“El Tribunal Russell sobre Palestina: Barcelona, Londres, Johannesburg”

Hi intervindran José Antonio Martín Pallín, magistrat emèrit del Tribunal Suprem i membre del Tribunal Russell a les sessions de Barcelona i Londres; Rafael Grasa, president de l’ICIP; i Sabrina Senouci en representació de la coordinadora d’entitats Amb Palestina al Cor, comité organitzador d’aquesta iniciativa a Barcelona.

L’acte tindrà lloc el dijous 14 d’abril, a les 19 hores, a la Sala d’actes de l’IEMed (C. Girona 20, de Barcelona). Aforament limitat. Invitació.

Posted by BNC Europe on Tue, 11/30/2010 – 13:09

Occupied Palestine, 30 November 2010 – “May this tribunal prevent the crime of silence‟, pleaded intellectual Bertrand Russell at the first meeting of the citizens’ War Crimes Tribunal that investigated US war crimes during its war on Vietnam.1 At a time when little was known in the wider public about US conduct in Vietnam, the tribunal exposed and brought to the fore of public discourse the brutal, deliberate bombardment of Vietnamese civilians – a citizens’ tribunal acting where the international community had failed. It is in that same spirit that London Session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine confronted the narrative constructed by undemocratic and unaccountable transnational corporations and the Hasbara of the government of Israel to investigate and shine new light on corporate complicity with Israeli violations of international law and Palestinian rights. The Palestinian BDS National Committee warmly salutes all those involved with the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, looks forward to both the publication of the detailed findings of the tribunal, due in the coming weeks, and the two further sessions due to be held in the next two years, and fully endorses the findings of this important tribunal.

Just as with the original Russell Tribunal, the participants – which included internationally renowned legal and human rights experts, diplomats and campaigners for justice – ensured the tribunal spoke with a strong, clear and moral voice.

The tribunal drew together cutting edge research, analysis and expert testimony on many of the most significant corporate supporters of Israeli Apartheid on a scale which had never been attempted before. While nearly all of the companies examined are already well known as companies effectively and thoroughly targeted by the movement for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS), the act of examining them together in a thorough fashion and within the framework of international law has led to the production of an authoritative public statement that identifies the extent to which Israeli and international corporations facilitate Israeli violations of international law.2 Israel‟s illegal Wall that has de facto annexed Palestinian territory and destroyed communities was constructed with materials from Irish company CRH; illegal Jewish only colonial settlements that preclude justice for Palestinians are financed by Belgian-French bank Dexia, among others, and encouraged and made viable by Israeli agricultural exporters Carmel Agrexco; security and arms companies from all over the world provide the weapons and means used to inflict deadly violence on Palestinians with impunity. “Corporations play a very decisive role in enabling Israel to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity‟, reads the public statement of the tribunal.

The Russell Tribunal on Palestine investigated means of holding corporate war criminals to account, and its strong and authoritative statement firmly endorsed and called for an escalation of “a very wide range of actions in support of the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions”. In light of repression of BDS activists in France, Canada and elsewhere, the tribunal also called for the protection of the rights of all those who are involved in the BDS movement. In addition, the tribunal also examined the technicalities of and found possible civil claims against the international corporations aiding and abetting Israeli war crimes.

The Russell Tribunal on Palestine continues to provide the technical knowledge and authoritative encouragement for people of conscience everywhere to utilise BDS to hold Israel and its supporters accountable and once again prevent the crime of silence.

1 B. Russell, ‘Speech to the First Meeting of Members of the War Crimes Tribunal, London, 13 November 1966′, in P. Limqueco and P. Weiss (eds.),
2 http://www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com/en/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Concluding-Statement-RToP-London-22-November-2010.pdf

(Article en anglès)

Nothing is Stronger Than a Circle Which is Why, as Black
Elk Teaches us, Everything Tries to Be Round

In many of my talks to young people, to women, to peace activists, etc., I
advocate that in these times of planetary disasters and instability people
everywhere should gather together in circles of friends, in each other¹s
homes, on a regular basis, to talk through the fears and challenges with
which we, as a world, are faced: more frightening events at this time than
at any period in human history. It is time to circle, I advise, with the
hope that eventually our diverse circles will engage each other, merge, and
organically transform the earth.

I think of the Russell Tribunal as one of these circles, perhaps the most
important, though its members may consider themselves strangers to each
other. That they are not strangers is evident by their appearance, as a
group, to take on the Tribunal¹s exacting and highly essential work: to cast
the light of conscience on the behaviors of powerful interests and
destructive players in the world community. This is a duty that calls out
to those who understand how important it is to end our common silence about
abuse and atrocities committed in our names, and who also realize that we
must be determined in our efforts to care for the maligned and traumatized
and oppressed of the earth. That this caring signifies our awareness of
membership in the same clan, the same family. The family of humankind of
which any oppressed person is the brother or sister, the mother or father,
the child or grandparent that is, at one point or another of our lives also
our own self.

It has been an honor to be invited to join the present session as part of a
jury hearing testimony on international corporate complicity in the
destruction of the Palestinian people, who, since I visited Gaza a year and
a half ago, have become part of the earth¹s peoples to whom I have felt duty
bound to show up for. What has happened to them has happened to countless
others. Including my own tribes: African, Native American, poor European
immigrant. It is because I recognize the brutality with which my own
multi-branched ancestors have been treated that I can identify the
despicable, lawless, cruel and sadistic behavior that has characterized
Israel¹s attempts to erase a people, the Palestinians, from their own land.
For isn¹t this what the US military was ordered to do to the ³Indians² of
America? Did not the British burn out communities of Scotts and
horrifically oppress the Irish? Did not wealthy and powerful Whites,
generally, for a time, rape, kill, capture, and/ or enslave Africans? And
are not some of their descendents, at this very moment, stealing and
confiscating African and Indian and poor white land, and harming people,
using many of their ancestors¹ ancient tools of brute force and deceit?

It grieves me that I am unable to be in this circle of brave and
compassionate people on this occasion because of a mundane yet tenacious
visitor: the flu. Which condition, as I recover, I can almost consider
absurd. Since college I have admired the pacifist Bertram Russell, the
founder of the Tribunal and also Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone De Beauvoir,
early members. James Baldwin, as well, a person of such laser like
intelligence and moral integrity, that it would have been a joy to sit in
his symbolic chair.

But the Tribunal will go on: because it is a living part of all of us. That
part that knows what is right. That part that really does not appreciate
wrong. That part that is not blind. Not deaf. The part that hears the
cries of others in distress because those cries echo our own internal
expressions of shame, horror, dejection and despair.

The Russell Tribunal is rare and precious and glorious, because it reminds
us to act for ourselves, to follow our own conscience. To join with our
fellow humans who are also awake. Or at least beginning to stretch and
yawn. It is a treasure that makes the world not only more safe, but
infinitely richer.

I bow to its belief in justice, fairness, international standards of decency
and law. The ability of humans to acknowledge and defend what is right and
to do the work of holding the light in a world that seems at times to be
sliding inexorably into the darkness. All that is ever needed to challenge
that darkness in one light. May each of us, following the Tribunal¹s
example, be that light, however small and flickering, wherever we find
ourselves.

November 19, 2010
Copyright © 2010 by Alice Walker

PER DIFONDRE

Dilluns, 22 de novembre de 2010

Tras dos díes de sessions, el Tribunal Russell sobre Palestina ha anunciat aquest matí el veredicte de la seva segona sessió internacional, celebada en Londres els díes 20 i 21 de novembre de 2010. Segons el jurat, els testimonis i els experts que han intervingut a la sessió, s’han aportat “proves concloents de la complicitat empresarial en les violacions del dret internacional per part d’Israel”.

Michael Mansfield, advocat britànic i membre del jurat, ha exhortat a la mobilització de la societat civil per a posar fi a la participació de grans empreses en violacions de drets humans per part d’Israel.

Segons Mansfield, tant Israel com les empreses còmplices violen el dret internacional humanitari i la legislació internacional en materia de drets humans. Així es desprén d’activitats com “el suministrament d’armes; la construcció i el manteniment del Mur de separació il·legal” i la provisió de serveis als assentaments il·legals israelians a Cisjordània.

A la seva declaració pública, el Tribunal Russell ha nombrat set exemples d’empreses còmplices en les violacions del dret internacional, entre les que estarien l’empresa de seguretat anglo-danesa G4S, la multinacional francesa Veòlia i la companyia israeliana Elbit Systems.

Israel dóna mostres d’una “manifesta manca de respecte” pel dret internacional i no gaudeix del recolçament de l’opinió mundial, segons Mansfield.

Ronnie Kasrils, membre del jurat i veterà activista anti-apartheid sudafricà, ha manifestat que “no es pot infravalorar la importància” de la acció de la societat civil en iniciatives de boicot, desinversions i sancions (BDS), justificables, segons el jurat, amb suficients arguments jurídics.

Durant la roda de premsa, s’ha rebut la notícia de que un grup d’activistes ha tancat aquest matí una botiga de l’empresa Ahava a Londres, la qual ha estat acusada davant del Tribunal de saquejar il·legalment els recursos naturals dels territoris ocupats a Cisjordània.

Les declaracions de les empreses que han respost al Tribunal Russell s’afegiran a l’informe final de la sessió de Londres, que es publicarà a principis de desembre i que identificarà accions legals específiques per tractar d’impedir que les grans empreses segueixin participant en les violacions de drets humans per part d’Israel.

La declaració pública del Tribunal es pot descarregar a la pàgina web del Tribunal Russell sobre Palestina (de moment, en anglès; properament estarà també disponible en castellà): www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com

Per a més informació:

RToPmedia@gmail.com

www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com

Declaració final de la Sessió de Londres del tribunal entregada durant la roda de premsa celebrada el dilluns, 22 de novembre, a la seu central d’Amnistia Internacional, a Londres.

Declaració final de la Sessió de Londres (PDF)

Complicit firms come under fire at second day of tribunal

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday, 21 November 2010

British arms companies today faced heavy criticism in London for aiding Israeli human rights abuses against the Palestinians.

The jury at the second day of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine heard expert witnesses give evidence on the complicity of firms – including British-Danish security company G4S.

John Hilary, executive director of charity War on Want called for the British government to launch a two-way arms embargo on Israel. He also told the jury that Israeli company Verint has supplied CCTV cameras for the London Underground.

The tribunal was also told that Hermes 450 drones produced by Israeli arms company Elbit were used during the brutal Israeli attacks on Gaza during Operation Cast Lead.

Yet the British army has awarded Elbit Systems and its partner Thales UK a deal worth over $1 billion to develop the Watchkeeper, the next generation of drone (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle).

Hilary said the British government had conceded that components licensed for export from Britain were “almost certainly” used by the Israeli armed forces in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead.

Although all the companies implicated by experts in complicity of Israeli abuse over the course of the weekend were offered a right of reply to the tribunal, most did not. The Dutch company PFZW was the only company to offer a detailed statement.

They claimed that they “no longer invest in any of the Israeli companies mentioned” by the tribunal’s witness. However, tribunal witness Saskia Müller testified that PFZW had since then invested in two new Israeli companies involved in the occupation of the West Bank.

In its letter of reply submitted to the tribunal, G4S said that it had “decided not to engage” with the tribunal, but that its policy is “always to comply with national law” in the relevant jurisdiction.

But tribunal witnesses had accused G4S of violations of international law.

Israeli academic Dr Dalit Baum from the Who Profits? research project testified that the complicity of British-Danish security company G4S involved human rights abuses at the notorious Ofer prison in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Israeli group Who Profits? which has been a major source of evidence to the tribunal, are currently threatened by prospective new laws in the Israeli parliament which would outlaw any organisation that promotes boycotts.

Josh Reubener, the National Advocacy Director for the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation told the jury that the Obama administration was shortly due to request a record budget of $3.75 billion from the US congress.

The jury includes UK barristers Lord Anthony Gifford QC, Michael Mansfield QC and John Dugard, former special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories.

NOTES TO EDITORS

The tribunal continues until 6.30 today. The jury will give its verdict during a press conference at 10.30am tomorrow (Monday, 22 November).

The tribunal is also being broadcast live over the internet on our website (address below). Video from both days is also available on the website.

The press conference will take place at the Amnesty International Human Rights Action Centre, 17-25 New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EA.

Ewa Jasiewicz, RToP media team (+44) (0)7749 421576
Paul Collins, RToP media team (+44) (0)7983 550728