About Just Peace
Just Peace is a Brisbane-based organisation whose aim is to raise public awareness about alternatives to war and the necessity of justice in achieving lasting peace.
Just Peace works to exchange information, promote dialogue, organise events and develop publications that seek to clarify the peace issues we face as a national and international community. We also offer support and fellowship to those who face the destructive effects of war and injustice.
Just Peace stands as both a group of locally active individuals and as a proud member of the global peace movement. We come from all walks of life, all ages and all political persuasions. Our one commonality is our commitment to a safe, just and peaceful world.
28th January, 2010
Dear Just Peace members and supporters,
Welcome to another busy year for building peace.
Over the coming year, Just Peace will continue to promote the International Day of Peace and other peace events, as well as to advance the case for demilitarisation and more peaceful alternatives to war.
Our first major event for 2010 will be the February public forum 'Report from Cairo', presented by Gareth Smith. Gareth was recently part of the Australian delegation to the Freedom March from Cairo to Gaza to mark the one-year anniversary of the Israeli military assault.
Still on the subject of Palestine, the recently formed Just Peace for Palestine group will continue to meet and new members are welcome. If you are interested in joining or in finding out more, see details below.
Also in February, Just Peace will co-host an evening at the Avid Reader Bookshop in West End to discuss the latest book by award-winning US journalist Mark Danner, Stripping Bare the Body, a moral history of American power during the last quarter-century.
This Anzac Day, we are planning a picnic fundraiser at the newly restored and re-opened Temple of Peace in Toowong Cemetery. Details will be provided in coming e-Bulletins, so keep the date open.
Wishing you all good health, peace and success in your endeavours in 2010.
Stephanie Campion (Editor)
Mustafa Barghouthi nominated for 2010 Nobel Peace Prize
Palestine Monitor
5reuters1-b23e8.jpg
February 3, 2010
"I have pleasure in nominating Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. I am inspired by the life and work of Dr. Barghouthi whose commitment to nonviolence, in his personal and public life, is truly in the Ghandian spirit", stated in her letter to the Nobel Committe, Maired Maguire, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Co-founder of the Peace People (Northern Ireland). Mairead Maguire today announced her nomination of Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.
"For the Nobel Committee to give their 2010 Award to Dr. Barghouthi would be a recognition of not only his great spirit of peace and nonviolence, but also the Palestinian Nonviolent Movement, which gives us all hope for the future of Palestine, Israel and the Middle East Community.
Dr. Barghouthi was born in Jerusalem in l954 to a Palestinian family from Deir Ghassaneh village in the Ramallah District. As well as a Medical Graduate of Friendship University, Faculty of Medicine and got his degree in Business, Administration and Management from Stanford university , he is a member of the Palestinian Parliament; former Minister of Information under the 2007 National Unity Government; 2005 presidential candidate; General secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative; social, political, human rights and peace activist,one of the most active grassroots leaders in Palestine, campaigner for the development of Palestinian civil society and grassroots democracy, outspoken advocate for internal reform, international spokesperson for the Palestinian cause, leading figure in the non-violent, peaceful struggle against the occupation, and organizer of international solidarity present in Palestine.
Mustafa Barghouthi has made an extraordinary contribution to initiatives to peacefully challenge the ongoing Israeli Occupation of Palestine ad bring it to an end, as well as efforts to build the institutional framework of Palestinian civil society and promote the Principles of internal democracy and good governance. He writes extensively for local and international audiences on civil society and democracy issues and the Political situation in Palestine, as well as on health development policy in Palestine.
Dr. Barghouthi has been at the forefront of initiatives promoting non-violent Resistance as the most effective means of overcoming Israeli Occupation, and has been consistently present at grassroots, nonviolent resistance initiatives against the construction of Israel’s Apartheid wall.
For more information on Dr. Barghouthi: + 972 599 201 528 or + 972 599 254 218 Mob + 972 5999 400 73 office"
www.almubadara.org
www.palestinemonitor.org
FOR INFORMATION CONTACT: MAIREAD MAGUIRE PEACE PEOPLE, 224 LISBURN ROAD, BELFAST.BT96GE. N.IRELAND www.peacepeople.com email: peacepeople@btconnect.com (Tel: 44(o)90663465)
ANY LETTER FOR SUPPORTING DR MUSTAFA BARGHOUTHI’s NOMINATION:
- communicationforpeace@gmail.com
ISRAEL: THE TRUE VICTIM OF OPERATION CAST LEAD
Hebrew original: http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3842798,00.html
David Zonshein
1400 dead Palestinians are threatening to seize the victimhood component of our identity. In response the Israelis are up on their hind legs, but there is always a fresh news item that comes out of the blue to momentarily reveal an unbearable truth.
(David Zonshein, an IDF officer who refused to serve in Operation Cast Lead. Translated from Hebrew by Sol Salbe.
Published: 01.02.10, 19:54)
The IDF has denied that the commander of the Gaza Division, Brigadier General Eyal Eisenberg, and the former commander of the Givati Brigade, Ilan Malka, have been reprimanded for the use of phosphorus bombs. This is despite the reprimand’s details being mentioned in the Israeli government's response to the Goldstone report. The IDF claims that the reprimands of the two officers were given for firing shells in the middle of a populated area, and not for the shells being phosphorus.
So what is it all about? We now have the Israeli Government’s response to the Goldstone report, delivered just before the expiry of the deadline mandated by the UN. And what is so interesting about it? It appears that in a whole series of investigations ordered by the Chief of Staff, an attempt was made to hide the fact that the Gaza Division Commander and former Givati Commander committed an offence and were reprimanded for it by their superior.
Five commissions have completed their inquiries without any findings. Even the commission examining the firing of phosphorus shells found that it didn’t happen. However, Israel delivered the UN a report stating that two senior officers were reprimanded for this very act. Reacting to the report, the IDF spokesperson stated that they were indeed reprimanded, but only for firing into a populated area. The matter only made it to the media through the Israeli response to the report, not before it. If it were not for Goldstone, this episode would not have made the headlines at all. Eisenberg and Malka, who are operationally and morally responsible for the death of 1400 people, would have come out without a blemish.
So what did we have? A military operation called Cast Lead in which one in a thousand of Gaza’s population was killed (1400 out of 1.4 million). The IDF, in the view of the Israeli government and the overwhelming majority of the Israeli population, acted impeccably in both military and moral terms. As soon as operations were over, the Chief of Staff appointed five commissions of inquiry. Their verdict – with the invariable exception of reasonable and minor human errors, the fighting forces operated impeccably. 1400 people, a quarter of whom were children, died and everything is fine.
But out of the blue comes a Jew called Goldstone, and the commission he heads thinks otherwise. Anyone reading the report before automatically joining the automatic chorus of “antisemite” would discover that his great sin (in a far from flawless report) is that that he does not accept Israel's position that the death of 1,400 people during the operation’s 23 days is a trivial matter. More than that, as a Jew, Goldstone believes that preventing the recurrence of such humanitarian disasters in the future is of prime consideration.
Israel responded to the report furiously, with the wrath of the victim. How does anyone dare doubt the justification of the death of every single Palestinian; every single child? The IDF and the government are convinced that each one of those deaths was necessary. Is it even possible for the ultimate victim to have a light finger on the trigger? But the Jew Goldstone insists that we have to obey the laws of morality as meticulously as any other nation of this world. Israel in turn replies that the IDF’s morality cannot be put in doubt. It is axiomatic.
Would it have been better if the matter had been confined to the antechambers of the Military Police’s investigative branch? Is the Israeli public so certain that the death of 1,400 people was necessary? Would it have been better had the Goldstone report not seen the light of day and the whole matter of Cast Lead had been left alone?
The independent inquiries and the findings exposed by groups like Shovrim Shtika [Breaking the Silence] have received an enraged response from the Israeli public. This indicates that the public is not so sure of its attitude to the death of a thousandth of Gaza’s residents. Hidden behind the silence and strong support for our forces is a difficult and dangerous psychological mechanism. Victimhood, a basic component of the identity of every Israeli, is being tested by Cast Lead.
1400 dead Palestinians are threatening to seize this essential component of our identity. In response, the Israelis are up on their hind legs. “No one has suffered like us and no one will suffer like us.” Thus the public, and the IDF in particular, lacks the capacity to look the thousands of destroyed families in the eyes and work out what caused us to be so blind. We have a need to axiomatically believe that all of this is necessary and to drown ourselves in a sea of denials where as much as the IDF tries to put it straight, along comes a fresh news item out of the blue and momentarily exposes the unbearable truth.
David Zonshein, an IDF officer who refused to serve in Operation Cast Lead. Translated from Hebrew by Sol Salbe.
[The independent Middle East News Service concentrates on providing alternative information chiefly from Israeli sources. It is sponsored by the Australian Jewish Democratic Society. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the AJDS. These are expressed in its own statements
Please note that while our own comments are not copyrighted we do appreciate acknowledgement. Items forwarded may be copyrighted and are forwarded to alert you of their existence.
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JUST PEACE INVITES YOU TO MEET MICHAEL SHAIK THE PUBLIC ADVOCATE FOR AUSTRALIANS FOR PALESTINE
3PM SUNDAY 18TH OCTOBER
26 Horan St West End
ELLEN TAYLOR HOUSE- FORMERLY AHIMSA - OPPOSITE WEST END STATE SCHOOL
Michael will speak on why successive Australian Governments continue to be so supportive of the state of Israel in the face of continuing crimes against humanity inflicted on the people of Palestine. Why is it that with strong voices coming from the United Nations and increasing numbers of other countries that our Governments refuse to condemn the military attacks and crimes against humanity in the form of blockades and imprisonment of whole populations such as the people of Gaza?
For example:
John Ging, the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza, told reporters on Thursday that the number of Gazans considerered "abject poor" had tripled to 300,000 this year, equal to one in five Gazans
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/10/200910116312269658.html
The Turkish Prime Minister told the UN General Assembly today, he is demanding an opening of barriers which he said were thwarting the reconstruction of Gaza.
"Turkey has on every possible occasion stressed that it is not possible to turn a blind eye to the appalling conditions in Gaza," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan "http://www.un.org/ga/64/generaldebate/pdf/TR_en.pdf" told
"It is our common humanitarian and moral responsibility to ensure that the tragedy unfolding in Gaza is brought to an end, and an atmosphere of lasting peace is created in the region," said Mr. Erdogan.
He told the 192-member Assembly that the three-week Israeli military
offensive at the start of the year, which had the stated aim of ending
rocket attacks by militants operating in Gaza, quickly turned into a human tragedy. The conflict resulted in the deaths of some 1,400 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and over 5,000 injuries. Many buildings in Gaza were turned to rubble, and even UN sites came under attack, said Mr. Erdogan.
BRISBANE CELEBRATES THE UNITED NATIONS DECLARED INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE 21 SEPTEMBER.
In support of the United Nations International Day of Peace, a free Peace Fair will be held at the Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens on Sunday, September 20.
The Peace Fair focuses on highlighting some local community groups, individuals and organisations who are working for peace ~ a public ‘thank-you’ and support effort for those not often recognised.
It’s a family orientated day with kids activities, music and international food, please feel free to come along and bring your family and friends
With Peace and Goodwill (please feel free to forward this invitation)
Richard Cowley (on behalf of the organising Committee, including Rotary Peace Fellows)
Please click here to download the full program, call the IDPA volunteer office on 07 3366 1709, or email convenor@idpa.org.au for more information.
4TH ANNUAL YOUTH PEACE PARLIAMENT!
THIS 3 DAY EVENT INVOLVING HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS FROM OVER 45 SCHOOLS IN QLD WILL ESTABLISH AN INTERNATIONAL FIRST BRINGING STUDENTS TOGETHER TO DISCUSS GLOBAL SOCIAL JUSTICE- MILITARISM-COMMUNITY PEACE AND HARMONY.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Press Release
Monday 13 July 2009
Contact: Annette Brownlie
0431597256
Just Peace Qld Inc. supports Peace Convergence and motivations of the 4 Christian Activists who have entered restricted military area during live-fire exercises
Four nonviolent Christian activists have entered the Shoalwater Bay Training Area this morning to stop the Talisman Saber exercises. Calling themselves the “Bonhoeffer 4” after Kevin Rudd’s favourite theologian, Margaret Pestorius (44, Social Worker, Cairns), Jarrod McKenna (28, School Peace Educator, Perth) Jessica Morrison (33, University lecturer, Melbourne) and Rev. Simon Moyle (32, Baptist Minister, Melbourne) are currently moving towards a live-fire area. They call on the Australian and US forces to cease their involvement in the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and the undeclared war in Pakistan.
Just Peace also calls for Australia to withdraw our troops from these war zones. "The killing of innocent civilians men women and children is part and parcel of these wars and cannot be justified" stated Ms Brownlie President Just Peace Qld.
"Australia can stand up for peace and justice in these conflicted countries by a commitment to non military support through diplomacy, negotiation and providing resources necessary for people to start rebuilding their lives."
"Drones being operated from 'play station' desks in the US killing people at random will not bring peace to Afghanistan or Pakistan" said Ms Brownlie.
"The way forward is to say enough killing! Withdraw the troops and send in food, medicine and building materials"
"The Bonhoeffer 4 have shown immense courage to enter the live firing area. Just Peace Qld would like to have assurance from Senator Faulkner that they are safe and that their concerns will be addressed."
For more information
Phone Annette Brownlie
President Just Peace Qld Inc
0431597256
FIVE YEARS AFTER JUDGMENT, ISRAEL BARRIER STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION - UN
New York, Jul 8 2009 5:10PM
Five years after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found that
Israel's building of a barrier in the occupied Palestinian territory was
illegal, the situation has not improved, the United Nations human rights arm
said today, calling for the dismantlement of the barrier.
Tomorrow marks the five-year anniversary of the Court's Advisory Opinion, in
which it called on Israel to halt construction and bring an end to its
system of curbing the freedom of movement of Palestinians in the West Bank.
By a majority of 14 to 1, the judges found that the barrier's construction
breaches international law, saying it violated principles outlined in the UN
Charter and long-standing global conventions that prohibit the threat or use
of force and the acquisition of territory that way, as well as principles
upholding the right of peoples to self-determination.
Although Israel claims the barrier is only a temporary security measure, the
ICJ said that the specific route chosen is unnecessary to achieve its
security objectives, with most of the barrier running inside the West Bank,
instead of the so-called Green Line, or 1949 Armistice Line.
But in the five years since the Advisory Opinion was issued, "Israel
continues to disregard the views of the ICJ, and the Wall remains under
construction," being 60 per cent completed, the West Bank branch of the
Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said today.
"The Wall is but one element of the wider system of severe restrictions on
the freedom of movement imposed by the Israeli authorities on Palestinian
residents of the West Bank," according to a press release issued by OHCHR.
At present, more than 600 closures block Palestinians' movement in the West
Bank, while an increasingly segregated road system restrict travel for them
while Israelis can move freely.
Such constraints not only curtail Palestinians' freedom of movement, but
also impede a host of other human rights, including the right to work,
health, education and an adequate standard of living.
"And Palestinian residents currently lack meaningful access to an effective
remedy - judicial or otherwise - for their plight," OHCHR said, calling on
Israel to comply with the ICJ's Advisory Opinion and make reparations for
any damage caused.
For his part, Maxwell Gaylard, the top UN humanitarian official in the
occupied Palestinian territory, said today in Jerusalem that "there is still
time to change the situation."
UN humanitarian agencies, he added, are calling for a freeze in the
construction of the barrier in the West Bank and its re-routing to the Green
Line, in light of both the Advisory Opinion and the humanitarian impact.
In Gaza, Karen AbuZayd, Commissioner General of the UN Relief and Works
Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), welcomed a group of
Gazan youth who recently returned from a three-week recreational tour to
Poland to her office today.
Organized by the Polish Government with the aim of helping children affected
by the recent hostilities in Gaza, more than 70 youngsters spent one week in
the capital, Warsaw, undergoing psychological and medical treatment, and
then the next two weeks touring the Eastern European nation.
They visited castles, a water park, a zoo and a cinema, with one child
telling Ms. AbuZayd that the day he boarded the plane to Warsaw was "the
best day of his life."
One of the children on the tour, 12-year-old Mahmoud Samouni, lost 48
members of his extended family during the three-week clashes which killed at
least 1,300 Palestinians and wounded some 5,300. The heavy bombardment and
fighting also reduced buildings and other infrastructure to rubble.
Jul 8 2009 5:10PM
________________
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The National Human Rights Consultation is coming to Brisbane
The National Human Rights Consultation provides an opportunity for you to share your views on human rights in Australia.
register for the Brisbane session on Monday 23rd March at the following website.
http://www.humanrightsconsultation.gov.au/www/nhrcc/nhrcc.nsf
On this website you can:
* Learn About the National Human Rights Consultation
* Find out Who's who
* Read the Consultation Committee’s Terms of Reference
* Register to attend a Community Roundtable session near you
* Learn About human rights in Australia
* Share your views by making a submission to the Consultation
* Get Consultation news
* Find the answers you need in our Frequently Asked Questions
Israeli Anthropologist Professor Jeff Halper
Coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD)
Public Lecture Series:
'A Rights-Based Approach to the
Israel-Palestine Conflict:
The Best Prospect for Peace'
Monday 16 March 2009
6pm – 8pm
Undumbi Room, Level 5
Queensland Parliament House
(entry via Parliamentary Annexe)
Hosted by Evan Moorehead MP
State Member for Waterford
RSVP: Waterford@parliament.qld.gov.au or 3200 3477
Jeff Halper is an Israeli Professor of Anthropology and the Coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), a non-violent Israeli peace and human rights organisation that resists the Israeli Occupation on the ground. He grew up in the US and received his PhD in Cultural and Applied Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee before moving to Israel in 1973. Prof Halper’s academic work focuses on the history of Jerusalem in the modern era, contemporary Israeli culture, nationalism and the Middle East conflict. He is the author of Obstacles to Peace, a resource manual of articles and maps on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, published by ICAHD. His new book, An Israeli in Palestine, on his work against the Occupation, is published by Pluto Press. He was nominated by the American Friends Service Committee for the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.
Organised by Just Peace Queensland and Labor 4A Just Palestine
For further information, contact:
Annette 0431 597 256 • David 0413 874 008
For downloadable flier:
http://justpeaceqld.org/data/Jeff%20Halper%20Forum%20160309.doc
Israel's Trauma Psychology and the Attack on Gaza
by Avigail Abarbarnel
Deir Yassin Remembered Canberra director
4 January 2008
One of the things that is not being discussed much in the media is how much talk there is in Israel about attacking Iran. Word on the (Israeli) street is that an air attack on Iran’s nuclear reactors is imminent.
Israel has been itching for a ‘good war’ for a while now. The botched attack on Lebanon in 2006 was a psychological disappointment that did not fulfil its purpose, and only led to a deepening chasm between the political and military arms in Israel. An Israeli friend told me in disgust the other day, that there is an atmosphere of ‘national orgasm’ in Israel about the prospect of attacking Iran. While people are being bombed in Gaza, all Israelis can talk about is the coming attack on Iran. But there is a link between the two.
Israel’s social problems have grown exponentially over the past 15 years. It’s a very different Israel now than the one I grew up in. There is more violent and organised crime than ever before, and more domestic violence and abuse of children than ever. There are more drugs and drug use, and they have drink-driving, something I have never encountered while I was still living there. This is reflected in official reports as well as in the daily newspapers. My brother who lives in Israel described to me how soldiers who spend their military service in the Occupied Palestinian territories implementing Israel’s brutal occupation, come home on weekends only to get involved in drunken armed brawls and murders. This was unheard of in my time.
Israelis have never been particularly kind to each other. It’s one of the reasons I left actually. In my late twenties I started to grow weary of the unkind, harsh and unforgiving atmosphere around me. It was a tough place to live in not because of our ‘enemies’ but because of how people treated one another. You would believe that we were all enemies rather than people who have some kind of a shared heritage. The only thing that could unite people and temporarily brought out more kindness and a sense of cooperation was a feeling of being under collective threat, and in particular a ‘good wholesome war’. I lived through the war of 1967 and the national euphoria it generated, and the 1973 ‘Yom Kippur’ war and the attrition war that followed. During the time of the invasion of Lebanon in 1982 I was a soldier myself. My last war in Israel was the 1991 Gulf war, when an Iraqi Scud missile landed only a few metres from my apartment building in Ramat-Gan near Tel-Aviv.
I remember well the atmosphere before, during and after wars. These were the best times. You could feel a change in the air. People seemed to have a renewed sense of purpose. Even long-standing family or neighbourly feuds were put aside, and everyone helped everyone. There was more patience and we children were picked on a lot less. Although I was scared of wars I remember also feeling excited. It helped that we all believed the myth that all of our wars were of the ‘milchemet ein breira’ type — ‘no choice wars’. The kind that was imposed on us and that we ‘reluctantly’ had to get involved in, and only in self defence. We also believed in ‘tohar ha’neshek’ — ‘purity of arms’, that is the myth that our soldiers always act honourably and only kill when they have no choice and never unarmed civilians. We were always the ‘good guys’ in all our collective stories, which of course added to the general fuzzy patriotic feeling.
Israel and perhaps the rest of the world too, refuse to see that Israel’s problems are a direct result of deep-seated Jewish trauma and its consequences. Israel’s response to trauma was to arm itself to the teeth, and to become an incredibly aggressive country while perpetuating inside and out the myth of victimhood and goodness. As a psychotherapist I recognise this reaction to trauma. Some people who have been traumatised respond to it by becoming very powerful and very frightening. This is a reaction to having been hurt, and a response to the desire to never be hurt again.
Unfortunately this isn’t a good or wholesome way to live. This is a way of life that perpetuates inner conflicts, leads to isolation and invites animosity from others. It’s hard to spread good will and kindness in the world when one’s inner world is based on an adversarial foundation. What is true for individuals can also be true for whole societies. Israel had a chance to heal its traumatised Jewish past but instead chose to perpetuate the trauma and pass it on to subsequent generations. The very creation of the state of Israel is a reaction to trauma. If you understand the dynamic of trauma and the solutions people try to find to it you can understand why Israel’s existence has always been fraught with trouble. The fact that Israel has never used its education system and national institutions to facilitate healing from trauma is sad but not unusual. Trauma becomes so much a part of the sufferer’s identity, that to heal means to change the very foundation of who you are, something most people, let alone entire cultures are rarely prepared to do.
Many Israelis who have left, have done so for the same reason I did. We were all searching for a calmer, kinder way of life, where people could be friendly and helpful to one another rather than nasty and suspicious. It’s hard to leave one’s home but if home is so harmful you just have to do it because the personal cost of staying is higher than the cost of the grief over losing your home.
This latest vicious war crime that is unfolding in Gaza and the increasing talk about attacking Iran are a response to yet another turn in the cycle of Israel’s collective trauma. Trauma always follows a cyclical dynamic. It’s hard to live with it, with the constant fear and mistrust. It’s exhausting and demoralising and it can take up every bit of energy you have to just get up in the morning and get on with your daily tasks. People can go on for a while like this, somehow coping from day to day. But things inevitably come to a head and life becomes unmanageable. This is usually a familiar enough point in the cycle and the sufferer would often think ‘Oh, no, not again...’ At those times people desperately search for something, some kind of temporary solution to relieve the suffering, a new diet perhaps, a new job, renovations, or a war. This is often accompanied by a desperate belief that this time they will find the ultimate solution to everything, and all will be well after that. I think Israelis really believe that if they can crush Hamas in Gaza, all their problems will be solved and they will live happily ever after free from Qassam rockets or any kind of Palestinian resistance. The question of the future of the Palestinians doesn’t even come into it. When one suffers trauma, one’s thinking is always short-term and self-centred. The focus is always on one’s own short-term survival.
Trauma is often accompanied by denial and people spend their lives looking for solutions outside themselves. In aggressive and violent responses to trauma people will believe that it is ‘that person’ or ‘that group’ that is causing their problem, and will try to do something to hurt or eliminate them. People eventually come to therapy when they have tried everything and realise that outside measures cannot solve their problem, that there may be something about themselves that they have to fix. Unfortunately not many of the aggressive types come to therapy. Many of them end up in jail instead. People with unhealed trauma can be destructive to others but ultimately they are living an unsustainable life and are self-destructive. Many of the measures that they will adopt throughout their lifetime will be counter-productive and will end up hurting them just as much as they hurt others.
Israel has kept the Palestinians as an ongoing ‘problem’ so that they have someone to blame each time their trauma reaches its cyclical unmanageable point. If Israel wanted to solve its problem with the Palestinians it could have done so a long time ago. It could start by acknowledging the ethnic cleansing of 1948, then offering a right of return and compensation to the refugees in compliance with UN resolution 194 from December 1948, and that would be it. But to do that Israel would have to compromise its racist and undemocratic dream of being an exclusively Jewish state. And being an exclusively Jewish state is in itself a reaction to Jewish trauma. It is based on the simple idea that Jews are not safe with non-Jews and therefore need a state of their own where they can live separately and therefore safely. But to give up on this dream would require a complete re-evaluation of Jewish and Israeli identity and belief system. People would have to stop believing that the world is bad for Jews and Jews are only safe with one another. This means questioning some of the most fundamental principles of Jewish faith and culture. Such a process of questioning will inevitably start Israel on a path of healing and will also mean that Israel will have to find another way of being that does not involve an adversarial view of the world and perpetual war. I don’t think Israel is ready for that. Healing is something that sadly, few people are prepared to do and I guess the same goes for entire societies.
read more
http://www.australiansforpalestine.com/palestine/arch_art/dec08/ABARBARNEL_israels_trauma.html
Protests over Gaza spread to eight English universities
Anthea Lipsett
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 22 January 2009 13.38 GMT
As student protests over the bombing of Gaza spread to eight
universities across England today, the director of the London School of
Economics, Sir Howard Davies, issued a joint statement with student
protesters saying he understood their concerns and backing a fundraising
drive for scholarships for Palestinians.
includes establishing a working party to
look at socially responsible investments that will be "content to
receive" proposals about disinvestment from companies implicated in the
Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
Michael Deas, a third-year environmental policy student involved in the
occupation, said: "We're delighted with the result, although nothing we
could have done would ever have been enough. It's a real victory for
student activism, particularly forcing the director into making a statement.
"We would encourage other students to take this sort of action and have
the confidence to do so."
More than 80 students at Oxford occupied part of the historic Bodleian
building today to demand that the university release a statement
condemning the attack on Gaza, and cancel a lecture series at Balliol
College inaugurated by Shimon Peres, the president of Israel.
At Warwick, students started an occupation last night demanding the
university sever links with companies supplying equipment used in the
conflict.
At King's College London, students have demanded the cancellation of an
honorary degree for Peres, a demand rejected by the university. Trainor,
the vice-chancellor of King's and president of the vice-chancellors'
umbrella group, Universities UK, has said: "UUK supports calls for an
end to the conflict in and beyond Gaza. We are particularly aware that
many of the civilian casualties have occurred in educational establishments.
"The UK's universities are resolutely committed to the right to
education, enshrined in the UN universal declaration of human rights.
Higher education, in particular, is a global activity and we value our
academic links with universities all over the world.
"The international nature of higher education means it is a force for
understanding, tolerance and respect between peoples."
Students have also protested at the School of Oriental and African
Studies, Birmingham, Essex and Sussex.
Simon Englert, a student at the University of Sussex, said: "The
atmosphere is very good, and everybody there is absolutely committed to
what we're doing.
"Lots of different political stances are represented in the room. It has
been a very good and interesting exercise, building a united front and
agreeing on tactics.
"There has been a very uncomfortable silence in general about what's
happened and is happening in Gaza. We feel there should be concrete
action, and the university making a statement would be symbolic and strong."
read more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/jan/22/studentpolitics-londonschoolofeconomics
Israeli offensive in Gaza claims over 1000 lives!
Open letter Number 2 to the Prime Minister of Australia Mr. Kevin Rudd from Just Peace QLD Inc.
14/01/2009
Dear Mr. Rudd
During the 2007 election campaign the Australian Labor Party made clear its support for the UN as the only International Body capable of addressing positively, such major issues as Nuclear Disarmament, Climate Change, Peace and Justice for all peoples on Earth.
Over the Bush term of office the UN has been sidelined and discredited by e.g. overriding international law to form the Coalition of the Willing launching an attack Iraq and on other matters such as Climate Change.
On Tuesday 13/1/2009 the UN Secretary General UN Ban Ki-moon called for all countries to support resolution 1860 passed last week in the UN Security Council.
The resolution calls for an immediate ceasefire in the three-week-old conflict in the Gaza Strip and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza where hundreds have been killed.
The Secretary General expressed his anguish at the civilian toll of wounded and dead which includes hundreds of children.
We in Just Peace applaud the Foreign Affairs Minister Mr. Stephen Smith for yesterday echoing the Secretary General’s call.
It is time for supporters of the United Nations to speak with one voice to end the killing and destruction of war.
We in Just Peace call on you as leader of the Australian Government to publicly support resolution 1860 and speak out against the inhumanity of both the siege of Gaza and this current act of war.
Yours in Peace
Annette Brownlie
Co-Convenor- Just Peace QLD Inc.
P.O. Box 573
Coorparoo Phone: 3324 8459
Open letter Number 1. to the Australian Prime Minister Mr Kevin Rudd in relation to the Israeli military assault on the people of Gaza.
Xmas 2008 to New Year 2009
Sunday 28/12/08
Dear Mr Rudd
As the Prime Minister of Australia we call on you to condemn the escalating violence against the people of Gaza by the Israeli Defence Force.
Israel has the 4th largest army in the world and this response to qassam rockets is grossly disproportionate. Lest we forget what happened 3 years ago when the Israeli army entered southern Lebanon destroying property and killing so many civilians notably children.
Dr Eyad Sarraj - President of the Gaza Community Mental Health Centre has reported from Gaza today "This is incredibly sad. This massacre is not going to bring security for the State of Israel or allow it to be part of the Middle East. Now calls of revenge are everywhere."
Australian Sharon Lock from the International Solidarity Movement, also in Gaza "The bombs began to fall just as the children were on the streets walking back from school. I went out onto the stairs and a terrified 5 year old girl ran sobbing into my arms."
Mr Rudd to this point you have been silent. Human rights, humanity and a new direction for Peace in the Middle East and beyond are at stake here. Your support for the UN Secretary General Mr Ban Ki Moon's condemnation of this latest war crime being perpetrated by Israel would be well recieved by those who wish to see Peace and Justice for all.
Yours sincerely
In Peace
Annette Brownlie
Co-Convenor
Just Peace QLD Inc.
PO Box 573
Coorparoo
4151
3324 8459