Targeting Israel With Boycotts, Divestment, Sanctions, And Prosecutions
By Stephen Lendman 2-25-9
Enough is enough. After 61 years of Palestinian slaughter, displacement, occupation, oppression, and international dismissiveness and complicity, global action is essential. Israel must be held accountable. World leaders won't do it, so grassroots movements must lead the way.
In 2004, Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote:
"The end of apartheid stands as one of the crowning accomplishments of the past century, but we would not have succeeded without the help of international pressure - in particular the divestment movement of the 1980s. Over the past six months, a similar movement has taken shape, this time aiming at an end to the Israeli occupation."
In July 2008, 21 South African activists, including ANC members, visited Israel and Occupied Palestine. Their conclusion was unanimous. Israel is far worse than apartheid as former Deputy Minister of Health and current MP Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge explained:
"What I see here is worse than what we experienced - the absolute control of people's lives, the lack of freedom of movement, the army presence everywhere, the total separation and the extensive destruction we saw....racist ideology is also reinforced by religion, which was not the case in South Africa."
Sunday Times editor, Mondli Makhanya, went further: "When you observe from afar you know that things are bad, but you do not know how bad. Nothing can prepare you for the evil we have seen here. It is worse, worse, worse than everything we endured. The level of apartheid, the racism and the brutality are worse than the worst period of apartheid."
Activist Opposition to a Fundamentally Evil Occupation
In July 2005, a coalition of 171 Palestinian Civil Society organizations created the global BDS movement - for "Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel Until it Complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights" for Occupied Palestinians, Israeli Arabs, and Palestinian diaspora refugees.
Since 1948, hundreds of UN resolutions condemned Israel's colonial occupation, its decades of discriminatory policies, illegal land seizures and settlements, international law violations, and oppression of a civilian population, and called for remedial action.
Nothing so far has worked. Palestine remains occupied. Its people continue to suffer. Their human rights are denied. These abuses no longer can be tolerated. In solidarity, people of conscience demand justice and "call upon international civil society organizations and (supporters everywhere) to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to (apartheid) South Africa." Pressure is needed for "embargoes and sanctions....for the sake of justice and genuine peace."
Nonviolent punitive measures should continue until Israel:
-- recognizes Palestinian rights to self-determination;
-- respects international law;
-- ends its illegal occupation;
-- dismantles its Separation Wall;
-- grants Israeli Arabs equal rights as Jews; and
-- complies with UN resolution 194 affirming the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and property or be fully compensated for loss or damage if they prefer.
Click here: http://www.rense.com/general85/targg.htm to read more.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Israel lobbies for war on Iran
Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:42:10 GMT
Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak urges Washington to consider "other alternatives" vis-a-vis Iran's nuclear issue.Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak says he advocates a war on Iran, following the country's successful test-runs at the Bushehr power plant.
Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:42:10 GMT
Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak urges Washington to consider "other alternatives" vis-a-vis Iran's nuclear issue.Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak says he advocates a war on Iran, following the country's successful test-runs at the Bushehr power plant.
Tehran edged closer towards the final launch of a light-water reactor in the southern port of Bushehr on Wednesday, after it staged pre-commission operations at the 1000-megawatt reactor. Simulated fuel rods made of lead were reportedly used instead of virtual nuclear fuel in the pilot operation, which was launched in the presence of Iranian and Russian dignitaries -- including Russian nuclear agency chief Sergei Kiriyenko. While the incident was hailed in Iran as a huge leap in the construction of the country's first power reactor, the test-run immediately raised hackles in Israel. In a direct reference to a possible military option, Barak urged Washington to consider "alternatives other than tougher sanctions" as a means to prevent a breakthrough in Iran's uranium enrichment. "We believe the continuation of the Iranian atomic project is a potential danger for the existence of the state of Israel. Our position is clear. Sanctions are necessary but Israel does not rule out any option and suggests other countries do the same," Barak said Wednesday, AFP reported.
Tel Aviv continues to accuse Tehran of making preparations for a nuclear weapons program, calling on the Islamic Republic to halt its uranium enrichment program. Iran, however, says its enrichment program is a peaceful drive to produce nuclear energy. The UN nuclear watchdog recently affirmed that the Islamic Republic is far from "a breakout capacity" to produce a bomb, "we think they (Iranians) are not there," said an IAEA official.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Amnesty urges UN to ban arms to Israel and Hamas - 23 Feb 09
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JtcvoOwnfE&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JtcvoOwnfE&feature=channel_page
Gaza and Antonio Caso – A Poem
By Andrea Allamb
(Antonio Caso was a Mexican philosopher who died in 1946, and was a friend of the poet Octavio Paz.)
Antonio Caso warned us of this, in the language of the beautiful other –la existencia como economía, implies the use of people as means,entirely for self interests and gain. In this case are States, under flags of artificial stars,maximum gain with minimum effort, and the States whose mantra is thisare Primitive, so Caso himself explained it.
From his ethereal terraces of beautiful carehe wept at the people’s Catastrophe.Over the horror of Gaza he drapes his monsoon of grief.The Primitive becoming the Barbaric becoming the Ugly, who construct terraces of cement sorrow, fill tea urnswith human feces, destroy the beautiful olive tree.
As faltering wings Caso’s grief shelters the father who crawlsto shield his dead child’s face from the teeth of a hungry cat, while the soldiers of Ugliness take aim as he outwardly stretches twice the full length of his struggling body to protect his slain son’s beauty.It is the barbarian’s game of human cat and mouse.
Seek not beauty in the human face, for it is a light within the heart,whispers the Lebanese poet, and may his words give comfort to Gaza.Heart speaks to heart, deep cries to deep, beauty whispers beauty, truth declares truth,uniting and igniting living languages in lanterned hearts thatbirth the secret language of freedom, shared only by those who struggleto create la existencia como caridad. This thought Antonio also gifted to us, in the language of the beautiful other.
From: http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14853
By Andrea Allamb
(Antonio Caso was a Mexican philosopher who died in 1946, and was a friend of the poet Octavio Paz.)
Antonio Caso warned us of this, in the language of the beautiful other –la existencia como economía, implies the use of people as means,entirely for self interests and gain. In this case are States, under flags of artificial stars,maximum gain with minimum effort, and the States whose mantra is thisare Primitive, so Caso himself explained it.
From his ethereal terraces of beautiful carehe wept at the people’s Catastrophe.Over the horror of Gaza he drapes his monsoon of grief.The Primitive becoming the Barbaric becoming the Ugly, who construct terraces of cement sorrow, fill tea urnswith human feces, destroy the beautiful olive tree.
As faltering wings Caso’s grief shelters the father who crawlsto shield his dead child’s face from the teeth of a hungry cat, while the soldiers of Ugliness take aim as he outwardly stretches twice the full length of his struggling body to protect his slain son’s beauty.It is the barbarian’s game of human cat and mouse.
Seek not beauty in the human face, for it is a light within the heart,whispers the Lebanese poet, and may his words give comfort to Gaza.Heart speaks to heart, deep cries to deep, beauty whispers beauty, truth declares truth,uniting and igniting living languages in lanterned hearts thatbirth the secret language of freedom, shared only by those who struggleto create la existencia como caridad. This thought Antonio also gifted to us, in the language of the beautiful other.
From: http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14853
'Ramallah helped Israel hit Hamas, Gaza'
Hamas accuses the Palestinian Authority of providing Tel Aviv with a map of the locations targeted by the Israeli army during the Gaza War.
"With the help of Google Earth program, those groups prepared maps to local mosques, institutions, tunnels or workshops," said Abu Abdallah, a senior Hamas intelligence officer. The intelligence allegedly included the location of weapon caches, mosques, and tunnels at the Rafah border. The movement also said Ramallah provided Israel with the blueprints of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyah's home, according to AFP. "This information was sent to Ramallah then transmitted to the enemy which hit targets on the basis of this information collected before and during the war," said Ihab al-Ghossein, a spokesman for Hamas' Interior Ministry. "Officers and members of the Ramallah security services in (the West Bank city of) Ramallah tasked their agents with tracking the movements of the resistance in Gaza," Ghossein, said. Israeli warplanes struck hundreds of targets including, mosques, residential homes, schools, hospitals as well as UN compounds and government buildings across the Gaza Strip during its offensive against the populated region. The all-out war which lasted for 23 days claimed over 1,350 Palestinian lives, including more than 400 children
Article from: http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=86546§ionid=351020202
Hamas accuses the Palestinian Authority of providing Tel Aviv with a map of the locations targeted by the Israeli army during the Gaza War.
"With the help of Google Earth program, those groups prepared maps to local mosques, institutions, tunnels or workshops," said Abu Abdallah, a senior Hamas intelligence officer. The intelligence allegedly included the location of weapon caches, mosques, and tunnels at the Rafah border. The movement also said Ramallah provided Israel with the blueprints of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyah's home, according to AFP. "This information was sent to Ramallah then transmitted to the enemy which hit targets on the basis of this information collected before and during the war," said Ihab al-Ghossein, a spokesman for Hamas' Interior Ministry. "Officers and members of the Ramallah security services in (the West Bank city of) Ramallah tasked their agents with tracking the movements of the resistance in Gaza," Ghossein, said. Israeli warplanes struck hundreds of targets including, mosques, residential homes, schools, hospitals as well as UN compounds and government buildings across the Gaza Strip during its offensive against the populated region. The all-out war which lasted for 23 days claimed over 1,350 Palestinian lives, including more than 400 children
Article from: http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=86546§ionid=351020202
Lobby Whistles Up Cordesman to "Prove" Israel Waged a Clean War in Gaza
The Cleanser
The Cleanser
By Norman Finkelstein
February 23, 2009 "Counterpunch" -- -Anthony H. Cordesman, a leading military analyst from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, has published a “strategic analysis” of the Gaza massacre.(1) He reaches the remarkable conclusion that “Israel did not violate the laws of war.” The report is based on “briefings in Israeli [sic] during and immediately after the fighting made possible by a visit sponsored by Project Interchange, and using day-to-day reporting issued by the Israeli Defense Spokesman.” Cordesman omits mention that Project Interchange is funded by the American Jewish Committee.
Cordesman’s faith in the pronouncements of Israeli notwithstanding, respected Israeli analysts exhibit less confidence. “The state authorities, including the defense establishment and its branches,” Uzi Benziman observed in Haaretz, “have acquired for themselves a shady reputation when it comes to their credibility.” The “official communiqués published by the IDF have progressively liberated themselves from the constraints of truth,” B. Michael wrote in Yediot Ahronot, and the “heart of the power structure”—police, army, intelligence—has been infected by a “culture of lying.”(2) During the Gaza massacre Israel was repeatedly caught lying among many other things about its use of white phosphorus.(3) Recalling Israel’s train of lies during both the 2006 Lebanon war and the Gaza massacre, Human Rights Watch senior military analyst Marc Garlasco rhetorically asked, “How can anyone trust the Israeli military?”(4)
A chunk of Cordesman’s “strategic analysis” consists of recycling verbatim the daily press releases of the Israeli air force and army spokesmen, which he then dubs “chronologies” of the war. He asserts that these statements provide “considerable insight” and “important insights” into what happened. Some of these statements provide so much insight that he reproduces them multiple times. For example he reiterates over and over again versions of each of these statements: “The IDF will continue operating against terror operatives and anyone involved, including those sponsoring and hosting terrorists, in addition to those that send innocent women and children to be used as human shields”; “The IDF will not hesitate to strike those involved both directly and indirectly in attacks against the citizens of the State of Israel”; “The IDF will continue to operate against Hamas terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip according to plans in order to reduce the rocket fire on the south of Israel”; “IDF Infantry Corps, Armored Corps, Engineering Corps, Artillery Corps and Intelligence Corps forces continued to operate during the night against Hamas terrorist infrastructure throughout the Gaza Strip.”
Cordesman’s faith in the pronouncements of Israeli notwithstanding, respected Israeli analysts exhibit less confidence. “The state authorities, including the defense establishment and its branches,” Uzi Benziman observed in Haaretz, “have acquired for themselves a shady reputation when it comes to their credibility.” The “official communiqués published by the IDF have progressively liberated themselves from the constraints of truth,” B. Michael wrote in Yediot Ahronot, and the “heart of the power structure”—police, army, intelligence—has been infected by a “culture of lying.”(2) During the Gaza massacre Israel was repeatedly caught lying among many other things about its use of white phosphorus.(3) Recalling Israel’s train of lies during both the 2006 Lebanon war and the Gaza massacre, Human Rights Watch senior military analyst Marc Garlasco rhetorically asked, “How can anyone trust the Israeli military?”(4)
A chunk of Cordesman’s “strategic analysis” consists of recycling verbatim the daily press releases of the Israeli air force and army spokesmen, which he then dubs “chronologies” of the war. He asserts that these statements provide “considerable insight” and “important insights” into what happened. Some of these statements provide so much insight that he reproduces them multiple times. For example he reiterates over and over again versions of each of these statements: “The IDF will continue operating against terror operatives and anyone involved, including those sponsoring and hosting terrorists, in addition to those that send innocent women and children to be used as human shields”; “The IDF will not hesitate to strike those involved both directly and indirectly in attacks against the citizens of the State of Israel”; “The IDF will continue to operate against Hamas terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip according to plans in order to reduce the rocket fire on the south of Israel”; “IDF Infantry Corps, Armored Corps, Engineering Corps, Artillery Corps and Intelligence Corps forces continued to operate during the night against Hamas terrorist infrastructure throughout the Gaza Strip.”
Click here: http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22082.htm to read more.
EU-Israel Collusion Against Palestinians?
Feb 22nd, 2009 by kawther.salam
Some days ago I was able to speak with Dr. Tammam Kelani, the President of Arab-Austrian Federation of Doctors and Pharmacists, who had just returned from Germany after participating in a Congress of the Federation of Arab Doctors in Europe. I was thinking to speak with him about the humanitarian conclusions from that congress, in which the participants declared the 28 March 2009 as a day of solidarity with the children of Gaza in all of Europe, and to write about the activities of his association in support of the Palestinians in Gaza affected by the Israeli criminality. But the conversation with the doctor turned out to be far more interesting than what I expected.
Dr. Kelani shocked and surprised me when he accidentally exposed the scandalous collusion of the EU with Israel to keep humanitarian volunteers and medical relief workers and resources donated by private organizations and individuals throughout Europe, out of Gaza. He related to me information which I believed only when he gave me several documents (reproduced below). When I first read these documents I was speechless, because the only allow the conclusion that the EU and its member states are not only passively looking the other way, what is bad enough, but that they are in active collusion with Israel to continue and even aggravate the misery of the Palestinians in Gaza, and that these governments are actively engaged in a campaign of intimidation against their own nationals should they decide to show solidarity with the Palestinian population in Gaza. If these are papers which are being made public, then I must ask, what machinations are being done in secret?
Click here: http://www.kawther.info/wpr/2009/02/22/eu-israel-collusion-against-palestinians to read more.
Feb 22nd, 2009 by kawther.salam
Some days ago I was able to speak with Dr. Tammam Kelani, the President of Arab-Austrian Federation of Doctors and Pharmacists, who had just returned from Germany after participating in a Congress of the Federation of Arab Doctors in Europe. I was thinking to speak with him about the humanitarian conclusions from that congress, in which the participants declared the 28 March 2009 as a day of solidarity with the children of Gaza in all of Europe, and to write about the activities of his association in support of the Palestinians in Gaza affected by the Israeli criminality. But the conversation with the doctor turned out to be far more interesting than what I expected.
Dr. Kelani shocked and surprised me when he accidentally exposed the scandalous collusion of the EU with Israel to keep humanitarian volunteers and medical relief workers and resources donated by private organizations and individuals throughout Europe, out of Gaza. He related to me information which I believed only when he gave me several documents (reproduced below). When I first read these documents I was speechless, because the only allow the conclusion that the EU and its member states are not only passively looking the other way, what is bad enough, but that they are in active collusion with Israel to continue and even aggravate the misery of the Palestinians in Gaza, and that these governments are actively engaged in a campaign of intimidation against their own nationals should they decide to show solidarity with the Palestinian population in Gaza. If these are papers which are being made public, then I must ask, what machinations are being done in secret?
Click here: http://www.kawther.info/wpr/2009/02/22/eu-israel-collusion-against-palestinians to read more.
Global boycott movement marks its successes
Jeff Handmaker, The Electronic Intifada, 20 February 2009
Responding to the many calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, solidarity movements around the world have marked many successes. It is important for human rights advocates to build on this momentum and seize the opportunity to do what is within their power to try and hold Israel accountable for its abuses of human rights and other international laws.Since the initial BDS call by Palestinian intellectuals and academics in October 2003, which was followed by separate calls for sports, arts, economic and other calls for BDS, there has been a seismic shift in the global solidarity movement for human rights in Israel-Palestine. Lawyers, doctors, academics, students, trade unionists, school teachers and many other activists have marked successes around the world. Their efforts are an inspiring reflection of the South African anti-apartheid movement, where BDS was also used very effectively.In first few weeks of 2009 alone, European, North American and South African solidarity movements have made remarkable progress:
+A growing number of politicians in Europe and North America have put forward uncomfortable, probing questions to their governments and clearly want to do more. One example is the "Break the Silence" campaign within the Dutch Labor Party.
+Numerous letters and opinion pieces have been published by prominent figures in major national newspapers, including statement by prominent lawyers and professors published by The Sunday Times on 11 January 2009.
The global "Derail Veolia" campaign has grown in leaps and bounds. An important success was the decision by the Stockholm municipality to cancel an agreement with Veolia Transport, on the basis of its involvement in the Jerusalem light-rail project, to the tune of several billion euros.
+There have been calls for international investigations of war crimes from the UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the UN Human Rights Council, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the head of UNRWA (the UN agency for Palestine refugees) and the UN Secretary General as well as scores of high-profile international lawyers around the world.
Click here: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10319.shtml to read more.
Jeff Handmaker, The Electronic Intifada, 20 February 2009
Responding to the many calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, solidarity movements around the world have marked many successes. It is important for human rights advocates to build on this momentum and seize the opportunity to do what is within their power to try and hold Israel accountable for its abuses of human rights and other international laws.Since the initial BDS call by Palestinian intellectuals and academics in October 2003, which was followed by separate calls for sports, arts, economic and other calls for BDS, there has been a seismic shift in the global solidarity movement for human rights in Israel-Palestine. Lawyers, doctors, academics, students, trade unionists, school teachers and many other activists have marked successes around the world. Their efforts are an inspiring reflection of the South African anti-apartheid movement, where BDS was also used very effectively.In first few weeks of 2009 alone, European, North American and South African solidarity movements have made remarkable progress:
+A growing number of politicians in Europe and North America have put forward uncomfortable, probing questions to their governments and clearly want to do more. One example is the "Break the Silence" campaign within the Dutch Labor Party.
+Numerous letters and opinion pieces have been published by prominent figures in major national newspapers, including statement by prominent lawyers and professors published by The Sunday Times on 11 January 2009.
The global "Derail Veolia" campaign has grown in leaps and bounds. An important success was the decision by the Stockholm municipality to cancel an agreement with Veolia Transport, on the basis of its involvement in the Jerusalem light-rail project, to the tune of several billion euros.
+There have been calls for international investigations of war crimes from the UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the UN Human Rights Council, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the head of UNRWA (the UN agency for Palestine refugees) and the UN Secretary General as well as scores of high-profile international lawyers around the world.
Click here: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10319.shtml to read more.
EU paying for Gaza blockade
David Cronin, The Electronic Intifada, 23 February 2009
BRUSSELS (IPS) - European Union aid has been given to an Israeli oil company which has reduced the supply of fuel to Gaza as part of an economic blockade internationally recognized as illegal, Brussels officials have admitted.Almost 97 million euros (124 million dollars) in funds managed by the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, were handed over directly to the firm Dor Alon between February 2008 and January this year. Under orders from the Israeli authorities, Dor Alon has been rationing the amount of industrial diesel brought into Gaza in order to deprive its 1.5 million inhabitants of electricity. Power cuts have been a regular occurrence in Gaza because of Israeli actions undertaken since the militant party Hamas won an unexpected victory in Palestinian legislative elections during 2006.Charles Shamas from the Mattin Group, an organization based in the West Bank that monitors Europe's relationship with Israel, said that the EU has been helping to accommodate the economic blockade of Gaza. This is despite how the Union's most senior diplomats, including its foreign policy chief Javier Solana and the external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, have condemned the blockade as "collective punishment" of a civilian population. Collective punishment constitutes a war crime, according to the 1949 Geneva convention.
Click here: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10334.shtml to read more.
David Cronin, The Electronic Intifada, 23 February 2009
BRUSSELS (IPS) - European Union aid has been given to an Israeli oil company which has reduced the supply of fuel to Gaza as part of an economic blockade internationally recognized as illegal, Brussels officials have admitted.Almost 97 million euros (124 million dollars) in funds managed by the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, were handed over directly to the firm Dor Alon between February 2008 and January this year. Under orders from the Israeli authorities, Dor Alon has been rationing the amount of industrial diesel brought into Gaza in order to deprive its 1.5 million inhabitants of electricity. Power cuts have been a regular occurrence in Gaza because of Israeli actions undertaken since the militant party Hamas won an unexpected victory in Palestinian legislative elections during 2006.Charles Shamas from the Mattin Group, an organization based in the West Bank that monitors Europe's relationship with Israel, said that the EU has been helping to accommodate the economic blockade of Gaza. This is despite how the Union's most senior diplomats, including its foreign policy chief Javier Solana and the external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, have condemned the blockade as "collective punishment" of a civilian population. Collective punishment constitutes a war crime, according to the 1949 Geneva convention.
Click here: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10334.shtml to read more.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Israeli Bombs inflict more pain on Gaza hospital
Omar Karmi, Foreign Correspondent
February 18. 2009 9:30AM UAE
GAZA CITY // Tareq Dardas remains haunted by the night he, three other doctors, eight nurses and 15 patients thought might be their last.“You can’t imagine what a horrible night that was,” said the general practitioner, who trained eight years in Pakistan and now works at Gaza’s Al Wafa Hospital. “I’ve never been so miserable.”Dr Dardas and his colleagues found themselves pinned down in their hospital, east of Gaza City and near the Israeli border, on the night of Jan 15 by heavy Israeli bombardment for which Dr Dardas said he could think of no explanation. No one was killed or injured in the bombardment, but the hospital sustained significant damage and staff had to evacuate the hospital by carrying patients out in bed sheets when ambulances finally arrived after 10am the next day.
Behind them they left a building with all its windows shattered and a gaping hole in one wall on the second floor, caused by what staff believe was a tank shell. The shell struck just where the large metal letters in the word ‘hospital’ on that side of the building were hung, leaving only the last three. Inside, medical equipment worth US$250,000 (Dh918,000) was destroyed.
Click here: http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090218/FOREIGN/554187121/1140 to read more.
Omar Karmi, Foreign Correspondent
February 18. 2009 9:30AM UAE
GAZA CITY // Tareq Dardas remains haunted by the night he, three other doctors, eight nurses and 15 patients thought might be their last.“You can’t imagine what a horrible night that was,” said the general practitioner, who trained eight years in Pakistan and now works at Gaza’s Al Wafa Hospital. “I’ve never been so miserable.”Dr Dardas and his colleagues found themselves pinned down in their hospital, east of Gaza City and near the Israeli border, on the night of Jan 15 by heavy Israeli bombardment for which Dr Dardas said he could think of no explanation. No one was killed or injured in the bombardment, but the hospital sustained significant damage and staff had to evacuate the hospital by carrying patients out in bed sheets when ambulances finally arrived after 10am the next day.
Behind them they left a building with all its windows shattered and a gaping hole in one wall on the second floor, caused by what staff believe was a tank shell. The shell struck just where the large metal letters in the word ‘hospital’ on that side of the building were hung, leaving only the last three. Inside, medical equipment worth US$250,000 (Dh918,000) was destroyed.
Click here: http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090218/FOREIGN/554187121/1140 to read more.
Sources expose covert Israel war on Iran
Tue, 17 Feb 2009 10:25:37 GMT
Israeli "hits" are meant to deprive Tehran of key technical skills at the heart of the nuclear program, sources say.
The Israeli intelligence agency Mossad has launched covert operations to sabotage Iran's nuclear progress, US intelligence sources reveal.
Israel has commenced a clandestine war against Iran as an alternative to direct military strikes against Tehran's nuclear program, The Daily Telegraph cited US intelligence officials as saying on Monday.
According to the report, Mossad has been using hitmen, sabotage, front companies and double agents in a bid to delay Iran's nuclear research as much as possible.
"Disruption is designed to slow progress on the program, done in such a way that they don't realize what's happening," an unnamed former CIA officer on Iran told the daily.
"The goal is delay, delay, delay until you can come up with some other solution or approach," the official added.
The report also reveals that Mossad operations are not confined to Iran's nuclear program; the agency claims to have collected information on the country's missile sites.
Click here: http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=85901§ionid=351020104 to read more.
Tue, 17 Feb 2009 10:25:37 GMT
Israeli "hits" are meant to deprive Tehran of key technical skills at the heart of the nuclear program, sources say.
The Israeli intelligence agency Mossad has launched covert operations to sabotage Iran's nuclear progress, US intelligence sources reveal.
Israel has commenced a clandestine war against Iran as an alternative to direct military strikes against Tehran's nuclear program, The Daily Telegraph cited US intelligence officials as saying on Monday.
According to the report, Mossad has been using hitmen, sabotage, front companies and double agents in a bid to delay Iran's nuclear research as much as possible.
"Disruption is designed to slow progress on the program, done in such a way that they don't realize what's happening," an unnamed former CIA officer on Iran told the daily.
"The goal is delay, delay, delay until you can come up with some other solution or approach," the official added.
The report also reveals that Mossad operations are not confined to Iran's nuclear program; the agency claims to have collected information on the country's missile sites.
Click here: http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=85901§ionid=351020104 to read more.
Farra: Israel destroyed 3,000 residential units in Khan Younis
Palestinian Information Center
Feb 18, 2009KHAN YOUNIS, (PIC)-- Mohamed Al-Farra, the mayor of Khan Younis city, said Tuesday that Israel destroyed about 3,000 residential units and other buildings in the city during its wanton aggression on the Gaza Strip.In a statement received by the PIC, Farra explained that Israel destroyed completely 450 housing units and over 2,500 other units partially as well as it caused serious damage to about 25 educational institutions, schools, mosques and emergency centers.The mayor affirmed that Israel bulldozed about 2,000 dunums of agricultural lands and destroyed completely four concrete production plants in addition to three clinics and a number of poultry and livestock farms.He underlined that Israel deliberately destroyed civilian homes, bulldozed agricultural lands and killed innocent civilians not to mention the targeting of civil defense and medical crews.Farra noted that the municipality embarked, in cooperation with relief organizations, on providing civil services to the citizens in the city, removing rubble from the streets and providing shelters for the displaced families and citizens.
Article from: http://uruknet.info/?p=m51926&hd=&size=1&l=e
Israeli forces seize 65 youths in Jayyus in third day of mass arrests
Ma'an news
Feb 18, 2009Bethlehem – Ma’an – In a third consecutive day of mass arrests Israeli forces stormed the northern West Bank town of Jayyus near Qalqiliya early morning Wednesday and seized 65 Palestinian youth in an ongoing military operation.Israeli soldiers declared the town a "Closed Military Area" and barred journalists from entering. A curfew has been imposed, trapping residents in their homes.Soldiers told the families of those detained that they were "wanted" by Israeli intelligence.Local sources said several Israeli military vehicles surrounded the town, blocked the main road using earth piles and rocks, and used loudspeakers to announce a curfew and order all the youth of the town to gather for inspection in the local school.Once the youth were gathered Israeli soldiers took 20 of them to an unknown location. By noon more than 65 had been detained.Jayyus Mayor Muhammad Taher Jaber described the situation as "miserable," saying that residents are fleeing the town in fear."The Israelis’ actions aim to make us leave our land," he said.Jaber added that the Israeli troops are threatening in an attempt to stop weekly demonstrations taking place in the town.
Click here: http://uruknet.info/?p=m51925&hd=&size=1&l=e to read more.
Palestinian Information Center
Feb 18, 2009KHAN YOUNIS, (PIC)-- Mohamed Al-Farra, the mayor of Khan Younis city, said Tuesday that Israel destroyed about 3,000 residential units and other buildings in the city during its wanton aggression on the Gaza Strip.In a statement received by the PIC, Farra explained that Israel destroyed completely 450 housing units and over 2,500 other units partially as well as it caused serious damage to about 25 educational institutions, schools, mosques and emergency centers.The mayor affirmed that Israel bulldozed about 2,000 dunums of agricultural lands and destroyed completely four concrete production plants in addition to three clinics and a number of poultry and livestock farms.He underlined that Israel deliberately destroyed civilian homes, bulldozed agricultural lands and killed innocent civilians not to mention the targeting of civil defense and medical crews.Farra noted that the municipality embarked, in cooperation with relief organizations, on providing civil services to the citizens in the city, removing rubble from the streets and providing shelters for the displaced families and citizens.
Article from: http://uruknet.info/?p=m51926&hd=&size=1&l=e
Israeli forces seize 65 youths in Jayyus in third day of mass arrests
Ma'an news
Feb 18, 2009Bethlehem – Ma’an – In a third consecutive day of mass arrests Israeli forces stormed the northern West Bank town of Jayyus near Qalqiliya early morning Wednesday and seized 65 Palestinian youth in an ongoing military operation.Israeli soldiers declared the town a "Closed Military Area" and barred journalists from entering. A curfew has been imposed, trapping residents in their homes.Soldiers told the families of those detained that they were "wanted" by Israeli intelligence.Local sources said several Israeli military vehicles surrounded the town, blocked the main road using earth piles and rocks, and used loudspeakers to announce a curfew and order all the youth of the town to gather for inspection in the local school.Once the youth were gathered Israeli soldiers took 20 of them to an unknown location. By noon more than 65 had been detained.Jayyus Mayor Muhammad Taher Jaber described the situation as "miserable," saying that residents are fleeing the town in fear."The Israelis’ actions aim to make us leave our land," he said.Jaber added that the Israeli troops are threatening in an attempt to stop weekly demonstrations taking place in the town.
Click here: http://uruknet.info/?p=m51925&hd=&size=1&l=e to read more.
Petition for Israel War Crimes Tribunal
Feb 19th, 2009 by kawther.salam
A petition forwarded to me by Dr. Tammam Kelani, the president of Arab-Austrian Federation of Doctors and Pharmacists, follows below. The Petition is about the creation of a Special UN Tribunal to try Israeli War Criminals. This petition was also forwarded to me by Maha HOMSI from the Early Childhood/Child Protection Specialists of the UNICEF in Jordan.
To: President and Member States of United Nations General Assembly
PETITION
To: President and Member States of United Nations General AssemblyThe Creation of a Special Tribunal to try Israeli War Criminals
Recalling that Israel was created by virtue of a General Assembly Resolution in 1947 against the wishes of the indigenous population of Palestine;
Recalling that the creation of Israel was achieved through the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous population, which resulted in the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem, and that more than half of the population of 1.5 millions of the Palestinian Occupied Territory called the Gaza Strip are Palestinian refugees who have become, with the other civilian population, victims of the recent Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip;
Noting that the UN Human Rights Council, in its ninth Special Session, has adopted on 12 January 2009, a resolution “on the grave violations of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory including the recent aggression of the occupied Gaza Strip” in which it “strongly condemned the ongoing Israeli military operation which had resulted in massive violations of human rights of the Palestinian people and systematic destruction of the Palestinian infrastructure”; and “decided to dispatch an urgent independent international fact-finding mission to investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law by the occupying power against the Palestinian people throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory”(United Nations Press Release of 12 January 2009, Human Rights Council, ROUNDUP);
Recalling that Israel has in the past refused to cooperate with similar fact-finding commissions or even give them visas to enter;
Recalling Article 22 of the Charter of the United Nations
Recalling further the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice of 9th July 2004 on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall by Israel, the occupying power, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, in which the Court emphasized the special responsibility of the General Assembly for the Question of Palestine;
The undersigned NGOs and individuals,
Call upon the General Assembly to create a special international tribunal to try Israel, its political and military leaders, for such crimes in violation of international law, human rights law and international humanitarian law in the Palestinian Occupied Territory of which they may be charged.
Sincerely,
Sign the Petition
Feb 19th, 2009 by kawther.salam
A petition forwarded to me by Dr. Tammam Kelani, the president of Arab-Austrian Federation of Doctors and Pharmacists, follows below. The Petition is about the creation of a Special UN Tribunal to try Israeli War Criminals. This petition was also forwarded to me by Maha HOMSI from the Early Childhood/Child Protection Specialists of the UNICEF in Jordan.
To: President and Member States of United Nations General Assembly
PETITION
To: President and Member States of United Nations General AssemblyThe Creation of a Special Tribunal to try Israeli War Criminals
Recalling that Israel was created by virtue of a General Assembly Resolution in 1947 against the wishes of the indigenous population of Palestine;
Recalling that the creation of Israel was achieved through the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous population, which resulted in the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem, and that more than half of the population of 1.5 millions of the Palestinian Occupied Territory called the Gaza Strip are Palestinian refugees who have become, with the other civilian population, victims of the recent Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip;
Noting that the UN Human Rights Council, in its ninth Special Session, has adopted on 12 January 2009, a resolution “on the grave violations of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory including the recent aggression of the occupied Gaza Strip” in which it “strongly condemned the ongoing Israeli military operation which had resulted in massive violations of human rights of the Palestinian people and systematic destruction of the Palestinian infrastructure”; and “decided to dispatch an urgent independent international fact-finding mission to investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law by the occupying power against the Palestinian people throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory”(United Nations Press Release of 12 January 2009, Human Rights Council, ROUNDUP);
Recalling that Israel has in the past refused to cooperate with similar fact-finding commissions or even give them visas to enter;
Recalling Article 22 of the Charter of the United Nations
Recalling further the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice of 9th July 2004 on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall by Israel, the occupying power, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, in which the Court emphasized the special responsibility of the General Assembly for the Question of Palestine;
The undersigned NGOs and individuals,
Call upon the General Assembly to create a special international tribunal to try Israel, its political and military leaders, for such crimes in violation of international law, human rights law and international humanitarian law in the Palestinian Occupied Territory of which they may be charged.
Sincerely,
Sign the Petition
Did Egypt sabotage deal over Gaza, Shalit?
Amal Ghazal, The Electronic Intifada, 18 February 2009
One of the major achievements of the Israeli revisionist historians has been to break down Israeli myths surrounding the establishment of the State of Israel. A key myth has been the claim that Israel is surrounded by hostile Arab regimes. While this claim has been debunked, even mocked, by many Arabs who accuse their regimes of not only collaboration with Israel but also complicity in the continuing suppression of Palestinian resistance movements, that collaboration has now been documented and exposed with the unearthing of official records. This history came alive during the recent war on Gaza and the Egyptian government's (and other Arab governments') complicity in this war provided a clear idea of the organic relationship between Israel and some of those regimes which do not refrain from or hesitate to sacrifice the Palestinian question for their own political ends.The complicity of the Egyptian regime extends to the negotiations mediated by Cairo. In fact, that regime is not a mediator between two sides or an honest deal maker; its interests meet those of Israel to the extent that it is functioning as a broker on behalf of Israel. The war on Gaza left us with one eye set on the scenes of carnage in Gaza itself and another on Cairo, where the Egyptian negotiating team was trying to pressure the Palestinians (through Hamas) into surrender, something that Israel was not able to achieve by sheer military force. The international outcry, Hamas' ability to absorb the Israeli attacks and the resolve of Palestinians in Gaza provided the Hamas delegation in Cairo with a political leverage that allowed it to resist Egyptian pressure and intimidation. And as has been revealed through some recent leaks to the press, the Egyptians have utilized various intimidating techniques in order to force Hamas into accepting the terms proposed by Israel. It may be a matter of time before we know those details which will reinforce the idea that the Egyptian negotiating team wanted to impose the Israeli terms rather than negotiate a fair agreement. An indication of Egypt's readiness to push Hamas into surrender was the original Egyptian proposal to discuss a 10- to 15-year ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. Hamas' refusal to negotiate such a long-term agreement finally led to a negotiation of an 18-month agreement. As revealed by confidential sources, below is what the Egyptians have been proposing in terms of a two-phase agreement, followed by a Hamas counter-proposal.
Click here: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10317.shtml to read more.
Amal Ghazal, The Electronic Intifada, 18 February 2009
One of the major achievements of the Israeli revisionist historians has been to break down Israeli myths surrounding the establishment of the State of Israel. A key myth has been the claim that Israel is surrounded by hostile Arab regimes. While this claim has been debunked, even mocked, by many Arabs who accuse their regimes of not only collaboration with Israel but also complicity in the continuing suppression of Palestinian resistance movements, that collaboration has now been documented and exposed with the unearthing of official records. This history came alive during the recent war on Gaza and the Egyptian government's (and other Arab governments') complicity in this war provided a clear idea of the organic relationship between Israel and some of those regimes which do not refrain from or hesitate to sacrifice the Palestinian question for their own political ends.The complicity of the Egyptian regime extends to the negotiations mediated by Cairo. In fact, that regime is not a mediator between two sides or an honest deal maker; its interests meet those of Israel to the extent that it is functioning as a broker on behalf of Israel. The war on Gaza left us with one eye set on the scenes of carnage in Gaza itself and another on Cairo, where the Egyptian negotiating team was trying to pressure the Palestinians (through Hamas) into surrender, something that Israel was not able to achieve by sheer military force. The international outcry, Hamas' ability to absorb the Israeli attacks and the resolve of Palestinians in Gaza provided the Hamas delegation in Cairo with a political leverage that allowed it to resist Egyptian pressure and intimidation. And as has been revealed through some recent leaks to the press, the Egyptians have utilized various intimidating techniques in order to force Hamas into accepting the terms proposed by Israel. It may be a matter of time before we know those details which will reinforce the idea that the Egyptian negotiating team wanted to impose the Israeli terms rather than negotiate a fair agreement. An indication of Egypt's readiness to push Hamas into surrender was the original Egyptian proposal to discuss a 10- to 15-year ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. Hamas' refusal to negotiate such a long-term agreement finally led to a negotiation of an 18-month agreement. As revealed by confidential sources, below is what the Egyptians have been proposing in terms of a two-phase agreement, followed by a Hamas counter-proposal.
Click here: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10317.shtml to read more.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Thousands of Gazans remain homeless
The Electronic Intifada, 18 February 2009
Azza Abed Rabu with her neice and four-year-old daughter, who sustained serious head wounds during the family's evacuation. She and her family are now living in a tent in the Abed Rabu area of Jabaliya. (Erica Silverman/IRIN)
GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IRIN) - Thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip remain homeless after their houses were badly damaged or destroyed during Israel's recent military offensive there.The Israeli army began with aerial bombardments of the enclave on 27 December and added a ground assault from 3 January. Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire on 18 January while Hamas, the de facto ruling authority in the Strip, declared its own ceasefire later that day.According to a 16 February report by Save the Children Alliance "at least 100,000 people, including 56,000 children, remain displaced with many continuing to take shelter in tents or crowding into remaining homes with other families, one month since the Gaza ceasefire was declared."The non-governmental organization estimated that some 500,000 people, including 280,000 children, were forced from their homes at some point during the conflict and added that "tent cities" had sprung up where whole neighborhoods were destroyed. Many tent residents are without access to clean drinking water and toilets, it said.
Click here: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10321.shtml to read more.
The Electronic Intifada, 18 February 2009
Azza Abed Rabu with her neice and four-year-old daughter, who sustained serious head wounds during the family's evacuation. She and her family are now living in a tent in the Abed Rabu area of Jabaliya. (Erica Silverman/IRIN)
GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IRIN) - Thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip remain homeless after their houses were badly damaged or destroyed during Israel's recent military offensive there.The Israeli army began with aerial bombardments of the enclave on 27 December and added a ground assault from 3 January. Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire on 18 January while Hamas, the de facto ruling authority in the Strip, declared its own ceasefire later that day.According to a 16 February report by Save the Children Alliance "at least 100,000 people, including 56,000 children, remain displaced with many continuing to take shelter in tents or crowding into remaining homes with other families, one month since the Gaza ceasefire was declared."The non-governmental organization estimated that some 500,000 people, including 280,000 children, were forced from their homes at some point during the conflict and added that "tent cities" had sprung up where whole neighborhoods were destroyed. Many tent residents are without access to clean drinking water and toilets, it said.
Click here: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10321.shtml to read more.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Gaza civilians left with extensive burns
AlJazeeraEnglish
Feb 15, 2009As well as the 1300 Palestinians who were killed in the war, thousands more suffered serious injuries.Many of them were left with extensive burns, with Israel accused of using highly inflammable white phosphorus in civilian areas.Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel Hamid reports from the burns unit in Gaza's Shifa hospital.
AlJazeeraEnglish
Feb 15, 2009As well as the 1300 Palestinians who were killed in the war, thousands more suffered serious injuries.Many of them were left with extensive burns, with Israel accused of using highly inflammable white phosphorus in civilian areas.Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel Hamid reports from the burns unit in Gaza's Shifa hospital.
Photo shows 'Willie Pete' went to Gaza
Despite Israeli denial, newly found photographic evidence proves that Israel has used controversial white phosphorus shells on Gazans.
While the use of the solid, waxy synthetic chemical -- also known by the military as WP or Willie Pete -- against civilians is prohibited under international law, there is evidence that Palestinian civilians have been subjected to the chemical weapon. The Times says it has identified stockpiles of M825A1, an American-made WP munition, from high-resolution pictures taken from Israeli artillery units on the Gaza border. White phosphorus is used in munitions, to mark enemy targets and to produce smoke for concealing troop movement. It can also be used as an incendiary device to firebomb enemy positions. If particles of ignited white phosphorus land on a person's skin, they burn right through flesh to the bone. Toxic phosphoric acid can also be released into wounds, risking phosphorus poisoning. Exposure to white phosphorus smoke in the air can also cause liver, kidney, heart, lung and bone damage and can even lead to death. There has been evidence that Palestinian civilians have been injured by the incendiary bombs. A doctor at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City Hassan Khalass told The Times that he had been treating patients who he believed had been burnt by white phosphorus.
Click here: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=81564§ionid=351020202 to read more.
In Gaza town, a bitter aftermath
By Ashraf Khalil, LATimes
By Ashraf Khalil, LATimes
HURT: Fatma Zidane el-Banneh, 8, left, and her mother, Azza, return to the school in Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza, where Azza says her daughter was burned by white phosphorus used in the Israeli military offensive.
February 15, 2009Reporting from Khozaa, Gaza Strip — She was the strongest among them, the natural leader. So when the shelling stopped and the Israeli soldiers announced through loudspeakers that all residents should come out of their homes and head for the center of town, neighbors turned to Rawhiya Najar for guidance.Emptying the cupboards of sheets and tablecloths -- anything white -- she led a procession of 20 women and children into the streets holding a white flag in each hand, residents say.The group had made it perhaps 200 yards when a soldier stepped out from a door down the street and shot Najar in the head, multiple witnesses say. Her body lay in the street for 12 hours, villagers and doctors say.Weeks after Israel declared a unilateral end to its offensive in the Gaza Strip, the aftermath still burns in Khozaa, a farm town of 11,000 in the south of the territory. Chunks of white phosphorus still lie scattered throughout neighborhoods, buried in dirt and sand; when excavated, they immediately ignite and spew noxious smoke that smells vaguely of garlic.As the International Criminal Court weighs a war crimes investigation of the Gaza offensive, the experience of Khozaa could be a key part in the evidence. It was here that Israeli troops staged a series of incursions from Jan. 11 to 13, facing off against local militant fighters and leaving a trail of accusations and recriminations in their wake.These include charges of indiscriminate firing on civilians and ambulances and what one international weapons expert called the heaviest use of controversial white phosphorus munitions in the 22-day offensive.Local officials say 19 people were killed during the assault, 16 of them civilians. About 150 people were injured, most from prolonged exposure to phosphorus smoke, local medical officials say.
Click here: http://uruknet.info/?p=m51822&hd=&size=1&l=e to read more.
Bleeding Gaza Schools
By Motasem Dalloul, IOL Correspondent
By Motasem Dalloul, IOL Correspondent
Palestinian schoolgirls walk in the rubble of the Sakhnin School, devastated in Israel's latest incursion into Gaza, in Beit Lahiya, northern of Gaza Strip, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2009.
Feb 15, 2009GAZA CITY — In the bombed-out Gaza Strip, schooling, already hit by a chocking Israeli siege, has become a greater struggle after three weeks of massive bombing and attacks that left dozens of schools in ruins and students too traumatized to learn."We are working hard to find an appropriate building to resume our work, but because of the shortage of buildings and the increase of demand after the war we haven’t found any yet," Mamdouh Salem, headmaster of the American International School in Gaza, told IslamOnline.net.Salem's school stands as an example of dozens of schools, many run by the UNRWA and the private sector, flattened by the Israeli war machine during its recent onslaught.The two-storey school, built on an 8-acre plot overlooking the Mediterranean, is now a mere mound of broken concrete.Even the school's buses were burnt by Israeli fire "with premeditation," Salem says.Striving to get its 220 students back to classes, the school officials approached the UNRWA and the Education Ministry for help."The UNRWA said that all of their schools are busy in both shifts and the Education Ministry allowed us to use three of their big schools in the afternoon shifts," Salem said.
Click here: http://uruknet.info/?p=m51831&hd=&size=1&l=e to read more.
Israel takes control of more West Bank land
By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer Karin Laub, Associated Press Writer
Mon Feb 16, JERUSALEM – Israel has taken control of a large chunk of land near a prominent West Bank settlement, paving the way for the possible construction of 2,500 settlement homes, officials said Monday, in a new challenge to Mideast peacemaking.Successive Israeli governments have broken promises to the United States to halt settlement expansion, defined by Washington as an obstacle to peace. Ongoing expansion is likely to create friction not only with the Palestinians, but with President Barack Obama, whose Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, has long pushed for a settlement freeze. Obama has said he'd get involved quickly in Mideast peace efforts.The composition of Israel's next government is not clear yet following inconclusive elections last week. However, right-wing parties are given a better chance to form a ruling coalition, with hardline leader Benjamin Netanyahu at the helm.Netanyahu supports settlement expansion and has derided peace talks with the Palestinians as a waste of time, saying he would focus instead of trying to improve the Palestinian economy. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has dismissed Netanyahu's approach as a non-starter, and his aides said recently that peace talks can only resume after a settlement freeze.
Click here: http://uruknet.info/?p=m51849&hd=&size=1&l=e to read more.
By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer Karin Laub, Associated Press Writer
Mon Feb 16, JERUSALEM – Israel has taken control of a large chunk of land near a prominent West Bank settlement, paving the way for the possible construction of 2,500 settlement homes, officials said Monday, in a new challenge to Mideast peacemaking.Successive Israeli governments have broken promises to the United States to halt settlement expansion, defined by Washington as an obstacle to peace. Ongoing expansion is likely to create friction not only with the Palestinians, but with President Barack Obama, whose Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, has long pushed for a settlement freeze. Obama has said he'd get involved quickly in Mideast peace efforts.The composition of Israel's next government is not clear yet following inconclusive elections last week. However, right-wing parties are given a better chance to form a ruling coalition, with hardline leader Benjamin Netanyahu at the helm.Netanyahu supports settlement expansion and has derided peace talks with the Palestinians as a waste of time, saying he would focus instead of trying to improve the Palestinian economy. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has dismissed Netanyahu's approach as a non-starter, and his aides said recently that peace talks can only resume after a settlement freeze.
Click here: http://uruknet.info/?p=m51849&hd=&size=1&l=e to read more.
Gaza’s forgotten elderly
15 February 2009
In this new series of personal testimonies, PCHR looks at the aftermath of Israel’s 22 day offensive on the Gaza Strip, and the ongoing impact it is having on the civilian population
15 February 2009
In this new series of personal testimonies, PCHR looks at the aftermath of Israel’s 22 day offensive on the Gaza Strip, and the ongoing impact it is having on the civilian population
At the nursing home of Al Wafaa Hospital in the northeastern Gaza Strip, frail women lie curled in their beds, most of them bedridden. In Gaza’s close-knit society, nursing homes are not very common, as most people prefer to care for their elderly family members at home. The patients at Al Wafaa have nowhere else to go.
While many reports have been released on the effect of the conflict on children, other vulnerable groups such as the elderly and disabled are often disregarded.
Seventy five year old Rahma Mourad is one of the hospital’s permanent residents. Her face lights up as she remembers her early years in Damascus, where she came from a privileged background and her first language was French. Now, with her children in Syria and no family nearby to visit her, all she has are her memories. “I used to be so beautiful”, she says. “I came from a life of culture. Now look at me – I don’t even have teeth.”
Over 4,300 people were physically injured during Israel’s 22 day offensive on the Gaza Strip, many of whom sustained horrific injuries. But the wounds of psychological trauma, caused by shelling and bombardment, will also take time to heal.
In the early hours of the 16 January 2009, Al Wafaa Hospital, the only rehabilitation centre of its kind in Gaza, was hit several times by artillery fire, including rounds of white phosphorus. The holes in the wards of the hospital’s eastern wing attest to the damage sustained that night, estimated to cost around half a million dollars.
Rahma and the other patients reported “a long night of terror”, trapped in the hospital, unable to leave. Even now, three weeks after Israel’s unilateral ceasefire, Rahma is in tears. “I can’t describe the noise of the shelling,” Rahma says, her eyes darting around the shrapnel holes that pepper the walls of her hospital room. “It was unbearable…” She clasps her hands together tightly, as a hospital volunteer comforts her.
Click here: http://pchrgaza.ps/files/campaigns/english/aftermath/2.html to read more.
Unmanned aerial vehicles and the warfare of inequality management
Jimmy Johnson, The Electronic Intifada, 17 February 2009
Jimmy Johnson, The Electronic Intifada, 17 February 2009
Aeronautics Defense Systems, based in the Israeli city of Yavne, was recently awarded a contract by the Dutch Ministry of Defense "to supply unmanned air vehicle capacity to Dutch troops serving with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan." [1] The Netherlands is not the only nation to employ Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in foreign occupation. They are also utilized by Canadian, US, UK and Australian forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. Their foreign sale has developed largely because of significant use in the wars against and occupations of Lebanon and Palestine. A variety of Israeli firms are developing new unmanned aerial, terrestrial and nautical vehicles. As these are proven in combat, here it can be expected that they too will be exported to foreign forces.Israel was the first country to widely adopt and integrate UAVs into its armed forces beyond their use as gunnery targets for anti-aircraft training. The US made somewhat sporadic use of the machines for intelligence gathering in south China and Vietnam during the Vietnam war but it wasn't until Israel led the way that Washington started to recognize and exploit their potential value. "The Israeli Air Force pioneered several UAVs in the late 1970s and 1980s that were eventually integrated into the United States' UAV inventory. US observers noticed Israel's successful use of UAVs during operations in Lebanon in 1982, encouraging then-Navy Secretary John Lehman to acquire a UAV capability for the Navy." Military esteem of Israeli UAVs further grew after the first Gulf War when Israel Aircraft Industries' Pioneer "emerged as a useful source of intelligence at the tactical level during Desert Storm. Pioneer was used by Navy battleships to locate Iraqi targets for its 16-inch guns." [2] Earlier restrictions on UAV operational capacity have fallen away with the dramatic increases in computer processing power and sensor technologies that allow for higher resolution photo and video transmissions and improved communications. The speed of technological advance in the field has led to constant reassessment of unmanned vehicles' battlefield potential and the dedication of increasing resources to development and procurement by armed forces worldwide. The US's National Defense Authorization Fiscal Year 2001 legislation declared "It shall be a goal of the Armed Forces to achieve the fielding of unmanned, remotely controlled technology such that ... by 2010, one-third of the aircraft in the operational deep strike force aircraft fleet are unmanned." [3] Just five years later, the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review increased that to 45 percent. [4]
Click here:http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10312.shtml to read more.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Crossing the Line: US role in the war on Gaza Podcast, Crossing the Line, 13 February 2009
This week on Crossing The Line: As US President Barack Obama stood before a crowd of two million and gave his inaugural address, he pledged to work with those in the Arab and Muslim world towards peace. But absent in the address was any condemnation of Israeli atrocities committed against the Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Host Naji Ali speaks with The Electronic Intifada co-founder Ali Abunimah about the Obama administration, the recent massacre in Gaza and the prospects of peace in the region.Also this week, Ali speaks with Gaza-based journalist Rami Almeghari about the current situation on the ground in Gaza in the aftermath of the 22 days of Israeli attacks.And as always, Crossing the Line begins with "This week in Palestine," a service provided by The International Middle East Media Center.
Listen Now [MP3 - 22 MB]
This week on Crossing The Line: As US President Barack Obama stood before a crowd of two million and gave his inaugural address, he pledged to work with those in the Arab and Muslim world towards peace. But absent in the address was any condemnation of Israeli atrocities committed against the Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Host Naji Ali speaks with The Electronic Intifada co-founder Ali Abunimah about the Obama administration, the recent massacre in Gaza and the prospects of peace in the region.Also this week, Ali speaks with Gaza-based journalist Rami Almeghari about the current situation on the ground in Gaza in the aftermath of the 22 days of Israeli attacks.And as always, Crossing the Line begins with "This week in Palestine," a service provided by The International Middle East Media Center.
Listen Now [MP3 - 22 MB]
Israel's Bloody Excesses
Was Einstein Right?
By JOHN CHUCKMAN
"My awareness of the essential nature of Judaism resists the idea of a Jewish state with borders, an army, and a measure of temporal power, no matter how modest. I am afraid of the inner damage Judaism will sustain -- especially from the development of a narrow nationalism within our own ranks, against which we have already had to fight strongly, even without a Jewish state."
Albert Einstein
Einstein is one of my favorite twentieth-century characters. He was remarkable, and I don't mean only for his profound contributions to our understanding of the physical world. He was someone who drove authoritarians like J. Edgar Hoover mad. He was one of those rare souls, like George Orwell, who despite mistakes and flaws, consciously worked to direct his actions, and redirect them after missteps, by principles of decency, humanity, and rational thought. He never subscribed to menacing slogans like "My country, right or wrong" or "You're either with us or against us." Quite the opposite, he knew any country was capable of being wrong at times and did not deserve blind allegiance when it was.
Einstein's was one of the most important names lent to the cause of Zionism. His name and visits and letters raised a great deal of money towards establishing universities and resettling European Jews suffering under violent anti-Semitism long before the founding of Israel.
But even in a cause so dear to his heart, Einstein never stopped thinking for himself. He not only opposed the establishment of a formal Israeli state--he was after all a great internationalist--but he always advocated treating the Arabic people of Palestine with generosity and understanding.
Clock here: http://www.counterpunch.org/chuckman04042003.html to read more.
Was Einstein Right?
By JOHN CHUCKMAN
"My awareness of the essential nature of Judaism resists the idea of a Jewish state with borders, an army, and a measure of temporal power, no matter how modest. I am afraid of the inner damage Judaism will sustain -- especially from the development of a narrow nationalism within our own ranks, against which we have already had to fight strongly, even without a Jewish state."
Albert Einstein
Einstein is one of my favorite twentieth-century characters. He was remarkable, and I don't mean only for his profound contributions to our understanding of the physical world. He was someone who drove authoritarians like J. Edgar Hoover mad. He was one of those rare souls, like George Orwell, who despite mistakes and flaws, consciously worked to direct his actions, and redirect them after missteps, by principles of decency, humanity, and rational thought. He never subscribed to menacing slogans like "My country, right or wrong" or "You're either with us or against us." Quite the opposite, he knew any country was capable of being wrong at times and did not deserve blind allegiance when it was.
Einstein's was one of the most important names lent to the cause of Zionism. His name and visits and letters raised a great deal of money towards establishing universities and resettling European Jews suffering under violent anti-Semitism long before the founding of Israel.
But even in a cause so dear to his heart, Einstein never stopped thinking for himself. He not only opposed the establishment of a formal Israeli state--he was after all a great internationalist--but he always advocated treating the Arabic people of Palestine with generosity and understanding.
Clock here: http://www.counterpunch.org/chuckman04042003.html to read more.
Gaza: the world looks away
Clare Short
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 10 February 2009 12.00 GMT
On top of the dreadful casualties from Israel's 22-day war in Gaza, we should add a further serious injury. It is longer-lasting and threatens the lives and wellbeing of very many people in the future. In the Israel/Palestine conflict, we are seeing a terrible undermining of international law and the principle that armies should adhere to minimum standards of humane behaviour, even during the heat of battle.
If they fall below this minimum, they should, according to the laws of war, be held responsible for their war crimes – first, by their own superiors or courts, but, if necessary, by other nations or international courts. This principle – of accountability, even in war – is now in a critical condition as the standards are being ignored by Gaza's warring parties. Then, it's being assailed afresh by pugnacious and irresponsible remarks from leaders in the region.
Click here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/09/israel-gaza-war-crimes to read more.
Clare Short
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 10 February 2009 12.00 GMT
On top of the dreadful casualties from Israel's 22-day war in Gaza, we should add a further serious injury. It is longer-lasting and threatens the lives and wellbeing of very many people in the future. In the Israel/Palestine conflict, we are seeing a terrible undermining of international law and the principle that armies should adhere to minimum standards of humane behaviour, even during the heat of battle.
If they fall below this minimum, they should, according to the laws of war, be held responsible for their war crimes – first, by their own superiors or courts, but, if necessary, by other nations or international courts. This principle – of accountability, even in war – is now in a critical condition as the standards are being ignored by Gaza's warring parties. Then, it's being assailed afresh by pugnacious and irresponsible remarks from leaders in the region.
Click here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/09/israel-gaza-war-crimes to read more.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Change the Lobby
By Ramzy Baroud
One cannot emphasize enough the stranglehold Israel's lobbying infrastructure has on US foreign policy. The events of recent weeks undoubtedly attest to this. "The special relationship" that has been historically fostered between the US and Israel in fact, is often a relationship of leverage, manipulation and intimidation, and often leads to the US supporting actions or resolutions that stand at complete odds with the interests of the American people.
The promise of change echoed the world over as people from all corners anticipated the magic moment Obama could actually change the devastating reality in which we live today. But just weeks before his inauguration, Israel unleashed the most barbaric attacks on defenseless Palestinian civilians since 1948. Civil societies expressed outrage and called for Israeli leaders to be tried for war crimes and genocide. Other nations cut diplomatic ties completely with the Jewish state. But the man of change did absolutely nothing. For weeks he was completely silent. Even in his first days in office, Obama made no mention of the Israeli genocide in Gaza. So, what of this change that he promised? What kind of hold does Israel have to silence the President of the United States?
Click here: http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14790 to read more.
Facing dilemmas
Published Date: 05/02/2009 - 02:28 AM
Despite official denials from the Israeli government, the central goal of the genocidal Israeli campaign in the Gaza Strip may well be the elimination of the elected Hamas government and the reinstatement to power of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.
From a purely military viewpoint, the removal of the Hamas authority in the Gaza Strip is not a particularly difficult task, given the immense superiority of the Israeli fire-power in comparison with the primitive means of defense that Hamas and all other Palestinian resistance factions possess.
In fact, the ongoing Israeli blitz has already seriously weakened the government in Gaza, especially its ability to re-establish a semblance of normal life in the bombed-out coastal enclave and to meet the basic needs of its thoroughly ravaged inhabitants.
Indeed, with Gaza looking very much like Dresden in the closing months of the Second World War, reverting to the status quo ante, which by no means was rosy given the harsh Israeli siege, will be too formidable a task for Hamas to tackle alone.
In short, the pornographic bombing of the basic civilian infrastructure, including nearly all public buildings and basic facilities, will make the task of rehabilitating life in Gaza nearly impossible for any normal government, let alone a beaten organization, thoroughly beaten by Israel and hated by the bulk of the international community.
Click here: http://www.ptimes.org/Main/default.aspx?xyz=BOgLkxlDHteZpYqykRlUuI1kx%2fVDUOFovXIaM0g6phOVrpZi1dFJ%2fUKV36q%2bZ3lnZjWDwdb6GrIBFI8ZTlCUXjRaPl6QABdNIGb8b9FKF4Au9G8hcHWWhTVQxoo%2bLZFrbVYpjfyDbOU%3d to read more.
Published Date: 05/02/2009 - 02:28 AM
Despite official denials from the Israeli government, the central goal of the genocidal Israeli campaign in the Gaza Strip may well be the elimination of the elected Hamas government and the reinstatement to power of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.
From a purely military viewpoint, the removal of the Hamas authority in the Gaza Strip is not a particularly difficult task, given the immense superiority of the Israeli fire-power in comparison with the primitive means of defense that Hamas and all other Palestinian resistance factions possess.
In fact, the ongoing Israeli blitz has already seriously weakened the government in Gaza, especially its ability to re-establish a semblance of normal life in the bombed-out coastal enclave and to meet the basic needs of its thoroughly ravaged inhabitants.
Indeed, with Gaza looking very much like Dresden in the closing months of the Second World War, reverting to the status quo ante, which by no means was rosy given the harsh Israeli siege, will be too formidable a task for Hamas to tackle alone.
In short, the pornographic bombing of the basic civilian infrastructure, including nearly all public buildings and basic facilities, will make the task of rehabilitating life in Gaza nearly impossible for any normal government, let alone a beaten organization, thoroughly beaten by Israel and hated by the bulk of the international community.
Click here: http://www.ptimes.org/Main/default.aspx?xyz=BOgLkxlDHteZpYqykRlUuI1kx%2fVDUOFovXIaM0g6phOVrpZi1dFJ%2fUKV36q%2bZ3lnZjWDwdb6GrIBFI8ZTlCUXjRaPl6QABdNIGb8b9FKF4Au9G8hcHWWhTVQxoo%2bLZFrbVYpjfyDbOU%3d to read more.
No territorial concessions to Palestinians, says Netanyahu
Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 4 February 2009 17.35 GMT
Israel's rightwing opposition leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads the polls before next week's parliamentary elections, warned today against giving up any occupied territory to the Palestinians, saying it would be "grabbed by extremists".
Under Netanyahu, leader of the Likud party, Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are likely to grow more rapidly, putting Israel at odds with the new US administration.
In a speech, Netanyahu said that rather than peace talks with the Palestinians about giving up territory, he favoured economic development – a plan of "economic peace". He has stopped short of endorsing a two-state solution that would see the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
It is a stance that is likely to draw criticism from Washington, particularly from new Middle East envoy George Mitchell, who wrote a report in 2001 explicitly calling for a halt to all settlement growth. Since then the Jewish settler population has increased significantly until today it stands at nearly 500,000 settlers in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Click here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/04/israelandthepalestinians-usa to read more.
Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 4 February 2009 17.35 GMT
Israel's rightwing opposition leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads the polls before next week's parliamentary elections, warned today against giving up any occupied territory to the Palestinians, saying it would be "grabbed by extremists".
Under Netanyahu, leader of the Likud party, Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are likely to grow more rapidly, putting Israel at odds with the new US administration.
In a speech, Netanyahu said that rather than peace talks with the Palestinians about giving up territory, he favoured economic development – a plan of "economic peace". He has stopped short of endorsing a two-state solution that would see the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
It is a stance that is likely to draw criticism from Washington, particularly from new Middle East envoy George Mitchell, who wrote a report in 2001 explicitly calling for a halt to all settlement growth. Since then the Jewish settler population has increased significantly until today it stands at nearly 500,000 settlers in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Click here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/04/israelandthepalestinians-usa to read more.
Lieberman set to be Israel’s kingmaker
By Tobias Buck
Published: February 4 2009 17:57 Last updated: February 4 2009 17:57
Mr Lieberman opposes peace talks with the Palestinians or handing back the occupied Golan Heights to Syria. He has also struck an aggressive line towards what he sees as Israel’s most menacing threat: Iran and its nuclear programme.
Unlike Mr Netanyahu, the Yisrael Beiteinu leader has also made the issue of Israel’s Palestinian minority a central theme of his election campaign. Under the slogan “No Loyalty, No Citizenship”, Mr Lieberman wants to introduce a law forcing 1.2m Palestinians with an Israeli passport to choose: either they swear an oath of allegiance to the Israeli state and serve in the military – or commit to alternative national service – or they lose their citizenship.
Click here: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c5aee19a-f2e2-11dd-abe6-0000779fd2ac.html to read more.
By Tobias Buck
Published: February 4 2009 17:57 Last updated: February 4 2009 17:57
Mr Lieberman opposes peace talks with the Palestinians or handing back the occupied Golan Heights to Syria. He has also struck an aggressive line towards what he sees as Israel’s most menacing threat: Iran and its nuclear programme.
Unlike Mr Netanyahu, the Yisrael Beiteinu leader has also made the issue of Israel’s Palestinian minority a central theme of his election campaign. Under the slogan “No Loyalty, No Citizenship”, Mr Lieberman wants to introduce a law forcing 1.2m Palestinians with an Israeli passport to choose: either they swear an oath of allegiance to the Israeli state and serve in the military – or commit to alternative national service – or they lose their citizenship.
Click here: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c5aee19a-f2e2-11dd-abe6-0000779fd2ac.html to read more.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
The Genocidal settlers
Khalid Amayreh - Published Date: 07/01/2009 - 02:46 AM
When the Israeli High Court recently ordered Jewish squatters to leave an Arab house they had illegally seized in al-Khalil ( Hebron) a few years ago, settlers and their supporters converged at the contentious site, vowing to put up a showdown with the Israeli army and police.
Among the settler leaders arriving at the site, apparently to incite the squatters to resist evacuation, was Daniela Weise, a charismatic settler leader who preaches blood and fire against the Palestinian community in Israel-Palestine, demanding that they either be enslaved, expelled or outright exterminated.
Weise didn’t content herself with invoking the usual mantras, such as “God gave us this land,” and “We are only reclaiming our country.”
She actually quoted heavily from the Old Testament, telling hundreds of Jewish fanatics that it was a Mitzvah (good religious deed) to attack Arabs, even murder them, and damage their property, because “their lives have no sanctity and their property belongs to us.”
“The Bible shows us the way as to how we should be dealing with the Arabs. The Bible can’t be wrong.”
Click here: http://www.ptimes.org/Main/default.aspx?xyz=BOgLkxlDHteZpYqykRlUuI1kx%2fVDUOFolgAufZmUp4Mj6nir5gP%2b0YeEoKr97ymRiqvv%2bvKeQhgjkMwtlo97YjlmqV7tGpw9SQFublQGRulm4S8JEzfLxofe%2bF60Q3iTwL%2bYUv6zY9c%3d to read more.
Khalid Amayreh - Published Date: 07/01/2009 - 02:46 AM
When the Israeli High Court recently ordered Jewish squatters to leave an Arab house they had illegally seized in al-Khalil ( Hebron) a few years ago, settlers and their supporters converged at the contentious site, vowing to put up a showdown with the Israeli army and police.
Among the settler leaders arriving at the site, apparently to incite the squatters to resist evacuation, was Daniela Weise, a charismatic settler leader who preaches blood and fire against the Palestinian community in Israel-Palestine, demanding that they either be enslaved, expelled or outright exterminated.
Weise didn’t content herself with invoking the usual mantras, such as “God gave us this land,” and “We are only reclaiming our country.”
She actually quoted heavily from the Old Testament, telling hundreds of Jewish fanatics that it was a Mitzvah (good religious deed) to attack Arabs, even murder them, and damage their property, because “their lives have no sanctity and their property belongs to us.”
“The Bible shows us the way as to how we should be dealing with the Arabs. The Bible can’t be wrong.”
Click here: http://www.ptimes.org/Main/default.aspx?xyz=BOgLkxlDHteZpYqykRlUuI1kx%2fVDUOFolgAufZmUp4Mj6nir5gP%2b0YeEoKr97ymRiqvv%2bvKeQhgjkMwtlo97YjlmqV7tGpw9SQFublQGRulm4S8JEzfLxofe%2bF60Q3iTwL%2bYUv6zY9c%3d to read more.
Israeli army "subcontracted" by extremist settlers
Jonathan Cook, The Electronic Intifada, 4 February 2009
Jonathan Cook, The Electronic Intifada, 4 February 2009
Extremist rabbis and their followers, bent on waging holy war against the Palestinians, are taking over the Israeli army by stealth, according to critics.In a process one military historian has termed the rapid "theologization" of the Israeli army, there are now entire units of religious combat soldiers, many of them based in West Bank settlements. They answer to hardline rabbis who call for the establishment of a Greater Israel that includes the Occupied Palestinian Territories.Their influence in shaping the army's goals and methods is starting to be felt, say observers, as more and more graduates from officer courses are also drawn from Israel's religious extremist population."We have reached the point where a critical mass of religious soldiers is trying to negotiate with the army about how and for what purpose military force is employed on the battlefield," said Yigal Levy, a political sociologist at the Open University who has written several books on the Israeli army.The new atmosphere was evident in the "excessive force" used in the recent Gaza operation, Dr Levy said. More than 1,300 Palestinians were killed, a majority of them civilians, and thousands were injured as whole neighborhoods of Gaza were leveled."When soldiers, including secular ones, are imbued with theological ideas, it makes them less sensitive to human rights or the suffering of the other side."
Click here: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10274.shtml to read more.
Israel continues pounding Gaza
Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:55:26 GMT
Israeli warplanes attacked the city hours after striking the Rafah border region in southern Gaza Strip, according to a Press TV correspondent in the area. Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who was addressing the annual Herzliya Conference at the time of the attack, informed the audience that the military "is currently operating in the Gaza Strip." Tel Aviv had recently stopped an all-out war on the densely-populated area, but resumed the attacks shortly after realizing that it failed to achieve its primary goals set against the Hamas government. Israel's 23-day long Operation Cast Lead killed almost 1,400 people in the Gaza Strip, but eventually failed to destroy Hamas's military power.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=84531§ionid=351020202
Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:55:26 GMT
Israeli warplanes attacked the city hours after striking the Rafah border region in southern Gaza Strip, according to a Press TV correspondent in the area. Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who was addressing the annual Herzliya Conference at the time of the attack, informed the audience that the military "is currently operating in the Gaza Strip." Tel Aviv had recently stopped an all-out war on the densely-populated area, but resumed the attacks shortly after realizing that it failed to achieve its primary goals set against the Hamas government. Israel's 23-day long Operation Cast Lead killed almost 1,400 people in the Gaza Strip, but eventually failed to destroy Hamas's military power.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=84531§ionid=351020202
Israeli Spokesman Says We Control Stupid Americans
Sunday, 01 February 2009 01:09
"Another Israeli spokeswoman, Tzipora Menache, stated that she was not worried about negative ramifications the Israeli onslaught on Gaza might have on the way the Obama administration would view Israel. She said 'You know very well, and the stupid Americans know equally well, that we control their government, irrespective of who sits in the White House. You see, I know it and you know it that no American president can be in a position to challenge us even if we do the unthinkable. What can they (Americans) do to us? We control congress, we control the media, we control show biz, and we control everything in America. In America you can criticize God, but you can't criticize Israel."Commenting on the latest Israeli one-directional onslaught against the Palestinians of Gaza Strip, the Israeli 10th TV channel has disclosed that the Israeli genocidal forces had used half of its air force and had launched at least 2500 air raids against Gaza Strip.The television military correspondent stated that the Israeli warplanes had dropped more than a thousand tons of explosives, including white phosphorous and DIME (Dense Inert Metal Explosive) bombs, during three weeks on the virtually unarmed densely populated 360 square Kilometers Strip. He added that the shells fired by tanks, artillery, gunboats, and infantry were not included in those fired by the air force.After a whole week of continuous air bombardments Israel sent in its elite foot soldiers; 30,000 of them, and called in 10,000 of its reservists. Armed with the latest weapons of mass murder, covered with an umbrella of free reigning air force, and accompanied with raining shells of heavy artilleries, they drove their tanks into the civilian towns murdering civilians and destroying every structure in their path.
Click here: http://www.daily.pk/world/americas/9334-israeli-spokesman-says-we-control-stupid-americans.html to read more.
Sunday, 01 February 2009 01:09
"Another Israeli spokeswoman, Tzipora Menache, stated that she was not worried about negative ramifications the Israeli onslaught on Gaza might have on the way the Obama administration would view Israel. She said 'You know very well, and the stupid Americans know equally well, that we control their government, irrespective of who sits in the White House. You see, I know it and you know it that no American president can be in a position to challenge us even if we do the unthinkable. What can they (Americans) do to us? We control congress, we control the media, we control show biz, and we control everything in America. In America you can criticize God, but you can't criticize Israel."Commenting on the latest Israeli one-directional onslaught against the Palestinians of Gaza Strip, the Israeli 10th TV channel has disclosed that the Israeli genocidal forces had used half of its air force and had launched at least 2500 air raids against Gaza Strip.The television military correspondent stated that the Israeli warplanes had dropped more than a thousand tons of explosives, including white phosphorous and DIME (Dense Inert Metal Explosive) bombs, during three weeks on the virtually unarmed densely populated 360 square Kilometers Strip. He added that the shells fired by tanks, artillery, gunboats, and infantry were not included in those fired by the air force.After a whole week of continuous air bombardments Israel sent in its elite foot soldiers; 30,000 of them, and called in 10,000 of its reservists. Armed with the latest weapons of mass murder, covered with an umbrella of free reigning air force, and accompanied with raining shells of heavy artilleries, they drove their tanks into the civilian towns murdering civilians and destroying every structure in their path.
Click here: http://www.daily.pk/world/americas/9334-israeli-spokesman-says-we-control-stupid-americans.html to read more.
On February 2nd 2009, two surgeons from the UK, Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah and Dr. Swee Ang, who managed to get into Gaza during the Israeli invasion, released a statement describing their experiences, sharing their views, and conclusions that the people of Gaza are extremely vulnerable and defenseless in the event of another attack. Their statement was originally published in the magazine The Lancet Global Health Network .
Under the title “The wounds of Gaza”, the two surgeons described the Israeli genocide and war crimes against the Palestinian civilians in Gaza as they observed it. I received the statement of the surgeons from a reader from the Sabra Shatila Foundation in Lebanon. I expect that the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, will take in consideration the testimonies of these two surgeons from the UK, and I remind him of the precedent which was set when he signed an arrest warrant against the Sudanese president on 14 July 2008, despite the fact that the ICC does not have territorial jurisdiction in Sudan.
The full Article : The Wounds of Gaza
Two surgeons from the UK, Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah and Dr Swee Ang, managed to get into Gaza during the Israeli invasion. Here they describe their experiences, share their views, and conclude that the people of Gaza are extremely vulnerable and defenseless in the event of another attack.
The wounds of Gaza are deep and multi-layered. Are we talking about the Khan Younis massacre of 5,000 in 1956 or the execution of 35,000 prisoners of war by Israel in 1967? Yet more wounds of the First Intifada, when civil disobedience by an occupied people against the occupiers resulted in massive wounded and hundreds dead? We also cannot discount the 5,420 wounded in southern Gaza alone since 2000.
Hence what we are referring to below are only that of the invasion as of 27 December 2008,Over the period of 27 December 2008 to the ceasefire of 18 Jan 2009, it was estimated that a million and a half tons of explosives were dropped on Gaza Strip. Gaza is 25 miles by 5 miles and home to 1.5 million people. This makes it the most crowded area in the whole world. Prior to this Gaza has been completely blockaded and starved for 50 days. In fact since the Palestinian election Gaza has been under total or partial blockade for several years.
On the first day of the invasion, 250 persons were killed. Every single police station in Gaza was bombed killing large numbers of police officers. Having wiped out the police force attention was turned to non government targets. Gaza was bombed from the air by F16 and Apache helicopters, shelled from the sea by Israeli gunboats and from the land by tank artillery. Many schools were reduced to rubble, including the American School of Gaza, 40 mosques, hospitals, UN buildings, and of course 21,000 homes, 4,000 of which were demolished completely. It is estimated that 100,000 people are now homeless.
Israeli weaponsThe weapons used apart from conventional bombs and high explosives also include unconventional weapons of which at least 4 categories could be identified.
Under the title “The wounds of Gaza”, the two surgeons described the Israeli genocide and war crimes against the Palestinian civilians in Gaza as they observed it. I received the statement of the surgeons from a reader from the Sabra Shatila Foundation in Lebanon. I expect that the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, will take in consideration the testimonies of these two surgeons from the UK, and I remind him of the precedent which was set when he signed an arrest warrant against the Sudanese president on 14 July 2008, despite the fact that the ICC does not have territorial jurisdiction in Sudan.
The full Article : The Wounds of Gaza
Two surgeons from the UK, Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah and Dr Swee Ang, managed to get into Gaza during the Israeli invasion. Here they describe their experiences, share their views, and conclude that the people of Gaza are extremely vulnerable and defenseless in the event of another attack.
The wounds of Gaza are deep and multi-layered. Are we talking about the Khan Younis massacre of 5,000 in 1956 or the execution of 35,000 prisoners of war by Israel in 1967? Yet more wounds of the First Intifada, when civil disobedience by an occupied people against the occupiers resulted in massive wounded and hundreds dead? We also cannot discount the 5,420 wounded in southern Gaza alone since 2000.
Hence what we are referring to below are only that of the invasion as of 27 December 2008,Over the period of 27 December 2008 to the ceasefire of 18 Jan 2009, it was estimated that a million and a half tons of explosives were dropped on Gaza Strip. Gaza is 25 miles by 5 miles and home to 1.5 million people. This makes it the most crowded area in the whole world. Prior to this Gaza has been completely blockaded and starved for 50 days. In fact since the Palestinian election Gaza has been under total or partial blockade for several years.
On the first day of the invasion, 250 persons were killed. Every single police station in Gaza was bombed killing large numbers of police officers. Having wiped out the police force attention was turned to non government targets. Gaza was bombed from the air by F16 and Apache helicopters, shelled from the sea by Israeli gunboats and from the land by tank artillery. Many schools were reduced to rubble, including the American School of Gaza, 40 mosques, hospitals, UN buildings, and of course 21,000 homes, 4,000 of which were demolished completely. It is estimated that 100,000 people are now homeless.
Israeli weaponsThe weapons used apart from conventional bombs and high explosives also include unconventional weapons of which at least 4 categories could be identified.
Click here: http://www.kawther.info/wpr/2009/02/04/testimonies-of-israeli-crimes-in-gaza to read more.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Israel Asserting Middle East Supremacy From Gaza To Tehran
By James Petras2-1-9
"The Israeli Defense Force is the most moral army in the World!" --Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany bombed, invaded and annexed countries and territories as a prelude to their quest for World Empire. Israel 's drive for regional dominance has followed in their footsteps, imitating their style: Indiscriminate aerial bombings of civilian and military facilities, a savage blitzkrieg led by armored vehicles, disdain and repudiation of all criticism from international agencies was accompanied by an open, military buildup for a new and bigger war against Iran . Like the Nazi leadership, who played on the 'Bolshevik threat', the Israeli high command has set in motion a vast world-wide propaganda campaign led by its world Zionist network, raising the specter of 'Islamic terror' to justify its preparations for a military assault on seventy-four million Iranians. Just as Nazi Germany interpreted the passivity, sympathy and impotence of the West when confronted by 'facts on the ground' as license for aggression, the Israeli military machine receives a powerful impetus for new wars by the Western governments' inaction and flaccid response to its invasion of Lebanon, the bombing of Syria and now its Nazi style blitz and conquest of Gaza. For the Israeli high command, the impotence and complicity of the Western states, marks the way to bigger and bloodier wars to establish Israel 's supremacy and dominance of the Middle East, from the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf .
Click here: http://www.rense.com/general84/suprem.htm to see more.
By James Petras2-1-9
"The Israeli Defense Force is the most moral army in the World!" --Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany bombed, invaded and annexed countries and territories as a prelude to their quest for World Empire. Israel 's drive for regional dominance has followed in their footsteps, imitating their style: Indiscriminate aerial bombings of civilian and military facilities, a savage blitzkrieg led by armored vehicles, disdain and repudiation of all criticism from international agencies was accompanied by an open, military buildup for a new and bigger war against Iran . Like the Nazi leadership, who played on the 'Bolshevik threat', the Israeli high command has set in motion a vast world-wide propaganda campaign led by its world Zionist network, raising the specter of 'Islamic terror' to justify its preparations for a military assault on seventy-four million Iranians. Just as Nazi Germany interpreted the passivity, sympathy and impotence of the West when confronted by 'facts on the ground' as license for aggression, the Israeli military machine receives a powerful impetus for new wars by the Western governments' inaction and flaccid response to its invasion of Lebanon, the bombing of Syria and now its Nazi style blitz and conquest of Gaza. For the Israeli high command, the impotence and complicity of the Western states, marks the way to bigger and bloodier wars to establish Israel 's supremacy and dominance of the Middle East, from the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf .
Click here: http://www.rense.com/general84/suprem.htm to see more.
Israeli warlord vows face-off with Iran
Israeli election frontrunner Benjamin Netanyahu says his first mission if elected prime minister would be to 'thwart the Iranian threat'.
In an interview with Israel's Channel 2 TV late Saturday, Netanyahu said he fully intends to sabotage Tehran's nuclear efforts once and for all. "[Iran] will not be armed with a nuclear weapon… It includes everything that is necessary to make this statement come true," said Israel's leading candidate for prime minister. Israel, the sole nuclear power in the Middle East, accuses Tehran of seeking nuclear weaponry while the UN nuclear watchdog, in its Sept. 15 report on Iran, declared that it could not find any "components of a nuclear weapon" or "related nuclear physics studies" in the country. Netanyahu, who is currently facing war crime charges in Gaza, claimed the Islamic Republic's uranium enrichment is the greatest danger to Israel and humanity. After weeks of denying that it used illegal weapons in the densely-populated Gaza Strip, the Israeli military finally admitted Friday that it had pounded the Palestinian coast with at least twenty white phosphorus bombs. The 1980 third Convention on Conventional Weapons has banned the use of white phosphorus as a weapon, even against military targets situated within population centers. International attorneys have filed war crime charges against 15 Israeli political and military officials, including Ehud Olmert, Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak
Click here: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=84344§ionid=351020104 to see more.
Israeli election frontrunner Benjamin Netanyahu says his first mission if elected prime minister would be to 'thwart the Iranian threat'.
In an interview with Israel's Channel 2 TV late Saturday, Netanyahu said he fully intends to sabotage Tehran's nuclear efforts once and for all. "[Iran] will not be armed with a nuclear weapon… It includes everything that is necessary to make this statement come true," said Israel's leading candidate for prime minister. Israel, the sole nuclear power in the Middle East, accuses Tehran of seeking nuclear weaponry while the UN nuclear watchdog, in its Sept. 15 report on Iran, declared that it could not find any "components of a nuclear weapon" or "related nuclear physics studies" in the country. Netanyahu, who is currently facing war crime charges in Gaza, claimed the Islamic Republic's uranium enrichment is the greatest danger to Israel and humanity. After weeks of denying that it used illegal weapons in the densely-populated Gaza Strip, the Israeli military finally admitted Friday that it had pounded the Palestinian coast with at least twenty white phosphorus bombs. The 1980 third Convention on Conventional Weapons has banned the use of white phosphorus as a weapon, even against military targets situated within population centers. International attorneys have filed war crime charges against 15 Israeli political and military officials, including Ehud Olmert, Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak
Click here: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=84344§ionid=351020104 to see more.
Envoy to Australia: Gaza op shows Israel 'ready to engage' on Iran threat
By Asaf Ronel
Israel's ambassador to Australia told leaders of the Sydney Jewish community on Sunday that, "Israel's efforts in Gaza were to bring about understanding that we are ready to engage in a decisive way" over Iran and its nuclear aspirations. The three-week Gaza operation was merely a "pre-introduction" to the challenge Israel would face from Iran, which will become a nuclear power within a year, Yuval Rotem said. According to Australia's Channel 7 television, Rotem made the statement at a meeting with leaders of the Sydney Jewish community, having first asked that the cameras be switched off.
While being filmed before the discussion, Rotem said, "The best thing to do is to have a very open dialogue if there are no reporters or journalists here," before telling the cameraman to stop filming. "He said that Israel's recent military offensives were a pre-introduction to the challenge Israel expects from a nuclear-equipped Iran within a year," Channel 7 reporter Sarah Cummings said.
Click here: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1060802.html to see more.
By Asaf Ronel
Israel's ambassador to Australia told leaders of the Sydney Jewish community on Sunday that, "Israel's efforts in Gaza were to bring about understanding that we are ready to engage in a decisive way" over Iran and its nuclear aspirations. The three-week Gaza operation was merely a "pre-introduction" to the challenge Israel would face from Iran, which will become a nuclear power within a year, Yuval Rotem said. According to Australia's Channel 7 television, Rotem made the statement at a meeting with leaders of the Sydney Jewish community, having first asked that the cameras be switched off.
While being filmed before the discussion, Rotem said, "The best thing to do is to have a very open dialogue if there are no reporters or journalists here," before telling the cameraman to stop filming. "He said that Israel's recent military offensives were a pre-introduction to the challenge Israel expects from a nuclear-equipped Iran within a year," Channel 7 reporter Sarah Cummings said.
Click here: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1060802.html to see more.
Gaza and the Crimes of Mubarak
By Rannie Amiri - February 02, 2009
By Rannie AmiriFebruary 02, 2009 "Counterpunch" -- -As staggering as the statistics detailing Gaza’s destruction may be, they still do not present a complete picture of the unique travesties and tragedies suffered by individuals, families, neighborhoods and villages during Israel’s savage 22-day assault on the tiny territory. Yet, they bear repeating. From the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/) and various NGOs:
1,334 killed, one-third of them children (more children than ‘militants’ were killed)
5,450 injured, one-third of them children
100,000 displaced, 50,000 made homeless
4,100 residential homes and buildings destroyed, 17,000 damaged (together accounting for 14 percent of all buildings in Gaza)
29 destroyed educational institutions, including the American International School
92 destroyed or damaged mosques
1,500 destroyed shops, factories and other commercial facilities
20 destroyed ambulances
35-60% of agricultural land ruined
$1.9 billion in total estimated damages
In the face of such massive devastation and hardship—and this after the crippling 18-month siege had already reduced Gazato a state of bare subsistence—the behavior and actions of the regime of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak remain as contemptible after the war as they were before.
Click here: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21887.htm to read more.
By Rannie Amiri - February 02, 2009
By Rannie AmiriFebruary 02, 2009 "Counterpunch" -- -As staggering as the statistics detailing Gaza’s destruction may be, they still do not present a complete picture of the unique travesties and tragedies suffered by individuals, families, neighborhoods and villages during Israel’s savage 22-day assault on the tiny territory. Yet, they bear repeating. From the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/) and various NGOs:
1,334 killed, one-third of them children (more children than ‘militants’ were killed)
5,450 injured, one-third of them children
100,000 displaced, 50,000 made homeless
4,100 residential homes and buildings destroyed, 17,000 damaged (together accounting for 14 percent of all buildings in Gaza)
29 destroyed educational institutions, including the American International School
92 destroyed or damaged mosques
1,500 destroyed shops, factories and other commercial facilities
20 destroyed ambulances
35-60% of agricultural land ruined
$1.9 billion in total estimated damages
In the face of such massive devastation and hardship—and this after the crippling 18-month siege had already reduced Gazato a state of bare subsistence—the behavior and actions of the regime of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak remain as contemptible after the war as they were before.
Click here: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21887.htm to read more.
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