contributions

End the Israeli Apartheid State
“BISHOP DESMOND TUTU, the South African Nobel Prize winner, described how he saw on his visit to Israel “much like what happened to us black people in South Africa. I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about” (1)….”
AN OCCUPATION THAT CREATES CHILDREN WILLING TO DIE Israel: an apartheid state?
by Leila Farsakh | Le Monde Diplomatique (…)

EXCLUSIVE: New Video Smuggled Out from Mavi Marmara of Israel’s Deadly Assault on Gaza Aid Flotilla Culturesofresistance
In a Democracy Now! exclusive, we bring you a sneak preview of previously unseen raw footage from the Mavi Marmara that will be formally released at a press conference at the United Nations later in the day. The footage shows the mood and the activities onboard the Mavi Marmara in the time leading up to the attack, and the immediate reaction of the passengers during the (…)

Rational risk management (that, for example, makes aviation so safe) successively involved (a) accurate information, (b) scientific analysis (this involving the critical testing of potentially falsifiable hypotheses) and (c) informed systemic change to minimize risk.
False assertions clearly utterly undermine rational risk management. However the Australian Labor Government is utterly incorrect in its repeated assertion that “natural gas is clean energy”. This untruth remains uncorrected (…)

By Nicola Nasser*
The attack in the international waters of the Mediterranean in the early hours of May 31 by an elite force of the Israeli navy on the Turkish – flagged Mavi Marmara civilian ferry crammed with more than 700 international activists, including several Americans, carrying 100 tonnes of cargo including concrete, medicines and children’s toys, and leading five smaller vessels of the Free Gaza Flotilla, which left eight Turks and a U.S. citizen of Turkish origin dead and (…)

EAST End politician George Galloway told protestors campaigning against the Gaza blockade that a new convoy will head off there.
The former Bethnal Green and Bow MP told a gathering of protesters outside the Israeli embassy in Kensington this weekend that: "a land convoy will leave Britain shortly after the end of Ramadan in September and travel through Europe, down through Turkey and Syria into Jordan. We will ask the Egyptian government then to ensure passage from the port of Aqaba to (…)

Hundreds of thousands of protesters marched through cities around the world on Saturday over the Israeli killing of nine Turkish activists last week aboard an aid ship bound for Gaza.
Rallies took place in London, Sheffield, Edinburgh and other British cities as part of an international day of action which also saw demonstrations in Turkey, Lebanon, Spain, Ireland and Gaza itself.
In London, 20,000 protesters marched from Downing Street to the Israeli embassy to express outrage at the (…)

“The Government Is Drowning Us All”.
A disaster was averted yesterday (June 5) at Tel-Aviv’s Museum Square, when rightists threw a smoke grenade into the middle of the protest rally, obviously hoping for a panic to break out and cause the protesters to trample on each other. But the demonstrators remained calm, nobody started to run and just a small space in the middle of the crowd remained empty. The speaker did not stop talking even when the cloud of smoke reached the stage. The audience (…)

Exclusive: Nine Turkish men on board Mavi Marmara were shot a total of 30 times, autopsy results reveal
Israel was tonight under pressure to allow an independent inquiry into its assault on the Gaza aid flotilla after autopsy results on the bodies of those killed, obtained by the Guardian, revealed they were peppered with 9mm bullets, many fired at close range.
Nine Turkish men on board the Mavi Marmara were shot a total of 30 times and five were killed by gunshot wounds to the head, (…)

Jewish Boat to Gaza is sailing soon In a harbour in the Mediterranean a small vessel is waiting for a special mission. She will be sailing to Gaza during the second half of July. In order to avoid sabotage, the exact date and name of the port of departure will be announced only shortly before her launch. « Our purpose is to call an end to the siege of Gaza, to this illegal collective punishment of the whole civilian population.
Our boat is small, so our donations can only be symbolic: we (…)

By Bianca Shaana
In the dark, early hours of May 31, Israel launched a commando and navy attack on 6 unarmed civilian ships carrying humanitarian aid in the international waters of the Mediterranean sea, opening fire before they landed. These highly trained, professional soldiers killed and wounded tens of civilians, many of whom were on the Mavi Marmara, a boat owned by the Turkish charity, IHH (The Foundation for Human Rights & Freedoms & Humanitarian Relief).
We in the Free (…)