The Guardian has for once done a very good job of outlining the stark gap between the truth, and Israel’s “report” into the killing of four young children playing by the beach. It may be argued that this terrible tragedy is itself pretty irrelevant given that the Israelis killed 700 other children in Gaza that year. But the maintenance of this ludicrous, macabre and yes, evil, propaganda is fundamental to the self-image of many Israelis. They still contrive to see themselves as the good guys, under constant threat – despite the fact that Israel kills well more than a hundred for every Israeli killed.
This denial of the truth and claim of victimhood extends to the accusation of anti-Semitism trumpeted at every critic, including this one, despite the fact that I have the highest respect for the immense cultural and scientific achievements of the Jewish people. Israel is a different question entirely.
It is this absolute divorce of propaganda from reality that makes Tony Blair an ideal figurehead. Blair has now become head of a Council of Europe (loosely) linked body which claims to exist to promote tolerance, but in fact exists entirely to promote extreme Islamophobia and to shut down criticism of Israel. And it is a further sign of the estrangement from reality of the influential Israelis behind Blair’s appointment that they believe Tony Blair will influence public opinion positively in their favour. A remarkable example of confirmation bias.
Finally, I would merely note that it is not as insignificant as it may appear in terms of extreme corporatist bias, that the software auto-completes anti-Semitism for me (complete with capital letter), while it underlines Islamophobia as a non-existent word.
If our friend wants the whole caboodle, he can have it. Note he omitted to mention what the Detention Action spokesman said. I have emboldened his words.
Fast-track asylum system ‘unlawful’, High Court rules
3 hours ago From the section UK
Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre
Colnbrook is one of the immigration removal centres where asylum seekers are detained
The future of a key part of the government’s system to remove failed asylum seekers is in doubt after the High Court ruled it was unlawful.
Mr Justice Nicol said the Home Office’s system to “fast track” cases that officials think have no merit contained “structural unfairness”.
The process accelerates legal hearings and appeals, while keeping the individual detained at all times.
The government said it was disappointed by the judgment and would be appealing.
‘Serious disadvantage’
The judge said that despite a number of safeguards, applicants were not able to properly prepare their cases and their lawyers were also put in an unfair position.
Ruling on a case brought by campaign group Detention Action, the judge said: “In my judgment the Fast Track Rules (FTR) do incorporate structural unfairness. They put the appellant at a serious procedural disadvantage.
“The appellant is always detained and, as is obvious, the fact of detention places additional obstacles in the way of achieving all that has to be done before a tribunal hearing.
line
Analysis
Bags at Colnbrook
By Dominic Casciani, BBC home affairs correspondent
Fast-track removals were introduced more than a decade ago because the then government believed too many people were abusing the system.
But critics have long said the speed of the procedure is manifestly unfair, not least to individuals who may have complex but genuine claims for protection.
Mr Justice Nicol has put a stay on his judgement, and that means that the fast-track system remains in operation and asylum seekers within it can still be removed.
But if the government loses the eventual appeal, it could deal a major blow to an important part of the removal system.
There have been previous judgements against parts of the system – but this one is more important because the court said it was wrong that ministers could impose time limits, rather than giving discretion to tribunals. That’s something which the judge said looked like sacrificing fairness “on the altar of speed and convenience”.
line
“What seems to me to make the FTR structurally unfair is the serious procedural disadvantage which comes from the abbreviated timetable and curtailed case management powers.”
During the case, the government had argued that the system was fair because asylum seekers could ask for a 10-day adjournment before a final decision.
But the judge said the power to adjourn had a “very limited role” in ensuring a just outcome.
“Therefore I find that the claimant’s challenge to the legality of the Fast Track Rules succeeds,” the judge concluded.
Although Mr Justice Nicol has ruled the system illegal, he has put a temporary delay on his judgement coming into force to allow the government time to consider an appeal.
‘Speed and effectiveness’
The Detained Fast Track system plays a key role in immigration removals and can lead to someone leaving the country in about 22 days.
The system was created in 2003, and was applied to 4,300 asylum seekers in 2013.
Reacting to the judgement, Detention Action director Jerome Phelps said: “We are pleased that the Fast Track appeals process has been found not just unlawful but ultra vires [beyond the government’s powers].
“But we are shocked and disappointed that a stay has been granted, given that this is an area of law requiring the highest standards of justice and fairness.
“By granting the stay, it appears that the judge considers that the severe potential consequences to asylum seekers, including removal in breach of the Refugee Convention, are outweighed by the inconvenience to the Home Office and Lord Chancellor of suspending the process.”
The Refugee Council welcomed the ruling, with chief executive Maurice Wren saying: “Today the courts have recognised the detained fast track appeals system for what it is: fundamentally unfair and a grotesque caricature of British justice.
“This is an important step forward in the battle to stop government officials arbitrarily and shamefully imprisoning some of the world’s most desperate people who have simply asked for our protection.”
The government says Detained Fast Track is an important part of the UK’s immigration system.
A spokesman said: “It contributes significantly to the speed and effectiveness with which asylum cases are processed – including swiftly removing those found not to be in need of protection – and saves the taxpayer money.”
~~~
PS Colnbrook is operated by Serco! No words. Read and learn a few facts.
http://detentionaction.org.uk/aboutus/about-colnbrook-detention-centre
“Sorry, typo. “deutschen”.”
___________________-
No worries, Lysias, you know I wouldn’t have picked you up for something as trivial as a typo. So no need to apologise!
Jon Donnison used to report from Gaza for the BBC. There was an Israeli bias in his reports until the end of his time there after he was apprised of some of the facts.
Here he is reporting on that nice Mr Abbott’s detention centre on Manus Island.
Manus Island: Australia’s Guantanamo?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-33113223
There is a video version currently being shown on BBC News channel.
He just googles what he needs to know about and then presents the information as if it’s already known to him, dropping in the odd reference so that the mere mortals can be astounded at the breadth of his knowledge…. (bangs on, shamelessly licking the arse of its invisible mentor)
Straight from the Hasbara Handbook, though as usual without attribution.
Like just about everyone else, I use Wikipedia. You got me bang to rights, P(olitical) Constable. Unklike you, I usually provide links. You don’t, ever. From what unimaginable peak of intellectual attainment do your jejeune comments originate? Tell us. Try backing up your distractions once in a while and you may ascend to a higher status (even) than your present position as Hababbcuk’s Haemorrhoid merits.
Returning to the topic: we can expect more vindictiveness from Israel in the near future:
http://english.pnn.ps/2015/06/12/liebermann-and-omir-attack-gaza-and-end-hamas-rule/
The hawks are obviously ready to see Hamas replaced with IS:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/10/gaza-salafists-problem-hamas-islamic-state-isis
..and IS is happy with the idea…
Israel’s journey to self-destruction has perhaps started. It’s not the route I’d have chosen, but Netanyahu has.
Mary
Firstly, I am certainly not your friend. I am your Nemesis.
Secondly, the defence (and judge) made a big deal about detention while pricessing:
“The appellant is always detained and, as is obvious, the fact of detention places additional obstacles in the way of achieving all that has to be done before a tribunal hearing.”
I suggest to you, Mary – and to others – that not detaining asylum seekers during this fast track procedure (which only applies to cases where the govt believes the case is flimsy) would simply mean that most of those applicants would simply disappear.
And then you and others could slag off the govt the next time it’s reported that there are God knows how many hundreds of thousands undetected illegal immigrants in the country! 🙂
++++++++++++++++++
Of course, the priublem would be smaller if we all had to have an ID card.
Roll on the day says Habbabkuk.
Anon1
12 Jun, 2015 – 2:44 pm
“…the term came to mean anti-Jewish because of Europe’s long experience of and persecution of Jews, those being the Semites that Europeans knew…”
…………………………………………………………………..
Anon1, the European Jews were not ancestors of the ancient Hebrews i.e. Semites.
Do some research
Here is the video version.
Papua New Guinea: Inside Australia’s secretive asylum camp
4 hours ago
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has refused to deny reports that his border officials have paid thousands of dollars to people smugglers, to get them to turn around a boat load of migrants trying to get to Australia.
Thousands of asylum seekers are being held in off-shore detention centres which the UN has branded inhumane.
Australia does not allow journalists to visit the centres but the BBC’s Jon Donnison travelled undercover to Papua New Guinea to reach one such camp.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-33114230
Baal Zevul
What an immoderate comment addressed to Anon1, who had the temerity to criticise some junk you’d written!
I can see why you had the problems you did at school and in the Services.
Time for you to retire, I’d say.
Here’s the problem with Habab;
His style varies from semi-literate to downright literary, in a profane way. He goes from verbose minutiae to a miserly dearth of words waxing shiftless. Flexing occasionally toward reason is almost immediately followed with vain and obsequious attacks for the sake of same.
When does the shift change? Thorazine for multiple personality disorder is the only other remedy.
Our friend does not do irony.
No priublem!
Mr Scorgie
“Anon1, the European Jews were not ancestors of the ancient Hebrews i.e. Semites.”
_____________________
“Ancestors”, Doug?
Are you sure you’ve got the right word there?
You invite Anon1 to “do some research”; I in turn invite you to “consult your Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (2 vols)”.
Ben, go and have another smoke and a couple of beers. You know it makes sense!
Thought I’d change my handle for this one, just to please a certain someone.
+++++++++++++++
Anon1 – have you noticed that the Excellences, caught in our cross-fire, are once again on the run?
Evasions, diversion, insults, blustering….but never an attempt at a reasoned rebuttal or a defence of what they themselves have scribbled.
It’s a rout! 🙂
Well I don’t drink that much beer but the little smoke is my daily companion. In fact my growing skills owes you a debt.
When I visit my girls I read your precious words and the stress makes them produce twice as much THC. I am very popular in my neighborhood thanks to your efforts.
Seems fairly obvious to me: criticism of the actions of the Israeli government and anti-Semitism are obviously not the same thing. First off most Jews are not Israeli anyway and even amongst the Israeli Jews there is no shortage of criticism of Netanyahu and Gaza etc. Secondly, but by no means subordinate to that, not all Israelis are Jews and some of the biggest supporters of the Israeli Right are actually evangelical Christians – particularly in the USA and Britain. Ever watched the US Evangelical channel Daystar, for instance? However, it would be naïve to assume that it is not unknown for far right groups (such as neo-Nazis) to feign concern for the plight of Palestinians in the occupied territories and pretend to be on the left in order to sneak their crazed and utterly repellent views about Jewish people through the back door. I feel it’s important to watch that one does not get sucked into the one extreme of believing that all criticism of Israel must have an anti-Semitic (yes, a misnomer) motivation to believing that it never does and that it’s impossible for there to be any ulterior, much less honourable and certainly less genuine impetus behind it with certain people.
Anon1, the European Jews were not ancestors of the ancient Hebrews i.e. Semites.
I hope you meant that the other way round!
Do some research
But the notion of HH doing research is even funnier.
Back to the topic: untermensch build infrastructure on own ground shock horror –
http://www.jewsnews.co.il/2015/06/12/hamas-begins-patrolling-newly-constructed-gaza-border-road/
WTF did they expect? A perfect opportunity to ramp up civilian fears and bomb the shit out of an undefended, heavily populated, economically dead city again – ah, yes, that’s what.
Abe Rene; “I don’t seriously believe that Israeli forces would fire explosive rounds at people they knew to be children”
I take it that you don’t follow the I/P conflict very closely then;
“I saw small boys baited and killed by Israeli soldiers in the Gaza refugee camp of Khan Younis. The soldiers swore at the boys in Arabic over the loudspeakers of their armored jeep. The boys, about 10 years old, then threw stones at an Israeli vehicle and the soldiers opened fire, killing some, wounding others. I was present more than once as Israeli troops drew out and shot Palestinian children in this way”
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/why_israel_lies_20140803
“Children have been shot in other conflicts I have covered–death squads gunned them down in El Salvador and Guatemala, mothers with infants were lined up and massacred in Algeria, and Serb snipers put children in their sights…in Sarajevo–but I have never before watched soldiers entice children like mice into a trap and murder them for sport,” Hedges wrote. His account, coolly factual yet full of passionate intensity, was written not for his own paper but for Harper’s Magazine, which sent Hedges to Gaza on his vacation.” The Nation, March 11, 2002″
http://www.revisionisthistory.org/palestine46.html
(warning graphic photos)
Ignorance was bliss Abe ?
However, anti-Semitism is not a misnomer if applied to racist, far-right organisations such as the KKK for they belong to an ideology that regards all Semitic people as inferior whatever their religion (or lack thereof), simply because they view those of white north-west European ethnic heritage as a superior race to any other. Of course, Judaism is a religion and not a race even if most anti-Jewish folk perceive it that way. There are black Jews, south-east Asian Jews and Arab Jews – something that must really fuck with the tiny bigoted mind of the average far-right nationalist.
@ Becky Cohen – timely reminders. Some of us try to bear this in mind, some of us don’t. And some of us regard making those distinctions itself as antisemitism…
“…something that must really fuck with the tiny bigoted mind of the average far-right nationalist.” Becky.
On the contrary, since they hate all of the above groups too, it simplifies things for them.
I agree that criticism of Israel is not necessarily coterminous with Anti-Semitism. Of course not. But there is a lot of overlapping of meaning in certain societies/communities (eg. Arab/Muslim societies) where they do not seem to be able to conceive of the distinction.
Often I hear talk openly simply (on the Pakistani British equivalent of the Clapham bus, for example) of ‘The Jews’, meaning everything – Israel, the diaspora, everything. To some extent, politically, Israel thrives on this very attitude. These societies – helped enormously by their despotic regimes (eg. Iraq, from the 1930s, onwards) – have swallowed C20th European anti-Semitism and merged it with pre-existing local prejudices. But some people living in the West continue to hold these facile prejudices.
Back on topic:
http://blogs.channel4.com/paul-mason-blog/israeli-beach/3832
Because if you shoot someone in Gaza, it’s no big deal
http://www.breakingthesilence.org.il/pdf/ProtectiveEdge.pdf
Let’s argue about the etymology of ‘antisemitism’, eh?
“Anon1, the European Jews were not ancestors of the ancient Hebrews i.e. Semites.
Do some research”
I’ve done some research.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_studies_of_Jewish_origins
“In 1992 G. Lucotte and F. David were the first genetic researchers to have documented a common paternal genetic heritage between Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews.[22][23] In 1993, A. S. Santachiara Benerecetti, et al. have suggested the Middle Eastern origin of Jewish paternal lineages.”
“Like just about everyone else, I use Wikipedia”
Of course you do, Ba’al, and so do we all, but you miss my point. Deliberately, of course.
You dress your posts up as the manifestation of your own infinitely superior knowledge and wisdom, but they are just paraphrased from Wikipedia or similar. The funny part is how you try and hide your tracks by linking to a link from within whichever Wikipedia article you have been using, or one of the references beneath it, rather than the article itself. I’ve seen this time and again in your posts but haven’t raised it until now. The last thing you want is for someone to visit the Wikipedia page you’ve been using and discover that you are a mere mortal, hence your anger tonight. You’ve been found out.
What is it then? A constant need to be seen as more intelligent than you are? A craving perhaps? Rejection at public school or in Her Majesty’s Armed Forces? I don’t know, but one thing for certain is that you are far enough up your own arse to be your own hemorrhoid.
“What is there to discuss about the intentional murder by IDF soldiers of innocent Palestinian children?” Giyane.
Exactly. I’m surprised that anyone would be surprised. It’s an army of occupation and this is what armies of occupation do.
I think Majid Ali was fast tracked. I asked someone from NUS that at the demo and he said yes.
Genuine anti-Semitism, in the sense of anti-Jewish prejudice, certainly does exist and is scarily strong still in all the post-Communist territories.
“…you are far enough up your own arse to be your own hemorrhoid.” Anon1
This image reminds me a little of William Burroughs.
“Genuine anti-Semitism, in the sense of anti-Jewish prejudice, certainly does exist and is scarily strong still in all the post-Communist territories.” Craig.
Indeed. I once – this century – came across a village in central Slovakia where there is an old Jewish graveyard. The gravestones had been defaced with Nazi symbols and some had been kicked over. The thing is, the latest dates on the graves were from 1942. This is because the Jews of Slovakia were murdered en masse after 1942. It was profoundly disturbing.
Number of signatories to Early Day Motion on Majid Ali now up to 67.
In my time spent as a student, I learnt that it is always better to cite a source closer to the original than a source that depends on that earlier source. (This is of course particularly true if the earlier source is the earliest source of all, the original or primary source.) So, if Wikipedia says something citing an earlier source for what it says, it’s better to cite that earlier source.
Becky Cohen
“Seems fairly obvious to me: criticism of the actions of the Israeli government and anti-Semitism are obviously not the same thing. First off most Jews are not Israeli anyway and even amongst the Israeli Jews there is no shortage of criticism of Netanyahu and Gaza”
Yes indeed, Becky. All the more reason for Ba’al to call of his (still planned) protests outside UK synagogues.