Category: Israel

Turkey expects respect for human rights from Israel, FM says

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu. AA photo

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said Friday respect for human rights and human lives was a universal value and expressed expectations that other countries would show the same respect, referring to Israel.

His remarks came at a joint press conference in Ankara with his counterpart from Mexico, Patricia Espinosa, in response to a question about the government’s failure to invite the Israeli ambassador to Turkey to a traditional fast-breaking Ramadan dinner, or iftar, hosted Thursday by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for ambassadors in the capital.

“Respect for human rights is universal. But that respect has not been shown,” said Davutoğlu, referring to the Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla May 31 that left nine people dead. He expressed hope that everyone would respect human rights.

Israeli Ambassador to Ankara Gabby Levy was invited to the traditional iftar last year. The failure to extend an iftar invitation to the Israeli envoy comes in the wake of a strained relationship between the two countries since the Israeli attack on the pro-Palestine flotilla.

Ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, officials reportedly said not inviting the Israeli envoy was a symbolic reaction to the Israeli government. The chief rabbi and the head of the Turkish Jewish community, however, were present at Thursday’s dinner.

Levy reportedly also has plans to host an iftar dinner, but it was not yet clear which ministers he would invite or if his invitation would be accepted by government ministers.

Goal of Turkish foreign policy is not prestige, says FM

At the press conference, Davutoğlu was also asked about the possibility that Bulgaria, not Turkey, was being considered as the location for peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.

“The goal of our foreign policy is not prestige,” said the foreign minister. He said Turkey would be pleased only if peace talks resume and results are achieved.

Asked about a meeting about Turkey in the U.S. State Department, Davutoğlu said the meeting shows how important the Turkish-U.S. relationship is.

, August 13, 2010

August 16, 2010
Israel’s ‘mistakes’ over flotilla

(UKPA)

Retired Major General Giora Eiland admitted Israel made mistakes over attack on aid flotilla. (AP)

The Israeli intelligence service made mistakes during the deadly storming of ships taking aid to the Gaza strip, a former military official has acknowledged.

Nine civilians were killed after Israeli commandoes boarded the flotilla carrying 10,000 tonnes of aid en route from Cyprus in May.

Retired Major General Giora Eiland, who led the Israeli military inquiry into the storming of the Mavi Marmara, told the BBC’s Panorama programme that planning for the operation had been lacking.

He explained: “Certain mistakes were made by the Israeli forces, both by the intelligence and by the commanders of the navy … there was under estimation of the potential resistance on the ship. The resistance was huge, much above expectation. Someone had to say ‘well the right conditions do not exist let’s do something else … let’s take Plan B’. They (the activists) were committed to kill and be killed.”

The Gaza flotilla was organised by The Free Gaza Movement, and a Turkish group called the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (IHH).

Following the incident, Israel faced widespread international condemnation.

Israel has claimed it would co-operate with a UN investigation into the deaths, although it is currently holding its own second inquiry where it has so far defended its commandos’ actions. In all, almost 700 activists from various countries were seized in the Israeli operation.

Giora Eiland told the programme that in the circumstances the number of deaths was “surprisingly low”. The incident focused international attention on the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.

A month after the storming of the ships Israel announced that they were to significantly ease the blockade. Mr Eiland said: “Unfortunately they managed to achieve exactly what they wanted, a provocation, to be able to show the Israelis caused the nine deaths. So Israel is seen as using excessive force and is guilty for everything.”

Panorama: Death in the Med’ is broadcast on BBC One at 8.30pm.

Copyright © 2010 The Press Association. All rights reserved.

August 16, 2010
THE INFLUENCER

An entertainment mogul sets his sights on foreign policy.

by Connie Bruck

MAY 10, 2010

Haim Saban, a “former cartoon schlepper,” at home in Beverly Park. A major political donor, his greatest concern is to protect Israel. Photograph by Martin Schoeller.

“His “three ways to be influential in American politics,” he said, were: make donations to political parties, establish think tanks, and control media outlets.”

read more

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/05/10/the-influencer

August 15, 2010
RELEASE MORDECHAI VANUNU

Targeting: Barack Obama (President, USA), Rt Hon David Cameron (Prime Minister, UK) and Binyamin Netanyahu (Prime Minister, Israel)

Started by: Gail Vaughn

The following letter has been sent by Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate, and Gerry Grehan, Chair of the Peace People, Northern Ireland, to President Barak Obama, UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, other world leaders and prominent personalities, to ask for their help in obtaining the lifting of all restrictions on Mordechai Vanunu and for him to be granted freedom to leave Israel.

Please express your support for this letter by signing this petition.

28 July 2010

We are writing to you on behalf of a good man, a man of peace and conscience, who was returned to prison for three months on 23 May 2010.

He was released from prison on Sunday 8 August 2010. We need your support to help gain his freedom from Israel.

He is Mordechai Vanunu the Israeli nuclear whistle blower. In October l986, Vanunu told the world that Israel had a Nuclear Weapons Programme. He was kidnapped and given 18 years imprisonment for espionage and treason. Twenty four years later he continues to be punished. In the Jewish Scriptures there is great emphasis on justice and freedom.   He served the full 18 years of his sentence (twelve years in solitary confinement, described by Amnesty International as “cruel, inhuman and degrading”). Upon his release, the Israeli Government put severe restrictions upon him, including forbidding him to leave Israel and speak to the foreign media. It was the breaking of these restrictions, in summer 2004, by speaking to the foreign media, (mainly a long interview to the BBC), which resulted in his being returned to solitary confinement again this May.

Last month Amnesty International declared him a prisoner of conscience and called on the Israeli authorities to lift the restrictions immediately.  “The restrictions on Mordechai Vanunu arbitrarily limit his rights to freedom of movement, expression and association and are therefore in breach of international law. They should be lifted and he should be allowed to start his life again as a free man.   Mordechai Vanunu should not be in prison at all, let alone be held in solitary confinement in a unit intended for violent criminals.   He suffered immensely when he was held in solitary confinement for 11 years after his imprisonment in 1986 and to return him to such conditions now is nothing less than cruel, inhuman or degrading.” 18 June 2010 Amnesty International

Yet, when he is released from prison he will still have to remain in Israel and the restrictions will be reviewed and probably renewed yet again, as they have been renewed each year for the past 6 years.

Vanunu is seen as a traitor by some, a hero by others.   One thing is clear, he has been punished and served the full sentence and it is time after 24 years to do the human thing and let him live as a free man.

The Israeli Supreme Court continues to accept the Secret Services’ claims that he still has secrets, but a report by Reuters, 20 December 2009, shows that he does not :

” … Yet Uzi Eilam, a retired army brigadier-general who ran the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission between 1976 and 1986, said anything that Vanunu — a cause célèbre among disarmament campaigners — might still disclose about Dimona is of little relevance. “I’ve always believed he should be let go,” said Eilam.

“I don’t think he has significant things to reveal (about Dimona) now.”

However, we believe that he will be free and our hope is that you will in some way facilitate his early release which would be welcomed by a world waiting and watching for a peaceful and secure future for Israel and its people.    We would greatly appreciate your advising us of any action you take – info@peacepeople.com.

Shalom,
Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate
Gerry Grehan, Chair of the Peace People

Vanunu has been nominated year after year for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The many prominent names who have called for his release and respect of his human rights over the last 24 years include:

The late Nobel Laureates Joseph Rotblat and Harold Pinter; Nobel Laureates Former President Jimmy Carter; Archbishop Desmond Tutu; Mary Ellen McNish (on behalf of AFSC); Betty Williams; Adolfo Perez Esquival; Rigoberta Menchu; Shirin Ebadi; Wangari Maathai; Mairead Maguire; John Hume

Kidnap victims Brian Keenan; Anthony Gray

Politicians and human rights activists: the late Robin Cook, former UK Foreign Secretary; former Israeli Minister Shulamit Aloni; Helen Bamber; Simon Hughes; Daniel Elsberg; Bruce Kent; Noam Chomsky; Rabbi Philip Bentley (USA); Michael Mansfield QC; Dr Paul Oestreicher; Baroness Helena Kennedy QC; Tariq Ali; Jeremy Corbyn; Ken Livingstone; Ben Birnberg; David Goldberg QC; Alex Salmund

Actors, writers, musicians and artists: Emma Thompson; Julie Christie; Susannah York; Vanessa Redgrave; the late Corin Redgrave; Yoko Ono; Bono; Peter Gabriel; the late Graham Greene; the late Yehudi Menuhin; Janet Suzman; Gilad Atzmon; Richard Hamilton; Michael Rosen; David Gilmore; Benjamin Zephaniah, Alexie Sayle; Maggie Hambling; Tom Conti; Simon Callow; Jeremy Hardy; Miriam Margolyes; Prunella Scales; Arnold Wesker; John Williams; Roger Lloyd-Pack; Christopher Logue; the late Adrian Mitchell

Journalists: Andrew Neil; Jon Snow; John Pilger; Robert Fisk; Duncan Campbell; Victoria Brittain; Richard Norton-Taylor

August 15, 2010
Suspected Mossad agent lands in Israel after released in Germany

By Roman Frister

WARSAW – The Israeli suspected of forging a German passport allegedly used in the January assassination of a Hamas operative landed in Israel last night. The arrival of the man, identified as Uri Brodsky, came after a German court released him on bail following his extradition from Poland to Germany on Thursday.

A court in the German city of Koln subsequently said Brodsky will be allowed to leave the country while proceedings against him continue. He will be represented by his attorneys in court.

The man identified as Uri Brodsky being escorted by police to a courtroom in Warsaw in early August 2010. Photo by: Reuters

Brodsky, who is expected to face charges of forgery, faces a maximum penalty of three years. The Polish court that authorized his extradition limited the ability of German authorities to charge him with more serious crimes, noting the only available evidence related to the illegal procurement of a German passport.

According to Polish sources, even before his extradition was approved, a secret deal had been reached by which Brodsky would be allowed to return to Israel, with guarantees that if he is sentenced to jail time he will be sent back to Germany. German legal experts believe the court will only fine Brodsky and not ask for jail time.

Brodsky, an Israeli citizen, was arrested in Poland in early June, and is charged with helping procure a German passport through forgery. The German media reported that he used the name Alexander Verin when he assisted another alleged Mossad agent, who represented himself as Michael Bodenheimer, the son of a German Jew named Hans Bodenheimer, in acquiring a German passport.

Responding to the news that Brodsky was released on bail, the United Arab Emirates says it is seeking clarification from Germany on why it released an alleged Israeli spy wanted in connection with the slaying of a Hamas operative in Dubai. Emirati Foreign Ministry official Abdul Rahim al-Awadi said yesterday that the UAE has asked Berlin for an explanation of why Brodsky was released while the case is ongoing.

Brodsky is accused of illegally helping to procure a German passport used in connection with the January 19 assassination of Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai, allegedly by a Mossad hit squad.

The UAE authorities maintain that more than 30 suspects were involved in the hit, and that they used passports from Britain, Ireland, France, Australia and Germany. The use of apparently fake passports from other countries led to diplomatic friction between Israel and those countries, including the expulsion of Israeli diplomats in some cases.

https://www.haaretz.com/2010-08-15/ty-article/suspected-mossad-agent-lands-in-israel-after-released-in-germany/0000017f-e3d0-d9aa-afff-fbd88e100000, 15.08.10

August 15, 2010
Israeli diplomats boycott Mossad spies over wage dispute

Israel’s foreign diplomats have refused to work with Mossad spies “anywhere in the world” after agents effectively broke a strike picket line.

By Adrian Blomfield in Jerusalem

Mr Netanyahu asked Mossad operatives to help with his trip after the industrial action meant he would have to cancel it Photo: EPA

The rift was caused after the agency’s spies stepped in to help organise a trip for Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, to Greece next week, after foreign diplomatic staff refused because of industrial action over pay.

The strike, which was triggered by claims that diplomats get half the pay of defence ministry officials, has seen workers engineering a series of diplomatic faux pas. These include leaving the wife of Estonia’s president stranded at a restaurant outside Jerusalem and failing to role out a red carpet for the Russian foreign minister. They have also ditched suits in favour of jeans and sandals.

Mr Netanyahu asked Mossad operatives to help with his trip after the industrial action meant he would have to cancel it.

Hanan Goder, chairman of the foreign ministry’s diplomatic association, threatened to retaliate by withdrawing co-operation with Mossad.

He said: “It is unacceptable that the prime minister would use another body, which is strictly in charge of security matters to break a strike.”

He said: “Our mission abroad is to analyse political developments,” he said. “If we are excluded (from the Athens trip), they will face the consequences and we will not send them the reports we normally write.”

Mr Goder said striking diplomats would “provide no aid to Mossad representatives” at embassies and consulates around the world except in matters of “life or death”.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/7944635/Israeli-diplomats-boycott-Mossad-spies-over-wage-dispute.html, 13 Aug 2010

August 15, 2010