RANT: BITS AND BITES

 

Brave Boaters—We’ve all been following the progress of the latest attempt to break the blockade in Gaza by a civilian-led flotilla delivering humanitarian food and medicines via the Global Sumund* maritime initiative. Over fifty ships of varying sizes, embarking from several Mediterranean and Asian ports, will converge by mid-September off the Gazan coast and attempt to off-load food and humanitarian supplies to the starving Palestinian population. Thus far, two of the flotilla’s ships have been attacked by drones, one, the Portuguese Familia Madeira reportedly had the young, Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, on board.  Presumably it was an Israeli attack, though with only minor damage and no injuries in either of the attacks. We’ll see how things percolate as the convoy grows in number on its voyage to Gaza.¹

 

PRINCIPLED PATRIOTS—On 3 September in Washington, former Army Intelligence officer Josephine Guilbeau and retired Green Beret Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Aguilar were arrested and led away in handcuffs after disrupting a Senate hearing, where they shouted accusations at  the politicians, saying they were complicit in the Gazan genocide because of their unquestioning support for Israel. Aguliar, you may recall, was the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) private contractor who blew the whistle last July on the activities of GHF and its complicity in the genocide there. Anthony and Josephine demonstrate what’s best in us as human beings: courage, honesty, and doing what's necessary regardless of any consequences to their personal and professional lives. They embody the needed change all of us will be called upon to make in the months and years ahead.

 

AND ACROSS THE POND—On Saturday, 6 September over nine hundred protestors², gathered in support of the now-proscribed activist organization "Palestine Action", were arrested in Parliament Square, London for peacefully demonstrating against the British government’s labeling the group as “terrorists". Amnesty International UK monitored the protest, calling the scenes of the arrests "a shocking demonstration of how the UK’s overly broad terrorism laws are being used to suppress free speech”. (Aljazeera) 

It remains to be seen whether the British court system can handle the increasing case loads brought about by such appalling mass arrests of peaceful protestors. Clogging up the courts might move the government to rethink its position on Palestine Action. Before it’s too late.

👉Also, in London on Saturday there was a separate pro-Palestinian march attracting around 20,000 participants, according to police estimates.

👉And on Monday, 8 SEPTEMBER, the announcement that Israeli President Isaac Herzog would visit Downing Street sparked protests with thousands in the streets demonstrating the people’s strong objections to hosting a visiting dignitary whose country is committing genocide and ethnic cleansing. The protests continued during the Israeli politician’s three-day visit. Just when you think Britain’s PM Starmer couldn’t be more disliked by his fellow countrymen, he goes and hosts a genocidaire.³ UCMTSU! 😆 “Starmer defended his decision to meet Herzog, rejecting calls to cut diplomatic ties. ‘I will not give up on diplomacy,’ he said. ‘That is the politics of students.’"

 

APPARENTLY, Starmer has taken on the mantle of 'teacher' in order to school the British electorate on Politics-101. What goes around, comes around, and he and his government may be taught a lesson or two themselves come ballot box time when they learn how the Great Unwashed have long ago given up on them.

👉IN PARIS, there have been demonstrations against the government of Emmanuel Macron. Other European countries are experiencing the growing restlessness of their populations. So, watch out for flying bricks!

👉FINALLY, in London, during the recent protests and arrests of demonstrators, the street artist “Bansky” stenciled his (or her?) take on the increasing heavy-handedness of the judicial system against members of the public. (Remember the lawfare antics of the British courts that kept Julian Assange in a maximum-security prison for over three years?) The artwork appeared on the wall of the Royal Courts of Justice in London. It was erased on 10 September.

 

CHEERS, JAKE. ____________________________________

* “Sumud” (Arabic) “steadfastness” or “steadfast perseverance”. It is a common term used to describe Palestinian nonviolent everyday resistance against Israel's occupation.

 

1. This is Greta’s second try at breaking the blockade on Gaza. In June, her vessel was attacked in Maltese waters, ending her attempt at bringing food supplies to Gaza. This time, she’s part of a convoy of over fifty ships of varying size. Question is: What will the Israelis do? Israeli government officials say they will charge the activists under Israel’s terrorism laws to dissuade such actions in the future. Stay tuned.

 

2. That figure is up from the 532 arrests in early August for the same ‘crime’ of carrying signs or in other ways displaying public support for a “proscribed” group⁴  the government has labelled as “terrorists”. By typing the words "Palestine Action", like I've done here, I could be subject to arrest if I lived in the United Kingdom. What's next “Thought Crimes”? Orwell must be spinning in his grave!

 

3. Of course, PM Starmer wouldn’t be backpedaling over his government’s support for Israel, even as it commits war crimes in Gaza (and increasingly in the West Bank), if it wasn’t for social media’s ability to lay bare to billions the world’s first—though sadly, perhaps not the last—live-streamed genocide. To a certain extent, even the feckless Starmer is ready to drop the hot potato Israel has become or face the increasing ire from his population.

[Jake has said it before: The world needs to shun Israel in the strongest sense of the word: cut off completely all diplomatic, social, military, and economic ties with the “Jewish State”. The United Nations needs to grow a pair and strike Israel's membership from the world body. Let it twist in the wind until sanity or decay takes hold. Ed.]

👉Apparently, PM Starmer and Herzog had  frank and uncomfortable conversations, with the British PM raising objections to Israel’s conduct in Gaza. But, if he really, really objected to the genocide, he’d take Jake’s advice and turn away—and not continue to send support aircraft, sell arms to, buy tech from, or support politically, the Jewish state. Talk is cheap. Just sayin’.

 

4. RECALL how, earlier in the summer, on an RAF airbase in Oxfordshire, Palestine Action activists spray painted the engines of parked transport jets used to support Israel’s genocide in Gaza as well as in other war projects it conducts in the Levant and elsewhere. After this episode, the Starmer government quickly brought forward legislation to ban (“Proscribe”) PA and label it a “terrorist organization”. “Proscription made it a crime to publicly support the organization. Membership of, or support for, the group is punishable by up to 14 years in prison.” (Aljazerra). 

It will be interesting to see if PA members or demonstrators arrested in support of the group, when they are brought to trial, whether there will be any jury in the UK that will find them guilty of not so much as a parking ticket! 😝

 

RANT: NO SWIMMING!

 

 

FUN FACT: On July 12/25 the IDF (Israeli Defence Force) issued a warning to Palestinians in Gaza: Swimming could prove hazardous to your health. Gazans are now forbidden to swim, fish or dive in the Mediterranean waters along their coastline. There had been some fishing and bathing activities occurring since October 7/23, but Israel decided to tighten the screws. Now, Gazans who live along the coast, who swam in the waters for a few minutes relief from the horror show Israel has made of their land, now put their lives at risk from drone attacks or shelling. Fishing, too, has been banned, ostensibly to prevent weapons smuggling.

BUT, more importantly, Canadian vacationers and sun-worshipers will be disappointed with the Government of Canada’s travel advisory: “Avoid all travel to the Gaza Strip due to the ongoing genocide military operation.” So, before you pack your Speedo and sunscreen, check the evolving situation in the Levant and perhaps make alternative plans this season, for example, an Egyptian or Moroccan holiday destination, perhaps? And, if everything goes according to plan, next year you may well find Gaza turned into a five-star travel destination with time-share deals, hotel accommodations, and Holy Land tour packages that suit every budget. Bon voyage!

 

Cheers, Jake.

 

 

RANT: MIRROR, MIRROR, ON THE WALL....

  

 FRANCESCA ALBANESE has been holding up a mirror for such a long time now. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Territories of Palestine, the feisty, Italian legal scholar and expert on human rights law just began her second three-year appointment with the UN. Wearing her trademark dark-rimmed glasses, she has, for the last three years, written reports, and given speeches and interviews in support of Palestinians and their right to self-determination and for a homeland. Her most recent report, “From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide” examines how the Israeli economy functions within its apartheid system of unequal laws and tiered citizenship rights. She shines a light on the private sector, and “[w]hile political leaders and governments shirk their obligations, far too many corporate entities have profited from Israel’s economy of illegal occupation, apartheid and now, genocide.” (“Summary”)

 

SHE WRITES of Israel’s domestic industries, tech “start-ups”, and security firms, and how they enable and profit from Israel’s wars of aggression and genocide, using Gaza and other conflict zones to test new weaponry, spy tech, drones, surveillance software, and so on. Outside Israel there are similar benefits for those investing in Israel's lucrative economy. And, industries and tech firms throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and advanced economies, with familiar names like Microsoft, Google, Boeing, the Banks, financial institutions, universities, NGOs, and governments, as long as they continue to bankroll and sell their wares to Israel, or buy Israeli treasury bills, or maintain institutional and cultural ties with the Zionist state, then they are complicit in its war crimes. [For starters, Israel should have its UN membership revoked and the BDS (Boycott, divestment, Sanctions) movement should become a global effort. Ed.]

GETTING DOWN to brass tacks: All of them, by not turning their backs and walking away from Israel, and by not treating it like the pariah state it has become, then they enable Israel in its ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip (and the West Bank and East Jerusalem). As long as the world continues to trade with, invest in, arm and equip, and give political “cover” to Israel in international forums like the United Nations Security Council; as long as the global community's public and private sectors continue to take their profits from Israel, and move chess pieces around geopolitical game boards using Israel as their pit bull--as long as they ignore their responsibilities under the UN charter and deny ethnic cleansing and mass murder by Israel is even occurring, then Israel will continue to do what it has been doing since October 7/23 (and really since its founding in 1948.) Albanese’s report excoriates the global community’s complacency, its crass profit-taking and self-serving politics, all while the world’s first live-streamed genocide takes place before our eyes. She holds up a mirror to us, and it is a wonder it doesn’t crack with shame and shatter into a thousand shards of broken glass. If we fail to stop Israel now, we can expect more such live-streamed horrors in the decades ahead. 

Free! Free! Palestine!

  

I'M WRITING ABOUT Francesca Albanese today because the Trump administration in the United States has just “sanctioned” her. I guess it’s because she has a big mouth and just won’t shut up and behave. They must have read her report (not Trump, of course, he doesn’t do “reading”) while popping fistfuls of extra-strength Tums, but to no avail. Her words will have left their stomachs tied up in knots!😆

 

YOU KNOW, IT MUST BE NICE to be a world hegemon and to throw your weight around, sanctioning every Tom, Dick and Harry you don’t like or disagree with.

By sanctioning Albanese, the United States shows its contempt for the UN, its charter and related systems of international law and justice. The complaint against her stems from her advocacy with the ICC (International Criminal Court) urging the Court to bring forward arrest warrants charging U.S. and Israeli officials, business executives, and others with complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. In response, the American Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, says he is imposing sanctions⁺ on the UN Rapporteur for her, “…illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt the International Criminal Court action against US and Israeli officials, companies, and executives.”

 

As a result, she will probably will not be allowed into the United States and won’t be able to fulfill her UN obligations in New York. Her bank accounts and property in the United States may be frozen or seized. Rubio has also sent a letter to the United Nation's Secretary General, Antonio Gutterres, calling on him to remove her from her post on the Human Rights Council.  We'll see if Rubio is successful in further degrading the relevance of the UN and its "daughter" organizations like the HRC in a few days.

 

👉WE LIVE IN A TIME when international law and human rights are being eroded. The United States and its partner-in-crime, Israel, ride roughshod over institutions like the ICC, the ICJ and UN itself, de-legitimizing and in some cases de-funding those same institutions the U.S. once played such a seminal role birthing after WWII. Today, Albanese’s brave stance against Israel’s abominable acts in Gaza will stand the test of time and she will be seen on the right side of history, while cowardly governments and indifferent or culpable citizenry will face global scorn when the history of this sad era is written.¹   

  

Cheers, Jake. ____________________________________ 

*  Or as some commentators say, the “Zionist entity”.   

+ Recall that ICC judges were sanctioned earlier this year by the U.S. for issuing international arrest warrants against Netanyahu and his former defence minister for crimes against humanity. 

  

1. Journalist and author Chris Hedges says it better than I ever can:

 “The attack against Albanese presages a world without rules, one where rogue states such as the U.S. and Israel, are permitted to carry out war crimes and genocide without any accountability or restraint. It exposes the subterfuges we use to fool ourselves and attempt to fool others. It reveals our hypocrisy, cruelty and racism. No one, from now on, will take seriously our [the U.S.] stated commitments to democracy, freedom of expression, the rule of law or human rights. And who can blame them? We speak exclusively in the language of force, the language of brutes, the language of mass slaughter, the language of genocide…Those that defend the oppressed, such as Albanese, will be treated like the oppressed." (Hedges, Sheerpost)