Feminist group LilithS creates blood bath in Liège airport

Feminist group LilithS creates blood bath in Liège airport 1

This tuesday August 26th, the belgian feminist activist group LilithS took Liège airport by storm to condemn the airport authorities' role in supplying arms to Israel. 

 

Under a banner bearing the slogan "HOW MANY TONS OF WEAPONS FOR SO MANY LITRES OF BLOOD ? ", the activists spilled a hundred litres of fake blood, creating a red pool to symbolize the slaughter committed by Israel in Palestine. The activists wore t-shirts and masks bearing the colours of the Palestinian flag and the slogans "Euro-Collabo", "Palestine: un état maintenant!", "Terrorism is real", and "Free Palestine".

 

26 Belgian non-profits and political parties have condemned the lack of transparency at the Liège airport, which is believed to be instrumental in the transit of weapons from the United States destined for Israel. LilithS joins them in decrying the collaboration of the Wallon government and the European Union, who, by turning a blind eye, participate in the massacre of Palestinians.

 

The oppression of the Palestinian people continues because the international community, led by powerful European and American interests, allows it to. Israel, benefitting from a steady supply of munitions and fuel, has become a military giant before whom the Palestians are practically powerless.
From 2005 to 2006, more than 160 million explosives, 17 million weapons, and over 1 million cartridges, tear gas cannisters, and detonators were delivered by the United States to the Israeli army by way of the Schipol airport in the Netherlands. This arsenal was used by the Israeli army in Lebanon in 2006, resulting in the deaths of over one thousand people.

 

The Dutch airport's transparency policy with regards to the contents of cargo eventually led the Israeli cargo company in charge of arms transfers to relocate to the Liège airport, which has no such transparency policy. As long as the military material being transported doesn't change vehicles, Belgium turns a blind eye.

On July 8th of this year, Israel launched operation "Protective Edge" in Gaza; according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, over 2,000 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the offensive, including 724 women or children; over 10 000 people have been injured; and as many as 520 000 Palestinians have been forced to flee their homes. 17 200 homes and 138 schools have been totally destroyed or severely damaged, and neither health facilities nor refugee centers have been spared by Tzahal, the Israeli "defense" force. The only power station in the Gaza Strip (which supplies electricity to the strip's 1.8 million residents) was knocked out on July 29th, causing an interruption in the city's water supply. The damage to Gaza City is estimated at $5 billion.

 

In Israel, 64 soldiers and 4 civilians have lost their lives to Hamas rockets.
Throughout 66 years of occupation and oppression, the jewish state has sought to weaken and destroy the Palestinian people by military force. Even in times of peace, life in Palestine can be miserable; psychological harassment, the pillaging of resources, the constant encroachment of settlements... the list goes on....

 

We denounce the lack of transparency at the Liège airport.
We denounce the Wallonie region's willful ignorance of the arms transfers.
We accuse Europe of collaboration.
We demand that the European Union apply an arms embargo against Israel.
We demand that the European Union condemn Israel for atrocities committed against the Palestinians.
We call on the international community to join the campaign of boycotts, divestments, and sanctions against Isreal, in order to pressure the Israeli government into ceasing its illegitimate occupation and colonisation of Palestinian land.

 

Free. Palestine. Now

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Gut gemacht!

If you’ve spent any time discussing or reading about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I guarantee you’ve heard some variation of this statement:

OMG, Jews think any criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic! 

In the interests of this post, I’m going to assume that the people who express such sentiments are acting in good faith and really don’t mean to cause pain to or problems for Diaspora Jewry.  For those good-faith people, I present some guidelines for staying on the good side of that admittedly murky line, along with the reasoning why the actions I list are problematic.  (And bad-faith people, you can no longer plead ignorance if you engage in any of these no-nos.  Consider yourselves warned.)  In no particular order:

 

1. Don’t use the terms “bloodthirsty,” “lust for Palestinian blood,” or similar.  Historically, Jews have been massacred in the belief that we use the blood of non-Jews (particularly of children) in our religious rituals.  This belief still persists in large portions of the Arab world (largely because white Europeans deliberately spread the belief among Arabs) and even in parts of the Western world.  Murderous, inhumane, cruel, vicious—fine.  But blood…just don’t go there.  Depicting Israel/Israelis/Israeli leaders eating children is also a no-no, for the same reason.

 

You can read the whole text here.