Naksa anniversary marked in Gaza

The fifth of June marks Naksa day or the setback during the 1967 six day war. At that time Israel launched a hostile war against Syria, Egypt and Jordan. After defeating Arab forces, Israel  completed the occupation of the rest of the Palestinian territories and occupied vast areas of Syria and Egypt.
46 years later a war veteran said Palestinnians were betrayed by Arab forces. Palestinian resistance groups forced Israeli forces to withdraw form Gaza in 2005. Israel now says that it no longer occupies Gaza but facts on the ground prove otherwise. This place under international law is occupied. You only have to live  their to see the Israeli warplanes that dominate the sky and still fly over.

 Furthermore, in the aftermath, Israel expopriated around 80% of Palestinian property and displaced more than 400,000 Palestinians. Around half of those displaced Palestinians in 1967, were already refugees from 1948 Nabka. By it's swift end, Israel had occupied the West Banl ( including Jerusalem) the Gaza strip and the Golan heights, with the exception of the Sinai Peninsular, Israel continues its illegal occupation of those lands to this day.Nany have said that the Six Day War was not thrust upon Israel, but engineered by them.
Since this date,  well immediately after this so called  defensive war, Israels settlement policy increased.
According to Noam Chomsky

 ' Settlements in the Occupied Territories began immediately after the war, sometimes without government authorisation, though this regularly came later... By December 1969, the Meir government had established as one of its 'esssential goals' the 'accelleration of military settlements and permanent agricultural and urban settlements in the territoryof the homeland'. ( ref: Noam Chomsky, The fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel and the Palestinians, South End Press, 1999)

I leave you with the words of eminent journalist Robert Fisk - ' The injustice done to the Palestinians, the dispossession, the massacres, not only the loss of that part of Palestine which became Israel- and  is internationally recognised as such- but also the occupation of the reminder of the mandate territory and the bloody suppression of any end all manifestations  of Palestine resistance:all this had to take secind place to Israel's security and the civilised values and democracy for which Israel was widely promised' Her army, which often behaved  with cruelty and indiscipline, was  to be regarded as an exemplar of 'purity of arms' and those of us who witnessd Israel's killing of civilians were to be abused as liars, anti-semites or friends of 'terrorism.'

from ' The Grreat War for Civiliation:The Conquest of the Middle East;
Robert Fisk, 2005

Remnant of village destoyed after 1967.

I am a friend of neither, but I oppose injustice.

BADGER SWAGGER

CALL TO ACTION-

Urgent....
Sign the petition and find more about the cull.
http://www.getoffmybadger.com/
Write to your M.P takes 20 seconds
http://www.writetothem.com

The Track

BADGER SWAGGER has been produced & created by the Artful Badger with a little help from their friends...

https://twitter.com/ArtfulBadgerUK

http://facebook.com/artfulbadgeruk

WHY? -

We created this track & music video together to raise awareness on the needless,unscientific, cruel & unwarranted slaughter of one of the British Isles' most beloved and unique creatures. Backed by politics & fear, not science nor public opinion, this exopensive & ineffective badger cull could well cause more problems than it cures ... even our friend David Attenborough says so!!

Listen in the track for what he says....

BADGER SWAGGER

LYRICS

We love the badgers and they matter to our nanners
Cameron where's your manners
why them cameras try scan us
Some are sitting in a palace champagne and scallops
Some are in the store house begging for a package
We can't even manage
and killing all the badgers aint gonna fix the damage
It is sinning and drastic
like killing for plastic
Most are living brassic
people back this
We can't have this evil madness
Will tell your grandkids the story of the badgers
In 40 years time when they've all vanished
That you was to busy getting dizzy with a gadget
Sign the petition get busy and back it
Listen tio the mission see the vision and tactic
This will make the difference cos I went and Rob Cass'd it
Abbey road studios artful badger smacked it
Yeah I wrote a banger cos with grammar I'm the ccaptain

Chorus

Some things are black and white
Come on we got to win this fight
Some things are wrong not right
So people gotta hold on tight
Some things are like dynamite
Got to make them see the light
Some things are black and white
Come on fight the fight

Verse 2

Listen to my verse and words in the tune
It's all going down on the first of June
People gather round give your point of view
In the manor underground be the voice for you crew
Yeah it matters now make a choice for the truth
You can't cull the bagers if you aint got the proof
NFU NFU deaths bad karma for your revenue
NFU NFU it's not a clever move
I think you better think it through
Be careful what you do
Cos the inner city's gritty
And we don't like the news
TB just rteduced by 16%
Even if every single badger is dead
So whats the effect we're not impressed
All the scientists said it doesn't make sense
Yet the killing goes ahead
How do you sleep in your bed
Get off my badger or I will get vex!

Chorus

Some things are black and white
Come on we got to win the fight
Some things are wrong not right
So people got to holld on tight!
Some things are like dynamite
Gotta make them see the light
Some things are black and white
Come on fight the fight

Spoken word: (Sir David Attenborough)
So the government instituted a major inquiry to establish
scientifically the facts. That involved culling 11,000 badgers and
the results by the government advisor to that independent scientific
group were that culling was not a vible policy option.

Chorus

Some things are black and white
Come on we got to win this fight
Some things are wrong not fight
So people got to hold on tight!

X2

Some thing are like dynamite
Got to make them see the light
Some things are black and white
Come on fight the fight

STOP THE CULL

earlier post
West Wales badger cull
http://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/west-wales-badger-cull.html

R.S Thomas ( 29/3/13 -25/9/00) - On the Threshold of Liberty

                               
                                Rene Magritte


Been away a week, amongst  Hay-on -Wye's corporate tents, time for  annual reflections, time for trusty old notebooks to disappear.
Reflections  may come, and go, but every year I read some R.S. Thomas, so this year with it being the centenary of his birth it adds a little poignancy. So last week as I immersed myself in Welsh landscapes. I also searched out Mr Thomas's deeper imaginings, where his passion for art is overlooked, far away from Iago Prytherch, his  resonance still littered with profound suffusion, little proclamations of committment, that continually assist.
So today I honour yesterdays's serial obsessive, who unlike google at least followed some kind of ethical code, whose flowers  still bloom in hope's potent wind. On the bridge of possibility.

What it means is:
            you must accede
to the invention. Flesh,
trees, dwellings, the grain
                        in the wood
are vulnerable and not
             to be shot at;
only the sky is
           target.
                    Challenged
the inventor would claim
             all he wants is
  for it to go off.
                        So move
the paintings to one side
             in  the humanist's
gallery; open a window.
Let the gun point its muzzle,
at the idea that there are limits.       

Reprinted from
Ingrowing Thoughts- R.S .Thomas
Poetry Wales Press, 1985.          

Looking (after Hay)

Yesterday,
went missing for hours,
drifted in and out of shops,
with scraps of paper,
names of elusive books,
written down, to look for lost pleasures,
to fill in the blanks, left at home.
I Walked with open mind,
followed random navigation,
echoes reverberating with voluptuous tranquility,
it began to rain, saw poets,making a run for it,
turning on their heels, running on plains of sensation,
I continued searching, leaned on  latticed bookcases,
deciphering experimental  exit signs,
of no return.

Palestinian Children killed by Israeli forces since 2000 : 1,397

 

That was quicker than expected, quick schedule here, lest we forget.
An Israel government report released on May 19th claims Israelis occupation forces did not kill 12 year old Muhammad Al-Durra and that he may not be dead at all. Credible human rights organisations disagree.
Jamal a-Durra, Muhammads father responded ' Israel says my son is n't dead. Can you imagine how this feels for a father who has lost his child.They have all the technology tools in the world. He's not dead? Then bring him to me.
Muhammad is just one of nearly 1,400 children who have been killed since 2000 as a result of the military occupation and settler presence in the West Bak, Gaza strip, and East JJerusalem.
Read a full report by the IMEU here.
http://www.dci-palestine.org/content/child-fatalities

Paul Eldridge (5/5/1888 - 26/7/82) - Pessimism

Paul Eldrige, writer, author, teacher.

                                                               
Despite the bullshit,  despite it  all,
we still  answer back.......  off on holiday,
will possibly be back!

 " PESSIMISM is the philosophy of proportion and perspective. Wisdom., which is quite distinct from mere intelligence, is steeped in pessimism. The major prophets of the age, Jesus and Bhudda and Confucious were pessimists. They understood the tragedy of man, sad they went forth to heal him, each in his own way.
The pessimist does not seek needles in stacks of hay, and does  not seek needles in stacks of hay, and does not feel disillusioned because  they are  unfindable. The hopes he entertains are not too sanquine, and remain within the framework of the ultumate reality.
He knows that the proverb" no rose without its thorn" is trite only because of its eternal justfication. Therefore, beauty he cherishes with that exquisite tenderness  mingled with sorrow which characterises a last kiss, a dying dawn, the overtones of a cherished  melody."

The air is full of delicious scents

                
The sweet smell of freedom, follows us round,
gives real satisfaction, as it spreads and is found,
a hot day when light winds bring rhyme, music and sound,
apple blossom, tea just opened, coffee just ground.

Newly split wood in a copse, the smell of a gardeners leafy bonfire,
sinsimillia's pungency drifting in the air, lifting us higher,
petrol, creasote on wooden fences, the warm touch of lovers,
freshly mowed grass, scented inspiration, raining down in showers.

The smell of sea, clear and salty, drawing you close,
freshly baked bread rising, in the hedgerow a rambling rose,
strawberries and ice cream, the underside of turf,
passion awakening senses under cloudbursts surf.

The scent of memory, of absence, reigniting chains of familiarity,
pages turned from old dusty books, alchemical confectionary,
the vapours released in the steams of making love,
the fragrance of rebellion and disobedience, all of the above.

Yes, the air is full of portent avenues, filled with delicious intent,
that allow us to climb, inhale and roar, before arriving at next ascent,
the perfumes of radiance, sailing on white clouds in the breeze,
bouquets filled with essences, elixirs guaranteed to please.

Demonstration Against Drones : Aberporth

My local UAV testing site  has recently been in the news again , Welsh airfield at the centre of Britains drone revolution http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/06/welsh-airfield-drones where the Guardian seemed to be rehashing the propoganda machine of Mr Ray Mann, owner of Parc Aberporth in West Wales, a flight testing sight for UAVs. Most of Mr Mann's comments were subsequently rehashed in my local paper the Tivy Side,http://www.tivysideadvertiser.co.uk/.
Despite this their are still genuine local concerns about what is happening up the road from me.  The constant noise of the watchkeeper 'drones' or or unarmed aerial vehicles' being flown around Aberporth continue. This constant buzzing- often for hours on end, is a constant reminder of how Wales is still being used for possible 'remote killing' activities.
The Israeli military and Israeli company Elbit systems have also been linked to the watchkeeper drones tested here, which have been used to target civilians in Gaza. As well as local concerns about their links with military use, their have also been ones of safety, with a number of drones crashing over the years.
These are some of the reasons I will be going to support the following demonstation.

DEMONSTRATION

Against Drones

Aberprth MOD Base, main gate
Saturday 18th May , 12 Noon

Bring things to decorate the gate

Drones have killed innocent people in the last decade.

Organised by Cardigan Quakers

For More information
Contact markfranchi@hotmail.co.uk 07905956324
or ruthburtton@tiscali.co.uk
01239 811139

I also support the following initiative,
click picture to enlarge, more details here.
http://www.bepj.org.uk/

65th Anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba

Today, May 15th marks 65 years since the Nakba (day of Catastrophe) the dispossession, forced exile and ethnic cleansing of 750,000 Palestinians from their land before and during the creation of the State of Israel.
Sixty five years later, Palestinians still face an ongoing  Nakba as Israel continues to deny the right of return of displaced Palestinians and to illegally colonize Palestinian lands. Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have now lived under a brutal Israeli military occupation for nearly 46 years in the aftermath of the 1967 war, and Palestines in Israel  live under apartheid where more than 50 laws enshrine their status as second-class citizens based on their ethnic and religious identity.
More details here:-

 http://adalah.org/eng/Israeli-Discriminatory-Law-Database

Zochrot:-  http://zochrot.org/en

 an organisation which aims to promote awareness of the Nakba in Israel, has put together an activity creating a large scale map of the Palestinian villages destroyed by Israel. Participants are given cards that represent each of the villages destroyed, which are then returned to their correct location on a map. Participants can personalise their cards or decorate the map using chalk, coloured stones,stickers, ribbons etc. You can find more information here:- http://zochrot.org/en/content/were-map

Destruction of Palestinian homes

Palestinians protest near Ofra prison of the Occupation demanding freedom for Palestinian prisoners.
May 15 - 2012

Even the word 'Nakba' was banned by the Israeli Minister of Education in 2009, and was removed from school textbooks. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayah said at the time that the word was tantamount to spreading propoganda against Israel. But the word Nakba is the term that about a fifth of Israel's population, the Palestinians use to describe this day.
This is the Palestines history, it is essential we should be allowed to talked about. It is it not wrong to question, when other regimes oppress, we question them too, we have a duty to critisize and condemn, when fundamental freedoms and rights are violated. Any state that acts aggressively is open to criticism. All human beings are entitled to human rights.
Today refugees are still waiting to have their homes and lands returned to them, after all these years, of living in camps, being displaced. Under daily occupation they are forced to daily endure the humiliation, demonisations, metered out to them Today illegal settlers and settlements still removing people from their homes, with seperation walls, humiliation and discrimination.Today the Palestinians world is still being stolen, as occupiers daily steal all that they possess, the tears of yesterday forge today's resistance.Israel to this day have refused to recognise the Palestinians right of return as expressed in the UN General Resolution 194, Article 11,
Information here:-.
http://www.al-awda.org/facts.html

This is why I do not forget them and why many others like Stephen Hawkings last week are responding to the Palestinians calls for Boycott and disinvestment, questioning Israels continuing suffocation and elimination of the Palestinians society and culture.The Palestinians struggle for self determination has become one of the great international moral issues of our time.   That is why it is important not to forget, and to realise too that Israels current policies make sure that for many Palestinians that the Nakba is still a living experience.
Many Palestinians still have a key on a chain around their necks. These are the keys to homes in Palestine which they were forced to abandon in 1948, 1987, or at any time since.
This is a narration without an end, untill opression is vanished, human rights restored, Gaza and the West Bank reunited, after  65 years of forced exile, return is their destiny.

A Tribute to the Depopulated Villages

and towns in the Nakba

A very IMPORTANT Map showing the massive destruction of Palestinian villages and Cities

http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Maps/Story1261.html      

Mahmoud Darwish (13/4/41 -9/8/87) - From: A lover from Palestine

                                           Mahmoud Darwish

your eyes

from one  of Palestines  most beloved poets,a favourite of mine here he speaks of those who know and seek love, to still be able to to spread love.In  exile  his politics rooted in his beloved Palestine.

Yesterday I saw you at the  harbour;
You were a lonely voyager, without provisions.
I ran to you like an orphan
Asking the wisdom of our fathers:
" Why does the green orange grove -
Dragged in prison and port,
And in spite of its travels,
In spite of the scent of salt and longing-
Why does it always remain green?"
And I wrote in my diary:
"I love the orange, but hate the harbour."
I stood at the harbour,
And watched the world with eyes of winter.
Only the orange peel is ours,
Behind me was the desert.
I saw you on briar-covered mountains:
You were a sheperdess  without sheep,
Pursued among the ruins.
You were my garden
When I was away from home.
I would knock on the door, my heart,
For on my heart
The doors and windows, cement and stones are laid.

I have seen you in wells of water
And in granaries, broken.
I have seen you in nightclubs waiting on tables.
I have seen you in rays of tears and wounds.
You are a pure breath of life;
You are the voice of my lips;
You are water ... You are fire.
I have seen you at the mouth of the cave,
Drying your orphan rags on a rope.
I have seen you in stores and streets,
In stables and sunsets.
I have seen you in songs of orphans and wretches.
I have seen you in salt and sand.
Your beauty was of earth, children and jasmine.
I vow
To weave a veil from my eyelashes
And embroider it with verses for your eyes
And with a name, which,
When watered with a heart
That was melted with your love,
Would make trees grow green again.
I will write a sentence dearer than martyrs and kisses:
"Palestine she was and still is!"

One stormy night I opened the window
And saw a mutilated moon.
I told the night: Rejoice
Beyond the fences of darkness!
I have an appointment with light and words.
You are my virginal garden
As long as our songs
Are swords when we draw them.
You are faithful as the seed
As long as our songs
Nourish the land...
You are a palm tree in the mind,
Felled by neither wind nor woodsman's axe.
Your braids have been spared
By beasts of desert and woods.

But I am the exile
Seal me with your eyes
Take me wherever you are -
Take me whatever you are.
Restore to me the color of face
And the warmth of body.
Thelight of heart and eye,
The salt of bread and rhythym,
The taste of earth... the motherland.
Shield me with your eyes.
Take me as a relic from the mansion of sorrow;
Take me as a verse from my tragedy;
Take me as a toy, a brick from the house
So that our children will remember to return.

Her eyes are Palestinian,
Her name is Palestinian,
Her dreams and sorrows, Palestinian
Her veil, her feet and body,
Her words and silence are Palestinian;
Her birth and her death



From Splinters of Bone:
Translated from the Arabic by B.Mm. Bennani,
New York: The Greenfield Review Press, 1974

More on Mahmoud Darwish here
http://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/mahmoud-darwish-poet-of-resistance.html