[Prefatory Note: On September 24 a special session of the Russell Tribunal will examine war crimes allegations against Israel arising from the 50-day military operation that commence on July 8th. The RT has developed a record of examining the criminality of state actors that enjoy impunity internationally because they are insulated from accountability by what I have called a ‘geopolitical veto’ in this case exercised by the United States and several major European countries. Where governments and the UN fail to implement international law, there exists a right of peoples to play a residual lawmaking function. It is somewhat analogous to the residual role that the General Assembly is empowered to play when the Security Council is unable or unwilling to perform its primary role in relation to international peace and security. To fill this normative vacuum the RT has long played made an honorable contribution to what might be called ‘the empowerment of legal populism.’ I encourage attentiveness to this event, including publicizing its occurrence and disseminating the results of its deliberations. As the announcement below indicates, I am proud to be a member of the jury for the session along with a series of truly distinguished and qualified high profile international personalities known both for their professional achievement and for their principled stands as ‘citizen pilgrims’ dedicated to a humane future shaped by global justice.]
Israel’s Crimes in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge – Extraordinary session of the Russell Tribunal
24-25 September – Brussels – Albert Hall, Brussel
A few weeks ago, members of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, outraged by Israel’s terrible assault on Gaza and its population, decided to start working on an extraordinary session of the Tribunal that will look into Israel’s Crimes (including War Crimes, Crimes against Humanity and the Crime of Genocide) during the still ongoing “Operation Protective Edge” as well as third States complicity.
During this session, that will take place on one day in Brussels on 24th September, our jury, so far composed of Michael Mansfield QC, John Dugard, Vandana Shiva, Christiane Hessel, Richard Falk, Ahdaf Soueif, Ken Loach, Paul Laverty, Roger Waters, Radhia Nasraoui, Miguel Angel Estrella and Ronnie Kasrils will listen to testimonies from Paul Behrens, Desmond Travers, Pierre Barbancey (TBC), Max Blumenthal, Eran Efrati, Mads Gilbert, Mohammed Abou-Arab, Mads Gilbert, Paul Mason, Martin Lejeune, Mohammed Omer, Raji Sourani, Ashraf Mashharawi, Agnes Bertrand, Michael Deas and Ivan Karakashian.
The jury will give its findings on 25th September in the morning during an international press conference at the International Press Center (IPC, Brussels). In the afternoon, the Jury will be received at the European parliament and address a message to the UN General Assembly for its reopening.
To register for the session (free), email us your name and organisation at : rtpgaza@gmail.com
Do mention if you are coming as a journalist and would like to record parts of the session.
To stay in touch with our work, “like” our facebook page! Thanks. (https://www.facebook.com/russelltribunal)
Looking forward to seeing you all in Brussels.
Israel’s Crimes in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge – Extraordinary session of the Russell Tribunal
24-25 September – Brussels – Albert Hall, Brussel
A few weeks ago, members of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, outraged by Israel’s terrible assault on Gaza and its population, decided to start working on an extraordinary session of the Tribunal that will look into Israel’s Crimes (including War Crimes, Crimes against Humanity and the Crime of Genocide) during the still ongoing “Operation Protective Edge” as well as third States complicity.
During this session, that will take place on one day in Brussels on 24th September, our jury, so far composed of Michael Mansfield QC, John Dugard, Vandana Shiva, Christiane Hessel, Richard Falk, Ahdaf Soueif, Ken Loach, Paul Laverty, Roger Waters, Radhia Nasraoui, Miguel Angel Estrella and Ronnie Kasrils will listen to testimonies from Paul Behrens, Desmond Travers, Pierre Barbancey (TBC), Max Blumenthal, Eran Efrati, Mads Gilbert, Mohammed Abou-Arab, Mads Gilbert, Paul Mason, Martin Lejeune, Mohammed Omer, Raji Sourani, Ashraf Mashharawi, Agnes Bertrand, Michael Deas and Ivan Karakashian.
The jury will give its findings on 25th September in the morning during an international press conference at the International Press Center (IPC, Brussels). In the afternoon, the Jury will be received at the European parliament and address a message to the UN General Assembly for its reopening.
To register for the session (free), email us your name and organisation at : rtpgaza@gmail.com
Do mention if you are coming as a journalist and would like to record parts of the session.
To stay in touch with our work, “like” our facebook page! Thanks. (https://www.facebook.com/russelltribunal)
Global Justice in the 21st Century 
Under normal circumstances I would like to be able to attend this session of the RT in Brussels. Unfortunately I will be traveling in No. Africa on that date. I look forward to the results.
Dear Mr. Falk,
Thank you for these efforts. Hope to meet you there.
Kind regards,
John Veron
ICCO
The Russell Tribune has been characterized as a legal farce by more than one critic, including yourself.
Here is what the NGO Monitor has to say about it:
http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/russell_tribunal_on_palestine
http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/the_russell_tribunal_on_palestine_a_legal_farce_and_total_failure
But since you have been following events in Gaza so closely, I’m sure you’ll mention in passing that Hamas did after all embed its entire war apparatus in residential areas, manufacturing, storing and firing its rockets in and around hospitals, clinics, schools, playgrounds, mosques, private houses and apartment buildings. You will also mention that Hamas fired 3,500 rockets at Israeli population centers and will of course point out to your associates, who may be less well versed in the laws of war than you are, that it is permissible to return fire in a built-up area and to attack civilian installations being used for militaruy purposes. You will also point to the measures taken by Israel to minimize civilian casualties. Won’t you?
Referring us to NGO Monitor is similar to my referring you to Gideon Levy or Noam Chomsky, maybe more so. Gerald Steinberg, its voice, is one of the
most dogmatic disseminators of hasbara whom I have encountered, and unpleasant on a personal level. Surely, you can do better!
RT will consider wrongdoing proportional to our sense of the distribution of responsibility among the main political actors.
What measures did Israel use to minimize civilian deaths? 1000 lb. bombs designed to maximize civilian deaths and destruction of their homes? These actions that can be seen, expose the lies of the lips.
I see that my last comment is “awaiting moderation.” Are you really that afraid of what I am saying?
my last comment is also awaiting moderation. so?
From Jonathan Cook’s Blog
Now even the Shin Bet, Israel’s secret police, admits in court documents that the group behind the kidnapping and murder of the three Israeli youths in the West Bank in June was a rogue cell, comprising only four individuals. Further, the man named as the mastermind behind the plot was “lukewarm” about it.
Hussam Qawasmeh was apparently originally lukewarm about the plan proposed to him by a relative, Marwan Qawasmeh, who with Amer Abu Aisheh has been named as having carried out the kidnapping and murder and is still wanted by Israel.
So who’s going to remind us that Netanyahu’s invasion of the West Bank, his rounding up of hundreds of Hamas activists, and the ensuing confrontation with Hamas in Gaza that led to Israel’s use of massive military force, killing more than 2,100 Palestinians, the vast majority of them civilians, were all based on a lie: that he had cast-iron evidence that Hamas was responsible for the murders?
A crime of aggression against Gaza is a crime against humanity – in fact, the supreme crime, as determined by the Nuremberg tribunals. But this crime against humanity is going straight down the memory hole because Israel, rather than an official enemy, was responsible.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/04/israel-charges-hussam-qawasmeh-kidnapped-teenagers-murder
You don’t get it, ray, so I’ll spell it out for you again: The murderers were identified by DNA traces as Hamas activists who had previously been in prison. When mafiosos make a hit, it doesn’t matter if the head mafioso sent them or not, the police start arresting Mafia people. Israel started arresting Hamas people. That’s how you look for murderers. You arrest known associates.
The Shin Bet has also told you, though maybe not Jonathan Cook, that it prevented around 40 kidnapping plots in the 18 months preceding the murders. It also announced that around 100 West Bank Hamas terrorists were arrested last week with their entire arsenal that they planned to use in terrorist attacks inside Israel and even overthrow Abu Mazen. That’s why Israel’s security forces arrest hundreds of Hamas activists. Since you never opened your mouth when Israeli women and children were being blown apart in these terrorist attacks, my feeling is that you are a hypocrite and don’t really care about Palestinians who get blown apart either but are after the Jews who sinned in the Bible and have all these bad things in their DNA.
You can be sure that Hamas in Gaza knows exactly what is going on in Hamas in the West Bank. If you want to be a policeman and take responsibility for other people’s lives, join your neighborhood watch. Don’t yell us how to protect our families.
Fred, i can assure you, none of them will talk about Meshaal ordering Palestinians killed for being rivals of Hamas.
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/none-of-the-27-people-executed-by-hamas-were-israeli-assets/
None of the 27 People Executed by Hamas Were Israeli Spies
Those executed may have been members of Hamas’ political rival
BY: Abraham Rabinovich
September 4, 2014
JERUSALEM—In a rare public reference to intelligence sources by an Israeli intelligence officer, an official of the Shin Bet intelligence agency said today that not one of the Palestinians executed by Hamas last month for allegedly spying for Israel was in fact an Israeli asset.
“Not even one of the 27 was a source,” the official told the Times of Israel. He noted that all 27 (the number of those executed has sometimes been given as 38) were in prison when the operation began and therefore were in no position to offer information about the location of rocket launch sites or of Hamas leaders.
The summary executions were carried out in public places in the wake of the targeted assassination of three Hamas leaders by Israeli warplanes on Aug. 21. A senior Hamas official has said that public demands in Gaza to find and execute the spies who allegedly tipped off the Israelis about the leaders’ location had led to the killings a day later. The shackled prisoners were dragged into the street and shot in front of crowds.
An official of Fatah, the political rival of Hamas and the mainstay of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which controls the West Bank, hinted on Palestinian television that those executed were members of Fatah, some of them former officers in the PA security apparatus. “Did you (Hamas) interrogate them?” asked Tawfiq Tirawi, a member of the Fatah Central Committee. “Where are their confessions? Or did you perhaps execute those who once interrogated Hamas men?”
Tirawi equated Hamas with the executioners of the Islamic State. “What’s the difference if you behead or if you shoot?”
The Shin Bet official said the executions were intended “simply as a deterrent.” He said that during the Second Intifada, or Palestinian uprising, which began in 2000 and lasted several years, dozens of Palestinians were executed by militants as alleged collaborators with Israel. Of them all, said the Israeli official, “only one-and-a-half” had actually been an Israeli source.
The official dismissed Hamas’ claims earlier in the Gaza confrontation to have arrested dozens of suspected collaborators, some caught with cellphones and SIM cards allegedly supplied by Israel. He said such arrests and charges often stem from family feuds and other rivalries.
No Fred, it is you who doesn’t get it. You undermine your own argument.
We can assume Shin Bet listens to all phone calls and reads all emails, like the NSA, of Palestinians who come to their attention, and especially the Hamas Leadership in Gaza.
They didn’t pick this kidnapping plan up from listening to Hamas leaders in Gaza because they weren’t planning such a move while Netanyahu was already ballistic because of the Fatah-Hamas Unity agreement.
Israeli settlers can carry machine guns in Hebron while they walk down the Jews only street, that used to be the main commercial street for Palestinians. This is designed to have Palestinians love the Jews I suppose?
This was a local rogue operation only, and that’s why Shin Bet was caught unawares.
One last time, ray: It doesn’t matter who hatched the plot. Israel didn’t attack Hamas in Gaza because of the murders. It attacked Hamas in Gaza because Hamas in Gaza began firing rockets at Israel’s population centers. Hamas in Gaza began firing rockets in retaliation for the arrests of West Bank Hamas activists. West Bank Hamas activists were arrested as part of a manhunt to find the murderers and everyone who helped them The result was the arrests, which netted the West Bank Hamas activists who helped the murderers and also as a bonus 100 terrorists who were planning terrorist attacks on Israel. That’s how it works. Really, ray, if you think you know how to protect people’s lives, start with your own family.
Jews carry guns in Hebron because when they didn’t have guns they were massacred – 67 Jews in the 1929 massacre. The Jews in Hebron now occupy the homes of these murdered Jews. Isn’t that poetic justice?
At least there was no barrier erected in the Tomb of the Patriarchs between Jew and Arab after the massacre of 1929 in Hebron.
It was only after the Jewish massacre of Palestinians in Hebron as they prayed in their Mosque in 1994 did that wall go up.
There was no barrier because there were no Jews in Hebron for the next 40 years.
And Fred, you neglect to mention it was Arabs who hid and sheltered the majority of the Jews living in Hebron in 1929 from the mindless mob, much like the mindless mobs of Jews and Arabs in Jerusalem shouting Death to each other Today.
Blessed are the Peace Makers, for THEY shall be called The Children of God!
This transcends Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Atheism!
I see that are you reading up very quickly on Hebron so that you can come back with something now that you’ve run away from your first front and are trying to open up a new one. Yes, there were two dozen good Arabs among the thousands of bad Arabs. So?
I really don’t want to go around in circles with you, ray. You can stand on your head and shout from all the streetcorners in the world and it is not going to change the fact that Hamas is a terrorist organization that has brought disaster on the Palestinian people. Do you care? If you do you’d better get down there and advise them to throw their rockets into the sea. We’ll see how long you last.
Fred, you are too presumptuous about yourself! I read about the 1994 Jewish massacre of Arabs in Hebron as it happened.
Remember that famous Golda Meir quote about Palestinian leaders not loving their children.
http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/180400/hamas-killed-160-palestinian-children-to-build-terror-tunnels
Hamas Killed 160 Palestinian Children to Build Tunnels
Militant group used child labor to construct underground network in Gaza
By Myer Freimann
July 25, 2014
Ray, all Israel was doing was responding to the thousands of missiles Hamas was firing at Israel.
Let me remind Ray, Hamas fired 100 missiles this year at Israel before the 3 Israeli teens were kidnapped by Hamas in June.
If Ray cared about Gazan’s, he would tell Hamas to stop firing missiles from schools, mosques, hospitals and churches at Israel.
How awful that Hamas thinks of Gazan’s as weapons instead of as human beings.
Ray, read this article from an Arab writer Magdi Khalil on Hamas.
Watch him debate a Hamas official and him detailing Hamas using Gazan’s as human shields.
You can watch the video of the debate.
There’s a link in the article to the video.
The Hamas official when confronted with the evidence that Hamas used Gazan’s as human shields threatens to kill Magdi Khalil.
This is how the Hamas terror state works.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/magdi/writers-opposing-hamas-targets-of-death/
Writers Opposing Hamas: Targets of Death
September 3, 2014 by Magdi Khalil
Dear, dear Richard: I am very proud of you, your excellence is light upon all humans.
Bless you. Love, Georgianne
Richard, I did post this yesterday in your previous report, but in the wrong place. With this new post, it seems more appropriate to re-post it here, and I hope the Russell Tribunal investigates what is written in this report.
I can relate to the suffering of these Palestinian war refugees returning to their destroyed homes near the Israeli border.
What is disturbing is the cold heartedness of the commentators, devoid of any common humanity or human compassion. This is typical of the Israeli mindset these days, leaving very little hope the great gulf can be bridged or even on the path to it, before Armageddon.
‘Haunted by war, Gaza residents try to rebuild’
KHAN YUNIS, Gaza Strip — The war in Gaza is over, but the approximately 10,000 residents of Khuza’a do not yet believe it. The sound of reconnaissance aircraft flying nearby continues to make them think of death.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/09/khuzaa-gaza-war-aftermath-destruction-killing-arrests.html?utm_source=Al-Monitor+Newsletter+%5BEnglish%5D&utm_campaign=5c4f05fe94-September_4_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_28264b27a0-5c4f05fe94-93142013
ray032, instead of blaming Israel, blame Hamas for starting this war.
As the Israeli mother of one of the murdered teens said.
The Jews love life, while the Arabs love death.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/184752#.VAn3QJ3D-M8
Mother of Abducted Teen: Terror ‘Exploits Democracy’
Bat-Galim Sha’ar warns Israeli government to take terrorists’ love for death into account when dealing with nationalistic crime.
By Tova Dvorin
First Publish: 9/4/2014
Bat-Galim Sha’ar, the mother of abducted and murdered 16 year-old Gilad, spoke passionately about the need to stop terror and bloodshed Thursday after new details were revealed about her son’s murder.
“Even during the difficult days we went through, after we found out that Gilad was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists, we stated that we rely on the security forces and the government,” Sha’ar began. “Today again we see the system has not been idle, and that the security establishment also stands as a bulwark, when we need to settle an account with those who want to harm citizens of the state.”
“The indictment was filed today against those who used their own land to drench it with blood when they buried our sons in it,” she continued. “This is the difference between the attitude of the State of Israel and our enemies: while Israel seeks to build up the country and its soil, by establishing settlements and planting trees and flowers, the murderers used this land to bury the bodies of our children.”
“The Jewish people revere life, and the enemy reveres death,” she added.
Sha’ar added that the murder, and the legal process which has followed, exploits Israel’s democracy.
“The murderers of our children, who are contemptible and despicable, are exploiting the democratic freedom and human love of our people,” she declared. “This is vile and unacceptable, and must end.”
“This distorted way of thinking of our enemies is completely different from the principles and beliefs that guide us, and we must remember that without getting confused when we discuss ways to deal with them,” she added. “The State of Israel and the entire sane world should know to put an end to terror and grief.”
Gilad, along with 16 year-old Naftali Frenkel and 19 year-old Eyal Yifrah, hy”d, were abducted on June 12. Their bodies were found some three weeks later, and their abduction captivated the Jewish world.
Earlier Thursday, an indictment was published for Hussam Hassan Kawasmeh, who owned the plot of land in which the murdered teens’ bodies were discovered. Abductors Marwan Kawasmeh and Amar Abu-Eishah are both still on the run; the IDF demolished their families’ homes last month and sealed Kawasmeh’s.
Dear Mr Falk – Please understand that I say this as an ally and would-be friend: by using adjectives like ‘terrible’, etc., you give priceless ammunition to the hasbara, who will inevitably say that the judgements of the tribunal were a foregone conclusion. It is hard to be dispassionate in the face of such palpable evil, but I feel it would be more effective in this case. The facts already speak – scream,bleed, weep – for themselves. Respectfully – B.O.
Fred,
You said, “Neighborhood watch:”
omg…
About Neighborhood watch…and not that I am being sarcastic – but I have a reflection:
What is ISIS in essence? Are they planted false-flag terrorist or are they real- thing on wheels? They appear to be rolling? What is the capacity of their rolling…and how much is rolling?
Their rolling is an opportunity for nations to get together, and reflect upon this fact: where did ISIS get their weaponry from? For sure they are on some stock-piles, but at least they are not on nuclear one—the stockpiles…
Would not be an excellent opportunity for nations to get together and rationally evaluate their nuclear stock-piles and security of them?
If any terrorists (not necessary ISIS) got to some sophisticated weaponry –and not all – that does not indicate that “actual terrorists” / cannot get onto their shopping sprees…just by whatever? The real terrorists are of the same works as suppliers—suppliers (past/present/future) are terrorists, in essence .
Would it not be wise for the Kings and Arab-Israelite and non-Israelite Arabs in the region to hide their common stench with the bride (church-false) of the West. Would not be the Israel, as a girl the perfect place to stash up all of it from them? She seems to be only crocodile-solid one?
I am having uncomplaining feeling about Saudi women Kings daughters that are locked up, and when will they be let go? Perhaps, it will take ISIS to set the girls free.
A beautiful and reality-pointing picture:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein_in_popular_culture
Ronnie Kasrils will be there.
I wonder if David Duke will be there too.
Ronnie Kasrils is a well known Assad apologist.
Even with Assad gassing Syrians and dropping barrel bombs on Syrian civilians who are anti Assad, Ronnie Kasrils supports Assad.
#BDS icon Ronnie Kasrils cheers the Butcher of Damascus. / MT @Sentletse: “I have been to Syria. They are not barbaric… I stand by Assad.”
1 Sep 2013
Kasrills is also the biggest Robert Mugabe supporter.
http://citizen.co.za/163655/the-hypocrisy-of-ronnie-kasrils/
The hypocrisy of Ronnie Kasrils
Is Ronnie Kasrils the worst hypocrite in South African history?
Andew Kenny
4/22/2014
Dear Richard,
Thank you for sending this. I was so glad to learn that the Russell Tribunal is back in session, with its truly eminent jury, since I feared that it had closed its doors for good after the concluding session. According to me, the Russell Tribunal is one of the few remaining hopes for justice for Palestinian civilians. The level of the jury is always extremely high.
If I did not have my gala fund raiser for animals here on the 27th, with people arriving from different countries as early as the 23rd, I would have been on a plane to Brussels myself. I simply do not have anyone to second me if I am not present, i.e. the buck stops here, but I will encourage other interested parties living in the vicinity to attend. This Tribunal is like a breath of intellectual and honest fresh air an emergency oxygen supply – from the constant deluge of lies from the mainstream media. And there is not even one “anti-Jewish” person amongst them. They just use the tools of “international law”. (I don’t use anti-semetic anymore, since the words have been so bastardized now as to have become quite meaningless.)
Dear Dr. Gabi, Silvia, Gilad and Mazin,
Could you please post this event on your websites?
Dear Saïd,
Could you please forward to your “Network for Colonial Freedom”? Also, if you are still in Paris then, I advise you to make the trip to Brussels. Maybe Press TV or RT can send you as their correspondent. I have copied Rita, whom you know well, and Ismat, whose husband, Han, knows you from the days when he was Director of the Dutch Archaeological Institute in Cairo. (If you need Rita’s phone numbers, I can send them to you.)
Dear All,
If you can find a way to attend, please don’t miss this opportunity! For work-related reasons, i.e. I was refused annual leave, thus I missed the South Africa and New York sessions, to my great regret. Even having Archbishop Desmond Tutu in my sights for a half hour would have cheered me up for at least one year!
In closing, I would like to add one of my usual anecdotes. The London Session was held over a weekend in the Law Court, but since the Court had to get back to work on Monday morning, the press conference was held at the headquarters of Amnesty International. Questions to the jury were to only come from accredited members of the press, who were asked to state their names and affiliations, before asking their questions. One joker asked for the microphone, and then just blasted the jury for being, what else, but “anti-Semitic liars”!! The Chairman asked him politely to state his name and his affiliation, three times, but the best that could be gotten out of his deranged brain, since he had seemed to have even forgotten his own name, was that he was a “freelance journalist”. I cannot remember what his stupid question was, but the Chairman fielded it to Stéphane Hessell. (Remember this moment, Cynthia? It was wonderful!) It was then that I fell totally and completely in love with Stéphane Hessell! He said: “As for the question of the Zionist gentleman, who seems to have forgotten his own name and has no journalistic affiliation, yes, you, there, the arrogant-looking chap sitting in Row 4, why yes, of course, the jury has taken into consideration the crimes of the Holocaust, which happened well before your birth, but which, I, in fact, was a witness of myself, and just barely escaped with my life. But this being said, we are now speaking about israel TODAY, an entire country guilty of war crimes.” “Nameless” left the room immediately, and there were more than one gentle smiles sent in Stéphane’s direction. What a shame that he did not live long enough to get the Nobel Peace Prize, but at least he was able to travel and speak out up until the very end!! In fact, he reached “rock star” status, and his pamphlets are still available everywhere, even in the US-run UN bookstores!
Dear Richard,
There are always these Zionist paid fanatic jokers and trolls at every kind of human rights conference, as you have witnessed yourself in Geneva, and likely elsewhere as well. I only know about what I have seen myself. Sometimes they manage to be a bit effective, and other times, no.
During the Iraq debacle, the early one and not the shameful results, I think that I was at SOAS nearly every month for a weekend conference, even if travelling to the UK is always painful for me, since I am on some kind of a “list”, and am always taken away at Customs for an iris scan with the Eritrean refugees, thus I needed to organize my flights with many hours “waiting time” before actually getting into a hotel in London. At the conference on the health effects on the civilian population after the illegal use of white phosphorus in “Fallujah”, with lots of eminent Iraqis and doctors (including Germans and Swiss) on the podium, one American joker, White in colour, dressed yet again in a checkered shirt and trousers ten inches too short, the typical CIA uniform (sorry, Marshall, but this is a FACT, which is risible in the rest of the world), jumped up and said, in nearly incomprehensible English: “These ah lies, lies, lies, lies. Ah was in Fallijah meself and we didn’t do no wrong to any of those dirty rag heads!” Well, his boss must have been just as ignorant as he was, thinking that he would just send him to an assembly of the “sheeple”, as an “observer”, but he made a mistake and opened his mouth, and then the entire assembly at SOAS stood up, as one, and chased him out of the room, like a dog with his tail between his legs, shouting together: “GET OUT OF HERE! ARE YOU NOT ASHAMED OF YOURSELF? OUR PEOPLE ARE DYING, AND YOU AND YOUR COUNTRY ARE LYING!” It was one of the finest moments of my entire life! The CIA agent fled, in fear, but I doubt that those in Washington will flee so easily when it is found that the “Emperor has no clothes on”. There is a lot of work to do, still, and it is so depressing.
rosemary
De : Global Justice in the 21st Century Répondre à : Global Justice in the 21st Century Date : vendredi 5 septembre 2014 08:39 À : Rosemary Tylka Objet : [New post] RUSSELL TRIBUNAL SESSION ON PALESTINE
WordPress.com Richard Falk posted: “[Prefatory Note: On September 24 a special session of the Russell Tribunal will examine war crimes allegations against Israel arising from the 50-day military operation that commence on July 8th. The RT has developed a record of examining the criminality “
Dear Rosemary
You seem to derive great satidfaction when Zionists and Americans, whether “arrogant-looking” or “paid fanatic jokers” or part of “an entire country guilty of war crimes,” are put in their place. Well, my dear, if hearing a “CIA agent” being told off is “one of the finest moments” of your life,” you are a pretty pathetic creature. And your smugness is astounding. You must be British. I will nonetheless ask you what I generally ask people like yourself: Why didn’t you open your mouth when Jewish women and children were being blown apart in buses and restaurants and murdered in their homes by Arab terrorists?
Fred and Ray shouldn’t brag about their submitted comments being held up “awaiting moderation”. I twice attempted to post a comment in the thread about two types of anti-Semitism—a subject in which I, as a rabbi, have great interest. My attempted post simply disappeared without explanation. But I guess I know the reason why.
I agree with Prof. Falk’s point that some Jews see anti-Semitism
in every statement critical of Israel, and use that as a shield against having to address the criticism. He calls this type 2 anti-Semitism, as differentiated from type 1, which is the real thing. But then I go on to cite major examples of his crossing the line from type 1 to type 2. I then addressed his claim that harassment by a small (six person) Jewish NGO based in Geneva had done significant damage to him personally and professionally. I pointed out that long before the NGO got on his case, he had done severe damage to his reputation by telling Americans that Ayatolla Khoumeini gave them nothing to worry about (1979), and his apparent endorsement of 9/11 conspiracy theories (2001).
I’m sure Prof. Falk found my critique insulting (inconvenient truths are often taken that way), and in violation of his stricture that precludes personal references to him on his blog. But when a major portion of his post is auto-biographical, I must confess to not knowing how to respond with being personal.
Regarding the Russell Tribunal, you don’t need to quote Gerald Steinberg to know that a Kangaroo Court is being called into session. I don’t recognize the names of all the “jurors”, but I’ll bet that all, or at least most of them have proven anti-Israel track records. . You don’t have to take my word for it. In a 2011 op ed for the New Yorkl Times entitled “Israel and the Apartheid Slander”, Judge Richard Goldstone—yes, that Judge Richard Goldstone of the report bearing his name— wrote of an earlier version of the Russell Tribunal: “It is not a ‘tribunal.’ The ‘evidence’ is going to be one-sided and the members of the ‘jury’ are critics whose harsh views of Israel are well known.”
What is especially repugnant here is the cynical abuse of language for blatantly political ends. As Judge Goldstone noted, this isn’t a “tribunal” in the accepted sense of weighing evidence for the purpose of adjudicating fairly. The participants’ arrogance in calling themselves “jurors” is mind-boggling. If this is a “jury”, it would be proper for a “juror” who submitted evidence for consideration—in this instance, Prof. Falk—to recues himself. But that won’t happen. A one-sided “jury” like this one more befits a tyrannical dictatorship than anything remotely resembling democratic process.
The big victim here is international law. When those who claim to be its staunch advocates bend the rules of both due process and decency to serve their own purposes, law, itself, is in deep trouble.
Rabbi Ira Youdovin
You’re great, Ira. First, you say you don’t recognize the names of all the jurors, and then go on to say you’d bet most of them have proven anti-Israel track records. How prejudiced can one be?
As for Judge Goldstone, why believe him? He already established his credentials when he recanted his own report on Operation Cast Lead under pressure from the Israel lobby, who threatened his family.
International law is certainly a victim, but not because of the Russell Tribunal, rather because of all the ignoring of it by Israel and the US.
Ira:
I never saw the two posts on the anti-Semitism post that you imply were denied publication here. I have actually never denied
you this access except when you have seized the occasion to shift from substance to personal insults that go beyond disagreeing with
what I have written. The whole rationale for an undertaking such as the Russell Tribunal is the absence of other mechanisms of assessment
in relation to allegations of criminality arising in relation to the Protective Edge military operation. When governments and the UN
turn away from the carnage inflicted on an entrapped people, it quite appropriate for ‘people’ to take a lawmaking initiative. It is
basically an undertaking that seeks to narrate the events and evaluate them from the perspective of international law and morality, and
thereby fill the normative vacuum. To some extent it balances the enormous resources Israel devotes to providing the world with its
narrative that is, by definition, partisan, one-sided.
No amount of money will convince people of what isn’t true. What people see are Arab terrorist organizations sowing discord and destruction wherever they appear. This includes Hamas. There are no “narratives,” which, as I pointed out to you, is just a word used by people who wish to pretend that all versions of history are equally valid, just as “hasbara” is a word Israel haters hide behind when they can no longer rationalize Arab terrorism. As for the Russell Tribunal, the very fact that someone like yourself, among others, is iinvited to participate in it with your declared biases and record of anti-Israel declarations invalidates its entire claim to fairness. How on earth can anyone who has likened Israelis to Nazis sit in judgment in what is meant to be an impartial tribunal?
Impartial does not mean uninformed. A qualified participant is someone who has experience with the subject-matter and open to the truth even if unpopular along the
corridors of power.
Israel is not shy about enlisting students and others to posit its version of what is taking place.
As you will only be getting a partial picture of events, since you don’t have the power to subpoena anyone or the means to gather evidence, your findings or conclusions will be incomplete by definition and the impact they have will depend entirely on the perceived stature and integrity of the participants. In this sense, you are undermining yourselves, for it will be enough to point to your biographies and past declarations to discredit your entire enterprise. It would have been much wiser to choose judges with a clean past. Were you afraid to? Or are you only preaching to the comverted? Who else will take you seriously?
We are still waiting for you to recuse yourself, Prof. Falk. Is it conceivable that a judge or juror would not disqualify himself after expressing the views that you have expressed about a “defendent” before a hearing or trial? And you wonder why people attack your integrity.
Another waste of time. Why don’t human rights activists realize that as long as the US and most of Europe is colonized by the Israel lobby groups – no international court would be able to sanction the Zionist entity.
Moreover, Bernard Russell happened to be a “Jew hater”, according to Rabbi Marvin Hier, the founder of the LA-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, an Israeli hasbara center. Early this year, the “holy man” announced the purchase of a Nazi era letter at a London auction last month for $4,000. He claimed that the said letter was written in 1937 by the UK-born Nobel Prize-winning philosopher Bertrand Arthur William Russell (1872-1970) saying that if the Nazi army invade England the British should invite Adolf Hitler to dinner rather fight.
“If the Germans succeed in sending an invading army to England we should do best to treat them as visitors, give then quarters and invite the commander and chief to dine with the prime minister,” says the letter addressed to British Jewish Godfrey Carter.
Rabbi Hier, though could not hide why his organization needed this forgery to fight delegitimization of the Zionist entity.
http://rehmat1.com/2014/02/20/rabbi-hier-bertrand-russell-admired-hitler/
Richard Falk the people in Gaza are trapped by Hamas who use Gazan’s as human shields.
Nobody in Gaza would have been killed if Hamas did not fire thousands of missiles at Israeli civilians and use the millions in aid money to build tunnels into Israel to kidnap and kill Israelis.
Kelso – Jews in Israel are trapped. Most of them were pulled out of their European and non-European lands by Zionists phony “anti-Semitism hoax”. For the last 66 years, they have been used as sacrificial lambs to maintain a European Zionist outpost in Arab land.
http://rehmat1.com/2009/08/17/history-of-the-arabs/
rehmat1:
Holy Land is not “Arab land.”
Jewish exiles are to populate Holy Land from all over the world — and yes, “Jewish Nation” (by Faith and/or line-Jewish) that was/ is hated and is tripped — will graft in Jewish-exiles into the Holy Land.
I am not predicting future, nor I can — I am just giving you the one and only possible substance, in reality.
Whenever I follow one of your references, rehmet, I find another example of your ignorance. You don;t even seem to have read Hitti’s History of the Arabs, I have and I have it before me now and see right in the first chapter that he places the origin of the “Semites” in Arabia (Najd or al-Yaman). Of course he would like us to believe that the Arabian Desert was the fount of Middle East civilization, but that’s another story. In any case, as I’ve already pointed out, the Arabs have nothing to do with Palestine or Palestinians. The name comes from the Philistines, an Aegean Sea People who arrived from the West in 1200 B.C.
Richard,
You are correct that “impartial” does not mean “uninformed.” But surely impartiality cannot be attributed to a group of people with nearly uniform anti-Israel positions convened to consider and pass judgment on these positions, using evidence that at least some of them have submitted. The Russell Tribunal presents itself as a judicial procedure, with self-appointed participants calling themselves “jurors”. In fact, it is nothing more than political theater utterly bereft of legal legitimacy. Fred Skolnick’s post says it all.
The Tribunal will almost certainly “determine” that Israel is guilty of war crimes, and call for action leading to its delegitimazation, which supports the position of Palestinian extremists whose stated commitment to eradicate Israel from the map remains enshrined in the Hamas National Charter. Richard, you long denied that this is your intention. But your condemnation of the Presbyterian Church (USA) for not demanding Israel’s demise even while endorsing BDS, and the manifesto “Israel as An Outlaw State and U.S. Complicity” you co-authored, make your position absolutely clear. (n.b. I have several times invited you to explain the apparent inconsistency between these statements your claim that you don’t want to harm Israel. But no response has been forthcoming.)
This increasingly frequent reiteration of the extremist Palestinian rejectionist hard line comes at a time when moderate elements within Hamas may be gaining some traction in their on-going struggle with the rejectionists. The Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar recently reported that Khaled Meshal, head of Hamas’ political wing, agreed to accept a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders during a recent meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. In return, Meshal demanded that Hamas be included in all policy decisions in the West Bank and not only in the Gaza Strip.
To be sure, reports of this nature are often unreliable. And it’s unclear whether Hamas would accept a state on the West Bank and Gaza, along with a negotiated resolution of other issues —such as refugees, Jerusalem, etc.—as satisfying Palestinian demands and renounce all future claims. But it’s possible that the recent Gaza episode, which raised Hamas’ standing on the Palestinian Street while leaving it severely depleted in leadership and materiel, and isolated in the Arab world, could be fostering an internal consensus that it cannot win a war with Israel, forcing the organization to choose between fighting to the death, with the danger of eventually being abandoned by the Palestinian Street or overwhelmed by the likes of ISIS and Al Queda, or forming a unified front with Fatah and assuming a prominent role in building the Palestinian future.
Moderation and reconciliation are an anathema to those, both inside and outside Hamas, who seek to eliminate Israel. A well-funded and well-publicized Russell Tribunal will assuredly strengthen the hands of extremists who reject cooperation with “criminal” by bolstering the bogus claim that they have sufficient international support to prevail.
Isn’t it time to re-think old aspirations like eliminating Israel—you would call them Zombie ideas—and start convening meetings whose objective is not avenging the past but building toward a peaceful and secure future for Palestinians and Israelis?
Ira
Kata Fisher
Has Arab Oil Money Bought Jimmy Carter?
http://www.factsandlogic.org/outstanding_dershowitz2.html
Ex-President for Sale: Carter’s Arab Oil Money
\Alan Dershowitz
January 15, 2007
Carter is an Assad apologist.
Just like in the 80s after Assad Sr killed 20,000 of his own people in 82, Carter was an apologist of Assad Sr. Now we find out, he’s also an apologist of Assad Jr
http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/12048
Assad’s Emails Hacked: Jimmy Carter Embraced Syria Regime before Obama [incl. David Lesch]
Gianluca Mezzofiore
February 9, 2012
Kata Fisher
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2013/04/jimmy-carter-called-hafez-assad-close.html
Jimmy Carter called Hafez Assad “a close personal friend” soon after 1982 Hama massacre
April 9, 2013
In February, 1982, Syria’s president Hafez al-Assad murdered between 30-40,000 people in the city of Hama.
A year later, in March 1983, Jimmy Carter referred to the mass murderer as “a close personal friend” who he has a “special relationship” with. He expressed the hope that if Assad would come to the negotiating table, he could be on the same side as the Egyptians, Palestinians, Jordanians, and Americans in pressuring – Israel.
All of this was recorded in New York Magazine, June 6, 1983, and verified by Carter’s friend and advisor, Kenneth Stein, who would later famously break with Carter over the lies he wrote in his 2006 book.
.
Jimmy Carters and Pallywood.
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2007/03/jimmy-carter-quotes-fake-mandela-latter.html
March 09, 2007
Jimmy Carter quotes fake Mandela latter to prove Israeli “apartheid”
From South Africa’s Business Today:
IS ISRAEL an apartheid state? Apparently Nelson Mandela thinks so. In a recent letter to New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, Mandela lays out the case against Israel with unusual candour. Mandela’s words are now being quoted all over the world. Last month, former US president Jimmy Carter cited the letter in a speech at Brandeis University. And who’s going to argue with Madiba?
Unfortunately for Israel’s critics, the letter is a hoax. It is the creation of a man named Arjan El Fassed, who runs an anti-Israel website called The Electronic Intifada. El-Fassad has admitted that he made the whole thing up, but the Mandela letter has now entered the anti-Israel canon alongside countless other fictions. Yet, much like the Israel-apartheid comparison itself, it is completely spurious.
Read the whole thing.
While it appears that Fassed did not push this hoax, it shows volumes about Jimmy Carter’s devotion to truth that he quotes a fake letter that would only exist on anti-Israel websites
Kelso,
Also, do so research on this, as well:
Why are African exile-Jews with their tribal community/families (in the form of migrants) kicked out from Israel? No, they are not? — you will say– for I must be just dead-end wrong because they are not Jews?
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/09/us-israel-migrants-rights-idUSKBN0H41KK20140909
Kata, the UN pretends to be against anti-Semitism, but has become its biggest promoter while encouraging legal pogroms against Jews”
A must hear.
Kelso,
I can’t listen to her—I am not moved to do so. It is impossible for me to listen to that link.
Who is she and what does she want.
I do not listen to women, and I ignore them—just as God has ignored their babes? Rally, what do women want and what is that they have to say? Since when these folks mind what women have to say?
Why don’t you tell me what she has said – so to say, and I will think on it? In the mean while, I will see if I can listen, as well…
Look, it’s a principle of Faith – why is that woman doing what she is?
When you figure out – please let me know…
Kelso,
I listen to her and I have no reflection.
But I have reflection about this:
My friend told me about this woman about two weeks ago, and I listened what she was saying. I believe she has some valid fruit, already.
What are you going to do about that?
Richard, I hope the Russell Tribunal will look deeply into the substance of this report I just read.
These pictures in this article are “confirming signs” this world may be at the door to this Day long foretold in the Revelation: For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth (Pope, Presidents, Prime Ministers, the 1%, CEOs and other Idols of the People) and of the whole world, (the rest of us) to gather them to the Battle of that Great Day of God Almighty.
Revelation 16
By these proofs, Israel has already fired the 1st shot in that war leading to that Battle. Is it too late to change course?
http://altahrir.wordpress.com/2014/09/11/the-ancient-mosques-of-gaza-in-ruins-how-israels-war-endangered-palestines-cultural-heritage/
Any opinions on this Rabbi Ira?
I have a reflection:
What does prophet Joel said? Who understand that?
What does prophet Amos say? Who understands that?
Amos it talking about “booth/tent/tabernacle of David” and look at the context that he has said that.
http://biblehub.com/hebrew/sukkat_5521.htm
This is why I asked the Rabbi for his Spiritual insights into these temporal matters?
The DNA OF ISRAEL AND THE JEWS IS CAPTURED IN EZEKEIL
https://dindooohindoo.page.tl/God-h-s-Unwanted.htm
Ezekiel 16:1-63 ESV
Again the word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations, and say, Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem: Your origin and your
birth are of the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. And as for your birth, on the day you were born your cord was not cut,
nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you out
of compassion for you, but you were cast out on the open field, for you were abhorred, on the day that you were born. …
The lessons of History – Never to underestimate the Palestinian race!!!
The Palestinians, as per the Torah and OT captured, tortured , blinded and humiliated Samson
https://dindooohindoo.page.tl/Gaza-and-the-Jew.htm
Judges 16:21-31 ESV
And the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles. And he ground at the mill in the prison. But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved. Now the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to rejoice, and they said, “Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hand.” And when the people saw him, they praised their god. For they said, “Our god has given our enemy into our hand, the ravager of our country, who has killed many of us.” And when their hearts were merry, they said, “Call Samson, that he may entertain us.” So they called Samson out of the prison, and he entertained them. They made him stand between the pillars. ..