August 25, 2014 
British filmmaker Ken Loach has called for the “boycott of all the cultural happenings supported by the Israeli state” at an awards ceremony honouring two Palestinian directors.
The director of Kes and The Wind That Shakes The Barleygave an impassioned speech at the Sarajevo Film Festival (Aug 15-23) last night, where he presented the Katrin Cartlidge Foundation Award to Palestinian directors Abdel Salam Shehadeh and Ashraf Mashharawi.
Loach branded the directors as “probably two of the greatest filmmakers in the world today, because they are making films in Gaza.”
Stirring memories of Sarajevo’s four-year siege from 1992-96, Loach said: “I know the people here will know the struggle and bravery you need when you are under siege, and you feel the pain of people of Gaza like no one else. These two people are not only surviving, but are making extraordinary films.”
He went on to express “huge frustration and anger” over the on-going conflict in Gaza and said: “My country, to its shame, follows the bully that is the United States. But we are not powerless. We can act together.”
It was at that point Loach suggested an “absolute boycott of all the cultural happenings supported by the Israeli state.”
“This is film, music, academic contacts. Israel must become a pariah state,” he added.
“To go from the sublime to the ridiculous: Israel should not be in the Eurovision song contest.
“And no Israeli football teams should be playing European competitions. I am not sure when Israel became a part of Europe, my geography is not that good.”
Before handing over the award, which aims to give new voices and new perspectives in film a chance to be seen and heard, Loach added: “These two film-makers are telling stories that we need to know.”
Mashharawi, a Palestinian filmmaker living as a refugee in Gaza, who has won awards for his coverage of the Israeli attack against Gaza in 2008/09, said: “I am taking this Heart of Sarajevo to the people of Gaza because I know that it is the heart of the people who experienced the same thing that we are going through now.
“I am here as the voice of the children who are being killed.”
Mashharawi’s films mainly involve stories from Gaza and Palestine, but he has also made films focusing on subjects from outside the region including Slavery in Yemen andThe Road to Tawerghaa (Libya), which won the First Prize at the One World Festival for Human Rights in Brussels.
Fellow award-winner Abdel Salam Shehadeh also lives in Gaza and has directed more than 15 documentaries such as The Cane, Debris, Rainbow andThe Shadow, which have all played at international film festivals.
Posted on 22-08-2014
THE LEGAL RIGHT OF RESISTANCE
Is Resisting Genocide a Human Right?
Right to Resist
81 Notre Dame Law Review1275 (2006). Conducting an in-depth study of the genocide in Darfur, Sudan, and also discussing other genocides, this article details the inadequacy of many of the international community’s response to genocides, such as “targeted sanctions” or international peacekeeping forces. Examining international legal authorities such as the Genocide Convention, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the International Court of Justice, the article demonstrates that groups which are being subjected to genocide have a legal right of self-defense. International treaties, Security Council arms embargoes, or national gun control laws cannot lawfully be enforced in a manner which prevents self-defense resistance to a genocide in progress, because under international law, the prohibition against any form of complicity in genocide takes legal precedence over lesser laws.
With Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen. In PDF.
http://www.davekopel.com/2a/Foreign/genocide.pdf
MORAL, HISTORICAL & LEGAL RIGHT OF SELF-DEFENSE
GENOCIDE & ETHNIC CLEANSING OF PALESTINE
Genocide in Photos
Since 1937 (Pre)Israel terrorism commits ongoing massacres in Palestine. Violent genocide, but the least known, silent genocide causing excess death by deliberate racist policies of deprivation. The same deprivation which according the Israeli narrative have cost 1/6 of Jewish Holocaust victims (1 of 6 million). The cost in human lives by avoidable mortality for the sake of the creation of Israel according to research (by Dr. Gideon Polya) in Palestine and neighboring countries is 24 million lives.
- All Israeli Massacres on Palestinians (From 1937-2014)
- The silent genocide: Avoidable Mortality (Research by Dr. Gideon Polya)
- Confirmed Names of Martyrs Occupation (Cont. Updated)
- Ethnic Cleansing (Special Topic)
- Israeli escalation in Gaza – A cover-up for settlement activity
- Slow Death – Int’l Report: Collective punishment of Gaza reached critical stage
DEBUNKING THE ISRAELI MYTHS
Occupied Palestine | فلسطين 
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