Human Rights
Friday, November 3, 5:30-6pm
WGRN 91.9FM community radio, wgrn.org
Nationally renowned peace activist David Swanson is interviewed by Free Press Board member Mark Stansbery in the program discussing our world's current ways and how to move to a world beyond war.
David is a regular guest at the Free Press Zoom salons and his weekly articles can be found on freepress.org. His podcast also plays on the local community radio station WGRN 91.9FM. David was one of the first to point out the lack of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq prior to the war and the hypocrisy of the United States lies about them.
Gaza has changed the political equation in Palestine.
Moreover, the repercussions of this devastating war are likely to alter the political equation in the entire Middle East and to re-center Palestine as the world’s most urgent political crisis for years to come.
Since the establishment of Israel, facilitated by Britain and protected by the United States and other Western countries, the priorities have been entirely Israeli.
‘Israeli security’, Israel’s ‘military edge’, ‘Israel’s right to defend itself’, and much more, have defined the West’s political discourse on the Israeli occupation and apartheid in Palestine.
This bizarre US-western understanding of the so-called conflict, that an oppressor has ‘rights’ over the oppressed, has enabled Israel to maintain a military occupation over Palestinian Territories that has lasted for over 56 years.
History will not forgive those who have remained silent, exhibited or expressed ‘balanced’ positions - or worse, defended Israel’s ongoing genocide in an already besieged, impoverished and overcrowded Gaza.
This is not a cliché declaration, a desperate attempt aimed at jolting the world, especially the Western world, to show a degree of morality as Palestinians are dying in their thousands, as the pulverized bodies of children are scattered in every neighborhood in Gaza.
No, this is about history.
At one time, the ‘Arab-Israeli Conflict’ was Arab and Israeli. Over the course of many years, however, it was rebranded. The media is now telling us it is a ‘Hamas-Israeli conflict’.
But what went wrong? Israel simply became too powerful.
The supposedly astounding Israeli victories over the years against Arab armies have emboldened Israel to the extent that it came to view itself, not as a regional superpower, but as a global power as well. Israel, per its own definition, became ‘invincible’.
Such terminology was not a mere scare tactic aimed at breaking the spirit of Palestinians and Arabs alike. Israel believed this.
With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hellbent on genocide, people keep sharing a scandalous article from 2015 called “Netanyahu: Hitler Didn’t Want to Exterminate the Jews.” I’m afraid it may give people the wrong idea. Netanyahu’s lie was that a Muslim cleric from Palestine convinced Hitler to kill Jews. But when Netanyahu said that Hitler originally wanted to expel Jews, not murder them, he was telling the indisputable truth. The problem is that it wasn’t a Muslim cleric who convinced Hitler otherwise. And it isn’t any secret who it was. It was the world’s governments.
If you were to listen to people justifying WWII today, and using WWII to justify the subsequent 75 years of wars and war preparations, the first thing you would expect to find in reading about what WWII actually was would be a war motivated by the need to save Jews from mass murder. There would be old photographs of posters with Uncle Sam pointing his finger, saying “I want you to save the Jews!”
The Israeli military, too, has contributed to the Israeli hasbara that Tel Aviv would be able to face several threats at all fronts, from Gaza, to the West Bank, to Lebanon, and Syria.
But the Hamas attack at numerous Israeli targets on Saturday, October 5, at precisely 6:00 am Palestine time, proved him utterly and humiliatingly wrong. Neither Netanyahu, nor his army were in fact able to face a single Palestinian group, operating alone, and under siege.
It will take time for all of this to sink in among Israeli leaders, military brass, media, and society. For now, however, Netanyahu is desperate to show that Israel remains a powerful country and a regional power that deserves its often-touted status of having an ‘invincible’ army.
But all his options are nearly impossible.
It was obvious that Hamas, and later the Islamic Jihad, were keen on capturing as many Israelis - both soldiers, and settlers - as possible.
UPDATE: Yurii has been charged. Sign this petition!
By World BEYOND War, August 3, 2023
Yurii Sheliazhenko’s apartment was broken into today — apparently by the Security Service of Ukraine.
Videos are posted here.
“A 4-year-old girl passed out in 100-degree heat after she was pushed back toward Mexico by Texas National Guard personnel. A pregnant woman became trapped in razor wire and had a miscarriage. A state trooper said he was under orders not to give migrants any water.”
Yes, these are scenes from something called “Operation Lone Star,” but the director isn’t John Ford; it’s Texas Gov. Greg Abbott — and this is real life, as reported by USA Today.
In March, the South Africa Communist Party (SACP) denounced what it described as the ‘imperialist bias' of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Numbers can be dehumanizing. However, when placed in their proper context, they help to illuminate wider issues and answer urgent questions, such as why is Occupied Palestine at the threshold of a major revolt. And why Israel cannot crush Palestinian resistance no matter how hard, or violently, it tries.
That's when numbers become relevant. Since the start of this year, nearly 200 Palestinians have been killed in the Occupied West Bank and Gaza. Among them are 27 children.
If one is to imagine a heat map correlating the towns, villages and refugee camps of the Palestinian victims to the ongoing armed rebellion, one will immediately spot direct connections. Gaza, Jenin and Nablus, for example, paid the heaviest price for Israeli violence, making them the regions that resist most.