| Submit your comments on this article | ||
| Britain | ||
| Brit usual suspects call on Obama to speak out over Gaza | ||
| 2009-01-04 | ||
| Several international artists, writers and political figures threw their weight Friday behind a call for a stop to Israel's bombing of Gaza and called on U.S. president-elect Barack Obama to speak out. Former London mayor Ken Livingstone, British artist Annie Lennox, rights activist Bianca Jagger, Politician George Galloway and even Mexico's rebel leader joined campaigners who have staged a week of rallies, culminating in a demonstration Saturday which will include a symbolic shoe protest outside Downing Street.
Former Eurythmics star Lennox added: "A few days after Christmas I came downstairs, put the television on, and saw smoke pyres coming from buildings and I was shocked to the core. Because I was thinking as a mother and as a human being, how was this going to be the solution to peace?" she added. Ethnic cleansing The rally will march past Downing Street, where protestors will leave old shoes for Prime Minister Gordon Brown, in the spirit of an Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush. Livingstone, who was ousted as London mayor in May, said that in the last few days there has been a ratio of 100 Palestinian deaths to Israelis killed in the Gaza conflict, in its seventh day Friday. "There is no sense that that can be proportionate," he said, calling Israel "a state built on ethnic cleansing," referring to its creation in May 1948, after which some 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled. "Obama supports force"
Obama has kept a low profile on the Gaza conflict, stressing that there is only one president at a time ahead of his inauguration on January 20. | ||
| Posted by:Fred |
| #5 I thought that people from England ordering around people from a former empire country was the very definition of imperialism. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2009-01-04 13:43 |
| #4 calling Israel "a state built on ethnic cleansing," referring to its creation in May 1948, after which some 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled. More revisionist history. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem ORDERED the palestinians to flee Israel, to allow the Egyptians, Jordanians, and Syrians a free hand in "slaughtering the Jews". Israel actually BEGGED them to stay and help build the new country. The palestinians went into "refugee" camps (more like internment camps), where they still reside, unwanted by their "host" nations. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2009-01-04 13:24 |
| #3 Obama has kept a low profile on the Gaza conflict, stressing that there is only one president at a time ahead of his inauguration on January 20. The Great...um...and Powerful...um...Oz has the matter Well in Hand! Now go home folks! Get outta here! (Translation: Obama sees no immediate advantage in grandstanding on this issue ahead of a sitting president, unlike the economy for example.) |
| Posted by: Flusomble the Wide5751 2009-01-04 11:21 |
| #2 A former mayor, a former pop singer, a former wife... these people define "has been". |
| Posted by: Grunter 2009-01-04 06:36 |
| #1 The rally will march past Downing Street, where protestors will leave old shoes for Prime Minister Gordon Brown I wonder what Kipling would say. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2009-01-04 00:26 |