Comments on: Student Merna Foils Israeli Bid to Wreck Family’s Education Hopes

By: M.M.M

M.M.M — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:27:12 +0000

و الله زمان يا ميرنا مليح الي شفتك

By: mary

mary — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:31:36 +0000

The EU is riddled with supporters of Israel. Apart from the three Friends of Israel groupings of MPs in the House of Commons, some of the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat members of the European Parliament (MEPs) belong to a group called the European Friends of Israel who are Israel’s flag-carriers in Brussels and are extremely proactive on behalf of Israel. Try writing to them about some of the injustices suffered by the Palestinians, especially during the recent onslaught, and see what their reactions are!

Stuart Littlewood wrote this piece about them in December. http://www.redress.cc/stooges/slittlewood20081215

By: Miles Stuart

Miles Stuart — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 04:57:37 +0000

Good article Stuart, thank you, and best wishes to Merna.

I’m not sure about “Gilad Shalit, a trained killer”.
Maybe a little hyperbolic? My impression is that he is not particularly exceptional. My experience is that most Israeli soldiers treat Palestinians with at best distain, more usually they routinely subject them to pointless obstruction and humiliation. A proportion of them are sadistic thugs completely unrestrained by their colleagues or the Israeli military or courts. However, I don’t think Gilad Shalit falls into the latter group.

Israel has made a mockery of the Human Rights conditions in its Association Agreement. It also systematically deprives Palestinians of the benefits of their own EU Association Agreement. I’m glad that at long last the European Parliament has started to realize that Israel couldn’t give a damn about respecting any agreement with anybody. They are masters of weasel wordery and obfuscation.
As far as I am concerned sanctions on Israel can’t come fast enough or hard enough. It’s impossible to match what Israel does to Palestinians but we could at least make the effort. Force is the only language Israel speaks or understands.

To Michael Kenny: The Human Rights conditions in the Association Agreements are political rather than judicial. There is no effective mechanism to ensure they are respected, apart from the European Parliament refusing its approval.

By: lichen

lichen — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 21:43:49 +0000

Yes, the catholic church is a right wing, anti-life institution.

As for the girl, I don’t care to hear her story; Palestine needs good conditions, justice, so that every one will be able to do things like attend college, not just “remarkable” people.

By: Noisy Tappet

Noisy Tappet — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 19:32:12 +0000

The EU-Israel Association Agreement of 1995. Its terms require adherence to the principles of the United Nations Charter, and Article 2 says that “respect for human rights and democratic principle constitute an essential element of this agreement.” The EU has now suspended proposals to ‘upgrade’ its arrangements with Israel and there have been many calls to suspend it altogether

By: Michael Kenny

Michael Kenny — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 19:07:43 +0000

The “Brothers” referred to are the De La Salle Brothers. Bethlehem University is a Catholic university, just for the enlightenment of those who assume that the Catholic Church is somehow “conservative”!

I’m intrigued, though, by the agreement with the EU that Israel has violated. Like all Mediterranean countries, from Morocco right around to Turkey, Israel has a very favourable associaition agreement with the EU. That agreement is essentially economic, dealing with customs tariffs and such like, and I don’t see what Israel is doing to violate it, certainly not in any way that would affect Palestinians, one way or the other. Equally, if the association agreement was been violated, there would be nothing to stop the aggrieved parties going to court in the EU.