LATEST NEWS FROM PERDANA GLOBAL PEACE ORGANISATION

AT THE 57th PLENARY MEETING ON AGENDA ITEM 16,

THE QUESTION OF PALESTINE

UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK

24 NOVEMBER 2008

Excellencies, Brothers and Sisters,

1. I am pleased to open this plenary session in which we take up the Question of Palestine. This morning, with heavy heart, we observed the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. I joined the

Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, H.E. Ambassador Paul Badji, and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to voice our ongoing concern for the terrible situation in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and express our solidarity with this long-suffering People.

2. We heard the comprehensive report of the Chairman on the current situation of Palestinians living under occupation. As well, the Secretary- General summarized the complex initiatives that are being undertaken by the international community tomove forward peace talks and the establishment of the Palestinian state.

3. I urged the international community to raise its voice against the collective punishment of the people of Gaza, a policy which we cannot tolerate. We demand an end to this massive abuse of human rights and call on Israel, the occupying Power, to allow humanitarian and other supplies to enter the Gaza Strip without delay.

4. I spoke this morning about apartheid and how Israeli policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territories appear so similar to the apartheid of an earlier era, a continent away.

5. I believe it is very important that we in the United Nations use this term. We must not be afraid to call something what it is. It is the United Nations, after all, that passed the International Convention against the Crime of Apartheid, making clear to all the world that such practices of official discrimination must be outlawed wherever they occur.

6. We heard today from a representative of South African civil society. We know that all around the world, civil society organizations are working to defend Palestinian rights, and are trying to protect the Palestinian population that we, the United Nations, are failing to protect.

7. More than twenty years ago we in the United Nations took the lead from civil society when we agreed that sanctions were required to provide a nonviolent means of pressuring South Africa to end its violations.

8. Today, perhaps we in the United Nations should consider following the lead of a new generation of civil society, who are calling for a similar non-violent campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions to pressure Israel to end its violations.

9. I have attended a great many meetings on the rights of the Palestinian People. I am amazed at how people continue to insist on patience while our Brothers and Sisters are being crucified.

10. Patience is a virtue in which I believe. But there is nothing virtuous about being patient with the suffering of others.

11. We must endeavour, with all our heart, to put an end to the suffering of the Palestinian People.

12. I have great love for the Jewish People and this has been true all my life. I have never hesitated to condemn the crimes of the holocaust or any of the many abuses committed against our Jewish Brothers and Sisters.

13. However, their suffering does not give anyone the right to abuse others, especially those who historically have such deep and exemplary relations with the Jewish People.

14. Having said this, I would like to remind our Israeli Brothers and Sisters that even though they have the protective shield of the United States in the Security Council, no amount of arm twisting and intimidation will change the Security Council resolution 181, adopted 61 years ago, calling for the creation of two states.

15. Shamefully, there is no Palestinian state to celebrate today and the prospects are as distant as ever. All explanations notwithstanding, this central fact makes a mockery of the United Nations and gravely hurt its image and prestige. How can we continue like this?

16. I call upon our dear Brothers and Sisters at the decision-making level in our Host Country to end the policy that only retards justice in the Middle East.

17. The international community should spare no effort in assisting both Israelis and Palestinians to reach a solution that will fulfill the goal of two States, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security. The United Nations has an ongoing responsibility to resolve the question of Palestine in all its aspects and in accordance with international law. Let us be sure that this not become a permanent responsibility.

18. The enmity between our Palestinian and Israeli brothers and sisters is a bitter and self-perpetuating tragedy. We must find new ways to defuse this enmity, to enable both peoples to reassert their historic bonds of brotherhood and sisterhood.

19. I urge the international community to defuse the political deadlock that cynically perpetuates this hatred, isolation and abuse. Our solidarity must prompt concrete action to realize those elusive rights that most of us can take for granted.

Thank you.

The Australian
Article from: Agence France-Presse

PROTESTERS have demanded that US President George W Bush get out of Peru where he is attending an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, blaming him for the world economic crisis.

“Bush out,” about 1000 demonstrators chanted in the centre of the capital Lima, watched by scores of police in riot gear who made sure they did not move towards the APEC summit venue several kilometres away.

“This crisis didn’t come from the Peruvian people. We shouldn’t have to pay for it,” a union leader told the crowd, which demonstrated peacefully.

Mr Bush, one of 21 leaders of Asia-Pacific economies converging on Lima for the weekend summit, arrived shortly after the protest. He was escorted under tight US Secret Service and Peruvian police security from Lima airport to the army headquarters building housing the APEC meetings.

Friday’s anti-Bush protest, organised by Peru’s biggest labour union, charged that Mr Bush’s decision to wage a costly war in Iraq contributed to the financial and economic crises.

“The International Criminal Court should try him for crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression,” a big banner next to the main stage for the rally proclaimed.

“Bush - genocide. The Peruvians repudiate your crimes,” said another.

“We believe that Bush is responsible for the fall of the financial system,” explained Aldo Gil Cristostomo, a 54-year-old mechanic standing near other protesters carrying portraits of Che Guevara.

“The war in Iraq is partly responsible for the fall,” he said.

Mr Cristostomo added that, while he had more sympathy for Mr Bush’s successor, Barack Obama, he believed the Democrat “is going to maintain the neo-liberal system” championed by the current US president.

Nobel Peace Laureate Margaret Mead reports on her journey to Gaza 28 October ? 1 November 2008

On 28th October, 2008, the Free Gaza Movement set sail in SS Dignity from Larnaca, Cyprus, for Gaza. On board were 27 Internationals from 13 countries, including Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, five physicians, human rights lawyers, etc., I felt deeply privileged to be part of this group going to Gaza.

On this, the second boat journey into Gaza the siege-breakers brought with them 6 cubic meters of medicine, and their hope that by going to Gaza across the sea (only the second boat to do so in over 41 years) they would give hope to the people of Gaza and that the outside world would break its silence to the tragedy of Gaza’s suffering and act to get the siege lifted.

It is hard to image that in the 2lst century a country can be so cut off from the outside world. Sixteen months ago, when Gazans voted for Hamas in free and fair elections, the reaction of Israel was not to open up dialogue with the elected representatives (as they eventually must do) but to put in place a policy of collective punishment of the entire population, which has led to a humanitarian catastrophe. Israel said it was ending the occupation of Gaza, but in truth it maintained it by closing all border entrances and isolating the Gazans from the entire world. Gaza is like an open air prison with Israel holding the keys, but it’s worse, at least in prison the inmates are fed and taken care of. The people of Gaza are drinking polluted water and have not enough food and medicines and materials for existence ? and in the words of one Gazan ?we are slowly choking to death with this siege’.

Before we sailed to Gaza the Israeli Government, warned we would not be allowed to sail into Gaza. However, we were determined to do so and just 20 miles off the coast of Gaza, held our breath as two Israeli navy gunboats stalked us but took no action. Common sense had prevailed ? hopefully a sign for the future that in the final analysis those in power in Israel will realize that dialogue not gunboats and F.16’s, is the only way to solve this too long and painful Palestinian occupation.

We arrived in Gaza exhausted and sea-sick. We were met by dozens of Palestinian heavily armed police and though, before leaving Gaza, I had requested not to be so guarded, we were informed that the Hamas Government wanted to ensure our safety, and throughout the entire 4 day visit we were escorted by armed Palestinian police.

Our reception by the people of Gaza was deeply moving. Their gratitude to the Free Gaza Movement was shown by their great warmth and hospitality. They were particularly grateful that Dr. Barghouti had come from the West Bank, and that Gideon Spiro an Israeli from Tel Aviv, had arrived with the boat. (On his way home through the Erez crossing he was arrested by Israeli Authorities, held overnight and charged with illegally entering Gaza).

The following 4 days was filled with events ranging from pure joy (like the concert with the children singing and one of our group an Italian Opera singer holding everyone in awe by the magic of his voice) to events of deep sadness such as our visit to Shifa hospital. Here the doctors explained they have shortage of basic medicines, no parts for machines as they are
blocked by Israel, and we met patients dying from cancer and preventable diseases, if only the medicines and equipment were available. A half built new hospital stands slowing disintegrating, as cement and wood and basic materials are not allowed into the Gaza strip for over 16 months now and everything is slowing, falling apart.

We visited next day the airport which had been bombed from the air and from land by Israeli tanks over two years ago. We visited the electricity plant and saw the huge generators, bombed by Israel and still not repaired due to shortage of parts and a legal debate as to who is responsible to repair. This Israeli air bombing of electricity plant means it is down to only 50%
capacity, so each day the electricity goes off for 7-8 hours at a time, including in hospitals.

The sewerage plant too has been damaged and Israel will not allow the pipes in to replace those destroyed, so raw sewage is pumped into the sea every day, causing an environmental disaster waiting to explode.

In Jabalia, there have been heavy rains which washed away the road, exposing broken sewerage pipes. A pool of raw sewage filled the street and the children played oblivious to the danger of disease . We visited homes flooded by rain and sewage whose owners had to flee and are now living with relatives in already overcrowded poverty stricken homes. There is
dreadful poverty in this area. The people have nothing, many hungry and malnutrition 80%. Still the international community remains silent as the Israeli Government, collectively punish one and a half million people, 50% under 21 years of age.

Some of our human rights colleagues went out on the boats with the Gazan fishermen. They were attacked by Israeli navy boats who bombarded the boats with water canons and fired live ammunition over the bow of the fishing boats. Many fishermen have been shot dead by the Israeli navy simply trying to catch fish 6 miles from shore to feed their families.

The following days, we were received by Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh who announced we would be given Palestinian passports, and presented the Free Gaza Movement with a gift. There is a real desire here for peace, people have suffered enough, but they want a just peace, an end to occupation, a right to determine their future for their children. The next day the Prime Minister announced the release of Fatah prisoners and a promise there would be no more political arrests. (They awaited a response from President Abbas regarding Hamas prisoners they hold). Later that evening in the School of the Holy Family, we had the privilege of witnessing over 100 Politicians, representing all political parties, including Fatah and Hamas pledge to working for Palestinian National Unity and promising to send their leaders to attend the National Unity Conference in Cairo early November. Dr. Barghouthi (a true man of peace) addressed his political colleagues whom he had not met for 2 and a half years, due to the closure and separation of Gaza Strip from West Bank. (An apartheid policy of Israel dividing the Palestinian people into Bantustans and making the possibility of a viable Palestinian State very difficult ). This meeting took place under the watchful gaze of a huge wall picture of President Arafat. I was invited to address the political parties and I supported their non-violent campaign for an end to Occupation, and a Free Palestine. I also encouraged the National Unity of Palestinians reminding them ?in Palestinian unity there is strength, divided you will be conquered’. I also appealed to them to ?keep your struggle non-violent and the world will
support you’

The next day we visited the Palestinian Parliament.(Hamas). The Speaker of the Parliament thanked the Free Gaza Movement. He spoke of the suffering of the Palestinians under siege and occupation and paid tribute to the suffering also of the Palestinian political prisoners (over 40 elected Hamas politicians now in Israeli jails). I addressed the Parliament, speaking of the need for the release of political prisoners and made an appeal for the release of Col. GiladShalit, the Israeli Corporal a captive in Gaza for almost two years now. (There are a total of 11,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, including parliamentarians, sick, disabled, women and
children, and before leaving Gaza, I appealed for the release of Palestinian political prisoners ? immediately to be released children, women, sick, those under administrative detention, and elected parliamentarians). I stressed the need to keep the struggle non-violent and spoke of dialogue forgiveness and reconciliation and lessons learned in our own peace process
in Northern Ireland.

We visited also the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt which remains closed cutting Gazans off from their families and friends just down the road. One of the Palestinian women (who had flown from Jerusalem to Cyprus and come on the boat because she had no other way to get to Gaza) banged on the Egyptian gate crying ?open up I want to get to my family’. Egypt too plays its part in cutting off completely from the world the people of Gaza not only from loved ones (and not to be able to touch those you love is the cruellest form of torture, not even letters or newspapers get into Gaza) but basic needs of medicine, food, materials to rebuild their infrastructure purposely bombed by Israeli jets (paid for by American taxpayers money - £10 million dollars a day). The Palestinians in a desperate attempt to feed their families or escape this open air prison, are digging dozens of underground tunnels from Gaza to Egypt, but on the day we left, 3 men were killed and other still missing as the soft sand collapsed on them. Thousands of Palestinian women are cut off from their husbands in the West Bank, and 700 students who have University places in outside countries, are
not allowed out of Gaza to continue their education.

The greatest tragedy of all this is that international governments and the Western media in particular remain silent about this slow destruction of the Palestinian people by policies of Israel which break the Geneva Convention and Apartheid Convention in its apartheid and racist policies.

Yet, in leaving Gaza I felt great hope. Hope at the tremendous resilience of the Palestinian people. One of our great Irish poets W.B.Yeats once wrote ?too long a sacrifice makes a stone of the heart’ but then a prayer of the Irish also says ?take away our hearts of stone and give us hearts of love’. In my journeys to Israel and Palestine, and in Gaza, I found many hearts of love. One Palestinian man asked me to carry his message to the world and it is: ?We love our Israeli brothers, we have lived with them, we want to, but we do not believe the Israeli Government wants peace as their policies are destroying the Palestinian people’.

Another request from a Palestinian father to some of our group will remain with us: ?if I give you some money will you bring in on the next boat some milk for my children, we have none’.

I believe there is great hope for peace in the Middle East, as this is a political problem with a political solution, and the Israeli Government, and the USA, with real political will, can solve this historical conflict whose roots are in the occupation. We recognize the State of Israel and its need for security. We recognize there is a deep fear of ethnic annihilation amongst many Israeli, but we as the human family must all learn to deal with our fears non-violently, and realize our best hope for human security is not in occupation and siege, but in reaching out to make justice and our enemy, our friend.

Salaam Palestine, Shalom Israel.
Mairead Maguire (Nobel Peace Laureate)
4th November 2008
www.peacepeople.com

Source: WOMEN FOR PALESTINE
MELBOURNE ? AUSTRALIA

Guardian, November 18 2008

One of Britain’s most authoritative judicial figures last night delivered a blistering attack on the invasion of Iraq, describing it as a serious violation of international law, and accusing Britain and the US of acting like a “world vigilante”.

Lord Bingham, in his first major speech since retiring as the senior law lord, rejected the then attorney general’s defence of the 2003 invasion as fundamentally flawed.

Contradicting head-on Lord Goldsmith’s advice that the invasion was lawful, Bingham stated: “It was not plain that Iraq had failed to comply in a manner justifying resort to force and there were no strong factual grounds or hard evidence to show that it had.” Adding his weight to the body of international legal opinion opposed to the invasion, Bingham said that to argue, as the British government had done, that Britain and the US could unilaterally decide that Iraq had broken UN resolutions “passes belief”.

Governments were bound by international law as much as by their domestic laws, he said. “The current ministerial code,” he added “binding on British ministers, requires them as an overarching duty to ‘comply with the law, including international law and treaty obligations’.”

The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats continue to press for an independent inquiry into the circumstances around the invasion. The government says an inquiry would be harmful while British troops are in Iraq. Ministers say most of the remaining 4,000 will leave by mid-2009.

Addressing the British Institute of International and Comparative Law last night, Bingham said: “If I am right that the invasion of Iraq by the US, the UK, and some other states was unauthorised by the security council there was, of course, a serious violation of international law and the rule of law.

“For the effect of acting unilaterally was to undermine the foundation on which the post-1945 consensus had been constructed: the prohibition of force (save in self-defence, or perhaps, to avert an impending humanitarian catastrophe) unless formally authorised by the nations of the world empowered to make collective decisions in the security council …”

The moment a state treated the rules of international law as binding on others but not on itself, the compact on which the law rested was broken, Bingham argued. Quoting a comment made by a leading academic lawyer, he added: “It is, as has been said, ‘the difference between the role of world policeman and world vigilante’.”

Bingham said he had very recently provided an advance copy of his speech to Goldsmith and to Jack Straw, foreign secretary at the time of the invasion of Iraq. He told his audience he should make it plain they challenged his conclusions.

Both men emphasised that point last night by intervening to defend their views as consistent with those held at the time of the invasion. Goldsmith said in a statement: “I stand by my advice of March 2003 that it was legal for Britain to take military action in Iraq. I would not have given that advice if it were not genuinely my view. Lord Bingham is entitled to his own legal perspective five years after the event.” Goldsmith defended what is known as the “revival argument” - namely that Saddam Hussein had failed to comply with previous UN resolutions which could now take effect. Goldsmith added that Tony Blair had told him it was his “unequivocal view” that Iraq was in breach of its UN obligations to give up weapons of mass destruction.

Straw said last night that he shared Goldsmith’s view. He continued: “However controversial the view that military action was justified in international law it was our attorney general’s view that it was lawful and that view was widely shared across the world.”

Bingham also criticised the post-invasion record of Britain as “an occupying power in Iraq”. It is “sullied by a number of incidents, most notably the shameful beating to death of Mr Baha Mousa [a hotel receptionist] in Basra [in 2003]”, he said.

Such breaches of the law, however, were not the result of deliberate government policy and the rights of victims had been recognised, Bingham observed.

He contrasted that with the “unilateral decisions of the US government” on issues such as the detention conditions in Guant?namo Bay, Cuba.

After referring to mistreatment of Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib, Bingham added: “Particularly disturbing to proponents of the rule of law is the cynical lack of concern for international legality among some top officials in the Bush administration.”

Elviza Michele Kamal

On Oct 24, I braved a mean traffic crawl along Jalan Tun Razak en route to PWTC to attend a charity dinner hosted by the Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise War.
However, I am still bereft of words to describe this meaningful cause championed by the foundation - guilt, anger and hopelessness now consume every fiber of my being in so far as any war is concerned.
According to of the foundation committee’s chairperson, Tun Dr Siti Hasmah, the royal charity dinner was held to raise funds to facilitate the foundation’s voluntary programmes on a national and global basis as well as to acquire a suitable premise to serve as the foundation’s headquarters.
His Majesty Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin launched the foundation at this royal charity dinner.
One unforgettable aspect of the royal charity dinner was the ten-minute-long video footage featuring what casualties of war ? mainly children and women ? had to endure as hostile fire destroyed their homes and blew their family members to pieces.
Gory images of a massacre; bodies of maimed children lumped into a mass grave; child soldiers mechanically firing away their guns with little thought about humanity let alone compassion; torn limbs piled up on a deserted ground; a howling mother beside charred remains, one could only assume them to be of her child; a teenager lying on a hospital bed with a blown- away midriff.
As the guests cringed in their seats, in fact, some even turned away from the giant screens around Merdeka Hall, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad knew that it was imperative for us to see the bloody images of war:
‘It is not a pleasant thing to see, these video clips, but then if we do not see these we will not understand the horrors of war. If we don’t understand then we will not be concerned about the facts of these young victims especially, and we will continue to subscribe to the idea that killing people, destroying countries is a legitimate way to solve problems between nations,’ he said.
What dawned on me that night ? besides the generosity of corporate tycoons in Malaysia ? was the fact that, here in our safe cocoon, we are relatively unperturbed by the hostility of war. We bask in our safe haven of domestic stability and economic growth since independence, with no armed conflicts at all save and except for May 13, 1969.
Even May 13 is pale in comparison with the recent wars waged in the Middle East and African countries. But war, by any other name, has a profound effect on helpless women and children.
History and statistics by Amnesty International reveal that war has seen women being oppressed, raped, impregnated and infected with the deadly HIV virus. Children have been reduced to orphans and their basic needs of decent shelter, food and education sorely neglected.
Meanwhile citizens of war-torn countries are being illegally trafficked across the globe as prostitutes, cheap labour or even to facilitate illegal adoption.
The repercussions of armed conflicts robs a nation’s fabric of history and culture. Political upheavals in Afghanistan and Iraq have seen its museums looted, records destroyed and historical books torn apart.
In addition thereto, war is a multifaceted beast extending its formidable arms onto the environment. The residues from firearm and bombing activities cause radiological and chemical pollution which threaten our fragile environment. Millions others face the risk of unexploded ordnance left after the conflict ended.
While we strive to be a developed nation with exemplary social, political and economic platforms, we must never take our country’s peace for granted, for the price of a conflict ? be it political or otherwise ? is just too expensive for us to pay.
World War II American general Dwight D Eisenhower was right when he said: ‘Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
‘This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its labourers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense.
‘Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.’
Make war a crime ? that is the least one could do