Angry White Kid

Acteal: Statement from Las Abejas Community on the release of paramilitaries

August 9, 2009
[Spanish original]
Translated by Scott Campbell

Las Abejas [The Bees] Civil Society Organization
Sacred Land of the Acteal Martyrs, Chiapas, Mexico

To the Inter-American Human Rights Commission
To all Social and Political Organizations
To all Human Rights defenders
To all the people of Mexico and the World
To the National and International press
To the Other Campaign
To public opinion

In response to reports that have been spread by some media outlets that the Supreme Court is about to make a ruling that would allow the freedom of 40 of the paramilitaries responsible for the massacre in Acteal on December 22, 1997, we want to state the following:

We are the members of Las Abejas Civil Society, from the San Pedro Chenalhó municipality, Chiapas, and based in the Sacred Land of Acteal in the same municipality.

Our organization formed in 1992 to confront the repression that then-governor of Chiapas, Patrocinio González Garrido, launched against indigenous communities, among them our own community of Chenalhó that saw several of their founding members, among them the current President of the Board of Directors of Las Abejas, unjustly imprisoned for crimes they didn’t commit.

Since our founding we have been dedicated to the defense of indigenous rights and to searching for a society where peace and justice reign.  We have always said that our struggle would be peaceful and we have practiced that.

When the EZLN uprising occurred on January 1, 1994, we saw what their demands were and took note that they were the same as ours.  As a result we decided to support their demands but we did not accept taking up arms and maintained our non-violent stance.  We joined forces with national and international civil society to demand that the Mexican government stop its war against our indigenous brothers and sisters.  We participated in the peace lines when the first talks took place between the Zapatistas and the government and later we participated with our delegates in the San Andrés Dialogues.

Later we discovered that in reality the government did not want a dialogue and while it spoke of peace, with its actions it promoted war through paramilitary groups.

In 1997, armed paramilitary groups appeared in Chenalhó. Through force they demanded that all the communities help them buy weapons and attack the Zapatistas.  If we didn’t accept taking up arms against the government would we possibly accept taking them up against our own indigenous brothers and sisters?  We refused to support the armed paramilitary groups that we saw clearly had the support of the government to get weapons, to be trained and to take violent actions.  We were loyal to our principles in spite of the threats and when we refused to support them, the paramilitaries kidnapped us, ran us out of our communities, robbed our harvests, took our belongings and burned our houses.  Because of this we became displaced, but we remained loyal to our principles of peace and non-violence.

It was while we were displaced that the paramilitary attacked on December 22, 1997 and the Acteal Massacre occurred, where 45 of our brothers and sisters died while praying and fasting for peace.

After the massacre of our brothers and sisters we kept our peaceful stance.  We refused to seek vengeance.  We continued to reject weapons.  We decided to seek justice through peaceful and legal means with the help of the Fray Bartolomé Human Rights Center, whose president is our bishop, Father Samuel. 

With the support of national and international civil society we pressured the government to punish those responsible for the massacre of our brothers and sisters.  The first arrests of a group of material authors occurred the same day we laid our loved ones to rest before the eyes of thousands of witnesses.  As a provocation, the murderers passed by the survivors in a truck belonging to the municipal president of Chenalhó, when the blood of the martyrs was still fresh.  Now the prisoners’ defense lawyers say that these paramilitaries should remain free because when we got the authorities to detain them there wasn’t an arrest warrant.  And such are their arguments to free them.

We got around 80 of the material authors of the massacre detained, along with the municipal president of Chenalhó who was one of their leaders.  But we weren’t able to get the intellectual authors either detained or investigated, as it wasn’t just the municipal authorities who supported the paramilitaries.  It was also the state and federal authorities.  We say that because we have seen it with our eyes and we know that it is true and as such we declare it.  Since then we have tirelessly publicly declared that there is not justice in the Acteal case and impunity continues.

Today, five months from the twelfth anniversary of the murder of our brothers and sisters we were informed with great sadness and indignation that the government is going to free 40 of these paramilitaries through a Supreme Court of Justice decree, that more appropriately should be called the Supreme Court of Injustice.  Faced with this news we declare the following:

1) It’s not true, as many media outlets are saying, that the Supreme Court decree is a step towards achieving justice for Acteal.  Rather it’s a step back from the little that has been achieved.  It’s a step forward for impunity.

2) They are saying that the PGR [Federal Attorney General’s Office] fabricated evidence against the prisoners and that what the Supreme Court is doing is just because there is no true evidence of the paramilitaries’ guilt.  This is not true either.  There is and there has always been real evidence which is our testimony of who we saw do the killing and we know the paramilitaries.  But the government (the Attorney General and the judges) has weakened our evidence.  They created holes in the case so that when this moment arrived the paramilitaries would be able to get out through these holes with the help of their lawyers and Supreme Court judges.  It’s the same thing they do so that the narcos go free.  The Supreme Court is not correcting the work of the PGR as they say.  It is completing the work they started so that the accomplices of the government can remain free.

3) They say that we haven’t presented proof of the guilt of the paramilitaries.  This is not true either.  We’ve presented proof not once but many times.  And 11 years after the murders in Acteal they continue calling on us to present our statements, because they tell the judge or the public ministry that something is missing from the previous time.  To the lawyers from CIDE we say that their clients are not the only victims of corruption in the justice system.  They have had those witnesses who saw their loved ones die repeat time and again the terrible story with all the pain it causes their hearts.  And in the end they say: “we need you to tell us again because the judge ordered a renewal of the proceedings.”  We know that this is called “psychological torture.”

4) The communities of Chenalhó are ill at ease because for days rumors have been circulating that when their friends get out the paramilitaries who have been free this whole time are going to get those who sent their friends to jail.  We hold the Supreme Court and all their accomplices, from Mr. Aguilar Camín, the CIDE lawyers and the government of Felipe Calderón responsible if the return of these 40 paramilitaries brings violence back to our municipality.  We hold them responsible for the lives of the witnesses and any criminal act that these paramilitaries who they say are innocent commit.

5) We call on the country’s highest authorities to reflect on what they are doing.  If organizations such as Las Abejas Civil Society, who reject violence as a means to defend our rights, tell them that the justice system and state institutions are completely on the side of the government accomplices, then, what path does that leave us?  What hope do the Mexican people have?  The government says that it is against violence but daily we see how it is the first to promote it.

6) In spite of this, we, the members of Las Abejas Civil Society declare that we are not going to take down our flag of peace and justice.  We are going to continue fighting in a non-violent way.  But we don’t have any faith in the government. Our faith is in the solidarity of civil society, in the blood of our martyrs which gives us strength to not abandon the struggle and in our god who is not deaf to the clamor of the poor and oppressed.

Yours faithfully,

The Voice of Las Abejas Civil Society
For the Board of Directors:
Sebastián Pérez Vázquez, President
Pedro Jiménez Arias, Vice President
Francisco Gómez Pérez, Treasurer
Francisco Pérez Gómez, Deputy Treasurer

Sixty-eight organizations demand justice for assassinated Oaxacan social activist

June 23, 2009
[Spanish original]
Translated by Scott Campbell
[Previous CODEP statement]

To Fernando Gómez Mont
Secretary of the Interior
Mexico City

It is publicly known that Oaxaca finds itself in an ungovernable situation since the imposition of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz as governor of the state; as no other governor has had to call off proceedings in municipalities and communities in the face of repudiation by their inhabitants, add to this his political inability to resolve the large number of conflicts that arise in a state of extreme poverty and marginalization, where the neoliberal politics of the last 25 years have destroyed the traditional possibilities of survival of the people in the state.

It is also known that Ulises Ruiz has been able to stay in government thanks to the unrestrained support that the Mexican federal government has shown him, and to the politics of state terrorism that he has been implementing, in detriment to democracy, constitutional guarantees and fundamental human rights.

To ensure the politics of terror, he has fostered, like never before, paramilitary groups and “know nothings” from whom he is taking resources in order to sustain the group, but it is known that the operator of these politics of terror is the sadly “celebrated” Jorge Franco Vargas, directly responsible for the 2006 conflict and current Secretary of the State Committee of the PRI [the ruling party in Oaxaca], a position which allows him to enjoy complete impunity alongside the state government.

In this context, the persecution and selective assassination of social activists and human rights defenders has intensified on part of the government of Ulises Ruiz, manipulating the laws freely to invent any crime imaginable and in this way issue arrest warrants right and left against his opposition, and thereby keep them under fierce prosecution, covered by a supposedly “legal” mantle, which, without a doubt, has resulted in destroying the possibility of reaching justice and legality in the state of Oaxaca.

One of the most recent examples of the above is the assassination of Sergio Martínez Vásquez, a member of the State Council of the Committee in Defense of the Rights of the People, which occurred this past June 7, in the district of Juxtlahuaca, Oaxaca, where the evidence collected as of now points to the paramilitary groups that Ulises Ruiz maintains in this region as the executors of this crime.

It is worrying that as of now the investigations into this cunning murder have not moved forward, but it is more serious that given the prevailing impunity in Oaxaca, other members of CODEP continue to be threatened with death, without the existence of any authority that can stop this orgy of violence against human rights defenders.

Given the above, the below signers demand:

1. Immediate clarification regarding the assassination of Sergio Martínez Vásquez

2. A stop to the aggression and harassment unleashed against the Committee in Defense of the Rights of the People (CODEP) and human rights defenders.

3. An investigation and punishment of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz and Jorge Franco Vargas for the crimes committed against the people of Oaxaca.

We hold Ulises Ruiz Ortiz and Jorge Franco Vargas responsible for the physical and psychological integrity of the members of CODEP.

We repudiate the defamation and harassment against CODEP, as with such a campaign they are trying to justify the aggressions and attacks against this organization.

Copy to Dr. José Luis Soberanes, President of the National Human Rights Commission.
Copy to Patricia Mejía Guerrero, President of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission.
Copy to Antoine Bernard, Executive Director of the International Federation for Human Rights.
Copy to Dr. Adrian Ramírez, President of the Mexican Human Rights Defense League

1.        Enrique González Ruiz
2.        Coordinación Nacional del Poder Popular
3.        Sindicato Independiente de Trabajadores de la UAM (SITUAM)
4.        Foro Social Mundial (FSM)
5.        Unión Popular Revolucionaria Emiliano Zapata (UPREZ)
6.        Movimiento Urbano Popular – Convención Nacional Democrática (MUP-CND)
7.        Organización Nacional del Poder Popular (ONPP)
8.        Comité de Defensa de los Derechos del Pueblo (CODEP)
9.        Izquierda Social (IS)
10.     Frente Amplio Popular – Michoacán (FAP)
11.     BARZON
12.     Alianza Internacional de Habitantes (VERACRUZ)
13.     Central Unitaria de Trabajadores CUT – MUP – CND
14.     Asamblea de Barrios (AB)
15.     Comité de Defensa de los Derechos del Pueblo (CODEP M33 morelos)
16.     Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de México (APPM)
17.     FOCYC
18.     FCUI-MUP-CND
19.     Móv. Socialismo Nuevo (MSN)
20.     Bloque de Organizaciones Sociales (BOS)
21.     Mujeres Solidarias (MS)
22.     Fuerza Popular Javier Acuña (FPJA)
23.     Civiles en Marcha (CM)
24.     Convención Nacional Democrática (CND)
25.     BARZON – DF
26.     Politécnico/Economía
27.     CUTAC (Tlaxcala)
28.     Círculos de Estudio (CE)
29.     Instituto Politécnico Nacional-Escuela Superior de Economía (IPN-ESE)
30.     Brigada en Defensa del Petróleo Poder Popular (BDPPP)
31.     Universidad Autónoma de la Ciudad de México (UACM)
32.     UPREZ – DF
33.     Comitán – Chiapas
34.     FDF
35.     UCISN – VER
36.     Grupo Cultural Alternativa – UAEMEX
37.     Taller de Salud y Naturaleza
38.     ONPP – ZONA NORTE
39.     UAEM
40.     CEND
41.     Sección XVIII de Michoacán
42.     Comité Lucha Popular  (CLP)
43.     MLP – MUP
44.     BARZON-Mujeres Solidarias
45.     Espacio de Todos
46.     Frente Amplio Juvenil (FAJ)
47.     Mujeres Solidarias – Acapulco
48.     Pueblo Digno – MOSE
49.     FEJ – MORELIA
50.     BFP
51.     CDA YAXKIN
52.     MSN
53.     FPJA
54.     Fraternidad
55.     Colectivo Emiliano Zapata (CEZ)
56.     Coordinadora de Organizaciones Sociales (COS)
57.     Frente Democrático Nacional de Organizaciones Sociales y Productivas (FDNOSP)
58.     Coordinadora Promotora del Poder Popular de Michoacán
59.     OIZT-MPI
60.     Central de Abastos
61.     Vendedores de Jamaiquita
62.     Cooperativa ALFA
63.     Frente Democrático Sección X
64.     Asamblea Estatal de Trabajadores de La Educación de Querétaro
65.     Democracia Directa- Movimiento de Transformación Social.
66.     Alianza Única del Valle
67.     CERES
68.     Frente Popular Francisco Villa

Obama gets a settlement

Obama's efforts to scold Israel into stopping its illegal settlements in the West Bank seems to be yielding fruit.  In the opposite direction of course.  Maan News reports that:

Israeli settlers established a new illegal West Bank outpost on Thursday, dedicating it partly to US President Barack Obama.

The settlers, calling themselves the "Land of Israel Loyalists," named the outpost Oz Yehonatan, near Binyamin, but were calling part of it the "Obama Hut," according to the Israeli news agency Ynet.

And according to a report from Israel's Arutz Sheva news agency, the outpost was named "in recognition of the president’s actions, which have led to a dramatic increase in the number of outposts being built throughout Judea and Samaria [the West Bank]."

Given Obama's speech yesterday where he merely called for current settlement construction to stop - saying nothing about the almost 500,000 Israeli colonists already living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem* - this is the type of progress we can expect from Barack "More of the Same" Obama.  Which itself is all that can be expected.

* Or apartheid, or the nakba, or Jim Crow laws inside Israel, or Israel's nuclear weapons, or international law, or the massacre in Gaza, or the continuing murders of non-violent anti-wall protesters etc., etc., etc.

Catastrophe: 61 years and counting

A scene from the nakba.

Today around the world Palestinians commemorate the nakba (catastrophe) of the 1948 establishment of Israel and the ethnic cleansing of 75% of the indigenous Palestinian population from their lands and homes.

Sixty-one years later the Palestinian population is dispersed around the globe, forbidden by Israel to return to their homes.  Millions live in the refugee camps of Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.  Millions more live in camps or homes under occupation in the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the West Bank.  And more than a million live as third-class citizens under an openly racist, apartheid regime in the land they were born - now called Israel.

While Hamas and Fatah squabble over who gets to be the Palestinian facilitator of Israel's occupation, dictatorial Arab regimes count their U.S. dollars, and Israel continues the nakba backed by the U.S. and Europe.

Civil society, the only place where power truly resides, must continue to act.  BOYCOTT. DIVESTMENT. SANCTIONS.

Book review: "Descent into Chaos" by Ahmed Rashid

Until final papers are finished, I won't have time to blog. But I figured I'd post this response I wrote for a class to Ahmed Rashid's book, Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia.  It's timely, given what's happening in Pakistan and Obama's war-escalation plan for Afghanistan. As well, I couldn't find a single critical review of the book, which is troubling, especially as there is so little material out about the topic thereby giving Rashid's view more weight than it likely should have.

I had two main reactions to Rashid's book. One was frustration and the other was appreciation.  My frustration extended largely from his liberal viewpoint that the war on Afghanistan was a just war and could've gone swimmingly "if only" the various players had made the correct decisions and taken the appropriate actions. His main argument appeared to be that occupation (though he argued that it wasn't) and nation-building can be done successfully "if only" everyone is up front, genuine and on the level.  This strikes me as a painfully naïve way of interpreting world events and prescribing solutions.  Just as he tried to contextualize Afghanistan with other countries in Central Asia, the U.S. invasion and occupation needs to be contextualized within a discussion of hegemony and capitalism.  After the scores of countries the U.S. has invaded, I'm shocked people still think the U.S. actually cares about the Afghan, Iraqi, Guatemalan, Filipino etc., etc. people, and that the "if only" argument is still used.

My other frustration was that there was much that seemed to be missing from the book.  There was not much of a discussion of the Taliban or Al-Qaeda, what they thought, how they formed, why they were bad. It was just assumed that they were bad and needed no discussion.  I think labeling something as bad and worthy of being opposed without much discussion is dangerous, even if the label is appropriate.  I was also troubled by his other labeling of things.  He doesn't discuss what jihad means, but again it's taken to be bad. He claims "talib" means "religious student" and "madrassa" means "religious school" when both just mean student and school.  He doesn't explain his definition of Islamic "extremism" or "fundamentalism".  Finally, in the first three chapters (I stopped after that) I counted 16 claims that I felt warranted footnotes where none existed. It all seemed very attuned to inaccurate Western conceptions and instead of using his book as an opportunity to deconstruct them, he reinforces them, which is unfortunate.

However, I'm still glad that I read the book. I learned much about the area and it is certainly extremely topical.  Now hearing about how the Taliban is operating in the Swat Valley makes a lot more sense.  It also provoked some thinking about, well, what is the solution, what should be done? From my perspective, I oppose the US/European occupation, I think Karzai's an inept puppet, I certainly am not a fan of the Taliban or warlords.  I know nothing about Afghanistan's civil society.  Do I even know enough to have an opinion?  It got me thinking and I appreciate that.

U.S. activist shot in head by Israelis in West Bank

3/16 UPDATE: Tristan's family has released a statement with some hopeful news, reading in part:

Tristan's girlfriend, Gaby, who has been tirelessly by his side, reports that he is doing much better. When the doctor asked him to put up two fingers he did so. Tristan recognizes Gaby and can squeeze her fingers in answer to different questions. He's started his moving toes and his torso around a bit. This is welcome and wonderful news! We understand things can go up and down, however we are deeply hopeful that Tristan will recover. We are looking forward to when he is stable enough that he can return home to the care and comfort of his family and community.

The video is very graphic:

Tristan Anderson, a 37-year-old from Oakland, CA, was shot in the head today with a high-velocity tear gas canister by an Israeli soldier while observing a protest against Israel's Apartheid Wall in the West Bank village of Ni'lin.  Fellow ISM activist Ulrika Jenson says that, "Tristan was hit and fell to the ground. He had a large hole in the front of his head, and his brain was visible."

Note in the video that after he is hit the Israelis continue firing tear gas as the medics begin to assist him. Emergency personnel are then forced to transfer him from a Palestinian ambulance to an Israeli one at a checkpoint. Prior to that transfer, Teah Lunqvist, who was there, said that, "When an ambulance came, the Israeli soldiers refused to allow the ambulance through the checkpoint just outside the village. After 5 minutes of arguing with the soldiers, the ambulance passed."

It goes without saying that he is receiving this attention and Israeli treatment because he is a U.S. citizen. Palestinians killed by Israeli forces during these protests don't get treatment in Israeli hospitals or make the news. Four residents of Ni'lin have been killed by Israelis while protesting against the wall and the confiscation of their land in less than a year.  Yet such an event hits home for many of us, myself included, as it is easy to imagine myself or many of my friends in his very situation as an international solidarity activist.

My thoughts are with Tristan, his family, friends, and comrades.

Tear down apartheid. Free Palestine.

APPO councilor and former political prisoner abducted and tortured in Oaxaca

With visible signs of torture, first and second-degree burns on his chest and genitals, APPO councilor Marcelino Coache Verano, who for 12 hours was “kidnapped” with the clear intention of repressing the social movement and sending a message of terror to society, was abandoned near Ocotlán.

Marcelino Coache Verano, former APPO political prisoner, abducted and tortured

Pedro Matías Arrazola
Noticias
March 7, 2009
Translated by Scott Campbell

Marcelino Coache Verano’s “kidnapping” between Wednesday and Thursday by an unidentified group left the former political prisoner and Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) councilor with visible signs of torture and first and second-degree burns on his chest and genitals.

These facts were revealed by the victim 24 hours after the event and this Saturday, accompanied by Father Wilfrido Mayrén Peláez, President of the Oaxacan Archdiocese’s Justice and Peace Commission, he will file a criminal complaint.

The political prisoner from the 2006 conflict was abducted last Wednesday around 2:30PM in the vicinity of Trujano Street in the historic city center, after attending a meeting of the “March 3rd” City Cleaning Workers Union.

A group of people pushed him by force into an SUV and brought him to an unknown location where they proceeded to torture him.  According to his account, they forced him to undress, tied his hands behind his back and gagged him with a cord that constantly impeded his breathing.

His captors appeared to be “kidnapping” him because he tried to ask his family for ransom money and on repeated occasions they asked him about various sums of money.

After not receiving a positive answer, they hit him with their fists and later kicked him on the sides of his body.

Marcelino Coache showed the cigarette burns on his chest and nipples, as well as his genitals.

Among the acts of torture he was subjected to was being beaten in the head with the butt of a gun and the constant cocking of the gun.

When some 12 hours had passed, they put him back in the SUV and brought him to an uninhabited area near the Guillermo González Guardado neighborhood, where the municipal dump is located, near the Oaxaca-Puerto Ángel highway, some 15 kilometers from the capital.

The APPO councilor was stripped of his belongings and left with only his pants, which put him at risk of hypothermia.

For several minutes Coache wandered around with no one offering to help him until a taxi driver came to his aid and brought him to the IMSS clinic where they attended to his wounds.

Marcelino Coache was imprisoned for 14 months, beginning on December 4, 2006, when he was detained in Mexico City, in the company of Flavio Sosa Villavicencio, and later was released without charge.

Civilians as target practice

A missing row in the classroom

Some pictures are worth more than a thousand words.

Palestinian boy Mohammed Kutkut, 14, right, covers his face as he sits next to the name sign of his killed friend Ahed Qaddas in the Fakhoura boys school in Jebaliya, northern Gaza strip, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2009. Three friends of his class where killed when the Israeli army shelled Jebaliya in the past weeks. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

Also see this Guardian video, where 10-year-old Mona Samouni describes the killings of 48 members of her family.

And a similar video below, but only in Arabic, French and Spanish.

Israel's trail of dead children in Gaza

Graffiti left by Israeli soldiers in Gaza. Other pieces said, "Death to Arabs,"
"Arabs must die," and "One down, 999,999 to go."

At least 400 Palestinian children in Gaza were killed by Israel during its three-week massacre there. At least 1,630 children were injured. As the media was prevented by Israel from entering Gaza during the attacks, the horrific tales of "Operation Kill As Many Palestinians As Possible Before Obama Takes Office And Help Kadima Gain In The Polls Cast Lead" have just started to emerge.  And of course some of the most tragic involve the children.

For example, four-year-old Samar Abed Rabbu:

At her bedside, her uncle Hassan told us the family had been ordered out of their home by Israeli soldiers who were shelling the neighbourhood.

A tank had parked in front of the house, where around 30 people were taking shelter.

The women and children - mother, grandmother and three little girls - came out waving a white flag and then, he said, an Israeli soldier came out of the tank and opened fire on the terrified procession.

Samar's two sisters, aged seven and two, were shot dead. The grandmother was hit in the arm and in the side, but has survived.

Or Abdul Rahim Abu Halima, 14:

killed when his home was hit by an Israeli white phosphorus artillery shell in Atatra, in north-eastern Gaza, on 4 January. He died along with two of his brothers, Zayed, eight, and Hamza, six, his sister Shahed, who was 15-months-old, and their father, Saad Allah, 45, who was sheltering them in his arms in the hallway when the shell struck.

Then there are the children who witnessed family members executed in front of them. There were four children among the 13 people who saw Fuad Helw murdered by Israeli soldiers in his home:

As the troops burst inside, family members said Fuad Helw, 55, jumped up with his arms in the air.

"We all put our hands up and yelled, 'We're women and children. We're not the resistance,' " recalled Sherine Helw, Fuad's daughter-in-law.

The soldiers opened fire on Fuad, said Sherine, and he died in front of his family.

Nine-year-old Abdullah Samouni lost his father in a similar way. He:

described the moment his father was allegedly "executed" by Israeli soldiers.

Holding his arms in the air, he said: "He was surrendering like this. My father came out and they shot him right away."

Of course such acts, along with the use of white phosphorous and DIME bombs, are war crimes. And Spain is showing its willingness to act on a previous Israeli war crime in Gaza. Hopefully more investigations continue. (And here are some of the people who should be prosecuted.)

Israel does not seem to care. Instead there are high schoolers screaming "Death to the Arabs" and the Israeli army's chief rabbi saying mercy is "terribly immoral." Meanwhile, Obama's envoy to the region, George Mitchell, has assured Israel that no change will occur during this new administration.  Mitchell even promised Israel that Obama stood by Bush's 2004 letter to Ariel Sharon, barring the return of Palestinian refugees to Israel and ceding large settlements in the West Bank to Israel.

Amidst all the horror and slaughter, at least some in the U.S. mainstream media are beginning to ask the touch questions, such as the 60 Minutes report below.

May Palestine and all of us see justice and liberation. The struggle continues.