David Cameron: Gaza Strip a ‘prison camp’

July 27th, 2010 • News
Tags: cameron, david, erdogan, gaza, pm, prison, turkey, uk

Strong word during his visit to Turkey, The Guardian reports:

David Cameron: Israeli blockade has turned Gaza Strip into a ‘prison camp’

Prime minister intervenes in Middle East dispute and hopes Turkey can stop Iran’s nuclear weapons programme

Cameron & Erdogan

David Cameron used a visit to Turkey to make his strongest intervention yet in the intractable Middle East conflict today when he likened the experience of Palestinians in the blockaded Gaza Strip to that of a “prison camp”.

Although he has made similar remarks before, his decision to repeat them on a world stage in Turkey, whose relations with Israel have deteriorated sharply since it mounted a deadly assault on the Gaza flotilla, gave them much greater diplomatic significance.

Cameron’s comments, in a speech to business leaders in Ankara, prompted the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to issue another strong condemnation of how Israel dealt with the flotilla.

Erdogan likened the behaviour of Israeli commandos, who shot dead nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists, to Somali pirates.

Cameron’s criticism of Tel Aviv came when he called for Israel to relax its restrictions on Gaza. “The situation in Gaza has to change,” he said. “Humanitarian goods and people must flow in both directions. Gaza cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp.”

He strongly condemned Israel after the assault on the Gaza flotilla. “The Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla was completely unacceptable,” he said. “I have told prime minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu we will expect the Israeli inquiry to be swift, transparent and rigorous. “Let me also be clear that the situation in Gaza has to change.”

Cameron defended his remarks at a press conference with Erdogan. “My description of Gaza is something I said in the House of Commons several weeks ago. Perhaps this is final proof that if you want to keep something completely secret you should announce it in the House of Commons.”

Hansard, the House of Commons’ official record, shows Cameron said on 28 June: “Everybody knows that we are not going to sort out the problem of the Middle East peace process while there is, effectively, a giant open prison in Gaza.”

His choice of the words “prison camp” instead of “open prison” is likely to be seized upon. But a Downing Street source later tried to play down Cameron’s comments. “This is not an elevation of the rhetoric. This is equivalent language. The prime minister remains concerned.”

Cameron said Britain remained opposed to the blockade of Gaza. “The fact is we have long supported lifting the blockade of Gaza, we have long supported proper humanitarian access. Even though some progress has been made we are still in the situation where it is very difficult to get in, it is very difficult to get out. So I think the description is warranted.”

Read more at The Guardian… (including the objections)

BBC has video… & report

Is Being Arab Israel’s Criteria for Rape?

July 23rd, 2010 • Awareness, News
Tags: apartheid, arab, court, democracy, jew, justice, prison, racism, rape

Al Jazeera’s Sherine Tadros comments on the recent ‘rape by deception‘ case:

Consider this scenario – a girl meets a guy while out shopping. They make eye contact, they flirt, he tells her he’s a business mogul about to close on a billion dollar deal.

She’s the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen, he’s been searching for her all his life, etc etc, you know the drill.

photo: EPA

They go to a nearby building and have sex. Both adults, both consenting.

Days pass and the girl realises she wasn’t the woman of his dreams and he is never going to call her – in fact his name is Bob and he works at the newsagents around the corner.

The girl then proceeds to file a criminal complaint against the guy for rape and indecent assault. The judge, while admitting the sex was consensual, accuses the guy of misrepresenting himself and sentences him to 18 months in prison for rape.

Incredible right? But what if what the guy “misrepresented” was not his feelings, his job or his wealth, but rather his ethnic background – would that make it understandable or fair?

According to Israeli law, the answer to that question appears to be ‘yes’.

Read the rest at Sherine blog…

Israeli commentator, Gideon Levy’s Op-Ed in Ha’aretz:

He impersonated a human

Sabbar Kashur wanted to be a person, a person like everybody else. But as luck would have it, he was born Palestinian.

It happens. His chances of being accepted as a human being in Israel are nil. Married and a father of two, he wanted to work in Jerusalem, his city, and maybe also have an affair or a quickie on the side. That happens too.

photo: Emil Salman

He knew that he had no chance with the Jews, so he adopted another name for himself, Dudu. He didn’t have curly hair, but he went by Dudu just the same. That’s how everyone knew him. That’s how you know a few other Arabs too: the car-wash guy you call Rafi, the stairwell cleaner who goes by Yossi, the supermarket deliveryman you know as Moshe.

What’s wrong? Is it only fearsome Shin Bet interrogators like “Capt. George” and “Abu Faraj” who are allowed to adopt names from other peoples? Are only Israelis who emigrate allowed to invent new identities? Only the Yossi from Hadera who became Joe in Miami, the Avraham from Bat Yam who became Abe in Los Angeles?

Read more at Ha’aretz…

Levy said after the verdict:

I would like to raise just one question with the judge.

What if the guy had been a Jew who pretended to be a Muslim and had sex with a Muslim  woman?

Would he have been convicted of rape?

The answer is: of course not.

Levy’s questioned scenario is undoubtedly being played out throughout Israel and Palestine to this day as detailed in this 1998 WRMEA Special Report Secret Israeli Units Lived Among Palestinians for Years:

Israelis are fascinated with the revelation that for the past 40 years Israeli Jewish undercover agents have been passing themselves off as Palestinians and have not only lived with and worked with Palestinians, but have even married and had children with Palestinian women living inside Israel.

As Juan Cole tells us, in Jim-Crow-segregtion-era America they called it “Passing“:

Passing was the practice of light-skinned persons with at least some African-American heritage moving in white society and concealing their African lineage. The peculiar American racial definition made persons African-American if they had virtually any African ancestry at all (the one drop rule). – read more…

This absurd and tragic story is best summed up by Tadros‘ closing words…

If the definition of democracy is equal rights for all people then surely the selective application of the law against Arabs is just plain racism.

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Additional Al Jazeera report: Israel jails Arab for ‘deceit rape’ includes interview with the Director of a support centre for rape victims in Israel:

Young Palestinians in Israeli jails

April 19th, 2010 • Awareness, News
Tags: children, human rights, jail, prison, torture, young

It is estimated that around 9,000 Palestinians are detained every year by Israel.

According to human-rights groups, up to 700 teenagers and children were detained last year alone.

More than 270 Palestinians, who are under the age of 18, are currently held in Israeli prisons.

Little is known about the long-term effect of detention on Palestinian teenagers. But with over 760,000 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel since 1967, experts say detention is a source of trans-generational trauma in Palestine; one that is passed on and bound to repeat so long as the occupation persists.

Prisoners tend to have symptoms of post-traumatic stress syndrome, experts say, and they warn that young detainees suffer more than adults from this experience, even if they are not tortured.

Child prisoners account for almost 20 percent of patients at Palestines only torture victim centre.