Israeli Violence Marks Nakba Day

Stephen Lendman


Israeli police detain a Palestinian protester during clashes in the Shuafat
refugee camp, near Jerusalem. (Photograph: Ammar Awad/Reuters)

Perhaps May 15 began it, inspiring a global groundswell too powerful to contain.

For Palestinians worldwide and millions supporting them, Nakba Day commemorates loss of their homeland, initially 78% in 1948, then the rest 19 years later in 1967.

Speaking for many, Audeh Rantisi recounted the horror, saying:

"I cannot forget three horror-filled days in July 1948," weeks after Israel's May 14 Yom Ha'atzmaut, its Declaration of Independence at the expense of displaced and slaughtered Palestinians.

"The pain sears my memory," he said, "and I cannot rid myself of it no matter how hard I try."

Many hundreds of thousands of Palestinians endured brutality, harassment, humiliation, and loss of their entire world, what Edward Said called "a slow death," shattered lives, and the incalculable horror of it all.

Explaining the horrific toll, Rantisi added:

"First, Israeli soldiers forced thousands of Palestinians from their homes near the Mediterranean coast, even though some families had lived in the same houses for centuries."

"Then without (food or) water, we stumbled into the hills and continued for three deadly days. The Jewish soldiers followed, occasionally shooting over our heads to scare us and keep us moving. Terror-filled my 11-year old mind as I wondered what would happen. I remember overhearing my father and his friends express alarm about the recent massacres by Jewish terrorists. Would they kill us, too?"

Soldiers shot resisters, including women and children. For others

"I saw many stagger and fall. Others lay dead or dying in the scorching midsummer heat. Scores of pregnant women miscarried, and their babies died along the wayside. The wife of my father's cousin became very thirsty."

She couldn't continue.

"Soon she slumped down and was dead....Those wretched days and nights in mid-July of 1948 continue as a lifelong nightmare because Zionists took away our home of many centuries. For me and a million other Palestinian Arabs, tragedy marred our lives forever."


The Bin Laden Execution; Fall of the Anti-Christian Empire

Charles E. Carlson

[There is no independent or conclusive evidence that Osama bin Laden was executed in Abbottabad. The one extant image of marines dumping a white-clad body in the sea does not in itself prove that this must have been bin Laden's. The world at large simply do not at this point in time know for certain that bin Laden has been killed. Neither do we know for certain whether he is dead or not.]

Sadly, the falling empire is our own, and the Bin Laden execution is no small part of our plunge from greatness. How could citizens of a democracy, who watch court room justice scenes by the hour, and who profess to be Christians, possibly understand a deliberate act by our own government whereby an alleged criminal is assassinated and all physical evidence about that alleged criminal is destroyed, and his body is dumped at sea? How can we in a "Christian" nation comprehend a raid on a leader of another faith, where every man with him, unarmed or lightly armed, is systematically executed in front of their wives and children under direct order to do so from those who pretend to be the world's peacemakers?

Indeed, as a result of our acts many wonder if the real Bin Laden was even present, for the only direct evidence that he was present is the possible testimony of the women and children who we are told are alive, but without evidence confirming it. I can only wonder, based on what the Seals did to the four men, why the ten or more women and children found in Bin Laden's compound were not also eliminated. Or were they? We are only told that they were allowed to live... live, that is, in the hands of the Pakistani puppet gang beholden to the US Empire for its daily bread! I would not want to be in their shoes.


Israeli troops kill unarmed Palestinian protestors on borders

Patrick O’Connor
WSWS


Palestinian protesters attempt to cross the Syrian border into Israel.
(Photograph: Jalaa Marey/Getty Images)

Israeli soldiers yesterday killed at least fifteen Palestinians and wounded many more as they suppressed protests held at border posts facing Syria, Lebanon, and Gaza to mark the 63rd anniversary of the founding of the Zionist state.

This latest massacre of Palestinian civilians inflicted by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) again demonstrates the Israeli government’s brazenly unlawful operations. The situation also exposes the Obama administration’s “humanitarian” pretext for the bombardment of Libya.

NATO’s war is supposedly necessary to protect unarmed civilians from the possibility of being killed by government forces—but Washington raises no objections to the murderous activities of its closest ally in the Middle East, which it arms and finances to the tune of billions of dollars each year.

The exact death toll from yesterday’s demonstrations remains unclear, with differing numbers provided by various media outlets. According to the Associated Press, Lebanese security officials reported that ten people were killed on the Lebanese side of the border fence. One person was shot dead by an Israeli sniper in Gaza. Others were killed in Israeli-occupied Golan Heights when a crowd of unarmed protestors broke through the demarcation fence with Syria and marched into the village of Majdal Shams.

May 15 marks the anniversary of Israel’s establishment in 1948, but for the Palestinian people it is commemorated as “the catastrophe,” or al-Nabka. The Zionist state was founded through a terror campaign triggering one of the largest forced migrations in modern history. An estimated 700,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled their homes, and their property was expropriated. Denied the right to return ever since, there are now about 4.5 million refugees and their descendents in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the occupied territories.


Resurrecting the Bogus FARC-EP Files/Venezuela Connection

Stephen Lendman


FARC-EP soldiers on march (Valle del Cauca)

The story surfaced in March 2008 after Colombia's military, with US Special Forces help, attacked a FARC-EP rebel camp in Ecuador. Over 20 people were killed, including 16 or more FARC-EP members while they slept. Key among them was Paul Reyes, the FARC-EP's second-in-command, their peace negotiator, public voice, and lead figure in the Chavez-led hostage negotiations with Colombia at the time.

Tensions rose when Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos Calderon said three laptops and other materials were found at the FARC-EP camp. Containing provocative evidence, he said, it showed a Chavez/Ecuadorean President Raphael Correa link to FARC-EP rebels, including Venezuela providing them weapons, munitions, and about $300 million.

Moreover, they were accused of acquiring 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of uranium, allegedly for a radioactive dirty bomb, as well as selling 700 kilograms of cocaine for about $1.5 million.

The story, in fact, lacked credibility, but major media reports featured it, grabbing any chance they can to bash Chavez. For example, on March 30, 2008, New York Times writer Simon Romero headlined, "Files Suggest Venezuela Bid to Aid Colombian Rebels," saying:

Captured computer files "appear to tie Venezuela's government to efforts to secure arms for Colombia's largest insurgency....which the United States says is a terrorist group...."

Established in 1964, it's the "longest standing, largest peasant-based guerrilla movement in the world," struggling valiantly to liberate Colombia from decades of repressive rule, according to noted Latin American expert James Petras.


Der Krieg gegen Libyen und die Rekolonialisierung Afrikas

Joachim Guilliard

Um Demokratie nach Libyen und Afrika zu bringen...

Seit dem 19. März bombardiert eine neue „Koalition der Willigen“ Tag für Tag libysche Städte und Armeeeinheiten. Alle Vermittlungsvorschläge werden ignoriert. Die Kriegsallianz werde ihre Luftschläge wohl noch viele Wochen fortsetzen, tönte es vom Außenministertreffen der NATO in Berlin. Das Bündnis müsse Libyen weiter angreifen, bis der Revolutionsführer Muammar al-Gaddafi verjagt sei, verkündeten am Tag darauf die drei Kriegsherren, US-Präsident Barack Obama, der britische Premier David Cameron und Frankreichs Staatschef Nicolas Sarkozy, in einem gemeinsamen Kriegsappell, den sie via Washington Post, Times und Le Figaro in die Welt schleuderten.

Der neue Krieg der NATO wird von einer großen Mehrheit der Staaten in der Welt abgelehnt. Die meisten glauben, dass er nicht zum Schutz der Zivilbevölkerung geführt werde, sondern für den unmittelbaren Zugriff auf die libyschen Öl- und Gasvorräte. Die gleichzeitige französische Intervention in der Elfenbeinküste und die forcierte Ausweitung der militärischen Präsenz der USA in Afrika deuten zudem auf Ziele hin, die darüber hinausgehen: die Sicherung und Ausweitung westlicher Dominanz auf dem gesamten afrikanischen Kontinent, um dessen Rohstoff-Ressourcen ein erbitter Wettkampf stattfindet.


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