LAWYERS AND ACADEMICS VISIT TUNISIA TO INVESTIGATE HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES DURING BEN ALI REGIME AND IMPACT OF US AND EUROPEAN INTERVENTIONISM BEFORE AND AFTER TUNISIAN REVOLUTION

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Written by AUPHR AUPHR

Published: 08 March 2011 08 March 2011

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[Two AUPHR members are on this delegation: Steven Goldberg and Tom Nelson . . .]

LAWYERS AND ACADEMICS VISIT TUNISIA TO INVESTIGATE HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES DURING BEN ALI REGIME AND IMPACT OF US AND EUROPEAN INTERVENTIONISM BEFORE AND AFTER TUNISIAN REVOLUTION

Monday 7 March 2011

For immediate release

A group of lawyers and academics from the US, UK and Turkey will be visiting Tunisia at the invitation of the Tunisian National Bar Association from 12 to 19 March 2011 to investigate human rights abuses committed during the Ben Ali regime and US and European complicity in these abuses, and to offer support to organizations on the ground who are working towards a progressive alternative to the ousted government.

The delegation aims to develop a better understanding of the role of US and European governments in legitimizing the Ben Ali regime, considered an essential ally in the “War on Terror”, through military, financial and diplomatic support in the run up to, and aftermath of, the Tunisian Revolution. The delegation will also seek to learn about the proposals for transitional justice and constitutional reform following the revolution, and to offer solidarity to those who are working towards a democratic and pluralistic future free from US and European intervention.

According to Azadeh Shahshahani, Executive Vice President of the National Lawyers Guild and member of the delegation, “at a time of extraordinary change in the Middle East and North Africa, it is important to understand and explore the role played by  Western governments as an impediment to change,  and how that role must be altered in the future.” Shahshahani and two other U.S. lawyers and Guild members, Steven Goldberg and Tom Nelson from Portland, Oregon, will participate in the delegation.

The group will meet with representatives of the organizations who were instrumental in bringing about revolutionary change, including human rights organizations, trade unionists, lawyers, students, journalists, women’s organizations and opposition party members. It will also meet with members of the interim Tunisian government.

The delegation also intends to meet with the US, UK and French Embassies and various ‘democracy promotion’ initiatives. One focus will be to investigate the role of Ben Ali’s regime in the US government’s treatment of former and current Tunisian detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

The group will produce a report documenting the findings and recommendations of the delegation on its return, and will be available for comment throughout the trip. Follow the delegation’s progress on Twitter @tunisiaHRdel or read the delegation’s blog at: http://tunisiahrdelegation.wordpress.com.

For further information in the United States, contact Charlotte Kates at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 604-837-4217.

Why is Israel aid exempt?

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Written by MJ Rosenberg MJ Rosenberg

Published: 08 March 2011 08 March 2011

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As US fiscal conservatives cut food programmes for poor children, military aid for Israel is left untouched.

US military aid should be conditional on Israel stopping settlement expansion, writer says [GALLO/GETTY]

Once upon a time, social security was considered the "third rail" of American politics. The "third rail" is the train track that carries the high-voltage power; touching it means instant death.

The "third rail" metaphor has for decades been applied to social security, a government program so popular with the American public that proposing any changes in it would mean political death to the politician.

No more. Although social security is as popular as ever, politicians routinely propose changes in the program — including privatisation and means testing. While the proposals usually go nowhere, and rightly so, the politicians who support them live to fight another day. Today, with those massive deficits and the astronomical national debt, not even social security is sacrosanct.

Few, if any, government programs are.

But US aid to Israel is. In fact, the $3bn Israel aid package is the new third rail of American politics: touch it and die. It is also the one program that liberals, conservatives, Democrats, Republicans and tea partiers all agree should not sustain even a dollar in cuts.

Actually, that is something of a mis-statement. These various parties and factions do not agree that the $3bn Israel aid package is sacred. They just say that they do because a powerful lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), makes clear to them that touching the aid package will mean big trouble for them in the next election.

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Israel To Sue Bedouin Villagers For Cost Of Demolition of their village

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Written by David Steele David Steele

Published: 08 March 2011 08 March 2011

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The Alternative Information Center reports that Israel plans to sue the residents of al-Arakib, a Bedouin village in the Negev desert, for the costs of demolishing their homes.

Al-Arakib has been demolished 18 times in the past year by the JNF and security forces. It is reported that the State Attorney's Office is preparing to sue the residents for the costs of these demolitions, which are estimated to exceed NIS 1 million. The village is not recognized by the Israeli state and has been fighting an ongoing battle for recognition since the establishment of Israel in 1948.

Although the villagers have land deeds and receipts of paid taxes dating back to Ottoman times, the Israeli authorities do not accept these as valid. The fate of al-Arakib is indicative of a wider problem in Israel, and particularly for its Bedouin community, the majority of whom live in the Negev.

Over 110,000 Bedouin live in so-called ‘unrecognized villages’, many of which – like al-Arakib – significantly pre-date the state of Israel itself. Unrecognized villages are not entitled to services that the state provides to recognized settlements, notably water and sewage services, electricity, roads and educational provision.

Problems for villages like al-Arakib are likely to intensify as the JNF’s operation “Blueprint Negev” continues. Al-Arakib is being demolished in order to facilitate the JNF’s tree-planting operations there.

Former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters voices support for Israel boycott

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Written by Haaretz Service Haaretz Service

Published: 06 March 2011 06 March 2011

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Former Pink Floyd frontman urges fellow artists to join ban until Israel ends the occupation, grants full equality to Israeli Arabs, and allows all Palestinian refugees to return to their homes.



Roger Waters, founding member, vocalist and bassist of the iconic rock band 'Pink Floyd' has voiced his support for a cultural boycott of Israel.

The British musician performed in Israel in 2005, ignoring calls from Palestinian rights advocates to cancel. While in Israel, Waters visited Jerusalem and Bethlehem. He was taken to the controversial separation fence in the West Bank, which he called "an appalling edifice to behold."

Waters said he was extremely affected by his tour of the West Bank, scrawling "We don’t need no thought control", lyrics from one of Pink Floyd's most popular songs, on the wall, and cancelling his performance in Tel Aviv. Instead, the British star held the concert in Neve Shalom, a cooperative village founded by Jews and Arabs.

In the letter Waters wrote announcing his support of a cultural boycott of Israel, he said that in his "view, the abhorrent and draconian control that Israel wields over the besieged Palestinians in Gaza, and the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, coupled with its denial of the rights of refugees to return to their homes in Israel, demands that fair minded people around the world support the Palestinians in their civil, nonviolent resistance."

He concluded the letter, saying that he is joining the campaign of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, until it satisfies three basic human rights he claims are demanded by international law.

He called on Israel to end the occupation of the West Bank and dismantle the separation fence, recognize the rights of Arab citizens of Israel and granting them full equality and allow all Palestinian refugees to return to their homes.

Waters stressed in his letter that he is not anti-Semitic, and his solidarity with the Palestinians stems from his belief that all people deserve basic human rights.

Last week, American folk music legend Pete Seeger officially joined the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign - an international movement to pressure and sanction Israel through economic means.

Seeger, 92, one of the fathers of American folk music, is a veteran political and peace activist. In the 1950s he was interrogated by the McCarthyist House Unamerican Activities Committee and two years ago performed for U.S. President Barack Obama's inauguration concert.

Artists, academics and celebrities throughout the world have supported and participated in the cultural boycotting of Israel.

Earlier this year, French pop star Vanessa Paradis cancelled her concert in Israel only a month before she was supposed to arrive in the country with her partner, Hollywood actor Johnny Depp, leaving fans and pundits speculating as to the reasons for the cancellation.

Although Paradis' agent David Stern claimed that the cancellation was due to professional reasons, insiders who organized the concert claim that the singer acceded to calls to cancel the show made by Palestinian solidarity groups.

According to the same sources, it was apparently the planned visit of Paradis' partner Johnny Depp that drew the attention of the groups that advocate BDS.