Palestinian Children's Day

Today marks Palestinian Children's Day as called for by the late PLO chairman Yasser Arafat 11 years ago.
Not actually a day of celebration however but serves to mark the horrific treatment of Palestinian children by the occupying Israeli authorities. Daily children detained, by Israel forces isolated, threatened and terrorised, forced to admit to crimes that they never did. Many left traumatised, from which some never actually recover. 
In 1989 a UN Convention was made on the tights of the child. It stipulated that  children have the right to the best possible health, clean water and the right to play. "Children should not  be arrested, detained, imprisoned only as a last resort for the shortest time possible. They must be treated  with respect and care and kept in contact with their family." it read.
In 1990 Israel signed this convention, making it responsible  to guarantee these rights to Palestinian children in the occupied territories. Sadly since then this  UN Childrens rights declaration has been constantly violated and the  the rights of the child not recognised.
Children  under the age of 18 make up almost 2 million of  a total 4.29 million Palestinian population in the West Bank and the Gaza strip.
Israel currently holds around 6,900 Palestinians as political  prisoners, among them include  470 children. Most of the cases involving children, involve stone throwing, a minor action when one considers  that when these incidents do occur, it is against one of  the most powerful armies in the world, committing violent incursions into towns and villages. The crime of stone throwing could lead to an eventual prison sentence of twenty years imprisonment.
Also because of grinding poverty, and lack of education many children  forced to work on the street, as vendors or porters in busy towns. Economic stress on families means children are increasingly forced to work to earn extra income , often absent or dropping out of school as a result. Schooling and education badly effected remaining often incomplete or interrupted. In addition after recent conflicts many hospitals and clinics were destroyed thus depriving children of their right to health.
While children should enjoy the highest forms of protection according to human rights, international law and regulation, even in times of war or armed conflict - Israel  continues to violate the rights of Palestinian children everyday. Observance of Children's day in Palestine helps attract  international attention to the problems faced  by children currently living under occupation.  The vulnerabilty  of the Palestinian child is unfortunately. more acute than ever, continuing to face poverty, violence, and threats to basic rights . In Gaza , the main source of drinking water continues to be safe, as a result childrens health is put at risk.
This sad reality all  denies the Palestinian child the joy of living an innocent childhood .  The Palestinian child lives a life unlike any other child, symbolising the life of suffering under occupation, that  destroys their dreams as well as their well- being,  let us hope that in the future conditions of freedom and dignity are restored, that give opportunities to grow, in a healthy normal way in what has up to the present day been  denied to them, let's hope rain down.

Gaza fishing zone officially extended.

The decision to extend the fishing zone of some parts of the Gaza coast, to 9 nautical miles instead of  6, has to be welcomed, but does not go far enough. This all took effect early on Sunday morning, the Palestinian Civil  administration have announced.
As part of Israels illegal  blockade  of the coastal enclave since 2005, Palestinian fishermen have been required to  work  within a limited 'designated fishing zone " often having to endure Israeli forces  opening fire, when posing no threat whatsoever, just doing their job in  order to secure a living. Since December 2015, Israeli occupation forces have killed one fisherman, injured 17 and arrested 63,  confiscated 19 fishing boats and destroying  fishing equipment on 12 ocassions, harassed by Israeli  gunboats,  often fishermen have been taken to Israeli  ports blindfolded and handcuffed and questioned under aggressive interrogation techniques. The Israeli navy frequently targets fishing boats in Gaza's territorial waters, even while on shore , on n Saturday Israeli naval boats fired several ive rounds and shells on Palestinian fishing boats, near the Rafah shore.
 All this has had long term impact on the Gazan fishermans ability to feed their families. Because up to now most of the fish was at least  nine miles at sea , it has been a daily struggle to make a living with 90% relying on International Aid.
Around 4,000 fishermen work in Gaza more than half of them who live below the poverty line.  For any chance of their livelihood  being protected their must be an immediate end to the blockade and restrictions that prevent civilians like this providing for their families. This would mean further loosening the restrictions to 20 miles  as laid down by the Oslo peace accords of the 1990's. The restrictions still too narrow to provide for the people of the impoverished Gaza strip. Hopefully now the fishing zone has been expanded it should now result in a bigger catch in these deeper waters, where fish are more abundant.
More than 200 fishing boats headed out from Gazas port on Sunday night  catching  on average 8 kilograms (17 bs) each, including red mullet, grouper, sea bream and some small rays.

   

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NHS - Nye Bevan speaks about the National Health Service

Not too keen on  on politicians round here, very sceptical of most of them, but every so often I am reminded of one or two that sound a bit like human beings.
Nye Bevan  was one of the most important ministers of the post-war Labour Government and the chief architect of the NHS. He was born on 15 November 1897 in Tredegar in Wales. His father was a miner from  a poor working class family in which Bevan  gained first hand experiences of the problems  of poverty and disease. He was a rebel with many causes but is remembered mostly as the architect of the National Health Service which he bought to Parliament while he was Minister for Health in 1948.
He remembered how I he had witnessed families with dreaded sickness  who could not afford to pay doctors bills. In his home town of Tredegar  there existed a working mens medical aid society which was to serve him inspiration. He envigaged an NHS with comprehensive provision was on patient need, not wealth. Never one to back off from a fight , he bullied and cajoled , reasoned and argued until  Health care free at the point of delivery was to become a right instead of a luxury. The NHS would  come to be regarded as one of the best and comprehensive healthcare systems in the world, a jewel in the Crown for the Post Second World War Labour Government.  
And despite some faults Nye Bevan hated the bloody Tories with a passion, and helped make the biggest improvements to the quality of life for the average British person on living memory, so I respect him for this.
We should continue to defend the NHS with all our might, keep resisting the Tories agenda pushing some of us into semi starvation , both physically and socially as they keep  punishing the most vulnerable and hardest hit revealing themselves to be the bullies that they are.
I am reminded that my quality of life owes more to a deadman than a whole Tory Government ever could. So thank you Nye Bevan/
Respect to the junior doctors angry with the government for trying to fuck them over as the Tory's try to sell of the NHS piece by piece into eventual total ownership.

NHS - Nye Bevan speaks about the National Health Service

from Peoples History Museum , Manchester

Crabb must Go

If Stephen Crabb M.P  for Preseli Pembrokeshire and the now secretary of state of work and pensions,  has not done the right thing before 2nd April and resigned as Mencap patron, I will be catching the bus tomorrow to attend a demonstration, join people gathering to urge him that he resigns his post. After all Stephen Crabb is a man who has constantly voted in favor of  every cut to disability benefits, for the Bedroom Tax, and the Benefit Gap. Not much record of voting for fairness in any guise.
More than 10,000 people have already signed an online petition calling  on his role at Pembrokeshire Mencap. The petition says " 

You've recent vote in the House of Commons for disabled people to lose £30 per week of Employment Support Allowance shows that you have no compassion or understanding of the needs of the most vulnerable and disabled members of our society."

you can sign it here;

Please :-

http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stephen-crabb-resign-as-  

I personally find it incomprehensible how the good people voted for him in the first place, and that Mencap could consider a man with  suspect views on homosexuality,  who supported  CARE, Christian organisation called CARE, that claimed hoosexuality was a disorder that so called right thinking people like themselves could cure, and recently declared  also that he is now an expert off suffering, especially of those that are currenty  suffering from parkinsons, motor neurone disease and other delibitating illnesses who he now expects to be looking for work.
continues to personally endorse and represent damaging Tory policies that will keep hurting the hardest hit and the most vulnerable. Causing  further unnecessary pain and distress.
I can  see no reason that MENCAP should still want him as their representative. Currently taking some of his own constituents through the courts because of the bedroom tax. Never once rebelled against any of the vicious cuts that were delivered by his predecessor. Who likes to talk about his roots of  being bought up on a council estatem about his own hardships, but for some reason instead of reflecting on this, seems intent on carrying on implementing cruel benefit sanctions. MENCAP still apparently have still not listened to the many voices that have replied to them, because they are not comfortable with the charities connection with Mr Crabb, which leaves many thinking they should  look at their own priorities and motives.
Join Pembrokeshire Peoples Against Austerity tomorrow if you can outside Stephen Crabb's offices  in Haverfordwest , tomorrow in support of  the most vulnerable and those in need of most support. 

More details here :-

https://www.facebook.com/events/1037182496327308/  

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Police Shooting of Jean Charles De Menezes was lawful rules ECHR - Marking the death of Justice.

Just over  10 years ago an innocent 27 year old  Brazilian electrician Jean Charles De Menezes  was  mistaken  for a suicide bomber and shot at close range 7 times  in the head while sitting on a bench at Stockwell Tube Station in London on his way to work .Two weeks earlier 52 people tragically lost their lives on July 21 in a wave of terrorist bombings on the London transport system. Jean Charles was not a terrorist though. No warnings were ever shouted and he subsequently died on the spot. Nobody would want  to deny  the police the right to shoot dead a sucide bomber if they genuinely thought  he was about to blow up innocent people, but on all accounts this is not what happened here. Due to failings of the Met police from Commander to officer on the the ground an innocent man was killed deliberately and unessessarily// 
But this  killing has now been ruled lawful according to the European Court for Human Rights , see further details here :- 
http://www.rt.com/uk/337730-de-menezes-court-ruling/ Todays ruling comes  as a major blow to his family who have endured a 10 year legal battle and a long fight to achieve justice http://www.justice4jean.org.
An innocent man abroad killed at the hands of the British State. Still no justice , and no one held for account, I personally feel this to be an utter disgrace.  Once again  the British police allowed to  be unaccountable, in the so called name of justice. We should not forget the memory of this innocent man, and the tragic disturbing circumstances  in how his life was lost.

Masks

( an old one not posted here before, rejigged)

Wearing seven masks at once,
( I am the onion)
seven secrets gently spun,
on wheels sealed,
holding on to the shore in ionspheres,
no need for tears, will be here once more,
to not give a shit, to not give a damn,
but to care all the same, and to remain questioning,
we cannot revive old factions,
or follow antique drums,
but with our traces we can reveal,
just remember to be kind,
peel the layers slowly.
truth lies naked
underneath the skin.

A history of silencing Israeli army whistleblowers – from 1948 until today

A history of silencing Israeli whistleblowers  , Jonathan Cook looks at  how the truth of  Israels past and present war crimes is surfacing, slowly  but surely, much to the dismay of Binyamin Netanayahu
and company who are threatening to ban army whistleblowers.

Link here :-

A history of silencing Israeli army whistleblowers – from 1948 until today – Redress Information & Analysis

A Precious Love.

( an Easter gift for Jane, the mighty furbster,  knowing that she is unable to eat chocolates at the moment, and that the only flowers I can afford at the moment would come from the hedgerows, a poem released from my heart.)

This love I know, I've watched grow,
A rare beauty in a world gone wrong,
An understanding beautiful pulse,
Of tenderness and great spirit,
In day brings hope and the night quiet peace,
Whose face sparkles in my dreams,
Manifesting her loveliness,
In every season stands splendid and proud,
A burst of  precious moments,
Creator of joy and happiness,
Light shines all around her presence,
Sweet like honey, this love I know,
I have tasted the wonder of her lips,
None other can I compare, 
In my mind will never fade nor wither,
When I close my eyes I know,
Here be an exquisite bloom.
That will never be unspoken of or forgotten.   

100th anniversary of the Easter Rising

This Easter marks the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Easter rising in Dublin against British imperialist rule. It actually began on 24 April 1916 and lasted  for six short but bloody days, resulting in the deaths of over 300 civilian  casualties, but is marked a month early to symbolically connect it with Easter.
This  uprising marks one of the most defining moments of the struggle for Irish independence, which began with reading of the proclamation Poblach na h -Eireann  byPatrick Pearce, a radical document that called for the establishment of a republic, which  ' represented of the whole people of Ireland  and elected by the suffrages of all her men and women." and "the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland."
It occured at the height of the First World War, rebel leaders feeling the need to rise the people up, while England was at it;s weakest point.  At the time this did not arouse much sympathy because many Irish men, were already fighting  and dying  on foreign lands, for their current King and country. Nevetheless many rallied to the cause, the insugents numbering to over 1,200 men and women.Barricades across the capital city of Dublin sprung up with rebels taking over strategic landmarks.
Over the course of the rising the British deployed over 16,000 troops to brutally suppress it, but the rebels bravely resisted, but it would lead  to about 450 civilan casualties being killed and over 2,000 wounded. The rebels headguartees at the GPO would be blasted into surrender,which Patrick Pearce ordered on the 29th of April.

          
                                 GPO headquarters in ruins after failed uprising

One of the self styled commaders in chief of the rebel forces was James Connolly, a revolutionary socialist actually born in Scotland, who not only dedicated himself to the cause of Irish liberation but alsoto that of international socialism, active also within the radical syndicalist union known as the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). On the 12th ofMay he would be satin a chair and shot by firing squad along with  other leaders of the uprising, numbering  16 in all , which included Patrick Pearce. He was to weak to stand on his own because his body was too battered from wounds received in the uprising. 

Pictured :- James Connolly
 

It should be noted that at the time the rising had little support from the Irish people, no popular mandate, but because of its brutal suppresion and the martyrdom of its leaders it sparked the flame of Irish republicanism, that would launch a mass rebellion that would lead to the creation of an Irish republic. The rising subsequentlly struck a blow  against the idea of empire and imperialism, beginning a path repeated  across the British Empire as the 20th century progressed, as Edward Said  noted " a model of 20th century wars of liberation." Connolly is now rightly celebrated as one of the fathers of the Irish nation that we see now.
After the rising over 3,000 peopke were arrested many with no actual connection with the uprising and over 1,800 imprisoned. This would also start a wave of support that would lead to independence.
Many were to be interned in Frongech Prison Camp here in Gwynedd, Wales, near Bala, which would aid the rebles cause further because collectively they found solidarity, in what has become known as the university of revolution, seeds of further rebellion were sown, in the hearts and minds of some who had not previously considered this path.
In 1920, after the failed uprising Britain would sign a disputed treaty creating two governments- one in Belfast with jurisdiction  over 6 counties and the other in Dublin which  had authority over the others. It was not until 1949 that the state of Ireland explicitly became a republic, an independent nation.
The 1916 rising remains  a seminal event of 20th centurty history and  is celebrated because it gave rise to a birth of a nation. It still holds great significance because it has continued to be both a source of pride, division and controversy across this Island ever since, as some believe there is still unfinished business. 
This Easter Sunday will herald synchronised wreath laying ceremonies at strategic points across Dublin and the Republic of Ireland in what will be an unashamed celebration of the birth of the Irish republic, one hopefully of unity instead of division. A moment of a people's pride.

Happy Easter: Remembering a Revolutionary Jesus

What would Jesus be up to nowadays, though many claim he is still with us, this unemployed son of two asylum seekers. Maybe he would be born in todays world as a refugee, or in an occupied nation, or in a slum or in a war zone , a life on benefits,  due to sickness or disability.
I like to think that if  he did wander on this earth he would show solidarity with the poor and oppressed, the most vulnerable, being the righteous man that he was said to be.
I am not personally of the christan faith  but respect some historical facts, the evidence that points to Jesus as one of the self proclaimed messiahs fighting to end Roman occupation and for an egalitarian society in which division between rich and poor had been erased. His revolutionary message. This is what made him a marked man and  led to his crucifiction and his followers subsequently being persecuted. I think  his ideas seem to be the complete opposite of some of his followers today, who use his name, certain right wing politicians.
Did not many of the earlier christians practice a form of communism. As Acts of Apostles says " The believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need."  And this from the gospels " he had filled the hungry with good things and sent the richaway with empty hands." Did  he not preach fairness, his revolutionary ideas stirring some  to follow him  and others to hate him. Does not the Bible reveal too, a focus on social justice and the poor and point to a way that economic life should be organised around the needs of societies weakest and most vulnerable members. He challenged  the attitudes of a society  that  looked down on the marginalised - the sick, the poor, the needy, social outcasts and challenged the structures that kept them  in their marginalised place. He did not simply ignore those who suffer on the margins of our societies. He talked about a God of compassion - one that would open up his kingdom to those locked out.
In this present time many of his followers are urging Stephen Crabb the current secretary of state for work and pensions, and current Conservative MP, for Preseli Pembrokeshire here in Wales to scrap  brutal cuts. In a letter which suggests they are incompatible with  his Christian faith.
Catholic  think tank Ekklesia have written  to him saying  his departments cuts have gone to far.  Urging him to reverse the  policies of his predecessor and to work to the principles of Christian justice . 
You can read the full contents of the letter here , well worth a read :-

http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/sites/ekklesia.co.uk/files/stephen_crabb_open_letter.pdf


happy eostore, heddwch/peace.