The Truth, Distinguished Delegates

Each year I stand before the UN Assembly as Israel’s prime minister and try to distract and mislead you; now I will tell the truth about Iran, the Palestinians and Israeli democracy

Netanyahu shows guided missile sites in Beirut during his address at the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, at UN headquarters, Sept. 27, 2018.

What happens when both the Canadian media and government ignore the ongoing killing of Palestinians in Gaza?

Eleven-year-old Naser Musabeh was the latest (and the youngest) Palestinian protester to be killed in Gaza by Israeli snipers. Six others were killed and over 90 injured by rifle fire on Friday.  It’s hard to imagine the IDF thought that Naser represented a threat to Israel. The killings were all but ignored by Canadian media. And not mentioned at all by Canadian government officials. 

Quebec election comes to a close

TML Weekly asked Pierre Chénier, leader of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Quebec (PMLQ), his thoughts on the Quebec election in the final days of the campaign. That interview is published below.

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Bloody Friday as Gaza marks six months of protests

Paramedics carry an injured protester during Great March of Return demonstrations east of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on September 28 | Ashraf AmraAPA images

Canada’s bid for a seat on the Security Council of the United Nations

By GEORGE ALLEN

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in New York during the third week of September to address the United Nations General Assembly and also lobby other nations to get their support for Canada’s bid for a non-permanent Security Council seat for a two-year term from 2021-23. The members of the General Assembly will vote on the candidates in the fall of 2020 during the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

This day. Two hurricanes, two responses

A fishing shed floats offshore Fisherman’s Reserve on the Eastern Shore after Hurricane Juan (Photo | Allan Jean Joyce)

(Part of a series) This Saturday, September 29, marks 15 years since Hurricane Juan ripped through Halifax in the middle of the night toppling trees, smashing boats and knocking out power for many days and even weeks in some neighbourhoods. Wind speeds of up to 178km an hour were recorded at McNabs Island in Halifax Harbour. Mark Rushton and Tony Seed compare the responses of Canada and Cuba to hurricanes.

This day. Hurricane Juan

(Part of a series) This Saturday, September 29, marks 15 years since Hurricane Juan ripped through Halifax in the middle of the night toppling trees, smashing boats and knocking out power for many days and even weeks in some neighbourhoods. Wind speeds of up to 178km an hour were recorded at McNabs Island in Halifax Harbour.

Hurricane Juan and Depleted Uranium

Canadian navy and weapons of mass destruction

This Saturday, September 29, marks 15 years since Hurricane Juan ripped through Halifax in the middle of the night toppling trees, smashing boats and knocking out power for many days and even weeks in some neighbourhoods. Wind speeds of up to 178km an hour were recorded at McNabs Island in Halifax Harbour. Amunition shells from the 1940s and “other debris” were being washed ashore. | The late MITZI BOWMAN* with TONY SEED

BLUE ROCKS, NS (October 24, 2003) – THE Halifax Chronicle Herald reproduced on October 4, 2003 a capsule commentary from the Canadian Press that the Canadian Forces were cleaning up unexploded shells from the 1940s (WW2) “and other debris”.

Why isn’t the Chronicle Herald telling us what this “other debris” is or could be?

Presidents of Cuba and Venezuela speak at Riverside Church in Harlem

Cuban President Díaz-Canel and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro spoke at an event organized in solidarity with the two nations, in the emblematic New York church

President Díaz-Canel repeated Fidel’s historic visit to the Riverside Church back in 2000 | Leticia Martínez

Germany: A permanent base in the Middle East

german-foreign-policy.com

BERLIN/BAGHDAD/AL AZRAQ (September 18) – Berlin is considering the establishment of a permanent Bundeswehr base in the Middle East, German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said during her recent visits to Jordan and Iraq. German Armed Forces could be stationed at Jordan’s Al Azraq Airbase for an extended period in relative proximity to Iraq – similar to the US Persian Gulf bases.

Living in wacko-land

By PAUL ROBINSON | Irrussianality

(September 25) – A chance encounter with a Twitter post got me following links on the internet today as I filled in time between classes. I know that there’s a lot of truly rotten stuff out there, and every now and again I write some piece denouncing some example or other. But on the whole, I try and stay clear of it. Still, immersing myself in all this was rather interesting, so I thought that I would share the results.

The Tweet which got me started was this one from Toronto-based Ukrainian-Canadian ‘political analyst’ Ariana Gic, who writes occasional columns for outlets like the Atlantic Council. I’m always rather sceptical of ‘independent analysts’ who seem to lack an institutional base, and am frankly amazed  that one can making a living that way, but apparently one can. 

Freddie Oversteegen, gritty Dutch resistance fighter, dies at 92

Freddie Oversteegen was only 14 when she became an assassin for the Dutch resistance. She engaged in drive-by shootings from a bicycle and luring German soldiers into the woods, where they were executed. | National Hannie Schaft Foundation

By SAM ROBERTS

(September 25) – Freddie Oversteegen was only 14, petite with long braids, when she became an assassin and saboteur.

Workers speak out during Quebec election campaign

Entirely absent in the monopoly media are the concerns and voices of the working people. This becomes very clear during elections. On the other hand, publications such as Workers’ Forum, TML Weekly and Chantier Politique along with some other voices allow working people to soberly talk about their concerns and their demands, the defence of their own interests, as well as those of the whole of society and what needs to be done to provide them with solutions. The aim is that people are not befuddled and blocked from discussing and finding solution to their concerns.

‘The National’ or CNN North? – On the US Senate Supreme Court hearing

A national public broadcaster should inform us about the important things happening in Canada as well as the world.

Yet on September 26 the CBC devoted the lead 18 minutes of its flagship news program, “The National”, to the US Senate confirmation hearing of the US president’s nominee to that county’s Supreme Court. The program was repeated hourly.

Tornado strikes the Outaouais leaving many families homeless

Chantier Politique, online bulletin of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Quebec (PMLQ), has published several items on the tornadoes, effect, response and environmental, social and political implications of such natural disasters:

Word. Cuba addresses the United Nations General Assembly

Full text of the speech offered by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, during the General Debate of the 73rd Session of the UN General Assembly

President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez addresses the UN General Assembly

Donald Trump at the UN: A speech full of attacks on Iran, Venezuela, and its Cuban allies

“All nations of the world should resist socialism and the misery that it brings to everyone,” the U.S. President stated, in what was a cynical and absurd speech, with all the rhetoric of the Cold War

The elephant in the room of New Brunswick election results

Mass demonstration by more than 2,000 public sector workers and retirees in defence of their pensions, Fredericton, November 6, 2013.

By TONY SEED

The final result of the New Brunswick election on September 24 gave rise to a minority Conservative government. The Conservative Party received 22 seats; the incumbent Liberal government, 21 seats; the Green Party, three seats; and the People’s Alliance, three seats. Both Blaine Higgs and Brian Gallant, leaders of the Conservatives and Liberals respectively, claimed to have won the election.

The blockade aganst Cuba in facts and figures

Granma newspaper provides a summary of the latest calculated damages to Cuba caused by the U.S. blockade policy. Cuba will present its annual report on the blockade damages to the UN General Assembly this October | Bertha Mojena Milián

A despicable attack on the truth: Cyber attack on Cubainformación TV website

A destructive cyber attack on the Spanish Cubainformación TV website was condemned by the Union of Cuban Journalists and the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples | Nuria Barbosa León 

José Manzaneda, coordinator of Cubainformación TV | Luis Ernesto Ruiz Martínez

News of the almost total destruction of the Spain-based Cubainformación TV website on August 17 was immediately condemned by its regular users, the Union of Cuban Journalists (UPEC), the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), and other progressive forces defending the truth.

Ireland: A ‘secret massacre’ emerges from the shadows

A new documentary film aims to expose the events surrounding the Ballymurphy Massacre. RICHARD RUDKIN reports

A scene from The Ballymurphy Precendent

The forgotten massacre

Thirty years after 1,700 Palestinians were killed at the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps, Robert Fisk revisits the killing fields 

Bodies at the Sabra and Chatila Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut in 1982 | REUTERS

The memories remain, of course. The man who lost his family in an earlier massacre, only to watch the young men of Chatila lined up after the new killings and marched off to death. But – like the muck piled on the garbage tip amid the concrete hovels – the stench of injustice still pervades the camps where 1,700 Palestinians were butchered 30 years ago next week. No-one was tried and sentenced for a slaughter, which even an Israeli writer at the time compared to the killing of Yugoslavs by Nazi sympathisers in the Second World War. Sabra and Chatila are a memorial to criminals who evaded responsibility, who got away with it.

Sabra and Shatila: New Revelations

Surviving Palestinian civilians returning to the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila after the massacre carried out by Phalange-linked militiamen, Beirut, Lebanon, September 21, 1982. | Alain MINGAM/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

By Seth Anziska

Historians try not to audibly gasp in the reading rooms of official archives, but there are times when the written record retains a capacity to shock. In 2012, while working at the Israel State Archives in Jerusalem, I came across highly classified material from Israel’s 1982 War in Lebanon that had just been opened to researchers. This access was in line with the thirty-year rule of declassification governing the release of documents in Israel. Sifting through Foreign Ministry files, I stumbled upon the minutes of a September 17 meeting between Israeli and American officials that took place in the midst of the Sabra and Shatila massacre.

Sabra & Shatila, 1982 – never again

The world watched in horror as the story of the inhuman massacres in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon first emerged in September, 1982 | An entire generation of the Palestinian people has grown up in their shadow | The general at the centre of this butchery is today the prime minister of Israel – Ariel Sharon | The scale of the infamy has changed, but not the methods, the perpetrators or their allies | The past is always present

Sabra and Chatila – two undefended refugee camps in Beirut where hundreds of unarmed Palestinian refugees, including babies, were massacred 16-18 September 1982. (Click to enlarge)

From the Dossier on Palestine (2002)

By PIERRE PÉAN*

TWENTY years have passed, but reread the accounts or speak to survivors in what remains of the Sabra and Shatila camps, and the words still drip red. Time has not washed away the blood. All through my investigation I was horrified as I listened to story after story about children with their throats slit, or pregnant women with their bellies slashed open, or heads and limbs hacked off. I felt physically sick.

Syria: The Battle of Idlib

By GHASSAN and INTIBAH KADI

(September 1) – Or is it the Battle for Idlib? And whose battle? And who is fighting who? And where?

The only thing that is clear about this seemingly upcoming battle is the fact that Idlib has been “used” as a sink hole and dumping ground for all anti-government/anti-Syria terrorists. Such a status quo cannot last.

A reflection on Mangkhut, Florence and the state of the Philippines

Canada must provide humanitarian assistance without conditions to the people of the Philippines | TONY SEED

My thoughts have been with all my friends and the fraternal peoples of the Philippines and South Asia threatened from super typhoon Mangkhut. My aim in this reflection is to analyze the news coverage of both Florence and Mangkhut and to inform Canadians about the reality facing the Filipino people.

(September 15) – Mangkhut is the 15th and strongest storm this year to batter the Philippines.

Mangkhut (also known as Ompong) has brought ferocious winds of up to 130mph and a storm surge of up to 23ft. The Category 5 typhoon greatly surpasses the strength of Hurricane Florence now striking the US Atlantic coast.

War preparations in Montreal

File photo from 2017 Contested Urban Environment exercise in Australia

From September 10-21, various parts of the city of Montreal are serving as a venue for the 2018 Contested Urban Environment Experiment (CUE). These war exercises are being conducted under the auspices of the Five Eyes, a U.S.-led global spying network that also includes Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK.

Make Quebec a Zone for Peace

 

By Christine Dandenault*

On Monday, September 10, nearly 150 scientists and technicians from the security agencies of the member countries of the Five Eyes and about 100 soldiers from the Canadian Armed Forces Royal 22nd Regiment 3rd Battalion’s ‘B’ Company began testing some 50 or so new technologies in Montreal.

This day. Assassination of Steve Biko

“The greatest weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.”

Bantu Stephn Biko, the leader of the Black Consciousness movement, died in Pretoria, South Africa on 12 September 1977. Born on 18 December 1946, he was the first president of the South African Students Organisation (SASO), which he co-founded in 1968 – a year of global protests; the anti-Vietnam war protests, huge civil rights demonstrations and student protests.

17 years ‘War on Terror’

Seventeen years after the September 11 terror attacks, German government advisors are calling for a re-evaluation of the ongoing “War on Terror.”