Israel Hawkademia in Australian Universities

Gracias a Omar Arach por el envío. Israeli Hawkademia in Australian Universities

By Vacy Vlazna The Israeli 'defense' industry is embedded in Israeli universities and in universities around the world including Australia. It plunders overseas intellectual property for Israel's military research-and-development (R&D) programs while strategic bi-lateral research and exchange missions deliberately whitewash or 'normalize' the Zionist military occupation of Palestine and her people. In Israel, Zionism and the military are undifferentiated. The IOF (Israeli Occupation Forces), the world's fourth most powerful (nuclear) army, since the inception of the state of Israel, is duty bound to secure the fanatical Zionist goal of Eretz Yisrael or Greater Israel, which incorporates the whole of historic Palestine and beyond (from the Nile to the Euphrates). The 1948 Nakba, the Catastrophe, which accounted  for the destruction of 500 Palestinian villages and the forceful expulsion of over 700,000 Palestinians by Israeli terrorist militia (Irgun, Lehi, and Haganah) that metamorphosed  into the Israeli army, has never ended with Israel's relentless policies of ethnic cleansing through the expansion of its illegal colonies and the illegal Annexation Wall on stolen Palestinian land perforated moreover by hundreds of checkpoints and roadblocks manned by belligerent IOF. Under international law, Israel's military occupation of Palestine is illegal and yet it has impunity to defy UN Resolutions and to daily commit war crimes because of US, EU, Canadian and Australian support as well as the $3.1 billion in Israeli military assistance granted annually from the US State Department budget. "Israeli defense sales in 2010 totaled 7.2 billion U.S. dollars, making the small nation the world's fourth largest exporter...Most of the sales are from four leading companies: Elbit Systems, Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI), Rafael, and Israel Military Industries ..Strong points of Israel's arms industry include unmanned aerial vehicles, armoured vehicles, smart munitions, military and civilian aircraft avionics, weapons platforms and structural upgrades for foreign governments and private clients." It is Palestinian men, women, teenagers and children who are the guinea pigs of Israel's 'battle-tested' weaponry. Israeli defense companies as well as their joint venture US/UK defense partners have subsidiaries in Australia- Elbit Australia, Oracle Australia, Thales Australia, Raytheon Australia and have footholds in and associations with Australian universities. In November 2011, Elbit Systems joined the Australian Defense Department's Rapid Prototyping, Development and Evaluation Program. The University of Western Australia and Edith Cowan University also joined. "Elbit Systems and its subsidiaries contribute directly to two of the most insidious facets of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory: the indiscriminate assaults on civilian populations, through the provision of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV's or 'drones') and other military equipment to Occupation forces; and the ever-tightening ghettoization of the West Bank, through the provision of surveillance and electronics systems along the Apartheid Wall and settlements. During Israel's 23-day assault in Gaza in 2008-09, missiles fired from drones were directly attributed to the killing of 78 Palestinians, including 29 children. Like all Israeli firms operating the military technology sector, endless war and occupation create valuable marketing opportunities. Elbit UAVs, for example, can be sold on the global market as 'battle tested' devices, significantly increasing their appeal and leading to their adoption by a number of militaries." The ZEN Entrepreneurs' Challenge is a student business planning competition run by the Entrepreneurship, Commercialization and Innovation Centre at the University of Adelaide. 'Participants work with dedicated mentors to cultivate their entrepreneurial plans including marketing thanks to Dr. Ben-Ari who joined Elbit Systems in 1978 and is, since 2001, Managing Director of Elbit Systems Singapore. The Edith Cowan University's Security Management program is offering academic credit to delegates on completion of the 2013 "Security Fundamentals Tour of Israel designed to provide a select group of security specialists and professionals with an insight into Israel's critical infrastructure security and what continues to drive Israel to be one of the leading security technology providers." The tour includes the euphemistically named 'Separation' Wall which is in fact an Apartheid/Annexation Wall deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004 and also includes the security, passenger screening and deterrence applications of Ben Gurion Airport which last month detained and deported volunteers invited to Palestine to help build a school for blind children. Last year, Australians Vivienne Porzsolt and Sylvia Hale were also arrested and detained at Ben Gurion for having the temerity of wanting to visit Marrickville's sister city, Bethlehem. In February, a guest speaker at Deakin University's 7th Annual International Electromaterials Science Symposium was A/Prof. Yair Ein - Eli, He had been Director of Research and Battery Technology at Electric Fuel Ltd before joining the Department of Materials Engineering at the Technion. Electric Fuel Ltd is a subsidiary of the Arotech Corporation which has facilities in Israel and "operates through three major business divisions: High-level armoring for military and nonmilitary air and ground vehicles; interactive simulation for military, law enforcement and commercial markets, and batteries and charging systems for the military'. Each Israeli university has societies worldwide that encourage and facilitate academic and scientific exchanges and collaboration. 'Recent exchanges organized by The Technion Society of Australia have included Technion staff at Sydney University, University of NSW, University of Newcastle, Victoria University, University of Adelaide and Australian National University.' On staff at the University of Western Sydney is a professor with Technion associations and experience in military and civilian R&D. Both Elbit and Rafael Advanced Systems (run by the Israeli Ministry for Defence)have long-standing partnerships with the hawkish Technion. In May 2008 was the launch of the AICC s inaugural WA Innovation and Business Development Mission to Israel, supported by the WA State Governments Department of Industry and Resources and coordinated by the Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce (WA) Inc. (AICC). Among delegates were representatives from the University of Western Australia and Murdoch University. Mr R McCulloch representing Murdoch University's interest in water research and renewable energy institutes praised Israel's "immediate interest and openness to finding partners" though, of course this excludes Palestinians whose critical water resources are stolen, controlled and/or demolished by Israel. The University of Johannesburg which had a joint water project with Ben Gurion University severed links in 2011 because it found "detailed, factual evidence and information regarding Ben Gurion's direct and indirect role in further entrenching the violations of human rights and international law by the Israeli state". Innocuous academic interchange can promote normalization whereby Israeli oppression, racism and apartheid is accepted as the 'normal' status quo. The Yachad Accelerated Learning Project designed to improve outcomes and address inequalities in Indigenous and Remote education was set up with the support of  Melbourne and Monash Universities and The Hebrew University (Michael Federmann, the Chairman of Elbit Systems is a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Governors of Hebrew University). In 2007 an Australian Yachad delegation enthusiastically visited the Bedouin village of Kseyfeh aware or unaware that the per capita spending per Bedouin student is less than half Israel's average and that 40% of indigenous Bedouins are threatened by forced transfer policies and live in Unrecognized Villages systematically deprived of water, electricity, health care, education yet not deprived of incessant home demolitions. The information presented here about the relationship between Australian universities and the Israeli occupation of Palestine is merely the tip of a very grubby iceberg. Australian universities by their degrading prostration to funding donors associated with Zionist Israel have lost their moral equilibrium and the purpose and ideals of academia. Dissenting academics are rare. Few emulate Professor Jake Lynch's protest of the 2011 Israel Research Forum at the University of Sydney with guest experts from the The Weizmann Institute of Science, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, and Tel Aviv University, all of which collaborate with the Israeli military industry. Academics and students, concerned for the human rights of the people of Palestine, must investigate their university finances and demand divestment from and boycott of companies and Israeli universities that are implicated in the war crimes and crimes against humanity that Palestinians suffer daily. - Dr. Vacy Vlazna is Coordinator of Justice for Palestine Matters. She was Human Rights Advisor to the GAM team in the second round of the Acheh peace talks, Helsinki, February 2005 and was coordinator of the East Timor Justice Lobby as well as serving in East Timor with UNAMET and UNTAET from 1999-2001.

Otro Nobel (Paul Krugman) "Las políticas del gobierno israelí son una forma de suicidio nacional"

http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/paul-krugman-israeli-government-policies-are-a-form-of-national-suicide-1.426387

Uri Avnery: Netanyahu compara Israel con Siria e Irán, así contribuye a la deslegitimación de Israel

Gracias a Eduardo Mosches por el envío.

Avnery: Netanyahu compares Israel to Syria and Iran, thereby himself contributing to thedelegitimation of Israel. The aggressive conduct at the airport exhibits to the entire world the image of Israel as a police state

"In the height of demagoguery, Binyamin Netanyahu calls upon peace and human rights activists to go Syria and Iran, and this pack of absurdities go echoing though the official and unofficial government mouthpieces. The Prime Minister did not notice that exactly by making this comparison he is putting the State of Israel on one level with these oppressive regimes and himself significantly contributes to the delegitimation of Israel" said former Knesset Member Uri Avnery, Gush Shalom activist.

"Today is a black and shameful page in the history of the State of Israel. The massive aggressive play staged today at Ben Gurion Airport, the hundreds of police flooding the terminal, the systematic hunt for every traveler who dared to openly admit being headed to Bethlehem, as if this was the most horrible of crimes, the hysterical assault on a handful of Israeli peace activists who dared to express a dissident opinion, the worldwide campaign of pressures and threats to make airlines cancel the flights of hundreds of passengers. Had the government set out to exhibit to the world the image of an ugly Israel - oppressive, aggressive, nationalistic, tolerating no criticism - then today was a huge success. But if they had wanted to corroborate the assertion that Israel is "the only democracy in the Middle East", the government's conduct conveyed the very opposite message. The government's "victory" over the the international activists was the very epitome of a pyrrhic victory.

The Assad regime in Syria is already for a year facing worldwide condemnation for its atrocities, and now the international community is finally beginning to intervene there, even if too little and too late. Courageous human rights activists in Syria are risking their lives to transmit messages and images, and deserve all respect and honor. All this does not clear or exonerate the State of Israel of its responsibility for the last 44 years - more than two thirds of its entire history – in which Israel maintains an oppressive rule over four million people and systematically steals their land. There is indeed no doubt that in the count of sheer bloodshed Syria is at this moment ahead Israel - but it would be better for Israel not to boast too much about this. Human rights activists around the world could and should deal with human rights violations, wherever they occur - in Syria, in Iran and also in the Palestinian territories under Israeli occupation. The Israeli peace activists, who came to the airport to protest the government's aggressive conduct and welcome the international activists, helped restore a bit of Israel's good name".

Contact:
Adam Keller, Gush Shalom spokesperson +972-54-2340749

Noticias de "la única democracia de Medio Oriente"

http://mondoweiss.net/2012/04/dear-activist-first-solve-the-real-problems-of-the-region-netanyahu-plays-alfred-e-newman-in-petulant-letter-to-foreign-activists.html

Artículo de Amira Haas - Israel hipoteca la paz de sus hijos

Gracias a Rolando Gómez por la traducción y el envío.

Israel hipoteca la paz de sus hijos

Por: Amira Hass

Diario Haaretz, 11 de abril de 2012

La maraña de distribuidores de autopistas y carreteras en la entrada a Jerusalén nos habla de planeadores, Ministros, Alcaldes y contratistas que piensan “a lo americano”. Nos acostumbramos a dimensiones que empequeñecen todo lo que no es asfalto: gente y árboles. Por ejemplo, nos acostumbramos a las “soluciones de transportación” que devoran la naturaleza. Sobre todo porque supuestamente sin proponérselo, estas soluciones de transportación destruyen tejidos sociales existentes.

Si se hablara solamente de Ministros, planeadores y asfalto, que sea. Pero el “pensar a lo americano” se volvió una característica que define a Israel. “Pensar a lo americano” es un pensamiento guía en la sociedad israelí judía, en su política respecto a nuestros propios “indios”.

¿Por qué tendríamos menos éxito que EEUU, Canadá o Australia, que en el proceso de su establecimiento e independencia borraron –cada uno de ellos a niveles distintos- las sociedades y comunidades que vivían en ellos? ¿Por qué no, olvidar nosotros lo que se les olvidó a países que se presentan a sí mismos como baluartes de la civilización?

Ahora, cuando los remanentes de esas naciones originarias se atreven a reclamar derechos, participación en los recursos e indemnizaciones, esos reclamos ya no ponen en peligro a los colonos blancos y a las autoridades. Entonces hagamos lo mismo nosotros: aguantemos otros 20, 50 años, continuemos robando la cabra y la colina, aplastando al desamparado, provocando emigraciones, comprando y sometiendo a sus líderes, armándonos y saliendo a la guerra…hasta que la molestia (de la entidad nacional, cultural y política que exige sus derechos) desaparezca.

Es tan lógico este hilo de pensamiento, que la gran mayoría en Israel no está interesada en diálogo sobre soluciones. Esa mayoría por supuesto que no se interesa por los hechos y los detalles que tejen conjuntamente la realidad despreciable y repugnante de la brutal dominación de Israel sobre otro pueblo. Lo que le interesa a esa mayoría es saber si es que hay o no hay tranquilidad y seguridad; qué tan fuerte es el Ejército Israelí, y cuántos pasajes de la biblia demuestran nuestra propiedad sobre la tierra.

Pero para el colmo de la felicidad y el alivio, los palestinos son un solo pueblo (no como los cientos de pueblos originarios que había en América), y el proceso del asentamiento judío no lo aniquiló. Estamos en una época distinta y un área distinta. El “pensar a lo grande” olvida que, en oposición al modelo que se quiere copiar y desarrollar, nosotros somos solo una minoría en la región, y la región cambia y reclama cambiar las reglas del juego que son cómodas para Israel y para EEUU.

La verdadera cuestión no es “dos Estados” o “un Estado”. La historia de todas maneras no reconoce etapas finales. Cada etapa lleva a otra. Tampoco son visiones lo que falta. Las visiones deben desarrollarse y cambiar en el proceso de lucha por la igualdad y la justicia. De lo contrario se transformarán en gulags.

La cuestión era y sigue siendo cuánto más derramamiento de sangre, sufrimiento y catástrofes hacen falta para que se desmorone el régimen de discriminación y apartheid judío que se desarrolló en estos 64 años.

Los palestinos nos concedieron a los israelíes una escalera que nos hubiera ahorrado la magnitud del sufrimiento y desposesión que les causamos a ellos. Una escalera a la que nos subiríamos en la etapa histórica en la que seamos recibidos en la región como vecinos reconocidos, con raíces y derechos, y no seamos solamente invasores hostiles.

Pero los gobiernos de Israel, con el apoyo de sus electores, derribaron la escalera. Sabían muy bien porqué hacer fracasar la etapa de dos Estados (en su fórmula original).

Esa etapa hubiera allanado el camino a otras configuraciones de vida en común de dos pueblos. Solo que la base y la lógica de esas configuraciones hubiera obligado a renunciar a la hegemonía y superioridad judías.

Y es necesario decirlo: por esa hegemonía, Israel hipoteca la paz de sus hijos y la vida de sus nietos. Junto con la paz y la vida de los hijos y nietos de toda la región.

______

Fuente en hebreo:

http://www.haaretz.co.il/opinions/1.1683861

Fuente en inglés:

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/israel-must-understand-it-cannot-be-like-america-1.423677

Traducción del hebreo:

Rolando Gómez

Coyoacán, 11 de abril de 2012

El israelí Guideon Levy piensa que el poema de Günter Grass dice "lo que debe ser dicho"

Gracias a Omar Arach por el envío

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/israelis-can-be-angry-with-gunter-grass-but-they-must-listen-to-him-1.423194

Poema de Günter Grass

What Must Be Said by Günter Grass

But why have I kept silent till now?

Because I thought my own origins,

Tarnished by a stain that can never be removed,

meant I could not expect Israel, a land

to which I am, and always will be, attached,

to accept this open declaration of the truth.

Why only now, grown old,

and with what ink remains, do I say:

Israel's atomic power endangers

an already fragile world peace?

Because what must be said

may be too late tomorrow;

and because – burdened enough as Germans –

we may be providing material for a crime

that is foreseeable, so that our complicity

wil not be expunged by any

of the usual excuses.

And granted: I've broken my silence

because I'm sick of the West's hypocrisy;

and I hope too that many may be freed

from their silence, may demand

that those responsible for the open danger we face renounce the use of force,

may insist that the governments of

both Iran and Israel allow an international authority

free and open inspection of

the nuclear potential and capability of both.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/apr/05/gunter-grass-israel-poem-iran

Las colonias israelíes bajo la lupa de la ONU

Gracias a Federico Donner por el envío

http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/ultimas/20-190205-2012-03-22.html

Noticias de Gush Shalom: escalada en Gaza

Gracias a Eduardo Mosches por el envío.

http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/events/1331386810

Silwan, 5 de marzo, 5 menosre detenidos

http://www.palestinalibre.org/articulo.php?a=38137

Obra de teatro sobre Rachel Corrie. Lunes de febrero a las 20.30

En el Foro Shakespeare, Zamora 7, Colonia Condesa.

Ojalá puedan ir y recomendarla.

http://www.dondeir.com/content/rachel-corrie-se-manifiesta-en-el-foro-shakespeare

México: en los zapatos del otro

Gracias a Marcos Límenes por el envío

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UB7db7kMFk&feature=player_embedded

carta para firmar: 25 órdenes de demolición en una pequeña aldea de un total de 45 casas

Para todos aquellos que deseen firmarla y hacerse eco de esta protesta. Gracias a Eduardo Mosches por el envío

Urgent appeal – please write to Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak, by fax and email, and either use the sample letter in the end or make your own. Why it is needed, you find in the following press release.

=============================================================

Press Release January 30, 2012

Occupation rule's cynical game with the small village of Aqaba. Brigadier General Almaz makes a personal visit, promising to "look into the complaints"
Then, his representative issues 25 demolition orders - in a village consisting of 45 houses in all

In a letter to Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Gush Shalom warns of a cynical game played by the occupation rule in the small village of Aqaba, the east of Jenin, which is over many years the target of repeated raids by the Military Government's Civil Administration, destroying houses and basic infrastructure. "A month ago they were here last time," Mayor Haj Sami Sadeq told Gush Shalom. "They destroyed our access road, which we call 'The Peace Road' and demolished several houses. When the children who had been thrown out of their homes were crying, the soldiers posed for souvenir photos on the bulldozer, smiling and laughing".

In recent years, there was some interest in the village of Aqaba on the international scene, when an American human rights group called "The Rebuilding Alliance" raised the issue in meetings with Representatives and Senators and invited the village's mayor to a lecture tour in the United States. Following this international interest in the issue, the Civil Administration head Brigadier General Motti Almaz, made an unprecedented personal visit to the village.

I "He sat with me at the local council offices. I told him: 'You're destroying our homes and we build them again. What else can we do? This is our village, we have nowhere else to go. I told him that in our village there had never been clashes with the army, neither in the First Intifada nor in the Second one. For years the army carried out training with live ammunition among the village houses, villagers were killed and wounded. I personally, the mayor, was hit at a young age and remain in a wheelchair for life, and yet I feel no bitterness or hatred. I support peace. I just ask that they live us alone. I asked Almaz to approve a zoning plan for our village so that we can build legally. I asked him to allow us to rebuild the access road to the village - with our own money and labor, just that they don't destroy it. I asked him to let us build a school on 42 dunums of state land which are in the middle of the village and which we can't use. To allow us to be linked to the water pipe, so that we will no longer need to fetch water by tankers, at twenty Shekels per cubic meter. I told him that ten years ago, the electricity pylons at the entrance to the village were pulled down, and in 1999 Knesset Members wrote to Defence Minster Ehud Barak and he gave instructions not to touch our electricity - but still, two months ago they came and again pulled down twenty pylons. I put all problems and issues to Brigadier General Almaz, and for everything I said he answered 'We will look into it', 'We will take care of it'. And he went off.

What happened next? A few days later there arrived in our village the local representative of the Civil Administration, a man named Yigal (he does not tell his family name) and started handing out demolition orders. Demolition orders for houses, for cattle sheds, even for the tabun bread ovens. Seventeen demolition orders in total. And he told us, this whole village is illegal, everything must be destroyed. Is this the 'looking into it' which the Civil Administration Head promised us? Then the Head of the Jenin Area Civil Administration, located at the Salem Chekpoint, came to our village. I asked him 'Why did you send us Yigal with the demolition orders?' And he said: 'No, I did not sent him, this did not come from me'. And then. after another few days Yigal came back with another eight demolition orders. Demolition orders also for our kindergarten and clinic. A total of 25 demolition orders for a village which consists of 45 houses in all. So what am I to do now? What can I tell villagers who ask me 'You are talking about peace. Where is your peace?' "

Adam Keller, Gush Shalom spokesperson, wrote to Defense Minister Barak: "There are two ways of interpreting this, one of them bad and the other even worse. Either the Civil Administration plays a cynical game of 'Good Cop, Bad Cop', or in truth the Civil Administration Head does not control the people who are supposed to be under his command, and they run their own independent policy. In both cases, this abomination must be stopped. The residents of Aqaba should have the right to live safely and in dignity at their homes and in their village."

Contact:
Adam Keller, Gush Shalom Spokesperson +972-54-2340749
Haj Sami Sadeq, Akaba Mayor +972-9-2572201

Meir Margalit, Israeli Committee against House Demolitions +972-54-4345503

-------------------

Sample letter:

To Mr. Ehud Barak, Minister of Defense, Hakirya, Tel Aviv, Israel
Fax +972-3-6977285 +972-3-6916940
Mail: minister@mod.gov.il, dover@mod.gov.il, pniot@mod.gov.il

Mr. Defense Minister, I urgently call upon you to rescind the demolition orders, 25 in number, issued by the Military Government's Civil Administration at the village of Akaba to the east of Tubas - a small village which consists of 45 houses in all. For many years already, inhabitants of this village, about three hundred in number, face severe repression by the Israeli military government, repeated destruction of houses and infrastructure. Despite promises to the village by the Civil Administration Head, Brigadier General Almaz, harassment continues and the threat of mass destruction of houses hovers over the village. The residents of Akaba have the right to live peacefully in their homes!

video sobre los refusenikim (objetores de conciencia del IDF)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ga0s936ldU&feature=related

de Infancia hoy

Gracias a Inés Westphalen por el envío.

http://www.infanciahoy.com/despachos.asp?cod_des=9799&ID_Seccion=192

Rafeef Ziada - "Nosotros enseñamos vida, señor"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neYO0kJ-6XQ

Testimonio del ex prisionero franco-palestino Salah Hamoui

Testimonio de Salah Hamouri, ciudadano franco-palestino prisionero de Israel desde 2005, uno de los liberados a cambio de Guilad Shalit. Había sido encarcelado por sospechas de planear el asesinato de Rabin.

http://teleobs.nouvelobs.com/articles/sur-france-inter-gerard-longuet-decouvre-en-direct-un-dossier-cher-a-nicolas-sarkozy

El testimonio filmado (gracias a Inés Westphalen por el envío de la entrevista)

http://www.npa2009.org/content/interview-de-salah-hamouri

AIC: Lucha conjunta

http://www.alternativenews.org/castellano/index.php/topics/jerusalem/3099-lucha-conjunta

Economía de la ocupación: AIC

http://www.alternativenews.org/castellano/index.php/topics/economy-of-the-occupation/3091-articulo-3

Plomo fundido, tres años después

http://www.alternativenews.org/castellano/index.php/topics/economy-of-the-occupation/3089-aritculo-5