scrokkalanotizia:

Hundreds of protesters are heading to the ministry of foreign affairs in the downtown of the capital to protest of the vicious Israeli assaults on Gaza

Hundreds of angry protesters march on Wednesday evening from Talaat Harb Square in downtown Cairo heading towards the ministry of foreign affairs near Tahrir Square to condemn the ongoing brutal attacks on the Gaza Strip by the Israeli forces.

Protesters chanted “Gaza Gaza, You’re the pride,“ “Arab states are cowardly,” “Palestinian blood is our blood,” as they carried Palestinian flags.

Protesters are demanding Egypt cut diplomatic ties with Israel and close down the Israeli embassy in Cairo.

A number of Egyptian political forces including the National Front for Justice and Democracy and Hamdeen Sabbahi’s popular Current have called for the protest.

On Wednesday night, president Mohamed Morsi recalled Egypt’s envoy in Israel following the Israeli attack that killed at least seven Palestinians, including Hamas leading figure Ahmed Al-Jaabari.

PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat today discussed the announcement of early Israeli elections (with officials putting a likely January 15 date on them), saying he is concerned that the ruling coalition will escalate moves against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank as a political maneuver.

Erekat said he believes that the outgoing government is likely to escalate the expansion of settlements in the West Bank as well as approve major new moves toward the “Judaization” of the Palestinian portions of East Jerusalem.

Erekat’s assessment is likely reasonable, as many of the parties in the current far-right government will be running on a platform of settlement expansion and the continued forestalling of the peace process, and will likely be trying to “out-hawk” one another on the West Bank ahead of the vote, courting the settler vote.

The negotiator insisted, however, that the PLO would not change any of its positions because of the announcement, that they intend to not interfere in the vote and that they will continue to pursue recognition as a “non-member state” at the UN General Assembly.

(Source: jayaprada)

deafmuslimpunx:

There are so many similiar parallels between the ethnic cleansing of Native Americans/Indigenous Native peoples of the Americas, and with the 1948 Nakba cleansing of Palestinians and the gradual removal (and then later, forced expulsion) of Palestinians from Israel, starting in the late 1910s. Jewish settlers and Zionist “immigrants” from Europe have a lot in common with American pilgrims and colonialist settlers. Oh… and Palestinians were recently described as “savages” in those pro-Israel New York City subway ads a few weeks ago. Remember when Native Americans and Indigenous peoples of the Americas were called savages by Christian missionaries, white settlers, and European colonialists?

It is chilling that this shit still happens to this day.

Via Electronic Intifada:

A Mexican-led student action at the largest US public university this week, partly invoking Palestinian solidarity, demonstrated the need to extend history beyond borders to create a better future.

Equipped with face paint and using their bodies as props, members of the local chapter of M.E.Ch.A. (Movimiento Estudiantil Chican@ de Aztlán) creatively subverted Monday’s Columbus Day anniversary to mark it from the standpoint of Christopher Columbus’s victims. 

In the torrid 90-degree midday heat, a group of about ten M.E.Ch.A. students lay down in the middle of the 70,000-student Arizona State University. Wearing red shirts and skulls painted on their faces, students used the tradition of macabre and theater of the oppressed to dramatize the memory of millions of Native Americans murdered by European settlers and slave-traders who invaded the “New World,” beginning with Columbus in 1492.

At the same time the MEChistas acted out the moribund scene, an equal number of Students for Justice in Palestine members passed out fact-sheets about Columbus’ murderous exploits and collected dozens of student signatures for a petition to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day on the university’s calendars.

The action aimed to demonstrate that Columbus Day is, in effect, a celebration of brutal invasion, occupation, and enslavement of native peoples.

Columbus inspires Israel

Repudiating our nation’s history of colonialism will take more than just replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day, however. Domestically, the United States government and dominant society carries on the practice of casting aside native peoples, rendering their lives invisible.

As a matter of foreign policy, the US provides crucial diplomatic and ideological support, as well as enormous amounts of military assistance — $8.2 million a day or $3 billion yearly — enabling the continuation of Israel’s impunity and human rights abuses against indigenous Palestinians. Since its creation in 1948, Israel has steadily stolen more and more Palestinian land, in a pattern resembling the European settlers’ expansion across North America.

Invoking the Columbus model of exterminating indigenous populations has been a leading element of the Zionist movement, from the pre-state period through the present day.

One of Israel’s leading historians, Benny Morris, has defended ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by using the standard of genocide set by American history as a settler state.

“There are circumstances in history that justify ethnic cleansing,” Morris said. “Even the great American democracy could not have been created without the annihilation of the Indians. There are cases in which the overall, final good justifies harsh and cruel acts that are committed in the course of history” (“Survival of the fittest,” Ha’aretz, 8 January 2004).

In his 1923 essay entitled “The Iron Wall,” one of the “founding fathers” of Israel, Ze’ev Jabotinsky, outlined a basic observation of human history: “There has never been an indigenous inhabitant anywhere or at any time who has ever accepted the settlement of others in his country.”

An honest cynic, Jabotinsky recognized that the Palestinian indigenous population at the time “look upon Palestine with the same instinctive love and true fervor that any Aztec looked upon his Mexico or any Sioux looked upon his prairie. To think that the Arabs will voluntarily consent to the realization of Zionism in return for the cultural and economic benefits we can bestow on them is infantile.”

After all, Jabotinsky knew, as Israeli leaders know today, that the indigenous peoples must be driven out by force if policies of foreign settlement are to be maintained: “Zionist colonization must … proceed regardless of the native population” and it should continue “behind an iron wall, which the native population cannot breach,” he wrote.

(read more)

The United States has warned European governments against supporting a Palestinian bid for enhanced status at the United Nations, saying such a move “would be extremely counterproductive” and threatening “significant negative consequences” for the Palestinian Authority, including financial sanctions.

A US memorandum, seen by the Guardian, said Palestinian statehood “can only be achieved via direct negotiations with the Israelis” and urged European governments “to support [American] efforts” to block the bid. The message was communicated by officials to representatives of European governments at the UN general assembly (UNGA) in New York last week.

Palestinian officials accused the US of exerting “tremendous pressure” on European governments to oppose their bid for upgraded “non-member state” status at the UNGA. Announced by president Mahmoud Abbas last week (video), the move is a significant diminution of Palestinian ambitions after its application for full statehood failed last year when it was blocked by the US in the security council.

The Palestinians will wait until after the US presidential election in early November before proceeding with their bid for upgraded status. However, they insist they will press for a vote by the end of the year and are confident of winning a comfortable majority among the UN’s 193 countries. The US has no veto at the general assembly.

The memorandum – described by one diplomatic source as “private correspondence” – said the US was continuing to work for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and urged both parties “to avoid provocative one-sided actions that could undermine trust or otherwise distract from the pursuit of peace”.

A Palestinian resolution on non-member state status “would have significant negative consequences, for the peace process itself, for the UN system, as well as our ability to maintain our significant financial support for the Palestinian Authority”.

It added that a successful resolution could lead to Palestinian participation as a state in international bodies such as the international criminal court. Israel is concerned that Palestinian recourse to the ICC could have repercussions for its policies on settlements, the occupation of the West Bank and the blockade of Gaza.

“We believe your government understands what is at stake here, and – like us – wants to avoid a collision at the coming UNGA session,” said the text. “We hope you are willing to support our efforts … We would appreciate knowing where your government stands on this issue. We would also be interested in knowing whether you have been approached on this matter by Palestinian representatives.”

Hanan Ashwari, a member of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation executive committee, described the memorandum as “typical American behaviour but also overkill”.

“It is ridiculous and unconscionable the way they put themselves at the service of Israel in such a blatant way. This is tremendous American pressure and bias.”

She said most European countries had already decided their position on the issue: “I don’t think [the US] will make countries change their minds.”

Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian chief negotiator, said the memorandum reflected the US position but he hoped that “the Europeans will follow their interests and choose peace over settlements”.

One European diplomat said that, until recently, US officials believed a “diplomatic ceasefire” was in force and that the Palestinians would not pursue the statehood issue at the general assembly. But pressure from street protests in the West Bank in recent weeks had stiffened Abbas’s resolve, and the current consensus among diplomats was that the Palestinians were determined to press ahead.

There were differing views among European countries on the wisdom of the Palestinians’ move, the diplomat added. “The closer we get to the prospect of a vote in the UN general assembly, the more concerned the US administration is likely to be. This letter is an expression of their well-known position against such a vote. But if we are to persuade Abbas not to pull the trigger, a serious alternative needs to be put on the table, and fast.”

A second European diplomat said the US had “made it very clear to all of us that they’re opposed to any [Palestinian] move at the UN”. He also criticised the Palestinians for not engaging in “serious, high-level diplomacy” on the issue.

Some European countries are alarmed at the prospect of the US withdrawing financial support for the Palestinian Authority in the wake of a bid for upgraded status, fearing that the EU would have to fill the funding gap.

Following the Palestinians’ acceptance as a state by the United Nations cultural and heritage body, Unesco, the US cut off funding as a punitive measure. The US had contributed 22% of Unesco’s annual budget.

Discussions among European governments on whether to support the Palestinians’ bid are due to be held this week. However the 27 member states are unlikely to forge a common line.

The US state department declined to comment on the memorandum.

(Source: frompalestinewithlove, via thepeacefulterrorist)