International

Members of the Middle East team of the World March have now left Bethlehem following a visit yesterday to the occupied Palestinian territories. Along with them were representatives of the Holy Land Trust association of Bethlehem, a non-profit organisation that has worked for years for the nonviolent development of the Palestinian communities.

The Nobel Peace prize to a president for rhetoric, with no real achievement, is like a peace prize for a movie to a former vice-president, with no real achievement either. People are touched by a rhetoric everybody has heard, but that it does not meet the criteria Nobel states in his will: understanding among nations, reduction of standing armies, and peace conferences.

On October 11th and 12th, the Middle East team of the World March for Peace and Nonviolence passed through Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Among the marchers was Giorgio Schultze, the European spokesperson for the March. The team met the Director of Music and Dance at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Municipal Councillor Margalit of the Meretz party.

One of the 2009 Right Livelihood Awards, also known as the Alternative Nobel Prizes goes to Alyn Ware, World March for Peace and Nonviolence Coordinator for New Zealand – Aotearoa, for “his effective and creative advocacy and initiatives over two decades to further peace education and to rid the world of nuclear weapons”.

“The Olympic Games symbolize the eradication of nuclear arms and world peace”, stated Tadatoshi Akiba, mayor of Hiroshima. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is investigating the potential candidacies for the 2020 Olympic Games of the two Japanese cities that suffered nuclear attacks in 1945 and left approximately 220,000 dead.

Members of the base team marched alongside Bangladeshis in Dhaka. The event was organized within the framework of the University of the Capital by the association “World without Wars” and other members of the humanist movement. To mark the occasion, a press conference was held attended by some twenty journalists and numerous spectators.

Indigenous movements throughout the world have called for a “Global Minga for Mother Earth,” which will take place October 12-16, 2009. Its purpose is a large-scale peaceful mobilization toward the United Nations in order to put an end to global warming. Also, during its stop in Bolivia, it will inaugurate the first Climate Justice Tribunal.

US President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday less than a year after he took office with the jury hailing his “extraordinary” diplomatic efforts on the international stage. The President said he was “both surprised and humbled” by the Nobel Committee’s decision. The decision is seen as an encouregement towards peace efforts in his nine months office.

A few kilometers from the Gaza Strip, Peace and Non-Violence Days were organized in cooperation with the socialist kibbutz movement Hashomer Hatzair and members of the World March for Peace. Jayme Fucs Bar declared: “We want to live in peace, Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Muslims, without hatred, we want to watch our children grow up without violence and with a future…”

A report produced by the humanitarian organizations Amnesty International, Oxfam, Greenpeace and Fundació per la Pau (Foundation for Peace) reveals that Spain is currently the sixth largest arms exporter, after the United States, Russia, Germany, France and England. According to the report, in 2008 Spain made 934 million Euros worth of defense material transactions.