Saturday, December 29, 2007
Reunite Georgette Harb with her Kidnapped Family!
Trouble is Double for Georgette Harb Bring Georgette her afflicted family!
Palestinians have consistently lived through the traumas of home destruction, nearly all families have its martyrs from life under occupation these last 60 years. The existing siege only helps them to relive the negative experiences all over again and Georgette is no exception.
A simple modest family came to settle in its home town of Rafah City, Palestine. The family maintained the slogan, " East or west home is best, to have a rest in your own nest" The father made all efforts to secure a very nice house for his family. He didn't care about the location, which was near the military posts of the Israeli border. He thought that they were protected by the International Laws of the UN Charter and that the 4th Geneva Convention is recognized during time of War! Yet, life turned upside down! Georgette Harb is the name of a young Palestinian woman in the Gaza strip. Her name is a little bit strange, her story is strange as well. We met Georgette who seemed to be exhausted and tired of her new tasks, the family's sole breadwinner and she started narrating her story: " My name is Georgette because I have a Romanian mother whom I've never known. Before, 21 years ago, a new flower was planted in the garden of life but unfortunately, it didn't have any mercy from the one who planted it. "That flower is me." I lost my mother when I was one year old when my father decided to leave Romania and return back to his country, Palestine. My mother refused to go, and said; "Palestine is your country and your daughter's as well. So, take your daughter and leave my country and go back whence you came." Her father picked her up and left Romania for Palestine. Here we are, and so the story begins…
He went to the place where his first wife, sons and daughters lived. He went to Yemen because he was a refugee who is banned from entering into Palestine. Georgette went on telling her story, tears streamed like a crazy river and her voice was trembling like that of a very tormented woman! In 1994, Georgette and her family reached Palestine after the Oslo peace agreement. "We lived in the outskirts in what a so-called rented flat, in Rafah, Gaza Strip. Our dream to have our house was finally achieved 3 years ago. Oh… what a dream but Israeli ghosts damaged that dream with no mercy. The 9th of June 2007, 6:00 a.m was a baleful day for us when Israeli armed soldiers backed by tanks stormed our house. My father and brothers fled the house with fear of enemy assault and aggression." Said the panic stricken Georgette. Georgette and the rest of her siblings hid themselves in a bedroom, reckoning it was safe. Yet, the Israeli army was fast like the wind and demolished the external wall of that room. "Into the other room, let us move, hurry up…hurry up… Georgette told her siblings." But sure enough the soldiers were waiting for the innocent family. Finally, we tried waving a white banner through to the soldiers as they sat inside on our garden. We were harmless ladies and children, no men and no guns with us. Half hour under the heat of the sun before an order to return back to the house came where we found to our surprise more than a hundred soldiers were encircling the house. Although the room wall was destroyed, they made us sit amongst the rubble and then brought another 30 captives to the house. While we were about 60 people in this small room without food, water, not even milk for the children, the soldiers outside the room were destroying and stealing everything. They stole jewellery, any monies, a computer and even mobile phones. After the desolation, and torment of the robbery process, the two days of nightmare went away. We thought it over and done but it wasn't to be. On the 27th of Nov 2007, it was another ugly day when Israeli forces came again and took our only treasure. Tuesday 3:30 a.m, Israeli tanks restricted a big area surrounding our home. All men who lived there escaped to safer areas, my father and 3 brothers escaped also. But their fate was completely different to that of the others. While they were escaping, the IDF were waiting for them, first they caught Ramzy and told him to keep silent, Ramzy shouted "what, what do you want?" To try and warn his father and brother, but it was too late. They caught my father, Mohammed and my two brothers Saeed and Ibraheem. Mohammed was shot in his leg and abdomen, Saeed was shot in his leg and jaw and Ibraheem was shot in his leg. Occupation has no mercy, they arrested them all, although they had been dangerously hurt, they left them bleeding for about two hours before taking them to an unknown place. One can only imagine of their wellbeing.
It's now been over four weeks and we still don't know anything of their whereabouts. The questions have to be asked, "Where are our human rights? Is an animal better than a human?
When can we know anything about them? Is there no advocacy or law to defend them? Who will support 6 ladies and three children financially ruined? We need all the help and support we can find."
Support Georgette:
00972599530699
www.freegaza.ps
freegaza.ps@gmail.com
Palestinians have consistently lived through the traumas of home destruction, nearly all families have its martyrs from life under occupation these last 60 years. The existing siege only helps them to relive the negative experiences all over again and Georgette is no exception.
A simple modest family came to settle in its home town of Rafah City, Palestine. The family maintained the slogan, " East or west home is best, to have a rest in your own nest" The father made all efforts to secure a very nice house for his family. He didn't care about the location, which was near the military posts of the Israeli border. He thought that they were protected by the International Laws of the UN Charter and that the 4th Geneva Convention is recognized during time of War! Yet, life turned upside down! Georgette Harb is the name of a young Palestinian woman in the Gaza strip. Her name is a little bit strange, her story is strange as well. We met Georgette who seemed to be exhausted and tired of her new tasks, the family's sole breadwinner and she started narrating her story: " My name is Georgette because I have a Romanian mother whom I've never known. Before, 21 years ago, a new flower was planted in the garden of life but unfortunately, it didn't have any mercy from the one who planted it. "That flower is me." I lost my mother when I was one year old when my father decided to leave Romania and return back to his country, Palestine. My mother refused to go, and said; "Palestine is your country and your daughter's as well. So, take your daughter and leave my country and go back whence you came." Her father picked her up and left Romania for Palestine. Here we are, and so the story begins…
He went to the place where his first wife, sons and daughters lived. He went to Yemen because he was a refugee who is banned from entering into Palestine. Georgette went on telling her story, tears streamed like a crazy river and her voice was trembling like that of a very tormented woman! In 1994, Georgette and her family reached Palestine after the Oslo peace agreement. "We lived in the outskirts in what a so-called rented flat, in Rafah, Gaza Strip. Our dream to have our house was finally achieved 3 years ago. Oh… what a dream but Israeli ghosts damaged that dream with no mercy. The 9th of June 2007, 6:00 a.m was a baleful day for us when Israeli armed soldiers backed by tanks stormed our house. My father and brothers fled the house with fear of enemy assault and aggression." Said the panic stricken Georgette. Georgette and the rest of her siblings hid themselves in a bedroom, reckoning it was safe. Yet, the Israeli army was fast like the wind and demolished the external wall of that room. "Into the other room, let us move, hurry up…hurry up… Georgette told her siblings." But sure enough the soldiers were waiting for the innocent family. Finally, we tried waving a white banner through to the soldiers as they sat inside on our garden. We were harmless ladies and children, no men and no guns with us. Half hour under the heat of the sun before an order to return back to the house came where we found to our surprise more than a hundred soldiers were encircling the house. Although the room wall was destroyed, they made us sit amongst the rubble and then brought another 30 captives to the house. While we were about 60 people in this small room without food, water, not even milk for the children, the soldiers outside the room were destroying and stealing everything. They stole jewellery, any monies, a computer and even mobile phones. After the desolation, and torment of the robbery process, the two days of nightmare went away. We thought it over and done but it wasn't to be. On the 27th of Nov 2007, it was another ugly day when Israeli forces came again and took our only treasure. Tuesday 3:30 a.m, Israeli tanks restricted a big area surrounding our home. All men who lived there escaped to safer areas, my father and 3 brothers escaped also. But their fate was completely different to that of the others. While they were escaping, the IDF were waiting for them, first they caught Ramzy and told him to keep silent, Ramzy shouted "what, what do you want?" To try and warn his father and brother, but it was too late. They caught my father, Mohammed and my two brothers Saeed and Ibraheem. Mohammed was shot in his leg and abdomen, Saeed was shot in his leg and jaw and Ibraheem was shot in his leg. Occupation has no mercy, they arrested them all, although they had been dangerously hurt, they left them bleeding for about two hours before taking them to an unknown place. One can only imagine of their wellbeing.
It's now been over four weeks and we still don't know anything of their whereabouts. The questions have to be asked, "Where are our human rights? Is an animal better than a human?
When can we know anything about them? Is there no advocacy or law to defend them? Who will support 6 ladies and three children financially ruined? We need all the help and support we can find."
Support Georgette:
00972599530699
www.freegaza.ps
freegaza.ps@gmail.com
Labels: absolute madness, call to action, Gaza, human rights violations, Israel, military, occupation, Palestine, refugees
Ilan Pappe interviewed in Italy
ETHNIC CLEANSING GOES ON AND ISRAEL WANTS YOU TO ACCEPT ITIlan Pappe: the peace process means what piece of Palestine Israel is supposed to annex and what Bantustan is supposed to be given to the Arabs
By Emanuela Irace from il manifesto 23/12/07
Ilan Pappe arrived in Italy without causing any sensational uproar. He is IEMASVO’s guest [1], at the ISIAO’s Roman venue [2], for a conference over Israel-Palestine. Title: “One land, two peoples”.
After having denounced in recent months the impossibility of working peacefully in a hostile milieu, namely at Haifa University, Pappe moved to Britain where he now teaches at Exeter University. Historian of dissent, “revisionist”, born in 1954 in Israel, son of Jews who fled from the Germany of the ‘30s, he has published a half dozen books. Amongst the most recent works there is “The ethnic cleansing of Palestine”, not yet translated into Italian. The core of the exploration by the great historian is the Zionist policy comprised of deportations and compulsory expulsions carried out against the Palestinians during and after the 1948 war, when some 400 villages were evacuated, razed and destroyed in the space of five years.
Professor Pappe, you write of ethnic cleansing, in 1948, as the foundational moment of Israel. In this way you shatter the “topos” of the voluntary exile of the Palestinians.
“The Palestinians were driven out in 1947-48, even though the official historical record speaks about pressure from the Arab leaders who ostensibly persuaded them to flee. The idea of finding a refuge for the Jewish community, persecuted in Europe and annihilated by Nazism, clashed with a native population who was in a phase of redefining itself. A colonial project that practiced ethnic cleansing, tackling the demographic problem beforehand: the existence of 600 thousand Jews against one million Palestinians. In February 1948, before the Arabs decided to oppose it in a military manner, the Israelis had already expelled over 300 thousand native people.”
How was the ethnic cleansing carried out and why had everyone kept silent?
“It lasted eight months and only in October 1948 did the Palestinians start to defend themselves in any serious way. The Zionists’ response to this were the slaughters in the province of Galilee, the confiscation of houses, of bank accounts, of lands. The Israelis erased a people and its culture. Nobody denounced the situation because the World War had just ended. The UN couldn’t admit that one of their resolutions (note of the author: the resolution 181, about Palestine’s partition) was ending up with ethnic cleansing. The Red Cross had already been accused of not having impartially reported what happened in the Nazi concentration camps and the most important media wanted to avoid a clash with the Jews.”
A guilt complex and “diplomacy” in the governments’ actions: and what were the consequences?
“During the Holocaust, the countries that are today criticizing Israel, either were accomplices or they kept silent. These are the reasons why the international community has renounced its right to judge us. It bears guilt which it can no longer find a remedy for. Thus losing, still today, the right to criticize Israel’s government. The consequence is that when the state of Israel was established, nobody blamed it for the ethnic cleansing which it had been founded on, a crime against humanity carried out by those who planned and fulfilled it. From that time on, ethnic cleansing has become an ideology, an infrastructural decoration of the state. A matter that is still topical, since Israel’s primary target is demographic: to seize as much territory as possible with the least number of Arabs living in it as possible.”
By what forms and means does the ethnic cleansing go on?
“Through ‘cleaner and more presentable’ systems. The Minister of Justice has been trying for a month to legitimize the illegal settlements by leaving the outposts in place. We’ve learnt that the High Court of Justice is pondering whether to authorize the government to make a cut-down on fuel supplies, thus leaving Gaza without electricity, where there are a million Palestinians who would find themselves in the situation of not being able to have access to drinking water, since the water-bearing stratum is polluted with sewage and people can drink it only if there is an electrical water purification system. Yet, there are many other ways and examples to annihilate the Palestinians, in primis the Wall, accepted by the US and the EU.”
What is Israel asking from its allies?
“It wants them to accept its model as such. During the 1967 war, 300 thousand Palestinians were expelled from the West Bank, in the last seven years ethnic cleansing has become ‘building the Wall’, that pushes the Palestinians back towards the desert, outside the area of Greater Jerusalem reserved for them. The problem is that the Israeli leadership thinks of its own state by ethnic, racial yardsticks and therefore it is racist by all means. All of this is perceived by the Palestinians and this fact embodies the biggest hindrance to peace between Palestine and Israel. The so-called ’peace process’ is thus reduced to deciding what part of Palestine has to again be annexed by Israel and what tiny part can perhaps be given to the Palestinian population.”
What can be done to reverse this process?
“First of all, we have to change our terminologies. It’s not about a clash between Jews and Palestinians. It’s matter of colonialism. It’s incredible how a colonialist policy can be still accepted in the 21st century. We have to force Israel to comply with the same measures that were imposed on racist South Africa in the ‘60s and the ‘70s. Today there are opinion movements of young Jews, in Europe and in the US, who point the finger at Israel’s colonialist policies and accuse it as a colonialist and racist state, not because it is a state founded by Jews.”
In France and in other European countries there are laws that place restrictions on the right to express “revisionist” opinions towards Israel, yet there are no steps taken against the continuous violation of the UN resolutions.
“I underwent such an experience about two years ago. One of my lectures was interrupted by a group of extremists, composed of Jews like me, who prevented me from continuing. The police came in, to protect rather than to accuse me. As to keeping silent, it’s by far easier for people to think in a conventional manner. One has to have a lot of energy and originality to act in non-conformist ways. For instance, UN Resolution 194 states that the Palestinian refugees have the right to return to their land. Yet it’s much easier to do nothing and keep thinking in the usual identical formula.”
Are these the very reasons why the Italian left goes on proposing the “two peoples, two states” model?
“Certainly, the Italian left isn’t courageous. Yet it has no choice but to change, since the situation on the ground is becoming catastrophic. If Israel invades Gaza, as it’s quite likely to do, many Palestinians will be killed and yet the situation won’t change. Gaza is a big prison, and what might happen, just as in many prison uprisings, is: the army will restore the ’law and order’ by beating and killing. It’s bound to be a slaughterhouse but as soon as they leave the situation will remain exactly the same.”
What would the outcome of a “two peoples, one state” formula be instead?
“It’s necessary that the populations accept one another, that the Jews acknowledge their Arab neighbours and brothers and vice-versa. Not before they both recognize history for what it has been and only after they both shoulder their own responsibilities. Recognition, responsibility and mutual acceptance. Only by following this way a single state may be fulfilled, one depending on the “one person, one vote” principle and where citizens, in spite of not loving each other, may coexist. It’s a project that can be achieved if we are allowed to continue to criticise and prevent the crimes Israel is continuously carrying out and if the disinvestment campaign goes on being applied as was done with South Africa.”
Translated by Diego Traversa and revised by Mary Rizzo, members of Tlaxcala , network of translators for linguistic diversity.
Italian version at:
http://www.ilmanifesto.it/Quotidiano-archivio/23-Dicembre-2007/art36.html
notes:
1) IEMASVO: Enrico Mattei Institute of High Studies on Mid-East
2) ISIAO: Italian Institute for Africa and East
Labels: "transfer", boycott, human rights violations, Israel, Italy, journalism, Nakba, occupation, Palestine, Tlaxcala, Zionism
Friday, December 28, 2007
Christians United For Israel Summit ...(and some say there ain't no lobby?)
Click over the image to enlarge it. Well worth the effort!What follows is a very strange document. It is page 22 of the October edition of the glossy booklet by Christians United for Israel, a lobby that claims it has 50 million members and 5 million Jewish sympathisers. Now, there are many who say, "Lobby? NO WAY!" I ask them to read this document which is the (claimed) testimonial of a young Jewish university student who attended their DC Summit. I have a few doubts that it's bona fide, because the grammatical errors you see - such as a comma before 'and' in a three part clause - are carried through in the rest of the booklet, which has as its publisher John and Diana Hagee and its writers people like David Brog (executive director of CUFI, executive at AOL, proud Jew and author of the article about Randy Travis and Joe Lieberman, "Separated at Birth" and Gary Bauer.) The young man has a secret identity, or else he's not in the habit of signing his name when making a testimonial, highly irregular! But, there are some very interesting elements in this letter, fake or not.
1) The student does not say he is an Israeli citizen, but a Jew, and he wanted to go with a Kippah just to show his "gratitude for all the support these people were giving us". Us. Hmm...
2) He says the place turned into a Mega-Church. I wonder if he's ever been in one. First of all, generally Jewish people do not enter into Christian churches, and if they do, wouldn't they expect there to be prayer and not political rallies? Instead we have this:
3) American and Israeli flags, the name of Jesus not mentioned even once the entire night. Although he contradicts himself later!! (They need a professional "proofreader and fact checker", methinks).
4) It is a lobby. This is stated very clearly, and every Congressman and Senator will get a visit from these people. "lobbying in support of Israel and the Jewish people". It is explicitly stated.
5) There is an evident racism in all of this. People treat him like he is a carnival freak, and he's glad to play the part. They hug him "because I'm Jewish... asking me to pray for them, telling me I was blessed by God".
6) The voice of the Jewish people in America (yes, Jewish) is the Church of Jesus Christ. What church is that? I'd like to know. Sounds like a strange Church if it's got American and Israeli flags and no crosses or turns the teachings of Jesus (oops, Yehoshua) on its head. Jesus would never have said, "let us pray for the destruction of our enemies". Quite the opposite. It's in their Bibles, if they know how to read.
7) The usage of the term GOYIM (all caps in the original, in fact, no changes were made to the original, as anyone can see from the image), and the other derogatory self-reference of the Christians.
8) The comparison of Iran to Germany and Ahmedinejad to Hitler needs no further comment. Just note it there and see how it is used in propaganda of all the lobbies, as well as being the foreign policy of Israel based on its usage of these images.
If that ain't a lobby, I will eat my hat, scarf and gloves.
mary
ONE MORE INTERESTING ELEMENT! Thanks to the attentive readers of Peacepalestine, more strange things jump out. James Bowen, the dedicated webmaster of Palestine Information with Provenance clicked on the image and was more careful and attentive than I was in transcribing. He wrote:
Mary
There is an interesting little detail on the picture you mentioned in your blog. Look at the signature given for the piece:
--Shalom - Student at Yeshira University
Note -- YeshiRa, not YeshiVa.
There is no such place as Yeshira University, although there is a Yeshiva University in New York.
Whoever compiles the stuff for the CUFI newsletter seems to be quite ignorant.
Christians United for Israel
Washington, D.C. Israel Summit
Testimonial
Last night was one of the most amazing nights of my life… I wish every Jewish person could have witnessed what I did… it was unreal.
On a whim, I grabbed two friends and attended “A Night to Honor Israel” hosted by “Christians United for Israel” at the Washington Convention Center. My main goal was simply to show up wearing a kipah and show my gratitude for all of the support these people were giving us. The room was filled with over 3,000 people. There were priests, rabbis, songs, prayers, awards, and speeches (Bibi Netanyahu, Newt Gingrich, Dore Gold, Sallai Meridor and many more). The room essentially turned into a Mega-Church, with thousands of Christians shouting and praising God, praying for the protection, safety, and prosperity of Israel and the Jewish people, and for the destruction of the enemies of America and Israel, while waving American and Israeli flags and listening to the sound of shofars being blasted. And yet the name “Jesus” was not mentioned once the entire night. (Yehoshua of Nazareth was said ONCE at the very end of the event)
As I write this there are thousands descending on the Hill, in the offices of every Congressman and Senator, thousands of Christians lobbying in support of Israel and the Jewish people – and you thought AIPAC was strong, the numbers of Christians United for Israel around America is quoted at being over 50 MILLION people!
By the end of the night, I had met so many people who just were hugging me because I was Jewish, giving me their names and asking me to pray for them, telling me I was blessed by God. I also met the Executive Director of CUFI, who said he would love to come and speak at Yeshiva University. What is contained in this email is just a small drop in a very large sea of awe and emotion from one of the most incredible events I have ever been to in my life. Here are just a few quotes:
“The sleeping giant has awakened and the Jewish people have a new voice in America – the Church of Jesus Christ… 50 million Bible Believing Christians and 5 million American Jews are a match made in heaven.”
“The Bible Belt is Israel’s Safety Belt!”
“We former pagans, former idol-worshipping heathen GOYIM now stand united with the Jewish people. Hashem has done great things, is doing great things, and will do great things for Israel! Baruch Hashem!”
“We are currently in 1936, Iran is Germany and Ahmadinejad is Hitler. The silence of the Christian Church during WWII was inexcusable. Today, gather with me and say, ‘Never again, not on our watch!’ This time the Church will not be silent!”
“Jimmy Carter has accused us of having a ‘hidden agenda.’ We have operated for years under the eyes of the Jewish community and I am proud to say that there are Jews here tonight! How much money from terrorists goes to your Fund For Peace Mr. Carter? If anyone has a hidden agenda, it is you!”
Never before have I seen such a sanctification of God’s name, a kiddush hashem, and I was so proud to be a part of something so warm, wonderful, and amazing. It was worth coming to DC just for this event – it was life altering.
--Shalom – Student at Yeshiva University
Labels: hasbara, holocaust, Iran, Israel, journalism, lobbying, propaganda, US, Zionism
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
A new chance to enter Gaza?
Second dispatch by the Italian solidarity delegation to GazaYesterday we closed the day watching al Jazeera which reported both on the apostolic blessing Urbi et Orbi and on our delegation.
Today, December 24, we received a phone call by the Gaza authorities who expressed their regret about the fact that we were not allowed into Gaza by the Israeli army. Actually they had been ready to receive us with all honours. We have been informed that the news about our delegation was spread throughout Gaza. At the same time the solidarity communiqué by the "Popular Committee against the Siege" has been sent around the world.
This morning we held a press conference in Ramallah with the kind help of our Palestinian friends. We were the guests of "Ramattan TV" which co-operates with numberous Arab media outlets. A dozen of jounalists were present including the influencial Al Arabia TV channel. Maria Grazia Ardizzone of the Anti-imperialist Camp stressed the political meaning of our mission to raise the awareness of the genocidial character of the embargo. Ugo Giannangeli, who had been international observer to the elections which saw the landslide victory of Hamas, said that we would do all to meet the legitimate government deposed by Abu Mazen. Don Franzoni, after having denounced the submission of the Italian government with regard to Israel, refered to the Second Vatican Council expressing the determination of the Christians to dialogue with the Muslims first of all with those fighting against the occupation of Palestine. The Senator Fernando Rossi closed recording his struggle in the Italian parliament against the Italian foreign missions like the one in Afghanistan. The announced his determination to return with a new delegation composed of MPs meeting also the Palestinian political prisoners held by Israel.
Then the delegation moved to the Italian consulate in Jerusalem staging a protest action in order to press for a new attempt by the Italian embassy to obtain a permission to enter Gaza. They promissed to open fresh negotiations. In any case we decided to present ourselves again at the Eretz checkpoint.
The night we went to Bethlehem were we staged a protest in front of the nativity church with a banner reading "Stop the embargo! Gaza must live!"
Leonardo Mazzei
on behalf of the Italian solidarity delegation "Gaza must live"
Jerusalem, Palestine, December 24
Labels: activism, call to action, EU, friends, Gaza, human rights violations, Israel, Italy, journalism, Palestine
Monday, December 24, 2007
Italian Humanitarian Delegation DENIED ENTRY TO GAZA
(photo from Jer and Whit Visit Palestine)Statement from Eretz checkpoint
Apropos concentration camps:
This morning the Italian solidarity delegation, which departed from Rome yesterday, was blocked by the Israeli military at the Eretz checkpoint. Entry into Gaza was denied.
The criminal embargo imposed by Israel, the U.S. and the European Union is not limited to goods but does cut all human contacts. The Gaza strip is not an open air prison but an outright concentration camp. Prisoners usually are allowed to receive visits, but not in Gaza.
With the lockout of this morning the Israeli government slapped as well in the face of the Italian authorities. The Italian foreign ministry had assured that all necessary steps had been taken to allow the delegation into Gaza.
In order to denounce the genocidal embargo the solidarity delegation will continue its activities in the forthcoming days. For tomorrow morning a press conference has been scheduled in Ramallah as well as a meeting with the Italian consulate in Jerusalem where we will express our protest in the strongest terms possible. In the afternoon we will demonstrate against the embargo in Bethlehem on the occasion of Christmas matins. Meanwhile we are contemplating about a new protest action at the Eretz checkpoint.
We will keep you informed.
Italian solidarity delegation “Gaza must live”
December 23, 2007
Apropos concentration camps:
This morning the Italian solidarity delegation, which departed from Rome yesterday, was blocked by the Israeli military at the Eretz checkpoint. Entry into Gaza was denied.
The criminal embargo imposed by Israel, the U.S. and the European Union is not limited to goods but does cut all human contacts. The Gaza strip is not an open air prison but an outright concentration camp. Prisoners usually are allowed to receive visits, but not in Gaza.
With the lockout of this morning the Israeli government slapped as well in the face of the Italian authorities. The Italian foreign ministry had assured that all necessary steps had been taken to allow the delegation into Gaza.
In order to denounce the genocidal embargo the solidarity delegation will continue its activities in the forthcoming days. For tomorrow morning a press conference has been scheduled in Ramallah as well as a meeting with the Italian consulate in Jerusalem where we will express our protest in the strongest terms possible. In the afternoon we will demonstrate against the embargo in Bethlehem on the occasion of Christmas matins. Meanwhile we are contemplating about a new protest action at the Eretz checkpoint.
We will keep you informed.
Italian solidarity delegation “Gaza must live”
December 23, 2007
response from Popular Committee Against Siege
Dear Italians, lovers of freedom,
We are very sorry for what happened to you but this is an indication of the false claims of our oppressors. Israelis claim that they are democratic, but you have seen that they are barbarous by denying your entry to Gaza strip. This shows how Israeli democracy is false. It's only a game to make the people believe that they are victims. Yet, you have seen that the are putting all Gaza residents in a big concentration camp to perish one by one. But, they will never succeed because we are supported by the real democratics like you, the real lovers of freedom who came from far places to say nay for Israeli's crime.
Your attempt has debunked the Israeli allegation that they are the paragon of democracy. Imagine that what you have faced is always happening to patients! They are being killed in cold blood. Israelis are violating human rights laws, accords, charters and the IV Geneva Conventions. However, USA and EU are supporting them in a very flagrant way.
Even though you were not allowed in, but our children were very happy that you tried to come and help them. They keep clinging hope on people like yourselves. We express our heartily thanks. We invite you to make more attempts to get into Gaza Strip. The Gaza Strip is in bad conditions, so Israelis will do all steps to prevent others from seeing the real picture. The siege associated by Israeli media blackmail. Today, the number of death toll of Gaza patients under blockade has risen up to 50. So, again we stress on your visit to Gaza…. Or more people will die….
PCAS is still determined that you come to Gaza Strip to interact with what's going on. Your visit will make the world exposed to humanitarian crisis. If you tried again to get in and they prevent you we suggest the follows:
1-We will make a big demonstration to Eretz checkpoint.
2- You can organize a demonstration from your side associated with some Israeli peace bodies and groups.
3- We will organize a press conference on our side and you do the same on your side.
4- You have to attract more media coverage on your side.
5- We will be pleased to publish anything from your side in our website: http://www.freegaza.ps/
6- We invite you to bring more activists into Israel and to launch a big demonstration.
PCAS is still waiting your visit to Gaza and it will facilitate all burdens from your side.
Looking forward for more coporation,
PCAS Chairman
Jamal N. KHOUDARY
We are very sorry for what happened to you but this is an indication of the false claims of our oppressors. Israelis claim that they are democratic, but you have seen that they are barbarous by denying your entry to Gaza strip. This shows how Israeli democracy is false. It's only a game to make the people believe that they are victims. Yet, you have seen that the are putting all Gaza residents in a big concentration camp to perish one by one. But, they will never succeed because we are supported by the real democratics like you, the real lovers of freedom who came from far places to say nay for Israeli's crime.
Your attempt has debunked the Israeli allegation that they are the paragon of democracy. Imagine that what you have faced is always happening to patients! They are being killed in cold blood. Israelis are violating human rights laws, accords, charters and the IV Geneva Conventions. However, USA and EU are supporting them in a very flagrant way.
Even though you were not allowed in, but our children were very happy that you tried to come and help them. They keep clinging hope on people like yourselves. We express our heartily thanks. We invite you to make more attempts to get into Gaza Strip. The Gaza Strip is in bad conditions, so Israelis will do all steps to prevent others from seeing the real picture. The siege associated by Israeli media blackmail. Today, the number of death toll of Gaza patients under blockade has risen up to 50. So, again we stress on your visit to Gaza…. Or more people will die….
PCAS is still determined that you come to Gaza Strip to interact with what's going on. Your visit will make the world exposed to humanitarian crisis. If you tried again to get in and they prevent you we suggest the follows:
1-We will make a big demonstration to Eretz checkpoint.
2- You can organize a demonstration from your side associated with some Israeli peace bodies and groups.
3- We will organize a press conference on our side and you do the same on your side.
4- You have to attract more media coverage on your side.
5- We will be pleased to publish anything from your side in our website: http://www.freegaza.ps/
6- We invite you to bring more activists into Israel and to launch a big demonstration.
PCAS is still waiting your visit to Gaza and it will facilitate all burdens from your side.
Looking forward for more coporation,
PCAS Chairman
Jamal N. KHOUDARY
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS! (in Italian for now)
ALL'INFERNO NON SI ENTRA
DISPACCIO DELLA DELEGAZIONE PARTITA PER GAZA
Ramallah, Palestina, Domenica 23 dicembre, ore 16,00
«Questa mattina, mentre si udivano spari di mitragliatrice e dopo un defatigante viaggio (segnaliamo la maniacale attenzione che la polizia aeroportuale israeliana ha riservato soprattutto a Maria Grazia Ardizzone), la delegazione di solidarieta’ con il popolo di Gaza* si e presentata al valico di Eretz per varcare il confine con l’inferno di Gaza. E’ stata brutalmente RESPINTA dall’ esercito israeliano.
Il criminale embargo decretato dal governo di tel Aviv, sostenuto dagli Usa e dall’Unione Europea, non si limita al blocco delle merci, dei medicinali ecc., giunge perfino ad impedire i contatti umani. La Striscia non e una prigione a cielo aperto, ma un vero e proprio campo di concentramento. In carcere infatti almeno i colloqui sono consentiti, a Gaza no.
Con il sopruso di questa mattina l’esercito ed il governo di Israele hanno dato anche un sonoro ceffone alle autorita italiane.
Esse avevano infatti assicurato (incontro col viceministro Ugo Intini, svoltosi alla Farnesina l’11 dicembre) che avrebbero compiuto i passi necessari affinche’ la delegazione potesse raggiungere Gaza.
Il crimine di questo embargo genocida evidentemente puo compiersi solo grazie a molte complicita e non tollera testimoni, ne’ intrusi.
Per denunciare questa situazione la delegazione di solidarieta continuera’ la sua attivita nei prossimi giorni.
Nel frattempo il muro di silenzio ha iniziato a cedere. Leonardo Mazzei e Vainer Burani sono stati a lungo intervistati dalla TV araba al Jazeera. Le interviste saranno trasmesse questa sera.
Per domani mattina (lunedi’ 24 dicembre) e prevista (grazie al determinante contributo delle organizzazioni della Resistenza palestinese) una conferenza stampa a Ramallah.
Subito dopo ci recheremo al consolato italiano di Gerusalemme dove protesteremo, con un sit-in, per la situazione che si e determinata.
Domani sera saremo invece a Betlemme in occasione della Santa messa di Natale. La delegazione italiana, affiancata dai fratelli palestinesi, musulmani e cristiani, e da decine di militanti antisionisti israeliani, esporra’ uno striscione in lingua italiana con su scritto «STOP EMBARGO! GAZA VIVRA’»
Tutte queste attivita sono finalizzate ad una nuova e piu forte iniziativa al valico di Eretz, al quale ci ripresenteremo, piu’ numerosi, il 26 dicembre.
Sacchi con medicinali, giochi e altro materiale sono stati consegnati ai volontari di due Ong italiane attive da tempo all'interno di Gaza e verranno distribuiti alla popolazione. Leonardo Mazzei x la Delegazione*
La Delegazione e’ composta da: Leonardo Mazzei «Comitato Gaza Vivrà» - Fernando Rossi, Senatore - Giovanni Franzoni, Comunità Cristiane di Base - Lucio Manisco, Giornalista ed ex parlamentare - Maria Grazia Ardizzone, Campo Antimperialista - Elvio Arancio, Centro studi cultura islamica di Torino - Davide Casali, Fotoreporter, inviato di Infopal.it - Giuseppe Pelazza, Avvocato - Vainer Burani, Avvocato, membro «Giuristi Democratici» - Maria Grazia Da Costa, Operatrice sanitaria - Ugo Giannangeli, Avvocato, onlus «Per Gazzella» - Zeno Leoni, Giornalista - Carmela Vaccaro, Docente universitaria, esperta di acqua - Erika Miozzi, Associazione umanitaria di volontariato «Sumud» - Anika Persiani, Associazione umanitaria di volontariato «Sumud» - Margarita Langthaler «Comitato Gaza Vivrà di Vienna.
Il criminale embargo decretato dal governo di tel Aviv, sostenuto dagli Usa e dall’Unione Europea, non si limita al blocco delle merci, dei medicinali ecc., giunge perfino ad impedire i contatti umani. La Striscia non e una prigione a cielo aperto, ma un vero e proprio campo di concentramento. In carcere infatti almeno i colloqui sono consentiti, a Gaza no.
Con il sopruso di questa mattina l’esercito ed il governo di Israele hanno dato anche un sonoro ceffone alle autorita italiane.
Esse avevano infatti assicurato (incontro col viceministro Ugo Intini, svoltosi alla Farnesina l’11 dicembre) che avrebbero compiuto i passi necessari affinche’ la delegazione potesse raggiungere Gaza.
Il crimine di questo embargo genocida evidentemente puo compiersi solo grazie a molte complicita e non tollera testimoni, ne’ intrusi.
Per denunciare questa situazione la delegazione di solidarieta continuera’ la sua attivita nei prossimi giorni.
Nel frattempo il muro di silenzio ha iniziato a cedere. Leonardo Mazzei e Vainer Burani sono stati a lungo intervistati dalla TV araba al Jazeera. Le interviste saranno trasmesse questa sera.
Per domani mattina (lunedi’ 24 dicembre) e prevista (grazie al determinante contributo delle organizzazioni della Resistenza palestinese) una conferenza stampa a Ramallah.
Subito dopo ci recheremo al consolato italiano di Gerusalemme dove protesteremo, con un sit-in, per la situazione che si e determinata.
Domani sera saremo invece a Betlemme in occasione della Santa messa di Natale. La delegazione italiana, affiancata dai fratelli palestinesi, musulmani e cristiani, e da decine di militanti antisionisti israeliani, esporra’ uno striscione in lingua italiana con su scritto «STOP EMBARGO! GAZA VIVRA’»
Tutte queste attivita sono finalizzate ad una nuova e piu forte iniziativa al valico di Eretz, al quale ci ripresenteremo, piu’ numerosi, il 26 dicembre.
Sacchi con medicinali, giochi e altro materiale sono stati consegnati ai volontari di due Ong italiane attive da tempo all'interno di Gaza e verranno distribuiti alla popolazione. Leonardo Mazzei x la Delegazione*
La Delegazione e’ composta da: Leonardo Mazzei «Comitato Gaza Vivrà» - Fernando Rossi, Senatore - Giovanni Franzoni, Comunità Cristiane di Base - Lucio Manisco, Giornalista ed ex parlamentare - Maria Grazia Ardizzone, Campo Antimperialista - Elvio Arancio, Centro studi cultura islamica di Torino - Davide Casali, Fotoreporter, inviato di Infopal.it - Giuseppe Pelazza, Avvocato - Vainer Burani, Avvocato, membro «Giuristi Democratici» - Maria Grazia Da Costa, Operatrice sanitaria - Ugo Giannangeli, Avvocato, onlus «Per Gazzella» - Zeno Leoni, Giornalista - Carmela Vaccaro, Docente universitaria, esperta di acqua - Erika Miozzi, Associazione umanitaria di volontariato «Sumud» - Anika Persiani, Associazione umanitaria di volontariato «Sumud» - Margarita Langthaler «Comitato Gaza Vivrà di Vienna.
Labels: absolute madness, activism, call to action, EU, friends, Gaza, human rights violations, Italy, occupation, Palestine, refugees
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Authenticated Israeli Crime in Gaza: killing patients in cold blood
Sam Armanda Reports from the Gaza Strip,Dec 20th 2007, PCAS
For the past 6 months Israeli occupation has committed illegal and savage massacres against Palestinians. The actions they have undertaken (massacres), are flagrant and obvious violations of human rights law, the IV Geneva Convention and other international human rights laws and charters. Infants, old men and old women have been killed in cold blood. Yet Israel and its occupation forces say, "we are defending ourselves and own country!" Therefore, we ask a question! Are old men, old women and infants holding guns? Are they firing rockets? Are they…. Are they and are they! Wonders will not end by the end of these words.
The more astonishing reality is the fact of those people in the following pictures. They are mostly patients with chronic diseases. They are being killed due to the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip. Israel is firing, shooting and preventing them from having medicine (nothing is allowed to enter into Gaza) as well as banning them from traveling abroad to recieve medical cure.
Ironically, those patients are in serious health situations and they are spending their time in Intensive Care Unit, ICU. However, Israel is always rejecting their medical requests to leave for medication outside Gaza! The pretext given by Israel is, "they are a source of danger to our state."
Hence, we raise some questions with the help of patients' pictures in Gaza's hospitals. Are those powerless people able to bother Israel by blowing themselves up? Are they able to fire or shoot? Why they are banned from having medications abroad? Why are Israelis rejecting letting medicine into the Gaza Strip?
It's remarkable that the health sector has been rapidly and dramatically affected by the siege. According to the latest Humanitarian Situation Report of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) released on October 9th, 2007, fewer than five patients crossed into Israel/West Bank each day for medical treatment compared to an average of 40 patients per day in July. The World Health Organization has indicated, though, that an average of 1000 patients used to leave Gaza for treatment each month prior to the mid-June closures. But now, all patients are banned from leaving besieged Gaza for urgent surgeries and medication!
The following pictures exclusively have been taken by Popular Committee Against Siege (PCAS). They are some of siege ramifications on the health sector.
Labels: absolute madness, call to action, Gaza, human rights violations, Israel, occupation, Palestine
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
And Blair’s Plan Comes to Palestine
Michele Giorgio reporting from Jerusalem (from il manifesto, 18/12/07)Blair played the role of protagonist also in Paris. The Quartet’s envoy for the Middle East and former British Premier takes seriously the duty of “developing the Palestinian economy”, as he has been entrusted by the American President George W. Bush, his companion in many military adventures. He takes his task so seriously that he’s churning out plans one after another. As many as four are the proposals the Quartet’s envoy has recently put forward for the “Rebirth of the Palestinian economy”, amongst which one with a striking name: “Corridor for Peace and Prosperity”.
It’s been ready for some time now, because it was already conceived by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA). It foresees the development of a large agro-industrial area in the Jordan Valley, the most fertile zone in the Palestinian Territories occupied by Israel 40 years ago. Behind the good-intention rhetoric, the project reveals not only the aim to make the dependence of the Palestinian economy on the Israeli one official, but also the intention of indirectly legalising the Israeli settlements in that portion of Palestinian territory.
Also included in the “Corridor for Peace and Prosperity” are plans for waste management about which some criticism has already come from the people of Jericho. As a matter of fact, the dumping grounds are expected to be built only in the tiny A-area, the one which, according to the outdated Oslo Accords, is controlled (at least formally) by the PNA.
Actually, the plan doesn’t take into consideration building dumping areas in the C-Area, which includes most of the occupied West Bank and is under the full authority of the Israeli army. Evidently, the Japanese and Blair seem to take for granted that, in the future, the C-Area will remain under Israel’s control. Jamal Jumaa, a leading representative of the Palestinian civil society and activist for the “Stop the Wall” campaign, suspects that the plan includes “also managing waste from the Israeli settlements built in that area, for instance the massive Ma’ale Adumim, which by international law, are illegal.”
In contrast with the socio-economical pattern of the Jericho area, comprised of farmers who work their small plot of land, the development plan which has been conceived by the Japanese and approved by Blair, foresees the set up of big agro-industrial enterprises with a remarkable workforce. If one takes into account the indigence in which most of the inhabitants of the Jordan Valley live, it won’t be too hard to guess that it will be the Israelis and the same old Palestinian elite who will dominate the entrepreneurial scene whilst the peasants will be employed as unskilled workers.
In the JICA plan, at pages 8 and 9, reference is made to the primary role for the development of the agro-industrial area that is expected to be carried out by “Israeli migrant firms”, an expression behind which are concealed those Israeli firms operating in the Palestinian Occupied Territories that maintain business relations with the Jewish settlements of the Jordan Valley. “The Corridor for Peace and Prosperity,” Jamal Jumaa warns, “goads the Palestinians, through economic cooperation, into recognising the presence of the Israeli settlements. What’s more, with such starting points, the benefits for the Palestinians will be minimal to say the least, since our farmers will never have the necessary tools to be at the top of the managerial pyramid and therefore they will have to make do with the crumbs that drop off the table.”
Even the building of “Morajat Road” seems to confirm Jumaa’s warnings. Officially, this road, as conceived in the plan, has the task of making the movements of the local goods and farmers along the Jordan Valley easier. Actually, it allows Israel to bar Palestinian traffic from state roads connecting Jerusalem to the Jericho area, thus it has a share in the development of the twofold traffic system—one for the Palestinians and one for the Israelis—which the UN spokesman for human rights himself, John Dugard, has described as being “semi-apartheid”. It is worthwhile to remember that the “Morajat Road” starts and ends with Israeli checkpoints.
Being allowed to criticise the “peace” and “development” patterns that were formulated at the Annapolis conference of the past month, as well as those ones emerging from Blair’s plans, is becoming an increasingly harder feat. Yet, some Arab regimes that maintain close relationships with the Bush administration are starting to have some doubts. Yesterday, while in Paris it was decided to provide Abu Mazen’s PNA with hefty financial aid, more than a few people wondered whether the Arab States will fulfil the obligations they undertook towards the Palestinian President the past month in Annapolis. Egypt and Saudi Arabia, in fact, seem to be reluctant to unreservedly take the side of Abu Mazen and to keep Hamas at a distance, which has controlled Gaza since last June.
Precisely from the Palestinian President’s entourage, it has been rumoured that Saudi Arabia is reconsidering the promise of covering half of the PNA’s yearly deficit (this year: 1.4 billion dollars). What’s more, only 80 out of 421 billion dollars that the Arab States granted to Abu Mazen in 2007 have been delivered.
On one hand, Saudi Arabia sides with Abu Mazen while on the other, it heistates in breaking off relations with Hamas, which represents an important portion of the Palestinian population.
Some day ago, the Hamas leader in exile, Khaled Meshaal, was warmly welcomed in Riyad by the Saudi establishment and therefore it is not surprising that the meeting was harshly criticised by the Palestinian President’s staff.
Translated by Diego Traversa and revised by Mary Rizzo, members of www.tlaxcala.es, network of translators for linguistic diversity.
Italian source:http://www.ilmanifesto.it/Quotidiano-archivio/18-Dicembre-2007/art48.html
Labels: Arab countries, EU, Israel, occupation, Palestine, Palestinian politicians, UK, US
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Nadim Rouhana - Israel's Palestinians Speak Out
The Annapolis peace talks regard me as an interloper in my own land. Israel's deputy prime minister, Avigdor Lieberman, argues that I should "take [my] bundles and get lost." Henry Kissinger thinks I ought to be summarily swapped from inside Israel to the would-be Palestinian state.I am a Palestinian with Israeli citizenship--one of 1.4 million. I am also a social psychologist trained and working in the United States. In late November, on behalf of Mada al-Carmel, the Arab Center for Applied Social Research, I polled Palestinian citizens of Israel regarding their reactions to the Annapolis conference and their views about our future, and how they would be affected by Middle East peace negotiations.
During Israel's establishment, three-quarters of a million Palestinians were driven from their homes or fled in fear. They remain refugees to this day, scattered throughout the West Bank and Gaza, the Arab world and beyond. We Palestinian citizens of Israel are among the minority who managed to remain on our land. Like many Mexican-Americans, we didn't cross the border, the border crossed us. We have been struggling ever since against a system that subjects us to separate and unequal treatment because we are Palestinian Arabs--Christian, Muslim and Druze--not Jewish. More than twenty Israeli laws explicitly privilege Jews over non-Jews.
The Palestinian Authority is under intense pressure to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. This is not a matter of semantics. If Israel's demand is granted, the inequality that we face as Palestinians--roughly 20 percent of Israel's population--will become permanent.
The United States, despite being settled by Christian Europeans fleeing religious persecution, has struggled for decades to make clear that it is not a "Christian nation." It is in a similar vein that Israel's indigenous Palestinian population rejects the efforts of Israel and the United States to seal our fate as a permanent underclass in our own homeland.
We are referred to by leading Israeli politicians as a "demographic problem." In response, many in Israel, including the deputy prime minister, are proposing land swaps: Palestinian land in the occupied territories with Israeli settlers on it would fall under Israel's sovereignty, while land in Israel with Palestinian citizens would fall under Palestinian authority.
This may seem like an even trade. But there is one problem: no one asked us what we think of this solution. Imagine the hue and cry were a prominent American politician to propose redrawing the map of the United States so as to exclude as many Mexican-Americans as possible, for the explicit purpose of preserving white political power. Such a demagogue would rightly be denounced as a bigot. Yet this sort of hyper-segregation and ethnic supremacy is precisely what Israeli and American officials are considering for many Palestinian citizens of Israel -- and hoping to coerce Palestinan leaders into accepting.
Looking across the Green Line, we realize that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has no mandate to negotiate a deal that will affect our future. We did not elect him. Why would we give up the rights we have battled to secure in our homeland to live inside an embryonic Palestine that we fear will be more like a bantustan than a sovereign state? Even if we put aside our attachment to our homeland, Israel has crushed the West Bank economy--to say nothing of Gaza's--and imprisoned its people behind a barrier. There is little allure to life in such grim circumstances, especially since there is the real prospect of further Israeli sanctions, which could make a bad situation worse.
In the poll I just conducted, nearly three-quarters of Israel's Palestinian citizens rejected the idea of the Palestinian Authority making territorial concessions that involve them, and 65.6 percent maintained that the PA also lacked the mandate to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Nearly 80 percent declared that it lacks the mandate to relinquish the right of Palestinian refugees--affirmed in UN General Assembly Resolution 194 of 1948 and reaffirmed many times--to return to their homes and properties inside Israel.
Palestinians inside Israel have developed a history and identity after nearly sixty years of hard work and struggle. We are not simply pawns to be shuffled to the other side of the board. We expect no more and no less than the right to equality in the land of our ancestors. Israeli Jews have now built a nation, and have the right to live here in peace. But Israel cannot be both Jewish and democratic, nor can it find the security it seeks by continuing to deny our rights, nor those of Palestinians under occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, nor those of Palestinian refugees. It is time for us to share this land in a true democracy, one that honors and respects the rights of both peoples as equals.
Labels: Israel, Israeli politicians, Palestine, Palestinian politicians
Friday, December 14, 2007
Let us help Gaza RESIST!
Italian delegation goes to Gaza for ChristmasBlessed are you who are poor,
for the kingdom of God is yours.
Blessed are you who are now hungry,
for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who are now weeping,
for you will laugh.
from the Gospel of Luke
1974 years ago, Jesus of Nazareth was crucified for having promised the oppressed hope in salvation and justice. 1974 years later, in the same places, another martyrdom is taking place, and this time it is the whole Palestinian people which is undergoing it.
The Gaza Strip is the symbol of this tragedy.
During the last year, the embargo decreed by the Israeli authorities has turned Gaza into a concentration camp: one and a half million people survive with great difficulty. There is no other way of putting it: we are facing a humanitarian catastrophe.
Thanks to the brazen support of the US and the European Union, the Israeli regime hoped that they could force Gaza to surrender through hunger, accepting not only the historical hoax called the “Road Map”, but also the idea of giving power back to the man who had lost it in regular elections: Abu Mazen.
However, Gaza has not given in. Gaza lives and resists.The decision was taken, therefore, to make this collective punishment even harsher.
Goods, things and bodies cannot cross the borders, tanks, bombers and bombs can.
From January to this day, with the beginning of the embargo, the Israeli army – on the pretext of responding to the launching of rudimentary rockets - has carried out countless devastating incursions against Gaza, not sparing even the West Bank.
The Gaza Strip is the symbol of this tragedy.
During the last year, the embargo decreed by the Israeli authorities has turned Gaza into a concentration camp: one and a half million people survive with great difficulty. There is no other way of putting it: we are facing a humanitarian catastrophe.
Thanks to the brazen support of the US and the European Union, the Israeli regime hoped that they could force Gaza to surrender through hunger, accepting not only the historical hoax called the “Road Map”, but also the idea of giving power back to the man who had lost it in regular elections: Abu Mazen.
However, Gaza has not given in. Gaza lives and resists.The decision was taken, therefore, to make this collective punishment even harsher.
Goods, things and bodies cannot cross the borders, tanks, bombers and bombs can.
From January to this day, with the beginning of the embargo, the Israeli army – on the pretext of responding to the launching of rudimentary rockets - has carried out countless devastating incursions against Gaza, not sparing even the West Bank.
Israeli sources say that their army has killed 457 Palestinians since January, including nearly one hundred children. The majority were innocent civilians.
In these days, the siege of Gaza has become even harder: attacks continue, and Palestinians continue to die.
In such a dramatic situation, during Christmas, the Palestinian people could not be left to themselves. This is why a delegation will go to Gaza to bring its inhabitants solidarity. Not only from those who signed the “Gaza Must Live!” appeal, but also from that large part of the Italian people whose heart beats with the hearts of the Palestinian people, and which demands an end to the Israeli siege and embargo, as well as an end to the complicity of the International Community, including the Italian government.
In these days, the siege of Gaza has become even harder: attacks continue, and Palestinians continue to die.
In such a dramatic situation, during Christmas, the Palestinian people could not be left to themselves. This is why a delegation will go to Gaza to bring its inhabitants solidarity. Not only from those who signed the “Gaza Must Live!” appeal, but also from that large part of the Italian people whose heart beats with the hearts of the Palestinian people, and which demands an end to the Israeli siege and embargo, as well as an end to the complicity of the International Community, including the Italian government.
The delegation is of a humanitarian nature, and intends to investigate the situation and look into practical ways to help the population of Gaza RESIST.
We want to breach an embargo which has even been extended to human beings, aware as we are of the symbolic importance this act has for the whole Palestinian people.
It is with these goals in mind that we shall meet the humanitarian organisations and civil society, as well as the legitimate authorities of Gaza.
The delegation will be made up as follows:
Fernando Rossi – Member of the Italian Senate;
Giovanni Franzoni – Comunità Cristiane di Base (Grassroots Christian Communities);
Lucio Manisco – Journalist and former Member of Parliament;
Maria Grazia Ardizzone –Anti-imperialist Camp;
Elvio Arancio – Islamic Studies Centre of Turin;
Davide Casali - Photojournalist;
Vainer Burani – Lawyer, member of Giuristi Democratici (Democratic Lawyers);
Maria Grazia Da Costa – Health Care Operator;
Ugo Giannangeli – Lawyer, member of the non profit association “Per Gazzella”;
Margarita Langthaler – Anti-imperialist Coordination of Vienna;
Zeno Leoni – Journalist;
Leonardo Mazzei – “Gaza Vivrà” Committee;
Erika Miozzi – Humanitarian non profit association “Sumud”;
Giuseppe Pelazza – Lawyer;
Anika Persiani – Humanitarian non profit association “Sumud”;
Carmela Vaccaro – University professor and expert on water issues.
According to the mandate it received at the meeting in Florence the delegation will report on the situation when it comes back, and will propose the next steps in this mobilisation. Original URL http://www.gazavive.com/
Translated from Italian by Miguel Martinez, member of Tlaxcala, network of Translators for linguistic diversity.
url for Tlaxcala article: http://www.tlaxcala.es/pp.asp?reference=4331&lg=en
Labels: activism, Gaza, Italy, occupation, Palestine
Thursday, December 13, 2007
"Save Darfur" Campaign is a PR Scam
Ten Reasons Why "Save Darfur" is a PR Scam to Justify the Next US Oil and Resource Wars in Africa by Bruce Dixon
Global Research, December 12, 2007
blackagendareport.com - 2007-11-27
The star-studded hue and cry to "Save Darfur" and "stop the genocide" has gained enormous traction in U.S. media along with bipartisan support in Congress and the White House. But the Congo, with ten to twenty times as many African dead over the same period is not called a "genocide" and passes almost unnoticed. Sudan sits atop lakes of oil. It has large supplies of uranium, and other minerals, significant water resources, and a strategic location near still more African oil and resources. The unasked question is whether the nation's Republican and Democratic foreign policy elite are using claims of genocide, and appeals for "humanitarian intervention" to grease the way for the next oil and resource wars on the African continent.
The regular manufacture and the constant maintenance of false realities in the service of American empire is a core function of the public relations profession and the corporate news media. Whether it's fake news stories about wonder drugs and how toxic chemicals are good for you, bribed commentators and journalists discoursing on the benefits of No Child Left Behind, Hollywood stars advocating military intervention to save African orphans, or slick propaganda campaigns employing viral marketing techniques to reach out to college students, bloggers, churches and ordinary citizens, it pays to take a close look behind the facade.
Among the latest false realities being pushed upon the American people are the simplistic pictures of Black vs. Arab genocide in Darfur, and the proposed solution: a robust US-backed or US-led military intervention in Western Sudan. Increasing scrutiny is being focused upon the "Save Darfur" lobby and the Save Darfur Coalition; upon its founders, its finances, its methods and motivations and its truthfulness. In the spirit of furthering that examination we here present ten reasons to suspect that the "Save Darfur" campaign is a PR scam to justify US intervention in Africa.
1. It wouldn't be the first Big Lie our government and media elite told us to justify a war.
Elders among us can recall the Tonkin Gulf Incident, which the US government deliberately provoked to justify initiation of the war in Vietnam. This rationale was quickly succeeded by the need to help the struggling infant "democracy" in South Vietnam, and the still useful "fight 'em over there so we don't have to fight 'em over here" nonsense. More recently the bombings, invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq have been variously explained by people on the public payroll as necessary to "get Bin Laden" as revenge for 9-11, as measures to take "the world's most dangerous weapons" from the hands of "the world's most dangerous regimes", as measures to enable the struggling Iraqi "democracy" stand on its own two feet, and necessary because it's still better to "fight them over there so we don't have to fight them here".
2. It wouldn't even be the first time the U.S. government and media elite employed "genocide prevention" as a rationale for military intervention in an oil-rich region.
The 1995 US and NATO military intervention in the former Yugoslavia was supposedly a "peacekeeping" operation to stop a genocide. The lasting result of that campaign is Camp Bondsteel, one of the largest military bases on the planet. The U.S. is practically the only country in the world that maintains military bases outside its own borders. At just under a thousand acres, Camp Bondsteel offers the US military the ability to pre-position large quantities of equipment and supplies within striking distance of Caspian oil fields, pipeline routes and relevant sea lanes. It is also widely believed to be the site of one of the US's secret prison and torture facilities.
3. If stopping genocide in Africa really was on the agenda, why the focus on Sudan with 200,000 to 400,000 dead rather than Congo with five million dead?
"The notion that a quarter million Darfuri dead are a genocide and five million dead Congolese are not is vicious and absurd," according to Congolese activist Nita Evele. "What's happened and what is still happening in Congo is not a tribal conflict and it's not a civil war. It is an invasion. It is a genocide with a death toll of five million, twenty times that of Darfur, conducted for the purpose of plundering Congolese mineral and natural resources."
More than anything else, the selective and cynical application of the term "genocide" to Sudan, rather than to the Congo where ten to twenty times as many Africans have been murdered reveals the depth of hypocrisy around the "Save Darfur" movement. In the Congo, where local gangsters, mercenaries and warlords along with invading armies from Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Angola engage in slaughter, mass rape and regional depopulation on a scale that dwarfs anything happening in Sudan, all the players eagerly compete to guarantee that the extraction of vital coltan for Western computers and cell phones, the export of uranium for Western reactors and nukes, along with diamonds, gold, copper, timber and other Congolese resources continue undisturbed.
Former UN Ambassador Andrew Young and George H.W. Bush both serve on the board of Barrick Gold, one of the largest and most active mining concerns in war-torn Congo. Evidently, with profits from the brutal extraction of Congolese wealth flowing to the West, there can be no Congolese "genocide" worth noting, much less interfering with. For their purposes, U.S. strategic planners may regard their Congolese model as the ideal means of capturing African wealth at minimal cost without the bother of official U.S. boots on the ground.
4. It's all about Sudanese oil.
Sudan, and the Darfur region in particular, sit atop a lake of oil. But Sudanese oil fields are not being developed and drilled by Exxon or Chevron or British Petroleum. Chinese banks, oil and construction firms are making the loans, drilling the wells, laying the pipelines to take Sudanese oil where they intend it to go, calling far too many shots for a twenty-first century in which the U.S. aspires to control the planet's energy supplies. A U.S. and NATO military intervention will solve that problem for U.S. planners.
5. It's all about Sudanese uranium, gum arabic and other natural resources.
Uranium is vital to the nuclear weapons industry and an essential fuel for nuclear reactors. Sudan possesses high quality deposits of uranium. Gum arabic is an essential ingredient in pharmaceuticals, candies and beverages like Coca-Cola and Pepsi, and Sudanese exports of this commodity are 80% of the world's supply. When comprehensive U.S. sanctions against the Sudanese regime were being considered in 1997, industry lobbyists stepped up and secured an exemption in the sanctions bill to guarantee their supplies of this valuable Sudanese commodity. But an in-country U.S. and NATO military presence is a more secure guarantee that the extraction of Sudanese resources, like those of the Congo, flow westward to the U.S. and the European Union.
6. It's all about Sudan's strategic location.
Sudan sits opposite Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, where a large fraction of the world's easily extracted oil will be for a few more years. Darfur borders on Libya and Chad, with their own vast oil resources, is within striking distance of West and Central Africa, and is a likely pipeline route. The Nile River flows through Sudan before reaching Egypt, and Southern Sudan has water resources of regional significance too. With the creation of AFRICOM, the new Pentagon command for the African continent, the U.S. has made open and explicit its intention to plant a strategic footprint on the African continent. From permanent Sudanese bases, the U.S. military could influence the politics and ecocomies of Africa for a generation to come.
7. The backers and founders of the "Save Darfur" movement are the well-connected and well-funded U.S. foreign policy elite.
According to a copyrighted Washington Post story this summer
"The "Save Darfur (Coalition) was created in 2005 by two groups concerned about genocide in the African country - the American Jewish World Service and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum...
"The coalition has a staff of 30 with expertise in policy and public relations. Its budget was about $15 million in the most recent fiscal year...
"Save Darfur will not say exactly how much it has spent on its ads, which this week have attempted to shame China, host of the 2008 Olympics, into easing its support for Sudan. But a coalition spokeswoman said the amount is in the millions of dollars."
Though the "Save Darfur" PR campaign employs viral marketing techniques, reaching out to college students, even to black bloggers, it is not a grassroots affair, as were the movement against apartheid and in support of African liberation movements in South Africa, Namibia, Angola and Mozambique a generation ago. Top heavy with evangelical Christians who preach the coming war for the end of the world, and with elements known for their uncritical support of Israeli rejectionism in the Middle East, the Save Darfur movement is clearly an establishment affair, a propaganda campaign that spends millions of dollars each month to manufacture consent for US military intervention in Africa under the cloak of stopping or preventing genocide.
8. None of the funds raised by the "Save Darfur Coalition", the flagship of the "Save Darfur Movement" go to help needy Africans on the ground in Darfur, according to stories in both the Washington Post and the New York Times.
"None of the money collected by Save Darfur goes to help the victims and their families. Instead, the coalition pours its proceeds into advocacy efforts that are primarily designed to persuade governments to act."
9. "Save Darfur" partisans in the U.S. are not interested in political negotiations to end the conflict in Darfur.
President Bush has openly and repeatedly attempted to throw monkey wrenches at peace negotiations to end the war in Darfur. Even pro-intervention scholars and humanitarian organizations active on the ground have criticized the U.S. for endangering humanitarian relief workers, and for effectively urging rebel parties in Darfur to refuse peace talks and hold out for U.S. and NATO intervention on their behalf.
The slick, well financed and nearly seamless PR campaign simplistically depicts the conflict as strictly a racial affair, in which Arabs, generally despised in the US media anyway, are exterminating the black population of Sudan. In the make-believe world it creates, there is no room for negotiation. But in fact, many of Sudan's 'Arabs", even the Janjiweed, are also black. In any case, they were armed and unleashed by a government which has the power to disarm them if it chooses, and can also negotiate in good faith if it chooses.
Negotiations are never a guarantee of anything, but refusal to participate in negotiations, as the U.S. appears to be urging the rebels in Darfur to do, and as the "Save Darfur" PR campaign justifies, avoids any path to a political settlement among Sudanese, leaving open only the road of U.S and NATO military intervention.
10. Blackwater and other U.S. mercenary contractors, the unofficial armed wings of the Republican party and the Pentagon are eagerly pitching their services as part of the solution to the Darfur crisis.
"Chris Taylor, head of strategy for Blackwater, says his company has a database of thousands of former police and military officers for security assignments. He says Blackwater personnel could set up perimeters and guard Darfurian villages and refugee camps in support of the U.N. Blackwater officials say it would not take many men to fend off the Janjaweed, a militia that is supported by the Sudanese government and attacks villages on camelback."
Apparently Blackwater doesn't need to come to the Congo, where hunger and malnutrition, depopulation, mass rape and the disappearance of schools, hospitals and civil society into vast law free zones ruled by an ever-changing cast of African proxies (like the son of the late and unlamented Idi Amin), all under a veil of complicit media silence already constitute the perfect business-friendly environment for siphoning off the vast wealth of that country at minimal cost.
Look for the adoption of the Congolese model across the wide areas of Africa that U.S. strategic planners call "ungoverned spaces". Just don't expect to see details on the evening news, or hear about them from Oprah, George Clooney or Angelina Jolie.
Global Research Articles by Bruce Dixon
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The url address of this article is: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7594
Labels: activism, Africa, Arab countries, Darfur, lobbying, military
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Gilad Atzmon - Proxy and Proximity
When the Levy Breaks: in the photo, Tony Blair and Lord Levy enjoying a carefree moment.Back in October 2003 the Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad gave a speech at the Organization of the Islamic Conference summit wherein he said that “Jews rule the world by proxy…. they get others to fight and die for them."
These very alarming, yet explicit, statements made by a head of state drew some harsh criticism from state leaders as well as from influential Jews around the world who warned that it could spark more violence against Jews.
Clearly, the anticipated anti-Semitic tidal wave has yet to make it to any recognized shore. However, we have recently learned that more or less around the same time PM Mahathir that was speaking to his fellow Islamic leaders, in another continent, located at pretty much the other side of the planet, in a country that was already engaged in some fierce fighting to maintain Israel’s regional interests and hegemony, two prominent Zionist tycoons met the British Prime Minister for a ‘drink’. According to the Daily Telegraph, at a central London Hotel “David Abrahams, the property developer…entered a room already packed with Cabinet ministers and the party's most prized donors. Moments after arriving, Mr Abrahams was spotted across the crowded room by Lord Levy, the party's chief fundraiser. The Labour peer immediately left his group and swept over to greet Mr Abrahams like a long-lost friend with none other than Tony Blair in tow.”
We learned as well that David Abrahams, who had been affiliated then with the two rabid Zionist lobbies (‘Labour Friends of Israel‘ as well the ‘Jewish Labour‘) had donated £650.000 to the Labour Party by proxy, using other people’s names. This happened around the time the Labour Party took Britain into an illegal war based on a ‘sexed up’ WMD dossier, that according to some reports was partially put together in Israel.
Some would have liked to think that the time proximity between Abrahams’ unlawful activity and the Iraq invasion were a coincidence but then, last week Abrahams admitted to the JC (Jewish Chronicle) that “he had made his donations secretly so as to avoid accusations of his being part of a ‘Jewish conspiracy’.” Abrahams foolishly admitted that he was aware that his conduct could have been interpreted as a ‘Jewish conspiracy’. In fact, I myself think that it is far worse. In a recent piece I have argued that considering the British people’s public opposition to the war, and taking into account the scale of devastation this war brought on the Iraqi people, Abrahams’, Levy’s and their friends’ interference with British politics is no less than a ‘plot against the British People’.
And yet, I must admit that David Abrahams is a charming geezer. If he weren’t there, someone would have had to invent him. Being a chatterer, he just cannot stop himself from speaking his mind and sharing his authentic concerns with the rest of the world. Abrahams is probably one of the best glimpses we have ever had into the mind of a Zionist lobbyist.
Following Abrahams’ JC confession, we probably are entitled to deduce that unlawful conduct is OK as long as no one really knows about it. Abrahams, obviously succumbed to the most literal pragmatic interpretation of the liberal legalistic understanding of innocence: ‘One is innocent until proved otherwise’. This interpretation is commonly used by criminals and gangsters in their first press conferences.
However, gangsters tend to cling to this argument before they are fully indicted or confronted with real evidence related to their crimes. In most cases, gangsters are aware of the notion of ethics and its implications. Though they tend not to employ or follow ethical judgments, they recognize the possibility that other beings may do just that. Abrahams, on the other hand, seems to be totally foreign to the notion of ethics and any form of moral thinking. As he himself revealed in the JC article, it wasn’t the non-ethical behavior that concerned him, but rather what the Goyim may say. Rather than trying to explain why he unlawfully shoved money to a political party, he attempted to tell us why he did it in secrecy. The only way to interpret Abrahams’ strange confession is to remember that the sleaze master tycoon was talking to the leading British Jewish weekly. It is rather possible that he was trying to calm his fellow Jewish brothers down by addressing their serious and justified concerns. Abrahams spoke to the JC believing that the Goyim (Guardian, Independent and the BBC) may never notice what he had to say. He was evidently wrong. At the moment, for some obvious reasons, the Jewish press is closely monitored. In fact, the Guardian reported about Abrahams’ confession to the JC a day before JC made it to the news shops.
However, now Abrahams has been exposed, and as we learn from the Daily Telegraph’s article above, the Sadchen (matchmaker) in this disastrous affair was no other than Lord Levy, the Labour ‘honorary cash machine’. This all happened at the early days of the Iraqi invasion at the time British soldiers were fighting and giving their lives to reduce the last defiant enemies of Israel into dust.
I have good reason to believe that Back in October 2003, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad didn’t know much about Lord Levy and Tycoon Abrahams, thus when he said that “Jews rule the world by proxy” he was just guessing and exaggerating. Let’s face the facts PM Mohamad: Jews do not run the world by proxy, they just run the Labour Party (by proxy).
***
Interestingly enough, amongst my many sins, back in May 2003, a few days after Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” speech I was performing a short musical set in a Bar Mitzvah in Northwest London. Just before my set a Rabbi performed a Torah spiritual oratory spectacle in which he said:
“Never in our (Jewish) history have we endured such a great victory with such a little effort.”
The Rabbi’s moral was rather clear yet at the same time devastating: ‘once again we (the Jews) have managed ‘to get others to fight and die for us’. Like PM Mahathir, the Rabbi was obviously misinformed, in fact he was guessing. At the time the he couldn’t know about the serious ‘efforts’ made by Lord Levy and Proxy donator Mr Abrahams. He didn’t know that some Jewish tycoons invested big money in secrecy towards what was mistakenly seen at the time as ‘effortless victory’.
In an old paper of mine I tried to grasp the metaphysics of Zionist global lobbying:
“…there is no geographical centre to the Zionist endeavour.” I said there. “It is hard to determine where the centre of Zionist decision making is. Is it in Jerusalem? In the Knesset? …. In the Mossad? Or maybe in the Anti-Defamation League offices in America? It might as well be somewhere in Wall Street. Who knows?”
But then, it is of course more than possible that there is no decision making process at all. The beauty of a network operative system is that not a single operator within the network is fully familiar with the full scope of the network but is only aware of his personal role within it. This is probably the biggest strength of the Zionist movement.”
Abrahams and Levy probably didn’t conspire, it is even possible that they themselves didn’t know what they were buying. They acted separately and autonomously within a network. This network is very powerful and it is capable of achieving a lot, yet, when things go wrong, they can as well go terribly wrong. This is exactly the kind of concerns Abrahams shared with the JC the other day. It is the fear of the ‘other’, the deep sense of genuine Jewish guilt. When Abrahams told the JC “I didn’t want Jewish money and the Labour Party being put together”, it was clear that at least in his Jewish symbolic universe ‘Jewish money’ had some bad connotations while the Labor Party was associated with some glamorous power.
Deep in his heart, Abrahams didn’t feel good. Unfortunately, it wasn’t morality that concerned him but rather being seen as a conspirator by one Goy or another. Abrahams probably knows that Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad wasn’t guessing or following the anti-Semite devil within him. ‘There was a proxy operation in place’ …. and at least momentarily other people happen to fight and die in the Zionist wars. In Abrahams’ favour it should be said that it seems as if he genuinely feels bad about it.
A new audio interview: http://ourmedia.org/node/372292
Labels: Atzmon, Israel, lobbying, UK
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
FREE GAZA! Gaza Makes an Appeal to YOU
In the picture, from Free Gaza
, crowded markets, but no goods or food!
, crowded markets, but no goods or food!About 60 years have passed since our Palestinian catastrophe (Nakba). Palestinian people have passed through and tasted several sufferings and calamities, and the Gaza Strip, which includes about 1.5 million people, 75% of them refugees, got a big share of this suffering.
By the start of the 2nd Intifada in 2000, Israeli Occupation violated all the taboos international conventions and has tortured Palestinians severely.
In the meantime, the harsh siege imposed on the Gaza Strip has been continuing for the past seven months, but with more cruelty. The siege hinders the freedom movement for people and goods into and out of the Gaza Strip. Therefore, the humanitarian situation has severely deteriorated and the fragile Gaza economy is dying out. That economy was already weak due to Occupation procedures is now on its knees. Accordingly, the Gaza Strip has turned into a big "Ghetto". All Gaza houses carry stories of pain and suffering!
Basically, the Gaza Strip depends on importing goods through the Occupied Territories that are under Israeli occupation control. Since the start of this siege, the Occupation has prevented raw materials from coming into the Gaza Strip as well as banning the exportation of Palestinian homemade goods! Additionally, unemployment rates have reached a sharp level of 70% percent. Therefore, Gaza civilians have not been able to even secure their basic human needs, in addition to the dramatic decrease of income which reached less than $650 per capita yearly.
Until this moment, the Occupation has failed in subjugating the Gazans. Thus, Occupation is seeking all methods and means to reach this subjugation.
Occupation is targeting all economic aspects in the Gaza Strip. All industry, which amounts to 3,700 workshops and factories, have closed - resulting in making 65,000 laborers unemployed. As the siege continues, farmers joined the harmed classes, especially in the most significant agricultural season. Thus, another 20,000 laborers became unemployed.
As for the Gaza crossings, there are 5 crossings and borders points that link the Gaza Strip with the world. Four crossings are with the occupied territories and the 5th with Egypt, the "Rafah Terminal". The Occupation takes full control of the 5 crossing points, thus they have made them become completely deteriorated and closed. Occupation doesn't allow people to move outside Gaza but neither are they allowed to come into it. Moreover, it allows some foodstuffs to get into Gaza Strip while raw materials and other sorts of foods are banned from entry.
Statistics report that 37 trucks of these goods are present, while the Gaza Strip needs at least 300 vans per day that bring in raw materials, goods and commodities.
In the health field, there is real danger, as sick people have double trouble with a life of suffering. Occupation doesn't permit medical parts and medications to be brought in. Besides, this occupation prevents sick people to leave abroad for treatment.
Reports and statistics issued by health sections say that there 1500 people in urgent need to undergo surgery for various diseases like kidney failure, heart disease and cancer of all sorts. Three hundred of those sick people are in a very dangerous situation.
More than 137 medical machines are out of order due to unavailability of spare parts, 23 of these machines are for kidney dialysis out of 66 machines. Eighty-six sorts of medications have vanished and another 132 kinds will be not available soon!
Since the launch of Popular Committee Against Siege, PCAS, in November 2007, 29 victims resulted from siege have been counted. Those victims were from the sick people banning from travel. They died in front of cameras and the whole world witnessed the way they died. Yet, no one has done anything or taken any action. Those sick victims were always wondering and asking…when will we travel to be treated? This same question is being asked by hundred of other sick people!
As for infrastructure domain, the projects of water, sanitation, school and health utilities have stopped due to closure. Raw materials needed in operating these projects were banned from importation into the Gaza Strip. 250 million dollars were earmarked to these projects, and thousand of workers would have benefited directly, not to mention the projects by the UNRWA that are suspended. 93 million dollars that would help people directly are not being spent, as 16,000 people would benefit from this aid. Beside this, the Occupation has decreased petrol supplies that have affected water and sanitation wells which have since stopped working. Educational, health and other structures were closed, not to mention, there is no available stationary for students. In addition, young people who study abroad were not able to travel back to continue their study in their universities, and their futures are threatened. Some families risk losing the possibility of re-entry into Gaza.
More than 25 municipality councils are about to suspend providing services for Gaza residents. These cancellations depend fundamentally on fuel, such as the collection of waste and trash.
The previously mentioned images are just some of what the Palestinian people are going through in the Gaza Strip. Occupation is besieging Gazans and violating international charters and human rights conventions including the IV Geneva Protocols and the International Declaration of Human Rights.
Since PCAS started working to face this siege, it has contacted many figures and parties. Yet, we have not heard any position or stance that has been taken. There are no factual actions to alleviate the suffering of people. Thus, we call upon you and we ask persons of conscious to move on and please do something, even by words, in order to help tens of thousands to avoid a crisis that seems inevitable.
Ramy Abdu
Spokesman
Popular Committee Against Siege
www.freegaza.ps
By the start of the 2nd Intifada in 2000, Israeli Occupation violated all the taboos international conventions and has tortured Palestinians severely.
In the meantime, the harsh siege imposed on the Gaza Strip has been continuing for the past seven months, but with more cruelty. The siege hinders the freedom movement for people and goods into and out of the Gaza Strip. Therefore, the humanitarian situation has severely deteriorated and the fragile Gaza economy is dying out. That economy was already weak due to Occupation procedures is now on its knees. Accordingly, the Gaza Strip has turned into a big "Ghetto". All Gaza houses carry stories of pain and suffering!
Basically, the Gaza Strip depends on importing goods through the Occupied Territories that are under Israeli occupation control. Since the start of this siege, the Occupation has prevented raw materials from coming into the Gaza Strip as well as banning the exportation of Palestinian homemade goods! Additionally, unemployment rates have reached a sharp level of 70% percent. Therefore, Gaza civilians have not been able to even secure their basic human needs, in addition to the dramatic decrease of income which reached less than $650 per capita yearly.
Until this moment, the Occupation has failed in subjugating the Gazans. Thus, Occupation is seeking all methods and means to reach this subjugation.
Occupation is targeting all economic aspects in the Gaza Strip. All industry, which amounts to 3,700 workshops and factories, have closed - resulting in making 65,000 laborers unemployed. As the siege continues, farmers joined the harmed classes, especially in the most significant agricultural season. Thus, another 20,000 laborers became unemployed.
As for the Gaza crossings, there are 5 crossings and borders points that link the Gaza Strip with the world. Four crossings are with the occupied territories and the 5th with Egypt, the "Rafah Terminal". The Occupation takes full control of the 5 crossing points, thus they have made them become completely deteriorated and closed. Occupation doesn't allow people to move outside Gaza but neither are they allowed to come into it. Moreover, it allows some foodstuffs to get into Gaza Strip while raw materials and other sorts of foods are banned from entry.
Statistics report that 37 trucks of these goods are present, while the Gaza Strip needs at least 300 vans per day that bring in raw materials, goods and commodities.
In the health field, there is real danger, as sick people have double trouble with a life of suffering. Occupation doesn't permit medical parts and medications to be brought in. Besides, this occupation prevents sick people to leave abroad for treatment.
Reports and statistics issued by health sections say that there 1500 people in urgent need to undergo surgery for various diseases like kidney failure, heart disease and cancer of all sorts. Three hundred of those sick people are in a very dangerous situation.
More than 137 medical machines are out of order due to unavailability of spare parts, 23 of these machines are for kidney dialysis out of 66 machines. Eighty-six sorts of medications have vanished and another 132 kinds will be not available soon!
Since the launch of Popular Committee Against Siege, PCAS, in November 2007, 29 victims resulted from siege have been counted. Those victims were from the sick people banning from travel. They died in front of cameras and the whole world witnessed the way they died. Yet, no one has done anything or taken any action. Those sick victims were always wondering and asking…when will we travel to be treated? This same question is being asked by hundred of other sick people!
As for infrastructure domain, the projects of water, sanitation, school and health utilities have stopped due to closure. Raw materials needed in operating these projects were banned from importation into the Gaza Strip. 250 million dollars were earmarked to these projects, and thousand of workers would have benefited directly, not to mention the projects by the UNRWA that are suspended. 93 million dollars that would help people directly are not being spent, as 16,000 people would benefit from this aid. Beside this, the Occupation has decreased petrol supplies that have affected water and sanitation wells which have since stopped working. Educational, health and other structures were closed, not to mention, there is no available stationary for students. In addition, young people who study abroad were not able to travel back to continue their study in their universities, and their futures are threatened. Some families risk losing the possibility of re-entry into Gaza.
More than 25 municipality councils are about to suspend providing services for Gaza residents. These cancellations depend fundamentally on fuel, such as the collection of waste and trash.
The previously mentioned images are just some of what the Palestinian people are going through in the Gaza Strip. Occupation is besieging Gazans and violating international charters and human rights conventions including the IV Geneva Protocols and the International Declaration of Human Rights.
Since PCAS started working to face this siege, it has contacted many figures and parties. Yet, we have not heard any position or stance that has been taken. There are no factual actions to alleviate the suffering of people. Thus, we call upon you and we ask persons of conscious to move on and please do something, even by words, in order to help tens of thousands to avoid a crisis that seems inevitable.
Ramy Abdu
Spokesman
Popular Committee Against Siege
www.freegaza.ps
VOLONTEERS NEEDED! Reporters, journalists, teachers, doctors, anyone who can contribute is asked to dedicate the time or energy you have. Free Gaza is able to host volunteers in Gaza.
Labels: absolute madness, activism, call to action, Gaza, human rights violations, Israel, Nakba, occupation, Palestine
Monday, December 10, 2007
Khalid Amayreh - The “Ubermench” and the “Untermench”
Occupied East Jerusalem9 December, 2007
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel said in its annual report, released this week, that “racism was so rife in Israel that it was damaging civil liberties and human rights.”
“Israeli society is reaching new heights of racism that damages freedom of expression and privacy,” said author Sami Michael, president of the association.
According to the Hebrew press, the report’s key point includes a 26-percent rise in the number of racist incidents against Arabs and twice as many Jews reporting a feeling of hate toward Arabs.
“We are a society under supervision under a democratic regime whose institutions are being undermined and which confers a different status to residents in the center of the country and in the periphery,” the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz (9 December) quoted Michael as saying.
Some of the most shocking but expected findings of the report include the following: As many as 55% of Israeli Jews support the idea that the state should “encourage” the Arab citizens of Israel to emigrate; up to 78% of Jewish respondents oppose the inclusion of Arab political parties in the government. And according to a Haifa University Study, also cited by Ha’aretz, 74% of Jewish youth in Israel think that Arabs are unclean.
Of course, anti-Arab racism, Islamophobia, anti-goyism and other forms of xenophobia have always been rife in Israel. However, these morbid phenomena have of late assumed nearly Nazi proportions as the Israeli Jewish society continues to drift menacingly toward jingoism and fascism.
A few months ago, an Israeli Jewish man invited an Arab tax driver from East Jerusalem to his home north of Tel Aviv for a cup of coffee. And when the Arab cabbie sat down to drink his coffee, the Jewish man and his brother brought in a big knife and murdered the innocent man in cold blood.
Upon interrogation, the murderer, a French immigrant, told the police that “When I killed him, I felt I was killing an animal, not a human being.”
This was by no means an isolated incident. Today, hundreds of thousands of Israeli youngsters receive inherently racist education and indoctrination, whether in their schools or in their synagogues or through the media.
A few days ago, an Israeli talk-show host told this writer during an interview… "Arabs are animals” and that “you should go back to your donkey room.”
More to the point, it is imperative to remember that this racist indoctrination is by no means confined to the rabble and the uneducated class. In truth, the entire Israeli society is based on racism. Racism is Israel’s modus operandi, and human and social equality is markedly incompatible with being Zionist.
In Israel, we have rabbis who teach their yeshiva (religious school) students that non-Jews are non-humans. Three years ago, a Knesset member by the name of Aryeh Eldad protested that “the army was treating human beings as if they were Arabs.”
Similarly, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert remarked in the summer of 2006 that “Jewish lives are always worth more.”
Recently, a few days before the ill-fated Annapolis conference in Maryland on 26 November, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni proposed that Israel’s Arab citizens could be forced out of their ancestral homeland into a prospective Palestinian state.
Livni, whose venomous views are likely to reflect the prevailing discourse in Israel, seems to harbor the same malice and ill-will toward Israel’s Arab citizens very much like Nazi Germany’s did toward its untermench.
But unlike Hitler and his cohorts, who were brashly honest about what to do with Nazi Germany’s untermench (a German word meaning an inferior class of people), Livni is prevaricating about what she really wants.
Some Israeli political leaders are franker and more honest about their respective mindsets than others. For example, Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman openly calls for the transfer of Arabs from Israel. (Transfer is nothing short of a euphemism for genocide, at least a partial genocide).
Similarly, Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu has been proposing ways and means to check the comparatively high birth rates among Israel’s non-Jewish citizens while boosting birth rates among Jews. And then there are the gurus of messianic Zionism, the Gush Emunim people, who openly call for “a Jewish solution” and are still relating to non-Jews in Israel in terms of “water carriers” and “wood hewers.”
Do people in Europe and North America understand what is being implied by a Jewish solution? A few years ago, I pressed a Gush Emunim (Block of the Faithful) Zionist rabbi to explain his concept of the Jewish solution. The rabbi uttered three words: enslavement, expulsion or annihilation.
It is absolutely wrong to think that these Nazi-minded people represent a small minority in Israel. In fact, I can dare say that they represent the majority trend among Israeli Jews.
Today in Israel, if any politician wants to get elected or increase his popularity, he or she will have to demonstrate in ample manner his hatred of and sullen hostility toward the Palestinians and Islam.
Indeed, as nefarious anti-Semitism was the ultimate certificate of good conduct that guaranteed passage through the Nazi hierarchy, hostility to Islam, Arabs and Palestinians is now the surest way to seize the hearts and minds of Jews in Israel.
Finally, it is equally misleading to think that racism in Israel is a passing phenomenon.
Last year, I asked a veteran Israeli journalist what would become of Israel and the world if and when the fanatics of Gush Emunim reached power in Israel, either through the ballot box or by way of a coup of some kind?
The man told me the following: “For the time being, our nuclear arsenal is in safe hands, but who knows what could happen ten years from now?”
I am invoking these ominous prospects because Gush Emunim and other messianic Zionist Jews are guided by a nearly genocidal doomsday ideology which teaches that the Jewish messiah or redeemer won’t appear until and unless there is violence and bloodshed on a uniquely large scale.
Hence, it is conceivable that these religious fanatics, in cooperation with their secular fascist colleagues, would use Israel’s nuclear weapons to trigger the return of the Mashiah. Now is this the authentic Judaism that Moses taught?
Again these people are not a small minority in Israel. According to Israeli sources, more than 50% of high-ranking officers in the Israeli army hail from the “religious Zionist community.”
These are the same people who murder Palestinian civilians, including children, on a daily basis without the slightest feeling of guilt. These are the same people that bomb Palestinian homes, where women and children are asleep, from high altitudes without a whiff of compunction.
And, Yes these are the same people who wouldn’t hesitate to embark on the unthinkable to effect and expedite their sick whims which can be summarized in one sound-bite: “hashmada” or annihilation.
Labels: "transfer", Israel, Israeli politicians, settlers
