Monday, October 26, 2009
Debunking The Myths Surrounding Hamas
Hamas – They’re not bad, they’re just drawn that way
By Mary Rizzo
October 23, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- In many parts of the West, certain political parties or movements are treated as if they come from the Moon or are alien to any body politic. Their existence among the people is always scrutinised as negative, transitory and something created in a boardroom or a backroom, imposed upon an unsophisticated public that is unable to differentiate a true political programme from empty and simplistic rhetoric. These parties or movements are depicted as if they only address the margins of society who are disenfranchised from any “normal” democratic bodies, and thus, are ramshackle bands that represent a minority constituency. Given their oppositional nature to pre-existing parties, they are outfitted with the label that will serve to keep them isolated from the structures that are already in operation. All of this is to destroy the party or movement by propaganda work rather than analysis of reality.
An entire mythology has been built around the Palestinian resistance movement (which morphed into a party) Hamas. This construct has actually taken on more legitimacy as a factual interpretation of Hamas than the facts themselves. In most of the Western media, no matter if it is on the right or the left, and in some of the “moderate” media in Arab countries, the very name of the party is coupled with terms such as “fundamentalist”, “radical” or “terrorist”. Clearly, this serves to create a fear trigger that will remove the word from being critically and honestly evaluated. The listener will immediately identify Hamas with a negative connotation and is removed from responsibility for understanding that this is a manipulation of reality. The listener is expected to accept the claims that Hamas is “anti-democratic” and “fanatical”. It is child’s play to then convince the listener that Hamas is Bad, that it is the Enemy of all We represent (in our own eyes, tolerance, democracy, Goodness itself). It is possible to then extend that reading to the belief that action must be taken against them, that they are a “cancer that must be gotten rid of”, as quoted by the institutional peacenik, Noa. How does one eradicate a cancer, once it has been diagnosed? By extirpation or bombardment. With cancer treatment, one “bombards” even the healthy parts of the body with toxic agents, waiting to see if after the battle there were enough healthy parts remaining to allow the organism to continue to exist. Once you have set into the minds of millions of people the idea that destruction is good, because the enemy is just so damaging and evil if allowed to exist, the risk of bringing the entire organism to its grave by weakening it dramatically is taken as a viable risk to run. This is a way to make them justify actions that their own eyes don’t see as therapeutic, but are pure horror and evil.
How did it work that the world was so fooled and allowed Israel to destroy Gaza to “get rid of Hamas”? It was quite simple, and it’s always the same answer: Israel and its allies keep people disinformed. Those who actually will go slightly below the screaming headlines of the newspapers might find out a few facts buried that that will contradict the spin, but not that many people will go that far, given that they are exposed to something with an element of truth buried deep within. If that were not problematic enough, even the “progressives” have done meritorious services to rendering Hamas untouchable. They might accept them as a “resistance movement” but they won’t allow their personal ideological bias to see Hamas as a progressive force for their own people’s advancement. This may be out of conviction, convenience or even lack of research or a blindspot that does not allow variations on the theme of the class struggle, where everything is “international” and the same type of rules and ideals should be considered applicable and necessary for all, going so far in some cases to “import democracy” under various more or less aggressive forms.
These people, many of whom are armed with good intentions, have chewed, swallowed, and are spitting back quite a few of the outright lies and distortions that are part of the mythology created by opponents of Hamas, created in Israel and the West, primarily.
What are the components of that mythology?
1) Hamas was created by the Israeli Mossad.
2) Hamas represents a marginal portion of the Palestinians.
3) Hamas turned democratic enough just to be able to obtain some legitimacy to later take over and turn the Palestinian Territories into an Islamic State.
4) Their victory in the polls was nothing more than a protest vote against the corruption of Fatah.
5) Hamas is comprised of a bunch of illiterates and their electors are sucked in by their own ignorance.
6) Hamas is a fundamentalist group and therefore inflexible and incapable of any modification or evolution. The oft cited Charter is used against them to stress that they are simply a radical, destructive group poised for Holy War.
7) Hamas does not seek any kind of compromise with other Palestinian political parties or factions, and are therefore the divisionary element that prohibits of the unity of the people.
8 ) Hamas operates to indoctrinate their people with hate propaganda in order to utilise them as cannon fodder.
9) Hamas is a terrorist group that exists only thanks to financing by “fundamentalist regimes”.
That Hamas is merely a resistance movement has been thoroughly disproved by the elections, but this seems to be the safe place that activists can cluster in order to allow themselves to be able to tolerate Hamas, while wishing for their quick demise. They are not viewed then as having a true heritage as a political party that can be compared to those of “democratic nations” of the “international community”, and thus, analysis of them can remain at an elementary level, lending itself to hasty generalisations.
I ask my readers to kindly forgive all the inverted quotation marks, but these words do become ironic and empty of true meaning when they are applied to the objects indicated by the spin doctors, whose task it is to do the bidding of the hegemonic powers. How can a minority of a handful of nations that always pits itself against the will of the remainder of the world community in the UN be considered as the “international community”? It’s a boy’s club that excludes practically everyone. How can a country that puts in office the candidate who obtains the lesser amount of votes be called a “democracy”? It is when we start to question our own foundations that we can detect that there is a lot of convenience in presenting any opposition as being an enemy and outside of paradigms that we consider to be core to our expectations of how to establish a just and equitable world.
It’s time to debunk a few of these myths with facts.
1) Hamas was not created by Mossad. Although Israel does like to claim credit for many things, this one is not their doing. Political Islam in Palestine has had a presence since the early 40s in Mandate Palestine, and Hamas was born as part of the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan), with many of its early leaders formally affiliated. It was the experience of refugeehood that turned Hamas into a more autonomous element with a particular nationalist basis to it, a natural result of the urgent and real human situation of displacement and loss of their cultural and national identity.
There were close relations of this group with the Egyptian base, and the first offices of the Ikhwan in Palestine were created in Gaza in 1945, led by a member of one of the most important families of the zone, Sheykh Zafer al Shawwa. During the first Arab-Israeli war, Islamist volunteers reinforced the ranks, coming primarily from Jordan and Syria, and this support showed the refugees that the Ikhwan had the courage to defend itself, even during the “Israeli War of Independence”. The growing number of refugees gave a stronger identity and sense of purpose to the Islamist movement in Palestine. Therefore, in the civil society and in the population in general, a motivation from any other source was not required to be able to pledge: “I promise to be a good Muslim in defending Islam and the lost land of Palestine. I promise to be a good example for the community and for others.” These were the words spoken by those who swore their loyalty to the Ikhwan in Palestine (source: Beverly Milton Edwards, “Islamic Politics in Palestine”, p. 43). The local Ikhwan had its own agenda, defending its lost land. It didn’t require fanaticism, outside influence or even propaganda. The refugees themselves were living proof of the horrors of deportation and suffering. The identification as part of an international movement was concomitant with the recognition of the particularity of the Palestinian experience. The official foundation, dating 9 December 1987, was only the culmination of an organisation in the works for decades. Organised Islamic resistance was further utilised when the situation precipitated dramatically in 1967 and a new generation was born as refugees. For this generation, a return to Islam was considered as a necessity for the moral and political future of a people that was being literally destroyed. The cause of the Nakba was seen by many as the result of the distancing from a normal society, the Palestinian one, in which the ethical, religious, cultural and traditional values had been devastated by the occupation, and the descent into further degradation, poverty, disenfranchisement and social instability was seen not only as the result of the occupation, but part of its cause.
The “international community” would not come to the rescue of these people, the rest of the Ummah was not caught up in their national struggle, largely because they were not directly involved or were even prohibited from involvement. The extreme pain and disgrace of losing one’s land at that time was a new element to the area, where previous colonisation avoided expelling the indigenous inhabitants, and throwing off the usurpers was not complicated with the total loss of roots and a base. The basis for the formal dimension of Hamas was thus present for decades prior to its official birth. In order to operate, being under the thumb of the occupation, these organised groups that existed had established charities and benefit organisations for their people. These institutions were tolerated by Israel in the Occupied Territories. Israel conceded some operating space through granting of licenses. As General Yitzhak Sager said in an interview to the International Herald Tribune in 1981, the Israeli government “…gave money that the military governor allocated to the mosques […] the sums were used both by the mosques and the religious schools, with the purpose of reinforcing a subject that would contrast that of the Left that was in favour of the PLO.” If there was some motivation for Israel to be involved, it was really as an act of ‘divide and rule’, a bit of tolerance, a bit of economic support to the various religious associations in order to see if an opposition to the nationalists of the PLO could develop. They really were only looking for a way to see the weakening of the PLO, which was gaining some support in the West, and they did not found, provide major financing or in any way influence a movement that they would in some way infiltrate or control. That is pure mythology. Why give Israel credit where none is due?
2) That Hamas represents only a marginal portion of Palestinians is another myth to debunk. It is indeed true that all Palestinians are not refugees, and it is also true that virtually all of the leaders of Hamas were born in exile or at some point were subjected to the experience of expulsion and loss of their homes and possessions. This is a core Palestinian experience, and it is true that even those (few) Palestinians who were not uprooted can identify with the loss of their cultural and national identity, and all of them know that their national aspirations and cohesion as a group have been destroyed by Israel. Thus, even a movement or party that has its own identity in the refugee camps and in exile or in religious roots, is recognised as an intrinsic, legitimate and natural representative of Palestinians as a whole. They even obtained the majority vote in areas of the West Bank that were not considered as Hamas strongholds, as well as obtaining votes from many Christian areas.
3) The myth that Hamas turned “democratic enough” just to get its foot in the door as the first step of forcing an Islamic State upon the entirety of Palestine is a very widespread one, especially in the progressive circles that do not recognise the popularity of the movement or who have an ideological prejudice against any religious movement. There is much to be said in favour of separation of church and state, but this of course is something that cannot be imposed from afar, and furthermore, there are many levels of separation to take into consideration. Those who subscribe to this position of “Hamas buying time before introducing the Sharia” tend to deny that a democracy has certain characteristics, and it is not necessarily a synonym of “secularism”. When the word “democracy” is applied correctly, it has certain characteristics, and Hamas meets these. Hamas has popular consensus. It has an internal structure that is autonomous and recognised as legitimate by its constituency. It follows the rules of elections, meeting the requirements for participation. Once elected, it assumes its role within the existing system, not having overthrown or staged coups against established structures. It is a political movement with several factions (some of them armed, as is true of many parties in areas under occupation, Fatah included) with a history and an organisation. There is widespread discussion among its constituencies, including those who are political prisoners, prior to making decisions, and the majority decides the actions to be undertaken. If one thing must be said about it to set it apart from parties that Westerners are familiar with, highest level leaders generally do not assume the governing roles. This is understandable in a party where a great quantity of the leaders are routinely assassinated by Israel. That the current political director, Khaled Meshaal, must live in exile after having once been victim of an attempted assassination says more about this anomalous situation than a thousand words can.
4) That Hamas’s victory in the Legislative Council election was nothing more than a protest vote (another pet theory of the left) was brilliantly illustrated as false by Paola Caridi in her very good book (despite the sensationalist subtitle) “Hamas, What it is and what the Radical Palestinian Movement Wants”, published by Feltrinelli and only available in Italian at this time. I am translating a few paragraphs that deal with this question.
“There is a precise political reason for which the majority of Palestinians voted for Hamas. It is a reason that concerns the decision made by the Islamist movement formally on 23 January 2005. (translator’s note, a year prior to the Legislative elections): a unilateral truce, reached together with the Islamic Jihad (that had instead broken it on several occasions), which had turned words into facts: that there would be the end of the season of terrorist attacks made by Hamas inside Israel as indicated within the confines of the 1949 armistice, the Israel within the Green Line, in other words. The ending of suicide attacks in Israeli cities, substantially bringing an end to the Intifada as well as (Hamas’s) participative choice is interpreted by the Palestinian population as a precise political proposal: an alternative to those who had governed and controlled them, holding the hegemony up to that moment. A proposal that poses at the same time new de facto limits to Hamas’s resistance strategy. The Islamist movement has not been, therefore, chosen only as a protest against the corruption, patronage and inefficiency of Fatah, which as a party is often confused with the PA. Corruption, patronage and inefficiency that are related, at least from a temporal point of view, with the failure of the Oslo Accords and the “facts on the ground” realised by the Israelis.
“The people of Hamas were considered people who are serious, who did not enrich themselves at the expense of the population, in fact, they continued to live in normal neighbourhoods and in the refugee camps.” (Caridi, p. 171).
5) An extremely offensive smear, oft repeated, is that Hamas’s followers and its leaders are a “bunch of illiterates” or “religious fanatics”. Almost all the leaders are (or were, given the number of assassinations within their ranks, the past tense is de rigueur) university graduates in fields ranging from medicine and physics to jurisprudence, economics and theology, is testament itself that this smear is merely to throw dirt on them and paint them as having read only religious texts and therefore “under-developed” when compared to other movements. Education has always been one of the pillars of Hamas and its charity work. The people of Palestine don’t need to be told this, it is a reality for them, where in many cases without this foundation, Palestinians would be left wanting in this area.
6) The inflexibility of Hamas is another myth, especially yanked out when speaking of the 1988 Charter (Mithaq). Shiekh Hamed Bitauri, “religious authority of Nablus, president of the Union of the Palestinian Ulemas, known for his radical positions had no problem confirming that ‘the Charter is not the Qu’ran. We can change it. It is only the synthesis of the positions of the Islamist movement in its relations with the other factions, and its politics.’ Aziz Dweik, founder of the Department of Geography of the University of Nablus, later to become the spokesman of the Palestinian Parliament after the 2006 elections, and imprisoned in Israeli jails since the summer of that year, went even further, declaring the political and pragmatic necessity of distancing from the Mithaq of 1988 to Khalid Amayreh, Palestinian journalist that is sensitive to Islamist positions, he said that ‘Hamas would not remain as a hostage to rhetorical slogans of the past like those of the ‘destruction of Israel’.” (Khalid Amayreh, Hamas Debates the Future: Palestine’s Islamic Resistance Movement Attempts to Reconcile Ideological Purity and Political Realism, in “Conflicts Forum”, Nov. 2007, p.4) (Caridi p. 90).
Haniyeh has mentioned on many occasions that the Charter has been surpassed in its substance by the other official documents, the most important of which, the Electoral Programme of the Reform and Change List (the list in which Hamas ran for office). This programme is structured like a document that goes far beyond the needs of a political campaign, according to the leader of Hamas, and it indicates the policy of the movement. It was not written in the heat of the revolution of the Intifada, and reflects the evolution of the party. The changes present are not ideological so much as ones of a strategic and political nature. The positions have been reiterated so many times in interviews and public interventions, it seems incredible that the complexity and maturity of Hamas should by now not be apparent to everyone. It is clear that they are still dedicated to the liberation of Palestine, but they are attempting to achieve it through reaffirmation of the rights of the people, knowing full well that as a party, Hamas is not equipped to overthrow the occupation in any practical way or to destroy what they recognise as a reality.
Many of us who follow events in the Middle East hope that they do not surrender to pragmatism so far as to recognise Israel not only as a reality, but as a “Jewish State”, however, we must watch from the sidelines and evaluate facts. The people of Palestine will be vigil about what rights are being surrendered, if any, and many of us believe that backs to the wall, they will not capitulate and lose what they know is theirs for reasons of political expediency. Hamas too is aware of this fact.
7) Hamas has been far less divisionary than its principle counterpart, Fatah. The Gaza “coup” that shocked and saddened the world was actually a preventive measure to the thwart the planned takeover by the Fatah forces faithful to Dahlan (in collaboration with Israel). That Hamas was the party that was awarded victory by its own people has never been recognised by the “international community” that nevertheless pushed for elections and insisted that this was the necessity for Palestinians, because this would mean that the resistance had been granted legitimacy and would become policy within the governing body, the rejection of negotiations as sub-alternates with Israel, which was Fatah policy, had been officially sanctioned by the populace and it would only be a matter of time before the programme would become policy. So, any steps by the Fatah “Security Forces” to overtake Gaza would actually have been the coup. But in the backwards way of viewing events, fuelled by disinformation, the tragic bloodbath between Palestinians prevented the real overthrow of democracy that would have taken place had Dahlan had the chance. Again and again, Hamas has sought to work together with the opposition party, and this is something they would not tolerate in the vain hope that their economic advantage and political nulla osta from the boy’s club would allow them to command even in absence of the popular mandate to do so.
8 ) It’s not necessary to use propaganda to show to Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and in exile, and even to many within Israel, the ongoing destruction of the Palestinian civilisation and people. Blockades, bombardments, assassinations, war, checkpoint humiliations, restrictions, separation of families, imprisonment and further abuses are not isolated incidents, but they are the daily bread and water of Palestinian life. No one needs to invent a rage over a phantasmagoric enemy. There is a real one that is subjecting the people of all ages and conditions to humiliation, deprivation and death. Showing a man in a mouse costume to insist that children are being indoctrinated in hate might go down well with the uninformed masses, but a glimpse into the reality makes Farfur look like the sweetest kind of way for a child to assimilate and tolerate that he or she is a prisoner doomed for life to suffer in the most atrocious way for being born as a lesser being in the oppressors’ eyes.
9) The worst smear against Hamas is the one to keep them as the symbol of evil: that they are a terrorist group, financed by “rogue States in the axis of evil”. Bearing in mind that their financing is abysmally inferior to the gigantic economic and “military aid” package given to Israel by America, Canada and many other nations in the “international community” in an official way, why should the claim of foreign financing be considered as unacceptable when it is simply the way the that Israel keeps afloat through billions of dollars annually, up front, and heaven only knows what other financing comes in through the thousands of “charities” that are really little more than fronts for mass immigration to Israel to curtail Arab growth? If Zionism and its charities are considered as legitimate and noble, why are Islamic ones put on blacklists and the donors treated as if they are financing terrorism? There is a double standard here.
That Hamas has rejected terror operations against civilians and did its best to do so in the service of achieving a realistic improvement for the life conditions of its people is an authenticated fact, corroborated by none other than the USA Congressional Research Service, a Think Tank that basically presents its conservative and Israel-friendly positions to the Congress so that they become policy. In fact, in the document coordinated by Jim Zanotti http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/R40101.pdf Israel and Hamas, Conflict in Gaza (2008-2009), we see that the quoted “reason” for the onslaught of Gaza to “cleanse it of Hamas”, the rockets fired into Israeli territory, was nothing but an excuse that the West drank down with gusto as if it were cherry juice. The extremely rudimentary rockets were recognised as NOT having been launched by Hamas, and not only that, Hamas was viewed as being able and willing to suppress the attacks. It is significant that the first victims of the Israeli attacks in Gaza were the regular police forces who had just been trained, perhaps also for this purpose. Zanotti writes:
For the first five months, the cease-fire held relatively well. Some rockets were fired into Israel, but most were attributed to non-Hamas militant groups, and, progressively, Hamas appeared increasingly able and willing to suppress even these attacks. No Israeli deaths were reported (although there were injuries and property damage), and Israel refrained from retaliation.
Nevertheless, each party felt as though the other was violating the terms of the unwritten ceasefire. Hamas demanded—unsuccessfully—that Israel lift its economic blockade of Gaza, while Israel demanded—also unsuccessfully—a full end to rocket fire and progress on the release of Israeli corporal Gilad Shalit from Hamas’s captivity.
Israel cited the sporadic rocket fire as justification for keeping the border crossings and Gaza’s seaport closed to nearly everything but basic humanitarian supplies. Hamas, other Arab leaders, and some international and non-governmental organizations involved in aiding Gazan civilians complained that Israel was reneging on its promises under the unwritten cease-fire agreement.
If that were not enough, the author, certainly not sympathetic in any way to Hamas, makes statements about the aftermath of the war where even Israel admits that Hamas was not responsible for the rockets:
Since Israel’s unilateral ceasefire began on January 18, 2009, there have been about 40 sporadic rocket launches into southern Israel, far fewer than occurred on average per day just before Operation Cast Lead. Moreover, Israeli officials believe that smaller militant groups, such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, and not Hamas, have fired the rockets, as they did during the cease-fire (although it is possible that Hamas is enabling or acquiescing to these attacks while preserving deniability).
So, Israel used the excuse of Hamas rocket launches to justify the elimination of Hamas (by means of destruction of the entirety of Gaza) through what they call “military operations” but the rest of humanity knows is war, while they were aware that Hamas was neither the author nor the facilitator of the rockets, any kind of excuse they pull out of the magic hat to justify their actions should fall on deaf ears. Complaints about arms smuggling through the most rudimentary of tunnels should stink to high heaven when we see the Defense Budget Appropriations for US-Israeli Missile Defense Programs in that same Congressional Report. Iron Dome, David’s Sling and other “military aid” costing the American people billions of dollars are described briefly. For every five ineffective bottle rockets that are smuggled through a tunnel, the USA is flying in full cargoes of arms and cases of cash to be spent by Israel for their military “needs”. The double standards here also draw innocent blood in violation of international law at the expense of your hard-earned money. Again, from the Congressional report:
Israel may have used weapons platforms and munitions purchased from the United States in its military operations in Gaza, reportedly including, among others, F-15 and F-16 aircraft, Apache helicopters, and, according to Israeli press reports, GBU-39 small diameter guided bombs approved for sale by the 110th Congress following notification in September 2008.
Additionally, all unilateral truces between Israel and Hamas (called by Hamas, not by Israel) were broken in every case by Israel. In many cases, making incursions into the Occupied Territories, which legally they are prohibited from doing, as civilian populations under occupation (even if the “settlers” have left, Gaza is kept under siege by Israel) are required to be protected by the occupier, not attacked. Israel, using weapons and planes supplied for them by the good graces of the people of the United States, bombarded streets where their targets (politicians and clerics that Israel terms as “militants” if not worse) were located, killing in an indiscriminate way anyone in the range, children included. If that’s not terrorism, the word has no meaning.
These are only a few of the myths in circulation. They represent just a portion of the lies, disinformation and hasbara that circulates about one of the major Palestinian parties, born from within, developing as all parties do, from below, and legitimised by fair and legal elections. Debunking these lies is a duty. One doesn’t need to agree to the entire programme of Hamas, but one is obligated to recognise that they are entirely different from the image that they have been straightjacketed into. What Jessica Rabbit said in the film, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” could very well apply to Hamas: “I’m not bad, they just draw me that way.”
Mary Rizzo is an art restorer, translator and writer living in Italy. Editor and co-founder of Palestine Think Tank, co-founder of Tlaxcala translations collective. Her personal blog is Peacepalestine.
By Mary Rizzo
October 23, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- In many parts of the West, certain political parties or movements are treated as if they come from the Moon or are alien to any body politic. Their existence among the people is always scrutinised as negative, transitory and something created in a boardroom or a backroom, imposed upon an unsophisticated public that is unable to differentiate a true political programme from empty and simplistic rhetoric. These parties or movements are depicted as if they only address the margins of society who are disenfranchised from any “normal” democratic bodies, and thus, are ramshackle bands that represent a minority constituency. Given their oppositional nature to pre-existing parties, they are outfitted with the label that will serve to keep them isolated from the structures that are already in operation. All of this is to destroy the party or movement by propaganda work rather than analysis of reality.
An entire mythology has been built around the Palestinian resistance movement (which morphed into a party) Hamas. This construct has actually taken on more legitimacy as a factual interpretation of Hamas than the facts themselves. In most of the Western media, no matter if it is on the right or the left, and in some of the “moderate” media in Arab countries, the very name of the party is coupled with terms such as “fundamentalist”, “radical” or “terrorist”. Clearly, this serves to create a fear trigger that will remove the word from being critically and honestly evaluated. The listener will immediately identify Hamas with a negative connotation and is removed from responsibility for understanding that this is a manipulation of reality. The listener is expected to accept the claims that Hamas is “anti-democratic” and “fanatical”. It is child’s play to then convince the listener that Hamas is Bad, that it is the Enemy of all We represent (in our own eyes, tolerance, democracy, Goodness itself). It is possible to then extend that reading to the belief that action must be taken against them, that they are a “cancer that must be gotten rid of”, as quoted by the institutional peacenik, Noa. How does one eradicate a cancer, once it has been diagnosed? By extirpation or bombardment. With cancer treatment, one “bombards” even the healthy parts of the body with toxic agents, waiting to see if after the battle there were enough healthy parts remaining to allow the organism to continue to exist. Once you have set into the minds of millions of people the idea that destruction is good, because the enemy is just so damaging and evil if allowed to exist, the risk of bringing the entire organism to its grave by weakening it dramatically is taken as a viable risk to run. This is a way to make them justify actions that their own eyes don’t see as therapeutic, but are pure horror and evil.
How did it work that the world was so fooled and allowed Israel to destroy Gaza to “get rid of Hamas”? It was quite simple, and it’s always the same answer: Israel and its allies keep people disinformed. Those who actually will go slightly below the screaming headlines of the newspapers might find out a few facts buried that that will contradict the spin, but not that many people will go that far, given that they are exposed to something with an element of truth buried deep within. If that were not problematic enough, even the “progressives” have done meritorious services to rendering Hamas untouchable. They might accept them as a “resistance movement” but they won’t allow their personal ideological bias to see Hamas as a progressive force for their own people’s advancement. This may be out of conviction, convenience or even lack of research or a blindspot that does not allow variations on the theme of the class struggle, where everything is “international” and the same type of rules and ideals should be considered applicable and necessary for all, going so far in some cases to “import democracy” under various more or less aggressive forms.
These people, many of whom are armed with good intentions, have chewed, swallowed, and are spitting back quite a few of the outright lies and distortions that are part of the mythology created by opponents of Hamas, created in Israel and the West, primarily.
What are the components of that mythology?
1) Hamas was created by the Israeli Mossad.
2) Hamas represents a marginal portion of the Palestinians.
3) Hamas turned democratic enough just to be able to obtain some legitimacy to later take over and turn the Palestinian Territories into an Islamic State.
4) Their victory in the polls was nothing more than a protest vote against the corruption of Fatah.
5) Hamas is comprised of a bunch of illiterates and their electors are sucked in by their own ignorance.
6) Hamas is a fundamentalist group and therefore inflexible and incapable of any modification or evolution. The oft cited Charter is used against them to stress that they are simply a radical, destructive group poised for Holy War.
7) Hamas does not seek any kind of compromise with other Palestinian political parties or factions, and are therefore the divisionary element that prohibits of the unity of the people.
8 ) Hamas operates to indoctrinate their people with hate propaganda in order to utilise them as cannon fodder.
9) Hamas is a terrorist group that exists only thanks to financing by “fundamentalist regimes”.
That Hamas is merely a resistance movement has been thoroughly disproved by the elections, but this seems to be the safe place that activists can cluster in order to allow themselves to be able to tolerate Hamas, while wishing for their quick demise. They are not viewed then as having a true heritage as a political party that can be compared to those of “democratic nations” of the “international community”, and thus, analysis of them can remain at an elementary level, lending itself to hasty generalisations.
I ask my readers to kindly forgive all the inverted quotation marks, but these words do become ironic and empty of true meaning when they are applied to the objects indicated by the spin doctors, whose task it is to do the bidding of the hegemonic powers. How can a minority of a handful of nations that always pits itself against the will of the remainder of the world community in the UN be considered as the “international community”? It’s a boy’s club that excludes practically everyone. How can a country that puts in office the candidate who obtains the lesser amount of votes be called a “democracy”? It is when we start to question our own foundations that we can detect that there is a lot of convenience in presenting any opposition as being an enemy and outside of paradigms that we consider to be core to our expectations of how to establish a just and equitable world.
It’s time to debunk a few of these myths with facts.
1) Hamas was not created by Mossad. Although Israel does like to claim credit for many things, this one is not their doing. Political Islam in Palestine has had a presence since the early 40s in Mandate Palestine, and Hamas was born as part of the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan), with many of its early leaders formally affiliated. It was the experience of refugeehood that turned Hamas into a more autonomous element with a particular nationalist basis to it, a natural result of the urgent and real human situation of displacement and loss of their cultural and national identity.
There were close relations of this group with the Egyptian base, and the first offices of the Ikhwan in Palestine were created in Gaza in 1945, led by a member of one of the most important families of the zone, Sheykh Zafer al Shawwa. During the first Arab-Israeli war, Islamist volunteers reinforced the ranks, coming primarily from Jordan and Syria, and this support showed the refugees that the Ikhwan had the courage to defend itself, even during the “Israeli War of Independence”. The growing number of refugees gave a stronger identity and sense of purpose to the Islamist movement in Palestine. Therefore, in the civil society and in the population in general, a motivation from any other source was not required to be able to pledge: “I promise to be a good Muslim in defending Islam and the lost land of Palestine. I promise to be a good example for the community and for others.” These were the words spoken by those who swore their loyalty to the Ikhwan in Palestine (source: Beverly Milton Edwards, “Islamic Politics in Palestine”, p. 43). The local Ikhwan had its own agenda, defending its lost land. It didn’t require fanaticism, outside influence or even propaganda. The refugees themselves were living proof of the horrors of deportation and suffering. The identification as part of an international movement was concomitant with the recognition of the particularity of the Palestinian experience. The official foundation, dating 9 December 1987, was only the culmination of an organisation in the works for decades. Organised Islamic resistance was further utilised when the situation precipitated dramatically in 1967 and a new generation was born as refugees. For this generation, a return to Islam was considered as a necessity for the moral and political future of a people that was being literally destroyed. The cause of the Nakba was seen by many as the result of the distancing from a normal society, the Palestinian one, in which the ethical, religious, cultural and traditional values had been devastated by the occupation, and the descent into further degradation, poverty, disenfranchisement and social instability was seen not only as the result of the occupation, but part of its cause.
The “international community” would not come to the rescue of these people, the rest of the Ummah was not caught up in their national struggle, largely because they were not directly involved or were even prohibited from involvement. The extreme pain and disgrace of losing one’s land at that time was a new element to the area, where previous colonisation avoided expelling the indigenous inhabitants, and throwing off the usurpers was not complicated with the total loss of roots and a base. The basis for the formal dimension of Hamas was thus present for decades prior to its official birth. In order to operate, being under the thumb of the occupation, these organised groups that existed had established charities and benefit organisations for their people. These institutions were tolerated by Israel in the Occupied Territories. Israel conceded some operating space through granting of licenses. As General Yitzhak Sager said in an interview to the International Herald Tribune in 1981, the Israeli government “…gave money that the military governor allocated to the mosques […] the sums were used both by the mosques and the religious schools, with the purpose of reinforcing a subject that would contrast that of the Left that was in favour of the PLO.” If there was some motivation for Israel to be involved, it was really as an act of ‘divide and rule’, a bit of tolerance, a bit of economic support to the various religious associations in order to see if an opposition to the nationalists of the PLO could develop. They really were only looking for a way to see the weakening of the PLO, which was gaining some support in the West, and they did not found, provide major financing or in any way influence a movement that they would in some way infiltrate or control. That is pure mythology. Why give Israel credit where none is due?
2) That Hamas represents only a marginal portion of Palestinians is another myth to debunk. It is indeed true that all Palestinians are not refugees, and it is also true that virtually all of the leaders of Hamas were born in exile or at some point were subjected to the experience of expulsion and loss of their homes and possessions. This is a core Palestinian experience, and it is true that even those (few) Palestinians who were not uprooted can identify with the loss of their cultural and national identity, and all of them know that their national aspirations and cohesion as a group have been destroyed by Israel. Thus, even a movement or party that has its own identity in the refugee camps and in exile or in religious roots, is recognised as an intrinsic, legitimate and natural representative of Palestinians as a whole. They even obtained the majority vote in areas of the West Bank that were not considered as Hamas strongholds, as well as obtaining votes from many Christian areas.
3) The myth that Hamas turned “democratic enough” just to get its foot in the door as the first step of forcing an Islamic State upon the entirety of Palestine is a very widespread one, especially in the progressive circles that do not recognise the popularity of the movement or who have an ideological prejudice against any religious movement. There is much to be said in favour of separation of church and state, but this of course is something that cannot be imposed from afar, and furthermore, there are many levels of separation to take into consideration. Those who subscribe to this position of “Hamas buying time before introducing the Sharia” tend to deny that a democracy has certain characteristics, and it is not necessarily a synonym of “secularism”. When the word “democracy” is applied correctly, it has certain characteristics, and Hamas meets these. Hamas has popular consensus. It has an internal structure that is autonomous and recognised as legitimate by its constituency. It follows the rules of elections, meeting the requirements for participation. Once elected, it assumes its role within the existing system, not having overthrown or staged coups against established structures. It is a political movement with several factions (some of them armed, as is true of many parties in areas under occupation, Fatah included) with a history and an organisation. There is widespread discussion among its constituencies, including those who are political prisoners, prior to making decisions, and the majority decides the actions to be undertaken. If one thing must be said about it to set it apart from parties that Westerners are familiar with, highest level leaders generally do not assume the governing roles. This is understandable in a party where a great quantity of the leaders are routinely assassinated by Israel. That the current political director, Khaled Meshaal, must live in exile after having once been victim of an attempted assassination says more about this anomalous situation than a thousand words can.
4) That Hamas’s victory in the Legislative Council election was nothing more than a protest vote (another pet theory of the left) was brilliantly illustrated as false by Paola Caridi in her very good book (despite the sensationalist subtitle) “Hamas, What it is and what the Radical Palestinian Movement Wants”, published by Feltrinelli and only available in Italian at this time. I am translating a few paragraphs that deal with this question.
“There is a precise political reason for which the majority of Palestinians voted for Hamas. It is a reason that concerns the decision made by the Islamist movement formally on 23 January 2005. (translator’s note, a year prior to the Legislative elections): a unilateral truce, reached together with the Islamic Jihad (that had instead broken it on several occasions), which had turned words into facts: that there would be the end of the season of terrorist attacks made by Hamas inside Israel as indicated within the confines of the 1949 armistice, the Israel within the Green Line, in other words. The ending of suicide attacks in Israeli cities, substantially bringing an end to the Intifada as well as (Hamas’s) participative choice is interpreted by the Palestinian population as a precise political proposal: an alternative to those who had governed and controlled them, holding the hegemony up to that moment. A proposal that poses at the same time new de facto limits to Hamas’s resistance strategy. The Islamist movement has not been, therefore, chosen only as a protest against the corruption, patronage and inefficiency of Fatah, which as a party is often confused with the PA. Corruption, patronage and inefficiency that are related, at least from a temporal point of view, with the failure of the Oslo Accords and the “facts on the ground” realised by the Israelis.
“The people of Hamas were considered people who are serious, who did not enrich themselves at the expense of the population, in fact, they continued to live in normal neighbourhoods and in the refugee camps.” (Caridi, p. 171).
5) An extremely offensive smear, oft repeated, is that Hamas’s followers and its leaders are a “bunch of illiterates” or “religious fanatics”. Almost all the leaders are (or were, given the number of assassinations within their ranks, the past tense is de rigueur) university graduates in fields ranging from medicine and physics to jurisprudence, economics and theology, is testament itself that this smear is merely to throw dirt on them and paint them as having read only religious texts and therefore “under-developed” when compared to other movements. Education has always been one of the pillars of Hamas and its charity work. The people of Palestine don’t need to be told this, it is a reality for them, where in many cases without this foundation, Palestinians would be left wanting in this area.
6) The inflexibility of Hamas is another myth, especially yanked out when speaking of the 1988 Charter (Mithaq). Shiekh Hamed Bitauri, “religious authority of Nablus, president of the Union of the Palestinian Ulemas, known for his radical positions had no problem confirming that ‘the Charter is not the Qu’ran. We can change it. It is only the synthesis of the positions of the Islamist movement in its relations with the other factions, and its politics.’ Aziz Dweik, founder of the Department of Geography of the University of Nablus, later to become the spokesman of the Palestinian Parliament after the 2006 elections, and imprisoned in Israeli jails since the summer of that year, went even further, declaring the political and pragmatic necessity of distancing from the Mithaq of 1988 to Khalid Amayreh, Palestinian journalist that is sensitive to Islamist positions, he said that ‘Hamas would not remain as a hostage to rhetorical slogans of the past like those of the ‘destruction of Israel’.” (Khalid Amayreh, Hamas Debates the Future: Palestine’s Islamic Resistance Movement Attempts to Reconcile Ideological Purity and Political Realism, in “Conflicts Forum”, Nov. 2007, p.4) (Caridi p. 90).
Haniyeh has mentioned on many occasions that the Charter has been surpassed in its substance by the other official documents, the most important of which, the Electoral Programme of the Reform and Change List (the list in which Hamas ran for office). This programme is structured like a document that goes far beyond the needs of a political campaign, according to the leader of Hamas, and it indicates the policy of the movement. It was not written in the heat of the revolution of the Intifada, and reflects the evolution of the party. The changes present are not ideological so much as ones of a strategic and political nature. The positions have been reiterated so many times in interviews and public interventions, it seems incredible that the complexity and maturity of Hamas should by now not be apparent to everyone. It is clear that they are still dedicated to the liberation of Palestine, but they are attempting to achieve it through reaffirmation of the rights of the people, knowing full well that as a party, Hamas is not equipped to overthrow the occupation in any practical way or to destroy what they recognise as a reality.
Many of us who follow events in the Middle East hope that they do not surrender to pragmatism so far as to recognise Israel not only as a reality, but as a “Jewish State”, however, we must watch from the sidelines and evaluate facts. The people of Palestine will be vigil about what rights are being surrendered, if any, and many of us believe that backs to the wall, they will not capitulate and lose what they know is theirs for reasons of political expediency. Hamas too is aware of this fact.
7) Hamas has been far less divisionary than its principle counterpart, Fatah. The Gaza “coup” that shocked and saddened the world was actually a preventive measure to the thwart the planned takeover by the Fatah forces faithful to Dahlan (in collaboration with Israel). That Hamas was the party that was awarded victory by its own people has never been recognised by the “international community” that nevertheless pushed for elections and insisted that this was the necessity for Palestinians, because this would mean that the resistance had been granted legitimacy and would become policy within the governing body, the rejection of negotiations as sub-alternates with Israel, which was Fatah policy, had been officially sanctioned by the populace and it would only be a matter of time before the programme would become policy. So, any steps by the Fatah “Security Forces” to overtake Gaza would actually have been the coup. But in the backwards way of viewing events, fuelled by disinformation, the tragic bloodbath between Palestinians prevented the real overthrow of democracy that would have taken place had Dahlan had the chance. Again and again, Hamas has sought to work together with the opposition party, and this is something they would not tolerate in the vain hope that their economic advantage and political nulla osta from the boy’s club would allow them to command even in absence of the popular mandate to do so.
8 ) It’s not necessary to use propaganda to show to Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and in exile, and even to many within Israel, the ongoing destruction of the Palestinian civilisation and people. Blockades, bombardments, assassinations, war, checkpoint humiliations, restrictions, separation of families, imprisonment and further abuses are not isolated incidents, but they are the daily bread and water of Palestinian life. No one needs to invent a rage over a phantasmagoric enemy. There is a real one that is subjecting the people of all ages and conditions to humiliation, deprivation and death. Showing a man in a mouse costume to insist that children are being indoctrinated in hate might go down well with the uninformed masses, but a glimpse into the reality makes Farfur look like the sweetest kind of way for a child to assimilate and tolerate that he or she is a prisoner doomed for life to suffer in the most atrocious way for being born as a lesser being in the oppressors’ eyes.
9) The worst smear against Hamas is the one to keep them as the symbol of evil: that they are a terrorist group, financed by “rogue States in the axis of evil”. Bearing in mind that their financing is abysmally inferior to the gigantic economic and “military aid” package given to Israel by America, Canada and many other nations in the “international community” in an official way, why should the claim of foreign financing be considered as unacceptable when it is simply the way the that Israel keeps afloat through billions of dollars annually, up front, and heaven only knows what other financing comes in through the thousands of “charities” that are really little more than fronts for mass immigration to Israel to curtail Arab growth? If Zionism and its charities are considered as legitimate and noble, why are Islamic ones put on blacklists and the donors treated as if they are financing terrorism? There is a double standard here.
That Hamas has rejected terror operations against civilians and did its best to do so in the service of achieving a realistic improvement for the life conditions of its people is an authenticated fact, corroborated by none other than the USA Congressional Research Service, a Think Tank that basically presents its conservative and Israel-friendly positions to the Congress so that they become policy. In fact, in the document coordinated by Jim Zanotti http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/R40101.pdf Israel and Hamas, Conflict in Gaza (2008-2009), we see that the quoted “reason” for the onslaught of Gaza to “cleanse it of Hamas”, the rockets fired into Israeli territory, was nothing but an excuse that the West drank down with gusto as if it were cherry juice. The extremely rudimentary rockets were recognised as NOT having been launched by Hamas, and not only that, Hamas was viewed as being able and willing to suppress the attacks. It is significant that the first victims of the Israeli attacks in Gaza were the regular police forces who had just been trained, perhaps also for this purpose. Zanotti writes:
For the first five months, the cease-fire held relatively well. Some rockets were fired into Israel, but most were attributed to non-Hamas militant groups, and, progressively, Hamas appeared increasingly able and willing to suppress even these attacks. No Israeli deaths were reported (although there were injuries and property damage), and Israel refrained from retaliation.
Nevertheless, each party felt as though the other was violating the terms of the unwritten ceasefire. Hamas demanded—unsuccessfully—that Israel lift its economic blockade of Gaza, while Israel demanded—also unsuccessfully—a full end to rocket fire and progress on the release of Israeli corporal Gilad Shalit from Hamas’s captivity.
Israel cited the sporadic rocket fire as justification for keeping the border crossings and Gaza’s seaport closed to nearly everything but basic humanitarian supplies. Hamas, other Arab leaders, and some international and non-governmental organizations involved in aiding Gazan civilians complained that Israel was reneging on its promises under the unwritten cease-fire agreement.
If that were not enough, the author, certainly not sympathetic in any way to Hamas, makes statements about the aftermath of the war where even Israel admits that Hamas was not responsible for the rockets:
Since Israel’s unilateral ceasefire began on January 18, 2009, there have been about 40 sporadic rocket launches into southern Israel, far fewer than occurred on average per day just before Operation Cast Lead. Moreover, Israeli officials believe that smaller militant groups, such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, and not Hamas, have fired the rockets, as they did during the cease-fire (although it is possible that Hamas is enabling or acquiescing to these attacks while preserving deniability).
So, Israel used the excuse of Hamas rocket launches to justify the elimination of Hamas (by means of destruction of the entirety of Gaza) through what they call “military operations” but the rest of humanity knows is war, while they were aware that Hamas was neither the author nor the facilitator of the rockets, any kind of excuse they pull out of the magic hat to justify their actions should fall on deaf ears. Complaints about arms smuggling through the most rudimentary of tunnels should stink to high heaven when we see the Defense Budget Appropriations for US-Israeli Missile Defense Programs in that same Congressional Report. Iron Dome, David’s Sling and other “military aid” costing the American people billions of dollars are described briefly. For every five ineffective bottle rockets that are smuggled through a tunnel, the USA is flying in full cargoes of arms and cases of cash to be spent by Israel for their military “needs”. The double standards here also draw innocent blood in violation of international law at the expense of your hard-earned money. Again, from the Congressional report:
Israel may have used weapons platforms and munitions purchased from the United States in its military operations in Gaza, reportedly including, among others, F-15 and F-16 aircraft, Apache helicopters, and, according to Israeli press reports, GBU-39 small diameter guided bombs approved for sale by the 110th Congress following notification in September 2008.
Additionally, all unilateral truces between Israel and Hamas (called by Hamas, not by Israel) were broken in every case by Israel. In many cases, making incursions into the Occupied Territories, which legally they are prohibited from doing, as civilian populations under occupation (even if the “settlers” have left, Gaza is kept under siege by Israel) are required to be protected by the occupier, not attacked. Israel, using weapons and planes supplied for them by the good graces of the people of the United States, bombarded streets where their targets (politicians and clerics that Israel terms as “militants” if not worse) were located, killing in an indiscriminate way anyone in the range, children included. If that’s not terrorism, the word has no meaning.
These are only a few of the myths in circulation. They represent just a portion of the lies, disinformation and hasbara that circulates about one of the major Palestinian parties, born from within, developing as all parties do, from below, and legitimised by fair and legal elections. Debunking these lies is a duty. One doesn’t need to agree to the entire programme of Hamas, but one is obligated to recognise that they are entirely different from the image that they have been straightjacketed into. What Jessica Rabbit said in the film, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” could very well apply to Hamas: “I’m not bad, they just draw me that way.”
Mary Rizzo is an art restorer, translator and writer living in Italy. Editor and co-founder of Palestine Think Tank, co-founder of Tlaxcala translations collective. Her personal blog is Peacepalestine.
Palestine - imp articles
by Tracy Twyman
from ImplosionGroup Website
October 28th, 1998, a number of newspapers across the country ran an Associated Press article entitled "Presidential Hopefuls Share Blue Blood Lines." The article, based on information put forth by Burke’s Peerage, claims that every single President of the United States has had a notable amount of royal European ancestry, and in each Presidential race, the one with the most royal genes is the one who wins - every single time. This tendency has been noted in supposedly Democratic European politics as well, prompting some to charge that a global conspiracy exists to keep power within the hands of a specific gene pool.
This charge is not entirely baseless, and many books have been written tracing the modern aristocratic bloodlines back to the royal houses of Israel, Egypt, Sumer, and beyond. The charge is further supported by the fact that many of the supposed conspirators proudly boast about the ancient origins of their ancestry. The traditional explanation for why power is passed down through the ages by blood has been the mystical Divine Right of Kings.
This dates back to the 17th century and states that a king is created by God, and kingly authority resides in the blood irrespective of anything else. Many have claimed that there is a genetic characteristic carried in the blood itself which makes this so, but what would it be? Is there a legitimate physiological reason behind the Divine Right of Kings?
Fields of the Nephilim
The all-important element of the Divine Right is that it comes from God, or "the gods," alternately. And who were these gods? Authors such as Zecharia Sitchin, Sir Laurence Gardner and Nicolas de Vere are authoritatively convinced that kingship was created by an advanced race of beings called the Anunnaki, also called the Nephilim in the Old Testament. These were the ones who created the human race and interbred with a portion of it to create the kingly caste which until this day has still maintained control over the Earth.
These celestial creatures have been variously identified with:
Dragons
Elves
Fairies
Gnomes
Leprechauns
Sprites
Nymphs
Pixies
Angels
Demons
Devils
Witches
Giants
Vampires
Werewolves
and just about every mythical being you can imagine
Some, like Gardner and Sitchin, claim that they come from another planet. Others, like de Vere, say that they’re multi-dimensional, or that they’re from the Hollow Earth. Some, like David Icke, say that they are humans inhabited by the spirits of multidimensional reptiles, capable of shapeshifting into reptile form at any time. Still others claim that they were humanoid, but more than human, with pale white skin. The human hybrid offspring that they created as the Royal/Priestly caste was, according to most, the Aryans, who usually had red hair with green eyes - in stark contrast to the traditional Hitlerian vision. Nicolas de Vere, the leader of an organization called The Dragon Court which claims to represent this royal Aryan caste, writes,
"the depiction of the Aryan (Scythian) as a tall, ruddy-complexioned blonde moist ’ yeoman-farmer-warrior-god has no basis in truth."
He further suggests that the "yeoman-farmer" Celtic, Gaulish and Pictish tribes which we now think of as Aryan were actually of a different race, but had hired the extra-human Aryans to be their leaders.
These Aryans were also the masterminds behind the Indian, Hittite, Greek, Egyptian, Hebrew, Sumerian and Pre-Sumerian Ubaid civilizations. Many believe that their descendants can be found amongst the segment of the population with the RH Negative blood type, roughly 5% of the Earth’s population, most of them Europeans. These people are often born with:
an extra vertebra
have a lower than normal body temperature
can rarely mate with one another successfully, which suggests that they may indeed be a hybrid species
Conspiracy enthusiast Arizona Wilder takes it a step further by stating:
"The Aryan bloodline is alien to this planet... There are 13 bloodlines from this kind of stock (the Merovingians being one), and all of them have to a greater or lesser degree the capacity to play host to the Shape Changer reptiles."
The other 12 families have been identified as Astor, Bundy, Collins, Dupont, Freeman, Kennedy, Li, Onassis, Reynolds, Rockefeller, Rothschild, Russell, and Van Duyn, with the rest of the European Royal Families being categorized as Merovingian. These are the people referred to by the fanatical group, the Sons of Jared, when they,
"pledge an implacable war against the descendants of the Watchers, who as notorious pharaohs, kings and dictators, have throughout history dominated mankind.. like super-gangsters, a celestial Mafia ruling the world."
The Book of Enoch says that the sons of the Nephilim, are destined to,
"afflict, oppress, destroy, attack, do battle and work destruction on the earth."
Nicolas de Vere, himself a Prince of the Dragon Blood, sees it quite differently. He sees them as the rightful shepherds of the human flock. He states:
The fairies were tuned to a higher frequency of perception and activity generally. In the past, therefore, because the Fairies were, for millennia, physiologically bred and exhaustively trained to operate at a higher level than men, humans often invited them to become social navigators... A dragon was one who saw clearly, and the clarity of vision engendered was always classically associated with wisdom, which itself produces power....
The Anunnaki and their quasi-human offspring are attributed with remarkable traits. They lived for thousands of years, were capable of levitation, dimension-hopping, clairvoyance, and other magical powers, all a product of applied eugenics.
De Vere explains:
"Selective unions gave the race the opportunity to breed outstanding magicians whose gift of natural perception and understanding and whose ability to access the ’Otherworld’ helped to produce and guide brilliant kings who ruled with elegant aplomb. The ability to perform magic was carried in the blood and of that blood," and "the Elves were relied upon by their client races to be able to see things and perform feats that these client races couldn’t."
Laurence Gardner, himself a former member of the Dragon Court, concurs:
"hi short, these people were bred to be leaders of mankind, and they were both mentally and physically maintained in the highward state."
But what property did they inherit in the blood which makes this possible? The experts are nearly unanimous about the fact that the answer is endocrinology. Says de Vere:
"hormonal levels [are] influenced by genetic inheritance and that hormones [affect] the individual’s perceptions, psychological unicameralism and the subsequent ability to transcend and perceive the intricacies of the cosmos. Elven blood [is) rich in these substances."
Starfire bloodfests
"The best blood is of the moon, monthly..." Aleister Crowley, The Book of the Law.
The beneficial effects of the hormone melatonin have been part of the health supplement scene for some time, for high melatonin production is known to be synonymous with a high immune system, a low cancer risk, long life, energy, stamina, and according to many, enhanced spiritual awareness. Perhaps it is fitting then that this hormone is secreted by the pineal gland, a mysterious little item long believed by mystics to be the "Seat of the Soul," "Me Third Eye," and the organ through which psychic powers are exercised. In fact, it actually functions as an organ of sight in some reptiles, and it still seems to possess some sensitivity to light in higher mammals, since melatonin production increases when the person is exposed to darkness (thus melatonin means "night worker!")
Writes Laurence Gardner:
High melatonin production thereby increases the facility for receiving and transmitting high-frequency cosmic and local broadcasts, and leads to a greater state of cosmic awareness - a state simply of ’knowing.’ In this regard, it is interesting to note that the Pineal Third Eye has been found to contain very fine granular particles, rather like the crystals in a wireless receiving set.
Many magical rites and meditation techniques are aimed at gaining control of this organ and the fluid it produces: the live melatonin. Rumor has it that the members of the supersecret society Skull & Bones, to which both George Bush and his son belong, engage in a ceremony called "The Obscene Rite," which involves the consumption of the live pineal gland of a human or animal sacrifice in order to get the fresh secretions. Supplements bought over the counter are ineffective because, as Gardner explains,
"their inherent secretions are obtained from the desiccated glands of dead animals and they lack the truly important elements which only exist in live human glandular manufacture."
Aryan bloodline is alien to this planet... There are 13 bloodlines from this kind of stock all of them have a greater or lesser degree the capacity to play host to the shape changer reptiles.
But the Aryan overlords who ruled over mankind in ancient days had a simpler way of acquiring this fluid. Their ancestor-gods, the Anunnaki, had endocrine systems that produced large amounts of this and other beneficial substances, so they drank it straight from the source: the menstrual blood and vaginal fluids of the goddesses themselves. This they referred to lovingly as "Starfire" and drank in a ritual ceremony called the Black Mass, after which the Catholic Mass is said to have been modeled. Later, as direct contact with the Anunnaki ceased, the fluids were collected from sacred priestesses referred to as "Scarlet Women," or "Grail Maidens."
Readers will recognize the Scarlet Woman as the Whore of Revelations, as well as the title which Aleister Crowley gave to all of his sex magick partners.
"These sacred, royal princesses" writes de Vere, "virgins of High Birth and Pure Blood, at an optimum age would be chosen to act as feeding females," whose essences contained such valuable substances as, "oxytocin, prolactin, melatonin, seratonin, adenosyne triphosphate, dopamine, telomerase, and retinol."
There is another important ingredient in the mix here. De Vere explains,
"many think that only men have semen when in fact women also have it."
And so a Starfire ritual involves the use of a golden straw.
Stich a device would have been inserted into the virgin’s urethra to the depth of about one inch, whilst the partner in the rite inserted his or her finger into the vagina and massaged the "roof of the mouth" or uppermost wall of the canal nearest the open or ’mouth’ of the vagina, behind the pubic bone. After a few conducive moments perhaps, orgasm would occur and the fluid from the gland would discharge itself through the straw, either into the waiting mouth of the recipient, or onto a "grail platter" or dish held next to the vulva.
Keen readers will recognize this as identical to a sex magick ritual advocated by Aleister Crowley for members of his Order or Oriental Templars (OTO). The only difference is that his rite also involved the use of male semen which was called the "Red Tincture" or "coagulated blood," while the female fluids were called "Gluten" or "The White Tincture." Together they made "The Elixir of Life," and in alchemy blood and semen are the primae materia or first matter of the great work.
*"this is the true Key to Magick," writes Crowley. "That is, by the right use of this secret man may impose his Will on Nature herself."
Monatomic Gold: the substitute
According to de Vere and others, ingesting the fluids of mundane women has only a slight effect, certainly not enough to maintain a royal Dragon family in the manner to which they’re accustomed. And after a few thousand years the genetic purity of their Grail maidens began to deteriorate, so the Starfire lost it’s potency. This reportedly began around 1960 BC and is equated with the time that an edict was handed down to Noah by God demanding that the consumption of all blood cease immediately. (Gen. 9:4) Thus, a substitute had to be found, and so the alchemical process was created as a means of artificially creating the Elixir of Life, the Philosopher’s Stone, also known as "potable gold." This is created using a black powder known as occultum, the universal solvent which has the power to transmute metals.
When placed against gold it converted it into a white powder which could be ingested. It is said to cause nothing less than immortality, as it sets off a self-correcting mechanism in your DNA that lasts for thousands of years. It also bestows the enhanced melatonin production and magical powers associated with Startfire, including clairvoyance, dimension-hopping and flying capabilities. It is believed that this "white gold" is the same as the "Shew-bread" and "Manna from Heaven" mentioned in the Old Testament.
Today, there are those who publicly proclaim knowledge of the Philosopher’s Stone. A man named David Hudson claims to have created a technique for manufacturing this white gold, which he’s patented as ORME (Orbitally Rearranged Monatomic Elements). Ormus is a name associated with the Holy Grail, and so readers may not be surprised to learn that Hudson himself is related to the Merovingian Grail family through Claude de Guise. Basically, the powder is created by putting gold into a higher atomic state through a series of intense heating and cooling sessions, during which it loses and gains weight radically, as though portions of the mass were being transferred into another dimension. David Hudson describes the magical quantum properties of his white gold:
These M-state elements have been observed to exhibit superconductivity, superfluidity, Josephson tunneling and magnetic levitation... They may enhance energy flow in the microtubules inside every living cell. Ingesting in-state gold has different effects on the body than the effects of ingesting metallic gold. At 2 mg. it totally has gotten rid of Karposi Sarcomas on AIDS patients. Within 2 hours, their white blood cell count goes from 2500 to 6500. ... Stage 4 cancer patients have taken it orally, and after 4 5 days have no cancer left any place in the body. It’s been used on Lou Gehrig’s disease, it’s been used on MS, it’s been used on MD, it’s been used on arthritis. It literally corrects the DNA.
Sympathy for The Devil
All of this puts a nice, friendly face on the whole thing, which is currently a secret power held only by an elite caste of Aryans who use it to lord themselves over the rest of the human population. And there are those who have said that the "substitute" white gold never did away with the original practice of blood-drinking as a method for obtaining the substances they needed. David Icke and his associate, Arizona Wilder, have campaigned the globe to inform its citizens with Chicken Little-like hysteria that most of its financiers, politicians and aristocrats are actually under the control of Reptilian beings from another dimension, who are inhabiting their bodies. Icke states:
"To hold their human form, these entities need to drink human (mammalian) blood and access the energy it contains to maintain their DNA codes in their ’human’ expression. If they don’t, they manifest their reptilian codes and we would all see what they really look like."
Icke believes that most of this blood is obtained in human sacrifice rituals engaged in by the Satanic Illuminati. He explains:
"From what I understand from former ’insiders’, the blood (energy) of babies and small children is the most effective for this, as are blond-haired, blue-eyed people. Hence these are the ones overwhelmingly used in sacrifice, as are red-haired people also."
His compatriot, Arizona Wiilder, goes into a bit more detail when she writes,
"They have a hypnotic gaze which fixes the victim - in a trance of terror - which promotes secretion of the pineal gland - at that point, they cannot hold human form any longer and begin to shapeshift in anticipation of supper."
Wilder claims to have witnessed Laurence Gardner drinking blood and shapeshifting during a sacrifice at Montauk, New York, as well as a number of others who were transformed during similar bloodfests, including,
Bush and his two sons
Albright
Kissinger
Reagan and Nancy
J. Rockefeller
Ford
Carter and LB Johnson
Queen Mum
Queen Liz II
Princess Margaret
Charles
Tony Blair
Prince Philip
Zecharia Sitchin
She acknowledges that Starfire rituals go on as well:
In the underground vaults of his castle in the Alsace Region of France, green glowing fluorescent rocks tam stored menstrual blood black to be used at that special ritual. All the British House apparently have jewel-encrusted goblets to drink the blood from the symbolic female grail and a symbolic dagger to give it a bit of a stir. Some Spencers were at these rituals, but Diana would not attend... the smell of Diana’s periods would have caused Charles to shapeshift - especially whilst sleeping because the reptiles cannot retain their human form without concentration.
This may shed new light on Prince Charles’ reported desire to become a tampon. Aware of these charges, Laurence Gardner and Nicolas de Vere have tried to clear the record. They’ve acknowledged that vampirism does take place at their rituals, but maintain that they only drink the blood of their own family members, who participate willingly.
"You cannot take the essences by force, they are only given in love," he says, otherwise, "their systems will react by producing chemicals during one’s assault upon them that will completely knock out the chemicals traditionally required."
They claim that vampirisin was originally the purview of a few noble families who practiced it in order to maintain their powers.
"The most famous stories," writes de Vere, "those of Dracula, Bathory and de Rais, support this conclusion."
He and Gardner enthusiastically embrace Dracula as one of their own:
"This Sacred Prince, a Hermetic scholar and initiate, a student of magic, Magus, Witch Lord and Dragon Prince, counterbalanced the bloodlust of his forebears with a refined knowledge and advanced practice of Grail procedure."
This is because he was a member of Sigismund’s Dragon Court in Hungary, and therefore of the Grail blood, who also attended a hermetic academy called the Austrian School of Solomon.
"The orthodox establishment’s fear of Dracula," writes, Gardner, "was not his treatment of enemies but his in-depth knowledge of alchemy, kingship and the ancient Star Fire customs."
As for the claim that they use these rituals to conjure up dragon ancestors from another dimension, de Vere calmly admits that this is the case, and that the participants have their bodies taken over by these spirits, who "rise from the dead to take possession of the witch’s soul!"
He further explains:
Any spirit including the archangels, conjured by the witch or magician was actually the ancestor of the witch. ... It was carried in the witch’s blood which, the purer it was through the unbroken descent from the Dragons, the stronger would be the return from the ancestors within. In other words, they brought together and spoke or gesticulated a series of mnemonics that would trigger off precontrived, imprinted states of consciousness that acted as doorways into deeper seats of consciousness.
The charge of Satanism is not entirely refuted either, but de Vere proffers that they are not worshipping Satan so much as honoring one of their forefathers, who they stick right in the family tree along with Jesus, David and the rest.
"The Sabbatical Goat of the Black Mass was Chem Zoroaster," he writes, "one of the early ancestors of the ancient Dragon Families," and, "Satan was also called by the witches ’Christ, son Dei.’ ...Jesus’ heredity and the descent of the druidic dynasties... was devilish, because the descent of both bloodlines was from the Sumerian Enki who was the Akkadian Samael: the Roman Lucifer and thus the Catholic Satan."
But the Dragon Court members make no apology for this, because,
"to any intelligent person, to any true seer, concepts like white or black magic or good and evil are irrational, childish nonsense; both in terms of logic and actual fact."
Every Elf for Himself
"This is our Law, and the Law of the Strong. " -- Crowley, ibid.
To the charges of "conspiring to take over the world," the Dragons deny that they give two licks what the rest of humanity does with itself. Their primary concern is,
"the restoration of their own Tribes, their own Nation and their own Homelands.... the foundation of their own distinct society.. re-introducing their old social structures and values."
This results in "The Grail Code," a system of Egalitarian, Chivalric ethics that govern how dragons treat other members of their race. However, "it is not the code that efficiently orders the behaviour of the Dragon Families in their dealings with those not of the Grail Blood." They acknowledge and defend their own elitist attitudes towards mankind, whom they regard as,
"thoroughly stupid and dimwitted, with a clear indication that this condition is genetically inherited."
Whereas in contrast,
"The Elves were naturally transcendent of spirit and their queens and kings were insulated from the common round of nuisances and petty concerns by minds which were bred for deeper matters."
Despite their hatred of humanity, they will kindly agree to be the guardians of our governments again (if they aren’t secretly doing so already), should the population choose to accept them, and offer them the thrones of the Earth, which de Vere and friends indicate are rightfully theirs anyway. They are just waiting for mankind to realize it again. We will have to deal with the fact that these "Elves" seem to be in possession of a material that bestows long life as well as fantastic physical, mental, and spiritual powers, giving them a distinct advantage through which they are clearly attempting to lord over us, while they allow our populations to wallow in disease, death, and spiritual degradation. As an excuse, de Vere and Gardner claim that the Starfire and White Gold are only effective for those already of the Dragon Blood anyway, because the rest of us,
"won’t have the right blood serum or the right connections in their cerebral lobes."
De Vere denies the claims of most people who believe themselves to be of this bloodline.
"Some people argue that because of the outbreeding of the old families, there must be millions of people ’of the fairy blood’ living today: but such a statement flies in the face of accepted facts of history. The genuine old royal families rarely outbred at all, whilst the later, fake parvenu, tinker nobility whom people now confuse with them often did."
So that leaves little hope for you and me of ever obtaining the fruits of this magnificent "Philosopher’s Stone," which "gives youth to the old" and is described as "the summation of the heart’s desire." And if such a substance were available to the public, how much would it cost? Would it be obtainable by everyone or only the rich and privileged? What if it could be administered for free in the water supply or was available in tablet form at your local pharmacy, covered by your health insurance policy? What would happen to our already exploding population?
As a species, mankind will have to decide how to deal with the information - provided that the information is aired in public someday, and provided our "thoroughly stupid and dim-witted" populace can figure out what to do with it. Will we take advantage of what could be our greatest opportunity to advance as a species, or will we allow it to be used against us by a caste of Aryan overlords who despise us (and who are literally the spawn of Satan!)
Then again, will we perhaps wish to accept their rule, and the benefits of being led by an advanced race whose powers and insight are greater than our own. After all, there are those who believe that civilization is created by and can only be maintained by an established elite. Would we want to meddle with that, and allow positions of power to be overrun by inferior men? Perhaps it is worth considering whether an elite can truly be made by enhancing human faculties, or whether such powers are purely in the blood sources.
Gardner, Laurence: Genesis of the Grail Kings
Michaelsen, Scott,
Portable Darkness: An Aleister Crowley Reader
Moon, Peter, The Black Sun: Montauk’s Nazi-Tibetan Connection
De Vere, Nicolas, From Transylvania to Tunbridge Wells
from ImplosionGroup Website
October 28th, 1998, a number of newspapers across the country ran an Associated Press article entitled "Presidential Hopefuls Share Blue Blood Lines." The article, based on information put forth by Burke’s Peerage, claims that every single President of the United States has had a notable amount of royal European ancestry, and in each Presidential race, the one with the most royal genes is the one who wins - every single time. This tendency has been noted in supposedly Democratic European politics as well, prompting some to charge that a global conspiracy exists to keep power within the hands of a specific gene pool.
This charge is not entirely baseless, and many books have been written tracing the modern aristocratic bloodlines back to the royal houses of Israel, Egypt, Sumer, and beyond. The charge is further supported by the fact that many of the supposed conspirators proudly boast about the ancient origins of their ancestry. The traditional explanation for why power is passed down through the ages by blood has been the mystical Divine Right of Kings.
This dates back to the 17th century and states that a king is created by God, and kingly authority resides in the blood irrespective of anything else. Many have claimed that there is a genetic characteristic carried in the blood itself which makes this so, but what would it be? Is there a legitimate physiological reason behind the Divine Right of Kings?
Fields of the Nephilim
The all-important element of the Divine Right is that it comes from God, or "the gods," alternately. And who were these gods? Authors such as Zecharia Sitchin, Sir Laurence Gardner and Nicolas de Vere are authoritatively convinced that kingship was created by an advanced race of beings called the Anunnaki, also called the Nephilim in the Old Testament. These were the ones who created the human race and interbred with a portion of it to create the kingly caste which until this day has still maintained control over the Earth.
These celestial creatures have been variously identified with:
Dragons
Elves
Fairies
Gnomes
Leprechauns
Sprites
Nymphs
Pixies
Angels
Demons
Devils
Witches
Giants
Vampires
Werewolves
and just about every mythical being you can imagine
Some, like Gardner and Sitchin, claim that they come from another planet. Others, like de Vere, say that they’re multi-dimensional, or that they’re from the Hollow Earth. Some, like David Icke, say that they are humans inhabited by the spirits of multidimensional reptiles, capable of shapeshifting into reptile form at any time. Still others claim that they were humanoid, but more than human, with pale white skin. The human hybrid offspring that they created as the Royal/Priestly caste was, according to most, the Aryans, who usually had red hair with green eyes - in stark contrast to the traditional Hitlerian vision. Nicolas de Vere, the leader of an organization called The Dragon Court which claims to represent this royal Aryan caste, writes,
"the depiction of the Aryan (Scythian) as a tall, ruddy-complexioned blonde moist ’ yeoman-farmer-warrior-god has no basis in truth."
He further suggests that the "yeoman-farmer" Celtic, Gaulish and Pictish tribes which we now think of as Aryan were actually of a different race, but had hired the extra-human Aryans to be their leaders.
These Aryans were also the masterminds behind the Indian, Hittite, Greek, Egyptian, Hebrew, Sumerian and Pre-Sumerian Ubaid civilizations. Many believe that their descendants can be found amongst the segment of the population with the RH Negative blood type, roughly 5% of the Earth’s population, most of them Europeans. These people are often born with:
an extra vertebra
have a lower than normal body temperature
can rarely mate with one another successfully, which suggests that they may indeed be a hybrid species
Conspiracy enthusiast Arizona Wilder takes it a step further by stating:
"The Aryan bloodline is alien to this planet... There are 13 bloodlines from this kind of stock (the Merovingians being one), and all of them have to a greater or lesser degree the capacity to play host to the Shape Changer reptiles."
The other 12 families have been identified as Astor, Bundy, Collins, Dupont, Freeman, Kennedy, Li, Onassis, Reynolds, Rockefeller, Rothschild, Russell, and Van Duyn, with the rest of the European Royal Families being categorized as Merovingian. These are the people referred to by the fanatical group, the Sons of Jared, when they,
"pledge an implacable war against the descendants of the Watchers, who as notorious pharaohs, kings and dictators, have throughout history dominated mankind.. like super-gangsters, a celestial Mafia ruling the world."
The Book of Enoch says that the sons of the Nephilim, are destined to,
"afflict, oppress, destroy, attack, do battle and work destruction on the earth."
Nicolas de Vere, himself a Prince of the Dragon Blood, sees it quite differently. He sees them as the rightful shepherds of the human flock. He states:
The fairies were tuned to a higher frequency of perception and activity generally. In the past, therefore, because the Fairies were, for millennia, physiologically bred and exhaustively trained to operate at a higher level than men, humans often invited them to become social navigators... A dragon was one who saw clearly, and the clarity of vision engendered was always classically associated with wisdom, which itself produces power....
The Anunnaki and their quasi-human offspring are attributed with remarkable traits. They lived for thousands of years, were capable of levitation, dimension-hopping, clairvoyance, and other magical powers, all a product of applied eugenics.
De Vere explains:
"Selective unions gave the race the opportunity to breed outstanding magicians whose gift of natural perception and understanding and whose ability to access the ’Otherworld’ helped to produce and guide brilliant kings who ruled with elegant aplomb. The ability to perform magic was carried in the blood and of that blood," and "the Elves were relied upon by their client races to be able to see things and perform feats that these client races couldn’t."
Laurence Gardner, himself a former member of the Dragon Court, concurs:
"hi short, these people were bred to be leaders of mankind, and they were both mentally and physically maintained in the highward state."
But what property did they inherit in the blood which makes this possible? The experts are nearly unanimous about the fact that the answer is endocrinology. Says de Vere:
"hormonal levels [are] influenced by genetic inheritance and that hormones [affect] the individual’s perceptions, psychological unicameralism and the subsequent ability to transcend and perceive the intricacies of the cosmos. Elven blood [is) rich in these substances."
Starfire bloodfests
"The best blood is of the moon, monthly..." Aleister Crowley, The Book of the Law.
The beneficial effects of the hormone melatonin have been part of the health supplement scene for some time, for high melatonin production is known to be synonymous with a high immune system, a low cancer risk, long life, energy, stamina, and according to many, enhanced spiritual awareness. Perhaps it is fitting then that this hormone is secreted by the pineal gland, a mysterious little item long believed by mystics to be the "Seat of the Soul," "Me Third Eye," and the organ through which psychic powers are exercised. In fact, it actually functions as an organ of sight in some reptiles, and it still seems to possess some sensitivity to light in higher mammals, since melatonin production increases when the person is exposed to darkness (thus melatonin means "night worker!")
Writes Laurence Gardner:
High melatonin production thereby increases the facility for receiving and transmitting high-frequency cosmic and local broadcasts, and leads to a greater state of cosmic awareness - a state simply of ’knowing.’ In this regard, it is interesting to note that the Pineal Third Eye has been found to contain very fine granular particles, rather like the crystals in a wireless receiving set.
Many magical rites and meditation techniques are aimed at gaining control of this organ and the fluid it produces: the live melatonin. Rumor has it that the members of the supersecret society Skull & Bones, to which both George Bush and his son belong, engage in a ceremony called "The Obscene Rite," which involves the consumption of the live pineal gland of a human or animal sacrifice in order to get the fresh secretions. Supplements bought over the counter are ineffective because, as Gardner explains,
"their inherent secretions are obtained from the desiccated glands of dead animals and they lack the truly important elements which only exist in live human glandular manufacture."
Aryan bloodline is alien to this planet... There are 13 bloodlines from this kind of stock all of them have a greater or lesser degree the capacity to play host to the shape changer reptiles.
But the Aryan overlords who ruled over mankind in ancient days had a simpler way of acquiring this fluid. Their ancestor-gods, the Anunnaki, had endocrine systems that produced large amounts of this and other beneficial substances, so they drank it straight from the source: the menstrual blood and vaginal fluids of the goddesses themselves. This they referred to lovingly as "Starfire" and drank in a ritual ceremony called the Black Mass, after which the Catholic Mass is said to have been modeled. Later, as direct contact with the Anunnaki ceased, the fluids were collected from sacred priestesses referred to as "Scarlet Women," or "Grail Maidens."
Readers will recognize the Scarlet Woman as the Whore of Revelations, as well as the title which Aleister Crowley gave to all of his sex magick partners.
"These sacred, royal princesses" writes de Vere, "virgins of High Birth and Pure Blood, at an optimum age would be chosen to act as feeding females," whose essences contained such valuable substances as, "oxytocin, prolactin, melatonin, seratonin, adenosyne triphosphate, dopamine, telomerase, and retinol."
There is another important ingredient in the mix here. De Vere explains,
"many think that only men have semen when in fact women also have it."
And so a Starfire ritual involves the use of a golden straw.
Stich a device would have been inserted into the virgin’s urethra to the depth of about one inch, whilst the partner in the rite inserted his or her finger into the vagina and massaged the "roof of the mouth" or uppermost wall of the canal nearest the open or ’mouth’ of the vagina, behind the pubic bone. After a few conducive moments perhaps, orgasm would occur and the fluid from the gland would discharge itself through the straw, either into the waiting mouth of the recipient, or onto a "grail platter" or dish held next to the vulva.
Keen readers will recognize this as identical to a sex magick ritual advocated by Aleister Crowley for members of his Order or Oriental Templars (OTO). The only difference is that his rite also involved the use of male semen which was called the "Red Tincture" or "coagulated blood," while the female fluids were called "Gluten" or "The White Tincture." Together they made "The Elixir of Life," and in alchemy blood and semen are the primae materia or first matter of the great work.
*"this is the true Key to Magick," writes Crowley. "That is, by the right use of this secret man may impose his Will on Nature herself."
Monatomic Gold: the substitute
According to de Vere and others, ingesting the fluids of mundane women has only a slight effect, certainly not enough to maintain a royal Dragon family in the manner to which they’re accustomed. And after a few thousand years the genetic purity of their Grail maidens began to deteriorate, so the Starfire lost it’s potency. This reportedly began around 1960 BC and is equated with the time that an edict was handed down to Noah by God demanding that the consumption of all blood cease immediately. (Gen. 9:4) Thus, a substitute had to be found, and so the alchemical process was created as a means of artificially creating the Elixir of Life, the Philosopher’s Stone, also known as "potable gold." This is created using a black powder known as occultum, the universal solvent which has the power to transmute metals.
When placed against gold it converted it into a white powder which could be ingested. It is said to cause nothing less than immortality, as it sets off a self-correcting mechanism in your DNA that lasts for thousands of years. It also bestows the enhanced melatonin production and magical powers associated with Startfire, including clairvoyance, dimension-hopping and flying capabilities. It is believed that this "white gold" is the same as the "Shew-bread" and "Manna from Heaven" mentioned in the Old Testament.
Today, there are those who publicly proclaim knowledge of the Philosopher’s Stone. A man named David Hudson claims to have created a technique for manufacturing this white gold, which he’s patented as ORME (Orbitally Rearranged Monatomic Elements). Ormus is a name associated with the Holy Grail, and so readers may not be surprised to learn that Hudson himself is related to the Merovingian Grail family through Claude de Guise. Basically, the powder is created by putting gold into a higher atomic state through a series of intense heating and cooling sessions, during which it loses and gains weight radically, as though portions of the mass were being transferred into another dimension. David Hudson describes the magical quantum properties of his white gold:
These M-state elements have been observed to exhibit superconductivity, superfluidity, Josephson tunneling and magnetic levitation... They may enhance energy flow in the microtubules inside every living cell. Ingesting in-state gold has different effects on the body than the effects of ingesting metallic gold. At 2 mg. it totally has gotten rid of Karposi Sarcomas on AIDS patients. Within 2 hours, their white blood cell count goes from 2500 to 6500. ... Stage 4 cancer patients have taken it orally, and after 4 5 days have no cancer left any place in the body. It’s been used on Lou Gehrig’s disease, it’s been used on MS, it’s been used on MD, it’s been used on arthritis. It literally corrects the DNA.
Sympathy for The Devil
All of this puts a nice, friendly face on the whole thing, which is currently a secret power held only by an elite caste of Aryans who use it to lord themselves over the rest of the human population. And there are those who have said that the "substitute" white gold never did away with the original practice of blood-drinking as a method for obtaining the substances they needed. David Icke and his associate, Arizona Wilder, have campaigned the globe to inform its citizens with Chicken Little-like hysteria that most of its financiers, politicians and aristocrats are actually under the control of Reptilian beings from another dimension, who are inhabiting their bodies. Icke states:
"To hold their human form, these entities need to drink human (mammalian) blood and access the energy it contains to maintain their DNA codes in their ’human’ expression. If they don’t, they manifest their reptilian codes and we would all see what they really look like."
Icke believes that most of this blood is obtained in human sacrifice rituals engaged in by the Satanic Illuminati. He explains:
"From what I understand from former ’insiders’, the blood (energy) of babies and small children is the most effective for this, as are blond-haired, blue-eyed people. Hence these are the ones overwhelmingly used in sacrifice, as are red-haired people also."
His compatriot, Arizona Wiilder, goes into a bit more detail when she writes,
"They have a hypnotic gaze which fixes the victim - in a trance of terror - which promotes secretion of the pineal gland - at that point, they cannot hold human form any longer and begin to shapeshift in anticipation of supper."
Wilder claims to have witnessed Laurence Gardner drinking blood and shapeshifting during a sacrifice at Montauk, New York, as well as a number of others who were transformed during similar bloodfests, including,
Bush and his two sons
Albright
Kissinger
Reagan and Nancy
J. Rockefeller
Ford
Carter and LB Johnson
Queen Mum
Queen Liz II
Princess Margaret
Charles
Tony Blair
Prince Philip
Zecharia Sitchin
She acknowledges that Starfire rituals go on as well:
In the underground vaults of his castle in the Alsace Region of France, green glowing fluorescent rocks tam stored menstrual blood black to be used at that special ritual. All the British House apparently have jewel-encrusted goblets to drink the blood from the symbolic female grail and a symbolic dagger to give it a bit of a stir. Some Spencers were at these rituals, but Diana would not attend... the smell of Diana’s periods would have caused Charles to shapeshift - especially whilst sleeping because the reptiles cannot retain their human form without concentration.
This may shed new light on Prince Charles’ reported desire to become a tampon. Aware of these charges, Laurence Gardner and Nicolas de Vere have tried to clear the record. They’ve acknowledged that vampirism does take place at their rituals, but maintain that they only drink the blood of their own family members, who participate willingly.
"You cannot take the essences by force, they are only given in love," he says, otherwise, "their systems will react by producing chemicals during one’s assault upon them that will completely knock out the chemicals traditionally required."
They claim that vampirisin was originally the purview of a few noble families who practiced it in order to maintain their powers.
"The most famous stories," writes de Vere, "those of Dracula, Bathory and de Rais, support this conclusion."
He and Gardner enthusiastically embrace Dracula as one of their own:
"This Sacred Prince, a Hermetic scholar and initiate, a student of magic, Magus, Witch Lord and Dragon Prince, counterbalanced the bloodlust of his forebears with a refined knowledge and advanced practice of Grail procedure."
This is because he was a member of Sigismund’s Dragon Court in Hungary, and therefore of the Grail blood, who also attended a hermetic academy called the Austrian School of Solomon.
"The orthodox establishment’s fear of Dracula," writes, Gardner, "was not his treatment of enemies but his in-depth knowledge of alchemy, kingship and the ancient Star Fire customs."
As for the claim that they use these rituals to conjure up dragon ancestors from another dimension, de Vere calmly admits that this is the case, and that the participants have their bodies taken over by these spirits, who "rise from the dead to take possession of the witch’s soul!"
He further explains:
Any spirit including the archangels, conjured by the witch or magician was actually the ancestor of the witch. ... It was carried in the witch’s blood which, the purer it was through the unbroken descent from the Dragons, the stronger would be the return from the ancestors within. In other words, they brought together and spoke or gesticulated a series of mnemonics that would trigger off precontrived, imprinted states of consciousness that acted as doorways into deeper seats of consciousness.
The charge of Satanism is not entirely refuted either, but de Vere proffers that they are not worshipping Satan so much as honoring one of their forefathers, who they stick right in the family tree along with Jesus, David and the rest.
"The Sabbatical Goat of the Black Mass was Chem Zoroaster," he writes, "one of the early ancestors of the ancient Dragon Families," and, "Satan was also called by the witches ’Christ, son Dei.’ ...Jesus’ heredity and the descent of the druidic dynasties... was devilish, because the descent of both bloodlines was from the Sumerian Enki who was the Akkadian Samael: the Roman Lucifer and thus the Catholic Satan."
But the Dragon Court members make no apology for this, because,
"to any intelligent person, to any true seer, concepts like white or black magic or good and evil are irrational, childish nonsense; both in terms of logic and actual fact."
Every Elf for Himself
"This is our Law, and the Law of the Strong. " -- Crowley, ibid.
To the charges of "conspiring to take over the world," the Dragons deny that they give two licks what the rest of humanity does with itself. Their primary concern is,
"the restoration of their own Tribes, their own Nation and their own Homelands.... the foundation of their own distinct society.. re-introducing their old social structures and values."
This results in "The Grail Code," a system of Egalitarian, Chivalric ethics that govern how dragons treat other members of their race. However, "it is not the code that efficiently orders the behaviour of the Dragon Families in their dealings with those not of the Grail Blood." They acknowledge and defend their own elitist attitudes towards mankind, whom they regard as,
"thoroughly stupid and dimwitted, with a clear indication that this condition is genetically inherited."
Whereas in contrast,
"The Elves were naturally transcendent of spirit and their queens and kings were insulated from the common round of nuisances and petty concerns by minds which were bred for deeper matters."
Despite their hatred of humanity, they will kindly agree to be the guardians of our governments again (if they aren’t secretly doing so already), should the population choose to accept them, and offer them the thrones of the Earth, which de Vere and friends indicate are rightfully theirs anyway. They are just waiting for mankind to realize it again. We will have to deal with the fact that these "Elves" seem to be in possession of a material that bestows long life as well as fantastic physical, mental, and spiritual powers, giving them a distinct advantage through which they are clearly attempting to lord over us, while they allow our populations to wallow in disease, death, and spiritual degradation. As an excuse, de Vere and Gardner claim that the Starfire and White Gold are only effective for those already of the Dragon Blood anyway, because the rest of us,
"won’t have the right blood serum or the right connections in their cerebral lobes."
De Vere denies the claims of most people who believe themselves to be of this bloodline.
"Some people argue that because of the outbreeding of the old families, there must be millions of people ’of the fairy blood’ living today: but such a statement flies in the face of accepted facts of history. The genuine old royal families rarely outbred at all, whilst the later, fake parvenu, tinker nobility whom people now confuse with them often did."
So that leaves little hope for you and me of ever obtaining the fruits of this magnificent "Philosopher’s Stone," which "gives youth to the old" and is described as "the summation of the heart’s desire." And if such a substance were available to the public, how much would it cost? Would it be obtainable by everyone or only the rich and privileged? What if it could be administered for free in the water supply or was available in tablet form at your local pharmacy, covered by your health insurance policy? What would happen to our already exploding population?
As a species, mankind will have to decide how to deal with the information - provided that the information is aired in public someday, and provided our "thoroughly stupid and dim-witted" populace can figure out what to do with it. Will we take advantage of what could be our greatest opportunity to advance as a species, or will we allow it to be used against us by a caste of Aryan overlords who despise us (and who are literally the spawn of Satan!)
Then again, will we perhaps wish to accept their rule, and the benefits of being led by an advanced race whose powers and insight are greater than our own. After all, there are those who believe that civilization is created by and can only be maintained by an established elite. Would we want to meddle with that, and allow positions of power to be overrun by inferior men? Perhaps it is worth considering whether an elite can truly be made by enhancing human faculties, or whether such powers are purely in the blood sources.
Gardner, Laurence: Genesis of the Grail Kings
Michaelsen, Scott,
Portable Darkness: An Aleister Crowley Reader
Moon, Peter, The Black Sun: Montauk’s Nazi-Tibetan Connection
De Vere, Nicolas, From Transylvania to Tunbridge Wells
DEAR ALL, THE MUCH AWAITED BOOK, THAT EXPOSES THE TRUTH OF 26/11 IS FINALLY HERE !!
=============================================================================================
WHO KILLED HEMANT KARKARE ??
THE REAL FACE OF TERRORISM IN INDIA
AUTHOR: S. M. MUSHRIF
FORMER INSPECTOR GENERAL OF POLICE, MAHARASHTRA
Dedicated to Mahatma Gandhiji, the Father of the Nation.
"In a time of Universal Deceit, telling the Truth is a Revolutionary Act" - George Orwell.
PUBLISHER: PHAROS MEDIA & PUBLISHING PVT LTD
D-84, Abul Fazal Enclave, New Delhi - 110 025, India
www.pharosmedia.com
info@pharosmedia.com
This book is also available in Hindi & Urdu, whilst the Marathi translation is underway.
In Solidarity with all the victims of Wars, Terror & Genocide.
Feroze Mithiborwala & Kishore Jagtap
AWAMI BHARAT
awamibharat.blogspot.com
'For an National Struggle Against Imperialism & Zionism'
=============================================================================================
WHO KILLED HEMANT KARKARE ??
THE REAL FACE OF TERRORISM IN INDIA
AUTHOR: S. M. MUSHRIF
FORMER INSPECTOR GENERAL OF POLICE, MAHARASHTRA
Dedicated to Mahatma Gandhiji, the Father of the Nation.
"In a time of Universal Deceit, telling the Truth is a Revolutionary Act" - George Orwell.
PUBLISHER: PHAROS MEDIA & PUBLISHING PVT LTD
D-84, Abul Fazal Enclave, New Delhi - 110 025, India
www.pharosmedia.com
info@pharosmedia.com
This book is also available in Hindi & Urdu, whilst the Marathi translation is underway.
In Solidarity with all the victims of Wars, Terror & Genocide.
Feroze Mithiborwala & Kishore Jagtap
AWAMI BHARAT
awamibharat.blogspot.com
'For an National Struggle Against Imperialism & Zionism'
Dear All, Do note - the anger within the US is growing & even supposed well respected leaders like Olmert now stand exposed as war criminals. The sacrifices of the Palestinian people are beginning to now strike at the conscience of the American people. Also the American Jewish community is now joining the anti-Zionist ranks & is increasingly part of the struggle.
Regards
Feroze
27 Bay Area residents disrupt former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's
speech, citing war crimes
San Francisco – More than 25 activists have bought tickets to Israeli
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's speech to the World Affairs Council – currently
underway at the Westin St. Francis Hotel (Union Square) – in order to
vocally disrupt his speech. Inside the auditorium, activists are reading
the names of the children killed in Gaza last winter, publicly charging
Olmert with killing innocent civilians, and displaying banners that read
"Lift the Siege on Gaza" and "War Crimes are Not Free Expression!" Olmert
ordered Israel's brutal attacks on Gaza beginning in late December 2008,
codenamed Operation Cast Lead. Last week, the UN Human Rights Council
passed a resolution endorsing the Goldstone Report, an independent
investigation into the Gaza operation, which found that Israel violated
international law and possibly committed crimes against humanity.
"Israel is an apartheid state guilty of war crimes and its leaders should
not be welcome in San Francisco," said Lisa Nessan, a Jewish resident of
Oakland, who has traveled several times to Israel and Palestine, most
recently in May. "For the past sixty years, under leadership like Olmert's,
Israel has denied Palestinians their basic human rights, built settlements
on their lands, and killed civilians – all to force them from their
homeland.”
A lively protest has also gathered across from the hotel in Union Square,
where about 150 people are carrying signs bearing the names and pictures of
children killed during Operation Cast Lead. Olmert is making several
appearances in the US this month, and has been met with strong protests at
locations including the University of
Chicagoand
Tulane University in New Orleans.
"We join with people around the world who believe that Israel and its
leaders must be held accountable for their actions. Israel killed 1400
people during its attacks on Gaza last winter alone, and many more have died
or suffered from the effects of siege, occupation, and apartheid on their
daily lives," said Monadel Herzallah, a Palestinian activist who lives in
Fairfield and whose 21 year old cousin was killed in Gaza in January.
Organizers also expressed outrage that President Obama has ignored the
findings of the Goldstone Report. The US has pledged more than $3 billion
each year in unrestricted aid to Israel. "Israel’s use of US aid and
military equipment violates our own laws," said Rae Abileah, an organizer
with CODEPINK whose father is Israeli. "Why are we giving aid to a country
that is destroying people's homes and attacking civilians, while our own
nation is struggling with unemployment and underfunded social services?"
Eduardo Cohen of San Francisco sums up the sentiment: "The war crimes in the
Goldstone Report are not an exception, but a reminder that Israel's
apartheid law is itself criminal. We must not only hold Olmert accountable,
but all of Israel's leaders, our own elected officials, and other companies
and individuals that profit from these crimes. Only then can true justice
be reached."
The protest was sponsored by: Arab Resource & Organizing Center (AROC), Bay
Area Campaign to End Israeli Apartheid (BACEIA), CODEPINK Women for Peace,
Friends of Deiribzi'a, Northern California International Solidarity
Movement, Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA), South Bay Mobilization,
Stop AIPAC, CAL Students for Justice in Palestine, US Palestine Communities
Network (USPCN), Bay Area Women in Black.
Updates will be posted live via Twitter at http://twitter.com/ProtestOlmertSF.
Video and/or photos will be available to stream and download.
Regards
Feroze
27 Bay Area residents disrupt former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's
speech, citing war crimes
San Francisco – More than 25 activists have bought tickets to Israeli
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's speech to the World Affairs Council – currently
underway at the Westin St. Francis Hotel (Union Square) – in order to
vocally disrupt his speech. Inside the auditorium, activists are reading
the names of the children killed in Gaza last winter, publicly charging
Olmert with killing innocent civilians, and displaying banners that read
"Lift the Siege on Gaza" and "War Crimes are Not Free Expression!" Olmert
ordered Israel's brutal attacks on Gaza beginning in late December 2008,
codenamed Operation Cast Lead. Last week, the UN Human Rights Council
passed a resolution endorsing the Goldstone Report, an independent
investigation into the Gaza operation, which found that Israel violated
international law and possibly committed crimes against humanity.
"Israel is an apartheid state guilty of war crimes and its leaders should
not be welcome in San Francisco," said Lisa Nessan, a Jewish resident of
Oakland, who has traveled several times to Israel and Palestine, most
recently in May. "For the past sixty years, under leadership like Olmert's,
Israel has denied Palestinians their basic human rights, built settlements
on their lands, and killed civilians – all to force them from their
homeland.”
A lively protest has also gathered across from the hotel in Union Square,
where about 150 people are carrying signs bearing the names and pictures of
children killed during Operation Cast Lead. Olmert is making several
appearances in the US this month, and has been met with strong protests at
locations including the University of
Chicago
Tulane University in New Orleans.
"We join with people around the world who believe that Israel and its
leaders must be held accountable for their actions. Israel killed 1400
people during its attacks on Gaza last winter alone, and many more have died
or suffered from the effects of siege, occupation, and apartheid on their
daily lives," said Monadel Herzallah, a Palestinian activist who lives in
Fairfield and whose 21 year old cousin was killed in Gaza in January.
Organizers also expressed outrage that President Obama has ignored the
findings of the Goldstone Report. The US has pledged more than $3 billion
each year in unrestricted aid to Israel. "Israel’s use of US aid and
military equipment violates our own laws," said Rae Abileah, an organizer
with CODEPINK whose father is Israeli. "Why are we giving aid to a country
that is destroying people's homes and attacking civilians, while our own
nation is struggling with unemployment and underfunded social services?"
Eduardo Cohen of San Francisco sums up the sentiment: "The war crimes in the
Goldstone Report are not an exception, but a reminder that Israel's
apartheid law is itself criminal. We must not only hold Olmert accountable,
but all of Israel's leaders, our own elected officials, and other companies
and individuals that profit from these crimes. Only then can true justice
be reached."
The protest was sponsored by: Arab Resource & Organizing Center (AROC), Bay
Area Campaign to End Israeli Apartheid (BACEIA), CODEPINK Women for Peace,
Friends of Deiribzi'a, Northern California International Solidarity
Movement, Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA), South Bay Mobilization,
Stop AIPAC, CAL Students for Justice in Palestine, US Palestine Communities
Network (USPCN), Bay Area Women in Black.
Updates will be posted live via Twitter at http://twitter.com/ProtestOlmertSF.
Video and/or photos will be available to stream and download.
meeting update
BHARAT BACHAO ANDOLAN
(for a National Struggle against Imperialism & Zionism)
DEAR ALL,
THE 1st ANNIVERSARY OF THE 26/11 MUMBAI TERROR ATTACK WILL SOON BE UPON US. AFTER MUCH DISCUSSION ACROSS THE CITY & THE REST OF THE COUNTRY, IT HAS BEEN PROPOSED THAT WE ORGANIZE A NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON "IMPERIALISM & TERRORISM" ON THE VERY DAY THAT THE ATTACK OCCURED.
THE BASIC OBJECTIVES OF THE CONFERENCE ARE TO:
A) EXPOSE THE POLITICS OF TERROR.
B) UNDOUBTEDLY TERRORISM IS A WEAPON OF IMPERIALISM & WE WILL DRAW OUT THE UNDERLYING & COMPLEX CONNECTIONS BETWEEN IMPERIALISM & TERRORISM AND
C) CREATE A NATIONAL FORUM FOR THE SAME IF THE CONSENSUS EMERGES.
OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS, THESE CONNECTIONS HAVE BECOME FAR MORE OBVIOUS & A CLEAR PATTERN CAN BE DISCERNED - FOR THOSE WHO WISH TO SEE.
THUS WE ARE CALLING FOR A PREPERATORY MEETING AT:
VENUE:
NATIONAL ALLIANCE of PEOPLES' MOVEMENTS, CHEMICAL MAZDOOR SABHA,
HAJI HABIB BLDG, IST FLOOR, OPPOSITE DADAR FIRE BRIGADE, NEAR DADAR STN (EAST).
DATE: 27th OCT '09 (TUESDAY) / TIME: 6-8 pm
(for a National Struggle against Imperialism & Zionism)
DEAR ALL,
THE 1st ANNIVERSARY OF THE 26/11 MUMBAI TERROR ATTACK WILL SOON BE UPON US. AFTER MUCH DISCUSSION ACROSS THE CITY & THE REST OF THE COUNTRY, IT HAS BEEN PROPOSED THAT WE ORGANIZE A NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON "IMPERIALISM & TERRORISM" ON THE VERY DAY THAT THE ATTACK OCCURED.
THE BASIC OBJECTIVES OF THE CONFERENCE ARE TO:
A) EXPOSE THE POLITICS OF TERROR.
B) UNDOUBTEDLY TERRORISM IS A WEAPON OF IMPERIALISM & WE WILL DRAW OUT THE UNDERLYING & COMPLEX CONNECTIONS BETWEEN IMPERIALISM & TERRORISM AND
C) CREATE A NATIONAL FORUM FOR THE SAME IF THE CONSENSUS EMERGES.
OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS, THESE CONNECTIONS HAVE BECOME FAR MORE OBVIOUS & A CLEAR PATTERN CAN BE DISCERNED - FOR THOSE WHO WISH TO SEE.
THUS WE ARE CALLING FOR A PREPERATORY MEETING AT:
VENUE:
NATIONAL ALLIANCE of PEOPLES' MOVEMENTS, CHEMICAL MAZDOOR SABHA,
HAJI HABIB BLDG, IST FLOOR, OPPOSITE DADAR FIRE BRIGADE, NEAR DADAR STN (EAST).
DATE: 27th OCT '09 (TUESDAY) / TIME: 6-8 pm
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
PRESS CONFERENCE
'A W A M I B H A R A T'
"FOR A NATIONAL STRUGGLE AGAINST IMPERIALISM & ZIONISM"
PRESS CONFERENCE
INDIA VOTES AGAINST ISRAEL IN FAVOUR OF THE 'GOLDSTONE REPORT'
ON THE GAZA GENOCIDE AT THE UNHRC.
ISRAEL RESPONDS WITH FALSE TERROR THREATS TO MUMBAI SYNAGOGUES !!
:SPEAKERS:
Comrade Sanjay Singhvi (Trade Union Centre of India, General Secretary) FEROZE MITHIBORWALA (National Convenor - Awami Bharat), S. S. Yadav - (Economist & Dalit Intellectual) & Kishore Jagtap (Ganai Sanskrutik Andolan).
VENUE: PRESS CLUB, AZAD MAIDAN, CST, MUMBAI.
DATE: 21st October '09 (Saturday) / TIME: 3-4pm
In a pathbreaking vote, The government of India voted in favour of a resolution supporting the UNHRC backed 'Goldstone Report' that has clearly accussed Israel of 'delibeartely targeting civilians & of having used excessive force in Gaza.'
The 575-page report concluded that Israel has 'punished & terrorised the civilians in Gaza during its 3 week opeartion - Cast Lead'. The mission also concluded 'that actions amounting to war crimes & possibly in some respects, crimes against humanity were committed by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF)' as well as 'grave breaches of the Geneva Convention'. The Israeli siege & war amounted to 'collective punishment'. The report has accussed Israel of 'shootings of civilians with White Flags, using Palestinians as human shields, deliberate targeting of UN shelters, use of white phosphorous & excessive high-explosion military shells that led to the deaths of 1400 civilians, including 300 children''. This is a clear violation of humanitarian laws & the UNHRC says the report, should refer the case to the International Criminal Court at the Hague.
Thus lies the distinct possibility of the political & military leadership of Israel meeting the fate of Milosevic & his ilk. Therefore in a state of utter panic & anger at the Indian vote, Israel began to issue terror warnings to Israeli tourists, forbading them to visit India. But far more dangerous is the fact that Israel has also stated that 'terrorists could target it's Synagogues in Mumbai'.
This is an extremely dangerous game that Israel continues to play. The Israeli Mosaad has a history of staging false flag terror operations across the world & have even blown up Jewish Synagogues in Baghdad in 1948.
Thus we fear that once again the Mossad will target the Synagogues in Mumbai, as well as stage major terror attacks globally so as to deflect attention away from the Israeli war crimes in Gaza.
We thus appeal to the Government of India & Maharashtra as well as the Mumbai police to guard against the same & moreover provide extremely high security to the Synagogues & other places of worship.
We also again congratulate the GOI for it's vote at the UNHRC & at the coming debate at the UN general assembly, we expect our government to maintain it's principled position in support off the 'Goldstone Reort' & the larger Palestinian cause.
:ORGANIZERS:
ASIF KHAN, RESHMA JAGTAP, SYED IFTIKHAR AHMAD, SAYEED KHAN, AVINASH KAMBLE,
MUNAWAR KHAN, YAVAR KAZI, MUNAWWAR AZAD, GHAZALA AZAD, VILAS GAIKWAD, ARIF KAPADIA, JYOTI BADEKAR & SHADAB SHEIKH
Varsha V V,Chetna Birje (Awami Bharat), Rehan Ansari, Kazim Malik (Jamaat-i-Islami-Hind), Dinu Randive (Senior Journalist), Sudhir Dhawale, Shyam Sonar (Republican Panther), Maulana Milli Rehman (All India Milli Council), (National Minorities Federation), Jagdish Nagarkar, Mulniwasi Mala (Phule-Ambedkari Vichar Manch), Madhav Wagh, Dattatreya Dalvi (OBC Parishad),
Amol Madame (Republican People of India), Harshvardhan Vartak (Marathi Bharti),
Mehmood Parvez Ansari (NEEDS), Pooja Badekar, Tejasvini Bhonkar (Vidyarthi Bharti), Shadab Sheikh (Muslim Intellectual Forum), Valjibhai Virash (Gujrati Intellectual Forum), Harshavardhan Vartak (Hindu Vikasini), Vilas Gaikwad (Jhunzaar - Republican Students Organization),
Christian Panther (Tito Eapen) & Aarti Balekar, Nilesh Pokade (Yuva Sarkar)
----------------------------------------------------------
JAI HIND !!! JAI BHARAT !!
FOR A SOUTH ASIAN UNION !!
ONE ASIA - UNITED ASIA !!
INQUILAB ZINDABAD !!
"FOR A NATIONAL STRUGGLE AGAINST IMPERIALISM & ZIONISM"
PRESS CONFERENCE
INDIA VOTES AGAINST ISRAEL IN FAVOUR OF THE 'GOLDSTONE REPORT'
ON THE GAZA GENOCIDE AT THE UNHRC.
ISRAEL RESPONDS WITH FALSE TERROR THREATS TO MUMBAI SYNAGOGUES !!
:SPEAKERS:
Comrade Sanjay Singhvi (Trade Union Centre of India, General Secretary) FEROZE MITHIBORWALA (National Convenor - Awami Bharat), S. S. Yadav - (Economist & Dalit Intellectual) & Kishore Jagtap (Ganai Sanskrutik Andolan).
VENUE: PRESS CLUB, AZAD MAIDAN, CST, MUMBAI.
DATE: 21st October '09 (Saturday) / TIME: 3-4pm
In a pathbreaking vote, The government of India voted in favour of a resolution supporting the UNHRC backed 'Goldstone Report' that has clearly accussed Israel of 'delibeartely targeting civilians & of having used excessive force in Gaza.'
The 575-page report concluded that Israel has 'punished & terrorised the civilians in Gaza during its 3 week opeartion - Cast Lead'. The mission also concluded 'that actions amounting to war crimes & possibly in some respects, crimes against humanity were committed by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF)' as well as 'grave breaches of the Geneva Convention'. The Israeli siege & war amounted to 'collective punishment'. The report has accussed Israel of 'shootings of civilians with White Flags, using Palestinians as human shields, deliberate targeting of UN shelters, use of white phosphorous & excessive high-explosion military shells that led to the deaths of 1400 civilians, including 300 children''. This is a clear violation of humanitarian laws & the UNHRC says the report, should refer the case to the International Criminal Court at the Hague.
Thus lies the distinct possibility of the political & military leadership of Israel meeting the fate of Milosevic & his ilk. Therefore in a state of utter panic & anger at the Indian vote, Israel began to issue terror warnings to Israeli tourists, forbading them to visit India. But far more dangerous is the fact that Israel has also stated that 'terrorists could target it's Synagogues in Mumbai'.
This is an extremely dangerous game that Israel continues to play. The Israeli Mosaad has a history of staging false flag terror operations across the world & have even blown up Jewish Synagogues in Baghdad in 1948.
Thus we fear that once again the Mossad will target the Synagogues in Mumbai, as well as stage major terror attacks globally so as to deflect attention away from the Israeli war crimes in Gaza.
We thus appeal to the Government of India & Maharashtra as well as the Mumbai police to guard against the same & moreover provide extremely high security to the Synagogues & other places of worship.
We also again congratulate the GOI for it's vote at the UNHRC & at the coming debate at the UN general assembly, we expect our government to maintain it's principled position in support off the 'Goldstone Reort' & the larger Palestinian cause.
:ORGANIZERS:
ASIF KHAN, RESHMA JAGTAP, SYED IFTIKHAR AHMAD, SAYEED KHAN, AVINASH KAMBLE,
MUNAWAR KHAN, YAVAR KAZI, MUNAWWAR AZAD, GHAZALA AZAD, VILAS GAIKWAD, ARIF KAPADIA, JYOTI BADEKAR & SHADAB SHEIKH
Varsha V V,Chetna Birje (Awami Bharat), Rehan Ansari, Kazim Malik (Jamaat-i-Islami-Hind), Dinu Randive (Senior Journalist), Sudhir Dhawale, Shyam Sonar (Republican Panther), Maulana Milli Rehman (All India Milli Council), (National Minorities Federation), Jagdish Nagarkar, Mulniwasi Mala (Phule-Ambedkari Vichar Manch), Madhav Wagh, Dattatreya Dalvi (OBC Parishad),
Amol Madame (Republican People of India), Harshvardhan Vartak (Marathi Bharti),
Mehmood Parvez Ansari (NEEDS), Pooja Badekar, Tejasvini Bhonkar (Vidyarthi Bharti), Shadab Sheikh (Muslim Intellectual Forum), Valjibhai Virash (Gujrati Intellectual Forum), Harshavardhan Vartak (Hindu Vikasini), Vilas Gaikwad (Jhunzaar - Republican Students Organization),
Christian Panther (Tito Eapen) & Aarti Balekar, Nilesh Pokade (Yuva Sarkar)
----------------------------------------------------------
JAI HIND !!! JAI BHARAT !!
FOR A SOUTH ASIAN UNION !!
ONE ASIA - UNITED ASIA !!
INQUILAB ZINDABAD !!
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Goa terror attacked blamed on Sanatan Saunstha by Home Minister
Dear All,
As we had predicted last night itself as soon as the news appeared on the TV screens, it is now clear that it is the Sanathan Saunstha, another off-shoot of the Abhinav Bharat Terror organizations with established links to the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh & the Israeli Mossad, are the ones responsible for the terror attack in Goa.
The terror attack came during the Diwali festivities akin to similar attacks that have occured in Delhi & elsewhere, earlier blamed on the usual suspects. Also the blasts have been timed to counter the Indian vote in favour of the Golsdtone Report, that haactivated the Israeli propaganda machinery & it's terrorists assets & infrastructure.
Thanks & Regards
Feroze & Kishore
Awami Bharat
awamibharat.blogspot.com - do subscribe for free news -
that is true.Red alert in Goa after blast, police search Sanatan Saunstha office
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Red-alert-in-Goa-after-blast-police-search-Sanatan-Saunstha-office/H1-Article1-466318.aspx#
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/india/Margao-blast-Two-detained-death-toll-rises-to-2/articleshow/5134236.cms
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_margao-blast-two-detained_1299898
Two persons were detained on Saturday in connection with the explosion in Margao town in Goa in which a member of a right-wing Hindu group allegedly linked to Malegaon blast accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh was killed and another critically injured.
The blast took place at around 9.30 pm on Friday night when explosives kept in a scooter went off on a busy street in the heart of the town, 30 kms from here.
Goa Home Minister Ravi Naik said police were probing the links of right-wing group Sanatan Saunstha with the blast. .
“The scooter which was carrying the explosives belongs to Saunstha’s disciple Nishad Bakle,” he said.
A man named Melgunda Patil was killed in the blast while another, identified as Yogesh Naik, is undergoing treatment at the Goa Medical College hospital. Police said both belonged to the Saunstha, which is allegedly linked to Pragya Singh.
The Sanatan Saunstha headquarters at Ramnathi in Ponda, 20 kms from Margao, was raided on Friday night following the blast and two persons have been detained from that town in the wee hours of the day, police said. Further details about the detained persons were still awaited.
The blast, which occurred a few metres away from the site of ‘Narkasur’ effigy competition, a ritual held on the eve of Diwali, gutted three vehicles. Police have also found a bag containing a watch and an electric circuit about 20 kms from the explosion site.
As we had predicted last night itself as soon as the news appeared on the TV screens, it is now clear that it is the Sanathan Saunstha, another off-shoot of the Abhinav Bharat Terror organizations with established links to the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh & the Israeli Mossad, are the ones responsible for the terror attack in Goa.
The terror attack came during the Diwali festivities akin to similar attacks that have occured in Delhi & elsewhere, earlier blamed on the usual suspects. Also the blasts have been timed to counter the Indian vote in favour of the Golsdtone Report, that haactivated the Israeli propaganda machinery & it's terrorists assets & infrastructure.
Thanks & Regards
Feroze & Kishore
Awami Bharat
awamibharat.blogspot.com - do subscribe for free news -
that is true.Red alert in Goa after blast, police search Sanatan Saunstha office
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Red-alert-in-Goa-after-blast-police-search-Sanatan-Saunstha-office/H1-Article1-466318.aspx#
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/india/Margao-blast-Two-detained-death-toll-rises-to-2/articleshow/5134236.cms
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_margao-blast-two-detained_1299898
Two persons were detained on Saturday in connection with the explosion in Margao town in Goa in which a member of a right-wing Hindu group allegedly linked to Malegaon blast accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh was killed and another critically injured.
The blast took place at around 9.30 pm on Friday night when explosives kept in a scooter went off on a busy street in the heart of the town, 30 kms from here.
Goa Home Minister Ravi Naik said police were probing the links of right-wing group Sanatan Saunstha with the blast. .
“The scooter which was carrying the explosives belongs to Saunstha’s disciple Nishad Bakle,” he said.
A man named Melgunda Patil was killed in the blast while another, identified as Yogesh Naik, is undergoing treatment at the Goa Medical College hospital. Police said both belonged to the Saunstha, which is allegedly linked to Pragya Singh.
The Sanatan Saunstha headquarters at Ramnathi in Ponda, 20 kms from Margao, was raided on Friday night following the blast and two persons have been detained from that town in the wee hours of the day, police said. Further details about the detained persons were still awaited.
The blast, which occurred a few metres away from the site of ‘Narkasur’ effigy competition, a ritual held on the eve of Diwali, gutted three vehicles. Police have also found a bag containing a watch and an electric circuit about 20 kms from the explosion site.
UN-HRC endorses Goldstone / Statement by Navanethem Pillay - United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
The Israeli blockade on Gaza "constitutes collective punishment of the Gaza population, in violation of international law". - Navanethem Pillay (UN High Commissioner for Human Rights)
Dear All,
This is great news. Finally the UNHRC has adopted the Resolution wherein the vote on the Goldstone Report has been passed, much to the consternation of Obama (the guy who got the Nobel . . . some award), as well as the Netanyahu's & the Gordon Brown's & the Sarkaozy's.
The good news is that those who voted for the resolution included China, Russia, Egypt, India, Jordan, Pakistan, South Africa, Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Ghana, Indonesia, Djibouti, Liberia, Qatar, Senegal, Brazil, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Nigeria and Palestine.
Six countries voted against the report, including US, Italy, Holland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Ukraine.
Among those that abstained were Bosnia, Burkina-Faso, Cameron, Gabon, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Belgium, South Korea, Slovenia and Uruguay. Madagascar and Kyrgyzstan were not present during the vote.
Also the statement by Navanethem Pillay - United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights included below is very clear it it's condemnation of the Israeli Genocidal war & the blockade on Gaza & the Settlements both in the West Bank & East Jerusalem. Ms. N. Pillay has also spoken out against the threat that Israel poses to the Al Aqsa Mosque & the fact that Israel has been debarring Palestinians from even praying at the Mosque.
For me personally the fact that India has voted for the resolution has come as a very pleasant surprise & is a breakthrough for the Palestine solidarity movement in our country & we need to build on this victory. It is very important that we organize a series of meetings across the country to highlight the findings & observations of the 'Goldstone Report'.
The immediate Israeli reaction to the Indian vote was a spate of terror warning that are currently being issued as 'Breaking News' on our TV screens. Israel expects it's synagogues in India to be attacked now. There was also a minor scooter-bomb attack (ala Abhinav Bharat-Mossad) in Goa, where as we all know is a haunt for Israeli soldiers, the Mossad & the Israeli druglords.
This sort of news is only meant to counter the pathbreaking Indian vote at the UN. Also Israel's Mossad is very capable of staging false flag terror attacks on the Synagogues (Iraq 1948), especially the 7 of them which are in Bombay, some of which till date have been looked after by the Muslims of Bombay, as the Jewish community began to leave for Israel. As we approach the 'first anniversary of the 26/11 terror attacks', of which undoubtedly (even by the admission of certain senior police officials in their private conversations) Israel was the biggest beneficiary, this will only become more pronounced.
But for now, we need to focus on the Goldstone Report which has been accepted by the International community, barring the ones that have recieved & conferred the Nobel Peace Prize.
In Solidarity with the International Intifada.
A HAPPY DIWALI TO YOU ALL.
Feroze Mithiborwala
Awami Bharat (National President) / Free Gaza India (National Co-ordinator)
======================================================================================================
UN Human Rights Council endorses Goldstone report
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=232673
Geneva - Ma'an - After listening to about 20 states and 30 nongovernmental organizations, the UN Human Rights Council on Friday adopted the resolution submitted by Palestine by a vote of 25 to six, with 11 abstentions.
The council is made up of 47 members and requires a majority of votes to pass a resolution.
The Palestinian envoy to Geneva, Ibrahim Kraishi, had demanded the UN body pursue criminals "wherever they are and whoever they are."
"The occupying power wants to make it look like it's doing the right thing," he said. "It wants the international community to look as if it's mistaken. But it's not logical. It's not possible for everybody to be wrong at the expense of one power."
"My people will not forgive the international community," Kraishi concluded, if it cannot see fit to pursue investigations against the crimes in Gaza.
The Israeli representative called the report's adoption "a setback for the efforts to revive peace," and said the move to pass the resolution would be "rewarded by terrorism." He reiterated Israel's right to defend itself.
The few Western states that spoke showed concern about why the special session was being called when the report had been on the agenda just two weeks earlier during a regular session of the Human Rights Council.
Deputy US Ambassador to the United Nations Alejandro Wolff called the resolution "regrettable," and said it went "beyond the scope of the Goldstone report." He said the resolution contained elements that should be "discussed within a final-status agreement," including Jerusalem.
Wolff said the report failed to deal adequately with the asymmetrical nature of the confrontation, and the adoption of the resolution could only postpone a lasting peace and deepen the divide between Israel and Palestine.
Six countries voted against the report, including US, Italy, Holland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Ukraine.
Among those that abstained were Bosnia, Burkina-Faso, Cameron, Gabon, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Belgium, South Korea, Slovenia and Uruguay. Madagascar and Kyrgyzstan were not present during the vote.
Those voting yes included China, Russia, Egypt, India, Jordan, Pakistan, South Africa, Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Ghana, Indonesia, Djibouti, Liberia, Qatar, Senegal, Brazil, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Nigeria and Palestine.
The voting was postponed for several hours before the session started. Following the delay, more than 20 states and 30 nongovernmental organizations, including the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Al-Dameer and Adalah addressed the council.
Delay and preambles
The French requested first a short delay for consultations and then a longer two-hour delay, to which Egypt, one of the sponsors of the resolution, objected. Although stating immediately after the Egyptian objection that he heard "no objections" to the French request, the Belgian president said that council would then proceed to a vote.
Finally opening the Friday morning session, the League of Arab States lamented what it termed the continuing violations of human rights and aggression by the government of Israel against the people of Palestine.
Syria, Iran, and Libya associated themselves with the Arab statement and emphasized the necessity, in the Libyan delegate's words, of "continuing to discuss the Goldstone report and look into its recommendations."
The Libyan delegate, whose country had raised the report in the Security Council session held this past Wednesday, also called for the matter to be considered and acted upon by the UN General Assembly.
The Libyan delegate called the draft resolution a "a litmus test" that would prove whether international human rights law creates legal obligations or are mere "slogans that are misused" to accomplish political ends.
A spokesperson for UN Watch, a pro-Israel NGO, claimed Israel had done more than the US or the UK in Iraq or Afghanistan to "safeguard the rights of civilians in the war zone" in Gaza.
A former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, Col. Richard Kemp addressed the UN session and said that based on his knowledge and experience, Israel "did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare."
This was immediately followed by a statement from the Israeli NGO, the Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, stating that based on its long and extensive experience in the Israeli courts, these courts have failed to adequately deal with violations of law by Israeli soldiers. She went on to enumerate the laws and some examples of cases that evidence the failure of the Israel judicial and legislative bodies.
Mustapha Barghouti, speaking for the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, recounted the international crimes that he had witnessed as a doctor in Palestine. He called the Goldstone report a test of the integrity of the UN's concern for human rights and respect for the rule of law.
The deputy permanent representative of Pakistan, speaking on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, then introduced the resolution with an oral amendment for a new paragraph "condemning all targeting of civilians and stressing the urgent need to ensure accountability for all violations of the international human rights law and international humanitarian law to prevent future violations."
The president of council then gave the permanent representative of Israel the floor as a concerned country, who quoted Justice Goldstone as expressing his concern that the draft resolution was too harsh on Israel, stating "this time Justice Goldstone is correct." He continued that Israel, however, did not agree with what Justice Goldstone had said in the report. He ended with an implicit threat by his government to stop cooperating with the council and to sabotage the Middle East peace process.
The Palestinian ambassador then spoke, saying that he "would not use the rostrum of the council to condemn either Hamas or Israel," and plead that "all we want is to ensure that criminals everywhere do not enjoy impunity."
He ended by requesting consensus in the council on the resolution.
The United States made a statement before the vote lamenting the council, for dealing with the report as an urgent manner, instead hoping that the council would delay action on the report. As in his statement delivered during the general debate on the resolution, the US delegate again recalled that more than six months should be given to Israel to investigate the allegations of international crimes.
He did not address the statements by several Israel officials that unequivocally stated that "no Israeli soldier" would be prosecuted because of the allegations made in the report. The US also called for a vote on the resolution stating that it would vote no and calling on other states to join them.
Also speaking before the vote Chile, Brazil, and Argentina generally spoke in support of the resolution, although most expressed dissatisfaction with the way this session had been convened.
Slovenia, Uruguay, Norway, and Mexico stated that while they could not support the draft resolution and would abstain. Several of these states also reiterated their support for the Goldstone report and the human rights of the Palestinian people.
No state joined the United States in announcing it would vote against the resolution.
The resolution
The three-part resolution calls for Israel to cease settlements in East Jerusalem, to allow unhindered access to the Al-Asqa Mosque and for the council to refer the report of the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict to the General Assembly. The omnibus resolution also called for the High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue to report on the situation of human rights in Palestine.
When the vote was finally taken in recorded form at the request of the United States, 25 states voted for the resolution, six voted against, and eleven abstained.
After the resolution was passed, about a dozen states elaborated on their votes. The HRC president then stated he would transmit the resolution "urgently" to the General Assembly.
Finally, the Algerian ambassador challenged the US ambassador to back his oral commitment to making the Human Rights Council a real body of action, by ending the armed conflict in Palestine and taking meaningful action on violations of human rights in Palestine.
Curtis Doebbler contributed to this report.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
xxxxxxxxxx Statement by Ms. Navanethem Pillay United
Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights at the 12th Human Rights
Council Special Session
xxxxxxxxxx
15 October 2009
Mr. President,
Distinguished Members of the Human Rights Council,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory (the OPT) remains of grave concern. There is strong evidence indicating that all parties to the conflict—in different ways and with different effects—have committed and continue to commit serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. Many of these violations have been documented in my report to your last regular session, which I also submit today for your consideration.
Allow me to discuss two issues that require all our attention, namely the situation in East Jerusalem and the continuing blockade of Gaza.
In the past weeks, there have been numerous clashes in and around the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. The stringent restrictions imposed by Israel on Palestinians wishing to enter this Mosque must be lifted in order for members of the Palestinian community to exercise their right to worship.
In East Jerusalem home demolitions continue. My Office has called for an immediate halt to the recent wave of eviction orders and demolitions of Palestinian houses in the occupied territory. OHCHR views these practices as violations of both international humanitarian law and of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Despite condemnation expressed by the international community, the tragedy of losing their homes continues to be inflicted on many Palestinian families.
Excellencies,
Turning now to the situation in Gaza, I wish to express once again my dismay at the continuing blockade that severely undermines the rights and welfare of the population there. The living conditions of Gazans keep deteriorating as a result of restrictions on the import of services and goods, including basic food and fuel supplies. The blockade prevents the delivery of essential building materials and thus hampers the reconstruction of homes and infrastructure destroyed during Israeli military attacks in December 2008 and January 2009. It constitutes collective punishment of the Gaza population, in violation of international law. It must be lifted. Israel must allow the free movement of goods and people into and out of Gaza and between Gaza and the West Bank.
A culture of impunity continues to prevail in the occupied territories and in Israel in relation to violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. I have pointed this out in my report to this Council. The United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, led by Justice Goldstone, made a similar assessment.
Let me take this opportunity to reiterate my support for the recommendations of the Fact Finding Mission, including its call for urgent action to counter impunity. I encourage the Council and the broader international community to give full consideration to the Fact Finding Mission's report. I also wish to underscore the necessity for all parties to carry out impartial, independent, prompt, and effective investigations into reported violations of human rights and humanitarian law in compliance with international standards.
For those in detention, the widespread recourse to military justice systems, which do not meet international standards of due process, remains of grave concern. Due process and the rights of those in any form of detention must be respected at all times.
Mr. President,
Accountability for breaches of international humanitarian law and for human rights violations, as well as respect for human rights, are not obstacles to peace, but rather the preconditions on which trust and, ultimately, a durable peace can be built.
The reactions from victims and concerned people and organizations to the postponement by this Council of its deliberations are compelling evidence that addressing impunity for human rights and international humanitarian law violations is essential to preventing further violence and shoring up the peace process. I encourage all Members to have a constructive role in supporting accountability for serious violations.
In seeking a political solution to the decades-long conflict, the international community must anchor its efforts in international law, in particular international human rights and humanitarian law.
To conclude, all human rights are equal for all human beings, and no party can claim that, in defending or supporting its own population, it is allowed to disavow the rights of others. All parties have an obligation to respect the human rights of their own people, of their own neighbours, of all.
Let me reiterate that respect for human rights is an imperative in building a solid foundation for both justice and peace. I hope you will emphasize this basic principle in your deliberations.
Thank you.
Dear All,
This is great news. Finally the UNHRC has adopted the Resolution wherein the vote on the Goldstone Report has been passed, much to the consternation of Obama (the guy who got the Nobel . . . some award), as well as the Netanyahu's & the Gordon Brown's & the Sarkaozy's.
The good news is that those who voted for the resolution included China, Russia, Egypt, India, Jordan, Pakistan, South Africa, Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Ghana, Indonesia, Djibouti, Liberia, Qatar, Senegal, Brazil, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Nigeria and Palestine.
Six countries voted against the report, including US, Italy, Holland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Ukraine.
Among those that abstained were Bosnia, Burkina-Faso, Cameron, Gabon, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Belgium, South Korea, Slovenia and Uruguay. Madagascar and Kyrgyzstan were not present during the vote.
Also the statement by Navanethem Pillay - United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights included below is very clear it it's condemnation of the Israeli Genocidal war & the blockade on Gaza & the Settlements both in the West Bank & East Jerusalem. Ms. N. Pillay has also spoken out against the threat that Israel poses to the Al Aqsa Mosque & the fact that Israel has been debarring Palestinians from even praying at the Mosque.
For me personally the fact that India has voted for the resolution has come as a very pleasant surprise & is a breakthrough for the Palestine solidarity movement in our country & we need to build on this victory. It is very important that we organize a series of meetings across the country to highlight the findings & observations of the 'Goldstone Report'.
The immediate Israeli reaction to the Indian vote was a spate of terror warning that are currently being issued as 'Breaking News' on our TV screens. Israel expects it's synagogues in India to be attacked now. There was also a minor scooter-bomb attack (ala Abhinav Bharat-Mossad) in Goa, where as we all know is a haunt for Israeli soldiers, the Mossad & the Israeli druglords.
This sort of news is only meant to counter the pathbreaking Indian vote at the UN. Also Israel's Mossad is very capable of staging false flag terror attacks on the Synagogues (Iraq 1948), especially the 7 of them which are in Bombay, some of which till date have been looked after by the Muslims of Bombay, as the Jewish community began to leave for Israel. As we approach the 'first anniversary of the 26/11 terror attacks', of which undoubtedly (even by the admission of certain senior police officials in their private conversations) Israel was the biggest beneficiary, this will only become more pronounced.
But for now, we need to focus on the Goldstone Report which has been accepted by the International community, barring the ones that have recieved & conferred the Nobel Peace Prize.
In Solidarity with the International Intifada.
A HAPPY DIWALI TO YOU ALL.
Feroze Mithiborwala
Awami Bharat (National President) / Free Gaza India (National Co-ordinator)
======================================================================================================
UN Human Rights Council endorses Goldstone report
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=232673
Geneva - Ma'an - After listening to about 20 states and 30 nongovernmental organizations, the UN Human Rights Council on Friday adopted the resolution submitted by Palestine by a vote of 25 to six, with 11 abstentions.
The council is made up of 47 members and requires a majority of votes to pass a resolution.
The Palestinian envoy to Geneva, Ibrahim Kraishi, had demanded the UN body pursue criminals "wherever they are and whoever they are."
"The occupying power wants to make it look like it's doing the right thing," he said. "It wants the international community to look as if it's mistaken. But it's not logical. It's not possible for everybody to be wrong at the expense of one power."
"My people will not forgive the international community," Kraishi concluded, if it cannot see fit to pursue investigations against the crimes in Gaza.
The Israeli representative called the report's adoption "a setback for the efforts to revive peace," and said the move to pass the resolution would be "rewarded by terrorism." He reiterated Israel's right to defend itself.
The few Western states that spoke showed concern about why the special session was being called when the report had been on the agenda just two weeks earlier during a regular session of the Human Rights Council.
Deputy US Ambassador to the United Nations Alejandro Wolff called the resolution "regrettable," and said it went "beyond the scope of the Goldstone report." He said the resolution contained elements that should be "discussed within a final-status agreement," including Jerusalem.
Wolff said the report failed to deal adequately with the asymmetrical nature of the confrontation, and the adoption of the resolution could only postpone a lasting peace and deepen the divide between Israel and Palestine.
Six countries voted against the report, including US, Italy, Holland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Ukraine.
Among those that abstained were Bosnia, Burkina-Faso, Cameron, Gabon, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Belgium, South Korea, Slovenia and Uruguay. Madagascar and Kyrgyzstan were not present during the vote.
Those voting yes included China, Russia, Egypt, India, Jordan, Pakistan, South Africa, Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Ghana, Indonesia, Djibouti, Liberia, Qatar, Senegal, Brazil, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Nigeria and Palestine.
The voting was postponed for several hours before the session started. Following the delay, more than 20 states and 30 nongovernmental organizations, including the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Al-Dameer and Adalah addressed the council.
Delay and preambles
The French requested first a short delay for consultations and then a longer two-hour delay, to which Egypt, one of the sponsors of the resolution, objected. Although stating immediately after the Egyptian objection that he heard "no objections" to the French request, the Belgian president said that council would then proceed to a vote.
Finally opening the Friday morning session, the League of Arab States lamented what it termed the continuing violations of human rights and aggression by the government of Israel against the people of Palestine.
Syria, Iran, and Libya associated themselves with the Arab statement and emphasized the necessity, in the Libyan delegate's words, of "continuing to discuss the Goldstone report and look into its recommendations."
The Libyan delegate, whose country had raised the report in the Security Council session held this past Wednesday, also called for the matter to be considered and acted upon by the UN General Assembly.
The Libyan delegate called the draft resolution a "a litmus test" that would prove whether international human rights law creates legal obligations or are mere "slogans that are misused" to accomplish political ends.
A spokesperson for UN Watch, a pro-Israel NGO, claimed Israel had done more than the US or the UK in Iraq or Afghanistan to "safeguard the rights of civilians in the war zone" in Gaza.
A former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, Col. Richard Kemp addressed the UN session and said that based on his knowledge and experience, Israel "did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare."
This was immediately followed by a statement from the Israeli NGO, the Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, stating that based on its long and extensive experience in the Israeli courts, these courts have failed to adequately deal with violations of law by Israeli soldiers. She went on to enumerate the laws and some examples of cases that evidence the failure of the Israel judicial and legislative bodies.
Mustapha Barghouti, speaking for the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, recounted the international crimes that he had witnessed as a doctor in Palestine. He called the Goldstone report a test of the integrity of the UN's concern for human rights and respect for the rule of law.
The deputy permanent representative of Pakistan, speaking on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, then introduced the resolution with an oral amendment for a new paragraph "condemning all targeting of civilians and stressing the urgent need to ensure accountability for all violations of the international human rights law and international humanitarian law to prevent future violations."
The president of council then gave the permanent representative of Israel the floor as a concerned country, who quoted Justice Goldstone as expressing his concern that the draft resolution was too harsh on Israel, stating "this time Justice Goldstone is correct." He continued that Israel, however, did not agree with what Justice Goldstone had said in the report. He ended with an implicit threat by his government to stop cooperating with the council and to sabotage the Middle East peace process.
The Palestinian ambassador then spoke, saying that he "would not use the rostrum of the council to condemn either Hamas or Israel," and plead that "all we want is to ensure that criminals everywhere do not enjoy impunity."
He ended by requesting consensus in the council on the resolution.
The United States made a statement before the vote lamenting the council, for dealing with the report as an urgent manner, instead hoping that the council would delay action on the report. As in his statement delivered during the general debate on the resolution, the US delegate again recalled that more than six months should be given to Israel to investigate the allegations of international crimes.
He did not address the statements by several Israel officials that unequivocally stated that "no Israeli soldier" would be prosecuted because of the allegations made in the report. The US also called for a vote on the resolution stating that it would vote no and calling on other states to join them.
Also speaking before the vote Chile, Brazil, and Argentina generally spoke in support of the resolution, although most expressed dissatisfaction with the way this session had been convened.
Slovenia, Uruguay, Norway, and Mexico stated that while they could not support the draft resolution and would abstain. Several of these states also reiterated their support for the Goldstone report and the human rights of the Palestinian people.
No state joined the United States in announcing it would vote against the resolution.
The resolution
The three-part resolution calls for Israel to cease settlements in East Jerusalem, to allow unhindered access to the Al-Asqa Mosque and for the council to refer the report of the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict to the General Assembly. The omnibus resolution also called for the High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue to report on the situation of human rights in Palestine.
When the vote was finally taken in recorded form at the request of the United States, 25 states voted for the resolution, six voted against, and eleven abstained.
After the resolution was passed, about a dozen states elaborated on their votes. The HRC president then stated he would transmit the resolution "urgently" to the General Assembly.
Finally, the Algerian ambassador challenged the US ambassador to back his oral commitment to making the Human Rights Council a real body of action, by ending the armed conflict in Palestine and taking meaningful action on violations of human rights in Palestine.
Curtis Doebbler contributed to this report.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
xxxxxxxxxx Statement by Ms. Navanethem Pillay United
Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights at the 12th Human Rights
Council Special Session
xxxxxxxxxx
15 October 2009
Mr. President,
Distinguished Members of the Human Rights Council,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory (the OPT) remains of grave concern. There is strong evidence indicating that all parties to the conflict—in different ways and with different effects—have committed and continue to commit serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. Many of these violations have been documented in my report to your last regular session, which I also submit today for your consideration.
Allow me to discuss two issues that require all our attention, namely the situation in East Jerusalem and the continuing blockade of Gaza.
In the past weeks, there have been numerous clashes in and around the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. The stringent restrictions imposed by Israel on Palestinians wishing to enter this Mosque must be lifted in order for members of the Palestinian community to exercise their right to worship.
In East Jerusalem home demolitions continue. My Office has called for an immediate halt to the recent wave of eviction orders and demolitions of Palestinian houses in the occupied territory. OHCHR views these practices as violations of both international humanitarian law and of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Despite condemnation expressed by the international community, the tragedy of losing their homes continues to be inflicted on many Palestinian families.
Excellencies,
Turning now to the situation in Gaza, I wish to express once again my dismay at the continuing blockade that severely undermines the rights and welfare of the population there. The living conditions of Gazans keep deteriorating as a result of restrictions on the import of services and goods, including basic food and fuel supplies. The blockade prevents the delivery of essential building materials and thus hampers the reconstruction of homes and infrastructure destroyed during Israeli military attacks in December 2008 and January 2009. It constitutes collective punishment of the Gaza population, in violation of international law. It must be lifted. Israel must allow the free movement of goods and people into and out of Gaza and between Gaza and the West Bank.
A culture of impunity continues to prevail in the occupied territories and in Israel in relation to violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. I have pointed this out in my report to this Council. The United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, led by Justice Goldstone, made a similar assessment.
Let me take this opportunity to reiterate my support for the recommendations of the Fact Finding Mission, including its call for urgent action to counter impunity. I encourage the Council and the broader international community to give full consideration to the Fact Finding Mission's report. I also wish to underscore the necessity for all parties to carry out impartial, independent, prompt, and effective investigations into reported violations of human rights and humanitarian law in compliance with international standards.
For those in detention, the widespread recourse to military justice systems, which do not meet international standards of due process, remains of grave concern. Due process and the rights of those in any form of detention must be respected at all times.
Mr. President,
Accountability for breaches of international humanitarian law and for human rights violations, as well as respect for human rights, are not obstacles to peace, but rather the preconditions on which trust and, ultimately, a durable peace can be built.
The reactions from victims and concerned people and organizations to the postponement by this Council of its deliberations are compelling evidence that addressing impunity for human rights and international humanitarian law violations is essential to preventing further violence and shoring up the peace process. I encourage all Members to have a constructive role in supporting accountability for serious violations.
In seeking a political solution to the decades-long conflict, the international community must anchor its efforts in international law, in particular international human rights and humanitarian law.
To conclude, all human rights are equal for all human beings, and no party can claim that, in defending or supporting its own population, it is allowed to disavow the rights of others. All parties have an obligation to respect the human rights of their own people, of their own neighbours, of all.
Let me reiterate that respect for human rights is an imperative in building a solid foundation for both justice and peace. I hope you will emphasize this basic principle in your deliberations.
Thank you.
The Civil War within India against the Triblas
Confronting guns of peace : Bastar faces its worst crisis by Himanshu Kumar
"Salwa Judum (Phase I) resulted in a near civil war that destroyed over 644 villages and displaced 3.5 lakh tribals in one way or the other and filled the lives of tribals with fake encounters, gangrape of tribal women, looting and burning of livestock and belongings of poor tribals, brutal suppression of any resistance or protest has become the order of the day in the name of combating Naxals. This makes us wonder whether they are still bonafide denizens of this country or have they been obliterated as people of India !?"
As I write this critical note on the worst ever crisis undivided Bastar is facing, ambushes and gun battles between para-military,
Salwa Judum and State Police forces and Naxal cadres are being played out in jungles of Dantewada and Bijapur districts of undivided Bastar
in South Chhattisgarh. To understand this crisis one needs to have a brief knowledge of the previous crises that have confronted Bastar. It
must be stated upfront that since historically this region has been a forested, tribal dominated and physically difficult terrain, it has
also been a malgoverned region ! And this malgovernance manifested itself in injustice and denial of rights for the tribals inhabiting
this region with the State eyeing it only for its mineral deposits and forest resources. This somewhere laid the ground for the crisis that
is unfolding here since June 2005.
In June 2005, as part of a larger plan to tighten control over the rich mineral and forest resources of Bastar, the State, backed by
private capital, launched a major offensive on tribals of this region and called it ironically Salwa Judum or peace movement. On the face of
it Salwa Judum was a people’s uprising for peace against Naxal violence but the hidden agenda, as is gradually unfolding, was the
corporate grabbing of resources. The sum total of four years of Salwa Judum has been the internal and forced displacement of more than 3.5
lakh people from their villages, a 30 fold escalation of violence and a 22 time swell in support base and area under control by the very
Naxals whom the Judum aimed at decimating ! But the State never learns from failures – even after unleashing the loosing battle of horrifying
violence on tribals of Bastar in name of Salwa Judum, it has launched a phase two in the name of Operation Green Hunt and Operation Godavari
in Bastar and adjacent districts of Malkangiri (Orissa). This confrontation of Bastar’s tribals with the ‘guns of peace’ will
unleash the worst crisis this region has ever seen or will ever see …. but that is only if remaining tribals ever survive these ‘guns of peace’.
So through this note I am attempting to simply analyse each strategy and act of the State and map its impact on tribals of Bastar and how counterproductively it has benefited the CPI (Maoist) party !
The State launched Salwa Judum in 2005 to counter insurgency by cadres of CPI (Maoist) or Naxalites through civil defense by recruiting and training civilians in ‘armed resistance’
But soon Salwa Judum cadres went beyond the control of para-military and police forces under whom they were supposed to function and began
looting, burning, raping, murdering and kidnapping of tribals and remained beyond any accountability due to political support
The State forcefully evicted tribals from 700 villages and dumped them in 30 odd camps built for them and cordorned by security forces –
it was protecting people from Naxal violence ! It was following the American counter insurgency strategy of ‘draining the water and
killing the fish’ …. State forgot that tribals are not fish and villages are not fish bowls !
But freedom loving and nature-dependent tribals refused to move into camps and fled for fear of being captured, tortured and then deported
to camps – reminds one of the Jewish Holocaust. While a meager 50,000 population shifted to camps, about 50,000 fled to the adjacent
district in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa where they had relatives and clan families and remaining 2.5 lakh people hid deeper in jungles
living a life of fear, hunger and death
Human rights and civil society groups watching over the State’s warfare, challenged its American copy of counter insurgency. And when
they were tried to be silenced, they went up to State High Courts and Indian Supreme Court challenging the notions and strategies of
mitigating Naxal violence and restoring peace
The State retaliated by creating an imaginary divider, obviously through corporate media houses, in the minds of the middle class. If
you are in its camps, you are with the State and if you are in the jungles, then you are Naxalite …. thus declaring the 2.5 lakh tribals
hiding in the jungles as Naxalites and thereby justifying training its guns of peace on them ! And another divider declared anyone supporting
the ‘Naxal tribals’ as Maoist sympathizers or informers and liable to imprisonment and torture under the draconian Public Securities Act. It
unjustly put activists who questioned it behind bars or bulldozed their premises, not even soaring sources of drinking water or simply
diverted them by bribing them with funds, contracts and opportunities for sharing the great wealth created through Salwa Judum !
Indian Supreme Court, hearing out petitioners against Salwa Judum ordered the State to reconsider its civil defense strategy and stop
evicting tribals from villages. Instead it asked the State to launch a rehabilitation drive to resettle tribals, provide them with basic
services and entitlements and asses damages to life and property. This damage assessment was to be followed by compensation and registering
of criminal cases against the offenders, in particular Salwa Judum and para-military forces. This was aimed at cleaning up the mess of Salwa
Judum and starting afresh all attempts at just and democratic governance.
The State responded by blatantly violating the Supreme Court orders,speaking white lies before Court when questioned about its inaction.
It neither attempted rehabilitation efforts nor set up district and State committees to look into damage assessment or filing of cases
against offenders and also it did not make any attempts at rethinking its strategies. Rather it continued its forced evictions, its looting,
burning, rape, kidnap and murder and printed in bold letters its justification of continuing Salwa Judum. In fact it even went a step
further by sabotaging and blocking any civil society attempts at rehabilitation, damage assessment and filing of cases against
offenders. It used the Public Securities Act against volunteers working for the rehabilitation of internally displaced tribals !
Tribals who fled their villages and hid in jungles are still living
nomadic and terrorized lives. In the face of an inhuman onslaught on
them, they clung to the only support they got in the forests …. that
of the Maoists who appeared more human to them than persecuting State
forces ?! Their attempts at seeking justice and dignity as citizens of
this country were met with arrests and abuses. Their faith in the
State dwindled and converted into anger and despair. It was therefore
natural for them to pick up their traditional weapons in their
self-defence because the State had left no option before them
How did the State respond ? Whenever tribals came seeking justice
through democratic and legal means, their FIRs were not registered,
their court cases were dismissed without a hearing and they were
arrested for being Naxalites. And any sympathetic judge or officer to
the tribal cause was either sent on forced leave or transferred out.
No one was ready to listen …. not even local mediapersons who
benefited from State dole outs of contracts, advertisements and
general patronage. National media too ignored the Bastar question or
made half-hearted attempts at covering truth because they were
bankrolled by corporates eyeing the mineral and forest resources of
Bastar ! How could they let the cat out of the bag and lock out
opportunities of profiteering ? Tribals were isolated and rendered
helpless
In such a complex situation of denial and injustice, the State has
been expecting tribals to show loyalty to it, abide by its laws and
support it in restoring peace. These expectations could be justified
and binding on tribals had the State shown respect for the same
virtues !
The State talks of loyalty when it has itself distrusted its own
tribal citizens and branded them Naxals when they have come seeking
justice at its doors … State talks of abiding by its laws when it has
itself made a mockery of its own laws – holding Gram Sabhas at gun
point to coerce tribals into giving away their lands to mining
corporations, subverting laws protecting the tribals’ rights to land
and forests as stated in PESA, disrespecting Supreme Court’s orders to
rehabilitate villages, deliver entitlements and services, co-opting
judiciary, executive and legislature to ratify and justify violence
and terror by its forces and so on. In fact the State has been
attacking its poor to secure the interests of the rich and still it
expects the poor to abide by, put faith in it and support it ? There
are thousands of cases where the law of the land has been bent
backwards to accommodate corporate interests but when it comes to
tribals State puts on false pretence of legal systems and democracy !
The State wants tribals to help it in restoring peace – but when did
the State believe that peace was possible without justice or that
tribals could make peace with guns firing around them – does the State
believe that tribals will confront its guns of peace without first
arming themselves in their self-defence ? And what peace is the State
talking of restoring – had it wanted peace it would have allowed
rehabilitation, it would have allowed the nation to know the truth of
Bastar, it would have respected its laws and would have adhered to the
democratic governance systems it has put in place ??
Despite all that I have stated above (not that people in the State do
not know what I have stated ?), the State has launched its second
Salwa Judum through its strategic military operations called Green
Hunt (hunting whom ?) and Godavari. But what will be the net impact of
this Salwa Judum II ? The same, if not worse. The crisis will just
deepen, the tribals will get further terrorized, Naxals will further
consolidate their support base and area under control and voices of
sanity among civil society and human rights groups will further get
silenced and decimated. This military offensive will only isolate the
tribals more and they will begin to look upon every non-tribal as an
aggressor. And do we believe that in such a situation peace and
democracy can prevail ? Thus military operation will simply push
democracy further away and endanger the Indian socio-political system.
Thus, as tribals continue resisting corporate grab of land and
resources in the garb of Salwa Judum and Operation Green Hunt, State
repression will just rise manifold. One must remember that it is not
as if repression never happened but it has got heightened with dash of
corporates to set up mining and industrial units while the great
global market goes booming. Corporates are just making hay while the
sun is shining and all this at expenses of the State ! And Governments
have also readily complied by disposing off their socialist agenda to
follow routes tread by private capital. And to make this a reality,
these proxy wars are being fought on tribal territory.
But who really will be targeted ? Not Naxals who are deft at guerilla
warfare and will escape bullets of Salwa Judum and para military
forces. It will be the tribals who will be caught in the crossfire.
Salwa Judum (Phase I) resulted in a near civil war that destroyed over 644 villages and displaced 3.5 lakh tribals in one way or the other and filled the lives of tribals with fake encounters, gangrape of tribal women, looting and burning of livestock and belongings of poor tribals, brutal suppression of any resistance or protest has become the order of the day in the name of combating Naxals. This makes us wonder whether they are still bonafide denizens of this country or
have they been obliterated as people of India !?
We have gone to villages to understand the truth behind encounters,
have interviewed dozens of tribal women gangraped or enslaved for
months by Salwa Judum and para military forces and witnessed the total
demolition of my house and office premises because we dared to expose
these acts of violence through several cases filed in Chhattisgarh
High Court. Is this the democracy and tribal development our
Governments want us to espouse? I shudder to think what will be the
outcome of Salwa Judum (Phase II) …….. yet another fake encounters,
yet more gangrapes and yet more souls gone down fighting injustice and
repression in the name of peace and democracy ?
But for how long are tribals going to bear the brunt of a brutal and
inhuman police force? For how long will tribals stand in the crossfire
between Naxals, a militarized State and a demonized police? For how
long will middle class ‘bhadralok’ remain silent spectators to State’s
colonization of tribal territory to subsidize urban growth in the name
of ‘tribal development‘ ? And for how long will we look on helplessly
as tribals get butchered, raped and exterminated? We believe that some
day the tribal specter will rise and fall heavily on those who repress
loot and pauperize them. But who will get sacrificed and who will
survive? The fittest … as Darwin eulogized evolution? The question is
who is fitter – you and me who enjoy privileges of a subsidized
consumer culture or tribals whom we have hanged giving them the name
of savage, backward and poor ? I guess we all know the answers …. but
don’t want to articulate it, preferring to ignore it exists. But we
cannot so this and so we strive to call the State’s bluff and turn
every stone in our path in the attempt to bring justice, peace,
dignity and democracy into Bastar so that we never have to confront
the guns of peace !
Himanshu Kumar
Vanvasi Chetna Ashram
Dantewada
vcadantewada@ gmail.com
Mobile – 09425260031
"Salwa Judum (Phase I) resulted in a near civil war that destroyed over 644 villages and displaced 3.5 lakh tribals in one way or the other and filled the lives of tribals with fake encounters, gangrape of tribal women, looting and burning of livestock and belongings of poor tribals, brutal suppression of any resistance or protest has become the order of the day in the name of combating Naxals. This makes us wonder whether they are still bonafide denizens of this country or have they been obliterated as people of India !?"
As I write this critical note on the worst ever crisis undivided Bastar is facing, ambushes and gun battles between para-military,
Salwa Judum and State Police forces and Naxal cadres are being played out in jungles of Dantewada and Bijapur districts of undivided Bastar
in South Chhattisgarh. To understand this crisis one needs to have a brief knowledge of the previous crises that have confronted Bastar. It
must be stated upfront that since historically this region has been a forested, tribal dominated and physically difficult terrain, it has
also been a malgoverned region ! And this malgovernance manifested itself in injustice and denial of rights for the tribals inhabiting
this region with the State eyeing it only for its mineral deposits and forest resources. This somewhere laid the ground for the crisis that
is unfolding here since June 2005.
In June 2005, as part of a larger plan to tighten control over the rich mineral and forest resources of Bastar, the State, backed by
private capital, launched a major offensive on tribals of this region and called it ironically Salwa Judum or peace movement. On the face of
it Salwa Judum was a people’s uprising for peace against Naxal violence but the hidden agenda, as is gradually unfolding, was the
corporate grabbing of resources. The sum total of four years of Salwa Judum has been the internal and forced displacement of more than 3.5
lakh people from their villages, a 30 fold escalation of violence and a 22 time swell in support base and area under control by the very
Naxals whom the Judum aimed at decimating ! But the State never learns from failures – even after unleashing the loosing battle of horrifying
violence on tribals of Bastar in name of Salwa Judum, it has launched a phase two in the name of Operation Green Hunt and Operation Godavari
in Bastar and adjacent districts of Malkangiri (Orissa). This confrontation of Bastar’s tribals with the ‘guns of peace’ will
unleash the worst crisis this region has ever seen or will ever see …. but that is only if remaining tribals ever survive these ‘guns of peace’.
So through this note I am attempting to simply analyse each strategy and act of the State and map its impact on tribals of Bastar and how counterproductively it has benefited the CPI (Maoist) party !
The State launched Salwa Judum in 2005 to counter insurgency by cadres of CPI (Maoist) or Naxalites through civil defense by recruiting and training civilians in ‘armed resistance’
But soon Salwa Judum cadres went beyond the control of para-military and police forces under whom they were supposed to function and began
looting, burning, raping, murdering and kidnapping of tribals and remained beyond any accountability due to political support
The State forcefully evicted tribals from 700 villages and dumped them in 30 odd camps built for them and cordorned by security forces –
it was protecting people from Naxal violence ! It was following the American counter insurgency strategy of ‘draining the water and
killing the fish’ …. State forgot that tribals are not fish and villages are not fish bowls !
But freedom loving and nature-dependent tribals refused to move into camps and fled for fear of being captured, tortured and then deported
to camps – reminds one of the Jewish Holocaust. While a meager 50,000 population shifted to camps, about 50,000 fled to the adjacent
district in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa where they had relatives and clan families and remaining 2.5 lakh people hid deeper in jungles
living a life of fear, hunger and death
Human rights and civil society groups watching over the State’s warfare, challenged its American copy of counter insurgency. And when
they were tried to be silenced, they went up to State High Courts and Indian Supreme Court challenging the notions and strategies of
mitigating Naxal violence and restoring peace
The State retaliated by creating an imaginary divider, obviously through corporate media houses, in the minds of the middle class. If
you are in its camps, you are with the State and if you are in the jungles, then you are Naxalite …. thus declaring the 2.5 lakh tribals
hiding in the jungles as Naxalites and thereby justifying training its guns of peace on them ! And another divider declared anyone supporting
the ‘Naxal tribals’ as Maoist sympathizers or informers and liable to imprisonment and torture under the draconian Public Securities Act. It
unjustly put activists who questioned it behind bars or bulldozed their premises, not even soaring sources of drinking water or simply
diverted them by bribing them with funds, contracts and opportunities for sharing the great wealth created through Salwa Judum !
Indian Supreme Court, hearing out petitioners against Salwa Judum ordered the State to reconsider its civil defense strategy and stop
evicting tribals from villages. Instead it asked the State to launch a rehabilitation drive to resettle tribals, provide them with basic
services and entitlements and asses damages to life and property. This damage assessment was to be followed by compensation and registering
of criminal cases against the offenders, in particular Salwa Judum and para-military forces. This was aimed at cleaning up the mess of Salwa
Judum and starting afresh all attempts at just and democratic governance.
The State responded by blatantly violating the Supreme Court orders,speaking white lies before Court when questioned about its inaction.
It neither attempted rehabilitation efforts nor set up district and State committees to look into damage assessment or filing of cases
against offenders and also it did not make any attempts at rethinking its strategies. Rather it continued its forced evictions, its looting,
burning, rape, kidnap and murder and printed in bold letters its justification of continuing Salwa Judum. In fact it even went a step
further by sabotaging and blocking any civil society attempts at rehabilitation, damage assessment and filing of cases against
offenders. It used the Public Securities Act against volunteers working for the rehabilitation of internally displaced tribals !
Tribals who fled their villages and hid in jungles are still living
nomadic and terrorized lives. In the face of an inhuman onslaught on
them, they clung to the only support they got in the forests …. that
of the Maoists who appeared more human to them than persecuting State
forces ?! Their attempts at seeking justice and dignity as citizens of
this country were met with arrests and abuses. Their faith in the
State dwindled and converted into anger and despair. It was therefore
natural for them to pick up their traditional weapons in their
self-defence because the State had left no option before them
How did the State respond ? Whenever tribals came seeking justice
through democratic and legal means, their FIRs were not registered,
their court cases were dismissed without a hearing and they were
arrested for being Naxalites. And any sympathetic judge or officer to
the tribal cause was either sent on forced leave or transferred out.
No one was ready to listen …. not even local mediapersons who
benefited from State dole outs of contracts, advertisements and
general patronage. National media too ignored the Bastar question or
made half-hearted attempts at covering truth because they were
bankrolled by corporates eyeing the mineral and forest resources of
Bastar ! How could they let the cat out of the bag and lock out
opportunities of profiteering ? Tribals were isolated and rendered
helpless
In such a complex situation of denial and injustice, the State has
been expecting tribals to show loyalty to it, abide by its laws and
support it in restoring peace. These expectations could be justified
and binding on tribals had the State shown respect for the same
virtues !
The State talks of loyalty when it has itself distrusted its own
tribal citizens and branded them Naxals when they have come seeking
justice at its doors … State talks of abiding by its laws when it has
itself made a mockery of its own laws – holding Gram Sabhas at gun
point to coerce tribals into giving away their lands to mining
corporations, subverting laws protecting the tribals’ rights to land
and forests as stated in PESA, disrespecting Supreme Court’s orders to
rehabilitate villages, deliver entitlements and services, co-opting
judiciary, executive and legislature to ratify and justify violence
and terror by its forces and so on. In fact the State has been
attacking its poor to secure the interests of the rich and still it
expects the poor to abide by, put faith in it and support it ? There
are thousands of cases where the law of the land has been bent
backwards to accommodate corporate interests but when it comes to
tribals State puts on false pretence of legal systems and democracy !
The State wants tribals to help it in restoring peace – but when did
the State believe that peace was possible without justice or that
tribals could make peace with guns firing around them – does the State
believe that tribals will confront its guns of peace without first
arming themselves in their self-defence ? And what peace is the State
talking of restoring – had it wanted peace it would have allowed
rehabilitation, it would have allowed the nation to know the truth of
Bastar, it would have respected its laws and would have adhered to the
democratic governance systems it has put in place ??
Despite all that I have stated above (not that people in the State do
not know what I have stated ?), the State has launched its second
Salwa Judum through its strategic military operations called Green
Hunt (hunting whom ?) and Godavari. But what will be the net impact of
this Salwa Judum II ? The same, if not worse. The crisis will just
deepen, the tribals will get further terrorized, Naxals will further
consolidate their support base and area under control and voices of
sanity among civil society and human rights groups will further get
silenced and decimated. This military offensive will only isolate the
tribals more and they will begin to look upon every non-tribal as an
aggressor. And do we believe that in such a situation peace and
democracy can prevail ? Thus military operation will simply push
democracy further away and endanger the Indian socio-political system.
Thus, as tribals continue resisting corporate grab of land and
resources in the garb of Salwa Judum and Operation Green Hunt, State
repression will just rise manifold. One must remember that it is not
as if repression never happened but it has got heightened with dash of
corporates to set up mining and industrial units while the great
global market goes booming. Corporates are just making hay while the
sun is shining and all this at expenses of the State ! And Governments
have also readily complied by disposing off their socialist agenda to
follow routes tread by private capital. And to make this a reality,
these proxy wars are being fought on tribal territory.
But who really will be targeted ? Not Naxals who are deft at guerilla
warfare and will escape bullets of Salwa Judum and para military
forces. It will be the tribals who will be caught in the crossfire.
Salwa Judum (Phase I) resulted in a near civil war that destroyed over 644 villages and displaced 3.5 lakh tribals in one way or the other and filled the lives of tribals with fake encounters, gangrape of tribal women, looting and burning of livestock and belongings of poor tribals, brutal suppression of any resistance or protest has become the order of the day in the name of combating Naxals. This makes us wonder whether they are still bonafide denizens of this country or
have they been obliterated as people of India !?
We have gone to villages to understand the truth behind encounters,
have interviewed dozens of tribal women gangraped or enslaved for
months by Salwa Judum and para military forces and witnessed the total
demolition of my house and office premises because we dared to expose
these acts of violence through several cases filed in Chhattisgarh
High Court. Is this the democracy and tribal development our
Governments want us to espouse? I shudder to think what will be the
outcome of Salwa Judum (Phase II) …….. yet another fake encounters,
yet more gangrapes and yet more souls gone down fighting injustice and
repression in the name of peace and democracy ?
But for how long are tribals going to bear the brunt of a brutal and
inhuman police force? For how long will tribals stand in the crossfire
between Naxals, a militarized State and a demonized police? For how
long will middle class ‘bhadralok’ remain silent spectators to State’s
colonization of tribal territory to subsidize urban growth in the name
of ‘tribal development‘ ? And for how long will we look on helplessly
as tribals get butchered, raped and exterminated? We believe that some
day the tribal specter will rise and fall heavily on those who repress
loot and pauperize them. But who will get sacrificed and who will
survive? The fittest … as Darwin eulogized evolution? The question is
who is fitter – you and me who enjoy privileges of a subsidized
consumer culture or tribals whom we have hanged giving them the name
of savage, backward and poor ? I guess we all know the answers …. but
don’t want to articulate it, preferring to ignore it exists. But we
cannot so this and so we strive to call the State’s bluff and turn
every stone in our path in the attempt to bring justice, peace,
dignity and democracy into Bastar so that we never have to confront
the guns of peace !
Himanshu Kumar
Vanvasi Chetna Ashram
Dantewada
vcadantewada@ gmail.com
Mobile – 09425260031
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