Google, Facebook and Murdoch to Celebrate Israel’s 60th
by Dave April 10, 2008, 9:16 am
Filed under:
Conference,
Israel's 60th Birthday,
May,
Who's Celebrating?,
World Leaders | Tags:
facebook,
google,
Guest List,
Mark Zuckerman,
Mikhail Gorbachev,
Sergey Brinn,
Tony BlairNew media and old are combining to celebrate 60 years since the nakba (the catastrophe). Its also worth noting the new ‘peace’ envoy to the middle east – Tony Bliar – will be joining them.
Wryly amusing that he’s supposed to be bringing peace to the region yet can see no problem with celebrating the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
Read Peres’s guest list below (from Ynet News)
AP: President Shimon Peres said Wednesday that the festivities marking Israel’s 60th birthday and including top personalities from around the world will open with a tribute to Israel’s staunchest ally, the United States.“After 60 years we want to stand up and say ‘thank you America,’” Peres said in an interview with the Associated Press.
The May 13-15 conference will be attended by President George W. Bush and Barbra Streisand singing the Jewish prayer Avinu Malkeinu (Our Father Our King), which Peres described as “unbelievably beautiful.”
(more…)
Angela Merkel addresses the Knesset
by Dave
The following analysis on Chancellor Merkel’s speech to the Knesset is from the Electronic Intifada.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s historic speech to the Israeli Knesset on 18 March 2008 has been almost universally applauded, and has been described by Charlotte Knobloch, President of the Central Council of German Jews, as having “opened a new chapter in the relationship between Israel and Germany.”
Given the huge influence of Germany within the European Union, it is imperative to subject Merkel’s speech to a close reading and to question the assumptions implicit both in the speech itself and in the German media response to it.
Having expressed Germans’ “shame” for the Holocaust, she goes on to point out that “while we are speaking here, thousands of people are living in fear and terror of Hamas’s rocket-attacks and terrorism.” Her clumsy choice of words seems to emphasize the failure to mention the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who are living in daily fear and terror of Israeli incursions, home demolitions, assassinations, air-strikes, arbitrary arrest, imprisonment and torture.
(more…)
Bush: I’ll come celebrate Israel’s 60th birthday if…
by Dave March 18, 2008, 9:48 am
Filed under:
2008,
Anniversary,
Anniversary Plans,
Conference,
George Bush,
Israel,
Israel at 60 Celebration,
Israel's 60th Anniversary,
Israel's 60th Birthday,
Israel's Birthday Plans,
Israel@60,
Palestine,
Two-State Solution,
USA,
Who's Celebrating? American Government putting pressure on Israel with threats of a birthday boycott?
JN: US President George W. Bush would very much like to be in Israel to commemorate the reborn Jewish state’s 60th Anniversary this May.
There’s just one small proviso: Israel must make some serious progress in implementing its commitments to the Palestinian Arabs under the ‘Road Map’ before the American leader will agree to come.
This incidence of political blackmail was revealed Monday in a report posted on the Jerusalem-based website Israel Today.
(more…)
Salute to Israel – From New York to London and Manchester
by Dave March 16, 2008, 9:45 pm
Filed under:
1948,
2008,
Independence,
Israel,
Israel at 60 Celebration,
Israel's 60th Anniversary,
Israel's 60th Birthday,
Israel's Birthday Plans,
london,
manchester,
Palestine,
Salute to Israel Parade,
UK,
Who's Celebrating? | Tags:
29,
JuneThe celebration of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine seems to be spreading from one city to another. Its promoted as being “a historic and fun day for one and all.” Funny that – its a day where Palestinians will be mourning the Nakba (or catastrophe) . Its their holocaust commited by Israel and they’re likely to be hurt and antagonised by pro-Israeli’s dancing on their ancestors graves: hardly fun for all. Peace will not be reached until theres an understanding and atonement for the crimes of the past.
Is there a protest organised for this event? Please let me know.
The march on the 29th June 2008 now has its own website here. For a previous bit on this see here.
The Story of the Parade
The Salute to Israel Parade is no stranger to New York, but this year, for the first time, it is coming to London and Manchester! This special one-off event will celebrate 60 years of the State of Israel and will be one of the largest gatherings in the world in support of the country.
The Salute to Israel Parade will be a public celebration of the 60th Anniversary and will demonstrate affirmation of solidarity with and support of Israel, as well as an expression of unity within the British Jewish community, transcending religious and political affiliations. The Parade itself will feature a procession featuring floats, marchers and bands performing, representing all parts of the British Jewish community.
This will be a historic and fun day for one and all, so do not miss out on this historic event.
(more…)
Zionists to target UK Schools for Israel’s 60th Anniversary
by Dave March 16, 2008, 11:03 am
Filed under:
2008,
Anniversary,
Birthday Budget,
Europe,
Independence,
Israel,
Israel at 60 Celebration,
Israel's 60th Anniversary,
Israel's 60th Birthday,
Israel's Birthday Plans,
Israel@60,
Palestine,
Public Relations,
Ruhama Avraham,
Schools,
UK,
Wembley Stadium,
Who's Celebrating?,
Zionist federation | Tags:
sixth-form students,
Yom Ha’atzmaut,
ZFLooks like the Zionist Federation is targeting UK schools with its birthday celebration propaganda. Will British schools help them celebrate the ethnic cleansing in Palestine?
While I think its good children should learn about science its wrong that it should be used as a trick in a political campaign to make them think positively of the worlds leading criminal state.
Concern over lack of funds for Israel 60th
08/02/2008
By Dana Gloger
LONDON’S Israeli embassy will not receive any extra funding from the Foreign Ministry to mark the state’s 60th-anniversary celebrations after the Israeli government said it will not be allocating additional money to any of its outposts across the world.
This has left the embassy in London, as well as others worldwide, having to dip into their own budgets if they wish to mark 60 years since independence.
(more…)
Merkel’s historic Israel visit
by Dave March 15, 2008, 10:37 am
Filed under:
1948,
2008,
Anniversary Plans,
Chancellor Merkel,
Germany,
Holocaust,
Independence,
Israel,
Israel at 60 Celebration,
Israel's 60th Anniversary,
Israel's 60th Birthday,
Israel's Birthday Plans,
Israel@60,
Palestine,
Who's Celebrating?,
World Leaders “The visit does not have a high political agenda. It is more of a symbolic visit.”
To have no real political agenda in a time of great crisis for the Palestinians is to be complicit in Israel’s war crimes and refusal to negotiate peace.
Shame on Merkel travelling to Israel to celebrate 60 years since the beginning of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
A rather more interesting trip took place recently involving German intellectuals. See Israel’s creation made Palestinians victims of the Holocaust and No more preferential treatment for Israel.
The Local: German Chancellor Angela Merkel travels to Israel on Sunday for a visit of major historical significance more than 60 years after the end of World War II, writes AFP’s Simon Sturdee.
Merkel will be the first German chancellor to address the Knesset when she gives a speech at the Israeli parliament on Tuesday, an honour reserved normally for heads of state.
(more…)
Australians Protest – Not In Our Name!
by Dave March 14, 2008, 3:57 pm
Filed under:
1948,
2008,
Anniversary,
Australia,
Independence,
Israel,
Israel at 60 Celebration,
Israel's 60th Anniversary,
Israel's 60th Birthday,
Israel's Birthday Plans,
Israel@60,
May,
Palestine,
Who's Celebrating? | Tags:
advert,
Improper motion,
Not in our name,
The Australian
Australians voicing opposition to the PM’s motion put before Parliament to recoginse and congratulate Israel on its 60th birthday placed this advert in a national paper The Australian.
Not in Our Name
We, as informed and concerned Australians, choose to disassociate ourselves from a celebration of the triumph of racism and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians since the al-Nakba (Catastrophe) of 1948. As we write, Israel continues to expand illegal Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank including Arab East Jerusalem.
Australia and Australians should not give the Israeli people and its leaders the impression that Australia supports them in their dispossession of the Palestinian people. Israel has poisoned our (the West’s) relations with the whole of the Arab and Muslim world. Rather than celebrating the creation of the State of Israel, we should be recognising the people of Palestine, those who were dispossessed, those who lived and died as refugees, those who continue to live and die and suffer at the hands of the State of Israel, and those who will continue to suffer and die in the future until justice is done.
From 1948.com.au
Background
Big thanks to Ann for sending me this!
Australia to Celebrate Colonialism and Ethnic Cleansing
by Dave March 14, 2008, 2:02 am
Filed under:
1948,
2008,
Anniversary,
Australia,
Colonialism,
Ethnic Cleansing,
Independence,
Israel,
Israel at 60 Celebration,
Israel's 60th Anniversary,
Israel's 60th Birthday,
Israel@60,
JNF,
Palestine,
Sonja Karkar,
Who's Celebrating?,
Zionism The Australian Government will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. The morning of the vote a group arranged an advert in a national paper titled not in our name –
“Australia and Australians should not give the Israeli people and its leaders the impression that Australia supports them in their dispossession of the Palestinian people,” (a friend was involved who will soon forward me a copy – thanks Ann!)
The following by Sonja Karkar on the Electronic Intifada:
So much for the new Australian government taking an even-handed position on Israel-Palestine. Before our politicians even warmed their seats in the new parliamentary sittings, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced that he will lead a parliamentary motion to honor Israel on 12 March acknowledging Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day. The opposition leader will second the motion. Then, celebrations will take place at a reception in the Mural Hall of Parliament House.
(more…)
Colonialism – bad for Australia, good for Israel
by Dave March 14, 2008, 1:09 am
Filed under:
1948,
2008,
Anniversary,
Australia,
Colonialism,
Ethnic Cleansing,
History,
Independence,
Israel,
Israel at 60 Celebration,
Israel's 60th Anniversary,
Israel's 60th Birthday,
Israel@60,
Palestine,
Who's Celebrating? | Tags:
Alan Ramsey,
Brendan Nelson,
government,
Julia Irwin,
Kevin Rudd,
labor,
Sonja KarkarI love the contradiction that the Australian Government recently appologised for its colonial treatment of its own indigenous population – yet now it celebrates the same treatment of Palestinians. Why do I love it? Because it exposes these fraudulent politicians as being committed to power and spin rather than real values. Alan Ramsey in the Sunday Morning Herald:
You might recall Labor’s Julia Irwin and her efforts 5½ years ago to debate Israel’s theft of what used to be the Palestinians’ half of Palestine. On September 26, 2002, Irwin gave formal notice that she wanted Parliament to debate Israel’s continued military occupation, in defiance of the United Nations, of the West Bank and Gaza for 35 years. Despite thuggish efforts to shut Irwin up, the Howard government allowed her four-point motion to go ahead in the House of Representatives six weeks later but restricted debate to six MPs, each given only five minutes’ speaking time.
As a “debate” of the core malignancy convulsing the Middle East ever since the UN partition of Palestine in 1948, it was a travesty. It was also one of those extremely rare occasions that the easily intimidated Australian Parliament, ever mindful of Jewish financial support of party coffers, has debated the Middle East at all.
(more…)
Will Australia congratulate Israel on its 60th Birthday?
by Dave March 12, 2008, 11:36 pm
Filed under:
1948,
2008,
Anniversary,
Anniversary Plans,
Australia,
Australia-Israel and Jewish Affairs Council,
Israel,
Israel Lobby,
Israel's 60th Anniversary,
Israel's 60th Birthday,
Israel's Birthday Plans,
Israel@60,
Nakba,
Palestine,
Who's Celebrating? | Tags:
Australia-Israel and Jewish Affairs Council,
Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union,
federal Labor,
government,
Sandra Kanck,
the Maritime Union of Australia,
vote
The Australian: A BIPARTISAN motion congratulating Israel on 60 years of statehood has provoked division in federal Labor, with one government MP threatening to boycott the vote and union heavyweights accusing the Jewish state of racism and ethnic cleansing.The parliamentary motion is due to be passed by MPs today, commemorating 60 years of friendship between Australia and Israel.
The motion provoked a clash between Kevin Rudd and Labor MP Julia Irwin yesterday after Ms Irwin questioned why the Government was supporting the gesture, given Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.And today a group of individuals and organisations, including the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, the Maritime Union of Australia and South Australian Democrat MP Sandra Kanck, have put their names to an advertisement in The Australian condemning the motion.
“We, as informed and concerned Australians, choose to disassociate ourselves from a celebration of the triumph of racism and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians since the al-Nakba (Catastrophe) of 1948,” the advertisement reads.
(more…)
Israel’s 60th Anniversary Action Alert UK
by Dave March 12, 2008, 11:19 am
Filed under:
1948,
2008,
Anniversary,
Anniversary Plans,
Israel,
Israel at 60 Celebration,
Israel's 60th Anniversary,
Israel's 60th Birthday,
Israel@60,
Palestine,
UK,
Who's Celebrating?,
Windsor Castle Action alert from the Friends of Al-Aqsa.
Supporters of the state of Israel are planning its 60th Birthday celebrations around the world. The Palestinians are also marking this day as the 60th anniversary of the Nakba the catastrophe that cost them their homeland and made them refugees for 6 decades. The brutal occupation continues and every day, Palestinians continue to be killed by the Israeli army who shows little consideration for life and property.
Israel’s planned celebrations include:
1.A JNF funded charity dinner at Windsor Castle
2.An international friendly football game against Manchester United, in Israel
Israel continues in its occupation of Palestinian land. Its building of illegal settlements means that a future Palestinian state is no longer viable. Israel has built a separation wall within the West Bank cutting many Palestinians off from Jerusalem , and imprisoning others on the Israeli side. The death toll continues to rise. Israel must to brought to justice for its War Crimes, and its celebrations must be challenged. Israel is in breach of UN Resolutions, Geneva Convention and International law.
(more…)
Windsor Castle to celebrate Israel’s 60th anniversary
by Dave February 25, 2008, 8:48 am
Filed under:
1948,
2008,
Anniversary,
Anniversary Plans,
Independence,
Israel,
Israel's 60th Anniversary,
Israel's 60th Birthday,
Israel's Birthday Plans,
Israel@60,
May,
Queen Elizabeth II,
Royal Family,
UK,
Who's Celebrating?,
Windsor Castle Windsor Castle and the Royal Family excellently exposed for celebrating Israel’s 60th anniversary by wake from your slumber.
To think that they claim being “peace mediators”… I wonder if Tony Blair, the “Middle East envoy” will also be celebrating the elimination of Palestine in Windsor Castle??
Common friends… be good sports and let us all celebrate the rape of International Law, of UN resolutions, of the International Court of Justice, of the Geneva Convention and of the Charter of Human Rights! Let us all celebrate illegal occupation, ethnic cleansing, illegal possession and development of nuclear weapons, illegal possession and development of chemical and biological weapons, assassination of political leaders without accountability, practice of apartheid and racism, the jailing of 11 thousand people without due process of law, the jailing of children and the daily murder and torture of innocent civilians.
Let us celebrate the dropping of 4.6 million cluster bombs/bomblets over Lebanon during the 2006 war or the deliberate targeting of Lebanon’s infrastructure and even UN buildings. Let us celebrate the Israeli siege on Gaza and the deliberate deprivation of 1.5 million innocent civilians of medical treatment and food or the spraying of Palestinians and their crops with poisonous gas in order to ethnically cleanse them. (more…)
Israel@60: More on Turin Book Fair
by Dave February 24, 2008, 5:03 pm
Filed under:
Anniversary,
Anniversary Plans,
Israel,
Israel's 60th Anniversary,
Israel's 60th Birthday,
Israel's Birthday Plans,
Israel@60,
Italy,
May,
Palestine,
Turin Book Fair,
Who's Celebrating? | Tags:
Aharon ShabtaiPeoples Geography: Having first indicated Egypt as their choice, organisers of the Turin Book Fair postponed having Egypt as their international Guest of Honour for 2009. One would consider that in 2008, inviting Palestine as Guest of Honour would have been inspired, a powerful symbolic gesture to a peoples who have not experienced any let-up in blocked efforts towards justice.
Instead, the organisers chose Israel as book fair guest this year. This decision is coupled with the choice of Israel as guest of honour for the Paris Book Fair and is ill-considered, coinciding as it does with the 60th Anniversary of the Naqba and the founding of the state of Israel, and at a time when the Israeli military occupation has only worsened.
Italian and international protests and calls for boycott have ensued, protesting the organisers decision that would serve to “commemorate” the Israeli occupation state and and its repressive policies in the OPT. The protest organisers are “appalled to see the world of culture take the side of those who methodically operate to annihilate Palestine and the Palestinians”.
One of the invited Israeli writers, poet Aaron Shabtai, applied his conscience when he rsvp’ed the organisers. Here is his note to Edna Degon of the organising committee (from Tlaxcala):
Dear Edna,
Thank you for your letter.
I do not believe that a State that maintains an occupation, committing on a daily basis crimes against civilians, deserves to be invited to any kind of cultural week. That is, it is anti-cultural; it is a barbarian act masked as culture in the most cynical way. It manifests support for Israel, and even to France that sustains the occupation. And I do not want to participate.
Kind regards,
Aharon Shabtai
7 December, 2007
Ron Prosor, Israel’s 60th, the Queen and the Blitz
by Dave February 19, 2008, 12:02 am
Filed under:
History,
Israel,
Israel's 60th Anniversary,
Israel's 60th Birthday,
Israel's Birthday Plans,
Israel@60,
Lebanon,
May,
Queen Elizabeth II,
Ron Prosor,
Royal Family,
UK,
War,
War Crimes,
Who's Celebrating? | Tags:
1941,
2006 blitz,
bombing,
britian,
British,
Buckingham Palace,
england,
london,
naziThe poor Queen had the recent misfortune to meet Ron Prosor Israel’s Hasbara propaganda officer / ambassador. Apparently he has invited her to come to Israel to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the ethnic cleaning of Palestine. It seems he didn’t get a direct answer saying the balls in her court. How does one politely tell Ron that no one is interested in coming to his party? Has anyone he’s asked said yes? Most are never likely to say yes anyway – he’s asking them to generate news that associates Israel with legitimising top brands. He must know, for example, that Prince Charles has already refused to visit Israel “because of concerns the trip would be used to bolster the country’s international image.”
JP: Israel’s new ambassador to London, Ron Prosor, presented his credentials to Queen Elizabeth II at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday.
Prosor, who is the 14th Israeli ambassador to the UK, told the queen: “It is an honor for me to present my credentials to the queen in the year that Israel celebrates its 60th year of independence.”
Totally Jewish: They discussed the importance of relations between Israel and Britain and spoke about Holocaust survivors and similarities between rockets falling on Sderot and the Queen’s experiences in London during the Second World War.
I hardly think a few amatuer rockets can be compared to the Nazi Blitz of London. I imagine the Queen spat out her tea in surprise when he mentioned it! The Blitz had more in common with Israel’s bombing of Lebanon in 2006. See here, here, here and here
(more…)
Book fair in Italy thrown into emotional debate over Israel’s role at event
by Dave February 18, 2008, 9:15 am
Filed under:
1948,
2008,
Anniversary Plans,
Book,
Boycott,
Independence,
Israel,
Israel's 60th Anniversary,
Israel's 60th Birthday,
Israel's Birthday Plans,
Israel@60,
Italy,
May,
Palestine,
Turin Book Fair,
Who's Celebrating? Fury over plans to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in Italy. The Italian Government has now felt the need to write and appologise to Israel.
ROME: The decision to select Israel as guest of honor at this spring’s International Book Fair in Turin has set off a furious debate among Italian, Israeli and Arab authors and intellectuals, including calls to boycott the event.
Critics of the choice say that offering such an honor at the opening of the fair in May, when Israel will celebrate its 60th anniversary as a nation, ignores its policies toward the Palestinians.
“A prestigious event like the book fair can’t pretend it doesn’t know what’s happening in that part of the Middle East,” said Vincenzo Chieppa, a local leader of the Italian Communist Party, who was the first to raise objections.
The calls to boycott the fair – coming both from far leftist political activists and prominent Italian and Arab intellectuals and authors – have produced a wave of newspaper articles, some raising concerns about censorship, others extolling the need to place art above politics.
“The aim of culture and literature is not to build barriers among people, but to open up to others,” wrote the novelist and playwright A. B. Yehoshua in the Turin daily newspaper La Stampa.
On Thursday, three dozen members of the Italian Parliament drafted a letter of apology to the state of Israel, and invited Israeli authors to visit Turin, “a tolerant and open city.” President Giorgio Napolitano of Italy is scheduled to inaugurate the fair on May 8.
(more…)
