Jaliya Wickramasuriya: Warrants reissued on his wife and sister

KAVINDYA PERERA-JUL 31 2018

Colombo Fort Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne has ordered, to once again issue a warrant for the arrest of the wife and sister of the former Sri Lankan Ambassador to the United States, Jaliya Wickremasuriya who had been guarantors when Wickremasuriya had requested permission from the Court to go abroad temporarily and thereby obtained bail.

It was also ordered that the warrant against him be extended since he has not been present in Court subsequent to going abroad temporarily to obtain medical treatment, after having obtained permission from the Court previously.

When the case in connection with the incident was taken up for hearing, President's Counsel Shavendra Fernando who represented the suspect in Court said that the Sri Lankan Government had intervened and removed the diplomatic immunity of Wickremasuriya and that America has detained him and that as a result he is unable to return to Sri Lanka, adding further that if he does attempt to leave the country, America will arrest him.

Officers of the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) representing the plaintiff asked for permission from the Court to inspect 79 accounts which are in banks and non-banking institutions in the names of the suspect Wickremasuriya and his wife.

On this occasion the Plaintiff said that, as mentioned in the complaint relevant to this incident, while the suspect was the Ambassador in America, he had issued visas in an illegal manner and when a former Minister of Sri Lanka had gone to America for medical treatment, Wickremasuriya had defrauded money. It was also mentioned that in trying to raise the image of Sri Lanka, an attempt was made to renovate an old building and during that instance too, he had allegedly defrauded money.

The Plaintiff informed the Court that accordingly, it was necessary to inspect the bank accounts of the suspect and his wife.

The FCID had filed legal action against Wickremasuriya on the basis that he had misappropriated a sum of US Dollars 132,000 when purchasing a building for the Sri Lankan Embassy while he was the Sri Lankan Ambassador to America.

The case in connection with this incident is to be taken up for hearing again on 27 August.

A national water and agriculture policy for Sri Lanka

The main stay of Sri Lanka’s ancient agricultural civilization was not the large reservoirs, but the groundwater, recharged by thousands of small wewa (tank). They also prevented soil erosion1. Those wewa were built in zones where the soil is less clayey.

by Kashyapa A. S. Yapa-Jul 29, 2018

Jul 29, 2018

( July 29, 2018, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian ) This is a short note towards that goal.

1. We become independent of mother’s milk in about 2 years. But, when can we become independent of water? Well, let’s accept that mother-water nurtures us, our whole life. Then, why don’t we nurture water, as a way of paying her back? Today, she is feeling very sick.
2. When your mother gets sick, how do you cure her? Do you wait for her favorite son to do that? No! All her sons and daughters contribute to that as much as they can, right? Besides, how do you decide the way to care for her? Do you go for a vote, or do you consult everybody and make a collective decision?
3. Then, why don’t we do the same to cure our mother-water? To preserve a stream or a river, all those who gets nurtured by it should participate. Even if somebody does not use river water per se, but captures water within that catchment from rain, springs or mist, he too should take part. Water does not belong to anybody. Nor can anybody sell water. All are water users.
4. The method of conserving a stream should be decided unanimously by all of its users. Those users or officials who know more about such techniques should educate the rest, but the decision-making shall rest upon the water users only. Because, they are the ones who contribute to it, with money, materials and manpower.
5. Similarly, to share river water equitably, they themselves should make decisions based on consensus. Officials can provide the necessary information, but should let the users share the water. Every user should disclose the details of how much water he captures (not just from the river, but also from rain, springs or mist) and the amount and the effort he spends. If he needs more water, he should inform how he plans to do so and the resources he is willing to spend for it.
6. In large catchments, to facilitate such a decision, the users can appoint a committee. It can make a unanimous decision based on technical advice, and then present the decision to the full Catchment Assembly. The government or the courts should intervene only in cases of conflict.
7. Water issues in agriculture can also be resolved using the same mechanism. In that case, the priority should be given not to irrigation water, but to rain, spring and ground water.
8. The main stay of Sri Lanka’s ancient agricultural civilization was not the large reservoirs, but the groundwater, recharged by thousands of small wewa (tank). They also prevented soil erosion1. Those wewa were built in zones where the soil is less clayey. Because there, recharging ground water is easier2. For this purpose, it is essential the conservation of the upper catchment forest and yearly maintenance of the wewa bunds and cleaning of the reservoir bed. If we would allow toxic-free farming in the upper reaches of the catchment during the rainy season, and in the drying reservoir bed during the dry season, accompanied by proper soil conservation techniques, the surface soil will stay loose, facilitating more groundwater recharging.
9. The best solution for the long rainless season in Sri Lanka’s dry zone is the use of groundwater. As water travels slowly inside the soil, only at the beginning of the dry season will the seepage water reach the wewa from the forest and, then the croplands. As many zones of Sri Lanka receive over 1000mm of rain per year, the soil can store water sufficient for many years of cropping.
10. We should re-educate the farmers on how to conserve this groundwater, and also how it can be properly used for cultivation. In croplands, groundwater could evaporate by coming up to the surface through capillary force or by plant transpiration. During fallow season, one can prevent the loss of that water by providing a leaf cover over the soil or by hoeing the weeds and keeping the top soil somewhat loose to break the capillary effect.
11. When cultivating using groundwater, one should place the seeds somewhat apart. Further, the seeds should be planted a few cm deep in soil. If you will not add surface water, seed-roots will travel deep seeking water. For this purpose, it is better to use the seeds already accustomed to that land. Such plants will resist droughts better. Also, those plants can absorb more nutrients from soil itself and additional fertilizer will not be needed.
12. We should encourage farmers to start cultivating with rain water, and use irrigation water only in an emergency. For that, agricultural wells close-by will be more useful. Then, we can break-free Sri Lankan agriculture, currently enslaved to large irrigation systems.
13. As we see it, in ancient Sri Lanka, large reservoirs were built not to facilitate agriculture, but for the benefit of big-city dwellers. When we observe the current disastrous situation of irrigation water-based Sri Lankan paddy cultivation, we can only hypothesize whether such short-sighted governors of yesterday also caused our ancient agricultural civilizations to collapse, from time to time. At least now, we should stop building more irrigation-white elephants that ruin further the country’s dire economic situation, and use existing large reservoirs to only feed small wewa
14. The maintenance and conservation of small wewa systems should only be handled by the catchment assemblies. The main task of wewa should be that of recharging groundwater, not irrigating fields. Additionally, the catchment assembly itself can collect and promote regional traditional knowledge on matters such as, climate prediction, seed conservation and development, crop disease protection and post-harvest storage3. In future, we should select as agricultural advisors only those farmers with experience in such assemblies.
15. These policies can be properly refined and implemented with just the participation of water users and farmers. Along with that, we should develop a scheme to collect locally produced food and seeds, and distribute them around the country at a just price. At that point, the rotten officialdom of the country will vanish. Let’s also hope those responsible for country’s school and university education will understand the reality and take correctional steps.
16. However, only a country and a government devoid of corruption, lying, cheating and terrorism, deserve such a policy. Therefore, our first step should focus on educating the general public in that regard.

PS: I am no specialist of anything. I learned ‘military’ engineering at U of Peradeniya and then participated in the Mahaweli ‘Curse’ for 4 years. After years of devouring more book knowledge abroad, I started learning from people, mainly in the Americas. Now, I am a farmer in Ecuador, learning to produce toxic-free food, while trying to humanize (civilize) the technology, combining ancient and modern concepts of knowledge. In the reference below4, please enjoy what I have learned from them.

1. As far as we know, it was Mr. L.O. Mendis, who first mentioned this, in his paper of 1977 “Some thoughts on technology transfer for irrigation and multipurpose projects in Sri Lanka”, Transactions of the Institute of Engineers, Sri Lanka, reprinted in Mendis, D.L.O. (2016) “Water Heritage of Sri Lanka”, 3rd Edition.
2. In similarly coarse-grained soil regions of Ecuador, thousands of small lakes were built, as shown in archaeological investigations by Marcos, Jorge G. (2004) “Las Albarradas en la costa del Ecuador: Rescate del conocimiento ancestral del manejo de la biodiversidad”, CEAA/ESPOL, Guayaquil, Ecuador. https://www.thegef.org/project/albarradas-coastal-ecuador-rescuing-ancient-knowledge-sustainable-use-biodiversity
3. මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන් (2017) “ගොවිතැනෙහි හෙළ දැනුම”, National Science Foundation, Colombo, took a bold step, compiling a part of that traditional knowledge.
4. Hierro, Lola (2016) “13 Tips from our ancestors for the best use of water”, El Pais, Spain. https://independent.academia.edu/kashyapayapa/Drafts

Respect the three-wheeled vehicle drivers

Wednesday, 1 August 2018 


I was in school when the three-wheeled vehicles first started to drive on the roads of Sri Lanka. The blue, green, red and cream coloured taxies slowly started to accumulate on the road tops often next to the bus stand. They were called ‘three-wheelers’ or simply ‘three-wheels’ or somewhat derogatory ‘trishaws’ (derived from rickshaw) for a long time.

Do you remember how the importers ran advertisements trying to call the vehicle by the main manufacturer’s name as a competitive strategy? It didn’t stick in the market. During the past decade tourists brought the term ‘tuk-tuk’ from Thailand, which was contemptuously picked by the English-speaking elitists in Colombo who just love to pick anything foreign especially if it is spoken by a white-skinned person.

Three-wheeled vehicles and their drivers who drive them both for hire and for their personal use have become the blame points for so many issues in the society. It’s a convenient icebreaker and any discussion on any problem in this country seems to end with three-wheeled taxi drivers.

Labour force participation

Sri Lanka certainly has labour force problems. But you can’t solve them by blaming the three-wheeled taxi drivers. If you really want to blame someone then blame the UN for successfully controlling Sri Lanka’s population growth thereby deliberately creating this problem in the first place.

In fact, I think three-wheeled taxi drivers are probably the most productive labour force in our country. They provide a critical public service by fulfilling the travel and transportation needs of millions of people all year round, from any one point to another point at a very reasonable price.

I mean they are way more productive than the inherently unproductive public sector employees to start with. And it must be really easy for those private sector employees to criticise the three-wheeled taxi drivers from their air-conditioned offices warming seats on their brains for long hours.

And those employers who are nagging about not having enough people to work in their factories because all the productive-aged youth are supposedly driving three-wheeled taxies for fun, should ask themselves, ‘Why do these young people prefer to drive a three-wheeled vehicle for a living?’ Could it be that you are not paying them enough? Could it be that they despise your 20th Century employer-employee relations? Could it be that your jobs are so awfully boring? Maybe you need to change to meet the 21st Century workforce.

Traffic

Increased numbers of three-wheeled vehicles do cause traffic. But so do four-wheeled vehicles. There are many undisciplined three-wheeled vehicle drivers. But there are many undisciplined drivers on four wheels as well. You don’t have a moral right to discriminate the city traffic based on the number of wheels you are on. In fact, for the narrow roads, bumpy roads and no-roads in this country, the most appropriate vehicles are smaller vehicles. Like three-wheeled vehicles for example.

The Government should first provide a good public mass transport system for the people before downplaying three-wheeled vehicles. They are doing the Government a huge favour by providing an essential public service. Their service should actually be recognised and specially compensated by the Government.

It was a good move to start promoting electric three-wheeled vehicles by the Government in partnership with Japan. That’s progress. That’s futuristic. That’s ‘sector-building’. Although the prototype looks terrible I’m sure it will evolve. If we can gradually convert all three-wheeled vehicles to electric motor power with a battery swap system, that’s a huge win for carbon emissions control, provided the electricity is generated through renewable sources.

Dignity of labour

It’s ridiculous how some people ask to bring dignity of labour in Sri Lanka and then in the same conversation refer to three-wheeled taxi drivers as three-wheel ‘Kaaraya’ or a ‘tuk-tuk guy’. The three-wheeled vehicle is somehow seen as an inferior mode of transport just because it has three wheels. Three-wheeled taxi driver is treated socially as the modern version of the rickshaw puller. We need to stop that right now.

Why don’t we first start by treating them with dignity, both the vehicle and the person driving it. Let’s treat the three-wheeled taxi drivers with the same dignity as any other travel and transport provider from four-wheeled taxi drivers to aeroplane pilots. Let’s transform it into an important ‘sector’. Let’s stop ignorantly calling them by insulting names like tuk-tuks. (The vast majority of the three-wheeled vehicles in Sri Lanka don’t even make that tuk-tuk sound like the Thai ones.)

We talk about adding value to our tea, rice, fruits and vegetables but why can’t we add value to the three-wheeled vehicle sector? Why can’t we constantly innovate the design, safety and efficiency? Why can’t we paint them to look like professional taxies? Why can’t we train and upskill the three-wheeled taxi drivers to be excellent drivers, respectful customer service agents, social and environmental vigilantes and ambassadors of goodwill.

Very soon cities like Colombo, Kandy, Kurunegala and Matara will have to control the number of vehicles driving into the city centre. The future transportation is light-weight, modular and electric. Given that our governments have no brave vision or will to make that future happen, let us – the ordinary citizens and social entrepreneurs - take the lead.

Here’s a challenge to the product designers, design schools, engineers, inventors and innovators: can you redesign the three-wheeled vehicle to meet our future transport needs? While the University of Moratuwa students try to make yet another supercar every year, can you also please work on real local problems like improving the safety of three-wheeled vehicles?

And as passengers, let us dignify the three-wheeled taxi and its driver.
(The writer is the Founder of Social Enterprise Lanka and an Ambassador for Democracy Earth)

Israel sentences Palestinian writer Dareen Tatour to jail for 'inciteful' poem

Tatour told MEE that her poem 'Resist, My People, Resist Them' tells a story of three Palestinian victims of the Israeli occupation

Dareen Tatour reacts at Nazareth magistrates' court after being sentenced to five months in prison (Reuters)

Mustafa Abu Sneineh

Tuesday 31 July 2018 

Israel sentenced Palestinian writer and poet Dareen Tatour to five months in prison on Tuesday after convicting her of "inciting violence" over a poem she posted on social media that prosecutors claimed urged violence against the occupation.

Nazareth magistrates' court in May found Tatour, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, guilty over the poem "Resist, My People, Resist Them", posted on Facebook in 2015, as well as separate posts dealing with Palestinian resistance. 

Prosecutors argued that the poem incited violence, and that Tatour had also shared and commented on a post by Islamic Jihad declaring its commitment to a new intifada, or "uprising" - meaning, according to the charges, that she supported "terrorism".

"Resist, my people, resist them.

In Jerusalem, I dressed my wounds and breathed my sorrows

And carried the soul in my palm

For an Arab Palestine.

I will not succumb to the peaceful solution,

Never lower my flags

Until I evict them from my land."

-  Excerpts from Resist, My People, Resist Them by Dareen Tatour

The 36-year-old poet's lawyer, Gaby Lasky, told the Middle East Eye in May that the poem had been misinterpreted by Israeli translators, that the content was "artistic expression" rather than a call to violence, and that the Israeli charges ran counter to the freedom of expression of her client.

"The verdict violates the right of speech and freedom of expression. It is an infringement on cultural rights of the Palestinian minority inside Israel. It would lead to self-censorship and self-criminalisation of poetry," Lasky said.

'I will keep writing poetry'

In a video message published on social media before her sentence, Tatour said that she had suffered for the last three years because of "the unjust trial" before the Israeli court.

"I expect imprisonment. After the Jewish nation-state law was passed, everything is expected. I don't believe there is justice in Israel and I will keep writing poetry with the language I want and with the words I choose to write. I will not accept any law to tell me what to write and which words to pick up," Tatour said.

After her verdict in May, she told media that her trial "ripped off the mask" off Israeli democracy and justice. 

More than 150 American literary figures have called for Israel to free Tatour, including Pulitzer Prize winners Alice Walker, Claudia Rankine, Naomi Klein and Jacqueline Woodson.

Tatour was arrested on 11 October 2015, about a week after she published her poem on Facebook.

Dareen Tatour in her home outside Nazareth, September 2017 (Reuters)

In an interview before the verdict in May, Tatour told MEE that she had already spent two and a half years flitting between police custody and house arrest.

She said Israeli interrogators initially had little to question her about.

"First, they accused me of incitement based on a poster I posted in 2014, which contained the words 'I'm the next martyr'. The martyrs are the victims of the Israeli occupation, who are being shot by soldiers," Tatour said.

"The accusation was weak, so they dug into my Facebook and found the poem."

She said the second verse was misinterpreted.

"Here, they interpreted a line in the poem that says 'Resist, my people, resist them, Resist the settler’s robbery, And follow the caravan of martyrs' - as inciting people to be killed and be martyrs."

The poem tells a story of three Palestinians, "victims of the Israeli occupation", according to Tatour: Mohammed Abu Khdeir, a teen who was kidnapped and burned to death by three Israeli settlers in Jerusalem in 2014; Hadeel al-Hashlamoun, 18, who was shot by Israeli troops in Hebron city; and 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh, who was burned alive in the fire with his parents in an arson attack by Israeli settlers in July 2015, in Duma, in the West Bank.

"Those are all martyrs. Although, it feels odd to call them like that in English or Hebrew because they are victims. But in Arabic, there is no separation between the meaning of martyr and victim when he or she is shot by Israeli soldiers," she said.

"Palestinians who were killed in the Israeli war over Gaza are called martyrs."

Mairav Zonszein

✔@MairavZ

She has already served 3 months and been under house arrest for almost 3 years. The solider in Hebron who executed a Palestinian got off with much less https://972mag.com/israel-sentences-palestinian-poet-to-five-months-for-inciting-terror-in-poem/136968/ …

6:27 AM - Jul 31, 2018

Israel sentences Palestinian poet to five months for inciting terror in poem

Dareen Tatour will spend less than two months in prison with credit for time served after being convicted of inciting violence and support for terrorism in her poetry. She has spent the last two...

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Tatour's case has been compared to the case of Israeli soldier Elor Azaria, who was released in May after spending nine months in prison for killing 20-year-old Palestinian Abdel Fattah al-Sharif in the city of Hebron in April 2016 - highlighting the disproportionate price Tatour has been made to pay compared to Israelis found guilty of far more severe charges.

House arrest

Tatour was detained for three months and was interrogated five times by Israeli officers. Each interrogation lasted five to six hours, she told the MEE.

In January 2016, Tatour was released to house arrest for six months after being fitted with an ankle monitor, at the home of her brother in the Kiryat Ono neighbourhood of Tel Aviv.

"They considered me a danger for Israelis, but when they dictated the location of my house arrest, they could not find a place more Israeli than Tel Aviv to do that. I find this ironic," she said.

She added that house arrest was a harsh experience.

Far from her family in the village of Reineh, she was not allowed to use a mobile phone or the internet or even to publish texts in the media. After four months of house arrest, she was allowed to leave the house for two hours on weekends, if accompanied by a relative.

"I had two choices, detention or house arrest. I was not allowed to publish any poetry or texts in the media according to the Israeli court," she said.

Tatour considers Fadwa Tuqan, a Palestinian poet, and Nazik al-Malaika, an Iraqi poet, as her role models and intellectual inspiration.

I was not allowed to publish any poetry or texts in the media according to the Israeli court

- Dareen Tatour

She has published one poetry collection in 2010 titled The Final Invasion. Her second collection, The Atlantic Canary Tales, was due to be published in December 2015, but her arrest prevented that.

In addition, Tatour has written another book about her detention waiting for publication.

"I wrote a lot while in prison. The Israeli prosecution tried to insist that I provoked the publishing ban when my poem A Poet Behind Bars appeared in the International Translation Day in English on Pen International website.

"I wrote this poem before the ban, on 2 November, the day I was indicted, in Jalameh prison," she said.

Her translated poems appeared recently in A Blade of Grass: New Palestinian Poetry, a UK bilingual Arabic and English anthology published in 2017, that presents Palestinian poets.

Its editor, sci-fi novelist and poet Naomi Foyle told MEE that "tens of thousands of recorded instances of Zionist hate speech go unnoticed by Israeli courts. In convicting Dareen Tatour of incitement, Israel confirms again its true nature: an apartheid prison state."

The last text Tatour wrote was titled "The Final Chapter", Tatour told MEE.

"It is a poem. I am asking whether I would face freedom or prison after the verdict. In the end, I conclude that whatever the decision will be, I will end up free."

Palestinian community inside Israel

Tatour belongs to the Palestinian community that remained within the new state of Israel following the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Palestinian citizens of Israel now number some 1.6 million, making up some 20 percent of Israel's population.

In 1948, almost 700,000 Palestinians were forcibly expelled by Zionist militias. An estimated five million Palestinians are refugees today, prevented from returning to their homes in present-day Israel.

Despite holding Israeli citizenship, Palestinians in Israel lived under a military administration between 1948 and 1967 and faced curfews, severe restrictions on free speech and political rights, and persecution in front of military courts.

The recent passage of the "nation state" law earlier this month has garnered outrage for enshrining Israel's Jewish identity in the Basic Law - Israel's equivalent of a constitution - a move critics have slammed as further cementing a two-tier ethnic system in Israeli law.

But many Palestinian citizens of Israel have been unsurprised by the new law, pointing to pre-existing discrimination both on the ground and in law, effectively making them second-class citizens when compared to their Jewish peers.

70 members of Congress urge support for Gaza

Two Freedom Flotilla boats have been trying to break the blockade of Gaza. Israeli forces stormed Al Awda on 29 July and detained its passengers and crew, while Freedom was still heading toward the besieged territory. (Freedom Flotilla Coalition)

Ali Abunimah- 31 July 2018

Seventy members of Congress are urging the Trump administration to immediately reinstate US aid in order to alleviate the growing humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, Israel has seized a boat and detained almost two dozen people as they were trying to reach Gaza by sea with a cargo of medical supplies.

“In Gaza, more than 50 percent of the children live beneath the poverty level, living on $1.74 per day. A report from the UN noted that 95 percent of tap water is not safe to drink, and last year warned that the Gaza Strip could become ‘unlivable’ well before 2020,” the lawmakers, all Democrats, stated in a letter to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton on Monday.

The lawmakers say that Palestinians in Gaza should not be held hostage to politics.

“We all recognize the serious security and political challenges in Gaza. However, US support for the basic human rights of Palestinians living in Gaza must not be conditioned on progress on those fronts,” the lawmakers state. “For this reason, we strongly urge you to immediately restore all US funding for humanitarian aid in Gaza.”

Since the start of the year, the Trump administration has frozen some $300 million in US contributions to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, as part of its effort to blackmail the Palestinian Authority to go along with “peace” negotiations that would liquidate Palestinian rights under the banner of President Trump’s “ultimate deal” or “deal of the century.”

Already UNRWA has been forced to lay off hundreds of staff, and there have been dire warnings that unless the funding gap is filled, UNRWA will be unable to provide schooling for half a million children and will have to scale back basic humanitarian services.

Basic goods banned

In early July, Israel closed Gaza’s only commercial goods crossing, severely tightening the blockade on virtually everything except food and medicines.

All goods were banned from exiting and vital supplies were prohibited from coming in, including construction materials, water pumps, spare parts, generators, clothing and blankets.

Israel also banned fuel imports, forcing hospitals to begin shutting down.

A week ago, Israel started allowing fuel and cooking gas back into Gaza, but other supplies remained banned.

In 2010 the International Committee of the Red Cross affirmed that Israel’s blockade “constitutes a collective punishment imposed in clear violation of Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian law.”

Israel’s defense minister Avigdor Lieberman has made clear that the latest measures are further collective punishment against Gaza’s entire population of two million, half of them children, for incendiary kites and balloons launched from Gaza that have burned fields on the Israeli side of the boundary.

This week, the international development charities Oxfam, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Premiere Urgence Internationale said that the “current restrictions further tighten the unlawful blockade” with devastating consequences already being felt.

As a result of Israel’s ban on imports, construction of desperately needed water and sewage treatment facilities for hundreds of thousands of people is now on hold.

In their letter, the 70 US lawmakers also state that the US should push for an increase in Gaza’s electricity supply and ease the blockade, “especially for materials and supplies related to critical projects like medicine, hospital supplies and water treatment.”

“Alleviating the poverty, unemployment, food insecurity and lack of access to adequate health, clean water and electricity in Gaza is a critical first step to improving the security and safety of both Palestinians and Israelis,” the lawmakers add.

One of the authors of the congressional letter is Mark Pocan, a representative from Wisconsin who in 2016 was denied entry to Gaza by Israel.

In April, Pocan and two other lawmakers wrote to the Israeli government again requesting permission to visit the besieged territory.

As this writer told The Real News this week, the desperate situation in Gaza as a result of the blockade has been driving protests under the banner of the Great March of Return for 18 weeks, despite Israel’s violent response and severe collective punishment.

More than 150 Palestinians have been killed, the vast majority unarmed protesters shot by Israeli snipers, and thousands more have been injured:

Israel abducts flotilla boat

On Sunday, Israeli forces seized a boat carrying nearly two dozen activists and journalists aiming to break Israel’s maritime blockade on Gaza.

Flotilla organizers discounted Israel’s claims that its forces had intercepted and “redirected” their vessel to Israel “without incident.”

“According to first-hand evidence that we have been given, the Israeli occupation forces violently attacked our Norwegian-flagged boat Al Awda (The Return) as she was in international waters,” the Freedom Flotilla Coalition said Tuesday.

“Prior to all of our electronic communications being cut to and from our boat, at least four warships had appeared,” the organizers added. “Following some unlawful radio directives to our captain and our insistence that we had a right of innocent passage in international waters, armed, masked soldiers boarded Al Awdawithout permission.”

Israeli soldiers beat passengers and used tasers against them, organizers said.

One of the passengers assaulted was Dr. Swee Chai Ang, a founder of the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians. Dr. Ang was a witness to the 1982 massacres of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugees camps in Beirut during the Israeli occupation of Lebanon.

According to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, two Israeli passengers and two Al Jazeera journalists aboard the boat were released by Israeli authorities. But by Tuesday, 18 others had spent a second night “unlawfully detained in Givon Prison.”

The Gaza-based Al Mezan Center for Human Rights condemned the seizure of the boat, stating that “the closure of Gaza is considered a collective punishment, illegal under international law.”

“Given the Israeli forces’ history of using violence with international activists [as] part of other flotillas, Al Mezan expresses its concern that Israeli forces may subject the activists to ill-treatment or abuse while detaining them,” the group added.

In the early hours of 31 May 2010, Israeli commandos boarded and seized several boats in international waters as they tried to reach Gaza.

Israeli forces carried out a particularly violent armed attack on the largest vessel, Mavi Marmara, killing nine persons. A tenth victim died of his injuries in May 2014.

At least 20 others were seriously injured aboard the Mavi Marmara.

The International Criminal Court prosecutor found that Israeli forces likely committed war crimes when they attacked the Mavi Marmara, but has declined to prosecute the perpetrators.

Organizers of the current flotilla are urging that Norway and other governments intervene to protect activists who are trying to deliver medical aid.

Another boat, Freedom, is currently heading towards Gaza. John Turnbull, the captain of Freedom, told The Real News in a recorded interview published Tuesday that the boat was about 300 miles from Gaza’s shore.

The boat’s progress can be tracked on the Freedom Flotilla Coalition website.

 

North Korea: Renewed activity at nuclear and missile factory

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meets participants of the 5th National Conference of War Veterans in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on July 27, 2018. Source: KCNA via Reuters

 31st July 2018

NORTH KOREA is building new ballistic missiles at a known nuclear site despite warming ties with the US and promises to begin denuclearisation, US intelligence agencies have found.

Officials told The Washington Post that new evidence has been obtained, including satellite photos, that indicate work is being carried out on at least one and possible two Intercontinental Ballistic missiles (ICBMs) at a facility in Sanumdong. It is reportedly the same factory that produced the country’s first missile capable of striking mainland United States.

This is not the first piece of evidence to suggest Pyongyang is forging ahead with its weapons development despite being engaged in arms talks with senior White House officials.

SEE ALSO: Self-reliance & belt-tightening: North Korea braces for hardship as talks falter

In June, North Korea monitoring group 38 North discovered ongoing improvements being made to the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Centre, the only known nuclear reactor used to fuel its weapons programme.

A secret underground uranium enrichment site, thought to have twice the enrichment capability of Yongbyon, was also discovered at Kangson. Images, first reported by the Diplomat, show a football-field-size building surrounded by a high wall, in North Korea’s Chollima-guyok district, southwest of the capital.

This has led US intelligence officials to conclude that North Korea does not intend to fully surrender its nuclear stockpile and is instead attempting to conceal the number of weapons it has in secret production facilities.

A satellite image shows the Sanumdong missile production site in North Korea on July 29, 2018. Source: Planet Labs Inc/Handout via Reuters

These discoveries follow a June summit between US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, at which the North Korean leader signed an agreement to work towards the “complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.”

The agreement, signed in Singapore, contained no details or timeline against which progress could be measured. And despite several meetings between high-level officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, North Korea has shown little signal that they are willing to disarm.

The report from The Post claims North Korean officials have, in fact, discussed their intention to deceive Washington about the number of nuclear warheads and missiles they have, as well as the type and number of facilities.

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US agencies reportedly believe North Korea’s strategy to dupe inspectors is to dispose of 20 warheads, claiming it is their entire arsenal, while still retaining dozens more in hidden locations.

Satellite photos of the Sanumdong plant also show daily movement of supply trucks that show categorically that work at the site has not been shut down.

In one image taken on July 7, a trailer previously known to be used for the transport of ICBMs was spotted in the loading area of the facility. It is unknown if it was being used for the same purpose.

Observers are unsurprised that North Korea is showing no signs of giving up its nuclear weapons. Kim is aware that the deterrent the weapons provide may be the only thing that prevents the toppling of his family’s regime.