Craig Murray's Blog, page 161

Massacre Justification

There is a concerted media ploy to change the narrative on the massacre of hundreds of women and children in Gaza, on the grounds that it is Hamas’ fault for breaking the ceasefire. The Israeli account of the ceasefire breakdown is parroted relentlessly.

I have put some effort into discovering why the ceasefire broke down, including contacting sources in Gaza itself. What is plain is that there were multiple incidents shortly after the ceasefire deadline, of violations by both sides. This is actually normal – such ceasefires usually take a few hours to take hold as fighting in hot progress and operations under way get stopped. At leasy eleven Palestinians were killed by shellfire in the first hour after the ceasefire.

The media has however focused solely on a single incident, that which featured missing Israeli Lieutenant Goldin. What appears to have happened here was that the Israelis were continuing with their destruction of tunnels, as the ceasefire provisions allowed. They came across a group of Palestinian fighters sheltered in the tunnels, and not surprisingly the Palestinian fighters did not interpret the ceasefire as meaning the Israelis could kill them but they were precluded from fighting. In the ensuing firefight some on both sides were killed and injured, while Lt. Goldin has disappeared.

Incidentally it is worth noting that my information is that Hamas’ statement that the incident was a deliberate ambush, and occurred before the ceasefire, is also untrue.

The Israelis immediately called in massive shellfire and missile attack. It is not improbable Goldin was killed or wounded in the firefight – or possibly just hiding – and he and his body destroyed by an Israeli shell or missile. It is a sad norm of warfare that sometimes there is no recognisable body.

Why we are supposed to be more concerned about Goldin than about the twenty Palestinian children who have been killed since he vanished, is beyond me. But you see, killing those children is now OK again, because Hamas broke the ceasefire. The media have a nice narrative mapped out for them – and boy, are they milking it.

Gaza Genocide Promoter Baroness Cox – Dundee University Must Withdraw Honorary Degree

Baroness Cox is a prominent supporter of organisations which actively and openly promote the ethnic cleansing of all Palestinians from Gaza. She was incredibly given an Honorary Degree by the University of Dundee in 2006. I call on the students and academic staff of Dundee University to campaign to have this award stripped from her.

It is a matter of shame to me that my University has honoured a woman whose primary political activity is as a promoter of genocide.

Baroness Cox’s support for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is persistent and consistent. She is the deputy head of the Presidium of the Jerusalem Summit, an organisation which states that:

“The establishment of a Palestinian state must be removed from the political agenda”

The Jerusalem Summit calls for the deportation of all Palestinians from Gaza.

This is not an accidental association of Baroness Cox. She also is a key member of the Israeli Institute of Strategic Studies, which also calls prominently for the ethnic cleansing of all Palestinians from Gaza:

“The only durable solution requires dismantling Gaza, humanitarian relocation of the non-belligerent Arab population, and extension of Israeli sovereignty over the region.”

This is not an issue of freedom of speech. Genocide is in process in Gaza today. To support genocide is not a legitimate academic position within the realm of free debate. Dundee University must end its honouring of Baroness Cox, or be seen as endorsing the legitimacy of her views, which all decent people find obnoxious.

Werritty’s Chum Gould Cheers on Gaza Genocide

Where is the British Ambassador to Israel Matthew Gould, who has put so much effort into promoting himself as a self-proclaimed “Jewish Zionist”? What has he to say while the people in Gaza are being massacred even as they shelter in UN facilities?

Well two days ago he was attending the swearing in of new Israeli President Rivlin, together with a British delegation of weird right wing folk, including Baroness Pauline Neville Jones, favourite “security expert” of the BBC, Stuart Polak of Conservative Friends of Israel, and New Labour public school and Oxford right winger Paul Spellar.

But surely the British Ambassador to Israel has spoken out in public about the terrible carnage in Gaza?

He most certainly has. Gould has reflected the massive indignation of the British people by stating that:

“This was a conflict triggered by Hamas raining down on Israel hundreds and hundreds of rockets fired indiscriminately at Israeli towns and cities. Israel has a right and even an obligation to defend it citizens.”

Gould paid a pro-Israeli propaganda visit to Sderot, the Israeli chosen destination for media reports about Hamas rocket attacks, and the place where Israelis hold parties to watch people being blown apart in Gaza. Gould spoke of having to take his own family into the bomb shelter in Tel Aviv when sirens sounded from Hamas attacks.

Matthew Gould was a long term collaborator of Adam Werritty, having held meetings with him over a decade in Tehran, Washington, Israel and London, at most but not all of which Liam Fox was also present. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office refuse to list these meetings or say who was present and what was discussed, even though Gould met Werritty including when Gould was Private Secretary to both David Miliband and William Hague.

I have no hesitation whatsoever in stating that what is happening in Gaza is a part of a continuing process of deliberate genocide of the Palestinian people by the Israelis. When I have previously stated this, some commenters have taken issue with the word genocide. I see no other word that fits.

This chilling article by Martin Sherman, Head of the Israeli Institute of Strategic Studies, calling for Gaza to be ethnically cleansed of all Palestinians, should open the eyes of some of those who refuse to see that Israel is no longer a morally defensible entity. The 3,600 Facebook shares of this evil are evidence of how the madness of fascism has overtaken the citizens of Israel.

This banner on Herzl Boulevard expresses what has become the catchphrase for the extermination of Palestinians “There are no innocents in Gaza“. This justification of the extermination even of women and children should evoke parallels for Jewish people which are too obvious for me to emphasise. Yet this extraordinary slogan, justifying genocide, is supported and repeated by huge sectors of the Israeli populace.

I wonder how long it will be before we hear it from Matthew Gould?

Trophy Pictures

I just saw the British Prime Minister do something, so appallingly tasteless I could not believe it was happening. BBC News just showed a dawn raid by immigration officers on a well-kept home. So far, so tasteless.

Astonishingly, once the evil foreigners had been herded up and taken off to detention camps, where they risk being beaten up or raped, Teresa May and David Cameron arrived, and posed in the victims’ kitchen for trophy pictures.

I thought that what Blair has done since leaving Downing Street had debased the office of Prime Minister to an astonishing degree. But, posing for a stunt in the neat and clean kitchen of some poor immigrant, David Cameron had plumbed levels of tastelessness that again make me realise that the UK has become a country whose values I no longer recognise. The disgusting complicity of the BBC in filming this stunt is equally astonishing.

Are there really so few people left who have the slightest idea of what constitutes decent human behaviour?

That BBC Scam

On 8 June this blog broke the news that not only did Obama make his statement of support for Unionism with the support of No.10, but that the BBC was in on the set-up and had been briefed by No.10 and the FCO to ask the question.

I have this from an impeccable, eye-witness source. But I nevertheless set out to double confirm the story by checking with No. 10. 52 days ago I sent them a written question, to ask:

“Whether the BBC journalist who asked President Obama the question about Scottish independence, had any prior briefing or discussion with any government minister, official or other employee.”

Answer came there none. After a series of reminders I finally received a “reply” from the Scottish Office, nearly two months later. This bears no relation whatsoever to the question I asked, and does not even refer to the question I asked.

non-answer

(if you keep clicking on non-answer when it comes up, eventually you get to it).

Personally I have always been 100% certain that my source could be trusted and the BBC were indeed actively involved in setting up this unionist stunt. The extreme delay and evasion in replying to my question only goes to confirm this.

Let Them Eat Quenelles

This nation of benefit cuts and food banks is doing very nicely economically. In fact anyone who claims people cannot afford to eat is plainly very wrong indeed.

It was the wines which really caught my attention:

Chateau Latour 59 average price 1,738 pounds per bottle

Brauneberger Juffer Spatlese 1976 I can’t find commercially available. But much younger it is 76 pounds a bottle.

Krug 1969 average price 1,116 pounds per bottle

Taylor 1955 port average price 322 pounds per bottle

So plainly the country has loads of money. Now stop whingeing and be proud of this great country.

With thanks to the ever excellent Munguin’s Republic.

Met worse than Murdoch

The revelation that undercover Met officers spied on the family of Jean Charles De Menezes after they murdered him, leaves me utterly appalled.

You have to consider this in the context of the lies that the Met assiduously spread about De Menezes – that he entered the tube without buying a ticket, that he vaulted the ticket gates, that he ran away from officers, that he was wearing a bulky jacket.

All of these were lies. In truth the poor man had entered the tube normally and legally, walked calmly and sat down with a free newspaper. He wore a short tight denim jacket. Then totally without any cause or justification from his actions whatsoever, his murderers shot him multiple times in the head. Just because his Brazilian complexion looked a bit Arab.

I can think of no category of lie worse than that told by a murderer against the reputation of their victim.

The police did everything they could to mislead the media, planting lies and encouraging stories they knew to be untrue. Personally I find it extremely suspicious that numerous CCTV cameras were found not to be working, and have little doubt that the police destroyed that evidence.

There can be no other motive for spying on De Menezes’ family than either the hope of gaining information to feed to the media to discredit the man they murdered, or to attempt to pervert the course of justice.

They did not have to worry – their were plenty of others to pervert the course of justice for them, including the DPP and above all, Sir Michael Wright, as disgusting a piece of scum as ever sat on an English bench, who directed the inquest jury that they could not return a verdict of unlawful killing. (I was delighted to find that, when I googled Sir Michael Wright, my article on him came high on the first page. Is that result tailored by Google for me, or is it general?)

The recent revelation that the Met spied on Menezes’ family sparked very little public interest. It should. It is a still more appalling outrage than the Murdoch press hacking Millie Dowler. At least the Murdoch gang had not actually murdered Millie Dowler themselves. The De Menezes family were being spied on by their son’s and brother’s murderers.

More BBC Dross

“You have had to live with the missile threat from Gaza for fourteen years now. But now you face a new threat, the tunnels Hamas have built running here from Gaza. How concerned are you about that?”

Incredibly, that really was a question asked by BBC journalist Stephanie Bell of an Israeli man, just broadcast on BBC1. So far over 600 Palestinian civilians have died compared to two Israeli civilians (one of whom was a Bedouin who as a matter of policy are denied air raid shelters). Yet the BBC continues to pump out the narrative that the “problem” is Hamas attacks on Israel.

There are many other more interesting questions Stephanie Bell might have asked. Here are some:

“Do you ever wonder about the lives of the Arab families who lived here before they were removed by force? Whether any of them are now living in Gaza and under those bombs and shells”

“Do you honestly believe that this land is yours because God said so?”

The BBC had also been reporting as credible Israel’s appalling denials that it massacred those families in the UN school, and completely unsubstantiated claim it was stray Hamas fire that did it. The UN have confirmed that Israel has regularly been hitting UN schools and medical facilities.

Two-Faced Flags

In my 55 years of life, I had never until yesterday seen a flag which was a saltire on one side and a union jack on the other. Yet last night thousands of them were distributed free at the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony. I have been told they are being given out at the swimming today, and possibly at other venues too.

Such flags do not normally exist. They had to be specially commissioned, and somebody had to pay for them. Who paid for them? Is it public money?

There is no doubt why these unique flags were commissioned, and why they are being given out free at considerable expense. It is to provide TV images of Scotland combined in the union, and to make sure that Scottish medals are greeted with media images of union jacks being waved with the saltire.

In the context of the referendum, only a hardened liar could claim that these unique flags were commissioned without a view to the campaign. This is enormous hypocrisy by the unionists, who have been bombarding the media for weeks with warnings to Yes supporters not to “politicise” the Commonwealth Games.

The BBC informs us that “political flags” are not allowed inside games venues. So saltires with a Yes will be confiscated. The BBC report states:

Well hold on, some flags will not be allowed to fly. Political flags.

Both sides of the independence debate have agreed not to use Glasgow 2014 for political gain anyway.

But even if you wanted to, well, it’s against the rules.

Glasgow 2014 Venue Regulation 6.18 states that no flags are allowed to enter a venue – or the vicinity of any Games venue – if they are normally associated with causes, affiliations or organisations.

Nobody can possibly argue that, at this time, a Union Jack combined with a Saltire is not an image strongly associated with a cause or association. So the rules are being quite deliberately broken, and somebody is funding that breach and doing it on a massive scale. It is vital that we know: who is paying for these flags?

Actually I am not sure why union jacks are allowed in at all. The rules are very clear. If you try to take in a Palestinian flag or a Dutch flag it will be confiscated. Again, to quote the BBC:

You are not allowed, however, to bring the flag of a country not competing in the Games

The United Kingdom is not competing in the Games. So there is a very respectable argument that union jacks should not be allowed in at all.

What is absolutely certain is that the two-faced union jack and saltire flags are very strongly associated with a political cause or affiliation. If they are allowed in, then Yes saltires should be allowed in too.

UK Complicity in Massacre

78 people died at Glencoe and we still sing about it over three hundred years later. Over 700 have been massacred so far in Gaza, 80% of them innocent civilians. The UN Human Rights Commissioner has made the very obvious, the unarguable, point that there is prima facie evidence of war crimes by Israel. These include the killing of four young boys playing football on the beach at Gaza, and the use of industrial nail bombs in civilian areas.

Yet the UK refused to support even having an investigation. Please note this was not a vote to condemn Israel, or to declare war crimes. It was a vote to have an investigation.

I am ashamed to belong to the UK. Just as having served the UK for twenty years and having worked my way up to be a proud British Ambassador, I became so ashamed at our complicity in torture and extraordinary rendition, I had to resign.

I want to be part of a country of which I am not ashamed

Now imagine that board with Scotland on it and a green light next to it.

This is the British Foreign Secretary. He declares that Israel “has a right to defend itself” and that for the UN to investigate Israeli war crimes is “unhelpful”.

This man does not represent me, or anything about me. Nor, emphatically, does that flag behind him.