IPSC Open Letter to Dervish: please don’t perform in Apartheid Israel next June

This is the open letter written by Raymond Deane, Cultural Liaison Officer of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) to Irish traditional group Dervish asking them to cancel their dates in apartheid Israel June 2012.

DPAI (Don’t Play Apartheid Israel) Facebook page here:  Dervish, Don’t Bring Your Travelling Show to Apartheid Israel

OPEN LETTER TO DERVISH

Dear members of Dervish (Kathy Jordan, Brian McDonagh, Liam Kelly, Tom Morrow, Shane Mitchell and Michael Holmes):

Many lovers of Irish music have been deeply shocked and disappointed to learn of your plan to tour Israel next June, despite the 2006 Palestinian call for an international cultural and academic boycott of the Israeli state until it abides by international law.

On this tour you will be joined by the Irish band FullSet, which boasts that it has “already shared a stage with some of the hottest names in Celtic music, such as Moya Brennan, Lúnasa…, Andy Irvine and Dónal Lunny.”

This is deeply ironic, because Irvine and Lunny – together with Christy Moore, Sharon Shannon, Damien Dempsey, Ronan Browne, Jimmy McCarthy, and many other giants of Irish music (and over 200 other creative and performing artists) – have signed a pledge “not to avail of any invitation to perform or exhibit in Israel… until such time as Israel complies with international law and universal principles of human rights.”

 This means that if you perform in Israel you will be betraying both the Palestinian people and many of your most respected colleagues. You will be manipulated by the state of Israel to whitewash the utter criminality of  its occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands.

 In 2005 an Israeli spokesman asserted that “We see culture as a propaganda tool of the first rank, and…do not differentiate between propaganda and culture.” [Ha’aretz, September 2005]

Here are some examples (among many) of the way that Israel represses the expression and dissemination of Palestinian culture:

* In 2002, Israel prevented the Palestinian poets Zakaria Mohammed and Ghassan Zaqtan from travelling to Ireland to read their work.

* In May 2009, Israeli soldiers prevented the opening of the Palestine Festival of Literature in Jerusalem. In April 2011, the venue hosting the final event of that year’s Festival was attacked with tear gas by the Israeli army.

* In May 2010, the Israeli authorities deported Spain’s most famous clown, Ivan Prado, who was planning to establish a clown festival in Ramallah.

* In summer 2011, Israeli commandos assaulted the Freedom Theatre in occupied Jenin, arresting several of its members.

* Also last year, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu suspended Israel’s financial contribution to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation which oversees the protection of the world’s cultural heritage. This was to “punish” the majority of the world’s states for having voted to admit Palestine to the UN agency. This constitutes an Israeli cultural boycott of most of the world. For the same reason, Israel larcenously suspended tax transfers to the Palestinian Authority.

If you cancel your trip to Israel, thus incidentally saving the members of FullSet from the infamy of breaching the Palestinian cultural boycott so early in their career, you will have joined the likes of Roger Waters, Elvis Costello, Cassandra Wilson, and Carlos Santana who, having at first agreed to perform in that country, decided that it was of greater importance to support the just struggle of the Palestinian people against Israeli oppression.

The governments of the EU see Israel as “a strategic partner” and offer it generous trading and diplomatic privileges. When governments refuse to take human rights violations seriously, then it is up to civil society to act. Please be on the side of justice: please cancel your tour of Israel!

Raymond Deane

Cultural Liaison Officer

Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Meanwhile, the organiser of the Dervish performance posted on the Facebook page:

Avshalom Farjun

Hello people of Ireland, land me your ear for a moment. My name is Avshalom. I’m a musician and producer and I’m organizing Dervish’s concerts in Israel. I love Irish music & I have close friendly relations with the members of Dervish whom I know for the past 15 years. People who know me will probably say I’m quite a nice and loving person even though I’m Israeli. The story of Israel-Palestine is very sad and tragic one for both sides… please try to remember that. Innocent people are suffering for so many years for terrible mistakes of leaders and politicians from both sides.
I’m certainly not a politician and responding to such attacks is not my cup of tea. I just want to share few things about me and get the right to expose my point of view.
I’m straggling for piece all my life. There are hundreds of thousands like me in my country. My personal way of contribution for piece and coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians was not demonstrations of any kind but creating an excellent ensemble consist of Arabs and Jews. We performed for about 15 years all around the globe. The idea was not a political one as we looked for the best musicians in order to make the best music. People have always applauded not only to the music but also to the fact that Israelis and Palestinians can create art together. We have not tried to change anybody in the band. Every one kept his own political ideas…but we shared some incredible love and passion to music and deep friendship. The project survived and gained a lot of success because we really believed music should not be played for political reasons and saw our music as something that brings people together and heals wounds.
I’ve invited Dervish to bring their music over not to support any political idea. Performing in Israel by Dervish does not mean anything about what they think or feel about the conflict. I’m sure that when they will receive an invitation to perform at the Palestinian territory, they will happily accept it.
Please people; try to accept that music transcends barriers. It’s not necessarily meant to support or criticize any political systems.

This is the DPAI response:

Dervish, Don’t Bring Your Travelling Show to Apartheid Israel

Thanks for your post but Palestinian civil society has called for a boycott of apartheid Israel until it abides by international law. The guidelines are very clear and we support the Palestinian BDS call. This is not the story of an equal conflict between “two sides”, it is in fact about the dispossession and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people and the apartheid, war crimes and imprisonment they have been subjected to by Israel for 64 years.
PACBI (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel) has issued a very strong statement on normalisation and we adhere to that, it’s below if you’d like to read. We are asking Dervish to respect this BDS call, stand with other artists of conscience who have done so, stand with the oppressed Palestinian people in their struggle for justice and stand against Israeli apartheid. The Israeli state uses performances there as a means to whitewash its crimes against humanity, Dervish will be part of that if they play. With respect, the Palestinian call for solidarity has primacy here and we reiterate our call for Dervish NOT to play for apartheid.

PACBI: Debating BDS: On Normalization and Partial Boycotts

Yesterday the unofficial Facebook page of the Israeli embassy in Ireland posted on the official Dervish page, demonstrating to them that any performance in Israel will be used by the state to legitimise apartheid.

Lies and Hysteria in the Campaign Against BDS – BDS is biting

A poster on the DPAI facebook page Red Hot Chili Peppers: Defy Injustice, Cancel Israel brought this group to my attention: Creative Community For Peace , (CCFP) ” a nonprofit seeking to counter artist boycotts of Israel”. Ironically the poster had read about the RHCP page in this article “Music moguls to artists: Don’t boycott Israel”  and joined the BDS page, thanks for advertising for us, zionists!  The article recounts a meeting with over thirty “leading music executives, talent agents and entertainment lawyers” organised by CCFP as a means to counter the growing BDS movement which has had much success in appealing to artists  and, through information and dialogue, persuading them to either cancel their dates in apartheid Israel or to pledge not to perform there.

According to the article, the meeting started off with slides of many of the artists who have cancelled gigs in Israel (testament to the effectiveness of BDS) and then went on to trot out some familiar lies about the purpose of the campaign. These lies are not new to BDs campaigners and activists and are to be found wherever zionist supporters of apartheid Israel attempt to smear those who would stand with the Palestinian people in their struggle for justice. As there are propaganda (hasbara) manuals and guides produced by Israel and its patrons, the lies are readily to hand but are as transparent as they are predictable. One of the primary lies about the BDS movement is that it is: “a very well-organized, very well-funded movement,” – the irony of this, coming from the Israeli state and its paid propagandists, is delicious.

Another falsehood trotted out  is that: “it’s not about debating Israel’s policies. It’s really about undermining our right to be a state for Jews.”  This could not be further from the truth, the BDS campaign is all about debating and highlighting Israel’s policies of apartheid, ethnic cleansing, home demolition, war crimes and imprisonment.  BDS is about fighting Israel’s crimes against humanity. When faced with real debate and facts, zionists retreat behind the well-worn accusation of anti-semitism, while simultaneously refusing to enter into real discussion. Defending the indefensible is impossible you see, so to counter a rights-based campaign rooted in truth and a struggle for equality, the only option is lies and smears.  Evoking the Nazis is an especially debased tactic and does such disservice to those who were murdered by that terrible regime as to demonstrate that it is zionism itself that is anti-semitic.  As I have written numerous times, these tactics are nothing new but I do believe their frequency is making them increasingly less credible, even to those who might ordinarily be amenable to them.

A further tactic and one that is less distasteful than those above, but is certainly more pathetic, is to enumerate Israel’s ‘achievements’ as a counter to the boycott. Invented something great, brought medical aid somewhere, done something big in technology? Well that’s ok then, we’ll overlook your dropping of white phosphorous on unarmed civilians, we’ll ignore the thousands of children you have killed and maimed etc….. really? All that cash and expertise and this is a strategy? It’s the indefensible you see….

Amidst all the falsehoods in the article (I’ve given myself a headache reading it), there are real whoppers about Macy Gray and her performance in Israel, among them that she was the subject of death threats during efforts to dissuade her from playing as well as this bizarre and racist claim: “As an African-American, Gray was particularly sensitive to accusations of apartheid”,  of course no-one accused Gray of practising apartheid, how absurd! The apartheid nature of the Israeli state was pointed out to her, naturally, and she saw it for herself when there.  The article goes on to say that she met Palestinian and Israeli groups but completely omits her later comments that she was mislead and regrets breaking the boycott. Selective hysteria indeed.

This meeting, the newly formed CCFP, the Reut Institute report and the paying of hasbarists to troll the internet and post hate about the Palestinian people and rubbish about Israel’s ‘democracy’, prove that BDS is biting, and big time.  At the meeting, Ran Geffen-Lifshitz, CEO of Media Men Group, a music publishing company based in Tel Aviv stated: “If you boycott Israel in art, the next thing is boycotting Israeli manufactured goods, then a boycott of Israel as a tourist destination.” Absolutely! Along with the cultural and academic boycott of Israel comes the consumer boycott, and if you must fly to Tel Aviv, make it to visit Palestine.

Post script: Thanks to the CCFP for providing us with the roll of shame of those who played for apartheid.  The BDS movement also has a growing  list of those who have chosen the right side of history, who have not sold out their consciences, who have acted with integrity and stood with the Palestinian people. I know which list I’d prefer to be on.

BDS success 2011

Targeting BDS Activists, the Price of Dissent

The Palestinian led BDS campaign against apartheid Israel has many supporters worldwide and they are often the target of attempted bullying by zionists, particularly in online fora. Indeed, Israel pays students to spread hasbara (propaganda) on social networking sites. When artists decide to cancel dates in apartheid Israel, or when they make statements in support of BDS,  they are usually subject to an onslaught of hatred from zionists on facebook, twitter etc -much of the commentary is so racist and vile as to astonish. Some examples include the vitriol directed at Joker (Dubstep) and the support for war crimes and apartheid on display on the Arch Enemy page.  The BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) group Don’t Play Apartheid Israel (DPAI) has created many facebook pages to support thePalestinian call for BDS and the administrators of those pages regularly have to delete hate speech.

The latest example of such personal targeting was posted on the Red Hot Chilli Peppers: Defy Injustice, Cancel Israel page this week 17 April) and is aimed at Israeli activist Tali Shapiro. In a blog about Shapiro’s open and public letter to the RHCP asking them not to play apartheid Israel, the blogger ‘BDS Gone Bad’ accuses her of dishonesty in this correspondence (while misspelling the band’s name…).  “But Shapiro does not adress the subject honestly’ as an activist with a very clear and agressive agenda (legitimate as such), but first of all as a fan.” Bizarrely the blogger has also gone into Shapiro’s personal facebook page and looked for bands she ‘likes’, as many of these have been booked to play apartheid Israel at some stage, the alleged correlation is that Tali Shapiro cannot be a fan of a band she doesn’t ‘like’ on facebook or has recently ‘liked’ on facebook. Confused yet? I know I am. You see, the blogger had access to the page of a self-declared activist and someone who opens her letter to the RHCP thus:

“Dear Anthony, Flea, Chad and Josh,

My name is Tali. I’m a citizen of Israel from the privileged side of the apartheid, who supports the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions on the state of Israel. It doesn’t take much to get me to talk about the atrocities I witness here everyday, but I’d rather make it as brief as possible, so you’ll actually take the time to read this.”

So, the opening sentence of the letter states Shapiro’s support for BDS, it’s been published widely and her facebook page is open…..dishonesty? Absolutely not. The attack is, as usual, an attempt to obfuscate and to smear those who work for BDS as dishonest or being ‘political’. The notion that being political is a negative thing is a major component of the Israeli state narrative against solidarity actions and campaigns.  It is constantly used as an accusation which is laughable since NOT being political in the face of the apartheid, occupation, ethnic cleansing, imprisonment and war crimes inflicted by Israel on the Palestinian people would be shameful.

Tali Shapiro is a committed BDS activist in a campaign that is gaining traction all the time.  While there are people who have to be paid to spread propaganda for Israel and those who support the status quo as it enables their privilege at the expense of the rights of the Palestinians,  there are many, many more Palestinians, Israelis, and people from all over the world who struggle together for justice for Palestine.  BDS is biting, these attacks testify to it.

Dear Renaud Garcia-Fons, Don’t Play Apartheid Israel – Campagne BDS France

French composer and double-bass player Renaud Garcia-Fons is scheduled at the White City festival in Tel Aviv, apartheid Israel on May 6th. This is the English translation of an open letter written to him by the French BDS Campaign,Campagne  BDS France. Don’t Play Apartheid Israel (DPAI) has made a facebook calling on all the artists scheduled to perform at the festival to cancel: Don’t Play Tel Aviv White City – It’s Today’s Sun City 

Paris, 17 April 2012

Dear Renaud Garcia-Fons,

On 6 May next, you plan to give a concert in Tel Aviv at the “White City music festival”.

We are surprised to learn that you, who are attached to the respect for human dignity, would perform in a country which has been mocking international law for more than sixty years. We recall your participation in an “Orchestra for Peace” at the “Human Solidarity Concert” in Paris in 2002.

Miguel Angel Estrella, who was at your side during that concert, is today a member of the support committee of the Russell Tribunal for Palestine.  The conclusions* of that tribunal at its recent session in Cape Town, South Africa, are unambiguous:  Israel is responsible for grave violations of international law and is guilty of the crime of apartheid.

Renaud Garcia-Fons, are you aware that, while hundreds of music-lovers would be able to enjoy your talent in Tel Aviv, thousands of others would be deprived of it, being relegated behind a separation wall?

For decades the Palestinian people have been victims of Israel’s apartheid policy, which scandalously curtails their most elementary rights:  their access to water, to education, to medical care, their freedom of movement.

A people under colonolisation in the West Bank, a people under a blockade in Gaza, a people under discrimination in Israel, added to the refugees whose right to return was recognized by the United Nations but never implemented by Israel.  The international community closes its eyes while the Israeli government behaves with total impunity:  its killing of hundreds of civilians in 2009 during the “Cast Lead” attack on Gaza;  its constant military incursions in the West Bank and its military check-points there;  the numerous inequalities between Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel regarding  medical care, work, and public services;  the thousands of uprooted Palestinians living as refugees all over the world;  the peaceful activists participating in the Freedom Flotilla in 2010, killed in cold blood.

Faced with such injustice, Palestinian civil society decided in 2005 to launch the BDS campaign:  boycott-divestment-sanctions against Israel as long as it does not respect international law.  This movement, inspired by the struggle of the South Africans against apartheid, has now taken on international dimensions and the boycott of the State of Israel is growing everywhere.

Today, numerous artists have chosen not to perform in Israel as long as that state does not change its policies.  In the film world, Ken Loach, Jean-Luc Godard, Meg Ryan, Dustin Hoffman and Mike Leigh, along with musicians such as Roger Waters, Brian Eno, Annie Lennox, Carlos Santana, Elvis Costllo, Gil Scott-Heron, Gorillaz, The Pixies, Massive Attack, Gilles Vigneault, Vanessa Paradis, have all cancelled their appearances which were scheduled in different Israeli cities.

By going to perform in Israel you would be participating in the normalisation of a colonial situation. Please don’t help to close the eyes of French citizens by acting as if nothing unacceptable is happening over there.  We can readily imagine that you were unaware of the situation on the ground, but from now on you can no longer say “I didn’t know!”.

If you would like to have more details about the policies of the Israeli government, we would be glad to provide them.

Dear Renaud Garcia-Fons, we appeal to you to join the artists who are boycotting Israel as long as that state refuses to respect international law, and to cancel your concert at the festival in Tel Aviv.

With best wishes,

BDS French Campaign

CICP

21 ter rue Voltaire

75011 Paris

campagnebdsfrance@yahoo.fr

http://www.bdsfrance.org/

*http://www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com/en/sessions/south-africa/south-africa-session-full-findings-french

Media Bias. Labour Party Conference: “Violence, What Violence?” – Galway Peace Group

Yesterday, 14th April 2012, thousands of people protested at the Labour Party Conference in NUIG. Though the protesters were a diverse group, representing many different causes and campaigns, they were all united in their disgust at this government’s, in which the Labour party is a partner, selling out of Ireland and the Irish citizenry.

At the protest Galway Alliance Against War held a symbolic funeral for Irish neutrality which has been sold to the US imperialist war machine by successive governments since the beginning of the ‘war on terror’. Since then, millions of US troops have passed through Shannon airport on their way to and from the illegal invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. People have also been transported through Shannon airport to be tortured at Guantanamo prison camp and other torture sites.

While a largely corporate and compliant media consistently ignores the illegal use of Shannon airport for such crimes against humanity and the actual and terrible violence being visited on the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, it reported erroneously today on violence from the GAAW, among others, at the Labour conference protest.  Indeed John Drennan in the Sunday Independent is quite hysterical: “Over 1,000 protesters, using a mock coffin as a weapon, breached the garda cordon surrounding the conference on the campus of NUI Galway and protesters made it to the doors of the hall.” That bears repeating: “using a mock coffin as a weapon” – really? What? The violence on the day was the use of pepper spray by the Gardaí. This kind of reporting is typical of the mainstream media in Ireland, the actual brutal and terrifying  violence employed against innocent people in Iraq and Afghanistan is largely ignored and an anti-war group characterised as violent.   Such rhetoric is constantly used so as to legitimise war and those who wage it while simultaneously demonising those who protest it, who refuse to accept the casual slaughter of people with our complicity. I seem to remember that some prominent Labour party people once shared such views….politics…..

The GAAW has made a statement on this reportage and it is reposted in full below.

The majority of the commentary around the protest, is as usual, skewed in favour of the establishment and ultimately has little respect for people’s democratic right to protest and to resist injustice.  Labour party members also called us “bullies” and “scumbags”, confirming that they too merely pay lip service to true democracy.

I have stood with these good people in Shannon warport many times, and am proud to do so. Equally, I am proud of all the people who protested yesterday and delighted to have been among them. One of the chants on the day was :”This is what democracy looks like” – perhaps that’s why the government and the media get so nervous and hysterical about it.  One day we may have a society founded in equality and fairness and we won’t be governed by those who think that bombing people in distant lands is alright but that protesting it is not.

GALWAY ALLIANCE AGAINST WAR

Labour Party Conference: “Violence, What Violence?” – Galway Peace Group

In reaction to press reports of violence during the protests at the Labour Party conference at NUI Galway, Galway’s local peace group, the Galway Alliance Against War, has issued the following statement.

“GAAW’s symbolic funeral for Irish neutrality was at the head of Saturday’s protest march to the Labour Party conference. The tricolour-draped coffin carried by four pallbearers dressed as Guantanamo prisoners was a poignant image with a strong message: Irish neutrality is dead since consecutive Irish governments – including the FG-Labour coalition – have colluded with Washington’s disastrous “war on terror”, which has turned Shannon airport into a US warport.

“ In response to the sensational media reports of violence, we would ask, what violence? Apart from the unnecessary use of pepper spray by the Gardaí there was nothing other than some pushing and shoving. It has to be said that the Gardaí were quite restrained. This reflects the disaffection of the Gardaí with the policies that are impacting on the vast majority of Irish citizens, including members of the Gardaí. But perhaps the most ludicrous media report was that our coffin was used as a “battering ram”. The fact that nobody was hurt by the coffin – only by pepper spray – shows that report to be nonsense.

“If the Irish media wants to know about violence then perhaps it should turn its attention to the military hardware including chemical weapons that have travelled through Shannon warport en route to Iraq and Afghanistan. Take a look at the reports of the US attack on Fallujah in 2004 and its aftermath, where white phosphorous was used that came via Shannon.

“Or maybe the Irish media should read the testimony of “extraordinary rendition” victim Binyam Mohamad. His CIA kidnappers and torturers travelled through Shannon warport on two occasions and even stayed overnight en route to bring Mr Mohamad to torture. Now there is real violence. The Irish state was in breach of international law. And the present government is also in breach, as Gilmore has refused to search any of the US warplanes travelling through Shannon, preferring to accept the highly unreliable assurances of his confidant the US ambassador.

“And if the Irish media has still not got an understanding about what violence is, then maybe they should look at the body count from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. So far more than 1.5 million people have been killed. And Irish governments under Fianna Fail, the PDs, the Greens, Fine Gael and Labour have been accessories to these killings. Yes, they have blood on their hands and so has the Irish people because we have failed to prevent our airports and air space to be used by the US warmongers.

“Indeed, Eamon Gilmore in his speech to conference hailed his government’s collusion in the “war on terror” in Afghanistan as something to be proud of: ‘I want to pay tribute tonight to …the members of our Defence Forces and Gardaí serving in … Afghanistan…They all represent the best of what it is to be Irish.’

“By bringing Irish neutrality’s coffin to the conference hall door we wanted to raise the real issues of violence that Ireland is involved in and which the powers-that-be and the media prefer to ignore.”
ENDS

For your information:    Toxic legacy of US assault on Fallujah ‘worse than Hiroshima’

More information on the US military use of Shannon airport here at Shannonwatch

As the ‘International Community’ Fails Palestine Yet Again, BDS is Crucial

Seeing the decision by the ICC not to pursue Israel for war crimes committed in Gaza in 2008/09, it is again clear that the ‘international community’ and most of its organs have no interest in any action that might disturb Israel’s hegemony and impunity. They said nothing while over 1,400 people were slaughtered in Gaza in just 22 days, thousands more maimed, made homeless, and they have waited three years to announce that they can now not seek justice for those people. It is an outrage, they have deemed Palestine not to be a state, have they also deemed the Palestinians not to be people? War crimes against them not to be worthy of prosecution?

Meanwhile Netanyahu is trying to ‘legalise’ more illegal colonies, the Bedouin people are being ethnically cleansed from the Negev and children burn to death in Gaza because of powercuts caused by the barbaric siege.

In the face of all this illegality, brutality and abject support for Israel by the US, the UK, the EU – Palestinian civil society leads the way in resisting apartheid and international solidarity suppports it.  The BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement is a core part of this resistance and its importance is growing and is more and more necessary. As apartheid South Africa was subject to an international boycott, so must Israel be until there is justice for Palestine. A major part of BDS is the cultural boycott and there is much focus on musicians scheduled to play in Israel.

Don’t Play Apartheid Israel (DPAI) has created the following BDS pages calling on artists not to play apartheid Israel, asking them to say no to normalisation, no to appropriation of culture, no to occupation, ethnic cleansing and war crimes. The more people who ‘like’ these pages, the more weight they have with the artists and the greater the possibility  of them cancelling. The global solidarity movement for Palestine is huge, let’s show our strength and our numbers and let artists know that no-one should play for apartheid and everyone should stand for justice for the Palestinian people.

Like and share:

Madonna’s Concert Against Peace

Don’t Play Tel Aviv White City – It’s Today’s Sun City

Red Hot Chili Peppers: Defy Injustice, Cancel Israel

Lenny Kravitz: Are you gonna go apartheid’s way?

BDS all the way!

The Kimberley Process – A Charade, no human rights here.

Today there was a webchat hosted by the US Chair of the Kimberley Process (KP) Gillian Milovanovic, billed as an opportunity for the public to become familiarised with the KP, to “Learn about what it is and what it means.”  Human rights activists concerned by the anomaly in the KP whereby cut and polished diamonds which fund human rights abuses are able to evade the process and can be sold to unsuspecting consumers as “conflict free” tried to join the discussion. People were specifically concerned with Israeli Blood Diamonds being outside the KP and therefore being available on the market despite providing  a major source of funding for the Israeli military which stands accused of war crimes by the UN Human Rights Council.

Last month over twenty human rights group issued a statement calling on the Kimberley Process to ban the trade in diamonds from Israel. Human rights groups believe that if jewellers continue profiteering from and facilitating the trade in Israeli blood diamonds they will cause irreparable damage the diamond brand image which consumers are increasingly associating with bloodshed and war crimes.

Although ‘everyone’ was invited to join the discussion on the live webchat and on twitter, it soon became clear that those with questions about Israeli Blood Diamonds were not welcome to the conversation. Initially a few questions got through and were displayed on the ticker but not answered and then they stopped being loaded and instead spent upwards of twenty minutes “awaiting moderation.” Finally, the webchat was ended fifteen minutes early, due no doubt to embarrassment at the process being exposed as a charade. For while they could censor our questions, they couldn’t censor twitter and tweets were flying up the ticker on the side with the #IsraeliBloodDiamonds tag, decrying the censorship and sham.

As the organiser of this action, Seán Clinton,  said: “You can be sure that many of the movers and shakers in the global diamond industry were following the discussion from the sideline – if they didn’t know before this that Israeli Blood Diamonds are an issue they do now.”

Here’s a selection of the tweets to the KP Chair. Click on images to enlarge.

Later some of those involved in the censored discussion commented on the CO.NX  Facebook pager, to which they gave this implausible response: “CO.NX Thank you to everyone who participated in today’s webchat with Kimberley Process Chair Ambassador Milovanovic. We realize that there were a number of questions that we did not have a chance to answer, and we encourage you to visit the Kimberley Process website (http://www.kimberleyprocess.com/) for detailed information on the scope and purpose of the initiative.”

Here are some of the responses to this:

 

For more information about Israeli Blood Diamonds read here.

Zionism – Absence of Soul?

We read today the terrible news that three children in Deir-Al- Balah in Gaza  burned to death as a result of the fuel shortages blighting life there. The children from the Bashir family are aged two, five and six – a fouth child, a six month old baby,  is in hospital. They were using a candle because of power cuts and fell asleep. This unspeakable horror is a result of the siege illegally and immorally imposed on Gaza by Israel.  There are many stories of the lives and livelihoods ruined by this siege, the families who can’t rebuild their homes, the patients who can’t get proper medical treatment, the kids who can’t avail of opportunities for education, for travel because of this blockade – it is an affront to humanity.

Reading an article about this on YNet, friends noted the comments underneath from supporters of apartheid. They are vile, the absence of humanity is disturbing in the extreme. Similar to when a bus crashed recently killing Palestinian children,  the abject lack of empathy or common humanity expressed by the zionist posters is astonishing.  It seems that the Israeli state has been successful in dehumanising Palestinians so much, particularly those in Gaza, to much of the Israeli public that many of them have lost any shred of decency towards them. I know this is not representative of everybody but to me it is representative of zionism which is a racist ideology privileging the rights of some human beings above others. If you subscribe to that then you see others as inferior and their death, injury, humanity is easy to dismiss. I think this is one of the ways the colonial project that is Israel has ‘succeeded’. You couldn’t support your government bombing a captive people for 22 days and imprisoning them and demolishing their homes and locking up children and building walls around them unless you believed they were lesser beings to you, could you?

Here are some of the comments:

Blame the Jews: NOT the morons who cant handle a candle!

Mindless pals can’t even handle a candle for G-ds sake! Don’t see any houses burning down in Xmas time in the states. But in Gaza… yeah. Idiots would rather fund terror than nation building: they could’ve had solar plants, desalination plants for water and gas turbines installed A LONG, LONG TIME AGO. But instead; they fund terror, rockets, explosives, guns, weapons and 5 star hotels that no one can afford. leave to the pals to provide the supreme example of what the words ”Sub-Human” means. Fools.

BS

Blame Israel now for this?? What about parents supervision?? Oh hold on, the father was busy preparing rockets for Hamas.

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