'Killing Gaza': A New Documentary on Palestinians Under Siege

In their  powerful new film "Killing Gaza," journalists Dan Cohen and Max Blumenthal capture the harrowing stories of Palestinians who survived the 2014 Israeli assault and their struggles to recover and persist under a crippling blockade.Featuring direct testimony and evidence from the survivors.
Their new film "Offers an unflinching and moving portrait of a people largely abandoned by the outside world, struggling to endure." - Pulitzer- prize winning  journalist , best selling author and activist Chris Hedges. Killing Gaza captures the culture of resistance and might  help us all understand why so many Palestinians have been prepared to risk their lives and rush the gates. https://electronicintifada.net/content/killing-gaza-captures-culture-resistance/24321
You can watch the whole film here ;- https://killinggaza.com/
With thanks to The Real News Network https://therealnews.com/
However the Palestinians have long lived under occupation, and remain steadfast with perseverance despite their collective feelings of oppression, represented by the concept of sumud that allows them a sense of rootedness to their land. Sumud is about persevering despite all the oppression and hardships that Palestinians daily face. Continuing to speak up, keep on going on with daily life at a time when there are massacres all around, as seen in Gaza.
Meanwhile the UN has at least voted to send an international war crimes probe to Gaza after the body's leading human rights official slammed Israel's reaction to protests along the border as " wholly disproportionate."
After Israel killed 60 Palestinians at mass border protests last Monday.The council voted through the resolution with 29 in favour and two opposed. while 14 states abstained.
The resolution also condemned "the disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force by the Israel's occupying forces against Palestinian civilians."
Shamefully the UK abstained from the vote, in doing so going against a general international consensus among international Palestinian human rights organisations, which agree that the only way to approach justice is through an independent inquiry.

Stuff the Royal wedding

The Royal couple said they wanted a people's wedding, but the fact remains  people are not being treated equally.
Why are people allowed to camp out on the streets awaiting the Royal wedding, while those who are actually homeless have their sleeping bags ripped from them  and their few possessions trashed, and are forced to move on? This is completely disgraceful.
It's certainly a sad indictment of modern Britain, that nothing really changes. In 1820 there were homeless beggars outside palaces. In 2018 it's still the same. 30 million quid obscenely spent on a family whose inherited wealth and privilege by birth is the norm and people without a roof over their head watch them go by.
Around two thirds of Britons are simply not interested , in the forthcoming wedding, according  to a new poll by You Gov .https://www.republic.org.uk/sites/default/files/Republic_MonarchyResults_180511.pdf
The research found 6% of the 1,615 asked saying they were not very interested or not interested at all in the ceremony, while 60% planned to have a normal weekend.Other findings showed 57% of those surveyed thought the royals should pay the full cost of the wedding including funds spent on policing and security.
Anti monarchy group Republic, which commissioned the poll , is planning to hold a republican convention in central London as the couple tie the knot in Windsor.
Graham Smith, chief executive of Republic, said ;"We chose the day before they did. When they announced the royal wedding we decided to keep it.
" It's an opportunity to highlight the alternative and point out the problems with the monarchy."
They will continue to fight for an end to the "corrupt monarchty"
The latest campaign on their website entitled " Fat cat monarchy earns average UK salary in one hour." claims each member of the Royal Family earns £19.1 million each year and costs the public purse £10.95 every second. https://www.republic.org.uk/what-we-do/news-and-updates/fat-cat-monarchy
While the right wing media and the establishment will try to cultivate a spirit of national unity, there remains a palpable sense of resentment amongst a significent  section of the population who are repulsed by this fawning celebration of wealth and privilege that simply exposes the extreme division of wealth across the land .The cost of this forthcoming  marriage will be 110 times that of the average  couple. This extravagence  serves to remind us of the lives of the super- rich who have not suffered the decade of austerity the rest of us have, and a distraction from the abject poverty that has become a common feature under the Tories' watch..
I am am happy when people fall in love, but there should be no place for these relics of primitive feudal times  in a modern society, so stuff the royal wedding, abolish the monarchy and fight the cuts.

Levellers Day

In April 1649, Robert Lockyer, a leveller who had refused to serve during Cromwell's notorious rampage against Catholics in Ireland, was executed , then on May 17th 1649, three soldiers Cornet James Thompson and Corporal  John Church and Private Perkins were executed on Oliver Cromwell’s orders in Burford churchyard, Oxfordshire for leading a mutiny. They belonged to a revolutionary movement  of radical thinkers which arose in the English Parliamentary Army in the 1640s, popularly known as the Levellers, with beliefs in civil rights and religious tolerance, equality for all. Considered by some to be the first socialists. During the Civil War, the Levellers fought on Parliament’s side, they had at first seen Cromwell as a liberator, but now saw him as a dictator. Angered by arrears in pay they were prepared to fight against him for their ideals..400 hundreds troops refused  to fight the Irish too an rebelled instead.
The movement had developed within Cromwell's New Model Army, England's first professional force comprised of volunteers and with an openly political ethos. Inspired by the parliamentary cause and by the ideas of John Lilburne, Richard Overton and other radical pampleteers, and faced with the reality of pay arrears and unacceptable orders from Parliament, they quickly became radicalised and organised.
Their demands set out in a manifesto called the Agreement of the People, published on 1 May 1649, included universal male suffrage, abolition of the monarchy and the House of Lords, land reditribution and the equality of all under the law. These demands in particular posed a serious threat to Parliament, dominated as it was by wealthy landowners.They also demanded universal state schools and hospitals to be provided at public expense anticipated the welfare state that would come 300 years later.
Leveller leaders had led mutinies in the Army during the civil war and had been arrested and imprisoned. The Burford mutiny followed on from the defeat of radical ideas at the Putney debates in 1647.However, on previous occasions the generals had not executed mutineers.Cromwell could not afford rebellion in the ranks of the parliamentary army and was determined to crush them. After government troops caught up with the Levellers at Burford. Three hundred were imprisoned in the Church.According to Christopher Hill, here the defeat of ‘the more extreme radical’ activists, resulted in a ‘total rout’
 In 1975, members of the WEA Oxford Industrial Branch went to Burford to reclaim a piece of history that seemed to be missing from the school books. They held a meeting in remembrance of the Leveller soldiers. The following year, Tony Benn came and read in the church and in each succeeding year, people have come to Burford on the Saturday nearest to 17 May, debated, held a procession, hearing radical speeches,listened to music, placing wreathes in the churchyard and remember the Levellers and the importance of holding on to ideals of justice and democracy.
Many years have passed since the Levellers made their stand, but many of the issues they struggled for remain as relevant today.
While universal suffrage has been achieved Parliament the political process is still dominated by the wealthy, as the current government shows only to clearly.The monarchy still  unfortunately with us and we have the House of Lords that still ensures  privilege and heredity are directly represented in the governing of the country. We can at least look back and take inspiration of the struggles of the Levellers.
At least in their resistance to unnaccountable power and their relentless push for democracy and self determination, the Levellers set the stage for future movements to follow in their wake, from Tolpuddle to the Chartists, to the battles we fight on the streets now.


 SERTUC has published The Levellers Movement, an account of perhaps the first political movement to represent the ordinary people. You can download it free here The Levellers Movement.

Transition

We are heading towards a transition
We're not wasting our lives by tradition,
Because we're finally running the show
And in our hearts and minds we glow,
Filled by the promises of riches untold
The gift of friendship that can't be bought or sold,
With truth and justice make the righteous fall
The innocent freed, proudly walking tall,
While the summer slowly comes out to play
Sun shining down,seasons beauty here to stay,
World's heaviness crumbling into dust
Humanity's darkness restored with love and trust,
Power given to the oppressed who fight and fight
Tearing through barricades to get whats right,
With flags of red, black and green, make a stand
Cloaks of privilege removed, hope spread across the land,
Pecking through rubble, picking remnants, planting anew
Clearing spaces,overturning wrong, paths of peace grow.

70 years since the Nabka the Palestinians right to existence still ongoing.

The Great March of Return in the Gaza Strip has served to remind the world of the Palestinian people and their ongoing struggle. Since March 30, Palestinians in Gaza have engaged in peaceful grassroots protests at the Israel military fence that daily imprisons them, calling for an end to the dire conditions that they are forced to live with, as well as for the right of return to the land which they were expelled 70 years ago, what Palestinians call the Nabka or catastrophe, and an end to the suffocating 11 year siege on the Gaza Strip. The protesters have literally been placing their bodies on line with the risk of being shot by Israel snipers. After the US embassies incendiary move to Jerusalem and  the incredibly insensitive recognition by Donald Trump as Israel's capital,  the world has witnessed up to 59 unarmed protesters being massacred in cold blood. with over 3,000 injured  in an abhorrent violation of international law and human rights, with many injured reporting wounds to the head and chest.That must be met with condemnation and protests of solidarity.
In human terms in comparison 1948, saw the mass deportation of a million Palestinians from their cities and their villages,  it saw the massacre of civilians, and the razing to the ground of hundreds of Palestinian villages.Zionist forces used a terror campaign to expel 800, 000 Palestinians from their land. Today Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza strip, as well as pro-Palestinian supporters across the globe, will mark the 'catastrophe' and the inception of the State of Israel. Today is the Palestinians annual day of commemoration of this displacement. The vast majority of Palestinian refugees, both those outside the 1949 armistice lines at the wars' conclusion and those internally displaced, were barred by the newly declared state of Israel from  their right to return to their homes or the reclaiming of their property, and in doing so Israel violated international law which they continue to do with impunty..
Sadly to this day, there is no peace in this stolen land, especially when people are forced to cry for liberation and the right to return to their lands.Remember Palestinians in Gaza have only four hours of electricity and 97% of water is unfit for human consumption. And currently hospitals already crippled by shortages of supplies, are unable to cope with the daily influx of the wounded and dying.,
To make this tragedy more unbearable, just 60 miles away from Gaza, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, David Friedman and other US officials have been celebrating the opening of the US embassy, a move that cements US complicity in Israel's occupation and its seperate unequal apartheid policies and simply tells Israel that they have carte blanche to continue the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.
As Palestinians bury their dead and tens of thousands continue to march in processions across the s to mark the 70th anniversary of the Nabka, I will end with this statement released by  the Palestinian Human Rights Organisation recently which called for the international community to act and end the "ongoing Nabka."
"For the Palestinian people, 70 years of Nabka means seven decades of subjugation by Israel, characerised by segregation, apartheid and colonial policies and practices.It also attets to the chronic inaction and failure of the international community to fulfill its obligations and responsibilities under international law, to a lack o accountability and protection, and to the continued support of a shallow and biased peace process incapable of bringing about peace and justice." it read.
The rights group claimed more than eight million of 12.7 million Palestinians are displaced worldwide and accused Israel of colluding with the US stop humanitariam aid programmes providing support to Palestinian refugees,"
In these incredibly dark times we should all continue to condemn Israel's use of excessive lethal force. All people should have the right to march peacefully for their rights. As the protests continue lets remember and commemorate too the Palestinians 70 years of displacement, marching for their lives, their freedom , their homes and their human rights, who continue to resist the Israel Government's continued efforts to erase their collective  memories of suffering, who despite Israel's blockade of the West Bank and open prison we know as Gaza, do not stop their dream for their right to return and or having Jerusalem as their capital.
Their catastrophe ongoing, their will though unbroken, lets stand with them  in solidarity, until they are given back the dignity and respect  they deserve as human beings.

NHS: You were warned

A shocking bill proposed by a right wing M.P  that would see increased charging is listed to be debated in Parliament.
MP Christopher Chope wants to increase charges throughout the NHS and will use the debate in the House of Commons to persuade his fellow Conservatives to include it in their next manifesto.
Currently NHS charges are restricted to only a few areas such as dentistry, eye tests and prescribed medicines. Chope's bill would open the floodgates to charging for a host of other services which would include GP appointments and some hospital procedures.It has no chance of being passed without Government support but could be debated in the main chamber if there is time in an attempt to spark a national debate on the issue.
The National Health Service (Co-funding and CoPayment Bill) https://services.parliament.uk/bills/2017-19/nationalhealthservicecofundingandcopayment.html
 would make provision for co-funding and for the extension of co-payment for NHS services in England.
Meanwhile hospitals are increasingly understaffed and ill-resourced and unable to respond to the urgent need of patients - even those of emergency patients. It is not the fault of the staff , it is the fault of the Tories, who have driven the N.H.S to breaking point. Waiting times are up, and it is getting increasingly  difficult to see  your G.P  when you want,  combined with ambulance services  being put  under enormous pressure. 
The N.H.S is in crisis because it is continually being undermined by this government through covert privatisation  that carries on the wreckage and destruction that Margaret Thatcher started. The N.H.S is on a cliff edge because of underfunding which threatens to push it over,  with continuing attempts to make the N.H.S unworkable by making impossible demands on the system and its staff.
So we have to continue  to fight to save it from  the grips of the privateers, because we owe it our lives. We can not afford to sit back while it is being chipped further away and falling increasingly into the hands of those who seek to make profit out of our healthcare.
The Torys  keep pledging that the N.H.S is safe in its hands but at least we can now see this  for the lie that is. Don't say you were not warned.
Contact your MP here https://www.writetothem.com/

Bertolt Brecht ( 10/2/1898 - 14/8/56) - The worst illiterate is the political illiterate.

  Cheers Bertolt Brecht, ( the late brilliant German poet and playwright) as long as we excuse ourselves from politics,  our countries will continue to be run by rogues. Those in power will continue to fill their pockets at the detriment of the people. 
If good people continue to avoid politics, the bad will continue to leave their mark, any chance of a better world is lost. The world does not need political illiterates it needs you to make a difference. Is it not our collective responsibility to stay engaged with matters arising. Have not we as human beings, evolved to the extent  that we cannot fail to notice certain things are undesirable and need to be opposed. This does not mean that we have to follow systems of political authority, we can remain outside and question the status quo, with a careful and deliberate observation of events. 
The way to change society is not to be folded into systems of control, but to counterbalance and neutralize , we can do this by the way we live our lives. There's nothing apathetic about that.
Because of toxic conditions, people are finally waking up, refusing to be political illiterates any more, refusing  formative culture and its attendant cultural apparatus that create a form of manufactured consent. Political illiteracy kills the imagination, our questioning spirit, the need to question and revolt, our informed judgement and critical capability. This simply allows those in power to remain unaccountable, enabling them to continue to cause damage to our society. 
Meanwhile the British public has allowed right-wing press barons like Rupert Murdoch to frame the political debate to such an extent that the actual meanings of basic political words and phrases have become lost, basic political words and phrases like ' socialist' and left wing' have been divorced from their actual meanings. 
This also  allows the Tories  to carry on regardless, creating so much damage to our society, releasing their brand of conscious cruelty, currently stripping our assets,  privatising our NHS  piece by piece, and with their policy of universal credit simply designed to blame the poor for their own poverty. This what they do as they give tax cuts to their friends the rich, this is their morality, a form of  sickness, which allows people because of political illiteracy to accept their lot , and lose sense that they are being exploited and robbed blind on a daily basis.
We cannot afford to close our eyes and drift to sleep, we have to learn to fight, continue to shout out, engage ourselves  beyond apathy and indifference, for a brighter future, in which justice and equity belong to everyone, for the many not the few.