Article published in Amauta with permission from the author

Source: Truthdig

Israeli soldiers take position next to the highly controversial security barrier, which has been used, critics say, to seize Palestinian land and manipulate the population. (AP / Muhammed Muheisen)

by Chris Hedges
March 15, 2010

The Israeli government, its brutal war crimes in Gaza exposed in detail in the U.N. report by Justice Richard Goldstone, has implemented a series of draconian measures to silence and discredit dissidents, leading intellectuals and human rights organizations inside and outside Israel that are accused-often falsely-of assisting Goldstone’s U.N. investigators. The government of Benjamin Netanyahu is attempting to shut down Israel’s premier human rights organizations, including B’Tselem, the New Israel Fund (NIF) and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. It is busy expelling or excluding peace activists and foreign nationals from the Palestinian territories. The campaign, if left unchecked, will be as catastrophic for Palestinians as it will be for Israel. Read the full story

Source: GRITtv

Recently, we featured the documentary American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein, a documentary about scholar and professor Norman Finkelstein’s struggles with the larger intellectual community–and the U.S.’s Israel policy.

Finkelstein joins us in studio today to talk about the film, the current state of U.S./Israel relations, and his new book. Published by OR Books, This Time We Went Too Far explores the possibility that the December 2008 invasion of Gaza has caused a significant shift in the international community–including the American Jewish community–opinion of Israel.

Traducción en español abajo

Article published in Amauta with permission from the author

Al-Mabhouh has been callously deprived of his own relevance to the story.

by Ramzy Baroud

The killing of Palestinian activist Mahmoud al-Mabhouh on January 19, 2010 was clearly a well-planned, violent and sadistic act, committed by Israeli assassins in the supposed safety of a sovereign country.

Yes, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was a Palestinian activist. We have no reason to believe otherwise. He spent years of his life in Israeli prison – and one year in an Egyptian jail – for his political activism. This, however, gives no credibility to Israel’s accusation that al-Mabhouh was a killer of Israelis. This assertion becomes even more problematic when considering that al-Mabhouh’s assassination was, according to British media, ordered by accused Israeli war criminals and rightwing politicians. Read the full story

Article published with permission from the author

Source: Common Dreams

(Image: Lance Page / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: hansvandenberg30, The U.S. Army)

by Tom Gallagher

With the September 11, 2001 attacks thrust back into the news by the controversy over trying their alleged masterminds in New York City, it’s not terribly shocking to hear legislators calling for the death penalty in the killing of innocent civilians these days. But there’s one cry for capital punishment making the rounds that might pull a few people up short: A group of Afghan legislators has backed the execution of those responsible for the deaths of Afghan civilians. And the perpetrators they have in mind are American military personnel. No, these legislators are not members of some Taliban shadow government calling for death to their enemies; they are representatives sitting in the elected parliament of Afghanistan, the very government the U.S. has put in place and maintains through massive force of arms.

Following the latest incident of civilian deaths – 27 killed in an air strike by “US-led coalition forces” in a border area between Daikundi and Uruzgan provinces – the Afghan news agency, Pajhwok Afghan News, reported that Hamidullah Tokhi, member of parliament from Uruzgan, declared the Afghan government was currently doing little more than issuing routine condemnation statements following each incidence of civilian deaths and that henceforth, “Anyone killing an ordinary Afghan should be executed in public.” Another representative, Fatima Aziz of Kundiz, agreed, because, she said, foreign troops “time and again … killed innocent people.” Maulvi Abdul Wali Raji, senator from Baghlan province, added, “Being a Muslim, I would suggest Qisas (killing in retaliation) for such killers.” Read the full story

Fuente: TeleSur

La ISAF confundió a las víctimas con insurgentes talibanes y procedió a bombardear el área donde se encontraban. (Foto: EFE)

22 de febrero, 2010

El pasado viernes, también por error, la ISAF realizó un bombardeo en la provincia afgana de Kunduz (norte) en el cual murieron siete policías de la nación centroasiática.

Al ser confundidos con insurgentes talibanes, al menos 33 civiles murieron a consecuencia de un ataque aéreo de la Fuerza Internacional de Asistencia a la Seguridad (ISAF) en el sur de Afganistán, según informó este lunes el ministerio del Interior afgano. Read the full story

Source: Democracy Now!

February 22, 2010

The Afghan government says at least thirty-three civilians have died in a NATO air strike in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan. The Afghanistan Council of Ministers strongly condemned the air strike, saying it was “unjustifiable.” The dead included four women and one child. The incident was not part of Operation Moshtarak, the major offensive to combat the Taliban near the town of Marjah. Over the past ten days, another nineteen Afghan civilians have been killed in Marjah. Gen. David Petraeus, who oversees the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, said that Marjah was the opening salvo in a campaign to turn back the Taliban.

Fuente: The Guardian
Traducción: Carlos Sanchis y revisado por Caty R., Rebelión

Funeral de Mahmud Abdel Rauf al-Mabhuh en Damasco

por Editorial (The Guardian)
18 de febrero, 2010

Nuestro gobierno parece satisfecho dejando que el servicio secreto israelí libre su guerra contra Hamás bajo la bandera británica.

Los pasaportes británicos son propiedad del gobierno británico. Cuando el gobierno no hace ni dice nada durante seis días después de demostrarse que los agentes del Mossad robaron la identidad de seis ciudadanos británicos para asesinar a un comandante de Hamás en Dubai, empieza a parecer como si Israel tuviera razón al pensar que podía salirse con la suya. El ministro de Asuntos Exteriores israelí, Avigdor Lieberman, pronosticó ayer que el incidente no tendría ningún efecto sobre las relaciones con Gran Bretaña. Read the full story

Fuente: Peace Reporter
Traducción: Gorka Larrabeiti, Rebelión

por Matteo Dell’Aira
15 de febrero, 2010

Vergüenza.

Es lo que sentimos todos aquí en el hospital del Emergency en Lashkargah, Afganistán, tras el comienzo de la enésima “gran operación militar”, que siempre es la más grande…

Un profundo sentido de vergüenza por lo que la guerra, cualquier guerra, provoca. Destrucción, muertos, heridos. Sangre, trozos de carne humana. Gritos feroces y desesperados. No provoca nada más.

Sin embargo, hay quien sigue pensando que es una buena manera de exportar “paz y democracia”. Read the full story

Source: Rethink Afghanistan

At least 10 civilians, including 5 children, were killed by U.S. forces when they fired a so-called “precision-guided munition,” which landed 300 yards away from its intended target on a compound filled with civilians. NATO forces urged civilians to stay in Marjah during Operation Moshtarak, the largest military operation so far in the Afghanistan war. Because U.S. and allied forces encouraged civilians to stay in their homes during the attack, these forces have a special responsibility to avoid endangering civilians–an obligation NATO forces clearly failed to meet on Feb. 14.

Fuente: CounterPunch
Traducción: Sinfo Fernández, Rebelión

Soldados estadounidenses en Afganistan, Oct. 26, 2008 (Photo: mashleymorgan / Flickr)

por Yvonne Ridley
15 de febrero, 2010

Mientras estoy escribiendo estas líneas, dos misiles de la OTAN acaban de masacrar a una docena de inocentes civiles afganos en el más reciente ataque de la guerra que asola a ese país.

Los hombres, mujeres y niños afganos normales y corrientes están pagando un sangriento precio por una guerra lanzada por los políticos de Occidente.

Los soldados, incluidos estadounidenses y británicos, que se alistan para escapar de la pobreza en sus respectivos países golpeados por la recesión, están también apuntándose al sacrificio final. Read the full story