October 20 Anne Gwynne
BIOGRAPHY OF JOURNALIST AND PURSUER OF JUSTICE- ANNE GWYNNE
"Look upon your works, ye
Israel, and despair" ... a comprehensive, critical analysis of conditions in
Palestine under the iron boot of the State of Israel”(
-Anne Gwynne, activist, writing from Occupied
Palestine
Nov 10, 2004)
A profound statement
that basically and crucially sums up her life’s work ."- Her goal being in pursuance
of truth and justice. Or as she put it: “felt that I must put the record straight as so many lies have been
written and spoken about since I have witnessed first hand the carnage they
cause.
,
Anne Gwynne is a retired bank manager and grandmother from Wales, Great Britain, She has long been an advocate of the rights of the oppressed, and of their struggle for self-determination. She worked with the Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru, and had volunteered as an independent humanitarian worker in Palestine, Anne has worked with the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees (UPMRC). A professional journalist, an elected member of the National Union of Journalists (UK) and of the International Federation of Journalists,
She has contributed articles to Al-Ahram Weekly, the Washington Report for Middle East Affairs, Counterpunch, Media Monitors, Palestine Media Centre and Axis of Logic, just to name a few, and has reported for the Pacifica Radio Network and given interviews on Canadian radio, as well as for Flashpoints and other Pacifica programs.
She lived for a few years in Nablus, part of Occupied Palestine on the West Bank and her astute work in Palestine, among its people, has been the subject of television and radio programmes on ITV and BBC Wales
As Anne herself has written "I am here in the beautiful but suffering city of Nablus where I am every day taking details of Israeli war crimes because no one, to the knowledge of the people here, has taken any interest in Nablus
Anne was part of a team from ITV Wales, and had made two films in Balaata/Naablus shown in the UK in January 2004 and January 2005.Her second film featured Muhammad Al-‘Assi. She was gathering material for a follow-up of that interview, to piece together the story of the Al-‘Assi family’s unequalled suffering since 1948, when they were driven from their home near Jaffa by well-armed, invading Jewish colonists. She became a featured activist on the website, axis of logic http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_19499.shtml
This is an extremely rare eyewitness account of just one of the hundreds of “targeted murders” by Israel of young Palestinian men, members of the legal Resistance. As such, its importance cannot be overstated. It is the only eyewitness account of this particular brutal murder and thus supersedes the plethora of erroneous reports that have circulated in the media in recent weeks.
The Axis of logic web editor had this to comment about her work:
“We revere her for her commitment to truth and justice as she continues her work under tremendous duress and at great personal risk in the land of Palestine. We thank her for exposing the atrocities committed by the State of Israel on a daily basis in Palestine while the corporate media distorts and falsifies stories like the one Anne reports below. This time, we share her grief over the murder of her friend, Muhammad "Ninu" Al-Assi, a hero who lost his life while defending his country and his people against the Israeli invader/occupier (See photographs below). We share her anger at the ugly and cowardly killer-state that has occupied and oppressed the people of Palestine for more than 50 years. We admire Anne's faithfulness and courage in writing this - another - eyewitness account of Israeli atrocities after having her own life threatened in the same attack that took her friend.
Activists such as Anne Gwynne are usually stereotyped as lunatics, meddlers or saints. Her writings offer an insight into a brave, honest, determined yet self-critical woman who takes direct action to the limit, with no quest for glory. She also serves as a conduit into the everyday lives of Palestinians, who are also usually presented to the viewer in a one-dimensional way, as fighters or victims, heroes or fanatics.
Annihilation and Celebration are Strange Bedfellows: The Israeli-Jewish way of Atonement
What drives a, well-educated Westerner to volunteer as a “peace activist” in the Middle East.??
Anne is an extraordinary woman who has taken upon her shoulders the struggles of the Palestinians with unreserved devotion and genuine love for the people and their culture, which has grown over the years, having lived among them and grew to understand them and their way of life. A very unselfish woman who has witnessed first hand the tragedy befalling a people she has grown to love so much and admire. She has experienced their moments of happiness and joy, their moments of fear and danger as well as their moments of immense pain and loss. The Israelis have on a couple of occasions tried silencing her, and the last tragic event she was a witness to caused her immense personal loss and trauma, seeing two young men she had grown to love and know very well, murdered by the Israeli IOF when they invaded and bombed her home in Nablus. By the grace of God, she managed to leave before the Israelis could silence her permanently.
(we could at this point show the photos she took of them- thus giving the viewers not just names but faces to look at to show them that these are real people, real human beings who were capable of fun and loving others and having their own aspirations which Israel always manages to crush.)
Anne through her photographs wants to show the world that all these statistics that the controlled national media always refer to in such callous and blaze a manner, are real human beings who feel, who laugh, who cry, who dream and who tragically die- some too young, too young!!
Her greatest wish is for the world community to learn the truth about the biggest Conspiracy and false propaganda against the people of Palestine perpetrated by Zionists the British Colonial Empire that pursued a divide and rule policy throughout the Middle East, carving it up, at a whim, to suit their agenda that was so insensitive to the needs and freedoms of the indigenous citizens whose Human Rights were totally ignored and dismissed, despite all the Resolutions (over 65 of them **) passed by the United Nations which Israel failed to comply with. It is attention to all of this that she feels needs to be highlighted – and that the very fact that even the UN broke a couple of these Resolutions which were meant to protect Palestinians from further losing more of their land than had been agreed upon. To this day, Palestinians are now left with approximately 6% of their homeland when they once owned 98% of it.
Other Reports from Palestine by Anne Gwynne
"until when will we remain refugees…?"
Annihilation and Celebration are Strange Bedfellows: The Israeli-Jewish way of Atonement
**30 Years Of U.S. UN Vetoes. How the U.S. has Voted // Vetoed- See any bias - See any pattern ? http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2000.htm
1972-2002 Vetoes from the USA
---
Year -----Resolution Vetoed by the USA
1972 Condemns Israel for killing hundreds of people in Syria and Lebanon in air raids.
1973 Afirms the rights of the Palestinians and calls on Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories.
1976 Condemns Israel for attacking Lebanese civilians.
1976 Condemns Israel for building settlements in the occupied territories.
1976 Calls for self determination for the Palestinians.
1976 Afirms the rights of the Palestinians.
1978 Urges the permanent members (USA, USSR, UK, France, China) to insure United Nations decisions on the maintenance of international peace and security.
1978 Criticises the living conditions of the Palestinians.
1978 Condemns the Israeli human rights record in occupied territories.
1978 Calls for developed countries to increase the quantity and quality of development assistance to underdeveloped countries.
1979 Calls for an end to all military and nuclear collaboration with the apartheid South Africa.
1979 Strengthens the arms embargo against South Africa.
1979 Offers assistance to all the oppressed people of South Africa and their liberation movement.
1979 Concerns negotiations on disarmament and cessation of the nuclear arms race.
1979 Calls for the return of all inhabitants expelled by Israel.
1979 Demands that Israel desist from human rights violations.
1979 Requests a report on the living conditions of Palestinians in occupied Arab countries.
1979 Offers assistance to the Palestinian people.
1979 Discusses sovereignty over national resources in occupied Arab territories.
1979 Calls for protection of developing counties' exports.
1979 Calls for alternative approaches within the United Nations system for improving the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
1979 Opposes support for intervention in the internal or external affairs of states.
1979 For a United Nations Conference on Women.
1979 To include Palestinian women in the United Nations Conference on Women.
1979 Safeguards rights of developing countries in multinational trade negotiations.
1980 Requests Israel to return displaced persons.
1980 Condemns Israeli policy regarding the living conditions of the Palestinian people.
1980 Condemns Israeli human rights practices in occupied territories. 3 resolutions.
1980 Afirms the right of self determination for the Palestinians.
1980 Offers assistance to the oppressed people of South Africa and their national liberation movement.
1980 Attempts to establish a New International Economic Order to promote the growth of underdeveloped countries and international economic co-operation.
1980 Endorses the Program of Action for Second Half of United Nations Decade for Women.
1980 Declaration of non-use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states.
1980 Emphasises that the development of nations and individuals is a human right.
1980 Calls for the cessation of all nuclear test explosions.
1980 Calls for the implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.
1981 Promotes co-operative movements in developing countries.
1981 Affirms the right of every state to choose its economic and social system in accord with the will of its people, without outside interference in whatever form it takes.
1981 Condemns activities of foreign economic interests in colonial territories.
1981 Calls for the cessation of all test explosions of nuclear weapons.
1981 Calls for action in support of measures to prevent nuclear war, curb the arms race and promote disarmament.
1981 Urges negotiations on prohibition of chemical and biological weapons.
1981 Declares that education, work, health care, proper nourishment, national development, etc are human rights.
1981 Condemns South Africa for attacks on neighbouring states, condemns apartheid and attempts to strengthen sanctions. 7 resolutions.
1981 Condemns an attempted coup by South Africa on the Seychelles.
1981 Condemns Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, human rights policies, and the bombing of Iraq. 18 resolutions.
1982 Condemns the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. 6 resolutions (1982 to 1983).
1982 Condemns the shooting of 11 Muslims at a shrine in Jerusalem by an Israeli soldier.
1982 Calls on Israel to withdraw from the Golan Heights occupied in 1967.
1982 Condemns apartheid and calls for the cessation of economic aid to South Africa. 4 resolutions.
1982 Calls for the setting up of a World Charter for the protection of the ecology.
1982 Sets up a United Nations conference on succession of states in respect to state property, archives and debts.
1982 Nuclear test bans and negotiations and nuclear free outer space. 3 resolutions.
1982 Supports a new world information and communications order.
1982 Prohibition of chemical and bacteriological weapons.
1982 Development of international law.
1982 Protects against products harmful to health and the environment .
1982 Declares that education, work, health care, proper nourishment, national development are human rights.
1982 Protects against products harmful to health and the environment.
1982 Development of the energy resources of developing countries.
1983 Resolutions about apartheid, nuclear arms, economics, and international law. 15 resolutions.
1984 Condemns support of South Africa in its Namibian and other policies.
1984 International action to eliminate apartheid.
1984 Condemns Israel for occupying and attacking southern Lebanon.
1984 Resolutions about apartheid, nuclear arms, economics, and international law. 18 resolutions.
1985 Condemns Israel for occupying and attacking southern Lebanon.
1985 Condemns Israel for using excessive force in the occupied territories.
1985 Resolutions about cooperation, human rights, trade and development. 3 resolutions.
1985 Measures to be taken against Nazi, Fascist and neo-Fascist activities .
1986 Calls on all governments (including the USA) to observe international law.
1986 Imposes economic and military sanctions against South Africa.
1986 Condemns Israel for its actions against Lebanese civilians.
1986 Calls on Israel to respect Muslim holy places.
1986 Condemns Israel for sky-jacking a Libyan airliner.
1986 Resolutions about cooperation, security, human rights, trade, media bias, the environment and development.
8 resolutions.
1987 Calls on Israel to abide by the Geneva Conventions in its treatment of the Palestinians.
1987 Calls on Israel to stop deporting Palestinians.
1987 Condemns Israel for its actions in Lebanon. 2 resolutions.
1987 Calls on Israel to withdraw its forces from Lebanon.
1987 Cooperation between the United Nations and the League of Arab States.
1987 Calls for compliance in the International Court of Justice concerning military and paramilitary activities against Nicaragua and a call to end the trade embargo against Nicaragua. 2 resolutions.
1987 Measures to prevent international terrorism, study the underlying political and economic causes of terrorism, convene a conference to define terrorism and to differentiate it from the struggle of people from national liberation.
1987 Resolutions concerning journalism, international debt and trade. 3 resolutions.
1987 Opposition to the build up of weapons in space.
1987 Opposition to the development of new weapons of mass destruction.
1987 Opposition to nuclear testing. 2 resolutions.
1987 Proposal to set up South Atlantic "Zone of Peace".
1988 Condemns Israeli practices against Palestinians in the occupied territories. 5 resolutions (1988 and 1989).
1989 Condemns USA invasion of Panama.
1989 Condemns USA troops for ransacking the residence of the Nicaraguan ambassador in Panama.
1989 Condemns USA support for the Contra army in Nicaragua.
1989 Condemns illegal USA embargo of Nicaragua.
1989 Opposing the acquisition of territory by force.
1989 Calling for a resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict based on earlier UN resoltions.
1990 To send three UN Security Council observers to the occupied territories.
1995 Afirms that land in East Jerusalem annexed by Israel is occupied territory.
1997 Calls on Israel to cease building settlements in East Jerusalem and other occupied territories. 2 resolutions.
1999 Calls on the USA to end its trade embargo on Cuba. 8 resolutions (1992 to 1999).
2001 To send unarmed monitors to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
2001 To set up the International Criminal Court.
2002 To renew the peace keeping mission in Bosnia.
October 27 Ralph Shoenman and Mya Shone
