But stringent Israeli controls on goods going into Gaza severely constrained past efforts at rebuilding, Ms. Ironside said. She urged an end to Israel’s blockade. “The international community cannot accept the rebuilding of Gaza on the same terms as before,” she said.

Die Verhandlungen zu TTIP, dem Investitions-und Handelsabkommen zwischen der EU und den USA, finden nicht nur im geheimen statt, sondern bedienen vor allem Konzerninteressen. Das zeigen hartnäckige Recherchen und durchgesickerte Dokumente. Was passiert, wenn der Vertrag tatsächlich abgeschlossen wird? Unsere Campaignerin Annette Sawatzki gibt einen Überblick – im Interview zu den Hintergründen:

“We have to develop our country with calm, dignity and efficiency, without barricading ourselves from the outer world or breaking ties with partners, but also without allowing anyone to treat us with disrespect,” he told Russian MPs in Yalta, Crimea.

Part 2 of our conversation with famed linguist and political dissident Noam Chomsky on the crisis in Gaza, U.S. support for Israel, apartheid and the BDS movement. „In the Occupied Territories, what Israel is doing is much worse than apartheid,“ Chomsky says. „To call it apartheid is a gift to Israel, at least if by ‚apartheid‘ you mean South African-style apartheid. What’s happening in the Occupied Territories is much worse. There’s a crucial difference. The South African Nationalists needed the black population. That was their workforce. …

On Gaza, MIT Professor Noam Chomsky says the debate inside the Israeli government is whether to allow „bare survival“ or to inflict „misery and starvation,“ as a former Israeli national security adviser recently proposed. „Israeli experts have calculated in detail exactly how many calories, literally, Gazans need to survive, and if you look at the sanctions that they impose, they’re grotesque,“ Chomsky says. „I mean, even John Kerry condemned them bitterly, they’re sadistic — just enough calories to survive.“ Chomsky also addresses

A North Korean delegation refused an invitation from the South to attend a Mass of reconciliation which the pope will celebrate at the Myeong-dong Cathedral, seat of the Archdiocese of Seoul.
The pope‘s message was clearly aimed at the North as well as to encourage his Southern hosts.
„For diplomacy, as the art of the possible, is based on the firm and persevering conviction that peace can be won through quiet listening and dialogue, rather than by mutual recriminations, fruitless criticisms and displays of force,“ said Francis.

In the Middle East, people used to say “the BBC says” to adduce truth to their claims. Those days are now gone.

On August 10, 2014, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, Senate Majority Co-Leaders Dean Skelos and Jeff Klein, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, announced an upcoming “unity visit” with Israeli leaders “in light of the continued threat of attacks by Hamas and other terrorist organizations”1

But the justification for the visit is in fact a lie; Israel‘s latest massacres in Gaza — whose victims include hundreds of civilians, children, entire families, the elderly, and the disabled — are NOT an act of self defense.

(22. Juli) In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. opposed the Vietnam War with his famous declaration: “For the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.”

Today, *we* cannot be silent as the “Jewish state” — armed to the teeth by the U.S. and its allies — wages yet another brutal war on the Palestinian people. Apartheid Israel does not speak for us, and we stand with Gaza as we stand with all of Palestine.

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Am (morgigen) Freitag, so erfuhr Augen geradeaus!, sollen vier Transall vom Fliegerhorst Hohn zunächst in Richtung der türkischen Airbase Inçirlik starten und dann weiter nach Erbil (Arbil/Irbil) fliegen, der Hauptstadt der Kurdenregion im Nordirak. An Bord: so genannte nicht-letale Ausrüstung, vor allem Sanitätsmaterial. Weitere Flüge sind geplant.

Marc H. Ellis (* 1952 in North Miami Beach, Florida) ist ein US-amerikanischer jüdischer Befreiungstheologe und Friedensaktivist.

The ceasefire negotiations continue on. Or will stop and begin again. Does it really matter?

Deadlines with Israel should be redefined as bully-lines. Do this, right now, as we say – or continue to die.

Our Jewish arrival after the Holocaust is permanently redefined. Not security. Expansion. Not normalcy and reconciliation. Aggression without limit.

Take that Palestinians. Take that world. No one hold’s Israel – or Jews – to account.

The Canadian volunteer, Vern, who witnessed the soldier firing, stated, “After the soldiers left the roof, I went to confront them about why they had fired. One of them said to me that he was the one who fired and that he was proud of his actions. He then asked me to take his picture.”