"The moment the slave resolves that he will no longer be a slave, his fetters fall. Freedom and slavery are mental states." - Mahatma Gandhi

The rain has ceased for a while. The splendid purples of the heathers are in harmony with the grey of granite and the greens of lichen. Only a few thousand humans share the wide open spaces of the Dartmoor National Park on this sabbath.

Sleek bodies are being oiled against the Mediterranean sun in Netanya. There is music murmuring from I Pods; there is affluence and even opulence. But beneath the satisfaction there is deep unease.

A complex history of great sadness and lawlessness. I can only pick out a few salient things. My central concern is with Palestine – the hinge of humanity, but I will take in Iraq and Afghanistan which are also part of Judaeo-Christian imperialism. They are all of a piece, a continuum. My outrage about what is going on in these places will be obvious to you and I hope that all of you will share that outrage with me.

My reason for standing here – A doctor and surgeon stands for healing, and not for harming. I cannot stand seeing any creature harmed. And when I sign my name I prefix that with 'for truth, reason and justice – the three legs of my talk.

At the end of my talk I will give you my ideas as to how nations/entities can murder, maim and occupy in defiance of international laws and our presumed humanity, and how we might turn the foul tide. And in question time, we will discuss how we, the citizens, might stop the Gaderene rush to the abyss.

On the same day the BBC reported that former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz was to go on trial after five years in prison over the deaths of a group of Baghdad merchants in 1992, it was rumoured the former prime minister of Britain will be indicted for crimes against humanity. The list of charges is long and not confined to the many alleged crimes in Iraq. Mr Blair's whereabouts are uncertain; he has been sighted occasionally in occupied East Jerusalem where he is acting as ?peace? envoy for the ?Quartet?. Most recently, he has been facilitating industrial zones for the employment of Palestinians and for the removal of a few of the over 500 Israeli Occupation Force roadblocks.

The charge list includes:

 

Breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention from the time he became prime minister in 1997 until March 2003 during whichtime draconian sanctions were being applied to the civilian population of Iraq. These sanctions prompted the resignation of Denis Halliday and Hans von Sponeck who served as assistant secretaries-general of the UN. The former stated that the effect of those sanctions was genocidal. It was established that there was an excess mortality of babies and children of at least 500,000 between 1992 and 2003. This had to do with foul water, poor nutrition and deteriorating medical services, all of which were satisfactory before the sanctions took hold.

 

Please note, this article contains graphic images which some may find upsetting. 

 

Dear Today,

I was pleased that Mr Humphrys interviewed Mr Mark Regev but, as always, it was like counting eels in a sack.

Important facts were omitted, and as expected from past performance, Regev lied. Yes, lied.

A few salient points.

1. The unlawful siege of Gaza, the collective punishment that is illegal under 4th GC etc, was started by the Israelis in March 2006 in response to the election of an Hamas dominated legislature after scrupulous elections. The medieval siege, as I named it, was accompanied by daily shelling (175 mm and other weaponry including the most modern and vicious, the former amounting to about 70 per day). I was there and I reported it to C4; Inigo Gilmour reported.

The key to understanding the Israeli state and its relations with both the Palestinian people and its neighbours lies in the reference to the Zionist movement. Founded by Theodor Herzl in the late nineteenth century, Zionism holds that hostility to Jews is natural and inevitable and that Jews can only be secure through the creation of a Jewish state. The movement shared the outlook of European colonialism and most people would be astonished to learn of revisionist (as it became) Zionism's affinity with the fascist movements of the early twentieth century, its eventual co-operation with Nazism and its betrayal of non-Zionist Jews.