Syrian army executes prisoners, desecrates their corpses

This graphic footage, purportedly filmed by Syrian security forces loyal to Bashar al-Asad in March 2012, depicts what appears to be a field execution of 15 men in the Idlib countryside. The living are bound and shot; the corpses are then dragged, shot again, and exploded for the entertainment of the troops filming this video. It was leaked and uploaded by Syrian democracy activists on 7 June 2012.

Raw footage – aftermath of shooting of Palestinian protestee Nabi Saleh – 9 Dec 2011

A Palestinian protester is seen seriously injured after being hit in the face with a tear gas canister fired directly at him by an Israeli soldier at the weekly protest in a-Nabi Saleh.

Israeli snipers' methodical shooting of boys at work in Gaza

Gilad Atzmon on Israeli collective madness

Gilad Atzmon, a British writer and musician who was born in Israel and served in the Israeli army, believes that the raid will lead the world to “see what Israel is all about”.

“They are convinced that the more people they kill, the more people will be deterred to jeopardise what they regard as their security,” Atzmon told Russia Today (RT).

Marbles, paint balls and nukes

From: Greta Berlin

The Israeli military has been busy spinning the story of their attack on a civilian convoy trying to deliver aid to the imprisoned people of Gaza. They've had a head start, sending out edited videos, posting supposed military footage of the passengers attacking them, saying that they confiscated weapons which turned out to be marbles, sling shots, kitchen knives and aluminum chairs.



But they can't spin for much longer. Video footage from dozens of people is beginning to surface about what really happened. Al-Jazeera has posted their coverage as gun shots sound in the background, speakers beg the passengers to go below and a white flag is set out for the paramilitary groups.



More will come out as passengers are released. We already know that Israel shot the captain of the Marmara and the European Campaign boat, maybe hoping that we would no longer be able to hire captains. Several activists have spoken to their consulates and told of being kicked, beaten, dragged along the ground, tear gassed and bags thrown over their heads.

Knowing that video of this vicious attack in international waters was going to surface, Captain Aria Shaliker of the Israel Defence Forces, who was part of the operation on Monday [31 May], said the commandoes began the raids armed with paint ball guns. "I was, myself, on one of the boats, the Israeli boats, approaching the flotilla," he told the BBC's “Today” programme. "It is true that the Israeli commando unit ... came on board with paint ball weapons ... in order to disperse people.” h said.

No mention of paint-stained clothing.

As Israel's hysteria mounts, "they now claim “self-defence” in attacking ships in international waters ... killing nine.  Israel informed the US and Britain that the convoy was ferrying stolen nuclear weapons that would be used for a terrorist attack on Israel.  The “stolen nukes” have been in Israel for 18 years while the US has spent billions of dollars and thousands of lives looking for them. Today nine more died.

The world is watching a county imploding, having a massive nervous breakdown in full view. It's tragic that thousands of Palestinians have died and nine human rights workers lost their lives [on 31 May].

Gaza aid convoy killings: “Those responsible must be held criminally accountable” - UN expert

NEWS RELEASE

GENEVA – The UN Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Occupied Territories, Richard Falk, urged Monday [ 31 May] the international community to bring to justice those responsible for the killing of some 16 unarmed peace activist, when Israeli armed commandos stormed a convoy of ships carrying aid to Gaza.

“Israel is guilty of shocking behavior by using deadly weapons against unarmed civilians on ships that were situated in the high seas where freedom of navigation exists, according to the law of the seas,” Mr. Falk said. “It is essential that those Israelis responsible for this lawless and murderous behavior, including political leaders who issued the orders, be held criminally accountable for their wrongful acts.”

There are confirmed reports of lethal interference by Israeli military units on the high seas with the Freedom Flotilla of six ships carrying some 10,000 tons of medicine, food, and building materials to the civilian population of Gaza. Preliminary reports suggest as many as 16 unarmed activists were killed, and dozens more wounded.

“This peaceful humanitarian initiative by citizens from 50 countries is an urgent response to the continuation of an unlawful blockade that has been maintained for almost three years causing great physical and mental harm to the whole of the 1.5 million people entrapped within Gaza,” the UN independent expert said. “Such a massive form of collective punishment is a crime against humanity, as well as a gross violation of the prohibition on collective punishment in Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.”

“As Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, familiar with the suffering of the people of Gaza, I find this latest instance of Israeli military lawlessness to create a situation of regional and global emergency. Unless prompt and decisive action is taken to challenge the Israeli approach to Gaza all of us will be complicit in criminal policies that are challenging the survival of an entire beleaguered community.”

Mr. Falk urged the world community “to take urgent action in response to this flagrant flouting of international law. It is time to insist on the end of the blockade of Gaza. The worldwide campaign of boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel is now a moral and political imperative, and needs to be supported and strengthened everywhere.”

ENDS

Learn more about the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights
in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967:
 http://www2.ohchr.org/english/countries/ps/mandate/index.htm

Israel's Gush Shalom denounces Israel's murder of aid activists on the high seas

Press Release 05/31/2010

Uri Avnery: this night a crime was perpetrated in the middle of the sea, by order of the government of Israel and the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] Command

A warlike attack against aid ships and deadly shooting at peace and humanitarian aid activists

It is a crazy thing that only a government that crossed all red lines can do

"Only a crazy government that has lost all restraint and all connection to reality could do something like that - consider ships carrying humanitarian aid and peace activists from around the world as an enemy and send massive military force to international waters to attack them, shoot and kill.

"No one in the world will believe the lies and excuses which the government and army spokesmen come up with," said former Knesset member Uri Avnery of the Gush Shalom movement...

Greta Berlin, the spokeswoman for the flotilla organizers located in Cyprus, told Gush Shalom activists that the Israeli commandos landed by helicopter on the boats and immediately opened fire.

This is a day of disgrace to the State of Israel, a day of anxiety in which we discover that our future was entrusted to a bunch of trigger-happy people without any responsibility. This day is a day of disgrace and madness and stupidity without limit, the day the Israeli government took care to blacken the name of the country in the world, adding convincing evidence of aggressiveness and brutality to Israel's already bad international image, discouraging and distancing the few remaining friends.

Indeed, today a provocation took place off the coast of Gaza - but the provocateurs were not the peace activists invited by the Palestinians and seeking to reach Gaza. The provocation was carried out by navy ships commandos at the bidding of the Israeli government, blocking the way of the aid boats and using deadly force.

It is time to lift the siege on the Gaza Strip, which causes severe suffering to its residents. Today the Israeli government ripped the mask of its face with its own hands and exposed the fact that Israel did not "disengage" from Gaza. Real disengagement from the area does not go together with blocking the access to it or sending soldiers to shoot and kill and wound those who try to get there.

The State of Israel promised in the Oslo Accords 17 years ago to enable and encourage the establishment of a deep water port in Gaza, through which Palestinians could import and export freely to develop their economy. It's time to realize this commitment and open the Port of Gaza. Only after the Gaza port will be open to free and undisturbed movement, just like the Ashdod and Haifa ports, will Israel really have disengaged from the Gaza Strip. Until then, the world will continue - and rightly so - to consider the Gaza Strip under Israeli occupation and the State of Israel as responsible for the fate of the people living there.

Contact: Uri Avnery 0505-306449
Adam Keller, Gush Shalom spokesman 03-5565804 or 054-2340749
Coalition Against the Siege Yacov - 050-5733276, 09-7670801, Sebastian -050-6846056

Greta Berlin  spokeswoman for flotilla organizers
35799187275

Against the killing of Anwar al-Awlaqi and others

John Bart Gerald argues that the recent US targeting for death of  an American civilian and cleric, imam Anwar al-Awlaki, challenges US military-related personnel with a patently unlawful order. Overtly marking for death an "inspirational" threat and  non-combatant raises questions about the US intelligence community's previously covert policy.

Once upon a time in Rafah

Israel's assassination policy

The Real News Network interviews relatives of recently assassinated men in Nablus, occupied Palestinian territories

I want to tell the world a story

A poem by Nahida the exiled Palestinian

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

Corporate murder in Brazil

Landless rural worker shot by security company hired by multinational Syngenta

By Isabella Kenfield* and Roger Burbach**

In the Brazilian state of Paraná, Valmir Mota de Oliveira of Via Campesina, an international peasant organization, was shot twice in the chest at point blank range by armed gunmen on an experimental farm of Syngenta Seeds, a multinational agribusiness corporation. The cold blooded murder took place on Sunday 21 October after Via Campesina had occupied the site because of Syngenta’s illegal development of genetically modified (GM) seeds. Via Campesina and the Movement of the Landless Rural Workers (MST), the main Brazilian organization involved in Via Campesina’s actions, are calling the murder an execution, declaring, “Syngenta used the services of an armed militia.”

Syngenta is the world’s largest producer of agrochemicals and the third largest commercial seed producer. Between 2001 and 2004, Syngenta was responsible for the largest case of genetic contamination on the planet when its GM Bt-10 corn, approved for only animal feeds, was mixed with US grain meant for human consumption. Via Campesina first occupied Syngenta’s site in March 2006, after it discovered that Syngenta was illegally cultivating GM soybeans and corn. The occupation drew strong international support, and in November state governor Roberto Requião signed a decree of intent to expropriate the Syngenta farm and turn it into an agroecological research centre that would benefit poor rural families. The decree was a huge political victory for the rural and environmental movements, challenging the power of agribusiness in Brazil.

When MST organized a march on the Syngenta site in late November last year, its buses were halted by a blockade of tractors formed by about a hundred members of the Rural Society of the West, a group representing large landowners and commercial agricultural producers in western Paraná. It is part of a larger network known as ruralistas, which represents reactionary landed and agribusiness interests at the regional, state and national levels. Some Society members were on horseback and armed with guns. As the marchers began to cross the barricade, Society members fired shots into the air, and beat the marchers with sticks and clubs, resulting in the injury of nine people.

When asked why the organization had confronted MST, Alessandro Meneghel, President of the Rural Society, responded: "To show that the rural producers do not peacefully accept land invasions and political provocations... Attitudes such as these, of legally questionable [land] expropriations, send a bad message to investors, chasing them away and provoking ‘Brazil risk.’” Meneghel threatened “for every invasion of land that occurs in the region, there will be a similar action by the Society. We are not going to permit the rural producers … to be insulted by ideological political movements of any kind.”

Through its alliances with the Rural Society and other large landed interests, Syngenta succeeded in overturning Governor Requião’s decree. In July 2007, the Via Campesina was evicted from the site, relocating to MST’s Olga Benário settlement, located next to Syngenta. The de-occupation occurred in conjunction with a peaceful march by the movements, after Requião ordered the police to stop the Rural Society from confronting the marchers. Control of the property was returned to Syngenta, and it was then that the corporation hired the private NF Security company to guard the site.

A statement on Syngenta’s website claims the corporation “specifically agreed in the contract with [NF] security company not to use any force or carry weapons”. Yet, in late July families at Olga Benário were threatened by armed NF security guards, who entered the settlement and remained there for about 40 minutes. At night, the guards would fire shots in the air. These events were reported to the authorities.

As a result, in October the federal police raided NF Security’s headquarters, where it confiscated illegal arms and ammunition. The police report concludes that the NF Security company contracts individuals, many with criminal records, to form armed militias that carry out forced land evictions, and that the Rural Society numbers among its clients.

At dawn on 21 October, about 150 members of Via Campesina reoccupied Syngenta’s site, where they encountered four armed security guards, who were disarmed and left the site. At about 1 in the afternoon, Via Campesina reports, “a bus stopped in front of the entry gate and about forty armed gunmen got out, firing machine guns at the people that they saw in the encampment. They broke down the gate, then shot [Mota]. The militia attacked the encampment to assassinate the leaders and recover the illegal arms of the NF Security company.”

Five MST/Via Campesina members were wounded and remain hospitalized. Security guard Fábio Ferreira, who apparently returned to the site, was also killed. The reason for his death is unclear, although one MST member believes Ferreira was murdered because he had incriminating information he might have divulged. MST members Célia Lourenço and Celso Barbosa were chased and shot at, but managed to escape. It appears the two were targeted to die like Mota. Earlier this year, Meneghel of the Rural Society verbally threatened Lourenço at a public forum, and MST reports that on March 27th, its office in Cascavel, Paraná received an anonymous phone call advising Mota, Lourenço and Barbosa to be careful because “a trap was being prepared for them.” Mota himself registered the death threats with the local authorities. On August 28, Terra de Direitos, a human rights organization, registered the threats with the National Program of Human Rights Defenders, and requested protection for the three.

The owner of NF Security, Nerci Freitas, has admitted he gave the order for the attack on Syngenta. He has been arrested and charged with homicide and formation of gangs. No one has claimed that the Via Campesina/MST occupants were armed. The organizations are calling for the immediate arrest of Meneghel, and are demanding that Syngenta leave Brazil immediately, declaring, “Syngenta Seeds should be held responsible for what occurred.”

Mota’s murder exhibits an unsettling arrogance and dismissal of the law and the government by the Rural Society, NF Security and Syngenta, not unlike that being played out on a grander scale by the Blackwater security company and US corporate interests in Iraq. It also highlights the increasing number of conflicts between agribusiness and rural civil society sweeping Latin America, as the alliance between national and international agribusiness deepens from country to country. Mota’s death could well signal a new era of continental violence and bloodshed as the powerful agribusiness interests come up against the progressive social movements that are shaking the Americas.

--

*Isabella Kenfield is an associate of the Center for the Study of the America (CENSA) who has just returned from living in Brazil. She writes on agribusiness, agrarian conflicts and social movements.

**Roger Burbach is director of CENSA who has written extensively on Latin America and US policy. He is currently at work on “The New Fire in the Americas.”