HP price tag could nix Marrickville council's 'Israel boycott' It starts with the kind of loopy idea most likely to emerge in local government (the lowest of Australia’s three tiers of government): Marrickville Council in Sydney had conceived the idea of boycotting Israeli goods and services. This was so popular it's partly attributed to the Greens missing out on the seat of Marrickville …
Perhaps they should also think about banning Iranian companies because they support terrorists with money and arms...perhaps they also need to stop do business with Chinese companies because they occupy Tibet (and lets be honest - their Humans Rights record isnt great)...and we should probably stop doing business the US because they still have the Death Penalty...
Hypocritical morons!
Whilst the Israelis illegally occupy Palenstinian terrority - they probably would bother if Hamas and Hizbollah stopped firing unguided rockets at their schools and hospitals...yeah - thats right - the western media dont report that do they...no...
"Whilst the Israelis illegally occupy Palenstinian terrority - they probably would bother if Hamas and Hizbollah stopped firing unguided rockets at their schools and hospitals...yeah - thats right - the western media dont report that do they...no..."
They do, actually. Get your head out of your arse.
For centuries, Palestine (a territory) was occupied by the Ottoman Empire. From 1948 to 1967, what is now called the West Bank was occupied by Jordan. Palestine is not a nation, which means that Israel is not 'occupying' Palestinian territory. The West Bank is a disputed territory at best, about which there are parties trying to negotiate, and in which a group of people are trying to set up a nation.
The attempt to associate Israel with the former apartheid state of South Africa is reprehensible, as any person who is aware of the makeup of Israel should know. In Israel there are numerous ethnic groups that have a vote, have representation in parliament (eg parliamentarians from that particular ethnic group), serve in the Israeli army, own land, do business, ie, they are citizens like the majority ethnic group, the Jews.
As far as western media reporting goes, it's like this.
"Rockets were fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip".
"Look at those horrible Israelis, look at them killing all those people, nasty, evil, blah, blah, blah".
Essentially, much of the western media spends lots of time on what they consider a disproportionate action by Israel, glossing over what it is a response to.
I just wish people would get their facts straight, learn to use English (or adopted words) correctly, and stop being abusive. Ridicule and abuse are generally tools of people who have no argument to make, or have no ability to counter arguments made.
NYT, and uncle tom cobly.
The shooting up of an Israeli school bus with a Kornet anti-tank rocket and and subsequent rain of some 50 rockets and mortars on Southern Israel was practically not mentioned in the media condemnation of Israel's counter attack.
Read Melanie Phillips, CiFWatch and others for a concise appraisal of media's biased reporting on the conflict.
As for the illegality of the "occupation" it would be interesting to know if the international agreements from the League of Nations, San Remo Conference, the Sevres commision, even UNSC Resolution 242 have been revoked.
If not, then under what clauses has Israel's presence been deemed to be illegal?
Because ignorance of the terms of official international agreements, by Obama and Ban Ki-moon permit one to renege on them?
Their actions (giving lots of money to HP) are in direct conflict with their stated beliefs and feelings (Isreal bad, boycott good). They're also hypocrites for not ending their occupation of the aboriginal Gadigal Wangal Tribe's land. If they were against the whole concept of outsiders setting up camp on someone else's land, they'd all find the foreign nation to which they owe the lion's share of their genetic code and scamper off there.
Anonymous Coward points out that as well as hypocrites, they're selective moralists: chosing to boycott the only liberal democracy in the middle east, while remaining silent on many more oppressive states.
None of this of course, has anything to do with IT, but the race towards proving Godwins Law once more is very entertaining.
"Or loopy idea or whatever? People boycotted South Africa; you consider that dumb too?" It was the right idea at the time, but that was it in the long long ago. Like it or not these days every country is dependent on something from almost every other country, in fact the only people boycotts are actually any good against are the ones who already have nothing. Lets start the list of companies to ban, MS, Intel, Motorola, Cisco, IBM, oops there goes the NBN. While we're here we should also ban other stuff, interferon for instance and copaxone, but you tell all the suffers of Mutliple Sclorosis why they can't have the best treatment for their condition. I could go on with Optical Fibre Technology, yes the same technology the NBN needs, but you get the point already.
Any country that is sufficiently advanced to no longer rely on subsistance living is producing stuff that someone else relies on, trade bycotts are only useful when the country the boycott is placed on doesn't actually do any trade, that's why the UN now relies on "personal" boycotts of individuals to pressure rouge governments rather than trade boycotts.
I'm no particular fan of Israel, but I am a member of the Greens party (in Victoria). This 'boycott' strikes me as one of the stupiest things I've ever heard. Local councils have no business getting involved in international relations issues. They're there to get the rubbish collected, fix the roads and run the schools. Fiona Byrne should be sacked, from both the council and the party.
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