The Israeli feminist organisation Coalition of Women for Peace released an open letter to Justice Richard Goldstone on April 6. It is published below. It is in response to Goldstone鈥檚 recent statements retracting some of the findings of the United Nations-commissioned Goldstone report into Israel鈥檚 2008-09 war on Gaza that were critical of Israel. It is abridged from Coalitionofwomen.org.
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Dear Justice Richard Goldstone,
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Below is an extract of a letter Archbishop Desmond Tutu sent to the student leaders at UC Berkeley in March 2010 regarding Berkeley鈥檚 decision to divest from Israel.
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I am writing to tell you that, despite what detractors may allege, you are doing the right thing. You are doing the moral thing. You are doing that which is incumbent on you as humans who believe that all people have dignity and rights, and that all those being denied their dignity and rights deserve the solidarity of their fellow human beings.
The Australian鈥檚 pro Israel bias
The letter below was sent to The Australian on March 8.
How apt that The Australian (7/4/2011) has front page photos of placards demanding 鈥楽top the massacre in Gaza鈥 and 鈥楽top killing children鈥 and then Israel launched a new massacre (Operation Scorching Summer) of Palestinians in Gaza the next morning.
The suicide of Mohammed Asif Atay in Curtin detention centre on March 28 was 鈥渢ragic news鈥 to Prime Minister Julia Gillard. 鈥淚鈥檓 sure all Australians hearing this news would feel very sorry,鈥 she said on March 29.
He was the sixth known refugee to die in detention in the past seven months and one of hundreds of refugees suffering under the system of mandatory detention.
Refugee advocates told 91自拍论坛 Weekly that self-harm happened daily at the Curtin detention centre.
One hundred and thirty people packed out a room in the Crowne Plaza hotel to hear traditional owners and nuclear experts call for the closure of the Ranger uranium mine in the world heritage-listed Kakadu national park.
Yvonne Margarula condemned the mine for its presence on land that is sacred to her people 鈥 the Mirrar people. 鈥淭he promises never last,鈥 she said. 鈥淏ut the problems always do.鈥
While Palestinian, Israeli and international non-violent protesters who march against Israel鈥檚 policies in the Occupied Territories are literally showered in sewage, beaten, arbitrarily arrested and sometimes killed by Israeli forces, the battle against non-violent resistance has taken its own ugly form in Australia.
Michael Arnold was born in country Victoria. He became politically active in Perth when he was 15. This was when he joined the socialist youth organisation Resistance and the Democratic Socialist Party.
When he was in his twenties, Arnold became active in the Harm Reduction Movement. He set up Rave Safe in Melbourne in the 1990s and produced a magazine called Flying Frequencies for the Harm Reduction Movement.
Arnold was also active in community radio, producing a program for Harm Reduction on 3CR Community Radio, and being a DJ on PBS.
Transport Workers Union national secretary, Tony Sheldon, has condemned Qantas鈥檚 training of overseas strikebreakers after the company鈥檚 chief executive, Alan Joyce, admitted to the practice in media reports.
Sheldon said in an April 5 media release: 鈥淭hey really need to come clean on who they are training, who is doing the training and why it has to be done in secret in another country? Why are they hiding it around the other side of the world?
A poll by Roy Morgan Research several days into the Fukushima nuclear crisis found that 61% of Australians oppose the development of nuclear power in Australia, nearly double the 34% who support it.
The growth in support for nuclear power over the past five years has been totally erased 鈥 and then some.
There was undoubtedly growing support for nuclear power until Fukushima, but the issue had been the subject of a great deal of hype and spin.
Three former members of the left-wing student group Capitalism Research Society (CRC) were taken into police custody on March 21.
Among those arrested was the group鈥檚 former president Choi Ho-hyeon. They were charged under the National Security Act, a draconian anti-communist law that was enacted in 1948 during the height of bloody right-wing suppressions of popular grassroots democratic movements.
The law has been repeatedly used to crack down on political opposition and progressive movements.
Transport Workers Union national secretary, Tony Sheldon, has condemned Qantas鈥檚 training of overseas strikebreakers after the company鈥檚 chief executive, Alan Joyce, admitted to the practice.
Sheldon said on April 5: 鈥淭hey really need to come clean on who they are training, who is doing the training and why it has to be done in secret in another country? Why are they hiding it around the other side of the world?
鈥淨antas has said they forecast a 7 per cent increase in international capacity and 8 per cent in domestic 鈥 they have the capacity to pay their workforce a decent wage.
鈥淭here鈥檚 no reason why technologically we can鈥檛 employ nuclear energy in a safe and effective way,鈥 United States President Barack Obama told a group gathered at a town meeting in New Orleans in October 2009.
鈥淛apan does it and France does it, and it doesn't have greenhouse gas emissions, so it would be stupid for us not to do that in a much more effective way鈥
You might think after the nuclear meltdown in Fukushima that Obama would have a reason to back off his support of nuclear energy as a new 鈥渃lean鈥 energy alternative.
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