• UK, Sweden, Turkey, South Africa, and Ireland will not attend controversial conference hosted by Israel
• Many countries undecided or set to only send low-level delegations
• OECD General Secretary warns Netanyahu over Israeli Tourism Minister comments
• Palestine Legislative Council appeals for more countries to boycott conference
• Israeli membership of OECD ‘illegal under international law’
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The withdrawals come following comments made by Israeli tourism minister Stas Misezhnikov that the situating of the meeting in Jerusalem – the first OECD meeting hosted by Israel since it became a member in May and only the second time an OECD tourism conference has been held outside of Paris - was in effect recognition by OECD members of Jerusalem as Israel's undivided capital.
ReplyDeleteUnbelievable. Always trying to pull a fast one.
Postcard From Palestine
ReplyDeleteWithin its jurisdiction, the IDF enforces a policy it calls "separation," which has a renewed urgency in the wake of the second intifada. A three-foot concrete barrier runs down the main street of the downtown, creating a small shoulder where Palestinians may walk; Israelis pass on the other side. A few blocks farther on, an Israeli soldier and a flag on a rooftop herald the beginning of the zone the army calls "fully sterilized," meaning no Palestinians. A young merchant hawking bracelets followed our group, entreating us to buy a souvenir. He stopped short, as if running into a glass wall, the moment we hit the outpost.
http://www.thenation.com/article/155400/postcard-palestine
This article is in an American magazine, and it still only reaches a small percentage of Americans, but at least this is out there.
ReplyDelete<span>Postcard From Palestine
Within its jurisdiction, the IDF enforces a policy it calls "separation," which has a renewed urgency in the wake of the second intifada. A three-foot concrete barrier runs down the main street of the downtown, creating a small shoulder where Palestinians may walk; Israelis pass on the other side. A few blocks farther on, an Israeli soldier and a flag on a rooftop herald the beginning of the zone the army calls "fully sterilized," meaning no Palestinians. A young merchant hawking bracelets followed our group, entreating us to buy a souvenir. He stopped short, as if running into a glass wall, the moment we hit the outpost.
http://www.thenation.com/article/155400/postcard-palestine</span>
"Fully sterilized", or Arabrein.
ReplyDeleteThe obscenity in all of this is that Israel is now member of the rich club of the OECD and contunues getting billions in aid from the US while so many Americans have hit the poverty level. I think the number of poor in the US has reached something like 40 million people while Israel's population has among the highest incomes in the world. This is what the OECD story is highlighting to me and much more than the garbage spewed by the Israeli minister.
ReplyDeleteThe obscenity of this is that Israel is now member of the rich club of the OECD and continues getting billions in aid from the US while so many Americans have hit the poverty level. I think the number of poor in the US has reached something like 40 million while Israel's population has among the highest incomes in the world. This is what the OECD story is highlighting and more than the garbage spewed by the Israeli minister. There are worse things going on in Jerusalem than the harmless tourism convention and nobody is talking about those.
ReplyDelete