Rolled-up Trousers

Using Miliband to sell Labour to Muslims

Mohammad Sarwar’s Muslim Friends of Labour initiative seemed to have slipped off the radar for a while.

There have been no reported donations for a few years now, but they are still attracting top level cabinet ministers to their events, with David Miliband the star attraction last week in Kensington.

It is an odd choice of person to try and sell Labour to a Muslim audience, much less elicit money from them. Mr Miliband is at the moment trying to find a way to stop Israelis being tried for war crimes in the UK, was supportive of the Gaza bombings himself, and typically dismissive of the Goldstone report. He dismissed the latter as “flawed”, albeit this is coming from the government that thinks Chilcot is a robust inquiry.

A couple of years ago, Miliband was forced to deny reports that he had visited relatives of his who were Israelis that lived in an illegal West Bank settlement, one of the biggest obstacles to peace. That report in the Jewish Chronicle has mysteriously vanished. The question of who these relatives are has never been answered.

Maybe they live in East Jerusalem. Miliband appears to be the architect of the UK Government’s current position where it is advocating a “shared Jerusalem”. With weasel words though, he told the MFL audience he backed a Palestinian state on 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital. He didn’t have the heart to tell them that he actually wants to change internationally accepted borders.

Scottish trade mission to Israel

I've been getting many calls and emails from people outraged by this week's scheduled trade mission that Scottish Development International are organising to Israel.

I share the strength of feeling that exists, the timing coincides one year on from when Israeli bombs were raining down on Gaza. Of all the things that the mission could focus on too, it is ironically life sciences. I understand this trip was meant to go last year a month or two after the carnage, but was cancelled due to the situation. I don't see how anything in Gaza has moved on since then. There may be more safety and security in Israel, but that state is denying the same to another people.

Douglas Alexander should be with the protesters at Egypt’s border

At this moment there are over 1,400 people trying to get the Egyptian authorities to let them over the border with Gaza at Rafah in an act of solidarity and with essential supplies for the impoverished territory.

We are a year on from Israel’s brutal bombing of the strip, which killed the same number of people as those who have been trying to get into Gaza from 43 countries. There has also been a longstanding siege enforced by Israel and Egypt which has led to a humanitarian catastrophe. From DFID’s website, we know that:

• 61% of households are food insecure (this means hungry or in fear of starvation)
• 13% suffer sleep problems due to the “war”
• 60% do not have access to daily water

After the bombing of Gaza last year, the UK government pledged £47million towards the reconstruction effort. In the year since, only £20m has actually been spent though.

Prosecuting genocide and war crimes in the UK

More attempts have been made in recent weeks to arrest and prosecute Israelis for war crimes due to their roles in the military. First it was Ehud Barak who came for the Labour Party conference in Brighton and now it is Moshe Yaalon. Both attempts were unsuccessful.

It's reignited an issue that had seemingly gone off the radar. In 2005 there was a warrant issued for the arrest of General Doron Almog, only for him to be somehow warned by the Israeli embassy that police were waiting before he disembarked his flight at Heathrow. He flew directly back to Israel as a consequence. It was later leaked that the tip-off was probably resulted from police fears of a 'gunfight' with Almog's security at the airport.

Following the incident, the UK government promised to look into ways that citizen-inspired warrants like this could not be issued. It has for years now continued to be a source of irritation in Israel.

The perfect opportunity surely presented itself to Jack Straw, the minister who apologised to Israel on behalf of the judiciary over the Almog affair, when he announced his proposals to tighten up genocide prosecutions in the UK. Ostensibly the main provisions are that crimes covered can date back to 1991 rather than the current 2001. The accused have to be resident in the UK, and not merely visiting.

This is currently the case with the International Criminal Court Act 2001 so is nothing new. The new plans have been criticised on this basis though and for not dating back far enough and for prosecutions still needing the Attorney General's consent. The further concern would have been on any small print restricting actions under the 1988 Criminal Justice Act, which was the relevant legislation affecting the Almog and Barak moves. The Bill will still have to be scrutinised, but the Jewish Chronicle recently reported that things have changed after the Gaza bombing earlier this year:

"... six months ago, the Foreign Office discreetly notified the Israeli government that, given public reaction to Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, the changes would not possible be in the near future."

BBC must air the DEC appeal

The BBC have royally messed up with the farcicial decision not to broadcast the Disaster Emergency Committee's appeal for Gaza.

Thirteen of the UK's leading charities have come together to do a joint iniatiative for the region which was already a humanitarian catastrophe, even before the three week bombing by Israel. 80% of the people there were dependent on UN food because of the twenty month Israeli siege, with the UN running out of food in December.

Since then, 1300 dead, many more thousands injured, even more homeless. These agencies want to tackle this. For the BBC to question whether aid can be distributed, and in effect accuse the country's leading charities of lying about their abilities, is extraordinary.

The main reason the BBC have cited though is the impact this would have on their impartiality. I'm afraid that's totally shot to pieces now, but I don't think anyone can ever feasibly argue again that it's in favour of the Palestinians. It's bad enough they have contributed through their (lack of) reporting to a climate where they clearly have no recognition of the situation in Gaza. To now not just ignore the suffering, but to stop urgent assistance from being collected, is disgusting.

Anyone that would have complained to the BBC because they broadcasted the DEC appeal, would have been an inhuman voice not worth listening to. Pandering to the worst elements of society is an abdication of backbone and principles. Surely the BBC has better guidelines than that.

There is an ‘eye for an eye’ going on and it is making the whole world blind

Yesterday's vigil for Gaza in Glasgow’s George Square was unbelievably well attended. Hundreds came at just 24 hours notice in a remarkable mobilisation. Similar events took place at the same time all over the world.

The strength of feeling amongst people about this is as strong as anything I’ve seen since the Jenin massacre in 2002 - even more so than with Lebanon a couple of years ago.

Background on Israeli shooting victims

Ali Abunimah on the differing reactions to Palestinian deaths and background on the Jewish seminary that the shooting happened at this week:

... Israeli deaths are "terrorism," while Palestinian deaths are merely an unfortunate consequence of the fight against "terrorism." But the two are intricately linked, and what happened in Jerusalem is a direct consequence of what Israel has been doing to the Palestinians for decades.

Let me be clear that the killing of civilians, Israeli or Palestinian, is wrong, repugnant, and cannot bring this one-hundred-year war caused by the Zionist colonization of Palestine to an end. There will be an Israeli propaganda effort -- as always -- to present Palestinian violence as being simply motivated by hatred, and divorced from the context of brutal occupation that Palestinians live under. What greater proof could you need than an attack on religious students, devoting their life to the study of the Torah?

We cannot expect much analysis in the media of why the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva might have been chosen as a target. Was it mere coincidence that the school, named for Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, and led after his death by his son Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, is the ideological cradle of the militant, Jewish supremacist settler movement Gush Emunim?

Israeli ambassador compares Gaza attack to British bombing of Nazi Germany

Israel's UK ambassador Ron Proser was in the Scottish Parliament yesterday as part of his offensive in Scotland which will also take in Sunday's JNF dinner.

Full marks on diplomacy for labelling the Scottish Jews for a Just Peace "smart arses" for calling for dialogue with Hamas, in line with sentiments expressed by Israelis themselves.

He said that anything the Gazans are feeling now is no worse than what the British inflilcted on Germany in the Blitz, feulling the idea that Israel are somehow up against mighty Nazis, and forgetting that it was one of his own country's defence minsters that said they were inflicting a 'shoah' on the Gazans. What they have done in Gaza over the last few days is many times more deadly than what its claimed to be in response to - rocket attacks on towns like Sderot. The Palestinians can give such comparisons too.

Situation in Gaza worse than at any point in last 40 years

The video above was shown at Sunday's Islamic Relief dinner in Glasgow. The emergency event for Gaza was called at short notice in light of recent events, but still managed to raise £85,000. Well done to all involved. Today, leading charities came together and said that the humanitarian situation is worse than it has been for 40 years.

Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon spoke at Sunday's event, noting that while Israel says it was going after terrorists, children aren't terrorists. She also condemned the hypocrisy of the US and British governments in claiming to support democracy, but bringing about this current crisis by their rejection of the Palestinian election results.

Amongst all this, the Israeli ambassador is in Scotland this week. On Sunday, he'll be attending the annual fundraiser for the Jewish National Fund, which appropriates land that Arabs are denied access to. Everyone is being urged to protest outside the Hilton at 5pm.

Milne on Gaza

Right-wingers were delighted when Seumus Milne stopped editing the comment page of the Guardian. What it seems to have meant though is that it's allowing him more time to write incisive opinion pieces of his own. And what a joy they are!

Mosey on over to Comment is Free to read his analysis on the latest in Gaza.

Israeli minister warns of Palestinian 'holocaust'

Israel's deputy defence minister, Matan Vilnai, has said on army radio:

"The more Qassam [rocket] fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves."

The little media coverage there has been of this comment (imagine it was the other way round), has concentrated on some kind of future warning Vilnai is giving. To me it sounds as if he is describing that what Israel is putting the Gazans through now is a holocaust and a "bigger" one is to come.

It comes the day after 31 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks, nine of them children, including one six-month-old baby.

Read more at the Electronic Intifada.

Mentioning the Palestinians

A lot of criticism has come the way of George Reid for daring to mention the Palestinians during Holocaust Memorial Day commemorations in East Renfrewshire.

According to the Jewish Telegraph, the former Presiding Officer at the Scottish Parliament said:

"I find it strange, when we've been dealing with intolerance and injustice, that no one has mentioned the Palestinians," he said at Eastwood Park Theatre in Giffnock, Glasgow.

"There is a general view among politicians that there will be no peace in the Middle East until there is justice for the Palestinians."

With there being no factual inaccuracy contained therein, Labour MSP Ken Macintoch’s criticism was:

"Everyone in the Middle East is entitled to peace. And the one bastion of democracy in the region is Israel."

Some may quibble about factual accuracy here, not least Macintoch’s masters who went to war in Iraq to establish such a bastion.

Miliband denies visiting West Bank settler relatives

I was very surprised to read that Foreign Secretary David Miliband has family who live in one of the illegal West Bank settlements. According to the Jewish Chronicle, he was forced into denying he visited them on his recent visit to the region.

The obvious serious implication of this is that if he's to have a part to play in achieving a just peace there, it does represent somewhat of a conflict of interest if he has family living in what are arguably the biggest stumbling blocks to that very peace. It's very important that a full disclosure is made on this issue.

Palestinian footballers denied visa to tour England

The Palestinian U19 football team was due to tour England for a few weeks starting later in August.

However, it has been cancelled by the British Consulate in Jerusalem denying them visas. More here.

The highlight of the visit was to be a match at Ewood Park on 8 September - which coincidentally is the same day that England take on Israel at Wembley in a Euro 2008 qualifier. Doubt the Israelis will have so much trouble getting in.

Engaging Hamas

Daniel Levy, son of Lord Michael Levy, has previously served as an adviser in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office and as an official Israeli negotiator with the Palestinians. He is tipped to work for Tony Blair in his new role. He writes in this week's Jewish Chronicle:

My apparent “crime” is to support engagement with Hamas as part of a strategy for enhancing a ceasefire, security in the region, and ultimately, to advance a peace process that can actually deliver the goods. In being “dangerous” — presumably to Israel and perhaps also Anglo-Jewry — I find myself in not bad company.

Former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy, ex-Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami, previous West Bank Divisions Commander and Civil Administration head General Ilan Paz, Gaza Brigades Commander Colonel Shaul Arieli and ex-deputy National Security adviser Yisraela Oron are just a few of the “dangerous” types who support this approach. In private, in Hebrew, many current senior Israeli officials share the same view and Israel has, of course, directly and indirectly negotiated ceasefires and prisoner exchanges with Hamas in the past.

Congratulations Alan Johnston

Fantastic news for him and his family.

No doubt it was the people who worked tirelessly to keep him in the public eye that led to this happy moment. Well done to all involved in his release.

Pro-Israelis influence the weather

Israellycool manages to get CNN weather maps to recognise Jerusalem as part of Israel. There was indignation on the blog that it was giving the weather for Arab towns that haven't existed since 1948.

No mention of what happened to these towns in 1948 though - here, here, here and here

UK declares Baghdad as its capital city

Obviously Tony Blair hasn't gone that far. But after the BBC apologised for referring to Jerusalem as Israel's capital, foreign ministry spokesman Mark Regev said:

"Jerusalem is Israel's capital. It is the right of every sovereign state to determine which city will be its capital. If this is not accepted by everyone today, I am confident it will be in the future."

In other news, the US and Israel are talking up the possibility of Tony Blair becoming the Quartet's envoy to the Middle East. This would be from minds that will next cook up Salman Rushdie as the man to negotiate with Iran.

UN rejects JNF's application for consultative status

On 18 May 2007, the United Nations’ Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) rejected the application of the Jewish National Fund (JNF)-USA for consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) by a vote of 8 to 7 with three abstentions.

Consultative status enables NGOs to circulate statements and participate in relevant international conferences convened by the UN and in the meetings of their preparatory bodies. The Committee on NGOs, which is comprised of 19 Member States, decides upon whether or not to afford NGO-applicants consultative status. Over 2,700 NGOs from all over the world have been afforded consultative status.

The eight countries voting against the granting of status to the JNF-USA were Burundi, China, Cuba, Egypt, Guinea, Russian Federation, Qatar, and Sudan; the seven countries voting in favour were Colombia, Israel, Peru, Romania, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United States; and the three countries abstaining were Angola, India, and Pakistan.

The JNF-USA lobbied hard to gain ECOSOC status and provided letters of support for its application from powerful members of the US Congress, such as Senator Hillary Clinton. However, country representatives and the Palestine Observer Mission to the UN expressed concern about the affiliation between the JNF-USA and the JNF-KKL (Keren Kayameth LeIsrael), which carries out land development and settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). While the JNF-USA told the Committee that it was independent and involved in water, environmental and development projects in the Middle East, country representatives stated that they were unable to distinguish between the activities of the JNF-USA and JNF-KKL. Another main reason cited for why the application should be rejected was that the JNF’s work violated the principles of the UN Charter, which emphasizes respect for human rights and equality.

Israel to pay £1bn to Palestinians for gas... oh wait

British Gas appears to have struck a deal whereby gas from Gaza can be piped to Israel. The Times reports that the Palestinians would receive $1bn from the agreement, with BG walking away with $4bn.

The only snag is that the Israelis haven't agreed how the Palestinians will be paid. They don't want to give them any money.

UJS recruits to the Israeli army

The Bonsoir blog, reports that the Union of Jewish Students are publishing advertisements recruiting to the Israeli army (well more accurately you need to pay £99 for the privilege of cleaning tanks). Akram Awad at Bonsoir makes the following noteworthy observations:

Although it is not a crime for a British citizen to serve in a foreign army,  The Foreign Enlistment Act 1870 makes it a crime for a British subject to enlist in the army of a foreign nation that is at war with any country that the UK is at peace with. On the other hand Israel -since its foundation in 1948- has been in a continuous state of war with the Palestinians (or more accurately against them), the Lebanese and Syrians (whom Israel is occupying part of their lands since 1967) and with most Arab countries.

...

More boycotting due to boycotting

Steven Weinberg, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, has cancelled a visit to Imperial College in London. Reason? The NUJ boycott of Israel. He's boycotting all of Britain because of the union's boycott you see.

Presumably then, he believes the NUJ's action is worse than Israel's 40-year-long occupation of Palestine.

Weinberg also believes that the boycott can only be attributed to anti-Semtiism. This in the same letter where he said the only other reason he could imagine for the boycott was the NUJ's "desire to pander to the growing Muslim minority in Britain". Hmmm.

More Unionist than the arch-Unionists

A few points and lessons come out of yesterday's historic events in Northern Ireland.

Firstly, and sadly, this shows that terrorism works. Now that the Troubles are over, Catholics are in a completely unimaginable position in sharing leadership compared to where they were before. Violence, despite the elevation of the peaceful figures who took the plaudits in the end, was pivotal in South Africa and India before for example. People like Mandela (who previously himself engaged in violence) and Gandhi would have been nothing if there was not the violence to compare the peaceful process with. This is not the lesson though. If anything has to be learned, is that we need to get rid of injustice before it gets to the level where violence begins.

Secondly, to achieve peace, you need to sit down with people who you don't agree with. Astonishingly, people are reporting that there is "chemistry" between Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness. These men loathed each other, and "moderates" in the centre loathed both. But without them on board, there would be no peace.

Thirdly, peace can be achieved despite parties not agreeing on everything. Sinn Fein have not dropped their dream of a united Ireland. But peace there is, and all sides expect it to stay. Comparing this to the situation between Israel and Palestine, preconditions on longterm visions have to be dropped. The proposal of withdrawing to 1967 borders for a longstanding peace is a sensible one. If either side still hanker over one-state, then they should be allowed to do so as long as it is only done by the force of argument, and not trampling on the rights of others.

Boycotting the boycotters

A US university has protested a UAE university's boycott of Israel by boycotting them!

Last month, the NUJ voted to boycott Israel, and since then all sorts of predictable opprobrium has been heaped on them. All I reflect on is that in the moral indignation of whether or not a boycott is an acceptable political tool, there has not been a peep about the international sanctions that have been placed on the Palestinians, leading to a humanitarian disaster.

This was imposed last year for the people's decision to elect a Hamas government. Hamas are boycotted because of their past killings of Israelis. Meanwhile Israel carries on killing, occupying and building settlements but a boycott of the country isn't on the same moral plane for some reason.

Everyone's going to realise they have to talk to Hamas eventually, as Mary Ann Sieghart writes in the Times today:

Mr Blair could have applied the lessons he learnt in Northern Ireland – in particular, that he could not make peace by involving only moderates from the UUP and SDLP. It was the arrival of Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams at the negotiating table that made an agreement possible. The same boldness is needed now in the Middle East. Any negotiation will have to include Hamas as well as Fatah, the ultra-orthodox Shas party as well as Labour.

Being anti-Zionist is not anti-Semitic

Gordon Brown last week announced that there would be a fresh cash injection for Holocaust education. All good, but the chosen venue for releasing this news was his speech to the annual Labour Friends of Israel lunch. It further underlines the complete blurring of the lines between the distinct issues of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust and that of Israel and Zionism.

I was asked to speak recently at a fringe meeting at the NUS conference. Delegates there were busy preparing for a motion to the effect that anti-Zionism was anti-Semitism, effectively adopting the EU definition. It shows how far things have come since 1975 when the UN said Zionism was racism - not only is it not any more apparently, but it's racist to say it is.

David Cameron scripted by "pro-Arabs"

According to the New Statesman's Martin Bright. He reels off a list of supposed gaffes emanating from the Tories in late February 2006 (he means 2007). First among them is:

The week ended with a distinctly shaky performance from David Cameron in Israel where he had felt it necessary to assure Foreign Office officials that he would try not to “screw up”. Yet by sticking to the script provided by the pro-Arab mandarins he provoked the disdain of the Israeli government by suggesting that it is standing in the way of peace by continuing to build settlements in the West Bank.

How Barack Obama learned to love Israel

His decisive trajectory reinforces a lesson that politically weak constituencies have learned many times: access to people with power alone does not translate into influence over policy. Money and votes, but especially money, channelled through sophisticated and coordinated networks that can "bundle" small donations into million dollar chunks are what buy influence on policy. Currently, advocates of Palestinian rights are very far from having such networks at their disposal. Unless they go out and do the hard work to build them, or to support meaningful campaign finance reform, whispering in the ears of politicians will have little impact.

Ali Abunimah from Electronic Intifada

Israel gags Al-Aqsa dig opponents

Israeli police have banned a news conference by Muslim and Christian figures opposing recent excavation works near a disputed holy site in Jerusalem.

Police went to the Commodore Hotel in East Jerusalem on Wednesday and delivered an order cancelling the event, because it was organised by the Palestinian group Hamas.

Shmuel Ben-Ruby, a police spokesman, said that the meeting was called off because Hamas-led activities are prohibited in Israel.

The mufti of Jerusalem, Israel's Islamic Movement leader and a Roman Orthodox archbishop were meeting to contest the renovation of a ramp leading to the shrine.

Al-Jazeera

So much for the Israeli openness on the issue. And what has Hamas being banned in Israel got to do with events in East Jerusalem?

Saudis play both sides

The Makkah Agreement between Hamas and Fatah has once again put the cat among the pigeons. The internal fighting can stop and the business of governing and freeing a nation can once again begin (listen to this week's podcast for more).

Hamas have managed to forge an agreement with the US and Israeli-backed Fatah without caving into their demands. As such it is fascinating to see the silence which has greeted the agreement. The Quartet have thus far not come out and said that sanctions will cease, despite their current favoured son Abu Mazen jumping in bed with Hamas.

The Saudis meanwhile have apparently offered £1bn dollars to the new government, eclipsing the donations from Iran. I've posted before about the complete lack of support from Arab states for the Palestinians, so this is a step change.

Set against the recent US courting of "moderate" Sunni countries (Saudi, Egypt, Jordan) in order to  garner support for an assault on Iran, it will be interesting to see the US's next move. Will they risk upsetting the Saudis by rejecting their brokered agreement? Or will Iran take strategic precedence? Or will the US and Israel be able to have their cake and eat it?

However, the Fanonite cites articles showing the Saudis are now actually investing in Israel.

HSBC are creaming £660,000 a month in bank charges from the EU's new arrangements for giving aid to Palestine. Oxfam are calling for Europe to go back to the method of money transfer they were using before the Hamas election victory.