Activism and BDS Beat 9 October 2012
Carol Blue Hitchens, US author John Perkins, Yoko Ono, US singer Lady Gaga, Craig and Cindy Corrie, parents of peace activist Rachel Corrie pose during the Lennon Ono Grant For Peace awards ceremony in Reykjavik, Iceland on October 9, 2012.
AFP/GettyImagesFrom the Rachel Corrie Foundation:
(Olympia, Washington – October 9, 2012) – On behalf of peace activist Rachel Corrie, her parents Craig and Cindy Corrie today accepted the 2012 LennonOno Grant for Peace presented by Yoko Ono in Reykjavik, Iceland. Ono also presented grants to performing artist and activist Lady Gaga, author John Perkins (Tales of an Economic Hitman), and to the late author and journalist Christopher Hitchens (accepted by his widow Carol Blue Hitchens). At a ceremony in New York in September, three performers with the Russian band Pussy Riot, who remain imprisoned for their stand for freedom of speech and expression, also received the LennonOno award.
The October 9th event marks the birthdays of artist John Lennon and his son Sean. Honoree Rachel Corrie was a 23-year-old American peace activist and human rights defender from Olympia, Washington, who was crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer March 16, 2003, as she stood nonviolently to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian family’s home in Rafah, Gaza.
In the official announcement of the biennial award, IMAGINE PEACE notes the work of the Rachel Corrie Foundation to which the monetary grant prize has been given.
And the reactions of Rachel’s parents:
“Rachel would be greatly surprised and humbled by this recognition,” Cindy Corrie said from Reykjavik, today. “Her hope would be that it could somehow contribute to bringing people together to work passionately for justice, and to do so with the utmost respect for the rights and lives of all human beings.”
Rachel’s father, Craig Corrie, added: “We are grateful that Ms. Ono has chosen to recognize our daughter in such a wonderful way. Rachel must be smiling somewhere to imagine her memory linked in any way with that of John Lennon. Perhaps they smile together.”
In August, Cindy and Craig lost a seven year court case in Israel seeking for the state of Israel to be held responsible for their daughter’s death.
Comments
It would be great were not the same Ono just given her prize to
Permalink lidia replied on
3 proteges of such great peacelovers as Merkel and Hillary - aka "P...y Riot". I feel as Rachel were tainted by such affiliation, her great sacrifice equated to the stupid hooliganism with support from the same forces that helped to murder Rachel in the first place.
I guess her grieving parents are not too aware about who is who, but the Hillary's role in both cases should be enough to tip any other person.
Hitchens?!
Permalink Jim replied on
Just about any publicity given to the Corries' struggle is good, of course, but how credible can the "Grant for Peace" be if it's also given to (the widow of) warmongering neocon Christopher Hitchens? As Lennon himself sang, "Strange days indeed."
The LennonOno award
Permalink Tony Greenstein replied on
It's good to hear that the Rachel Corrie Foundation has received this award. I'm sure John Lennon would have been foremost amongst supporters of the Palestinians today, as a fellow Liverpudlian!
Hitchens was a warmonger (after having made a brilliant documentary about Kissinger) but we should not mistake the hypocritical 'support' of Clinton and Merkel for Pussy Riot They were protesting against Putin and the heart of ideological support for the regime, the utterly reactonary Russian Orthodox Church. To me they are also heroes.
Since WHEN Hillary supported ONE real hero?
Permalink lidia replied on
No matter " hypocritically" or not? And hers and Merkel's is NOT "support", but support. They ONLY support "heroes" who are against official foes of USA and NATO. So, the rule of thumb - if ANYTHING is supported by imperialism - "revolution" in Syria or "protest" (really hooliganism) in Russia, one needs to stop repeat imperialist propaganda and look better. To use 4-letters words in a church is not "protest". To do it with imperialist backing is just a doing dirty job for imperialism. And, by the way, in Germany for such "protest" they would go to jail as well - but Merkel does NOT "support" such protests in Germany.
And yes, Putin is not progressive and Russian church is a reactionary one - just like almost ANY church. But when Hillary and Merkel supported ANY protests against much more repressive and reactionary rulers and churches which are USA/NATO lackeys? NEVER. They support them.
For ex, Zionist rulers are much more oppressive than Putin, and official Zionist rabbis are openly calling for murder of non-Jewish children. What Hillary or Merkel said about it? Of course, NOTHING against.
Now the same pro-NATO hooliganists could be given Sakharov prize - the prize in honor of the stanch and repugnant Zionist, whom Western "progressives" see as a saint. SUCH prize (form the imperialist EU, of course) is suitable to them 100%.
The Lennon-Ono Award & Hypocrisy
Permalink tony greenstein replied on
What Lidia is saying is that whenever Clinton and the US support something, however hypocritically, we should always oppose it. They nominally support democracy so we should be opposed?
I put inverted commas around the word 'support' for precisely the reasons you have. That if they had done this in Germany (or the USA) they would also have been locked up. I think we need to judge something by its content not by who supports it. Zionists claim to oppose racism, which in practice of course they don't. Do we therefore say we support racism?
As Trotsky remarked once, just because our rulers put up a positive sign on something is no reason for us to put a negative. Pussy Riot protesters should be supported. Whatever we think of the tactical wisdom of what they did.
The US and Russia are in political conflict because they are both competing capitalist powers. That doesn't mean that Putin is any more progressive than Obama or Romney. The same goes for China (which also incidentally has a large arms trade with Israel). Let us not confine ourselves to choosing which is the 'better' capitalist country. Capitalism is rotten and imperialism is its bastard offspring.
Lidia says that Zionist rulers are much more oppressive than Putin. I'm not sure that the people of Chechnya would agree. But in any case it matters little which is the more horrifying occupation. All occupations of another people's land is wrong.
The fact that official Zionist rabbis openly call for the murder of non-Jewish children, I think you refer in particular to Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira and Torat HaMelech, a book defended by hundreds of prominent Israeli rabbis is a matter of deep shame. They behave no differently from Nazis who justified the murder of Jewish children. Let us deal with each case on its own merits.
Last time I checked Checnia was a part of the RF and
Permalink lidia replied on
Chechens are a citizens of of RF - with the SAME rights by laws as others. NOTHING like Zionism. But, of course, one needs to bend the truth in order to whitewash Zionism, which is a settler colonialism, UNLIKE the case of Chechia. By the way, USA imperialism was supporting (without " ") Chechnia "independence" - sending money, arms and terrorists. The very people who "liberated" Iraq also formed a committee "for peace in Chechnia" But tg knows better, and even cited Trotsky - who also said that if "democratic" UK attack "fascist" Brasil, he would defend Brasil. He knew a bit about colonialism and imperialism, and yes, Russia is a capitalist state, but unlike USA it is not waging several colonial wars all over the world while lecturing others about "democracy". We all know what USA mean by "democracy" - being lackeys of NATO, so NO, I am NOT supporting this.
And yes, Let us deal with each case on its own merits. Israel is a colonial settler state. USA SUPPORT it. Its official church is murderously racist - just as it has to be in such case. USA say NOT a word against them. But the same USA has a gall to teach "democracy" to Russia. "P R" are just PR-action aimed at the West, NOT to Russia, no wonder their very name is in English, and they defended their dirty hooliganism by claiming their words were translation from English!
USA attack Russia NOT because it is "not democratic", but because Russia is NOT a 100% lackey of USA, unlike Saudi royals. WHEN last time Hillary said a WORD about lack of democracy in SA? Support for democracy, my foot!
And yes, if P...R had done this in Germany (or the USA) they would also have been locked up. But exactly because of it we see that they are just puppets of rulers of those states, not real "protesters". Hillary supports Syrian "revolutionaries" - the same terrorists USA also busy murdering. Does it means she does NOT support Syrian ones really? Look at deeds (NATO arms, money, training), not at words.
Last time I checked Checnia was a part of the RF and
Permalink tony greenstein replied on
No doubt the last time u checked Chechnia was a part of the Russian Federation. That's because a bitter war was waged to force it to become a part of the RF. Before that it had been independent.
You don't seem to get what I'm saying and I don't see the point of a dialogue of the deaf. The US is hypocritical. It is the world's major imperialist power. Its right-wing churches are appalling. But does that excuse other crimes of other states? To support Russia in Chechnia is to cast doubt on your commitment to opposition to Zionism. In fact the savagery of the Russian State in Chechnia is beyond comparison, even with Israel's barbaric treatment of the Palestinians.
You don't serve the cause of Palestine by whitewashing Putin. I am well aware that the US's criticism of Putin is hypocritical. So what? Do we stay silent on Assad's regime because a similar hypocrisy? Do we support barbaric and dictatorial regimes when they are our 'own'? As one US general said of Cuba's Batista, 'he may be a son of a b*tch but he's our son of a b*tch.' It would appear u subscribe to this dumbed down thinking.
Yes, and a lot of places were made a part of states after wars,
Permalink lidia replied on
(in Europe, too) but NOW their population is EQUAL to others. UNLIKE Zionist settler colony. Chechnia is more or less like Northern Ireland, even though Chechnia is much more equal to other parts of RF than NI in UK. And NATO is NOT supporting IRA, while actively supporting Chechen separatists, even though some well-known foreign terrorists were fighting there - now some Chechen terrorists are doing NATO bidding in Syria.
Israel is a settler colony like Rhodesia was. It has NOTHING to do with Chechia, but some western progressives are fond of repeating NATO/Zionist propaganda about Chechnia.
"The US is hypocritical." -NO. The USA is imperialist. They do what they want for their imperialist goals while lecturing/threatening/attacking others NOT because they are not democratic enough, but because they somehow are obstacles for USA imperialism -from Iran to Venezuela, from Russia to China, from Cuba to Syria. NOT to see it means to be a tool of USA imperialism, NATO, Zionism and their local lackeys.
I am NOT whitewashing Putin, but to = him with Zionism is sure a whitewash of Zionism. Putin is NOT a ruler of a settler colony. Zionists rulers are. Not seeing it is not helping Palestinians. You could be against Assad 100%, but if you do NOT want to see WHY NATO/GCC/Zionists are against him (a tip - NOT because his is a barbaric and dictatorial regime) you are only helping Zionists.
And if imperialists support ANYTHING, it is not before this is "democratic", but because it is good for imperialism. So P...R are good NOT for "freedom of speech" - their dirty hooliganism only revolted the majority of Russians, including atheists, but they are good as a tool against Putin, because Putin is NOT a lackey of NATO, with the support of the majority of Russians as well.
Forgot about "hypocritical" - no, it is about IMPERIALISM, which also means Zionism. Do not repeat their propaganda, and it would be better for Palestinians too.
Chechnia
Permalink tony greenstein replied on
I agree that Chechnia is much like Northern Ireland. Ireland was Britain's oldest colony and in the North they planted Protestant settlers!
Having just come back from 4 hours picketting Israel's new Sodastream shop in Brighton I can assure you that nothing I do is of aid to the Zionists. Yes the USA is hypocritical but the enemy of my enemy is not always my friend either! Lets leave it at that.