London concert for Medical Aid for Palestinians

Benefit Concert not to be missed! Gilad Atzmon performs with his renowned quartet and with special guest Nigel Kennedy.

If that were not enough, someone we love and a true rising star, Sarah Gillespie, will be showcasing her highly-acclaimed debut release. Add to the mix the award winning singer composer Christine Tobin, the incredible accordionist Chico Chagas, multiple award-winning Caroline Bird and the exciting atmosphere of the 606 Club, and there are all the makings of a night to remember!

Thursday 30th April 2009 @ 606 Club 7.30 p.m. £15.00.
Call 0207 352 5953 to book a table for dinner.

Gilad Atzmon and the Orient House Ensemble with special guest Nigel Kennedy. "Gilad Atzmon, the expat Israeli Saxophonist/clarinetist, combines thrilling jazz musicianship with maverick political intelligence" (The Guardian). Featuring drums prodigy Eddie Hicks on drums, the quartet breaths a renewed spirit into their original repertoire of Arabic-infused bebop, performed with Atzmon's trademark mix of euphoric bluster and heartfelt fragility. With Yaron Stavi (bass), Frank Harrison (piano and electronics), Eddie Hicks (drums) and joined tonight by world famous violinist Nigel Kennedy.

Christine Tobin. "One of the country's finest musicians" (Time Out). Irish born jazz/folk songstress performs an intimate set of groundbreaking original material that won her the 2008 BBC Jazz award for Best Vocalist.

Sarah Gillespie."An incandescent new presence who matches her imposing delivery with superior lyrics” (The Guardian). Singer-songwriter Sarah Gillespie delivers a melting-pot mix of urban-folk and Middle-Eastern blues. Performing original songs from her new album Stalking Juliet, expect emotive ballads and raucous gypsy swing – all with her trademark lyricism that knits everyday banter with raw poetry.

Chico Chagas. Virtuoso accordionist from Brazil performs mesmerizing world jazz, joined here by dynamite Brazilian percussionist Adriano Adewale.

Caroline Bird. Multiple award-winning, critically acclaimed poet combines fairytale fantasy with domestic grit. The overwhelmingly talented prodigy was born in 1986 and is already compared to Dylan Thomas and TS Elliott.

Text of leaked EU report on Jewish colonization of East Jerusalem

Leaked EU report on Jewish colonization of East Jerusalem, Dec 2008

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Humanities Research arab Jerusalem

Rain of fire: Israel's unlawful use of white phosphorus in Gaza

During Israel's 22-day military operations in Gaza, from 27 December 2008 to 18 January 2009, named Operation Cast Lead, the so-called "Israel Defence Forces" (IDF) repeatedly exploded white phosphorus munitions in the air over populated areas, killing and injuring civilians, and damaging civilian structures, including a school, a market, a humanitarian aid warehouse and a hospital.

Marc Garlasco, Senior Military Analyst, Human Rights Watch, discusses the ground investigation and findings.

This video is also available here.

Israeli army t-shirts mock Gaza killings

By Dominic Waghorn, Sky News Middle East correspondent

The Israeli army is at the centre of a controversy over the moral conduct of its soldiers.

The printed t-shirts were discovered by an Israeli newspaper (Pic: courtesy of Yanai Yechiel)

The revelations centre on t-shirt designs made for soldiers that make light of shooting pregnant Palestinian mothers and children and include images of dead babies and destroyed mosques.

The t-shirts were printed for Israeli soldiers at the end of periods of deployment or training courses and were discovered by Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

One, printed for a platoon of Israeli snipers depicts an armed Palestinian pregnant women caught in the crosshairs of a rifle, with the disturbing caption in English: "1 shot 2 kills".

Another depicts a child carrying a gun also in the centre of a target.

"The smaller, the harder," read the words on the t-shirt.

According to a soldier interviewed by the newspaper, the message has a double meaning: "It's a kid, so you've got a little more of a problem, morally and also the target is smaller."

Another shows an Israeli soldier blowing up a mosque and reads "Only God forgives".

T-shirts printed for Israeli soldiers mocking the shooting of Palestinian women and children are revealed by an Israeli newspaper.

Above a ninja figure, yet another shirt bears the slogan "Won't chill until I confirm a kill".

The revelations, coming so soon after Israel's offensive in Gaza in which hundreds of civilians were killed – many of them women and children – are causing outrage.

Perhaps the most shocking design shows a Palestinian mother weeping next to her dead baby's grave, also in the crosshairs of a rifle.

It suggests it would have been better if the child had never been born, with the slogan "Better use Durex".

The controversy follows more revelations by other soldiers about abuses and the shooting of civilians during Israel's offensive during the Gaza offensive.

Ex-soldier and campaigner with Breaking The Silence, Michael Maniken, told Sky News Online this week's revelations suggest a pattern of immoral conduct in the army.

"The army keeps on saying we're talking about a few rotten apples but it seems the army doesn't understand there's a norm in this kind of action," he explained.

"We're hearing about this time and time again and the army seems disconnected from reality"...

Remember the name: Basma Awad al-Nabari

From Henry Lowi:

"It's raining enemy missiles, the screams of Gaza ring in my ears”

Basma Awad al-Nabari, a 16 year-old Palestinian girl from the Beduin village of Hura in the Naqab, was shot and killed by “Israel Defence Forces” soldiers at the entrance to the Border Guard base at Shoket.

If the Border Guards’ story is to be believed, Basma was motivated by solidarity with her brothers and sisters in Gaza, and sought to avenge their martyrdom. This was reflected in her notebook entries, and in the fact that she took a pistol and fired shots at the IDF soldiers.

“The girl, Basma Awad al-Nabari, was shot and killed by Israel Defense Forces troops on Saturday, after trying to shoot at officers at a Border Police barrack at Shoket Junction.”
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1076510.html
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3697696,00.html
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/1076546.html

“On Saturday, a 16 year old Beduin girl approached a base of the Border Police, pulled out a pistol and aimed it at the guard. The result was predictable. There were no injuries to the police.” http://cgis.jpost.com/Blogs/Sharkansky/entry/freedom_rights_and_random_acts

The IDF Chief of Staff, responding to soldiers’ revelations about IDF atrocities and war-crimes committed in Gaza, dismissed his own soldiers’ testimony as lies.

So, if the Border Guard soldiers are not believed, then the Palestinian girl Basma al-Nabari was murdered in cold blood by the IDF soldiers, as her relatives claim.

IDF Chief of Staff: My soldiers are liars
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1076556.html
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3697747,00.html
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1238562915224&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

According to her family, Basma was shot and killed in cold blood
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1238562916901&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

The town of Hura is one of the new Israeli-government sponsored “Potemkin villages” in the Naqab, designed to concentrate and control the Naqab Palestinians without giving them equal rights
http://www.palestineremembered.com/GeoPoints/Hura_3512/
http://www.gal-soc.org/en/?x=Naqab&s=Goals

The Israeli regime of settler-colonialism, ethnic cleansing and apartheid drives the best and the brightest to desperate acts of resistance. Basma al-Nabari should be remembered as a victim of the Zionist murder machine and as a heroine of the Palestine revolution. All fighters for peace and justice should learn and teach the lessons of her life and her death.

As we remember Basma al-Nabari, we must remember that the racist regime will not be defeated by the acts of isolated heroic individuals armed with pistols. It will be defeated when the oppressed of the country rise up to overthrow their oppressors. This will require organization and political consciousness and leadership. None of that is forthcoming from either the Fatah collaborators or the Islamist reactionaries.

Those whose loyalty is to the workers and the farmers and the refugees, and all who protest the injustice of the oppressive militarist regime, must take responsibility to organize the fight-back in an efficient manner. Organization, political consciousness, and mass action are the key elements of the way forward. The antidote to Zionist oppression is democratic revolution. Democratic revolution must be the goal of any movement for peace and justice in Palestine.

In Australia, the supporters of Israeli oppression did their best to silence Israeli peace activist Jeff Halper, to no avail. In Canada, the supporters of Israeli oppression tried to silence Palestine solidarity activist and British MP George Galloway, to no avail. In all countries the organized battle for hearts and minds, to isolate the oppressor-Zionist regime, and to overthrow its supporters -- is the challenge at hand.

By meeting that challenge, we will honour the memory of 16 year old Basma Awad al-Nabari, Z”L. She is our sister.

Photo: Pistol-bearing Jewish resistance women captured by German soldiers in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising that began in April 1943, on the eve of Passover