Democracy Now! Updates–08/31

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/31/144223 

UN: Israel Dropped 90% of Cluster Bombs in War’s Final Hours The top humanitarian official at the United Nations has lashed out at Israel for unleashing a deluge of cluster bombs in the final hours of its invasion of Lebanon. The official, UN Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland, says the cluster bombs have affected large residential and farming areas and could be on the ground for years.

UN Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland: “Colleagues in the UN Mine Action Co-Ordination Centre have undertaken assessments of nearly 85 per cent of bombed areas in South Lebanon have identified 359 separate cluster bomb strike locations that are contaminated with as many as 100,000 unexploded bomblets. What’s shocking and I would say to me completely immoral is that 90 per cent of the cluster bomb strikes occurred in the last 72 hours of the conflict, when we knew there would be a resolution, when we really knew there would be an end of this.”. . . .

BBC: UN denounces Israel cluster bombs

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5299938.stm

The UN’s humanitarian chief has accused Israel of “completely immoral” use of cluster bombs in Lebanon.

UN clearance experts had so far found 100,000 unexploded cluster bomblets at 359 separate sites, Jan Egeland said.

Israel has repeated its previous insistence that munitions it uses in conflict comply with international law.

Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rebuffed UN chief Kofi Annan’s calls for a swift end to Israel’s air and sea blockade of Lebanon.

After talks with Mr Annan, Mr Olmert said the siege would only be lifted once the ceasefire terms were fully implemented.

Annan urges Israel to end siege

Israel has maintained its air and sea blockade for weeks

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5296314.stm 

UN chief Kofi Annan has used talks in Jerusalem to demand an end to Israel’s air and sea blockade of Lebanon.

Mr Annan, who flew to Israel from a visit to Lebanon, told Defence Minister Amir Peretz the “humiliating” blockade should be lifted as soon as possible.

Israel has previously made clear its concerns about the possible rearming of Hezbollah must be addressed first.

Mr Annan also said Israel had committed most of the violations reported in the two-week-old truce with Hezbollah….

“Israeli actions in Lebanon clearly constitute crimes of war”

Recent Daily Trojan pieces have been so riddled with errors and distortions of fact that Students for Justice in Palestine at USC finds it necessary to refute their claims, which represent widespread misconceptions about current events in the Middle East.

Hezbollah is not a “terrorist organization that infiltrated throughout Lebanon beginning in 1982” (“Don’t Fall for Hezbollah’s PR campaign,” Aug. 24), nor is it a “faction of terrorists bringing utter devastation” on Lebanon, as a more balanced piece published Monday insists (“U.S. media reports lost in the fog of war,” Aug. 28). Rather, it is a guerilla force that has been linked by commentators to certain terrorist actions in the past – these links remain a matter of debate – but has chiefly concentrated on resistance against legitimate military targets.

Hezbollah arose largely as a popular expression of resistance to the Israeli aggression against Lebanon in 1982, which resulted in thousands of Lebanese civilian casualties, with estimates as high as 20,000 deaths; these include the massacres at the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila, carried out by Israeli proxies with Israeli complicity….

After Lebanon, Israel is looking for more wars

Jonathan Cook, The Electronic Intifada, 21 August 2006

Late last month, a fortnight into Israel’s war against Lebanon, the Hebrew media published a story that passed observers by. Scientists in Haifa, according to the report, have developed a “missile-trappingo” steel net that can shield buildings from rocket attacks. The Israeli government, it noted, would be able to use the net to protect vital infrastructure — oil refineries, hospitals, military installations, and public offices — while private citizens could buy a net to protect their own homes.

The fact that the government and scientists are seriously investing their hopes in such schemes tells us more about Israel’s vision of the “new Middle East” than acres of analysis. . . (http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5604.shtml)

SJP Mission Statement

Students for Justice in Palestine-USC

I. MISSION: Part and parcel of the larger student movement sweeping university campuses across the United States, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) is a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, and community members centered at the University of Southern California, and organized in accordance with democratic principles to promote justice, human rights, and self-determination for the Palestinian people.

II. GUIDING PRINCIPLES: As an advocacy group, SJP believes that key principles grounded in international law, human rights, and basic standards of justice, dictate concrete steps that will be fundamental to a fair and lasting resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Most important among those steps are:

• An end to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip.

• The establishment of either a fully independent and viable Palestinian state in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, or of one secular, democratic state over all of modern-day Israel and Palestine.

• An end to Israel’s system of apartheid in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, as well as its system of discrimination against the Arab population within its own borders.

• A just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem.

Just as SJP condemns the racism and discrimination underlying many of the policies of the state of Israel, SJP also categorically opposes any form of prejudice or discrimination based on race, religion, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation. At the same time, SJP manifestly rejects attempts to equate principled criticism of Zionism, or of the character or policies of Israel, with anti-Semitism.

Furthermore, SJP condemns all acts of unlawful violence, or violence that indiscriminately targets civilians or civilian infrastructure, committed by either side in the course of the conflict.

Ultimately, SJP’s strength flows from the diversity of its membership, comprising individuals of varied racial and ethnic backgrounds and political orientations, all united under these stated principles in the struggle for peace and justice in Palestine.

III. CODE OF CONDUCT: SJP’s activities include educational events, film screenings, discussion forums, and demonstrations meant to promote awareness of the plight of the Palestinian people and encourage activism in solidarity with their struggle. SJP will also initiate a campaign urging the University of Southern California to divest from companies complicit in Israeli violations of human rights or international law. SJP will conduct only nonviolent actions, and rejects actions that violate its guiding principles, to which all individuals or groups acting as members, representatives, or sponsors of SJP are required to adhere. More broadly, SJP will work to link the pro-Palestine movement with other movements seeking political, social, economic, or environmental justice in the Middle East and across the world. To this end, SJP may elect to endorse the programs or activities of other organizations whose principles and objectives are consistent with its own.

Contact: uscsjp@yahoo.com