Israel's Nuclear Weapons

Published on Saturday, September 1, 2012 by Common Dreams

WaPo's Ombudsman: 'What About Israel's Nuclear Weapons?'

- Common Dreams staff

At the end of another week of agency reports, ratcheted-up rhetoric, claims and counter-claims between named (and unnamed) Israeli officials, Iranian leaders, the UN, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) regarding the progress, existence, or intention of an Iranian nuclear weapons program, the Washington Post's ombudsman Patrick Pexton took to his paper's pages to ask the question so consistently missing from the Middle East/nuclear weapons equation as its discussed in the United States: 'What about Israel's nuclear weapons?'
Mordechai Vanunu a former Israeli nuclear technician, citing his opposition to weapons of mass destruction, revealed details of Israel's nuclear weapons program to the international press in 1986. He was subsequently imprisoned and served nearly 20 years in an Israeli prison. Pexton admits that going back ten years in the WaPo archives he found no "in-depth reporting on Israeli nuclear capabilities"—though he acknowledges that journalist Walter Pincus "refers" to the existence of the Israeli atomic weapons program "many times".
Turning to a handful of "experts," Pexton explains that there are "obvious" and "not obvious" reasons for why Israel receives such treatment by his paper and the US press in general. He writes:

First, Israel refuses to acknowledge publicly that it has nuclear weapons. The U.S. government also officially does not acknowledge the existence of such a program. Israel’s official position, as reiterated by Aaron Sagui, spokesman for the Israeli Embassy here, is that “Israel will not be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East. Israel supports a Middle East free of all weapons of mass destruction following the attainment of peace.” The “introduce” language is purposefully vague, but experts say it means that Israel will not openly test a weapon or declare publicly that it has one.
According to Avner Cohen, a professor at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California who has written two books about this subject, this formulation was born in the mid-1960s in Israel and was the foundation of a still-secret 1969 agreement between Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir and President Richard Nixon, reached when the United States became sure that Israel possessed nuclear bombs.
President John Kennedy vigorously tried to prevent Israel from obtaining the bomb; President Lyndon Johnson did so to a much lesser extent. But once it was a done deal, Nixon and every president since has not pressed Israel to officially disclose its capabilities or to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty. In return, Israel agrees to keep its nuclear weapons unacknowledged and low-profile.
Because Israel has not signed the treaty, it is under no legal obligation to submit its major nuclear facility at Dimona to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections. Iran, in contrast, did sign the treaty and thus agrees to periodic inspections. IAEA inspectors are regularly in Iran, but the core of the current dispute is that Tehran is not letting them have unfettered access to all of the country’s nuclear installations.
Furthermore, although Israel has an aggressive media, it still has military censors that can and do prevent publication of material on Israel’s nuclear forces. Censorship applies to foreign correspondents working there, too.
Another problem, Cohen said, is that relatively few people have overall knowledge of the Israeli program and no one leaks. Those in the program certainly do not leak; it is a crime to do so. The last time an Israeli insider leaked, in 1986, nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu was kidnapped by Israeli agents in Italy, taken home to trial, convicted and served 18 years in jail, much of it in solitary confinement.
And perhaps most important, Americans don’t leak about the Israeli nuclear program either. Cohen said information about Israeli nuclear capabilities is some of the most compartmentalized and secret information the U.S. government holds, far more secret than information about Iran, for example. U.S. nuclear researchers, Cohen said, have been reprimanded by their agencies for talking about it openly.
George Perkovich, director of the nuclear policy program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said there are benign and not-so-benign reasons that U.S. officials are so tight-lipped. The United States and Israel are allies and friends. “Do you ‘out’ your friends?” he asked.
And not being open about Israel’s nuclear weapons serves both U.S. and Israeli interests, Perkovich noted. If Israel were public about its nukes, or brandished its program recklessly — as North Korea does every time it wants something — it would put more pressure on Arab states to obtain their own bomb.
Among the less benign reasons U.S. sources don’t leak is that it can hurt your career. Said Perkovich: “It’s like all things having to do with Israel and the United States. If you want to get ahead, you don’t talk about it; you don’t criticize Israel, you protect Israel. You don’t talk about illegal settlements on the West Bank even though everyone knows they are there.”
I don’t think many people fault Israel for having nuclear weapons. If I were a child of the Holocaust, I, too, would want such a deterrent to annihilation. But that doesn’t mean the media shouldn’t write about how Israel’s doomsday weapons affect the Middle East equation. Just because a story is hard to do doesn’t mean The Post, and the U.S. press more generally, shouldn’t do it.

Nuclear powers push world to brink of apocalypse

Nuclear powers push world to brink of apocalypse: Analyst

Sun Aug 26, 2012 2:27PM GMT

A political analyst has lashed out at the West’s campaign to halt Iran’s nuclear energy program, while the colossal nuclear stockpile of the global powers is pushing the world to the brink of a nuclear apocalypse.

“With over 2000 highly operational nuclear weapons already in the world, it seems ridiculously ironic to try to attribute global insecurity to Iranian nuclear energy program which the US, Israel and some western countries claim to include military purposes,” Dr. Ismail Salami said in an article published on the Press TV website.

The author noted that instead of focusing on Iran's peaceful nuclear energy program on merely political grounds, the international community should be concerned about “the states in possession of the myriad nuclear bombs across the world.”

Relying on figures released by the arms control website, Salami argued that despite western countries’ obsession over Iran's nuclear energy program, they themselves pose the most dire threat to global security as they possess the highest number of nuclear warheads, especially highly operational warheads.

By definition, the analyst noted, highly operational denotes nuclear warheads which “can be shot at any desired time.”

Quoting statistics published by the Arms Control Association, Salami further stated that while the United States possesses about 5,000 total warheads, 1,737 of which are operational, Russia, France, and UK alone possess a total of over 1,900 deployed strategic warheads which are ready to be fired at any moment.

“In addition to the aforementioned report, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) revealed in June that at the start of 2012, eight states - the United States, Russia, the UK, France, China, India, Pakistan and Israel - possessed approximately 4,400 operational nuclear weapons. Nearly 2,000 of these are kept in a state of high operational alert. If all nuclear warheads are counted, these states together possess a total of approximately 19,000 nuclear weapons.”

Salami noted that even Israel possesses 80 highly operational nuclear warheads.

“Israel, which follows a policy of nuclear ambiguity, [is] … widely known to possess 300 to 400 nuclear warheads with 80 of them in high operational alert according to SIPRI, that is, they are ready to fire.”

The analyst stated that ignoring the above facts, a number of the so-called international bodies “lie through their teeth” about Iran’s nuclear energy program which Iranian leaders vehemently enunciate is meant for only civilian purposes, and have shut their eyes to the potentially apocalyptic horror these weapons can unleash in the hands that hold them.

“An inquisitive mind may ask: Why should Iran bear the brunt of nuclear crucifixion while there are already over 2000 highly operational nuclear bombs which are capable of plunging the world back into a state of the pre-creation cosmic blob?” Salami concluded.

ASH/SS/AZ

Carbon Release from Collapsing Coastal Permafrost in Arctic Siberia

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Thermal collapse and erosion of old permafrost masses along the 20-30 m steep and desolate Arctic coastline. (Credit: Igor Semiletov)

ScienceDaily (Aug. 30, 2012) — In this week's issue of Nature a study led by Stockholm University, with collaborators from Russia, US, UK, Switzerland, Norway, Spain and Denmark, shows that an ancient and large carbon pool held in a less-studied form of permafrost ("Yedoma") is thaw-released along the approximately 7000-kilometer desolate coast of northernmost Siberian Arctic.

The team found that the tens-of-thousands year old Yedoma carbon is rapidly converted to CO₂ and that ten times more Yedoma carbon is released to the Arctic Ocean than previously estimated. Thermal collapse of the carbon-rich, permafrost-covered coasts may accelerate with warming of the Arctic climate.
Release to the atmosphere of carbon dioxide from thawing permafrost in the Arctic is identified as a positive feedback mechanism to climate warming. About half of the carbon pool in soils globally is held in frozen surficial permafrost in the Arctic (twice as much as in atmospheric CO₂); the region is experiencing twice the global average of climate warming.
"Coastal Yedoma is likely more vulnerable towards carbon release than other permafrost bodies as it is not only subject to thermal collapse from above but also to enhanced wave and wind erosion of the Yedoma-dominated coast brought on by sea-level rise and longer ice-free seasons," explains Örjan Gustafsson, professor of biogeochemistry at Stockholm University and co-leader of the team with Igor Semiletov of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks and the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The carbon-rich Ice-Complex permafrost structures (Yedoma) -- rising along this Arctic coast are relict soils from the latest Ice Age, covering ~1 million km² (twice the area of Sweden). While satellite images reveal 1000s of kilometers of milky-cloudy waters along the Arctic coast, the Yedoma has remained understudied largely due to the region's inaccessibility.
Detailed chemical characterization of thaw-eroding Yedoma slopes of a disappearing island in SE Laptev Sea suggested rapid conversion of the old soils to carbon dioxide even before being washed into the sea. The compositional fingerprint of old organic carbon ( 7,000 to 10,000 years) found in marine bottom sediments revealed that erosional input from ancient coastal Yedoma was the dominant source of carbon, overwhelming input from marine sources and river-carried debris from inland vegetation and soils, on this, the World's largest coastal shelf sea.
While the present rate of carbon release from the NE Siberian coast is not substantially affecting the CO₂ levels in the global atmosphere, the study, jointly lead-authored by Stockholm University PhD student Jorien Vonk (now at ETH-Zürich, Switzerland) and post-doc fellow Laura Sanchez (now at the Catalan Institute of Climate Sciences), demonstrates that the process is firmly underway.
This study adds to previous reports on extensive methane releases from collapsing subsea permafrost on the East Siberian Arctic Shelf (ESAS) published by the team. "In order to project the future trajectory of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, it is important to study the interaction of a warming climate and releases from the enormous carbon pools held in coastal and subsea permafrost, as well as in methane hydrates, on the ESAS" says Gustafsson.

TSA Denies Ignoring Court Order Over Body Scanners

TSA Denies Ignoring Court Order Over Body Scanners

Posted By admin On August 31, 2012 @ 9:15 am In Featured Stories,Steve Watson Articles,Tile | 4 Comments

Steve Watson
Prisonplanet.com ^[1]
Aug 31, 2012

The TSA has denied that it is defying the law by ignoring a now more than one year old court order to conduct a public comment process with regards to its use of so called naked body scanners.
The machines have been systematically rolled out in airports throughout the nation over the last three years without public consultation. This act has been ruled by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to be a violation of federal law ^[2]. Earlier this month, the court finally ruled ^[3] that the TSA had until August 30th to to provide a reason why the agency has not held public hearings on guidelines for the body scanners.
That deadline expired yesterday and the TSA has responded.
In a court filing issued yesterday, the TSA claimed that there was “no basis whatsoever for (the) assertion that TSA has delayed implementing this court’s mandate ^[4].” (.pdf)
The agency again cited “staffing issues” as a reason for the delay, and claimed it cannot yet release documents pertaining to the rollout of the scanners and the decision that was taken in 2009 to make them the “primary” method of security in airports all over the country.
The TSA says it is awaiting approval from the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of Management and Budget in order to release the information to the court.
The agency also added that it expects to be able to begin public hearings on the scanners by the end of February 2013, a full 19 months after the original court order mandating it to do so, and almost four years after it rubber stamped the deployment of the machines.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), which originally brought the case, had attempted on no less than THREE occasions over the past 12 months to get the court to enforce the law on the TSA.
In its petition, EPIC notes that the agency’s delay in acting poses risks to travelers, defies the Court’s authority, and is flat out unlawful.
The TSA had argued that it “should not have to stop every five minutes for comment and rulemaking”, and that it did not have the resources to do so in any case.
EPIC has previously argued in court that body scanners are “invasive, unlawful, and ineffective,” and that the TSA’s deployment of the devices violated the U.S. Constitution and several other federal statutes. The rights group is pursuing a case to completely suspend use of the scanners in airports.
EPIC has received support for its action against the TSA from The Competitive Enterprise Institute ^[5], which issued a brief ^[6]that argues that the TSA’s claims that it does not have the resources to comply with the public rulemaking process are entirely bogus:
“If the TSA is unable to manage its tremendous budget of nearly $8 billion in a manner that enables the agency to follow well-established laws, this Court is obligated to exercise its authority to compel the agency to follow duly enacted laws.” the brief reads.
“Curiously, the obstacles responsible for the TSA’s delayed rule-making here do not appear to have forestalled the agency’s aggressive deployment of AIT scanners in airports nationwide.” it continues.
“This course of conduct is hardly indicative of an agency so starved for resources that it cannot comply with a straightforward judicial mandate within one year. Moreover, the TSA’s purchase of hundreds of new scanners after this Court’s July 2011 decision in EPIC suggests the agency intends to continue doing as it pleases without regard to public input or duly enacted laws.”
The TSA responded Thursday, stating; “In preparing the proposed rule, TSA has addressed significant developments in AIT technology that have a major impact on the privacy concerns stressed in the EPIC petitioners’ lawsuit. In particular, TSA has addressed the development of Automated Target Recognition technology, which enhances privacy protection in the screening process.”
CEI and EPIC have also been joined in their calls by The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and The Cato Institute.
Jim Harper, the director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute, recently issued a petition to the White House on the matter.
However, just as the petition was set to reach a total of 25,000 signatures, at which point the President is obligated to publicly respond, it was mysteriously pulled from the White House website ^[7], never to return. Officials claimed the site had gone down for “maintenance” and then claimed the petition had expired during that time.
The federal government has invested close to a billion dollars so far into a fleet of 800 scanners, and the TSA has outlined plans to buy nearly 1,000 more in the next two years.
The TSA is continuing to roll out more full body scanners in airports across the country despite the fact that a recent Congressional report ^[8]concluded that the agency “is wasting hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars by inefficiently deploying screening equipment and technology to commercial airports.”
Another recently discovered Homeland Security report ^[9]noted that federal investigators have “identified vulnerabilities in the screening process” involving the scanners.
The reports provided a basis for renewed investigation of claims made in March by Engineer Jon Corbett who posted a video of himself demonstrating how the body scanners can easily be bypassed. ^[10]
The TSA initially responded to the revelations, describing Corbett as “some guy” who had launched a “crude attempt to allegedly show how to circumvent TSA screening procedures.”
The agency failed to even address the fact that Corbett had proven the body scanners could be easily defeated, and then it threatened journalists not to cover the story ^[11].
Corbett has continued his efforts to expose flaws in the body scanner program by interviewing TSA whistleblowers who have admitted that the scanners routinely fail ^[12]to pick up prohibited items such as knives, guns and powder designed to resemble explosive material. Corbett also recently testified in a congressional hearing on the scanners.
As we have previously noted, multiple ^[13] other security experts ^[14] have gone on record ^[15] saying that the scanners are ineffective.
—————————————————————-
Steve Watson is the London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.com ^[16], and Prisonplanet.com ^[1]. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham in England.

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Article printed from Prison Planet.com: http://www.prisonplanet.com
URL to article: http://www.prisonplanet.com/tsa-denies-ignoring-court-order-over-body-scanners.html
URLs in this post:

[1] Prisonplanet.com: http://prisonplanet.com/

[2] violation of federal law: http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=tsa%20public%20comment&source=web&cd=6&ved=0CF0QFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Flegaltimes.typepad.com%2Fblt%2F2011%2F07%2Fcourt-tells-tsa-to-allow-public-comment-on-body-scan-screening.html&ei=uXQJUPDPE4qy0QXlwomxCg&usg=AFQjCNGXyLSpBG9myWHXNpP9SvscGo0JWQ

[3] ruled: http://epic.org/privacy/body_scanners/EPIC-v-DHS-Order-8-1-12.pdf

[4] implementing this court’s mandate: http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2012/08/tsaresponse.pdf

[5] The Competitive Enterprise Institute: http://rotor.com/Publications/RotorNewssupregsup/tabid/177/newsid1237/76087/mid/1237/Default.aspx

[6] a brief : https://www.eff.org/document/brief-amici-curiae-supporting-epics-petition-writ-mandamus

[7] mysteriously pulled from the White House website: http://boingboing.net/2012/08/12/white-house-tsa-petition-goes.html

[8] Congressional report : http://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/5-9-2012-Joint-TSA-Staff-Report-FINAL.pdf

[9] Homeland Security report : http://www.oig.dhs.gov/assets/Mgmt/OIG_SLR_12-06_Nov11.pdf

[10] body scanners can easily be bypassed.: http://www.prisonplanet.com/tsa-tacitly-admits-1-billion-dollar-body-scanner-system-is-critically-flawed.html

[11] threatened journalists not to cover the story: http://www.infowars.com/tsa-threatens-msm-reporters-over-coverage-of-body-scanner-story/

[12] scanners routinely fail : http://www.infowars.com/tsa-whistleblower-body-scanners-routinely-fail/

[13] multiple: http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2250625&archive=true

[14] security experts: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/137184#.T6p-8-g7VEM

[15] gone on record: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1240193/Body-scanner-wouldnt-foiled-syringe-bomber-says-MP-worked-new-machines.html

[16] Infowars.com: http://infowars.com/

Russia’s First Electric Car Debuts in Moscow

MOSCOW, Russia, August 30, 2012 (ENS) – Russia’s largest automaker AvtoVAZ unveiled its first electric car for journalists at the Moscow Auto Show on Wednesday.
AvtoVAZ said in a statement that the El Lada is “a first in the history” of the company. The new electric cars will be used as taxis in the mountainous Stavropol region of the Russian Caucasus, the company said.
The El Lada at the Moscow Auto Show is a concept car – the first work of Steve Mattin as the chief designer of AvtoVAZ. The style of the El Lada EV is based on the automaker’s petrol-powered Lada Kalina, a popular Russian model.

Russia’s first electric car, the El Lada made by AvtoVAZ (Photo courtesy AvtoVAZ)

The undisclosed electric powertrain enables the car to travel up to 93 miles on a charge. It has a top speed of 130 kilometers per hour (about 81 mph), the company says.
The El Lada’s battery takes eight hours to charge if plugged into a normal household outlet, according to the company.
The Russian auto giant said that low-volume production of the first electric car in its history, “has already begun.”
Last November AvtoVAZ Vice President for Technical Development Yevgeny Shmelyov said the company plans to produce 100 El Lada electric cars in 2012.
But there are obstacles to the operation of electric cars in Russia, according to the Autostat Analytic Agency – low winter temperatures in the most regions of the country, a lack of recharging infrastructure and a lack of component production. All the special components the El Lada are imported, the analytic agency said.
AvtoVAZ president Igor Komarov Wednesday expressed confidence in his company. “AvtoVAZ is different. We have successfully implemented a program of development from the stage of “survival” to the stage of “company moves to bring new products to market.”
“Today we demonstrate future styles of Lada,” said Komarov.
“AvtoVAZ is multibrand,” he said. “At the end of this year we will start assembling Nissan cars, and in 2013 – Renault.”
The public will get a first look at Russia’s electric car at the Moscow Auto Show in the Crocus Expo International Exhibition Center on August 31.

Environment News Service (http://s.tt/1m7h6)

Iran's Khamenei Calls for 'Nuclear Free Middle East'

Published on Thursday, August 30, 2012 by Common Dreams

Iran's Khamenei Calls for 'Nuclear Free Middle East'

Supreme leader of Iran says nuclear weapons are "great sin" as Israel's Netanyahu calls meeting of Non-Alligned Movement a "disgrace"

- Common Dreams staff

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday reiterated the country's position that it has no desire for nuclear weapons, calling atomic weapons a "great sin" and renewing the call for a nuclear-free Middle East.
Iran's motto is "Nuclear energy for all and nuclear weapons for none," Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Thursday. (Photo credit: AP) Speaking to leaders at the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran, Khamenei said that Iran, as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), would continue to defend its right to develop a peaceful nuclear program.
"I stress that the Islamic Republic has never been after nuclear weapons and that it will never give up the right of its people to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes,” Khamenei said.
“Iran considers the use of nuclear, chemical and similar weapons as a great and unforgivable sin," he continued. "We proposed the idea of ‘Middle East free of nuclear weapons’ and we are committed to it.”
Meanwhile, Israel Prime Minister Benjmain Netanyahu condemned the NAM conference, calling the meeting a "disgrace" and a "stain on humanity."
"Today, over 120 countries are in Tehran, saluting a regime that not only denies the Holocaust but pledges to annihilate the Jewish state, brutalizes its own people, colludes in the murder of thousands of innocent Syrians and leads millions in chanting 'Death to America, death to Israel'," Netanyahu said.
The Non-Aligned Movement is made up of 120 nations that seek not to be aligned with any major world power. 
There's no love lost between the Israeli and Iranian leadership in the midst of continued speculation that Israel is planning a military assault on Iran's nuclear infrastructure and as US and Israeli-backed international economic sanctions take a toll on Iran's ability to trade and operate in the global market.
Khamenei slammed the sanctions and took aim at the UN Security Council for what Iran sees as undemocratic processes at the United Nations.
"Our view is that the control room of the world should not be managed by the dictatorial will of a few Western countries," Khamenei said according to an English translation on his official website. "This is what is needed by all the countries that have been directly or indirectly harmed as a result of the transgression of a few bullying and hegemonic countries."
And: "The U.N. Security Council has an illogical, unjust and completely undemocratic structure and mechanism. This is a flagrant form of dictatorship, which is antiquated and obsolete and whose expiry date has passed. It is through abusing this improper mechanism that America and its accomplices have managed to disguise their bullying as noble concepts and impose it on the world.
"They protect the interests of the West in the name of 'human rights.' They interfere militarily in other countries in the name of 'democracy,'" he said. 
UN chief Ban Ki-Moon, who was in Tehran for the NAM summit, but did not attend Khamenei's speech, responded to the Ayatollah's most provocative comments against Israel with ire. As Agence France-Presse reports:

Ban "strongly objected" to the remarks in talks with supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has called Israel a "cancerous tumor," and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has doubted its right to exist, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters from Tehran.
Ban traveled to the summit despite US and Israeli criticism of his attendance, along with 36 heads of state or government who Iran says have confirmed they will take part.

The NAM summit began earlier this week and was opened with a call similar to Khamenei's for a nuclear free movement to take hold in the region.
“We believe that the timetable for ultimate removal of nuclear weapons by 2025, which was proposed by NAM, will only be realized if we follow it up decisively,” Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told delegates at the opening ceremony on Sunday.

Global March to Jerusalem 2012

The Global March to Jerusalem, March 30, 2012

Global Research, March 30, 2012

The Global March to Jerusalem

The Global March to Jerusalem (GMJ) is a groundbreaking new initiative that is organising non-violent civil resistance on 30th March 2012 in Palestine and the four neighbouring countries: Egypt, Lebanon Jordan and Syria. The GMJ is comprised of a diverse coalition of Palestinian, Arab and international activists who are united in the struggle to liberate the holy city of Jerusalem (the city of Peace) from illegal Zionist occupation. The peaceful marchers will demand freedom for Jerusalem and its people. Our aim is to end the Zionist policies of apartheid, ethnic cleansing and Judaisation, which all harm the people, land and sanctity of Jerusalem. Judaisation has involved the unrestricted expansion and funding of illegal Israeli settlements, the continued dispossession and demolition of Palestinian property, and the construction of a Separation Wall surrounding the city, all of which have changed the demographics of the holy city from a Palestinian to a Jewish majority. Global participation in the march will confirm to the world that these racist policies and practices of the state of Israel against Jerusalem and its people are a crime not only against Palestinians but against all humanity. The march will unite the efforts of Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, Christians, Jews, and all citizens of conscience in the world to put an end to Israel’s disregard for international law through the continuing occupation of Jerusalem and the rest of Palestinian land. While the GMJ is made up of grassroots movements in each participating country, the march is centralized through an International Central Committee, consisting of 42 elected regional delegates. Regional delegates will appoint 15 members for the International Executive Committee and recruit hundreds of dignitaries and luminaries for the International Advisory Board. Our plan is to organize massive marches towards Jerusalem, or to the nearest point possible according to the circumstances of each country, in Palestine (the 1948 Zionist land seizures, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip) and the four neighbouring countries: Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon. Internationals will participate in land caravans or fly directly to one of the main sites for the march. In addition, mass protests will be organised in front of Israeli embassies in the capitals of different countries, or in the main public squares in the big cities of the world. The recent successes of the Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions are a reminder that this inspirational movement for nonviolent civil resistance was actually born in Palestine with the first Intifada. By renewing the struggle to liberate Palestine through a peaceful national mass movement that is supported by the global community, we aim to change the nature of the confrontation by compelling the occupiers to face millions of demonstrators demanding Freedom for Palestine and its capital Jerusalem. For US media enquiries please contact Henry Norr on +1 510 371-4465 or at media@gmj-na.org and for Canada contact Ali Mallah at alimallah@hotmail.com / www.gmj-na.org Concept and objectives The historic day 30th March marks Palestine Land Day* in Palestinian national memory. This year our aim is to mark it as an international event to demonstrate solidarity with Palestinians and to protect Jerusalem. This will be achieved by organizing a Global March to Jerusalem or to the nearest point to it. The march will demand freedom for Jerusalem and its people and to put an end to the apartheid, ethnic cleansing and Judaisation policies affecting the people, land and sanctity of Jerusalem. By organising the March and its preceding and parallel activities we aim to highlight the cause of Jerusalem (the City of Peace) which is considered the key to peace and war in the region and the world. The march will confirm that the racist policies and practices of the Zionist state of Israel against Jerusalem and its people are a crime not only against Palestinians but against all humanity. The march will unite the efforts of Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, Christians, Jews, and all citizens of conscience in the world to put an end to Israel’s disregard for international law through the continuing occupation of Jerusalem and the rest of Palestinian land. We aim to make this march a turning point in the nature of the confrontation, with the occupation having to face millions of protesters and demonstrators demanding freedom for Palestine and its capital Jerusalem. We will make a renewed true effort towards ending the occupation through peaceful national movements inspired firstly by our convictions, secondly by the justice of our cause, and thirdly by the spirit of the Arab spring revolutions and the determination of young people who were able to overthrow dictatorships. Especially now that the nations have realized the magical effect of the people’s will to make the impossible possible. The advancing slogan, “the people demand,” has proved to be more effective than armies and weapons. What is the structure and who is behind this project? To achieve all the above the idea was turned into action by forming an International Central Committee (ICC) responsible for this march. The committee consists of 42 members representing the five continents. An International Executive Committee (IEC) for the GMJ will emerge from the International Central Committee, and will consist of 15 members. National committees in most countries of the world will be formed to follow up and to coordinate the actions and events at the national level. These national committees will include representatives of all backgrounds and organisations working for Palestine and Jerusalem from media, religious, social, professional and human rights figures. There are dozens of international figures worldwide adopting the idea, supporting and signing a document of principles governing the Global March to Jerusalem. This document was adopted at the founding meeting in Amman on 12th December, 2011. Among the prominent, well known figures who sign the document of principle an Advisory Board will be formed. The complete list of names on the Advisory Board along with all organisations supporting the GMJ will be announced shortly to emphasize the international support for the march. * Palestine Land Day – a day celebrated by Palestinians on 30th March each year. The event marks the events of March, 1976, after the Israeli authorities confiscated thousands of dunums of private and public land in majority Palestinian areas, especially in the Galilee. Following these events the Arab masses inside Palestine declared a general strike, confronting the Israeli authorities for the first time since the occupation of Palestine in 1948. The Israeli response was militant and violent, as the Israeli troops, backed up by tanks, entered Palestinian villages and reoccupied them, causing a number of martyrs and many wounded and detainees among the civilians. A call from Palestinians in Palestine to join the GMJ Join us as we intensify our struggle against forced exile and the system of Israeli apartheid on Land Day 2012. We Palestinians have been ethnically cleansed and uprooted from our lands starting in the 1948 Nakba (Catastrophe) which resulted in the creation of the millions of refugees who are now living in the Diaspora. Nineteen years later, in 1967, Israel illegally annexed East-Jerusalem and the West Bank in a move which marked the Naksa (Setback), and subjected the remaining Palestinians to a brutal military occupation. We are now in 2012, and we are still living in exile or under the Israeli apartheid regime, the illegal construction of colonial settlements is confiscating the remaining parts of Palestine, the Separation Wall divides and separates villages and towns, and Palestinians in Jerusalem are threatened of being driven out of their homes and lands for the mere purpose of the Judaization of this sacred city. But we will not leave. We will stand and be firm. We will not permit thousands of years of our attachment to our land and our Holy City to be broken. We therefore invite and call upon all persons of courage and good will around the world to stand up and walk, with your fellow human beings, regardless of religion, of political affiliation ñ to stand up as responsible human beings and walk peacefully towards Jerusalem on the 30th of March, 2012. We therefore ask all our brothers and sisters throughout the world to join Palestinians on Land Day, 30 March, 2012 in challenging the barriers, borders and procedures that separate Palestinians from Jerusalem and from their homes and lands in all of historic Palestine. Al-Rowwad Cultural and Theatre Training Centre: www.alrowwad-acts.ps   Al-Walaja Popular Resistance Committee BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights: www.badil.org   Beit Ummar Popular Resistance Committee Bil’in Popular Resistance Committee: www.bilin-village.org   Friends of Freedom and Justice: Bil’in www.bilin-ffj.org   Handala Center: www.handalla-center.org   Holy Land Trust: www.holylandtrust.org   International Solidarity Movement: www.palsolidarity.org   Nebi Saleh Popular Resistance Committee Ni’lin Popular Resistance Committee Palestine Justice Network: www.palestinejn.org   Palestine National Initiative: www.almubadara.org   Palestine Solidarity Project: www.palestinesolidarityproject.org   Palestinian Centre for Rapprochement between People: www.pcr.ps   Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign: www.stopthewall.org   Popular Struggle Coordinating Committee: www.popularstruggle.org   Siraj Center for Holy Land Studies: www.sirajcenter.org   The Alternative Information Center – AIC: www.alternativenews.org   The International Solidarity Initiative: www.internationalsolidarity.org   The Palestinian Cultural Englightenment Centre (Tanweer) Youth Against Settlements (Hebron) Youth Activity Center – Aida Camp: www.key1948.org   How will the march towards Jerusalem take place? 1. Massive marches will be organised from Asia, Africa and Europe to and in neighbouring countries to Palestine (Jordan, Eygpt, Syria and Lebanon) and towards Jerusalem or to the nearest point possible according to the circumstances of each country and through coordination between all groups and institutions of civil society taking part in the march, in coordination with the official and national bodies concerned. These marches will be composed mainly of the people of each country and thousands of international solidarity participants traveling to these countries specifically to join the marches. Massive marches will be organized in Palestine (the 1948 seizures, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip) towards Jerusalem or to the nearest point to it. Palestinian people from all factions and institutions will participate alongside international solidarity activists who are able to enter Palestine. Mass protests will be organised in front of Israeli embassies in the capitals of different countries. Mass demonstrations and protests will be organised in the main public squares in the big cities of the world, including the Arab and Muslim capitals and large cities, which can be initiated from the main mosques and churches in each city, where appropriate. Transcontinental rallies will be organised, from Europe, Africa and Asia, according to the conditions and possibilities of each region. Destruction of the Holy City of Jerusalem The Global March to Jerusalem is focusing on the particular issue of Jerusalem because the holy city embodies the terrible violence of an enduring occupation. Furthermore, the security of Jerusalem as a city for all of humanity is especially urgent today. Over the last several years Zionist efforts to “Judaise” the city have quickened pace in an attempt to erase Jerusalem’s physical, cultural and spiritual characteristics. This process of Judaisation includes the unrestricted expansion and funding of illegal Israeli settlements, the continued dispossession and demolition of Palestinian property, and the construction of a Separation Wall surrounding the city, all of which have changed the demographics of the holy city from a Palestinian to Jewish majority. These apartheid policies target and exclude not only Muslims, but also Christians. Over the last twenty years government backed fundamentalist Jewish groups have taken Palestinian homes in both the Muslim and Christian Quarters of the Old City. Recently Jewish Settlers attacked a Jerusalem monastery that was built on the site where tradition says the tree used in the making of Jesus’s cross once stood. The monastery was defaced with “death to Christians” graffiti in Hebrew. On the same day “death to Arabs” was also painted on the wall of a playground of a Jewish-Arab bilingual school in Jerusalem. According to 2011 report by Richard Falk, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, “the continued pattern of settlement expansion in East Jerusalem combined with forcible eviction of long residing Palestinians are creating an intolerable situation that can only be described, in its cumulative impact, as a form of ethnic cleansing.” However the United Nations and other international bodies have done little to prevent this Zionist aggression. In response, Palestinians are calling upon the global community to secure the status of Jerusalem as a Holy City for all humans. The document of principles “The Freedom Call” The participants in the Global March to Jerusalem assert the following: • We assert the importance of Jerusalem politically, culturally and religiously to the Palestinian people and humanity as a whole. We call for the protection of the Holy Places and all archaeological sites and consider all the efforts done to change its Arabic & cultural identity as a crime against humanity. We call on all international institutions to do their duties towards the city. • The defence of Jerusalem and its liberation are a duty of all free people around the world and we call on all institutions, organizations, and individuals to participate in this duty. • We condemn the Zionist campaign of ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem and the rest of Palestine including all ongoing policies intended to change the demographic and geographic situation in the city and aimed at its Judaisation. We also condemn the continuation of the Zionist occupation forces in building the apartheid wall that aims to expropriate more Palestinian lands and convert the occupied areas into shrinking cantons isolated from each other. • We support the right of the Palestinian People for self determination and to liberate their lands and to live on them in freedom and dignity like all other people on earth. We support the non-negotiable & inalienable rights of the Palestinian People including their families to return to their homes and lands from which they were uprooted. We reject all racist laws that distinguish between people based on ethnicity or religion and call for their cancellation and criminalization. The Global March to Jerusalem does not represent any one faction or political party but we call for participation of all social forces, political factions, and ideologies. The Global March to Jerusalem is a global peaceful movement which does not use violence to achieve its goals. For more information visit the official  GMJ  web site: www.gm2j.com