[islam-info] Update about the "suspicious" coincident raid by Work Cover NSW to Titanic cafeand the irregularities involved!

Wed Feb 4 02:20:33 EST 2009

We now know more about the Work cover raids on Titanic
The raid happened 6 pm on Friday, 30 January, just one day before the exhibition about Israeli crimes against Gaza. There were 3 officers participated in the raid: Yousif Suliman, Scott Allman and John Whatman. 
The inspectors conducted very detailed questioning of the owner, manager and all workers at the cafe. The questioning was sometimes intimidating, many threats made and involved some racial slurs. The Work Cover inspectors asked about almost everything, except the safety procedures at the cafe. The owner was asked about all his family members, why his English was not good, how much money he makes and other irrelevant questions. 
The inspectors demanded that all present workers to fill forms about how many hours they work there, how much money they get and if they pay tax or no. 
The inspectors even intimidated customers and demanded their IDs. 
An off-duty worker who lives in the area and wore Titanic T-shirt was followed in the street and asked to present his ID. He refused, so they threatened to fine the boss big fines.
When the manager and owner asked them to inspect the kitchen and the inside for any OH& S issues, they said that they do not have time to do so. They demanded his "Certificate of Currency". The owner said that the accountant has it. They enforced him to call the accountant. I spoke to the accountant. He said that it was the first time that they Work cover inspectors were so intimidating and rude. They asked him to come immediately to the cafe to answer few questions. He refused. They asked him to present many irrelevant documents, like Tax certificates. He told them to send their demands in writing, so that he can respond accurately. They refused (until now) to demand anything in writing. 
At the moment, we are waiting to see what this fiasco will unfold. 
We will write official complaint to the Minister for Industrial Relations, The Ombudsman and HREOC. The intimidation is taking its toll on all involved. 
We will put detailed media release about this later on when we will know what they want exactly. We have no doubt that it had relation to the exhibition. 

Jamal Daoud
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Jamal 
To: Jamal 
Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2009 12:39 AM
Subject: "suspicious" coincident visit by Work Cover NSW to Titanic cafe just few days before the exhibition about Israeli crimes and massacres against Palestinians is due ot be held there!!!

In a "suspicious" coincidence, the Work Cover NSW had decided to raid Titanic cafe just few days before the exhibition about Israeli crimes and massacres against Palestinians is due to be held there. The Titanic cafe had been operating in NSW since 1999. It never had any visit by officials or inspectors from Work Cover until this week. The visit was highly orchestrated, many inspectors arrived (at least 3), including senior inspector. They filmed the cafe, asked for workers' IDs and for the shop's legal documents (especially "Currency Certificate").
We all wonder if this action has any relation to the fact that the owners of the cafe was so supportive of Palestinians' rights and if their decision to allow us to use the cafe as exhibition place had anything to do with this visit.

Jamal Daoud
mob. 0424 163 667

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Jamal 
To: Jamal 
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2009 5:39 PM
Subject: Sydney café will be turned into exhibition gallery to collect "School Bags" for Gaza

Sydney café will be turned into exhibition gallery to collect "School Bags" for Gaza

Despite a massive imbalance in armaments, Israel declared a ceasefire after achieving only a minimal impact on the military capability of Hamas and other Palestinian resistance factions.  This has to be seen as a shameful defeat of Israel - particularly when considering the horrific war crimes it committed in attempting to meet its military objectives. 

This defeat must deflate the Israeli's Middle East "Super Power Complex" - and the fear and destruction it brought in the Middle East for more than half a century.

We also believe that this victory would mean the end of any dream of creating New Middle East, based on ending any resistance to the aggression and occupation in a bid to facilitate looting the area's resources and ending any Arab national dreams of freedom and sustainable development based on basis of social justice. 

The result of the barbaric attacks on Gaza had reversed effects. It is widely believed now that this Palestinian resistance victory will indeed create a New Middle East - but one of a totally hue: a region free of occupation and religious extremists

In this instance the network condemn all who bet on the possibility of defeating the Palestinian resistance and the possibility of disarming it in less than a week. Those include the illegal Palestinian government in Ram Allah, regressive Arabic regimes and Westerners politicians who were dreaming of bringing back the era of colonisation to rob nations' resources by direct military occupation. We saw how many of those politicians used the slogan of "Israel has the right to defend itself" to justify Israeli barbaric massacres.

Locally, we saw near total silence from Australian politicians - rather than unequivocal condemnation of Israeli barbaric massacres. Apart from Labor MP, Julia Irwin, all other Australian politicians were silent in one way or other. Some chose to side publicly with Israel. Other chose to hide behind "understanding the rights of Israel to defend itself against Hamas missiles".  It was up to one courageous Mrs Julia Irwin to condemn the occupation as the cause of the cycle of violence, instead of only condemning the Israeli use of "disproportionate force". 

We, in the SJN, had condemned from the first day the Israeli barbaric actions against Gazan. We also emphasise here that we will do all in our capacity to continue supporting Palestinians until they enjoy freedom and dignified life, as any other nation in this world

In this regard an exhibition about Israeli massacres against Palestinians and other people in the region has been orgainsed in coordination with Titanic Café, Sydney. During this exhibition we will collect donations to buy school bags for children of Gaza. These donations will be given to Australian international aid organisations to be delivered to Gaza. 

The exhibition will be on Saturday 31 January 09 from 10 am - 6 pm. The official speeches will be at 2 pm. The address is: Titanic café, 49 Raymond St, Bankstown.

For any further information, you can contact Jamal Daoud, network's convenor, on 0424 163 667

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