(Photo: US Boat to Gaza)
Palestine solidarity activists and human rights lawyers are decrying a Congressional bill that would investigate whether organizations involved in last summer's thwarted flotilla to Gaza should be designated as "terrorist" groups. Critics of the House of Representatives bill see it as the latest in a decades-long effort to intimidate Palestine solidarity activists in the United States.
Introduced to the House on October 6, the bill seeks to:
direct the Secretary of State to submit a report on whether any support organization that participated in the planning or execution of the recent Gaza flotilla attempt should be designated as a foreign terrorist organization
The legislation also demands that the State Department, in the same document, report on
Any actions taken by the Department of State to express support and gratitude for the principled stance taken by the Government of Greece to prevent the recent Gaza flotilla attempt to violate Israel’s lawful blockade of Gaza.
"It’s a tool of intimidation," said Maria LaHood, a senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights who is involved with efforts to hold Israel accountable for flotilla-related human rights abuses. "It's just one of the many ways in which there is an effort to suppress advocacy and dissent by international solidarity activists trying to advocate for Palestinian human rights."
The bill is the first piece of legislation to target activists involved in the flotillas to Gaza aiming to break the blockade. But it is hardly the first time the U.S. government at large has threatened to bring legal action against activists involved with sending boats to Gaza. As the second Freedom Flotilla tried (and failed) to depart from Greece and head to Gaza by sea, the Obama administration repeatedly threatened to prosecute American activists involved by using the prohibition on "material support" to terrorists law. This was despite the fact that the cargo on the U.S. boat going to Gaza--3,000 letters addressed to the people of Gaza--was carefully chosen to avoid running afoul of the material support law.
Leading the charge to target groups like the US Boat to Gaza, which organized the American flagged Audacity of Hope, is Representative Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. In a statement posted to his website, Bilirakis explained:
Israel has been the victim of over 10,000 rockets launched by Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Gaza. The United Nations agrees that the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza is legal and in accordance with international law. Any illegal attempts to provide aid and comfort to these bad actors must be investigated.
Bilirakis was one of 81 elected officials to visit Israel on an ethically-questionable trip paid for by an AIPAC-connected group last summer. In total, there are 15 co-sponsors to the bill, which is currently in the House committees on foreign affairs and the judiciary. At least 3 of the 15--Reps. Carolyn Maloney, Michael Grimm and Peter Roskam--also went on the AIPAC-connected trip. Phone calls to and messages left at the Bilirakis office, as well as calls made to co-sponsor Rep. Eliot Engel's office, were not returned.
The Congressional members certainly didn't learn facts on the trip to Israel. Their bill is laden with errors, as the Electronic Intifada's Ali Abunimah, who first reported on the bill, points out. The bill claims, among other falsehoods, that the Turkish organization IHH and the international Free Gaza Movement have been designated "terrorist" organizations by the CIA and the Department of Treasury. Abunimah writes:
The bill provides no evidence to back up these sensational and propagandistic claims. IHH is in fact not designated as a “terrorist” organization by any US government agencies. The claims in the bill are not based on US government or intelligence reports, but appear to come directly from unsubstantiated claims published by an Israeli propaganda and advocacy outfit calling itself the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center. This group is closely connected with Israel’s military and intelligence establishments, the main sources for sometimes laughable anti-flotilla incitement and propaganda.
MJ Rosenberg, a blogger and former AIPAC staff member who is now highly critical of the group, explained in an e-mail to Mondoweiss that this bill was most likely written by the powerful Israel lobby group. Rosenberg said:
I worked on Capitol Hill from 1975 through 1982 and again from 1986-1995. Plus, I worked at AIPAC from 1982-1986. In my experience every piece of legislation originating from Members of Congress that relate to Israel and/or Palestine are drafted by AIPAC and then handed out to favored members to call their own...In particular, any bill originating from a member of the House Foreign Affars Committee (which is packed with AIPAC cutouts) originates with and is drafted by AIPAC.
CCR lawyer LaHood said that Congress was hypocritical to introduce this bill when they have ignored Israel's killing of U.S. citizen Furkan Dogan, who was shot at point-blank range on the Turkish Mavi Marmara ship during the 2010 Israeli Navy raid on the flotilla.
"Their focus is on whether human rights defenders should be labeled terrorists, rather than trying to hold Israel accountable for its human rights violations," said LaHood.
In an phone interview, Felice Gelman, an organizer with the US Boat to Gaza, also denounced the bill.
"This is just an effort to silence people who are trying to act in good conscience for justice," said Gelman. "It’s all part and parcel of the willingness of people in Congress to support attacks on civilians."
There is another effort to accuse Palestine human rights supporters of “terrorism”.
It has just been reported that the Ann Arbor, Michigan bus authority is rejecting efforts to place “Boycott Israel” ads on their buses.
Now an Ann Arbor Human Rights Commissioner, Neal Elyakin, is accusing the ad’s supporters of supporting “the terrorists in Israel who target civilian buses”.
Commissioner Elyakin’s comment is under the article entitled “AATA rejects anti-Israel bus ad”, at link to annarbor.com
It is not known whether Ann Arbor’s Mayor will ask for Elyakin’s resignation.
This Alex Kane article is an excellent example of how positive the recent changes @MW seem to be. Solid journalism that certainly is prime material for an essay at, uh, Daily Kos, for instance.
Having materially supported two of the flotilla efforts so far, and looking forward to doing that again, I do hope this bill gets nowhere.
A suggestion: A lot of blogs that moderate comments seem to be able to put them up in real time, or close to it. Is MW shooting for something akin to that? Waiting quarter hours to hours for comments to appear stifles meaningful discussion, even when done for prudent reasons.
Who has had a comment here at MondoW take that long?
Part of the reason some of my comments have waited very long times may be my time zone – Alaska time. Also, I teach evening courses and often rehearse until 10:00 pm local time. When I get home it is the middle of the night, NYC time.
The Department of Homeland Security is also involved in suppressing the various occupy movements in the US. It is only a matter of time for the DHS to identify OWS or the UC Davis students as terrorists. I do know that the UC Davis police department that was responsible for last Friday’s attack against the students have been recipients of DHS grants and that the campus police were sent to special seminars in suppressing terrorism.
Our lawmakers have been appointed by a foreign country who wish to destroy whatever is left of our democracy right under the noses of the masses. This is absolutely ridiculous… The US government is occupied by terrorists. Their congressional leader is Eric Cantor… Eric Cantor should be tried for treason but he won’t because they control the court system. Everytime I see that man’s face I….. shouldn’t finish this sentence
“Once you permit those who are convinced of their own superior rightness to censor and silence and suppress those who hold contrary opinions, just at that moment the citadel has been surrendered.” — Archibald Macleish
Savage by Rafeef Ziadah
link to youtube.com
When the terrorism tag fails they’ll call activists child molesters.
But it won’t work. Back to the original sin of colonialism.
Better for Israel to stop the madness now while there is still something to save.
A jumped-up little anti-democratic country, which practices censorship, terrorism and spreads lies drafts bills and gets its agents to vote for them in a country which has a constitution that it openly mocks and exploits for its political and ideological programme. And the US hardly even murmurs a protest.
link to haaretz.com
link to news.antiwar.com
The bill says: Since the beginning of 2010, Israel has provided over 100,000 tons of aid to the people living in Gaza.
First, as Electronic Intifada points out correctly, Israel does not “provide aid” at all, the UN does. Possibly Israel passes it through.
Second, how much is that?
- The bill is dated October 6, 2011, so “since the beginning of 2010″ is 21 months.
- 100,000 tons = 100,000,000 kilo (or 2,200,000,000 lb).
- For 1,600,000 persons. That is 62.5 kilo per person over the period.
- Or: 3.0 kilo (6.6 lb) per person per month.
- Or: 100 gram (3.5 oz) per day per person over 21 months.
Thank you, Israel.
And why do they need the pitiful subsistence rations Israel grudgingly and cruelly drip feeds them? Oh yes, because Israel has laid siege to them, walled them in, and fought ruthlessly to block any trade, free passage of goods and medicines, not to mention destroying their infrastructure, farming land and industry. They need aid, and far, far more than Israel allows (and frequently prevents from other countries), because of Israel’s savage incarceration of them. And now the torturers have the gall to boast of the pitifully small amount of essential goods they let through to the prisoners, and additionally interfere in another country’s democratic processes to brand as ‘terrorists’ anyone who helps the people that Israel has deliberately made some of the poorest and isolated on the planet. Vulture terrorism.
Israel provides aid to Gaza? That’s a laughable claim. But it’s not surprising seeing as the US Congress is Israeli occupied territory.
The aid comes from humanitarian aid organizations including the UN.
Israel’s role in all this can be likened to a hand that controls a water valve. That hand doesn’t supply the water, it merely controls and restricts its flow.
But, not only does Israel NOT provide any aid, it actually charges a passage fee on every truck for which it permits entry into Gaza.
I believe that figure is around $800 per truck. Israel calls it a processing fee or some such nonsense. So who said misery doesn’t pay? It does.
And then Israel goes and bombs food processing factories, farms and livestock in Gaza.
Avi, based on the population of Gaza – more than 1 million, how significant are Israeli “bombings”, ie how many farms and livestock were destroyed”? After all, you imply that Israel wants to benefit from the blockade, so there must be a substantive destruction, doesnt it?
Also, how do you explain this link to aljazeera.com – Al-Jazz: Israel allows limited Gaza exports?
Yes it is substantive. If you took the time to pull your head out of Mark Regev’s behind, you would realize that Israel’s routine destruction of Palestinian civilian infrastructure has been a series of well-documented war crimes. Even the Goldstone report covered this, including the destruction of dairy processing factories, and thousands of chickens.
Why do you put “bombings” in quotes? Are you denying that Israel is bombing Gaza?
Why does Israel get to country the Palestinian economy? Isn’t “Jews run the economy” something of an anti-Semitic trope? But you want that to be real, asherpat?
“But you want that to be real, asherpat?” My first priority is to survive in the piece of land that you and others on this blog yearn to force us out-of.
And for this, asherpat, you are willing to go how far? Further than lying? Further than bombing children?
What profiteth a man if he gain his Zionist homeland but loseth his soul?
Nazi’s Gestapo, SS forces and army ,also wanted “to survive” on the “piece of land ” taken by them.
You know what, they were not wildly popular, likeable in Europe, ( and all over the world).
Do you happen to know why??
Were the people wrong that they did not like them?
Or mabye they should just let them continue ,what they were doing for their ‘survival”???
Avi, let’s both pull our heads from wherever they are, and talk numbers. What proportion of Palestinian civilian infrastructure was destroyed by Israel? a. 1% b. 10% c. 50% or c. 100%?
Surely, you must know these numbers, you are so sure that “it is substantive”, what are they?
30% of the agricultural land is off-limits for starters. With electricity intermittent, and 100% of the water fouled, 100% of the ability of Gaza to develop its infrastructure is diminished perpetually, artificially, and externally.
100% of the oil and natural gas resources, off-limits. Fisheries reduced by 80% (which means that catch is reduced by 95%), and fishing in the remaining 20% is harassed mercilessly. 90% of agricultural exports rot in the warehouse, due to Israeli whimsy.
But you typically ask about “destroyed,” as if that is the whole measure of the issue/crime.
But here’s destroyed:
50%+ of the power generation.
100% of waste water treatment
50% of the cement production.
25% of the egg production.
90% of (already diminished) industrial output/employment.
23,000 homes destroyed or damaged (150K people affected, 10%).
Not to mention .1% of the people killed, and 1% wounded/maimed.
All in 2 stinking weeks. It was a level of wanton destruction and death that the modern world has rarely seen. And all for what? 6 rockets a month in the 5 months leading up to the slaughter. And I would remind you that the rocket levels are the same now as they were prior to Cast Lead, so the answer to the “For What?” question is: For absolutely zero result (other than the destruction itself), even from a highly-skewed Israeli political/security perspective.
You embarrass yourself with these feeble little “gotcha” games.
asherpat, you don’t know what infrastructure is, do you?
When you are to land on an airstrip, with only 1% of that strip unavailable will make the pilot go elsewhere. Choose any 10% of your own house’s structure to be destroyed, and you’ll be living outside, crying with the babywolves.
Now take a look at the numbers ritzl serves you.
rizl, has your family been subjected ever to “And all for what? 6 rockets a month in the 5 months leading up to the slaughter”?
Wud you raise a family in a town being subjected to a rocket every few days? No? Why, and what wud you do to stop it?
Cry me a river, asherpat. People who expropriate the land of others don’t deserve to live in peaceful tranquillity. Think of it as your price tag.
Potshead2 – But who exactly “expropriated” whose land? As far as I know, Jews predate Arabs in this land by about two millenia.
so we will continue to cry a river but stay in our land, despite all your(atheistic) prayers.
As far as I know, Jews predate Arabs in this land by about two millenia.
The historical and DNA evidence say that the Jews never went anywhere. They learned to speak Arabic and converted to other religions, including Christianity and Islam. So there is no evidence that you pre-date the Palestinians at all.
When I was stationed in Berlin with the U.S. Air Force at the time the Baader-Meinhof gang was laying bombs at U.S. military bases, I put it out of my mind and went on with my duties.
When I was growing up in the Bronx in the 1960′s as the crime rate exploded, I went on with my life, even though the crime — including murders — got worse and worse.
Even though I am sure the risks in both cases were considerably greater than they were in Israel at the time of Cast Lead, or are now.
well than you need to read some better books. historical evidence has arabs in palestine just as long as jews. how the hell you came to that 2 millenia figure is baffling.
asherpat, Would I raise my family in a country with 19. century colonial morality, that propels it to continually steal someone else’s land and water, humiliates and colonizes a subjugated and captive people? If I did, would I simply ignore all that and complain, “Why me?” Nope to both.
The whole picture is that settlers and the IDF, Shin Bet, et. al. routinely and daily humiliate, kill, and yes, terrorize the Palestinians. Far, far in excess of six rockets a month. Perhaps someone here more plugged in to the press can correct me, but iirc, just this year about 20-30 Gazans have been killed for gleening wreckage in the “buffer” zones (more than 3X the people killed in Israel in ALL the rocket attacks, ever). A lot of them kids. And you expect rockets to stop – completely? How beyond bizarre.
Given that whole picture, your question about rocket attacks as “cassus belli” should be moot. A normal, “I live in a country that does all this to another people so that I can live comfortably, western-style” person would, imo, at the VERY least reflect and recognize that the rockets will never stop (as a simple human response to what Israel does) and consider it an endurable and understandable outcome for Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians. Perchance to seek ways not heretofore tried to change that and bring peace.
What would I do to stop the six? I’d bloody well take the voluntary 97% reduction that Hamas implemented and start talking to them to find out ways, peaceful ways, to change behavior to nix the residual 3%. That means exploring, and FINDING, a solution when given an opening, that doesn’t involve killing people’s kids and destroying their livelihoods at every freakin’ turn, for no apparent reason.
The only reason for Israel NOT to do so is, as far as I can tell, is simple, blind, racist hatred of Palestinians concluding that “they” will never change, in the absence of all evidence to the contrary. (Well, that and a complete lack of consequences for doing so, and $3B in military aid TO do so, oh, and the zero-sum need for Palestinian resources to maintain your lifestyle). That contrived hatred seems to preclude all non-death problem solving techniques on the part of Israel.
It’s hard for me, and so many others here, to understand how you can be so completely blinkered in your views on solving the conflict. But it is what it is, and until you and many others like you start to realize that it’s not just about you, Israel will continue to encourage, and suffer from, rocket attacks and other forms of “deligitimization” and personal discomfort.
No amount of “Cast Lead” can change that. In fact it only exacerbates in the extreme, “your” problem.
I read recently about how aid money for Palestine materials and etc is actually not only passed thru by Israel for high delivery charges, but that most of goods are bought from Israel. It gave figures on how much money this put into the Israel economy but I can’t remember what it was.
Yup. It’s a lucrative Occupation industry. Not only that, but the money used to buy the stuff in Israel passes through Israeli banks, as do Palestinian taxes.
Simone Daud wrote an excellent article here on the complete integration of Israeli banking with the Occupation, and the benefits Israel derives from that integration ($Bs of loose cash to play with).
American
It’s all in repression beyond exploitation -the political economy of Israel’s occupation by Shir Hever.
The OPT are Israel’s second largest export market- USD 2.3 bn in 2007. Israeli companies supply food to international aid agencies. It is cheaper to buy food from Israeli companies than other Palestinian towns because Israel controls the roads. And it is more expensive to import from neighbouring countries because Israel controls the customs and would levy charges that make it uneconomic to do so. At least 45% of aid money flows back to Israel.
I can’t wait until it all falls apart. Israel is evil.
How many tons of food do Israeli Jews go through in a year ?
And what is that as a multiple of what Israel lets into Gaza ?
Malnutrition among children in Gaza
link to youtube.com
Hungry children of Warsaw Ghetto
link to youtube.com
Israelis just don’t see that, Dum
They don’t see the link between this
http://fotoforum.gazeta.pl/zdjecie/2874258,2,21,Robert-Capa–Ruins-of-the-Warsaw-Ghetto.html
And what they do in Gaza.
Everyone else does
Well, our representatives are innumerate. If only they were illiterate as well and refrained from writing stupid bills…
Ponder that: what if State Department submits a report that organizations in question, however vile, do not qualify as foreign terrorist organizations?
Perhaps Congress could pass a resolution declaring them to be foreign terrorist organizations, but some smart alek who did not think about long term consequences and so Congress should not pass Bills of Attainder. Founding Fathers were well meaning idiots and now we have to live with it.
Since we are the land of free and brave, we should be free and brave to ignore any such laws and increase the demonstrations on the streets.
This is the 23d hour to save the freedom we still have left after the continuos flow of laws to curtail it.
It seems together wirh Israel we had toward a dictatorial regime, where individuals do not count and have nothing to say.
This “bill” is another Proof how much American Congress is glued to Israel.
It is not only pitiful , it is a very dangerous thing for the whole country of the USA and all people living in it.
It should be called by the right name. Treason. Treachery.
Why all the fuss of this article? Surely, if there are no terrorist ties of the flotilla participants, they have nothing to hide, and will come-out even stronger, innit?
If Israel has nothing to hide about its “nuclear capabilities” ,why does it refuse to have international inspections.??
If Israel has HAVE NOTHING to hide, it should happily agree to it, and it supposed to come out clean as a whistle.
No, not really?? Why??
What… are…their…”nuclear…..capabilites”????
None of you damn bussiness, dumvitaestpesest.
Pehaps more interestingly, there was an international treaty negotiated to tighten provisions about biological and chemical weapons, which envisaged some inspection procedure. USA scuttled the project because — imagine that — other countries could demand inspections in American labs. Which apparently are full of highly interesting items, which in turn is NONE OF YOUR DAMN BUSINESS.
Well if Jews have nothing to hide, then surely they don’t mind if the government searches synagogues without warrants, right? Oh, and how about if the government compiles a list of Jews for safekeeping. Yeah, that sort of thing has never been abused in the past, has it?
Living in Israel, asherpat, you should be better-informed on the ways of a police state.
Potsheard, have you been to Israel? Perhaps you shud try and see for yourself. You may be surprised – apparently Tel Aviv is the favourite destination of German gays. Sincerely, not implying that you are gay, but if you are, Israel is probably better for you that countries that you sympathise-with in their desire to extinguish the only country where gays can openly express their sexuality. Come to think of it, it is the only country in the ME where ANYONE can freely express their sexuality (unless you dont mind being lashed or jailed for, say sexual activity on the beach, or the like).
In Tel Aviv bars you will likely meet many citizens of what we call “the State of Tel Aviv” who will mostly agree with you about the evilness of Israel, though I can’t guarantee that they will be very sober. You will also meet a lot of Palestinian gays who strangely prefer the Israeli “police state” to their own enlightened environment. Let me know how you get by.
You get the Non Sequitur Award for the day, asherpat
You see Potsherd2, you can insult me, the Arabs and the Iranians will keep on killing our soldiers and (intentionally) our children. There are many setbacks for us along the road for us. We know it. Each time we wil have a setback, people like you will rejoice and we will cry. But our victory is in surviving on our land, and that my foe, we will do.
Surely, if there are no terrorist ties of the flotilla participants, they have nothing to hide
This House Rule “was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker”. It will, in all likelihood, die of loneliness there. Do you think the sponsors really want a report from the State Department which says the flotilla participants from this country aren’t members of a foreign terror organization?
Even the nut cases in Kahane Chai v. Department of State (2006) managed to petition the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to settle the disputed material facts in their case. See the Digest of United States Practice in International Law starting at pdf page 191 link to state.gov
Do you really think these US representatives want to open Pandora’s box and invite a Court to hear arguments regarding the legality of Israel’s blockade or this legislation? If you do, then you’re delusional. This looks more like the way our political flacks libel political dissenters to me, i.e. political theater.
Interesting story at Antiwar? about the Israelis shutting down a peace station in the West Bank because it could affect monetary interests of Israelis.Remember the anti democratic law they passed recently about suing over economic damage to Israel?
And keep your chin up,Dr.Ron Paul is starting to heat up,look at the critiques of the interview Shieffer gave at CBS.com.Overwhelming attacks on the integrity of both Shieffer and CBS in trying to impugn the last patriots patriotism.
And yeah,they are all traitors,from Cantor,to Berman to Pete Islam basher King,another scumbag sellout to Israel.
And as the occupied congress continues to attempt to keep Americans in the dark about Israel’s crimes they march us ever close to a military confrontation with Iran
link to raceforiran.com
It seems the sad truth is that under the Patriot Act, anyone at anytime can be designated a terrorist, or terrorist accomplice, or terrorist sympathizer for any reason.
Mission-effin’-accomplished.
“Terrorist” is getting to be as empty an accusation as “anti-Semitic” has become.
Good point. Well said.