Tsunami of African immigration continues in Mediterranean: open the borders!

African immigrant child on boat (Adriana Sapone:AP) May 5 2015

The catastrophic drownings of nearly 2,000 immigrants from African countries, Syria, Gaza, Iraq, Afghanistan, not even two weeks ago has not decreased the tsunami of immigrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean–so great are the pressures compelling them. According to media, almost 3,700 people were rescued by Italian rescue boats just on Sunday. Over 7,000 were pulled from wooden boats & plastic dinghies over the weekend by Italian naval & coast guard ships, merchant ships of various nationalities, some private vessels, & rescue ships run by Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders).

Between October 2013 & October 2014, Italy ran Mare Nostrum, a rescue operation with a monthly budget of $12 million that rescued over 150,000 immigrants. It was hardly a model operation since fishermen off Lampedusa, an Italian island with an immigrant processing center, claimed the coast guard did little to save 369 immigrants who drowned there in October 2013. Mare Nostrum ceased operation & was replaced in November 2014 with Triton, a European Union (EU) border control operation with a monthly budget of $2.6 million & which has only rescued 20,000 people in the past six months. But of course their purpose is to prevent immigration, not rescue the drowning.

After nearly 900 immigrants drowned off the coast of Libya & the heat was on them, the EU held an emergency meeting to discuss the crisis. They agreed to triple funding for rescue operations. Media hasn’t reported sighting a single Frontex vessel out rescuing immigrants.

Videos & photos of the rescue operations show seniors & lots of children & families coming off the boats. The EU has no intention of allowing them refuge anywhere in Europe so pressure must be put on them to respect the ancient tradition of civilized humanity to give sanctuary. Neoliberal politicians are an ungodly lot & only respond to massive, sustained pressure–the political equivalent of beating them over the head with a two-by-four. And that is what it will take to give solidarity to our brothers & sisters who have every human & political right to receive sanctuary.

The rescue worker in the outfit is playing with the child rescued by an Italian frigate. Humanity thrives even when & where neoliberalism, the barbaric phase of capitalism, most wants it destroyed.

(Photo by Adriana Sapone/AP)

Racist assaults on Ethiopians in Israel

Ethiopian in Israel (Jack Guez:AFP) May 5 2015

Zionists are unable to explain (away) this picture of Israeli cops beating up on Ethiopians in Tel Aviv protesting racist discrimination & police brutality–which the media caption calls “alleged” even after they post this photo that would be evidence in criminal court.

It’s a great political disadvantage for Israel to have international exposure of its profound racism–built into the very nature of a Jewish-only state–whilst it is fighting a battle against the economic & cultural boycott (BDS) & growing Palestinian solidarity. But the unbearable tensions & contradictions of Zionism, unable to deliver on its promises, are erupting within Israel. That makes BDS all the more important.

There are leftists, who don’t know their ass from their elbows, who claim BDS will hurt Israeli workers. Do they mean the workers living in Zionist settlements in the West Bank on Palestinian lands? The very ones poisoning Palestinian water wells, pulling up their olive trees, torching the mosques, attacking the little kids? Or do they mean workers in Israel’s blood diamond industry? Or perhaps in the defense industry which produces 41% of all drones? It would be good if these leftist moralists would evince an iota of actual information on which they base their claims–instead of formulas that would make even Karl Marx turn over in his grave & weep.

BDS will affect Israeli workers & that’s a damn good thing. If they continue in their majority to support apartheid & ethnic cleansing, they’re facing a political abyss & a future rooted in war & militarism. IF BDS shakes them up, rattles their consciousness, forces them to examine Zionism & a Jewish-only state (making them more backward than feudalism), that is nothing but politically necessary.

The world watched in horror last summer as residents in Sderot, Israel pulled up easy chairs in the hills overlooking Gaza to cheer, wave the Israeli flag, & get a front row seat to genocide; we read Israeli writers discuss how the ethnic cleansing of Gaza was good for getting rid of belly fat. Human beings were meant for better things than psychopathy. Those whose ancestors suffered unbearable persecution for centuries were meant for better things than social hatred. They should be gurus of social tolerance & respect, not avatars of cossacks & storm troopers.

The violence against Ethiopian Israelis is of a piece with apartheid & the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Standing with them, building the economic & cultural boycott of Israel is a way of reaching out to Israeli workers in a gesture of good will, not with aggression. Because the only solution to the chaos Zionism has wrought is a democratic secular state where Palestinians & Jews live as brothers & sisters & they can stand together as beacons for the rest of humanity.

(Photo by Jack Guez/AFP)