Sign for Peace in Palestine UPDATE!
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Guys,
Its heartbreaking to see what is happening in Palestine. The bombing has to stop on both sides but primarily Israel.
Avaaz has started a campaign which will put pressure on big business to withdraw from Israel in the hope that a lasting settlement might be achieved.The mission statement reads,
**To the CEOs of ABP, HP, Veolia, Barclays, Caterpillar, and G4S:
In the wake of the terrible violence unfolding in Israel-Palestine, we, citizens from around the world, are deeply concerned about your companies’ continued investment in companies and projects that finance illegal settlements and the oppressive occupation of the Palestinian people. 17 EU countries recently issued warnings to their citizens against doing business or investing in illegal Israeli settlements. Given those legal considerations, you now have the opportunity to withdraw investments and respect international law. This is a chance to be on the right side of history.**
Over a million people have signed so far and the target is 1.5 million. Please take a minute to put your name to the campaign, here, https://secure.avaaz.org/en/israel_palestine_this_is_how_it_ends_rb/?bTkNlcb%26amp;v=42735
Mike
UPDATE
Just got a new email from Avaaz. I am posting it here, please read.
Alice Jay - Avaaz
Amazing! We’ve built the largest campaign ever to divest from this conflict! Companies are responding, and ABP has agreed to meet, but every day more children are bombed and Israel is intensifying their offensive. Let’s ramp up the pressure -- demand action now and share this with everyone: http://avaaz.org/en/israel_palestine_this_is_how_it_ends_pa_3/?3b
Dear friends,
As a new round of violence kicks off in Israel-Palestine and more children are killed, it's not enough just to call for another ceasefire. It's time to take definitive non-violent action to end this decades long nightmare.
Our governments have failed -- while they have talked peace and passed UN resolutions, they and our companies have continued to aid, trade and invest in the violence. The only way to stop this hellish cycle of Israel confiscating Palestinian lands, daily collective punishment of innocent Palestinian families, Hamas firing rockets, and Israel bombing Gaza is to make the economic cost of this conflict too high to bear.
We know it works -- when EU countries issued guidelines not to fund the illegal Israeli settlements it caused an earthquake in the cabinet, and when citizens successfully persuaded a Dutch pension fund, PGGM, to withdraw, it created a political storm.
This may not feel like a direct way to stop the current killing, but history tells us that raising the financial cost of oppression can pave a path to peace. Click to call on 6 key banks, pension funds and businesses to pull out -- If we all take smart action now and turn up the heat, they could withdraw, the Israeli economy will take a hit, and we can turn the calculation of the extremists politically profiting from this hell upside down:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/israel_palestine_this_is_how_it_ends_3b/?bTkNlcb%26amp;v=43385
In the last six weeks three Israeli teenagers were murdered in the West Bank, a Palestinian boy was burnt alive, an American kid was brutally beaten up by Israeli police, and now almost 100 Gazan kids have died in Israeli air strikes. This is not the "Middle East conflict", it's becoming a war on children. And we are becoming numb to this global shame.
The media makes out like this is an intractable conflict between two equal warring parties, but it is not. Palestinian extremists' attacks on innocent civilians are never justified and Hamas’ anti-semitism is disgusting. But these extremists claim legitimacy by fighting the grotesque, decades-long oppression by the Israeli state. Israel currently occupies, colonises, bombs, raids, and controls the water, trade and the borders of a legally free nation that has been recognised by the United Nations. In Gaza, Israel has created the largest open-air prison in the world, and then blockaded it. Now as bombs fall, the families literally have no way to get out.
These are war crimes and we wouldn't accept that anywhere else: why accept it in Palestine? Half a century ago Israel and its Arab neighbours went to war and Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza. Occupying territory after war happens all the time. But no military occupation should turn into a decades-long tyranny which only fuels and benefits extremists who use terror to target the innocent. And who suffers? The majority of loving families on both sides that just want freedom and peace.
To many, particularly in Europe and North America, calling for companies to withdraw investments from financing or taking part in Israel's occupation of Palestine sounds completely biased. But this campaign is not anti-Israel -- this is the most potent non-violent strategy to end the ritual violence, ensure Israelis' security and achieve Palestinian freedom. Although Hamas deserves much pressure too, it is already under crippling sanctions and facing every kind of pressure. Israel's power and wealth dwarfs Palestine, and if it refuses to end its illegal occupation, the world must act to make the cost unbearable.
Dutch pension fund ABP invests in Israeli banks that help fund the colonisation of Palestine. Massive banks like Barclays invest in suppliers of Israeli arms and other occupation businesses. Computer giant Hewlett-Packard supplies sophisticated surveillance to control the movement of Palestinians. And Caterpillar provides bulldozers that are used to demolish Palestinian homes and farms. If we can create the biggest global call ever to get these companies to pull out, we will show clearly that the world will no longer be complicit in this bloodshed. The Palestinian people are calling on the world to support this path and progressive Israelis support it too. Let's join them:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/israel_palestine_this_is_how_it_ends_3b/?bTkNlcb%26amp;v=43385
Our community has worked to bring peace, hope, and change to some of the world's toughest conflicts, and often that means taking difficult positions to address the root cause. For years our community has looked for a political solution to this nightmare, but with this new round of horror unfolding in Gaza, the time has come to turn to sanctions and disinvestment to finally help end the horror for Israelis and Palestinians.
With hope and determination,
Alice, Fadi, Ben, Laila, Anna, Ricken, Jo, Nell, Mais and the entire Avaaz team
MORE INFORMATION:
UN independent expert calls for boycott of businesses profiting from Israeli settlements (UN)
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=43376#.U7_ynqhMrRI12 more EU countries warn against trade with Israeli settlements (Haaretz)
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.603030Israelis, Palestinians Pro Peace Process, but Not Hopeful (Gallup)
http://www.gallup.com/poll/161456/israelis-palestinians-pro-peace-process-not-hopeful.aspxUnder pressure, a strong EU-Israel relationship faces uncertain future (Middle East Monitor)
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/articles/debate/9675-under-pressure-a-strong-eu-israel-relationship-faces-uncertain-futureIsrael-Gaza conflict: 80 per cent of Palestinians killed by Israeli strikes are civilians, UN report says (The Independent)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israelgaza-conflict-80-per-cent-of-palestinians-killed-by-israeli-strikes-are-civilians-un-report-says-9606397.htmlRule 156. Definition of War Crimes (ICRC)
http://www.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v1_cha_chapter44_rule156Palestinians: Most Gaza dead are children, women, elderly (Haaretz)
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.604443Caught on Tape: US Teen Allegedly Beaten by Israeli Police (ABC News)
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/caught-tape-us-teen-tariq-abu-khdeir-allegedly-24449873A policy of displacement (Visualizing Palestine)
http://visualizingpalestine.org/infograhic/a-policy-of-displacementExposing the Israeli Occupation Industry
http://www.whoprofits.org/Additional sources for this campaign:
http://avaaz.org/en/israel_palestine_this_is_how_it_ends_sources_a/?blast
Israel-Palestine: the way to end the violence
As a new round of violence kicks off in Israel-Palestine and more children are killed, it's time to take definitive non-violent action to end this nightmare. Our governments and companies have continued to aid, trade and invest in the violence, but we can help stop it if we call on key banks, pension funds and businesses to pull out their investments -- add your voice now:
Avaaz (secure.avaaz.org)
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Done.
Thanks for posting the link Mike.
A
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Done.
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Nothing is going to happen this time or next time, THEY are simply mowing the lawn, and if you don't like it, THEY will make it a future hate crime if one chooses to make comments in favor of the Palestinian cause.
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Done.
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So, now international law and history depends on corporation's will? And we have to ask them for the basic human right? The god of profit was never on the "right side of the history", and never will be. It has no conscience.
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@tomot said:
Nothing is going to happen this time or next time, THEY are simply mowing the lawn, and if you don't like it, THEY will make it a future hate crime if one chooses to make comments in favor of the Palestinian cause.
'THEY' may well do that but we can only raise our voices by whatever means are available to us.
@srx said:
So, now international law and history depends on corporation's will? And we have to ask them for the basic human right? The god of profit was never on the "right side of the history", and never will be. It has no conscience.
You put the current situation well. I agree its a sad state of affairs when it comes to this type of leverage but at least its one that ordinary folk can use.
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This is not right!
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I agree Mike this is not right.
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I can understand where you are coming from Ken and I agree two wrongs don't make a right. Both sides need to be flexible and its normally the stronger side that should be the most flexible. Is this case it looks to me that the Palestinians and the Israelis have to sit around a table with a totally independent arbitrator, some totally neutral country and reach an agreement. I actually think arbitration by Ireland could help as achieving peace in Northern Ireland was no easy task.
I'm also wondering if this is one of the main reasons for war, 'War and Natural Gas: The Israeli Invasion and Gaza’s Offshore Gas Fields'
http://www.globalresearch.ca/war-and-natural-gas-the-israeli-invasion-and-gaza-s-offshore-gas-fields/11680 -
Ken,
As Mike has said, there is plenty of blame to be shared by both parties in this. Personally, I find the actions of both sides beyond contempt.
However, it is too easy to be diverted by debating the political rights and wrongs, whilst in the real world ordinary men women and children are suffering under the most appaling circumstances. This is what needs addressing now. My decision to sign the petition was wholly apolitical. For me, it is about doing what we can to stop the human suffering NOW. On that basis, discussing the rights and wrongs, in an effort to determine which side is worse, or less bad, feels uncomfortably like 'fiddling whilst Rome burns'. -
Mike and andyc
Thanks for not hammering me.
To put it bluntly, I have zero respect for people/nations that put children in harms way. Hiding behind women and children is an act that gets zero respect from me. No historical or present day wrong justifies this type of behavior.
Mike, I look at the natural gas map. It looks to me as there is plenty to go around. I just happen to work in the oil/gas recovery business. It would be nice if there was some possible cooperation there and both societies make gains.
However, drilling for gas or oil in a potential war zone would be catastrophic; personnel and environmental wise.
Now, I will back out, don't want to highjack your thread. Just wanted to point out, there are children and old people on both sides, that have a right to safe life.
Ken, gone. Mike, sorry about the thread high jack
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@andyc said:
Ken,
As Mike has said, there is plenty of blame to be shared by both parties in this. Personally, I find the actions of both sides beyond contempt.
However, it is too easy to be diverted by debating the political rights and wrongs, whilst in the real world ordinary men women and children are suffering under the most appaling circumstances. This is what needs addressing now. My decision to sign the petition was wholly apolitical. For me, it is about doing what we can to stop the human suffering NOW. On that basis, discussing the rights and wrongs, in an effort to determine which side is worse, or less bad, feels uncomfortably like 'fiddling whilst Rome burns'.I also signed in the hope that it might lead to pressure for a ceasefire and talks .... until a solid agreement is reached for both parties.
@unknownuser said:
Mike and andyc
Thanks for not hammering me.
To put it bluntly, I have zero respect for people/nations that put children in harms way. Hiding behind women and children is an act that gets zero respect from me. No historical or present day wrong justifies this type of behavior.
Mike, I look at the natural gas map. It looks to me as there is plenty to go around. I just happen to work in the oil/gas recovery business. It would be nice if there was some possible cooperation there and both societies make gains.
However, drilling for gas or oil in a potential war zone would be catastrophic; personnel and environmental wise.
Now, I will back out, don't want to highjack your thread. Just wanted to point out, there are children and old people on both sides, that have a right to safe life.
Ken, gone. Mike, sorry about the thread high jack
You have your opinion Ken and you are entitled to same. I can understand your stance with regard to not putting children in harms way.
Concerned people should try and keep this conflict on the agenda until a final lasting settlement is reached. Both sides have to come up with compromises that will work. Hopefully this will be done before matters escalate into something that spreads throughout the middle east. This looks to be the way things are heading at the moment.
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Lasting Peace: attempts unfailingly failed.
The suspicion is that in the Middle East prevail interest in keeping up the tension... -
Im with Ban Ki Moon on this.." stop fighting, start talking and take on the root causes of the conflict so we are not back to the same situation in another six months or a year"
Im for peace but wont go for a one-sided campaign. Hamas I believe has committed war crimes against its own people.
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@cuttingedge said:
Hamas I believe has committed war crimes against its own people.
No doubt about that. Hamas, in my opinion, is a band of criminals. They've been leveraging the Palestinian cause to further their own agenda for years. However, Israel is currently waging war, boots on the ground and all, against a populace that consists mostly of civilians and has nowhere to run. I hold the Israeli government in no higher esteem than I do Hamas. And the fact that we -by which I mean the EU- do nothing, makes me cringe.
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Freedom Fighters or Terrorists! It all depends on which side of the fence one is on.
I doubt the Israelis will ever defeat Hamas no more that the UK government could ever defeat the IRA or the US government the Taliban. In the end folks have to talk and do a deal .... the sooner the better.
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@mike lucey said:
Freedom Fighters or Terrorists! It all depends on which side of the fence one is on.
No. It is simpler than that. Freedom fighters target the state forces, terrorists target civilians.
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@bhoritz said:
@mike lucey said:
Freedom Fighters or Terrorists! It all depends on which side of the fence one is on.
No. It is simpler than that. Freedom fighters target the state forces, terrorists target civilians.
So are you saying that Israeli's are terrorists as they are killing women and children?
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Breaking news on the BBC website:
"At least 15 people have been killed and more than 200 injured when a UN-run school used as a shelter in Gaza was shelled, the Gaza health ministry says.
Hundreds of Palestinians were in the school in Beit Hanoun, fleeing heavy fighting in the area.
It is the fourth time that a UN facility has been hit in Israel's offensive against Hamas militants."
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