The Israeli use of administrative detention, a controversial practice that allows the Israeli occupation to hold suspects without trial for months or even years, has reached its highest level since 2003, according to a report by an Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem.
B’Tselem said that as of November 2021, there were 1,128 Palestinians in administrative detention, including 10 minors and two women. The group said this was the largest number of such detainees since the end of the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising, in 2003.
The group accused the Israeli occupation of using administrative detention as a “tool of oppression” and a “means of collective punishment” against Palestinians, especially those involved in political or social activism. It said that most of the detainees were held based on secret evidence that they and their lawyers could not challenge in court.
Original article republished from the Skwawkbox for non-commercial use.
Freedom Flotilla will attempt to break sea blockade to deliver medicines and urgent supplies to besieged Palestinians
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s ‘Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s boat ‘Handala’ will arrive in Liverpool this weekend as part of its European tour to raise awareness of Israel’s ongoing land, air, and sea blockade of the Gaza Strip. The boat’s tour aims to draw particular attention to the conditions faced by children in Gaza, who make up more than half of its residents. The boat is named Handala after the famous cartoon image of a refugee Palestinian child.
The boat will arrive in Liverpool late on Sunday 2 July and the crew will meet journalists and residents on Monday. The crew includes Zohar Chamberlain Regev, an Israeli citizen who has been part of previous attempts to break the blockade of Gaza, and Musheir El Farra, a Gazan who lives in Sheffield and has lost many family members in Israeli attacks, to tell his personal story of life for families under the siege.
Later on Monday, the crew will visit a local mosque and will spend their evening at St Bride’s church in Liverpool, where they will take questions from members of the public. Eddie Scraggs will talk about an inspiring project in Gaza where a Liverpool medical team from Liverpool has been performing kidney transplants free of charge and there will also be a short film about a youth project in Gaza called “We are Not Numbers.”
The Handala will leave Liverpool for Cardiff on Wednesday.
The 16-year blockade of Gaza has had devastating effects on the local population of the territory, many of whom are refugees. Water consumption is well below the internationally recommended minimum, while electricity is often only available for a few hours a day. The blockade is aggravated by Israel’s regular bombing of the Gaza Strip and attacks on Gazan fishermen. Earlier this year, Israel’s bombardment of Gaza killed 49 Palestinians, including 17 children.
After finishing its tour of Europe, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition has announced its intention to sail to the Gaza Strip next year, despite the blockade. A 2010 attempt by the Gaza Freedom Flotilla to break the blockade saw a brutal attack by Israeli commandos – while the boats were still in international waters – that killed nine passengers and wounded dozens.
Helen Marks, Secretary of Liverpool Friends of Palestine, said:
The blockade of Gaza is illegal, immoral and barbaric. It is designed to punish and control an entire population by limiting their access to the resources required to live fulfilled lives. It needs to be brought to an end alongside Israel’s wider system of apartheid exercised over all Palestinians.
The flotilla’s visit to Liverpool is an important means of raising awareness of these injustices and building the pressure on our Government to take meaningful action to hold Israel to account for its violation of Palestinian rights and of international law.
Original article republished from the Skwawkbox for non-commercial use.
Anti-boycott law would have forced public bodies to do business with racist South Africa in the 1980s – and will force them to do business with apartheid, racist Israel now
Parliamentary friends of apartheid visit the illegal wall
The government has published its ‘anti-boycott bill’, which aims to prevent public bodies from choosing not to use products or services from countries with appalling human rights records – and in particular, to neuter the pro-Palestinian ‘Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions’ (BDS) campaign against the use of products, services and companies involved in illegal Israeli expansion onto Palestinian territory.
BDS has long been targeted by official and ‘cut-out’ organisations of the Israeli government, which has rightly been condemned by human rights organisations such as Amnesty International and, in Israel, B’Tselem, for its apartheid policies that the latest hard-right regime is entrenching even further – and the apartheid regime is avidly supported by the Tories (and ‘without qualification’ by the so-called ‘opposition leader’ Keir Starmer.
So there is no expectation of any significant parliamentary opposition to the bill and it is left to human and civil rights campaigners and organisations to mount resistance, such as Liberty, which has today published a statement on the anti-democratic bill, co-signed by unions, human rights groups and others, noting that such a policy would have forced public bodies to do business with apartheid South Africa and scuppered the campaign that eventually helped bring down that regime:
As a group of civil society organisations made up of trade unions, charities, NGOs, faith, climate justice, human rights, cultural, campaigning, and solidarity organisations, we advocate for the right of public bodies to decide not to purchase or procure from, or invest in companies involved in human rights abuse, abuse of workers’ rights, destruction of our planet, or any other harmful or illegal acts. We therefore oppose the government’s proposed law to stop public bodies from taking such actions.
The government has indicated that a main intention of any legislation is to ensure that public bodies follow UK foreign policy in their purchasing, procurement, and investment decisions, particularly relating to Israel and Palestine. We are concerned that this would prevent public bodies from deciding not to invest in or procure from companies complicit in the violation of the rights of the Palestinian people. We affirm that it is the right of public bodies to do so, and in fact a responsibility to break ties with companies contributing to abuses of rights and violations of international law in occupied Palestine and anywhere else where such acts occur.
From bus boycotts against racial segregation to divestment from fossil fuel companies to arms embargoes against apartheid, boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaigns have been applied throughout history to put economic, cultural, or political pressure on a regime, institution, or company to force it to change abusive, discriminatory, or illegal policies. If passed, this law will stifle a wide range of campaigns concerned with the arms trade, climate justice, human rights, international law, and international solidarity with oppressed peoples struggling for justice. The proposed law presents a threat to freedom of expression, and the ability of public bodies and democratic institutions to spend, invest and trade ethically in line with international law and human rights.
We call on the UK government to immediately halt this bill, on opposition parties to oppose it and on civil society to mobilise in support of the right to boycott in the cause of justice.
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has also spoken out to underline the importance of BDS in opposing apartheid and pledge his support in fighting the latest anti-democracy bill:
Boycott, divestment and sanctions helped end apartheid in South Africa.
They will be essential to ending the apartheid regime in Israel, too.
I will firmly oppose the government’s anti-BDS bill — a disgraceful attack on our freedom to fight for human rights, justice and peace.
The evening has also seen the Glastonbury festival cancel its planned showing of the excellent film exposing the sabotage of Corbyn’s Labour and the smear campaign against him – many are presuming that his principled stand and the cowardly Glastonbury decision are not unconnected.
Motion calling for disaffiliation with right-wing, pro-Israel group leads to suspension by union – but GMB has not explained supposed inaccuracies or why democratic motion in line with union policy is problematic
The GMB union has suspended a former employee and current union member – because his London branch passed a motion for GMB’s 2023 Congress calling for disaffiliation from right-wing, pro-Israel group JLM (Jewish Labour Movement).
The motion, which was passed unanimously by Walthamstow branch, reads:
Congress accepts that the decision to work with the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) runs contrary to GMB’s support for Palestine, has brought the union into disrepute and should never have been countenanced.
Congress notes that the JLM is effectively the UK wing of the Israeli Labour Party, a racist organisation that governed Israel from 1948 to 1977 and was directly responsible for the massacre or the expulsion of three quarters of a million Palestinians. Today, some of their Knesset members support the most right-wing Israeli regime in history.
JLM conflates anti-Zionism with antisemitism and by dint of its support, GMB is leaving itself open to accusations that it is supporting the racist treatment of Palestinian people. Therefore, Congress instructs the General Secretary and the CEC to sever all ties with JLM forthwith.
GMB, like the other major unions, has an official – and democratically reached – policy supporting the ‘Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions’ movement, which JLM opposes and in both 2011 and 2013 passed resolutions not to allow its members to travel to Israel on delegations organised by ‘Trade Union Friends of Israel’ (TUFI).
But despite the apparently obvious alignment between the Walthamstow branch’s motion and the union’s official position, the GMB’s regional secretary has written to branch member Bert Schouwenburg, ‘in comradeship’, informing him that he has been suspended for the ‘antisemitic’ resolution:
Skwawkbox called and wrote to the GMB press office, asking:
As just discussed, please find attached the union’s letter to Bert Schouwenburg, suspending him because Walthamstow branch submitted a motion for disaffiliation with the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) on the grounds that affiliation risks GMB being seen as complicit in Israel’s racist treatment of Palestinians.
Questions:
JLM is an openly pro-Israel organisation, which – particularly given the current regime’s extremist right-wing politics and open intention to further expand illegal settlements, would appear to make affiliation at odds with the union’s longstanding, congress-approved position not to affiliate with Trade Union Friends of Israel or allow travel to Israel, because of the Israeli government’s racist policies and illegal settlements. Why is a branch motion being used to suspend a member?
Israel’s government has been condemned by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Israeli human rights group B’Tselem and others as an apartheid regime and its government is openly racist, including its Finance Minister who has boasted of being a ‘fascist homophobe’.Why is the union suspending one or more members for a democratic motion to open a conference debate about the morals of a link with a strongly pro-Israel group that does not appear to have condemned even the worst excesses of the current Netanyahu regime?
what are the ‘factual inaccuracies’ claimed by Warren Kenny? Is the union disputing that the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians took place in and subsequent to 1948?
No response had been received from the union by the time of writing, seven hours after the provided deadline.
Mr Schouwenburg told Skwawkbox:
By seeking to expel me from the union, GMB are trying to shut down any voices that dissent from their newly-found enthusiasm for Israel’s apartheid regime. Under Gary Smith, a union that once backed the call for Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions (BDS) is now supporting the most vicious, right-wing government in Israel’s history.
I refuse to be silenced by the reactionary bureaucrats in charge of GMB and urge fellow members to join me in giving unconditional support to the Palestinian people
