Friday, January 30, 2009

Where's the Academic Outrage Over the Bombing of a University in Gaza?

The Chronicle of Higher Education, December 30, 2008

By Neve Gordon and Jeff Halper

Not one of the nearly 450 presidents of American colleges and universities who prominently denounced an effort by British academics to boycott Israeli universities in September 2007 have raised their voice in opposition to Israel’s bombardment of the Islamic University of Gaza earlier this week.

While the extent of the damage to the Islamic University, which was hit in six separate airstrikes, is still unknown, recent reports indicate that at least two major buildings were targeted, a science laboratory and the Ladies’ Building, where female students attended classes. There were no casualties, as the university was evacuated when the Israeli assault began on Saturday.

Virtually all the commentators agree that the Islamic University was attacked, in part, because it is a cultural symbol of Hamas, the ruling party in the elected Palestinian government, which Israel has targeted in its continuing attacks in Gaza. Mysteriously, hardly any of the news coverage has emphasized the educational significance of the university, which far exceeds its cultural or political symbolism.

Established in 1978 — the Islamic University is the first and most important institution of higher education in Gaza, serving more than 20,000 students, 60 percent of whom are women. It comprises 10 faculties — education, religion, art, commerce, Shariah law, science, engineering, information technology, medicine, and nursing — and awards a variety of bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Taking into account that Palestinian universities have been regionalized because Palestinian students from Gaza are barred by Israel from studying either in the West Bank or abroad, the educational significance of the Islamic University becomes even more apparent.

Those restrictions became international news last summer when Israel refused to grant exit permits to seven carefully vetted students from Gaza who had been awarded Fulbright fellowships by the State Department to study in the United States. After top State Department officials intervened, the students’ scholarships were restored — though Israel allowed only four of the seven to leave, even after appeals by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. “It is a welcome victory — for the students,” opined The New York Times, and “for Israel, which should want to see more of Gaza’s young people follow a path of hope and education rather than hopelessness and martyrdom; and for the United States, whose image in the Middle East badly needs burnishing.”

By launching an attack on Gaza, the Israeli government has once again chosen to adopt strategies of violence that are tragically akin to the ones deployed by Hamas — only the Israeli tactics are much more lethal. How should academics respond to this assault on an institution of higher education? Regardless of one’s stand on the proposed boycott of Israeli universities, anyone so concerned about academic freedom as to put one’s name on a petition should be no less outraged when Israel bombs a Palestinian university. The question, then, is whether the university presidents and professors who signed the various petitions denouncing efforts to boycott Israel will speak out against the destruction of the Islamic University.

Neve Gordon is chair of the department of politics and government at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and author of Israel’s Occupation (University of California Press, 2008). Jeff Halper is director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. His latest book is An Israeli in Palestine: Resisting Dispossession, Redeeming Israel (Pluto Press, 2008).

Monday, January 26, 2009

SONG FOR GAZA : "We will not go down" by Michael Heart



"We will not go down"


Lyrics:


A blinding flash of white light

Lit up the sky over Gaza tonight

People running for cover

Not knowing whether they're dead or alive


They came with their tanks and their planes

With ravaging fiery flames

And nothing remains

Just a voice rising up in the smoky haze


We will not go down

In the night, without a fight

You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our schools

But our spirit will never die

We will not go down

In Gaza tonight


Women and children alike

Murdered and massacred night after night

While the so-called leaders of countries afar

Debated on who's wrong or right


But their powerless words were in vain

And the bombs fell down like acid rain

But through the tears and the blood and the pain

You can still hear that voice through the smoky haze


We will not go down

In the night, without a fight

You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our schools

But our spirit will never die

We will not go down

In Gaza tonight


We will not go down

In the night, without a fight

You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our schools

But our spirit will never die

We will not go down

In the night, without a fight

We will not go down

In Gaza tonight


(Michael Heart)



SONG FOR GAZA

"We will not go down"


Dear friends,


I have been overwhelmed by the warmth and the friendship you have all given me in response to my song for Gaza, "We Will Not Go Down". I am doing my best to go through your numerous messages, emails and comments, and ask you to kindly bear with me until I am able to do so. Please forgive me if I am not able to respond to each and everyone of you; but please also know that I really appreciate your messages.


My original intention to donate proceeds from the sale of the MP3 to charity has been complicated by technical matters; therefore, I have decided to make the song available free of charge. You can download the song at my website, which is www.michaelheart.com. I would like to request that after downloading the song from this page, you kindly donate directly to a charity or an organization dedicated to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people. Worthy of note is UNWRA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East), which has been helping Palestinian refugees since their dispossession in 1949. Please click here to donate through them: http://www.un.org/unrwa/


Thank you for your continued encouragement of my work as a musician, for your purchases of my CD, and for spreading the song, the video and the message as you have been doing. I am grateful for every demonstration of support I have received from you, and for every thought and prayer that has gone to the people of Gaza.


Sincerely,


Michael Heart

from (http://www.myspace.com/michaelheartmusic)


Sunday, January 25, 2009

Mosques destroyed by Israeli strikes, Gazans pray outdoors


Shashank Bengali and Dion Nissenbaum | McClatchy Newspapers

last updated: January 23, 2009 06:10:46 PM

IZBIT ABED RABBO, Gaza Strip — It was just after noon on Friday and time for the weekly communal prayer on a day when many Gazans needed divine guidance, but there was no place to pray.

Where the three-story Salahadin mosque once stood in this northern Gaza village, there's only a mountain of rubble. Residents said that Israeli soldiers demolished the mosque, using dynamite and a bulldozer, two weeks ago during their war on the militant Islamic group Hamas.

So at prayer time in Izbit Abed Rabbo, the first Friday since both Israel and Hamas declared cease-fires, several dozen male worshippers gathered in a sandy clearing near the wreckage of the mosque. Some men laid down mats; others took off their jackets and spread them in the dirt. A few men sat with their knees in the sand and their heads bowed, listening to the sermon.

"My dears, we have to be patient. We have to have some faith in Allah," said the imam, Mohammed Hamad. "Our prophets before us faced many struggles, and they were patient. We will wait for the compensation from God."

Israel says its forces crippled Hamas militants and their infrastructure, but they also did staggering damage to places that mark the everyday lives of Gaza's 1.5 million people. More than 1,300 Gazans, as well as 13 Israelis, died in the conflict.

Salahadin, where Hamad has been the imam for about 15 years, was one of 23 mosques that Palestinian officials say were damaged or destroyed in the offensive, along with 25 schools and hospitals, 1,500 factories and commercial structures and several thousand homes and apartment buildings. On Friday, under threatening skies, many Gazans had no choice but to pray outdoors.


Much of Izbit Abed Rabbo, a quiet farming enclave north of Gaza City, was leveled when Israeli tanks and infantry forces rolled through about two weeks ago, residents said. Down the street from the mosque, multi-story homes are in ruins, vehicles crushed and stray possessions, such as shoes and clothing, lie half-trampled in the sand.

Hamad said that gathering for the Friday prayer showed that the village would recover.

"Our prophet Mohammed said that all the earth is for Muslims, so we pray even though the Israelis demolished our mosque," Hamad said after the sermon. "We are not praying for the mosque walls; we are praying for Allah."

Many worshippers were returning to the village for the first time since fleeing the Israeli invasion and confronting hard memories.

"They had a mission this time to destroy mosques, I think," Jalala said. "Even areas they didn't enter, they destroyed mosques."

"They didn't destroy Hamas; they destroyed the people," said Hussein al Hawajari, whose 57-year-old mother was killed on the first day of the war when shrapnel from an Israeli airstrike hit her as she walked to the market.

"The children are Hamas? The tree is Hamas? The mosques are Hamas? The animals are Hamas?"

memorable quotes

Even before Hamas came to power, the Israelis intended to create an open-air prison for the Palestinians in Gaza and inflict great pain on them until they complied with Israel's wishes. Dov Weisglass, Ariel Sharon's closest adviser at the time, candidly stated that the disengagement from Gaza was aimed at halting the peace process, not encouraging it. He described the disengagement as "formaldehyde that's necessary so that there will not be a political process with the Palestinians." Moreover, he emphasized that the withdrawal "places the Palestinians under tremendous pressure. It forces them into a corner where they hate to be."

Arnon Soffer, a prominent Israeli demographer who also advised Sharon, elaborated on what that pressure would look like. "When 2.5 million people live in a closed-off Gaza, it's going to be a human catastrophe. Those people will become even bigger animals than they are today, with the aid of an insane fundamentalist Islam. The pressure at the border will be awful. It's going to be a terrible war. So, if we want to remain alive, we will have to kill and kill and kill. All day, every day."


Sunday, January 18, 2009

Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Abbas’s Palestinian Authority boycott Emergency Summit on Gaza in Qatar





Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Mahmud Abbas boycott Doha Summit

VOA News Updated Jan.17,2009 08:57 KST


At Friday's Doha summit, Qatar and Mauritania announced they would cut political and economic ties with Israel to protest the fighting in Gaza.


The summit went ahead despite a boycott by Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority, which Hamas ousted from Gaza, highlighting fault lines in the Arab world over the conflict.





No Success in Doha Summit; President Saleh of Yemen Fails to Attend


Written By: Hakim almasmari ( YEMEN POST STAFF ) Article Date: January 19, 2009


With death toll rising to 1,200 Palestinian people killed and another 5,400 injured, and a ceasefire announced by Israel, Arab leaders have failed to act responsibly with events and failed to hold an exceptional summit for discussing the situation in Gaza.


Major Arab countries sought to foil the exceptional summit called for the Qatari Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani including Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The two countries were blamed for the non-participation of other countries like Yemen and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazan who openly stated that he had been pressurized by some parties not to attend the summit.


Justifying the absence of Yemen from Doha, Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Al-Qirbi pointed out that Yemen is keen about the unity of Arab countries at this critical moment of the Arab world’s history.


When the Qatari Emir called for holding a summit in Doha, Yemen was among the countries that expressed readiness to attend. However, this readiness did not last long as Yemen apologized later for being unable to attend the summit.


Attended by 13 leaders and representatives of Arab countries and four Islamic leaders, the Qatari Emir expressed sorrowfulness for absence of other Arab countries including Saudi Arabia and Egypt."I wish all our brothers were here today so that we can discuss the different issues on this table, irrespective of other viewpoints they might have," said Al-Thani adding, "We wish that Palestinian President was present so that he can discuss the sufferings of his people; however, he preferred not to attend."


Arab leaders meet in Doha despite boycott by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, PA



Ma’an News Date: 16 / 01 / 2009 Time: 14:50


An Arab League summit in Doha, Qatar, began Friday without representatives from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Tunisia, and Morocco.


Hamas leadir Khaled Mash’al, Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Shallah, and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC) leader Ahmad Jibril have all reportedly traveled to Doha from Damascus to attend the summit.


They will be joined by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, Lebanese President Michel Suleiman, Sudanese President Umar Al-Bashir, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, Algerian President Abdel Aziz Butefleika, Iraqi Vice President Tariq Al-Hashimi, and high-level representatives from Mauritania, Libya, Yemen, Djibouti, the Comoros, and Somalia.


Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will not be attending the summit. Analysts speculated that Abbas’ refusal was related to invitations issued to leaders from rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Islamic Jihad.


Bodies in the rubble, Israel blocks aid




Gazans dig bodies from rubble as cease-fire begins



By Ibrahim Barzak And Alfred De Montesquiou, Associated Press Writers – Sun Jan 18, 3:19 pm ET

JEBALIYA REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip – For Palestinians searching the rubble of this devastated refugee camp, the mounds of concrete and metal hid all they desperately wanted and needed: the bodies of dead relatives, belongings and — bitterly — scraps of bombs now valuable enough to sell as recycled aluminum.

Destruction was everywhere on Sunday, in churned up farmland, dangling electricity poles, charred bodies of cars abandoned on pulverized roads, and broken pipes overflowing with sewage. The stench of rotting corpses, both human and animal, hung in the air.

For three weeks, Israeli airstrikes targeted Hamas militants who have been firing missiles at Israel for the last eight years, smashing much of Gaza's already shabby infrastructure and turning neighborhoods into battle zones.

The fragile cease-fire and first troops withdrawals on Sunday allowed families and medics to intensify the search for bodies — with more than 100 dead recovered Sunday, according to Palestinian health officials. The number of Palestinian dead now stood at more than 1,250, half of those civilians. Thirteen Israelis were killed in the fighting.

For two weeks, ground combat kept residents of Jebaliya like Zayed Hadar from their homes. On Sunday, Hadar searched through his family home with most of his 10 children. The three-story building had been flattened.

"We've pulled out my nephew, but I don't know how many are still under there," Hadar said, as several Israeli tanks rolled in the distance.


Israel kept out aid for Gaza


Jason Koutsoukis in Jerusalem
January 19, 2009
The Sydney Morning Herald

ISRAEL deliberately blocked the United Nations from building up vital food supplies in Gaza that feed a million people daily before the launch of its war against Hamas, according to a senior UN official in Jerusalem.

In a scathing critique of Israeli actions leading up to the conflict, the UN's chief humanitarian co-ordinator in Israel, the former Australian diplomat Maxwell Gaylard, accused Israel of failing to honour its commitments to open its border with Gaza during several months of truce from June 19 last year.

"The Israelis would not let us facilitate a regular and sufficient flow of supplies into the Strip," Mr Gaylard said.

The chief spokesman for Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Yigal Palmor, said the claims were "unqualified bullshit".

Mr Gaylard, who is the UN Special Co-ordinator's Office's most senior representative in Israel, told the Herald that when Israel launched its surprise attack on Gaza on December 27, the UN's warehouses in Gaza were nearly empty, with all food and equipment sitting in nearby port facilities. "The food was in Israel but we couldn't get it in. This is before. The blockade was very tight."

As the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, halted the attacks, declaring Israel had attained its goals in the lethal assault on Gaza that has killed more than 1240 Palestinians - a third of them children

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Israelis destroy UN offices, food stock in Gaza



Dawn Internet Edition, January 16, 2009 Friday


Israelis destroy UN offices, food stock in Gaza


GAZA CITY, Jan 15: Israel shelled the United Nations headquarters in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, engulfing the compound and a warehouse in fire, destroying thousands of pounds of food and humanitarian supplies intended for Palestinian refugees and triggering world condemnation and protests at the attack.


UN workers and Palestinian fire-fighters, some wearing bullet-proof jackets, struggled to douse the flames and pull bags of food aid from the debris after the attack.


In another air strike, Israel killed senior Hamas Interior Minister Said Siam along with his brother and son, Hamas said.


Separately, Israeli planes hit a UN school in another Gaza City neighbourhood, wounding 14 people who had sought sanctuary there, medics and fire-fighters said.


Said Siam was slain along with his brother and son in the Israeli air strike on his brother’s house north of Gaza City, Hamas said, as it vowed to avenge its leader’s death.


UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is in the region to end Israel’s devastating offensive against Gaza, demanded a “full explanation” of the air strike on the UN HQ and said the Israeli defence minister told him there had been a “grave mistake.”Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the military fired artillery shells at the UN compound after Hamas militants opened fire from the location.John Ging, director of UNRWA operations in Gaza who was in the compound at the time, dismissed the Israeli account as nonsense and said the attack at the compound caused a massive explosion, wounding three people.


France denounced the latest attacks.“We condemn in the strongest terms the bombings this morning by the Israeli army of several hospitals and a building housing international media in Gaza city,” said French foreign ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier.British Prime Minister Gordon Brown condemned the violence on both sides.

“Today’s attack on the UN headquarters in Gaza is indefensible,” he said.“The intensification of Israeli military action, and continued Hamas rocket attacks, reinforce the urgency of our call for an immediate ceasefire.”


EU’s Czech presidency said the Israeli attack on a UN compound was simply unacceptable, demanding that the Jewish state take measures to prevent any recurrence.The EU presidency “condemns today’s strike on a building of UNRWA in Gaza City by Israeli artillery,” a statement said.“The (EU) Presidency demands that Israel undertake measures to prevent any recurrence of this attack on civilian or humanitarian targets, which is simply unacceptable,” it added.EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Louis Michel said: “It is unacceptable that the UN headquarters in Gaza has been struck by Israeli artillery fire.”


Greece strongly protested to Israel after its navy turned back a boat chartered by Greek activists to take medical aid to the Gaza Strip, the foreign ministry said.The boat was carrying several tonnes of medical supplies.In Strasbourg, the European Parliament denounced the Israeli blockade preventing aid from arriving in Gaza.


Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad strongly condemned the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and accused some Arab and Islamic states of complicity in the Israeli attacks.


Even as a top Israeli envoy went to Egypt to discuss a cease-fire proposal, the military pushed farther into Gaza in an apparent effort to step up pressure on Hamas. Ground forces thrust deep into a crowded neighbourhood for the first time, sending terrified residents fleeing for cover. Shells also struck a hospital, five high-rise apartment buildings and a building housing media outlets in Gaza City, injuring several journalists.


Despite fierce Israeli offensive, defiant Hamas militants continued to launch projectiles on Thursday, sending two long-range Grad missiles crashing into the southern Israeli city of Beersheva and wounding five people, medics said.—Agencies


http://save-gaza-now.blogspot.com

Bolivia cuts Israel ties over Gaza

Al Jazeera Thursday, January 15, 2009 05:49 Mecca time, 02:49 GMT

Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia, says he is breaking off ties with Israel in protest against its war in Gaza, which has left more than 1,000 Palestinians dead.

Morales said on Wednesday that he would seek to get top Israeli officials, including Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, charged with "genocide" in the International Criminal Court.

The Bolivian president also dismissed the United Nations and its "Insecurity Council" for its "lukewarm" response to the crisis and said the general assembly should hold an emergency session to condemn the invasion.

"Considering these grave attacks against ... humanity, Bolivia will stop having diplomatic relations with Israel," Morales told diplomats in the Bolivian capital, La Paz.

He also said that Shimon Peres, the Israeli president, should be stripped of his Nobel Peace Prize for failing to stop the invasion.

Palestinian 'holocaust'

Morales's move follows the decision by his ally Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, to expel Israel's ambassador and embassy staff last week because of the offensive, calling it a "holocaust".

On Wednesday, Venezuela's foreign ministry said it had broken off diplomatic relations with Israel over the Gaza offensive.

Venezuela "has decided to break off diplomatic relations with the state of Israel given the inhumane persecution of the Palestinian people", the foreign ministry said.

More than 1,000 Palestinians have now died in Israel's offensive in Gaza, around 40 per cent of whom were civilians, aid agencies and Palestinian medics say.

Thirteen Israelis have also died, four from rocket fire from Gaza.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Gazans seek new places to bury the dead


GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – One family buried a slain son over his grandfather. Another bundled up the tiny bodies of three young cousins and lowered them into the grave of a long-dead aunt. A man was laid to rest with his brother.

More than two weeks into the Israeli offensive that has killed more than 940 Palestinians, Gazans are struggling to find places to bury their dead. Cemeteries throughout Gaza City that were closed for new burials have now reopened.

"Gaza is all a graveyard," gravedigger Salman Omar said Tuesday as he shoveled earth in Gaza City's crammed Sheik Radwan cemetery, a cigarette dangling from his lips.

Just six miles wide and 25 miles long, Gaza has always suffered from a shortage of burial space. But Gazans say Israel's shelling and ground offensive have made it impossible for residents to reach Martyrs Cemetery — the only graveyard in the area with space to dig fresh graves.

The offensive is aimed at crushing the militant group Hamas and ending its rocket attacks on southern Israel. But Palestinian medical officials say roughly half the dead are civilians.

Among them are the Samouni cousins, 5-month-old Mohammed, 1-year-old Mutasim and 2-year-old Ahmed, whose family hurriedly dug up the grave of an aunt to lay them to rest last week.

"We buried them quickly," said Iyad Samouni, 26, speaking from al-Awda hospital in Gaza City, where he was being treated for shrapnel wounds. "We were afraid we'd be shelled. My relatives were trying to open other graves to prepare for the other dead, but we didn't get time."

He said the family fled the graveyard after they came under fire from a warplane.

The three boys were killed Jan. 5 in what the family and the United Nations said was an Israeli shelling attack on a house in eastern Gaza where they had evacuated on soldiers' orders to avoid nearby fighting.

Many members of the clan were wiped out. The exact number is unknown — figures vary from 14 to 30 people. Medics believe there are still bodies buried under the rubble that cannot be reached because of fighting in the area.

Israel's military denies the account, but says the house may have come under attack in crossfire with Hamas militants.

At Sheik Radwan on Tuesday, mourners pulled away the slabs of concrete covering the graves of long-deceased relatives, pushed the bones aside and lowered in the newly dead.

"You have a martyr: you need an immediate solution," Omar, 24, said, using the term many Gazans use for Palestinians killed by Israeli fire and referring to Islamic law, which requires the dead be buried as soon as possible.

"You look for where your grandmother, uncle or mother was buried, and bury them there. If there's three or four, bury them in the same grave," he said, drawing on a cigarette as he dug.

Nearby, relatives hammered away at the concrete tomb of Moyhideen Sarhi, killed last May in an Israeli strike against Hamas militants. His brother Kamel, 22, also a Hamas militant, was killed Tuesday.

The family feared approaching Martyrs Cemetery and decided to lay Kamel next to his brother.

"As they were in life they are in death," said their cousin, Salim, 28, as other relatives pushed aside the slab protecting Mohyideen's remains and kissed his shroud before lowering his brother's body on top.

Even the pathways in the hilly cemetery were filled with graves. The older ones had marble slabs, a reminder of more affluent times. Relatives of the newly buried make do with a small tile or a name etched in concrete. For others, there was no name at all, just the tombstone of the relative buried there first.

One family arrived with their 14-year-old son, who they said was killed in an Israeli strike.

A gravedigger approached, asking if the family had a deceased relative whose grave they could reopen. Street children hoping for small change scrambled to look for graves the family could use.

Nearby, men in jeans dug up their grandfather's grave. The loud crashing sound of an airstrike nearby made some of them look up. Their relative, Mohammed Abu Leila, was a militant killed in the fighting.

"I've buried a policeman in his mother's grave," said Omar, the gravedigger. "I buried three brothers in one hole. I buried children with their mothers. You don't ask questions: it's just important to find a place and bury them."


http://save-gaza-now.blogspot.com


Gaza: UN Official Reports Horrific Hospital Scenes of Casualties



UN News Centre

January 12, 2009 1 – Appalled that fighting was still continuing in Gaza despite the Security Council’s ceasefire resolution, senior United Nations officials said today they were horrified at the human costs amid reports that over 40 per cent of the nearly 900 Palestinians killed in the Israeli offensive, and almost half of the 3,860 wounded, were women and children.

“Behind those statistics that we read out every day is really profound human suffering and grave tragedy for all involved and not just for those who are killed and injured but for their families as well,” UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) Director of Operations John Ging told a news conference in New York, speaking by video link from Gaza, where he had just visited the main Al Shifa hospital.

“(It) is the place of course where you see the most horrific human consequences of this conflict. Among the tragic cases that I saw were a child, six years of age, little or no brain activity, people don’t have much hope for her survival; multiple amputee – another little girl; and a pregnant woman who’d lost a leg,” he said, as the Israeli offensive went into its 17th day with the stated aim of ending Hamas rocket attacks into Israel.

“The hospital is really full of patients whose lives have been in many instances really destroyed, and they’re alive.”

Mr. Ging paid tribute to “the heroes,” the Palestinian hospital staff who have been working round the clock and have lost track of time, and the 40 expatriate medical staff who have joined them from Norway, the Netherlands, Egypt and Jordan, among other places.

He said the sense of fear in Gaza was all pervasive among a battle-hardened population of 1.5 million that had already seen many years of conflict. “In my three years here I have never witnessed anything like the scale of fear that is there,” he stressed. “We have to recognize that there’s no safe place in Gaza and that continues to be the case and the casualty figures speak to that.”

Speaking in New York, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes told the news conference the UN had been unable to independently verify the casualty figures given by the Palestinians but they seemed plausible. As of today, there were 884 dead, 275 of them children and 93 women (42 per cent), and 3,860 wounded, 1,333 of them children and 587 women (49 per cent).

“I am appalled that violence on this scale is still continuing in Gaza and horrified at the human cost of all this,” he said. “What continues to be worrying is that the Palestinian civilian casualty rate appears to be still increasing.”

On a more positive note, the two officials reported that UN food delivery and other operations, suspended after a fatal attack on an UNRWA driver last week, have resumed following Israeli reassurances and aid is now moving around Gaza as much as possible. Mr. Ging said he was very satisfied with the more effective system put in place in high-level talks with the Israelis.

Mr. Holmes said more food supplies were getting through and power supply had improved because of infrastructure repairs and some fuel getting through, but the situation was still not satisfactory even if better than before. Some 500,000 people still lack water as Israel’s daily three-hour lull in fighting was insufficient for carrying out repairs and other UN operations, he added, urging Israel to extend the time period.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has appealed for $16 million to provide families and children with emergency supplies. “We desperately need more resources,” Director of Emergency Operations Louis-George Arsenault said, calling on Israel to increase the daily three-hour window for deliveries.

Asked what would happen if Israel escalated its operations deeper into Gaza’s cities, Mr. Holmes said UNRWA, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and others would want to continue their activities insofar as they can. “The fear is that any escalated operations would produce even more casualties, especially when operating in these densely populated urban areas and this would compound what is already a very dramatic humanitarian crisis,” he added.

Mr. Ging said 35,000 Gazans had now fled their homes for shelter in 38 UNRWA locations, and many more had sought refuge with relatives in other parts of the Gaza Strip. In answer to questions, he said he had no evidence that Shifa hospital was being used for Hamas military purposes and reiterated his call for an independent investigation amid conflicting reports on deadly Israeli shellings near an UNRWA school and a housing complex in Zaitoun last week.

“I hope that those who are dealing with this issue [the conflict] at the political level will have the same courage and humanity as I’ve witnessed here at Shifa hospital with the doctors who have come from abroad to help. They can only deal with the consequences in the terms of the injuries,” he concluded. “The solution here is to stop the fighting, stop creating the casualties, that’s what we want.”

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Enough. It's time for a boycott

Naomi Klein, The Guardian, Saturday 10 January 2009

Enough. It's time for a boycott

The best way to end the bloody occupation is to target Israel with the
kind of movement that ended apartheid in South Africa


It's time. Long past time. The best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa. In July
2005 a huge coalition of Palestinian groups laid out plans to do just that. They called on "people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era". The campaign Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions was born.

Every day that Israel pounds Gaza brings more converts to the BDS cause - even among Israeli Jews. In the midst of the assault roughly
500 Israelis, dozens of them well-known artists and scholars, sent a letter to foreign ambassadors in Israel. It calls for "the adoption of immediate restrictive measures and sanctions" and draws a clear parallel with the anti-apartheid struggle. "The boycott on South
Africa was effective, but Israel is handled with kid gloves ... This international backing must stop."

Yet even in the face of these clear calls, many of us still can't go there. The reasons are complex, emotional and understandable. But they simply aren't good enough. Economic sanctions are the most effective tool in the non-violent arsenal: surrendering them verges on active complicity. Here are the top four objections to the BDS strategy, followed by counter-arguments.

1. Punitive measures will alienate rather than persuade Israelis.

The world has tried what used to be called "constructive engagement". It has failed utterly. Since 2006 Israel has been steadily escalating its criminality: expanding settlements, launching an outrageous war against Lebanon, and imposing collective punishment on Gaza through the brutal blockade. Despite this escalation, Israel has not faced punitive measures - quite the opposite. The weapons and $3bn in annual aid the US sends Israel are only the beginning. Throughout this key period, Israel has enjoyed a dramatic improvement in its diplomatic, cultural and trade relations with a variety of other allies. For instance, in 2007 Israel became the first country outside Latin America to sign a free-trade deal with the Mercosur bloc. In the first nine months of 2008, Israeli exports to Canada went up 45%. A new deal with the EU is set to double Israel's exports of processed food. And in December European ministers "upgraded" the EU-Israel association agreement, a reward long sought by Jerusalem.

It is in this context that Israeli leaders started their latest war:
confident they would face no meaningful costs. It is remarkable that over seven days of wartime trading, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange's flagship index actually went up 10.7%. When carrots don't work, sticks are needed.

2. Israel is not South Africa.

Of course it isn't. The relevance of the South African model is that it proves BDS tactics can be effective when weaker measures (protests, petitions, backroom lobbying) fail. And there are deeply distressing echoes of apartheid in the occupied territories: the colour-coded IDs
and travel permits, the bulldozed homes and forced displacement, the settler-only roads. Ronnie Kasrils, a prominent South African politician, said the architecture of segregation he saw in the West Bank and Gaza was "infinitely worse than apartheid". That was in 2007, before Israel began its full-scale war against the open-air prison that is Gaza.

3.Why single out Israel when the US, Britain and other western countries do the same things in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Boycott is not a dogma; it is a tactic. The reason the strategy should be tried is practical: in a country so small and trade-dependent, it could actually work.

4. Boycotts sever communication; we need more dialogue, not less.

My point is this: as soon as you start a boycott strategy, dialogue grows dramatically. The argument that boycotts will cut us off from one another is particularly specious given the array of cheap information technologies at our fingertips. We are drowning in ways to rant at each other across national boundaries. No boycott can stop us.

Just about now, many a proud Zionist is gearing up for major point- scoring: don't I know that many of these very hi-tech toys come from Israeli research parks, world leaders in infotech? True enough, but not all of them. Several days into Israel's Gaza assault, Richard Ramsey, managing director of a British telecom specialising in voice- over-internet services, sent an email to the Israeli tech firm MobileMax: "As a result of the Israeli government action in the last
few days we will no longer be in a position to consider doing business with yourself or any other Israeli company."

Ramsey says his decision wasn't political; he just didn't want to lose customers. "We can't afford to lose any of our clients," he explains, "so it was purely commercially defensive."

It was this kind of cold business calculation that led many companies to pull out of South Africa two decades ago. And it's precisely the kind of calculation that is our most realistic hope of bringing justice, so long denied, to Palestine.

Weapons Killing People In Gaza, Made In USA


United States House of Representatives


Statement on H Res 34, Recognizing Israel's right to defend itself against attacks from Gaza, Reaffirming the United States strong support for Israel, and supporting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. January 09, 2009


By Ron Paul


January 10, 2009 -- Madame Speaker, I strongly oppose H. Res. 34, which was rushed to the floor with almost no prior notice and without consideration by the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The resolution clearly takes one side in a conflict that has nothing to do with the United States or US interests. I am concerned that the weapons currently being used by Israel against the Palestinians in Gaza are made in America and paid for by American taxpayers. What will adopting this resolution do to the perception of the United States in the Muslim and Arab world? What kind of blowback might we see from this? What moral responsibility do we have for the violence in Israel and Gaza after having provided so much military support to one side?


As an opponent of all violence, I am appalled by the practice of lobbing homemade rockets into Israel from Gaza. I am only grateful that, because of the primitive nature of these weapons, there have been so few casualties among innocent Israelis. But I am also appalled by the longstanding Israeli blockade of Gaza -- a cruel act of war -- and the tremendous loss of life that has resulted from the latest Israeli attack that started last month.


There are now an estimated 700 dead Palestinians, most of whom are civilians. Many innocent children are among the dead. While the shooting of rockets into Israel is inexcusable, the violent actions of some people in Gaza does not justify killing Palestinians on this scale. Such collective punishment is immoral. At the very least, the US Congress should not be loudly proclaiming its support for the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza.


Madame Speaker, this resolution will do nothing to reduce the fighting and bloodshed in the Middle East. The resolution in fact will lead the US to become further involved in this conflict, promising “vigorous support and unwavering commitment to the welfare, security, and survival of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.” Is it really in the interest of the United States to guarantee the survival of any foreign country? I believe it would be better to focus on the security and survival of the United States, the Constitution of which my colleagues and I swore to defend just this week at the beginning of the 111th Congress. I urge my colleagues to reject this resolution.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

"We urge the world, stop the bombing of Gaza. Please stop it."

Death toll in Gaza exceeds 800
"We urge the world, stop the bombing of Gaza. Please stop it."

Al Jazeera Saturday, January 10, 2009
18:10 Mecca time, 15:10 GMT


The Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip has risen to 821 people and more than 3,300 injured as the Israeli offensive enters its third week.

The attacks continued on Saturday with aerial bombardments across the strip and Israeli forces advancing further into the outskirts of Gaza City.

Eight members of one family were among the latest fatalities, killed by an Israeli tank shell in Jabalya.

Israeli aircraft bombed tunnels used to smuggle goods from Egypt into the besieged territory, weapons-manufacturing sites and depots, an Israeli army spokesman said.

Ayman Mohyeldin, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Gaza City, said: "There was a lot of intense fighting overnight.

"The most significant development was the advance of the Israeli military.

"We understand now they are on the outskirts of Gaza City, still trying to avoid going in through major population centres, but navigating their way around those urban areas on the periphery."


Israel dropped leaflets of Gaza City on Saturday warning residents not to approach Hamas members, the group's fighters or weapons depots.

The notices said Israeli forces were about to "escalate" the offensive and begin a "new phase in the war on terror".


Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian doctor working at Shifa hospital in Gaza City, told Al Jazeera: "We have been to many war zones, but the special thing is that the 1.5 Gaza population are completely locked in.

"The civilian population has no way to hide. The population density is so high you can not do attacks like this without knowing that you are attacking the civilians.

"Also, the injuries must come from extremely explosive devices. We suspect that Israel is using a new type of high explosive called Dime [dense inert metal explosive].

"We urge the world, stop the bombing of Gaza. Please stop it."

Thursday, January 8, 2009

One Third of Gaza Victims are Children

Children hit hard as Gaza toll rises


A Palestinian man carries an injured child in Gaza


Injuries could have a lasting effect on Palestinian children, doctors say


By Heather Sharp

BBC News, Jerusalem


The pictures keep coming. The blood-spattered young faces, the glazed eyes, the limp small bodies.


The latest figures from Palestinian health officials say 205 children are among some 600 people who have died in the Gaza war. In the chaos, there are no statistics for how many are among the at least 2,900 injured.


Palestine Child and Dying Mother




















Israeli envoy to Caracas expelled

Venezuela has ordered the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador to Caracas in protest at Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip.

A number of diplomatic staff have been expelled along with Shlomo Cohen.

President Hugo Chavez has strongly condemned Israel for its actions and called on Israelis to stand up against their government.

Venezuela is the first country to take such a diplomatic step in protest at the violence in Gaza.

"The Israeli army is cowardly attacking worn-out, innocent people, while they claim that they are defending their people," Mr Chavez said during a visit to a children's hospital in Caracas.

"I call on the people of Israel to stand up against that government, to demand, to put a hand on their hearts and look at their children, and I call on the world to stop this madness."

Shortly after, the foreign ministry released a statement ordering the expulsion of Mr Cohen and some of his staff, in what they said was a show of solidarity with the Palestinians.

The BBC's Will Grant in Caracas says Mr Chavez often uses strong language to criticise Israel and is a close ally of Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, one of Israel's main enemies.

Venezuela also has a large Arab community who have welcomed the government's move, our correspondent adds.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/7814857.stm
Published: 2009/01/07 01:19:04 GMT
© BBC MMIX

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Gaza: bi idhni-llah (It is the Will of Allah)

Sunday Herald
Inside Gaza
EYEWITNESS: By Ewa Jasiewicz

During a prolonged power cut in that six-day invasion there was no electricity to power a ventilator, and doctors took turns hand pumping oxygen to keep one casualty alive for four hours before they could be transferred. Roads were bulldozed, ambulances were banned from moving, dead people lay in their homes for days, and when permission was finally given for the corpses' collection, medics had to carry them on stretchers along the main street.

Today in Gaza everyone is terrified that such events are now repeating themselves, only worse. Gazans now feel collectively abandoned. The past week's massacres, indiscriminate attacks and overflowing hospitals, and the fact that anyone can be hit at any time in any place, has left people utterly terrorised. No-one dares think of what might become of them in these difficult and unpredictable days. As they say in Gaza, "Bi idhn Allah" - "It's up to God".

Ewa Jasiewicz is a journalist and activist. She is currently one of the only international journalists on the ground in Gaza.



Gaza hospital chief says medical supplies still low

AM/ ABC Australia - Wednesday, 31 December , 2008 08:03:00
Reporter: Sara Everingham

ELEANOR HALL: Some of the Palestinians injured in the Israeli air strikes have crossed into Egypt for treatment and Israel has allowed more trucks carrying aid into Gaza.

But doctors in the territory say their hospitals are still struggling to cope.

The director of the Anglican run Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza, Suhaila Tarazi, spoke to Sara Everingham.

SUHAILA TARAZI: Today, we didn't sleep all night. Every hour there is an attack to a building. All surrounding areas were suffered from fear, from injuries and so on. And we are, up 'til this moment, we hear the bombardment of the Israelis to the authority buildings and to certain homes of people.

SARA EVERINGHAM: Have many of the people who have been injured come to your hospital?

SUHAILA TARAZI: Yes, we have received about 80 casualties at the hospital. The first day we have received in two hours' time, 45 cases; 30 of them admitted to the hospital for surgical interference. Two cases were arrived there, one of them a child of six years old and the other person is, was 28 years old…

SARA EVERINGHAM: Now who are these people? From what you can tell, who are they?

SUHAILA TARAZI: They are civilians. Their bad luck was that they were nearby the area that the Israeli hit by F-16.

SARA EVERINGHAM: Israel says it's doing all it can to avoid civilian casualties and that many of the casualties are people working with Hamas.

SUHAILA TARAZI: We didn't, at the hospital we didn't receive such, you know, such cases. But what we have received at the Arab hospital, most of them were civilians.

SARA EVERINGHAM: Israel has said that it's allowed some trucks with aid into Gaza. Has that arrived?

SUHAILA TARAZI: You know, some of them have arrived from Egypt and, you know, donor agencies, USAID and Care International and United Nations. They are working on that to let the aid come in but up 'til now we didn't receive anything. And we are, at the hospital, short of everything - medicine, medical supplies, blood - of everything.

SARA EVERINGHAM: So you haven't received any extra aid?

SUHAILA TARAZI: Even, even, even basic food to eat, to give for our patients, we lack of it. We do not have even, you know, mattresses to put patients on them.

ELEANOR HALL: That's the director of the Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza, Suhaila Tarazi, speaking to Sara Everingham.


The Scotsman

Published Date: 03 January 2009

By Ross Lydall


Three children – two brothers and a cousin playing in the street in southern Gaza – were among the latest fatalities of Israeli bombing raids.

Madth Gilbert, a Norwegian doctor at Gaza's Shifa hospital, said of a boy who had both feet blown off: "These injuries are not survivable injuries. This is a murder. This is a child."