Is there anything worse than a 63 year military occupation?

Perhaps there is?

More from Palestine Think Tank TV here.

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First, imagine a scholarly and widely respected Christian leader gave a sermon last week-end, referring to Moslems as “our enemies and haters” and intoning “May they vanish from the world, may God smite them with the plague!”

The story might well have made today’s New York Times. The western media would be chattering happily about this latest nasty turn in Christian-Islamic relations. Another ‘sign of the times’, TV talking heads would be saying to each other, shaking their wise heads. Sad – but understandable given the ongoing ‘War on Terror’…

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Next, imagine a leading and widely respected Islamic scholar had given a sermon last week-end, referring to Jews as “our enemies and haters” and exclaiming  “May they vanish from the world, may Allah smite them with the plague!”

If the Imam in question lived in the ‘free world’, it’s not hard to imagine he might already be in jail. He could certainly expect ‘hate crimes’ charges and a massive media campaign against him, with all and sundry deploring his outrageous remarks. If he lived in a Moslem nation such as Iran, it would be grist to the western mass media mill… yet another ‘proof’ that Moslem societies are barely civilized.

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Finally… imagine a leading and widely respected Jewish scholar giving a lecture last week-end.

Unlike the two hypothetical cases above, this actually happened.

After another 11 weeks in an Israeli jail, yesterday Mordechai Vanunu walked free once again.

That’s ‘free’ in inverted commas.

In reality, Vanunu remains unfree. Israel has yet to allow him to leave the State he’s grown to revile. He’s still barred from talking to journalists and foreigners – a quarter century since his initial kidnap by Mossad as a nuclear whistleblower.

It would cost the Netanyahu Government nothing to let Vanunu go. He has long ago revealed what he once had to reveal and poses no conceivable threat to the security of the Israeli State.

As long as he remains in Israel, his case will continue to bring shame on Israel. His punishment – as Amnesty International now recorgnizes – is cruel and uncivilized.

Only spite prevents the Israeli Government from letting Vanunu go. Even ‘deterrence’ is no longer a valid argument. 24 years of bondage is surely long enough to scare off imitators?

By holding Vanunu against his will, Israel demonstrates nothing  more than spite and paranoia.

For all its faults, Israeli society can be better than this.

Allowing Vanunu safe passage out of Israel is a great way to show it.

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It’s time for a new worldwide push to free Mordechai Vanunu.

It’s time (way beyond time) for Vanunu to be released from jail in Israel and finally allowed to travel freely and with safety.  He wants to leave Israel and settle in another country. He should be allowed to go.

His illegal kidnap by Mossad as a young nuclear whistleblower back in 1986 and incarceration for 18 years (more than half in solitary confinement) was an outrage.

Equally outrageous is the game of cat and mouse the Israeli Government has played with Vanunu since his ‘release’ in 2004. He’s been denied basic freedoms – the right to travel, meet journalists or talk with foreigners. Cynically using a security regulation dating from the British mandate era, the Israeli Government has continued to toy with his liberty.

In May this year, Mr Vanunu was sent back to jail again for another three months for refusing to be silenced or isolated. He’s currently in solitary confinement once more.

Vanunu has amazing staying power and continues to show quite inspirational courage, but can be forgiven for thinking the ‘democratic world’, organized Christianity and the global ‘peace movement’ have let him down badly.

Baptised John Crossman after his conversion to Christianity, this man has given his adult life to the cause of peace.

The world will not go back to sleep again, Gaza.

More ships are on the way…

Even Israeli brutality at its worst has not scared off the brave activists who flock from around the world to support freedom and justice for Gazans – and for Palestinians as a whole.

“All Aboard the Mavi Marmara”, an inspiring protest song by David Rovics in the tradition of Woody Guthrie, is the sound track for a moving and informative video.

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Suzanne Vega, whom I’d fondly imagined over decades to be an intelligent and humane individual, apparently hasn’t got the message: playing in segregationalist Israel is no game!

Ms Vega cheapened herself this year in the eyes of many fans by performing in the Zionist State and giving comfort to its Jewish supremacists, desperate to avoid cultural isolation from a world community that’s lost patience with Israeli malevolence.

How many shekels was it worth, Suzanne?

Not for the first time within the last year, an aging rock star has performed in worse-than-Apartheid Israel and breached the growing global cultural boycott. How sad!

The days of cost-free collaboration with worse-than-Apartheid Israel are over. I hope you get heckled at your concerts, Suzanne. If I ever get to one again, I’ll heckle you myself.

These posters by the brilliant young artist Carlos Latuff illustrate the case for boycotting Israel.

They may not impress jaded cynics, but will help inspire a new, less corrupt generation of musicians and poets…

More like this at the DesertPeace website.

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Israel’s cheer-squad love making the bizarre claim that Israel is the ‘only democratic State’ in the middle east.

It certainly is the only State in the region that tries to enforce a caste system.

Watch this remarkable video from Russia Today to learn more about the Israeli mania for Jewish endogamy.

Vigilantes policing the affairs of young women!? The crime of ‘rape by deception’?

Only in Zionist Israel.

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One accusation that can’t be levied at the Zionist Lobby is that it’s backwards coming forward.

If The Israel Lobby has a strong opinion that’s for public consumption, the rest of us get to hear about it, loud and clear. No-one ever suggests The Lobby is too shy to play politics. Not in the USA, not in Europe – and not in Australia, for that matter.

Sometimes I wonder what life might be like if the growing anti-Zionist movement developed political cohesion, tactical skill and the political determination of our opponents.

I’ll use this Australian election campaign as an example.

Sitting in the Australian Parliament, at present, are a handful of individuals known for their strong pro-Israel stance.

Why aren’t they targeted for defeat?

The Israel Lobby has a grip on the two major parties in Australia – but not because of its numerical support in the electorate. It would doubtless use voting strength if it had much voting strength. But it doesn’t. Australian Jews represent a tiny percentage – some 0.5% – of the total population. In very few constituencies around the country are Jewish votes significant (and not all Jewish Australians are Zionists, in any case, as we’re often reminded).

So how does The Israel Lobby pack such a punch in Australia?

The inspiring Palestinian MP and medical doctor Dr Mustafa Barghouti wouldn’t use a headline like this.

Dr Barghouti is a compassionate, highly-educated Palestinian activist who endures the boot of Zionist oppression at close quarters on a daily basis.

But those of us more removed from the conflict can use language appropriate in the circumstances.

It’s remedial therapy for many, many human beings around the world, so immersed in the cocoon of Judeophilic propaganda dispensed by a biased mass media, publishing and mass entertainment industry that they can’t spot the obvious: the utterly sub-human ethical standards of  Zionist Israel.

This two part video, featured on the excellent US-based Real News Network, brings to the world a speech made recently by Dr Barghouti to an audience in Canada.

Part 1

Part 2

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This remarkable video shows Rachel Corrie in fifth grade, brimful of passionate idealism and hope for a better world.

Rachel Corrie was crushed by an Israeli bulldozer in 2003, trying to prevent a home demolition in Gaza.

Her light points the way forward for us all.

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