I do what I want - You do what you're told

Justifying Israeli War Crimes
By: Reem Salahi
 
Having left Gaza now, I am trying to come to terms with what I saw, what I heard and honestly, what I don't think I will ever understand – the justification.  While Israel's recent offensive has been the most egregious of any historical attack upon the Palestinians in Gaza, it is just that, one of many.  Gaza has been under Israeli bombardment and sanctions for many years.  Prior to the Israeli pullout in 2005, Gaza was under the complete control and occupation of Israel.  Nearly 8000 Israeli settlers occupied 40% of Gaza while the 1.5 million Palestinians occupied the remaining 60%.  Settlements were located on the most fertile lands and along Gaza's beautiful coastal regions and checkpoints prevented Palestinian mobility.  Despite being one-fifth the size of Rhode Island, 25 miles long by 4-7.5 miles wide, Gaza was divided into three sections and Palestinians had to pass through multiple checkpoints to get from one section to the next.  Often Israeli forces would close these checkpoints and not allow the Palestinians access to the other regions in Gaza as a form of collective punishment. 
 
Yet with Israel's pullout in 2005, the Palestinian experience has not improved.  Rather, it has become even more unpredictable and isolated.  Palestinians who celebrated the exodus of the Israeli settlers and the return of their land could not have imagined what would follow and how Israel would subsequently unleash its brutal force against them.  As the saying goes, nothing in life is free and the Palestinians have paid, and continue to pay, a dear and unforgivable price for Israel's withdrawal from their legally rightful land.
 
From the first moments of Israel's military campaign on December 27, Israel's indifference to civilian casualties was clear.  Its first attacks started at around 11:30 AM, at a time when children leave the morning session of school and the afternoon students arrive.  The streets were packed with civilians – children no less.  Within moments, hundreds of Palestinians were killed and even more Palestinians were injured (at least 280 Palestinians were killed on the first day, and 700 wounded including more than a dozen policemen attending a graduation ceremony at the Gaza City police station).  One of the little girls in Jabalia told me that she was in school when the attacks started.  She fainted from the overwhelming fear and was not able to go home and see her family for days.  When she did go home, she remembers seeing dead and injured bodies stranded all over street and hearing the thundering sound of missiles falling. 
 
In its offensive, Israel attacked UNRWA warehouses, schools, mosques, civilian neighborhoods, businesses, factories, hospitals, universities and the media center.  Its attacks took place during the day, night, during temporary ceasefires, and often without any notice or=2 0warning.  I would ask the Palestinians I met who had lost loved ones in the recent incursion whether they were warned about an oncoming attack by some flyer or radio announcement.  The majority would laugh at my question.  "Why would I stay in my home if I knew that it was going to be attacked?  Do you think I want to die?  Do you think I would want to put my family and children in danger?"  Most of the Palestinians had no notice that they were going to be attacked and bombarded until it was too late, and at that point, all they could do was stay in their homes, far from any window or door, and pray that their house would not be next.
 
Those, like Majid Fathi Abd al-Aziz al-Najjar, who were warned, tended to flee to "safer" areas.  Majid and his wife and children resided in a border town in Khan Younis.  Shortly after the start of its incursion, the Israeli military dropped flyers on his town, a copy of which he showed me.  It said in Arabic that militants had entered your area and as a result we are forced to react and attack this area.  Yet these flyers were only dropped in the center of town and Majid did not even realize that they were dropped until after the attacks on his way to see the rubble that used to be his home.  Realizing that Israeli tanks were planning on entering Gaza and would destroy anything that would block their entry, Majid packed his family and fled to his relative's home far from the border, in an area deemed safe.  Yet at 10 PM on January 3, 2009, a white phosphorus missile strayed off course and rammed right into the home that Majid and his family had taken refuge in, along with 15-20 other Palestinians.  The missile came through the roof and broke through the wall and hit Majid's wife, Hanan Abd al-Ghani al-Najjar, dead center in her chest.  She died immediately upon impact.  Six or seven others, including Hanan's elderly mother and Hanan and Majid's daughter were severely injured by shrapnel and rushed to the hospital.  Whereas Majid thought he had fled from certain death in his home on the border, death followed him to his place of refuge.  Yet the sad reality is that no matter where Majid fled, no place in Gaza was safe.  Hanan's death was not the unpredictable result of a misguided missile, but rather the predictable consequence of a one-sided war waged by the fifth largest army against a population that is trapped within a prison and weakened by decades of occupation and years of blockade.   
 
While Israel has perfected its many excuses in justifying innocent Palestinian death and destruction ("there were militants present…well we thought there were militants present" "we warned the m but they did not to leave" "missiles were being fired from that [insert location here]" "we are investigating this attack" "it was an accident"), Israel has fallen short of providing actual evidence to substantiate killing people like Hanan Al-Najjar, Kassab Shurrab, Mahmoud Masharrawi, Sabha's husband and the majority of others killed.  After attacking the UN-operated al-Fakhura School in Jabalia on January 6, where many families had taken refuge and killing at least 40 innocent women and children and injuring dozens more, Israel made a rare attempt to actually justify its attacks.  Not only did Israel use one of its staple excuses ("militants were firing from inside the school"), but it actually showed a video of militants firing mortars from the school.  Within a matter of days, though, the video was dated to 2007 and till now, Israel has not provided us with another staple excuse of why, two years later, the al-Fakhura School was attacked and the hundreds of Palestinian civilians were killed and injured.  
 
How does Israel explain the executions, the shooting of Palestinians point blank in cold blood?  How does it justify Israeli soldiers shooting Kassab Shurrab with five bullets across the chest as he came out of his car with his hands to his side, especially as one of the Palestinian hostages sitting blindfolded by the soldiers heard the commander tell the soldier in Hebrew to shoot the civilians that were driving down the road.  What about the two daughters of Khaled Abed Rabbo, Amal, age 2, and Suaad, age 7, murdered by an Israeli soldier using a semi automatic rifle before their father 's eyes as the other Israeli soldiers ate chips and chocolate?  Let us not forget about Sameer Rashid Mohammad Mohammad, a 43 year old UNRWA worker, who was separated from his family by Israeli soldiers and taken to a separate room and shot in the chest?  For four days after killing Sameer, Israeli soldiers held his family hostage and would make the family prepare the murdered Sameer food.  Only when the Israeli soldiers left their home, did Sameer's children see that their father was executed and by their father's dead and bleeding body were piles of food.  How about Farah al-Halo, 1.5 years of age, who was shot in the stomach when her family was forced to evacuate from their home at 6:30 PM by Israeli soldiers who assured them of their safety?  Only 50 meters down the road they were shot at by other Israeli soldiers.  Farah, with her intestines spilling from her stomach, died on the side of the road a few hours later as the same soldiers that had assured their safety watched.
 
Further, how can Israel explain its use of the Palestinians as human shields?  Upon entering a village, Israeli soldiers would separate the men from the women.  Sami Rashid Mohammad Mohammad, Sameer's brother, was taken as a hostage and forced to accompany the Israeli soldiers for four days.  He was handcuffed and blindfolded and made to walk in front of the Israeli tanks and soldiers as bullets would whiz by.  At other times, he was made to sit on his knees in an open field for hours while Israeli soldiers would shoot from behind him and often at his feet.  These Palestinians were nothing more than entertainment for the soldiers, a child's play toy.  When I asked Sami whether he saw any Palestinian militants during his time as a human shield, he laughed and said that he only saw Israeli soldiers with their blackened faces and camouflage outfits.  "It was only Israeli soldiers shooting at each other," he remarked.  It is thus no wonder that between four to six Israeli soldiers were killed and 24 others injured in "friendly fire."
 
Additionally, how can Israel explain the humiliation tactics it used against the Palestinians such as forcing Palestinian ambulance drivers to abandon their ambulance cars and drive donkey carts to pick up the dead and wounded as if to equate Palestinians with donkeys?  The soldiers would grant the ambulance drivers half an hour to clear the area using donkey carts and threatened to shoot after half an hour.  And what about the racist remarks painted on the walls of the Palestinian homes?  One of my co-delegates took pictures of the Hebrew writings graffitied on the walls of some of the Palestinian homes we visited in Zeitoun and had a friend translate them.  Among the things written were: "Death to Arabs" "War now between Arabs and Jews" "An Arab brave is an Arab in a grave" "Bad to the Arab=good for me" "He who dreams Givati [Israeli infantry brigade] does not expel Jews. He who dreams Givati kills Arabs!!!" 
 
The reality is that Israel cannot explain or justify any of these things, nor does it even care to do so.  When Israel's staple excuses are not readily consumed or when it is examined under a critical lens, Israel applies another tactic– threat and demonization.  Israel has created one of the strongest lobby organizations in the U.S., AIPAC, which actively demonizes any opponent or criticizer of the State of Israel.  Due to John Ging's, the Director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), open opposition to Israel's attacks in Gaza and his call for the investigation of Israeli attacks, he has been demonized and AIPAC recently introduced House Resolution 29 attacking UNRWA and alleging that it supports terrorists.  Even I have received a few threatening emails upon the issuance of NLG's Press Report which documented some of our findings.  One of the emails indicated that I, along with the other attorneys, will have our careers followed.  As the email stated, "Israel is smart not stupid, and will continue to do what they must as will America to survive even over the bodies of their leaders if necessary."
 
Almost every Palestinian I met in Gaza believes that Israel's recent attack will only be followed by another bloodier and more deadly attack on Gaza that will exterminate the Palestinians once and for all.  Considering the history of attacks on Gaza, the level of atrocities recently committed in Gaza and the lack of international redress, I do not think that these statements are mere paranoia.  Israel must be held accountable for its crimes in Gaza lest it commit larger and more egregious crimes in the future.  As one who has been trained in the legal profession, I demand that Israel engage the legal arena and provide the international community with real evidence, and not just staple excuses and dated videos, that can justify every single civilian murder and the widespread d estruction of Palestinian civil society.  Until Israel is able to do so, the evidence in Gaza leads anyone willing to visit to the inevitable conclusion that Israel has committed war crimes. 

Gazan coast becoming a 'no-go' zone

16th February, 2009

 On Saturday 14th February, 23 year-old Rafiq abu Reala was shot by Israeli naval forces whilst fishing in Gazan territorial waters, approximately two nautical miles out from the port of Gaza city. He was in a simple fishing vessel, not much larger than a rowing boat, with a small outboard engine, known locally as a 'hassaka'. Rafiq, his brother Rajab and another friend were following the course of a shoal of fish. A group of five more hassakas were out at the time, about a kilometre to the west of Rafiq's boat, further out to sea. An Israeli naval gunboat approached the area and began shooting at the other hassakas, which quickly changed course and headed east, back towards shore.

Suddenly Rafiq realised the gunboat was bearing down on their hassaka. As he recounted the events of that day, Rafiq likened the predatory nature of the naval vessel to that of a wolf. It circled their fishing boat and began shooting heavy ammunition in their direction. The three terrified fishermen threw themselves down flat in the bottom of their boat. The Israeli captain ordered them via megaphone to raise their nets and leave the area. At this point the gunboat was less then 20 metres from Rafiq's hassaka. The second time the gunboat came around no attempt was made to communicate with the fishermen. Rafiq was desperately pulling in the nets with his back facing the gunboat. An M-16 assault rifle was fired hitting him twice with explosive 'dum-dum' bullets, which peppered his back with shrapnel from the bullets themselves.

The force of the shots threw him in the water, plunging him down about six or seven metres below the surface. Rajab asked their friend to control the boat while he rescued Rafiq. Being a strong swimmer, he dived in after Rafiq and pulled him out of the water into the hassaka. However, Rafiq was unconscious by this time. The outboard was being slowed down by the weight of the nets so they headed towards another hassaka 300 metres away where they dumped the nets. The fishermen in this vessel had a mobile phone and made an emergency call. The stricken hassaka reached port at the same time as the ambulance arrived and Rafiq was taken to al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza city in a serious condition.

A couple of days later it was possible to visit Rafiq in hospital. He was weak and in a lot of pain, with some difficulty breathing, but was beginning to improve. His x-ray clearly indicated the presence of the bullet shrapnel between his shoulder and his spine. An enquiry regarding the possibility of surgery to remove the fragments was met with a solemn "no" from Rafiq's uncle, present at his bedside, who explained, "The pieces are too many, too small and too widespread. His whole back would have to be opened up." It is not only Rafiq's back which has the metal shards still embedded in it; the shrapnel also penetrated his lungs. They sustained pulmonary contusions, resulting in a haemothorax. The only treatment Rafiq can benefit from at this time is to have blood drained which is collecting in the pleural cavity in the upper left side of his chest. 1.5 litres of blood was initially drained off when he was first admitted but this amount later decreased and stabilised. Medication is limited to painkillers and antibiotics.

It could take Rafiq months to fully recover yet he has a family to support. He married just six months ago and his wife is now expecting their first baby. After five years of working as a fisherman, he has experienced Israeli naval forces firing warning shots on many occasions but this was the first time he has been directly targeted. However, Rajab survived being shot in the chest by the Israeli navy two and a half years ago. It is sobering to note that 14 Gazan fishermen have been killed by the Israeli navy since 2000. Rafiq described the level shooting on Saturday like an open war. Fishermen were attacked from Wadi Gaza, south of Gaza city, all the way to the north of Gaza. A number of hassakas were targeted that day, some vessels sustaining serious damage from the shooting.

Palestinian fishermen have come under daily assaults from Israeli gunboats since Israel announced a unilateral ceasefire which supposedly came into force on 18th January. Reports of heavy gunfire and even missile fire are now becoming the 'norm'. Rafiq is the third Gazan fisherman to be shot by the Israeli navy during this non-existant ceasefire. On 26th January, Alaa al-Habil was shot in the lower leg whilst trawling less than one nautical mile off the coast of Gaza. On 6th February, Mahmoud al-Nadar was shot in both legs whilst 1.5 nautical miles off the coast of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip. Nowadays it is unthinkable for fishermen to venture beyond three nautical miles from the Gazan coast, with many vessels staying just metres from the beach. However, Gazan territorial waters reach 12 nautical miles offshore – indeed, the Oslo Accords grant a fishing zone extending as far as 20 nautical miles.

 

Israel is attempting to create arbitrary 'no-go' zones in the sea – enforced solely by the gun. They might succeed if it weren't for the resilience of the fishermen. All this is akin to what is happening on land. The Israeli Occupation Force has declared an area of Palestinian land a kilometre in from the Green Line a 'closed military zone', affecting an audacious land grab which threatens to swallow a vast swathe of rich agricultural land all the way along the eastern length of the Gaza strip.

 

International human rights observers are currently accompanying farmers determined to harvest their crops in one such area. In the months prior to Israel's war on Gaza, members of ISM Gaza Strip were accompanying Palestinian fishermen on a regular basis and witnessed countless acts of Israeli military aggression against them whilst in Gazan territorial waters, despite a six-month ceasefire agreement holding at the time.

The international community remains silent about these daily violations of international human rights law. One cannot help wondering what an outcry there would inevitably be if the tables were turned and an Israeli civilian received similar injuries. Such an incident would scupper current negotiations attempting to broker a more genuine long-term ceasefire. Yet whilst it is Palestinian civilians who suffer such atrocities, the world gazes on, indifferent.

 Video:

https://rcpt.yousendit.com/653921806/3e2d773310b503192cec11e52135696d

 Photos:

https://rcpt.yousendit.com/654151542/d31747c84aef5cbf6ee7b3848486d37b

Sign Petition to urge ICC to prosecute Israel for War Crimes

Posted: 21 Jan 2009 08:41 AM PST

Approximately 300 among NGOs and associations ask the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to open an investigation on the war crimes committed by Israel in Gaza. Our support is indispensable. Sign and circulate this urgent «universal petition». 

To the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC)

Law is the distinguishing mark of human civilisation. All progress made by humanity coincides with the consolidation of rights. The challenge that Israel’s aggression against Gaza poses to us consists in affirming, when confronted with such great suffering, that the response to violence is justice.

War crimes? Only courts are able to bring about a sentence, but all of us can bear witness, because a human being only exists in his relationship with others. The circumstances show the breadth of their dimension in Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1949, «All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.»

The protection of populations, and not only of States, is the reason why the International Criminal Court exists. A population without a State is the most threatened of all, and before History, they are placed under the protection of international bodies. The most vulnerable populations must be the most protected. Killing Palestinian civilians, the Israeli armoured tanks have caused humanity as a whole to bleed. We have been insisting that the power of the Prosecutor be put at the service of all the victims, and this task must allow that the entire world receives a message of hope, that of the construction of international rights based on human rights. And together, one day, we can pay homage to the Palestinian people for the contribution that they have given to the defence of human freedom.

use this link to sign in the English page. But, if English isn't enough, Tlaxcala has translated it into 16 languages! One of them might be yours, so no excuse to not go there, click on your favourite language and join us in our appeal!!

Please sign, publish and spread !

 

Israël doit être jugé par la Cour pénale internationale - Pétition universelle  

Israel debe ser juzgado por la Corte Penal Internacional - Petición universal 

Israel must be judged at the International Criminal Court - Universal petition

 

 

Israel deve ser julgado pelo Tribunal Penal Internacional - Petição universal

Israele deve essere giudicato dalla CPI - Petizione universale

Israel ha de ser jutjat per la Cort Penal Internacional - Petició universal

 تعين أن تحاكم اسرائيل في المحكمة الجنائية الدولية – عريضة عالمية

Israel måste dömas av den internationella brottsmålsdomstolen-Universell namninsamling

اسراییل باید در دادگاه جنایی بین‌المللی محاکمه شود   

Το Ισραήλ πρέπει να δικαστεί από το Διεθνές Ποίνικό Δικαστήριο - Παγκόσμια αίτηση

Israelul trebuie să fie judecat de către Curtea Penală Internațională - Petiție universală/

ИЗРАИЛЬ ДОЛЖЕН БЫТЬ СУДИМ МЕЖДУНАРОДНЫМ УГОЛОВНЫМ СУДОМ

עצומה אוניברסלית: על ישראל להישפט בפני בית המשפט הדין הבינלאומי

 Israël moet berecht worden voor het Internationaal Strafhof - Universele petitie

 

Uluslararası Ceza Mahkemesinde İsrail yargılanmalıdır- Evrensel İmza Kampanyası

Israel wanted a humanitarian crisis
Targeting civilians was a deliberate part of this bid to humiliate Hamas and the Palestinians, and pulverise Gaza into chaos

Ben White

Jan 20, 2009 The scale of Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip, and the almost daily reports of war crimes over the last three weeks, has drawn criticism from even longstanding friends and sympathisers. Despite the Israeli government's long-planned and comprehensive PR campaign, hundreds of dead children is a hard sell. As a former Israeli government press adviser put it, in a wonderful bit of unintentional irony, "When you have a Palestinian kid facing an Israeli tank, how do you explain that the tank is actually David and the kid is Goliath?" Despite a mass of evidence that includes Israel's targets in Operation Cast Lead, public remarks by Israeli leaders over some time, and the ceasefire manoeuvring of this last weekend, much of the analysis offered by politicians or commentators has been disappointingly limited, and characterised by false assumptions, or misplaced emphases, about Israel's motivations. First, to what this war on Gaza is not about: it's not about the rockets. During the truce last year, rocket fire from the Gaza Strip was reduced by 97%, with the few projectiles that were fired coming from non-Hamas groups opposed to the agreement. Despite this success in vastly improving the security of Israelis in the south, Israel did everything it could to undermine the calm, and provoke Hamas into a conflict. Israel broke the ceasefire on 4 November, with an attack in the Gaza Strip that killed six Hamas members, and the following day severely tightened its siege of the territory. Imports were reduced to 16 trucks a day, down from 123 daily just the previous month (and 475 in May 2007). Following the unsurprising surge in Palestinian attacks, Israeli officials claimed that an all-out war was unavoidable; without mentioning that an operation had been planned for some months already. Second, the current operation is only in a limited sense related to both the upcoming Israeli elections and restoring the IDF's so-called deterrence. While it has been pointed out that a hardline approach to Palestinian "terrorism" can play well with the Israeli public, wars are not necessarily Israeli politicians' tactic of choice - the Lebanon war was fought a few months after one. Israel is also supposed to be restoring the reputation and "deterrence factor" of its armed forces, after their humiliation in Lebanon in 2006. Suffice to say that until this weekend's unilateral ceasefire, in an aid-dependent enclave defended by an almost entirely isolated militia, Israel's operation had already lasted three times longer than the 1967 war when Israel defeated its Arab neighbours and occupied the rest of Mandate Palestine. These three suggested motivations have sometimes reached the level of assumed knowledge, providing the background for further comment and reporting. Based on this kind of analysis, then, criticism of Palestinian civilian casualties is framed as "disproportionate" or "heavy-handed", but fundamentally a case of self-defence. It is understood that any democratic nation would have to respond to terrorist rocket fire, but Israel has gone a bit too far. There is, however, no shortage of evidence available that points to rather different Israeli aims. Estimates for the proportion of civilian deaths among the 1,360 Palestinians killed range from more than half to two-thirds. Politicians, diplomats and journalists are by and large shying away from the obvious, namely that Israel has been deliberately targeting Palestinian civilians and the very infrastructure of normal life, in order to - in the best colonial style - teach the natives a lesson. Given the enormous scale of what Palestinians have described as a "war of extermination" - it appears that some 15% of all buildings in the Gaza Strip were completely destroyed or collapsed and there is an estimated $1.4bn worth of destruction to vital civil infrastructure - it is impossible to list every atrocity. Israel has repeatedly hit ambulances, medics, clinics, and hospitals, while last week, aid volunteers who tried to douse a fire in a Red Crescent warehouse (attacked by Israel) were then shot at by Israeli forces. UNRWA facilities have also been attacked, including several schools sheltering civilians - just this last weekend, a civilian refuge was repeatedly shelled. Last week, the UN headquarters was also shelled, hitting a vocational centre, a workshop, food warehouse, and fuel depot. Like the massacre of 6 January, Israeli officials quickly began to produce a confusing fog of denials, apologies, promised enquiries and contradictions. Those are just some of the more shocking examples from a military operation that has targeted everything from schools, money-changers and a bird farm, to entire apartment blocks, harbours, and a market. Palestinians have been killed when Israeli tanks fired shells at residential neighbourhoods. Every day has brought fresh horrors; last Wednesday, for example, 70 unarmed civilians including 18 children were killed by the Israeli military. This week's Observer carried a story alleging Israel bulldozed homes with civilians inside (not for the first time) and shot those waving white flags. Little wonder that Israeli officials predicted with concern that "negative sentiment" towards the state would "only grow as the full picture of destruction emerges". Much of this is widely known, and easily accessible; yet still the analytical emphasis has remained on Palestinian rockets, Israeli elections, and deterrence. I would like to suggest three alternative purposes for Israel's Operation Cast Lead that go beyond the usual perspectives, and presuming with Yale professor David Bromwich that "if Israel in 2009 reduces to rubble a large portion of the Gaza Strip and leaves tens of thousands homeless, there is a strong chance that this was what it intended to do". The first aim is to humiliate and weaken Hamas. On the one hand, this seems obvious, but contrary to how the goal is often understood, this is not primarily to protect the Israeli public - as pointed out previously, ceasefires and negotiations are far more likely to deliver security for Israeli citizens - but rather it is a political goal. Hamas had withstood isolation, a siege, mass arrests, and an attempted western-backed coup. Moreover, cracks were appearing in the international community's resolve to parrot Israel's line on Hamas. The group, with its resilience and ability to deliver on negotiated ceasefires, was threatening the chance to make a deal with the Ramallah "moderates", and so: A hammer blow that shattered the movement, launching some of the resulting splinters in directions that once again put all of them beyond the pale, was the most effective way to keep at bay those third parties reaching the conclusion that engaging rather than excluding Hamas could enhance the prospects of peace. Back in December, before both the end of the six-month truce and the start of Operation Cast Lead, foreign minister Tzipi Livni stated that an extended truce "harms the Israel strategic goal, empowers Hamas, and gives the impression that Israel recognizes the movement". By the end of the month, Livni would be telling a press conference that "Hamas wants to gain legitimacy from the international community" and stressing that it is "important to keep Hamas from becoming a legitimate organisation" (apparently winning a democratic election isn't enough to confer legitimacy). Just as Israel chose "blood over diplomacy" in order to avoid enhancing "Hamas's image as a responsible interlocutor", so this weekend, Israel chose a unilateral ceasefire for the same reason, "hoping to send the message that Hamas is not a legitimate actor". A war begun in order to delegitimise Hamas would not make way for a ceasefire in which Hamas was a partner at the negotiating table. Hence Israel decided to shortcut the Egyptian-driven efforts at securing a ceasefire, and opt for a unilateral approach that allows Israel, the US, Egypt, Mahmoud Abbas, Britain - in fact, every interested party, except the Gaza Strip authorities - to work together on an apparent solution. It is also worth pointing out that the unilateral nature of the ceasefire frees Israel to define an infringement or collapse on its own terms. The second aim of Israel's war is to teach a lesson to the Palestinians in Gaza, and elsewhere, that the only way to avoid the wrath of the Israeli military is to accept Israel's idea of a two-state solution, a generous concession to be gratefully received by Abbas and fellow moderates. It is a reflection of the approach outlined by the IDF chief of staff, Moshe Ya'alon, in 2002 that "the Palestinians must be made to understand in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a defeated people". On 4 January, Israeli President Shimon Peres said that Hamas needed "a real and serious lesson"; days later, he was more explicit, reportedly declaring Israel's aim to be "to provide a strong blow to the people of Gaza so that they would lose their appetite for shooting at Israel". The next day, the Washington Post also described how Israeli officials were hoping that the attacks would mean "that Gazans become disgusted with Hamas and drive the group from power". This Israeli strategy was previously deployed in Lebanon in 2006, when senior military commanders redefined civilian villages as "military bases" which would be subjected to "disproportionate force" causing "great damage and destruction". As I previously noted, the lessons learned in Lebanon were not just wrong, but criminal: a retired IDF major general and former adviser to the prime minister, Giora Eiland, reflected in a paper that "the destruction of homes and infrastructure and the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people are consequences that can influence Hezbollah's behaviour more than anything else". Ironically, the same Peres who now justifies collective punishment, in 2002 chastised Avigdor Lieberman for suggesting that the IDF should bomb civilian targets, warning the minister that such a tactic would be a war crime. The last three weeks show that proposals made by Israel's political extremists and originally considered outlandish, do not take long to become normal policy. Deliberately targeting civilians and vital infrastructure for political purposes links smoothly, into the post-conflict phase, with the Israeli and US plan to try and rescue the deeply discredited image of the Palestinian Authority through a politicised reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. As US state department spokesman Sean McCormack coyly put it, the "military solution" must be followed up by investing in infrastructure and helping the population "so that they can make a different kind of political decision". The third aim of Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip is to further "catastrophise" the territory, reducing the capacity for continued existence to the barest of minimums - perhaps to bring about "an end to the persistence of Gaza's ordinary people in wanting the chance of a peaceful and dignified life". One obvious benefit to Israel of pulverising "civilian Palestinian infrastructure" is that "people who lack collective institutions and are reduced to scrabbling for their very survival are easier to dominate". Yet, there is more going on here. Israel seeks to turn the Gaza Strip into a depoliticised humanitarian crisis, always on the brink of catastrophe, always dependent; its population reduced to ration-receiving clients of international aid. Yitzhak Rabin famously wished that Gaza "would just sink into the sea", but perhaps the best Israel can do is to share the problem with the international community, possibly to the extent of troops on the ground. Increasingly focusing on Egyptian responsibility is also part of this, whether in terms of arms smuggling, aid supplies, or for some, direct rule. In all of this, the Gaza Strip has become a laboratory for future possible scenarios in the West Bank (where a process of "development-isation" and NGO-funded occupation is well established). All three of these Israeli aims - to delegitimise and sideline Hamas, to persuade Palestinians to give up their resistance and to shirk responsibility for a shattered Gaza Strip - require the deliberate commission of war crimes and gross human rights abuses. As time will tell, they are also doomed to fail. © 2009 Guardian News and Media Limited Ben White is a writer living in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He has spent several summers in Palestine/Israel based in the West Bank and written extensively on the Middle East.

:: Article nr. 51061 sent on 21-jan-2008 14:21 ECT
www.uruknet.info?p=51061

THE ISRAELI HUMAN SHIELD

By Abu al-Sous (Salah Mansour)*, via Desertpeace

A Palestine boy used as a human shield by Israeli Occupation Soldiers, click the image to enlarge it. January 16, 2009 During the Israeli war on Gaza, Western media propagated Israeli propaganda that the Palestinian resistance have been using their family members as human shields. Sadly, Israeli propaganda is often presented in Western media as facts, and the Israeli version has been accepted with little verification. The goal is simple: dehumanise the Palestinian by showing that he does not care about his family members, and once that is done it becomes much easier to accept him as a legitimist target. This dehumanizing campaign is as old as the Zionist movement; it was articulated by Golda Meir (a former Israeli Prime Minister) when she said: Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us. This racist and derogatory comment is often propagated in Western media without a second thought to its dehumanizing consequences. It paints the Arab as a sub-human creature, who has neither affection nor love towards his or her children. When I first heard this racist comment from an American, I felt as if he was telling me: "you are not much of a human as I"! To this date, the Israel Occupation Army (IOF) still refuses to comply with orders from the Israeli Supreme Court to stop using Palestinian civilians as human shields (click here for a BBC article about this subject). If the IOF is a "professional army" as it claims and it treats Palestinians according to International Law, then: I wonder why Israel’s highest court would issue such an order? I wonder why IOF refuses to stop using Palestinians as human shields? It has been an Israeli strategy from the start to use civilian target as a strategic weapon. Israeli leaders assume this would cause the civilian population to pressure Arab leaders to submit to Israeli dictates. Sadly, this Israeli tactic has been historically effective with the corrupt and unpopular Arab leaders who are more interested in protecting their corrupt regimes than defending their countries. The reader should be reminded of the "Grape of Wrath" agreement between Hizbullah and Israel 1996 which restricted both sides from hitting civilian targets. This agreement signaled the end of the Israeli occupation in southern Lebanon, and as a result a new era in the Arab-Israeli conflict have begun where Israel’s deterrence power suffered a major setback. It should be noted that Israel has been determined not to fall into this trap again; that would explain why Israel rejected signing similar agreements with Hamas. A Palestinian killed by Israeli Occupation Soldiers used as a trophy. The allegation that Palestinian resistance use their own family members as human shield has been concocted by Zionists to delegitimise any Palestinian resistance, and to deflect from the war crimes that are being perpetrated on the people of Gaza. Palestinians are no different than other colonized people; they’re simply defending their homeland from foreign aggressions. The following list of pictures, articles, movies, and Israeli quotations will conclusively prove that the Israeli Occupation Army is the one who use civilians as human shields. Video Clip: Kids Used as Human Shields in Balata Refugee Camp Video Clip: Israeli Army continues to use Palestinian civilians as human shields Video Clip: BBC: Palestinian boys used as a human shield during an Israeli operation in Nablus Video Clip: Israeli shoots Palestinian with hands bound point blank A Picture of a Palestine boy used as a human shield by Israeli Occupation Soldiers Ha’aretz: 'Human shield’ dies as Hamas man is killed by troops Ha’aretz: Envoys say they saw IDF fire at children Ha’aretz: 27 Israeli pilots to refuse missions in West Bank, Gaza Israeli Quotes: Collection of quotations from Israeli leaders legitimising targeting civilians. * Salah Mansour is the founder and editor of PalestineRemembered.com, the largest Palestinian online community.

In Bombed Gaza, Doctors Become Patients

Ola Attallah, IOL Correspondent

Jan 14, 2009

GAZA CITY — When the phone rang once again, it was Dr. Hassan Al-Attal's turn to go save the lives of another Gazan family.

But in just minutes, it was Attal who pleaded for help after being showered with Israeli bullets.

"We were heading to help three bleeding children whose house was hit by an Israeli shell," Attal, an emergency doctor in Gaza City, told IslamOnline.net.

"But once we arrived to the house, our ambulance came under a hail of fire," he recalled.

"We fell to the ground bleeding, and instead of helping the injured children we were crying for help ourselves," he said from a hospital bed.

The Israeli killing machine has not spared doctors and medics who struggle to save the lives of helpless victims.

More than 12 doctors and rescue workers have been killed so far in the 19-day Israeli onslaught against the densely-populated coastal enclave.

In addition, dozens of hospitals and health clinics have been destroyed in Israeli air and artillery shelling.

Doctor Ahmed Al-Assafi recalls how his colleague Ihab Al-Madhoon was killed by Israeli shells while trying to rush a severely-injured child to the hospital.

"He breathed his last while he was trying to carry the child to the ambulance when Israeli tanks hit the area once again," he said with tears in his eyes.

A 28-year-old doctor in the refugee camp of Jabalyia was killed by Israeli artillery on Tuesday, January 13, while on his way to a building hit by Israeli missiles.

"Are those doctors posing a threat to Israel's security?" fumed Dr. Muawiya Hasanien, the head of Gaza Emergence and Ambulance Services.

"They want us to leave our people bleeding to death."

Attal, the emergency doctor, says the attack on his ambulance seemed deliberate.

"They don't want us to help our wounded. They don't want any Gazan to survive."

Journalists Too

Not only medics, but even reporters are not safe from Israeli fire.

"They already massacred entire families, ravaged hospitals, orphanages, hospitals and schools, and no one has stopped them," Ayman Al-Dalloul, a local reporter, told IOL.

"What would stop them from targeting us."

So far several reporters have fallen victim as Israel continues to target homes and workplaces of media people.

Al-Aqsa TV journalist Jalal Nashwan, 52, was not carrying a gun or shooting at Israeli troops when they rained him with bullets in Beit Hanun on Saturday, January 11.

Two days earlier, an Israeli missile attack killed Palestinian photo-journalist Ihab Al-Wahidi, his wife and his elderly mother inside their home.

Israeli tank fire has also destroyed the home of Palestinian journalist Ala Mortijar, killing him and injuring several others.

Israel, which killed nearly 1000 Palestinians in 19 days, also targeted a building complex in Gaza City that houses media and production studios of 20 media organizations, including several international news agencies.

Israel, usually described as the Middle East's sole democracy, is denying international reporters access into Gaza to cover its war.

Dozens of international news outlets issued a joint call with global press watchdog Reporters Without Borders last week for Israel to reverse that decision.

But Dalloul, the Palestinian journalist, believes Israel would never do that.

"Israelis want neither a camera nor a pen to expose the atrocities they are committing in Gaza."

Chronology: Which Side Violated the Israel-Gaza Ceasefire?
The Bush Administration and The New York Times v. Amnesty International

Howard Friel

Jan 15, 2009

Introduction

June 18, 2008

Israel has approved a ceasefire to end months of bitter clashes with the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza, Israeli officials have confirmed. Under the terms of the truce, which is set to begin Thursday (June 19), Israel will ease its blockade on the Gaza Strip. At the same time, talks to release an Israeli soldier [Gilad Shalit] held by Hamas would intensify, an Israeli official said. Hamas, which controls Gaza, says it is confident that all militants will abide by the truce [by not firing rockets into southern Israel]. The agreement is supposed to last six months. (Emphasis added) ("Israel Agrees to Gaza Ceasefire," BBC, June 18, 2008)

December 28, 2008

"The United States strongly condemns the repeated rocket and mortar attacks against Israel and holds Hamas responsible for breaking the cease-fire and for the renewal of violence in Gaza." U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. ("White House Puts Onus on Hamas to End Escalation of Violence," New York Times, December 28, 2008)

December 30, 2008

"Israel must defend itself. And Hamas must bear responsibility for ending a six-month cease-fire this month with a barrage of rocket attacks into Israeli territory." ("War Over Gaza," New York Times editorial, December 30, 2008)

Ceasefire Chronology: (See November 5 and December 28 Entries Below For Direct References to Breaking the Ceasefire)

July 4, 2008

A humanitarian crisis is engulfing Gaza-not the result of a natural disaster but entirely man-made and avoidable. The tightening of the Israeli blockade since June 2007 has left the population, 1.5 million Palestinians, trapped and with few resources. They are surviving, but only just. Some 80 per cent depend on the trickle of international aid that the Israeli government allows in.

In the first five months of 2008 some 380 Palestinians, more than a third of them unarmed civilians and including more than 60 children, were killed by the Israeli army, almost all of them in the Gaza Strip. In the same period 25 Israelis, 16 of them civilians, were killed by Palestinian armed groups.

A ceasefire between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups came into force on 19 June and at the time of writing it looked uncertain. Israeli officials however, insisted that Gaza's border remains sealed so long as Hamas does not release the Israeli soldier they are holding. Some 8,500 Palestinians are detained in Israeli jails. Of these, 900 are from the Gaza Strip, all of whom have been denied visits by their families since June 2007.

Palestinian armed groups in Gaza continue to hold an Israeli soldier, who was captured in June 2006, and to deny him access to the International Committee of the Red Cross. ("Gaza Blockage: Collective Punishment," Amnesty International, July 4, 2008)

August 14, 2008

Some 400 Palestinian students may lose their university places and scholarships unless the Israeli authorities allow them to leave the Gaza Strip before the new academic year, which starts in the next few weeks. The students have enrolled to study subjects including law, sciences, business and medicine.

At least 37 of the students have university places and scholarships in Europe and North America, while hundreds of others are due to travel to universities in countries in the Middle East and elsewhere. Several of these students have been denied permission to leave Gaza since last year. ("Freedom of Movement, Right to Education Denied," Amnesty International, August 14, 2008)

August 15, 2008

Amnesty International has described as scandalous the Israeli army's account of firing a tank shell that killed Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana as a "sound" decision. The army reached the conclusion as part of a so-called investigation into the killing of the journalist and three other unarmed civilians, including 2 children, on 16 April 2008.

The army's so-called investigation lacked any semblance of impartiality and Amnesty International called for an independent and impartial investigation into the killing. The organization said that the army's conclusion can only reinforce the culture of impunity that has led to so many reckless and disproportionate killings of children and other unarmed civilians by Israeli forces in Gaza.

Fadel Shana worked for Reuters press agency and was in a car clearly marked as Press. He and his colleague left the car, wearing visible Press flak-jackets and he was killed by an Israeli tank he was filming. The tank fired a shell at Shana, which also hit the civilians, including children, and injured his colleague and others around him. ("Army's So-Called Inquiry into Cameraman's Killing in Gaza a Scandal," Amnesty International, August 15, 2008)

August 22, 2008

With the exception of Karima Abu Dalal (who was finally able to leave Gaza through an exceptional arrangement via the border with Egypt after many months' delay to her treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma) all the critically ill patients named above are still being denied permission to leave Gaza for treatment abroad.

The Israeli authorities are refusing to allow these and hundreds of other patients to leave Gaza to obtain specialized treatment unavailable in Gaza, for undisclosed and unsubstantiated security reasons. Dozens of patients have died in recent months following delays to, or denials of, permits to leave Gaza. ("Further Information on Medical Concern," Amnesty International, August 22, 2008)

August 27, 2008

With Gaza locked down and cut off from the outside world by a stifling Israeli blockade, 46 peace activists from the world over set sail for Gaza on 22 August to, in their words, "break the siege that Israel has imposed on the civilian population of Gaza..., to express our solidarity with the suffering people of Gaza, and to create a free and regular channel between Gaza and the outside world."

The blockade imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip over a year ago has left the entire population of 1.5 million Palestinians trapped with dwindling resources and an economy in ruins. Some 80 per cent of the population now depend on the trickle of international aid that the Israeli army allows in. This humanitarian crisis is man-made and entirely avoidable.

The Israeli authorities argue that the blockade on Gaza is in response to Palestinian attacks, especially the indiscriminate rockets fired from Gaza at the nearby Israeli town of Sderot. These and other Palestinian attacks killed 25 Israelis in the first half of this year; in the same period Israeli forces killed 400 Palestinians.

However, the Israeli blockade does not target the Palestinian armed groups responsible for attacks-it collectively punishes the entire population of Gaza.

Though a ceasefire between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups has held in Gaza since 19 June 2008, the Israeli blockade remains in place.  

Israel has banned exports from Gaza altogether and has reduced entry of fuel and goods to a trickle-mostly humanitarian aid, foodstuff and medical supplies. Basic necessities are in short supply or not available at all in Gaza. The shortages have pushed up food prices at a time when people can least afford to pay more. A growing number of Gazans have been pushed into extreme poverty and suffer from malnutrition.

With the ceasefire holding, the suffering in Gaza has fallen off the international news agenda. However, Amnesty International members continue to campaign, calling:

on the Israeli authorities to immediately lift the blockade, allow unhindered passage into Gaza of sufficient quantities of fuel, electricity and other necessities; and allow those who want to leave Gaza to do so, notably patients in need of medical treatment not available in Gaza and students enrolled in universities abroad, and also to allow them later to return; on Palestinian armed groups not to resume rocket and other attacks on Israeli civilians. ("Trapped: Collective Punishment in Gaza," Amnesty International, August 27, 2008)

August 29, 2008

The Israeli authorities are still denying scores of critically ill patients the authorization they need to leave Gaza for medical treatment that is unavailable in Gaza. Hospitals in Gaza continue to lack vital medical equipment and trained personnel to carry out advanced medical treatment, including many surgical operations and the provision of chemotherapy for cancer patients. Even those patients who are given permission to leave Gaza for treatment are often suffering as a result of delays in receiving exit permits, which contribute to a decline in patient's health and emotional well-being.

Interrogation by the General Security Service

Over the past year, the denial of permits to seriously ill patients has primarily been based on undisclosed security reasons. Some patients from Gaza testified to Amnesty International that they were openly told in interviews with the Israeli General Security Service (GSS) [Israel's counterintelligence and internal security service, also known as Shin Bet] at the Erez Crossing point at the northern border with Israel that they would not receive treatment in Israel unless they become informants for the GSS. As Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel) describes in a recent report, "patients are detained for interrogation at Erez Crossing, and requested either to provide information or to act as collaborators on a regular basis as a condition for permission to exit Gaza for medical treatment."

The report provides testimonies that PHR-Israel has received from a number of patients that demonstrate this practice. According to PHR-Israel, rejection or approval of a patient's request to leave Gaza for treatment almost entirely depends on the GSS who are taking advantage of the vulnerability of patients who have no other means of accessing medical care.

Even patients who already have an exit permit from the authorities to cross into Israel at Erez are being denied permission to leave Gaza after an "unsatisfactory" interrogation. This policy by the GSS of questioning patients in exchange for entry into Israel appears to have become a formal part of the exit procedure for patients and is reportedly discouraging some patients from attempting to leave Gaza in the first place. ("Health Professional Action: Patients From Gaza Are Still Denied Access to Medical Treatment in Israel," Amnesty International, August 29, 2008)

October 16, 2008

The children named above [ages 5 months, 1.2 years, 1.2 years, 1.5 years, 5 years, and 6 years] suffer from serious heart conditions including congenital heart defects commonly known as holes in the heart. All the children need urgent surgery that cannot be provided in Gaza, which lacks both the necessary medical facilities and specialists. The children were due to be operated on by a team of British heart specialists at Makassad Hospital in East Jerusalem during the week beginning 4 October 2008. They were not able to leave the Gaza Strip because the Israeli authorities refused permissions to their mothers/grandmothers to leave Gaza to accompany them. Soheb Wael Alqasas has already missed six appointments for his surgery in recent months because his mother and grandmother were repeatedly refused permits to accompany him to the hospital in Jerusalem.

A team of Italian heart specialists will be conducting a week of paediatric cardiac surgery at the Makassad Hospital from 6 November. It is imperative that the six children are able to attend the Makassad Hospital in time to undergo surgery by the visiting team of specialists. For this to be possible their relatives must be allowed to travel with them to the hospital in Jerusalem. ("Medical Concern," Amnesty International, October 16, 2008)

November 5, 2008

A spate of Israeli and Palestinian attacks and counter-attacks in the past 24 hours could spell the end of a five-and-a-half-month ceasefire. This would once again put the civilian populations of Gaza and southern Israel in the line of fire.

The killing of six Palestinian militants in Gaza by Israeli forces in a ground incursion and air strikes on 4 November was followed by a barrage of dozens of Palestinian rockets on nearby towns and villages in the south of Israel. The Palestinian attacks caused no casualties or damage, but there is a real risk that any further armed actions by either side would risk igniting another deadly campaign.

The ceasefire was agreed between Israel and Hamas last June and has been in force since then. It has been the single most important factor in reducing civilian casualties and attacks on civilians to the lowest level since the outbreak of the uprising (intifada) more than eight years ago.

The ceasefire has brought enormous improvements in the quality of life in Sderot and other Israeli villages near Gaza, where before the ceasefire residents lived in fear of the next Palestinian rocket strike. However, nearby in the Gaza Strip the Israeli blockade remains in place and the population has so far seen few dividends from the ceasefire. Since June 2007, the entire population of 1.5 million Palestinians has been trapped in Gaza, with dwindling resources and an economy in ruins. Some 80 percent of the population now depend on the trickle of international aid that the Israeli army allows in. (Emphasis added) ("Gaza Ceasefire at Risk," Amnesty International, November 5, 2008)

November 14, 2008

The Israeli army has completely blocked the delivery of urgently needed humanitarian aid and medical supplies to the Gaza Strip for more than a week. Very little fuel has been allowed in. Amnesty International urged the Israeli authorities on Friday to allow their immediate passage.

"This latest tightening of the Israeli blockade has made an already dire humanitarian situation markedly worse. It is nothing short of collective punishment on Gaza's civilian population and it must stop immediately," said Philip Luther, Deputy Director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Programme.

Eighty per cent of the population of Gaza has been dependent on the trickle of humanitarian aid previously allowed into Gaza until Wednesday, 5 November. Industrial fuel, which is donated by the European Union and needed to power Gaza's power plant, has also been blocked, causing a blackout in large parts of Gaza.   The United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA), the main UN aid agency, which provides humanitarian assistance to close to one million Palestinian refugees in Gaza, announced on Thursday that its supplies had run out.   At the same time, the Israeli authorities have been denying access to Gaza to foreign journalists for a week and a convoy of European diplomats were likewise refused entry on Thursday. "Gaza is cut off from the outside world and Israel is seemingly not keen for the world to see the suffering that its blockade is causing the one and a half million Palestinians who are virtually trapped there," said Philip Luther.   The breakdown last week of a five-and-a-half-month ceasefire between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants in Gaza has generated a renewed wave of violence. The killing of six Palestinian militants in Israeli air strikes and ground attacks on 4 November prompted a barrage of Palestinian rockets on nearby Israeli towns and villages.

Five other Palestinian militants have been killed by Israeli forces in recent days. Palestinian rocket attacks have continued. No Israeli casualties had been reported until earlier today, when one Israeli was lightly wounded by shrapnel in an attack on the Israeli city of Sderot. ("Israeli Army Blocks Deliveries to Gaza," Amnesty International, November 14, 2008)

November 17, 2008

The impediments faced by Palestinians in Gaza in obtaining access to health care continue to be a cause for serious concern. The Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip has caused a further deterioration in the humanitarian situation, health and sanitation problems, as well as extreme poverty and malnutrition.

With only a few exceptions, the entire population of 1.5 million people are trapped in Gaza. Students are unable to attend university studies and jobs abroad and critically ill patients in need of medical care that is unavailable in local hospitals are often prevented from leaving Gaza. ("Health Professional Action: Crushing the Right to Health," Amnesty International, November 17, 2008)

November 17, 2008

The Israeli army allowed a limited number of trucks carrying humanitarian assistance into Gaza for the first time in two weeks on Monday. However, the long-term nature of the blockade and restrictions on the flow of goods into Gaza has led to a situation where reserves have long been depleted.

"What is necessary, at a minimum, is for Israel to allow regular and unhindered flow of humanitarian aid, medical supplies and other basic necessities into Gaza," said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International researcher on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. ("Israeli Army Relaxes Restrictions on Humanitarian Aid to Gaza," Amnesty International, November 17, 2008)

December 5, 2008

The Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip is having ever more serious consequences on its population. In the past month the supply of humanitarian aid and basic necessities to Gaza has been reduced from a trickle to an intermittent drip. The blockade has become tighter than ever since the breakdown of a five-and-a-half-month ceasefire between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants on 5 November.

"The Israeli authorities might be allowing through enough for the survival of Gaza's population, but this is nowhere near enough for the 1.5 million inhabitants of Gaza to live with dignity," said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International's researcher on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

As supplies are being further withheld, most mills have shut down because they have little or no grain. People who have long been deprived of many food items now cannot even find bread at times. Reserves of food have long been depleted and the meagre quantities allowed into Gaza are not even enough to meet the immediate needs. Families never know if they will have food for their children the following day.

When people do have food, they generally have no cooking gas or electricity with which to cook it. Last week, less than 10 per cent of the weekly requirement of cooking gas was allowed into Gaza. ("Gaza Reduced to Bare Survival," Amnesty International, December 5, 2008)

December 28, 2008

Amnesty International has called on Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups to immediately halt the unlawful attacks carried out as part of the escalation of violence which has caused the death of some 280 Palestinians and one Israeli civilian since December 27.

This is the highest level of Palestinian fatalities and casualties in four decades of Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Scores of unarmed civilians, as well as police personnel who were not directly participating in the hostilities, are among the Palestinian victims of the Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip.

"Such disproportionate use of force by Israel is unlawful and risks igniting further violence in the whole region," said Amnesty International. "The escalation of violence comes at a time when the civilian population already faces a daily struggle for survival due to the Israeli blockade which has prevented even food and medicines from entering Gaza."

"Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, for their part, share responsibility for the escalation. Their continuous rocket attacks on towns and villages in southern Israel are unlawful and can never be justified," Amnesty International said.

This latest Israeli onslaught brings the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces this year to some 650, at least a third of whom are unarmed civilians, including 70 children.  In the same period, Palestinian armed groups have killed 25 Israelis, 16 of them civilians, including four children.

The ceasefire effectively ended after six Palestinian militants were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza force on 4 November and a barrage of Palestinians rockets were launched on nearby towns and villages in the south of Israel. (Emphasis added) ("Civilians Must Be Protected in Gaza and Israel," Amnesty International, December 28, 2008)

Howard Friel is coauthor with Richard Falk of Israel-Palestine on Record: How The New York Times Misreports Conflict in the Middle East (Verso, 2007), and with Falk of The Record of the Paper: How The New York Times Misreports U.S. Foreign Policy (Verso, 2004)

The Massacre in Gaza: Check the Facts

By Max Kantar

Israel's operative military policy in the Gaza Strip has been fairly consistent with its stated definition of what it considers to be legitimate military targets, which in practice has amounted to mass killings of innocent Palestinian civilians.

Based on the overwhelming evidence available, one conclusion can be drawn regarding the nature of the US-backed Israeli attacks on Gaza: a genuine massacre of ordinary, unarmed people has been taking place for over two weeks.

Here is just a small part of the documentary evidence to prove it.

Targeting Civilian Police Stations and Officers

In the opening days of Israel's aerial bombardment of the Gaza Strip, its main targets were police stations and officers. For civilian police officers to be considered legitimate military targets, they must be directly engaged in hostilities, in this case, towards Israel. No evidence has been presented by Israel, or anyone else, that even reasonably suggests that the police officers in Gaza fall into this category. Therefore, the police officers that were targeted and murdered by Israel were clearly civilians: not lawful military targets.

"The First Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions establishes two conditions that must be met for an object to be considered a legitimate military target: it must effectively contribute to military action and its total destruction or partial neutralization offers a clear military advantage." -- B'tselem, Dec. 31, 2008 [1]

"Police were not combatants and could not represent legitimate targets unless actively engaged in hostilities...it was Israel's burden of proof to show [that] the police they targeted were, indeed, Hamas militants." -- Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch (Middle East & North Africa Division), January 7, 2009 [2]

"Police members who do not take part in any hostilities are not considered legitimate military targets under international humanitarian law and must not be deliberately targeted." -- Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, December 28, 2008 [3]

"Police stations, police officers and law enforcement officials are classified under the international law as civilians, and targeting them as such while they were not engaged in military action constitutes a violation of the international law." -- Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, December 27, 2008.  [4]

"[The Israeli Air Force] bombed the main police building in Gaza and killed, according to reports, forty-two Palestinians who were in a training course and were standing in formation at the time of the bombing. Participants in the course study first-aid, handling of public disturbances, human rights, public-safety exercises, and so forth." -- B'tselem, December 31, 2008 [5]

"[During the week of December 24-31, 2008] 165 civil police officers were killed on the first day of the IOF offensive, when they were not engaged in any hostilities." -- The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, December 31, 2008 [6]

Targeting Civilians and Civilian Objects

Every relevant human rights group and international body has documented and denounced Israel's military practice of "targeting civilians" and "civilian objects" in the Gaza Strip. As a result, human rights groups and medical officials in Gaza have reported that the vast majority of the (currently) 900 Palestinian causalities have been unarmed civilians. 

The IDF, by its own admission, is unilaterally redefining who is a "civilian" and what is a "legitimate military target" to suit Israel's political aims. While justifying Israeli attacks on civil and public institutions in Gaza, the IDF has claimed that "anything affiliated with Hamas is a legitimate target," thereby opening up nearly everyone and everything for Israeli attacks. This new doctrine flatly contradicts international law which states that:

"All parties engaged in combat must distinguish between civilian objects and military targets, and are forbidden to intentionally attack civilians and civilian objects." [7]

To further comprehend Israel's definitions of "legitimate targets," it is instructive to apply the same standards to Hamas, which would then give Hamas a green light to bomb public Israeli synagogues, Jewish elementary schools, the Knesset, hospitals, homes, and so forth.

Furthermore, while it is certain that the IDF "targets civilians," it is of no legal value for Israel to claim that, in the midst of attacking a military target, innocent civilians were not intended to be killed. According to the ruling of The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia:

"Attacks which strike civilians or civilian objects and military objectives without distinction, may qualify as direct attacks against civilians…This prohibition reflects a well-established rule of customary law applicable in all armed conflicts." [8]

Whether Israel is specifically targeting innocent civilians or not, if its attacks result in "indiscriminate" killing of civilians, then Israel's attacks qualify as "direct attacks against civilians," if we accept the ruling of the highest criminal court in the world.

"[Israel's] air strikes were aimed at civilian areas in one of the most crowded stretches of land in the world, certainly the most densely populated area of the Middle East." -- UN Human Rights Representative, Professor Richard Falk, December 27, 2008 [9]

"Since the beginning of the military operation in the Gaza Strip, on 27 December 2008, the army has bombed dozens of houses, public buildings, and other structures throughout the Gaza Strip…[An] example [of IDF civilian targeting] is yesterday's bombing of the government offices. These offices included the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Labor, Construction and Housing." -- B'tselem, December 31, 2009 [10]

"Investigations conducted by the [Palestinian Centre for Human Rights] indicate that [the IDF] have continued to bombard Palestinian houses and civilian facilities persistently day and night, while the Palestinian civilian population suffer a humanitarian crisis as they lack electricity, water and food supplies….The high number of civilian victims and the extensive destruction to public and private property are clear evidence that [the IDF], instructed by the Israeli political and military establishments, intend to cause maximum deaths and casualties among Palestinian civilians and maximum destruction to their property." -- The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, January 10, 2009 [11]

"After 12 days of "combat," the Israeli Defense Forces reported that more than 1,000 targets were shelled or bombed…Seventeen mosques, the American International School, many private homes and much of the basic infrastructure of the small but heavily populated area have been destroyed. This includes the systems that provide water, electricity and sanitation. Heavy civilian casualties are being reported by courageous medical volunteers from many nations…" -- Jimmy Carter, January 8, 2009 [12]

"There has been extensive destruction and many deaths reported in the Zeitun neighbourhood, south of Gaza city by IDF attacks...In one of the gravest incidents since the beginning of operations…on 4 January Israeli foot-soldiers evacuated approximately 110 Palestinians into a single-residence house in Zeitun (half of whom were children), warning them to stay indoors. Twenty-four hours later, Israeli forces shelled the home repeatedly, killing approximately thirty. Those who survived and were able, walked two kilometres to Salah Ed Din road before being transported to the hospital in civilian vehicles. Three children, the youngest of whom was five months old, died upon arrival at the hospital." -- UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, January 8, 2009 [13]

"Israel has directly targeted and completely or partially destroyed 13 mosques, two schools, one university, numerous government buildings, including different ministries and 40 civil police compounds, a medical storage centre, three money exchange facilities and three chicken farms, all of which Israel alleges were used by Hamas for military purposes. Israel's air strikes and ground incursions have to date resulted in the total destruction of at least 300 houses and damage to 3,800 more." -- Al Haq, January 7, 2009 [14]

"A characteristic example of an attack on a civilian object is the 6 January 2009 aerial bombardment on the Asma' Bint Baker school, a facility of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA). Four days prior to the attack, UNRWA officials provided GPS coordinates to Israeli authorities of 23 UNRWA installations that were to be used as shelters for fleeing civilians. The location of the Asma' Bint Baker School was one of the 23 coordinates provided. Three civilians were killed in the attack on the school." -- Al Haq, January 7, 2009 [15]

"In the deadliest single attack on Gaza civilians since the war began, Israel fired three mortar shells at the United Nations' al-Fahoura school in the Jabalya refugee camp. The school was filled with civilians who had been forced from their homes by the Israeli invasion, and the attack killed at least 46. The United Nations reports that at least 55 other civilians were wounded in the attack.

“The United Nations says the building was clearly marked with UN flags and that they were in contact with the Israeli military when the war began to inform them of the location of the school precisely to prevent it being targeted.

“Indeed, the Israeli military does not seem to deny that they deliberately targeted a building they knew to be filled with hundreds of innocent Palestinian civilians. Instead they claim that Hamas militants were using the school as a base of operations." --Antiwar.com, January 6, 2009 [16]

"Just a little bit more than an hour ago, the Israelis bombed the central food market in Gaza City and we had a mass influx of about 50 injured and between 10 and 15 killed…At the same time they bombed an apartment house with children playing on the roof and we had a lot of children also."

"It's like hell here now and it's been bombing all night…there are injuries that you just don't want to see in this world…the only crime they have done is been civilians -- Palestinians living in Gaza. The relief now is not more doctors and more drugs; the relief now is to stop the bombing immediately…I've seen one military person among…the hundreds we have seen and treated…This is an all out war against the civilian Palestinian population in Gaza and we can prove that with the numbers." -- Mads Gilbert, January 5, 2009 [17]

"Police stations located in densely populated neighborhoods were attacked, destroying them and causing severe damage to tens of schools and homes and killing dozens of civilians, including children and old people.

"Air strikes have continued through the night, targeting houses and other civilian premises, including water-wells, workshops, mosques and communications facilities. A guard of a water well and three employees of the Palestinian Telecommunications Company were killed in North Gaza. Another two men were killed in a strike that targeted the al-Borno Mosque near al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. The hospital was damaged in the same strike. Moreover, IOF targeted prisons, including Gaza's main prison facility of al-Saraya at noon today. Initial reports indicate that many policemen and prisoners were killed and injured in this attack.

“Additionally, dozens of homes were destroyed, along with tens of UNRWA and government schools and clinics. Local government offices and private vehicles were also destroyed. Al Mezan's initial monitoring indicates that…of those [people that have been killed by Israel's strikes] the vast majority are non-combatants and civilians; including 20 children, nine women and 60 civilians. The majority of the rest of the casualties are members of the civilian police who were inside their stations or undertaking training." --Al Mezan Center for Human Rights Press Release, December 28, 2008 [18]

Dead and Injured Civilians: Numbers and Percentages

Within the first four days of the Israeli onslaught the UN placed the Palestinian civilian casualty rate at 25% while noting that "the number may well be far higher." [19] This number cannot be taken very seriously because it admittedly did not include adult male civilian casualties. Now three weeks into the massacre, the UN has reported that at least 33% of Gaza's dead and wounded are children alone, hence drastically abandoning its earlier estimates.

As noted below, UN officials have recently noted that at least half of those killed by the IDF in Gaza are civilians, although it appears that this estimate still does not include 165 civilian police officers, which would've, as of January 9, placed the civilian casualty rate at about 72%.

Furthermore, countless testimonies, medical reports, and human rights documentary reports coming out of Gaza continue to show that the large majority of the dead and wounded have been Palestinian civilians. The documentary sources that show civilian casualty rates hovering around 70-80% differ from those claiming around 50% largely because of the failure to classify civil police officers as civilians in the latter sources. Additional disparities may also potentially be explained by less precise documenting of adult male civilian causalities.

"Gaza medical officials say at least 870 Palestinians, about half of them civilians, have been killed in the conflict that began Dec. 27 with Israeli airstrikes…Palestinian medical officials reported about 60 deaths on Sunday [January 11], including 17 who had died of wounds suffered on previous days. Most of those killed Sunday were noncombatants, medical officials said, including four members of one family killed when a tank shell hit their home near Gaza City, and a 10-year-old girl killed in a similar attack." -- MSNBC, January 11, 2009 [20]

"As night fell on Gaza on Saturday, the Israeli Army continued its illegal offensive for the fifteenth day, killing 854 Palestinians, including 230 children, 93 women, 92 elderly, 14 medics and three journalists. At least 3,681 Palestinians, 50% of them children and women, have been wounded, 500 seriously, Dr. Moawiya Hassanen of the Palestinian Ministry of Health reported." -- International Middle East Media Center, January 10, 2009. (Note that the "50%" number does not include adult male civilians) [21]

"As of Thursday, 257 children were among the approximately 760 reported dead in Gaza. There were another 1,080 children among the 3,100 injured in the conflict, according to statistics from Gaza's health ministry. The U.N.'s top humanitarian official, John Holmes, described the numbers as "credible" and deeply disturbing. U.N officials say about half of the casualties were civilians." -- San Francisco Chronicle, January 9, 2009 [22]

"Israel['s] "Operation Cast Lead," a large-scale aerial offensive in the Gaza Strip [has] been followed by Israeli ground troops, which invaded the Gaza Strip on the night of 3 January 2009. To date, these attacks have resulted in the death of at least 729 Palestinians, 603 of whom were civilians, including 173 children, and the further wounding of over 3,200 more."

--Joint Open Letter to the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, signed by 19 "local, regional and international human rights organizations concerned with respect for international humanitarian law." According to the casualty numbers provided in the letter, which was endorsed and accepted by all 19 human rights organizations, the percentage of those in Gaza who were killed by Israel that were civilians is 83% as of January 9, 2009. [23]

"Since the Israeli military operation "Cast lead" began on 27 December until 8 January (4:00PM), 758 Palestinians have been killed—approximately 42% of whom were women (60) and children (257) according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The number of children fatalities has increased by 250% since the beginning of ground operation on 3 January." -- UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, January 8, 2009 [24]

"Within eleven days, Israeli occupying forces have killed at least 671 Palestinians, 547 of whom were civilians, including 155 children, and injured at least 3,000." -- Al Haq, Human Rights Organization, January 7, 2009. Note that according to these calculations, civilians make up nearly 82% of Palestinians killed by Israel, as of January 7th. [24]

"Palestinian health ministry officials say 595 people have been killed since the attacks began, 195 of them children." (over 33%) -- BBC, January 6, 2009. [26]

"In one of its bloodiest military operations, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) initiated a wide-scale air strike operation against the Gaza Strip. More than 900 people have been killed and injured, most of whom are non-combatants. The number of casualties…because of the timing of the strike [coincides] with the change in school shifts when tens of thousands of schoolchildren were on their way to or from school." --Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, Press Release, December 28, 2008. [27]

- Max Kantar is a freelance writer. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com. Contact him at: maxkantar@gmail.com

Notes:

[1] "B'Tselem to Attorney General Mazuz: Concern over Israel targeting civilian objects in the Gaza Strip," December 31, 2008.
[2]  Deen, Thalif, "Aid groups dispute Israeli claims in Gaza attacks," The Electronic Intifada, January 10, 2009.
[3] Al Mezan, Press Release December 28, 2008.
[4] Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Press Release, December 27, 2008.
[5] See note 1
[6] Palestine Centre for Human Rights, Press Release, December 31, 2008.
[7] See note 1.
[8] El-'Ajou, Fatmeh, "Re: The Killing of Civilians in the Gaza Strip," Adalah, January 4, 2009.
[9] Falk, Richard "Statement by professor Richard Falk, United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories," UN High Commissioner For Human Rights, December 27, 2008.
[10] See note 1
[11] Palestine Centre for Human Rights, Press Release, January 10, 2009.
[12] Carter, Jimmy, "An Unnecessary War," The Washington Post, January 8, 2009.
[13] UNOCHA, "Protection of Civilians Weekly Report," January 8, 2009.
[14] Al-Haq, "Legal Aspects of Israel's Attacks on the Gaza Strip in 'Operation Cast Lead,'" January 7, 2009.
[15] See note 14
[16] Ditz, Jason, "At least 46 killed as Israel attacks Gaza school," Antiwar.com, January 6, 2009. Note: media links are provided within the text of this article for verification.
[17] Edwards, David & Webster, Stephen, "Norwegian Doctor: Israel Intentionally Targeting Civilians," The Raw Story, January 5, 2009.
[18] Al Mezan Press Release: "Most Gaza Casualties were non-combatants, civilians," December 28, 2008, (electronicintifada.net)
[19] "UN: 25% of those killed in Gaza civilians," Ynet, December 31, 2008, ynetnews.com
[20] "(AP) Israel advances deep into Gaza urban areas" MSNBC, January 11, 2009.
[21] Bannoura, Saed, "As night falls on the 15th day of Israeli offensive…" International Middle East Media Center, January 10, 2009.
[22] Heilprin, John, "UN: one third of Gaza dead, injured children," San Fransico Chronicle, January 9, 2009.
[23] "Joint Open Letter to the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention," Al-Haq, January 9, 2009.
[24] See note 13
[25] See note 14
[26] BBC, "Strike at Gaza school kills '40'" January 7, 2009.
[27] See note 18

How beautiful it is to kill, how just to die

By Guest Post • Jan 12th, 2009 at 21:47 • Category: Analysis, Nakba and Right of Return, Newswire, Palestine, Religion, Resistance, War, Zionism

WRITTEN BY:  Santiago ALBA RICO
Translated by  Christine Lewis Carroll 

“and thereupon the Lord rained down brimstone and fire out of heaven, the Lord’s dwelling place, and overthrew these cities, with all the plain about them, and all those who dwelt there, and all that grew from their soil. And Lot’s wife, because she looked behind her as she went, was turned into a pillar of salt.”
Genesis 19, 23-26

The wrath of God is not only just but also beautiful, and its very beauty reveals and proclaims God’s superior justice. How can one not give in to this extraordinary picture of El Bosco painted by the Israeli aviation? Are not the bodies and homes below demolished precisely because of the beauty of this divine flash, of this dazzling fountain of light? Those who do not die, those who resist, those who curse amongst the ruins, are they not guilty for this reason, demanding with their very survival a new ejaculation of brimstone and fire?

The oldest religious atavisms are supported by the most modern means of destruction. Manipulation and lies apart, we bow fascinated by the Israeli brutality because it is brutal and comes from the sky; we admire their force and not their cause, and it is exactly the indisputable verticality of this force what confers it with a legitimacy unattainable to reason: it is all in one time and cast aesthetic and theological. At one time one could only destroy a city by being God; now the Israelis can do it as well. Only miraculous blessings and deserved punishment fall from heaven. The technological superiority of the Zionists – their superior contempt of human life activates this theological legitimation that their rulers consciously exploit, to the point that it is the biblical technotheology of the air raids, now the only source of legitimacy, what obliges them to repeat the raids on a bigger scale every time. It is so nice, so pleasant, so easy, so fair to reduce a city to rubble and so difficult, so ugly, so morally degrading to try to rationally defend Zionism…The God of the Bible who destroys from above is more just and beautiful the greater his destructive power. His victims adorn His power, justify His existence, pay tribute to His mercy; the greater the number of dead, more guilty are the corpses and more sublime the aggressor; the more children, women and old people that perish under this marvellous light, more marvellous is the light and more deserving the punishment. Only Yahweh is “disproportionate” – out of all proportion – and this is what the mass media and governments mean when they describe – respectfully and with admiration – the use of force by Israel: they mean it is “divine”, supernatural, superhuman, they mean it is justified, that we cannot judge it and even less condemn it without committing sacrilege. The means (of destruction) justify all the objectives. The technological “disproportion” declares its right regardless of human laws and requires very little propaganda to impose its authority: it is sufficient to be able to imitate God and “overthrew these cities, with all the plain about them, and all those who dwelt there” amidst a torrent of light. Even the most hardened atheists amongst us must ignore the dead as long as there are many, and cluster bombs and white phosphorous are used; as long as the murderer is almighty and its power religious and supernatural. Israel is a theocratic state, because of the way people live and kill there. The rest of the world admires Israel because of this. And when we look back on the spectacle, like Lot’s wife, we are converted into dumb pillars of salt.

The air is pure; the sky is not imputable. The Israeli pilot of the F16 does not even get his hair ruffled; elegant, sophisticated, punctilious in accomplishing his mission, disinfected from all the lowest instincts which could blur his vision, brilliant, ironic, serious, just, he imitates God and El Bosco and returns in time to Tel Aviv to try the food from a new Indonesian restaurant and discuss with his girlfriend the details of the new furniture bought in Ikea.

And down below? What happens meanwhile down below? What are the people below like? 

Here we see them. They are part of the land, primitive, emotional, loud, threatening, obscure, clinging, superstitious, gregarious, ragged, ugly, pedestrian, horizontal, vulnerable, expendable: human. The article in El Mundo which illustrated this photograph added that they were also “exhibitionists”: contrary to us, the lords of the sky who prefer to bury our dead in private, the Palestinians of Gaza enjoy displaying the corpses of their children and proclaiming obscenely their grief. The shrewd anthropologist of the Spanish newspaper forgot to quote other differences just as eloquent: whilst as lords of the sky we like dying of old age in a hospital or in the privacy of our own homes, the Palestinians of Gaza like dying in the street, in public, blown up with no decency by a biblical bomb sent from the sky; whilst as lords of the sky we like killing without ruffling our hair or getting excited – to return in time for supper to Tel Aviv without visiting the hairdresser first – the Gaza Palestinians like killing and killing each other – because the rage and the hate would not let them do it any other way. If the Israeli “disproportion” justifies itself, the human proportions of the Palestinians are also eliminated. The photograph of the Israeli bombing is enough to convince us of the Zionist justice; the photograph of the Palestinian funeral is enough to convince us of the Palestinian guilt.

The difference between Israelis and Palestinians is summarised in these two images, in this contrast which the mass media, deliberately or not, feed without respite: the aesthetic and theological superiority on one part, based exclusively on their deadly weapons, and the “natural” inferiority of the others, reduced beforehand and from time immemorial to pure tinder for Yahweh’s fire, to mere fuel for the Divine Light. No reasoning, no request can thwart this difference; not even a Qassam rocket. There are only two ways to correct this contrast fixed in our retina and synthesised tamely in the way we look: or we arm the Palestinians with missiles, cluster bombs and white phosphorous or we disarm the Israelis and dissolve the State of Israel. Not until either of these two alternatives occurs, will it be of any use that human justice is on the side of the Palestinians in a world that dribbles fascinated – the USA, the European Union, the Arab governments, the UN, the mass media – in the presence of pictures of El Bosco painted by the Israeli aviation and the biblical just beauty. As long as human justice does not seem more just and beautiful to us than an Israeli bombing, the Palestinians – whatever they do – will only manage to enlarge the difference and give excuses to Yahweh for killing them from its remote, imperturbable elegance. Please do not give them excuses – do not launch rockets, do not fire arms, do not unsheathe knives, do not defend your homes, do not protect your children, do not shout, do not cry, do not eat, do not breathe. But if there is no human justice and the Palestinians are guilty before God of breathing (all the more so if they bleed!), if whatever they do, they have been condemned for eternity, it would be shameful to condemn them also – whatever they do – from the comfort of our moral airplanes. There are occasions when it is more immoral to moralise than murder.

But now the difference has been reduced a little. Under cover of the F16 in my warm home, shuddering and ashamed, I feel satisfied that the Israelis have given up their divine impunity and have also entered Gaza by land. They are still vastly superior, but they move at ground level so they become more Palestinian, a little more human and vulnerable; perhaps it would even be justifiable to kill them. Perhaps some may even die. I wish that instead of fear or admiration, some might even inspire us pity.

God is “disproportionate”; human justice is “proportionate”. Beauty is “divinely proportionate”; compassion is “humanly disproportionate”. Perhaps in the next few days we will see at last the image of an Israeli tank being destroyed by the heroic defenders of Gaza and then, after the joy, we would get taken away by the disproportion of the compassion - unexpected, incomprehensible, irrational – in the presence of an Israeli soldier taken prisoner or dead. In the absence of proportion, in the absence of justice, maybe the murderers now exposed to the weak, ugly and courageous defensive fire, the Zionists, dead, taken prisoner or wounded, painfully lying on the ground, would seem human to us for the first time. 

Source: Qué bello es matar, qué justo es morir

Mohamed Khodr - Bush's Farewell to Israel: The Genocide of Gaza with American Arms

Posted: 13 Jan 2009 11:28 AM CST

“Our humanity is incomplete,” says Queen Rania
A personal challenge for every Western politician

STUART LITTLEWOOD

Queen Rania of Jordan speaks to reporters during a meeting of U.N. regional chiefs in Amman, Monday, Jan. 5, 2009 Jan 12, 2009 These last two weeks have changed everything. Any remaining tolerance felt towards Israel and its friends has evaporated. The regime could never have maintained its illegal occupation of Palestine, or imposed a barbaric blockade on tiny Gaza, or mounted this latest bloodthirsty assault on civil society, were it not for the protection of an over-powerful 'friends' network in every major western country. In Britain the 'Friends of Israel’ organisation, in its various guises, has stooges occupying key positions at the heart of government. These individuals paralyse any effective action against the lawless regime they subscribe to. They ought to be treated as agents of a foreign military power and weeded out, especially with the European elections coming up and a general election just around the corner. Membership of Friends of Israel is nowadays a necessary stepping-stone to ministerial rank, I’m told. It is one thing for the Jewish community to back Israel but a much more serious matter if anyone in public office secretly places himself under an obligation to a foreign power and allows it to influence his work. Hundreds of our MPs may have crossed that line. It is deeply worrying to discover that our Intelligence & Security Committee, Foreign Affairs Committee and Defence Committee are all chaired by Friends of Israel. How can it possibly be in our nation’s best interest? After boasting how the UN security council resolution negotiated last Thursday underlined the international community's determination to end the tragedy in Gaza, Bill Rammell MP, minister of state for the Middle East, went on: "Of course a ceasefire can only come about through decisions taken by the parties involved - but in the interests of people in both Gaza and Israel, we will expend every diplomatic effort to stop the violence." Nothing about implementing the pile of previous UN resolutions. This is typical of the meaningless drivel that routinely comes out of Westminster. Rammel’s boss, David Miliband, in a speech to Labour Friends of Israel last year, numbered himself among "Israel’s most committed friends". Prime minister Gordon Brown declared himself a Zionist. Peace envoy Tony Blair, another Zionist, is too chicken to meet Hamas and look them in the eye. So we can be sure that their diplomatic efforts amount to no more than revving the engine with the parking brake on. It is equally obvious that the Israelis will remain deaf until their lust for land is satisfied. They’ll listen only when hefty sanctions are applied, such as suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and expulsion of its ambassadors in London and other European capitals. If Mr Miliband doesn't know how to do this, he should take lessons from President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, who has expelled the Israeli ambassador in protest against Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip. He condemned as "murderers" the Israelis who carried out the military campaign and urged Jews in his country to take a stand against the Israeli government. "Now I hope that the Venezuelan Jewish community speaks out against this barbarism. Do it. Don't you strongly reject all acts of persecution?" he said. "How far will this barbarism go? The president of Israel should be taken before an international court together with the president of the United States, if the world had any conscience." Are Jews speaking out against it in London? Plenty are. But the Board of Deputies of British Jews, which claims to be the main voice of the Jewish community, yesterday held a rally in London's Trafalgar Square with this message from its president: "Israel needs and deserves your support now"… while their brethren carried on with their massacre in Gaza. On the Israeli Embassy's website ambassador Ron Prosor merrily vilifies Hamas while overlooking the fact that his own regime has raped the Holy Land for its own benefit for 60 years. He claims Israel left Gaza in 2005. "Every soldier was withdrawn. Every Jewish settlement was evacuated… Politicians staked their reputations on a courageous step towards peace. They hoped Gaza could provide a blueprint of Palestinian autonomy, a precursor to a Palestinian state." But Mr Prosor is either very forgetful or very deceitful. Israel, since 2005, has continued to occupy Gaza's airspace and coastal waters. It controls all ways in and out. It keeps Gazans under constant surveillance with drones, some of which can instantly destroy any target. Thus Israel has disabled Gaza’s civil society, crushed its economy and denied its people any semblance of freedom or prosperity. Prosor is correct in one thing: this is indeed the sort of blueprint Israelis wishes to impose on a future Palestinian state. Quite rightly the Palestinian people and the government they elected - Hamas –resist. Now Prosor seeks cover for his country’s war crimes by tying the international community into the slaughter, urging them to "stand up to the extremism that threatens us all. We must start the New Year in the spirit of Churchill. If we are divided, we all stand to lose; if we are together nothing is impossible." This cheap attempt to recruit the memory of Churchill to their dastardly schemes will anger many people here. Besides, the extremism that threatens us is generated by Israel. Everyone knows it… except those whom Israel has brainwashed. And the Embassy website still carries a PR 'briefing' specially put together by Tzipi Livni to prepare the West for the pre-planned onslaught on Gaza. It contains a lie or gross distortion on every line. The most ludicrous claim – and the most evil in terms of its consequences - is that Hamas violated the 6-month truce begun on 19 June. In fact Hamas kept to the truce and fired no rockets or mortar shells into Israel and restrained other Palestinian groups. Israel however failed to honour its pledge to lift the economic blockade. Moreover, on 4 November Israelis raided Gaza killing six Palestinians – an act deliberately designed to provoke a retaliation and provide the 'excuse’ for Israel to launch its long-planned, all-out war on the already seriously weakened Gaza population, who had nowhere to run. An impressive Palestinian body-count would no doubt buy votes in the run-up to Israeli elections. Or maybe the motive was a desire to turn an infamous jibe by their former army hero Rafael Eitan into reality. It was he who said that "when we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle". So it was a relief when Queen Rania Al Abdullah, UNICEF's Eminent Advocate for Children, injected common sense into the situation by issuing a statement last week to remind the world of the many human rights that have been trampled in Palestine. She emphasized two: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights (Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person (Article 3) "Over the past 41 years, the people of Gaza have been living under occupation," she said. "Over the past 18 months, they have been living under siege. And for the past 10 days, the people of Gaza have been subject to a cruel and continuous military attack. Either the declaration is not so universal, or the people of Gaza are not human beings, worthy of the same 'universal’ rights. "This is the message the world is sending out today. Not only is there a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, there is a crisis in our global humanity... This is the message I am sending world leaders: Our humanity is incomplete when children, irrespective of nationality, are victims of military operations." OUR HUMANITY IS INCOMPLETE… That is a message for every Western politician to wrestle with and something for Israel’s supporters to reflect on, now being a good time to disband and renounce their association with the criminal regime. The figures for Israel’s killing sprees are too awful to contemplate… In Lebanon 2006, 1,200 dead and 4,400 wounded; in Gaza, as I write, over 900 killed including 370 women and children, and 4,100 maimed and wounded. And let us not forget that in-between times since the start of the second intifada in 2000, Israel has killed another 4,800 Palestinians including 950 children. Nearly 7,000 lives brutally taken. That’s a disgraceful amount of blood for anyone to have on their hands in the 21st century. - ends - Stuart Littlewood 12 January 2009

Remember Gaza: One of History's Terror Bombing Victims

Stephen Lendman

History's terror bombings. This article reviews some of the most infamous:

-- Guernica - 1937;

-- the London Blitz - 1940 - 41;

-- Dresden - 1945;

-- Tokyo - 1945;

-- Hiroshima and Nagasaki - 1945;

-- North Korea - 1950 - 53;

-- Southeast Asia - 1964 - 73;

-- Iraq - 1991 to the present;

-- Serbia/Kosovo - 1999;

-- Afghanistan - 2001 to the present;

-- Lebanon - 1982 and 2006; and

-- Gaza - 2008 - 09.

Strategic bombing involves destroying an adversary's economic and military ability to wage war. It targets its war making capacity and related infrastructure. Terror bombing is another matter. It's against civilians to break their morale, cause panic, weaken an enemy's will to fight, and inflict mass casualties and punishment.

Geneva and other international laws forbid the targeting of civilians. The Laws of War: Laws and Customs of War on Land (1907 Hague IV Convention) states:

-- Article 25: "The attack or bombardment, by whatever means, of towns, villages, dwellings, or buildings which are undefended is prohibited."

-- Article 26: "The officer in command of an attacking force must, before commencing a bombardment, except in cases of assault, do all in his power to warn the authorities."

Article 27: "In sieges and bombardments, all necessary steps must be taken to spare, as far as possible, buildings dedicated to religion, art, science, or charitable purposes, historic monuments, hospitals, and places where the sick and wounded are collected, provided they are not being used at the time for military purposes." The besieged should visibly indicate these buildings or places and notify an adversary beforehand.

The Fourth Geneva Convention protects civilians in time of war. It prohibits violence of any type against them and requires treatment for the sick and wounded. In September 1938, a League of Nations unanimous resolution prohibited the:

"bombardment of cities, towns, villages, dwellings or buildings not in the immediate neighborhood of the operations of land forces....In cases where (legitimate targets) are so situated, (aircraft) must abstain from bombardment" if this action indiscriminately affects civilians.

The 1945 Nuremberg Principles prohibit "crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity." These include "inhumane acts committed against any civilian populations, before or during the war," including indiscriminate killing and "wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity."

The 1968 General Assembly Resolution on Human Rights prohibits launching attacks against civilian populations. Israel and America do it repeatedly - by land, sea and terror bombings.

Below is some relevant history.

Guernica, Spain – 1937

On April 26, 1937, German and Italian aircraft fire-bombed the small Basque town at the request of their fascist ally General Francisco Franco. It destroyed the town, killed an estimated 1650 people, and injured hundreds more. An eyewitness account said:

"The only things left standing were a church, a sacred tree, the symbol of the Basque people....There hadn't been a single anti-aircraft gun in the town. It (was) mainly a fire raid....A sight that haunted me for weeks was the charred bodies of several women and children huddled together in what had been the cellar of a house." It was a drill for larger-scale bombings to come, and civilian sites were as fair game as military ones.

The scene was repeated throughout the town. Guernica was in flames. It wasn't the first instance of bombarding civilians. Germans did it in WW I. Britain did it against Iraq in the 1920s with poison gas. Secretary for Air and War Winston Churchill's secret poison gas memo recommended it. In a May 12, 1919 departmental minute he wrote: "I do not understand the squeamishness about the use of gas....I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes."

In 1937, Hitler used explosives, fragmentation bombs and incendiaries in the two and a half hour raid "with a brutality that had never been seen before," according to Basque Autonomous Republic president Jose Antonio de Aguirre. "They scorched the city and fired machine guns at the women and children who fled in panic, resulting in numerous deaths."

The London Blitz - 1940 – 41

Following a German-staged August 31, 1939 attack, Hitler invaded Poland on September 1. Honoring their obligations to Poland, Britain and France demanded a withdrawal. None came, and on September 3, Prime Minister Chamberlain announced on-air that a state of war existed against Germany. WW II began.

On September 7, 1940, Hitler changed tactics. After initially targeting RAF airfields and radar stations in preparation for an invasion, he attacked London for 57 consecutive nights to demoralize the population and force Britain to come to terms. It began the "Blitz" against numerous UK cities. It lasted intensively until May 11. Hitler then focused on Russia, continued smaller-scale UK bombings, and by 1944 used pilotless V-1 flying ("Buzz) bombs and V-2 rockets.

Ernie Pyle was a noted war correspondent witness to the Battle of Britain and invasion of France. He described a 1940 London night raid as follows:

"It was a night when London was ringed and stabbed with fire. They came just after dark, and somehow you could sense from the quick, bitter firing of the guns that there was to be no monkey business this night."

"Shortly after the sirens wailed you could hear the Germans grinding overhead. In my room....you could feel the shake from the guns. You could hear (explosions) tearing buildings apart....You have all seen big fires, but I doubt if you have ever seen the whole horizon of a city lined with great fires - scores of them, perhaps hundreds....Every two minutes, a new wave of planes would be over...."

"Later on, I went out among the fires....London stabbed with great fires, shaken by explosions....all of it roofed over with a ceiling of pink that held bursting shells, balloons, flares and the grind of vicious engines. (It was) the most hateful, most beautiful single scene I have ever known."

London wasn't the only city attacked. In addition to military sites, so were Dublin, Manchester, Liverpool, Belfast, Birmingham, Sheffield, Plymouth, Nottingham, Southhampton, Bristol, Cardiff, Clydebank, Coventry, Greencock, Swansea, and Hull.

Before it ended, around 43,000 died in London, thousands more in other cities, hundreds of thousands were injured, and more than a million London houses were destroyed - yet the British public was more than ever committed to defeating Nazism.

Dresdan – 1945

As a German POW, author Kurt Vonnegut witnessed the effects of its fire-bombing and described the horror that Arthur ("Bomber) Harris inflicted:

"You guys burnt the place down, turned it into a single column of flame. More people died there in the firestorm, in that one big flame, than died in Hiroshima and Nagazaki combined."

Well, not quite as explained below. Nonetheless, on the evening of February 13 and early 14th morning, 1945, the raid was horrific by any measure. It was an orgy of barbarism against a defenseless German city and one of Europe's great cultural centers.

In less than 14 hours, it was ruined and as many as 100,000 Germans died, although later accounts suggested lower totals. Dresdan was also a hospital city for wounded soldiers. It was of no military importance, and, by February, Germany was soundly defeated. Attacking was morally indefensible, and unleashing a firestorm and slaughter of tens of thousands was one of WW II's great war crimes.

More than 700,000 phosphorous bombs were dropped on 1.2 million people. The temperature in city center reached 1600 degrees centigrade. Bodies became molten flesh. The slaughter was horrific, so why was it ordered? The February 4 - 11 Yalta Conference was approaching at which the Big Three (Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin) would divide the spoils of war. Churchill and Roosevelt wanted an edge as well as a way to "impress" Stalin. It wasn't gotten as bad weather delayed the original raid, yet Churchill ordered it anyway and declared it successful when over.

Morality wasn't an issue for the man who felt no "squeamishness" over using poison gas against Iraqis in the 1920s and recommended it in his secret memo. Nor in firebombing Hamburg in July 1943 - causing widespread destruction, killing an estimated 50,000, injuring many more, mostly civilians, and leaving around one million Germans homeless.

Tokyo – 1945

US air forces bombed Tokyo several times before using incendiaries. On April 18, 1942, four months after Pearl Harbor, Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle led the raid MGM made famous in its 1944 film, "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo." It did little damage. All 16 US aircraft were lost, 11 crewmen were either killed or captured, but it achieved its aim. It sent a propaganda message and proved Tokyo was vulnerable to more attacks.

The B-29 Superfortress made the difference. Introduced in May 1944, it was a long-range heavy bomber used first in a single plane high altitude reconnaissance mission over Tokyo in November. The first firebombing raid came on February 24, 1945 when 174 planes destroyed one square mile of the city. The major attack came days later on March 9 when 279 Superforts demolished 16 square city miles, killed an estimated 100,000 in the firestorm, injured many more, and left over one million homeless. Around five dozen other Japanese cities were also firebombed at a time most structures in the country were wooden and easily consumed. And for what?

Early in 1945, Japan sent America peace feelers, and, two days before the February Yalta Conference, Douglas MacArthur sent Roosevelt a 40-page summary of its terms. They were near-unconditional. The Japanese would accept an occupation, would cease hostilities, surrender its arms, remove all troops from occupied territories, submit to criminal war trials, and allow its industries to be regulated. In return, they asked only that their Emperor be retained in an honorable capacity.

Roosevelt spurned the offer. So did Truman. In March, Tokyo was firebombed, then in August atomic bombs were used for the first (and so far only) time against Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki – 1945

The week of August 6, 1945 was the worst in Japanese history. On August 8, Soviet Russia declared war, invaded Manchuria, and occupied it and the Sakhalin and Kuril Islands.

On August 6 and 9, president Truman authorized Hiroshima and Nagasaki to be attacked with atomic weapons. Records at the time estimated that by December the (mostly civilian) Hiroshima death toll was about 140,000. In Nagasaki, it was somewhat lower at 74,000, but those numbers rose in succeeding months and years. Radiation poisoning is permanent and enough of it kills or causes grievous illnesses, disfiguration, and birth defects to offspring. Decades later, they're still being felt.

The joint US, UK, Canada (1939 - 1946) Manhattan Project developed nuclear weapons with the first bomb test-detonated three weeks before August 6. Hiroshima was the initial target, a medium-sized city of industrial and military importance although that late in the war Japan was largely destroyed and in a state of collapse.

Nagasaki was a large southern Japanese sea port. Kokura was the primary target, but poor visibility on August 9 diverted the mission to the alternate choice. Howard Zinn recounted what happened in his August 2000 "Bombs of August" article.

Their principle justification was to save "lives because otherwise a planned US invasion of Japan would have been necessary, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands. Truman at one point (said) 'a half million lives,' and Churchill 'a million lives,' but these figures" had no basis in fact. "Even official projections" were at most around 46,000.

"In fact, the bombs that fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not forestall an invasion of Japan because (none) was necessary" or even likely. Japan was "on the verge of surrender" and top US military and government officials knew it so "dropping the bomb(s were) completely unnecessary."

Afterward, Joint Chiefs Chairman, William Leahy, called the atomic bomb "a barbarous weapon" and admitted that using them against Japan was unnecessary. After the US May 1945 Okinawa victory, Japan had enough of war. By June, six of its Supreme War Council members authorized Foreign Minister Togo to ask the Soviets to mediate its end. Hitler and Mussolini were dead. Germany surrendered in early May, and Japan offered near-unconditionally provided its Emperor was retained.

Truman spurned the offer to ensure the atomic bombings. "It seems that the United States government was determined to drop those bombs," according to Zinn. Why so?

He cites Gar Alperovitz "whose research on that question is unmatched." Based on Truman's papers, "the bomb was seen as a diplomatic weapon against the Soviet Union" - to let us dictate war-ending terms and as the "first major operation of the cold diplomatic" one that followed.

Horrifying as it was, incinerating hundreds of thousands late in the war was judged good politics plus a message to Soviet Russia and other potential adversaries that we were the toughest adversary around - and for doubters, visit the remains of Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Other aims as well lay behind the attacks then and later on - "There was tin, rubber, oil, corporate profit (and) imperial arrogance." Human rights and lives relate to none of these.

North Korea - 1950-53

East Asia and Korean expert Bruce Cumings wrote this about the Korean War:

"What was indelible about it was the extraordinary destructiveness of the United States air campaigns against North Korea, from the widespread and continuous use of firebombing (mainly with napalm), to threats to use nuclear and chemical weapons, and the destruction of huge North Korean dams in the final stages of war."

Post-WW II, neither North Korea, China or any other country threatened America. Creating adversaries was entirely bogus to advance our imperial agenda, and slaughtering millions of North Koreans was perfectly acceptable. Later millions of Southeast Asians. More on that below.

On June 25, 1950, after months of US-influenced Republic of Korean (ROK) provocations, North Korean forces invaded the South. James Petras wrote about "Provocation and Pretext for the US War Against Korea" and referred to America's "incomplete conquest of Asia" following WW II.

Revolutionary upheavals followed in China, Southeast Asia and Korea. "President Truman faced a profound dilemma - how to consolidate US imperial supremacy in the Pacific" when the public and "war wearied soldiers....demand(ed) demobilization and a return" to normalcy. Like Roosevelt in 1941, he chose the usual course, provoked a confrontation, and intervened in Korea's civil war.

In the run-up to the US invasion, "Truman, the US Congress, and mass media engaged in a massive propaganda campaign (like today to sell foreign wars) and purge of peace and anti-militarist organizations throughout US civil society. Tens of thousands" were affected but not like what we did to Koreans.

Until the 1953 armistice, North Korea was literally bombed to rubble with principle targets hit around Pyongyang (the capital), Chongyin, Wonsan, Hungnam and Rashin. Three to four million deaths resulted and unimaginable additional casualties, mostly innocent civilians.

Again Cumings:

"Korea (was) assumed to have been a limited war," but it bore strong resemblance to the air war against Japan in WW II, and it was directed by some of the same military leaders. The use of napalm against populated areas was horrific as one survivor described:

"It fell right on people. Men all around me burned. They lay rolling in the snow. Men I knew....begged me to shoot them...It was terrible. When the napalm had burned the skin to a crisp, it would be peeled back from the face, arms, legs....like fried potato chips."

Orders were given to burn towns and villages and create oceans of fires. General Matthew Ridgway ordered the air force to burn the capital, Pyongyang, to the ground. Other areas also in a scorched earth campaign few in America knew about, then or now.

MacArthur asked for commander's discretion to use nuclear weapons, lots of them, and if Truman hadn't intervened he would have. In posthumously published interviews, he said he had a plan to win the war in 10 days: "I would have dropped 30 or so atomic bombs strung across the neck of Manchuria," spread a radioactive cobalt belt from the Sea of Japan to the Yellow Sea, and deterred any invasion from the North. "My plan was a cinch," he claimed, and the Russians would have done nothing about it.

Cumings continues:

Even without nuclear weapons, "the air war leveled North Korea and killed millions of civilians. North Koreans tell you that for three years they faced a daily threat of being burned (alive) with napalm." There was no escape, and by "1952 just about everything in northern and central Korea had been completely leveled. What was left of the population survived in caves."

Bomb damage assessment showed that 18 of 22 major cities were half or more obliterated. The big industrial ones were from 75 - 100% destroyed. Villages were described as "low, wide mounds of violent ashes." This was Korea, "the limited war." Southeast Asia was next.

Southeast Asia - Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos - 1964 – 1973

Gabriel Kolko wrote the definitive history of the Vietnam war in his 1985 book: "Anatomy of a War: Vietnam, the United States, and the Modern Historical Experience." He saw America's invention as a predictable consequence of its ambition, strengths, weaknesses, and quest for world dominance.

Nonetheless, it miscalculated. Vietnamese tired of colonial rule so the communists in the North gained control. They won peasant loyalty by promising more equal land distribution. In addition, their top leaders were intellectuals. They planned well and were patient. The contrast in the South was stark. America installed the authoritarian Ngo Dinh Diem regime to build a strong army, crush opposition, and serve as a reliable ally.

From the 1950s, the US supplied military advisors, slowly escalated under Kennedy, and much more when Lyndon Johnson became president. After the bogus August 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident, war began to establish client regimes and military bases across East and South Asia, encircle China, and crush nationalist anti-imperial movements.

Operation Rolling Thunder began in February 1965 and lasted through October 1968. For 44 months, over one millions tons of ordnance were used in targeted and indiscriminate bombings. It aimed to destroy North Vietnam's economy and curtail help reaching National Liberation Front (Viet Cong) resistance in the South. Over the course of the war, eight million tons of bombs were dropped from 1965 - 73, threefold the tonnage in WW II and amounting to 300 tons for every Vietnamese man, woman, and child.

As in Korea, napalm was also used along with other incendiary devices. In addition, terror weapons like anti-personnel cluster bombs spewing thousands of metal pellets hitting everything in their path plus the indiscriminate planting of land mines that to this day take lives.

From 1961 to 1971, the dioxin-containing defoliant Agent Orange was used as well, mainly in the South, Cambodia and Laos. Millions of gallons were sprayed with devastating human consequences. It's one of the most toxic of known substances, a potent carcinogenic human immune system suppressant. It accumulates in adipose tissue and the liver, can alter living cell genetic structures, cause congenital disorders and birth defects, and contribute to diseases like cancer and type two diabetes.

These consequences were never considered nor the effects of expanded spraying to destroy vital food crops like rice. Also in 1970, US forces conducted Operation Tailwind using sarin nerve gas in Laos causing many deaths, including civilians. Admiral Thomas Moorer, former Joint Chiefs Chairman, confirmed the use on CNN in 1998. Then under Pentagon pressure, CNN retracted the report, fired its award-winning journalist Peter Arnett and co-producers April Oliver and Jack Smith because they refused to disavow it.

The Indochinese war engulfed Cambodia and Laos as well. From March 1969 through May 1970, Nixon ordered Cambodia secretly bombed (without consulting Congress) to destroy North Vietnam and Viet Cong sanctuaries. Around 3500 sorties caused 600,000 deaths, mostly civilians, and helped the marginal Khmer Rouge rise to power in 1975. Neutral Cambodia was bombed with over 500,000 tons of ordnance until August 1973. Over 25,000 US ground forces also invaded. They destroyed dozens of towns, villages and hamlets, and killed many thousands more, mostly peasants guilty of living in the wrong country at the wrong time.

A second 1962 Geneva Accord recognized Laos as a neutral country and banned the presence of foreign military personnel. The reality on the ground was quite different. From 1964 - 1973, America dropped over two million tons of ordnance during 580,000 bombing sorties - the equivalent of a planeload of bombs every eight minutes, round-the-clock for nine years. The aim was to destroy North Vietnamese supply lines along the Ho Chi Minh Trail and target the Pathet Lao government and North Vietnamese Army in control of the country's eastern provinces.

Secret bombings were again the strategy. Terror weapons were used, including napalm, white phosphorous and cluster bombs - leaving millions of unexploded bomblets buried in fields, roads, forests, villages, and rivers. Laos had a population of about 6.5 million. About one-third of it was either killed, injured, or displaced. Overall, Southeast Asia's wars killed about three to four million, inflicted vast amounts of destruction, and caused incalculable human suffering felt to this day.

Iraq - Since 1991

Four days after Saddam entered Kuwait (on August 2, 1990), Operation Desert Shield was launched. US-demanded UN sanctions were imposed. A large American troop deployment began along with a Kuwait-funded PR campaign to win public support for Operation Desert Storm. It began on January 17, 1991.

By any standard, it was horrendous and criminal. Before it ended six weeks later (on February 28), US forces committed grievous war crime violations of the Hague and Geneva Conventions, UN Charter, Nuremberg Principles, and US Army Field Manual 27-10. Among them were gratuitous mass slaughter and destruction of essential to life facilities, including:

-- power plants;

-- dams;

-- water purification facilities;

-- sewage treatment and disposal systems;

-- telephone and other communications;

-- hospitals;

-- mosques;

-- up to 20,000 homes, apartments and other dwellings;

-- irrigation sites;

-- food processing, storage and distribution facilities;

-- hotels and retail establishments;

-- transportation infrastructure;

-- oil wells, pipelines, refineries and storage tanks;

-- chemical plants;

-- factories and other commercial operations;

-- government buildings;

-- schools;

-- historical sites; and

-- civilian shelters in a willful targeting of innocent men, women and children.

Virtually everything needed for normal functioning was destroyed or heavily damaged - and more. Tens of thousands were gratuitously killed, as many as 200,000 or more by independent estimates.

Twelve years of genocidal sanctions followed that killed as many as 1.7 million, two-thirds of them children under age five. From the 2003 "shock and awe" blitzkrieg through 2007, as many as 1.5 - 2.0 million more lives were lost, most of them young children. By any standard since 1991, Washington conducted a 17-year campaign of genocide to slaughter innocent Iraqis, erase the "cradle of civilization," turn the country into a free market paradise, and make serfs of its people - as part of a greater aim for regional and global dominance and control of world resources and markets.

Human rights and lives are non-starters. So is the rule of law. War continues to rage. Permanent occupation is planned. The human tragedy continues with no foreseeable end.

Serbia-Kosovo – 1999

In June 1999, playwright Harold Pinter told a UK anti-war demonstration that NATO's Yugoslavia bombing made him ashamed to be British:

"Little did we think two years ago that we had elected a government which would take a leading role in what is essentially a criminal act, showing total contempt for the United Nations and international law." He called cutting children to pieces from 15,000 feet "barbaric" and despicably hypocritical.

"Let us face the truth - neither Clinton nor Blair gives a damn about the Kosovar Albanians. This action has been yet another blatant and brutal assertion of US power using NATO as its missile. It set out to consolidate one thing - American domination of Europe. This must be recognised and it must be resisted." This barbarism mustn't be allowed to stand.

Diana Johnstone explained the conflict in her superb 2002 book, "Fools' Crusade." Edward Herman reviewed it and wrote this:

"Military interventions on supposedly humanitarian grounds have become an established feature of the post-Cold War global order. Since September 11, this form of militarism has taken on new and unpredictable proportions." Diana Johnstone did an admirable job analyzing NATO's intervention. Muslims were portrayed as "defenseless victims," Serbs as "genocidal monsters" to prepare the ground for America and NATO to dominate the Balkans.

Herman: Johnstone explained "that the 'Kosovo war' was in reality the model for future destruction of countries seen as potential threats to the hegemony of an 'international community' currently being redefined to exclude or marginalize all but those who conform to the interests of the United States."

Throughout the 1990s, conflict and civil wars divided Yugoslavia into separate states culminating with the US-NATO 1999 bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia - Serbia-Kosovo. From March 24 - June 10, around 600 aircraft flew about 3000 sorties dropping thousands of tons of ordnance plus hundreds of ground-launched cruise missiles. To that time, the ferocity of the attack was unprecedented given the destructiveness of modern weapons and technology.

Nearly everything was struck causing massive destruction and disruption: known or suspected military sites and targets; power plants; factories; transportation; telecommunications facilities; vital infrastructure including roads, bridges and rail lines; fuel depots; schools; a TV station; the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade; hospitals; government offices; churches; historical landmarks; and more in cities and villages throughout the country.

An estimated $100 billion in damage was inflicted. A humanitarian disaster resulted. Environmental contamination was extensive. Large numbers were killed, injured or displaced. Two million people lost their livelihoods. Many their homes and communities and for most their futures from what America planned and implemented jointly with NATO.

Michel Chossudovsky explained earlier in a February 2008 article that:

"The Balkans constitute the gateway to Eurasia. The 1999 invasion establishes a permanent US Military presence (at Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo) in Southern Europe, which serves the broader US led war. Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq: these three war theaters were waged on humanitarian grounds. (In each case, utterly bogus.) Without exception, in all three countries, US military bases were established" as part of America's global imperial agenda.

The US, NATO and international community support the organized crime-connected KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army) government and its leader Hashim Thaci. Kosovo as it was no longer exists. Afghanistan and Iraq were next.

Afghanistan – 2001

The 9/11 attack was the pretext for bombing, invading and occupying Afghanistan, an operation planned months in advance the way Michel Chossudovsky explained in his superb book, "America's War on Terrorism." Most people don't "realize that a large scale theater war is never planned and executed in a matter of weeks."

The Taliban and bin Laden became fictitious "outside enem(ies)" without which no "war on terrorism" could exist or imperial wars fought. Afghanistan was the first target. It began on October 7, 2001, four weeks after 9/11, and ended five weeks later on November 12. Once again, conflict ravaged Afghanistan, a country more abused, long-suffering, and less helped than most any in living memory, according to John Pilger. Today it's occupied under a US-installed puppet. Its suffering continues unabated and may intensify under Obama if he follows through on his promise to add more troops for a larger combat role.

Chossudovsky again:

US imperialism aims to "recoloniz(e)...a vast region extending from the Balkans into Central Asia" - the "center of world power," according to Zbigniew Brzezinski extending from German, Poland and the Balkans in the East through Russia and China in the Pacific, including the Middle East and Indian subcontinent. It's an area with 75% of the world's population, most of its resources and physical wealth, three-fourths of its oil and gas, and the grandest of grand prizes for whoever controls it.

Chossudovsky:

...."America's war machine purports to enlarge America's economic sphere of influence" - through its newly established military bases "in Iraq, Afghanistan (and) in several of the former Soviet republics on China's Western frontier." The South China Sea as well.
"War and Globalization go hand in hand. Militarization supports the conquest of new economic frontiers and the worldwide imposition of free-market" capitalism. Afghanistan became its victim. Thousands were killed and as many as six million displaced. Most now have returned but to what - deplorable conditions of no future, despair, no shelter, work, schools, medical care, clean water, security, and for many hunger, disease and early deaths.

Like Serbia-Kosovo and Iraq, Afghanistan is another country terror-bombed to oblivion to impose free-market capitalism everywhere. Conflicts will continue. World peace is an illusion, nowhere more than in the Middle East.

Lebanon - 1982 and 2006

Israel and Lebanon have had a troubled history through no fault of the Lebanese. In 1968, the IDF conducted cross-border terror raids, including attacking the Beirut airport and destroying 13 commercial planes, claiming it was in retaliation for an attack by Lebanese-trained Palestinians targeting an Israeli airliner in Athens.

Further IDF incursions continued in the 1970s against the PLO, including the "Litani River Operation." It was launched in March 1978 to establish a southern occupation zone with Christian South Lebanon Army (SLA) soldiers in place to secure it once Israeli forces withdrew weeks later.

In June 1982, "Operation Peace of the Galilee" (called the First Lebanon War) was launched against the Palestinian leadership. The IDF invaded after claiming PLO involvement in an assassination attempt on its UK ambassador. The charge was bogus, yet Israel exploited it to attack and remain in the country until it withdrew in May 2000.

In the interim, Israeli forces occupied southern Lebanon, attacked the PLO, drove out the leadership to Tunis, slaughtered around 18,000 mostly non-combatant Lebanese and Palestinians, and authorized a Phalange militia force to massacre about 3000 men, women and children in southern Beirut Sabra and Shitila camps.

In June 2006, Palestinians responded to continued Israeli provocations by striking an IDF military post, killing two soldiers, injuring several others and capturing a third. Events escalated when Hezbollah resistance fighters captured two IDF soldiers who illegally crossed the UN-monitored "blue line" - a near-daily Israeli routine since it withdrew from South Lebanon in May 2000.

Israel responded with overwhelming force by launching "Operation Summer Rain" against Gaza and invading South Lebanon in what became known as the Second Lebanon War. It lasted 33 days against Hezbollah, the Lebanese people, and the entire country, including northern Christian areas.

It was long-planned terror against civilian, commercial, and infrastructure targets - bridges; roads; power plants; the three largest cities of Beirut, Tyre and Sidon; Beirut airport; factories; warehouses; civil defense centers; schools; radio and TV stations; mosques; churches; hospitals; ambulances; and anything else in the path of a scorched-earth blitzkrieg killing over 1300, injuring many more, displacing one million people (or one-forth of the population), and causing billions of dollars in damage.

Both assaults were planned months in advance and closely coordinated with Washington like always. Terror weapons were also used, including blanketing entire towns with cluster bombs. Others reported were:

-- depleted uranium (DU) munitions spreading toxic radiation;

-- banned white phosphorous bombs and shells (known as Willy Pete) that burn flesh to the bone and can't be extinguished by water; and

-- reportedly a thermobaric bomb able to penetrate buildings, underground shelters and tunnels, and able to create blast pressure enough to suck all oxygen from spaces and human lungs in the vicinity.

Hezbollah prevailed, nonetheless. A post-conflict analysis showed its commanders were well prepared, and successfully penetrated Israel's strategic and tactical decision-making cycle, including its intelligence, military and political operations. As a result, their fighters held their own, killed over 100 IDF soldiers, retained their military capability, and effectively embarrassed the Israeli government - at a very stiff cost to Lebanon and a million or more of its people.

Gaza - 2008 – 09

For Israel, attacking Palestinians is a long-standing practice, beginning with its 1948 "War of Independence." It involved:

-- the wholesale massacre and displacement of 800,000 Palestinians;

-- destroying their homes, 531 villages and crops, and their futures;

-- 11 urban neighborhoods in Tel-Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem and elsewhere;

-- mass incidents of rape and other atrocities; and

-- the myth that Palestinians left voluntarily to avoid being harmed by invading Arab armies.

The State of Israel was created on 78% of historic Palestine. Palestinians retained the remainder in Gaza and the West Bank. On June 5, 1967, Israel launched its so-called "Six Day War" against Egypt, Jordan and Syria - a long-planned preemptive act masquerading as self-defense. When it ended, Israel controlled the remainder of Palestine.

It's now occupied the Territories militarily for over 41 years - the longest continuous illegal occupation anywhere under which Palestinians lost all freedom; are collectively punished; are losing their land; are being cantonized in the West Bank; and since December, assaulted by Israel's most savage aggression since the "Six Day War."

"Operation Cast Lead" terror bombings began on December 27 and have continued daily round the clock. The death and injury toll exceeds 5000 as of January 12, the great majority of whom are civilian men, women and children. Portions of Gaza have been reoccupied. Israel is pursuing genocide. Gaza is completely sealed off. It's now a free-fire zone on the ground and from repeated air attacks. Tanks, missiles, bombs, terror weapons, and the latest technology is matched against crude rockets, home-made mortars, hand-held automatic weapons, and the redoubtable spirit of brave Gazan freedom fighters unjustly called "terrorists." Civilians, including women and children, are being willfully slaughtered and comprise the vast majority of killed and wounded.

On January 6, IDF tank shelling killed 42 Palestinians and wounded dozens more taking shelter in an UNRWA school. False reports claimed "militants" were inside and fired first. UN officials denied it and provided Israeli authorities with GPS coordinates (in advance) and left no doubt this was a school used as temporary shelter for civilians fleeing the fighting. There were no fighters inside.

On January 9, a disturbing UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) report read as follows:

"From 3 to 7 January, the IDF prevented medical teams from entering the area to evacuate the wounded. In one of the gravest incidents....on 4 January Israeli foot-soldiers (herded about) 110 Palestinian (civilians) into a single-residence house in Zaytoun (half of whom were children), warning them to stay indoors."

"Twenty-four hours later, Israeli forces shelled the home repeatedly, killing approximately thirty. Those who survived and were able, walked two kilometers to Salah Din road before being transported to the hospital in civilian vehicles."

On January 9, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA) suspended its relief operations after Israel attacked its convoys and installations. Its statement read:

"On numerous occasions in recent days, humanitarian convoys have come under Israeli fire even though their safe passage through clearly designated routes at specifically agreed times, had been confirmed by the Israeli liaison office....the nature, severity and frequency of these incidents" necessitated the suspension of operations.

The International Committee of the Red Cross faces similar problems. ICRC's Geneva-based operations director, Pierre Kraehenbuehl, said: "There is no doubt in my mind that we are dealing with a full-blown and major crisis in humanitarian terms."

UNWRA's Gaza head, John Ging, expressed similar sentiments and added: "There is nowhere safe in Gaza. Everyone here is terrorized and traumatized." Israel and the world community are dismissive, unresponsive, and arrogant. Mass slaughter and destruction are green-lighted to continue - international human rights laws be damned.

These and other incidents are grievous war crimes. Everything and everyone is attacked as the IDF connects the entire population to Hamas - long targeted since democratically winning a decisive January 2006 PLC majority. It's been severely punished ever since. Gaza was politically separated from the West Bank, and since June 2007 isolated under a medieval siege. It's now intensified as the Territory is engulfed in war, in a state of collapse, and a grave humanitarian crisis approaches a calamity of biblical proportions.

On January 8, the Security Council passed a toothless resolution. SC Res. 1860:

-- "stresses the urgency of and calls for an immediate, durable and fully respected ceasefire, leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza;"

-- other provisions call for humanitarian assistance; "initiatives aimed at creating and opening humanitarian corridors;" international efforts to alleviate the situation and "prevent illicit trafficking in arms and ammunition; intra-Palestinian reconciliation;" support for Egypt's mediation efforts; the Quartet's "consideration;" and

-- the SC condemns "all violence and hostilities directed against civilians and all acts of terrorism."

No Israeli condemnation was included; its wanton targeted slaughter; its international law violations; its blitzkrieg against men, women and children; its military juggernaut against vulnerable civilians; the thousands of killed and wounded; Gazans for 18 months under siege; the calamitous humanitarian crisis; no firm timelines for attacks to halt; the siege to end; action threats if they don't; no ordering of immediate border openings and emergency airdrops until they do; no teeth in a worthless resolution to let mass slaughter continue with impunity.

No respect either for the UN Charter's mandate "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which (dozens of times) in our lifetime (have) brought untold sorrow to mankind; to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights;" respect for justice and international law; "to promote social progress; practice tolerance; maintain international peace and security;" and advance the rights of all peoples everywhere.

Fourteen nations voted aye. One abstained, America.
Israel ignored it and maintained round-the-clock terror raids. Prime Minister Olmert called it "unworkable" and his office said that Israel "has never agreed to let an external body decide its right to protect the security of its citizens."

Israel disdains the rule of law, has a long history of ignoring UN resolutions, and believes it can do anything it pleases, law or no law.

World and Arab leaders don't object and remain largely dismissive as casualties keep mounting. Israel is strangling Gaza. Foreign journalists can't enter in violation of an Israeli Supreme Court ruling.

On January 6, editor Ramzy Baroud reported that his PalestineChronicle.com site was "hacked today by an Israeli group (called) "Blue Dolphin." It's because of his important work providing vital information about the conflict and Occupied Palestine. Israel and Washington ruthlessly suppress truths. After a heroic effort, Baroud was again operating in less than 24 hours.

Gazan Sameh Habeeb is a heroic blogger despite threats on his life. On January 8 he wrote:

"I got three calls from anonymous persons (saying) stop blogging or I would be killed. Yet I would keep on this track. Some of you do wonder how I send news in such conditions. I really suffer a lot to send you this update due to a lack of power (with) shells rain(ing) down and drones hover(ing) over me. I will keep this up."

Not if Washington can help it. By supplying Israel with weapons, munitions and defense technology, it violates the 1976 Arms Export Control Act. It requires recipient governments to restrict their use to legitimate defense. Israel uses them for aggressive wars and its illegal occupation. Exports are prohibited to countries that "contribute to an arms race, aid in the development of weapons of mass destruction, support international terrorism, increase the possibility of outbreak or escalation of conflict, or prejudice the development of bilateral or multilateral arms control or nonproliferation agreements or other arrangements."

The 1994 Human Rights and Security Assistance Act affirms "human rights as principal goal of foreign policy." It also states that "no security assistance may be provided to any country the government of which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights." Israel has been a serial violator for six decades, yet receives more aid than all other countries combined and uses it for aggressive wars, military oppression, colonial expansion, and grievous human rights violations.

On January 6 (in complicity with Israel and Washington), Haaretz reported that Egypt is barring doctors (except for two Norweigians) from entering through Sinai to provide help. Mubarack's "closure (is) seen by some as abetting Israel's siege" and partnering in its war crimes. Obstetrician Jemilah Mahmood expressed her frustration: "Can you imagine how many women are hurt and how few doctors there are? All of us are sitting at the border" and can't get in to help.

Reports are that Gaza hospitals are in chaos - with little power, few supplies, a patient overload, and air and ground assaults all around. Nonetheless, doctors work day and night to save lives, yet often they fail. Hundreds of patients are clinically dead with no hope of saving them. The toll keeps mounting. The frustration is unbearable, and at Shifa Hospital 90% of the patients are civilians, many with the ghastliest of wounds.

Disturbing reports claim Israeli use of terror weapons. Tehran Press TV said medics found DU traces in wounded Gazans following the ground invasion. The TimesOnline.UK headlined: "Israel rains fire on Gaza with phosphorous shells" - a weapon that causes horrific burns on human skin and is illegal except for smokescreens. "Tell-tale shells could be seen spreading tentacles of thick white smoke to cover the troops' advance. (They) blind the enemy (but) anyone caught beneath them" gets severely burned. Using this type weapon in tightly concentrated Gaza assures some or perhaps many are vulnerable.

Former British major and military expert calls white phosphorous a terror weapon and if "deliberately fired at a crowd of people (should) end (someone) up in the Hague."

Norwegian Dr. Mads Gilbert is a member of its Gaza triage medical team. He told Press TV about "clear evidence that the Israelis are using new type very high explosive weapons called Dense Inert Metal Explosive (DIME) that are made out of a tungsten alloy."
They have enormous explosive power, and "humans who are hit by (them are) cut to pieces. (They were) first used in Lebanon (and Gaza) in 2006....On the long term, these weapons will have a cancer effect on those who survive....So they kill and those who survive risk having cancer."

Gilbert accused Israel of violating international law. His account was horrifying;

-- a "ten-year old boy (with) his whole chest filled with (bomb) fragments;

-- on his lap was another person's leg that had been cut off;

-- we resuscitated him and did everything we could do to save his life but he died between our hands." The "common people" of Palestine "are paying the price for the Israeli bombardments...."

The humanitarian crisis is horrific; 80% or more of Gazans are impoverished; half of them are under 15; "now they don't have food....electricity; it's cold, they don't have warmth and in addition...they are killed; this must be stopped."

"Almost all of the patients we have received have these severe amputations." Terror weapons caused them - burns, fragment injuries and most with their limbs cut off.

These are horrific crimes of war and against humanity against 1.5 million Gazans. Global mass outrage keeps protesting. World leaders are dismissive and unconcerned. Washington spurns efforts to stop the carnage. Israel is free to continue terror bombing from the air and use ground assaults against innocent civilians called "terrorists."

Israeli Radio reported Monday morning (January 12) that the IDF intensified its operation to a "third stage" and pushed deeper into more Gaza areas. More reserve units have been activated. Heavy bombing and shelling continues. White phosphorous incendiaries are being used on civilian neighborhoods and the Jebaliya refugee camp. White smoke and fires are seen. Severe burns are being reported.

One leader expressed outrage against Israel's "holocaust. Genocidal" he called it. On January 7, the BBC reported that "Venezuela ordered the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador (Shlomo Cohen) to Caracas (and a number of diplomatic staff with him) in protest at Israel's offensive in" Gaza.

Chavez strongly condemned Israel and called the IDF "cowardly" (for) attacking worn-out, innocent people, while they claim that they are defending their people....I call on the world to stop this madness....The president of Israel....should be taken to the International Criminal Court together with the president of the United States." Venezuela's foreign ministry said Israel's campaign constituted "flagrant violations of international law (and amounted to) state terrorism." Ecuador's Raphael Correa and Cuba's government sent similar messages. Other world leaders stay silent. World outrage keeps raging in spite of them.

Remember Gaza - immortalized as one of history's terror-bombing victims. World outrage demands an end to this and the prosecution of its perpetrators. We stand together in solidarity. Today we're all Gazans. We're all Palestinians.

Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached
at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

Also listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Monday through Friday at 10AM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on world and national issues. All programs are archived for easy listening.

:: Article nr. 50728 sent on 12-jan-2008 12:50 ECT
www.uruknet.info?p=50728

In Gaza, a firing squad put Hippocrates up against a wall, aimed and fired. The absurd declarations of an Israeli secret services' spokesman, according to which the army was given the green light in firing at ambulances because they allegedly carried terrorists, is an illustration of the value that Israel assigns to human life these days – the lives of their enemies, that is. It's worth revisiting what's stated in the Hippocratic Oath, which every doctor swears upon before starting to practice the profession.

The following passages are especially worthy of note: "I solemnly pledge myself to consecrate my life to the service of humanity. I will practice my profession with conscience and dignity. The health and life of my patient will be my first consideration. I will cure all patients with the same diligence and commitment. I will not permit considerations of religion, nationality, race, party politics, or social standing to intervene between my duty and my patient."

Seven doctors and voluntary nurses have been killed from the start of the bombing campaign, and about ten ambulances were shot at by the Israeli artillery. The survivors are shaking with fear, but refuse to take a step back. The crimson flashes of the ambulances are the only bursts of light in the dark streets of Gaza, bar the flashes that precede an explosion. Regarding these crimes, the last report comes from Pierre Wettach, chief of the Red Cross in Gaza. His ambulances had access to the spot of a massacre, in Zaiton, East of Gaza City, only 24 hours after the Israeli attack.

The rescue-workers state they found themselves faced by a blood-curdling scenario. "In one of the houses four small children were found near the body of their dead mother. They were too weak to stand on their feet. We also found an adult survivor, and he too was also too weak to stand up. About 12 corpses were found lying on the mattresses." The witnesses to this umpteenth massacre describe how the Israeli soldiers, after getting into the neighbourhood, gathered the numerous members of the Al Samouni family in one building and then proceeded to repeatedly bomb it. My ISM partners and I have been driving around in the Half Red Moon ambulances for days, suffering many attacks and losing a dear friend, Arafa, struck by a howitzer shot from a cannon. A further three paramedics, all friends, are presently inpatients at the hospitals they worked in until a few days ago. Our duty on the ambulances is to pick up the injured, not carry guerrilla fighters. When we find a man lying in the street in a pool of his own blood, we don't have the time to check his papers or ask him whether he roots for Hamas or Fatah. Most seriously injured can't talk, much like the dead. A few days ago, while picking up a badly wounded patient, another man with light injuries tried to hop onto the ambulance. We pushed him out, just to make it clear to whoever's watching from up above that we don't serve as a taxi to usher members of the resistance around. We only take on the most fatally wounded – of which there's always a plentiful supply, thanks to Israel.

Last night at Al Qudas hospital in Gaza City, 17-year-old Miriam was carried in, with full-blown labour pains. Her father and sister-in-law, both dead, had passed through the hospital in the morning, both victims of indiscriminate bombing. Miriam gave birth to a gorgeous baby during the night, not aware of the fact that while she lay in the delivery room, her young husband had arrived in the morgue one floor below her.

In the end, even the United Nations realised that here in Gaza, we're all in the same boat, all moving targets for the snipers. The death toll is now at 789 dead, 3,300 wounded (410 in critical conditions), 230 children killed and countless missing. The death toll on the Israeli side has thankfully stopped at 4. John Ging, chief of UNRWA (UN agency for the rights of Palestinian Refugees) has stated that the UN announced they shall suspend their humanitarian activities in the Gaza Strip. I bumped into Ging in the Ramattan press office and saw him shake his finger with disdain at Israel before the cameras. The UN stopped its work in Gaza after two of its operators were killed yesterday, ironically during the three-hour truce that Israel had announced and as usual, had failed to comply with. "The civilians in Gaza have three hours a day at their disposal in which to survive, the Israeli soldiers have the remaining 21 in which to try and exterminate them", I heard Ging state two steps away from me.

Yasmine, the wife of one of the many journalists waiting in line at the Erez pass, wrote to me from Jerusalem. Israel won't grant these journalists a pass to let them in and film or describe the immense unnatural catastrophe that has befallen us in the last thirteen days. These were her words: " The day before yesterday I went to have a look at Gaza from the outside. The world's journalists are all huddled on a small sandy hill a few km from the border. Innumerable cameras are pointed towards us. Planes circle us overhead – you can hear them but you can't see them. They seem like illusions, like something in your head until you see the black smoke rising from the horizon, in Gaza. The hill has also become a tourist site for the Israelis in the area. With their large binoculars and cameras, they come and watch the bombings live."

While I write this piece of correspondence in a mad rush, a bomb is dropped onto the building next to the one I'm in now. The windowpanes shake, my ears ache, I look out the window and see that the building gathering the major Arabic media agencies has been struck. It's one of Gaza City's tallest buildings, the Al Jaawhara building. A camera crew is permanently stationed on the roof, I can now see them all bending around on the ground, waving their arms and asking for help as they're covered by a black cloud of smoke.

Paramedics and journalists, the most heroic occupations in this corner of the world. At the Al Shifa hospital yesterday I paid Tamim a visit – he's a journalist who survived an air raid. He explained how he thinks that Israel is adopting the same identical terrorist techniques as Al-Qaeda, bombing a building, waiting for the journalists and ambulances to arrive and then dropping another bomb to finish the latter two off as well. In his view that's why there've been so many casualties among the journalists and paramedics. As he said this, the nurses around his bed all nodded in agreement. Tamim smilingly showed me his two stubs for legs. He was happy he was still around to tell the story, while his colleague, Mohammed, had died with a camera in his hand when the second explosion had proved fatal. In the meantime I asked about the bomb that was just dropped on the building next door, where two journalists, both Palestinian, one from Libyan TV and the other from Dubai TV, were injured. This is a harsh new reminder that this massacre must in no way be described or recorded. All that's left for me to hope is that among the Israeli military summit no one reads Il Manifesto, or habitually visits my blog.

Stay human

Vittorio Arrigoni

Rashid Khalidi - What you don't know about Gaza

Posted: 09 Jan 2009 10:10 AM CST

Holocaust Denied: Lying Silence of Those Who Know

'The asymmetry of conquest and terror is clear.' (AFP)

By John Pilger "When the truth is replaced by silence," the Soviet dissident Yevgeny Yevtushenko said, "the silence is a lie." It may appear the silence is broken on Gaza. The cocoons of murdered children, wrapped in green, together with boxes containing their dismembered parents and the cries of grief and rage of everyone in that death camp by the sea, can be viewed on al-Jazeera and YouTube, even glimpsed on the BBC. But Russia's incorrigible poet was not referring to the ephemeral we call news; he was asking why those who knew the why never spoke it and so denied it. Among the Anglo-American intelligentsia, this is especially striking. It is they who hold the keys to the great storehouses of knowledge: the historiographies and archives that lead us to the why.   They know that the horror now raining on Gaza has little to do with Hamas or, absurdly, "Israel's right to exist." They know the opposite to be true: that Palestine's right to exist was canceled 61 years ago and the expulsion and, if necessary, extinction of the indigenous people was planned and executed by the founders of Israel. They know, for example, that the infamous "Plan D" resulted in the murderous depopulation of 369 Palestinian towns and villages by the Haganah (Jewish army) and that massacre upon massacre of Palestinian civilians in such places as Deir Yassin, al-Dawayima, Eilaboun, Jish, Ramle and Lydda are referred to in official records as "ethnic cleansing." Arriving at a scene of this carnage, David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, was asked by a general, Yigal Allon, "What shall we do with the Arabs?" Ben-Gurion, reported the Israeli historian Benny Morris, "made a dismissive, energetic gesture with his hand and said, 'Expel them'. The order to expel an entire population "without attention to age" was signed by Yitzhak Rabin, a future prime minister promoted by the world's most efficient propaganda as a peacemaker. The terrible irony of this was addressed only in passing, such as when the Mapan Party co-leader Meir Ya'ari noted "how easily" Israel's leaders spoke of how it was "possible and permissible to take women, children and old men and to fill the roads with them because such is the imperative of strategy ... who remembers who used this means against our people during the [Second World] war ... we are appalled."   Every subsequent "war" Israel has waged has had the same objective: the expulsion of the native people and the theft of more and more land. The lie of David and Goliath, of perennial victim, reached its apogee in 1967 when the propaganda became a righteous fury that claimed the Arab states had struck first. Since then, mostly Jewish truth-tellers such as Avi Schlaim, Noam Chomsky, the late Tanya Reinhart, Neve Gordon, Tom Segev, Yuri Avnery, Ilan Pappe and Norman Finklestein have dispatched this and other myths and revealed a state shorn of the humane traditions of Judaism, whose unrelenting militarism is the sum of an expansionist, lawless and racist ideology called zionism. "It seems," wrote the Israeli historian Ilan Pappe on 2 January, "that even the most horrendous crimes, such as the genocide in Gaza, are treated as desperate events, unconnected to anything that happened in the past and not associated with any ideology or system ... Very much as the apartheid ideology explained the oppressive policies of the South African government, this ideology - in its most consensual and simplistic variety - has allowed all the Israeli governments in the past and the present to dehumanize the Palestinians wherever they are and strive to destroy them. The means altered from period to period, from location to location, as did the narrative covering up these atrocities. But there is a clear pattern [of genocide]."   In Gaza, the enforced starvation and denial of humanitarian aid, the piracy of life-giving resources such as fuel and water, the denial of medicines and treatment, the systematic destruction of infrastructure and the killing and maiming of the civilian population, 50 per cent of whom are children, meet the international standard of the Genocide Convention. "Is it an irresponsible overstatement," asked Richard Falk, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and international law authority at Princeton University, "to associate the treatment of Palestinians with this criminalized Nazi record of collective atrocity? I think not."   In describing a "holocaust-in-the making," Falk was alluding to the Nazis' establishment of Jewish ghettos in Poland. For one month in 1943, the captive Polish Jews led by Mordechaj Anielewiz fought off the German army and the SS, but their resistance was finally crushed and the Nazis exacted their final revenge. Falk is also a Jew. Today's holocaust-in-the-making, which began with Ben-Gurion's Plan D, is in its final stages. The difference today is that it is a joint US-Israeli project. The F-16 jet fighters, the 250-pound "smart" GBU-39 bombs supplied on the eve of the attack on Gaza, having been approved by a Congress dominated by the Democratic Party, plus the annual $2.4 billion in war-making "aid," give Washington de facto control. It beggars belief that President-elect Obama was not informed. Outspoken on Russia's war in Georgia and the terrorism in Mumbai, Obama's silence on Palestine marks his approval, which is to be expected, given his obsequiousness to the Tel Aviv regime and its lobbyists during the presidential campaign and his appointment of Zionists as his secretary of state, chief of staff and principal Middle East advisers. When Aretha Franklin sings "Think," her wonderful 1960s anthem to freedom, at Obama's inauguration on 21 January, I trust someone with the brave heart of Muntadar al-Zaidi, the shoe-thrower, will shout: "Gaza!"   The asymmetry of conquest and terror is clear. Plan D is now "Operation Cast Lead," which is the unfinished "Operation Justified Vengeance." The latter was launched by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2001 when, with Bush's approval, he used F-16s against Palestinian towns and villages for the first time. In the same year, the authoritative Jane's Foreign Report disclosed that the Blair government had given Israel the "green light" to attack the West Bank after it was shown Israel's secret designs for a bloodbath. It was typical of New Labor Party's enduring, cringing complicity in Palestine's agony. However, the 2001 Israeli plan, reported Jane's, needed the "trigger" of a suicide bombing which would cause "numerous deaths and injuries [because] the 'revenge' factor is crucial." This would "motivate Israeli soldiers to demolish the Palestinians." What alarmed Sharon and the author of the plan, General Shaul Mofaz, the Israeli Chief of Staff, was a secret agreement between Yasser Arafat and Hamas to ban suicide attacks. On 23 November, 2001, Israeli agents assassinated the Hamas leader, Mahmud Abu Hunud, and got their "trigger"; the suicide attacks resumed in response to his killing.   Something uncannily similar happened on 5 November last, when Israeli special forces attacked Gaza, killing six people. Once again, they got their propaganda "trigger." A ceasefire initiated and sustained by the Hamas government - which had imprisoned its violators - was shattered by the Israeli attack and homemade rockets were fired into what used to be Palestine before its Arab occupants were "cleansed." Then on 23 December, Hamas offered to renew the ceasefire, but Israel's charade was such that its all-out assault on Gaza had been planned six months earlier, according to the Israeli daily Ha'aretz.   Behind this sordid game is the "Dagan Plan," named after General Meir Dagan, who served with Sharon in his bloody invasion of Lebanon in 1982. Now head of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence organization, Dagan is the author of a "solution" that has seen the imprisonment of Palestinians behind a ghetto wall snaking across the West Bank and in Gaza, effectively a concentration camp. The establishment of a quisling government in Ramallah under Mohammed Abbas is Dagan's achievement, together with a hasbara (propaganda) campaign relayed through a mostly supine, if intimidated western media, notably in America, that says Hamas is a terrorist organization devoted to Israel's destruction and to "blame" for the massacres and siege of its own people over two generations, long before its creation. "We have never had it so good," said the Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Gideon Meir in 2006. "The hasbara effort is a well-oiled machine." In fact, Hamas's real threat is its example as the Arab world's only democratically elected government, drawing its popularity from its resistance to the Palestinians' oppressor and tormentor. This was demonstrated when Hamas foiled a CIA coup in 2007, an event ordained in the western media as "Hamas's seizure of power." Likewise, Hamas is never described as a government, let alone democratic. Neither is its proposal of a ten-year truce as a historic recognition of the "reality" of Israel and support for a two-state solution with just one condition: that the Israelis obey international law and end their illegal occupation beyond the 1967 borders. As every annual vote in the UN General Assembly demonstrates, 99 per cent of humanity concurs. On 4 January, the president of the General Assembly, Miguel d'Escoto, described the Israeli attack on Gaza as a "monstrosity."   When the monstrosity is done and the people of Gaza are even more stricken, the Dagan Plan foresees what Sharon called a "1948-style solution" - the destruction of all Palestinian leadership and authority followed by mass expulsions into smaller and smaller "cantonments" and perhaps finally into Jordan. This demolition of institutional and educational life in Gaza is designed to produce, wrote Karma Nabulsi, a Palestinian exile in Britain, "a Hobbesian vision of an anarchic society: truncated, violent, powerless, destroyed, cowed ... Look to the Iraq of today: that is what [Sharon] had in store for us, and he has nearly achieved it."   Dr. Dahlia Wasfi is an American writer on Palestine. She has a Jewish mother and an Iraqi Muslim father. "Holocaust denial is anti-Semitic," she wrote on 31 December. "But I'm not talking about World War Two, Mahmoud Ahmedinijad (the president of Iran) or Ashkenazi Jews. What I'm referring to is the holocaust we are all witnessing and responsible for in Gaza today and in Palestine over the past 60 years ... Since Arabs are Semites, US-Israeli policy doesn't get more anti-Semitic than this." She quoted Rachel Corrie, the young American who went to Palestine to defend Palestinians and was crushed by an Israeli bulldozer. "I am in the midst of a genocide," wrote Corrie, "which I am also indirectly supporting and for which my government is largely responsible."  Reading the words of both, I am struck by the use of "responsibility." Breaking the lie of silence is not an esoteric abstraction but an urgent responsibility that falls to those with the privilege of a platform. With the BBC cowed, so too is much of journalism, merely allowing vigorous debate within unmovable invisible boundaries, ever fearful of the smear of anti-Semitism. The unreported news, meanwhile, is that the death toll in Gaza is the equivalent of 18,000 dead in Britain. Imagine, if you can.   Then there are the academics, the deans and teachers and researchers. Why are they silent as they watch a university bombed and hear the Association of University Teachers in Gaza plea for help? Are British universities now, as Terry Eagleton believes, no more than "intellectual Tescos, churning out a commodity known as graduates rather than greengroceries"?   Then there are the writers. In the dark year of 1939, the Third Writers' Congress was held at Carnegie Hall in New York and the likes of Thomas Mann and Albert Einstein sent messages and spoke up to ensure the lie of silence was broken. By one account, 3,500 jammed the auditorium and a thousand were turned away. Today, this mighty voice of realism and morality is said to be obsolete; the literary review pages affect an ironic hauteur of irrelevance; false symbolism is all. As for the readers, their moral and political imagination is to be pacified, not primed. The anti-Muslim Martin Amis expressed this well in Visiting Mrs. Nabokov: "The dominance of the self is not a flaw, it is an evolutionary characteristic; it is just how things are."   If that is how things are, we are diminished as a civilized society. For what happens in Gaza is the defining moment of our time, which either grants the impunity of war criminals the immunity of our silence, while we contort our own intellect and morality, or gives us the power to speak out. For the moment I prefer my own memory of Gaza: of the people's courage and resistance and their "luminous humanity," as Karma Nabulsi put it. On my last trip there, I was rewarded with a spectacle of Palestinian flags fluttering in unlikely places. It was dusk and children had done this. No one told them to do it. They made flagpoles out of sticks tied together, and a few of them climbed on to a wall and held the flag between them, some silently, others crying out. They do this every day when they know foreigners are leaving, believing the world will not forget them. - John Pilger was born and educated in Sydney, Australia. He has been a war correspondent, film-maker and playwright. Based in London, he has written from many countries and has twice won British journalism's highest award, that of "Journalist of the Year," for his work in Vietnam and Cambodia. (Originally published in ZNet – zmag.org - on January 8, 2009)

The Gaza Ghetto Uprising

'The real reason for the onslaught on Gaza is not about fundamentalist Islam.'

By Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD- Bethlehem  In Gaza as in Iraq, the US public is being lied to while US taxpayers and US power is wasted to support aggression. Vanity Fair reported on the scheme to topple Hamas concocted by Eliot Abrams (a Zionist in the Bush administration) that was “part Iran-contra, part Bay of Pigs” that ended up strengthening Hamas. And by contrast to PR strategies, the former head of the Israeli intelligence services admitted in Israeli papers that Israel could have stopped Palestinian retaliatory home-made rockets long ago by lifting its siege of Gaza (a condition of the cease fire between Hamas and Israel agreed to but rarely implemented) but that Israel had a more strategic issue: to try a different way to topple the duly elected Hamas government.  But what else are we not being told about Gaza? Over 70% of the 1.5 million Palestinians in this besieged tiny strip of arid land are refugees. When Obama visited Sderot in the Negev, he should have also visited Gaza where he would have met with the original residents of Najd which was renamed Sderot after its destruction and settlement by European Jews. In Gaza he could have met with refugees from many of the 530 villages and towns ethnically cleansed. To aid the exodus, in the six weeks that preceded declaring Israel a state, 33 massacres were committed by Jewish forces like the Haganah, Irgun, and Stern (forerunners of the Israeli army that is attacking Gaza today). The Palestinian Nakba or catastrophe of destruction and ethnic cleansing marks our history like the genocides of WWII marks European history. The nascent state expanded by force to encompass 78% of Palestine (50% more than it was allocated). The West Bank and Gaza Strip were occupied in a second stage of Israeli expansion (1967).  A massive colonial settler enterprise brought 450,000 Jews from around the world to live in the West Bank. In an eternal quest for maximum geography (for the Jewish state) with minimum (native Palestinian) demography, a deepening system of apartheid and discrimination ensued funded by US taxpayers. As in other colonial ventures, the natives (e.g. Native Americans, Algerians, Indians etc.) are designated as terrorist, savages, and barbarians especially when they resist. The Gaza Ghetto uprising was so inconvenient to designs to dominate the Middle East, that it was met with uncommon brutality. This had to be coupled with massive and well-funded media campaigns abroad to hide the realities while preventing media access to Gaza. But independent coverage in Europe and elsewhere show that Israeli forces shelled two universities, three colleges, police stations, several residential neighborhoods, three UN schools, roads, bridges, and a children playground. 700 Palestinians were killed in two weeks and over 3000 injured. Half of the victims are women and children and half the men are noncombatants. Relative to US population, this would be like killing 132,000 US citizens in two weeks. The Red Cross and UN agencies report massive violations of Israeli obligations under International law in many cases amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Ironically, in the past 60 years the US used its veto power twice as often to protect Israel from International law than to protect US interests. The real reason for the onslaught on Gaza is also not about fundamentalist Islam. The US and Israel are happy to support those when they tow the party line (take Saudi Arabia for example). Like the attack on Lebanon in 2006 Gaza is pummeled to accept the colonization and power structures. In that context we can understand Israeli Deputy “Defense” minister Matai Vilnai who warned once that continuing resistance would bring upon Palestinians a “bigger holocaust”. Indeed resistance to colonization and occupation are natural and enshrined in International law and can only be obliterated by genocide. The timing of Israel’s carnage in Gaza is not coincidental to US transitions of power (i.e. terrorize Palestinians in case Obama may not be as sympathetic as Bush to such tactics) nor is it coincidental to upcoming Israeli elections (ie. ruling party candidates want to appear extra tough). What is not understandable is that US taxpayers are supporting this charade. The US role in the world was most admired and its economy was booming when President Eisenhower stood with International law and forced Israel to withdraw from Gaza and the Sinai in 1956. By contrast, US standing in the world and its economy are weakest now that the Israel lobby is at maximum power and dragging us into endless wars. Despite the blackout in many media outlets, hundreds of demonstrations in support of Gaza around the US indicate that people are starting to understand that this injustice cannot go on.  When we end US support for Israeli apartheid (and we will), both Israelis and Palestinians will be able to live in dignity and peace and a big weight will be lifted from the US and world economies.  The alternatives are continuing bloodshed and economic devastation.  The choice is obvious. - Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh served on the faculty at Duke and Yale before returning to serve at Bethlehem University and as Chair of the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People. His website is Qumsiyeh.org. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.

Testimonies from Gaza

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel

(Photo by Zoriah) Jan 7, 2009 PHR-Israel collects testimonies from residents of Gaza and medical personnel. According to one of the testimonies, UNRWA school was shelled and 43 people have been killed, all civilians, mainly women and children.   The shelling of the UNRWA school on 6.1.09 Conversation with the director of Camal Adwan hospital, Dr. Bassam Abu Warda, who received most of the casualties (6.1.09, 20:30) According to the most recent reports regarding a direct hit on the UNRWA school in Jabaliya yesterday, 43 people have been killed, all civilians, mainly women and children. The school had been offered as a temporary shelter by UNRWA to ten families who had been ordered to flee their homes due to bombardment of their homes. 30 dead bodies and 40 injured people were brought to Camal Adwan hospital, while 10 bodies and 30 injured people were sent to the neighboring hospital Al Awda. 25 of the wounded persons are defined as seriously wounded. There are many children among the casualties, and about 70% of the adults are women. No armed persons were identified among the casualties. All casualties are civilians. Eyewitness report of Yihia Hassan, an ambulance driver who was injured while on duty on Jan. 4, 2009. Collected by PHR-Israel on Jan. 6, 2009. My name is Hassan, I am 38 years old, and a father of 4 children and I live in Tel al- Hawa. I work as an ambulance driver for al Khidmat at- Tabiya al- Askariya hospital and my telephone no. is 0599329747. On Jan. 4, 2009 I was at the hospital at 16:00, we got a phone call from one of the residents, he said some people in the region of Dachduch, south of Al -Hawa, were injured.  I went out with the rescue vehicle together with the volunteer Anas Faisal Na'im and with Rafat abd al-Ghul, and with Muhammad al- Jamasi.  Another ambulance left together with us, with Hazem al -Berawee as the driver, and Yasser al- Shabir as the volunteer.  When we arrived at the scene, at the end of 10 th street, we met a ten year old boy who told us that the people who are injured are all inside on Ramle st.  The two ambulances parked and the volunteers Anas, Rafat, Muhammad and Yasser walked in the direction of the place where the wounded were lying. This was about 50 meters from the rescue vehicles.  When we arrived, a plane shot a missile toward the place were the wounded were waiting. The second driver and myself, we ran away from the scene with one of the vehicles, in the direction of Al Quds hospital. In the hospital we were told that Yasser, Rafat, Anas and the young boy were killed.     Attack against ICRC (Red Cross) coordinator in Gaza, 6.1.09 Testimony of Muhammad Ramadan of the ICRC, 7.1.09: Yesterday at 13:00 the driver and I set out to transfer urgent medical supplies by ICRC truck to Khan Younis. Our exit was pre-coordinated with the Israeli army and the truck is clearly marked with the ICRC symbols. When we reached netzarim junction [on the main north-south road in Gaza – PHR-Israel], a tank shot at us from its machine gun. I could see the tank clearly. The bullets hit the ground 15 meteres away from us. Afterwards we were also shot at from the air. We back up some 100 meters and then the tank shot again. We went back to the office and after an hour we set out again, but we were shot at again in the Netzarim area. In the end we didn't transfer the medical supplies. It should be noted that this axis has been closed since the start of the operation and only today, 7.1.09, we can travel through them for the first time, although we have been clarifying the need for access since the start of the operation Testimonies collected on Tuesday, Jan. 6 2009 by PHR-Israel, from Gaza residents it had assisted in the past. Khaled, from Khan Younis, a father of four children There is no electricity.  We have water but there is no medicine in the hospitals.  The UN food supplies stopped coming eight months ago, so there is no food.  The only things left in the stores are snacks or chocolate.  There is no milk, no flour and no eggs.  The boys don't sleep all night long and my four year old daughter will not eat.  Amir, my ten year old son was supposed to travel to Israel for his scheduled chemotherapy treatment, he had a permit (from the Israeli army) but the way to the Erez crossing was blocked by tanks and it was impossible to reach the crossing.  We tried to get to the European hospital which is 8 km. away from our house but the roads were blocked and hardly any cars were able to pass, so I carried Amir on my back the whole way.  The hospital was out of the medicine that Amir needed and we were told that they can not give him the treatment that he gets in Israel. So Amir is not being treated and is not taking any medicine or pain killers.   The Al Sawafiri family, Gaza city The father: 30 people from our extended family are staying with us because their house is adjacent to Mahmoud Al- Zaher (A Hamas leader) and they are afraid to stay at home.  There is no electricity, no cooking gas and no water.  There is a severe shortage of food in the village.  What little food that can be found is extremely expensive, for example a box of eggs costs 17 shekels (more than 3 euro). Drinking water has to be bought in bottles but it is so dangerous to leave the house for supplies that they try to go out as little as possible.   Ashraf Kdeih, Khan Younis, near the Israel-Gaza border We get electricity for only four hours a day, once a week there is water in the taps so we save as much as we can in plastic bottles.  A 12 kg. container of cooking gas that used to cost us 35 shekels (about 7 euro) is now 150 shekels (about 50 euro), and it is extremely difficult to find containers.  My wife and I are both at home but we send our children to Khan Younis because it is safer there.  The children are terrified but we manage to keep in touch on a daily basis. All day long we hear the bombing and it is impossible to leave the house.  Yesterday I got a phone call from an automatic machine that said, in Arabic, that we need to leave the house and move to the city.  We have no where to go to and I don't want to evacuate, so as of now we are imprisoned in our own house.    Antar, Beit Lahiya We are 16 people in the house, 12 of them are children and a baby that was born this week.  We all live in one room and we go out only when we have to go to the toilets or to shower.  Two hours a day there is electricity and during these two hours some one runs to prepare bread or to cook in the kitchen. The stores in the neighborhood are closed and it is too dangerous to go out and look for products. Yesterday, one of our family members, who also lives in the neighborhood, went out for food and was killed. All the windows in the house are broken so it is cold at night and we do not have enough blankets.  We hear the bombing from all directions, tanks, jeeps, planes- it is terrifying.         Testimony collected on 7.1.09 by PHR-Israel from Sa'ed, resident of Gaza City The tanks are surrounding the city and are shooting inside all the time. We are 150 people in one four-room apartment. People keep looking at their children and hugging them. My daughter, 3 years old, keeps asking, when will the plane come. We are all longing for death. Donkeys and dogs in Israel have a better life than ours. There is nothing here. In Gaza city there is no electricity, here we have electricity for 6 hours a day. The water is very dirty but we have no choice so we drink it. We haven't seen the international organizations recently. Mothers go out into the streets to look for their children, one mother saw the head of her son disconnected from its body. I want my kids and the children in Sderot to go to school. Your media doesn't show you the truth – we are being shot at from every direction, also from the sea now. We are strangling here, let them just open the crossings, they don't let us live. I tell you – now all of Gaza is Hamas? One and a half million people. Khaled Meshal wants to be a leader – he kills a nation, Ehud Barak wants to be a leader – he kills a nation. It's worse than 1948.

:: Article nr. 50528 sent on 08-jan-2008 09:59 ECT
www.uruknet.info?p=50528

Link: www.phr.org.il/phr/article.asp?articleid=671&catid=55&pcat=-1〈=ENG

Gaza victims' burns increase concern over phosphorus

Michael Evans and Sheera Frenkel, Times

The pale blue 155mm rounds are clearly marked with the designation M825A1, an American-made white phosphorus munition Jan 8, 2009 Photographic evidence has emerged that proves that Israel has been using controversial white phosphorus shells during its offensive in Gaza, despite official denials by the Israel Defence Forces. There is also evidence that the rounds have injured Palestinian civilians, causing severe burns. The use of white phosphorus against civilians is prohibited under international law. The Times has identified stockpiles of white phosphorus (WP) shells from high-resolution images taken of Israel Defence Forces (IDF) artillery units on the Israeli-Gaza border this week. The pale blue 155mm rounds are clearly marked with the designation M825A1, an American-made WP munition. The shell is an improved version with a more limited dispersion of the phosphorus, which ignites on contact with oxygen, and is being used by the Israeli gunners to create a smoke screen on the ground. The rounds, which explode into a shower of burning white streaks, were first identified by The Times at the weekend when they were fired over Gaza at the start of Israel's ground offensive. Artillery experts said that the Israeli troops would be in trouble if they were banned from using WP because it is the simplest way of creating smoke to protect them from enemy fire. Times Archive There were indications last night that Palestinian civilians have been injured by the bombs, which burn intensely. Hassan Khalass, a doctor at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, told The Times that he had been dealing with patients who he suspected had been burnt by white phosphorus. Muhammad Azayzeh, 28, an emergency medical technician in the city, said: "The burns are very unusual. They don't look like burns we have normally seen. They are third-level burns that we can't seem to control." Victims with embedded WP particles in their flesh have to have the affected areas flushed with water. Particles that cannot be removed with tweezers are covered with a saline-soaked dressing. Nafez Abu Shaban, the head of the burns unit at al-Shifa hospital, said: "I am not familiar with phosphorus but many of the patients wounded in the past weeks have strange burns. They are very deep and not like burns we used to see." When The Times reported on Monday that the Israeli troops appeared to be firing WP shells to create a thick smoke camouflage for units advancing into Gaza, an IDF spokesman denied the use of phosphorus and said that Israel was using only the weapons that were allowed under international law. Rows of the pale blue M825A1 WP shells were photographed on January 4 on the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border. Another picture showed the same munitions stacked up behind an Israeli self-propelled howitzer. Confronted with the latest evidence, an IDF spokeswoman insisted that the M825A1 shell was not a WP type. "This is what we call a quiet shell - it is empty, it has no explosives and no white phosphorus. There is nothing inside it," she said. "We shoot it to mark the target before we launch a real shell. We launch two or three of the quiet shells which are empty so that the real shells will be accurate. It's not for killing people," she said. Asked what shell was being used to create the smokescreen effect seen so clearly on television images, she said: "We're using what other armies use and we're not using any weapons that are banned under international law." Neil Gibson, technical adviser to Jane's Missiles and Rockets, insisted that the M825A1 was a WP round. "The M825A1 is an improved model. The WP does not fill the shell but is impregnated into 116 felt wedges which, once dispersed [by a high-explosive charge], start to burn within four to five seconds. They then burn for five to ten minutes. The smoke screen produced is extremely effective," he said. The shell is not defined as an incendiary weapon by the Third Protocol to the Convention on Conventional Weapons because its principal use is to produce smoke to protect troops. However, Marc Galasco, of Human Rights Watch, said: "Recognising the significant incidental incendiary effect that white phosphorus creates, there is great concern that Israel is failing to take all feasible steps to avoid civilian loss of life and property by using WP in densely populated urban areas. This concern is amplified given the technique evidenced in media photographs of air-bursting WP projectiles at relatively low levels, seemingly to maximise its incendiary effect." He added, however, that Human Rights Watch had no evidence that Israel was using incendiaries as weapons. British and American artillery units have stocks of white phosphorus munitions but they are banned as anti-personnel weapons. "These munitions are not unlawful as their purpose is to provide obscuration and not cause injury by burning," a Ministry of Defence source said. Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian war surgery specialist working in Gaza, told The Times that he had seen injuries believed to have resulted from Israel's use of a new "dense inert metal explosive" that caused "extreme explosions". He said: "Those inside the perimeter of this weapon's power zone will be torn completely apart. We have seen numerous amputations that we suspect have been caused by this."

:: Article nr. 50548 sent on 08-jan-2008 17:39 ECT
www.uruknet.info?p=50548

Link: www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5470047.ece

Riding on fire and a third intifada

By Ewa Jasieiwcz, in Jabaliya and Beit Hanoun, Gaza
Thursday January 8th 2008

I’ve been working with the Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance services in
Jabaliya, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya for the past 5 days and nights.

For the past five days the Red Cross and the Red Crescent emergency
services have been blocked from evacuating the injured and the dead from
key areas surrounding Jabaliya and Gaza City. Special Forces have occupied
houses in the areas of Zeitoun, Atarturah, Zoumo and Salahedeen.

Paramedic Ali Khalil’s team was shot at on Monday afternoon. He told me,
'We had been told we had the go-ahead from the Israeli army through
co-ordination with the Red Cross but when we arrived at the area we were
shot at. We had to turn back'. Yesterday afternoon, a medical volunteer,
Hassan, was shot in the leg as he and his colleague had to drop the
stretcher they were carrying after coming under Israeli sniper fire. There
are reports of scores of dead bodies lying in the streets un-claimed. The
Palestinian Red Crescent Society estimates there are 230 injured which
they haven’t been able to pick up.

There are reports of 18 corpses in one home alone and the injured dying
from treatable wounds because of a lack of access to medical treatment.

Last night, at around 9pm, Marwan, an experienced paramedic, bearing the
scars of years of Israeli invasions, sustained another yet another. He was
shot in the leg by an Israeli sniper in Eastern Jabaliya. Gnarled by his
work, picking up the pieces after Israeli attacks, he had said only the
day before yesterday, ‘This is no life, its better to die, it would be
better to be dead than this shit’.

The blockade on any rescuing is reminiscent of the battle of Jenin in
April 2002. Israel forbade ambulances from entering the camp, blowing up
one with a tank shell and killing Dr Khalil Sulleiman, the Head of the
Palestinian Red Crescent. The army cut water and electricity and bulldozed
an entire neighbourhood, complete with residents still in their homes,
over the course of 11 days. The death count in the 11-day Jenin massacre
was 58, but estimated to be much higher. Here in Jabaliya, this is the
equivalent to around 4 days in the past week or almost the whole of
yesterday. Between December 27th and January 5th, in Jabaliya alone, 119
people had been killed and 662 injured. An average of 15 people are dying,
violently, every day. On January 6th, with the Fakhoura school massacre,
50 people were killed in just one day. Hospital authorities mark the day
as the single worst day they have ever seen in Jabaliya.

Sporadic battles are taking place between Palestinian resistance fighters,
armed with basic machine guns, the odd grenade, and warm clothes. They’re
up against the fourth most powerful army in the world, armed with
state-of-the-art war planes, Merkava tanks, regional governmental
co-ordination and intelligence, a green light to kill with impunity in the
name of self defence, body armor, night vision, and holidays in Goa when
it all gets too much.

The paramedics, drivers and volunteers at the emergency services risk
their lives every time they leave their base and even working within their
bases.

Medics evacuated their original base near Salahadeen street due to heavy
shelling from Israeli forces early last week. They then moved to the Al
Awda Hospital in Beit Lahiya because again, it was too close to the battle
front, and again to a community centre in Moaskar Jabaliya to be ‘safer’.

However, against a backdrop of deafening crashes and bangs of bombs
falling close by, on Monday at 12.45pm, an Israeli surveillance plane
fired two missiles into the Al Awda Hospital compound. The first slammed
into a police car, the second, impacted two minutes later into the ground
just meters in front of the Hospital’s clinic. Two rescue workers were
injured in the head and face, but we were all lucky to escape without any
serious damage.

Right now we’re back at the Jabaliya base, still close to the sound of
pounding tank shells, apache strikes, and light gunfire met with
staggering rapid fire 50 caliber tank-gun fire, the odd grenade and the
ever menacing and maddening sneer of surveillance drones.

Yesterday around 1am we were called out to a strike in the Moaskar
Jabaliya area. The area was pitch black, our feeble torches lighting up
broken pipes streaming water, glass, chunks of concrete and twisted metal.
‘They’re down there, down there, take care’, people said. The smell of
fresh severed flesh, a smell that can only come from the shedding of pints
of blood and open insides, was in the air. I got called back by a medic
who screamed at me to stay by his side. It turned out Id been following
the Civil Defence, the front line responders who check to see if buildings
are safe and put out fires, rather than the medics.

The deep ink dark makes it almost impossible to see clearly, shadows and
faces lit up by swiveling red ambulance lights and arms pointing hurriedly
are our guides for finding the injured. ‘Lets get out of here, lets get
out’ say the guys, and we’re leaving to go, empty handed, but straining to
seeing what’s ahead when a missile hits the ground in front of us. We see
a lit up fountain of what could be nail darts explode in front of us. They
fall in a spray like a thousand hissing critters, we cover our heads and
run back to the ambulance. One of the volunteers inside, Mohammad, is
shocked, ‘Did you see? Did you see? How close it was?’

At approximately 4am, we hit the streets in response to an F16 war plane
attack on the house of Abdullah Sayeed Mrad in the Block Two area of
Jabaliya Camp in the Northern Gaza Strip.

Mrad is said to be a high ranking Hamas official according to local
sources. The attack leveled the house. Every house strike is like walking
into a smoking grave, broken doll-like bodies of children to be found
beneath layers and layers of white rubble and burning shrapnel.

We took Adam Mamoun Al Kurdi, aged 3 to Al Awda. He died of multiple
shrapnel injuries to his skull and lower thighs.

We sped back 5 minutes later – four teams in four Red Crescent ambulances,
to fetch more casualties. Thankfully there were none.

Whilst waiting in the ambulance we suddenly heard a deafening bang and saw
an orange flash before our ambulance was showered with shrapnel, glass and
brick. The target of the attack was another house belonging to Sayeed
Mrad. Medics say the strike was from an F16. The depth of damage caused
was consistent with the force of an F16-fired bomb.

The house, reduced to rubble, was just two meters from our ambulance.
Ambulance driver Majdi Shehadda, 48, sustained deep lacerations to his
face and right ear and went into shock in the ambulance. He was treated
with oxygen. Four rescue workers sustained minor injuries and had to be
treated for smoke and dust inhalation. One, Saaber Mohammad Awad, 34, was
preparing to exit his ambulance when the bomb hit. ‘The door smashed
against me and the windows smashed in because of the pressure. I expected
to die. If we had been outside just a second later, we would have been
killed. The ambulance saved our lives’.

The four ambulances, one with all of its' windows blown in and damage to
medical stocks inside, the others with cracked windows, were trapped by
rubble blocking our exit route.

We had to carry Majdi on a stretcher over the debris of the bombed house
in total darkness whilst Israeli drones menaced the skies above us. I
tripped up over twisted steel foundation poles at one point and dropped
the oxygen tank, the pipe detaching and hissing oxygen out over the
rubble. We all evacuated the area after 15 minutes, along with a family,
carrying their blankets, mattresses and belongings, as another property
belonging to Sayeed Mrad also in the area was at risk of being bombed.

The ambulances would have been clearly visible to Israeli drones and
special forces with their rooftop indentification markings, bright
flashing lights and solo movement in the deserted, pitch black strees of
Jabaliya.

An aerial curfew
Everyone is terrified by surveillance plane strikes here. ‘Zenane’ they
call them, because of the zzzzz sound they make. They have been firing
explosive missiles into people – people walking, in cars, sitting in
doorways drinking tea, standing on rooftops, praying together, sitting at
home and watching television together.

In Naim Street Beit Hanoun, at 9.30pm on Sunday, Samieh Kaferna , 40, was
hit by flying shrapnel to his head. Neighbours called him to come to their
home. Fearing his home would be struck, he and a group of relatives began
to move from one home to another, to be safer.
The second missile struck them down directly. When we arrived one man,
eyes gigantic, was being dragged into the pavement, half of his lower body
shredded, his intestines slopping out. He was alive, his relatives were
screaming, we managed to take four, whilst six others, charred and
dismembered, were brought in on the back of an open cattle truck. Beit
Hanoun Hospital was chaos, with screaming relatives and burning bodies.
Three men died in the attack, 10 were injured, six from the same Abu
Harbid family. Three had to have leg amputations, and one a double
amputation.

Burning shrapnel in eyes is a common injury, shrapnel slices deep into to
any soft fleshy parts of the body.  We brought a boy from Beit Hanoun with
a distorted heavily bandaged head wrapped in bandages, to Al Nasser
hospital with its specialist eye unit and mental health clinic. When we
get there, its pitch black, doctors are sitting around candles, the place
is freezing and full of shadows. Both the doctors and their have been
patients blinded with Israeli-controlled power cuts that intensify the
confusion, fear, and psychological darkness caving in on people here.

Burning shrapnel in eyes – like those of three year old Shedar Athman
Khader Abid from Beit Hanoun, ‘injured in the left eye, explosive injury,
full thickness corneal wound, iris prologue and vitreous loss’ according
to her medical report. Her father approaches my friend, quietly, to ask if
its possible for me to help her, to get her out to have eye surgery, ’This
girl, she was like a moon, haram, three years old and her beauty is robbed
from her’.

Extremely hot, shrapnel lodges in chests, legs, faces, hands, stomachs,
and skullls. I’ve been taught, don’t focus on stopping bleeding with
shrapnel injuries, there is very little blood, the foreign bodies burn
inside. Many casualties we’ve brought in that seem ok, literally, on ‘the
surface’, only to die a few days later. People talk about the missiles
being poison tipped, and there have been reports of white phosphorous
being used.

Dead for buying bread
Last night four members of a family were traveling back from the bakers in
Beit Lahiya. Squeezed into a white skoda, their bag of bread still warm,
they were struck by a surveillance plane missile at 6pm. Khaled Ismaeel
Kahlood, 44, and his three sons Mohammad 15, Habib, 12, and Towfiq, 10,
were cut into pieces by the attack which blew their car in two. Taxi
driver Hassan Khalil, 20, was also martyred in the attack. The bodies
brought into Kamal Odwan hospital were virtually unrecognizable.

A Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees ambulance was fired upon
at approximately 8.30am on Sunday morning killing Paramedic and father of
five, Arafa El Deyem, 35. He and another rescue worker had been evacuating
casualties which had come under fire from an Israeli tank East of Jabaliya
in the North of the Gaza Strip. Witnesses report that as the door of the
ambulance was being closed a tank shell hit El Deyem. El Deyem died from a
massive loss of blood following a major trauma to his chest. Paramedics I
ride with cherish his memory, carrying his photo - a kind and strong
looking, bearded man - on their mobile phones.

The following day, at the family's grieving tent, five of El Deyem's
relatives were killed when a missile smashed into the tent in the Beit
Hanoun Area. Arafat Mohammed Abdel Deinm, 10, Mohammad Jamal Abdel Dein,
25, Maher Younis Abdel Dein, 30, and Said Jamal Said, 27, all died from
head and internal explosive injuries. Witnesses claim the missile was
fired by an Israeli surveillance drone.

The Ministry of Health confirmed that Doctor Anis Naeem, a nephew of the
Hamas Minister of Health, Bassem Naeem, and a colleague were killed in the
Zeitoun area on Sunday afternoon when a missile strike from an Israeli
surveillance plane impacted on the home they had entered in order to
retrieve casualties.

Rescue workers Ihab el-Madhoun 35, and Mohammad Abu Hasira, 24, were
struck by Israeli missiles when trying to collect casualties in the Jabal
Al Rais area of Jabbaliya last Tuesday.  Witnesses said Ihab went to
assist his colleague following a strike on the rescue workers. He too was
then struck.

Abu Hasira was brought to the Kamal Ahdwan governmental hospital in
Jabaliya and died at 7.30am according to hospital records. The cause of
death was multiple trauma injuries. Ihab died from massive internal
injuries following an operation on his chest and abdominal area five hours
later.

Khalil Abu Shammalah, Director of Al Dhumeer Association based in Gaza
City said: ‘It is a breach of the fourth Geneva Convention to target
emergency medical services under conditions of war and occupation. 
Battlefield casualties are also protected under the Geneva Conventions and
cannot be targeted once injured. Israel is in breach of international
law'.

The Israeli news agency Y-Net recently reported that Yuval Duskin,
Director of the
Israeli intelligence agency Shin Bet, told the Israeli cabinet that large
numbers Hamas operatives are hiding in hospitals and dressing as medical
workers. Palestinian medical officials have dismissed the claims as
'nonsense'. Rescue workers are terrified that hospitals will join the list
of civilian targets including homes, schools, universities, mosques, and
shops hit in Israel's offensive so far.

Homes crushed
People and their homes are being pulverized by Israeli tank shells, F16s
and bulldozers. I traveled to the buffer zone area of Sikka Street close
to the Erez checkpoint, to see the damage. 27 houses had been crushed by
either bulldozers or tank shells, one had been destroyed by an F16 bomb.
10 water wells and 200 dunums of land – orange groves and strawberry
fields, have been bulldozed, and approximately 250 people have been made
homeless.

Six members of the Kiferna family were crushed to death when their home
was fired upon by Tanks on Sunday night.

People were coming back to their homes for the first time. The Hamdan
Family had three homes in a row destroyed. I asked one woman sitting
amongst the ruins of her home where she would go now? She replied, ‘Beit
Hanoun UNRWA school’.

’But do you think that will be safe?’ I asked her. ‘No, but I have nowhere
else to go’ she replied.

The Al Naim Mosque was also completely destroyed, holy books still
smouldering from the attacks. Approximately one in 10 of the some 100
mosques in the Jabaliya area have been destroyed in Israel’s assault. ‘We
see them as personal centers for us, theyre not Hamas, and we paid for
them out of our own money, they belong to us, not anyone else’, explained
one Imam based in Jabaliya.

The demolition of Mosques means many people are praying in the streets, at
the Kamal Odwan hospital, people pray in the garden area opposite, and at
the funeral for the 42 people, mostly children, massacred at the Fakhoura
School , hundreds prayed on the ground that was turned into an early
graveyard.

Forced out
On Sunday night, all Sikka Street residents were given five minutes to
leave their homes, ordered out through loudhailers, unable to take any
belongings with them, rounded up by Israeli occupation forces and taken to
the Al Naim Mosque. Women, children and the elderly were put inside and
men aged between 16-40 were kept in a field outside in the cold and
interrogated. Six were taken to Erez, three were released a day later and
were told by soldiers, according to a witness, that it was safe for them
to make their own way home along  Salahadeen Street. It was there that
special forces allegedly shot 33 year-old Shaadi Hissam Yousef Hamad 33,
in the head.

Torn schoolbooks lie amidst rubble, and Iman Mayer Hammad picks through
the debris of her life, a hejab, shoes, pictures, she cries out, ‘Its all
gone, everything, they’ve taken everything, my children can’t finish their
exams, how will they finish their exams?’

Hundreds of children won’t be finishing their exams in Gaza because
they’re dead.

Whether people stay in their homes or leave, they are being bombed. Majid
Hamdan Wadeeya, 40, was hit in the leg and spine with shrapnel while he
and his family were preparing to leave their home in Jaffa Street,
Jabaliya. We arrived at his home on Tuesday afternoon to find the family’s
decrepit red car still running and the family minivan stuffed with
mattresses, towels, blankets, and belongings, blasted open. They had been
hit by a missile from either a drone of apache. ‘We were going from the
bombing, from the bombing’, screamed his children, all terrified. We
managed to take half of the family, the rest got in their red car and
followed.

We were interviewing residents at the UNRWA elementary school in Jabaliya,
close to the Fakhoora school, at exactly the same time of the massacre.The
Sahaar family, which had walked from their home in Salahdeen Street to
seek refuge in the school on the first day of invasion, were asking us,
‘But do you think we are safe here? We feel that any time a missile could
come down us? Are we safe here?’ The 500 people, some 50 families living
in classrooms, share just 14 toilets and rely on rations to survive. The
nights are cold as the windows have been smashed out by Israeli bomb
attacks. Noone can sleep at night because of the sounds of homes, mosques
and people being bombed to the ground.

The fabric of life
Everyone here knows someone who has been killed in Israel ’s massacres. I
can’t keep up with the stories of missile struck cousins, nephews,
brothers, the jailed, the humiliated, the shot, the unreachable, the
homeless, the now even more vulnerable than ever, people, not pieces,
piling up in morgues all over Gaza, not pieces, people. These people are
struggling to live and breathe another day, to avoid the lethal use of
F16s, F15s, Apache Helicopters, Cobra Gun Ships, Israeli naval gun ships
that are targeting them.

These networks and vision have held strong for 60 years, but another
fabric of life is being planned by Israel. Whilst people say they are
resisting the worst attack on them since the Nakba, Israel proceeds to
cantonise the West Bank, under a project of roads and tunnels ‘for
Palestinains’ which reinforce the existing illegal settlement system,
apartheid wall, land and water theft and Palestinian bantustanisation.
Under the banner of 'development', this network of new facts on the
ground, ‘for the Palestinians’ is called, ‘The Fabric of Life’. Israel is
blasting holes in one corner of the Palestinian fabric of life through
extreme violence, and tearing up another part with the help of
international companies and governments and internal authority complicity.

Back at Kamall Odwan hospital, Dr Moayan, explains, ‘It’s not about just
riding the streets of civilians, because, they are bombing us even when we
have left, when we are inside supposedly safe compounds. I have left my
house, and now have nowhere else to go, nowhere else to go.’ He continues
to say what hundreds of people are saying, ‘This is the worst we have ever
seen, we have never had this level of violence. It has shocked even us. In
Lebanon they killed over 1700 people, will it come to this here?’

The global intifada
This killing continues, day and night, and its not just people that are
being physically dismembered, their families are being dismembered, their
communities are being dismembered, the landscape of Gaza is full of holes.
The fabric of these communities, that neighbours no longer neighbours,
that families no longer living or alive together is being stretched to
breaking point. People are being made refugees again, tents as homes
awaiting them again, as no buildings or building materials are available
for people to even rebuild their shattered lives, their smashed homes,
shops, mosques, governmental buildings, community centres, charities,
offices, clinics, youth centers.

How do you break a people that won’t be broken? ‘They will have to kill
each and everyone of us’ people tell me. From the first days here people
were expecting ‘the shoah’ threatened upon them by Matan Villai , Israel
’s deputy defence minister this February. It is happening. It is happening
now. This is the Shoah.

The third Intifada being urged now has to be our intifada too.  As Israel
steps up its destruction of the Palestinian people, we need to step up our
reconstruction of our resistance, our movements, of our communities in our
own counties, where so many of us live in alienation and isolation. We
need to be the third intifada – people here need more and say repeatedly
that they need more than the demonstrations, because they are not stopping
the killing here. Demonstrations alone, are not stopping the killing here.

The arms companies making the weapons that are targeting people here, the
companies that are selling stolen goods from occupied land pillaging
settlements, the companies building the apartheid wall, the prisons, the
East Jerusalem Light Railway system. These companies, Carmel Agrexco,
Caterpillar, Veolia, Raytheon, EDO, BAE Systems, they are complicit in the
crimes against humanity being committed here. If the international
community will not uphold international law, then a popular movement
should and can – we can use the legal system of international law as one
of many means to hold on to our collective humanity.

The European Union decision, undertaken by the Council of Ministers this
December, to upgrade relations with Israel, from economic ties to
cultural, security, and political relations must be reversed. The EU
represents a core strategic market of legitimacy and political economic
reinforcement of Israel and as such its capacity to commit crimes against
humanity, with impunity.

We can cut this tie, we can halt this decision which if approved this
April, will empower Israel further, bring it closer to the ‘community of
nations’ of the EU, and give a green light for further terror and crimes
against humanity be inflicted upon the Palestinian people. This is a
decision which has not yet been ratified. We can influence that which
hasn’t happened yet.

There are concrete steps that people can take, learning from the lessons
of the first Intifada and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign
to dismantle the South African Apartheid regime. Strategies of popular
resistance, strikes, occupations, direct actions. From the streets into
the offices, factories and headquarters is where we need to take this
fight, to the heart of decision-makers that are supposedly making
decisions on our behalf and the companies making a killing out of the
occupation. The third intifada needs to be a global intifada.

-----
Ewa Jasiewicz is an experienced journalist, community and union organizer,
and solidarity worker. She is currently Gaza Project Co-coordinator for
the Free Gaza Movement.
http://www.FreeGaza.org

Palestinians Will Never Forget

'Palestinians will not forget this, as they have not forgotten the past 60 years.' (AFP)

By Susan Abulhawa How can anyone watching Gaza burn escape the bitter realization that history repeats itself? Many have compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to Apartheid South Africa.  But not in their cruelest hour did the Apartheid regime wreak such wanton murder and destruction. Let us stop mincing words. What is happening to Palestinians now whispers of Warsaw and Lodz. Schools, universities, mosques, police stations, homes, water treatment plants, factories, and anything that supports civil society, including the only mental health clinic in Gaza, have been blown to rubble from planes that rain death from clear skies without any resistance, because Palestinians have no opposing air force. Nor do they have an army or navy. No mechanized armor or heavy weaponry. Thanks to Israel, they haven’t even had continuous electricity or fuel for the past two years. Or food and medicine. Israel’s siege and blockade of Gaza has prevented the movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza, including the import of the most basic goods necessary for survival.  A recent study by the Red Cross showed that 46 percent of Gazan children suffer from anemia. Malnutrition affects 75 percent of Gaza’s population, half of whom are under the age of 17. There has been widespread deafness among children due to Israel’s intentional and frequent sonic booms from low overflights. An alarming number have stunted growth and serious mental disorders due lack of food. The only way they have been able to survive thus far has been due to the tunnels that smuggle food and goods from Egypt.  Half of Gazan children under 12 have lost their “will to live.” Can anyone fathom the kind of oppression that leads small children en mass to lose their will to live?  This is what Israel has done to Gaza over the past two years. They ghettoized Gaza and turned it into an open air prison – a concentration camp of civilians with no way to earn a living, no way to defend themselves and no place to run from the slaughter bombarding them from air, land, and sea. From the white phosphorous disemboweling young and old alike. But Gazans dared to try to resist with pathetic homemade rockets that, until Israel’s barbaric attack, generally landed in open desert. The rockets were mostly symbolic of resistance, very much like the fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. But who would have called on a ceasefire there, in 1943, for “both parties” to “cease the violence”? Who would have blamed the Ghetto fighters for their ultimate fate? Who would say they had no right to resist? No right to fight back?   Just as Nazis gave Jews only the right to die silently, Israel starves and besieges Palestinians, giving them only that same right. Just as the Warsaw Ghetto was blown to rubble, Gaza is left to burn in an inferno, its hospitals bursting with the puss of death and unspeakable wounds. The entire population of Gaza is terrorized and traumatized. No one is spared the insecurity and fear. Imagine, please, that you are a Gazan.  What have Palestinians done to deserve such a fate? To be endlessly hunted like animals? To have their homes demolished, their ancient history and heritage cast into forgotten space? To languish in refugee camps and slums, while Jews from all corners of the earth flock to fill their confiscated homes and farms? To be tortured, imprisoned, and denied in every conceivable way?  What have we done that leaders will not speak against this massive and cold aggression against our people? With what logic do you call Palestinians terrorists when their streets flow with the blood of their own children? When they have been stripped naked of possessions, dignity and hope? Why?  Because they elected Hamas? Hamas has held power for less than two years. Yet, Palestinians have suffered this kind of slaughter for 61 years. Whether now in Gaza, in 2002 in Jenin, in 1947 and 1948 in Deir Yasin, Balad el-Sha, Yehida, Tantura, and the list goes on. Or 1982 in Sabra and Shatila.  Palestinians are killed as if insects not because of Hamas or Yasser Arafat before them. Not because of Qassasm rockets or hand thrown rocks. Palestinians burn and bleed because they are the non-Jewish natives of that land. There is no other reason. Just like Jews were killed for being Jewish. Palestinians are killed for being the Muslims and Christians who hold historic, legal and even genetic title to that land.   But unlike Jews of Europe, Palestinians are killed slowly over decades. Unlike Israel, Nazi Germany did not establish such an effective global propaganda machine that would demonize its victims and blame them for their own ghastly fate. But most importantly, like the fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto, Palestinians do not march like mice to their death.  In six decades of enduring unspeakable oppression, their will has not been broken. Now is no exception. Israel, and the United States with its unconditional support, will only succeed in radicalizing a whole new generation of its victims. Of revving world hatred and resentment against this unholy duo.  Palestinians will not forget this, as they have not forgotten the past 60 years. But what will you remember a week or a year or a decade from now, when a Gazan, who stood before the long rows of corpses and vowed vengeance, creates your 9-11?  When one of those few million children without a will to live straps on a belt that rips through your daily routine? Will you remember what we did to them?  - Susan Abulhawa is the author of The Scar of David, www.scarofdavid.com, and founder of Playgrounds for Palestine, www.playgroundsforpalestine.org. She contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.