The Largest Minority

February 29th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai warned on army radio that the Palestinians “will bring upon themselves a bigger holocaust because we will use all our might to defend ourselves”. Though Israel has been ethnically cleansing Arabs from their land for over half a century, this is perhaps the first time the term “holocaust” has been used by an Israeli official to describe their policy towards occupied Palestine.

The term holocaust, or shoah in Hebrew, is reserved exclusively for the extermination of the Jews during World War II by the Nazis. By associating the Jewish Holocaust with the current ethnic cleansing perpetrated against Gazans in his analogy, Vilnai unwittingly placed the Zionist regime in the role of the Nazis. The irony that the Jewish State would promote a holocaust against a scapegoated ethnic group was also lost in the pro-Israeli Western corporate media.

As reported, over 20 Palestinians were killed by Israeli bombings in one day, yet the exaggerated threats of homemade rockets and death of one Israeli in nine months have caused enough outrage in Israel to freely threaten an escalated holocaust against Arab civilians. “It will be sad, and difficult, but we have no other choice,” Vilnai said. “We’re getting close to using our full strength. Until now, we’ve used a small percentage of the army’s power because of the nature of the territory.” Officials say the Israeli army is awaiting the government’s order to launch a large ground offensive into Gaza in the next week or two.

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February 13th, 2008 by Calypso

US film director Steven Spielberg has quit his role as an artistic adviser to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Spielberg said his decision was based on China’s role in providing Sudan with arms and not pressuring the country enough to end the suffering in the Darfur region. Over 2/3 of Sudanese oil is sold to Beijing in exchange for weapons. Furthermore, Beijing has also defended Khartoum in the UN Security Council.

Many atrocities continue to be committed in the Darfur conflict, which has left over 2 million people displaced and over 200,000 killed. In a statement, Spielberg said, “I find that my conscience will not allow me to continue business as usual.” He continued by saying that he would rather spend his time and energy trying to bring an end to the “unspeakable crimes” committed daily in Darfur. Though Spielberg placed blame on the government of Sudan, he also stressed that the international community, especially China, bears responsibility too.

Beijing has not responded to the new setback. The International Olympic Committee, however, has said that it was Spielberg’s personal decision, but that while it is a tragic and complex issue, it remains the UN’s responsibility to resolve. Nobel Peace Prize laureates, former Olympians, and actress Mia Farrow were among the many who welcomed Spielberg’s move. Human Rights Watch welcomed the news as well and hope it would encourage governments and corporations to pressure Beijing.

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January 31st, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Once again, the Real News picks up where the corporate media has failed (well, they’ve “failed” in terms of providing information, but have been successful in protecting their own interests). Tom Hayden elaborates on America’s imperialistic strategy to divide and conquer native peoples.

January 31st, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Alpha Konare, the head of the African Union, said on Thursday that Kenya was facing genocide and that Africa’s leaders must make it a priority to resolve the crisis. On the opening of the three-day summit Konare said, “Kenya is a country that was a hope for the continent. Today, if you look at Kenya you see violence on the streets.” He continued, “We are even talking about ethnic cleansing, We are even talking about genocide. We cannot sit with our hands folded. If Kenya burns, there will be nothing for tomorrow.”

Until a month ago, Kenya was more used to attending summits of the 53-nation AU as a respected regional peacemaker and a refuge for those fleeing wars in neighbouring countries.

Now it is Africa’s biggest crisis, torn by a cycle of ethnic bloodshed that threatens to destabilize a key regional ally of the West and damage the economies of several neighboring countries that are landlocked and rely on the Kenya port of Mombasa for the delivery of much needed supplies.

Over 250,000 Kenyans have fled their homes and 850 people have died since the disputed December 27th re-election of Mwai Kibaki. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also encouraged “the leaders and people of Kenya to calm the violence and resolve their differences through dialogue and respect for the democratic process”. Leaders and diplomats at the AU summit will be addressing peacekeeping operations in Darfur, Somalia, and upcoming elections in Zimbabwe, which is also mired in a political and economic crisis. United States assistant secretary of state for African affairs Jendayi Frazer also referred to the deaths in Kenya as “ethnic cleansing,” a remark which has been distanced by a state department official who said the comment was not that of the government.

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January 20th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Occupied Gaza’s only power plant has been shut down due to a fuel shortage on the third day of the Israeli blockade. The worst affected will be the health sector, where hospitals will be unable to provide services due to a lack of electricity. Power outages have become commonplace in recent months, ever since the pro-Israeli Fatah Party was expelled from Gaza and Israel declared the entire territory a “hostile entity” to which international law no longer applied. A lack of fuel could also mean no water, since much of Gaza’s water relies on generators to pump it.

The UN has said Israel should not collectively punish Gaza’s population while responding to security threats.

The organisation has criticised Israel’s decision to close border crossings into Gaza, preventing aid deliveries to the 1.5 million people living in the territory, saying on Saturday that the move could provoke a humanitarian crisis.

The Israeli foreign ministry blamed their use of collective punishment entirely on Hamas, saying the fuel blockade was “wholly a Hamas decision”. The ministry also played down Israel’s disregard for human rights and the Geneva Conventions by saying, “The Hamas claim of humanitarian crisis in Gaza is also greatly exaggerated.” Israel believes that any punishment inflicted upon millions of innocent Palestinians is justified if it has the slightest chance of weakening Hamas. Christopher Gunness, the spokesman for UNRWA, said the logic of Israel’s blockade “defies basic humanitarian standards.”

Dr Medhat Abbas, head of the crisis management unit at the health ministry in Gaza, said, “These patients and these children are facing their destiny and they will die soon.” He continued, “They escaped from their poor houses were they have very cold weather … The families brought them here to be saved in the incubator. Now the incubator and the nursery will be out of electricity. What sort of humanitarian law is this?” Cancer and intensive care patients will be deprived of their treatment, and stored blood and vaccines will spoil.

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January 18th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Recent attacks have lead to the first unguided rocket attacks launched into Israel in months, which the Jewish state is now using to justify the closing of its crossings with Gaza. As a result of the closure, the UN relief agency providing aid to Palestinian refugees in Gaza has been unable to deliver desperately needed humanitarian aid.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak decided to close Gaza’s borders on Thursday evening, using the non-lethal rocket firings as an excuse for Israel to continue its campaign of ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories. Shlomo Dror, a spokesman for the Israeli Defense Ministry, touted his ignorance of the Palestinian experience by saying, “It’s unacceptable that people in [the southern Israeli town of] Sderot are living in fear every day and people in Gaza are living life as usual.” Intensified Israeli incursions have resulted in the murder of at least 32 Palestinians in occupied Gaza this week alone.

Christopher Gunness, a spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said that Gazans were already digging up roads because there was no cement for making graves. Gunness added, “It is imperative that these crossings are opened so that the dire situation in Gaza does not deteriorate further, inflicting further misery on one-and-a-half million people.” Gaza’s fuel and humanitarian supplies, which come through Israel, have been subjected to an ever-tightening blockade since June, when the Fatah government was expelled from the territory.

The sharp rise in violence in Gaza comes after President Bush predicted that the most recent “peace talks” would lead to a deal within a year. However, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas warned of “serious consequences” for the talks if the Israeli strikes continued. Abbas himself, uncomfortable with being tied to the US/Israeli military aggression, has threatened to resign from his post if the incursions and daily killings continue. On Thursday, the PLO Executive Committee issued a statement after an emergency meeting, describing Israel’s operations as “terrorism” which have turned the West Bank and Gaza Strip into a “bloody battlefield.”

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December 27th, 2007 by Manila Ryce

Israeli military prosecutors have decided not to take legal action over the country’s use of cluster bombs during last year’s war in Lebanon, the army said today. It closed an investigation into a practice that has drawn heavy criticism from the UN and international human rights groups.The investigation determined that Israel’s use of the weapons, which open in flight and scatter dozens of bomblets, was a “concrete military necessity” and did not violate international humanitarian law.

The United Nations and human rights groups have accused Israel of dropping about four million cluster bomblets during its 34-day war against the Hezbollah guerrilla group.They say as many as one million bomblets failed to explode and now endanger civilians. More than 30 people have been killed by cluster bomb and land mine explosions in Lebanon since the war in summer 2006.

In a statement, the army said its chief investigator, Major General Gershon HaCohen, established “it was clear that the majority of the cluster munitions were fired at open and uninhabited areas, areas from which Hezbollah forces operated and in which no civilians were present”.

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Hmmm, so what about the cluster munitions which were not in the majority? I also seem to recall Israel accusing Hezbollah of using “human shields” in populated areas every time the IDF bombed innocent Lebanese civilians. Additionally, this new revision doesn’t explain why “90 percent of the cluster bomb strikes occurred in the last 72 hours of the conflict”, or the rather contradictory genocidal statement made by Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon that anyone remaining in Southern Lebanon would be considered a Hezbollah supporter, and thus fair game.

October 12th, 2007 by Manila Ryce

Stewart correctly recognizes the motive behind the denial of the Armenian Genocide by recent US presidents. Here’s a hint: it has nothing to do with history. Senior Armeniologist Aasif Mandvi joins Stewart to describe the deals other countries also have with the United States in order to downplay their most embarrassing atrocities. It’s also mentioned that Congress has never apologized for slavery or the long string of murderous campaigns in the Americas which were undoubtedly the most massive act of genocide ever to occur in history.

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