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

Lift Travel Restrictions on Palestinian Journalist

SIGN THE PETITION

To:  Israeli and Palestinian Authorities  -Palestinian journalist Khalid Amayreh, who lives in the West Bank, has been invited to attend a media conference in Germany. As required, he set about to request all of the necessary travel documents, including a visa that needs to be granted from the German representative office in Ramallah. After routine questioning regarding his political affiliations, it was not only determined that he was not a member of any party, nor formally associated with any organisation, but it was clear that he had never been arrested or detained by Israeli authorities. Mr Amayreh was granted an entry visa to Germany. However, the Israeli military authorities have refused to give him a permit to leave the West Bank. No Palestinian can travel abroad without receiving such a permit beforehand, otherwise he or she would be turned back once arriving at the Israeli-controlled border terminal at the Allenby Bridge.

Mr Amayreh then went to his local District Coordination Office in Dura, where he was informed that his information was forwarded to the Shin Bet (General Security Services) of the Israeli government. Then two days later, the GSS informed the Palestinian office that Amayreh was “barred from leaving the West Bank for security reasons.” No further explanation was given.

His fortune in obtaining the required travel permission did not change as he applied to the Civil Administration Headquarters in Hebron, a metallic pen holding persons seeking the mandatory permission even to go to East Jerusalem for medical treatment, where it is not unusual to find them huddled and waiting their turn for ten or more hours, under the watchful eye of Israeli military watchtowers.

The Palestinian Civil Affairs Coordination Office in the West Bank was also unable to mediate on his behalf, as they too are entirely dependent upon the decisions, without clarification, evidence or justification, made by the Israeli Security division.

There is indeed no justification for the violation of this man’s civil and human rights, and along with him, the rights of all others who are denied freedom of movement with no justification whatsoever. The Occupation authorities, while they have no sovereignty over citizens of the Palestinian Authority, dictate what must be done with those citizens and the world seems to consider the violation of their rights acceptable and normal praxis. These people are not pawns on a chessboard, but are individuals who seek the basic liberties that all democracies are obligated to provide for their people. The Palestinian Authority does not exercise its duty of guaranteeing civil liberties to its own citizens, and treats them as if they shall be subject to the whims of the Occupier.

We ask for the immediate revision of the decision regarding Mr Amayreh, so that he is granted the documents necessary for him to exercise his freedom of movement allowing him to continue to provide for himself and his family in the work that he is employed in, as well as for the Palestinian Authority to assume a position that sets the freedoms of its citizens as a priority that is greater than the perceived “security” risks declared by the agency of the State of Israel.http://www.petitiononline.com/k1h2a3l4/petition.html

WRITTEN BY JAY KNOTT

Who could fail to be against fascism, the movement which drove Germany and Italy in World War II, which culminated in the murder of millions of civilians in concentration camps? But anti-fascism implies a lot more than simply being opposed to fascism

1. Before World War II, anti-fascism was used to persuade the working class to unite with the left wing of the capitalist state against its right wing opponents. This led to the Spanish Civil War. If the left had won, Spain would have become a puppet of Russia, but the most enthusiastic recruiting sergeants for the capitalist war effort were anarchists, and its best opponents were a group of Italian Marxist-Leninists.

2. During the war, anti-fascism was used to recruit working class people to die by the millions for the interests of the Russian and American ruling classes.

3. After the war, anti-fascism was the hypocritical standard by which the war crimes of the Allies were covered up, by emphasizing those of the losers.

4. Today, it exaggerates the importance of right-wing extremists, whereas the police are the main enemies of black people.

5. Anti-fascism is used to weaken opposition to Israel.

It is illogical to support Israel because of the Nazi holocaust. That is the point of this leaflet - not just to repeat once more the fact that the Allies committed crimes comparable to those of the Axis, the fact that murdering people by bombing them is just as bad as putting them in gas chambers, and that the treatment of German women by the Russian Army rivals anything done by the Nazis. If anti-fascism was always an ideology, today it is a neurosis. On the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army, the prime minister of Israel made a speech explicitly stating that, if you oppose the murder of Jews, you must support Israel.

This nonsense is embedded in the emotions of millions of people, especially in the USA. The media consistently refers to the Nazi attempt to wipe out the Jews as ‘The’ Holocaust, a gratuitous insult to the survivors of numerous other such crimes. Even within the Nazi holocaust, other victims are generally forgotten - gypsies, gays, Poles, Russians and millions of German opponents of Hitler also died.

The growing number of holocaust museums in the USA, instead of remembering the murder and enslavement of millions of Africans and indigenous people, are almost exclusively dedicated to a crime committed by another country. The media and US leaders frequently talk of a ‘rise in anti-semitism’ in Europe. What they mean, of course, is a rise in opposition to Israel. Why do politicians from more powerful countries grovel to Israel? It cannot be explained by reference to their material class interests. They recently travelled to Israel to pay homage at the new holocaust museum, which is within sight of Deir Yassin, site of a major Zionist massacre in 1948. The message is clear: it is worse to kill Jews than other people. The constant reiteration of the uniquely evil nature of the Nazi crimes against Jews contributes to this message on a subliminal level. The left-wing Anti-Nazi League does as much to concentrate solely on these crimes, and de-emphasize other, similar crimes, as does the right-wing Anti-Defamation League.

It is arguable that the German holocaust was quantitatively the worst single crime in history, for its scale, its efficiency, its deliberateness, and its lasting consequences. One can believe this without accepting anti-fascism. But how can any sane person claim that German crimes were qualitatively different from those of America, Britain and Russia, which included burning cities to the ground using conventional and nuclear weapons, the murder of prisoners, ethnic cleansing, and mass rape? Yet this is effectively what we are being told, not only by the media, but by left wing anti-fascists. Anti-fascism means rejecting the view that the two sides in World War II were more-or-less equivalent. It means defending the official line that the Axis side was much worse; that murdering German and Japanese people is nowhere near as bad as murdering Jews. There is no point in anti-fascists saying they oppose Allied war crimes as well as those of Germany and its allies. If that were true, they would not be specifically anti-fascist.

Left wing writer Ward Churchill’s controversial On the Justice of Roosting Chickens unwittingly exposes the contradictions of anti-fascism. Given that Germans were responsible for the crimes of the Nazis, he argues, Americans are responsible for the crimes of their rulers, so they can’t complain about September 11th. Churchill takes anti-fascism to its logical conclusion; but its widespread influence has nothing to do with logic. Many people agree, on a rational level, with the contents of this leaflet, but will still act as if they do not. People who are capable of opposing the dominant society in every other way, half-believe that attempting to oppose Israel’s influence would be a sign of anti-semitism. San Francisco Indymedia collective censored contributions containing the word ‘Zionazi’ from its website, though this word is clearly a critique of a political ideology, not of an ethnic group. No other political movement is given such deference. The Zionist guilt trip is particularly effective at weakening the substantial radical milieu in Germany. There was some resistance to distributing this leaflet via the usual channels because of this guilt complex.

We need to reject guilt and victim politics

Morality, identity with victims, is endemic to Christian civilization. Produce a victim, and rational scepticism goes out the window. In the nineteen-twenties, German psychoanalyst Willhelm Reich asked why masses of people supported fascism, clearly against their own interests. Today, we should try to answer the same question about anti-fascism. The next step is to reject the political correctness which led Indymedia to censor critics of Israel. It is clear that opposing US policies in the Middle East involves opposing its relationship to Israel. The collapse of the war effort in Iraq is the best opportunity for the class struggle on the home front since the seventies, but this opportunity is being missed.

Notes

1. A critique of anti-fascism in the Spanish Civil War: www.spunk.org/library/antifasc/sp000833.html

2. The Destruction of Dresden, by David Irving: www.fpp.co.uk/books/Dresden

Some will be more upset that we have included this link to the site of ‘holocaust revisionist’ Irving than they are about the subject of the book - the massacre of the population of the German city of Dresden by Allied bombers in 1945.

3. Anyone who doubts that there was little to choose between the two sides on the Eastern Front should read this article about the Red Army’s invasion of Germany: www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,707835,00.html

4. On the Justice of Roosting Chickens, Ward Churchill, AK Press, 2003

5. The Mass Psychology of Fascism, Wilhelm Reich, Sexpol Verlag, 1933

6. The War for Palestine, eds. Rogan and Shlaim, Cambridge 2001

www.againstsleepandnightmare.com

 

Original Article:

http://palestinethinktank.com/2008/05/22/the-mass-psychology-of-anti-fascism/

And first of all they took away the Gypsies

And I was happy, because they were pilfering

 

Then they took away the Jews

And I didn’t spoke, because I thought they were odious

 

Then they took away the Homosexuals

And I felt relief, because they were annoying

 

Then they took away the Comunists

And I didn’t say anything, because I wasn’t communist

 

One day they come to take away Myself

And there was no one left to protest for me

 

Bertold Brecht

this translation is made by myself, so it may be not as accurate as this poem deserves to be

How can I be useful,  

of what service can I be?

There is something inside me,

what can it be?

Vincent Van Gogh

 

Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and without fearing to understand things that clash with their customs, privileges, or beliefs. This state of mind is not common, but it is essential for right thinking; where it is absent, discussion is apt to become worse than useless.

 

Leo Tolstoy, (1828-1910), On Life and Essays on Religion

  

 

Don’t steal this pic, don’t repost. http://www.villejuurikkala.com

Salim Nazzal - When we returned back to Palestine

By Mary Rizzo • May 15th, 2008 at 8:00 • Category: Children's Corner, Culture and Heritage, Israel, Palestine, Somoud: Arab Voices of Resistance, Uprooted Palestinians' Testimonies, Zionism

While as a nation moving towards commemorating the Nakba day each Palestinian has a story about that day. Among the Palestinians in Lebanon in the sixties the tradition was to raise black flags to commemorate the 15th of May and people stay at home to tell new generations what happened to them in 1948.

On the 14th of May teachers used to devote the last two hours to tell pupils about the events of that period and how they lived it. We the pupils of that period would hear many stories of how Zionist terror organizations attacked their villages and pushed them to move on foot until they reach the Lebanese borders. Teachers told us stories about the resistance which the villagers with their limited resources showed to the invading Zionist terror organizations, and also about the tragedy which occurred in various places in Palestine.

There was a particular teacher whose account was particularly vivid. He was perhaps the only teacher who did not only tell of the brutality of the Zionist organizations but was critical of our ways of resisting the Zionist project. He went further and analyzed cultural and social patterns in the Palestinian culture in his efforts to understand what was wrong with us that we lost our homeland. Even though it was not always easy to understand what he said, he was the first teacher who told us not to be satisfied with the current culture which blames the Arab regimes alone for the failure of keeping Palestine. However from him I heard the first time the words that even if we are out of Palestine, Palestine is not out of us - words which I have repeated many times in my life.

Only once was the commemoration of that day totally different from others. One morning our headmaster along with a Lebanese army officer told us that they would take us to see Palestine. The school was electrified at the news. The younger pupils went to the older pupils to hear from them further details about the exiting trip. Our excitement increased when we saw the Lebanese army carriers had arrived to take us to the border area.

As we approached the border we experienced a feeling we had never experienced before as all of us were born outside Palestine. When we reached the furthest point of the border they informed us that we could go few meters inside Palestine. It was the first time I walked on the soil of Palestine, in the Galilee area which I had been told about innumerable times. Just a few kilometers from there lay the village of Bassa and further still the villages and cities of the Galilee, Nazareth, Tiberius, and Safad.
Most of the children began to cry, and one of the teachers who tried to calm down us was also crying. Then the pupils began to collect Palestinian soil to bring back to their families.

Several years later I heard for the first time the idea of marching peacefully towards Palestine. The idea was proposed by one of my acquaintances. Many did not take his idea seriously and down played it. Yet I still remember his enthusiasm when he said we would march to our home - men, woman and kids - and if the Israelis shoot and kill we must continue marching towards our villages. Today the idea is being proposed by some Palestinian politicians. The Israeli media used the term “invasion” in order to associate this with violence. Yet the fact is when Palestinians march towards their villages they are not invading for the simple reason that nobody can invade his home country.

Moreover, the peaceful march towards Palestine is carrying the title of peace and coexistence between Palestinians and Israel, and must open Israeli eyes towards new horizons for peace and coexistence in Palestine. I think the idea is great and deserves to be studied deeply not only as part of commemorating the Nakba day but also as part of the Palestinian strategy to restore the Palestinian rights. It would permit Palestinians to implement UN resolution 149 peacefully; it would help in redefining the conflict in its historical dimension, as a conflict between the native Palestinians and the east European settlers. In recent days when I heard that 100,000 Palestinians in Lebanon will march on the 15th of May towards the border area with Palestine, I remember the time when we returned back and went a few meters into Palestine, yet it was a great moment because it gave us hope that the bell of return will ring one day in Palestine.

Originally published in Friends of Lebanon

*** Dr. Salim Nazzal, a Palestinian-Norwegian historian on the Middle East, was born and raised in Lebanon.  He has written extensively on social and political issues in the region. He can be contacted at: snazzal5@gmail.com


http://palestinethinktank.com/2008/05/15/salim-nazzal-when-we-returned-back-to-palestine/

Gaza: The children killed in a war the world doesn't want to know about

Donald Macintyre

Rafah, May 14, 2008 Nayef Abu Snaima says his 14-year-old cousin Jihad had been sitting on the edge of an olive grove talking animatedly to him about what he would do when he grew up when he was killed instantly by an Israeli shell. He says he clearly saw a bright flash next to the control tower of the disused Gaza international airport, occupied by Israeli forces after Cpl Gilad Shalit was seized by militants on 25 June. "I went two or three steps and the missile landed," said Nayef, 24. "I thought I was dying. I shouted 'La Ilaha Ila Allah' [There is no God but Allah]." When Jihad's older brother Kassem, 20, arrived at the scene: "My brother was already dead. There was shrapnel in his head. Nayef was shouting 'Allah, Allah'. The missile landed about four metres from where Jihad had been standing. There was shrapnel in his body as well, his legs, everything. He had been bleeding a lot everywhere." Jihad Abu Snaima was just the most recent of more than 37 children and teenagers under 18 killed [out of a total death toll, including militants, of 228] in the operations mounted by the Israeli military in Gaza since 25 June, according to figures from the Palestinian Centre of Human Rights (PCHR). Of these, the PCHR classifies 151 as "civilian", although beside non-combatants and bystanders, that total also includes militants or faction members not involved in operations against Israel at the time ­ for example those deliberately targeted in Israeli air strikes because of their involvement in previous attacks. The Israel Defence Forces have always maintained that being under 18 does not automatically exclude a person from taking part in action against them. The conflict in Gaza has attracted relatively little international attention, not least because for five weeks it was overshadowed by that in Lebanon. But the death toll has continued to rise. Nayef, who was speaking from his hospital bed, has multiple shrapnel-inflicted cuts on his plaster-covered arms and legs. But he was lucky compared with Jihad. A school caretaker with a five-year-old daughter, Nayef insists the evening of Jihad's death was just a family get-together. It is normal, he said, in this Bedouin community in the Al Shouka hamlet outside the southernmost Gaza town of Rafah to socialise at each other's homes on a summer evening, and that he and Jihad were especially close. "I was always with him. He was an innocent person, kind. He was talking to me about how he was going to inherit part of his father's land and farm it and how he was going to get married and stay here." Nayef added tearfully: "He was a boy who had hopes. He wanted to live his life." He added: "What is my daughter going to think? She is going to grow up hating the Israelis." The family say there was no shelling in the area at the time either before or after the incident; and that they therefore presume Jihad and Nayef were targeted by a tank crew. They insist there was no activity by militants against Israeli positions on the day of the attack. "This is an open area," said Nayef. "The resistance would not go there because they would be seen." By contrast, the Israel Defence Forces said, without specifying Al Shouka, that on 10 September it had identified and hit "two men" moving near its forces in southern Gaza crouching on the ground, and " apparently planting explosives". Nayef is adamant that on the night in question he and Jihad were merely pausing on an evening stroll to his own house. The PCHR, which seeks to monitor every violent Palestinian death, does not only focus on the Israel-Palestinian conflict. It has, for example, repeatedly condemned the killing and injuring of growing numbers of civilians, also including children, during mounting inter-Palestinian disputes in Gaza; shootings by Palestinian security forces themselves; attacks on Christian churches by Muslims protesting against the Pope; the injury of civilians, including children, by Palestinian-fired Qassam rockets which fall short of targets in Israel; and the kidnapping last month of two Fox TV employees which has deterred journalists from visiting Gaza. But Hamdi Shaqqura of PCHR's Gaza office ­ which accuses Israel of using repeated closures and destruction of the power supply to operate a policy of "collective punishment" in breach of international law in Gaza, argues that the excuse of "collateral damage" cannot justify the "very high" death toll in the operations since 15 June. He adds: " Israel's forces have been acting excessively and disproportionately, and this explains the high figures for the number of innocent civilians killed by them." At the other, northern end of Gaza, close to the al-Nada apartment blocks between Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya, Aref Abu Qaida, 16, was killed by an artillery shell on 1 August. Sharif Harafin, 15, said: "We had been playing football and we had just finished. I was carrying the ball. I was going to my home, and [Aref] was going to his home. I heard a loud boom and then I saw him cut to pieces." As his family displayed Aref's shredded red baseball cap, Sharif said he saw his friend's severed head on the ground, adding: "His chest was torn out by the rocket. People were collecting parts of his body. I was crying a lot." The IDF says that on 1 August it had fired and hit "a number of Palestinians" in "the area of Beit Lahiya" who had " approached a number of rocket launchers placed in the area". Both PCHR and local residents, including Mohammed Abu Qaida, 39, the dead boy's uncle, say that, while three other civilians were wounded, the only other death in this incident was that of Mervat Sharekh, 24, a woman who was visiting relatives from Rafah and who died in hospital an hour later. Although the area had been shelled before, and some residents had fled in response to Israeli warnings the previous week, Mr Abu Qaida said the area had been quiet on the day ­ except that Qassam rockets had been fired about four hours earlier from northern settlements more than a kilometre away from the flats. The IDF said last night that, of those killed in Gaza, it had the " positive identities of over 220 gunmen killed in fighting, and can confirm their affiliation with terror organisations". The 220 figure ­ said to be "unbelievable" by Mr Shaqqura ­ coupled with another 20 dead which the military acknowledges as genuine civilians, is all the more strikingly at variance with PCHR figures since it produces a total exceeding the centre's own records. Mr Shaqqura said that, at the absolute minimum, the IDF figures do not take into account the casualties under 18 ­ which PCHR estimates at 44 and from which he said every effort is made to exclude the "rare" teenagers with militant connections ­ or eight women killed since 25 June. " We do not believe their figures. We do not believe their investigations." The IDF said: "Since the abduction of Cpl Gilad Shalit by the Hamas and PRC terror organisations, the IDF has been operating in the Gaza Strip against terrorist infrastructure and in order to secure the release of Cpl Shalit. In the course of the operations, the IDF engaged in intense fighting with Palestinian gunmen, who chose heavily populated areas as their battlegrounds. The IDF takes every measure to prevent harm to civilians, often at a risk to its soldiers." The forgotten war in the Middle East * 25 June: Palestinian gunmen from the Hamas-linked Izzedine al-Qassam brigades cross from Gaza into Israel and launch a raid on an Israeli military patrol. Two Israeli soldiers are killed, four wounded and one, Cpl Gilad Shalit, is captured and taken back into Gaza. * 28 June: Israel masses troops before launching a reoccupation of the Gaza Strip under the codename Operation Summer Rains. Civilian casualties mount as Israeli forces search the Khan Younis refugee camp for Cpl Shalit. * 12 July: Mimicking the tactics of Palestinian militants, Hizbollah launches mortars and rockets into northern Israel from southern Lebanon to divert attention from a cross-border raid that ambushes an Israeli military patrol, killing three soldiers and capturing two others. The raid threatens to draw the whole Middle East into conflict. * 13 July: International attention is diverted from Gaza as Israel launches a full military invasion of southern Lebanon in response to Hizbollah's attack. The mounting civilian death toll across Gaza pales in comparison to Lebanon as Israeli jets pummel infrastructure. * 24 July: As world powers frantically search for a UN-backed ceasefire in Lebanon, Israel increases its bombardment of the Gaza Strip in an attempt to force Palestinian militants to release Cpl Shalit. Under the codename Operation Samson's Pillars, Israeli jets pound Gaza's roads and buildings, including the power station. * 14 August: UN approves a ceasefire for Lebanon after four weeks of fighting which has left approximately 1,500 Lebanese and 150 Israelis dead. International community continues to ignore the conflict in Gaza over fears that Lebanon could slip back into warfare unless a UN peacekeeping force arrives in the region. * Mid-August-present: Israel continues to carry out air strikes and raids in Gaza. At least 33 civilians have been killed since the beginning of August, 10 of whom were under the age of 18. Names of children under the age of 18 killed during the operations mounted by the Israeli military in Gaza since 25 June, according to the Palestinian Centre of Human Rights Bara Nasser Habib, 3 (hit by shrapnel to the head and body, Gaza City, 26 July) Shahed Saleh Al-Sheikh Eid, 3 days old (bled to death after airstrike, Al-Shouka, 4 August) Rajaa Salam Abu Shaban, 3 (died of fractured skull in air raid, Gaza City, 9 August) Jihad Selmi Abu Snaima, 14 (killed by a shell, Al-Shoukha, 10 september) Khaled Nidal Wahba, 15 months (died of wounds from an airstrike, 10 July) Rawan Farid Hajjaj, 6 (killed with his mother and sister in an airstrike, Gaza City, 8 July) Anwar Ismail Abdul Ghani Atallah, 12 (shot in the head, Erez, 5 July) Shadi Yousef Omar 16 (shot in the chest by IDF, Beit Lahya, 7 July) Mahfouth Farid Nuseir, 16 (killed by missile while playing football, Beit Hanoun, 11 July) Ahmad Ghalib Abu Amsha, 16, (killed by missile while playing football, Beit Hanoun, 11 July) Ahmad Fathi Shabat, 16 (killed by missile while playing football, Beit Hanoun, 11 July) Walid Mahmoud El-Zeinati, 12 (died of shrapnel wounds, Gaza City, 11 July) Basma Salmeya, 16 (killed in Israeli airstrike, 12 July, Jabalia) Somaya Salmeya, 17 (killed in Israeli airstrike, 12 July, Jabalia) Aya Salmeya, 9 (killed in Israeli airstrike, Jabalia, 12 July) Yehya Salmeya, 10 (killed in Israeli airstrike, Jabalia, 12 July) Nasr Salmeya, 7 (killed in Israeli airstrike, Jabalia, 12 July) Huda Salmeya, 13 (killed in Israeli airstrike, Jabalia, 12 July) Eman Salmeya, 12 (killed in Israeli airstrike, Jabalia, 12 July) Raji Omar Jaber Daifallah, 16 (died of shrapnel wounds from missile, Gaza City, 13 July) Ali Kamel Al-Najjar, 16 (killed by Israeli tank shell, Al-Maghazi refugee camp, 19 July) Ahmed Ali Al-Na'ami, 16 (killed by Israeli tank shell, Al-Maghazi refugee camp, 19 July) Ahmed Rawhi Abu Abdu, 14 (killed by drone missile, Al Nusairat refugee camp, 19 July) Mohammed 'awad Muhra, 14 (killed by Israeli bullet to the chest, Al-Maghazi refugee camp, 20 July) Fadwa Faisal Al-'arrouqi, 13 (died from shrapnel wounds, Gaza City, 20 July) Saleh Ibrahim Nasser, 14 (killed by artillery fire, Beit Hanoun, 24 July) Khitam Mohammed Rebhi Tayeh, 11 (killed by artillery fire, Beit Hanoun, 24 July) Ashraf 'abdullah 'awad Abu Zaher, 14 (shot in the back, Khan Younis, 25 July) Nahid Mohammed Fawzi Al-Shanbari, 16 (killed by artillery fire, Beit Hanoun, 31 July) 'aaref Ahmed Abu Qaida, 14 (killed by artillery fire, Beit Hanoun, 1 August) Anis Salem Abu Awad, 12 (killed by airstike, Al-Shouka, 2 August) Ammar Rajaa Al-Natour, 17 (killed by drone missile, Al Shouka, 5 August) Kifah Rajaa Al-Natour, 15 (killed by drone missile, Al Shouka, 5 August) Ibrahim Suleiman Al-Rumailat, 13 (killed by drone missile, Al Shouka, 5 August) Ahmed Yousef 'abed 'aashour, 13 (killed by missile fire, Beit Hanoun, 14 August) Mohammed 'abdullah Al-Ziq, 14 (killed by drone missile, Gaza City, 29 August) Nidal 'abdul 'aziz Al-Dahdouh, 14 (killed by rifle fire, Gaza City, 30 August) Jihad Selmi Abu Snaima, 14 (killed by artillery fire, Rafah, 10 September) Sign The Petition http://www.petitiononline.com/etgs1/petition.html

stopthesiegeongaza.blogspot.com/2008/05/gaza-children-killed-in-war-world.html

Siege Hits Palestinians Before They Are Born

Mohammed Omer

It can be a hard life for babies from day one, or even earlier. Credit:Mohammed Omer GAZA CITY, May 14 (IPS) - The Israeli siege of Gaza that has restricted access to food, water and medicine is now beginning to hit unborn children and newborn babies. "Many babies are born suffering from anaemia that they have inherited from their mothers," Dr Salah al-Rantisi, head of the women's health department at the Palestinian ministry of health in Gaza told IPS. And the mothers are becoming anaemic because they do not now get enough nutrition through pregnancy. That in turn happens because the Israeli blockade has choked the supply of food and medicines. Dr al-Rantisi also heads the women's health unit at Nasser hospital, where about 30 to 40 children are born every day. Many suffer from anaemia, he says. Anwaar Abu Daqqa, 30, has lost three babies prematurely. The foetuses were malformed as a result of lack of nutrition and medicine for the mother, Dr al-Rantisi said. And in the last case she reached hospital late because she could not find transport. "Premature babies born dangerously underweight is a daily and increasing phenomenon in Gaza's hospitals," he says. The Gaza Strip is poorer and harder hit than the West Bank, but there too there are well documented instances of women having to give birth at checkpoints because of restrictions on movement. The ministry of health says 9,000 to 10,000 babies are born in the Gaza Strip every month. Of every 1,000 born, 28 die from malnutrition, anaemia and other poverty-related causes. The ministry has no figures for surviving babies suffering from malnutrition. "There are many cases of pregnant women who need medicines that are not available in Gaza," al-Rantisi said. Most families could not afford them if they were available, he said. The World Bank said last month that the poverty rate in Gaza is now close to 67 percent and that economic growth last year was zero. One consequence of poverty is anaemia. The condition, a direct consequence of poor nutrition, is not new to Gaza. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) reported in 2002 that 19 percent of Gazans suffer from anaemia. That figure is estimated by UNRWA now to be 77.5 percent. Children receive on average only 61 percent of their daily need of calories from UN supplies. Many of the newly born have been hit by the political situation before they could open their eyes to the world. Of the many deliveries that take place at al-Shifa hospital, the largest in Gaza, no one can tell how many of these children could grow up to live happy and healthy lives. Through the many dangers has arisen awareness of this new one – that sanctions can hit Gazans quite literally prematurely. The fear of bombing comes later; the first dangers are the lack of food, water and medicines. Tahani Safi, 29, lies worrying about the caesarean section scheduled for the next day. She suffers from malnutrition, high blood pressure, diabetes, and a shortage of protective water around the child in the womb. There are many mothers with such difficulties. Such cases can be found at any hospital, but doctors say the number of cases of conditions a result of poor food and medical care in Gaza is now rising. Health authorities have warned that the life and health of countless unborn babies is in serious danger all across Gaza. So far 146 Gazans have died directly as a result of the Israeli siege, and the border closures and shortage of medication and health care this has brought, according to the ministry of health. The U.S. celebrated Mothers Day Sunday May 11. No one in Gaza did. (END/2008) www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42367

FOXBORO HOT TUBS
ON TOUR

May

19th Little Rock, AR Juanita’s Cantina
20th New Orleans, LA One Eyed Jack’s
21st Dallas, TX The Loft
22nd Austin, TX Emo’s
25th Phoenix, AZ The Brick House
26th San Diego, CA Soma (Sidestage)
27th Los Angeles, CA The Roxy
28th Long Beach, CA Alex’s Bar

Tickets for these shows will not be available until the day of the show at the venue box office ONLY.

Tickets will be $20 cash.

There is a two ticket maximum per person. No cameras and cell phones are for squares!

No man is an island, entire of itself;

every man is a piece of the continent,

a part of the main....

Any man's death diminishes me,

because I am involved in mankind.

And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;

it tolls for thee

                                                                










Don’t copy this image, don’t repost without permission: http://www.villejuurikkala.com

If you’re the death – 

what’s the reason why you’re crying yourself?

If you’re the joy – 

then a joy like this doesn’t exist.





A Poem By Anna Achmatova

Don't copy this image, it's a creation of Ville Akseli Juurikkala: http://www.villejuurikkala.com

Dear people of the world and the United Nations Organization,

 

We, the undersigned, regretfully have to inform all the inhabitants of our planet earth that one of the greatest parts of the historical heritage of human race is one the verge of permanent extinction. The Islamic Republic of Iran ha embarked on the finalizing stages of a dam construction in south Iran that ultimately drown the archeological sites of Pasargad and Persepolice, the ancient capital of the Achemenian Empire – a rich and complex site that, since its inception, has been considered by all writers of antiquity as one of the wonders of the ancient world and, thus, a part of the cultural heritage of the human race.

 

The Site of Persepolis, the great capital city of the Achemenian Empire

Comparing to the destruction of two Buddha statues in Afghanistan by the Talibans, this new treat and its consequent loss is beyond any imaginable destruction that have been inflicted on the history of the world. Although these glorious remainders of the Iranian history are a part of this nation’s historical identity, their loss is not by any means confined to them. That is to say, it is not only the Iranian nation that would be deprived of the most important part of its cultural identity; it is the world history that is in danger.

The Mausoleum of Cyrus The Great in Pasargad

Considering only one fact could convey a powerful message to all of us. Amongst the sites that are threatened to be wiped from the face of the earth lies the tomb of Cyrus the Great, the Achamenian king of 2500 years ago who, in his unification of political systems, brought freedom to all those nations that lived under his lead through his “Declaration of Human Rights”. In fact, he is considered as the first human being in power who has advocated for the right of humans to choose and adhere to their values, cultures, religious creeds and trains of thought. A replica of the cylinder of his declaration is now exhibited in the UN building to symbolize the long efforts of our race to exit from the savagery of the animal kingdom and enter into the man-made civilized world. It is the tomb of this father of human rights that is being erased amongst many other historical monuments.

 

Pasargad: the water is near to submerge Cyrus the Great's tomb

We call upon the conscious of all human beings and caution them about this immanent threat that is shadowing over an ancient country, culture and history. We need to see the immediate action of all world organizations, especially the United Nations and its cultural wings such as UNESCO, to step in and stop this inhumane cruelty to such precious heritages of our human race. We need to see immediate action and will follow our petition in any venues that are opened to us. Accordingly, we are setting up an “International Committee to Save the Archeological Sites of Pasargad” and invite every body to join it. We have to remember this: If the civilized world does not stop such a horrendous action of the forces of destruction now, we will soon lose everything that our civilization has created.

 

You can sign online. We sincerely appreciate if you ask your friends and family to sign and ask them to pass it on to others to sign.

 

www.awti.org

http://www.petitiononline.com/Pasargad/petition.html

 

If you need further information please contact: info@awti.org

Internal Committee to Save the Archeological Sites of Pasargad

 

 

We are responsible for the future and subsequent generations. It is our respondibility to preserve for our children and grandchildren what has been passed on to us by our ancestors.

 

With the flooding of the Sivand Dam, parts of Bolaghi Valley will be submerged and with it so will the remains of Iranian history from the pre-Achemenid era to the Arab invasion. In addition, the moisture from the water reservoir will damage the fragile remains of Pasargad which are made of limestone.

 

The reports about Pasargad and the dangers that it faces because of the Sivand Dam are contradictory. What is certain is that the moisture and humidity after the creation of the lake of the Bolaghi George will cause damage to the remains of Pasargad in the long-term. Does it make sense to invest in repairs and renovations of Pasargad on the one hand, and on the other, build a structure that will eventually harm that site? Can we handle the responsibility of such significant damages in the future?

 

Further, it is impossible for the teams of international archeologists to save and analyze all the ancient sites around the Bolaghi George by the time the Sivand Dam is to be used. But even if they could, isn’t it enough that with the drowning of the Bolaghi George, the King’s Road crossed by our ancestors for centuries and personally used by Darius the Great will also be gone forever? In our opinion, the ancient road used by Iranian men and women, who built Iran, is worth saving and preserving.