Well, it’s a start.

The agreement includes a schedule for France to reimburse Haiti for the 90 million gold francs that Haiti, a former French colony, paid to France from 1825 until 1947. This historic payment, which compensated France for profits lost from the slave trade after Haitian independence, has long been a source of tension between the two countries. Under Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the Haitian government launched legal proceedings over the indemnity payment, and the issue also sparked protest during President Nicholas’ Sarkozy’s historic February 2010 visit to Haiti.

I remember reading about this back in January and I couldn’t believe it. Forcing a country to pay reparations for independence from slavery! Bah!

Now, I was going to post this yesterday, but I didn’t have time… it’s a good thing I waited…..

ONE DAY LATER

Well, turns out the announcement is a hoax.
Knew it was too good to be true.

France Threatens Legal Action over Haiti Reparations Hoax

In other Haiti news, the French government says it’s considering legal action against the perpetrators of an internet hoax that claimed France would repay the billions of dollars it took from Haiti for an indemnity dating back to the nineteenth century. France forced Haiti to pay the so-called “reparations” of 90 million gold francs up until the Second World War to cover its financial losses from the Haitian uprising against foreign colonization. In a video falsely attributed to the French Foreign Ministry, an actor posing as a French government spokesperson said the money would be given back.

Speaker: “France is repaying the historic debt of 90 million gold francs Haiti paid to France following the former’s independence at the dawn of the nineteenth century. For too long, Haiti has been saddled with the burden of foreign debt, debt that has just added to natural catastrophes to block this country’s development over the past decades. The disaster that has befallen the Haitian people is clearly not merely the result of January’s earthquake. It is in part the result of long-term economic and social policies.”
The group behind the hoax, the Committee for the Repayment of the Indemnity Money Expropriated from Haiti (CRIME), provided a statement to Democracy Now! saying, “The announcement was a hoax, but the far bigger hoax is how little France, as well as the U.S. and Canada, have offered Haiti in earthquake relief, relative to what Haitians are owed in reparations.”

How can we ever hope for peace when Israeli bulldozers continue to uproot olive trees?

The original route of the barrier – which Israel says is necessary for security reasons – would have cut Al Walaja in two. The community launched a legal petition to keep the village intact, which was granted – with the catch that the revised route, announced in April 2006, would completely encage the village. Al Walaja would become a tiny Palestinian enclave connected to the nearest West Bank town by one road or tunnel controlled by a checkpoint.

This spring the bulldozers arrived. To Bargouth’s dismay and anger, the barrier – which he expects to be a concrete base topped by a fence – will run through his land a few metres from his house. To create the required 100 metre-wide strip of restricted ground for the barrier’s route, the Israeli military uprooted 88 of Bargouth’s olive trees.

The first point I usually make when in a debate with someone who is pro-Israeli is about the West Bank.

How can the lack of progress in peace talks be the fault of the Palestinians? When the illegal settlements continue to be built, even in this so called freeze, and trees uprooted? Villages are cut off and encircled by concrete and barb wire.

Imagine the neighborhood you live in. Imagine that a foreign army came in and built a concrete wall around it. Imagine that to leave your neighborhood, you would have to pass an armed military check point. You have to do this to go to work, school, to get food in many cases, to reach a hospital. How does this differ from an open air prison? Really? Would you accept the lack of freedom to go where you please?

This is the feeling I try so desperately to impart to people who label all Palestinians as terrorists who do not want peace.

But we have to look at what the “Peace” is that is being offered? Would you accept anything less than absolute freedom to live a decent life? No? Then why should they?

Most people I talk to don’t even know Israel is building a wall right through the West Bank. Wikipedia describes it as this:

The Israeli West Bank barrier is a physical barrier being constructed by Israel, consisting of a network of fences with vehicle-barrier trenches surrounded by an on average 60 metres (197 ft) wide exclusion area (90%) and up to 8 metres (26 ft) high concrete walls (10%) (although in most areas the wall is not nearly that high). It is located mainly within the West Bank, partly along the 1949 Armistice line, or “Green Line” between the West Bank and Israel. As of April 2006 the length of the barrier as approved by the Israeli government is 703 kilometers (436 miles) long. Approximately 58.4% has been constructed, 8.96% is under construction, and construction has not yet begun on 33% of the barrier. The space between the barrier and the green line is a closed military zone known as the Seam Zone, cutting off 8.5% of the West Bank and encompassing tens of villages and tens of thousands of Palestinians.

A giant wall.

Dividing people.
Dividing land.
Dividing hope.

The only thing we can do to walls that are built…. are to break them down.

While it is just another statistic for the Israelis, another Palestinian family has been torn apart. US citizens, 17-year-old Hannah, 15-year-old Mirage and seven-year-old Yasmin are now fatherless. Former Texan Moira, nee Reynolds, who left the US 17 years ago to start a new life with her husband in Jerusalem, has lost her soul mate.

Two weeks ago 41-year-old Ziad Julani from East Jerusalem was shot a number of times at close range in the head and abdomen by Israeli special forces as he lay wounded on his stomach on the ground. An ambulance took the critically injured man to hospital but he died shortly afterwards.

Read more…

You know what my newest biggest pet peeve is about Israeli apologists? The word “unsustainable”. Ever since I first heard Hilary Clinton and then Obama use it when refering to Gaza, it’s made my stomach curdle. This word does nothing to convey the scope and depth of the horrors of what Palestinian people live with every day under Israeli occupation.

This article ends on a note that finds the word as distasteful as I.

Sadly, all one hears from the US is that the situation in Gaza is “unsustainable.” One has to wonder how many opinion polls were taken and how many brilliant communications experts it took to come up with this bland, overcooked and useless expression. I am sure they had to get the Department of State, the Israeli Embassy and AIPAC to OK it before the President uttered this unbearably lifeless word. The situation in Gaza is not ‘unsustainable’, the situation in Gaza and in all parts of Palestine is catastrophic.blockquote>

Read more…

Bah!