Gaza homeless toll 'hits 50,000'
- Details
- Written by BBC News BBC News
- Published: 19 January 2009 19 January 2009
- Hits: 4427 4427
Tens of thousands of Palestinians
have been left destitute by Israel's three-week offensive against Hamas
militants in the Gaza Strip, the UN estimates.
- More than 1,300 Palestinians killed
- Thirteen Israeli deaths
- More than 4,000 buildings destroyed in Gaza, more than 20,000 severely damaged
- 50,800 Gazans homeless and 400,000 without running water
Punishing the Palestinians
- Details
- Written by Ralph Nader Ralph Nader
- Published: 19 January 2009 19 January 2009
- Hits: 3293 3293
In the long sixty-year tortured history of the Palestinian expulsion from their lands, Congress has maintained that it is always the Palestinians, the Palestinian Authority, and now Hamas who are to blame for all hostilities and their consequences with the Israeli government.
The latest illustration of this Washington puppet show, backed by the most modern weapons and billions of taxpayer dollars annually sent to Israel, was the grotesquely one-sided Resolutions whisked through the Senate and the House of Representatives.
While a massive bombing and invasion of Gaza was underway, the resolution blaming Hamas for all the civilian casualties and devastation—99% of it inflicted on Palestinians—zoomed through the Senate by voice vote and through the House by a vote of 390 to 5 with 22 legislators voting present.
There is more dissent against this destruction of Gaza among the Israeli people, the Knesset, the Israeli media, and Jewish-Americans than among the dittoheads on Capitol Hill.
The reasons for such near-unanimous support for Israeli actions—no matter how often they are condemned by peace advocates such as Bishop Desmond Tutu, United Nations resolutions, the World Court and leading human rights groups inside and outside of Israel, are numerous. The pro-Israeli government lobby, and the right-wing Christian evangelicals, lubricated by campaign money of many Political Action Committees (PACs) certainly are key.
There is also more than a little bigotry in Congress against Arabs and Muslims, reinforced by the mass media yahoos who set new records for biased reporting each time this conflict erupts.
The bias is clear. It is always the Palestinians’ fault. Right-wingers who would never view the U.S. government as perfect see the Israeli government as never doing anything wrong. Liberals who do not hesitate to criticize the U.S. military view all Israeli military attacks, invasions and civilian devastation as heroic manifestations of Israeli defense.
The inversion of history and the scope of amnesia know no limits. What about the fact that the Israeli government drove Palestinians from their lands in 1947-48 with tens of thousands pushed into the Gaza strip. No problem to Congress.
Then the fact that the Israeli government cruelly occupied, in violation of UN resolutions, the West Bank and Gaza in 1967 and only removed its soldiers and colonists from Gaza (1.5 million people in a tiny area twice the size of the District of Columbia) in 2005. To Congress, the Palestinians deserved it.
Then when Hamas was freely elected to run Gaza, the Israeli authorities cut off the tax revenues on imports that belonged to the Gaza government. This threw the Gazans into a fiscal crisis—they were unable to pay their civil servants and police.
In 2006, the Israelis added to their unrelieved control of air, water and land around the open-air prison by establishing a blockade. The natives became restless. Under international law, a blockade is an act of war. Primitive rockets, called by reporters “wildly inaccurate” were fired into Israel.
During this same period, Israeli soldiers and artillery and missiles would go into Gaza at will and take far more lives and cause far more injuries than those incurred by those rockets. Civilians—especially children, the infirm and elderly—died or suffered week after week for lack of medicines, medical equipment, food, electricity, fuel and water which were embargoed by the Israelis.
Then the Israeli bombing followed by the invasion during the past three weeks with what prominent Israeli writer Gideon Levy called “a brutal and violent operation…far beyond what was needed for protecting the people in its south.” Mr. Levy observed what the president of the United Nations General Assembly, Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann called a war against “a helpless and defenseless imprisoned population.”
The horror of being trapped from fleeing the torrent of the most modern weapons of war from the land, air and seas is reflected in this passage from Amira Hass, writing in the leading Israeli newspaper Haaretz:
“The earth shaking under your feet, clouds of choking smoke, explosions like a fireworks display, bombs bursting into all-consuming flames that cannot be extinguished with water, mushroom clouds of pinkish-red smoke, suffocating gas, harsh burns on the skin, extraordinary maimed live and dead bodies.”
Ms. Hass is pointing to the use of new anti-civilian weapons used on the Gazan people. So far there have been over 1100 fatalities, many thousands of injuries and the destruction of homes, schools, mosques, hospitals, pharmacies, granaries, farmer’s fields and many critical public facilities. The clearly marked UN headquarters and UN school were smashed, along with stored medicines and food supplies.
Why? The Congressional response: “Hamas terrorists” everywhere. Sure, defending their Palestinian families is called terrorism. The truth is there is no Hamas army, airforce and navy up against the fourth most powerful military in the world. As one Israeli gunner on an armored personnel carrier frankly said to The New York Times: “They are villagers with guns. They don’t even aim when they shoot.”
Injured Gazans are dying in damaged hospital corridors, bleeding to death because rescuers are not permitted to reach them or are endangered themselves. Thousands of units of blood donated by Jordanians are stopped by the Israeli blockade. Israel has kept the international press out of the Gazan killing fields.
What is going on in Gaza is what Bill Moyers called it earlier this month – “state terrorism.” Already about 400 children are known to have died. More will be added who are under the rubble.
Since 2002, more than 50 Arab and Muslim nations have had a standing offer, repeated often, that if Israel obeys several UN resolutions and withdraws to the 1967 borders leaving 22 percent of the original Palestine for an independent Palestinian state, they will open full diplomatic relations and there will be peace. Israel has declined to accept this offer.
None of these and many other aspects of this conflict matter to the Congress. Its members do not want to hear even from the Israeli peace movement, composed of retired generals, security chiefs, mayors, former government ministers, and members of the Knesset. In 60 years these savvy peace advocates have not been able to give one hour of testimony before a Congressional Committee.
Maybe members of Congress may wish to weigh the words of the founder of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, years ago when he said:
“There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz but was that their [the Palestinian’s] fault? They only see one thing: We have come here and stolen their country.”
Doesn’t that observation invite some compassion for the Palestinian people and their right to be free of Israeli occupation, land and water grabs and blockades in the 22 percent left of Palestine?
- Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate and three-time presidential candidate.
Amnesty: Israel's use of white phosphorus against Gaza civilians "clear and undeniable"
- Details
- Written by AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
- Published: 19 January 2009 19 January 2009
- Hits: 3385 3385
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Press Release
For immediate release
19 January 2009
Israel/Occupied Palestinian
Territories: Israel's use of white phosphorus against Gaza civilians "clear
and undeniable"
Amnesty International
delegates visiting the Gaza Strip found indisputable evidence of widespread
use of white phosphorus in densely populated residential areas in Gaza
City and in the north.
"Yesterday, we
saw streets and alleyways littered with evidence of the use of white phosphorus,
including still burning wedges and the remnants of the shells and canisters
fired by the Israeli army," said Christopher Cobb-Smith, a weapons
expert who is in Gaza as part of a four-person Amnesty International fact-finding
team.
"White phosphorus
is a weapon intended to provide a smokescreen for troop movements on the
battlefield," said Cobb-Smith. "It is highly incendiary, air
burst and its spread effect is such that it that should never be used on
civilian areas”.
“Such extensive use
of this weapon in Gaza's densely populated residential neighbourhoods is
inherently indiscriminate. Its repeated use in this manner, despite evidence
of its indiscriminate effects and its toll on civilians, is a war crime,"
said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty’s researcher on Israel and the Occupied
Palestinian Territories.
White phosphorus wedges
are scattered all around residential buildings and many were still burning
on Sunday, further endangering the residents and their property; streets
and alleys are full of children playing, drawn to the detritus of war and
often unaware of the danger.
"Artillery is an
area weapon; not good for pinpoint targeting. The fact that these munitions,
which are usually used as ground burst, were fired as air bursts increases
the likely size of the danger area,” said Chris Cobb-Smith.
Each 155mm artillery
shell bursts deploying 116 wedges impregnated with white phosphorus which
ignite on contact with oxygen and can scatter, depending on the height
at which it is burst (and wind conditions), over an area at least the size
of a football pitch. In addition to the indiscriminate effect of air-bursting
such a weapon, firing such shells as artillery exacerbates the likelihood
that civilians will be affected.
Amnesty International
delegates found both burning white phosphorous wedges and their carrier
shells (which delivered them) in and around houses and buildings. Some
of these heavy steel 155mm shells have caused extensive damage to residential
properties.
Among the places worst
affected by the use of white phosphorus was the UNRWA compound in Gaza
City, where Israeli forces fired three white phosphorus shells on 15 January.
The white phosphorus landed next to some fuel trucks and caused a
large fire which destroyed tons of humanitarian aid. Prior to this
strike the compound had already been hit an hour earlier and the Israeli
authorities had been informed by UNRWA officials and had given assurance
that no further strikes would be launched on the compound.
In another incident
on the same day a white phosphorus shell landed in the al-Quds hospital
in Gaza City also causing a fire which forced hospital staff to evacuate
the patients.
White phosphorus landing on skin can
burn deep through muscle and into the bone, continuing to burn unless deprived
of oxygen.
Background
Separate unilateral ceasefires announced by Israel and by Hamas with effect from 18 January were not respected by either side. Israeli forces remained stationed in several areas of the Gaza Strip and on the morning of 18 January missiles fired by Israeli forces killed 11-year-old Angham Rif’at al-Masri and injured her mother east of Beit Hanoun in the north of the Gaza Strip. At the same time Palestinian armed groups fired several rockets into towns and villages in southern Israel, lightly wounding three Israeli civilians.
Public Document
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For more information please call Amnesty International's press office in London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566 or email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
International Secretariat, Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW, UK
www.amnesty.org
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Amnesty International, International Secretariat
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London WC1X 0DW
United Kingdom
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Tel: +44 (0)20 7413 5500
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Help the people of Gaza!
- Details
- Written by AUPHR AUPHR
- Published: 19 January 2009 19 January 2009
- Hits: 3033 3033
Aid to Gaza, Open Letter to Obama
United Palestinian Appeal
http://helpupa.com/
United Palestinian Appeal was founded in 1978 to provide emergency humanitarian relief and long-term development programs to Palestinian communities striving for economic and social development in the wake of ongoing conflict. They are a highly respected organization with a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator and overhead costs of only 2.45%.
UPA has helped train first-responder teams in Gaza and is providing the weakened medical systems there with much needed aid. Please consider giving to their efforts.
Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza
http://www.peace-with-justice.org/Online%20Donations.htm
http://www.peace-with-justice.org/Gaza%20Blockade%20Protests/Al%20Ahli%20Hospital.htm
The Coalition for Peace and Justice in North Carolina is raising funds for the Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza. Al Ahli, under the direction of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, provides emergency care to Gaza residents, many of whom have no means or access to medical care. The hospital is located in a community in which 60% of the residents live in refugee camps.
The current Gaza conflict has brought large numbers of wounded to the hospital and stretched it's abilities to meet demand. Your assistance will enable the dedicated staff to continue their humanitarian work.
American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA)
http://www.anera.org/
Today, ANERA completed assembly of more than 2,200 food parcels and shipped them to the United Nations for delivery into Gaza. The packets were prepared by the Palestinian Food Industries Association in the West Bank. They were funded through a grant of $365,000 from Secours Islamique.
Mercy Corps
http://www.mercycorps.org/
Mercy Corps is delivering food packages, plastic tarps and other relief items to families affected by more than three weeks of Israeli airstrikes and fighting inside Gaza.
It's still unclear how the ceasefire will impact efforts to get humanitarian aid into the largely sealed-off enclave. And Western diplomats estimate it will cost at least $1.6 billion to repair Gaza's infrastructure, Reuters reports.
Help Fund the US Campaign's open letter to Obama:
Meanwhile, our political work here in the U.S. must continue!
See the ad here:
http://endtheoccupation.org/downloads/cqfullpagead.pdf
Endorse it here:
http://www.endtheoccupation.org/form.php?modin=137
Donate to fund it here:
http://www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=1771
Palestine Online Store
Finally, for items to express solidarity with the Palestinian people, go to:
http://www.palestineonlinestore.com/
West Bank Occupation Continues: The Israeli army kills a Palestinian boy In Hebron
- Details
- Written by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News & Agencies Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News & Agencies
- Published: 19 January 2009 19 January 2009
- Hits: 3027 3027
Palestinian medical sources reported that a Palestinian boy was shot and killed by Israeli military fire in the southern West Bank city of Hebron midday Friday.
The boy, Mos'ab Da'nah Mos'ab Da'nna, aged 15 years old, sustained multiple wounds in the chest after being shot by live rounds, doctors said, adding that another 15 local youth had been injured.
Witnesses reported that Israeli soldiers in the old city of Hebron provoked clashes with the local youth, and then opened fire at them killing the boy.
The witnesses added that soldiers fired tear gas and sound grenades at the youthand other residents of Hebron before the ensuing clashes.