Anti-Wall organizer injured by Wall
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- Written by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News
- Published: 26 November 2008 26 November 2008
- Hits: 3449 3449
At 5:20 pm on Saturday Bi'lin Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements member, Emad Burnat, was admitted to the hospital in a very serious condition after his tractor flipped over against Israel's Wall. The wall – which in Bil'in is composed of metal fence and barbed-wire – cuts through the village's farmland.
The video documenter of the Bi'lin's anti-wall struggle was
returning with his children from plowing his fields when he was forced
to detour down a steep hill in order to return to the village because
the wall separates his home from his land. Loosing control of the
tractor on the sharp decline, it overturned directly into the metal
mesh and razor wire.
While his children were taken to hospital in Ramallah, the army medic who treated Burnat decided to send him to the Tel Aviv hospital out of fear that he wouldn't make it to Ramallah alive. Nevertheless, it still took the ambulance an hour to arrive at the checkpoint and Burnat had to be transferred from a Red Crescent to an Israeli ambulance before being taken to Tel Aviv.
"While
this is a tragic accident, the blame can be laid directly at the feet
of Israel's occupation and land confiscation by the wall, which forces
a dangerous burden and risk on Palestinian farmers," says popular
committee chairperson and Brother of Emad, Iyad Burnat.
"Israel's checkpoint system only adds to this hardship by preventing speedy medical attention to Palestinians when necessary," he added.
At present Burnat's spleen has been removed and doctors have yet to stitch up his wounds because his liver is still bleeding. Doctors are exercising cautious optimism, reporting that he arrived at the hospital in time and was a healthy man. Burnat's children were treated for mild injuries.
The slow death of Gaza
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- Written by Andrea Becker Andrea Becker
- Published: 26 November 2008 26 November 2008
- Hits: 3624 3624
It has been two weeks since Israel imposed a complete closure of Gaza, after months when its crossings have been open only for the most minimal of humanitarian supplies. Now it is even worse: two weeks without United Nations food trucks for the 80% of the population entirely dependent on food aid, and no medical supplies or drugs for Gaza's ailing hospitals. No fuel (paid for by the EU) for Gaza's electricity plant, and no fuel for the generators during the long blackouts. Last Monday morning, 33 trucks of food for UN distribution were finally let in – a few days of few supplies for very few, but as the UN asks, then what?
Israel's official explanation for blocking even minimal humanitarian aid, according to IDF spokesperson Major Peter Lerner, was "continued rocket fire and security threats at the crossings". Israel's blockade, in force since Hamas seized control of Gaza in mid-2007, can be described as an intensification of policies designed to isolate the population of Gaza, cripple its economy, and incentivise the population against Hamas by harsh – and illegal – measures of collective punishment. However, these actions are not all new: the blockade is but the terminal end of Israel's closure policy, in place since 1991, which in turn builds on Israel's policies as occupier since 1967.
In practice, Israel's blockade means the denial of a broad range of items – food, industrial, educational, medical – deemed "non-essential" for a population largely unable to be self-sufficient at the end of decades of occupation. It means that industrial, cooking and diesel fuel, normally scarce, are virtually absent now. There are no queues at petrol stations; they are simply shut. The lack of fuel in turn means that sewage and treatment stations cannot function properly, resulting in decreased potable water and tens of millions of litres of untreated or partly treated sewage being dumped into the sea every day. Electricity cuts – previously around eight hours a day, now up to 16 hours a day in many areas – affect all homes and hospitals. Those lucky enough to have generators struggle to find the fuel to make them work, or spare parts to repair them when they break from overuse. Even candles are running out.
Israeli policeman headbutts woman in Palestinian demolition clashes
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- Written by Owen Bowcott and agencies Owen Bowcott and agencies
- Published: 25 November 2008 25 November 2008
- Hits: 3474 3474
Human rights group B'Tselem films violence at demonstrations as police move in to destroy 'illegal' homes
Clashes at Silwan
Video: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2008/nov/25/israelipolice
An Israeli policeman wearing a hard helmet is shown headbutting a Palestinian woman in a video released by a human rights group today.
The short film was recorded by the Israeli group B'Tselem during a protest against the demolition of Palestinian homes.
The Jerusalem municipality destroyed two houses because it said they were built without permission.
The pictures, taken on November 5 but not released until today, show the actions of one policeman whose reinforced visor is pushed back above his helmet.
At one point he grasps the hands of a Palestinian woman and slams against the top of her head with his protective headgear. She reels back, clutching her head. Other residents object, and the policeman is seen grabbing the wrists of a Palestinian man and headbutting him as well.
According to an Israeli police spokesperson, the family living in the house that was destroyed refused to leave the building, and local residents threw stones and firebombs at officers.
"[On] the day, severe riots took place in Silwan," Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman told Reuters.
"As a result five policemen were wounded and evacuated to hospital, 11 locals were arrested for assaulting policemen and throwing firebombs and six police vehicles were damaged. This event was exceptional and is now being examined by an external police investigation unit."
Police were said by B'Tselem to have used stun grenades to break up the crowds. Witnesses later claimed police fired live ammunition in the air.
Silwan is in Arab East Jerusalem, an area annexed by Israel in 1967. Palestinians want the eastern part of the city to be the capital of a future Palestinian state.
B'Tselem monitors human rights violations in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem.
In July, B'Tselem activists filmed two Israeli soldiers shooting a bound Palestinian with a rubber bullet. They were later charged by the army.
B'Tselem in Hebrew literally means "in the image of" but, the group explains, it is also used as a term meaning human dignity.
Deadly pilotless aircraft that have helped fuel anti-American feeling in tribal belt
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- Written by Saeed Shah in Islamabad Saeed Shah in Islamabad
- Published: 24 November 2008 24 November 2008
- Hits: 3811 3811
[Assassination using drone aircraft was perfected by the Israelis in cooperation with the U.S. The experimental population used are the Palestinians, used to test out a whole variety of anti-insurgency warfare techniques as well as population surveillance and control.]
Pilotless "drone" aircraft deliver a silent, deadly payload that has proved effective in killing militants, but has also killed civilians when intelligence goes awry or in "collateral damage" from a successful strike.
In Pakistan, strikes were infrequent - every few months - until August, when there was a sudden and dramatic increase in the drone attacks. Since then there have been at least 20 strikes - more than one a week - possibly in a stepped-up attempt to kill Osama bin Laden before George Bush leaves office on January 20 next year.
The intensity of the bombardment now has made the drone attacks a highly emotive political issue in Pakistan, feeding anti-Americanism. Pakistan's government and army protest loudly after each strike. And yet it is thought that Islamabad is secretly cooperating with the attacks, providing much of the human intelligence that allows the drones to target safe houses in the tribal area where al-Qaida militants are suspected of hiding out. The country even goes as far as hosting CIA agents in Pakistani army compounds in the tribal area, who call in the strikes.
Drones are operated by pilots who sit thousands of miles away, manning their controls from Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, in the US. The drones send back video images of the area they are flying over, which, together with human intelligence from agents on the ground, allow the pilots to pick out their targets. The Predator drones used by the US are each armed with two Hellfire missiles but are used mostly to spy on activity on the ground.
The drones that hover over the tribal belt are usually operated not by the US military but by the CIA, giving American generals plausible deniability that they are behind the strikes. Such is the perceived success of the clandestine drone programme that there is now a rush to train hundreds more US Air Force pilots to fly the remote-control planes.
Drones were originally deployed in Afghanistan before 9/11, as part of a then secret operation to get Osama bin Laden, and it seems they twice had him in their sights. But it is in Pakistan that the drones have become most notorious, as a seemingly constant presence flying high over the country's wild tribal belt, known as a haven of al-Qaida and Taliban militants. Terrified tribesmen regularly try to shoot them down but the planes fly too high.
The current campaign can be dated back to 2006, when on two separate occasions the drones targeted a village in the Bajaur part of the tribal area, on intelligence that al-Qaida number two Ayman al-Zawahiri was present. But it is thought that they managed to kill dozens of civilians instead, fuelling the tribal uprising against both the Pakistani army and international forces in neighbouring Afghanistan.
The drones have hit major al-Qaida operatives in the tribal area, especially this year, which has seen them kill Abu Laith al-Libi, a charismatic senior military commander, and Abu Khabab al-Masri, the terror group's chemical and biological weapons expert.
ADC Calls for Immediate Lift of Israeli Blockade of Gaza, Chronic Malnutrition Damaging Palestinians
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- Written by American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
- Published: 20 November 2008 20 November 2008
- Hits: 3338 3338
NEWS FLASH
ADC Calls for Immediate Lifting of Israeli Blockade of Gaza, Chronic Malnutrition Damaging Health of Palestinians
Washington, DC | November 20, 2008 | www.adc.org | The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) calls for the immediate lifting of the blockade imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip. ADC calls on the international community to pressure Israel to lift the blockade and to act without delay to stop this growing humanitarian crisis.
ADC Communications Director Laila Al-Qatami said, “The situation for the 1.5 million residents of Gaza is dire. Israel’s repeated blockades deprive the people of Gaza their most basic human rights. 80% of the population relies of humanitarian assistance to survive and because travel in and out of the Gaza Strip is basically impossible, supplies of food and water are scarce. Hospitals lack medicine and supplies. Rolling power cuts affect everyone. On Monday, the first shipment of supplies in two weeks made it into the territory, but these supplies will only last mere days.”
A 46-page report by the International Committee of the Red Cross, chronicles the impact of Israel’s repeated blockades of Gaza on the people of Gaza. The report said the Israeli blockade is responsible for the steady rise in chronic malnutrition of 1.5 million residents of the Gaza Strip, noting that the dramatic fall in living standards has led to alarming vitamin and mineral deficiencies of those living in Gaza.
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