparently shared by EC President Jose Manuel Barroso who said that EU member states should continue ratifying the Lisbon treaty even though more than half of Ireland's 43 constituencies rejected it outright. So much for democracy.

The Irish have plenty to celebrate today. They've thrown a spanner in the plans of the bankers and corporate mandarins who want to replace representative government and national sovereignty with their own skewed vision of capitalist Valhalla; a Euro-Utopia where short-term profits always take priority over the needs of ordinary people.

Bravo, Ireland.

Mike Whitney is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

Palestinians barred from Dead Sea beaches to 'appease Israeli settlers'

Palestinians are being regularly and illegally barred from reaching Dead Sea beaches in the occupied West Bank, according to a Supreme Court petition filed by Israel's leading civil rights organisation.

The Association of Civil Rights (Acri) in Israel is challenging what it says is the frequently imposed ban by the military on Palestinians seeking to swim or relax at beaches in the northern Dead Sea. The salt-saturated sea is the only open water accessible to Palestinians from the otherwise landlocked West Bank.

The petition says that the Israeli military is using the Beit Ha'arava checkpoint on Route 90 – the only open access route in the occupied West Bank for travel to the Dead Sea – to turn back Palestinians, mainly but not exclusively on weekends and Jewish holidays.

Acri says that the ban is to appease Israeli settlers operating concessions along the Dead Sea's northern shore. They fear losing Jewish customers if there are large numbers of Arabs using the beaches in territory seized by Israel during the Six Day War in 1967.

A Palestinian bus driver, Mohammed Ahmed Nuaga'a, described how he was turned back by the military with a party of children, aged between six and 12, on a school trip from the Hebron district to the Dead Sea last month. The outing had been officially co-ordinated with the Palestinian Authority education ministry and included 10 teachers and 15 parents. He returned a few hours later in the hope that the soldiers would relent but they did not do so. "I tried to explain to them that these are young pupils who came from very far to fulfil a big dream – to see the sea," he said.

"But the soldiers were aggressive, and started shouting at us that Palestinian passage is forbidden, whether children or adults. The pupils begged the soldiers to let them go for even 10 minutes just to see the sea and return, but nothing happened."

In the petition a senior Acri lawyer, Limor Yehuda, says: "We are dealing here with travel bans and entry prohibitions to public places in occupied territory which are tainted with discrimination and characteristic of colonial regimes. We have here prohibitions preventing the protected population of the occupied territory from using its own resources, while the very same resources are put at the disposal and enjoyment of the citizens of the occupying power."

The ban came to light after the testimony of two Israeli army reservists who said that at the beginning of their tour of duty in May they were told that the purpose of the checkpoint was to "prevent Palestinians coming from the Jordan Valley to the Dead Sea beaches".

One of the reservists, Doron Karbel, testified that as a "side note", the Jordan Valley Brigade Commander, Colonel Yigal Slovik, had said the reason for the checkpoint was that "when Jews and Palestinian vacationers were sitting on the beaches side by side it hurt the business of the surrounding yishuvim [Jewish communities]."

Mr Karbel added: "In a conversation I later had with the Brigade Commander, he told me that he could come up with or find a security justification if he needed to."

From Ein Gedi southwards, the beaches on the Dead Sea's western side are in sovereign Israeli territory. But the popular beaches of the northern Dead Sea are Israeli-run and visitors could easily – but erroneously – imagine they are also in Israel rather than in occupied territory. In April this year, the British Advertising Standards Authority required the Israel Ministry of Tourism to alter the wording of an advertisement suggesting that Qumran, close to the northern shore, and the site of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, was in Israel.

In the Acri petition, Ms Yehuda says: "The illegality of the actions and orders of the army cries out to the heavens. This is a clear case of misusing security considerations as camouflage for achieving other goals which are unrelated to security matters and unacceptable."

Israel has also been criticised for segregating roads used by Israeli motorists in the West Bank for stated reasons of security. Israeli officials reject claims that this is racial discrimination, partly because Arabs with Israeli citizenship are permitted to use the roads. They also frequent the Dead Sea beaches.

The Israeli military declined to comment in detail while judicial proceedings are under way, but said in a statement that "the network of security crossings in the West Bank was erected in response to the extreme terrorist threat and violence during the second intifada." Since the violence had "ebbed" crossings were "under review".

By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
Saturday, 14 June 2008

INDEGENOUS LEADERS BEATEN AND PUBLICLY HUMILIATED

Posted on June 1, 2008 by dandelionsalad

Posted with permission by Green Left Weekly

by Franz Chavez
Green Left Weekly

31 May 2008

Bolivia may have its first-ever indigenous president, but racism is alive and well in this country, as demonstrated by the public humiliation of a group of around 50 indigenous mayors, town councillors and community leaders in the south-central city of Sucre.

The incident, which shook the country but received little attention from the international press, occurred on May 25, when President Evo Morales, an Aymara Indian, was to appear in a public ceremony in Sucre to deliver 50 ambulances for rural communities and announce funding for municipal projects.

But in the early hours of May 25, organised groups opposed to Morales began to surround the stadium where he was to appear. Confronting the police and soldiers with sticks, stones and dynamite, they managed to occupy the stadium.

The president cancelled his visit, and the security forces were withdrawn to avoid bloodshed.

Right-wing violence

But violent elements of the Interinstitutional Committee, a conservative pro-autonomy, anti-Morales civic group that is backed by the local university and other bodies, continued to harass and beat supporters of the governing Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) and anyone who appeared to be indigenous.

A mob of armed civilians, partially made up of university students, then surrounded several dozen indigenous Morales supporters, including local authorities who had come from other regions to attend the ceremony.

The terrified indigenous people, who had sought refuge in a poor neighbourhood on the outskirts of Sucre, were stripped of their few belongings and forced to walk seven kilometres to the House of Liberty, a symbol of the end of colonial rule in Bolivia that was declared there in 1825.

In the city’s main square, they were forced to kneel — shirtless — and apologise for coming to Sucre. They were also made to chant insults like “Die Evo!”

They were surrounded by activists from the pro-autonomy movement, who set fire to the blue, black and white MAS party flag, the multicolour flag of the Aymara people and colourful hand-woven indigenous ponchos seized from the visiting Morales supporters.

Sucre Mayor Aidee Nava and the Interinstitutional Committee immediately apologised after the incident. Morales called on Sucre officials to bring those responsible to justice.

Entrenched racism

Indigenous people in Bolivia have long suffered discrimination. They were not even allowed to vote until 1952, when the government of the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement (MNR) abolished pongaje — a system of forced labour for indigenous people in rural areas.

South America’s poorest country is divided between the western highlands, home to the poor indigenous majority, and the much wealthier eastern provinces that account for most of the country’s natural gas production, industry and agribusiness. The population of eastern Bolivia tends to be of more European and mixed-race descent.

Santa Cruz, Bolivia’s richest province, is at the vanguard of an autonomy movement that involves six of the country’s nine regions. People in Santa Cruz voted in favour of regional autonomy in a May 4 referendum, and three other eastern provinces will hold similar referendums in June.

Analysts say that underlying the autonomy movement, which is spearheaded by the right-wing business and political elites who governed Bolivia for decades, is the question of control and use of Bolivia’s natural resources.

The aim of the left-wing Morales government is to distribute the nation’s wealth more evenly, in order to improve the living conditions of the country’s indigenous people — most of whom live in appalling poverty.

According to MAS representatives and an independent analyst who spoke to Inter-Press Service, the May 25 incident has encouraged Morales supporters to redouble their efforts to bring about structural changes aimed at eradicating inequality and discrimination.

“We are witnessing a backlash by the oligarchy”, Rene Navarro, a MAS representative in the constituent assembly that is rewriting the Bolivian constitution, told IPS. Navarro predicted more violence against indigenous people by the right.

The right is attempting in the media to portray the Sucre violence as part of a government-fomented campaign aimed at further polarising the country along regional lines. But Navarro argued that the racist violence is “a blow to all citizens alike”. He said that the government should publicise what it has achieved over the last two-and-a-half years.

Fighting back

MAS lawmaker Jose Pimentel, a former leader of the country’s miners’ union, told IPS that it was urgently necessary to get the draft constitution approved in a referendum, with the support of the rural indigenous peasants in alliance with the urban poor.

Independent analyst Franco Gamboa agreed that the only option open to the government is to continue forging ahead with the new constitution, the vote on which is being delayed by the autonomy referendums as well as plans for a recall referendum for Morales, his vice president, and the country’s nine provincial governors.

The aim of the new constitution, whose draft was approved by the MAS majority in the constituent assembly in a December vote boycotted by the right, is to create a unified but decentralised state that recognises Bolivia’s cultural and ethnic diversity, while ensuring greater political participation and access to land and other resources by indigenous people.

Gamboa said the reaction of conservative groups in Sucre and the autonomy movements in eastern provinces reflect opposition to the greater political independence and expanded land rights that the new constitution would grant indigenous people — which represent a challenge to the privileges enjoyed by the landowning and business elites.

The new constitution would recognise greater autonomy for the provinces, municipalities and indigenous communities, while the anti-Morales provinces only want decentralisation at the municipal and provincial levels.

Pimentel stressed that “the fact that Morales was elected as the country’s first indigenous president is not sufficient to do away with a racist, neo-colonial state, which is why it is important to reform the constitution”.

Juanita Ancieta, a leader of the Women’s Federation of the Tropico de Cochabamba, told IPS that “we are not going to allow them to divide Bolivia, and we are not going to sit back with our arms crossed, doing nothing”.

[Originally published by the Inter-Press Service on May 28, abridged fromhttp://bolivisarising.blogspot.com.]