Thursday, January 28, 2010

After Gaza Massacre, City Council appoints "Friend of Israel Defense Forces" as a Human Rights Commissioner!




"Send $300 billion to Detroit, not to Israel"

January 28, 2010

On Palestine Think Tank at:



Was there any excuse for a bunch of armed European settlers to occupy Palestine?


No.


Was there any excuse for those armed gangs—now called the “Israel Defense Forces”– to ally themselves with the most racist regimes on Earth, including Apartheid South Africa?


No.


Was there any excuse for handing $300 billion to Israel, as it mass-murdered so many Palestinians and Lebanese?


No– but Congressman Dingell admits that Israel really did get $300 billion from your pocket, from the U.S. Congress.


That $300 billion should be spent to re-build Detroit, not to fortify the Israel Defense Forces.


I hope the Detroit City Council will send that message to Congress.


It would solve a lot of problems, in Detroit and worldwide.


Resolutions for Boycott and Sanctions against Israel


The Ann Arbor Human Rights Commission sent a very modest version of that message to its own City Council a few years ago.


A “Resolution in Support of Ending U.S. Military Support for Israel” was approved—unanimously– by the Ann Arbor Human Rights Commission, in December 2003:


http://dearbornboycottsisrael.blogspot.com/2010/01/resolution-in-support-of-ending-us.html


The Commission urged the Ann Arbor City Council to approve that same Palestine Resolution.


The City Council has certainly had enough time to think about it!


Now that the Israel Defense Forces have massacred 1400 Palestinian people in Gaza, the City Council should be jumping to approve that Resolution and more.


In fact, every City Council should join the student governments of Wayne State University, and the University of Sussex, in demanding total boycott against the Apartheid state of Israel.


The Palestinian people have demanded exactly those kinds of boycott resolutions.


City Council’s Revenge, against the Palestinian People:


Yes, the Ann Arbor Human Rights Commission stood up for the Palestinian People.


Within a year, City Council member Joan Lowenstein stated that the Commission’s chairperson would not be reappointed, and the Commission found itself with no staff.


Now the City Council has approved the appointment of a man from “Friends of the Israel Defense Forces” to the Ann Arbor, Michigan Human Rights Commission.


That new Commissioner’s name is Neal Elyakin.


Don’t Deny the Palestinian People’s Existence


Ann Arbor’s new Human Rights Commissioner, Mr. Neal Elyakin, has publicly written that “The term ‘Palestinian’ is itself a masterful twisting of history… If the Palestinians are indeed a myth, then the real question becomes ‘Why?’ Why invent a fictitious people? The answer is that the myth of the Palestinian People serves as the justification for Arab occupation of the Land of Israel.”


  1. First of all, no one should deny the real Holocaust suffered by the Palestinian people.

Armed Zionist settlers destroyed over 500 Palestinian villages.


Most of Palestine was emptied of Palestinians. The Palestinians were driven out by massacres, rapes, and other violent means, according to Professor Ilan Pappe.


  1. How can anyone deny the existence of the Palestinian people?
  2. How is a Palestinian child, in Ann Arbor, supposed to feel? If her city’s Human Rights Commissioner uses that kind of language about Palestinians, how safe can she feel?


Resolution to Spend $300 Billion on Detroit, not on Israel:


Ann Arbor’s Human Rights Commission must speak clearly now.


It must repudiate any statement from its Commissioners claiming that the Palestinian people are a “myth”.


It must push the City Council to approve a resolution to boycott all products from Israel, and to cut off all aid to Israel. Those billions of dollars belong in Detroit, to begin repairing a half-century of federally-enforced strangulation imposed on Detroit.


I also hope the Detroit City Council will step up to the plate.


I hope the Detroit City Council will approve a Resolution asking Congress to totally cut off the trillions currently spent slaughtering Muslims in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan.


That Resolution should tell Congress to spend those trillions of dollars to re-build Detroit and every inner city.


What Detroiter would say “no” to that?


–Blaine Coleman


Blaine Coleman has been demanding a Resolution to Spend $300 Billion on Detroit, not on Israel, for years– at Detroit City Council, at Ann Arbor City Council, and at the Michigan Student Assembly. He asks readers to do the same.


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Friday, January 22, 2010

"Resolution in Support of Ending U.S. Military Support for Israel"


The Ann Arbor Human Rights Commission's unanimous "Resolution in Support of Ending U.S. Military Support for Israel".

See article in ICPJ newsletter, below right--


The Human Rights Commission urged Ann Arbor City Council to also approve this Resolution.

Click on the Resolution to enlarge it.


Also...


Some campus victories, in the fight to boycott the apartheid state of Israel:

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"University of Sussex students vote to boycott Israeli goods"

November 27, 2009



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"Faculty senate in Wisc. passes divestment bill"

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"Dearborn student gov't demands divestment"

"The student government at the University's Dearborn campus last week unanimously passed a resolution calling for the University's Board of Regents to vote to divest from Israel."

Reported in the Michigan Daily, at:


_______________________________________________


* "The Wayne State University Student Council voted for total divestment from Israel."


Click on that front page, to enlarge it.


That was the front-page banner headline, April 22, 2003, on the Wayne State University "South End" newspaper.


The Wayne State University Student Council voted to divest, to get rid of, all investments in Apartheid Israel.


______________________________


"Wayne State University Divestment Resolution, approved by Student Council"



You can click on this front page, too, to enlarge it.

It filled up the entire front page of the Dearborn, Michigan newspaper, "The Arab American News".

You can also see the full Divestment Resolution text below, exactly as it was approved:



Text of Wayne State University's Student Council Divestment Resolution:

Approved on April 17, 2003,
Detroit, Michigan.

This Resolution is on the Web at:
http://www.inminds.co.uk/boycott-news-0376.html


"WHEREAS, the Student Council of Wayne State University has grave misgivings about financing violent ethnic cleansing, racially directed against millions of occupied Palestinian civilians, who are both innocent and helpless,

"WHEREAS, those millions of Palestinians suffer long-term malnutrition, are surrounded by Israeli army bulldozers, tanks, soldiers, and by jet bombers, all of which have killed thousands of occupied Palestinians,

"WHEREAS, on Sunday, March 16, 2003, an American college student, Rachel Corrie, was killed in plain sight, while dressed in bright orange, while waving, and while shouting at an Israeli Army bulldozer through a megaphone, by that same Israeli Army bulldozer, in the Occupied Gaza Strip,

"WHEREAS, that Israeli Army bulldozer ran her over twice,

"WHEREAS, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu has urged us all to divest from Israel due to its violent and humiliating apartheid policies,

"WHEREAS, Israel was a long-time, close ally of White Apartheid South Africa,

"WHEREAS, the Wayne State University Board of Governors ("the Board") has knowledge of University investments, including what governments our University is paying taxes to by means of investment, and has the authority to seek such information from its fund managers,

"THEREFORE IT IS RESOLVED, that we ask the Board to immediately divest (dis-invest) our university from Israel,

"THEREFORE IT IS FURTHER RESOLVED, that we ask the Board for a report this semester, on its progress in divesting the University from its investments in Israel, including divestment from all companies doing business in Israel, and divestment from all stocks and pension funds which include those companies."


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Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Haiti, treated a lot like Palestine:



From Blog of Allison Kilkenny--

Allison Kilkenny



US debt policies left Haiti vulnerable to catastrophe


Haitians protest against the cost of living on...

Haitians protest against the cost of living in Port-Au-Prince in 2008. Image by AFP/Getty Images via Daylife

The same message is resonating from all corners of the Internet: Poor Haiti. That little, miserable island just can’t catch a break, can it? Yes, thousands are feared dead, and the pictures coming in from Haiti are heartbreaking, but no one can be blamed for an earthquake.

And sure, Haiti is the poorest nation in the northern hemisphere (more than half the population of 9 million lives on less than $.50 cents a day,) which explains the construction of those flimsy houses that collapsed like card houses during the quake (Haiti’s ambassador calls the country’s infrastructure “among the world’s worst.”)

But this is just rotten luck, or God’s work! Surely, this is one of those things we can write off as “unlucky,” or “Shit happens.”

KT McFarland asks, what will become of those impoverished, feeble blacks Haitians when America can’t “ride to the rescue” anymore? I mean, really, when are these poor countries going to get their acts together?

In news story after news story, there are reports of Haiti’s “flimsy” shacks with no mention of why Haitians live in such extreme poverty. The impression one is left with is that these people are just inherently poor savages who don’t know how to construct decent homes for themselves (see these numerous examples of the “flimsy” line). The language almost implies Haitians deserved to be crushed during the quake. That’s what they get for living in such squalid conditions!

The media is missing a valuable opportunity to explain why Haiti is so poor. Once again, Americans are receiving a hefty dose of miseducation. They are learning that Haiti is simply a poor country where bad things happen all the time. In reality, the country has a rich, fascinating story, but unfortunately its history is also dominated by western exploitation.

Haiti was the first country in the Americas to abolish slavery (though Napoleon later reinstated it.) Meanwhile, the western world scorned the tiny island. Thomas Jefferson, that famous slave owner and champion of liberty, warned Haiti had created a bad example during its revolution, and argued it was necessary to “confine the plague to the island.”

Haiti was not born poor, but rather saddled with debt, first by the French and now by the United States. When the slaves fought for their independence in 1804, and won, the French punished them by demanding payment for damages (the equivalent of $21.7 billion in today’s dollars, or forty-four times Haiti’s current yearly budget, according to journalist Eduardo Galeano). Even as they began to pay that debt, France was the only country to recognize the newly independent Haiti, the country that transformed from a slave colony to an invisible, autonomous society. Yet, Haiti was never really free. No indebted country is ever free as debt takes the place of shackles.

The United States began its occupation of Haiti in 1915 when Woodrow Wilson sent 330 U.S. Marines to Port-au-Prince. The reason for the invasion, according to the Secretary of the Navy, Admiral William Deville Bundy, was to “protect American and foreign” interests. Of course, the public was told the purpose of the mission was to “re-establish peace and order.” Sound familiar? Galeano writes:

The occupying army suspended the salary of the Haitian president until he agreed to sign off on the liquidation of the Bank of the Nation, which became a branch of City Bank of New York. The president and other blacks were barred entry into the private hotels, restaurants, and clubs of the foreign occupying power. The occupiers didn’t dare reestablish slavery, but they did impose forced labor for the building of public works. And they killed a lot of people. It wasn’t easy to quell the fires of resistance.

The guerrilla chief, Charlemagne Peralte, was exhibited in the public square, crucified on a door to teach the people a lesson.

And those were the acts of Marines, the civilized people.

When the occupiers left in 1934, they left behind a National Guard that they had created, and the ruler François Duvalier, who Galeano compared to such tyrants as Trujillo and Somoza. Duvalier was responsible for the deaths of around 30,000 people and the exile of thousands more. In 1971, Duvalier died and his son became ruler. In 1986, the son, Jean-Claude Duvalier, was overthrown in a popular uprising.

Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the rebel priest, and enemy of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, became president in 1991. He only lasted a few months before

the U.S. government helped to oust him, brought him to the United States, subjected him to Washington’s treatment, and then sent him back a few years later, in the arms of Marines, to resume his post. Then once again, in 2004, the U.S. helped to remove him from power, and yet again there was killing. And yet again the Marines came back, as they always seem to, like the flu.

Worse than the destruction of ongoing occupation, however, was the “help” Haiti received from The World Bank (the pet project of the United States,) and IMF. Haiti obeyed all orders from its financial overlords. It slashed tariffs and subsidies, and other protectionist policies, and yet its credit was frozen. The majority, rice farmers, became beggars. Now, Haiti imports rice from the United States since national production has practically been outlawed.

Back in 2003, Marie Clarke, National Coordinator of the Jubilee USA Network, wrote

Creditors are denying Haiti new loans and desperately needed humanitarian aid. They claim that this is because the current government cannot service its debt. Because debt payments must be made in the form of foreign capital and Haiti has only two weeks’ reserve in their central bank, it cannot service its debt. Jubilee USA and Jubilee Haiti argue that the debt is illegitimate and should not be serviced at all. Forty percent of Haiti’s current debt was accrued by the dictator Duvalier. According to international law, this debt is odious as it was a debt incurred in the name of the people but has not served the interest of the people. The people of Haiti have been handed a bill for their oppression.

Because Haitians were saddled with the debt of a dictator installed by the west, they are kept in perpetual poverty.

The dangers of this forced poverty policy were extremely clear. Clarke wrote in 2004:

Haiti’s loans from the 1994 reconstruction aid package will come due this year, doubling the country’s debt service payments. Before entering into new loan agreements, the best way that the donor community can start to assist in Haiti’s development is to release desperately needed resources by canceling Haiti’s odious debts. The pending loans are odious debt in the making. There are no guarantees that these funds will benefit the Haitian people. Creditors should heed the example of Iraq; they can not expect the Haitian people to repay these loans in the future.

And in 2009, $1.2 billion (2/3 of Haiti’s overall debt) was cancelled, which some saw as cause for celebration, but others realized the debt cancellation could only partly begin to right the wrongs of the past. Now that a large portion of the debt was gone, how could Haiti hope to begin to rebuild its economy and infrastructure? Instead of focusing on national production, the Haiti government seems determined to focus on the export sector. Haiti, like the west, is being told the cure to all her woes is the free market:

[A] few months ago UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and British economist Paul Collier made yet another proposal for international aid to fund garment assembly production in new Free Trade Zones.

Indeed, Corinne Delechat, IMF mission chief for Haiti, commenting on the debt cancellation, told Reuters that Haiti is a ‘land of opportunity if you’re an entrepreneur and an investor,” adding, “It is a golden moment for Haiti to start investing in export capacity, particularly in textiles.”

So therein lies the answer to why Haiti is so poor, and why so many citizens laid huddled in those paper shacks that immediately collapsed during the quake.

The media doesn’t like to focus on the details of Haiti as a rule. It pretty much ignored the 2008 floods from Hurricane Hanna that killed at least 537 people, and the ongoing food shortages. That could be because we have a superficial, shallow media that finds such suffering boring, or it could be because examining Haiti’s plights forces the US to uncomfortably self-examine its policies and history. Or maybe it’s because Haiti disturbs Americans at an almost subconscious level: horrific environmental disasters, food shortages, civil unrest. It’s a little like looking into a mirror that shows the future.

As for positive policy changes that could benefit Haiti and the US, I like Juan Cole’s idea of asking Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase CEOs to donate some of their $47 million in combined bonuses to Haiti.

The US government only puts in about $200 million a year into aid to Haiti. Although Americans tell pollsters that they think we give away too much in foreign aid, it is only about $22 billion, much less as a percentage of our national income than most advanced countries. A third of it goes to Israel and Egypt.

Instead of Congress having to borrow money to increase the aid budget to help Haiti, or raise taxes, why don’t the nice folks on Wall Street do the right thing? Just give 10 percent of their bonuses to Haiti. It might help change the public perception of them.

When pigs fly, right? In the meantime, you’re nice people, so give what you can to the people of Haiti.