Palestinian village takes on Israeli militaryElectronic Intifada - 8 Jul 2008rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rRAMALLAH (IPS) – Ambulances were again prevented Monday from entering the central West Bank village of Ni’ilin, near Ramallah, to evacuate the ill and the wounded. Supplies of medicines were running low, as confrontations continued with youths defying a four-day-old curfew imposed by the Israeli military.
Israeli army ransacks, shuts down Nablus organizationsElectronic Intifada - 8 Jul 2008rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rPCHR strongly condemns Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) for closing several charities and humanitarian organizations in Nablus over the past two days. The Centre calls upon the international community to intervene to put an end to these measures.
Stop the demonisation of Britain?s young peopleUKWatch.net - 8 Jul 2008The Tories and the tabloid press have waded into the debate on knife crime with demands for mandatory and longer prison sentences for those found carrying knives. The Sun, the Mirror and the News of the World all now have their own online petitions calling for more government crackdowns over knife crime. The News of the World is even running a roadshow to garner support for longer sentencing, more police and the building of more prisons. Labour has responded by announcing a review into sentencing. It has also publicised the appointment of a new lord chief justice, Sir Igor Judge. He is writing to every magistrate in England and Wales to warn them that they should apply tougher sentences to deal with knife crime. But simply pouring more police onto the streets or locking people up for longer will not address the problem ? it will make the situation worse. Britain?s jails are already overflowing and more young people are locked up here than anywhere in western Europe. There is already a huge police crackdown underway. The London Metropolitan Police force launched its latest operation in May. Known as Operation Blunt 2, the high profile operation has led to an astonishing 27,000 people being searched since May. This uncovered only 500 knives ? from less than 2 percent of those searched. But as children?s commissioner Al Aynsley-Green has pointed out, policies like this simply antagonise and further alienate young people. Stop and search is also disproportionately used against black and Asian people and increases the racist harassment that young black people face. Threat Underlying New Labour?s approach is the assumption that there is something fundamentally wrong with young people, that they are a threat to society. Policing minister Tony McNulty made this clear last week when he said that knife crime among young people ?is apparently a generational, almost cultural thing that?s getting into the collective DNA?. There is no serious attempt to understand why young people may carry knives ? to consider the fear, poverty, alienation, anger and frustration that may lead to violence or crime. Worrying statistics show that while overall deaths from stabbings have remained fairly consistent at around 200-250 a year for the past decade, the victims of knife crime are getting younger. Knife injuries also seem to be rising. The number of children admitted to hospitals in England and Wales with wounds from a knife or other sharp instrument has risen 62 percent in just three years. Racism is one of the issues connected to knife crime. Yet politicians ignore this. In London, for example, 19 teenagers have been stabbed or beaten to death this year ? 16 of those are black or Asian. Young black men are disproportionately excluded from schools, discriminated against in jobs and training, more likely to be stopped or arrested by the police or to end up in prison. There is a worrying development in the reporting of those killed by knives. There is a growing division between those (usually white people) who are depicted as innocent victims and those (predominantly black people) who are portrayed as being gang members and violent thugs and therefore partly to blame for their own death. We should reject this division. The rising number of young people carrying knives is a damning indictment of a society that demonises and alienates the majority of young people instead of listening to them and offering them a decent future. Labour may grab headlines with its increasingly punitive policies, but it is badly failing young people.
Seymour Hersh: US Training Jondollah and MEK for Bombing preparationCampaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII) - 8 Jul 2008Summary: In an interview with NPR on his latest New Yorker Article, titled ?Preparing the battlefield’, the renowned investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reveals more striking details of his findings on the aim of the $400 million budgeted US covert operations inside Iran. He provides valuable information on US military preparations to strike the country, on the total expansion of the Bush Administration’s executive power, about the US recognition of Iran’s overall positive role in Iraq and on the US support for the anti-Iran terrorist organisations Jondollah, PJAK and MEK. source: CASMIIread more
Landmark Case Returns to NY Seeking Millions from Corporations that Profited from South African ApartheidDemocracy Now - 8 Jul 2008A landmark case is returning to a New York district court that seeks millions of dollars in reparations from corporations that supported and profited from South African apartheid. The suit is filed on behalf of thousands of apartheid victims under the Alien Tort Claims Act. It seeks damages from the companies for doing business with the apartheid government despite international sanctions and boycotts. The companies include the oil giants BP and ExxonMobil, banks such as Citigroup and UBS, and the car giants General Motors and Ford Motor. We speak with South African poet and activist, Dennis Brutus. [includes rush transcript]
As Freed US Contractors Speak Out, a Look at the FARC, Colombian Paramilitary Groups and the Generals Being Feted for the Hostage RescueDemocracy Now - 8 Jul 2008Three American military contractors freed from the Colombian jungle have spoken out against their former captors, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell were among the fifteen hostages, including the French Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, rescued in an elaborate military operation last week in a major blow to the FARC. We host a roundtable discussion with Mario Murillo, author of Colombia and the United States; Michael Evans of the Colombia Documentation Project; and Manuel Rozental, a Colombian physician and human rights activist living in Canada following several threats on his life.
Environmental Groups Slam G8 Leaders for Not Doing More on Global WarmingDemocracy Now - 8 Jul 2008In Japan, world leaders at the G8 summit have announced they would work toward cutting carbon emissions by at least 50 percent by 2050. The White House hailed the declaration as a major step forward, but environmental campaigners criticized the lack of a commitment to midterm targets. Global warming ties into other big themes, such as soaring food and fuel prices, being discussed at the three-day summit. We go to Hokkaido to speak with Walden Bello of Focus on the Global South. [includes rush transcript]
Headlines for July 8, 2008Democracy Now - 8 Jul 2008Maliki Calls for Timetable for US Troop Withdrawal, Environmental Groups Slam G8 Carbon Emissions Pledge, Pentagon Vows to Build “Safer” Cluster Bombs by 2018, US Security Company Tied to Mexican Torture Training Videos, UK Mercenary Sentenced in Equatorial Guinea Coup Plot, Army Vet Seen in Iconic Photo Dies of Overdose, Photographer Accuses US Military of Censorship, European Scientists Meet on Reunion Island to Discuss Biodiversity, Climate Change Threatening Coral Reefs, Denver Police Arrest Librarian Holding “McCain = Bush” Sign at Rally
Kept Afloat on a Tide of MoneyUKWatch.net - 8 Jul 2008All over the world, protesters are engaged in a heroic battle with reality. They block roads, picket fuel depots, throw missiles and turn over cars in an effort to hold it at bay. The oil is running out and governments, they insist, must do something about it. When they?ve sorted it out, what about the fact that the days are getting shorter? What do we pay our taxes for? The latest people to join these surreal protests are the world?s fishermen. They are on strike in Italy, Spain, Portugal, France and Japan and demonstrating in scores of maritime countries. Last month in Brussels they threw rocks and flares at the police, who have been conspiring with the world?s sedimentary basins to keep the price of oil high. The fishermen warn that if something isn?t done to help them, thousands could be forced to scrap their boats and hang up their nets. It?s an appalling prospect, which we should greet with heartfelt indifference. Just as the oil price now seems to be all that stands between us and runaway climate change, it is also the only factor which offers a glimmer of hope to the world?s marine ecosystems. No East Asian government was prepared to conserve the stocks of tuna; now one-third of the tuna boats in Japan, China, Taiwan and South Korea will stay in dock for the next few months because they can?t afford to sail1. The unsustainable quotas set on the US Pacific seaboard won?t be met this year, because the price of oil is rising faster than the price of fish2. The indefinite strike called by Spanish fishermen is the best news European fisheries have had for years. Beam trawlermen ? who trash the seafloor and scoop up a massive bycatch of unwanted species – warn that their industry could collapse within a year3. Hurray to that too. It would, of course, be better for everyone if these unsustainable practices could be shut down gently without the need for a crisis or the loss of jobs, but this seems to be more than human nature can bear. The European Union has a programme for taking fishing boats out of service ? the tonnage of the European fleet has fallen by 5% since 19994 – but the decline in boats is too slow to overtake the decline in stocks. Every year the EU, like every other fishery authority, tries to accommodate its surplus boats by setting quotas higher than those proposed by its scientific advisers, and every year the population of several species is pressed a little closer to extinction. The fishermen make two demands, which are taken up by politicians in coastal regions all over the world: they must be allowed to destroy their own livelihoods, and the rest of us should pay for it. Over seven years, European taxpayers will be giving this industry E3.8bn5. Some of this money is used to take boats out of service and to find other jobs for fishermen, but the rest is used to equip boats with new engines and new gear, to keep them on the water, to modernise ports and landing sites and to promote and market the catch. Except for the funds used to re-train fishermen or help them into early retirement, there is no justification for this spending. At least farmers can argue ? often falsely ? that they are the ?stewards of the countryside?. But what possible argument is there for keeping more fishermen afloat than the fish population can bear? The EU says its spending will reduce fishing pressure and help fishermen adopt greener methods. In reality, it is delaying the decline of the industry and allowing it to defy ecological limits for as long as possible. If the member states want to protect the ecosystem, it?s a good deal cheaper to legislate than to pay. Our fishing policies, like those of almost all maritime nations, are a perfect parable of commercial stupidity and short-termism, helping an industry to destroy its long-term prospects for the sake of immediate profit. But the fishermen only demand more. The headline on this week?s Fishing News is ?Thanks for Nothing!?, bemoaning the British government?s refusal to follow France, Spain and Italy in handing out fuel subsidies6. But why the heck should it? The Scottish fishing secretary, Richard Lochhead, demands that the government in Westminster ?open the purse strings?. He also insists that new money is ?not tied to decommissioning?: in other words no more boats should be taken off the water7. Is this really a service to the industry, or only to its most short-sighted members? I have a leaked copy of the draft proposal that European states will discuss on Thursday8. It?s a disaster. Some of the boats which, under existing agreements, will be scrapped and turned into artificial reefs, permanently reducing the sized of the fleet, can now be replaced with smaller vessels. The EU will pay costs and salaries for crews stranded by the fuel crisis, so that they stay in business and can start fishing again when the price falls. Member states will be able to shell out more money (E100,000 per boat instead of E30,000) without breaking state aid rules. They can hand out new grants for replacing old equipment with more fuel-efficient gear. The proposal seems to be aimed at ensuring that the industry collapses through lack of fish rather than lack of fuel. The fishermen won?t go down without taking the ecosystem with them. What makes the draft document so dumb is that in some regions, especially in British waters, the industry is just beginning to turn. While French, Spanish and Italian fishermen clamour for a resumption of bluefin tuna fishing9, knowing that if they are allowed to fish now, this will be the last season ever, around the UK it has begun to dawn on some fishermen that there might be an association between the survival of the fish and the survival of the fishing. Prompted by Young?s seafood and some of the supermarkets, who in turn have been harried by environmental groups, some of the biggest British fisheries have applied for eco-labels from the Marine Stewardship Council, which sets standards for how fish are caught10. Fishermen around the UK also seem to be taking the law more seriously, and at last to be showing some interest in obscure issues such as spawning grounds and juvenile fish (which, believe it or not, turn out to have a connection to future fish stocks). By ensuring that far too many boats, and far too many desperate fishermen, stay on the water, and that the remaining quotas are stretched too thinly, the EU will slow down or even reverse the greening of the industry. Why is this issue so hard to resolve? Why does every representative of a fishing region believe he must defend his constituents? right to ensure that their children have nothing to inherit? Why do the leaders of the fishermen?s associations feel the need always to denounce the scientists who say that fish stocks decline if they are hit too hard? If this is a microcosm of how human beings engage with the environment, the prospect for humanity is not a happy one. 1. Tom Seaman, July 2008. Global supply of sushi tuna to plummet on soaring fuel prices. Intrafish, Vol 6, Issue 7. 2. Steve Quinn, 29th June 2008. Time to jump ship? Almost, say commercial fishermen. The Associated Press. 3. James Meikle, 23rd May 2008. Fish prices may rise by up to 50%. The Guardian. 4. European Union, 2008. Evolution of the fleet?s number of vessels, tonnage and engine power. http://ec.europa.eu/fisheries/fleetstatistics/index.cfm?lng=en 5. European Commission, 2006. The European Fisheries Fund 2007-2013. http://ec.europa.eu/fisheries/publications/FEP_EN.pdf 6. Fishing News, 4th July 2008. 7. No author given, 4th July 2008. ?Open the Purse Strings? ? Lochhead. Fishing News. 8. The Council of the European Union, 2008. Proposal for a Council Regulation instituting a temporary specific action aiming to promote the restructuring of the European fisheries fleets affected by the economic crisis. 9. Agence France Press, 17th June 2008. EU rejects calls to drop planned tuna fishing ban. 10. Severin Carrell, 26th March 2008. British seas turning green, says watchdog. The Guardian.
Shades of Checkpoint Charlie at Rafah CrossingElectronic Intifada - 8 Jul 2008rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rOn Monday 30 June, Gaza was abuzz with the sudden announcement that Egypt would open Rafah Crossing—the only gateway for 1.5 million Palestinians who have been imprisoned here for almost two years—for three short days. Although I had good reasons to use the crossing to leave Gaza, I was unsure about pressing my luck to escape, if only for a short while. Haider Eid writes of his attempt to break out of the prison called Gaza.
