ANTIWAR – The Westcountry Mutineer

OBAMA VS. FLY

IN JANUARY, MORE column inches were probably dedicated to a fly that landed on Obama’s forehead than any of his policies or actions. Here at The Mutineer we thought we’d find out more about the creature bugging the President of the United States, and took the liberty of contacting an expert on flies at Bristol University. “The fly that landed on the President’s head was almost certainly a species of housefly”, our source told us. “They tend to feed on decomposing organic matter, especially meat. Obama has been looking old of late, and he has a lot of blood on his hands due to his drone war in Pakistan, so it’s not surprising that the fly took an interest in him. Houseflies are vectors of disease and in some parts of the world they can pass on some pretty nasty diseases”. So there we have it. Obama is responsible for the deaths of innocent civilians through his aerial attacks, to the point where he has been described as “Bush on steroids”, and his much-hyped environmental policies have barely been realised. The fly that landed on him is nature’s warfare against his misdeeds and inactions. We hope it’s the first of many fly-strikes against him.

Police have released a mugshot of the known suspect [above]

TEN YEARS OF FIGHTING WAR

FEBRUARY 2013 MARKS the 10th anniversary of one of the world’s biggest protests – the day the world stood up and said a huge resounding “NO” to going to war in Iraq. If you weren’t in London that day, chances are that you know someone who was.

Many seeds were sown on that day. Such was the impact, that when the first protests in Tahrir Square in Egypt, the birthplace of the Arab Spring (which was in turn a huge influence on the subsequent Occupy protests), were being organised, they stated that they wanted another Hyde Park.

Although it didn’t stop the war, it showed the world that the general public were not exactly happy about the impending war, and the moment that Tony Blair turned his back on us and went to want anyway, was the moment that all hopes of him being the man of the people some hoped he would be were gone for good.

PALESTINE: EXPECT THE U.N.EXPECTED

NOVEMBER WAS A funny month to be a Palestinian, to put it mildly. Beginning with the assassination of the Palestinian Hamas Party military chief on the 14th, the latest Israeli offensive into Gaza started in brutal earnest, ending 162 lives until the following Wednesday’s ceasefire. Near a quarter of those dead Palestinians were children. As the Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated areas in the world, it would have been impossible for the Israeli bombs to avoid civilian slaughter, even if that was the intention.

Immediately following this butchery came the inevitable wave of protests, with hundreds of demos held globally against the attacks, and a 15,000-strong Stop The War Coalition march in London on the 24th. In the southwest, Bath saw 20 out in protest the same day, and daily vigils stood their ground in Bristol centre. Elsewhere in the U.K., companies dealing with illegal Israeli settlements or supplying the I.D.F. weapons were also struck that week, with direct action, occupations, noise demos, and phone/e-blockades of Barclays Bank, G4S and even the Israeli state-sponsored Batsheva dance troupe!

Palestinians in the West Bank also carried out solidarity demos, to be met with typical Israeli oppression. Demonstrators were shot dead in Nabi Saleh and in western Hebron. A baby in Qalandia refugee camp was also killed, by Israeli tear gas: maybe it was a terrorist or something?

Alongside these intensifications of the 65-year occupation, since Hamas were voted in back in 2006, the Israeli government has punished the people of Gaza to an unimaginably barbaric degree. Medical aid and food shipments are regularly stolen by border guards, alongside necessity building materials and machine repairs parts. As a result, children are malnourished, hospitals are overstretched, sewage stays untreated, and poverty flourishes.

And then, just as trigger-happy Israel was busy breaking the ceasefire, the U.N. General Assembly voted on Thursday 29th to approve Palestine’s ‘upgrade’ to a sovereign ‘non-member observer state’, 138 votes to nine. The jury is still out on what this bit of paperwork means in practice, but this does mean access to various international agencies, treaties and the ability to take Israel to the International Criminal Court in the Hague over its war crimes. Whether or not the change in status will bring actual change, it does offer some hope. And it’s pissed off Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu no end!

Straight away, as well as America helpfully offering to punish those uppity Arabs by withholding U.S. financial support, Netanyahoo and his ultra-right friends responded by first of all withholding £75m in tax rebates to the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority; secondly, Ben the Builder has just announced new plans to build another 3,000 illegal homes, and to use development to cut off Palestine’s planned new capital of East Jerusalem.

So, whilst the Israeli P.M. is embarrassing even long-term collaborators like his British and U.S. allies, Hamas (one half of Palestine’s government) – just as murderous towards everyday civilians as the I.D.F. – are coming across smelling like roses, especially to their Muslim neighbours. You could say these are interesting times…

http://angryarabscommentsection.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/israeli-premeditated-offensive-against.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/30/un-palestine-recognition_n_2217165.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/29/us-palestinians-statehood-idUSBRE8AR0EG20121129

http://www.thenewfederalist.eu/EU-and-the-Palestinian-UN-vote,05413

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/11/30/responding-to-un-recognition-palestinian-state-israel-to-build-3000-new/

http://www.bikyamasr.com/81776/israel-breaks-gaza-ceasefire-repeatedly/