Activists disrupt Donald Rumsfeld speaking event in Plano, Texas

 
On the evening of November 18th I was slated to take part in a protest; the event was organized in response to Donald Rumsfeld’s book-talk in Plano, Texas at a local college campus and was established in a matter of days on short notice. Hours before the talk was set to begin I was emailed by local activists who were interested in coordinating a mic-check disruption during Donald Rumsfeld’s talk; the idea being that we would echo a series of facts describing Rumsfeld’s role in the non-existent weapons of mass destruction propaganda, the push for the occupation of Iraq which therein resulted in over 1M Iraqi deaths. Our aim was to call for a citizen’s arrest and for Mr.Rumsfeld to be held accountable for his role in a laundry-list of war-crimes against the people of Iraq (eg. On September 15, 2001, in a meeting at Camp David, Rumsfeld suggested an attack on Iraq because he was deeply worried about the availability of “good targets in Afghanistan.”) Rumsfeld not only supported the occupation of Iraq, he also sanctioned the use of torture and cruel, inhuman treatment, all of which breach the Geneva Conventions, and thus constitute war crimes. Bear in mind also that this is Fallujah Week.  Read more here

 
And now more news from Today in Palestine…
 
Land, property, resources theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Apartheid
 

Imneizil demolitions: “Hanging between the ground and the sky”
The solar panels in the village  of Imneizil, near Hebron, became effective almost two years ago,  improved the living conditions for about four hundred inhabitants in the village, but recently  residents learned that the Israeli army issued a demolition order for the solar power installations. “When the electricity came, we could have light at night. So right now, we could sit with our friends in the night, and we can see each other,” said  25-year-old Nihad who has seen her life change since electricity become available in Imneizil. She talks about how the school now has access to computers and printers, and how radio and TV have connected the village to the rest of the world. Now they have washing machines, and refrigerators that make it possible to store food.

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — UNESCO could help restore the Palestinian Authority’s cultural presence in Jerusalem, the president of the Palestinian Committee for Education Culture and Science, Yahya Yakhlaf, said last week in Ramallah. But Yakhlaf, who used to be Minister of Culture and is a well known Palestinian novelist, stressed that Palestinian ambitions within UNESCO would remain merely cultural. “But we can achieve political goals through cultural means,” he added.
 

Report: “Palestinian Village Condemned To Live In Darkness”
After the “Seeba” Spanish organization managed to install Solar Panels at a Palestinian village in the West Bank, known as Amenzil, and for the first time its residents managed to have electricity, Israel issued a military injunction ordering the residents to remove the Panels.

 
Study: “Palestinian Businessmen Invested $2.5 B. In Settlements, Israel, In 2010”
An academic study conducted by a Palestinian researcher from the West Bank city of Bethlehem, revealed that the amount of investments by Palestinian businessmen men, in Israeli settlements, and in Israel itself, in 2010, mounts to $2.5 Billion.

 
In addition to simply expanding illegal settlements in East Jerusalem, the Israeli government is ousting peaceful civil society institutions, apparently as part of a “Judiazation project in occupied Jerusalem,” as Rashad Shtayyeh, the activities coordinator at the Civic Coalition to Defend Palestinians’ Rights in Jerusalem told Electronic Intifada.

A few days ago, I posted a description of my recent visit to Jerusalem, and I was accused of anti-semitism by one irate reader. I guess that’s an occupational hazard whenever you write about Israel in anything other than glowing terms, although I did take the trouble to mention the things I admire about the country as well as some downsides.  My sister – who recently visited Palestine and wrote to UK Prime Minister David Cameron protesting about the treatment of villagers in the occupied territories by the settlers – sent me an interesting link to an Israeli site the other day.Machsomwatch.org is run by a group of female Israeli activists who send daily reports from the numerous checkpoints between Israel and Palestine.

 

The definition of chutzpah: Jerusalem mosque expanding illegally
Municipality fails to stop construction at Mount of Olives mosque despite evidence it has expanded to State-owned land. ‘PM’s Office much stricter when it comes to Jewish construction,’ Public Complaints Bureau chief says.

Israeli Violence / Aggression / Provocations 
 

More than fifty settlers at midnight Thursday stormed the villages of Aqraba and Awdla, to the south east of the northern West Bank city of Nablus and wreaked havoc in both villages.

 
In the southern West Bank city of Hebron, seven activists from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) were arrested documenting a citywide march by hundreds of Israeli settlers who inhabit the small, illegal settlement inside the old city. 
 
Suspect in Peace Now Price Tag Attacks Arrested, Confesses; Court Grants Family Gag on Reporting His Identity, Richard Silverstein

 
 

Israeli media are reporting (Hebrew) that the police have arrested a suspect in the Peace Now price tag attacks and death threats against Hagit Ofran.  The suspect has confessed to his role in phoning bomb threats to the Peace Now office and vandalizing Ofran’s apartment building with graffiti wishing her dead.  But the family has secured a gag preventing identification of the suspect.  When he appeared in court, the father, who is a “senior civil servant” according to Haaretz, threatened the reporters and photographers there with jail if they published anything.  He then secured a gag from the court likely with the help of the suspect’s mother, who is a senior police official.

 
Political Detainees / Other Prisoner News
 
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Israeli forces have closed down a workshop used to forge documents in a village near Nablus in the occupied West Bank, officials said Thursday. Authorities believe the lab was being used to forge documents in Aqraba village, said Luba Sumari, an Israeli police spokeswoman. Israel’s Shin Bet general security service assisted police in the investigation. 
 

Relatives of a captive from Gaza told that he is suffering cancer
Israeli occupation authorities informed the family of Palestinian captive Hazem Miqdad from the Gaza Strip that their son suffers from cancer of the liver.

 
Prisoner given wrong injection moved to hospital
Palestinian prisoner Riyadh Al-Amor, 42, was given wrong injection at the Ramle prison hospital that worsened his health condition, human rights sources said on Saturday.

Nael al-Barghouthi, the veteran Palestinian prisoner freed in the recent prisoner exchange deal, has married fellow ex-detainee Iman Nafi’ in a ceremony held on Tuesday evening. At the head of a large procession, Mr al-Barghouthi made his way to the bride’s family home in the village of Na’lin where the marriage ceremony took place. The joyous occasion was attended by both families and friends of the bride and groom, including a number of other freed prisoners. The formal proposal was made by ex-prisoner Walid Hudli on behalf of al-Barghouthi; the bride’s family proudly announced their acceptance.
 
Gaza
 

“Most students are from very poor families. We have a lot of children like this; it comes from living in poverty, under bombardment, with a lack of medicine. Children lose their hearing as a result of untreated illnesses. These children, especially the girls, find themselves written off. There’s no education or jobs for them. But our school provides training, and an opportunity for social contacts and life prospects. Just look at their faces!”

 

Israel-Gaza tensions: Pilot program to expand Gaza exports falters
Israel promised earlier this year to allow Gaza to export garments and furniture after a five-year blockade. But delays are damaging sales – and hope.

 
MADRID, November 19, 2011 (WAFA) –Real Madrid football player, Cristiano Ronaldo, donated the proceedings from the sale of his sport shoes to the Real Madrid Charity Foundation to support Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip, the Arabic site of the Real ‘Classico’ network said Saturday. It said that Ronaldo has given away his sport shoes to the foundation, which will sell it in a public auction and will contribute the money to support Palestinian children schools in Gaza. The network said that the auction started at 700 euros before Ronaldo’s shoes were finally sold for 2400 euros.
 
Solidarity / Activism / Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions
 
Op-Ed in The Tennessean Calls for Solidarity with Palestinian Activists
The story of Palestinian nonviolent resistance is one that is rarely told in mainstream US media. On Tuesday, Nashville’s largest daily newspaper, The Tennessean, published an op-ed, “Two roads to justice meet in Palestine,” by Nour Joudah. Joudah’s op-ed brings attention to the Palestinian Freedom Riders and gives voice to the struggle of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. She highlights the similarities of Palestinian nonviolent resistance to Israeli apartheid with the stories she heard growing up in Tennessee about African-Americans’ nonviolent protests throughout the Jim Crow South. For Joudah, the common theme tying these struggles together is the brave men and women who stand in defiance of gross discrimination and injustice. She ends her piece with a call to action, “To those who stood against injustice in the 1960s and who are proud of that moment in history, the time has come to raise your voices again, to demand justice for Palestinians. The ride to freedom is long and ever-evolving. But it is a ride that knows no geographical boundaries — whether in the Jim Crow South or Occupied Palestine.”
 

Al-Azhar to announce “al-Quds Document” sunday

A statement by Al-Azhar said that Dr. Ahmad al-Tayyeb will announce on Sunday “The Quds Document” which has been coordinated with the popular campaign against Judaization of Jerusalem.

 
Lebanese concert promoter Jihad el-Murr has filed a lawsuit against four groups over a boycott campaign they organized against the band Placebo in June 2010.
 
Restriction of Media
 
PARIS, November 19, 2011 (WAFA) – The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders Saturday expressed concern over what it described as a new round of Israeli arrests of Palestinian journalists in Jerusalem and the West Bank in the past few days. It said in a press release that the arrests suggest that “a tougher line is being taken towards the Palestinian media.”
 

National Press Club suspends journalist for asking Saudi prince a tough question, Ali Abunimah
Journalist Sam Husseini asks a Saudi prince a tough question and gets booted out of the National Press Club, showing the limits of what the “free” media are allowed to do in Washington.

While there are myriad stories recounting the assault against democracy in Israel, none is more important evident than the emasculation of the Israeli press.  While it has always been subject to censorship on matters related to national security, the pressure against honest, courageous reporting has mounted to alarming proportions.  In this light, one of Israel’s best known reporters with a decidedly right-wing (but anti-Bibi) slant, Ben Caspit, wrote this in today’s column:
 
Political Developments / Diplomacy
 
Hamas PM adviser states that Hamas will support Palestinian efforts to receive UN recognition; says goal of all Palestinian factions is a state on 1967 borders with capital in Jerusalem.
 

PA must end security coordination with Israel now
The PA should immediately revoke the scandalous Economic Protocol of Paris which made the very lifeline of the Palestinian economy subject to Israel’s whims and haphazard, sadistic fantasies.

 
US threatens to cut off aid to PA if national reconciliation materialises
Zionist news sources said that the US administration sent a secret message to Ramallah which says that any plans to achieve unity with Hamas in the Gaza Strip means the immediate freezing of US funds.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7c4xxaCkBnEL7le94nWgsM%2fhbgt4UrWrsHU%2f7jqCeXMHcjdDbQOTaSzkqDYTLdbpTrGpys8s%2bee7QDLKGUZKSMMY9creBgCnDdCSdbjZEeIg%3d
 
CAIRO, November 19, 2011 (WAFA) – On the eve of a meeting between President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Mishaal in Cairo, France expressed support for Palestinian reconciliation, the Egyptian Middle East News Agency reported late Friday. It quoted French foreign ministry spokesman, Bernard Valero, as saying that his country always encourages unity between the Palestinians and cooperation among them. He said France constantly encourages Palestinians to be united, stressing that reconciliation in the interest of the Palestinian people.
 
ROCKLAND, Maine (Ma’an) — The Palestinian leadership in Ramallah showed inflexibility over Israel’s settlement program and will have to make compromises for the sake of peace, the Obama administration’s former Mideast envoy has said. George Mitchell, who resigned in May as US President Barack Obama’s special envoy for the Middle East peace process, said Tuesday at the University of Maine that the Palestinian side placed too much emphasis on settlements.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=437598
 
Other Palestine News
 
BETHLEHEM, November 19, 2011 (WAFA) – Yhe United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) awarded Palestine the Vettor Giusti best tourism posters award, the Ministry of Tourism said Saturday. UNWTO Secretary-General Taleb Rifai announced during the organization’s general assembly meeting that the winning poster went to the Palestinian tourism ministry’s poster on Jericho, which said “Jericho: City of the Moon – 10.000 years of Civilization.”
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18050
 
Other Mideast News
 

11 Iraqis Killed On Prayer Day
At least 11 Iraqis were killed in the latest violence. Another 23 were wounded as well. Demonstrations for and against granting region status to more areas in Iraq took place in Samarra and Baghdad. Also, the fate of Camp Ashraf residents could soon be decided.

 

US Military Denies Shooting Iraqi Civilians; 12 Dead Across Iraq
Overall, at least 12 Iraqis were killed and 24 more were wounded in the latest reports of violence. However, U.S. military officials are denying one incident in which witnesses claim that U.S. soldiers fired on civilians in Yusufiya. In political news, one lawmaker came out in support of semi-autonomy for Basra, while the vice president denounced plans to expand Iraq’s prison system.

 

Bahrain: Teen killed when police car hit oil slick (AP)
AP – Bahraini authorities said Saturday a police vehicle skidded on an oil slick poured by anti-government protesters, killing a teenage demonstrator.

 

Thousands rally in Bahrain against island’s rulers (AP)
AP – Thousands of Shiite-led protesters calling for greater rights have streamed into an area outside the capital Manama.

Cairo protests spread to cities of Alexandria, Aswan and Suez, leaving at least two demonstrators dead.

 
Saif al-Islam captured in Libya’s south 
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, captured after three months on the run, he was disguised as a Tuareq hiding within the Tuareg near Ubari. He was reportedly scared and down to his last few thousand dollars in cash when he was detained in Libya’s southern desert. It has emerged that revolutionary forces from the town of Zintan had been pursuing his trail for some days, and finally caught up with his convoy at around 4am local time, Saturday. Gaddafi was then taken by air back to Zintan, pending transfer to Tripoli. Al Jazeera’s Anita McNaught reports.

 

U.S. Group Offered to Aid Qaddafi, Documents Show
Confidential documents show how a colorful partnership of Americans saw lucrative possibilities in the power struggle that would end Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s erratic reign.

 
A Palestinian human rights group opened a fact-finding mission in Libya on Thursday, tasked with investigating abuses by the country’s late leader Moammar Gadhafi, the new Libyan government and NATO forces operating in the country.
 

Kuwait’s ruler orders ‘stricter’ security
Sheikh Sabah denounces protests as a threat to “security and stability” after brief storming of parliament chamber.

 

UAE: Activists Planning Hunger Strike
Five activists jailed seven months ago for “publicly insulting” United Arab Emirates officials plan to begin a hunger strike on November 13, 2011. The activists said the hunger strike will continue until authorities release them unconditionally and end all judicial proceedings against them. (Abu Dhabi) – Five activists jailed seven months ago for “publicly insulting” United Arab Emirates officials plan to begin a hunger strike on November 13, 2011, Human Rights Watch said today. The activists said the hunger strike will continue until authorities release them unconditionally and end all judicial proceedings against them.

 

Hundreds protest in Jordanian capital
About 1,000 protesters, including Islamists, leftists and youth groups, call for political reform and end to corruption.

 

Russia is sending its warships to Syrian waters in a move aimed at preventing any foreign attacks against Syrian territories.

 
JERUSALEM (AFP) — Dozens of protesters gathered in front of the US consulate in west Jerusalem on Saturday in support of the embattled Syrian regime of Bashar Assad. Palestinian protesters waved Syrian flags and held portraits of Assad, an Agence France-Presse photographer reported.  Israeli police and security guards deployed outside the consulate did not intervene.
 
Iran
 

Ex-Inspector Rejects IAEA Iran Bomb Test Chamber Claim, Gareth Porter
IPS — A former inspector for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repudiated its major new claim that Iran built an explosives chamber to test components of a nuclear weapon and carry out a simulated nuclear explosion.

 
U.S. Defense Secretary: Iran strike will hurt world economy
Panetta speaks on eve of talks with Defense Minister Ehud Barak in Canada; says world should focus on diplomatic pressure, sanctions over Iran nuclear program.
 
Flynt appeared on Al Jazeera’s Inside Story, in a segment called “A Gas OPEC in the Making?”, click on the picture above or the link here, to discuss the Gas Exporting Countries’ Forum in Doha.  Although the conversation was not focused on Iran per se, Flynt made some points that are relevant to thinking about the Islamic Republic’s strategic position and America’s Iran policy. 
 
Alex Fishman: U.S. Sees in Ahmadinejad Possible Partner for Nuclear Deal, If Not…Expect War in 2012, Richard Silverstein
Today, there are two interesting reports with divergent points of view about U.S. strategy toward Iran. But each is worth noting. First, readers will know the respect in which I hold Alex Fishman, the military correspondent of Yediot. He was the only mainstream journalist willing to take on the IDF’s lies about the Eilat attack and call them what they were. He also wrote a compelling story about the tension between the U.S. and Iran regarding how to proceed with Iran.

When new recruits join British Petroleum (BP) they are fed romantic tales about how the company came into being. William Knox D’Arcy, a Devon man, studied law and, after emigrating to Australia, made a fortune from the Mount Morgan gold-mining operations in the 1880s. Returning to England he agreed to fund a search for oil and minerals in Persia and negotiations with the Mozaffar al-Din Shah Qajar began in 1901. A sixty-year concession to explore for oil gave D’Arcy the oil rights to the entire country except for five provinces in northern Iran. The Iranian government would receive 16 percent of the oil company’s annual profits.
 

Israel casually threatens to attack civilian targets in Iran, As’ad AbuKhalil
“Israel intends to electronic warfare on Iranian civilian infrastructures in the event of a strike against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities, The Daily Beast reported on Thursday, amid ongoing fallout from a damning report by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog.” If Iran or an Arab country threatens to attack civilian targets in Israel, the clown prosecutor at the ICC would yell and scream and call for the NATO to initiate bombings immediately.  

 
Analysis / Op-ed
 

‘Proud Zionist’ tweets that assassinating Obama is ‘tempting’, Philip Weiss

Hours after Pennsylvania State Police arrested a 21-year-old Idaho man for allegedly firing a semi-automatic rifle at the White House, the top student official for the College Republicans at the University of Texas tweeted that the idea of assassinating President Obama was “tempting.”

https://mondoweiss.net/2011/11/proud-zionist-tweets-that-assassinating-obama-is-tempting.html

 
Lauren Pierce, the University of Texas Republican student leader who described assassinating Obama as “tempting” in a tweet Wednesday, had planned to attend a conference of the rightwing pro-Israel group StandWithUs last weekend.
 
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic congresswoman from Florida, was appointed to the Democratic National Committee chair in part to reach out to Jewish donors. And true to the job description, she has leaped on the Republican debate of last weekend at which Rick Perry and Mitt Romney suggested they would start all countries at zero in foreign aid.
French Media: Covering or Covering Up Israeli Crimes?
The rocket attack did not make the first page in any of the prominent newspapers in France, nor did it receive any coverage from news programs.
 

Critics of Palestine solidarity within Occupy Wall Street rely on distortion, Alex Kane

“New York is different,” Riham Barghouti, a well-known member of Adalah-NY: The New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel, told me last weekend at the end of a boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) information action at Zucotti Park, where Occupy Wall Street (OWS) has taken root. She was referring to the fact that asserting Palestinian rights at Occupy Wall Street, or using the Occupy movement’s language when talking about Palestine, has engendered some controversy in New York City, as opposed to in Boston or California.
 
Patients may be dying, human rights activists may be terrorized, but the people of Israel live.
 

Condi Rice was ‘shocked’ by ‘ethnic purity’ claims for Jewish state, Philip Weiss

Why doesn’t the mainstream press pick up the important stuff? Yes, and why does our website exist? Norman Finkelstein has been reading former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s White House memoir: No Higher Honor. He turned to page 282, and a passage involving Rice’s meeting with then Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. Livni said that Israel could not honor UN Resolution 194, the right of return for Palestinian refugees, under a peace deal because that would threaten the Jewishness of the country.
 
Israel’s political class long ago sold Jerusalem off to the ultra-Orthodox. The deal was legal and democratic, if Israelis don’t wake up, it won’t stop in the capital.
 

Israeli Democracy Fades to Black, Lawrence Davidson

Part I: Bad Movies: Have you seen those old time movies notable for their endings? The cowboy is seen riding into the sunset or the lovers are reunited, etc. And then comes the end – the screen dramatically fades to black. Most of these movies are pretty bad. The stories are predictable, the acting melodramatic and directing inept. Well, this genre seems to be making a comeback, but off the screen rather than on it. In this revival, the Israelis are leading the way.
 

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Gosh. Those useful idiots, that made up a majority of the audience, laughing at Rumsfled’s crappy “jokes”, clapping happily ,when the security draggs protestors out of the room. What a sorry bunch of humanoids. I’ve never been to Texas ,and after seeing that , I’ m not plannning either.
What a bunch of brainless herd.

I’m waiting for Witty to come around here and label these protest actions as “fascist,” too. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go to his profile and type in “fascist” or “fascism” into the search box.)

Good thing we have the state police there to suppress this dissent — this form of “fascism” — and preserve Mr. Rumsfeld’s free speech rights to spread lies unopposed. That’s what Wittyesque “democracy” looks like.

I was the second one heard in the video (“you belong in the Hague..you have no right to solicit your book…etc)

I had to stand in line with these poor ignorant souls; braying livestock is what I would compare them to.

“Breach the Geneva Conventions”? The Geneva Conventions are for liberals. Rumsfeld & co. breached the 1997 US War Crimes Act, which prescribes the death penalty for a war crime in which anyone was killed!

Go protesters

“you belong in the Hague” Along with Douglas Feith, Cheney, “mushroom cloud” Rice, Wolftowitz, Bush, Bolton Woolsey, Ledeen, Bill Kristol etc etc etc

But instead in the US (and that audience) you are broadcast on MSM new programs, travel from speaking engagements, have you and your books promoted on Jon Stewarts Daily show while being thrown softball questions. Yep in the US powerful war criminals are accepted and promoted.