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Thursday 12 December 2013

We Must Take Advantage of this GLOBAL MANDELA MOMENT!





THE PEACE THRU JUSTICE FOUNDATION
11006 Veirs Mill Rd, STE L-15, PMB 298
Silver Spring, MD. 20902
 
RAJAB 1435 A.H.
(December 11, 2013)
 
We Must Take Advantage of this GLOBAL MANDELA MOMENT!
 
 
Assalaamu Alaikum (Greetings of Peace):
 
People of good will in the international community must take advantage of this Global Mandela Moment to shed much needed light on the country that represents Apartheid South Africa on Steroids - Zionist Israel! Yesterday was International Human Rights Day, and it was my original intent to forward the results of last month's War Crimes Tribunal in Kuala Lumpur to mark that occasion. Unfortunately, I was too mentally fatigued to compose a fitting introduction for such an important topic, so the morning after will have to suffice, insha'Allah.
 
A couple of days ago I sent out a link to Nelson Mandela's interview with Ted Koppel/Nightline shortly after his release from 27 years of harsh political imprisonment. The clips included a number of Jewish-American Israel Firsters challenging Madiba on his and the ANC's principled position on the Palestinian issue. The challenge provided this global icon with an opportunity to show the world what principled, backbone supported, political leadership looks like!
 
As we've stated many time in the past, the issue of Palestine is not just a Palestinian issue. It is at the heart of much of what ails that region and the world. Israel Firsters (both here and abroad) were in the leading position of America's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - and the expanded conflicts in other parts of the Muslim world. They also lead the domestic response to America's so-called "war on terrorism" (also known as the war against Islam and committed Muslims), at the expense of the better of the "two America's" and its people.
 
America's first president, General George Washington, in his farewell address to the Union warned:
"A passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils... It gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation) the facility to betray or sacrifice the interest of their own country without odium, sometimes even with popularity. Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people to surrender their interests."
 
This surrendering of interests (at America's expense) occurs everyday in the national and international arena; and Israel firsters often boast about their accomplishments with unabashed aplomb. Case in point: America's unconstitutional, international law violating Drone Warfare.
 
In her book titled Drone Warfare: Killing By Remote Control, Madea Benjamin (a co-founder of Code Pink), quotes two government functionaries at the beginning of chapter six ("Murder by Drone: Is It Legal?," page 127); one is Israeli, the other appears to be American, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that both had dual citizenship.
 
Colonel Daniel Reisner, former head of the Israeli Defense Forces legal Department, had this to say about the controversies surrounding America's extra-judicial killing policy: 
"If you do something for long enough, the world will accept it. The whole of international law is now based on the notion that an act that is forbidden today becomes permissible if executed by enough countries... International law progresses [actually regresses] through violations. We invented the targeted assassination thesis and we had to push it. At first there were protrusions that made it hard to insert easily into the legal moulds. Eight years later it is in the center of the bounds of legitimacy."
 
I don't know the date of this observation; but what I do know is this, Israel has been in the extra-judicial killing business of Palestinians of all ages - as well as those who might come to their aid, such as the American activist Rachel Corrie and the British activist Thomas Hurndall, for decades!
 

Rachel Corrie Memorial Website

www.rachelcorrie.org/
 

Tom Hurndall | International Solidarity Movement

www.tomhurndall.co.uk/
 
 
The other quote comes from a former CIA officer by the name of Bruce Riedel:
"We're not in kindergarten on this anymore; we've been doing this [targeted killings] since 2001, and there's a well established protocol."
 
Indeed there is...a well established protocol for this and a host of other evil practices in the name of national security and "our national interests." For years now, Israel, and its blind following puppy dogs in the West, have been beating the drums for all out war with Iran - as if we were not already embroiled in enough internal and external conflict. Where will it end? We cannot afford to be silent, because silence is consent! 
 
It is past time that committed Muslims - and morally conscious Christians and Jews - stop avoiding the Palestinian crisis in our "interfaith dialogues." The Israel Firsters who participate in these so-called dialogues don't hide the fact that they are dedicated supporters of Israel! Let us draw inspiration from the example of the man who has (in his passing) become the focus international reflection and acclaim. Let us take full advantage of this Mandela Moment before it's gone. If not now...when?
 
In the struggle for peace thru justice,
 
El-Hajj Mauri' Saalakhan
 
* Please note the special appeal at the end.

--------------------------------------------
 
Israel Charged with War Crimes and Genocide
Israel convicted of war crimes: “From 1948 and continuing to date the State of Israel carried out against the Palestinian people a series of acts namely killing, causing serious bodily harm and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction – with the intention of destroying in whole or in part the Palestinian people.”
Complete Judgment of Kuala Lumpur Tribunal
“The perpetrators had committed acts against the Palestinians, with intent to kill, cause serious bodily or mental harms and deliberately inflict conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of the Palestinians as a whole or in part.”
“The Tribunal recommends to the War Crimes Commission to give the widest international publicity to this conviction and grant of reparations, as these are universal crimes for which there is a responsibility upon nations to institute prosecutions. The Tribunal deplores the failure of international institutions to punish the State of Israel for its crimes and its total lack of respect of International Law and the institutions of the United Nations.” 
..THE KUALA LUMPUR WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL
20 – 25 NOVEMBER 2013
Case No. 3 – CHG – 2013The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission
Against
Amos Yaron
Case No. 4 – CHG – 2013The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission
Against
The State of Israel
..
The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal (Tribunal) reconvened on 20 November 2013 to hear two charges against Amos Yaron (first Defendant) and the State of Israel (second Defendant). The first Defendant was charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, whilst the second Defendant was charged with the crime of genocide and war crimes.
The charge against the first Defendant is as follows –
Sabra and Shatila  450 x 330
Massacre of 3,000 to 3,500 Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Israeli-occupied Lebanon in September of 1982.
“The Defendant Amos Yaron perpetrated War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity, and Genocide in his capacity as the Commanding Israeli General in military control of the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Israeli occupied Lebanon in September of 1982 when he knowingly facilitated and permitted the large-scale Massacre of the Residents of those two camps in violation of the Hague Regulations on Land Warfare of 1907; the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949; the 1948 Genocide Convention; the Nuremberg Charter (1945), the Nuremberg Judgment (1946), and the Nuremberg Principles (1950); customary international law, jus cogens, the Laws of War, and International Humanitarian Law”
The charge against the second Defendant [State of Israel] is as follows –
Deir Yassin  600 x 400
Bodies of Palestinians massacred in Deir Yassin village, massacre by Israeli Haganah against Palestinian civilians on April 9, 1948.
“From 1948 and continuing to date the State of Israel (hereafter ‘the Defendant’) carried out against the Palestinian people a series of acts namely killing, causing serious bodily harm and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction.
The conduct of the Defendant was carried out with the intention of destroying in whole or in part the Palestinian people. These acts were carried out as part of a manifest pattern of similar conduct against the Palestinian people.
These acts were carried out by the Defendant through the instrumentality of its representatives and agents including those listed in Appendices 1 and 2.
Such conduct constitutes the Crime of Genocide under international law including the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide 1948 (‘the Genocide Convention’) in particular Article II and punishable under Article III of the said Convention.
It also constitutes the crime of genocide as stipulated in Article 10 of the Charter of the Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise War.
Such conduct by the Defendant as an occupying power also violates customary international law as embodied in the Hague Convention of 1907 Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, and the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949.
Such conduct also constitutes War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity under international law.”
The charges (together with the particulars of the charges) had been duly served on the Defendants, and were read in open court by the Registrar as these proceedings commenced.
Neither Defendant was present in these proceedings, but both were represented by the Amicus Curiae-Defence Team.
The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission (KLWCC) versus the State of Israel
The proceedings directed against the State of Israel were led by the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission.
Members of the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission (KLWCC) are:
Mahathir Mohamad  300 x 258
Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, Former Prime Minister of Malaysia
Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad (Chairman), Prof. Michel Chossudovsky, Dr. Denis Halliday, Mr. Musa Ismail, Dr. Zulaiha Ismail, Dr. Yaacob Merican, Dr. Hans von Sponeck.
Working in liaison with their Malaysian counterparts, commissioners Dr. Denis Halliday, former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations and Prof. Michel Chossudovsky, Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization were present in Kuala Lumpur throughout the proceedings.
This important judicial process has received very little coverage in the Western media. Global Research will be publishing several reports following this historic judgment against the State of Israel.
***
Selected Excerpts
2. Prosecution’s Case
The Prosecution’s case against the first Defendant is that the first Defendant had committed War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity, and Genocide in his capacity as the Commanding Israeli General in military control of the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Israeli-occupied Lebanon in September of 1982 when he knowingly facilitated and permitted the large-scale Massacre of the Residents of those two camps. These crimes were in violation of, inter alia, the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, the 1948 Genocide Convention, jus cogens, International Humanitarian Law; and Articles 9, 10, and 11 of the Charter of the Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise War.
The Prosecution’s case against the second Defendant is that from 1948 and continuing to date the State of Israel had systematically carried out against the Palestinian people a series of acts namely killing, causing serious bodily harm and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction – with the intention of destroying in whole or in part the Palestinian people.
These acts constitute the Crime of Genocide under international law including the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide 1948 (‘the Genocide Convention’) in particular Article II and punishable under Article III of the said Convention. It also constitutes the crime of genocide as stipulated in Article 10 of the Charter of the Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise War.
In his opening statement, the Chief Prosecutor Prof Gurdial Singh said that the Prosecution will adduce evidence to prove the counts in the indictment through oral and written testimonies of victims, witnesses, historical records, narrative in books and authoritative commentaries, resolutions of the United Nations and reports of international bodies.
6. The Defence case
Mr. Jason Kay Kit Leon of the Amicus Curiae-Defence Team submitted that in the charges against the two Defendants, the Prosecution had listed war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes against peace. Apparently the Prosecution had abandoned these charges, concentrating only on genocide.
He said that the offence of genocide is defined in Article 2 of the Genocide Convention 1948, whilst the OED defines it simply as “the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular nation or ethnic group”.
He submitted that the charge of genocide is unique; it means that you don’t like a group, you kill them; you kill them in a grand manner. Genocide means that at the end of the act, you have a lesser number of victims than before the genocide started.
He further submitted that when one talks of “massive killing”, it is many hundreds of thousands to millions of people. To suggest that an isolated event, the unfortunate murder of 3,000 people (Sabra and Shatila) is the same as massive killing is almost disrespectful of the true horror of massive killing (as in Rwanda, where 800,000 people were killed in 100 days).
With regard to the Kahan Report, the Amicus Curiae-Defence Team said that it also identified other people as being responsible, with two other names other than Yaron still alive. The question is why only Yaron was charged? Why was Defence Minister Ariel Sharon spared?
He also submitted that the PLO had repeatedly violated the July 1981 cease-fire agreement. By June 1982, when the IDF went into Lebanon, the PLO had made life in northern Israel intolerable through its repeated shelling of Israeli towns.
Gaza massacre: 42 police cadets killed in a single missile strike on Dec. 27, 2008, during Israel's  Cast Lead Operation.
Gaza massacre: 42 police cadets killed in a single missile strike on Dec. 27, 2008, during Israel’s Cast Lead Operation.
On Cast Lead, the Amicus Curiae-Defence Team submitted that the IDF had come out with two reports. The point is if you are going to kill people nilly willy, you do not report it.
On the issue of the wall, the Amicus Curiae-Defence Team submitted that the primary consideration is one of security of the Israeli settlers. The State of Israel has a duty to defend their lives, safety and well-being.
On the issue of checkpoints, the Amicus Curiae-Defence Team said countries have a right to immigration laws. With regard to Plan Dalet, the Amicus Curiae-Defence Team said that it is subject to divergent opinions, with historians on one side asserting that it was entirely defensive, while other historians assert that the plan aimed at an ethnic cleansing.
4. Prosecution’s closing submission
In his closing submission, the Chief Prosecutor said that he had called 11 witnesses (some of whom had testified through Skype), tendered 15 exhibits and furnished several documents and reports to the Tribunal during the course of the proceedings.
He urged the Tribunal to bear in mind that this is a Tribunal of Conscience and the case before it is an extraordinary case, which Winston Churchill used to call as a “crime without a name”.
He said that the Prosecution had provided evidence of facts which, examined as a whole, will show that the perpetrators had committed acts against the Palestinians, with intent to kill, cause serious bodily or mental harms and deliberately inflict conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of the Palestinians as a whole or in part.
Ilan Pappe  500 x 500
Ilan Pappe, Israeli historian, socialist activist and professor with the College of Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom.
From the testimony of Prof Pappe (PW8) the Prosecution had shown that before 1948, before UN Resolution 47, there was already a plan in place to take over the Palestinian territory, and this plan would be activated the moment the British relinquished its mandate over the territory.
At that point in time, the Palestinians were on 94% of the land, with the Jewishpopulation settling over a mere 6% of the land. Under the UN partition plan, more than 50% of the land was to be given to the Jews.
Plan Dalet might not legally be genocidal in form at its inception, but as it took shape the ethnic cleansing metamorphised into killing, massacre and creating impossible conditions for life for the Palestinians – either they leave or they die. The Prosecution submits this is genocide within the meaning of Article 2 of the Genocide Convention.
On Sabra and Shatila, prosecution witnesses (PW1 and PW6) had testified that the Palestinian refugees in those camps had been killed by the Phalangists, aided and abetted by the Israelis who were in complete control of the two camps.
According to the Kahan Report, all of Beirut was under Israeli control, and there was clear symbiotic relationship between Israel and the Christian forces (the Lebanese Maronite Christian militia or the Phalangists or Keta’ib).
Gaza Israeli white phosphorus shells at a UN school  620 x 372
Palestinian civilians and medics run to safety during an Israeli strike using phosphorus shells at a UN school. Photograph: Mohammed Abed/AFP
On Operation Cast Lead in 2008, the Chief Prosecutor said that the Israeli Defence Force had used all kinds of weapons, including white phosphorus  – which is an incendiary weapon. The use of incendiary weapons is prohibited under Protocal III on the Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Incendiary Weapons.
As a result of the Israeli occupation of Gaza, nowhere in Gaza is safe for civilians. 1.5 million Palestinians are now trapped in despair, their fragile economy ruined. Under the Dahiya Doctrine (October 2008), the complete destruction of Gaza is the ultimate objective, the whole place must be flattened.
The Prosecution submits that the cumulative effect of the actions taken by the Israeli government, as shown by the Prosecution witnesses and the several documents tendered to the Tribunal, have shown beyond reasonable doubt that Israel is guilty of the crime of genocide under the Genocide Convention and the Charter of the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission (The Charter).
Co-Prosecutor Tan Sri Abdul Aziz, submitting on the first charge against Amos Yaron, said that Amos Yaron was the commanding officer in charge of the Israeli Defence Force, in charge of the area of Beirut, and camps Sabra and Shatila. He said there were two issues which he has to deal with – first, whether or not there was a large scale massacre of the 10 residents of the two camps, and second, whether or not Amos Yaron facilitated and permitted such massacre, in violation of international law and Articles 9, 10 and 11 of the Charter?
On the first issue, he submitted there was a large scale massacre, as testified by PW1. She was there, and she saw the massacre with her own eyes. There was corrobating testimony by PW6, and further acknowledged in the Kahan Report.
On the second issue, Amos Yaron was in charge, to ensure that there would be peace and law and order. The Kahan Report itself concluded that anybody who knew about Lebanon would know that by releasing the Phalangists into Beirut, there would be massacre. Surely, Amos Yaron, the General in charge, must have known that by allowing the Phalangists to go into the two camps, the massacre would take place. But he decided to do nothing.
He received the reports of the killing of women and children, but he did not check the report. He did not pass the report to his superiors. The co-prosecutor submits that by ignoring all this despite knowing the circumstances, he himself had the intention of causing the death of the people in the two camps.
Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal in session  550 x 367
The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal in session.
10.3 Commission’s Register of War Criminals
Further, under Article 35 of the same Chapter, this Tribunal recommends to the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission that the names of the two convicted parties herein be entered and included in the Commission’s Register of War Criminals and be publicised accordingly.
10.4 The Tribunal recommends to the War Crimes Commission to give the widest international publicity to this conviction and grant of reparations, as these are universal crimes for which there is a responsibility upon nations to institute prosecutions.
10.5 The Tribunal deplores the failure of international institutions to punish the State of Israel for its crimes and its total lack of respect of International Law and the institutions of the United Nations. It urges the Commission to use all means to publicise this judgement and in particular with respect to the Parliaments and Legislative Assemblies of the major powers such as members of the G8 and to urge these countries to intervene and put an end to the colonialist and racist policies of the State of Israel and its supporters.
 
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Please see:
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AN URGENT & TIME SENSITIVE
APPEAL
 
Insha'Allah, next month I will be departing the U.S. for a renewed international campaign for Dr. Aafia Siddiqui; I expect to visit at least four countries in the course of this very important initiative. In preparation for my overseas visit (the first in two decades), I would like to release a small book that will answer the most oft-repeated question put to me over the past four years: Why Aafia?
Those of you who respond to the needs of this campaign with a donation (sooner rather than later :) will receive a copy of the book as a gift of appreciation. Please send your contribution (made payable) to the following:
 
The Peace Thru Justice Foundation
11006 Veirs Mill Road
STE L-15, PMB 298
Silver Spring, MD. 20902
 
May ALLAH bless all who respond to this urgently needed appeal. The struggle continues. - MS
 
 



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