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Tens of thousands protest Israeli occupation of Gaza in London

Chris Johnston
The Guardian
Sat, 09 Aug 2014 10:21 UTC
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© John Stillwell/PAProtesters will march past the US embassy in Grosvenor Square before ending at Hyde Park with a rally.
Pro-Palestine groups hold march in hopes of raising more than £4.5m to help victims of attacks on Gaza

Some 20,000 people are marching through central London on Saturday to call for an end to the conflict in Gaza and a ban on UK arms exports to Israel.

The protest, organised by the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign and Stop the War, set off from Oxford Circus at 1pm and will march past the US embassy in Grosvenor Square before ending at Hyde Park with a rally. Speakers including George Galloway and Diane Abbott will address the protesters.

The march is being held as a public appeal for funds to help the victims of Israel's attacks on Gaza raise more than £4.5m in less than 24 hours.

The Disasters Emergency Committee launched its Gaza Crisis Appeal on Friday night on all major UK television networks. The Department for International Development has matched the first £2m donated by the public pound-for-pound.

The funds will allow the committee's member agencies, such as Oxfam and the British Red Cross, to help the hundreds of thousands of Gazans needing of clean water, food, shelter, medical treatment and psychological support.
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Stormtrooper

Evidence emerges of Israeli "shoot to cripple" policy in the occupied West Bank

Max Blumenthal
AlterNet
Fri, 08 Aug 2014 09:41 UTC
Israeli soldiers use live fire and expanding bullets to shatter the legs of West Bank protesters.

shoot to cripple
© Dan Cohen
At 10 PM on August 8, a twenty-year-old resident of the Al Amari refugee camp named Muhammad Qatri arrived dead at the Palestinian Medical Complex in Ramallah. He had been killed by Israeli soldiers during a protest near the illegal West Bank settlement of Psagot - shot through the heart right on the spot on his shirt that read, "Gaza."

From the parking lot outside the hospital's emergency room, a group of men bellowed chants about the latest unarmed young man to fall before Israeli gunfire in an usually bloody few weeks. I arrived at the hospital gates with a colleague and met Dr. Rajai Abukhalil, a 26-year-old resident physician who had just phoned Qatri's father to deliver the bad news. Not even midway through his night shift, Abukhalil was already on his fifth coffee and still awaiting a free moment to take breakfast.
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Cult

Pastors from every U.S. state travel to Israel to support its genocide of Palestinians

Adam Kredo
Washington Free Beacon
Tue, 05 Aug 2014 09:24 UTC
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Bishop Harry Jackson Jr. of Beltsville, Md.
Fifty-one pastors from every U.S. state and D.C. touched down in Israel early Tuesday for an unprecedented last minute solidarity mission aimed at expressing their support for the Jewish state's right to defend itself from the terror group Hamas, a sentiment that some say is not shared in the White House.

As Israelis wait to see if another tenuous 72-hour ceasefire with Hamas will hold, the pastors say that they dropped everything to make the journey, which was pulled together several days ago by the Christians United for Israel (CUFI), a pro-Israel organization with nearly two million members.

The emergency sirens in Jerusalem that warn of incoming rocket attacks remained silent all day Tuesday as the pastors landed in Tel Aviv. They immediately traveled by bus to Jerusalem's Old City, where they gathered at the Western Wall to silently issue prayers for the Jewish state, which has been struck by thousands of rockets during the past weeks.
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Light Sabers

Flashback Join the BDS movement: 9 brands to boycott to hold Israel accountable for 60 years of violating international law

Beth Parry
PolicyMic
Wed, 19 Feb 2014 17:42 UTC
Boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) are big news in 2014. If Scarlett Johansson's Sodastream fiasco didn't grab your attention, perhaps the American Studies Association's boycott of Israeli universities did, or Netanyahu's increasing talk of million-dollar PR campaigns, legal offensives and diplomacy efforts to counter the BDS threat. Opinion pages are filled with debate, John Kerry has warned Israel that it could be facing a delegitimization campaign "on steroids" and voices from all sides are speculating that a boycott movement against Israel could be about to break into the mainstream.

But what would that actually mean in supermarkets and shopping baskets? The BDS campaign covers all Israeli products: It's a broad tactic aimed to pressure the state itself to change. But it also reserves a special focus for companies that are actually involved in - and make hefty profits from - occupation policies. These organizations may be forced to pay attention to the boycott very soon - and they may not be the ones you'd expect.
sodastream boycott israel
© Associated Press
1. Sodastream

Thanks to Scarlett Johansson's recent adventure in international politics, most of us now know about Sodastream's role in perpetuating the occupation of the West Bank. The fizzy drinks makers are produced in Ma'ale Adumim, one of the many illegal Israeli settlements that cuts through Palestinian land, seizing resources and making the development of an independent Palestinian economy look impossible. "The Israeli army forcefully expelled 200 Palestinian families from their homes to make space for the construction of Maale Adumim," says Rafeef Ziadah, a spokesperson for the BDS National Committee. "Recently, it announced a plan to expel another 2,300 Palestinians to make way for the settlement's growth."
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Cow Skull

You reap what you sow: Who's hit hardest by Russian trade ban?


RT
Fri, 08 Aug 2014 00:17 UTC
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© Reuters/Brian Snyder
Germany and Poland will lose the most trade with Russia, and neighboring Finland and Baltic states Lithuania and Latvia will lose a bigger proportion of their GDP. Norway will see fish sales to Russia disappear, and US damages would be very limited.

Russia has banned imports of fruit, vegetables, meat, fish and dairy products from the 28 countries of the EU, the US, Canada, Norway, and Australia for one year.

EU trade is heavily dependent on Russian food imports. Last year Russia bought $16 billion worth of food from the bloc, or about 10 percent of total exports, according to Eurostat.

In terms of losses, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands - the top three EU food suppliers to Russia in 2013 - will be hit hardest. Food for Russia makes up around 3.3 percent of total German exports.

French Agriculture Minister Stephane Le Foll said his government is already working together with Germany and Poland to reach a coordinated policy on the new Russian sanction regime.

Last year, Ireland exported €4.5 million worth of cheese to Russia, and not being able to do so this year is a big worry, Simon Coveney, the country's agriculture minister, said.


Comment: We can't say the EU didn't have it coming. This is what you get for bowing down and caving in to U.S. diktat like the sniveling cowards you are.

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Extinguisher

Ukraine's self-destruction: Unique church shelled, burnt to the ground


RT
Sat, 09 Aug 2014 00:03 UTC
Gorlovka church
© gorlovka-eparhia.com.ua
A unique wooden Orthodox church has burned to the ground after being hit by an artillery shell in Gorlovka. The city is located in Ukraine's Donetsk region - the site of ongoing bloody confrontations between Kiev's military and self-defense troops.

Blagoveshchensky Cathedral was completely destroyed as the city came under heavy shelling on Thursday. No one was injured in the attack, Gorlovka's diocesan administration website reported.

The 23-meter tall wooden structure was erected in 2008. It was initially built on a different site, and had been moved to its newest location. Building works on the church only finished in June.

According to the Gorlovka diocese, it was a "unique" structure built entirely of pine wood, with no nails. Local children enjoyed the church playground, which was surrounded by flower beds, pines, and cypresses.

They say lightning never strikes twice in the same place - but that rule did not apply to Blagoveshchensky Cathedral. The church survived a bombing just over one week ago, when shells landed on its territory, several meters away from the building and playground.

Several other churches have sustained damage since the beginning of the bloody conflict in east Ukraine. Five clerics have been killed, according to Orthodox news website pravmir.ru.

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Hearts

Four-year-old girl swept from her parents in Boxing Day tsunami is reunited with her family 10 years later

Kate Lyons
Daily Mail, UK
Fri, 08 Aug 2014 19:38 UTC
  • Parents who lost their two children in the 2004 tsunami claim to have found their daughter 10 years later
  • Raudhatul Jannah was given up for dead by her family
  • Mother says her brother spotted a girl who looked like the long-lost girl
  • Jannah was rescued by a fisherman and raised by the fisherman's mother, who called her Wenni
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Raudhatul Jannah (centre) is embraced by her mother Jamaliah (left) and grandmother (right) after being reunited in Meulaboh, Indonesia 10 years after they were separated.
An Indonesian girl has been reunited with her family 10 years after she was swept away by the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, her mother claims.

Four-year-old Raudhatul Jannah and her seven-year-old brother were separated from their parents while holding onto a floating piece of wood in the tsunami waters, when it hit her West Aceh home on December 26, 2004, reported DPA.

Jannah's mother Jamaliah, 42, and her husband survived and searched for their children, but stopped after one month, assuming the children had died in the devastating tsunami. In June, Jamaliah's brother spotted a girl who bore a resemblance to Jannah walking home from school and made inquiries about her.
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Take 2

New Jersey cop resigns after video of him denouncing the Constitution goes viral

Sergio Bichao
myCentralJersey.com
Thu, 07 Aug 2014 19:36 UTC
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© YouTubeA still photo of the YouTube video showing Helmetta Special Police Officer Richard Recine talking about the U.S. Constitution.
Richard Recine's 36-year career as a police officer came crashing down this week after he was caught on camera saying police do not have to follow the Constitution because President Barack Obama doesn't either.

On Thursday, Recine - who had retired from the Franklin police force in 2006 and was working part time here as a special police officer - submitted his resignation.

"I don't want to give a black eye to law enforcement," Recine, 59, said Thursday in an exclusive interview with MyCentralJersey.com. "People are saying some really nasty stuff about cops. I don't want all officers painted with the same brush."

Borough Administrator Herbert Massa said the resignation was accepted by Police Director Robert Manney, who had called Recine's comments an "embarrassment."
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Stock Up

Latin America will be huge beneficiary of Russia's import ban


RT
Thu, 07 Aug 2014 19:23 UTC
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© Reuters / Amr Abdallah Dalsh
Russia's 1-year ban on food products from the EU, US, Canada, and Norway will force Russia to increase food imports from Latin America, specifically Ecuador, Brazil, Chile, and Argentina.

Russia will ban meat, dairy, fruit, and vegetable imports from countries that have imposed sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine conflict, which opens the door to Russia's partners on the other side of the world.

Russia will have to fill an 8 percent gap in its total agricultural imports that it sources from the EU, USA, Canada, Australia, and Norway. The Netherlands, Germany, and Poland are currently Russia's biggest food suppliers in the EU.

Meat and dairy products from Ecuador, Chile and Uruguay may appear on Russian supermarket shelves as early as September, said Julia Trofimova, a at Rosselkhoznadzor, Russia's consumer watchdog.
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Star of David

Jewish expedition of 'Mitzvah tanks' will visit Crimea during trip across Russia to promote Judaism


RT
Fri, 08 Aug 2014 19:16 UTC
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A still from Ruptly video
Rabbis and students of Jewish religious schools from the US, Europe, and Israel have set off on a journey across Russia in special vehicles known as "Mitzvah tanks." As part of the trip, the expedition will visit Crimea to promote Judaism there.

The Mitzvah tanks began their journey on Thursday, with plans to visit nearly 70 cities across Russia - including Volgograd, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Chelyabinsk, Krasnodar, Sochi, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Orenburg, Vladimir, Simferopol, Yalta, and Sevastopol.

For the first time in history, Crimea was in included on the itinerary.
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