Newcastle Journalists Step Up Action

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Newcastle Journalists Step Up Action

Christian Declaration on Legality and Morality of War with Iraq

Further Condemnations of Limitations of Jenin Report
Joint Arab-Jewish Manifestations in Israel

National Union of Journalists members at the Trinity Mirror-owned Newcastle Chronicle and Journal are stepping up their action over low pay with a two-day strike planned for Friday and Saturday this week.

Visitors to the picket line are always welcome but the journalists are making a special plea for unions and labour movement organisations to take their banners to support the strike at 12 noon on Saturday August 10, at the Groat Market in Newcastle-on-Tyne city centre.

The action is biting hard at the Sunday Sun which was due to be relaunched on Sunday. Management has decided to cut 16 pages from the planned size of the paper.

More than 100 NUJ members have already taken part in two days of solid strike action claim.

Under the latest proposals graduate trainees in Newcastle will start on £12,250 per year – compared to a reported (in the Newcastle Journal) average graduate starting salary of £20,000. The minimum rate for journalists with all their professional qualifications is £17,500. The basic pay offer is just 2 percent.

In other news, NUJ members at the Rotherham Advertiser have voted 77 percent for strike action and 92 percent for industrial action short of a strike after rejecting a 2.3 percent pay rise.

NUJ magazine journalists at EMAP (Greater London House) are also balloting for industrial action following the breakdown of pay talks. The titles affected by the dispute made a £30 million profit but journalists are being offered less than the rate of inflation. This is the first magazine chapel to join the battle against low pay. Please email messages of support to tashshifrin@hotmail.com

Yesterday, August 6, Pax Christi UK presented the first 2,500 signatures to the Declaration to Downing Street. They are continuing to gather signatures and will send them in batches to Downing Street.

In a press notice of August 2, Pax Christi says:

"Since its public launch in mid-July, the Christian Declaration questioning the morality and legality of war against Iraq has gained widespread support. The initial 100 signatories included Archbishop Rowan Williams, Anglican Bishops John Perry and Peter Price, Roman Catholic Bishops Malcolm McMahon, Thomas McMahon and Edwin Regan and academics and theologians from around the country. A further 2500 signatures * of support have been received from churches based groups, academics and individuals. Pax Christi, the organisers of the Declaration report that they have received much encouragement for the initiative. Many people said that had been looking for an alternative voice to that being offered by our political leaders and hope that the Declaration will generate serious reflection among decision makers. The Declaration appears to have captured the energy of convents, parishes, religious communities and families. It states: ‘It is deplorable that the world's most powerful nations continue to regard war and the threat of war as an acceptable instrument of foreign policy, in violation of the ethos of both the United Nations and Christian moral teaching. The way to peace does not lie through war but through the transformation of structures of injustice and of the politics of exclusion, and that is the cause to which the West should be devoting its technological, diplomatic and economic resources.’"

The Declaration was presented on the anniversary of the first use of nuclear weapons at Hiroshima in 1945. The organisers believe there is a strong link between the two. Forty-three years on the British government still holds and threatens to use its nuclear weapons.

Dr Tina Beattie, a member of the delegation presenting the Declaration said, "When our elected leaders are considering fighting a war in our name, funded by our taxes, there is no morally neutral position. Christians have a responsibility to affirm certain fundamental principles of justice, and for those who consider that a military attack on Iraq would violate those principles, then there is a duty to speak out publicly. The response to this declaration suggests that many welcome an opportunity to do so, adding our voices to the growing number expressing disquiet in military and political circles as George W. Bush and Tony Blair prepare for a war that could further destabilise one of the world's most volatile and violent regions, with devastating consequences for all the people of the Middle East."

* Includes: Rt Rev Michael Hare Duke, Bishop of Beverley, Bishop of Chichester (Anglican) Bishop of Galloway, Bishop of Northampton (Roman Catholic), Gerard Hughes SJ, Kathy Galloway, Leader, Iona Community, Wilfred McGreal O.Carm, Prior of Aylesford Priory Kent; Provincial leaders of the following religious orders: Daughters of Wisdom, Passionists, Carmelites, Comboni Sisters, Xaverian Missionary Society, Srs of St Joseph of Peace, Religious of the Assumption; Churches Together in Loughborough, Kings Lynn, Stockport, Highgate, Falnmouth, Wales, Manchester; General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Wales; The Iona Community Meeting in Plenary; Academics from Universities in Oxford, Birmingham, Lancaster, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Zambia; Religious communities in Kenya, Zambia, South Africa, Italy and concerned individuals from Australia, USA, Canada, Japan, India, Switzerland and Italy.

Human Rights Watch

The UN report on events in Jenin is seriously flawed, Human Rights Watch said on August 2. The report, mandated by a UN General Assembly resolution after Israeli objections forced the Secretary-General to disband a UN fact-finding team, largely limits itself to presenting competing accounts of the events during the Israeli military operations. "The report doesn't move us forward in terms of establishing the truth," said Hanny Megally, executive director of the Middle East and North Africa Division of Human Rights Watch.

"Its watered-down account of the very serious violations in Jenin exposes the risk of compiling a report without any first-hand information."

While the report describes some general allegations that have been made about the conduct of the Israeli and Palestinian sides during the Israeli operation, it draws almost no conclusions on the merits of those claims.

It makes only limited reference to the obligations of the parties under international law, makes few clear conclusions about violations of that law, and does not raise the issue of accountability for serious violations that may have been committed, some of which rise to the level of war crimes.

Its information and analysis are strongest when dealing with the blockage of humanitarian and medical access to the camp.

Human Rights Watch said part of the report's problems stems from the terms of its mandate.

Set up by a UN General Assembly resolution after the Secretary-General was forced by Israel's objections to disband a UN fact-finding mission, the report was collated from existing sources. The report was hampered still further when the government of Israel did not comply with the United Nation's request for information.

"Even with what they had, they could have done more," Megally said.

Examples of the report's failings include the following:

It refers to the fact that civilians died in the operation, without examining the circumstances of their deaths. It makes no mention of the strong evidence suggesting that some were wilfully killed, such as Jamal Fayid, a 37-year old paralysed man, who was crushed in the rubble of his home on April 7 after Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers refused to allow his family time to remove him from their home before a bulldozer destroyed it.

The UN report mentions that missiles were "at times" fired from helicopters, minimising evidence suggesting that their use was intense and indiscriminate in Jenin camp, particularly on April 6 when missiles caught many sleeping civilians.

In its section dealing with abuses outside Jenin, the report fails to consider the systematic targeting of the offices of Palestinian media organisations, as well as the serious impediments faced by international journalists and human rights monitors attempting to document events.

It does not discuss what, if any, steps the parties have taken to investigate credible allegations of violations of international humanitarian law raised in the report-vital for ensuring accountability and discouraging future violations.

Human Rights Watch researchers spent three weeks on the ground, including in Jenin camp, immediately following the operation. Researchers gathered detailed accounts from victims and witnesses, carefully corroborating and independently cross-checking their accounts with those of others to reconstruct a detailed picture of events in the camp in April 2002. The findings were published in a 52-page report, "Jenin: IDF Military Operations."

In early May, the Israel Defence Forces made a commitment to investigate every incident documented in the report. To date, Human Rights Watch has had no response from the IDF as to the progress of any such investigations.

Palestinian Authority

Palestinians on August 1 called for an extraordinary session of the UN General Assembly to review the UN report.

Rejecting the report, Nabil Abu Rudeina, a top aide to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, said the Palestinian Authority wanted the General Assembly session with a view to "incriminating Israel".

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat asked, "How many civilians must be killed to speak of a massacre?" He said, "The Israeli massacre in Jenin’s refugee camp clearly happened and this is a war crime and crimes against humanity also took place." Saeb Erekat added, "The UN should have used the word ‘massacre’ or ‘war crime,’ especially because the Jenin camp is managed by the UN."

Palestinian Refugees

Palestinian refugees in Lebanon demonstrated to protest against the UN report. More than 2,000 men, women and children held a sit-in on August 2 in front of the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in this southern port city.

"The UN report has cleared Israel of the Jenin massacre," said a banner carried by the protestors, many of whom were waving Palestinian flags and portraits of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

They also raised portraits of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, US President George W. Bush and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan bearing the Star of David and reading: "Same Currency: World Zionism."

The crowd then paraded through the streets with a coffin wrapped with a UN flag to symbolise the "death of the United Nations". "We present our condolences to (UN chief) Kofi Annan for the death of the United Nations and its Security Council ...over the rubble of the Jenin camp," read a sign on the coffin.

Hamas

Hamas expressed grave concern that the UN report "covered up Israeli crimes, and would encourage the Zionist entity (Israel) to commit more massacres" of Palestinians.

Over the past few months, the Ta'ayush Arab Jewish Partnership reports that its activists have been meeting with Palestinian representatives in the Bethlehem area. The participants searched for ways to act together in stopping the bloodshed and the occupation by use of non-violent methods.

In their last meeting, which took place in the office of the Governor of Bethlehem and in which representatives from most of the Palestinian organisations participated (including the Hamas and Jihad), it was agreed to hold a joint mass demonstration this Saturday under the slogan of "Freedom, Peace, and Security to both People".

"Rivers of blood are flowing from Gaza to Meron", said a Hamas representative, "and we must act together to stop this terrible bloodshed".

During the past few weeks, while still under curfew, the two sides have met at various sites in Bethlehem and its surroundings. It was clear to both sides that the importance of planning a joint action surpasses the danger of breaking the curfew. It was finally agreed on a chain of activities beginning with the joint mass demonstration that will take place on August 10 in Bethlehem. The existence of such meetings, in a time of suicide bombings, curfew and assassinations, proves that on both sides there are those who oppose the use of violence and who believe that the occupation and cycle of horror must and can be brought to an end through dialogue, the organisers say. These meeting refute the claim of the Israeli military and Shin Bet, the Partnership says, that there is no one to talk with on the Palestinian side.

In each meeting, the participants' continuously raised the urgent need to present an alternative voice to the sounds of gunshots and tanks that have been heard in Bethlehem during the last months. In the forthcoming demonstration we will raise our voice to the government of Israel not to ignore the peace aspirations among both Palestinians and Israelis.

The joint Palestinian-Israeli demonstration in Bethlehem will underscore: Sharon government is not interested in a cease-fire, and we are all paying with our lives! The march will take place under the slogans: Freedom for both peoples; Security for both peoples; Peace between two peoples

Other joint Palestinian-Israeli events have included a meeting "Beyond the Fence: Israeli and Palestinian Women's Perspectives" in Tel Aviv, and another "Organising to Resist the Deterioration of Democracy" in East Jerusalem. The latter panel discussion took a stand against the passing of undemocratic and often racist legislation. The meeting underlined that many voices are currently announcing a refusal to vote in the upcoming elections, either because of a vacuum in alternative leadership, or because the new laws will deny them the right to elect their representatives.

The Coalition of Women for a Just Peace held a meeting "Between Despair and Hope: Analyses and Forecasts". It undertook an analysis of events during the al-Aqsa Intifada, with assessments and forecasts for the coming two years, and examined the coming elections in Israel, attempting to forecast changes in the constellation of political power. The meeting pointed out that the Palestinian Authority is being undermined and the oppression of the Palestinian people under long-term siege is being deepened. Israel too is witnessing the severe repercussions of the conflict – the economic, social and moral decline of society, and the damage to democratic norms. The meeting upheld the principle that those that participated would shape the policies of the Coalition.