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Published in Brighton by Justice? - Brighton's Direct Action collective
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Published in Brighton by Justice? - Brighton's Direct Action collective
ISSUE 279, FRIDAY 20th October, 2000
GAZA STRIPPED
"We are fighting for our lives. It is clear that the Israelis are not prepared to give us anything. They want to treat all Arabs as slaves and second class citizens. And under attack we have the right to defend ourselves. We have to have militias. We have to gather arms where we can find them." Middle class Palestinian professional
When Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon visited Jerusalem's Haram al Sharif mosque, Islam's third holiest shrine, on 28th September he knew exactly what he was doing. It was the exact anniversary of the 1982 massacres of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps that he had ordered as Israeli Defence Minister. The Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak provided Sharon with an escort of over 1,000 soldiers for his visit, more Israeli troops than had originally invaded the area in 1967. It was like the BNP marching through Brick Lane with the British army in support - and it met with an inevitable reaction.
Film shoot
Within days there were large scale up-risings - intifadas - in almost every Arab area of Palestine. Main highways were blocked, stones thrown at occupying Israeli troops. Those troops, backed by missiles and tanks, started killing dozens of Palestinian youth. When 12 year old Muhammad al-Dura was filmed being shot by Israeli troops at the Netzarim Junction in the Gaza Strip on 30th September, Israeli government officials described the death as a "PR nightmare". But that was the limit of their regret and the killings continued. Six days later one gas canister fired at the same spot was met with a hail of bullets that left four Palestinians dead and 24 injured. There are now over 100 dead, mainly Palestinian youth and children, and almost 2,000 wounded. If it is war, it is the war of the stone against the helicopter gunship.
Reserves
The middle east holds two-thirds of the world's oil reserves. Western powers have always feared the possibility of popular uprisings against the exploitation of the region's mineral wealth by transnationals and have propped up endless corrupt Arab dictators in order to maintain their control. As early as the 1930s, the British governor of Palestine Ronald Storrs spoke approvingly of "A Jewish state [that] could be for England a "little Jewish Ulster" in a sea of potentially hostile Arabism".
In keeping with this original vision, the 'peace process' begun in Oslo in 1993 had precious little to do with finding a just settlement that would allow Jews and Arabs to live together in peace as equals. No attempt was made to address the injustice done when the Palestinians were dispossessed in 1948. The four million Palestinian refugees - now the largest and longest existing such population anywhere - were told that they could forget about return or compensation. When the Palestinians, whose historical capital is Jerusalem, conceded west Jerusalem to the Jews they were soon asked to concede east Jerusalem too, getting offered a distant suburb under nominal self-rule instead. It was like asking for Trafalgar Square and being offered Croydon.
In 1948, just after the Holocaust of European Jews that the western powers had done so little to prevent, the United States and Britain helped found the state of Israel on top of most of the historic land of Palestine. It was a typical colonial process of settlement, conquest and extermination, or expulsion by terror, of the native Palestinians. Zionist terror gangs ethnically cleansed the country of 750,000 Palestinians. In one village, Deir Yassin, 250 men, women and children were murdered by a gang under the command of future Israeli Prime Minister Menachen Begin, who sent them "congratulations on this splendid act of conquest". In 1945 Jews owned 14% of the land and Palestinians 80% - by 1953 Jews owned 73% and Palestinians 25%. As one Zionist leader at the time put it, "it must be clear that there is no place in the country for both peoples together. Transfer the Arabs from here....not one village or tribe should remain".
Most Palestinians now live in what amount to reservations in their own country, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, where they are supposed to have self-government but which are covered with armed Jewish settlements - in the last 15 months alone, 2000 dwellings have been built in such settlements - and are surrounded by Israeli-controlled borders. The Palestinian economy has been crippled by road blocks, police checks and constant disruption of everyday life and trade that ensures no escape from poverty and dependency.
Israel's role as regional policeman for transnational capital is based on a deal - the west, primarily the United States, gives Israel the aid and arms to ensure Israeli Jews can maintain their rule and their privileges, and Israel uses its armed forces to control any popular uprisings in the region. Israel receives more aid per capita from the United States than any other country, billions of dollars a year, with none of the normal strings attached. Britain does its bit, of course. Robin Cook's recent calls for "calm and restraint" sound rather hollow when you consider that last year alone we sold £11.5m worth of arms to Israel such as components for combat helicopters, tank parts, armoured vehicles and grenade making kits.
Standards
Israel uses its war machine to ensure an apartheid system where its privileged Jewish citizens maintain relatively high standards of housing, health, education and employment in a region with endemic poverty. Even in the 'Palestinian controlled' West Bank, Jewish settlers, who constitute 13% of the population, consume 80% of the water. Since the peace process began Palestinian unemployment has risen dramatically and economic activity has halved. It is apartheid in all but name.
Israel takes its role as the transnational's local hit squad in the region very seriously. In the 1967 six day war it invaded Egypt, Syria and Jordan and occupied the Sinai, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights. In the 80s it invaded and occupied South Lebanon. Further afield, Israel was the biggest military backer of apartheid South Africa, collaborating with it in the development of an atomic bomb and sending the country a third of its weapon exports.
Flashpoint
Increasingly, people across the world are making the parallels between apartheid and the Israeli state. A mass movement against Israel, similar to the one against apartheid, is starting to be built. In the short term it is likely that Israel and a hopelessly compromised Palestinian leadership under Yasser Arafat will cobble together another interim agreement. But the US who are running the show are not about to allow justice or anything like it for the Palestinian people. The level of repression will not be lessened. Palestine will continue to be a flashpoint of conflict between the world's powerful corporate interests and the dispossessed.
Further reading: The End of the Peace Process by Edward W Said www.addameer.org/september2000
Donations are urgently needed by Makassed Hospital (PO Box 19482, Jerusalem) in East Jerusalem to pay for care of the wounded. Make cheques payable to Makassed Hospital.
MAKING A PIG'S EAR OF IT
Sheffield-based anti-vivisection group Uncaged were in the High Court this week attempting to overturn a gagging order preventing them publicising revelations about animal experiments carried out at Huntingdon Life Sciences near Cambridge. The hearing was adjourned, and so the revelations remain suppressed. The experiments - the most high profile in Britain - are being carried out by Imutran, and are part of ongoing research into xenotransplantion, which is the use of animal organs in human transplants.
Uncaged compiled a report, Diaries of Despair, based on the information provided by leaked documents, which reveal horrendous animal suffering and much 'falsification' of results. Imutran, who have used thousands of pigs, monkeys and baboons in their five years of research, claim to be on the verge of conquering the problem of 'organ rejection'- where the immune system sees the 'new' heart or liver as foreign, and attacks it. But the documents tell a different story. In one experiment, two baboons who suffered 'hyperacute' organ rejection and quickly died were left out of published results, which claimed success; in another, the animals were pumped full of immuno-suppressant drugs to make sure their bodies didn't reject the 'new' parts.
Animals are routinely 'sacrificed'- the jargon for being killed - both as a direct result of the experiments and due to sloppy lab practice. A baboon quickly got the chop when scientists discovered mid operation that the pig's heart it was supposed to receive was in the deep freeze. One monkey was documented in technicians' reports as spending the last days of its life clutching in pain the pus-oozing pigs' heart it had attached to the arteries in its neck.
Imutran got a temporary injunction as soon as the revelations first appeared in the Daily Express. Imutran, owned by genetics giant Novartis, reckons that the leaked info puts its staff in danger and compromises its commercial interests.
But many scientists are becoming increasingly worried about the principles of xenotransplantation itself. There is great danger that putting bits from one species into another could easily trigger new and unheard of diseases. Scientists routinely screen transplant organs for viruses; however, they can only screen for those they know the existence of. There may be many viruses which lie harmless and undetected in pigs but which could kill humans. Also, all pigs are known to contain certain viruses closely related to human ones that cause blood leukemia. How will they mutate when introduced into humans? After all, a man in the US who received a baboon liver in an experimental transplant suddenly developed a disease only known in baboons! Does any of this worry the commercial interests? "The momentum towards clinical trials of xenotransplantation is seemingly unstoppable," says 'Nature' magazine, "Powered as it is by multi-million dollar investment by biotechnology companies."
There are alternatives to such transplants; stem-cell technology, for instance, enables scientists to use a persons' own cells to 'grow' a new organ, without involving animals at all. A decent diet and quality of life would do wonders for prevention. 'Opt Out' donor cards, as used in some European countries, would mean that only those who didn't want to donate their organs would have to make sure they carried a card. Meanwhile, Imutran have e-mailed all of Uncaged's contacts, threatening them with contempt of court if they reproduce any of the documents they may have been forwarded. Then they quietly announced they were ceasing activities in the UK, concentrating research instead in the US where the laws on such things are even more slack. Uncaged,14 Ridgeway Rd., Sheffield, S12 2SS 07990584158 or www.uncaged.co.uk
Inside SchNEWS
Satpal Ram has been in prison for thirteen years for defending himself against a violent racist attack. While in prison he has been attacked and harassed by the prison authorities, but there is a good chance that his release can be secured. Please write to the Parole Board before 27 October, asking for Satpal to be released and point out that his original recommended tariff was set at eleven years. (Parole Board, Abell House, John Islip Street, London SW1P 4LH). There will be a picket on 16th November, the anniversary of Satpal's attack, at 10 Downing Street from 12pm to 4pm. And on 18th November a Conscious Clubbing event at the Scala. Tel: 07947-595367, freesatpalcampaign@hotmail.com
- The Legal, Defence and Monitoring Group are desperately looking for reliable people to attend court proceedings of those nicked at this year's May Day demonstrations in London (see SchNEWS 258). Trials of those pleading not guilty are about to start and will go on until at least December. Contact them at LDMG, BM Haven, London, WC1N 3XX 020 8245 2930
SPAM, SPAM, WONDERFUL SPAM!
It's been fun, fun, fun at SchNEWS Towers this week with our e-mail system spamming people endless drivel, and our database computer wiping away half our subscribers. Secret service interference? Incompetence? We're not sure, but we don't think it's all our fault. Still, big apologies all round.
- If anyone out there get's up early on a Friday, and has a couple of hours to spare and wants to print SchNEWS please call the office.
SchNEWS in brief
- The representative of the World Bank who this week came to recruit students at Sussex University had a miserable time. He was barricaded out of the seminar room, hid in an office and then got chased around campus before being pied! Shame.
- The new AK Press Catalogue is now out, to get your copy contact them on 0131 5555165, or check it out on-line at www.akuk.com
- Veggies Catering Campaign have a new phone number: 0845 458 9595. They are also planning to move to new premises by the end of the year; in order to do this they need to raise cash urgently. Contact them at 180 Mansfield Road, Nottingham NG1 3HW. www.veggies.org.uk
- Three Sites of Special Scientific Interest and a forest are being destroyed to make way for an airport development near Farnborough. Local people have organised a protest for next Saturday 28th at 10am, meet near Forester's pub, Aldershot road, Church Crookham, 01252 675231
- Close Down Campsfield Detention Centre demo, Saturday 28th, meet noon at the main gates. Tel: 01865 558145/ 557282
- Time Up For Trident - Glasgow: 28th There will be a march and rally calling for the scrapping of Trident and the switching of Trident jobs to more productive work. Meet 10.30am Blytheswood Square. Contact SCND - 0141 423 1222
- The Dudley Hospital Workers on strike against their jobs being privatised (see last weeks SchNEWS) have moved their demonstration to the 4th Nov, Stourbridge Town Hall 12.30pm.
- Casualisation Kills The Simon Jones case. Public meeting in Manchester, Tuesday 31st 7:30pm at The Brow House , 1 Mabfield Road, Fallowfield, Manchester. Contact SF PO Box 1681, London N8 7LE Tel: 0208 3745027 www.simonjones.org.uk
Following a long campaign against The Focus Do-it-All Chain, animal rights campaigners are celebrating this week after the company announced they will stop selling reptiles and exotic spiders. Reptiles bought in pet shops often die within the year. However, the store is continuing to sell other pets including exotic birds and fish and so protests continue. Contact Animal Aid on 01732 364546 www.animalaid.org.uk
Friday 27 October demo against pet supermarket trade in Brighton. Meet 12.30 pm outside Harvest Forestry (behind the London Rd Sainsburys)
Four Greenpeace activists this week finally came down after four days - in pissing rain - up the 100 metre chimney at Edmonton incinerator. The Government plans to increase the size of the incinerator by 50% as well as the number of incinerators in London from two to six. Thus chucking more toxic gases into London's already polluted atmosphere rather than encouraging re-use and recycling. Greenpeace 020 7865 8257 www.greenpeace.org.uk
Meanwhile in Goole, East Riding, residents won a three year battle to prevent a waste incinerator being built at Glews Hollow. The local Communities Against Toxics (CAT) Group countered all the developer's arguments for an incinerator and even went to Italy to see a very successful composting facility there, giving them the ammunition they needed to show how short sighted the Council's plans for incineration were. When Douglas Marcham, an 87 year old campaigner, was asked what he was going to do with the rest of his life he answered; "Fight incinerators." The Governement plans to build another 122 incinerators, if one is in your area contact CAT for advice. CAT, PO Box 29, Ellesmere Port, South Wirral, L66 3TX; ralph@recycle-it.org.uk; Tel/Fax 0151 339 5473.
Over in Ireland people have been getting angry 'cos local authorities have been charging an extra tax for rubbish collection on top of the taxes they already pay, making them pay twice for the service. Those who refuse to pay don't get it collected. Locals in Cork have started dumping their rubbish on the town hall steps to protest against this double taxation. Contact Rebel City at 58a Evergreen St., Cork, Eire.
The NF are poised to venture out in public in Margate this Saturday(21st) to display their rancour toward families of asylum seekers. They've boasted that their presence at the Nayland Rock Hotel will bring them "in close contact with asylum seekers" to whom they'd rather have said 'no room at the inn'. Instead, the hotel recently won a legal action against Thanet District Council, which was trying to stop it from putting up refugees. Fancy some seafront action? A counter demo is being held starting at 1pm (the NF are due from 3:00-4:00) Nayland Rock Hotel, 1 Royal Crescent (on the seafront by the railway station).
SchNEWS can reveal the government's latest crime deterrent, the highly intimidating 'finger a criminal' campaign. The campaign must have been a bit too vulgar to feature in most papers, but that smutty rag, the Hampstead and Highgate Express, covered it in what has to be the headline of the month "Crack crime: finger a criminal". Unfortunately, they don't go into details of the punishment, but getting fingered by upstanding, pillar-of-the-community, middle England types would surely be enough to put anybody off a life of villainy.
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Last updated 20th October 2000
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