If they didn't have an Osama Bin Laden, they would have invented one."

If they didn't have an Osama Bin Laden, they would have invented one."
Milt Bearden - CIA agent, in an interview with Dan Rather of the CBS (September 12, 2001)

At the onset let me extend by deepest regards to the Mahanagar for being the first Indian newspaper to my knowledge, to have both the courage and the foresight to expose the lies and the politics that keeps alive the myth and the ghost of Osama Bin Laden (OBL).

Basically the truth and the fact of the matter is that Bin Laden has been dead since Dec 2001. So then why do Bush and Cheney as well as the Neoconservatives insist as well as propagate the myth of Bin Laden?

First let us address the politics of fear, that is an integral part of the flawed Global War on Terror. The ghost of Bin Laden serves multiple purposes both at the Global and Indian context. In India Bin Laden is used to generate fear in the mind of the Hindu community, the epitome of "Islamic terror" and thus distrust & hatred for the Muslim is a natural backlash.

For the Muslims he is meant to be the "false hero" and to wrongly inspire youth to follow the path of extremism and terror.

The other primary strategy in propagating the myth of Bin Laden is so that every political struggle against US-Zionist Imperialsim is converted into a struggle for the cause of Islam and Muslims and thus reduce every struggle to a narrow religious agenda. Every Bin Laden message appeals to "Muslims to wage a jehad against Christians, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists". The agenda is to communalise, divide, confuse and thus weaken society. The agenda is also to further isolate and marginalise Muslims from the mainstream struggles. For example the Palestinian national freedom struggle against Israeli colonial occupation is reduced to a mere Muslim cause as per Bin Laden's announcements.

Now let us come to a few facts that will help us establish that Bin Laden has been dead since the last six years and more.

During the period 4-14th of July, 2001 (only two months prior to the 9/11-WTC terror attacks), Bin Laden was in the American Hospital in Dubai. According to the United Press International (Oct 31, 2001), Bin Laden underwent kidney surgery and treatment under Dr. Tarry Calloway. According to both the French "Le Figaro" & the "Radio France International", Bin Laden was visited by a top US-CIA agent. This report and the one below are further substantiated by CBS anchor Dan Rather, Peter Bergen, investigative journalist Barry Petersen and Prof. Michel Chussodovsky.
More astonishing is the fact that just a day prior to the September 11 attacks, Bin Laden was undergoing treatment in the Military Hospital in Rawalpindi itself (Le Figaro - Jan 28, 2002). So both the Pakistani ISI and the CIA were more than aware of Bin Laden's whereabouts.
A few days later Dr. Sanjay Gupta gave his assessment that both due to the heavy US bombing of the Taleban areas as well as the fact that kidney dialysis requires the right environment, it is impossible for a patient to survive beyond a week.
According to Pentagon sources, Bin Laden's voice could not be detected beyond December 14, 2001.
Reports of Bin Laden's death have been so widespread that it is a wonder as to how the myth of OBL has been kept alive. Now consider the following reports:
Reports of his death have appeared in the New York Times (July 11, 2002) as well the Guardian (UK) and the Telegraph (UK).
Both Musharraf and Karzai have been reported saying the same on CNN.
Dale Watson, the FBI chief of counter-terrorism said on BBC that he thought that OBL was dead.
Infact the announcement of OBL's death and the funeral as well, appeared in the Egytian newspaper Al-Wafd on December 26, 2001. Also refer to an article by Robert Burns (26/04/02) on this matter.
Even the Israeli intelligence had announced the death (World Tribune). They also said that the new messages are possibly fabrications.
Most recently the most remarkable revelation on this matter was made by none other than the late Benazir Bhutto. In an interview with David Frost on Al-Jazeerah English (November 2, 2007), she made the stunning announcement that Bin Laden was dead and had been murdered by Omar Sheikh. Interestinly Omar Sheikh was an ISI operative and was also responsible for the murder of Daniel Pearl. The most telling part is the deafening silence of the International media. BBC carried this interview but edited this line. WHY?? If this is not "Breaking News", then what is? Does not this statement warrant international attention? Would not have this statement guaranteed higher TRP ratings and increased newspaper circulation? But not a word. The complicity of the corporate media is apparent.
Just a few days ago, Baitullah Mashud the leader of the Taleban was reported to have made this claim in the Pakistan Daily. Mashud had been accussed by Musharraf to have assassinated Benazir Bhutto, but we all know who killed her, don't we? Also Benazir Bhutto and Mashud were in communication after her return to Pakistan.
But then people ask me and rightly so that, "what about all these Bin Laden-Al Qaeda tapes?, how do explain that?". So lets deal with that issue.

Bin Laden tapes have appeared prior to his death in December 2001, but since then the world has been subjected to a barrage of fake tapes. Prof. Bruce Lawrence of Duke University, is the world's leading expert on these tapes and has studied every tape since then and it is his analysis and that of Diana Lee (uniorb.com), Wayne Madsen as well as others that I put before you.
The first fake Bin laden tape was released by the Pentagon on December 13, 2001 and found in a deserted house in Jalalabad. It shows a stout and healthy man posing as Laden and making the claims of the destruction of the WTC. The most glaring error in the video is that the Laden duplicate is signing the confession letter with his right hand. Bin Laden used his left!
Another Laden video appeared just prior to the US presidential election on October 29. 2004, a few days after Bush had lost the first Presidential debate to John Kerry the Democratic nominee. The calls for a jehad against America helped to boost Bush's ratings and was a factor in his ultimate victory.
The Bin laden audio tapes began to arrive in 2002. These tapes were also meant to achieve and create a climate of fear at the global level. However IDIAP, the world's premier voice identification expert institution based in Switzerland, has clearly stated that the voice on the tapes was not that of Bin Laden.
Bin Laden and Al Qaeda tapes have also appeared in India and the political agenda is the same. Last year (June 8, 2007) an Al Qaeda tape surfaced in Kashmir claiming that Al Qaeda had established a base in India. It appeared only a day after an Israeli Military delegation arrived in India to advice the government to combat "Islamic terror in Kashmir". Even certain intelligence and military sources rejected the tape as a fake.
But now the pattern at the global level of releasing the Bin Laden-Al Qaeda tapes has undergone a remarkable change. Earlier there would be a direct relay of the tapes without any fanfare. But now unbelievably the release is accompanied with a curtain raiser at a global scale. Now the release of the tapes is announced a few days prior to the final release. The news of the same appears in practically every newspaper and channel of note the world over. So the ground is prepared so that as many as people as possible see the tape. It is a ridiculous as a curtain raiser for a new movie or a music video. The only problem is that the CIA-MOSSAD-ISI star is the global villain No.I.

Consider the following:
It was only last year on the 6th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks that we were subjected to this mirage. The announcement of the new Bin Laden message flooded the airwaves and newpapers. We then saw a Bin Laden, hale and hearty and with a black beard. The reports stated that Laden's bodyguard (where did he come from and did he have a name?) had "revealed" that Bin Laden was healthy and was living with his four wives (how cliched!), in a compound (where, which country, city, location?). The media did not ask a single question. Worse was to follow. After a few days we had another Bin Laden photograph plastered on pou front pages, but this time with a "white beard". Did the dye run off or had he lost his virility?. It was all so ridiculous but they got away with it.
Just today itself the Mumbai Mirror (29/05/08) has reported that a new Laden tape is due in the next 24 hours. Whatsmore this time the contents of the tape are also known to the "sources" even prior to the release. So we know then as to who writes all the scripts for these tapes, don't we?. The report ominously states that the tape "will urge jehadis to use nuclear, chemical and biological weapons against civilians". It quotes intelligence sources that have spoken to ABC News.
I too was very confused in the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks but I began to ask questions and seek answers independent of the corporate media as the socio-economic and political scenario did not make rational sense. The incident that made me question and challenge the dominant paradigm was the following.
On the 14th of February 2003, prior to the final US-NATO attack on Iraq, an Al Qaeda tape appeared. It asked the Muslims of the world to unite and wage a jehad against the Christians, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists of the world. I was too stunned because of the simple fact that I was aware that on the next day the Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, people of faith and none, were going to march in their millions across the streets of USA, South America, Canada, Europe, Australia along with their Muslim brethren to oppose the impending war on Iraq. Clearly, the Al Qaeda had come with the specific agenda to divide the masses of the world and further demonise the Muslims. From that day I began to maintain a record of the Al Qaeda tapes and I found a design and a clear objective and purpose that was basically serving the cause of the US-Zionist empire.
Terror is and has always been an instrument of Imperial US foreign policy. It is the politics of terror that is reshaping the geo-political and economic map of the world. It is the myths of terror that seek to confuse and weaken the anti-imperialist masses and their struggles against neo-liberal globalization and perpetrate hatred for Muslims and spread Islamophobia which itself is now a global phenomenon. Thus it is imperative that we expose these myths and the lies of Bin Laden and the Al Qaeda. It is actually a very simple task and it must be done.

then who is sending the tapes........?

Osama bin laden is dead: Indian Marathi News Paper Mahanagar

Osama Bin Laden is dead since December 26, 2001. Translation of Funeral Article in Egyptian Paper

plz follow the link

http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=16352

Osama bin Laden is Dead

watch video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM9cEngcqVM

YouTube - Benazir Bhutto: Bin Laden was Murdered:

watch video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnychOXj9Tg

Osama bin Laden:A dead nemesis perpetuated by the US government:

http://whatreallyhappened.com/osama_dead.html

fox news Report: Bin Laden Already Dead
Wednesday, December 26, 2001

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,41576,00.html

Is Osama bin Laden Dead? Are bin Laden Tapes Fakes?:

http://usliberals.about.com/b/2006/01/19/is-osama-bin-laden-dead-are-bin-laden-tapes-fakes.htm

French Report: Osama bin Laden Died of Typhus:

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2006/09/23/798/19626

High-level inquiry into all terror attacks demanded

JAIPUR: Speakers at a conference on “Terrorism: A solidarity approach” here on Sunday took exception to the police and investigating agencies picking up innocent Muslim youths on suspicion of their involvement in the recent serial blasts in Jaipur without any tangible evidence and demanded a high-level probe into all terror attacks.........
to read full article click below:
http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/27/stories/2008052754760700.htm

This MTV advertisment was cancelled by US goverment

Please Just give A Loook

click below

http://www.aioforum.com/chat/24583-great_mtv_ad_but_banned_usa.html

Osama Bin Laden is not in Pakistan he is dead says Taliban leader

Pakistan Daily
Tuesday
May 27th

Monday, 26 May 2008 17:43 Pakistan Daily

A top Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud has rejected reports that al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden, and other leaders are hiding in his region."The al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden is dead, and the Afghan Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, are not in our territory," he said in an interview broadcast by a satellite television network.

Funeral prayers have been said for Osama bin Laden over the years with one reported by a Pakistani news organisation, and another in an Egyptian newspaper as far back as December 2001.
This report quoted an official of the Taliban saying that he had suffered serious complications in the lungs and died a natural and quiet death.The news has been reported that he died of heart and kidney disorders. Americans and Pakistani leaders have suggested that he was one, killed in the US bombing of Afghanistan, died of illness later, or just died.The pro-Taliban leader who is based in Pakistan's tribal area of South Waziristan denied hosting the Saudi leader in local villages, as US intelligence officials suspect.Mehsud also rejected claims by the government in Islamabad that he was responsible for the assassination in December of Pakistan People's Party leader, Benazir Bhutto. "It wasn't us who killed Bhutto," he said.
He was quoted saying that the ex Prime minister was murdered because of the reason her leak to the media.
Benazir Bhutto had said Osama Bin Laden was murdered live on a British televevision interview with David Frost of the BBC on 2nd November 2007 has Benazir Bhutto mentioning that Osama Bin Laden was murdered 2 minutes into the video.
One has to be curious as to how a comment like this could not have leaked.If it is true that Osama Bin Laden was murdered then it could completely turn U.S. Middle Eastern policy on its head.
However, with Saddam Hussein out of the picture, we have only one ' dead man' left. If that 'dead man' is dead, what would be the effect on the American elections 2008?

think about it......!

Stolen, no trace: Tonnes and tonnes of explosives
RITU SARIN - Indian Express Sunday, October 07, 2007
And this, from licensed manufacturers across the country. Not only is there no record of what's landed in whose hands, even the trail of such material is virtually impossible to track after a terror attack.
NAGPUR, NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 6:Every time there is a terrorist or a Naxalite attack anywhere in the country, alarm bells ring in the fifth-floor office of the Chief Controller of Explosives in Nagpur's lush Seminary Hill neighbourhood. For long, these bells have gone largely unheard but so loud is their ringing now that the entire security establishment is beginning to wake up: the colossal theft and diversion of explosives from the over 21000 licensed explosive manufacturers across the country.
Official records accessed by The Sunday Express show that in just two years, 2004-2006, for which data collection is complete, the scale of theft is staggering: 86,899 detonators, 20,150 kg of slurry explosives, 52,740 metres of detonating fuse and 419 kg of gelatin sticks. Not just this, huge quantities of explosive cartridges and boosters have been stolen from magazines (stores for explosives) and explosive vans.
Theft on such a scale, officials say, is an ominous foreshadow of what could lie ahead: for, not only is there no record of what has landed in whose hands, once a terror attack or a Naxalite strike takes place, even the trail of such material is virtually impossible to track.
Add to this the rising concern over ammonium nitrate, a chemical freely sold in the country but mixed with fuel oil and sulphur used for lethal strikes with devastating effect. Ammonium nitrate was mixed with RDX and used in the Varanasi blasts in March 2006 that killed over 20 people; it was also used in the Mumbai rush-hour train blasts last year; in Malegaon, too, ammonium nitrate was used in a cocktail of RDX and fuel oil. In the twin blasts in Hyderabad on August 25 this year, Neogel 90, an ammonium nitrate-based explosive, was mixed with steel pellets.

It was as early as April 13 that an alert sent by Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta had, in fact, acknowledged the problem. "Some of the issues that concern us fall in the areas of manufacture, supply, transport and storage of explosives in the Naxalite-affected areas," the order said. "Serious concern has also been voiced about the free diversion of substances like potassium chlorate and ammonium nitrate, which used in conjunction with sulphur and fuel oil acquire explosive proportions."

"When RDX was used, it was easier to decode the fingerprints on the attack," says a senior intelligence official who is investigating the Hyderabad attack, "but when explosives like these, the ones commonly available and stolen, are used, our job gets incredibly difficult."
These explosive heists have been reported by Deputy Chief Controllers located in Kolkata, Rourkela, Vadodara, Bhopal and Vellore. What's more shocking is the fact that all these offices have sent in identical comments that add up to nothing: "No reply received from police authorities regarding retrieval."
Only in one case in the last two years, after 51,000 m of detonating fuse were stolen from an explosive manufacturer in Krishnakiri, Tamil Nadu, were the police able to recover 14,250 m, barely a third of the loot.
"This is the major impediment we face," Chief Controller of Explosives M Anbuthan told The Sunday Express. "Even after major thefts from licensed magazines, some located in terrorist and Naxalite-affected belts, we never hear from the state police. The result of the investigation must be shared with the licensing authority but we have been left completely in the dark."
Anbuthan, who heads the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation, says the other problem is shortage of staff, the reason why just about a fourth of the manufacturing units could be inspected last year.
So serious is the issue now that a series of high-level meetings have been held in New Delhi attended by the top brass of the internal security and intelligence establishment. First on the agenda: control and regulation of ammonium nitrate.
Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta confirmed to The Sunday Express that a committee headed by Intelligence Bureau official D P Sinha is looking into setting up of a mechanism to regulate the sale and storage of explosives, especially ammonium nitrate. Even amendments in the 1983 Explosives Act are on the anvil related to keeping digital records and mandating inspections.

It's not going to be easy. "Given the diversity of usage of ammonium nitrate from the fertilizer, quarrying and coal sector, it is impossible to ban its sale. The challenge is to stop leakage and step up enforcement keeping in mind the limitation to the extent of regulation and monitoring you can have. As far as pilferage and theft is concerned, state police agencies have to be sensitised on the issue and the Chief Controller's office given better manpower and infrastructure."

Jaipur Serial Terror Attack: A Political Analysis

By Feroze Mithiborwala & Kishore Jagtap

To read article click below
http://www.countercurrents.org/jagtap210508.htm

Jaipur Serial Terror Attack

AWAMI BHARAT / DALIT-OBC INTELLECTUAL FORUM

"Jaipur Serial Terror Attack on eve of May 14 Global demonstrations against
60 years of Zionist Israeli Ethnic Cleansing,
Apartheid, Genocide and Occupation of Palestine".

Once again the common Indians have become the victims of terror attacks and we condemn the apathy as well as complicity of the Indian state from protecting the masses. Our organizations are committed to exposing the politics of terror and in our analysis, the weapon of terrorism has replaced the 'politics of communal riots' in dividing, weakening and communalising the masses. Its very effective, more easier to organize and moreover no commission of inquiry will ever look into the matter. Thus the risks to the ruling elite are immense whilst the risks are minimal.
In our estimation the reprehensible serial terror attacks that occured in the streets of Jaipur today need to be analysed in the political context. They have occurred on the eve of major global demonstrations against the Zionist Apartheid State of Israel. Thus the news on the global media channels will be dominated by one more instance of "Muslim Terrorism" and far worse. The news regarding global opposition to Zionist Israel will be relegated to the inside pages. The breaking news on CNN, BBC etc will be "more Islamic terror in Jaipur....."
Interestingly the Mumbai serial train terror attacks of July 11, 2006 occured on the very same day that Israel launched its war on Lebanon. Thus this is the second glaring instance as to when a terror attack in India has proved to be very helpful to the cause of Israel in deflecting the attention of the International media.
It is basically the political timing and the beneficiaries that gives us the clues to the perpetrators of the attack.
Also consider the following terror attacks:
The terror attack on the Sankat Mochan Mandir in Varanasi (7th March 2006) occurred only 5 days after the largest demonstrations and protests against the visit of Pesident Bush to India on May 2, 2006. The level of protests by the Indian masses and the unity of the Hindu and Muslim masses that came out in their lakhs across the country was unprecedented in post-Independence India. It was for the first time that the Indian masses took to the streets, vehemently protesting against the shift in our foreign policy. It is extremely naive for anyone to believe that the attack on the Mandir was perpetrated by any Muslim organization, as it makes no political sense. The mother of the suppossed terrrorist who was killed in the subsequent encounter in Kanpur, stated that her son had been in Police custody since a year and she had no clue as to when her son was let out. The terror attack proved very useful to counter the growing unity of the Indian masses against US-Zionist imperialism.
The terror attacks in the park in Hyderabad (2007) were basically to counter the tense situation on the issue of the Indo-US Nuclear Deal, where the very longevity of the Congress led UPA government itself was at stake.
The Nanded incident where RSS-Bajrang Dal activists died whilst making bombs has been swept under the carpet by the government of Maharashtra as well as the media.
Even the fake attack on the RSS HQ in Nagpur has been dealt with in a similar manner.
Recently the attack on the RSS HQ at Teenkasi, Chennai is also a case in point. The Tamil Nadu police arrested RSS activists for enginerring the blasts.
Of course, all this news barely makes it to the channels and even if they do, they disappear in a day or two. This is in stark contrast to the coverage given in case the suspect is a Muslim. One can go on and on. The pity and the hypocricy of it all, is the duplicity and connivance of sections of the Indian State, the ruling dispensation at the Centre, the BJP-RSS and its affliates, the allies of the US-Israeli lobby, the police, our security apparatus and sections of the Corporate Media, wrongly referred to as the mainstream media. This is very similar to the situation that prevails within the USA, but it needs to be stated that we are still far away from being reduced to a dumbed down version that the US is. We are on our way there, but not if the anti-Imperialist Indian masses can help it and we know that we will finally defeat the forces that are the allies of the US-Zionist Empire.
Every terror attack only serves to:
Futher communalise the people. Hindus grow more and more wary and fear or rather detest the Muslims. It leads to further ghettoization and marginalization of the Muslim community.
The Muslim community becomes an increasingly easy target for the State, the police apparatus and the right-wing Hindutva forces.
Pushes the Indian people into the waiting arms of George Bush and Ehud Olmert, who thrive in promoting terror, wars and the Neoconservative oxmoron of "controlled chaos".
The Global War on Terror is an instrument for global US-Israeli-EU hegemony and is basically an instrument of foreign policy. "A war without borders and time against shadowy organizations with no central structure but spread in cells across the world". The world is now in a state of perpetual warfare.
The bogey of Al-Qaeda and Bin Laden is used with a dual purpose. Basically Bin Laden has been dead since December 2001 even according to the French DGSE. Al-Qaeda is nothing more than a covert US-Israeli-Saudi-Pakistani joint operation. Al Qaeda is basically the outsourcing of terror by the CIA-MOSSAD-MI6-ISI, the true axis of evil. Bin Laden is the ghost used to scare the world and his video threats pop-up at very convenient times for the Bush's and Musharraf's of the world.
More and more American people are realising that the 9/11-WTC attacks were planned, financed and executed by the US-Neoconservatives and by the Israelis. They are basically demanding an independent commission of inquiry to reopen the investigation and the Bush regime is refusing to do so. We wonder why!
The lies of the Bush junta are common knowledge, especially with the case of Iraq and now again on Iran. Why then is it that the Indian media is refusing to even begin questioning the absurdities od the 9/11-WTC attack and the entire flawed Global War on Terror which has proved to be a disaster for the world.
Our Basic demand is that the Government of India should insitute an Independent Commission of inquiry to investigate the terror attacks that are devouring the Indian people. The commission should comprise personalities of an impeccable and honest track record and we believe that we do have people with such credentials. Actually its time that the social movements take the initiative and that we ourselves constitue a People's Tribunal to investigate the terror attacks.

Our plea to the people is the following. The Indian people need to awaken to the scourge of terrorism. It has become the political and social challenge of our times. It is the new system of control of the Indian masses by the elite and we will have to stand together and fight this menace unitedly. None of the political leaders seem to be victims of the terror attacks, not even when the Indian Parliament was attacked! But we continue to die in Temples, Masjids, Churches, Gurdwaras and Buddhavihars. We continue to die in Buses, Trains and Taxis. We know that they lie, the media lies and so do our police.

We need to find the answers, but for that we need to start asking basic questions and challenge the paradigm within which our minds are forced to think or rather "not think".

We the members of the Awami Bharat and the Dalit-OBC Intellectual Forum have found the answers because we began to question and seek the truth independently of the politicians, the police and the media. All of the Indian people need to do the same.

This is in solidarity with all the ordinary Indian people who have been victims of communal riots and terror attacks.

Feroze Mithiborwala / Kishore Jagtap / Shraddha Shendge / Amol S B / Varsha V V / Chetna Birje / Mulaniwasi Mala / Jagdish Nagarkar
00-91-98208-97517 / 00-91-93245-14101

Israel, the Holocaust and the Nakba

Feature by Ilan Pappe, May 2008

Sixty years ago half of Palestine's population was expelled when the state of Israel was created. Acclaimed anti-Zionist historian Ilan Pappe looks at the legacy of the Nazi persecution of Jews, and the complicity of world leaders, past and present, in maintaining the occupation in Palestine.
Very few matrixes can be as sensitive as that of the Holocaust, Israel and the Palestinian Catastrophe of 1948 (known as the Nakba). It is no wonder that very few people in the past have attempted to comment on the nexus between the Holocaust, the Nakba and a solution for the Palestine question. To all intents and purposes, researchers, journalists and essayists who were, and still are, interested in the Palestine question preferred to deal with each of the subject matters separately - as if there is no connection whatsoever between them. But the connection is there and is highly important both for students of the Israel/Palestine question and for the future of this torn country. Sixty years after the dispossession of the Palestinians, the event that shaped the present Middle Eastern political crisis, it is high time also to involve the Holocaust and its memory in our overall attempt to understand the "conflict" and contribute towards its solution.
Various factors contributed to the demise of the Palestinians in 1948. The most important of them was Zionist ideology and later on Israeli policy. The Zionist movement wished ever since its appearance on Palestine's soil in the late 19th century to take over as much of the country as possible and create on it a Jewish state. The effort to achieve it began in earnest with the onset of British rule in Palestine in 1917. Judaising Palestine meant de-Arabising it. So an important part of the vision was an effort to have as few Palestinians as possible within the future Jewish state.
The vision became a plan and reality when Britain, after 30 years of rule, decided to leave Palestine in February 1947. About a year later, at the beginning of 1948, the Zionist leaders decided that the best means of making the vision of a Jewish Palestine possible was by forcefully dispossessing the Palestinians from their homeland. Within less than a year, between February and October 1948, the Israeli army systematically uprooted and destroyed more than 500 villages and 11 towns. Half of Palestine's native population was ethnically cleansed in those months. Their material and cultural possessions were taken over by the Israelis and their presence on the land was nearly wiped out.
British legacy
The ethnic cleansing of Palestine, however, could not have been executed had it not been for some additional factors. The British mandatory government was responsible, since it did not interfere, when it could, in the early stages of the dispossession. The expulsions were carried out while its officials and soldiers watched. Indirectly, Britain was also made culpable by its destruction of the Palestinian leadership during the 1936-1939 revolt. The British exiled and killed many of the Palestinian leaders in those years. The absence of an able political leadership and the disappearance of capable military men left the Palestinians literally defenceless in the face of the Jewish forces in 1948.
The Arab world also played a negative part. The impotence of its armies and the lack of commitment of its leaders turned the hope of a pan-Arab solidarity movement into a farce. The Palestinians surrendered their affairs in the hands of the Arab League, a move that proved to be a colossal mistake. The League did not represent their aspirations nor could it protect them.
But the most important factor, quite often overlooked, was the international complacency in the face of the ethnic cleansing. This Israeli policy could not have been contemplated, let alone implemented, had it not been tolerated by the international community. The Zionist and later Israeli leaders knew they could rely on the passivity and silence of the international community.
On the face of it, this should not have been an obvious assumption. After the Second World War when the Cold War period had just begun, the main powers competing for world hegemony needed the goodwill of the Arab world. Moreover, the more conscientious sections of Western society were increasingly supporting the anti-colonialist emotions and movements throughout the Arab world. True, the two leading ailing colonialist powers of the day, Britain and France, were still trying to maintain their presence and influence in the Arab world, but at least for the sake of appearances they too had to adhere to the notion that all the Arab peoples in all the Arab countries were entitled to be independent and sovereign. And when France was particularly reluctant to grant even this symbolic independence to Algeria - preferring the interests of its settler community there - public opinion in Europe, and beyond, rallied behind the Algerian liberation movement.
The people of Palestine and their national movement should not have been an exceptional case study, had it not been for the Zionist movement's interest in their country. They easily passed the test of being recognised as a modern day "nation" or "people". But they were already exempted, towards the end of the First World War, from the international promise to allow the Arab nations or peoples to become independent. Strategic considerations, Christian Zionism among Britain's leaders and a fair share of anti-Semitism led London to support the settlement of European Jews away from Europe in the midst of the Arab world. Although the British declared famously in 1917 that this would be done without prejudicing the rights and aspirations of the indigenous population, of course it did. It impinged upon their basic rights for nationhood, self-determination and independence - rights granted to everyone else in the Arab world. This was done against staggering statistics: 90 percent of the population were Palestinians, and out of the 10 percent Jews, quite a few were Orthodox Jews who regarded Zionism as an aberration and interference with God's will.
It did not work, though. The Palestinians rejected the imposition of a colonialist project on them, despite the full European support for it. Up to 1939 Europe, and in particular Britain, developed second thoughts about Palestine. International public opinion had to make a new decision in 1947, when Britain, in despair at its entanglement there, passed the question to others.
In 1947 the statistics were still very much in the Palestinians' favour. Objectively, they had what was needed to be regarded by the international community as a legitimate nation demanding its right for self determination and independence. They were two thirds of the population and owned more than 90 percent of the land. The Jews were mostly newcomers from the previous three years and had managed to buy only 7 percent of the land. Compared to 1917, the Palestinians had an even more distinct national identity and a clearer vision.
But this was all ignored by the international community that used the United Nations (UN) to pass a decision on Palestine's future on 29 November 1947, the famous partition resolution. Instead of granting the Palestinians independence in Palestine, the UN suggested allocating them less than half of the country and proposed they would share the economy and currency with the Jewish settlers who were allocated a larger part of it. Their capital, Jerusalem, was expropriated as an international enclave. Only one factor led the UN special commission on Palestine, and all those powers behind it, to abandon every conventional principle of statehood and independence for the sake of satisfying the Zionist movement: the Holocaust.
One can read again and again the arguments put forward by everyone involved in proposing the partition resolution and later on the admittance of Israel as a full member of the UN, while Palestine was erased from the international public agenda, and see clearly that the Holocaust was the sole argument.
The argument for a Jewish state as compensation for the Holocaust was a powerful argument, so powerful that nobody listened to the outright rejection of the UN solution by the overwhelming majority of the people of Palestine. What comes out clearly is a European wish to atone. The basic and natural rights of the Palestinians should be sidelined, dwarfed and forgotten altogether for the sake of the forgiveness that Europe was seeking from the newly formed Jewish state. It was much easier to rectify the Nazi evil vis-à-vis a Zionist movement than facing the Jews of the world in general. It was less complex and, more importantly, it did not involve facing the victims of the Holocaust themselves, but rather a state that claimed to represent them. The price for this more convenient atonement was robbing the Palestinians of every basic and natural right they had and allowing the Zionist movement to ethnically cleanse them without fear of any rebuke or condemnation.
The most bewildering arithmetic done by the UN, in the name of the international community, towards achieving this formula was to include the number of Jews in Europe in the overall demographic calculation of the balance in Palestine. Hence, Palestine was now the land of the Jews of Europe, including those who had not yet arrived there and those who never intended to arrive there. As such they were a majority in Palestine.
The Zionist movement had the military power to both ethnically cleanse Palestine of its original population and to face a military confrontation with troops from various Arab armies sent to try and prevent the creation of a Jewish state. However, it needed the Holocaust memory to silence any criticism of its ethnic cleansing operation and to prevent any international pressure on it to allow the return of all those expelled from the land after the 1948 war. Europe's guilt at allowing Nazi Germany to exterminate the Jews of Europe was to be cured by the dispossession of the Palestinians.
This created what the late Edward Said called a chain of victimisation. The Palestinians became the victims' victim. This concept was never accepted by Israel and its allies; nor was it ever endorsed by the European political elite that felt very comfortable with the formula of Israel being the only and exclusive victim of the Holocaust and the only victim in Palestine.
The Israelis went the other way in two directions that complemented each other. On the one hand, they felt secure from any Western pressure and continued the dispossession of the Palestinians - until today. The limits to their actions in the past, and quite probably in the future, were well defined by the late Israeli journalist Aryeh Caspi: as long as the Israelis do not do to the Palestinians what the Nazis did to the Jews, they are within the legitimate and moral boundaries of civilised behaviour. The repertoire of actions within those limits was, and still is, quite horrendous, as the latest Israeli actions in the Gaza Strip testify. The other direction was to Nazify the Palestinians so as to justify further the actions against them.
Justice
The European political elite seems still to suffer from the same timidity as it did in the past. This fear, rooted so clearly in Europe's tragic Jewish history, hinders severely any chance for a comprehensive and lasting peace in Israel and Palestine. It is true that the main block for any effective pressure on Israel is the US. But any chance of balancing it or causing it to redirect its course depends very much on Europe.
One of the main stumbling blocks in the way of such a change is Germany, for obvious reasons. However, Germany as a society and government has an obligation not only to the Jewish people, but also to the Palestinians. It was right and just that the first decades after the Holocaust were devoted to reconciliation with the Jewish world. Germany as a whole did face its past boldly and did not deny the horror of the Holocaust. Now the time has come for the Germans to pay attention to the victims' victim - Germany is not that far a link in the chain of victimisation and cannot spurn responsibility.
There are other strategic reasons for trying a new approach to the Palestine issue than the one that puts all the blame on the Palestinians and disregards their legitimate rights such as the right of the refugees to return and the right of the rest of the Palestinian people to live without occupation, oppression and discrimination. The continued violence in Israel and Palestine has the potential of dragging not only the Middle East into endless wars but also Europe - as is very clear from the events of the last decade.
But this naive article is about morality and justice - justice, something which I found is very important to a younger German generation; a generation that knows that as a nation they faced head-on their own past evils and expect the Israelis to do the same. You can meet them as volunteers in the occupied territories and in the various European solidarity campaigns for Palestine. These young men and women should be a source of pride for Germany, as were the young Germans who volunteered in Israel as part of the reconciliation.
We will all need them, because history teaches us that evil, occupation and dispossession do eventually come to an end. There is always a danger of revenge and retribution on such a day. Maybe a group of people who were brought up boldly facing the Nazi genocide, and became aware at first hand of the Israeli occupation and its horrors, would facilitate a restitutive justice for all - like the one we had in post Apartheid South Africa and not a retributive one - such as the one we witnessed in Rwanda.
Judging by the speech recently given by the chancellor, Angela Merkel, in the Israeli Knesset, Germany is not likely to play any constructive role in bringing peace to Israel and Palestine. Merkel presented an embarrassingly biased and one sided pro-Israeli position. In her address the chancellor did not mention the occupation, even in passing, and only praised Israel as a paragon of justice, democracy and civilisation. This will only strengthen the more aggressive and violent aspects of Israeli policy and actions. It also left the Palestinians with no hope for a different future, and without hope despair sets in which in turn produces violence.
We all need closure from the 20th century - not in order to forget and not even to forgive, but for the sake of building a normal and healthy life. This is true about victims and victimisers alike. Germany can play a very positive role in bringing that about in Palestine. Now is the time, before it is too late.

INDIA PALESTINE PEOPLE'S SOLIDARITY FORUM
5, Shradhanjali, Vithaldasnagar, off Linking Road, Santacruz West, Mumbai.

PRESS RELEASE / INVITATION

"GANDHIGIRI PROGRAMME AT ISRAELI CONSULATE" - "60 Years of Palestine / Israel"
We will be congregating at the NCPA, Gate No. 1, Nariman Point on
May 14, 2008 at 10.30am.


Dear Friends

This year marks both the founding of Israel as well as the forced dispossession and exile of the Palestinian nation from their land. We the members of the India Palestine People's Solidarity Forum wish to reach out to the Israeli people and appeal to them, to come forward in a spirit of reconciliation, justice and peace and share the land with their Palestinian brethren. The Jewish people who themselves have undergone immense suffering, should be able to feel and comprehend the persecution being inflicted upon the Palestinian people.

We the members of the IPPSF will be going to the Israeli consulate, with a red rose and a card in hand that says "Get Well Soon". Our gesture is not a protest but it is a fervent plea for justice and peace. We also call upon the Israeli people to come forward and embrace their Palestinian brethren and allow them to lead a life of dignity in their homeland. Through our gesture we wish to highlight the violence and the persecution being inflicted upon the Palestinians and for the Indian people as well as the people of the world to empathize with them.

In recent times it is apparent that the Israeli state has become dehumanized and blind to the sufferings of the Palestinians. We believe that Israel needs to be caring and compassionate to the people that it continues to occupy.


We believe that a peace based on the principles of justice and compassion will only be achieved when the Israeli and Palestinian people decide to co-exist on the same land with mutual respect and equal rights.

We pray that God's eternal mercy and the universal message of compassion and love, common to all faiths, will show you the path for a solution to this tragic conflict. We, your friends pray that you "Get Well Soon", and adhere to the best principles of the Jewish faith and the teachings of her great prophets.

Shalom

Tushar Gandhi Feroze Mithiborwala
(Convenor) (Co-Convenor)
9821336617 9820897517
2me@tusharagandhi.in feroze.moses777@gmail.com

WORKSHOP ON COMMUNALISM AND LAW

INVITATION
WORKSHOP ON COMMUNALISM AND LAW


Dear Friends,
Greetings from Human Rights Law Network!!!
The most startling aspect of communalism in the country has been its uniformity, sheer scale and the consistency with which the communal forces have worked. This is apparent with how right-wing dialogue permeates everyday life, where its apparent move from the shadows to mainframe terms of reference forces us to review our grasp of the issue altogetherHuman Rights Law Network though its Secularism and the Law initiative is conducting a series of workshops across the country for individuals and organizations to build capacity to combat communal forces.As a part of these workshops HRLN will conduct a western zone workshop on 'Communalism & Law' for Advocates, Social Activists and organisation working for the peace to discuss the different trends and challenges on the issue.
The attempt over the two days will be to grasp the various facets of communalism, from its history to the communal dynamics of everyday politics, globalization/terrorism, media, commissions, legislations and the role of social movements and the law among others.
Without doubt communalism is an issue best dealt with at the civil society level through political mobilization, legal interventions hold a vital position in anti-communal strategy building. This workshop will attempt to highlight the legal recourse that one can undertake in the strategies against communalism.

Details of the programme
Venue : Sarvodaya, St. Pius College campus, Aarey Road,
Goregaon – east, Mumbai
Date : 10 & 11 May 2008

Accommodation will be available for the outstation participants. Please send us your confirmation as soon as possible on dalitrights@gmail.com / documentation@ichrl.org or contact Chetna - 9820022614 or Reshma – 9967608700 for more details




Programme Schedule

10th May 2008

Subject
Time
Resource Person
Registration
8.30 to 9.00am
Introduction to the Workshop
9.00am to 9.15am
K K Roy & Adv. Chetna Birje
Sharing of Experiences
9.15am to 10.15am
Participants from different state
History of Communalism in
India
10.15am to 12.00pm
Ram Puniyani
Tea – 12.00pm to 12.15pm
Communalism, Castes and Politics
12.15pm to 2.15pm
Pannalal Surana & K K Roy
Lunch – 2.15pm to 3.15pm
Communalism & Terrorism is tool of Globalisation
3.15pm to 5.15pm
Feroz Mithiborwala
Tea – 5.15pm to 5.30pm
Screening of Documentary
5.30pm to 6.30pm
Loose Change

11th May 2008

Subject
Time
Resource Person
Communalism and Media
9.00am to 10.00am
Pratima Joshi & Ketan Vaidya
Communal Violence Bill
10.00am to 11.00am
Maya Balecha
Tea – 11.00am to 11.15am
Communal Riots of India and Role of enquiry commissions
11.15am to 12.45pm
Adv. Iyer
Increasing communalism - Role of Social Movements
12.45pm to 2.15pm
Suresh Khairnar
Lunch 2.15pm to 3.00pm
Communal Tension and Legal Intervention
3.00pm to 4.30 pm
Adv. K. K. Roy & Adv. Bhushan Oza
A way forward
4.30pm to 5.00pm
Adv. K K Roy & Adv. Bhushan Oza

INDIA PALESTINE PEOPLE'S SOLIDARITY FORUM

5 Shradhanjali,Sir Vithaldas Nagar, Sarojini Road, Santacruz (W), Mumbai

Seminar : "60 years of the Palestine - Israel conflict".

Speakers:
Tushar Gandhi: Chair
Ram Sagar Pandey: Overview
Irfan Engineer: Historical roots of the conflict.
Maren Karlitzy: The current situation within Palestine and the Global Solidarity movements.
Feroze Mithiborwala: Understanding Zionism.

Venue: Bhupesh Gupta Bhawan, 3rd fl, near Ravindra Natya Mandir, Prabhadevi, Mumbai.
Date: May 9, 2008 / Time: 5 to 9pm.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Friends,It was on the 14th of May 1948 that the State of Israel was established in Palestine. We are approaching the 60th anniversary of the fateful day that Israel was formally carved out in the Middle East, with the collusion of Britain, USA and the other European powers of the day. This day is poignantly referred to as the "NAKBA" or "Catastrophe" by the Palestinian people, who were subjected to a planned & systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide by the Zionist colonizers. More than 800,000 Palestinians comprising approximately half the population were driven out of their homes, villages, towns and cities due to the reign of terror unleashed by the Israeli militias.We also have to recognise the fact that despite the overwhelming odds, the Palestinian people valiantly struggled to save their nation from being occupied by the Zionists and till today the Palestinians continue to constitute the vanguard of our common struggle against Imperialism. It was the Balfour Declaration of 1917, issued by the British Empire that proclaimed the creation of a "Jewish Homeland in Palestine" and since then the Western powers have been complicit in the Israeli occupation of Palestine and other Arab lands.The alliance of US imperialism and Israeli Zionist expansionism has morphed into a formidable force. Though Israel stands largely exposed due to its brutal colonial occupation amongst the people of the world, there are far more governments and business corporations who todayhave diplomatic and economic relations with Apartheid Israel than ever before. The Israeli state has proved to be far worse than even racist apartheid South Africa in its treatment of the people that it has colonized. Equally true is the fact that the cause of Palestine continues to resonate globally. More and more social and political movements across the world continue to come forward & offer their solidarity with the people of Palestine and actively campaign for the boycott of Israel. India was one of the countries, which had always espoused the Palestinian cause and this policy even precedes our own independence. Therefore the roots of our solidarity with Palestine were built into the very foundations of our struggle against British Imperialism and this consensus existed across the spectrum of all the political parties, mass organizations & social movements, that were at the forefront of our national liberation struggle. As one of the founders and thus key constituents of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), India continued with our principled support to Palestine and our unambiguous opposition and boycott of Apartheid Israel. But unfortunately there has been a perceptible shift in our foreign policy, more so in context of our solidarity with Palestine.Much to our regret and shame, India is now Israel's biggest arms importer and moreover a vocal and strident champion of the flawed US inspired 'Global War on Terror'. India's ardent embrace of neo-liberal globalisation, its increasing collusion with the US government and the recent shift in its foreign policy, are amongst the prime factors due to which we are being drawn closer into the US-Israeli-EU axis and further away from the cause of the Third World and particularly the Palestinian people. These are matters of grave concern for us, the Indian people.
Today the growing role of India is critical, both to the cause of regional as well as global peace and stability. We the people of India need to reclaim our roots and stand with the People's and Nations struggling for their independence from colonial occupation and thus our solidarity with Palestine.It was in the above background that various representatives of political parties, mass & social organizations and individuals based in Mumbai, met at the Press Club on April 22, 2008, to discuss the proposal of reviving the movement for solidarity with Palestine. One of the primary objectives would also be to pressurize and thus influence the Government of India to follow a policy that clearly endorses and supports the Palestinian cause.

The meeting resolved to form an "INDIA PALESTINE PEOPLE'S SOLIDARITY FORUM" (IPPSF) with a view to involve all political parties, mass & social organizations & individuals, irrespective of their differing political orientations and views on other issues & to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian People in their struggle for a sovereign, democratic and independent nation. The Forum stands for a peaceful solution to the Palestine-Israel conflict. We believe that a lasting and just peace is possible only when the international community can compel Israel to end its occupation and continued annexation of Palestinian and Arab territories. The Forum will campaign for a more proactive and concerted action on the part of the Indian government for solidarity with Palestine and demand an end to India's military and strategic ties with Apartheid regime of Israel, as we did in the case of South Africa.
The Forum proposes to reach out and link its efforts with all those who are committed to the cause of the Palestinian people, across the country and the world. It proposes to approach the authorities in India as well as other governments to lobby and advocate the Palestinian cause. We will also engage and work with the Jewish organizations who are committed to a just and peaceful solution to the conflict. The Forum will propagate the Palestinian issue amongst the public and will resort to all democratic means of creating awareness and sympathy for this cause.But first and foremost the Forum will initiate a dialogue and make a concerted attempt to get all concerned on board & thus take this process of solidarity ahead. Undoubtedly we have been unable to contact and obtain consent from many important political parties, mass & social organizations and individuals whose association with the process is highly essential and imperative.
Hence this appeal.The Palestine solidarity movement would definitely have a wider impact & prove more meaningful, if you agree to be a part of this process.Kindly do share your views,

In Solidarity,
Tushar Gandhi Feroze Mithiborwala

contact: 9224412022

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Arun Gandhi To Speak On Rense RadioBy Mary Sparrowdancer

Arun Gandhi To Speak On Rense RadioBy Mary Sparrowdancer

Arun Gandhi has spent his life embracing and teaching the path of nonviolence that was followed by his grandfather, Mohandas K. (Mahatma) Gandhi. In 1987, Arun Gandhi and his family came to the U.S., where he and his wife (now deceased) would found the M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence.
It is perhaps inevitable that anyone addressing nonviolence will eventually be asked to give an opinion on the state of Israel, the "Jewish only" state created on land taken from Palestinians in 1948. Israel was established on Palestinian ancestral lands with the use of extreme violence and apartheid, and it maintains itself on those lands with extreme violence and apartheid. Israel contends that all of its acts, including the taking of Palestine, are justified because of the "Holocaust."
In January, 2008, Arun Gandhi was asked to comment on the future of the Jewish identity on the Washington Post's religious blog, "On Faith." He did so, but his comments dated January 7 wound up being posted online as a rough draft without the intended prior editing. Some of his comments included suggestions that "Jewish identity in the past has been locked into the holocaust experience," and he suggested that they move beyond this. "Any nation that remains anchored to the past is unable to move ahead and, especially a nation that believes its survival can only be ensured by weapons and bombs." His commentary ended with a warning that Israel and the Jews are the biggest players in a dangerous culture of violence.
The unedited, rough copy of his essay resulted in an unusually large number of reader comments (over 400 posts although some were duplicates), and included among them were several intelligent debates between readers, showing that people are moving beyond the stereotypical mindset presented by the mainstream media that portrays all Palestinians as terrorists, and all Israelis and Jews as perpetual victims simply trying to defend themselves. People are finally asking questions about the reasons for the violence in Israel/Palestine.
By far, however, the majority of comments were from primarily anonymous, outraged, pro-Israel individuals who left brief posts that consisted of little more than insults and name-calling. Gandhi was (predictably) labeled an "anti-Semite," because no one can criticize or even comment on Israel's long history of violent atrocities without being branded with this worn-out epithet. He was also called a "nazi," "hateful," "racist," and his family was insulted as well for having suggested that Jews are engaged in violent activities that are dangerous.
One hopelessly unschooled pro-Israel blogger went so far as to state, "Israel has probably done more in the last 50 years to improve the lot of the average Palestinian family, through advances in medicine and technology, than all the Arab country governments put together." Another commenter revealed what appears to be a tendency toward vulgar arrogance displayed by some of today's Zionist Jews, "Arun, You are just miffed that Jews have guns now and know how to use them. Suck it up, pal, and live with the fact that when/if you come to get us it's going to HURT !! Bwahahahhaa Go sit in the corner with the rest of the bigots unless you have the balls to eat lead."
As Jewish outrage roared throughout the month of January over Gandhi's comments, and as the roaring blew his comments into as much of a scandal as possible, Gandhi apologized for the language used, but he refused to apologize for the actual contents and the warning he had given to the public. His apology was not enough to appease those who were offended at being called violent.
Gandhi was forced to resign from the Institute for Nonviolence that he had founded. He stated, "I resigned because I was told by the President of the University that he was under tremendous pressure that I should go. The alternative was that the Institute will be asked to leave. Under the circumstances I decided that since I was the one who stirred up the controversy that I would leave if the Institute was allowed to remain and work on the campus." On January 25, 2008, Gandhi submitted his resignation to the Institute bearing his family name. (1)
While the above public sensation was taking place as a result of Jewish hubris and outrage over a comment suggesting that Jews were engaged in dangerous violence, the Jewish military forces in Israel continued working. During the first week of January, 2008, in Gaza, Jewish jetfighters had already killed 18 Gaza citizens, and Jews in tanks had killed five members of one family after shelling their home. During that first week of January, Jewish troops invaded Nablus and kidnapped 35 civilians, including five children. (2)
On January 16, 2008, according to BBC News, the Jewish military conducted air strikes on Palestinian homes. These are particularly vicious attacks because the Palestinians have no planes, helicopters or tanks, and no way of defending themselves against Jewish military air strikes or Jewish tank and bulldozer attacks. According to the BBC, "The latest attack takes the number of Palestinians killed by Israel in Gaza to more than 20 in the past two days." This number included children. The following day, Jews in war jets fired upon a donkey cart, annihilating a mother and her son. On that same day, Jews executed two Palestinians on the spot without judge or jury. This is a common occurrence. (3) (4)
On January 23, 2008, just 48 hours before Arun Gandhi would painfully submit his resignation for having suggested that Israel and Jews were involved in a dangerous culture of violence, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights submitted a report on human rights violations, stating that the total number of Palestinians killed so far in the month of January alone was approximately 70. (5)
Israel has not yet offered an apology to anyone for all it has done to the Palestinians and the Holy Land, and as a state it has not shown any hint of shame or remorse for its 60-year-old history of unstoppable violence, violence that many Jews apparently remain unaware of at this time due to media cover-ups and propaganda. In order to help make them aware, Jewish hubris should not be permitted as a weapon used to silence people who criticize violence. Violent atrocities carried out by any group, any race, any religion, and any nation demand and deserve public disclosure and comment.
Voices like those of Gandhi should be heard, not silenced. Mr. Gandhi will be a guest on Rense Radio on Wednesday, April 30, 2008, at 7:00 PM, Pacific Time.
--------------------
Mary Sparrowdancer is the author of a bestselling book, The Love Song. She is an independent journalist. www.sparrowdancer.com
-------------------------
1. Personal correspondence.
2. Weekly report. Palestine.http://www.imemc.org/article/52209
3. BBC. Death toll 20.
4. Atrocities.http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9236.shtml
5. Human Rights Violations.http://domino.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/9a798adbf322aff38525617b006d88d7/9ae1b4c533c2b294852573d9006d0bc4

India/Iran: Course Correction

By Praful Bidwai
Inter Press Service
NEW DELHI, May 2 (IPS) - Relations between India and Iran, which deteriorated over the past three years from traditional friendship and warmth into mutual suspicion and tension, have started looking up again.
This development has significant implications for India’s role in West Asia and Central Asia as well as ties with its new 'strategic partner', the United States.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s one-day visit to New Delhi on Tuesday is expected to kickstart talks aimed at reviving long-stalled contracts for the purchase of natural gas, and at improving cooperation in a number of areas, including industry, communications and trade.
This was the first visit to India by an Iranian President since January 2003.
Ahmadinejad was originally meant to stop over in Delhi en route from Colombo for refuelling his plane.
But as soon as it was sounded out on this, India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) seized the opportunity to make the stopover a full-fledged official visit, with a meeting with Indian President Pratibha Patil, and a dinner meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, to which petroleum minister Murli Deora was also invited.
At the top of the agenda of the meeting with Singh was a proposed 7.4 billion dollar 2,600 km-long gas pipeline from Iran to Pakistan and India, which has become an icon of mutual cooperation, friendship and peace, as well as a test for India’s willingness to chart out a foreign policy course independent of Washington.
The pipeline, considered relevant for India long-term energy security, was stalled for a variety of reasons. Some of these are commercial, but the more important ones are related to political pressure from the U.S., which regards Iran as a rogue state or "state of concern" and wants to isolate it.
More talks will be needed to finalise the pipeline agreement. But if India, Iran and Pakistan do complete the deal, New Delhi will have to reorient its overall foreign policy posture and prepare to face more explicit opposition and greater pressure from the U.S.
"India signalled a small shift in that direction just before Ahmadinejad’s visit," says Qamar Agha, a Middle East expert who was until recently a visiting professor at the Centre for West Asian Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia university here. "Last week, the MEA issued an unusually strong statement rebuffing the U.S. State Department deputy spokesperson Tom Casey, which asked India to tell Iran that it must meet the obligations imposed upon it by the Security Council to suspend its uranium enrichment activities."
The MEA statement said: "India and Iran are civilisations whose relations spans centuries. Both nations are perfectly capable of managing all aspects of their relationship with the appropriate degree of care…. Neither country needs any guidance on the future conduct of bilateral relations as both countries believe that engagement and dialogue alone lead to peace."
A day later, Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee also said that it is not for the U.S. or any other state to usurp the power to declare Iran a rogue nuclear state; it is entirely for the UN watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to decide if Iran is developing nuclear weapons or not.
Earlier, India’s National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan too had stressed India’s "civilisational and economic ties" with Iran, which give India a vantage point to engage with it. Iran, he said, "is a major country with tremendous influence, and you need to deal with it diplomatically... (with) erudition and understanding ..."
India’s new position stands in sharp contrast to its votes against Iran at the IAEA in September 2005 and again in early 2006, which resulted in Iran being brought before the United Nations Security Council for sanctions.
A former U.S. official and chief arms-control negotiator, Stephen Rademaker, has publicly said that India’s votes against Iran were secured through "coercion".
The reason for India’s recent change of stance has been attributed to various factors, including the ruling United Progressive Alliance’s need to demonstrate its "foreign policy independence" ahead of a general election due within a year, a desire to ensure the Left parties’ support, and keenness to tie up long-term energy supplies in an era of historically unprecedented oil prices.
"Perhaps the most important consideration," says Agha, "is that the Indian government knows that the nuclear cooperation deal with the United States is unlikely to be clinched soon, under George W. Bush’s presidency. This means that India does not have to look over the shoulder all the time at Washington, and that it can have greater autonomy in practice."
Agha added: ''New Delhi is also anxious to broaden and deepen its relationship with Tehran, not least because Iran holds the key to India’s access to Afghanistan, and to Central Asia, with its enormous natural wealth, including oil and natural gas. If India is to sustain 8 percent GDP growth, its policymakers believe it must establish guaranteed access to Central Asia’s resources before China and Russia consolidate their position in the region."
In recent weeks, India has discussed possibilities of deepening industrial and economic cooperation with Iran, beyond oil and gas.
India has agreed to help Iran build a crucial 600-km rail link in the north-south corridor of the proposed Trans-Asian Railway project. This will run from the Iranian port of Chabahar to Fahraj, and through Azerbaijan and Russia all the way to St Petersburg.
India is already constructing a road link between Zaranj and Delaram in Western Afghanistan, which will be linked to a transit corridor to Chabahar, which is close to India’s upper West coast.
This will enable India to trade with Afghanistan while bypassing Pakistan, which is reluctant to grant it India transit rights.
Other projects -- including metallurgical industries, gas liquefaction and port development -- are also under discussion. India is being offered large contracts in Iran for laying railway tracks, supplying electrical equipment, and upgrading railway signalling systems and train operations.
However, what of the crucial Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline? Ahmadinejad expressed the hope that the three countries’ petroleum ministers would reach an agreement on the project within the next 45 days.
But India’s Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon was more cautious and said a "lot of work" needs to be done to ensure that the pipeline is commercially viable and secure, and that gas supply is not interrupted.
However, it is clear that India sees the pipeline as a "confidence-building measure", not just a commercial project.
"Yet, that does not mean that the project will go through without major problems," says a high official in India’s petroleum ministry, who requested anonymity under briefing rules. "At least three issues need to be resolved. First, India wants a dedicated gas field to be nominated for the project, with detailed development plans. Second, India wants custody of the gas only at the India-Pakistan border, and not at the Pakistan-Iran border near Gwadar, as proposed."
Adds the official: "And then there’s the issue of pricing of the gas. India, Iran and Pakistan reached an agreement in January last year on the base price. But Iran wants any future price revision based on a shifting band, not a fixed one. This may not be acceptable to major consumers of gas in India, who can only pay a limited price for fuel in power generation."
None of these problems is insuperable but most agree that political will is needed to resolve them.

Alas..!! Women

By Pardeep S Attri

Though the top most position of India (President) a woman is occupying but it would be one of the biggest misconceptions “by this women society is going to be empowered” as being claimed by the most of the political parties. We can only hope that Mrs. President will do something for empowering or making women society to live with dignity. Before this let’s see past record of last six to eight months.
From May to October last year (2007) in the district of Agra, there were 32 dowry death cases & 167 cases of humiliation.
According to Nellore (Andhra Pradesh) District Crime Record Bureau’s comparative statement for the last 3 years, grave crime on women including rape, murder, kidnap & harassment increased while the cases of molestation & bigamy remained more or less the same. Kidnapping of women & girls has been steadily increased from 25 in 2005 to 35 in 2006 & 47 last year (2007). Cases of harassment have also increased from 128, 148 & 168 in the respective years. Total numbers of rape cases in 2005 were 32; those become 33 in 2006 & increased further to 42 in 2007. Molestation cases increased 166 in 2006 to 167 in 2007. Conviction rate is as low as about 25%.
One another recent study conducted by Ahmedabad Women’s Action Group (AWAG) revealed horrifying facts. According to survey 65% women conceded to being abused in public and in front of neighbors! 35% women reported that their children, especially girls, were victims of violence and were physically and verbally abused by the father 70 % reported verbal abuse, threats, 68% reported slapping, 62% reported kicking, 53% reported punching, 49% reported hitting with hard objects, 37 % reported biting, 29% reported choking & 22% reported branding with cigarette butts. There must be many cases those might have been left unregistered due to social & economic fears.If we go deep in women society, i.e. if we analyze the condition of Dalit & Muslim women one will easily die if one has any shame. When all upper caste communities student in schools, one can find out Dalit, Muslim students working in the fields or playing on the roads. No sign of education can be found in these classes, in-spite of life long program run by all the state Governments i.e. “Sarav Shiksha Abhiyan.” The whole money of “Sarav Shiksha Abhiyan” is being wasted by the Governments. There was news few months back that few state Governments spend this money on organizing the party functions or in “Puja” & the criteria of being considered as educated is “person should be eligible the write his/her name”!! No more than this has ever being taught considering that if everyone will become educated they will demand their rights & jobs etc, for which almost every Govt. is shamefully helpless. Do you think it’s enough that person who can write only name is educated?
Women in India was always invisible, women can be treated lesser than animal no one is going to stop you!! Every day one can see easily the increasing news of domestic violence, dowry deaths, female feticide etc. the condition of women society has made so miserable by Hindu scriptures (Chanakya Niti, Manusmriti ) & Veda’s that they can’t even imagine that there can be better place of living for them. The dominant men society believe that they can have good lives only by “Oppressing and Exploiting the Women” for their own personal and communities welfare, leisure, comfortable lives, and for avoiding physical work.
If this trend of female child killing, sexual abuse of women society keeps on going the day won’t be far away when people won't be able to find girls to marry for their sons. People in some places are already finding it hard. There will be more prostitution leading to AIDS, social instability, wife buying & violence against women.
pardeepattri@yahoo.co.in
30 April, 2008Countercurrents.org

International Jewish Solidarity Network

Statement on Gaza and of Solidarity with 60 Years of Palestinian Resistance to Israeli Colonialism, Racism and Zionism
The year 2008 is the 60th anniversary of the Nakba, the catastrophe marked by the destruction or depopulation of more than 400 Palestinian villages through massacre and intimidation and the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinian people from their lands, communities and homes. Since then, Palestinians have lived under occupation, as refugees, and as second class citizens on their own land; Israel's assault against the indigenous Palestinian communities continues with unremitting brutality. In Gaza, with the support of the US government and its allies, Israel, has effectively cut off food, water, electricity, humanitarian aid, medical supplies and the means of basic employment or trade, despite the pretense of 'disengagement' offered by Israeli withdrawal of settlements.
On the contrary, this withdrawal has facilitated Israel's ever-increasing grip on the area. Israel controls entry and exit from this small, sealed internment camp. The people of Gaza have nowhere to go and Israel has no strategy other than escalating violence. Israel's public discourse on Gaza is inhumane and racist. Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai's vicious threat of a 'shoah,' or holocaust, is an outrage yet unsurprisingly consistent with the military's current tactics and Israel's historic designs for the region. The U.S. and Europe are not just standing by indifferently: they are accomplices. As Western states prepare to honor the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel, the groundwork for the further expulsion of Palestinians into Egypt and for genocide is thus being laid.
As Jews, this anniversary also highlights other histories: sixty years of the hijacking of Jewish participation in liberation struggles; sixty years of dishonoring the persecution, displacement and genocide of European Jews by using their memory to justify and perpetuate European racism and colonialism; and sixty years of extensive displacement and alienation of Mizrahi Jews (Jews of Arab and African descent) from indigenous identities, languages, histories, cultures and homelands.
This anniversary implicates us in the oppression of the Palestinian people and in the debasement of our own heritages, struggles for justice and alliances with our fellow human beings.
Israel's regional designs have historically been possible, and remain so today, only through a mutually beneficial economic and military relationship with a larger imperial interest - first the United Kingdom and France, and currently the United States. As Jews, we state that Israel, Zionist institutions around the world, the United States government, and the multi-national corporate beneficiaries do not speak for us.
We condemn the siege on Gaza and the expansion of the Zionist colonial project. We condemn the occupation of Iraq and the larger imperialist economic, military and political agenda of the Middle East.
We stand with popular resistance in Gaza, Iraq, the broader regions, the global South and oppressed communities within our own nations when we demand:
- that all forms of diplomatic international pressure be applied on Israel for the immediate end of the siege, including the return of the electricity supply and the unrestricted flow of people and goods in and out of Gaza.
- an end to European Union collusion with the US/Israeli occupation through its financial support and military involvement in the Occupied Territories and Iraq, and to provide critical aid to Gaza immediately.
- an immediate opening of the Rafah border by the Egyptian government to allow critical supplies, including food and medicine, to move freely.
- the initiation by all countries and international bodies of judicial proceedings against Israelis involved in the mass killing in Gaza and other crimes in the region.
- intensification of the campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel.
- a call for international pressure to demand the participation of the United States and Israel in the UN's Durban II Conference on racism to be held in 2009 in South Africa.
On this sixtieth anniversary of the Nakba we also make a special appeal to Jews because the assimilation of 'Jewish' interests with those of imperialism endows many of us with economic and cultural privileges. We therefore ask Jews to participate in resistance, actions, and events organized by Palestinians and solidarity activists. We ask Jews to respect Palestinian leadership, demands and priorities in their own liberation struggle, including in particular the essential Right of Return and the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions.
Finally, we remind ourselves of the importance and power of the many Zionist Jewish institutions that participate in or support the oppression and ethnic cleansing of Palestine, and our primary obligation to confront them. We call on Jewish activists to use the 60th anniversary of Israel's foundation as an occasion for challenging these institutions and disrupting Israel celebration events and activities. By doing so, we stand in the long history of Jewish participation in liberation against--rather than collusion with--occupation, colonialism, imperialism, apartheid, racism and class oppression.
By signing this petition in support of its demands, we stand in our own legacy and in the current struggles for justice and liberation in Palestine, the broader region and the global South.