CIDI Bestuurslid schendt Internationaal Recht 3

Dick Schalekamp, Jaap Schalekamp en Doron Livnat (het CIDI), the owners of Riwal.
Zie: http://electronicintifada.net/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/19/5742
Zie ook: http://stanvanhoucke.blogspot.com/2007/07/cidi-bestuurslid-schendt-internationaal.html

Ik ontving net deze email van United Civilians for Peace:

Beste,

Nieuwe ontwikkelingen wat betreft het Nederlandse kraanverhuurbedrijf Riwal, dat betrokken is bij de bouw van de muur in bezet Palestijnse gebied. Vandaag een artikel in Ha’aretz, zie http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/879613.html (en hieronder). Zie ook de reacties onder het artikel (online). Zo maak je dus vrienden ;-) Vrijwilligers die willen reageren? Kan zeker geen kwaad…

Verder een item vanochtend bij Radio Rijnmond, mede naar aanleiding van nieuwe kamervragen die Martijn van Dam (PvdA) heeft gesteld. Zie:

http://www.rijnmond.nl/Homepage/Regionieuws/Nieuws?itemid=44967

Op onze website is een uitvoerig dossier over Riwal te vinden, zie http://www.unitedcivilians.nl/nl/doc.phtml?p=Riwal.

Met vriendelijke groet,
Martin

United Civilians for Peace
Coördinator lobby & campagne / Lobby & campaign coordinator

E-mail: martin.siepermann@icco.nl
Tel. +31 (0)30 8801550
Mob. +31 (6) 18396867



Dutch gov't warns company to stop work on W. Bank fence
By Cnaan Liphshiz, Haaretz Correspondent
Ha’aretz, 9 July 2007

The Dutch foreign minister, Maxime Verhagen, recently warned a construction company from the Rotterdam area to terminate its involvement in work on the separation fence in the West Bank."I expect Riwal to stop providing cranes for the wall. I hope this will be the last we hear of it," Verhagen said in a media statement late last month, adding that "the government will keep a close watch" on the company's actions. The Dutch foreign ministry called the company's work on the barrier "undesirable," citing the 2004 ruling by the Hague-based International Court of Justice that the fence was illegal. Last year, the company agreed to halt its involvement following a request by the foreign ministry. However, the issue resurfaced last month after United Civilians for Peace (UCP) an organization promoting peace in the Middle East submitted evidence showing that Riwal was still providing equipment for the wall's contractors. Reiterating its stance on Riwal, the Dutch foreign ministry recently suggested that the company abide by contractual usage stipulations.Nonetheless, UCP accuses the Dutch government of not doing enough to hold Israel to account for its actions."The Hague often affords Israel unlimited backing despite violations of international law. We hope Verhagen's recent statement is more than lip-service," Martin Siepermann of UCP told Haaretz. "The government should pursue the matter independently instead of merely responding to our queries."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/879613.html

Overigens heb ik op mijn vragen aan Ronnie Naftaniel, directeur van het CIDI, nog geen antwoord gekregen. Zie: http://stanvanhoucke.blogspot.com/2007/07/cidi-bestuurslid-schendt-internationaal.html Doron Livnat is bestuurslid van het CIDI, het propaganda centrum van Israel in Nederland.

De Israelische Terreur 237

'Answer to Rosenfeld: Jewish History, Anti-Semitism, and the Challenge of Zionism
Mark Braverman, Ph.D.

Rosenfeld’s attack on Jewish criticism of Israel and questioning of Zionism has its source in that fear. The Rosenfeld who takes his fellow Jews to task for their criticism of Israel is not only attacking ideas which he finds unacceptable or threatening to his world view -- for him, it’s personal. The Jews he wants to discredit are threatening to break through a powerful form of denial -- they are challenging the typically Jewish arrogance born of not wanting to see anything, not wanting to feel anything that challenges the powerful symbol of Israel as a source of power and security and -- it must be added -- of goodness and righteousness: Our wars are pure. Our actions are not only necessary but partake of the righteousness of the Zionist project. This is also the reason for the strongly ad hominem nature of his essay. I ask now and I will ask again at the conclusion of this piece: Given our history of persecution, disenfranchisement, displacement and humiliation, given the still pulsating pain in our collective heart of the experience of genocide itself -- where is the sadness, where is the pain, where indeed is the horror at what is being done to another people in our name by the State of Israel? Where is the recognition of our violence?'

Lees verder: http://www.jewishconscience.org/7.html

Boycot Israel 7

Terwijl Doron Livnat, bestuurslid van het Centrum Informatie en Documentatie Israël (CIDI), het propagandacentrum voor Israel in Nederland, betrokken is bij de aanleg van de illegale muur die de Israëlische regering op de bezette Westelijke Jordaanoever bouwt, blijkt de wereldwijde boycotcampagne tegen de Israelische apartheid te groeien.

'The Transport and General Workers Union, UK, joins the Boycott CampaignWorldwide Activism, Palestinian grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign.

On July 4th, the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) has passed a motion at its biennial conference in support of a customer boycott against Apartheid Israel. Following in the footsteps of other unions around the world who have taken up the boycott, the biggest general union in the UK, with over 800,000 members, also vowed to take part in the lobby of British parliament on November 2nd and demanding the UK government take a stronger stand against Israel. It condemned Israeli violence against the Palestinian people.TGWU has a long history of campaigning on issues such as ethical trading and workers rights within a global context. http://stopthewall.org/worldwideactivism/1495.shtml'

Zie ook: http://stanvanhoucke.blogspot.com/2007/07/cidi-bestuurslid-schendt-internationaal.html

Palestina 15

'Excerpt from the secret CIA assessment submitted to President Truman
November 28, 1947 on the eve of the UN "vote" and titled "The Consequences
of the Partition of Palestine" (Now Declassified document):

"Armed
hostilities between Jews and Arabs will break out if the UN General Assembly
accepts the plan to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab states....The
Jews are expected to be able to mobilize some 200,000 fighters in
Palestine.. The Jewish armed groups in Palestine are well equipped and well
trained in commando tactics. Initially they will achieve marked success
over the Arabs because of superior organization and equipment....The US by
supporting partition has already lost much of its prestige in the Near East
In the event that partition is imposed on Palestine, the resulting conflict
will seriously disturb the social, economic, and political stability of the
Arab world, and US commercial and strategic interests will be dangerously
jeopardized. ..The poverty, unrest, and hopelessness upon which Communist
propaganda thrives will increase throughout the Arab world. (and later in
the document, p. 6) US prestige on the other hand has steadily decreased
with each new indication that the US supports the Zionists. The good will
enjoyed by the US at the time of the Roosevelt-Ibn Saud Conference and
following backing of Lebanese and Syrian claims for independence was short
lived as a result of President Truman's support of Jewish immigration to
Palestine and of the Anglo-American Committee report. Because of the long
standing cultural ties between the US and the Arab world, the friendly role
that the US played in the achievement of Syrian and Lebanese independence,
the partial dependence of certain Arab states on oil royalties from US
companies, and the promise of increased royalties in the future, the Arab
states would like to maintain friendly relations with the US. ... Little of
this (positive) development will be possible, if the US supports a Jewish
state in Palestine."
http://tinyurl.com/2c4kh3
Or original at http://www.foia.cia.gov/browse_docs_full.asp?doc_no=0000256628&title=THE+CONSEQUENCES+OF+THE+PARTITION+OF+PALESTINE+%28ORE+55%29&abstract=NARA+%3Bpound%3B+NN3%2D263%2D92%2D005%2C+24%2DAUG%2D92&no_pages=0019&pub_date=11%2F28%2F1947&release_date=9%2F22%2F1993&keywords=ESTIMATE%7CPALESTINIAN+ESTIMATE%7Cindexf199400566&case_no=SC%2D1999%2D00005©right=0&release_dec=RIFPUB&classification=U&showPage=0001

Truman helped establish Israel (actually was the critical element in
arm-twisting countries to vote for partition which was contrary to the UN
Charter of self determination for native people). Zionist propaganda claimed
that this support was because of deeply held beliefs in that cause (Jews
were persecuted so need a country of their own). But facts are otherwise.
Truman himself admitted in a private cabinet meeting that he is doing it for
money and votes. And here is a relevant quote from a senior member of the
State Department during the Truman era:
"when the election was coming up in 1946 in New York, the group of New York
Jews called upon Mr. Truman. [Alan Taylor, op. cit. p.93] Emmanuel Cellar
was the head of this committee. Rabbi Steven Wise and several others were in
it. They called upon Mr. Truman and said, "We have just been talking with
Mr. Thomas Dewey. He is willing to come out and declare for a Jewish state,
and we are going to turn our money and urge the Jews to vote for him unless
you beat him to it." Then Emmanuel Cellar pounded upon Mr. Truman's desk and
said, "And if you don't come out for a Jewish state we'll run you out of
town." This, I'm sure, is the threat that Mr. Truman refers to in his book,
saying, "The extreme Zionists threatened me." They were Emmanuel Cellar,
Rabbi Steven Wise, etc. These are not the extreme Zionists, these are just
the run of the mill Zionists. What Mr. Truman did was to cave in to these
threats that they would support Mr. Dewey. In that way he got the Jewish
money and the Jewish vote. His decision was not made from the point of view
of what was going to result in the Middle East, but what was going on in the
United States."
Edwin M. Wright at the time of the State Department (source
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/oralhist/wright.htm )
See also http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/26309.html
and Truman diaries which show how he really thought (and thus show he really
was not acting on principle but out of fear of the lobby): http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A40678-2003Jul10'

Irak 221

The New York Times : The Road Home http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/070807Z.shtml
More than four years after The New York Times published a series of news stories that arguably helped pave the way toward a US led invasion of Iraq, the country's newspaper of record, in a sobering Sunday editorial, has called for an end to the Iraq war. In stating its position, the Times editorial says, "President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have used demagoguery and fear to quell Americans' demands for an end to this war. They say withdrawing will create bloodshed and chaos and encourage terrorists. Actually, all of that has already happened - the result of this unnecessary invasion and the incompetent management of this war. It is time for the United States to leave Iraq, without any more delay than the Pentagon needs to organize an orderly exit."

'The Road Home
The New York Times Editorial
Sunday 08 July 2007

It is time for the United States to leave Iraq, without any more delay than the Pentagon needs to organize an orderly exit.
•
Like many Americans, we have put off that conclusion, waiting for a sign that President Bush was seriously trying to dig the United States out of the disaster he created by invading Iraq without sufficient cause, in the face of global opposition, and without a plan to stabilize the country afterward.
At first, we believed that after destroying Iraq's government, army, police and economic structures, the United States was obliged to try to accomplish some of the goals Mr. Bush claimed to be pursuing, chiefly building a stable, unified Iraq. When it became clear that the president had neither the vision nor the means to do that, we argued against setting a withdrawal date while there was still some chance to mitigate the chaos that would most likely follow.
While Mr. Bush scorns deadlines, he kept promising breakthroughs - after elections, after a constitution, after sending in thousands more troops. But those milestones came and went without any progress toward a stable, democratic Iraq or a path for withdrawal. It is frighteningly clear that Mr. Bush's plan is to stay the course as long as he is president and dump the mess on his successor. Whatever his cause was, it is lost.
The political leaders Washington has backed are incapable of putting national interests ahead of sectarian score settling. The security forces Washington has trained behave more like partisan militias. Additional military forces poured into the Baghdad region have failed to change anything.
Continuing to sacrifice the lives and limbs of American soldiers is wrong. The war is sapping the strength of the nation's alliances and its military forces. It is a dangerous diversion from the life-and-death struggle against terrorists. It is an increasing burden on American taxpayers, and it is a betrayal of a world that needs the wise application of American power and principles.
A majority of Americans reached these conclusions months ago. Even in politically polarized Washington, positions on the war no longer divide entirely on party lines. When Congress returns this week, extricating American troops from the war should be at the top of its agenda.
That conversation must be candid and focused. Americans must be clear that Iraq, and the region around it, could be even bloodier and more chaotic after Americans leave. There could be reprisals against those who worked with American forces, further ethnic cleansing, even genocide. Potentially destabilizing refugee flows could hit Jordan and Syria. Iran and Turkey could be tempted to make power grabs. Perhaps most important, the invasion has created a new stronghold from which terrorist activity could proliferate.
The administration, the Democratic-controlled Congress, the United Nations and America's allies must try to mitigate those outcomes - and they may fail. But Americans must be equally honest about the fact that keeping troops in Iraq will only make things worse. The nation needs a serious discussion, now, about how to accomplish a withdrawal and meet some of the big challenges that will arise.
The Mechanics of Withdrawal...'

Lees verder: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/opinion/08sun1.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Het Neoliberale Geloof 49

'Mortgage vultures swoop on US housing crisis
By Philip Sherwell in New York,

Sunday Telegraph
08/07/2007

Home owners who have become mired in debt during America's growing housing crisis are falling prey to a booming new industry in "mortgage rescue" scams that end up depriving them of their properties permanently.
The scams lure owners into signing over their deeds to a temporary purchaser after being falsely assured that they will be able to buy the property back when their financial situation improves. Often the paperwork is so complicated that they do not realise they have surrendered ownership.
It is the latest example, say critics, of the predatory financial practices that have exacerbated the slump in the American housing sector.
During the previous decade-long housing boom, high-risk "subprime" mortgages were granted with few checks to borrowers on low incomes or with bad credit, many of whom cannot now meet their repayments. Repossessions in the first quarter of this year were up 35 per cent on the same period last year, itself a record for mortgage defaults.
Against this depressed backdrop, "rescue" scams have proliferated as companies aggressively target troubled homeowners when their financial woes are made public in local authority records.
Aleem Morris was one of them. After losing his job as a forklift operator, the 30-year-old fell behind on the mortgage repayments on the house in Newark, New Jersey, where he lives with his grandfather, a frail pensioner.
Despite borrowing money from family and friends, he owed $148,000 and his home went into the repossession (or "foreclosure") process. It was then that he replied to a flier from a "foreclosure specialist" with the message: "Are you losing sleep because of mounting debt and harassing bill collectors?"
Mr Morris said the company offered to purchase the house from him, give him $20,000 in cash and allow him and his 81-year-old grandfather to live in the family home rent-free while he worked to improve his credit rating so that he could buy the property back.
"It sounded like a great offer. I had no suspicions," he said last week.
Although Mr Morris received his $20,000 and his debts were paid off, he was no longer the owner of the house and $127,000 from the sale went not to him but to a New York finance company.'

Lees verder: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=OLZ1JKTMO1UKDQFIQMGSFFWAVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2007/07/08/wdebt108.xml

Autisme

'New health fears over big surge in autism
· Experts 'concerned' by dramatic rise· Questions over triple jab for children

Denis Campbell, health correspondent

Sunday July 8, 2007

The Observer

The number of children in Britain with autism is far higher than previously thought, according to dramatic new evidence by the country's leading experts in the field.
A study, as yet unpublished, shows that as many as one in 58 children may have some form of the condition, a lifelong disability that leads to many sufferers becoming isolated because they have trouble making friends and often display obsessional behaviour.
Seven academics at Cambridge University, six of them from its renowned Autism Research Centre, undertook the research by studying children at local primary schools. Two of the academics, leaders in their field, privately believe that the surprisingly high figure may be linked to the use of the controversial MMR vaccine. That view is rejected by the rest of the team, including its leader, the renowned
The team found that one in 58 children has either autism or a related autistic spectrum disorder. Nationwide, that could be as many as 210,000 children under 16. The research is significant because that figure is well above the existing estimate of one in 100, which specialist bodies such as the National Autistic Society have until now accepted as correct. It is also significantly more than the previous highest estimate of one in 86, which was reported in research published last year in the Lancet.
Some experts who previously explained the rise in autism as the result of better diagnosis and a broader definition of the condition now believe the upward trend revealed by studies such as this indicates that there has been a real rise in the numbers of children who are affected by it. Although the new research is purely statistical and does not examine possible explanations for the rise, two of the authors believe that the MMR jab, which babies receive at 12 to 15 months, might be partly to blame. Dr Fiona Scott and Dr Carol Stottboth say it could be a factor in small numbers of children.'

Lees verder: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2121521,00.html

Interessant zou zijn als er onderzocht werd in hoeverre autisme een cultuurziekte is.