Thursday 27 January 2011

Free Tunisia

By Mamoon Alabbasi 

Wake up to the scent of newfound liberty
Where hearts beat with hope despite fear of uncertainty
Following the dark years of masked slavery
Comes a promise, that they might finally be free
Now the exiled can finally return home sweet
As their tormentors in the dark of night flee

***
Forgive us, for we failed to see how your wounds run deep
It took one man, from the forsaken Sidi Bouzid
To light a fire, so the rest of the world could see
That today Tunisia stands at the heart of the fight for equality
That quality of life is not for the corrupt few a monopoly
From Benguerdane to Benzart, forget not Bouazizi

***
But the battle is not over, despite the miracle of ousting Ben Ali
You may steer into a nightmare instead of realising your dream
So stand united in the face of internal and external enemies
For those who insult your faith wish you no prosperity or dignity
Hajj Moussa or Moussa el Hajj' – are but clones of the old regime
And even in the face of bullets, respond only in a protest of peace

***
Exclude no one and forgive all, learn from and make history
Fall not into division, for what is at stake is not just your destiny
But the hopes of millions from oceans to seas and ... me

***
Mamoon Alabbasi, an Iraqi editor based in London, lived 13 years in Tunisia.

Friday 21 January 2011

It's the Occupation, Stupid



Inspired by posts on the Passionate Attachment and America-Hijacked.com, argonium79 has produced a powerful short documentary on the inextricable relationship between Israel’s occupation of Palestine and America’s massive military budget. It’s the Occupation, Stupid features, in order of appearance, Eliot Spitzer, Ben Stein, Irving Kristol, Ron Paul, Michael Scheuer, Richard Curtiss, Eric Margolis, Loretta Alper, Scott Horton, Alison Weir, Glenn Greenwald, Paul Findley, Ilan Pappé, Osama bin Laden and George W. Bush. The narrator’s words are from Maidhc Ó Cathail’s “Ben Stein: America is an underarmed country!” and “Kristol Clear: The Source of America’s Wars.”

Thursday 20 January 2011

Israel's political prisoners 2011

From Henry Lowi:

The Zionists are patiently waiting for the opportunity to take military action to free the one and only IDF prisoner held by the Palestinian resistance, tank crewman Gilad Shalit.

See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4Idgv4Km98&feature=player_embedded

Meanwhile, thousands of activists of the Palestinian resistance are in Israeli jails, prisons, and concentration camps. Some are guerrilla fighters. Some are elected parliamentarians. Some are women. Some are children. Many have been held without charges and without trial in “administrative detention.” All are political prisoners.

See the current newsletter of Women's Organization for Political Prisoners at http://www.wofpp.org

Read the story of Ali Jidaar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahap7fXRP10

The cream of Palestinian political activists are in Israeli prisons and concentration camps. They need to be released.

One of the lessons of the South African freedom struggle is the need to fight to free the political prisoners. All the strikes, boycotts, and mass demonstrations against the apartheid regime included the demand: “Free the prisoners! Free our leaders!” The only way the world heard the name Nelson Mandela was from the people’s demands to free him. From the demonstrators, F.W. de Klerk and the leaders of the apartheid regime learned whom the people trusted, and whom the regime had to speak with as representatives of the people.

The people identified their leaders and fought for their release.

In the case of Palestine, a broad campaign is needed to name and describe the political prisoners and demand their release.

Below are links with information about three leaders: Marwan Barghouti, Ahmad Saadat and Ameer Makhoul.

Marwan Barghouti is the leader of Fateh-Tanzim in the West Bank, elected in January 2006 to the “Palestinian Legislative Assembly” under Israeli occupation, and the most popular Palestinian political leader.


Ahmad Saadat is the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, also elected in the 2006 elections under Israeli occupation, and the main leader of the Palestinian left in the occupied territories and in the refugee camps.


When the Israeli prosecution found NO EVIDENCE of Saadat’s involvement in the assassination of Rehavam Zeevi, they transferred him to a military court. In the military court they charged him with "membership" in the political organization that he leads, and whose public face he is, and then convicted him. He is a political prisoner.

See:
Ameer Makhoul is a central leader of grassroots political activism inside Israel, director of Ittijah network of NGOs, and chair of the Popular Committee for the Defense of Political Freedoms, imprisoned on trumped-up charges so as to neutralize him as a political activist and leader.

 See:
In this context, I must mention the ongoing saga of anti-democratic Israeli targeting of unrepentant dissident, Mordechai Vanunu. After serving a very long, very difficult, and very vindictive prison term (for a crime without a victim), Vanunu was released and subjected to onerous restrictions, totally undemocratic, imposed by a “Military Commander”: Don't speak to journalists Don't speak to anyone abroad. Don't try to leave the country, and the like.


Mordechai Vanunu is still a political prisoner.

See:
Israeli activist Jonathan Pollak is in Israeli prison as punishment for his political activity.

See:
And, last but not least, Abdallah Abu Rahma of Bil’in in the occupied West Bank has been recognized by Amnesty International as a “prisoner of conscience”

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/israeli-military-court-extends-jail-term-palestinian-anti-wall-activist-2011-01-11
Political prisoners have names and faces. We need to focus on the names and the faces, and demand the release of all political prisoners.

Sunday 2 January 2011

Anti-Semitism: Zionism's indispensable alibi

By Maidhc Ó Cathail



Although Zionism typically represents itself as the solution to anti-Semitism, the truth is less flattering. In fact, hostility toward Jews is indispensable to the cause of Jewish nationalism. If anti-Semitism didn't exist, Zionists would have to invent it.