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

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

Approved unanimously by the Ann Arbor Human Rights Commission.

See news coverage, below right (From the January-February 2004 ICPJ newsletter) --

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

Click on the Resolution to enlarge it.

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"Arms Divestment and Cessation of U.S. Military Aid to Israel"

A resolution of the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice and its MiddleEast Task Force

Adopted May 13, 2003

http://peacepalestinedocuments.blogspot.com/2006/01/approaches-to-economic-engagement.html

As persons of faith who believe in the equal worth and dignity of all people, we are distressed that Israelis and Palestinians have become locked in an escalating cycle of violence. We categorically condemn the taking of any life, Israeli or Palestinian. We are convinced that only the end of the Israeli occupation and the establishment of a geographically and economically viable independent Palestinian state can bring peace to the Middle East and achieve the goal of two nation-states -- Israel andPalestine -- living peaceably side-by-side, with equality and security, possibly in a confederation.

We have long been dismayed by threats to the existence of Israel. We areequally dismayed by the continual military occupation and virtual colonization of Palestinian territory by Israeli armed forces and settlers,the human rights abuses against Palestinians, and the destruction of the Palestinian economy. Devastation of the physical and social infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza -- including the forcible eviction from anddemolition of homes -- does not quell terrorism. It engenders more.

Such actions fuel deeper hatred of Israel in surrounding countries, while causing a major humanitarian disaster among Palestinians. And they leave Palestinians continually vulnerable to expulsion from the land in which they have been deeply rooted for generations. U.S. weapons and military funding are being used in these violations of human rights andinternational agreements. Americans of conscience must protest.

We do not have faith that governments alone will take the necessary actions to bring about a change in the Israeli government policies described above. We therefore believe that nonviolent civilian action is needed, aiming tolimit the present intense funding of Israeli military activities.

Accordingly, we will work with those groups who are calling on the governing bodies of our religious institutions, the City of Ann Arbor, the University of Michigan, and our fellow citizens

* to use their influence to encourage the United States government to end its complicity in these violations of human rights by suspending it smilitary aid and arms sales to Israel, and

* to divest themselves from all companies that manufacture or sell arms and other military hardware to Israel, in order to bring about:

* Israel's compliance with United Nations Resolution 242, which calls for "the withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in therecent (1967) conflict";

* Israel's compliance with the United Nations Committee Against TortureNov. 2001 Report (paragraph 53), which recommends that Israel's use of "thecrime of torture and other acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment orpunishment" must be prevented;

* Israel's cessation of settlement building and expansion, and itsvacating of existing settlements in the Occupied Territories in compliancewith the Fourth Geneva Convention, which states "The Occupying Power shallnot deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies." (Article 49, paragraph 6, 1949);

* Israel's acknowledgment of the applicability of United NationsResolution 194 (1948) with respect to the rights of refugees, andacceptance that refugees should either be permitted to return to theirhomes and property or be justly compensated for their losses.

This statement is derived from multiple sources, including severaluniversity divestment petitions; and from members of the Middle East TaskForce of the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice and thePalestine-Israel Action Group of Ann Arbor Friends Meeting.

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"Call for Peace in the Middle East"

by "Ann Arbor Area Committee for Peace", which later changed its name to "Michigan Peaceworks")--

[This Resolution calls for an end to U.S. military aid to Israel until the Occupation ends and the settlements are dismantled]

See below:

http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2004/07/39754.html

Preamble: The Ann Arbor Area Committee for Peace recognizes that theconflict in Palestine/Israel is an issue of great concern in our community,around which emotions often outweigh objectivity.

We do not wish to contribute to the discord, but rather to unify people around common goalsof nonviolence and fairness. Our organization formed shortly after 9-11-01 to address issues of peace, civil liberties, and civil rights-particularly how these issues would be affected by the U.S. government military response to the 9-11 attacks. We consider a peaceful resolution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict to be an important element in curtailing the cycle of violence worldwide.

Statement: Over the past two years, we have witnessed in grief and anguishthe appalling destruction resulting from the spiral of violence in theMiddle East. Violence will only beget further violence. We condemn in the strongest terms the practices that bring about the deaths of innocent people and the destruction of communities.

Fortunately, there are many who work for peaceful resolution of theconflict. These people and organizations give hope that future generationsof Israelis and Palestinians can live normal, secure lives, in peace witheach other. We support the Israeli and Palestinian peacemakers, including the Bereaved Families for Peace, who call on their fellow citizens torenounce violence. We support the Israeli soldiers who refuse to serve inthe occupied territories. We support those from Israel and other countrieswho work with Palestinians to rebuild destroyed homes. We support the efforts of those states and organizations that have made proposals for a just peace, including the member states of the Arab League, which hascalled for normalization of relations with Israel in exchange for creationof a Palestinian state and a complete Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem.

In solidarity with all those working for peace in the Middle East, we call for the following:

* An immediate end to the Israeli Occupation of the West Bank, Gaza,and East Jerusalem;

* An immediate end to the violence on both sides, recognizing violenceas including Occupation, military incursions, and suicide bombings;

* A full evacuation of all settlements with the exception of minornegotiated border adjustments;

* A just settlement for the refugees who have been forced by war toleave homes in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza;

* Establishment of the state of Palestine side by side with the stateof Israel with the boundaries established by UN Resolution 242;

* Social and economic justice and full legal rights for all citizens of both states;

* A major international effort to assist the reconstruction of Palestine;

* An end to U.S. military aid to Israel until the Occupation ends and the settlements are dismantled;

* Negotiations towards arms control and disarmament of weapons of massdestruction for the entire region;

* Recognition of and normalization of relations with Israel by all thecountries of the Middle East.

Adopted by the Ann Arbor Area Committee for Peace on November 11, 2002

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Resolution To Divest, In Principle And Practice, From Israel

by the National Lawyers Guild (NLG)

http://peacepalestinedocuments.blogspot.com/2006/01/approaches-to-economic-engagement.html

(Adopted by NLG National Convention 10/24/04)

WHEREAS the Israeli government with its illegal occupation and expansionist program in the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip is engaged, and has been engaged in grave human rights violations including but not limited to:

the use of live ammunition on unarmed civilians (including men, women, and children);

massive and disproportionate use of force including the firing of missiles from Apache helicopter gunships against defenseless civilian populations;

illegal mass arrests and institutionalized torture (including men, women, and children); the willful destruction of agricultural land;

the deprivation of water;

forced malnutrition with concomitant health consequences including stillborn deaths and irreversible developmental damage to children;

the mass demolition of homes and confiscation of land;

hostage taking and extra-judicial assassinations;

denial of medical services to the sick and wounded;

the use of human shields (including children);

the targeting of schools, and hospitals;

the building of illegal fortified "Jewish-only" Israeli colonies/settlements on confiscated land connected by "Jewish-only" bypass roads, and the heavily subsidized transfer of hundreds of thousands of its own civilian population into these colonies/settlements;

WHEREAS the International Court of Justice has ruled that Israel's Apartheid Wall violates international humanitarian law which governs Israel's administration of the Palestinian territories it has occupied since 1967 as well as the fundamental human rights of the Palestinians;

WHEREAS by virtue of, but not limited to, the Principles of the Nuremberg Charter and Judgment;

The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights;

International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights;

The Geneva Conventions, in particular, but not limited to the 4th Geneva Convention, the Convention Against Torture, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Protocol 1, Additional to the Geneva Conventions, as well as other international covenants and the general humanitarian principles of international law,

these acts constitute war crimes, and in some cases crimes against humanity.

WHEREAS, the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, 22 USC sec. 2304, provides that "no security assistance may be provided to any country the government of which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights;"

WHEREAS, the UN General Assembly on October 22, 2003, reaffirming the principle of the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force, and …. reiterating its opposition to settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories almost unanimously, with the exception of the US, Israel,...

BE IT RESOLVED that the NLG seeks, in principal and practice, to support national and international campaigns to divest from Israel…and (a) support divestment campaigns to make full public disclosure of any and all investments it or other institutions have in Israel and of any and all profits earned from companies invested in Israel, and (b) either immediately divest from those companies, or cause such companies to disinvest from Israel until all of the following conditions are met:

1. Withdraw armed forces;

2. Permit interested refugees to return to their homes and compensate the rest;

3.End torture;

4.Vacate all Jewish-only settlement/colonies;

5.Compensate all Palestinian victims.

_______________________________________________

"University of Sussex students vote to boycott Israeli goods"
November 27, 2009


http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/paper/index.php?article=4378

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"Faculty senate in Wisc. passes divestment bill"


http://www.michigandaily.com/content/faculty-senate-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:

http://www.michigandaily.com/content/dearborn-student-govt-demands-divestment

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"Dearborn student govt. pushes for Israel divestment"

http://www.michigandaily.com/content/dearborn-student-govt-pushes-israel-divestment

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


http://dearbornboycottsisrael.blogspot.com/2008/07/blog-post.html

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Call to divest from Israeli Occupation, by Howard University's faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences

http://www.jai-pal.org/content.php?page=501

"Prominent call for divestment at Howard"

by: Will Youmans - The Arab American News

17th, March 2007

Activists calling for ending financial support for Israel welcomed a victory at a university in Washington, DC. The faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences at Howard University voted overwhelmingly to call on the university's board of trustees to divest from Israel.

The faculty at this historically Black institution came down with a 25 to 2 vote in favor of divestment, beginning with the identification of university "funds that are being invested in 'offending' companies that are offering material support to Israeli Occupation."

The March 8th call was introduced by David Schwartzman, a biology professor of Jewish origin. He told "The Arab American News," there was not much opposition, except by the college's Dean, who refused to put divestment on the agenda. He plans on introducing a similar resolution to the faculty Senate this spring.

He sponsored the measure in the hope that "these resolutions start spreading around the country and generate action comparable to the anti-apartheid movement in the 1980s."

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Zionist Hell: Neal Elyakin is your new Human Rights Commissioner

Photo: Hundreds of Ann Arborites demand divestment against Israel, as Israel massacres Lebanon, 2006.

-------------------------------------------

Do you live in Ann Arbor, Michigan? Neal Elyakin, a Friend of the Israel Defense Forces, was recently appointed as your new Human Rights Commissioner, by the Ann Arbor City Council.

The Israel Defense Forces recently massacred 1400 occupied Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. (Palestinians killed 3 Israelis.)

So what is the City Council's concept of human rights? Do they regard Palestinians as human, or not?

Zionist hell: Gag Rule enforced by Ann Arbor News Media

The only sizeable newspaper in Ann Arbor, called "AnnArbor.com", carries detailed accounts of public commentary at Ann Arbor City Council. Yet the first time Elyakin's appointment was criticized at City Council, that newspaper printed nothing about it. The second time, the paper printed nothing again-- and the paper's reporter was sitting just a few feet away from Elyakin in the City Council chambers.

The paper even deleted the three articles it had already published which opposed Israeli and U.S. wars on the Muslim world. Since that time, the paper has never published anything against Israel on-line.

Meanwhile, the same newspaper carries warnings to report suspicious characters to the police as potential "terrorists".

Ann Arbor collaborators with the Zionist Holocaust

Israel and the U.S. have murdered millions of Muslims in the last decade alone, and millions more in previous decades. Do you remember their wars and starvation sanctions against Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, Afghanistan, and more? It's been a Holocaust against Muslims.

When the media gags the news, about the Israeli-American massacre of the Muslim world, then that media is collaborating with a Holocaust.

That kind of gag tells you what Muslim life is worth to the newspaper in question-- less than zero.

The Zionist Holocaust kills a Detroit Imam

Question: Just how little is Muslim life worth, to the government?

Answer: A half-hour away from Ann Arbor, the FBI recently shot a Detroit Imam 20 times.

The FBI's 20 bullets included three shots in the genital area, and a bullet in the back.

Dr. Carl Schmidt, Wayne County's chief medical examiner, said that the Imam's body was handcuffed and on the floor of a semitrailer when his investigator arrived at the shooting scene. The Imam's body also had a broken jaw.

Meanwhile, the FBI reportedly had their police dog, "Freddy", airlifted for medical attention. Later, FBI spokeswoman Sandra Berchtold told the news media that the FBI would hold a memorial for Freddy, and will add his name to a memorial wall.

Yes, at a time when the median home price in Detroit has fallen to $6000, and under half of Detroit males graduate from high school, the U.S. government spends trillions to occupy and butcher Iraq, Afghanistan, and other Muslim nations. The U.S. government also devoted years to investigating and then shooting dead a Detroit Imam whose chief preoccupation was feeding hungry children.

Zionist Hell: Detroit Schoolchildren Get Nothing, while Israel Gets $300 Billion

When will you demand a resolution to Congress, demanding that Congress stop giving $300 billion to Israel, and start spending that $300 billion to rebuild Detroit?

When will you start marching on your City Council, to make sure they boycott Israel?

When will you demand some answers, when your City Council appoints a Friend of the Israel Defense Forces to your Human Rights Commission?

______________________________________________

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:

http://palestinethinktank.com/2010/01/28/send-300-billion-to-detroit-not-to-israel/

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.

_______________________________

"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

http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/paper/index.php?article=4378

_______________________________________________

"Faculty senate in Wisc. passes divestment bill"

http://www.michigandaily.com/content/faculty-senate-wisc-passes-divestment-bill

_______________________________________________

"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:

http://www.michigandaily.com/content/dearborn-student-govt-demands-dives...

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"Dearborn student govt. pushes for Israel divestment"

http://www.michigandaily.com/content/dearborn-student-govt-pushes-israel-divestment

_______________________________________________

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

http://dearbornboycottsisrael.blogspot.com/2008/07/blog-post.html

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."


_____________________________________________________

Haiti, treated a lot like Palestine:

From Blog of Allison Kilkenny--

Follow Me

Allison Kilkenny

Jan. 13 2010 - 11:15 am | 5,030 views | 1 recommendation | 26 comments


http://trueslant.com/allisonkilkenny/2010/01/13/us-debt-policies-left-haiti-vulnerable-to-catastrophe/

US debt policies left Haiti vulnerable to catastrophe

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.

UK, USA, & Israel have invaded and devastated Yemen since 1839.

The U.K. militarily occupied Yemen from 1839 to 1967.

Then the U.K, Israel, and the U.S. destroyed Yemen's development (1962-1980's)

Source: Britain and the Yemen Civil War, 1962-1965: Ministers, Mercenaries and Mandarins, by Professor Clive Jones, published in 2004 by Sussex Academic Press (Brighton, Great Britain; and Portland, Oregon), page 36.

Professor Jones was a senior visiting research Fellow at the University of Haifa, Israel in 2002.

Mercenary forces, supplied by the U.K. & Israel, destroyed Yemen’s chance at independence from British occupation (1962-1965)

Source: Britain and the Yemen Civil War, 1962-1965, page 36:

The U.S. has intervened in Yemen since President Kennedy flew jet fighters to the Yemeni border:

In 1962, the British-supported Yemeni monarchy was overthrown.

So in March 1963, U.S. President Kennedy agreed to deploy a squadron of U.S. Air Force F-4s to Saudi Arabia, to fly close to the Yemeni border, and to train Saudi pilots, as a demonstration of U.S. support for Saudi Arabia, as it fought to restore the overthrown Yemeni monarchy.

U.S. naval visits to Saudi Red Sea ports were also increased, and U.S. training of the Saudi military was stepped up. The U.S.A.F. personnel also trained Saudi pilots.

-- Source: “Uncle Sam, Supreme Guardian of the Saudi Crown”, By Herman F. Eilts, U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia (1965 to 1970), in the Spring 2000 issue of American Diplomacy.

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The U.K., Israel, and the U.S. kept South Yemen under military & economic siege until the 1970’s:

Source: “Women and Development in the Republic of Yemen”, by Helen Lackner, in Gender and development in the Arab world-- women's economic participation: patterns and policies (Published by Zed Books Ltd. for the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research, 1995; page 73)

Carter allowed Saudi Arabia to buy tanks and fighter jets for use against South Yemen.

Carter also trained exiles to invade South Yemen (1979)

Weeks after U.S. President Carter allowed Saudi Arabia to buy tanks and fighter jets for North Yemen, fighting broke out between the North and South Yemen. Then the U.S. increased its arms package for North Yemen (allied with Saudi Arabia and the United States) and rushed a portion of it there, along with military advisers who would train North Yemen in their use.

Carter sent an aircraft carrier task force and surveillance planes to the region; and he offered U.S. fighter jets to Saudi Arabia to expand Saudi Arabia’s ability to use air power in North Yemen.

Carter also agreed to a plan that involved training personnel who had been exiled from South Yemen inside Saudi Arabia and using them to invade South Yemen. That operation was blown, as the exile force was captured and confessed as to U.S. involvement.

--Sources: “Yemen, Sudan to Get Added Arms,” New York Times , 12 February 1979; also other articles, 27 February, 6, 8, 13, 20, 29 March, 1 April 1979, 6 February 1980; “Carlucci Launched CIA Operation in Yemen That Collapsed,” Washington Post , 4 December 1986.

Ronald Reagan then claimed that South Yemen is likely to send Cuban forces to attack Oman! (1980)

Source: AP story in the “Lakeland Ledger” (Florida), February 8, 1980, page 5A.

How the Zionists want to slice up Iraq--

"Is the US Waging Israel's Wars?"

By LINDA S. HEARD

April 25, 2006

COUNTERPUNCH


http://www.counterpunch.org/heard04252006.html


...Read the following strangely prophetic segment from an article published in 1982 by the World Zionist Organisation's publication Kivunim and penned by Oded Yinon, an Israeli journalist with links to the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

Yinon's strategy was based on this premise. In order to survive Israel must become an imperial regional power and must also ensure the break-up of all Arab countries so that the region may be carved up into small ineffectual states unequipped to stand up to Israeli military might. Here's what he had to say on Iraq:

"The dissolution of Syria and Iraq into ethnically or religiously unique areas such as in Lebanon is Israel's primary target on the Eastern frontIraq, rich in oil on the one hand and internally torn on the other is guaranteed as a candidate for Israel's targets. Its dissolution is even more important for us than that of Syria. Iraq is stronger than Syria. In the short run, it is Iraqi power which constitutes the greatest threat to Israel.

"An Iraqi-Iranian war will tear Iraq apart and cause its downfall at home even before it is able to organize a struggle on a wide front against us. Every kind of inter-Arab confrontation will assist us in the short run and will shorten the way to the more important aim of breaking up Iraq into denominations as in Syria and Lebanon.

"In Iraq, a division into provinces along ethnic/religious lines as in Syria during Ottoman times is possible. So, three (or more) states will exist around the three major cities: Basra, Baghdad and Mosul and Shiite areas in the South will separate from the Sunni and Kurdish north."

Sound familiar?

Now let's focus on the reality, 24 years on.

The eight-year long Iran-Iraq War that ended in 1988 was responsible for over a million casualties but did not result in Yinon's desired break-up. Iraq still stood as a strong homogenous entity.

Iraq was, however, severely weakened in 1991 as a result of the Gulf War brought about by Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait. Still, the country remained unified.

It took the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq and the subsequent occupation to destabilize Iraq and split the country on sectarian lines. Indeed, its new constitution is drawn around a loose federation with partial autonomy for the northern Kurds and the southern Shiites, and the country is now rife with sectarian, religious and ethnic strife. Some say "civil war".

Turning to Syria, until the March 2003 invasion of Iraq Syria under President Bashar Al-Assad enjoyed reasonably good relations with the West. We should also remember that Syria fought alongside the US-led allies during the Gulf War. Syria also voted, albeit reluctantly, for the UN resolution that oiled the invasion, and was a strong partner in the so-called 'War on Terror'.

Then, lo and behold, Syria could do no right. Suddenly, it was accused to all kinds of 'crimes' from hiding Iraq's mythical weapons of mass destruction, harbouring insurgents and terrorists, and allowing the free passage of fighters and arms into Iraq.

Heavy pressure was then put on to Damascus to end its de facto occupation of Lebanon following the assassination of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and, now the Syrian government is being investigated by the UN, accused of involvement.

Today the US is actively engaged in weakening the Al-Assad government and is supporting opposition parties. If it is successful, experts predict that Syria, like Iraq, will fall victim to sectarianism and internecine conflict.

Lebanon, which had been recovering from a long civil war and an Israeli occupation, and was on the point of finding some semblance of unity, is also in danger of being destabilized with parties lining up into pro-Syrian and anti-Syrian confederations.

Yinon described the Arab-Muslim world as a temporary house of cards put together by foreigners and arbitrarily divided into states, all made up of combinations of minorities and ethnic groups which are hostile to one another.

He then goes on to bemoan Israel's relinquishment of the Sinai to Egypt under the Camp David Peace Treaty due to that area's reserves of oil, gas and other natural resources.

"Regaining the Sinai Peninsula is, therefore, a political priority, which is obstructed by Camp David" he writes. "And we will have to act in order to return the situation to the status quo which existed in Sinai prior to Sadat's visit and the mistaken peace agreement signed with him in March 1979."

Yinon then predicts that if Egypt is divided and torn apart, some other Arab countries will cease to exist in their present forms and a Christian Coptic state would be founded in Upper Egypt. Presently there are growing problems between Egypt's Muslims and Copts, perceived by some hard line Egyptian Muslims as being more loyal to the US than their own country. This has resulted in open clashes often with resultant deaths.

Apart from Muslim-Copt divisions, Yinon was wrong in his calculations concerning Egypt. He believed Cairo would break the peace treaty with Israel giving the Israelis the opportunity to drive their tanks straight back into the Sinai and other coveted areas. However, the Egyptian government under the ever pragmatic President Hosni Mubarak has stuck to the letter of the treaty and has become an important US ally over the years.

Yinon's solution to the ongoing Israel-Palestine problem was to herd the Palestinians across the Jordan River and label Jordan a Palestinian state.

He rejected the land for peace principle, saying, "It is not possible to go on living in this country in the present situation without separating the two nations, the Arabs to Jordan and the Jews to the areas west of the river.

Genuine co-existence and peace will reign over the land only when the Arabs understand that without Jewish rule between the Jordan and the sea they will have neither existence nor security - a nation of their own and security will be theirs only in Jordan."

Yinon, and others of like mind must once again be disappointed. Jordan gave up any thoughts of Pan-Arabism long before the demise of King Hussein and his son King Abdullah is now America's staunchest Arab ally in the region. With a two-thirds Palestinian majority in his country, Abdullah has chosen self-preservation by hanging on to US coattails.

The idea of packing 4.5 million Palestinians across the Jordan is no longer being openly touted, although this option was on the table in 2002 according to an article by Professor van Creveld in Britain's Daily Telegraph.

A then Gallup poll showed that 44 per cent of Jewish Israelis favoured the expulsion of Palestinians across the River Jordan.

Professor Creveld believed Ariel Sharon favoured this plan too. Sharon was quoted in his article as emphasizing Jordan's Palestinian majority and referring to it as the Palestinian state. "The inference that the Palestinians should go there is clear," wrote Creveld.

If you feel the idea that the US would put itself on the line for the sake of Israel is far-fetched, then it is worth remembering the words of the assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who claimed in his book that the Israeli government was, in fact, responsible for the design of American policy in the Middle East after the 1967 'Six Day War'...

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