Barakat: US-backed Saudi forces committing war crimes in Yemen – action is needed

Barakat: US-backed Saudi forces committing war crimes in Yemen – action is needed

Comrade Khaled Barakat said that “what is happening today in Yemen is a complete failure of the Saudi and US plans to restore a puppet regime that serves their interests.”
Addressing the role of the US in the aggression on Yemen, he said “the US imperial strategy under Obama – as differentiated from the US imperial strategy under George W. Bush – is one that considers that Arab regimes should do the actual fighting, rather than US soldiers. Internally, Obama and the US government do not have the political support to send US soldiers to Yemen; indeed, his election was primarily based on exploiting popular sentiment against US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

“The US strategy today is for Arab regimes to conduct the fighting themselves – but using the same F-16s, missiles, drones and technology, produced and supplied by the US, to exert their destructive force against the people of the region. Their Saudi puppets that are, armed with US weaponry, the strongest military among the Arab Gulf states will be backed completely by US technology, logistics and support, including intelligence, in order to restore their dominace – and reassert the role of Al-Qaeda and other right-wing forces in Yemen,” said Barakat.

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Truthdigger of the Week: Khalida Jarrar

Truthdigger of the Week: Khalida Jarrar

By Roisin Davis

Every week the Truthdig editorial staff selects a Truthdigger of the Week, a group or person worthy of recognition for speaking truth to power, breaking the story or blowing the whistle. It is not a lifetime achievement award. Rather, we’re looking for newsmakers whose actions in a given week are worth celebrating.

In the middle of the night April 2, less than 24 hours after Palestine obtained membership in the International Criminal Court (ICC), dozens of Israeli soldiers burst into the Ramallah home of the prominent Palestinian lawmaker and leftist activist Khalida Jarrar and seized her.

Insofar as we believe the Israeli authorities, Jarrar is the most dangerous woman in the Middle East.

Given her leadership in cementing the Palestinian bid to join the ICC treaty—which covers the Israel-Gaza conflict last summer in which more than 2,100 Palestinians were killed—this may well be the case. Palestinian leaders have described accession to the ICC as a key means to “internationalizing” the conflict, with their membership to the Hague-based court paving the way for prosecution of Israel for war crimes.

Jarrar, a 52-year-old mother of two who suffers from serious health issues, has been declared a security risk for decades without ever being charged with any criminal offense.

She is a senior lawyer for the PLO and a member of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. She was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) in 2006 and heads its committee on prisoners, and she serves as the Palestinian representative on the Council of Europe.

She has long been a vociferous opponent of Israel’s policy of security coordination, is one of the region’s most prominent feminist voices and is a tenacious advocate for the rights of Palestinian political prisoners.

A member of several women’s rights organizations, Jarrar has worked with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees and is vice chair of the board of the Palestinian human rights organization Addameer.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, she was arrested for breaching travel restrictions imposed in August that banned her from leaving the Jericho area. Rejecting the “special supervision order,” she set up a protest tent outside the PLC office in Ramallah, where she had been living and working and which was frequented by numerous Palestinian and international delegations.

In the words of a Haaretz editorial, she was held in “vindictive administrative detention” and charged April 15 by an Israeli military tribunal on a dozen seemingly trumped-up political charges. An open letter signed by 58 members of the European Parliament describes the move as “a clearly political attempt to undermine Palestinian leadership and thwart Palestinian attempts to pursue justice in the International Criminal Court.”

The letter states:

“The arrest of Jarrar and other Members of the Palestinian Parliament and their transfer from occupied territory into Israel are not only in violation of Articles 49 and 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention but also blatantly violate international conventions and practices regarding the immunity of elected officials. Palestinian parliamentarians are frequently held in administrative detention without charge or trial, or tried in military courts that are mechanisms to produce a political result and in no way meet standards for a fair trial.”

Jarrar now joins 16 other elected Palestinian lawmakers held in Israeli jails, and her arrest means that more than 10 percent of Palestinian parliamentarians have now been detained by Israeli forces. More than half of those have not stood trial or been charged.

She also joins some 424 administrative detainees held by the Israeli state without legal process. According to the United Nations Human Rights Office, 181 were held at the same point last year. Since 1967, Israel has detained and imprisoned more than 800,000 people from the occupied Palestinian territory.

An April 7 statement issued by several human rights organizations expressed “grave concern” for the welfare of Jarrar, who must take medical lab tests every three days because of chronic conditions affecting her brain and circulatory system. The ban imposed on her movement since 1998 means that she has been allowed to travel on only one occasion for medical treatment, in 2010 following diplomatic intervention and legal proceedings. It is unlikely that Jarrar will receive the necessary medical care in Israel’s HaSharon Prison, where she is being held indefinitely.

Jarrar “apparently dared to violate the foolish order,” the Haaretz editorial explained, “and for that she is being punished now with administrative detention. This is how Israel seeks to deter every Palestinian public activist—not to mention one involved with advancing the processes in the International Criminal Court—from realizing his or her rights.”

“If Jarrar broke the law, Israel must put her on trial and prove she committed a crime. If, on the other hand, the reason for her detention is revenge, she must be released immediately.”

When Palestinian leaders applied to join the ICC, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared they had chosen “a path of confrontation” and that Israel would “not sit idly by.” Soon afterward, the Israeli government stopped the transfer of about $400 million in tax revenues collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority between January and March 2015. As a result, 160,000 Palestinian government employees were paid only 60 percent of their salaries for three months.

These measures—including the aggressive persecution of Jarrar, an elected official—are Israel’s message to the Palestinian people not to challenge its power. As Israel attempts to silence and break her down, what makes Khalida Jarrar, our Truthdigger of the Week, so dangerous is her speaking truth to this power. 

Shishtari: Arrest of Jarrar part of systematic policy of targeting resistance leaders

Shishtari: Arrest of Jarrar part of systematic policy of targeting resistance leaders

The arrest of Palestinian leader and parliamentarian Khalida Jarrar is a clear part of the Zionist policy of systematic targeting of the leaders of Palestinian resistance, said Comrade Zaher al-Shishtari, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

One of the most important reasons for the arrest of Jarrar is her resistance to the order expelling her to Jericho seceral months ago and the resulting campaign of support and solidarity on a Palestinian, Arab and international level, Shishtari said.

In an interview on Al-Quds TV, he said that “it is clear that the occupation is expanding its aggression against our people, and the arrest of PLC member, Comrade Khalida Jarrar, is meant to deliver a message to the Palestinian people and to the Popular Front that they are being targeted by occupation forces.”

He urged national Palestinian action to seriously resist all Zionist crimes, from the ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem, to settlement building, to the targeting of the Palestinian people and national leaders, including pursuing action at the International Criminal Court to prosecute the political and military officials of the occupation as war criminals.

Comrade Shishtari praised Jarrar, noting her consistent struggle against the occupation and defense of the just cause of the Palestinian people whether as a deputy in the PLC or a leader of the PFLP. He also demanded that the Palestinian Authority end security coordination with the occupation.

Reviewing the Palestinian positions and statements issued following the arrest of Jarrar, he emphasized that this indicates a clear Palestinian consensus against the escalating arrests, and noting that this must be met with real unity and earnest work to end Palestinian internal division and confront the occupation.

PFLP calls for united Palestinian action against ISIS in Yarmouk

PFLP calls for united Palestinian action against ISIS in Yarmouk

Once again, the Yarmouk refugee camp is facing destruction, murder and slaughter at the hands of criminal gangs, following a remarkable development as they have seized the camp and seek to displace our people outside Syria, in order to undermine and attack the right of return. The invasion of the so-called ISIS in complicity with Jabhat al-Nusra to seize the camp and commit more killings and displacement is a new stage in this crisis, before which all attempts at reconciliation failed. It is critical to take a clear response to this new development in order to stop the suffering of the Palestinian people in the camps.

In light of this emerging crisis inside the camp and the failure of all attempts to remove the gunmen inside and the persistence of ISIS and Nusra in the camp, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine calls upon all Palestinian factions to take a serious and responsible stand to confront this emergency and the suffering of our people. There is a clear goal of the liberation of the camp from these criminal gangs and the lifting of the siege, and cutting the road on the project to destroy the camp, the return of displaced persons to their homes inside the camp, and neutralizing it entirely from the Syrian crisis, to preserve the compass of our struggle, towards Palestine.

In this context, the PFLP calls for the formation of a joint force of Palestinian factions and the Palestinian Liberation Army to meet this challenge. The Popular Front also emphasizes the need to make this a clear unified Palestinian position, politically and in the battlefield, in order to liberate the camp, expel the criminal gangs, and return our people to their camp.

PFLP salutes Comrade Ibrahim al-Rai, hero of the interrogation rooms, on the 27th anniversary of his martyrdom

PFLP salutes Comrade Ibrahim al-Rai, hero of the interrogation rooms, on the 27th anniversary of his martyrdom

On the 27th anniversary of the martyrdom of the legend of the interrogation rooms, Ibrahim al-Rai (Abu Al-Muntasser). After more than ten months in continuous solitary confinement, interrogation and torture, Comrade Al-Rai was assassinated by his Zionist jailers in captivity, in the interrogation cells, on April 11, 1988. He did not give one word, nor one confession, to the jailers and torturers. He inspired a generation of Palestinian militants inside the prisons who refused to confess, who strengthened their steadfastness and sumoud, to meet the example of resistance and revolutionary commitment personified by Ibrahim al-Rai, a leader and a struggler in all aspects of revolutionary Palestinian work, in direct confrontation and in the organizing of Palestinian workers and students. The call, “Resist, resist, like al-Rai under interrogation,” has remained an inspiration and a clarion call for 27 years and will always be so, until liberation.

The following statement was issued by the PFLP in Qalqilya, marking this anniversary:

On this anniversary, the imperialist powers are still represented by the United States of America and its allies, with all of their power and their might directed against our rights and the rights of the Arab nation to be free and live with dignity, amid attacks and interventions against the Arab people in Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Yemen…

With the escalation of the fierce Zionist attack against the Palestinian national cause, the theft of our land and settlement construction; the Judaization – the Zionization – of Jerusalem; the increasing arrests of our comrades and our Palestinian people, including the most recent arrest of the national leader and struggler, Comrade Khalida Jarrar; the attacks against our brave prisoners in the Zionist jails facing repression, unjust trials and deliberate medical neglect, the martyrdom of dozens of prisoners, including the most recent yesterday, the martyred freed prisoner Jaafar Awad; this requires all of us as forces and factions of the national movement to act and respond commensurate to the Zionist arrogance and assault on our national rights to return, to freedom, to liberate Palestine.

On this anniversary, we see our heroic Palestinian people, struggling in all fields and arenas, in clashes and in every aspect of daily life, in the camps and in the battles, to defend their existence, constantly and creatively developing their own methods of struggle in defense of their rights.

The leader, Comrade Ibrahim al-Rai, struggling in the darkest and most difficult circumstances, isolated and subject to all forms of torture, was willing to sacrifice his own life, to face death at the hands of the executioners, rather than speak one word to give up or betray his party, his comrades or his people. He exemplified commitment, dedication and sacrifice of himself, in order to protect the vision of liberation and the rights of his people. His example is one of steadfast confrontation, who refused to break in the interrogation rooms, and who has inspired generations of revolutionaries in their commitment to steadfastness, to refuse to confess to the Zionists, and who pledge to continue to carry on his path, fighting the Zionists everywhere until every inch of the land of Palestine is liberated.

PFLP mourns Jaafar and Ziad Awad, demands action on medical abuse of Palestinian prisoners

PFLP mourns Jaafar and Ziad Awad, demands action on medical abuse of Palestinian prisoners

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine mourns the martyr Ziad Awad, killed by the occupation army while protesting after the funeral of the martyr, Jaafar Awad, in the village of Beit Ummar north of al-Khalil. The Front also extends its sincere condolences to the Palestinian people on the martyrdom of freed prisoner, Jaafar Awad, at dawn in al-Khalil. His death was caused by the policy of medical negligence and abuse by occupation forces in Zionist jails, the impact of which is carried long after freedom from captivity.

The Front urged all official and popular institutions and the International Committee of the Red Cross to take action to confront the policy of medical abuse practiced systematically against Palestinian prisoners, targeting their lives, and ensure that prisoners receive appropriate treatment and medications, and full health care in independent hospitals for prisoners suffering from chronic disease or severe illness.

The Front also demanded that the Health Ministry and medical institutions act to expand the system of health care protection for freed prisoners and conduct periodic tests for their health, including investigating any chronic illnesses in order to address them before they become more severe and lead to the deterioration of health and the loss of life. Our freed prisoners are national symbols and precious for the future of Palestine.

Comrade Leila Khaled speaks at Tripoli Book Fair and Israeli Apartheid Week on the Right of Return

Comrade Leila Khaled speaks at Tripoli Book Fair and Israeli Apartheid Week on the Right of Return

As part of the Tripoli Book Fair and the organizing of Israeli Apartheid Week in Tripoli, Lebanon, Comrade Leila Khaled, member of the Political Bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and leader of its department on refugees and the right of return, spoke at a political symposium at the Rashid Karami International Fair on current developments and their impact on the right of return.

 

Palestinian refugees from Nahr el-Bared and Beddawi refugee camps, representatives of Palestinian and Lebanese political and cultural organizations attended the event, which was introduced and facilitated by Comrade Khaled Yamani, a member of the PFLP’s refugees and right of return department, who introduced Leila Khaled.

Khaled discussed the Nakba and the displacement of Palestinians and the history of Palestinians’ inextricable struggle for return and liberation, which goes beyond the issue of UN resolutions to fundamental principles of justice and rejection of racism, imperialism and colonialism. She reviewed the history of resettlement projects put forward in order to undermine Palestinian refugees’ struggle to return.

She also noted historic campaigns of propaganda against Palestinian refugees conducted amongst Lebanese and other Arabs, promoting myths that the Palestinians “sold their land” in order to distort the reality of the Palestinian cause and attempt to justify the suppression and denial of rights of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. She also reviewed the experience of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon leading the Palestinian revolution and falling as martyrs for liberation and return, as well as the history of destruction and massacres, in Tel al-Zaatar, Sabra and Shatila, the invasion of Lebanon, the continuing destruction in Nahr al-Bared, and the crisis in Yarmouk as part of a systematic project and attempt to undermine the right of return.

Khaled noted that the goal of the Oslo process was to undermine the right of return and tether Palestinians to engage in security coordination with the enemy through the Palestinian Authority. She demanded the immediate rejection of Oslo, and the ending of security coordination, instead prioritizing Palestinian national unity to confront the occupier.

She engaged in questions and discussion with the audience as well as interviews with television programs.