Jewish Voices Against the Israeli Attacks

Not in my name

In the midst of the carnage in Gaza, it defies belief that my synagogue has asked me to march in solid support of Israel.

By Brian Klug
January 9 2009

In any conflict between peoples, there is a time for balancing the books, for placing facts neatly in the debit and credit columns, for issuing measured statements about the rights and wrongs on both sides. But not in the midst of one-sided carnage. The only decent thing to feel at the present time is outrage. The only thing for decent people to do right now is to condemn, without reserve or qualification, the brutal campaign that the Israeli military is waging against the population of Gaza. Every if and but derogates from decency.

Earlier this week, my synagogue sent its members an email containing details of two rallies in support of Israel “which we would urge you to support”. No ifs and buts here, just solid support for the perpetrator in the midst of the horror, it is perpetrating. Is it possible to go further in the opposite direction to decency?

Attached was a flyer for a “Mass Rally in Support of Israel” organised by the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council, with “the support of the major organisations of UK Jewry”, to be held in London this weekend. The flyer proclaims: “End Hamas terror!” No ifs and buts here either. No hint at the unspeakable state terror being unleashed, day after day, by the Israeli military. It defies belief.

So, let me place on record the following fact: the board does not speak for all British Jews and certainly not for this one. Nor does the so-called Leadership Council, nor any of the organisations associated with this misbegotten event.

None of them represents me or the Judaism that I cherish and which leads me to say as follows: I condemn utterly the military offensive by the government of Israel against the people of Gaza. The loss of any human life, on whatever side of this conflict, is a terrible thing. At this juncture, though, my heart is with the Palestinians on the ground in the midst of their misery. And I extend my hand to those Israelis who are speaking out against their own government.

For alternative views among Britain’s Jews, see the website of Independent Jewish Voices

Source

So I took Brian’s advice and went to the Independent Jewish Voices.

This is what I found.

We are a network of Jews in Britain who share a commitment to certain principles, especially with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in mind: putting human rights first, rejecting all forms of racism, and giving equal priority to Palestinians and Israelis in their quest for a peaceful and secure future. We believe that these principles, rather than group loyalty, should determine the parameters of legitimate debate.

Read the Declaration

Sign the Declaration

List of Signatories
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On Gaza

Please find below viewpoints and links on the tragic situation in Gaza.
Jewish Voices Against the Israeli Attacks

‘They are doing good, but they can do more’, Avi Pilchick was photographed telling reporters (Jan 5). He was just one of the Jewish Israeli bystanders on nearby hill-tops, applauding the spectacle of bombs hurtling down upon Gaza.

The official voice of Jewish opinion around the world, if less celebratory, is rallying in support of Israel.

Yet, significant numbers of Jewish people, inside and outside Israel, are devastated. Unable to halt the routine violation of human rights in Israel’s occupied territories or the prolonged and brutal siege preventing even the most urgent supplies reaching Gaza, we now face the enduring horror of military invasion.

While condemning every rocket fired on civilians from Gaza, we reject as absurd the ubiquitous Israeli propaganda that bombing and terrorizing Gaza will end them.

Despite its ideological hatred of Israel, elected Hamas officials have proved willing to negotiate. Hamas largely kept its side of the ceasefire it had agreed with Israel before the ending of the truce period, while in Gazan eyes Israel’s continued siege of their territory constantly violated it, devastating civilian life.

Few people seem able to change the lens through which they view this tragedy. Yet, like the Canadian women who occupied the Israeli embassy in Toronto, the hundreds of well-known Israeli writers, artists, musicians, academics and others, calling upon the international community to stop Israel , more Jewish voices are fighting harder than ever to force the world to pressurize Israel to accept that there is no military solution to this conflict, and to begin honest negotiations with all parties necessary for a peaceful settlement: a strategy it has rarely attempted, and never consistently pursued.

Lynne Segal (Founding Signatory IJV)

“If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink” (Proverbs 25:21)

Our tradition contains some wise words. Perhaps the Israeli government would do well to return to the sources and reflect on the ethics of its actions.

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Jewish Voice for Peace statement on Gaza attacks

Independent Jewish Voices (Canada) – formerly known as the Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians – is a network of 18 Jewish groups as well as individual Jews from across Canada who are opposed to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.

December 28, 2008

Jewish Voice for Peace joins millions around the world, including the 1,000 Israelis who protested in the streets of Tel Aviv this weekend, in condemning ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza. We call for an immediate end to attacks on all civilians, whether Palestinian or Israeli.

Israel’s slow strangulation of Gaza through blockade has caused widespread suffering to the 1.5 million people of Gaza due to lack of food, electricity, water treatment supplies and medical equipment. It is a violation of humanitarian law and has been widely condemned around the world.

In resisting this strangulation, Hamas resumed launching rockets and mortars from Gaza into southern Israel, directly targeting civilians, which is also a war crime. Over the years, these poorly made rockets have been responsible for the deaths of 15 Israelis since 2004.

Every country, Israel included, has the right and obligation to protect its citizens. The recent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza shows that diplomatic agreements are the best protection for civilian life.

Moreover, massive Israeli air strikes have proven an indiscriminate and brutal weapon. In just two days, the known death toll is close to 300, and the attacks are continuing. By targeting the infrastructure of a poor and densely populated area, Israel has ensured widespread civilian casualties among this already suffering and vulnerable population.

This massive destruction of Palestinian life will not protect the citizens of Israel. It is illegal and immoral and should be condemned in the strongest possible terms. And it threatens to ignite the West Bank and add flames to the other fires burning in the Middle East and beyond for years to come.

The timing of this attack, during the waning days of a US administration that has undertaken a catastrophic policy toward the Middle East and during the run-up to an Israeli election, suggests an opportunistic agenda for short-term political gain at an immense cost in Palestinian lives. In the long run this policy will benefit no-one except those who always profit from war and exploitation. Only a just and lasting peace, achieved through a negotiated agreement, can provide both Palestinians and Israelis the security they want and deserve.

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Independent Jewish Voices Condemns Israel’s Gaza Massacre
By Independent Jewish Voices in  Canada

December 28 2009
Occupied Palestine

December 28, 2008
The Israeli military has unleashed its most vicious air assault against the people of Gaza in decades, killing over 280 Gazans and wounding over 700. Despite claims by the Israeli leadership that they are trying to avoid civilians the attacks have been concentrated on Gaza City and the towns of Khan Younis and Rafah. Israeli television reports that Israeli troops are massing on the border “in preparation for a supplementary ground offensive.”

Independent Jewish Voices (Canada) condemns this murderous escalation of violence by the Israeli government. Diana Ralph, IJV Coordinator calls this assault “completely disproportionate to the unsupportable firing of Qassam rockets by Hamas fighters which killed one Israeli. It’s important to put this into the context of the deadly siege of Gaza by the Israeli forces, which continued in violation of the terms of the recent six month truce between Israel and Gaza. In the ethics of violent conflicts, it is the responsibility of the force wielding power – the Israeli government in this case – to create the conditions for a just peace.”

Dr. Judy Deutsch, IJV representative, added: “This massacre will only intensify the cycle of violence in the region and heighten the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The aim of these attacks is not to bring about peace but to strengthen the position of the Israeli government as it heads into elections next February.”

Independent Jewish Voices (Canada) calls for an immediate halt to all violence in the conflict, the cessation of the Israeli government’s blockade against Gaza, a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Occupied West Bank and the dismantling of settlements.

We also call on the Canadian government to recall its ambassador to Israel and strongly condemn Israel’s assault.

Independent Jewish Voices (Canada) – formerly known as the Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians – is a network of 18 Jewish groups as well as individual Jews from across Canada who are opposed to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.

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January 10 2008

In San Francisco, Jewish protesters joined pro-Palestinian forces this week as hundreds gathered outside the Israeli consulate to make their voices heard, some carrying signs saying “Gaza = Warsaw Ghetto.” Among them was Jack Fertig – known to many in town as performance artist Sister Boom Boom – who said, “I’m descended from Holocaust victims, and we need to identify with the oppressed, not imitate the oppressors.

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An Open Letter From Jewish Youth in Canada – Support of Gaza -all Jewish youth can sign

In Toronto Jan 7: Canadian Jewish women protesting against Gaza War, Arrested after occupying the Israeli Consulate

Gaza (1): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Actions we can take to help Palestinians in Gaza Petitions

Indexed List of all Stories in Archives

Gaza War Why?: Natural Gas valued at over $4 billion MAYBE?

So to date are we all with the Program? Are we getting the Truth of it all yet.

Lets see now

1. Afghanistan: “Caspian Sea”  Oil,  Natural Gas ,”"Pipe Line”
2. Iraq: Oil
3. Gaza: Natural Gas

Well isn’t that all so interesting?

All  wars started in the Name of “Self Defense”.

British prospectors have found a substantial field of natural gas, holding an estimated 1.5 trillion cubic feet, off the coast of Gaza which Israel is coveting.

January 5 2009
Two factors that are not being talked about much, but have figured prominently in the Israeli calculus are: natural gas and the upcoming elections to the Israeli Knesset, their parliament.

Gaza is a small strip of land on the Mediterranean Sea. Its territorial waters extend to about 35km off the coast. In 1999, the oil firm BG International discovered a huge deposit of natural gas 32km from the Gaza coast. The Gaza Marine gas field contains 1.2 trillion cubic feet of gas valued at over $4 billion. As per the Oslo peace accords, which created Gaza, Israel has security control over air and water around Gaza. So, it wrangled a deal with BG to get access to Gaza Marine gas at cheap rates.

But before the deal could go through, Hamas won the elections to the Palestinian Legislative Council in 2006. This sparked off a bitter power struggle between Hamas and the pro-west Fatah. Ultimately, the Palestinian Authority split in 2007, with Hamas taking control of Gaza and Fatah taking control of West Bank. One of the first things that Hamas did after getting elected was to declare that the natural gas deal would have to be renegotiated.

Then began the Israeli blockade of Gaza, which prevented much required food and medicines from reaching the hapless Gazans. Crammed into about 360 sq km, 1.5 million Gazans saw their lives crumble into dust. To get food and medicines, Gazans built tunnels under the Israeli barriers, and once even broke through on the Egyptian side. But the Israeli and Egyptian army tamped them down.

It appears that the current Israeli move is to try and turn the Gazans against Hamas, paving the way for a more pliable administration, so that the gas deal will go through. Reports from Israel indicate that preparations for this attack were underway since several months ago, with the ceasefire offered by Israel being just a ploy to lull Hamas.

In addition, the coming elections in Israel are predicted to see a tough challenge to the Kadima party-led government of Ehud Olmert by the hardline Likud party, led by Benjamin Netahnyu. Even within Kadima, Olmert is facing a challenge from foreign minister Tzipi Livni. Olmert has come under much criticism for the botched invasion of Lebanon in 2006. Many see the Gaza attack as an attempt by Olmert to revitalize his position within Israel.

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Gaza and the World: Will Things Ever Change?
One has to wonder: if Israel kills a thousand more, ten thousand, or half of Gaza, will the US still blame Palestinians?

By Ramzy Baroud
January 8, 2009
In times of crisis, most Arabs tune in to Aljazeera television. Sometimes it’s comforting for the truth to be stated the way it is, with all of its gory and unsettling details, without blemishes and without censorship. When Israel carried out massive air strikes against Gaza on Saturday, December 27, terrorizing an already hostage and malnourished population, I too tuned in to Aljazeera.

Within seconds I learned of the tally: 290 deaths and climbing, with 700 more wounded, all in one day. But as dramatic as this event may have seemed – the highest Israeli inflicted death toll in one day in Palestine since Israel’s establishment in 1948 – there was nothing new to learn.

Tragedies anywhere, natural or man made, tend to lead to social, cultural, economic and political upheavals, revolutions even, that somehow alter the social, cultural, economic and ultimately political landscapes in the affected regions, save in Palestine.

I gazed pointlessly at the screen. Learning of the aftermath of such tragedies seems more of a ritual than a purposeful habit. The Arab and international responses to the killings can only serve as a reminder of how ineffectual and irrelevant, if not complacent their timid mutterings are.

Once again the US blamed Palestinians, and the Hamas “thugs” using words that defy logic, such as “Israel has the right to defend itself.” The statement remains as ludicrous as ever, for a country like Israel with an army that possesses the world’s most lethal weapons, including nuclear arms, cannot possibly feel threatened by an imprisoned population whose only defense mechanism are fertilizer-based homemade rockets.

While Israel has killed and wounded thousands of Palestinians in Gaza (one thousand on Saturday alone) a handful of Israelis have reportedly died as a direct result of the Palestinian rockets in years. Do numbers matter at all?

European governments chose their words carefully, “expressing concern”, “calling on Israel to use restraint” and so on. Arab governments were, as usual, distracted with trivialities, protocols and easily lost sight of the crisis at hand.

Then, the same, ever predictable outbursts began. Passionate callers from all over the world called various TV and radio stations in the Middle East and shouted, yelled, cried, vented, called on God, called on Arab leaders, called on all of those with “living conscience” to do something.

In turn, audiences too cried at home as they listened to the heated commentary and watched footage of heaps of Palestinian bodies throughout the Gaza Strip.

The passion soon spilled to the streets of Arab capitals, of course under the ever-vigilant eyes of Arab police and secret services. Flags of US and Israel, and in some cases Egypt were sat ablaze along with effigies of Bush and Israeli leaders.

‘Rising up to the occasion’ some Arab governments declared, with much hype their intention to send an airplane or two of medicine and food to Gaza, a few boxes clad with the donor country’s flag, flashed endlessly on local media. Meanwhile, news reports spoke of Palestinians attempting to flee the Gaza prison into the Sinai desert. They were met with decisive Egyptian security presence at the border.

Strangely enough, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas remained faithful to the script, despite Gaza’s unprecedented tragedy. On Sunday, he blamed Hamas for the bloodbath. “We talked to them (Hamas) and we told them, ‘please, we ask you, do not end the truce. Let the truce continue and not stop”, so that we could have avoided what happened.”

Was Mr. Abbas informed of the fact that Hamas hasn’t carried out one suicide bombing since 2005? Or that the ‘truce’ never compelled Israel to allow Palestinians in Gaza access to basic necessities and medicine? Or that it was Israel that attacked Gaza in November, killing several people, claiming that it obtained information of a secret Hamas plot?

Even stranger that while Abbas has chosen such a position, many Israelis are not convinced that the war on Gaza was at all related to the Hamas’ rockets, and is in fact an election ploy for desperate politicians vying for Israel’s dominating right wing vote in the upcoming February elections. In fact, the Israeli design against Gaza had little to do with the ‘escalation’ of the rocket attacks of mid December.

“Long-term preparation, careful gathering of information, secret discussions, operational deception and the misleading of the public – all these stood behind the Israel Defense Forces “Cast Lead” operation against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip,” wrote the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz on December 28, which also revealed that the plan had been in effect for six months.

“Like the US assault on Iraq and the Israeli response to the abduction of IDF reservists Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser at the outset of the Second Lebanon War, little to no weight was apparently devoted to the question of harming innocent civilians,” said Haaretz.

And why should Israel devote a moment to the question of harming civilians or violating international law or any such seemingly irrelevant notions – as far as Israel is concerned – as long as their “Palestinian partners”, the Arab League, or the international community continue to teeter between silence, complacency, rhetoric and inaction?

By Thursday, January 1, the death toll climbed to 420, according to Palestinian medics and news reports, and over 2000 wounded.

A doctor from a Khan Yunis clinic in Gaza told me on the phone:

Scores of the wounded are clinically dead. Others are so badly disfigured; I felt that death is of greater mercy for them than living. We had no more room at the Qarara Clinic. Body parts cluttered the hallways. People screamed in endless agony and we had not enough medicine or pain killers. So we had to choose which ones to treat and which not to. In that moment I genuinely wished I was killed in the Israeli strikes myself, but I kept running trying to do something, anything.

Until Arab countries and nations translate their chants and condemnations into a practical and meaningful political action that can bring an end to the Israeli onslaughts against Palestinians, all that is likely to change are the numbers of dead and wounded.

But still, one has to wonder: if Israel kills a thousand more, ten thousand, or half of Gaza, will the US still blame Palestinians? Will Egypt open its Gaza border? Will Europe express the same “deep concern”? Will the Arabs issue the same redundant statements? Will things ever change? Ever?

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War and Natural Gas: The Israeli Invasion and Gaza’s Offshore Gas Fields

By Michel Chossudovsky

January 8 2009

The military invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israeli Forces bears a direct relation to the control and ownership of strategic offshore gas reserves.

This is a war of conquest. Discovered in 2000, there are extensive gas reserves off the Gaza coastline.

British Gas (BG Group) and its partner, the Athens based Consolidated Contractors International Company (CCC) owned by Lebanon’s Sabbagh and Koury families, were granted oil and gas exploration rights in a 25 year agreement signed in November 1999 with the Palestinian Authority.

The rights to the offshore gas field are respectively British Gas (60 percent); Consolidated Contractors (CCC) (30 percent); and the Investment Fund of the Palestinian Authority (10 percent). : Haaretz, October 21,  2007.

The PA-BG-CCC agreement includes field development and the construction of a gas pipeline.(Middle East Economic Digest, Jan 5, 2001).

The BG licence covers the entire Gazan offshore marine area, which is contiguous to several Israeli offshore gas facilities. (See Map below). It should be noted that 60 percent of the gas reserves along the Gaza-Israel coastline belong to Palestine.

The BG Group drilled two wells in 2000: Gaza Marine-1 and Gaza Marine-2. Reserves are estimated by British Gas to be of the order of 1.4 trillion cubic feet, valued at approximately 4 billion dollars. These are the figures made public by British Gas. The size of Palestine’s gas reserves could be much larger.

Map 1

Map 2

Who Owns the Gas Fields

The issue of sovereignty over Gaza’s gas fields is crucial. From a legal standpoint, the gas reserves belong to Palestine.

The death of Yasser Arafat, the election of the Hamas government and the ruin of the Palestinian Authority have enabled Israel to establish de facto control over Gaza’s offshore gas reserves.

British Gas (BG Group) has been dealing with the Tel Aviv government. In turn, the Hamas government has been bypassed in regards to exploration and development rights over the gas fields.

The election of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2001 was a major turning point. Palestine’s sovereignty over the offshore gas fields was challenged in the Israeli Supreme Court. Sharon stated unequivocally that “Israel would never buy gas from Palestine” intimating that Gaza’s offshore gas reserves belong to Israel.

In 2003, Ariel Sharon, vetoed an initial deal, which would allow British Gas to supply Israel with natural gas from Gaza’s offshore wells. : The Independent, August 19, 2003

The election victory of Hamas in 2006 was conducive to the demise of the Palestinian Authority, which became confined to the West Bank, under the proxy regime of Mahmoud Abbas.

In 2006, British Gas “was close to signing a deal to pump the gas to Egypt.” (Times, May, 23, 2007). According to reports, British Prime Minister Tony Blair intervened on behalf of Israel with a view to shunting the agreement with Egypt.

The following year, in May 2007, the Israeli Cabinet approved a proposal by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert  “to buy gas from the Palestinian Authority.” The proposed contract was for $4 billion, with profits of the order of $2 billion of which one billion was to go the Palestinians.

Tel Aviv, however, had no intention on sharing the revenues with Palestine. An Israeli team of negotiators was set up by the Israeli Cabinet to thrash out a deal with the BG Group, bypassing both the Hamas government and the Palestinian Authority:

“Israeli defence authorities want the Palestinians to be paid in goods and services and insist that no money go to the Hamas-controlled Government.” (Ibid, emphasis added)

The objective was essentially to nullify the contract signed in 1999 between the BG Group and the Palestinian Authority under Yasser Arafat.

Under the proposed 2007 agreement with BG, Palestinian gas from Gaza’s offshore wells was to be channeled by an undersea pipeline to the Israeli seaport of Ashkelon, thereby transferring control over the sale of the natural gas to Israel.

The deal fell through. The negotiations were suspended:

“Mossad Chief Meir Dagan opposed the transaction on security grounds, that the proceeds would fund terror”. (Member of Knesset Gilad Erdan, Address to the Knesset on “The Intention of Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to Purchase Gas from the Palestinians When Payment Will Serve Hamas,” March 1, 2006, quoted in Lt. Gen. (ret.) Moshe Yaalon, Does the Prospective Purchase of British Gas from Gaza’s Coastal Waters Threaten Israel’s National Security? Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, October 2007)

Israel’s intent was to foreclose the possibility that royalties be paid to the Palestinians. In December 2007, The BG Group withdrew from the negotiations with Israel and in January 2008 they closed their office in Israel. (BG website).

Invasion Plan on The Drawing Board

The invasion plan of the Gaza Strip under “Operation Cast Lead” was set in motion in June 2008, according to Israeli military sources:

“Sources in the defense establishment said Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the Israel Defense Forces to prepare for the operation over six months ago [June or before June] , even as Israel was beginning to negotiate a ceasefire agreement with Hamas.”(Barak Ravid, Operation “Cast Lead”: Israeli Air Force strike followed months of planning, Haaretz, December 27, 2008

That very same month, the Israeli authorities contacted British Gas, with a view to resuming crucial negotiations pertaining to the purchase of Gaza’s natural gas:

“Both Ministry of Finance director general Yarom Ariav and Ministry of National Infrastructures director general Hezi Kugler agreed to inform BG of Israel’s wish to renew the talks.

The sources added that BG has not yet officially responded to Israel’s request, but that company executives would probably come to Israel in a few weeks to hold talks with government officials.” : Globes online- Israel’s Business Arena, June 23, 2008

The decision to speed up negotiations with British Gas (BG Group) coincided, chronologically, with the planning of the invasion of Gaza initiated in June. It would appear that Israel was anxious to reach an agreement with the BG Group prior to the invasion, which was already in an advanced planning stage.

Moreover, these negotiations with British Gas were conducted by the Ehud Olmert government with the knowledge that a military invasion was on the drawing board. In all likelihood, a new “post war” political-territorial arrangement for the Gaza strip was also being contemplated by the Israeli government.

In fact, negotiations between British Gas and Israeli officials were ongoing in October 2008, 2-3 months prior to the commencement of the bombings on December 27th.

In November 2008, the Israeli Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of National Infrastructures instructed Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) to enter into negotiations with British Gas, on the purchase of natural gas from the BG’s offshore concession in Gaza.  : Globes, November 13, 2008

“Ministry of Finance director general Yarom Ariav and Ministry of National Infrastructures director general Hezi Kugler wrote to IEC CEO Amos Lasker recently, informing him of the government’s decision to allow negotiations to go forward, in line with the framework proposal it approved earlier this year.

The IEC board, headed by chairman Moti Friedman, approved the principles of the framework proposal a few weeks ago. The talks with BG Group will begin once the board approves the exemption from a tender.” : Globes Nov. 13, 2008

Gaza and Energy Geopolitics

The military occupation of Gaza is intent upon transferring the sovereignty of the gas fields to Israel in violation of international law.

What can we expect in the wake of the invasion?

What is the intent of Israel with regard to Palestine’s Natural Gas reserves?

A new territorial arrangement, with the stationing of Israeli and/or “peacekeeping” troops?

The militarization of the entire Gaza coastline, which is strategic for Israel?

The outright confiscation of Palestinian gas fields and the unilateral declaration of Israeli sovereignty over Gaza’s maritime areas?

If this were to occur, the Gaza gas fields would be integrated into Israel’s offshore installations, which are contiguous to those of the Gaza Strip. (See Map 1 above).

proposed Israeli-Turkish pipeline with the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

Ceyhan is the terminal of the Baku, Tblisi Ceyhan Trans Caspian pipeline. “What is envisaged is to link the BTC pipeline to the Trans-Israel Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline, also known as Israel’s Tipline.” (See Michel Chossudovsky, The War on Lebanon and the Battle for Oil, : Global Research, July 23, 2006

Map 3

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Israel refuses to stop Bombing , shelling and murdering,  those in Gaza even though the UN has demanded they stop. This after killing those in UN schools and a UN worker and wounding others delivering Aid to those in Gaza.  The killing and injuring Gazan’s must stop, NOW.

I would suggest a total “Embargo” against Israel.

I would suggest doing to them, what has been done to those in Gaza for so long.

No one, or anything in and nothing, or no one allowed out.

I would not suggest Bombing them with Weapons like they are using, as that will only increase the staggering amount of Toxic slop already there because of their own use of it.

Cutting them off of all goods going in or out, would be a good start to let them know, the rest of the world is not going to tolerate, their reluctance to stop the killing innocent people.

The embargo would also include Oil and Gas etc. The sooner the better. This should be done immediately. Aid could be transported through Egypt to Gaza. That is if there is a still a road left to transport it.

No Gas, no Oil, no planes or tanks can operate.

Absolutely no more weapons, to Israel either.

Cut off all money entering Israel. They are a terrorist state. Hey it was done to Iceland, by Gordon Brown and they weren’t killing anyone.

Seizing their assets around the world, would send a very clear message.

If this is not done they will continue to kill those in Gaza. They have absolutely no intention of stopping. That should be obvious to all by now. They attacked the United Nations when they attacked the schools and the driver in the UN aid truck. They attacked all United Nation members in doing this. Legally any member of the UN has every legal right to Seize their assets. This was a terrorist action. It doesn’t make any difference in which country it was done. If they attacked a UN instillation anywhere else it would be considered and act of terrorism.

Just because they did it in Gaza does not make it less of a crime.

It was not an accident. All UN vehicles and buildings are clearly marked. They would also know exactly where the UN schools they attacked were. It was a deliberate act of aggression toward the UN. There fore it is an act of terrorism, and should be treated as such. No excuse is acceptable.

They should also never and I mean never, be allowed any of the Natural Gas discovered  either.

Scream at your Government Officials and don’t stop screaming until they Force an Embargo. Actions speak louder then words. Government officials need a message loud and clear to do this other wise they will have to talk and talk and talk.

Israel must comply with the UN decision. The members of the UN must make it very clear Israel must stop it’s war on Gaza, one way or the other.

No more waiting to see what will happen. No more beating around the Bush. NO MORE!  Enough of their lies! Enough murder!

The UN  has  the power and resources to stop them. The war should have been stopped before it started and could have been,  had the UN been more forceful.

Those in Israel  who began the war should be arrested,  thrown in jail, tried for Crimes Against Humanity, War Crimes and Murder including the deaths of their own Soldiers.

This war is Premeditated Murder and Genocide.

The” Self -Defense Ritual” is pure and utter propaganda.

A blatant, self serving, LIE.…..

It is time to put all those new laws pertaining to terrorism to work like the “Patriot Act”. The Governments around the world can and should, use those acts against Israel. If they use them against anyone else who commits and act of terror, it is only true justice and equality for all, they use them in response, to Israels refusal to stop the war of aggression against those in Gaza. It is the Law after all and the Law applies to everyone including Israel.

Israel killing their own by Using Deadly Weapons of Mass Destuction again Gaza

Gaza (4): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words This links to 4 other pages with pictures -all devastating As a matter of fact the farther you go the worse they get.

Israel kills UN driver causing halt to UN Relief Aid in Gaza

Red Cross slams Israel over 4 day wait to access  wounded

The making of Israel’s Apartheid in Palestine

Egypt floats truce plan after 42 killed in Gaza School and Bars Doctors from Gaza

Indexed List of all Stories in Archives

War in Gaza: Israel accused of killing 30 after shelling safe house

By Philippe Naughton, and Martin Fletcher on the Gaza border
January 9 2009

The United Nations has accused Israel of evacuating scores of Palestinians into a house in the suburbs of Gaza City, only to shell the property 24 hours later, killing some 30 people.

In a report published today on what it called “one of the gravest incidents” of the 14-day conflict, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) complained that the Israeli Defence Force then prevented medical teams from entering the area to evacuate the wounded, including young children.

The Israeli military said it was investigating the claim but had no knowledge of the incident.

Citing “several testimonies” – but without identifying its sources – OCHA said that Israeli foot soldiers evacuated around 110 Palestinians into a house in Zeitun, south of Gaza City, on Sunday. Half of them were children.

“Twenty-four hours later, Israeli forces shelled the home repeatedly, killing approximately 30,” OCHA said. “Those who survived and were able walked two kilometres to Salah Ed Din road before being transported to the hospital in civilian vehicles. Three children, the youngest of whom was five months old, died upon arrival at the hospital.”

OCHA added that the International Committee of the Red Cross took several days to gain access to the area but managed to do so on Tuesday during the first daily three-hour humanitarian ceasefire. “Due to the limited time allowed, ICRC was not able to reach all houses in the area,” it said. “In all, ICRC evacuated 30 Palestinians, including 18 wounded.”

The ICRC had already issued a statement on the Zeitun incident yesterday, accusing Israel of “unacceptable behaviour” and of breaching international humanitarian law.

In that statement, the ICRC said its team had discovered four emaciated children living next to the corpses of their dead mothers in a house on which there were 12 dead bodies lying on mattresses. In another house, they found 15 survivors of the Israeli bombardment, several of them wounded, and, in a third, three corpses.

The ICRC declined to comment on the allegations in the OCHA report but a spokeswoman said that Red Cross teams had returned to Zeitun yesterday and evacuated around 100 people.

An Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem, quoted a Zeitun resident giving details of the alleged incident over the telephone but stressed that it was unable to independently verify the account.

Meysa Fawzi al Samuni, 19, said soldiers forced her and dozens of others to move into the warehouse-like home of another resident. Two men who left the house to pick up a relative were struck by “a missile or a shell,” she said.

“My husband went over to them to help, and then a shell or missile was fired onto the roof of the warehouse. Based on the intensity of the strike, I think it was a missile from an F-16,” B’Tselem quoted her as saying.

“After the smoke and dust cleared a bit, I looked around and saw 20-30 people who were dead, and about 20 who were wounded. As far as I know, the dead and wounded who were under the ruins are still there.”

The allegations risk further souring relations between Israel and the United Nations. The main UN aid agency in Gaza, UNRWA, said yesterday that it was suspending operations after two of its drivers were killed in an Israeli attack on an aid convoy.

Late last night in New York, the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, where around 800 Palestinians have been killed in a two-week Israeli offensive.

The 15-member council backed a resolution drafted by Britain in a 14-0 vote after the United States lifted its veto threat – infuriating the Israelis – but decided nevertheless to abstain.

The resolution “stresses the urgency of and calls for an immediate, durable and fully respected ceasefire leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.”

But the Israeli shelling continued unabated this morning, small plumes of white smoke rising every few minutes from the battered apartment blocks of Gaza City.

Israel carried out more than 50 air strikes in Gaza overnight, in which 12 Palestinian civilians were reported to have been killed. The Israeli military said that the militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, and its allies fired more than 15 rockets into southern Israel, wounding one person.

After a meeting of his security cabinet, Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, rejected the resolution as “unworkable” today and said that Israel had “never agreed to let an external body decide its right to protect the security of its citizens”.

“The firing of rockets this morning only goes to show that the UN decision is unworkable and will not be adhered to by the murderous Palestinian organisations,” he added.

Hamas, the Islamic militant group which controls the Gaza Strip, also rejected the UN resolution.

Source

This is the second time this type of incident has been reported. The First :   Israel strike kills up to 60 members of one family

Israel killing their own by Using Deadly Weapons of Mass Destuction again Gaza

Gaza (4): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

January9 2009:   Since Israel launched “Operation Cast Lead”, 781 people have been killed and nearly 3,100 others have been wounded, Palestinian emergency services said.

The destruction Continues.

January 9 : A cluster bomb disperses hundreds of bomblets in the northern Gaza Strip Photo: Yannis Behrakis/Reuters

January 9 : Palestinians pray next to the bodies of the Salha family, who were killed in an Israeli missile strike in Gaza City Photo: Ali Ali/EPA

January 7 : Mourners pray over the victims killed on Tuesday in an Israeli attack on a UN-run school building in Jabaliya, northern Gaza Photo: Abid Katib/Getty Images

A relative of the 10 members of the Deeb family weeps at their funeral in Jabaliya refugee camp. The victims died in an Israeli strike on a a UN-run school Photo: Mohammed Saber/EPA

January 8 : Palestinians gather around the ruins of the Al-Noor mosque after an Israeli airstrike in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City Photo: Hatem Moussa/AP

January 7 : Palestinian children are seen at the United Nations school where their families took shelter following Israeli strikes, in the refugee camp of Jabaliya Photo: Mohammed Saber/EPA

January 1: Wounded Palestinian children are carried to a hospital after an Israeli air strike on the home of senior Hamas leader Nizar Rayyan in Gaza Photo: Ismail Zaydah /Reuters

January 1: A Palestinian woman with two wounded members of her family in hospital following an Israeli missile strike in Beit Hanoun.  Photo: Ashraf Amra/AP

January 1 : A wounded Palestinian child screams as she arrives to the al-Shifa hospital after an Israeli air strike in Gaza City Photo: Fadi Adwan /Getty Images

December 31 : Hosam Hamdan in in Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital intensive care unit after he was wounded and his two sisters killed in an Israeli air strike in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip. At least 25% of Palestinians killed during Israel’s massive offensive in the Gaza Strip have been civilians, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said Photo: Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images

December 29: Palestinian children walk past a destroyed mosque and houses after they were hit by an Israeli missile strike that killed Jawaher Baalusha, 4, and her four sisters in the northern Gaza Strip

Photograph: Abid Katib/Getty Images

December 29 : A Palestinian boy watches the funeral of three children in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Palestinian medics said five young sisters, died in an Israeli air strike in Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza and three other young children were killed when a bomb struck a house Photo: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters

A wounded Palestinian is carried into Shifa hospital after an Israeli air strike in Gaza January 8, 2009. Photo: Reuters

Gaza January 8, 2009. Photo: Reuters

An Egyptian looks at rising clouds of smoke during Israeli strikes at the Gaza strip, in the Egyptian border city of Rafah January 8, 2009. Palestinians faced even grimmer conditions in the Gaza Strip on Thursday after a U.N. aid agency halted work, saying its staff were at risk from Israeli forces fighting Hamas militants, after two drivers were killed. Photo: Reuters

Destroyed homes after an Israeli air strike on Rafah, in southern Gaza Photo: Getty

Israeli troops continue bombardment in Gaza city on Jan.8,2009. Photo: Xinhua

Dense smoke rises from Gaza city after Israeli bombardment on Jan.8, 2009. Photo: Xinhua

Palestinians gather at the site of a destroyed mosque following an Israeli air strike in Gaza City, Jan. 8, 2009.  Photo: Xinhua

The Red Cross says Israel has failed to meet its humanitarian law obligations Photo: Reuters

Jan 9: About 770 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza  Photo: AFP

Hospitals in Gaza have been overwhelmed trying to treat about 3,000 people wounded in the Israeli operation. Doctors say they are running short of essential supplies and people are dying as a result. Photo: Getty

Children stand near the remains of an Israeli missile that landed in a building in Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009. Photo: AP / Eyad Baba)

Fire and smoke is seen from Israeli military operations in Gaza City, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009. Photo: AP / Abdel Kareem Hana

An artillery shell explodes over the Palestinian refugee camp of Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip “Looks like White Phosphorous”. Photo: Patrick Baz/AFP/Getty Images

Palestinians pray near the bodies of some of the 43 Palestinians who were killed the previous day. More than 600 Palestinians are now believed to have been killed since the offensive began Photo: Mohammed Saber/EPA

A Star of David, the Jewish symbol, is drawn on a drying pool of blood near the damaged UN school. The UN have denied Israeli allegations that Palestinian militants were firing rockets from the school. Photo: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images

January 7 2009: More than 40 Palestinians, many of them them women and children, were killed by an Israeli mortar shell at a United Nations school in Gaza on Tuesday, intensifying the international pressure for a ceasefire agreement Photo: Ismail Zaydah/Reuters

White Phosphorus dropped in Gaza

The pale blue 155mm rounds are clearly marked with the designation M825A1, an American-made white phosphorus munition Photo: Times on line

Better know as a Bunker Buster. An explosion is seen as missiles fired from an Israeli aircraft fly towards a target in the northern Gaza Strip, as seen from the Israeli side of the border,  Jan. 1, 2009.   Photo: AP/Gil Nechushtan

A Palestinian man reacts as he carries a girl who according to Palestinian medical sources was killed in an Israeli strike, into Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Monday, Jan. 5, 2009. Israeli forces pounded Gaza Strip houses and mosques  on Monday from the air, land and sea, killing at least seven children as they pressed a bruising offensive against Palestinian militants. Photo: AP/Khalil Hamra

Child in the rubble of destroyed building Gaza City January 6 2009 Photo: Fady Adwan

A Palestinian girl cries during the funeral of her brother who was killed after an Israeli air strike in the northern Gaza Strip January 4, 2009. Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants battled on Gaza City’s outskirts on Sunday after Israeli troops and tanks invaded the coastal enclave in the worst fighting in the conflict in decades. REUTERS/Ismail Zaydah (GAZA)

A Palestinian girl cries during the funeral of a relative that was killed in an Israeli air strike in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2009. Israeli ground troops and tanks cut swaths through the Gaza Strip early Sunday, cutting the coastal territory into two and surrounding its biggest city as the new phase of a devastating offensive against Hamas gained momentum.”photo by Fady Adwan/propaimages”

A Palestinian girl cries during the funeral of a relative that was killed in an Israeli air strike in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2009. Israeli ground troops and tanks cut swaths through the Gaza Strip early Sunday, cutting the coastal territory into two and surrounding its biggest city as the new phase of a devastating offensive against Hamas gained momentum.”photo by Fady Adwan/propaimages”

A Charity has used the little girl above for advertising. I just did up a new post on this you may be interested in reading. 

US/Israeli Charity uses little Palestinian Childs photo to raise money for Israels Hungry

Gaza (6) A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (5): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (3): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (2): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (1): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Israel killing their own by Using Deadly Weapons of Mass Destuction again Gaza

Links to other Gaza stories in the January Index

January 2009 Index

Israel killing their own by Using Deadly Weapons of Mass Destuction again Gaza

Israel “Using banned arms against Gazans”
January 8 2009

Israel has been using phosphorus bombs, cluster ammunitions and banned arms against the civilian population of the Gaza Strip, a report says.

After examining video footage of the military operation in Gaza, Turkish military analysts confirmed that such weapons have been used by the Israeli military in Gaza, the Today Zaman reported Thursday.

Cluster bombs contain hundreds of bomblets, which can bring about a catastrophe when used in civilian areas. The bomblets often remain unexploded during the military operation and cause casualties thereafter.

The United States, Russia, China, India, Pakistan and Israel have so far refused to sign an agreement to ban the use of cluster ammunitions.

Journalists and medics also reported the use of white phosphorus shells by Israel in the Gaza offensive. The chemical can cause serious burns or death if it comes to contact with human skin.

Israel launched Operation Cast Lead on December 27 and escalated its offensive into a massive ground incursion late Saturday night.

The offensive has so far claimed 772 lives in Gaza and left more than 3,100 others wounded.

SB/MD

The pale blue 155mm rounds are clearly marked with the designation M825A1, an American-made white phosphorus munition.

January 8 2009
By Michael Evans, Defence Editor and Sheera Frenkel in Jerusalem

Photographic evidence has emerged that proves that Israel has been using controversial white phosphorus shells during its offensive in Gaza, despite official denials by the Israel Defence Forces.

There is also evidence that the rounds have injured Palestinian civilians, causing severe burns. The use of white phosphorus against civilians is prohibited under international law.

The Times has identified stockpiles of white phosphorus (WP) shells from high-resolution images taken of Israel Defence Forces (IDF) artillery units on the Israeli-Gaza border this week. The pale blue 155mm rounds are clearly marked with the designation M825A1, an American-made WP munition. The shell is an improved version with a more limited dispersion of the phosphorus, which ignites on contact with oxygen, and is being used by the Israeli gunners to create a smoke screen on the ground.

The rounds, which explode into a shower of burning white streaks, were first identified by The Times at the weekend when they were fired over Gaza at the start of Israel’s ground offensive. Artillery experts said that the Israeli troops would be in trouble if they were banned from using WP because it is the simplest way of creating smoke to protect them from enemy fire.

There were indications last night that Palestinian civilians have been injured by the bombs, which burn intensely. Hassan Khalass, a doctor at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, told The Times that he had been dealing with patients who he suspected had been burnt by white phosphorus. Muhammad Azayzeh, 28, an emergency medical technician in the city, said: “The burns are very unusual. They don’t look like burns we have normally seen. They are third-level burns that we can’t seem to control. ”Victims with embedded WP particles in their flesh have to have the affected areas flushed with water. Particles that cannot be removed with tweezers are covered with a saline-soaked dressing.

Nafez Abu Shaban, the head of the burns unit at al-Shifa hospital, said: “I am not familiar with phosphorus but many of the patients wounded in the past weeks have strange burns. They are very deep and not like burns we used to see.”

When The Times reported on Monday that the Israeli troops appeared to be firing WP shells to create a thick smoke camouflage for units advancing into Gaza, an IDF spokesman denied the use of phosphorus and said that Israel was using only the weapons that were allowed under international law.

Rows of the pale blue M825A1 WP shells were photographed on January 4 on the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border. Another picture showed the same munitions stacked up behind an Israeli self-propelled howitzer.

Confronted with the latest evidence, an IDF spokeswoman insisted that the M825A1 shell was not a WP type. “This is what we call a quiet shell – it is empty, it has no explosives and no white phosphorus. There is nothing inside it,” she said.

“We shoot it to mark the target before we launch a real shell. We launch two or three of the quiet shells which are empty so that the real shells will be accurate. It’s not for killing people,” she said.

Asked what shell was being used to create the smokescreen effect seen so clearly on television images, she said: “We’re using what other armies use and we’re not using any weapons that are banned under international law.”

Neil Gibson, technical adviser to Jane’s Missiles and Rockets, insisted that the M825A1 was a WP round. “The M825A1 is an improved model. The WP does not fill the shell but is impregnated into 116 felt wedges which, once dispersed [by a high-explosive charge], start to burn within four to five seconds. They then burn for five to ten minutes. The smoke screen produced is extremely effective,” he said.

The shell is not defined as an incendiary weapon by the Third Protocol to the Convention on Conventional Weapons because its principal use is to produce smoke to protect troops. However, Marc Galasco, of Human Rights Watch, said: “Recognising the significant incidental incendiary effect that white phosphorus creates, there is great concern that Israel is failing to take all feasible steps to avoid civilian loss of life and property by using WP in densely populated urban areas. This concern is amplified given the technique evidenced in media photographs of air-bursting WP projectiles at relatively low levels, seemingly to maximise its incendiary effect.”

He added, however, that Human Rights Watch had no evidence that Israel was using incendiaries as weapons.

British and American artillery units have stocks of white phosphorus munitions but they are banned as anti-personnel weapons. “These munitions are not unlawful as their purpose is to provide obscuration and not cause injury by burning,” a Ministry of Defence source said.

Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian war surgery specialist working in Gaza, told The Times that he had seen injuries believed to have resulted from Israel’s use of a new “dense inert metal explosive” that caused “extreme explosions”. He said: “Those inside the perimeter of this weapon’s power zone will be torn completely apart. We have seen numerous amputations that we suspect have been caused by this.”

Source

Bunker Busters in Action

An explosion is seen as missiles fired from an Israeli aircraft fly towards a target in the northern Gaza Strip, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2009. .  Photo: AP/Gil Nechushtan

Bunker Busters are radioactive and  that will cause horrendous health problems in the future, not just in Gaza but also in Israel itself.

The wind blows and the radiation goes.

Israel can expect many things such as cancer, birth defects among other numerous health problems thanks to their own Government. Israel is killing it own people not just those in Gaza.

I can also be  sure there will also be health effects in Israel from the White phosphorus as well. The wind blows it goes. “Israel Breath Deep the Gathering Gloom.”

There is something  for Israeli’s to think about come election time. Their present Government is killing them too.

They also have used them before as well.

Bunker buster bombs containing depleted uranium warheads used by Israel against civilian targets in Lebanon

White Phosphorus

Israel used White Phosphorus against Hamas targets in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead in January 2009.

White Phosphorus (WP), known as Willy Pete, is used for signaling, screening, and incendiary purposes. White Phosphorus can be used to destroy the enemy’s equipment or to limit his vision.

It is used against vehicles, petroleum, oils and lubricants (POL) and ammunition storage areas, and enemy observers. WP can be used as an aid in target location and navigation. It is usually dispersed by explosive munitions.

It can be fired with fuze time to obtain an airburst. White phosphorus was used most often during World War II in military formulations for smoke screens, marker shells, incendiaries, hand grenades, smoke markers, colored flares, and tracer bullets.

The Battle of Fallujah was conducted from 8 to 20 November 2004 with the last fire mission on 17 November. The battle was fought by an Army, Marine and Iraqi force of about 15,000 under the I Marine Expeditionary Force (IMEF). US forces found WP to be useful in the Battle of Fallujah. “WP proved to be an effective and versatile munition. We used it for screening missions at two breeches and, later in the fight, as a potent psychological weapon against the insurgents in trench lines and spider holes when we could not get effects on them with HE. We fired “shake and bake” missions at the insurgents, using WP to flush them out and HE to take them out. … We used improved WP for screening missions when HC smoke would have been more effective and saved our WP for lethal missions.”

White phosphorus is not banned by any treaty to which the United States is a signatory. Smokes and obscurants comprise a category of materials that are not used militarily as direct chemical agents. The United States retains its ability to employ incendiaries to hold high-priority military targets at risk in a manner consistent with the principle of proportionality that governs the use of all weapons under existing law.

The use of white phosphorus or fuel air explosives are not prohibited or restricted by Protocol II of the Certain Conventional Weapons Convention (CCWC), the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons which may be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to have Indiscriminate Effects.

White Phosphorus (WP) – Incendiary

WP is a colorless to yellow translucent wax-like substance with a pungent, garlic-like smell. The form used by the military is highly energetic (active) and ignites once it is exposed to oxygen. White phosphorus is a pyrophoric material, that is, it is spontaneously flammable).

When exposed to air, it spontaneously ignites and is oxidized rapidly to phosphorus pentoxide. Such heat is produced by this reaction that the element bursts into a yellow flame and produces a dense white smoke. Phosphorus also becomes luminous in the dark, and this property is conveyed to “tracer bullets.” This chemical reaction continues until either all the material is consumed or the element is deprived of oxygen. Up to 15 percent of the WP remains within the charred wedge and can reignite if the felt is crushed and the unburned WP is exposed to the atmosphere.

White phosphorus results in painful chemical burn injuries. The resultant burn typically appears as a necrotic area with a yellowish color and characteristic garliclike odor. White phosphorus is highly lipid soluble and as such, is believed to have rapid dermal penetration once particles are embedded under the skin. Because of its enhanced lipid solubility, many have believed that these injuries result in delayed wound healing. This has not been well studied; therefore, all that can be stated is that white phosphorus burns represent a small subsegment of chemical burns, all of which typically result in delayed wound healing.

Incandescent particles of WP may produce extensive burns. Phosphorus burns on the skin are deep and painful; a firm eschar is produced and is surrounded by vesiculation.

The burns usually are multiple, deep, and variable in size. The solid in the eye produces severe injury. The particles continue to burn unless deprived of atmospheric oxygen. Contact with these particles can cause local burns.

These weapons are particularly nasty because white phosphorus continues to burn until it disappears. If service members are hit by pieces of white phosphorus, it could burn right down to the bone. Burns usually are limited to areas of exposed skin (upper extremities, face). Burns frequently are second and third degree because of the rapid ignition and highly lipophilic properties of white phosphorus.

If burning particles of WP strike and stick to the clothing, take off the contaminated clothing quickly before the WP burns through to the skin. Remove quickly all clothing affected by phosphorus to prevent phosphorus burning through to skin. If this is impossible, plunge skin or clothing affected by phosphorus in cold water or moisten strongly to extinguish or prevent fire. Then immediately remove affected clothing and rinse affected skin areas with cold sodium bicarbonate solution or with cold water. Moisten skin and remove visible phosphorus (preferably under water) with squared object (knife-back etc.) or tweezers. Do not touch phosphorus with fingers! Throw removed phosphorus or clothing affected by phosphorus into water or allow to bum in suitable location. Cover phosphorus burns with moist dressing and keep moist to prevent renewed inflammation. It is neccessary to dress white phosphorus-injured patients with saline-soaked dressings to prevent reignition of the phosphorus by contact with the air.

Some nations recommend washing the skin with a 0.5-2.0% copper sulphate solution or a copper sulphate impregnated pad. Wounds may be rinsed with a 0.1%-0.2% copper sulphate solution, if available. Dark coloured deposits may be removed with forceps. Prevent prolonged contact of any copper sulphate preparations with the tissues by prompt, copious flushing with water or saline, as there is a definite danger of copper poisoning. It may be necessary to repeat the first aid measures to completely remove all phosphorus.
White Phosphorus (WP) – Smoke
White Phosphorus (WP) creates a smoke screen as it burns. Phosphorus smokes are generated by a variety of munitions. Some of these munitions such as the M825 (155-mm round) may, on explosion, distribute particles of incompletely oxidized white phosphorus.

Smokes obscure vision and are used to hide troops, equipment, and areas from detection. Smoke screens are essential for movement in city fighting. In the December 1994 battle for Grozny in Chechnya, every fourth or fifth Russian artillery or mortar round fired was a smoke or white phosphorus round.

White Phosphorus and Red Phosphorus burn to produce a hygroscopic smoke containing phosphoric acids. Red phosphorus (RP) is not nearly as reactive as white phosphorus. It reacts slowly with atmospheric moisture and the smoke does not produce thermal injury, hence the smoke is less toxic. The extinction for these smokes is primarily due to scattering in the visible and absorption in the infrared (IR). These smokes are composed of spherical liquid particles that grow with relative humidity to an equilibrium size by absorbing ambient moisture that depends on the ambient relative humidity. The mass extinction varies significantly with relative humidity.

The White Phosphorus flame produces a hot, dense white smoke composed of particles of phosphorus pentoxide, which are converted by moist air into phosphoric acid. This acid, depending on concentration and duration of exposure, may produce a variety of topically irritative injuries.

Most smokes are not hazardous in concentrations which are useful for obscuring purposes. However, any smoke can be hazardous to health if the concentration is sufficient or if the exposure is long enough. Medical personnel should be prepared to treat potential reactions to military smokes once such smokes have been introduced to the battlefield. Exposure to heavy smoke concentrations for extended periods (particularly if near the source of emission) may cause illness or even death.

Casualties from WP smoke have not occurred in combat operations. At room temperature, white phosphorus is somewhat volatile and may produce a toxic inhalational injury. In moist air, the phosphorus pentoxide produces phosphoric acid. This acid, depending on concentration and duration of exposure, may produce a variety of topically irritative injuries. Irritation of the eyes and irritation of the mucous membranes are the most commonly seen injuries. These complaints remit spontaneously with the soldier’s removal from the exposure site. With intense exposures, a very explosive cough may occur, which renders gas mask adjustment difficult. There are no reported deaths resulting from exposure to phosphorus smokes. Generally, treatment of WP smoke irritation is unnecessary. Spontaneous recovery is rapid.

White phosphorus fume can cause severe eye irritation with blepharospasm, photophobia, and lacrimation. Irritation of the eyes and irritation of the mucous membranes are the most commonly seen injuries. These complaints remit spontaneously with the soldier’s removal from the exposure site. The WP smoke irritates the eyes and nose in moderate concentrations. With intense exposures, a very explosive cough may occur, which renders gas mask adjustment difficult. There are no reported deaths resulting from exposure to phosphorus smokes.
White Phosphorus – Non-Military Applications
The amazing thing is that White Phosphorus is used in almost every product imaginable – from soft drinks to toothpaste. White phosphorus is used by industry to produce phosphoric acid and other chemicals for use in fertilizers, food additives, and cleaning compounds. Small amounts of white phosphorus were used in the past in pesticides and fireworks.

In recent years, concentrated phosphoric acids, which may contain as much as 70% to 75% P2O5 content, have become of great importance to agriculture and farm production. World-wide demand for fertilizers has caused record phosphate production. Phosphates are used in the production of special glasses, such as those used for sodium lamps.

Bone-ash, calcium phosphate, is used to create fine chinaware and to produce mono-calcium phosphate, used in baking powder. Phosphorus is also important in the production of steels, phosphor bronze, and many other products. Trisodium phosphate is important as a cleaning agent, as a water softener, and for preventing boiler scale and corrosion of pipes and boiler tubes.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and numerous state/local law enforcement authorities throughout the United States, have noted an alarming trend involving illicit methamphetamine production. Methamphetamine (AKA speed, crank or meth) is a major drug problem in the United States. All businesses engaged in the sale of red phosphorus, white phosphorus and hypophosphorous acid products should be aware of the use of these products by clandestine methamphetamine laboratory operators.
White Phosphorus – Background
Phosphorus is an element, the name derived from the Greek “phosphoros” or light bearing, the ancient name for the planet Venus when appearing before sunrise. Brand discovered phosphorus in 1669 by preparing it from urine. Phosphorus exists in four or more allotropic forms: white (or yellow), red, and black (or violet). Ordinary phosphorus is a waxy white solid; when pure it is colorless and transparent. White phosphorus has two modifications: alpha and beta with a transition temperature at -3.8oC. It is insoluble in water, but soluble in carbon disulfide.

Never found free in nature, Phosphorus is widely distributed in combination with minerals. Phosphate rock, which contains the mineral apatite, an impure tri-calcium phosphate, is an important source of the element. Large deposits are found in Russia, in Morocco, and in Florida, Tennessee, Utah, Idaho, and elsewhere.

White phosphorus may be made by several methods. By one process, tri-calcium phosphate, the essential ingredient of phosphate rock, is heated in the presence of carbon and silica in an electric furnace or fuelfired furnace. Elementary phosphorus is liberated as vapor and may be collected under phosphoric acid, an important compound in making super-phosphate fertilizers.
White Phosphorus (WP) – Other Health Effects
Systemic toxicity may occur if therapy is not administered. Therapy consists of topical use of a bicarbonate solution to neutralize phosphoric acids and mechanical removal and debridement of particles. A Wood’s lamp in a darkened room may help to identify remaining luminescent particles. The early signs of systemic intoxication by phosphorus are abdominal pain, jaundice, and a garlic odor of the breath; prolonged intake may cause anemia, as well as cachexia and necrosis of bone, involving typically the maxilla and mandible (phossy jaw). Prolonged absorption of phosphorus causes necrosis of bones. It is a hepatotoxin.

The presenting complaints of overexposed workers may be toothache and excessive salivation. There may be a dull red appearance of the oral mucosa. One or more teeth may loosen, with subsequent pain and swelling of the jaw; healing may be delayed following dental procedures such as extractions; with necrosis of bone, a sequestrum may develop with sinus tract formation. In a series of 10 cases, the shortest period of exposure to phosphorus fume (concentrations not measured) that led to bone necrosis was 10 months (two cases), and the longest period of exposure was 18 years.

Signs and symptoms include irritation of the eyes and the respiratory tract; abdominal pain, nausea, and jaundice; anemia, cachexia, pain, and loosening of teeth, excessive salivation, and pain and swelling of the jaw; skin and eye burns. Phossy jaw must be differentiated from other forms of osteomyelitis. With phossy jaw, a sequestrum forms in the bone and is released from weeks to months later; the sequestra are light in weight, yellow to brown, osteoporotic, and decalcified, whereas sequestra from acute staphylococcal osteomyelitis are sharp, white spicules of bone, dense and well calcified. In acute staphylococcal osteomyelitis, the radiographic picture changes rapidly and closely follows the clinical course, but with phossy jaw the diagnosis sometimes is clinically obvious before radiological changes are discernible. It is good dental practice to take routine X-ray films of jaws, but experience indicates that necrosis can occur in the absence of any pathology that is visible on the roentgenogram.

Source

They are also using weapons that will contaminate the areas in and around Gaza for years to come. This will not only affect Gaza but Israel, Egypt,  Lebanon, Saudi Arabia,  Syria, and Jordon. It will pollute the Mediterranean sea as well. The wind blows and it goes.

The surrounding areas of Iraq have been contaminated by pollutants from the war and has extended for thousands of miles. This war on Gaza will and is doing the same thing. This just adds to the pollution in these countries compliments of wars.

Contaminated with depleted uranium since1991

This is a very small tip, of a very large Iceburg.

This is a relatively old map. That means the pollution has  now had time to spread farther because of  wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Gaza and is in fact more concentrated in these areas. Add to this the other Chemicals and Toxins from war and the area is extremely polluted.

Pollutants from war or any other pollutant for that matter can travel a very great distance. It can travel around the world. Each time there is a war and weapons such as the ones in Gaza, are used, they affect the entire planet.

The Toxins whether it be DU of other Toxic Chemicals will in time kill millions of people. Stop killing, future innocent victims. I don’t know about the rest of the world, but pollution from wars is really pissing me  off. The planet cannot sustain war pollution. War is destroying the planet in and extreme way. Radiation alone has killed millions around the world. DU is radioactive and one small invisible, particle can kill you.

Stop polluting the Air.

Stop polluting the water.

Stop polluting the earth.

Stop murdering future generations.

To all Israeli’s:

Next time you look at your children, ask yourself how long will  it be before they get cancer or other  related health problems, cause by the use of WMD used by your own Government, against those in Gaza.

Then, ask your self  how long will it be before you become ill?

You will die sooner,  now you have used this right next door to you country. The closer you are to ground zero the sooner you die.

History taught me that one. One teeny, tiny, invisible, particle is all it takes. There is no place to run. No place to hide. War pollution can affect you regardless of where you live. We are all trapped on this planet together. No escape for any of us. Warmongers are fools. Warmongers are Profiteers. Warmongers make everyone sick.

Oh and be sure to thank the US for giving you those lovely  deadly, weapons, to protect you from the evils of the world…..You should be so grateful for their help, in killing you and your children. This is however how the US Government saves people.

White Phosphorus Health Affects

Gaza (4): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (3): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (2): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (1): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

War “Pollution” Equals Millions of Deaths

Israel kills UN driver causing halt to UN Relief Aid in Gaza

UN agency halts operations in Gaza
January 82009

Deepening humanitarian crises in Gaza

A UN agency has halted operations in Gaza after a deadly strike on an aid convoy that prompted UN chief to issue his second call for an Israeli investigation.

“Operations will remain suspended until Israeli authorities can guarantee the safety and security of our staff,” said Christopher Gunness, a spokesman for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) that had been distributing food aid to about half of Gaza’s 1.5 million population.

The decision came after one man was killed and two others were wounded when a UN-flagged convoy of trucks was hit by two tank shells en route to the border with Israel to pick up humanitarian assistance.The Israeli military said it was investigating the incident.

Later two UN armoured vehicles that escorted an ambulance to recover the body of a local staff member in Gaza City came under small arms fire during the daily three-hour humanitarian lull Israel has declared in its Gaza offensive, a UN official said.

“The secretary-general condemns the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) firing on a United Nations aid convoy in Gaza,” a spokesman for Ban Ki-Moon said in a statement.

Ban, who plans to travel to the region next week to push for an end to the Gaza offensive, had already called for a probe of Israeli strikes on UN-run schools on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Thursday accused Israel of failing to help wounded people in one area after rescuers found four small children too weak to stand up and huddling next to their dead mothers.

It said Israeli soldiers tried to force the rescuers to leave when they finally reached the wounded in Gaza City’s shell-blasted Zeitun neighbourhood on Wednesday, four days after safe passage had been requested.

“This is a shocking incident,” said Pierre Wettach, who heads the ICRC’s delegation for Israel and the Palestinian territories.

“The Israeli military must have been aware of the situation but did not assist the wounded.”

The ICRC said that more wounded people are sheltering in destroyed houses.

Source

UN trucks etc including UN schools are well marked. This was a deliberate act on part of Israel to stop aid.

No doubt in my mind whatsoever.

Again and again Israel has  attacked the UN. Deliberate actions on part of Israel. This in my opinion is an act of aggression against all members of the United Nations. They are killing UN workers and attacking UN installations such as the schools. This beyond unacceptable. This is an attack on the rest of the world. So to speak.

Israel has even been targeting hospitals and ambulances. They are investigating are they.? Well I have heard that line so many times in the past it is just pure BS to appease the rest of us.

I don’t believe it not for a second. No sooner did they get a 3 hour truce and the UN driver was killed.

Coincidence I think not.

Deliberate murder,  is more like it, done to terrorize the UN.

Worked well didn’t it?

How perfect for Israel and how devastating for the Palestinians.

The plan was perfectly executed I must say. Worked like a charm.

What they say and what they do are two very different things.

This is typical Israeli behavior.

NOW WHO BROKE THE TRUCE? Israel did. They always do.

Red Cross slams Israel over 4 day wait to access  wounded

The making of Israel’s Apartheid in Palestine

Egypt floats truce plan after 42 killed in Gaza School and Bars Doctors from Gaza

Gaza (3): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (2): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (1): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Red Cross slams Israel over 4 day wait to access  wounded

The making of Israel’s Apartheid in Palestine

Bombs rain down in Gaza as peace deal accepted ‘in principle’

Egypt floats truce plan after 42 killed in Gaza School and Bars Doctors from Gaza

Red Cross slams Israel over 4 day wait to access wounded

January 8 2009

The international Red Cross accuses Israeli forces today of failing to assist wounded Palestinians and of  “unacceptable” delays in letting rescue workers reach a Gaza home where four small children were found alive next to their mothers’ bodies.

Rescuers had been refused permission by the Israeli army to reach the site in the Zaytun neighborhood of Gaza City for days, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

The neutral aid group’s head of delegation for the region described the incident as “shocking.”

“The Israeli military must have been aware of the situation but did not assist the wounded,” Pierre Wettach said in a statement. “Neither did they make it possible for us or the Palestine Red Crescent to assist the wounded.”

Rescuers eventually received permission to go to the site Wednesday, “four days” after it was hit by Israeli shells.

They found 15 dead and 18 wounded in three houses, including the children who were too weak to stand.

The ICRC said requests to be allowed to reach other destroyed houses in this neighborhood, reportedly containing more wounded, were refused by the Israeli army.

“The ICRC believes that in this instance the Israeli military failed to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded,” the Geneva-based group said in a statement.

“It considers the delay in allowing rescue services access unacceptable.”

A spokeswoman for the Israeli mission in Geneva said she was unable to comment on the incident at this time.

Source

Israel never complies with the Geneva Convention. This is typical of their behavior. Making anyone wait for medical aid for  4 days is a crime. I would even call it “torture”.  No, this is beyond torture. Especially when you consider terrified, children were waiting for someone, anyone to help them.

All alone with their dead parents must have been a horrifying experience.  I can’t even begin to fathom,  how those terrified, children must have felt and what they were going through…….This is far beyond criminal.

If help had gotten there sooner, others may have lived as well.

This is part of Israels terrorizing, cruel tactics.

Just like leaving those in Gaza without homes, heat, hydro, food, water and medical supplies.

Next there will by things like Cholera outbreaks and numerous other illnesses associated with starvation and lack of clean drinking water.

How much longer are the talk a lot, no action leaders going to wait.

They too are the great pretenders. They are doing nothing but babbling on and on. I see no real incentive to help those in Gaza, just putting it off until more die. As a matter of fact many of them have enabled Israel to exterminate may Palestinians over the years.  Some even foot the bill so they can.  They have had ample time to stop the killings. They choose not too. Especially the US. The US has condoned this type of behavior for years. Of course they do the same thing themselves as we all well know from their actions in Iraq and Haiti. Well there are many other countries I could add to the list but it is rather long.

People around the world are angry and with good reason. They want this stopped.

Israel is doing this all on purpose, not because they are defending themselves. They are lieing. Their actions speak for themselves.

I see it and so do others. It is obvious to us all, who know Israel’s history and and terroristic behavior.

If anyone is a terrorist, it is Israel’s Government.

If you don’t serve in their army for them and murder innocent people they send you to jail. They even  terrorized their own. Teenagers at that. Just kids themselves. What you have is a Dictatorship so to speak.  They just pretend to be a democracy. ” Israeli teenagers jailed for refusing to serve in army”

I can bet anyone who has been taken to their prisons are being tortured as well.

All the while pretending to be nice. Who is Israeli Government trying to kid?

These are the earmarks of Genocide.”Apartheid”

Now who needs to be defended? Israel continually cry’s “wolf” when in actuality they are the ones deliberately, systematically,  murdering innocent people on purpose.

Latest Report States: The Israeli military operation in Gaza has killed at least 680 people and injured more than 3,000,  Palestinian medical sources said Wednesday. Thirty percent of the deaths are women and children, according to the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The History of Israels treatment of Palestinians. The making of Israel’s Apartheid in Palestine

Gaza (3): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (2): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (1): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Egypt floats truce plan after 42 killed in Gaza School and Bars Doctors from Gaza

The making of Israel’s Apartheid in Palestine

The making of Israel’s apartheid

Phil Gasper recounts the history of how Israel was founded on the basis of the expulsion of the Arab population of Palestine.

January 6, 2009

ZIONISM IS a political movement that originally emerged in the late 19th century as a response to anti-Semitism, particularly in Eastern Europe.

Capitalist development had undermined the traditional commercial roles that many Jews had played in the old feudal economy. As the economy moved into periodic crises, ruling groups in many countries deflected mass anger by scapegoating Jews.

Zionists drew the pessimistic conclusion that anti-Semitism couldn’t be eliminated–and that to escape persecution, Jews had to emigrate to a region where they could set up an exclusively Jewish state.

Theodore Herzl, known as the father of Zionism, wrote of “the emptiness and futility of trying to ‘combat’ anti-Semitism,” and called for a Jewish state to be set up in an undeveloped country outside Europe.

Herzl was explicit that the program could be carried out only with the backing of one of the major imperialist powers. Once such support had been won, the Zionist movement would conduct itself like other colonizing ventures.

Herzl wrote that, if a Jewish state were created in Palestine, it would form “a portion of the rampart of Europe against Asia, an outpost of civilization as opposed to barbarism.” In other words, the new state would be part of the system of colonial domination of the rest of the world.

The founders of Zionism were prepared to ally themselves with the most vicious anti-Semites. Herzl approached Count Von Plehve, the sponsor of the worst anti-Jewish pogroms in Russia, with the message: “Help me to reach the land sooner, and the revolt [against Tsarist rule] will end.”

What else to read

The International Socialist Review has extensive coverage of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, with numerous articles covering the background.

Annie Zirin’s “The hidden history of Zionism” recounts the history of the Zionist movement and its alliances with right-wing and anti-Semitic forces. “Israel and the Nakba” by Paul D’Amato describes the violence at the founding of the state of Israel. Hadas Thier gives the background to the current conflict in Gaza in “The siege of Gaza.”

For books about the formation of the state of Israel, look for The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine and A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples, both by Ilan Pappe, a radical Israeli historian. Pappe delivered a March 2007 speech titled “The History of Israel Reconsidered” that is worth the read.

Norman Finkelstein’s Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict is essential reading for picking apart the myths used to justify Israel’s apartheid. For an introductory take on the subject, see Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer, by Phyllis Bennis.

Between the Lines: Readings on Israel, the Palestinians and the U.S. “War on Terror,” by Tikva Honig-Parnass and Toufic Haddad, documents the apartheid-like conditions that Palestinians live under today.

For background on Israel’s war and the Palestinian struggle for freedom, read The Struggle for Palestine, a collection of essays edited by Lance Selfa on the history of the occupation and Palestinian resistance.

Zionist leaders offered to help guarantee Tsarist interests in Palestine, and rid Eastern Europe and Russia of those “noxious and subversive Anarcho-Bolshevik Jews”–in other words, the people who wanted to fight anti-Semitism, rather than capitulate to it. Von Plehve agreed to finance the Zionist movement as a way of countering socialist opposition to the Tsar.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

WHEN BRITAIN took control of Palestine at the end of the First World War, Zionists turned their attention to lobbying the British government. The Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann argued, “A Jewish Palestine would be a safeguard to England, in particular with respect to the Suez Canal.”

This argument began to seem increasingly attractive to the British ruling class. The war had underlined the importance of the Middle East, which guarded the sea routes to the Far East and contained the immensely profitable and strategically vital Persian oilfields. In November 1917, the British foreign minister Lord Balfour (a notorious anti-Semite) issued a declaration pledging his government’s support for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”

The Balfour declaration did not create a Jewish state, but it did encourage mass emigration to Palestine and the construction of an extensive settler community that was to become the basis of the state of Israel.

But there was one problem. Contrary to Zionist propaganda that Palestine was “a land without people for a people without a land,” the area was, in fact, the most densely populated region of the Eastern Mediterranean, with an Arab population that had lived there for about 1,000 years and which had developed an extensive economy.

Small Jewish settlements had existed in Palestine from the late 19th century, but after 1917, the colonization process accelerated considerably. Jewish organizations bought up large areas of land from absentee landlords, displacing large numbers of Palestinian peasants.

The Zionists also began building an exclusively Jewish “enclave” economy, organized around the Histadrut–the general confederation of Hebrew workers in Palestine. The settlers refused to employ Arab labor and boycotted Arab goods.

In the 1930s, the rise of fascism in Europe gave a further boost to Jewish immigration, even though most Jews had no interest in moving to Palestine. Zionism was still a fringe movement among Jews, and only 8.5 percent of Jewish migrants went to Palestine during this period.

The number would have been even smaller if countries like the U.S. and Britain had not had racist immigration policies that excluded most Jews. But the refugees who did arrive in Palestine strengthened the settler community.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

THE FOUNDING of a Zionist state is often justified as a response to the rise of fascism and the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust, which exterminated 6 million Jews.(that number has been changed numerous times since and is now apparently about 740,000. It must also be noted that many who died at the hands of Hitler were non-Jews and many died from Typhus)) But far from being fighters against fascism, Zionists frequently collaborated with the Nazis.

In 1933, the Zionist Federation of Germany sent a memorandum of support to the Nazis: “On the foundation of the new [Nazi] state, which has established the principle of race, we wish to fit our community into the total structure, so that for us, too, in the sphere assigned to us, fruitful activity for the Fatherland is possible.”

The Zionist movement went so far as to oppose changes in the immigration laws of the U.S. and Western Europe, which would have permitted more Jews to find refuge in these countries. In 1938, David Ben-Gurion, who was to become the first prime minister of Israel, wrote: “If I knew that it would be possible to save all the children in Germany by bringing them over to England, and only half of them by transporting them to Eretz Yisrael, then I would opt for the second alternative.”

Jews in Palestine were given privileged status by the British colonial regime. The British helped establish and train a Zionist militia, granted Jewish capital 90 percent of economic concessions, and paid Jews higher wages than Arabs.

From the 1920s onwards, the British government used the Jewish settlers to help suppress mass Arab demonstrations against landlessness and unemployment, and for independence.

The most sustained uprising by the Palestinians took place from 1936 to 1939, and included a general strike of several months, withholding taxes, civil disobedience and armed insurrection. The British responded by declaring martial law and instituting mass repression, relying heavily on Zionist forces. Hundreds of Palestinians were executed or assassinated, thousands were imprisoned, and thousands of homes were demolished.

But Britain was greatly weakened by the Second World War and was forced to withdraw from Palestine. In 1947, the leading imperialist powers, including the U.S. and the USSR, decided to partition the country into separate Jewish and Palestinian states. Although Jews comprised only 31 percent of the population, the Zionists were given 54 percent of the fertile land.

Even this was not satisfactory for the Zionists, however. In 1938, Ben-Gurion had declared:

The boundaries of Zionist aspiration include southern Lebanon, southern Syria, today’s Jordan, all of Cis-Jordan [the West Bank] and the Sinai…After we become a strong force as the result of the creation of the state, we shall abolish partition and expand to the whole of Palestine. The state will only be a stage in the realization of Zionism, and its task is to prepare the ground for our expansion. The state will have to preserve order–not by preaching, but with machine guns.

The Zionist project could only be completed if the local Arab population was expelled. As Joseph Weitz, head of the Jewish Agency’s Colonization Department, had put it in 1940, “there is no room for both peoples together in this country…And there is no other way than to transfer the Arabs from here to the neighboring countries. To transfer all of them; not one village, not one tribe should be left.”

In 1948, this policy was put into effect. Zionist forces seized three-quarters of the land and expelled some 750,000 Palestinians.

Military groups whose leaders included the future Israeli Prime Ministers Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir, carried out massacres at villages like Deir Yasin–where over 100 men, women and children were murdered–designed to terrorize the rest of the Palestinian population to flee for their lives.

The official Israel Defense Forces carried out other massacres. One soldier gave the following eyewitness account of what happened at the village of Dueima:

They killed between 80 to 100 Arab men, women and children. To kill the children they fractured their heads with sticks. There was not one home without corpses…Educated and well-mannered commanders who were considered “good guys”…became base murderers, and this not in the storm of battle, but as a method of expulsion and extermination.

There were nearly 500 Palestinian villages in the territory that came under Israeli occupation after partition. During 1948 and 1949, nearly 400 of these were razed to the ground. More were destroyed in the 1950s.

In 1969, Moshe Dayan, former chief of staff and minister of defense, admitted: “We came here to a country that was populated by Arabs, and we are building here a Hebrew, Jewish state. Instead of Arab villages, Jewish villages were established…There is not a single [Jewish] settlement that was not established in the place of a former Arab village.”

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

ISRAEL ALSO learned the lesson of portraying its own aggression as self-defense against hostile neighbors. But in 1948, it was only after Israel had launched its attack on Palestinians that other Arab countries mobilized a token force, largely in an effort to mollify their own populations, rather than as a serious military effort. The Arab states did nothing to reverse the expulsion of Palestinians, and by the time the 1948 war ended, the Zionists were in control of 78 percent of historic Palestine.

Moshe Sharett, an Israeli prime minister in the 1950s, admitted that the Israeli political and military leadership never believed the Arab governments represented any serious danger to Israel. Rather, Israel has sought to maneuver Arab states into military confrontations it was certain of winning, with the aim of destabilizing the regimes and occupying more territory.

Israel’s goal, according to Sharett, has been to “dismember the Arab world, defeat the Arab national movement and create puppet regimes under regional Israeli power” and “to modify the balance of power in the region radically, transforming Israel into the major power in the Middle East.”

Before 1947, Jews owned about 6 percent of the land in Palestine. In the process of establishing the state of Israel, the Zionists expropriated 90 percent of the land, the vast majority of which had formerly belonged to Arabs.

Entire cities were emptied of Palestinians, and Palestinian orchards, industry, rolling stock, factories, houses and possessions were seized. The majority of Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from their homeland. Arabs who remained in Israel became second-class citizens, while Palestinians who were driven out of the country mostly lived in poverty in refugee camps throughout the Middle East.

Israel passed the “Law of Return,” which allows every person of Jewish descent to emigrate to Israel. But Palestinians weren’t allowed to return to their homes.

Following the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel occupied further territory, including the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In the West Bank, 55 percent of the land and 70 percent of the water were seized for the benefit of illegal Jewish settlers.

In Gaza, 2,200 Jewish settlers were given over 40 percent of the land, while 500,000 Palestinians were confined in crowded camps and slums. Israel finally withdrew from Gaza in 2005, but it has maintained a blockade that reinforced conditions akin to a giant prison camp.

Israel’s actions have been repeatedly condemned by the United Nations, but the U.S. government ensured that nothing was done to enforce a series of resolutions.

Since its creation, Israel has been a defender of Washington’s interests in the oil-rich Middle East. As the influential Jewish paper Ha’aretz put it in 1951:

Israel is to become the watchdog. There is no fear that Israel will undertake any aggressive policy towards the Arab states when this would explicitly contradict the wishes of the U.S. and Britain. But, if for any reasons the Western powers should sometimes prefer to close their eyes, Israel could be relied upon to punish one or several neighboring states whose discourtesy to the west went beyond the bounds of the permissible.

As a consequence, Israel has received billions of dollars of U.S. aid every year, which have made it one of the most heavily armed states in the world–one easily capable of undertaking the slaughter in Gaza we see today.

Source

This came out May  2007

Secret memo proves Israel knew occupation was illegal

LONDON
A secret memo proves that the Israeli government knew that its occupation of Palestinian land was illegal after it won the Six Day War in 1967, a British newspaper reported Saturday.

Theodor Meron, who wrote the memo as the Israeli foreign ministry’s legal advisor at the time, said “I believe I would have given the same opinion today,” according to The Independent newspaper.

With Israel now celebrating the 40th anniversary of the war, the 76-year-old Meron, who went on to become a leading international jurist, challenges Israel’s long-held argument that settlements do not violate international law.

The Independent said it obtained a copy of his legal opinion, which was marked “Top Secret” and “Extremely Urgent.”

Quoting its author, the newspaper said the memo concluded “that civilian settlement in the administered territories contravenes the explicit provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention.”

Meron also told the newspaper that then foreign minister Abba Eban was “sympathetic” to his view that civilian settlement would go against the Hague and Geneva conventions governing the conduct of occupying powers.

But the Labour government at the time progressively approved the settlements in the captured West Bank despite the secret legal opinion which had been passed on to then prime minister Levi Eshkol.

Such actions paved the way for at least 240,000 Israelis to settle in the the West Bank.

Meron, who served as president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia until 2005, was also quoted as telling the Independent that the settlements have proven to be a real stumbling block.

“It’s obvious to me that the fact that settlements were established and the pace of the establishment of the settlements made peacemaking much more difficult,” he was quoted as saying.

In the Six Day War in June 1967, Israel captured the Sinai peninsula from Egypt, the Golan Heights from Syria and the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan.

Agence France-Presse

Source

Israel has been warmongering and committing crimes for years and are still committing crimes and self defense is what they use continually. It doesn’t hold much water anymore. If anyone believes their propaganda well that is a shame.

They are still doing Washington’s dirty work as well.  Washington is doing Israel’s Dirty work also. Collaborators in crimes against Humanity.

Britain still is one of their buddies as well.

Why would any of it change?

If anyone thinks they actually care how many Palestinians die think again.  They are exterminating them. Just like they have been for years all in the name of self defense. Seems the use the same play book as the Bush administration. It is lies of course. They are the ones breaking the Law. They are the criminals.

To believe other wise is just ignorance and lack of education.

What they do today is what they have always done.

Gaza (3): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (2): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (1): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

US Veto Blocks UN Anti-Israel Resolution again that’s 40 since 1972

Israel’s ‘Crimes Against Humanity’

Israel And Apartheid: By People Who Knew Apartheid

Gaza War Why?: Natural Gas valued at over $4 billion MAYBE?

Jan 7: Lebanese children demonstrate for Gaza Children

January 7 2009

BEIRUT

Thousands of Lebanese children gathered Tuesday in front of the UN building in downtown Beirut to denounce the Israeli aggressions against the children of Gaza, Lebanese New TV reported.

Aged less than 13 years, the children gathered in front of the headquarters of the United Nations Economic and social commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) holding pictures of children killed during the Israeli attacks on Gaza which started on Dec. 27.

The children delivered a letter addressed to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urging him to find a solution to the bloodshed and the killing of children in Gaza.

Demonstrations have been carried out in most Lebanese areas on daily bases, two demonstrations were violent in front of the American embassy in Awkar East of Beirut, and in front of the Egyptian embassy in West Beirut.

Moreover, sit-in demonstrators in front of ESCWA building have been staged since the Israeli operation on Gaza started.

Israel launched airstrikes in the Gaza Strip on Dec. 27 and ground operation on Jan. 3 in retaliation of Hamas militants’ rocket attacks into Israel. At least 590 Palestinians have been killed and in the attack, some 200 children and 60 women were among the death toll.

Source

Jan 7: Israel’s Gaza invasion provokes protests throughout Latin America

Jan 7 : India- Protest in New Delhi over Israel raids

Jan 7: Australian Jews protest against Israel’s action

Jan 7: Canadian Jewish women protesting against Gaza War, Arrested after occupying the Israeli Consulate

An Open Letter From Jewish Youth in Canada – Support of Gaza0 all Jewish youth can sign

Actions we can take to help Palestinians in Gaza -Petitions

Egypt floats truce plan after 42 killed in Gaza School and Bars Doctors from Gaza

Gaza (3): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (2): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (1): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Israel strike kills up to 60 members of one family

Israel rains fire on Gaza with phosphorus Shells/Targets UN School

Gaza hospital overwhelmed by dead and wounded

Foreign Press still banned from Gaza/Israel attacks Media Building in Gaza City

Gaza wounded die waiting for ambulances

War on Gaza – Timeline: June 19 2008 to January 3 2009

Bombs rain down in Gaza as peace deal accepted ‘in principle’

January 8 2009

The first tentative hope of an end to the war in Gaza came yesterday when Israel said it accepted “the principles” of a French-backed Egyptian peace plan providing for international action to stop Hamas militants smuggling arms.

Israel, nevertheless, resumed its 12-day-old offensive against Hamas last night, which Palestinian medics say has killed 688 Palestinians, after halting it for three hours to allow humanitarian and medical aid into Gaza. The military said it may halt ground operations for three hours a day.

As witnesses reported tanks on the move close to the border parallel to the southern town of Khan Yunis, Israel began new air strikes against smuggling tunnels in Rafah after warning local residents to leave their homes. It was claimed that an Israeli airstrike destroyed a mosque in Gaza City, injuring at least 15 worshippers.

Amos Gilad, the top official in the Israeli Defence Ministry, flies to Cairo today for negotiations. It is clear Israel is seeking tough assurances on the strength and practicalities of any future international force on the Egypt/Gaza border before agreeing to end the war.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy appeared to jump ahead of events by announcing his “delight” that Israel and the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas, had accepted a new peace plan.

Israel’s security cabinet opted to continue pursuing its offensive, which yesterday resulted in the deaths of an estimated 29 Palestinians.

The UN said civilians continued to “bear the brunt” of the ground operation which started on Saturday night. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza said 130 children aged under 16 had been killed. Seven Israeli soldiers have died during the offensive. (4 were from Friendly Fire)

With Cabinet ministers reportedly deferring a decision on whether to deepen the offensive by moving further into inner-city areas to engage with the Hamas militants, Maj-Gen Gilad told Israel’s Army Radio the Gaza operation was “at a crossroads”.

The Egyptian foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit , attending a deadlocked UN Security Council New said that the plan in Cairo was to forge a “temporary ceasefire that would lead to a consolidated, permanent ceasefire”. He said he was unable to confirm whether Hamas intended to send a team to Cairo today.

Amid reports a Turkish force was being considered to bolster border security as part of the peace plan, Mark Regev, the spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, said the plan’s success depended on the international community as well as Israel.

With 800,000 Gazans now without running water, the World Bank called on Israel to allow emergency fuel distribution to 170 halted water and sewage pumps and warned that 10,000 residents could be at risk of drowning if a combination of explosions and heavy rain resulted in the failure of Beit Lahiya sewage lake.

The exact details of what appears to have been one of the worst attacks of the war – the shelling on Monday of a compound in the Zeitoun district of northern Gaza City in which about 100 members of the Al Samoun family had taken shelter – are yet to emerge.

The Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem said a paramedic who had reached the compound during the ceasefire reported the removal of three bodies and 14 injured people but that about 16 bodies remained inside.

About 12 bodies were removed on the day of the day of the attack, making the paramedic’s report broadly consistent with reports that more than 30 people were killed. However B’Tselem said some family members were now saying the death toll was lower. Others have suggested that it is even higher.

From a hilltop half a mile from the northern Gaza border, near Sderot, the resumption of the bombardment could be seen and heard about 15 minutes after the designated 4pm end to the ceasefire. Helicopters hovered in the air above the Strip, plumes of heavy smoke rose from some of the areas under attack and the trails left by two rockets fired by militants could be seen against the sky as the sun sank.

At the UN, diplomats manoeuvred to avoid the tabling of a Libyan-drafted ceasefire resolution that would be almost certain to provoke a veto by the United States for failing to mention the Hamas arms smuggling.

British officials suggested the the 15 Security Council members may agree a compromise text just short of a resolution to avert a public split. They said this would not preclude negotiations on a full-blown resolution, with the ceasefire initiative put forward by Egypt as its likely basis.

Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, delayed her return to Washington to stay in New York and meet with counterparts from the Middle East and Europe, including Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

Mr Miliband said: “I’ve seen the first glimmerings of the possibilities of a ceasefire… we’ve got to try and make sure the action on the ground led by President Mubarak and the diplomatic work here in New York come together.”

Army admits there was no firing from school

The Israeli army has admitted privately to the UN that no firing came from a Gaza school where 42 people died on Tuesday after being hit by Israeli mortars, officials of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa) disclosed last night.

Publicly, the Israeli army claims that the school, which was providing shelter for around 350 people, was being used by Hamas fighters to carry out attacks. Unrwa officials said they were fully confident this was not the case.

More than 20,000 mourners attended the funerals of the victims yesterday. The attack was the single biggest loss of civilian life since the Israeli onslaught began. Mourners chanted slogans against “aggressors” and “murderers” and called for Israeli government leaders to be tried for war crimes. The procession went from the Kamal Adwan Hospital, where the casualties were taken, to the Al-Fakhora school.

Source

More than 20,000 mourners attended the funerals of the victims yesterday Photo:  AFP/Getty

Egypt floats truce plan after 42 killed in Gaza School and Bars Doctors from Gaza

Gaza (3): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (2): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (1): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Israel strike kills up to 60 members of one family

Israel rains fire on Gaza with phosphorus Shells/Targets UN School

Gaza hospital overwhelmed by dead and wounded

Foreign Press still banned from Gaza/Israel attacks Media Building in Gaza City

Gaza wounded die waiting for ambulances

War on Gaza – Timeline: June 19 2008 to January 3 2009

Jan 7 : India- Protest in New Delhi over Israel raids

January 7  2009

NEW DELHI

The echoes of bombings on Gaza Strip were heard in the Capital on Tuesday. The coordination committee for Indian Muslims (CCIM) a group of five Muslim organisations came together with students of Delhi University (DU), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Jamia Millia Islamia at Jantar Mantar to protest against Israel for its ongoing raids against Palestinians.

The protestors demanded that the government raise its voice against Israel and snap all ties with it, if need be. “The Indian government should respond to this terrorist onslaught by Israel on Palestinians,” said Mujtaba Farooq, convenor, CCIM. The protestors comprised not only students and members of Muslim organisations, but also housewives and children. “We have come here to protest against the killings of innocent people in Gaza. We had all received an SMS, urging us to be a part of this protest. We wanted to show our solidarity with the people of Palestine. Israel should stop its bombings rightaway,” said a student from Jamia.

Protestors also said that the fight against the Israeli attack was not of Muslims alone. “We should bring together our Hindu and Sikh brothers to demand that these attacks end now. People in Gaza are suffering without any electricity, water, food and money because of these raids,” said John Dayal, member of the Christian Council. Pallavi Deka, secretary, JNU Students’ Union, added, “People in Kashmir, Sri Lanka, Palestine are suffering alike. If we come together, we can bring an end to the conflict across the world.”

Another protestor, Mohammad Adib, member of parliament said, “Why is our country silent? Our government should tell Israel to either stop these attacks or take away its embassy from our country.”

Source

Jan 7: Lebanese children demonstrate for Gaza Children

Jan 7:Israel’s Gaza invasion provokes protests throughout Latin America

Jan 7: Australian Jews protest against Israel’s action

Jan 7: Canadian Jewish women protesting against Gaza War, Arrested after occupying the Israeli Consulate

An Open Letter From Jewish Youth in Canada – Support of Gaza0 all Jewish youth can sign

Actions we can take to help Palestinians in Gaza -Petitions

Egypt floats truce plan after 42 killed in Gaza School and Bars Doctors from Gaza

Gaza (3): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (2): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (1): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Israel strike kills up to 60 members of one family

Israel rains fire on Gaza with phosphorus Shells/Targets UN School

Gaza hospital overwhelmed by dead and wounded

Foreign Press still banned from Gaza/Israel attacks Media Building in Gaza City

Gaza wounded die waiting for ambulances

War on Gaza – Timeline: June 19 2008 to January 3 2009

Jan 7: Israel’s Gaza invasion provokes protests throughout Latin America

By TYLER BRIDGES
January 7 2009

Opposition to Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip is heating up throughout Latin America.

Venezuela has expelled Israel’s ambassador. Guatemala and Colombia have called on Israel to stop fighting and begin immediate peace talks. Demonstrators in Argentina, El Salvador and Bolivia have condemned the invasion. Brazil is sending aid to victims.

“There is a tradition in Latin America of rejecting violence to solve any international conflict,” said Adrian Bonilla, the director of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences in Ecuador. “There is also a tradition of supporting the weakest country in a conflict since most Latin American countries have been part of the Third World network. Another factor is that Israel is a close ally of the United States.”

Not surprisingly, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez has taken the harshest stance. On Tuesday, he kicked out Israel’s ambassador and diplomatic staff. The Palestinian militant Islamist group Hamas applauded the move on Wednesday as a “courageous step.”

Chavez on Wednesday showed the photograph of a Palestinian child killed by Israeli bombs and said Israeli leaders should be tried for killing innocent men, women and children.

“Behind Israel is the American empire,” Chavez said.

Chavez questioned why President-elect Barack Obama “until now hasn’t said anything” about Israel’s aggression.

Abraham Levy, the president of the Confederation of Israeli Associations in Venezuela, said Wednesday that he found Chavez’s comments “worrisome.” He noted that Israel and Venezuela had warm relations until Chavez began seeking close ties with Iran and denounced Israel’s 2006 invasion of Lebanon.

Some 15,000 Jews live in Venezuela.

The biggest protest in Latin America has taken place in Argentina, where some 20,000 people marched Tuesday from the Obelisk in downtown Buenos Aires to the Israeli Embassy. Arab and student groups organized the march, along with the Argentine Communist Party and the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a human rights organization.

The protesters carried Palestinian, Iraqi and Lebanese flags and signs saying “Israel: Leave Gaza now” and “We are all Palestinians.” The march was peaceful, but some of the protesters threw paint and shoes against the embassy.

“The fifth largest army of the world is fighting against a helpless society,” Alejandro Salomon, the president of the Confederation of Argentina Arab Entities, said in an interview Wednesday. “We are protesting against the small effort made by the international community to stop this manslaughter.”

Jews are planning a pro-Israel countermarch in Buenos Aires on Thursday, ending at a building destroyed by Arab terrorists in a 1994 car bombing that killed nearly 100 people. With an estimated 240,000 Jews, Buenos Aires is said to be the second biggest home of Jews in the Americas after New York City.

A spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Argentina, Iftaf Curiel, told the Jewish News Agency that Argentinians should support the “moderate elements of the (Middle Eastern) region – Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt and Jordan – that are confronting the extreme elements of Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas.”

Israeli officials have said they launched the Gaza invasion on Dec. 27 as a defensive measure to halt rocket fire from Hamas militants.

Televised images of the carnage have been shown throughout Latin America, especially on Telesur, the regionwide television network financed by the Venezuelan government. The attacks have killed some 600 Palestinians, including children.

Source

Jan 7: Lebanese children demonstrate for Gaza Children

Jan 7 : India- Protest in New Delhi over Israel raids

Jan 7: Australian Jews protest against Israel’s action

Jan 7: Canadian Jewish women protesting against Gaza War, Arrested after occupying the Israeli Consulate

An Open Letter From Jewish Youth in Canada – Support of Gaza0 all Jewish youth can sign

Actions we can take to help Palestinians in Gaza -Petitions

Egypt floats truce plan after 42 killed in Gaza School and Bars Doctors from Gaza

Gaza (3): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (2): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (1): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Israel strike kills up to 60 members of one family

Israel rains fire on Gaza with phosphorus Shells/Targets UN School

Gaza hospital overwhelmed by dead and wounded

Foreign Press still banned from Gaza/Israel attacks Media Building in Gaza City

Gaza wounded die waiting for ambulances

War on Gaza – Timeline: June 19 2008 to January 3 2009

Jan 7: Australian Jews protest against Israel’s action

By Andrew West and Jonathan Pearlman
January 6, 2009

More than 100 Australian Jews, including two award-winning novelists and a former federal cabinet minister, have signed a statement condemning Israel’s siege of Gaza, heightening tensions within the local Jewish community over the violence.

The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, meanwhile called yesterday for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza but refused to criticise the Israeli offensive.

Authors Linda Jaivin and Sara Dowse, the environment minister in the Whitlam government, Moss Cass, and the NSW Greens leader, Ian Cohen, are among 120 Australian Jews to accuse the Israeli Government of a “grossly disproportionate military assault on Gaza because it was Israel that violated the fragile truce on November 4, 2008″.

Their statement has provoked a backlash from leaders of Australia’s main Jewish groups, who argue that Israel is acting in self-defence.

The statement was co-ordinated, but not endorsed, by the group Independent Australian Jewish Voices. It is part of an international outcry from dissident Jewish groups, including J Street in the US and Gush Shalom in Israel.

The signatories agree that Israel has a right to defend itself but say “the assault on the population of Gaza will only inflame hatred of Jews, and of the state of Israel, while doing nothing to protect the lives of Israelis”.

They argue that “crude home-made rockets” fired by the Hamas-led government in Gaza have caused relatively few Israeli casualties. “By contrast, Israeli bombardment has caused around 400 (actually more than 600 as of today)deaths and 2000 (actually about 3000 as of today)casualties, including a large proportion of women and children.”

Other signatories include the controversial anti-Zionist writer Antony Loewenstein, the literary critic Andrew Riemer, and academics Andrew Benjamin, Gavin Kitching, David Goodman and Michele Grossman.

“This is a solid minority of leading Jewish figures who are sick and tired of being told what Jews should think about Israel and are appalled by Israel’s crimes in Gaza,” Mr Loewenstein said.

But the executive director of the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council, Colin Rubenstein, accused the signatories of being “indifferent to Israel’s suffering” from repeated rocket attacks from Hamas.

“The comments are grossly ill informed, almost stunning in their ignorance, on the history of the ceasefire and its subsequent breakdown, Hamas’s demands, Hamas’s constitution, Hamas’s willingness to negotiate and other matters,” Dr Rubenstein said.

“They propose that the population of southern Israel must continue to live under constant rocket bombardment, opposing all practical efforts to actually invoke the right to self-defence the signatories say they recognise.”

The head of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, Vic Alhadeff, declined to comment directly on the dissenters’ statement but also blamed the crisis in Gaza on Hamas, saying it had fired more than 8000 rockets and mortars into Israel since 2001.

“All the civilian casualties are a tragedy. They stem from the fact that Hamas cynically locates its weapons and fighters in the midst of the Palestinian civilian population,” he said.

In his first comments on the conflict after a 10-day holiday, Mr Rudd appealed for a diplomatic solution that would bring an end to Hamas rocket fire and the Israeli blockade of the territory.

“All Australians are concerned about the humanitarian implications of this conflict.

“And it is critical therefore for Israel to meet its humanitarian obligations under international humanitarian law towards the people of Gaza, in ensuring that they have access to basic goods, food and humanitarian assistance and medical supplies,” he said.

Source

Jan 7: Lebanese children demonstrate for Gaza Children

Jan 7:Israel’s Gaza invasion provokes protests throughout Latin America

Jan 7: Canadian Jewish women protesting against Gaza War, Arrested after occupying the Israeli Consulate

An Open Letter From Jewish Youth in Canada – Support of Gaza0 all Jewish youth can sign

Actions we can take to help Palestinians in Gaza -Petitions

Egypt floats truce plan after 42 killed in Gaza School and Bars Doctors from Gaza

Gaza (3): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (2): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (1): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Israel strike kills up to 60 members of one family

Israel rains fire on Gaza with phosphorus Shells/Targets UN School

Gaza hospital overwhelmed by dead and wounded

Foreign Press still banned from Gaza/Israel attacks Media Building in Gaza City

Gaza wounded die waiting for ambulances

War on Gaza – Timeline: June 19 2008 to January 3 2009

Jan 7: Canadian Jewish women protesting against Gaza War, Arrested after occupying the Israeli Consulate

Protest ends at Israeli consulate
January 07, 2009

TORONTO
Eight women protesting Israel’s military action in the Gaza Strip were arrested after occupying the Israeli Consulate in Toronto Wednesday, police said.

“Eight women were arrested for breach of the peace and released,” said Const. Tony Vella. “They were removed from the building and released with no charges.”

Vella said the women occupied the consulate for several hours Wednesday, but were not violent.

“The call came across as several unwanted guests,” he said.

He said a number of police officers monitored the situation at the consulate on the seventh floor of a commercial building at 180 Bloor St. West in Toronto.

In a news release, the group said the action was “in protest against the ongoing Israeli assault on the people of Gaza. The group is carrying out this occupation in solidarity with the 1.5 million people of Gaza and to ensure that Jewish voices against the massacre in Gaza are being heard.”

Violence broke out in Gaza almost two weeks ago and has killed more than 600 people.

The news release said the group is demanding Israel end “its military assault and lift the 18-month siege on the Gaza Strip to allow humanitarian aid into the territory.”

A spokesman at the Israeli Consulate in Toronto said he could not provide any further information about the occupation.

The protesters said they want to “send a clear statement that many Jewish-Canadians, do not support Israel’s violence and apartheid policies.”

Source

Jewish Women Occupy Israeli Consulate in Toronto

January 7, 2009

Toronto,
A diverse group of Jewish Canadian women are currently occupying the Israeli consulate at 180 Bloor Street West in Toronto.  This action is in protest against the ongoing Israeli assault on the people of Gaza.

The group is carrying out this occupation in solidarity with the 1.5 million people of Gaza and to ensure that Jewish voices against the massacre in Gaza are being heard.  They are demanding that Israel end its military assault and lift the 18-month siege on the Gaza Strip to allow humanitarian aid into the territory.

Israel has been carrying out a full-scale military assault on the Gaza Strip since December 27, 2008.  At least 660 people have been killed and 3000 injured in the air strikes and in the ground invasion that began on January 3, 2009.  Israel has ignored international calls for a ceasefire and is refusing to allow food, adequate medical supplies and other necessities of life into the Gaza Strip.

Protesters are outraged at Israel’s latest assault on the Palestinian people and by the Canadian government’s refusal to condemn these massacres.  They are deeply concerned that Canadians are hearing the views of pro-Israel groups who are being represented as the only voice of Jewish Canadians.  The protesters have occupied the consulate to send a clear statement that many Jewish-Canadians do not support Israel’s violence and apartheid policies.  They are joining with people of conscience all across the world who are demanding an end to Israeli aggression and justice for the Palestinian people.

The group includes: Judy Rebick, professor; Judith Deutsch, psychoanalyst and president of Science for Peace; B.H. Yael, filmmaker; Smadar Carmon, a Canadian Israeli peace activist and others.

Source

Kudos to the Ladies.

Jan 7: Lebanese children demonstrate for Gaza Children

Jan 7 : India- Protest in New Delhi over Israel raids

Jan 7: Israel’s Gaza invasion provokes protests throughout Latin America

Jan 7: Australian Jews protest against Israel’s action

An Open Letter From Jewish Youth in Canada – Support of Gaza0 all Jewish youth can sign

Actions we can take to help Palestinians in Gaza

Egypt floats truce plan after 42 killed in Gaza School and Bars Doctors from Gaza

Gaza (3): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (2): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (1): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Israel strike kills up to 60 members of one family

Israel rains fire on Gaza with phosphorus Shells/Targets UN School

Gaza hospital overwhelmed by dead and wounded

Foreign Press still banned from Gaza/Israel attacks Media Building in Gaza City

Gaza wounded die waiting for ambulances

War on Gaza – Timeline: June 19 2008 to January 3 2009

Gaza (3): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

A wounded Palestinian is carried into a hospital in Gaza. Photo: Reuters

A Palestinian carries a wounded girl  to Shifa hospital in Gaza City. Photo: AP

Palestinians carry a wounded boy to Shifa hospital in Gaza City. Photo: AP

A Palestinian child wounded in the Israeli strikes on Gaza. Photo: AP

Woman outside of Shifa Hospital Photo: AP

Palestinian man transferred to Egypt Photo: Reuters

Smoke Billows from Gaza Strip Photo: AFP

Palestinian Man – Shifa Hospital Photo: AP

Billowing Smoke  from outskirts of Gaza City Photo: AP

Medics Carry Man in to Shifa Hospital Gaza Photo : AP

Air Strike Gaza City Photo: AFP

Destroyed Print Shop Gaza  Photo: AP

Explosion Gaza Photo: Reuters

A child carried into hospital Gaza City Photo: AFP

Destroyed Building in Gaza Photo: AP

The Bodies of 13 Family members Photo: AFP

Children Wounded – Photo: Watan News Agency

A wounded Palestinian boy is carried by his father at a hospital in Gaza City following an Israeli air strike

A missile fired by Israeli warplanes explodes in the northern Gaza Strip Saturday. Photo: Tsafrir Abayov / AP

Medics wheel an Israeli man wounded by a rocket launched from the Gaza Strip Saturday to a hospital.

The presidential building in Gaza City was destroyed by an Israeli air strike Saturday.

A wounded boy is carried into the Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Saturday. Photo: Abid Katib / Getty Images

An injured Palestinian is helped from the rubble following an Israeli missile strike in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday. Photo: Hatem Omar / AP)

Gaza (6) A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (5): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (4): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (2): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (1): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Israel killing their own by Using Deadly Weapons of Mass Destuction again Gaza

Links to other Gaza stories in the January Index

January 2009 Index

Egypt floats truce plan after 42 killed in Gaza School and Bars Doctors from Gaza

January 6 2009

By Nidal al-Mughrab

GAZA

Israel and Hamas studied a proposal by Egypt for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday that won immediate backing from the United States and Europe, hours after Israeli shells killed 42 Palestinians at a U.N. school.

However, Israeli officials also said ministers would discuss a major escalation of their 12-day-old offensive that would push troops deep inside Gaza’s cities and refugee camps in their bid to end rocket fire into Israel by Islamist militant groups.

A Palestinian official said Hamas leaders, who want an end to Israel’s blockade of the coastal enclave, had been briefed in Egypt on the proposals by President Hosni Mubarak and were debating them internally.

Israeli officials have said they too are willing to look seriously at plans that would satisfy their demand that Egypt cut off Hamas’s supplies of smuggled weapons.

Mubarak made his cease-fire call at a joint news conference in Egypt with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. He gave little detail, but diplomats have described a process that would focus on bringing in foreign forces to seal the Egypt-Gaza border to Hamas arms smugglers while easing other trade routes.

Sarkozy, winding up a two-day tour of the Middle East, said: “I am confident the Israeli authorities’ reaction will make it possible to consider putting an end to the operation in Gaza.”

With Washington hamstrung by the transition period ahead of the January 20 inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama, France and its European partners, with backing from U.S. allies in the Arab world, have been pushing hard for Israel to cease fire.

But Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, speaking at the United Nations, quickly endorsed the Mubarak proposal and said a “sustainable” cease-fire should involve both closing off Hamas’s ability to rearm through tunnels from Egypt and easing the lives of the 1.5 million people of Gaza by reopening its trade routes.

“We need urgently to conclude a cease-fire that can endure and that can bring real security,” Rice told the Security Council.

She also welcomed an offer by Israel to open what it called a “humanitarian corridor” that would let aid agencies more easily distribute food and medicine around Gaza while it continues its military operation, which has killed over 600 people and carved the 40-km (25-mile) strip into several zones.

ISRAEL’S “THIRD PHASE”?

For all the talk of cease-fire, however, Israel continues to insist that it wants all rocket fire to stop — over 30 missiles hit Israel on Tuesday — and guarantees that Hamas cannot rearm.

And Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s security cabinet, convening on Wednesday morning, will discuss a third — and final — stage of the offensive, two senior political sources said, though the ministers may defer a vote on approving the plan.

“The plan is to enter the urban centres,” a source said, noting the first phase was an air campaign launched on December 27 and the second a ground invasion that began on January 3.

Olmert spokesman Mark Regev declined comment, saying: “We do not generally discuss the agendas of the security cabinet.”

CARNAGE AT SCHOOL

After nightfall, fighting eased to a sporadic rhythm of explosions and gunfire across the enclave. On Tuesday, 77 civilians were killed taking the total Palestinian death toll to 631, compared to 10 Israelis, seven of them soldiers.

Israel says it has killed dozens of militants this week in intensive close-quarter combat. Arab and widespread international anger mounted on Tuesday, however, when Israel admitted mortaring a United Nations school where hundreds of people were taking refuge. Medics said 42 people were killed.

The Israeli army accused Hamas militants of using civilians as “human shields” and said its troops had been returning mortar fire from the school.

An aide said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a bitter foe of Hamas, had ordered officials to look into taking Israel to international courts over the incident. A U.N. spokesman said it wanted an inquiry into both the incident and the Israeli allegations about militants firing from its schools.

The school killing could intensify pressure on Israel for a cease-fire. During Israel’s 2006 war against Hezbollah, the deaths of 28 unarmed Lebanese in shelling at the village of Qana intensified international pressure on the Jewish state to negotiate a cease-fire.

The deaths in the school prompted Obama to break his silence on the Gaza offensive, to say the loss of life among civilians was “a source of deep concern” for him. Obama said he would not engage in policy until he was in office but vowed to work rapidly thereafter to secure peace in the Middle East.

Some commentators have said the U.S. presidential transition has exposed the United States to greater risks from Israel’s action in Gaza. Al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri called on the Internet for Muslims to “hit the interests of the Zionists and Crusaders wherever and in whichever way you can.”

Washington’s allies in Arab governments have condemned the Israeli assault, which has contributed to rising oil prices, and the always vocally anti-American Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, another OPEC member, called it a “holocaust.”

Venezuela also expelled the Israeli ambassador.

Hamas, which has rebuffed Western demands to recognise Israel, end violence and accept existing interim peace deals, has demanded a lifting of the blockade of the Gaza Strip in any future cease-fire. It seized the territory in 2007, 18 months after it won a Palestinian parliamentary.

That created a schism with Abbas’s Fatah faction that helped kill off the outgoing U.S. administration’s efforts to broker a peace with Israel that would have created a Palestinian state. The violence in Gaza this month has raised questions over Obama’s ability to do better.

(Additional reporting by Dan Williams and Adam Entous in Jerusalem, Aziz el-Kaissouni in Sharm el-Sheikh and Claudia Parsons at the United Nations; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; editing by Myra MacDonald)

Source

France and Turkey willing to give monitors for Gaza

January 6 2009

UNITED NATIONS

France and Turkey said on Tuesday they were willing to contribute to an international monitoring team for a cease-fire in Gaza, where Israel launched a ground offensive last weekend.

“International monitoring mechanisms might prove necessary and we are willing to contribute to this,” French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told a session of the U.N. Security Council.

Kouchner said France was awaiting Israel’s response to a cease-fire proposal announced by Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak after a meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and “we harbour hope that it will be a positive one.”

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan also said his country, which has been active in trying to end the violence in Gaza, would be prepared to contribute monitors.

“If Turkey is asked to be in such an international monitoring team, we are going to be of course willing to be there,” Babacan told reporters before the special U.N. session.

(Reporting by Sue Pleming and Claudia Parsons; Editing by John O’Callaghan)

Source

Egypt bars doctors from entering Gaza Strip

January 6 2009

RAFAH

Frustration is mounting at Egypt’s border with the Gaza
Strip, where many local and foreign doctors are stuck after Egyptian
authorities denied them entry into the coastal area now under an Israeli
ground invasion.

Anesthesiologist Dimitrios Mognie from Greece idles his time at a cafe near the border, drinking tea and chatting with other doctors, aid workers and curious Egyptians.

“This is a shame,” said Mognie, who decided to use his vacation time to try help Gazans. He thought entering through Egypt, which has a narrow border with the Hamas-ruled strip, was his best bet.

“That in 2009 they have people in need of help from a doctor and we can go to help and they won’t let us; this is crazy,” he added.

Gaza’s few hospitals have been swamped by the numbers of injured; health officials there reported more than 550 Palestinians dead and 2,500 wounded,  since Israel embarked upon its military campaign designed to stop Gaza’s Islamic Hamas from launching rockets at Israel on December 27.

Mognie and a colleague, both part of the Greek organization Doctors for Peace, came to Rafah four days ago, loaded with instruments and medical supplies. Egyptian border guards turn them back daily.

Mognie, who said he has worked in conflict zones such as Iraq, Angola and Somalia, added that he understood worries over security but that he was willing to take the risk to help the people in Gaza.

Along with Israel, Egypt has maintained the closure of the Gaza border,
imposed after Hamas took control of the area in June 2007. However, the Egyptian closure has been seen by some as abetting Israel’s siege of the crowded strip, home to 1.4 million people.

Since Israel’s offensive, Egypt has taken in a trickle of wounded Palestinians from Gaza through the crossing in the border town of Rafah. Cairo, the main mediator between Israel and Hamas, has said it would only open Rafah if moderate Palestinian forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are in charge of the crossing.

Calls to Egypt to ease the border bottleneck – where aid convoys first have to have their cargo unloaded from Egyptian trucks before it’s loaded onto Palestinian ones and taken into the strip – have increased, including from Hamas allies such as Iran.

Although Egypt allowed two Norwegian doctors into Gaza on Dec. 31, the majority of physicians are frustrated at their inability to get in.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hasan Qashqavi said Monday the his government submitted a formal request to Egypt to set up a desert hospital on Egyptian territory near the Gaza Strip to receive wounded Gazans.

Palestinian doctor Abed el-Qader Lubbad, who works in the intensive care at Shifa Hospital in Gaza, arrived in one of the ambulances transporting patients to Egypt on Monday. Out of the eight patients he ferried, one seriously wounded died on the way to the border, Lubbad said.

The Palestinian ambulances are not allowed to continue driving through Egypt. At the crossing, patients are taken out of the often poorly equipped Palestinian ambulances and transferred on gurneys to Egyptian ambulances.

On Monday, at least 18 Palestinian patients were brought to Egypt, according to Mohammad Arafat, a Palestinian representative in Rafah. The wounded included a man missing both legs and another who lost his eye and fractured his skull.

Another physician at Rafah was obstetrician Jemilah Mahmood from Mercy Malaysia. She said her group worked with the Egyptian Red Crescent to bring around $100,000 worth of medical supplies to the border for transport to Gaza. And while equipment eventually got through, Mahmoud said neither she nor her colleagues are allowed to cross.

“Can you imagine how many women are hurt and how few women doctors there are?” she asked. “All of us are sitting at the border.”

Source

The cost of the Damage in Gaza at this point, I would imagine is in the Billions of Dollars. No one has yet to mention anything about that, to this point. However are they going to be able to rebuild. The damage to the infrastructure is overwhelming,  schools, hospitals, police stations, government buildings, media building, roads, and homes to name a few have been destroyed.  I think Israel should pay for it however. Considering they choose to drop the massive amounts of bombs. They are responsible for the damage. They had bloody well not hire the likes of Haliburton either.

Latest Report Stated.: As of  Tuesday January 6 2009, 77 civilians were killed taking the total Palestinian death toll to 631. Over 2,500 Palestinians wounded, according to Gaza health officials and UN estimates.
10 Israelis have died, seven of them soldiers. Of the 7 soldiers who died, 4 were killed by friendly fire.

The International Press is still banned from Gaza and the Doctors that want to help are also Banned. Israel isn’t to keen on stopping the devastating attacks.

Israeli officials also said ministers would discuss a major escalation of their 12-day-old offensive that would push troops deep inside Gaza’s cities and refugee camps in their bid to end rocket fire into Israel by Islamist militant groups.

They want to escalate it to what? They want all of Gaza. They want total control. They don’t want to compromise. They are not being truthful.

I don’t trust them. They have done to much damage to be trusted. They have  lied.

They are using weapons that are illegal.

They are attempting to hide the truth from the rest of the world.

They starved Palestinians and then devastated them with bombs that do horrendous damage.

There will be long term health problems for  Palestinians in the years to follow, Israels cruel and unnecessary attacks.

This could have been resolved without an all out war.  Instead of putting the Palestinians in a prison camp which is what Gaze really is they could have treated them with kindness and respect. Israel choose to commits crimes against humanity and war crimes.

They choose Ethnic Cleansing, , Genocide, and Murder.

They put Palestinians behind a wall just like the Berlin wall.

If anyone should have their “Weapons of Mass Destruction” removed is should be Israels. They have weapons and equipment that is far more deadly then anything Hamas has.

I am certainly doubtful, they will ever compromise on anything.

Pictures from Israel.

People look at the site where a Hamas rocket landed in the southern town of Sderot, Israel January 6, 2009. (Nikola Solic/Reuters)

A municipality worker surveys the scene after a rocket landed on an empty kindergarten in the port city of Ashdod, Israel January 5, 2009. (Baz Ratner/Reuters)

An Israeli man surveys damage to a house after a rocket landed in the southern city of Ashkelon January 5, 2009. (Baz Ratner/Reuters)

An Israeli mourner attends the funeral for soldier Dagan Vertman at Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem January 6, 2009.(Yannis Behrakis/Reuters)

Israeli soldiers mourn beside the grave of their comrade Nitai Stern during his funeral at Mount Herzl miltary cemetery in Jerusalem January 6, 2009. (Eliana Aponte/Reuters)

Israeli soldiers carry the flag-draped coffin of their comrade Dagan Vertman during his funeral at Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem January 6, 2009. (Yannis Behrakis/Reuters)

Israel’s President Shimon Peres stands beside the bed of a soldier, wounded during Israel’s offensive in Gaza, at a hospital in the southern city of Beersheba January 5, 2009. (Eliana Aponte/Reuters)

Two pages of Pictures from Gaza:

Gaza (1): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (2): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Reports From Gaza:

Israel strike kills up to 60 members of one family

Israel rains fire on Gaza with phosphorus Shells/Targets UN School

Gaza hospital overwhelmed by dead and wounded

An Open Letter From Jewish Youth in Canada – Support of Gaza

Foreign Press still banned from Gaza/Israel attacks Media Building in Gaza City

Gaza wounded die waiting for ambulances

War on Gaza – Timeline: June 19 2008 to January 3 2009

Gaza: Al-Wafa Hospital received warning they would be shelled

Israel pounds Gaza strip, vows to continue attacks

Gaza (2): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

As of  Tuesday January 6 2009, 77 civilians were killed taking the total Palestinian death toll to 631.

10 Israelis have died, seven of them soldiers.Of the 7 soldiers who died, 4 were killed by friendly fire.

A Palestinian man stands near bodies outside a United Nations school in Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip January 6, 2009. Photo: REUTERS/Ismail Zaydah

A wounded Palestinian is carried near a United Nations school in Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip January 6, 2009. Photo: REUTERS/Ismail Zaydah

Egyptian ambulance workers transfer a Palestinian man wounded in the Israeli strikes on Gaza to the Egyptian side of Rafah crossing, in Rafah city, about 350 km (217 miles) northeast of Cairo, January 6, 2009. Photo: REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih

Palestinians who fled their homes amid Israeli attacks gather in a United Nations Relief and Works Agency facility at a school building in Shati refugee camp in Gaza City on Tuesday. Photo: AP Hatem Moussa

Smoke caused by explosions from Israeli attacks rises from buildings on the outskirts of Gaza City on Tuesday Jan 6. Photo: AP Hatem Moussa

A Palestinian carries a wounded girl who according to Palestinian medical sources was injured in Israeli forces’ operations in Gaza, to Shifa hospital in Gaza City Jan. 6, 2009. Photo: AP / Ashraf Amra

Palestinian boys are seen in the crouching in the rubble of a building following Israeli forces’ operations in Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, on  Jan. 6, 2009. Photo: AP / Eyad Baba

Palestinians who fled their homes from Israeli forces’ operations gather in an UNRWA school building in Jabaliya refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, Monday, Jan. 5, 2009. Photo: AP Hatem Moussa

Palestinian boys walks amidst the debris of a destroyed house, after it was hit by an Israeli missile strike, in Gaza City, Monday, Jan. 5, 2009. Photo: AP Khalil Hamra

Wounded Palestinian children wait for treatment at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, after an Israeli strike early Monday, Jan. 5, 2009. Photo: AP Hatem Moussa

Smoke caused by explosions from Israeli strikes rises in the Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Monday, Jan. 5, 2009. Photo: AP Ariel Schalit

Palestinians walk past a destroyed mosque in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip, Monday, Jan. 5, 2009. Photo: AP Khalil Hamra

The body of one of three Palestinian siblings from the Al-samoni family, killed by an Israeli tank shell, lies in the mortuary of Al-Shifa hospital, on January 5, 2009 in Gaza City. Seven members from the Al-samoni family were killed including the mother, three children and a baby, when an Israeli shell struck their house south of Gaza city. Israel is intensifying its wide-scale ground assault against the Gaza. Photo: Getty

January 5: The bodies of three Palestinian siblings from the Al-samoni family, killed by an Israeli tank shell early on January 5, 2009, lie in the mortuary of Al-Shifa hospital, Gaza City. Photo: Getty

A Palestinian baby wounded by an Israeli tank shell is treated by doctors at Shifa hospital in Gaza January 5, 2009. Photo: Reuters

A Palestinian woman sits on the floor of the Shifa hospital in Gaza beside her baby, who was wounded by an Israeli tank shell on January 5, 2009. Photo:Reuters

A relative sits next to body of one-year-old baby Farah Al-Helo as she lies on the body of her uncle, killed by an Israeli tank shell early on January 5, 2009 Photo:Getty

Palestinian boys wounded by an Israeli tank shell wait for treatment at Shifa hospital in Gaza January 5, 2009 Photo: Reuters

January 5: A dead Palestinian infant is brought to the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, after an Israeli tank shell hit a house early Monday, Jan. 5, 2009.  Photo: AP ASHRAF AMRA

January 5: Wounded Palestinian children arrive for treatment at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, after an Israeli strike early Monday, Jan. 5, 2009. Photo: AP  ASHRAF AMRA

A relative reacts in front of the bodies of three children killed by an Israeli tank shell, Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, early Monday, Jan. 5, 2009. Photo: AP ASHRAF AMRA

An ambulance worker carries the body of a boy from the Al-Samoni family as he arrives at the Al-Shifa hospital on January 5, 2009 in Gaza city, Gaza Strip. Photo: Getty Images

January 4: Palestinians carry a boy into Shifa hospital in Gaza City, wounded during the Israeli army operation in Gaza, Sunday Jan. 4, 2009. Photo: AP ASHRAF AMRA

January 4: Palestinian medics carry the body of a boy, killed by an Israeli shell, at the hospital in Gaza January 4, 2009. Photo: Reuters

January 4: A Palestinian medics wheel a boy, injured during the Israeli operation in Gaza, into Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2009. Photo: MAJED HAMDAN

A wounded Palestinian boy is carried into a hospital in Gaza January 4, 2009. Photo: Reuters

January 4: A wounded Palestinian boy is helped as he arrives at a hospital on January 4, 2009 in Gaza City, Gaza.

A Palestinian medic carries a wounded boy into a hospital in Gaza City on January 4, 2009.

A wounded Palestinian boy is carried into the Al-Shifa hospital on January 4, 2009 in Gaza City, Gaza Strip. Photo:Getty Images

January 4: Palestinian doctors attend to a wounded boy in Beit Lahia hospital in the northern Gaza Strip. Photo: AFP/Getty

January 4: A wounded Palestinian girl is carried into a hospital in Gaza. . Israeli shells killed at least 12 Palestinian civilians and wounded 40 others when they exploded in Gaza City’s main shopping area. Photo:Getty

January 4: A body of Palestinian girl is carried into a hospital  in Gaza. Photo: Getty

January 4: (two photos, above) Medical workers carry wounded Palestinian babies into the Al-Shifa hospital on January 4, 2009 in Gaza City, Gaza Strip.  Israeli shells killed at least 12 Palestinian civilians and wounded 40 others when they exploded in Gaza City’s main shopping area, medics and witnesses said. Israel has so far carried out over 700 air strikes in Gaza within the last week and over 400 Palestinians are reported to have been killed. Photos: Getty

A Palestinian father carries his wounded baby daughter into a hospital in Gaza City on January 4, 2009 as Israeli troops continue its ground assault in Gaza. The half dozen hospitals in Gaza cannot cope with more patients and casualties are overflowing out of regular wards into corridors as Israeli troops push deep into Gaza. At least 40 people have been killed since Israel launched the night-time offensive yesterday after eight days of air strikes in which at least 485 Palestinians died and more than 2,400 were wounded, Gaza medics said. Photo: AFP/Getty

A wounded Palestinian woman lies with her baby at the Al-Shifa hospital on December 28, 2008 in Gaza City, Gaza. On the second day of cross-border conflict, Israel’s air force continued to launch attacks along the Gaza Strip, destroying many buildings belonging to Hamas, including holy mosques, civilian homes and vehicles, work shops, police compounds and a prison, increasing the number of Palestians killed to over 270. Photo: Getty

Gaza (1): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (3): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (4): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (6) A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (5): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Other photos from inside Gaza:  given to me January 9

Israel killing their own by Using Deadly Weapons of Mass Destuction again Gaza

Links to other Gaza stories in the January Index

January 2009 Index

Israel strike kills up to 60 members of one family

Some of the Samouni family died from shrapnel wounds and others from being crushed by falling masonry.

By Tim Butcher in Jerusalem
January 6 2009

But the one death that sticks in Nael al Samouni’s mind is that of the relative he claims was shot by an Israeli sniper.

“We ran from the shelling and there were people everywhere, members of my family, but one fell down injured,” Nael, 36, said.

“I heard the shot as I ran but there was nothing I could do.”

With Israel barring foreign journalists from reaching Gaza, it is impossible to verify the account of what happened to the Samouni family emerging from eyewitness testimony provided by survivors.

But different survivors all gave near identical accounts of how the Israeli army arrived at dawn on Sunday in the area of Zeitoun where the Samouni family have lived for generations.

In what the United Nations fears could be the bloodiest single attack of the Israeli assault, as many as 60 members of the extended Samouni family were killed near their homes in the Gazan town of Zeitoun while nine more died in hospital.

Dozens of bodies are believed to remain under the rubble of a large house hit repeatedly by Israeli shelling in the incident.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has formally requested permission from the Israeli army to visit the scene of the attack to establish the exact scale of the slaughter.

Israel has so far not granted permission to the ICRC due to ongoing fighting.

Palestinian ambulances have also tried to reach the scene but it remains too dangerous. Several ambulances have been hit by Israeli shelling and at least seven paramedics killed.

“There are many houses where we live and they ordered us into the house of my brother, Wael,” Nael said.

Wael, 39, another survivor, said as many as 100 members of the clan crowded into his single-storey home with strict orders from the Israeli soldiers not to move.

Three teenage members of the family – Walid, Moussa and Imad – were taken away for questioning by the Israeli army while the remainder waited anxiously without adequate food or water until night fell and fighting intensified outside.

They thought they had survived the night when at 6.35 am on Monday the house was suddenly hit by a shell that brought the roof down. It was then hit again and again.

“I saw my father and mother, and three of my children killed,” Wael said. “There was blood and bodies everywhere but some people were lost under the rubble.

“My wife survived and we had no choice but to run as the shelling continued.

“I carried my five-year-old son with me but when we got to hospital they had to cut off his arm.” He said the survivors ran on foot for about a mile and a half until they reached the main north-south road in Gaza, Salahudin Street, where they found civilian cars to take them to hospital.

It was in the chaos of the Israeli barrage that Nael said he saw someone fall down injured.

The exact number of dead is impossible to say at this time although doctors in the mortuary at Shifa, the biggest hospital in Gaza, recorded nine members of the Samouni family as reaching the mortuary by Monday afternoon.

Among them were Issa, 3, and two other infants. A photograph of their burial made it onto the front page of the International Herald Tribune yesterday.

Another survivor, Hilmi al Samouni, 26, said that when the Israeli soldiers ordered the 100 or so family members into one place they confiscated their mobile phones.

A source at the UN said the Samouni family killings could be the bloodiest single attack for civilians since Israel launched operation Cast Lead eleven days ago.

An inquiry about the incident was made to the press office of the Israeli army but by last night no answer had been received.

Source

They were ordered into  a house by Israeli Soldiers, told not to move  and then killed.

1. Wael, 39, another survivor, said as many as 100 members of the clan crowded into his single-storey home with strict orders from the Israeli soldiers not to move.
2. Another survivor, Hilmi al Samouni, 26, said that when the Israeli soldiers ordered the 100 or so family members into one place they confiscated their mobile phones.
3. Three teenage members of the family – Walid, Moussa and Imad – were taken away for questioning by the Israeli army while the remainder waited anxiously without adequate food or water until night fell and fighting intensified outside.
4. They thought they had survived the night when at 6.35 am on Monday the house was suddenly hit by a shell that brought the roof down. It was then hit again and again.

This was no accident, this was deliberate murder of innocent civilians, sickening,  shameful, premeditated murder.

GAZA : “This is an all-out war against the civilian Palestinian population”

January 6, 2009

Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian doctor working at Al-Shifa Hospital Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City , tells Sky News that the number of civilians injured and killed in Gaza proves that Israel is deliberately attacking the population.

“Just a little bit more than an hour ago the Israelis bombed the central fruit market in Gaza city and we had a mass influx of about 50 injured and between 10 and 15 killed. At the same time they bombed an apartment house with children playing on the roof and we had a lot of children also. So this is really like speaking from the dumps of Inferno, it’s like hell here now, and it’s been bombing all night. Until now close to 500 people have been killed and the number of casualties is getting to 2,500 of which 50% are children and women.”

“Are your hospitals reaching capacity? Can you deal with these people?”

“We have been doing surgery around the clock. I have just talked with one of my colleagues in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit), he’s not been sleeping for three days and the hospital is completely overcrowded, we are running 6 – 7 Ors (Operating Rooms) and there are injuries you just don’t want to see in this world… children coming in with open abdomens and legs cut off. We just had a child that we had to amputate both legs and an arm. And their only crime is being civilians and Palestinians living in Gaza. The relief now is not more doctors and more drugs; the relief now is to stop the bombing immediately, this cannot go on, it’s a disaster.”

“You’ve talked about the civilians, the women, the children, the men who aren’t involved in this, but are you also getting casualties that are Hamas fighters?”

“To be honest, we came on New Year’s Eve in the morning. I’ve seen one military person among the tenths… I mean hundreds that we’ve seen and treated, so anybody who tries to portrait this as a totally clean war against another army are lying.

This is an all-out war against the civilian Palestinian population in Gaza, and we can prove that with numbers. And you have to remember that the average age of the Gaza inhabitants is 17 years. It’s a very young population and 80% are living below the poverty limit of the UN. So this is a poor and very young people, and they are able to escape absolutely nowhere, because they cannot flee like other populations can in war time, because they are fenced in and they are in a cage, so they’re bombing 1.5 million people in a cage… young people, poor people and, you know, you cannot separate between the civilians and the fighters in such a situation.”

Transcribed by Atenea Acevedo (Tlaxcala) and Hana Al Bayaty (IAON)

Source

Gaza (1): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Israel rains fire on Gaza with phosphorus Shells/Targets UN School

Gaza hospital overwhelmed by dead and wounded

An Open Letter From Jewish Youth in Canada – Support of Gaza

Foreign Press still banned from Gaza/Israel attacks Media Building in Gaza City

Gaza wounded die waiting for ambulances

War on Gaza – Timeline: June 19 2008 to January 3 2009

Gaza: Al-Wafa Hospital received warning they would be shelled

Israel pounds Gaza strip, vows to continue attacks

Gaza (1): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
This is what Israel does not want the outside world to see.
December 30, 2008

PNN -Israeli forces killed two girls in an air attack on Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip early Tuesday. Local sources report that a missile destroyed a house belonging to Talal Hamdan in Beit Hanoun today, killing his two daughters of 12 and 4 years old. A son is reported seriously injured. Yesterday Israeli forces killed four sisters and a four year old boy. Over 40 children have been killed since Saturday.

The bodies of two girls, aged four and 11, who were killed in an Israeli air strike in Beit Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip Strip December 30, 2008.

Palestinians carry the body of 4-year-old Lama Hamdan during her funeral in the town of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip December 30, 2008.

Palestinians bury the body of 4-year-old Lama Hamdan at Beit Hanoun cemetery in the northern Gaza Strip December 30, 2008.

Palestinians mourn beside the bodies of three children in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip December 29, 2008.

Three Palestinian children from the Balosha family, of five who were all killed in the same Israeli missile strike, are seen in the morgue before their burial at Kamal Edwan hopsital in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Monday, Dec. 29, 2008

Palestinian children from the Balosha family, who were all killed in the same Israeli missile strike, are seen in the morgue before their burial at Kamal Edwan hopsital in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Monday, Dec. 29, 2008.

Palestinian women mourn over the bodies of three Palestinian children from the Balosha family, of five who were all killed in the same Israeli missile strike, in the morgue before their burial at Kamal Edwan hopsital in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Monday, Dec. 29, 2008.

A Palestinian man buries the body of 4-year-old Dena Balosha at Beit Lahiya cemetery in the northern Gaza Strip December 29, 2008.

A Palestinian man carries the body of his 4-year-old daughter Dena Balosha during the funeral for her and her four sisters in Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip December 29, 2008.

A Palestinian mourner shouts as he lifts the body of a child from the Balosha family, of which three children and two teenagers, were killed in an Israeli missile strike,durng their funeral in the Jebaliya refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, Monday, Dec. 29, 2008.

A Palestinian man buries the body of 5-year-old Sodqi al-Absi in Rafah cemetery in the southern Gaza Strip December 29, 2008.

A Palestinian mourner carries the body of 4-year-old Dena Balosha, foreground, one of five members of the same family including three children and two teenagers who were killed in an Israeli missile strike, during their funeral in the Jebaliya refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, Dec. 29, 2008

The father of Palestinian Dena Balosha, 4, left, one of five members of the same family including three children and two teenagers who were killed in an Israeli missile strike, carries her body during their funeral in the Jebaliya refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, Dec. 29, 2008.

bedroom of 5 killed girls

Samera Baalusha (34) carries her surving child Mohamad (15 months) while she waits to see the body of her daughter Jawaher Baalusha (aged 4) during the funeral held for her and four of her sisters who were killed in an Israeli missile strike, on December 29, 2008 in the Jebaliya refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip

Palestinian mourners bury 8 children killed in Israeli air strikes

Dec 29 – Palestinian mourners on Monday (December 29) buried 8 children who were killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza Strip.

In the northern Gaza town of Jabalya, hundreds took to the streets to attend a funeral procession for five girls of the same family who were killed in one Israeli strike.

In this image taken from APTN video, Palestinian men carry two injured children into hospital after Israeli aircraft struck Hamas security compounds across Gaza in Gaza City on Saturday Dec. 27, 2008.

A wounded Palestinian boy is carried by his father following an Israel air strike in Gaza December 28, 2008.

A Palestinian boy is carried to al-Shifa hospital following an Israel air strike in Gaza December 28, 2008

A Palestinian security force officer carries a wounded girl into the emergency room at Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2008.

A Palestinian girl wounded in an Israeli missile strike is carried into the emergency area at Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2008.

A Palestinian man carries his wounded child to the treatment room of Kamal Edwan hospital following an Israeli missile strike in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Monday, Dec. 29, 2008.

January 04, 2009 Gaza

Civilians continue to be caught up in the Gaza City bombardment – five died after a shell hit the main shopping area (Mohammed Salem/Reuters)

January 04, 2009 Gaza

Israeli soldiers suffered their first casualties of the ground war – 30 were injured in the initial incursion (Yehuda Raizner/AFP/Getty Images)

January 04, 2009 Gaza

A Palestinian man sitting on the rubble of a building reads a leaflet dropped by Israeli Air Force planes over the Gaza Strip. The message reads in Arabic: “To the residents of the area, due to terrorist actions that some terrorist groups commit from your residential area, the Israeli Defense Forces had to immediately respond in your area. For your safety you are required to evacuate the area immediately”

(Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images)

A Palestinian medic carries an injured child into Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip Picture: AP

Palestinian doctors carry the bodies of children killed by an Israeli tank shell, to the morgue at Shifa hospital in Gaza Picture: REUTERS

A Palestinian attempts to help a badly wounded girl following Israeli artillery shelling in Gaza City Picture: GETTY

A wounded Palestinian woman waits for treatment at Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital Picture: GETTY

An Israeli man looks at a classroom, damaged after a rocket landed in the school, in the southern city of Beersheba Picture: REUTERS

A Palestinian child, wounded in the recent Israeli air strikes, lies in al-Shifa hospital in Gaza Picture: REUTERS

Smoke billows from a targeted location in the northern Gaza Strip following an Israeli air raid, as seen from the Israeli-Gaza border Picture: GETTY

A Palestinian boy looks up through a hole in the ground of a damaged house, following an Israeli air strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip  Picture: REUTERS

A Palestinian youth, shot with live ammunition by an Israeli soldier, holds his leg as he sits on the ground between Ramallah and Jerusalem Picture: AP

Gaza (2): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (3): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (4): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (6) A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (5): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Israel killing their own by Using Deadly Weapons of Mass Destuction again Gaza

Links to other Gaza stories in the January Index

January 2009 Index

Israel rains fire on Gaza with phosphorus Shells/Targets UN Schools

January 6 2009

By Sheera Frenkel in Jerusalem and Michael Evans Defence Editor

(Patrick Baz/AFP/Getty Images)

Israeli artillery shells explode with a chemical agent designed to create smokescreen for ground forces

(Shay Shmueli/AFP/Getty Images)

Artillery guns fire towards the Gaza Strip from the Israeli side of the border

(Fadi Adwan/AP)Palestinians carry the injured to hospital in Beit Lahiyah, one of the refugee towns in the north of Gaza

(Ismail Zaydah/Reuters)
Mourners pray near the bodies of Palestinians killed after an Israeli air strike in the northern Gaza Strip

(Amir Cohen/Reuters)
Exchange of fire seen between area of the Erez Crossing and Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip

Israeli artillery shells explode with a chemical agent designed to create smokescreen for ground forces (Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images)

Israel is believed to be using controversial white phosphorus shells to screen its assault on the heavily populated Gaza Strip yesterday. The weapon, used by British and US forces in Iraq, can cause horrific burns but is not illegal if used as a smokescreen.

As the Israeli army stormed to the edges of Gaza City and the Palestinian death toll topped 500, the tell-tale shells could be seen spreading tentacles of thick white smoke to cover the troops’ advance. “These explosions are fantastic looking, and produce a great deal of smoke that blinds the enemy so that our forces can move in,” said one Israeli security expert. Burning blobs of phosphorus would cause severe injuries to anyone caught beneath them and force would-be snipers or operators of remote-controlled booby traps to take cover. Israel admitted using white phosphorus during its 2006 war with Lebanon.

The use of the weapon in the Gaza Strip, one of the world’s mostly densely population areas, is likely to ignite yet more controversy over Israel’s offensive, in which more than 2,300 Palestinians have been wounded.

The Geneva Treaty of 1980 stipulates that white phosphorus should not be used as a weapon of war in civilian areas, but there is no blanket ban under international law on its use as a smokescreen or for illumination. However, Charles Heyman, a military expert and former major in the British Army, said: “If white phosphorus was deliberately fired at a crowd of people someone would end up in The Hague. White phosphorus is also a terror weapon. The descending blobs of phosphorus will burn when in contact with skin.”

The Israeli military last night denied using phosphorus, but refused to say what had been deployed. “Israel uses munitions that are allowed for under international law,” said Captain Ishai David, spokesman for the Israel Defence Forces. “We are pressing ahead with the second stage of operations, entering troops in the Gaza Strip to seize areas from which rockets are being launched into Israel.”

The civilian toll in the first 24 hours of the ground offensive — launched after a week of bombardment from air, land and sea— was at least 64 dead. Among those killed were five members of a family who died when an Israeli tank shell hit their car and a paramedic who died when a tank blasted his ambulance. Doctors at Gaza City’s main hospital said many women and children were among the dead and wounded.

The Israeli army also suffered its first fatality of the offensive when one of its soldiers was killed by mortar fire. More than 30 soldiers were wounded by mortars, mines and sniper fire.

Israel has brushed aside calls for a ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid into the besieged territory, where medical supplies are running short.

With increasingly angry anti-Israeli protests spreading around the world, Gordon Brown described the violence in Gaza as “a dangerous moment”.

White phosphorus: the smoke-screen chemical that can burn to the bone

White phosphorus bursts into a deep-yellow flame when it is exposed to oxygen, producing a thick white smoke.

It is used as a smokescreen or for incendiary devices, but can also be deployed as an anti-personnel flame compound capable of causing potentially fatal burns.

Phosphorus burns are almost always second or third-degree because the particles do not stop burning on contact with skin until they have entirely disappeared — it is not unknown for them to reach the bone.

Geneva conventions ban the use of phosphorus as an offensive weapon against civilians, but its use as a smokescreen is not prohibited by international law.

Israel previously used white phosphorus during its war with Lebanon in 2006.

It has been used frequently by British and US forces in recent wars, notably during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Its use was criticised widely.

White phosphorus has the slang name “Willy Pete”, which dates from the First World War. It was commonly used in the Vietnam era.

Times Archive

1951: Homeless in Gaza – plight of Arab refugees in Palestine

1956: Gaza escape route choked with Arab refugees

Related Links

It breaks my heart to see Israel’s stupidity

Brown calls for ceasefire in Gaza

Military incursion is part of War on Terror

Multimedia

Gaza conflict

Source

By Azmi Keshawi and James Hider

Amid the tidal wave of human misery swamping Gaza City’s central hospital a horrified Norwegian volunteer doctor found a minute to type a text message on his mobile phone to friends back home.

“We are wading in death, blood, and amputees. Many children. A pregnant woman. I have never experienced anything so terrible. Now we hear tanks. Pass it on, send it around, shout it out. Anything. DO SOMETHING! DO MORE! We are living in a history book now, all of us.” It was signed Mads Gilbert, one of two Norwegian doctors toiling relentlessly alongside exhausted Palestinian medics.

So far, despite a flurry of diplomatic activity, no one has done anything. As Israel and Hamas fought a bloody battle to the death on Gaza’s tightly packed streets and alleys, there was no slowing of the flow of broken bodies in al-Shifa hospital. To make matters worse, the United Nations said that Gaza was about to run out of food, water and basic medicines in a matter of days.

Israel has said that it is making surgical strikes to cut Hamas out of the Gaza society. It is a brutal surgery, though, with blunt instruments and without anaesthetic. Entire families vanish beneath the rubble of broken homes. With Hamas’s die-hard fighters taking cover among a terrified civilian population, there is nowhere to run.

Bassim Naim, the Hamas Health Minister, ordered Hamas fighters yesterday not to use ambulances to move around after his nephew, Arafat Abed el-Daim, a paramedic, was killed when an Israeli tank shell hit his ambulance. As mourners gathered at a traditional tent to pay their respects to the young man’s family, another Israeli shell struck the area, killing three people and wounding 40, medics said.

“We were sitting in the mourning tent when suddenly they bombed us. We ran to rush the casualties to hospital but they bombed again,” Jabr al-Daim, an uncle, said.

In the al-Shifa mortuary — which is quickly becoming as overpopulated as the tiny territory that it serves — the father of the Samoudi family wept, speechless, over the corpses of his three children, the youngest a baby, the eldest just a few years old.

“They are still digging his wife and his other kids out of the rubble,” a medic said. The family was obliterated in Zaytoun, where fighting has been particularly heavy.

Saber Abu Aisha, whose brother was killed with his two wives and four children when an F16 rocket struck the basement directly beneath his apartment, vented his anger in the mortuary, where grieving relatives kissed their loved ones goodbye on the floors and in freezers. “The Israelis claim they are not killing civilians but that is all they are killing. They are barbarians, and the whole world should do something,” he said.

“We are a family, we have nothing to do with the resistance or this fighting,” his brother, Amr, said. “It is random killing to break the will of the Palestinian people.”

But the killing went on, as Israeli bombers blew up the houses of Hamas military leaders, often destroying nearby buildings.

Later in the day ambulance drivers brought in the body of a pregnant mother and her four children, killed in the Shurjaiyah area. Palestinian medics say that since Israel launched its ground offensive on Saturday night, 28 children and 13 women have been killed. More than 100 children have died since Israel began Operation Cast Lead ten days ago. One bereaved father who had lost 13 relatives in an explosion east of Gaza City pleaded with his dead son to answer him. “Get up, boy, get up. Please get up. I am your dad and I need you.”

Thousands of Gazans have fled their homes to escape the immediate onslaught of the Israeli tanks battling Hamas fighters who refuse to halt the rocket fire that has provoked this campaign. The UN refugee agency has quickly converted its schools into shelters but thousands more are leaving their homes to be nearer to the shops that are still open or to the ever-decreasing number of areas that have a few hours of electricity a day. Travelling across town is a potentially lethal undertaking.

The refugee agency has all but run out of wheat to supply Gaza’s bakeries, while the World Food Programme has stocks but cannot reach the warehouses because of the shelling. People wait in queues for hours to buy a loaf of bread. “I’ve been here for three hours and I will have to wait longer. Maybe a missile will bomb us so we can be rid of such a miserable life,” said Abu Othman, a father of seven, as he queued for bread. He said that his anger at Hamas’s rocket fire had been supplanted by a new rage. “I used to criticise the rockets. Maybe I still do but not like before. Now I want to see buses blown up in Israel,” he said.

Israel and its banks have cut off supplies of cash to Gaza, meaning that people increasingly have no money to buy the meagre supplies available. Maxwell Gaylard, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator, said that a quarter of a million people were without running water. “There is an overall atmosphere of fear,” he said.

Related Links

Hamas: Israel has legitimised killing its children

42 killed after Israeli shell hits UN school

Forty-two women and children were killed in an attack at a UN-run school in Gaza today, the third such assault in 24 hours.

Now Israel is attacking United Nations Schools. I guess this is what they say to the UN

People are going to schools for refuge as their homes are being attacked and there is no place for them to go.

Source

Gaza hospital overwhelmed by dead and wounded Families in fear of being killed by the Israelis are leaving their homes gathering in schools and other locations
together with their children and relatives in the surrounded Gaza City

And Israel is now targeting Schools.

Israeli Air Strikes Kill Dozens In Marked UN School January 6 2009

Over 30 Palestinians have been killed in two separate Israeli strikes on clearly-marked United Nations schools where civilians were seeking refuge from the ongoing violence in Gaza, which is into its eleventh day.

Source

Gaza (4): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (3): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (2): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Gaza (1): A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Israel killing their own by Using Deadly Weapons of Mass Destuction again Gaza

An Open Letter From Jewish Youth in Canada – Support of Gaza

Foreign Press still banned from Gaza/Israel attacks Media Building in Gaza City

Gaza wounded die waiting for ambulances

War on Gaza – Timeline: June 19 2008 to January 3 2009

Gaza hospital overwhelmed by dead and wounded

Palestinians carry the bodies of three toddlers Ahmed, Mohamed, and Issa Samouni, who according to Palestinian medical sources were killed in an Israeli strike, during their funeral in Gaza City, Monday, Jan. 5, 2009.

January 6 2009

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Wailing in grief, Salah Samouni banged his head against a wall inside the hospital morgue where the bodies of his three young nephews lay on the floor Monday.

After 10 days of a relentless Israeli assault, Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest, is overwhelmed. Bodies were crowded two to a morgue drawer, and some — like 3-year-old Issa, 4-year-old Mohammed and 5-year-old Ahmad — were on the floor.

Shifa’s shabby halls echoed Monday with the sounds of people screaming and the wail of ambulance sirens. Many of the wounded were being treated in hallways by harried doctors and nurses running on little sleep. The hospital was powered by emergency generators after shelling damaged power lines.

Since Israel began a ground offensive Saturday, most of the dead and wounded arriving at Shifa are civilians, as Israel’s offensive shifts from airstrikes to artillery shelling and fighting close to densely populated areas.

Israel says it is targeting only the Hamas militants who control Gaza in an attempt to halt seven years of rocket fire at Israeli communities. But the 550 Palestinians who have been killed include at least 200 civilians, according to Dr. Moaiya Hassanein of the Gaza Health Ministry.

On Monday, 20 children between the ages of 2 and 15 were killed, he said. Since the military offensive began Dec. 27, three Israeli civilians and two soldiers have been killed.

Nurse Ahmad Abdul Salam, 34, red-eyed and smelling of sweat, his clothes stained with blood, said he couldn’t sleep. “When my shift ends, I help my colleagues. These are our brothers and friends who are being harmed,” he said.

The hospital’s most gruesome scene was in its morgue, where blood pooled on the floor and refrigerators meant to hold 35 bodies were crammed with 70, laid side-by-side in drawers.

Lying on a gray mat on the floor, the three Samouni brothers appeared baby-faced and almost as though they were asleep, except for a large bandage wrapped around Issa’s head.

The children’s father was also killed in what relatives said was an Israeli strike on a house in eastern Gaza City where the family had fled to escape fighting nearby.

Relatives wept Monday and one man screamed for help for other family members he said were buried under the rubble of the house. “For God’s sake, rescue them!” he pleaded.

No militants were seen at Shifa. Israel says its forces have killed dozens of Palestinian gunmen, but Hamas has not listed its casualties and it is unclear where militants are being treated or where their bodies were taken.

Shifa has been powered by generators since power completely cut out in Gaza City three days ago. Israel has not replenished Gaza’s power station with industrial fuel since fighting began, and airstrikes have badly damaged power lines.

U.N. health official Mahmoud Daher said the generators were meant only as an emergency backup and he feared they would break down with the constant use, imperiling some 70 people hooked up to lifesaving equipment.

Throughout the day, exhausted medics rushed in with the wounded and the bodies of the dead.

Mohammed Salman, 26, a volunteer medic washing blood from the inside of an ambulance, said he had treated people with horrific injuries, including headless children and a woman whose stomach had been torn open.

The woman screamed, “Leave me and save my children,” he said, and burst into tears.

Israeli aircraft have hit three ambulances in Gaza since the campaign began, killing seven medics, according to Gaza health officials.

A medical building owned by a relief organization not connected to Hamas was also bombed, said Daher. He said the building was destroyed, along with an ambulance, three mobile clinics and donated medicines.

The Israeli army says it has no records of any of those strikes.

Raed Arini, a Shifa hospital official, said he has stopped filling out the space on death certificates that says “reason for death.”

“The reason for death is the Israeli army,” he said, as medics rushed in with more wounded people.

Source

Israeli Forces Surround Gaza City

Gaza City January 5 2009

Families in fear of being killed by the Israelis
are leaving their homes gathering in schools and other locations
together with their children and relatives in the surrounded Gaza City
Photo ” name withheld” – PalestineFreeVoice Images

By Hiyam Noir

January 6 2009 1.26 am
Gaza – On Saturday before noon, Israeli tanks and troops launched a ground invasion in the northern Gaza strip, as Israeli air crafts escalated its assault on Gaza Strip.The Israelis said the assault might take “many long days”, as thousands of more Israeli reservists were drafted. As Israeli tanks and infantry crossed into northern Gaza, reports of fierce fighting between Hamas forces and Israeli troops began, Hamas warned the Israelis that if they would trespass Palestinian territories, they would face a “black destiny”.

Hours earlier, heavy assault from Israeli artillery along the border, intended to clear mines or roadside bombs for the invasion. The ground offensive followed a day of heavy air,  sea and artillery bombardment of Gaza that left at least 50 Gaza residents, including children, dead and dozens injured, when an Israeli missile strike a mosque in Beit Lahiya, as worshippers were praying inside. The invading Israeli forces also attacked the American school in northern Gaza,  a security guard was killed there.

Since the Israeli ground invasion on Saturday early morning,  members of the Palestinian resistance has been detained during clashes with the invading Israeli military. The Israelis have abducted dozens of Palestinian fighters and other residents across the border for interrogation. As many as 100 Palestinians have been abducted during recent Israeli invasion.

The Israelis considers Gaza residents “illegal” combatants:)). Same tactics were used in the West Bank ,during a manhunt in the last years of the second Intifada, when the Israeli occupant listed the Palestinian resistance on what was called a ” wanted list”..and abducted members of Al Qassam Brigades, Al Aqsa Brigades and Islamic Jihad and other groups, attempting to retrieve information that sometimes lead to the capture of other members of the resistance.

The death toll, as the Israeli massive assault on Gaza entered its second week,more than 550 Palestinians are counted dead,7 Israelis are killed by Hamas rocket fire. Khaled Meshaal the exiled leader of Hamas has rejected a ceasefire in Gaza ,until the Israelis have agreed to end its three-year blockade of Gaza, which has caused economic infrastructural collapse and a widespread suffering.Meshaal said in a televised address that Hamas organization had been contacted by European and Arab countries about a ceasefire and Egypt,the same people who together with Mahmoud Abbas ( Fatah) locked the borders to Gaza, says it has now resumed its talks with Hamas.
Just after midnight, on Tuesday morning sources tell that the Israelis have declared Gaza City as ” partially besieged”. Israeli ground troops and snipers, backed by artillery of tanks, bulldozers and Apache helicopters have encircled Gaza City and cut the Gaza Strip in two. The inhabitants have with their families and relatives left their homes, to stay in schools and in other locations.

The air in Gaza hospitals is thick of grievance, the morgues are crowded with corpses of hundreds of slain’ Palestinians.Tormented, brutalized bodies lay lined up on the floor, in hospital corridors this Monday evening. Some poor souls share the place in the morgue drawers, the little body of a 4 year old girl and a 12 year old boy are wrapped in blood stained sheets, their cold tiny bodies are covered in blankets.

The Al Awda Hospital and Kamal Edwan hospital in the northern parts of Gaza Strip have no space left for all the dead. The hospitals can not take the situation any more, in one week a disaster is imminent. Just before noon on Monday, a patient waiting in Al Awda hospital emergency room, was injured from falling large chokes of glass from the windows, which exploded after an Israeli air strike nearby, also in front of the Al Awda hospital a police car was shelled.

In Al Shefa hospital in Gaza City, burnt corpses,  collected pieces of body parts, lies there in a morgue overwhelmed by cruel dead, after the Israelis relentless missiles and bombs pondering across the city and the densely populated refuge camps in the area. Many children are killed, some are lying there on the cold floor,  surrounded by parents and relatives stricken by grief.

Since the Zionist Israel began its ground offensive on Saturday, most of the dead and wounded arriving at the Shefa hospital are civilians, as the Israeli offensive change from airs trikes to artillery shelling and the clashes between the courageous Palestinian resistance and the Israeli military, continued close to densely populated areas.

Traumatized people scream in agony, many of the wounded are treated in hallways, by nurses and doctors in distress, deeply affected by the heavy burden of responsibility and fear, tired to their bones, having not enough of sleep, the extremely horrible consequences of the Israelis terror have taken its weighty toll on them too.

Emergency generators gives the Gaza Strip hospitals power, after Israeli missile attacks have targeted and destroyed the power lines. In northern parts of Gaza Strip the towns and villages only receive approximately 1.5 hour/24 of electricity. Another problem that is devastating the Gaza Strip population, the banks and money transfer offices have been closed for the 5th consequent day.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, the Israelis have killed over 100 children in Gaza Strip, in the past 3 days of massive assault. On Monday, 23 children between the ages of 2 and 15 were killed, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said. 10 people from 2 families including 6 children, where killed in the Eastern parts of Gaza. The Israeli predators claim they only target Hamas fighters and rocket launching sites.

That is a big fat lie, the Israelis do not even allowed Palestinian medical crews in ambulances to recover the bodies of dead and injured people, only the Red Cross is allowed into the areas. However the Red Cross ambulances have also been shelled in the Israeli bombardment.Israeli aircraft have shelled three ambulances in Gaza, since the terror campaign began, killing seven Palestinian medics,  according to Gaza hospital sources.

On Monday, more than 50 Gaza residents has been killed in Beit Hanoun. On Sunday, Israeli warplanes bombed a house in Beit Hanoun, where Palestinians were mourning the death of a paramedic who was killed on Saturday, many people were wounded in this attack. A medical building owned by a relief organization was also bombed, the building was destroyed, along with an ambulance and three mobile medical clinics.Israeli artillery killed four people and wounded 16 others in a market in Al-Bureij Refugee Camp late on Monday. These killings bring the number of Palestinians killed on Monday to 50 people including children.

Earlier a man was killed on Monday by Israeli ground forces in the Atatra neigh borhood in Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza Strip. Two corpses has also been transferred from Jabaliya Refugee Camp to Kamal Edwan Hospital.A Hamas commander, Rafat Salman was killed earlier, and his home destroyed by heavy artillery shelling in the north eastern parts of Gaza Strip, This is where the resistance is strong. Israeli ground troops have failed to enter the center of the town. Palestinian fighters of all fractions, have together resisted, defending the northern frontier with heavy machine gunfire, launching projectiles and setting off explosive charges against invading Israeli predators.

On Monday night, Israeli troops had encircled Gaza City after approaching from four directions, afraid to be killed if invading the central parts of the city, where many unexpected surprises are waiting. Meanwhile Israeli warplanes continue to pound from the air the central parts of the city. A major confrontation is taking place in the area, a fierce battle between the Palestinian armed resistance and the Israeli military have raged the northern outskirts of Gaza City. So far it appears that resistance groups other than Al Qassam Brigades, the Hamas armed branch, including Al Quds Brigade (Islamic Jihad), and Al-Aqsa Brigades ( Fatah ) are involved in the battle in the front lines. It is possible the Al Qassam Brigades with an army of 20.000 soldiers are awaiting in the last lines, the confrontations with the Israeli army.

Source

Beit Lahia Families Seak Safety In UNRWA Schools

January 6 2009
By Hiyam Noir

Beit Lahia January 6 2009
Photo ” name withheld “
PalestineFreeVoice Images

BEIT LAHIA – After Israeli ground invasion of Gaza Strip, Palestinian families in Beit Lahia has found safety in UNRWA schools. More than 50 people including 17 children have been killed by Israeli air strikes and artillery fire in less than three days in the Beit Lahia area.  The people in this northern town and the surrounding area, have only access to electric power during 1.5 of 24 hours.

Local Mosques, schools and other public buildings, pharmacists, hospitals, homes, markets, farmland, police cars, ambulances and private cars has been targeted, bombed and destroyed by the Zionists. The Palestinian resistance, Good Bless them, held the northern frontier of Gaza Strip stationed in and around of Beit Lahia, where the resistance is strong, defending courageously the little town in spite of heavy Israeli bombardments.

Source

Will the world do nothing to stop Genocide in Gaza?

An Open Letter From Jewish Youth in Canada – Support of Gaza

Foreign Press still banned from Gaza/Israel attacks Media Building in Gaza City

Gaza wounded die waiting for ambulances

War on Gaza – Timeline: June 19 2008 to January 3 2009

An Open Letter From Jewish Youth in Canada – Support of Gaza

January 5, 2009
Diverse voices oppose apartheid policies, zionism

The Dominion

Supporters of Israel stage a counter-demonstration at a rally against Israel’s bombing of Gaza. Some Jewish youth call the state’s activities “apartheid” and call for an end to the occupation and exclusionary policies within Israel. Photo: Elise von Kulmiz

January 5th, 2009

Like much of the world, we have spent the last week watching in shock and disgust as Israel continues its assault on the Gaza Strip. With the body count rising and a new tragedy in full bloom, we feel that it is important to speak out as Jewish youth in Canada and to denounce what Israel is doing in our name. The Jewish diaspora is diverse and divided on its positions on the state of Israel’s policies. At this juncture in history, as Israel has committed its worst massacre in Gaza since it began its illegal occupation in 1967, we feel that it is crucial that Jews speak out and denounce Israel’s actions that amount to no more than war crimes committed by an apartheid state.

As Jewish youth, we are diverse, but we are unified in our solidarity with our Palestinian brothers and sisters in Gaza.

Some of us are students. We are outraged by the bombing of the Islamic University in Gaza city, as well as other civilian infrastructure such as hospitals and mosques.

Some of us are Arab-Jews and people of colour. We stand against Israel’s racism, which has been enshrined in Israeli law, and privileges its Jewish citizens over its non-Jewish ones. This apartheid state views Palestinians as an expendable people, no more than collateral damage.

Some of us are queer. We reject Israel’s branding of itself as the only safe place for queer people in the Middle-East while it targets gay and lesbian Palestinians and renders life unsafe for millions of others.

Some of us are Israelis living in Canada. We are calling for a solidarity that stretches beyond borders and nationalities. Israel’s violent actions will only serve to further isolate the state and its citizens from the rest of the world. By calling itself a Jewish state and committing war crimes in the name of Jews everywhere, Israel makes the world even less safe for Jews, leading to an increase in animus towards Jewish people around the world.

A Jewish protester stands with Palestinian supporters at a rally against Israel’s bombing of Gaza in Toronto. Photo: Elise von Kulmiz

Even though there have been approximately 100 Palestinian deaths for every Israeli killed by rocket fire, we recognize that Israeli Apartheid also leads to Israeli casualties. The blame for these deaths lies with Israel – if there were no occupation and no apartheid policies, there would be no rocket fire. If Israel, the world’s fourth largest military power, is concerned about its citizens, it would abandon its apartheid policies and seek out justice for the Palestinian people.

In 2005, Palestinian civil society put out a clear call for international support through a non-violent campaign of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) similar to that carried out against the apartheid regime of South Africa. Now, with the people of Gaza being crushed by Israeli bombs, manufactured in the USA and launched with Canada’s blessing, it is more important than ever for Jewish communities throughout the world to take up this BDS campaign in order to end Israel’s apartheid system, which makes life unsafe for millions of Jews and Palestinians alike.

Let us not be silent bystanders while humanity suffers. Let us raise our voices, as Jewish youth, and demand a single, democratic state, with equal rights for everyone in Israel/Palestine.

Ours is a generation that is committed to ending Middle-East violence by opposing all forms of discrimination, calling for a just peace within the entire region, and condemning Zionism to the dustbin of history.

Free Gaza, Free Palestine,

If you wish to see the signers go to the Source

To sign on to this letter, send an email to antizionistjews@gmail.com with your name and city.

Source

There is much “wisdom” in the words these children are saying.

Many adults  could learn from these children. Seems the children are well informed and are not blind to the actual realities of what has been happening.

Through the eyes of a “Child” will we see the “Light”.

A Child’s Cry

Can you imagine how I see life?

Can you understand what it feels like?

Can you know the agony?

Can you know how often I cry?

Is it so much to want to be happy?

Is it so much to want peace?

Is it so much to ask for love?

Is it so much trouble?

My friends have died.

My life is hopeless.

My relatives are sick.

My home is gone.

I am just a little kid.

I am so scared.

I am not who you think I am.

I am not bad.

Can you imagine how I feel?

Can you understand what I say?

Can you now see why I need help?

Can I tell you I am afraid? I am.

Is it so hard for you to understand?

Is it that I am different?

Is it my religion?

Is it I don’t count?

My memories scare me.

My thoughts are all sad.

My future is short.

My mother always has tears in her eyes.

I am just a little kid.

I am dying.

I am not who you think I am.

I am only kid.

Can you stop the bombs from coming down?

Can you stop the guns?

Can you help my mommy stop crying?

Can you take care of my friends?

It is hard to leave them knowing they are so sad.

It is not my fault.

It is not me who started this.

It is not easy to be a kid sometimes.

Foreign Press still banned from Gaza/Israel attacks Media Building in Gaza City

Frustrated reporters locked out of Gaza war zone

Monday, January 5 2009

By ARTHUR MAX, Writer

EREZ CROSSING, Israel

Israel scrapped arrangements Monday to allow the first foreign reporters into the Gaza Strip since the military launched its offensive against Palestinian militants, adding to mounting media frustration at being locked out of the war zone.

The ban on foreign media, which has been appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court, drew criticism from journalists that Israel is trying to manage the story.

Israel asserts that opening border crossings for journalists would endanger staff at the terminals, which have often been targeted by militants.

The Associated Press and some other news organizations have Palestinian reporters, photographers and cameramen based in Gaza. Many media have no reliable source of independent information.

“The barring of outside news organizations from Gaza hampers the flow of unbiased information of vital interest to the entire world. Authorities on all sides should work to allow access by journalists in keeping with the aims of press freedom,” said John Daniszewski, the AP’s managing editor for international news.

The Israeli government has long banned Israeli journalists from entering Gaza because of fears for their safety, but foreign reporters previously were permitted in, even during times of heavy fighting.

Human Rights Watch urged Israel to open Gaza to journalists and human rights monitors to report on the actions of both sides. “Their presence can discourage abuse by warring parties and help save lives,” the New York-based organization said.

Some 350 reporters have descended on Israel since Dec. 27, when the military launched an intense air war aimed at halting rocket fire from Gaza. Those journalists bolstered a permanent foreign press corps of some 900 media personnel and hundreds more Israelis working for foreign companies.

“Israel has never restricted media access like this before, and it should be ashamed,” said Ethan Bronner, The New York Times bureau chief in Jerusalem. “It’s betraying the principles by which it claims to live.”

The army initially was set to allow eight reporters to cross into Gaza on Friday, under a compromise engineered by the Supreme Court, then postponed it to Monday. But the plan was abandoned as combat intensified around the Erez checkpoint, the main civilian crossing from Israel into Gaza.

The Red Cross aborted the evacuation of 33 foreign passport holders from Gaza. Its bus turned back just 500 yards from the border because of the fighting and an obstacle in the road, Austrian Ambassador Michael Rendi said. Among the passengers were Austrians, Germans, Canadians and Filipinos, most of them married to Palestinians.

Dozens of trucks carrying food and humanitarian aid entered Gaza through a separate cargo crossing farther south.

Daniel Seaman, director of Israel’s Government Press Office, said opening the Erez crossing would endanger its staff. But Seaman also asserted the absence of foreign journalists was good for Israel because the Hamas militants who rule Gaza fabricate coverage to make Israel look bad.

“And they get away with it because of the unprofessional cooperation of the foreign press, which takes questionable reports at face value without checking,” he said.

Reginald Dale, director of the Transatlantic Media Network and a senior fellow with the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Israel’s decision to keep out foreign journalists was both practical and ideological.

Military commanders in democracies such as Israel and the U.S. know they are accountable to the press, but they also know the risk of negative public opinion, he said. “They have to establish some sort of balance and it’s not easy.”

Dale said Israeli officials probably worried about the impact of a foreign reporter being killed or taken hostage by militants or about Hamas learning military plans and positions through news coverage.

He said he found it unlikely Israel expected to limit coverage of civilian deaths, noting that “the Palestinians are sending out videos of casualties.”

Mohamed Abdel Dayem, coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa program of the Committee to Protect Journalists, declined to speculate on Israel’s motivation but said it was important to have reporters present during fighting.

“There is a need for journalists to be on the ground to document the news stories, and frankly to monitor the behavior of all belligerent parties, whether it is Hamas or the Israeli army,” he said. “The presence of the media in any place where war is raging has helped keep violations under check.”

Reporters who cannot enter Gaza devote much of their time reporting on rocket attacks by Palestinian militants and filming the damage caused on the Israeli side of the line, or filming Gaza from distant vantage points inside Israel.

Hesna Al Ghaoui, a correspondent for Hungarian television, was reduced to filming her cameraman change a flat tire on their rented car inside Israel, footage she said she would use in a report on how she covered the war. She said she had applied “many times” to enter Gaza.

“I have been reporting from many wars and conflicts, but I have never met such frustration,” she said.

In the buildup to its air assault on Gaza, Israel sealed the border to all but the most vital supplies. The only people allowed in or out were urgent medical cases and a few humanitarian workers. Restrictions were further tightened after the air bombardment began.

The Foreign Press Association appealed the ban to the Supreme Court. Without making a final ruling, the court suggested a compromise of sending in a handful of reporters to act as a “pool,” sharing their reports with other foreign media.

“We want to honor that decision,” army spokesman Doron Spielman said, but he added it would be done only in a way that would not compromise military operations or endanger journalists.

Hamas officials went into hiding after the bombing campaign began and were unavailable for comment. But Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas spokesman, said before the fighting erupted that the ban on journalists was part of an Israeli policy of isolating Gaza internationally.

“This stops outside parties from seeing the crisis taking place in Gaza,” he said.

Source

Israel attacks international media building in Gaza city
January 5th, 2009

Gaza City: A high-story building housing international media outlets in Gaza City has been targeted by the Israeli military. Seven rounds were fired from an apache helicopter into the building in which international media,  houses international media outlets such as Reuters.

Canadian Human Rights Activist Eva Bartlett was inside the building as it was attacked;

“It felt like the building was about to collapse. The attack was a few floors above where we were, but it felt like the building was going to come down.

Israel has denied the international media access to Gaza, now they are targeting those who are attempting to tell the world what is happening here. Israel does not want the world to see it’s crimes.” Eva Bartlett – International Solidarity Movement

Israel has maintained it’s ban on foreign journalists entering the Gaza Strip, despite an Israeli Supreme Court ruling stating that they should be permitted.

International Solidarity Movement and Free Gaza Movement volunteers have been working to document the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.

Source

Ban foreign journalists and kill the internal media.

This is how you keep the truth hidden from the outside world.

Of course Israel will deny it. They certainly wouldn’t tell the truth.

This rates right up there with their targeting of  hospitals, schools, Mosques, police stations and civilian homes. Of course they deny those ones as well.

Gaza wounded die waiting for ambulances

War on Gaza – Timeline: June 19 2008 to January 3 2009

Gaza wounded die waiting for ambulances

January 6 2009

A growing number of wounded Palestinians in Gaza are succumbing to death because Israeli bombings have made it hard for ambulances to reach them.

“The situation is extremely dangerous and the coordination of ambulance services is very complex because of nonstop attacks and military operations,” International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) spokeswoman, Dorothea Krimitsas, said in Geneva.

She added, “Wounded people have died while waiting for Palestinian Red Crescent ambulances. In some other cases, ambulances cannot reach the wounded at all because of the ongoing fighting and shelling.”

Gaza’s health services are in dire need of supplies and many health workers are unable to reach their hospitals. Emergency rooms and intensive care units are overwhelmed and at least two hospitals were out of fuel for their generators.

The Red Cross has also voiced concern over water supplies in the densely populated enclave. Krimitsas said two out of the 45 wells in the Gaza Strip were out of action after having been hit during Israeli air raids, while the pumps on eight others were no longer working because of power cuts.

“Half a million people, that’s about one third of the population of the territory, are threatened with being completely deprived of water,” she said. The ICRC spokeswoman noted that technicians needed to gain access to the electrical installations damaged during the fighting.

Since Israel unleashed its air and sea campaign against Gaza on December 27, at least 555 Palestinians have lost their lives and more than 2,790 others have sustained injuries.

Source

War on Gaza – Timeline: June 19 2008 to January 3 2009

Also in above Link Numerous other Links to Reports.

War on Gaza – Timeline: June 19 2008 to January 3 2009++

The following is a timeline of events leading to the ongoing violence in the Gaza Strip that began on December 27 with Israel’s aerial bombardment of Hamas-linked compounds in the coastal sliver:

January 5 2009

2008

June 19: An Egyptian mediated ceasefire begins between Hamas and Israel. The Palestinian movement agrees to stop firing rockets as Israel accepts to gradually ease its embargo on the Gaza Strip.

July 27: Israel kills Shihab al-Natsheh, a senior Hamas fighter, in his house in the West Bank city of al-Khalil.

August 2: Three Hamas police officers and six pro-Fatah gunmen are killed in factional fighting in the Gaza Strip, the worst of such since June 2007.

October 8: Israel prevents Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) from entering the embattled Gaza Strip.

November 4 Israel killed six Hamas members without provocation

November 5: Israel raids houses in the Hamas-controlled region and arrests seven Palestinians.

Israel attacks areas inside Gaza, killing at least six Palestinians. Ghassan el-Taramse, a nineteen-year-old Palestinian activist, is killed in an Israeli air raid in the northern parts of the coastal sliver.

Palestinians fire several dozen rockets and mortar shells at western Negev in Israel in retaliation. No casualties or property damage is caused, but three women are treated for shock.

November 8: Israel violates the ongoing truce as its tanks and bulldozers cross the southern border of the Gaza Strip.

November 14: Hamas fires a barrage of homemade rockets at the city of Ashkelon. Four rockets are also fired into western Negev after Israeli air strikes wounded two people in Gaza.

November 15: Israeli air strike kills two Palestinians in the town of Beit Hanoun in Gaza.

November 18: Israeli tanks backed by a bulldozer and a military jeep roll half a kilometer into Gaza. The Israeli army claims the incursion is “a routine operation to uncover explosive devices near the border fence in the southern Gaza Strip.”

November 20: An Israeli tank fires shells, killing a Palestinian fighter east of Gaza City.

November 23: The Israeli army wounds two Palestinian residents while shelling homes in various cities in the strip.

November 28: Israeli forces backed by tanks enter the southern parts of the coastal region and kill two Palestinians.

November 29: Projectiles fired from the Gaza Strip wound eight Israeli soldiers in an army base in the town of Nahal Uz.

December 02: The Israeli army launches air strikes into southern Gaza and kills at least two civilians and wounding four others.

December 17: Five Qassam rockets fired from the Gaza Strip injure two Israelis in the southern town of Sderot.

December 18: A Palestinian man is killed in Jabaliya as Israeli aircraft target metal workshops in the towns of Jabaliya and Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military claims the targets are used to manufacture rockets.

December 19: The six-month truce officially ends.

December 20: Israeli launches air strikes on the northern Gazan town of Beit Lahiya, killing one Palestinian and wounding two others.

December 21: Palestinian fighters fire rockets into Sderot and Negev and one Israeli is wounded.

December 22: A twenty-four hour truce is declared between Israel and armed Palestinian factions at the request of Egyptian mediators.

December 23: The twenty-four hour truce expires.

Clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian resistance fighters leave three members of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades dead along the border fence in northern Gaza.

Six Qassam rockets are fired into western Negev. The rocket attacks do not hit any targets in Israel.

December 24: Gaza fighters fire two dozen mortar shells at three different targets inside Israel.

An Israeli air raid kills a Palestinian and wounds two others in southern Gaza.

December 27: Israeli F16 bombers and apache helicopters carry out at least 30 simultaneous raids on various targets across the Gaza strip. The operation kills at least 230 and wounds hundreds of Palestinians.

Hamas responds with rocket fire from Gaza and kills one Israeli in the southern town of Netivot.

December 28: Israel begins a fresh wave of air strikes. Israel deploys tanks and troops along the Gaza border. Tunnels in and out of Gaza are bombed.

A Hamas missile strikes near the largest city in the south of the occupied lands, the deepest reach into Israel to the date.

Global protests against the Israeli attacks begin.

Palestinian death toll rises to 296; 900 are injured.

December 29: The third day of attacks on the strip brings the death toll to 340. At least 1,400 Palestinians are wounded.

Muslim world announces day of mourning.

Two more Israelis are killed and one is injured.

December 30: Israeli air operations continue as Tel Aviv declares the area around Gaza a ‘closed military zone’.

Israeli floats the idea that a ground invasion of Gaza is imminent.

Palestinian casualties rise to 360 dead and 1,500 injured.

December 31: Israel continues tunnel attacks and civilian casualties increase.

Hamas says Gaza will be victorious.

The UN and Arab League find no solution to end the crisis.

Palestinian death toll rises to 400 with 1,600 injured.

January 1: Israeli bombardments continue; first senior Hamas official dies in air attacks.

Israel denies a 48-hour request for humanitarian aid to enter Gaza by rejecting an EU truce.

Hamas calls for Palestinian protests; it rockets hit several positions.

417 Palestinians and 6 Israelis dead.

January 2: Curfew imposed on West Bank and foreigners are told to leave Gaza.

Top Israeli ministers discuss ground invasion into the Gaza Strip. The United Nations condemns Israel and describes situation in Gaza as “appalling”.

Kadima, Israel’s ruling party, losses ground in polls ahead of elections.

Death toll continues to rise.

January 3: A senior leader of the armed wing of the Palestinian Hamas is killed in Israeli air strikes in Gaza.

Hamas warns Israel not to “commit the stupidity” of taking its offensive to the next level. The group says its fighters have foiled an attempt by Israeli ground forces to cross the border into the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli cabinet approves a military ground incursion in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli warplanes bomb a bridge linking Gaza City to the rest of the coastal slither.

Hamas fires eight rockets into Israel, seven into the Western Negev and one into the Eshkol region.

Israeli warplanes raid several targets in Gaza and kill four people.

A Hamas rocket hits a four-story building in Ashdod — Israel’s second largest port – and lightly wounds four people.

An Israeli air raid on a mosque in the Gaza Strip kills at least 16 Palestinians.

Israeli tanks begin shelling areas inside the strip, causing a large explosion in Gaza City as well as a series of blasts stitching the nearby frontier with Israel.

Israeli tanks roll into Gaza.

A Palestinian rocket destroys a house in the Israeli city of Netivot.

Israel bans a “Red Cross medical team” from entering Gaza to treat injured residents.

Hamas says that nine Israeli soldiers have been killed and 25 wounded.

The United Nations Security Council calls for an emergency meeting.

January 4: United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon calls for an immediate cessation of the Israeli ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.

Israeli warplanes bomb the coastal region, lighting up the sky hours before sunrise.

The United States blocks a UN Security Council bid to require an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli bombers hit the Hamas-run al-Aqsa radio station inside Gaza.

A Palestinian ambush allegedly kills five Israeli troops.

Hamas says its fighters have captured two Israeli soldiers during clashes with invading Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli forces surround the largest city in the Palestinian territories, Gaza City.

Clashes continue between Israeli troops and Hamas fighters in four spots in the north, around Gaza City, Beit Hanun, Beit Lahiya and Jabaliya.

Gaza resistance fighters fire ten more rockets into Israeli cities, two targeted at western Negev and three hit Sderot city.

Israeli bombers target heavily populated areas inside the Gaza Strip, killing five Palestinian civilians and wounding 40 others.

Medics inside Gaza confirm that they have found traces of “depleted uranium” in some Palestinians wounded in the Israeli ground offensive.

Israel kills two senior Hamas officials, Hussam Hamdan and Muhammad Hilo, in an air strike on Khan Yunis.

Palestinian fighters fire at least 40 Qassam and Grad rockets into southern Israel.

Israeli President Shimon Peres rejects the possibility of a ceasefire.

Palestinians target an Israeli helicopter and allegedly destroy seven Israeli tanks inside the strip.

Will the world do nothing to stop Genocide in Gaza?

Gaza: Al-Wafa Hospital received warning they would be shelled

Israel pounds Gaza strip, vows to continue attacks

Israeli tanks, soldiers invade Gaza Strip

Lucky few leave Gaza, Israel planned attacks six months ago

If Hamas Did Not Exist

Israel ‘rammed’ medical aid boat headed to Gaza

Leaders Lie, Civilians Die, Israelis-Palestinians

US Veto Blocks UN Anti-Israel Resolution

Israel ‘rammed’ medical aid boat headed to Gaza

Leaders Lie, Civilians Die, Israelis-Palestinians

US Veto Blocks UN Anti-Israel Resolution

Israel Used Internationally Banned Weaponry in Massive Airstrikes Across Gaza Strip

Iran preps humanitarian aid ship to Gaza Strip

Israeli teenagers jailed for refusing to serve in army

Israel’s ‘Crimes Against Humanity’

Gaza Families Eat Grass as Israel Blocks Food Aid

Israel blocks foreign media from Gaza

U.N.: Israel won’t allow food aid to enter Gaza

Jews protect Palestinians in harvest of hate

**************************************************************

Actions we can take to help Palestinians in Gaza

Gaza: Al-Wafa Hospital received warning they would be shelled

January 5 2009

Gaza/Bethlehem – Ma’an – Israeli forces fired in the immediate vicinity of three hospitals in the Gaza Strip on Monday, witnesses and medical personnel told Ma’an.

The Al-Wafa Hospital eastern Gaza Strip received warning that they would be shelled, but the hosptial administration and staff refused to evacuate on account of the number of injured people being treated there. Some of the wounded have been injured so severely that they cannot be safely transferred.

At Ash-Shifa Hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip, Israeli warplanes bombed the offices of the Health Committees, about 400 meters from Ash-Shifa hospital. Last week warplanes bombed the Ash-Shifa Mosque, which is part of the medical compound.

Israeli forces also shelled the parking lot of Al-Awda hospital in Jabaliya in northern Gaza.

Spanish human rights worker at the hospital Alberto Arce reported, “Two consecutive shells just landed in the busy car park 15 meters from the entrance to the emergency room of the Al Awda hospital. The entrance of the emrgency rooml was damaged. At the time of the shelling Ambulances were bringing in the wounded that keep pouring in. Medical teams and facilities are being targeted. Nowhere is safe.”

On Sunday, at least three paramedics were killed by two consecutive Israeli airstikes while they attempting to rescue the wounded from an earlier strike.

The international aid agency Oxfam has also reported that personnel working for its affiliates in Gaza have been killed, their ambulances coming under attack.

Source

Israel is targeting hopsitals. This is not about Hamas this is about killing innocent people,  murding those who are already injured and preventing people from being helped. Hospitals are not to be targeted during any war. This  war Israel has unleashed is baced on extermination not peace.

This has grim reminders of what the US did in Iraq. They too targeted hospitals. Two peas in a pod it seems. They use the same tactics.

Taking out hospitals and ambulances is not acceptable on any level.

This is just one more step in the Ethnic Clensing agenda.

Israel is Targeting

• Police Stations
• Mosques
• Hospitals
• Homes of Civilians
• Schools
• Water

To date these are just a few of the sites I have noted and none of the above are in any way destroyed to  protect Israelis. This is beyond ones imagination of cruelty.

It is also no accident these places are being targeted it is deliverate on part of the Isaeli Government.

They are stopping aid from entering Gaza.

• Food
• Medical Supplies

Israel is saying they let aid in but, what they have let in during the past week is certainly not enough, just a mere trickle of what is actually needed.

They waned people to get out of their homes because they were going to bomb them. Where exactly are they suppose to go? There is no where to go.

They are trapped in a death zone. They might as well be trapped  in a Gas Chamber. Depending on how much DU an other Toxic Chemicals that have been  dropped on Gaza or exposed to from the bombing of buildings, they may very well be in one. You just can’t see the Walls of the Chamber is all. Even with fires there are many Toxic Chemicals involved,  just from the building materials them selves. Ask any Fire Fighter in your neighbourhood what kind of dangers there are from  fires in a burning building.

Gaza is filled with Toxic Dangers, that have long term affects on people’s  health.

Israel is contaminating the water, the earth and the air in Gaza.

With war also comes numerous types of pollution.

Innocent children will die, long after this war is over, if any are left to die that is, because of the Toxic slop left behind, compliments of Israel. The History of  wars deem this to be true. I don’t even have to think about that. That is a well know fact.

The mental problems they will have to live with, are also paramount as well. War is a horrifying creature.

If one needs to kill something, “KILL WAR”!

If you think by chance this war isn’t affecting everyone around the world it is. No sooner did it start and the price of Gas/Oil is rising just as it did after the war in Iraq began.

This will of course affect the world in general. The price of everything will rise including your food. So be a complacent as you want but for all around the world this war will hurt you at the dinner table and in many other areas. This of course is great for the “Profiteers”. They profit and the rest of us lose. This could also bring on another wave of the “Financial Crisis” across the planet.

Not to worry the Governments will steal you hard earned tax dollars to pay for it all, the war included.  We all pay for wars, one way or the other.

Israel pounds Gaza strip, vows to continue attacks

Israel pounds Gaza strip, vows to continue attacks

Israel infantry soldiers walk in formation on the border as they leave Israel for the northern Gaza Strip, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2009. (AP / Sebastian Scheiner)

Israeli soldiers peer out of their tank as they move towards the Gaza Strip from southern Israel early Monday, Jan. 5, 2009. (AP / Anja Niedringhaus)

A wounded Palestinian boy is treated at the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, after an Israeli missile strike early Monday, Jan. 5, 2009. (AP / Hatem Moussa)

January 5 2009

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip

Israeli forces pounded Gaza Strip houses, mosques and tunnels on Monday from the air, land and sea, killing at least seven children and six other civilians, as they consolidated a bruising offensive against Palestinian militants.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the offensive would continue until Israel achieved its objective, “peace and tranquility” for residents of southern Israel who continued to be bombarded by Palestinian rocket and mortar fire.

A stream of diplomats and world leaders hoping to end the violence headed for the region to meet with Israeli leaders as world outrage over ballooning Palestinian casualties mounted. Gaza health officials reported 524 dead and nearly 2,000 wounded since Israel embarked upon its military campaign against Gaza’s Islamic Hamas rulers on Dec. 27. At least 200 civilians were among the dead.

Israeli forces seized sparsely populated areas in northern Gaza on Sunday and by Monday morning were dug in on the edges of Gaza City. Further movement into the heart of the built-up areas would mean deadly urban warfare, replete with house-to-house fighting, sniper fire and booby traps, in crowded streets and alleyways familiar to Hamas’ 20,000 fighters.

A total of 13 civilians died in the various attacks across Gaza on Monday morning, said Gaza health official Dr. Moaiya Hassanain.

Four young siblings were killed in a missile strike on a house east of Gaza City. Three other children died in a naval shelling of a Gaza City beach camp, and three adult civilians died when a missile struck near a house of mourning in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, he said. Three other adult civilians died in attacks elsewhere.

Israeli troops took over three six-floor buildings on the outskirts of Gaza City, taking up rooftop positions after locking residents in rooms and taking away their cell phones, a neighbor said, quoting a relative in one of the buildings before his phone was confiscated.

“The army is there, firing in all directions,” said Mohammed Salmai, a 29-year-old truck driver. “All we can do is take clothes to each other to keep ourselves warm and pray to God that if we die, someone will find our bodies under the rubble.”

Civilian casualties have spiked since Israel launched a ground offensive Saturday, following a week of punishing air strikes. Of about 80 Palestinians killed during the ground operation, at least 70 were civilians, Hassanain said.

Black smoke from tank shells and windswept dust billowed in the air over Gaza City, while white smoke from mortar shells rose in plumes above a main road leading to northern Gaza that the Israeli military seized on Sunday, cutting off Gaza’s north from its south. Explosions could be heard in Gaza City as aircraft attacked buildings.

The streets of Gaza City, home to 400,000 people, were almost empty. Two children crossing a street near a Hamas security compound didn’t look right and left for cars, but gazed up at the sky, apparently looking for attack aircraft. The only vehicles on the road were fire engines, ambulances and press cars.

Unmanned Israeli planes and Apache helicopters circled overhead.

“Hamas has sustained a very harsh blow,” Barak told parliament’s foreign affairs and defense committee.”But we still haven’t reached our objectives, so the offensive continues.”

Israel has three main demands: an end to Palestinian attacks, international supervision of any truce and a halt to Hamas rearming.

“If we withdraw today, without reaching some kind of comprehensive agreement, we haven’t done anything,” Israeli Cabinet Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told Army Radio. “The military has to carry on with its work.”

Hamas demands a cessation of Israeli attacks and the opening of vital Gaza-Israel cargo crossings, Gaza’s main lifeline.

The violence has deepened the suffering in impoverished Gaza, home to 1.4 million people. The military said Monday that 80 truckloads of humanitarian aid and critical fuel supplies would be let in.

Mohammed Almbaid, a Canadian resident working with aid organization CARE International, says the Israeli offensive has made it increasingly difficult to deliver food and medical supplies to Gaza.

“By the hour, it’s becoming more difficult to reach needy people,” Almbaid said in a telephone interview from his office in Ramalah, West Bank. “As of yesterday we’re having extreme difficulty to move any of the stuff in our stockpiles.”

Almbaid said a rising number of Palestinians are forced to go without crucial aide as Israeli battle tactics restrict the movements of those hoping to deliver humanitarian relief.

“It’s extremely tragic, extremely heart-breaking to see this happening,” he said.

Militants, defying the attacks, fired more than a dozen rockets at Israel early Monday, police said. No injuries were reported, but the rockets continued to fire deep inside Israel, some 32 kilometres from the Gaza border. One reason Israel launched the Gaza campaign was because militants have acquired weapons able to reach closer to Israel’s Tel Aviv heartland.

Israel’s ground operation is the second phase in an offensive that began as a weeklong aerial onslaught aimed at halting Hamas rocket fire that now threatens major cities and one-eighth of Israel’s population of 7 million people.

The spiraling civilian casualties have fueled an intensifying international outcry.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who unsuccessfully proposed a two-day truce before the land invasion began, was due to meet with Israei Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who lost control of Gaza to Hamas in June 2007.

While blaming Hamas for causing Palestinian suffering with rocket fire that led to the Israeli offensive, Sarkozy has condemned Israel’s use of ground troops, reflecting general world opinion. Sarkozy and other diplomats making their way to the region are expected to press hard for a cease-fire.

A European Union delegation including foreign policy chief Javier Solana was due to meet with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

The Czech Republic, which took over the 27-nation EU’s presidency on Thursday, urged Israel to allow humanitarian relief aid into Gaza. German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke on the phone Sunday with Olmert and advocated a quick cease-fire in Gaza, her government said in a statement. Merkel also called for an end to the smuggling of weapons into the Gaza Strip.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said in a statement “Canada is deeply concerned about the increase in hostilities between Israel and Hamas.”

“We urge renewed international diplomatic efforts to achieve a sustainable and durable ceasefire, starting with the halting of all rocket attacks on Israel. Canada maintains that the rocket attacks are the cause of this crisis,” said Cannon.

Cannon also urged the international community to come together to address the humanitarian situation, including ensuring access to food, fuel and medical supplies.

Source

Israeli invaders have killed and wounded many Palestinian children
By Hiyam Noir

January 5 2009 03.24am

Gaza City January 4 2008

Photographer “name withheld”

GAZA

Some 20 minutes before the ground invasion Israeli launched air strikes at more than 45 targets throughout the Gaza Strip, their ground forces trespassed Gaza borders at 10 pm on Saturday evening, pushing deeper into Gaza.

At the eastern parts of Gaza, Israeli tanks entered through the Erez and Karni crossing points, the artillery advanced towards the southern parts of Gaza City.

The Israeli intruders are stationed at the abandoned Israeli settlement of Netzarim outside Jabaliya.  Tank fire killed earlier three residents in the Shujayya neighborhood. Palestinian fighters clashed with heavy armed Israeli ground forces in Gaza City, one Israeli is reported dead and 30 where injured.

In Beit Hanoun in the north eastern Gaza Strip, Israeli tanks penetrated hundreds of meters then they closed the main road between Beit Hanoun and Gaza City. From the northwest Israeli forces reached the American school in the north of Beit Lahiya. The American school was leveled to the ground on Saturday targeted in an Israeli air strike.

Nearby the destroyed Yasser Arafat Airport, east of Rafah amid heavy artillery fire, Israeli tanks killed one and injured several other Palestinian fighters. Before noon on Sunday an airstrike killed the DFLP senior leader, Muhammed Abed Barbakh, his father Abed and his two brothers Mahdi and Yousef, also his nephew Musa Yousef was killed when missiles struck the home in the An-Nahdah neighborhoodof. Barbakh was a commander in the military branch of the National Resistance Brigades (DFLP).

On Saturday before noon three children where killed in the southern town of Rafah.

Since the start of the Zionist Israeli ground invasion on Saturday night, 70 people, including 21 children and 11 women have been killed, more than 370 are reported injured. Gaza governmental Health Ministry on Sunday confirmed that since the 27 of December, 507 Gaza residents have been killed including 107 children,  over 2450 are injured, hundreds are seriously injured.

Four children together with their mother became some of the victims today in the Zionist air and ground offensive their bodies where cut to pieces when missiles hit the house of the Baker family in the At-Toufah neighborhood in Gaza City.

In Beit Lahia in northern Gaza Strip, 4 children were killed during a series of air strikes in which 13 people have been killed, 34 have been injured.Tank missiles have killed at least 23 Gaza residents including 14 residents in Biet Lahia, and another 4 in Beit Hanoun.

In the Zionist Israeli escalated onslaught across Gaza Strip, from north to south the Palestinian resistance continue to confront Israeli tanks and ground troops invading Gaza Strip from four points. Hamas have prepared for an all out ground invasion of Gaza Strip for more than a year, building up a military force of almost 20.000 fighters, well trained in urban warfare.

Sounds of heavy mashinegunfire can be heard throughout Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza Strip, the Palestinian resistance are involved in fierce fighting with the Israeli intruder also in Jabaliya refuge camp, in nearby Netzarim, and in parts of Gaza City, including As Shuhayya and the At Toufah neightboorhod.

At 6pm last night 3 Gaza paramedics where killed and one was wounded in Tal Al- Haw a in the southern part of Gaza City and two residents have been killed in the Zayton area also in Gaza City.

At least 514 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began intense air strikes on 27 December.  Gaza medical officials put the number of wounded at 2,250 over nine days.

Sources report that some 20 Israelis have been killed, and many others are wounded.

Source

I wonder how much Depleted Uranium the Israelis are using?

If they are using weapons from the US, I can be relatively sure there is a large amount of DU being used.

Israeli tanks, soldiers invade Gaza Strip

Will the global economic crisis save or kill NAFTA?

Jan. 2008: Demonstrators carry an oversized replica of a corn cob to protest the removal of import tariffs on farm goods from U.S. and Canada, as agreed by the North American Free Trade Agreement (AP Photo / Eduardo Verdugo)

January  4 2009

By Parminder Parmar

For years, NAFTA had remained dormant as a significant issue in American and Canadian federal political campaigns.

In both countries, the viability of the free trade agreement between Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. hadn’t been questioned since the early 1990s.

Sure, there have been disputes — for example, over softwood timber — but the trade pact, itself, was never in doubt.

That is, until this spring 2008. That’s when the Democratic presidential candidates thrust NAFTA back into the political limelight, telling voters they wanted to take a second look at the deal.

“I think we should use the hammer of a potential opt-out as leverage to ensure that we actually get labour and environmental standards that are enforced,” Barack Obama told Democrats in Cleveland, Ohio, during the primaries.

The man who is now U.S. president-elect was trying to sway voters in the region who’ve seen hundreds of thousands of jobs shipped overseas since the 1990s.

Proving the old adage about politics and strange bedfellows, the NDP’s Jack Layton didn’t skip a beat. He went on CNN’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight” to tell the anti-immigration crusader that some Canadians don’t think the pact is such a good idea, either.

Pro-NAFTA forces both here and in the U.S. appeared dismayed at the resurgence of all the protectionist talk. They probably needn’t worry any more, says an expert on the pact.

“Look at the election speeches and the (U.S.) primaries in places like Pennsylvania and Ohio. You will find there were all sorts of things being promised, being talked about, that have suddenly gone to the backburner,” Ron Wonnacott, professor emeritus in the economics department at the University of Western Ontario told CTV.ca.

Wonnacott, who has been researching and writing about U.S.-Canada trade relations since the 1960s, says the emergence of the economic crisis this fall changed everything.

“I would put NAFTA way down in their (lawmakers’) list of priorities — if it’s any sort of objective at all at this point,” he says bluntly.

But Wonnacott says the economic downturn will also likely bring out protectionist forces in both Canada and the U.S.

“Protectionists’ pressures will come from just about every court … every industry under pressure will be asking for relief,” he says, adding that will mean calls for more trade barriers and higher tariffs.

Is it all about Mexico?

But Wonnacott adds that in the U.S., most of the pressure lawmakers face will have to do more with Mexico than with Canada. He’s careful to point out, however, that Canada shouldn’t assume that some Americans will not look north as they try to protect industries, particularly when it comes to the automobile sector.

“I don’t see the Americans taking this action,” he says, adding, “but in this climate, never say never.”

Wonnacott suspects that talk of an expanded hemispheric trade deal will die down in the current climate. He says, however, there may be bilateral agreements that are signed.

He also notes that as North America and the world begins to come out of the recession, initiatives to further liberalize trade will emerge again.

“But right now, given the problems that countries now face … the big problem on the trade front will be defensive,” he says.

Recognizing this, Canadian, U.S., and world leaders have warned against protectionist pressures that may further hurt the global economy.

Former U.S. vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin told CTV’s Canada AM this month, she believes the current climate will force everyone, including the president-elect to rethink their campaign rhetoric about NAFTA.

“I think (Obama) is going to see some conditions that will allow him to temper his position,” the Alaskan governor said.

“It’s a good agreement and our trade partnering with Canada is extremely valuable. The number of jobs created as a result of NAFTA has been good for both of our countries.”

Even Obama has backtracked from his initial call to re-open NAFTA unilaterally, noting that he doesn’t believe that “we can draw a moat around the American economy.”

But Wonnacott notes that the current economic crisis is relatively unprecedented — and it’s not easy to predict political or economic winds.

“It’s uncharted territory,” he says.

Source

April 7, 2005
Since the North American Free Trade Agreement was signed by the first Bush and the now reviled Carlos Salinas in 1992, over 4000 Mexican workers, many of them campesinos displaced from the land by NAFTA agricultural imports, have died trying to cross that line to find a job no North American citizen will work.
They have drowned in the All-American Canal and the river that Mexico calls the Rio Bravo and the U.S. the Rio Grande.

They have been bitten by vipers running through south Texas, suffocated to death in boxcars, died in car crashes after high speed chases or simply been shot down by the Migra and their volunteer vigilantes.

They have fallen into ravines or froze to death in the winter snow up in the Rumarosa, the most dangerous part of the border to which it is U.S. immigration policy to chase them in a strategy to “up the risks” of migration. And mostly they have dropped out there in the cruel desert never to rise again as the vultures circle slowly in the spotless heavens above.  Source

November 17, 2003

Since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed in 1993, the rise in the U.S. trade deficit with Canada and Mexico through 2002 has caused the displacement of production that supported 879,280 U.S. jobs. Most of those lost jobs were high-wage positions in manufacturing industries. The loss of these jobs is just the most visible tip of NAFTA’s impact on the U.S. economy. In fact, NAFTA has also contributed to rising income inequality, suppressed real wages for production workers, weakened workers’ collective bargaining powers and ability to organize unions, and reduced fringe benefits. Source

NAFTA: Manufacturing job loss in Canada*
After 15 years under NAFTA Canada is a much more unequal society. Free trade boosters still credit the agreement with increasing employment and
prosperity, but though ‘compensation’ for a few corporate CEOs has rocketed up, NAFTA has in fact contributed to the loss of manufacturing jobs and exerted a downward pressure on wages. Here’s the real story on jobs and NAFTA:
• In the last 6 years, we have lost 350,000 manufacturing jobs. That’s like 150 good jobs disappearing every day. And it’s getting worse.

• The job loss is hitting many different industries all over the country: auto, food processing, forestry products, textiles, metals, furniture etc. The details are different, but
the story is the same: decline in orders lost to cheaper imports, missed investment, job cutbacks and plant closures.
• Too many of the new jobs being created today are low-paying, insecure jobs with fewer benefits, particularly for women.
• Canada is increasingly becoming a society of haves, and have-nots with the gap in wealth growing every year. Source

Food safety, free trade and the election

If ever voters have power, it’s now – and that includes putting your candidates under the microscope on food safety issues. Common Frontiers sends along a link to a useful site (Food Safety First) for voters that offers insight from various media reports on the timing of cuts to safety inspection programs and the outbreak of listeriosis. In my view, the finest work has been done by Toronto Star investigative reporter Robert Cribb, working in conjunction with his colleagues at the CBC.

What does food safety have to do with free trade? A great deal, argues Common Frontiers, a Canadian group critical of the trend towards economic integration – harmonization, as it’s politely put – of standards under the North American Free Trade Agreement. Rick Arnold, the group’s executive director, says deregulation in the food industry in Canada has its genesis with the folks at the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), an ongoing program among Canada, the U.S. and Mexico to harmonize across-the-board. In other words, standards in Canada are lowered to match those south of both borders. Says Arnold:

“Part of the SPP agenda involves developing common North American standards on how food is produced, how it is inspected, how it is processed and how it is moved from one place to another. Common food safety standards developed in the public interest might be a good idea. But the SPP is not about raising food standards. It is about removing ‘trade irritants’ and deregulating the food industries.”

Arnold criticizes the secrecy surround SPP decisions. An exception, he says, was the 2006 SPP report that identified stricter pesticide residue limits in Canada as a “barrier to trade,” a finding resulting in the relaxation of Canadian standards. Large corporations appear to have privileged access to the SPP process under the umbrella of the North American Competitiveness Council (NACC). Arnold asks Canadians to check out the food safety site and, if they have questions, take them to candidates in their ridings to find out where they stand. Now is the best time to expect answers.  Source

This has nothing to do with the Free Trade Agreement with the US but it is rather interesting all the same. Something Canadian should be aware of at the very least.

January 3 2008

Manuel Rozenthal, a long-time international solidarity activist and surgeon, is a member of the Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca, a political organization that works with indigenous communities in Southwest Colombia. He recently toured Canada, sponsored by the Canadian Labour Congress, speaking about the proposed Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, a deal that has been kept almost completely out of the public eye by the Harper government.

Stuart Neatby caught up with Rozenthal in Edmonton in the midst of this tour.

Stuart Neatby: What do we know about the proposed Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement and what are its implications for the Colombian people?

Manuel Rozenthal: We know very little, but what we know is of enormous concern.

The so-called negotiations between Canada and Colombia started in July of this year after the visit of Harper to four Latin American countries, including Colombia. On the 26th of November, the fourth round began in Lima and there were rumours and statements pointing to the fact that it might be definitely signed soon, that they might reach an agreement. They have been kept confidential, in almost absolute secrecy, and the communiquÃs that have come out about the state of the negotiations are almost impossible to understand by anybody without good technical knowledge of trade deals.

Secondly, it is the same or more profound agreement that was negotiated with the US that the U.S. congress is refusing to sign with Colombia because of profound concerns of environmental and human rights.

To summarize the concern in a nutshell about free trade agreements, I think that first ” it is not a free trade agreement. I have in my hands the Colombia-U.S. free trade agreement and it’s(TM)s more than 1300 pages long. If it was truly a free trade agreement, it would be very short. It would state that your goods and products would enter my country and mine would enter yours under equal conditions of reciprocity.

But, when you read this text, you actually discover that it is a supra-national constitution that allows access for multi-national corporations, financial and otherwise, to all resources, territory, labour, government contracts, and savings throughout the country with which the agreement is signed. Therefore it is an agreement signed between government officials, on behalf of corporate interests, at the expense of the wealth and the labour of the poorest countries involved, but also affecting dramatically the well-being of the poorest people and labour in the wealthy country at the same time. And that is, in a nutshell, what the agreement is.

One of the biggest recent political scandals in Colombia has been the links that have emerged between high level political officials and paramilitaries. A sort of parallel scandal that has been playing out in recent months has been that of legal court cases, linking multi-national corporations to the Autodefensias Unidas de Colombia (AUC) paramilitaries as well.

Can you talk about the pattern of multi-national corporate involvement with the AUC and what interests for them it actually serves to employ these paramilitaries?

What is very important to do is to make the links between the use of violence and the corporate support for these death squads, all in connection or related to these free trade agreements. I can begin by examining what happened to Chiquita.

Chiquita accepted in court an agreement that acknowledged that it had funnelled $1.7 million in support for the paramilitaries, which the U.S. has declared a terrorist organization. The horrendous thing about these statements is the fact that the $25 million [settlement] was given to the U.S. government! Not a cent of it went to any Colombian victim of the paramilitaries that were supported by Chiquita.

Chiquita was recently sued once again by Jonathan Reiter, a lawyer in New York City. He sued them on behalf of 393 victims of the death squads, either relatives of the people who had been killed or disappeared, or people who had been directly affected by the company’s practices. What Reiter argued is that Chiquita did not have to channel funds to the paramilitaries to protect itself from threats. In fact Chiquita actually funded, trained, and armed paramilitary forces as part of its systematic operations in the country in order to increase profit, dismantle labour, and forcibly remove people from the land that they wanted to use to produce bananas.

Now there is worse evidence coming out: the paramilitaries have confessed. The highest commanders of these death squad forces have stated that every one of the six banana companies that act in Colombia has paid between three and four cents U.S. for each banana that has been produced. So in fact the amount of money that has been delivered to paramilitaries has been enormous. There are three American companies still with the largest proportional Banana production in Colombia: Chiquita, Del Monte and Dole, which have all funded and armed paramilitaries, according to the testimony of those funded by them.

Some of this testimony [states that] whenever the company wanted some land, they would approach the poor peasants in the region ” the rightful owners of this land ” and offer to buy the land for no money at all. If these people refused to sell their land, the next thing they heard was a threat. Following the threat, if they didn’t leave, was the commission of a massacre either using chainsaws to cut people alive into pieces, or mass graves and assassinations, or mass displacement.

So that’s the case of the banana plantations. Drummond, a coal and gas producing company, was also sued because a high official from Colombia witnessed Drummond officials passing lists of union leaders on to paramilitary commanders. Some of those leaders were later murdered or disappeared. Glencore, the Swiss multinational, was involved with similar kinds of activities. Then Coca-Cola was sued because union leaders at four of their plants were threatened and murdered by paramilitaries in order to dismantle their negotiated agreement and to dismantle the union.

If you add up these specific cases and go around the country, you discover that these are systematic practices, that Colombia is the most dangerous place in the world for trade union workers. More than 2500 trade unionists have been murdered in the last 10 years, targeted specifically in areas that were either privatized or delivered to multi-national corporations. During the Uribe administration over the last six years, more than 500 trade union leaders have been assassinated, 28 of them this year. So there is ample evidence that terror is used in a systematic way to cheapen the cost of production and access to resources and territories in order to increase the profit of corporate interests and multinational corporations.

What the free trade agreements do is to legalize and legitimize what terror has achieved for them. And that is why signing a free trade agreement with Colombia is actually becoming an accomplice to the use of terror to make profits.

And terror, of course ” together with extreme destruction of nature and exploitation of people ” is necessarily what the free trade agreement between Canada and Colombia is all about.

Source

In Colombia’s mineral-rich underworld, often demarcated by the full-scale destruction of towns near mining sites, environmental contamination, paramilitary attacks and assassinations of those who stand up to mining interests, Canadian hands are dirtier than those of a coal miner coming up from the pit.

Former paramilitary leader Carlos Castano explained that, “We kill trade unionists because they interfere with people working. The government’s inaction sends a clear message to human rights violators that there are still no consequences for killing trade unionists in Colombia.

Privatization, Pollution and Free Trade, WTO

World Leaders Must Roll Back Radical WTO Financial Service Deregulation

Sunday Jan 4 Reports: Protests in Canada against Attack in Gaza

Gaza attacks spark outcry

BEN LEMPHERS for Metro Edmonton

Hundreds of people gathered outside city hall in support of Palestine, calling for peace and justice. The well-attended, lively demonstration is in response to Israel’s escalating attacks on Gaza, which has claimed several civilian lives. Another gathering is planned for next Saturday.

Local protesters call for end to latest Middle East violence
By JEFF CUMMINGS
January 5 2009

Hundreds of protesters cheered, shouted and sometimes cried in front of city hall yesterday in an emotional rally calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Many were seen carrying signs, while others from Edmonton’s Islamic community were seen wearing Palestinian headscarves and waving Palestinian flags chanting, “Free, free Palestine.”

“This is not an equal war, not a self-defence act, it is a massacre,” read one sign.

Alaa Kadry, a co-organizer behind the large protest, says Israel’s actions against Gaza have affected a large number of families who live in Edmonton.

Some are still having a hard time trying to reach relatives caught in the war, he says.
“We have many families right now who are under siege,” said Kadry, a member of the Canadian-Palestine Cultural Association.

“This is a stand against aggression, against oppression, against all of the massacres that have taken place right now.”

Kadry says the attacks on Gaza are not self-defence, as what many in the international community are calling it.

Peggy Morton, a member with the Edmonton Coalition Against War and Racism, said another protest is being planned at city hall on Saturday and they will keep on protesting “as long as the attacks on Gaza take place.”

Similar protests were held in Toronto, Ottawa, and Vancouver with the largest rally seen in Montreal where thousands of flag-waving protesters flooded downtown streets.

Source

Thousands brave cold in Montreal to denounce Israeli offensive in Gaza

January 4 2009

MONTREAL – A peaceful, well-attended march denouncing the Israeli offensive in Gaza is snaking its way through downtown Montreal this afternoon.

Several thousand placard-toting, flag-waving protesters braved the bitter cold as Israel’s troops and military machinery continued their push into enemy territory.

Demonstrators of all ages gathered in a square on the western tip of Montreal’s downtown core before heading to the Israeli consulate, housed in an office tower just a stone’s throw away.

The march continued peacefully as demonstrators shouted slogans such as “Israel terrorist” and “Free Palestine.”

The Montreal march is the latest in a series of events this weekend across Canada.

Similar events were held Saturday in Ottawa, Vancouver and Toronto.

Source

Mideast conflict sparks more protests in T.O.

January 04 2009

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Palestinian supporters in Toronto are planning more protests to urge the Canadian government to speak up against Israel’s escalating military action on the Gaza Strip.

On Saturday, thousands of people gathered outside the Israeli consulate on Bloor Street to voice their concern about the violence which has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians.

The conflict began on Dec. 27, with Israel saying it would no longer tolerate rocket attacks from Hamas on its border towns — attacks that had intensified after the end of a truce agreement.

Rafeef Ziadah, spokesperson for the Palestine House in Toronto, called Israel’s response a disproportionate use of force.

“This is not self-defence,” she said. “Civilians are the ones being killed today.”

The Palestine House organized Saturday’s rally and Ziadah said more protests are being planned as the organization is watching developments in the Middle East closely.

Saturday’s protest was one of many held by Arab communities around the world.

Meanwhile, supporters of Israel are planning their own rally in Toronto. A rally is being planned for Thursday night to show solidarity with the military and their fight against Hamas.

Meir Weinstein, with the Jewish Defence League, says Israel has a right to defend itself from rocket attacks aimed at Israeli civilians.

“What the Jewish government is doing is ordering the Israeli Defence Force to finally take action against those sending rockets to Israel,” he told CTV Toronto. “What does a decent person expect to do? This is not a game.”

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday that Israel would protect its civilians from rocket attacks, which continued throughout the air assault.

“This morning I can look every one of you in the eyes and say the government did everything before deciding to go ahead with the operation,” Olmert said.

Israeli officials have said they do not intend to occupy the Gaza Strip and have been clear that the goal is to stop rocket attacks.

However, the ground offensive would not be “a rapid one that would end in hours or a few days,” warned one senior military officer, who asked not be named.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the ground offensive “brutal aggression,” and reached out to his rivals in Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.

In response to the troop movement, Hamas officials said Gaza would become a “graveyard” for Israeli soldiers.

“You entered like rats,” Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan said in a statement on Hamas’ Al Aqsa TV. “Gaza will be a graveyard for you, God willing.”

Protesters came out in Toronto on Sunday, Dec. 28, 2008 to denounce the Israeli military action in the Gaza Strip and show solidarity with the Palestinian people. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Colin Perkel)

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Protests Sunday Jan 4

SundayJan 4 Reports: US protests against Attack in Gaza

SundayJan 4 Reports: Protests around the World Against Gaza assault

Protests Sat Jan 3

Saturday Jan 3 Reports:US protests against Israels attacks on Gaza

Saturday Jan 3 Reports:Canadian Protesters march in support of Palestinians

Saturday Reports on: Demonstrations Against Israels attacks on Gaza, January 3, 2009

Friday Jan 2 Reports:Muslims around the world protest Gaza assault

December Reports

December 29 Reports:Global protests against Israel

Sunday Jan 4 Reports: Protests around the World Against Gaza assault

Protests for Gaza in Holland
Since Israel started its attacks on Gaza, four big demonstrations have been organized in the Netherlands. Organizations from different political, religious and ethnic backgrounds have joined forces in a Platform that calls upon the Dutch government to act against Israel and demand Israel to stop the attacks and the occupation of Palestine.

Video of Protesters

Immediately after the news of the attacks reached the Netherlands, people gathered at the main square in Amsterdam for a vigil.
Three days later a group of Arabic students who are studying in Holland organized a protest in the Hague, the city where the government is seated and where the embassies are located. During a march that passed the government, the American and the Israeli embassy, around 2000 people showed their grief and demanded the Dutch politicians to act against Israels violence.

A Jewish Israeli living in Holland took the stage near the Israeli embassy and condemned his government for the occupation of Palestine and the recent attacks on the Gaza strip. The Palestinians cheered for him and showed him their respect for his support.

On Friday another demonstration took place in the city of Rotterdam, the main port and the 2nd biggest city of the Netherlands. A group of 1500 people protested. This protest was organized by the local branches of four political parties that condemn Israels attacks on Gaza.

Today ten thousand people demonstrated in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands. The protest started with a manifestation with speeches from different representatives of the organizations and political parties and with a music performance by a Palestinian group.

The Netherlands has two large immigrant communities, from Morocco and Turkey. From both groups many representatives were present and they showed their solidarity with the Palestinian people.

During the demonstration the demonstrators marched through the city center of Amsterdam chanting for a free Palestine and condemning the Dutch government for its complicity with the siege and bombing of Gaza.

Until now the government has not responded or voiced its concern for the people of Gaza.

A member of the Socialist Party and spokesman for Foreign Affairs chanted: ‘Intifada, Intifada, Palestine Free Now!’ with the rest of the protestors. After the demonstration he has called the government for an urgent debate to force them to condemn the Israeli attacks on Gaza.

In the next days more actions against the Israeli invasion into the Gazastrip will follow. Currently a plan for a 24 hour presence to protest near the Israeli embassy in the Hague are being discussed.

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Polish protesters call for end to Gaza attacks
January 4 2009

Warsaw
More than 100 people demonstrated at the Israeli Embassy in the Polish capital Warsaw on Sunday, holding up shoes and burning an image of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, following the launch Saturday of an Israeli ground invasion into the Gaza Strip .

‘Israel is massacring one of the poorest peoples in the region,’ said organizer Filip Ilkowski, of the Stop War Initiative. ‘On one hand we have a tragedy, but on the other hand we have an opposition that gives us hope.’

Protestor Suleman Bahayat held up shoes and waved an Iraqi flag, saying Israel should, ‘learn from Bush and look at where the US is now.’ Other protesters placed candles in front of the embassy, before a Palestinian participant led a prayer in Arabic. One Polish woman held an Israeli flag and a sign saying, ‘Leave Israel alone.’

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Police, protesters clash near U.S. Beirut embassy

Palestinian and Lebanese protesters wave Hamas flags as they march Sunday during a demonstration held by Hamas movement and Islamic groups to protest Israel’s attacks against the Gaza Strip, in Beirut, Lebanon. (Associated Press)

By Bassem Mroue
January 05, 2009

BEIRUT, Lebanon

Police fired tear gas on Sunday at scores of demonstrators rallying against Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza as the protesters tried to reach the U.S. Embassy compound north of the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

Thousands also held an anti-Israel demonstration in Turkey as news coverage of the invasion, launched late Saturday, dominated Arab satellite television stations. Many of them, including Al-Jazeera, are showing live footage of the Gaza Strip and airing interviews with wounded Palestinians.

Israel’s weeklong aerial bombardment of Gaza and the start of the ground offensive Saturday have sparked strong condemnation across the Muslim and Arab world.

Thousands in cities from Tehran to Damascus have taken to the streets to protest the attacks, which have killed about 500 Palestinians and wounded more than 1,600, according to Gaza officials.

In some cases, the protests of the past week were as directed against Arab governments — especially Egypt and Jordan — as much as Israel, with many voicing criticism of their perceived inaction or lack of sufficient support of the Palestinians.

Israel says the aim of the operation is to stop the Palestinian militant Hamas group from firing rockets at southern Israeli towns.

Lebanese police first used water hoses to try to push about 250 demonstrators away from the U.S. Embassy. But when that didn’t work, they fired tear gas, said Lebanese security officials.

Five civilians and one policeman were lightly injured in the clash, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Later in the day, thousands of supporters of Hamas and Lebanon’s Islamic Group held a sit-in outside the U.N. building in central Beirut. Dozens of riot police stood guard.

“This battle will end a (peace) settlement forever,” Hamas’ representative in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, told the protesters. “This battle will show who are the men. Are they those who kiss (Israeli Prime Minister Ehud) Olmert? … or those who are prepared to die?” he said in an apparent reference to Palestinian leaders who hold peace talks with Israel.

Hamas is opposed to any peace settlement with Israel and calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.

In Turkey, more than 5,000 people held an anti-Israel rally in Istanbul, waving Palestinian flags and burning effigies of Olmert and President George W. Bush. Also in Istanbul, club-wielding police broke up a small demonstration by protesters who hurled eggs at the Israeli Consulate, the private Dogan news agency reported. There were no reports of arrests or injuries.

Also Sunday, the leaders of Egypt and Jordan — the only two Mideast Arab nations that signed peace treaties with Israel — condemned the ground offensive in Gaza and called for ending Israel’s attacks.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also denounced Israel’s ground offensive as “brutal aggression” in his harshest words yet in describing Israel’s assault on his Hamas rivals in Gaza.

Meanwhile, the leader of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, discussed the situation in Gaza with visiting chief Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, the group’s Al-Manar TV said.

Al-Manar did not give further details but said Nasrallah and Jalili, who arrived here Saturday from neighboring Syria, discussed “ways of ending this aggression.”

Hezbollah, which is a strong ally of Hamas, possesses a formidable arsenal of rockets and missiles that bloodied Israel during a monthlong war in 2006. Hezbollah has not threatened to join Hamas in its current battle with Israel, but Nasrallah said last week that his men are on alert in case Israel attacks Lebanon.

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Dublin demonstration against Gaza attacks draws 600
January 5 2009

Protesters praying outside Leinster House during a demonstration against the war being waged by Israel in the Gaza Strip. The event took place in Dublin at the weekend. Photograph: Matt Kavanagh

A protestor who attempted to set his jacket on fire at the Dublin street demonstration against the Isreali attacks on Gaza on Saturday. Photograph: Matt Kavanagh

A MAN attempted to set himself alight at a protest in Dublin on Saturday against the war in Gaza.

The man, who appeared visibly distraught, set his arms and shoulders alight before onlookers managed to extinguish the flames. He was not seriously injured.

The incident happened at around 1.45pm on Saturday at the Central Bank where about 600 people gathered to protest against Israeli attacks in Gaza.

The protest continued to the Dáil, where some demonstrators burned an Israeli flag. Dozens more knelt on Kildare Street to pray. Some children attending the protest with their parents were dressed in military fatigues and green Hamas headbands.

Kevin Squires of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign branded Israeli actions war crimes.

“This latest series of war crimes in Gaza is completely beyond the pale,” Mr Squires said. “Action needs to be taken. Israel can no longer get away with this.”

The Young Greens expressed their disappointment the protest had been disrupted by “a small group of fanatics”.

Speaking after attending the protest, party chairman Barra Roantree said the fact some people had used the opportunity to burn the Israeli flag and dress children in military fatigues was “not only unhelpful, but utterly contradictory to the aims of the world peace movement”: “Those who burn flags and glorify violence only fan the flames of the tragic conflict in the Middle East.”

Other demonstrations took place in Galway, Cork, Limerick, Derry and Sligo.

Speakers at the Sligo demonstration called on the Government to expel the Israeli ambassador to Ireland and for the public to boycott Israeli goods.

Supporters were asked to make the northwest an “Israeli-goods-free zone”.

Among those who addressed the crowd of 100 was Sligo mayor Veronica Cawley, who lit a candle in support of the Palestinian people.

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Hundreds of Thailand Muslims protest Israel’s attack on Gaza
January 5 2009

Bangkok-Hundreds of Thai Muslims demonstrated Monday in front of Israel’s embassy in Bangkok, waving banners, burning the Israeli flag and slingshotting balls of protest statements at the premises in reaction to Tel Aviv’s invasion of Gaza.

About 400 members of the Muslim Group for Peace rallied in front of the embassy waving banners reading ‘Destroy Israel,’ ‘Stop the bloodshed,’ ‘Free Gaza’ and ‘Where is the UN?’

After reading out a statement condemning Israel’s attack on Gaza the protestors used slingshots to shoot rolled up balls of the statement at the Ocean Tower II Building, which houses the Israeli embassy on the 25th floor.

The protestors then burned the Israeli flag.

‘Thai Muslims must condemn Israel for their attack on Gaza,’ said Usma Lukyee, a leader of the Muslim Group for Peace. ‘We want to send our support to our brothers in Palestine.’

Usma said the group would hold another demonstration outside the Israeli embassy on Tuesday, when he expected over 1,000 Thai-Muslims to show up from all parts of Thailand.

Most of the demonstrators outside the embassy on Monday came from the large Muslim community living in Thonburi, Bangkok’s sister city.

Muslims are a minority in Thailand, accounting for about 5 per cent of the population which is predominantly Buddhist.

An exception is Thailand’s three southernmost provinces – Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala – where 80 per cent of the 2 million people are Muslim.

The area has been the scene of constant violence since January, 2004, when Muslim militants attacks an army arms depot and stole about 300 war weapons, prompting several bloody reprisals on the rebels that inflamed local antagonism against authorities.

Clashes, bombs, assassinations and beheadings have claimed some 3,000 casualties in the area over the past four years.

The three provinces comprised the independent Islamic sultanate of Pattani more than 200 years ago before it fell under Bangkok’s rule.

A separatist struggle has simmered in the area for decades.

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Australian demonstrations show solidarity with Palestinian people
January 5 2009

Just hours after the first media reports of the launch of the Israeli ground assault on the Gaza Strip, protests in Australia’s major cities of Melbourne and Sydney drew thousands into the streets to condemn the Zionist state and show solidarity with the besieged Palestinian people.

A section of the demonstration in Melbourne

The demonstration in central Melbourne was at least 6,000-strong, twice as large as an earlier demonstration held last week. In addition to large contingents of Palestinian and Middle Eastern people, a wide range of people of different backgrounds were at the protest, including workers, retirees, and students.

About 1,000 also attended a peace vigil on Saturday evening which had been called by several imams. The vigil was staged in the northern suburb of Broadmeadows, which is home to many Arab and Muslim Australians.

At the main protest yesterday, many people carried banners and placards they had made themselves, including, “Stop mass killing in Palestine now”, “Palestine you are not forgotten”, “Dispossession, bombings, a planned genocide?”, “Gaza: the world’s biggest concentration camp”, “As world sleeps, Gaza bleeds”, “Rudd and Gillard, nothing new, US lackeys through and through”.

Many protestors expressed their anger towards the Labor government’s support for Israel’s offensive and the media for their biased coverage. But protest organisers from the Justice for Palestine group offered no viable political perspective. They told the rally that by writing letters to both Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and the Murdoch press they could make their voices heard and force policy changes. One person, undoubtedly reflecting the mood of the protestors, responded by shouting at the platform: “They’d just shred the letters!”

Young woman marching in Sydney

In Sydney, over 6,000 demonstrators wove their way through the city from the Town Hall, past the Egyptian consulate and to Belmore Park near the Central railway station. The majority were from the city’s large Arab community, many of whom still have family in Gaza, the West Bank, or in the south of Lebanon, which was attacked by Israel in 2006. They were joined by hundreds of workers and students from other backgrounds.

Many carried the Palestinian flag or wore the traditional keffiyeh Palestinian scarf. Some wore green, white and black-banded bandanas—the colours of the Palestinian national movement. Groups of men and teenagers marched carrying mock coffins, some under the green flag of Hamas, others under the black flag of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group. Some groups marched under the banner of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement.

Boy holding montage of Gaza victims

Several families carried moving hand-made montages made up of images of the death and destruction that has been inflicted over the past week. Others carried impassioned hand-written placards denouncing the US Bush administration, the silence of world governments, and comparing the Zionist actions with the Nazi holocaust against the Jewish people.

The demonstration was highly emotional. Chants of “Free Palestine” and “Down, down Israel” echoed through the city. The concluding rally in Belmore Park began with young boys speaking of their sorrow over the suffering being endured by the children of Gaza. Speakers highlighted the number of deaths and injuries that had already been inflicted. A protestor managed to phone his relative in Gaza and the man’s words of defiance were broadcast over the sound system.

One of many Free Gaza placards

As in Melbourne, however, the protest organisers advanced no alternative perspective for the Palestinian people. Their political demands consisted only of appeals for governments around the world, and the Labor government in Australia, to pressure Israel to withdraw from Gaza.

Sentiments of protestors

In interviews with World Socialist Web Site correspondents, participants in the demonstration openly expressed their view that appeals to the Labor government would have no impact on the Zionist aggression. They also voiced hostility toward the Arab governments and skepticism that a new Obama administration would bring about any change in US policy toward Israel.

Siham and Nadia Haman

Nadia Haman attended the Melbourne protest with her mother Siham, who was born in Lebanon and migrated to Australia in 1967. Nadia has just completed Year 12 at Pascoe Vale Girls Secondary College in Melbourne.

“We are from Lebanon, near Beirut, and we have been through the same thing as the Palestinians,” Nadia said. “What is happening in Gaza is exactly what has happened in Lebanon. That is why we have come today. The Palestinians should be free just like anyone else. I think that the Israelis want to take over the Palestinians’ land and do whatever they want.

“It is not right what the Australian government here is saying—killing innocent people is not right. Little children are dying. This is really wrong. The media is not showing what is going on. They only show something for about two seconds and then go on to something else. We are not getting the real story.”

Basil Kaser

Basil Kaser, who migrated from southern Lebanon and remembers living as a young boy under the threat of Israeli air strikes and incursions, spoke with the WSWS in Sydney. He carried a placard accusing the political leaders of Israel, the US and Egypt of being terrorists.

“Innocent people are being killed without any justification. They use the excuses of rockets, but at the end of the day it is genocide. They [the Israeli government] have sanctions on Gaza and the whole world knows about it. Shame on every leader around the world that medicines and food can’t get in to these people and shame on everybody for letting this happen. If you back someone into a corner, they’re going to fight back. If that is all the Gaza people are guilty of, then I don’t think they’re guilty of anything at all.

Basil rejected the “self-defence” claims made by Israel: “They are destroying homes, facilities, police stations, infrastructure and thousands have been killed and wounded. Gaza is a poor, densely-populated area. This isn’t self-defence, it is genocide. What the Jewish people were running away from Hitler they are now doing against other people.”

Asked about his placard, Basil said: “Everyone who is in a position of power and does nothing about this is a terrorist. The most I can do is raise my voice in protest. But these people—Mubarak, Bush—they have the power to stop this and they’re not doing it.”

Basil agreed when asked whether he thought there was a relationship between Israel’s aggression and the US occupation of Iraq.

“Absolutely,” he said. “Those in power have plans that we don’t know about. It is not the people in America who are to blame. It’s the government. If the people knew what was going on they wouldn’t support it. The same goes for a lot of the people in Israel. It is the governments that are doing this. They are blinding the people and not letting them see the truth, because if they could, they would end this immediately.”

Mohammed Selah, a student at University of Technology Sydney, said he was protesting against “the massacre of the Palestinian people, my people, in Gaza”.

He condemned the position of the governments in the Middle East: “The Arab League is talking about a proposed summit taking place after one or two weeks of killing has gone on. That is not a solution. They must get together and do something. Are they going to wait for 1,000 or 2,000 people to die? Are those being killed not human beings?

“Obama is talking about the centrality of the Israeli state for him so I don’t think he will change things. But maybe I am wrong? He is the president-elect and might have something to say later, but at the moment, he is washing his hands of it.”

Ali

Ali, who migrated to Australia 40 years ago from Lebanon, also spoke with WSWS in Sydney.

“For sixty years, Israel has been killing in the name of self-defence. This has been happening since the 1940s. How can you compare some home-made rockets with jets and tanks and so-called ‘smart-bombs’? We know what happened in 2006 in Lebanon and the things we saw then we are seeing now. Israel’s history is massacres and more massacres.

“The Arab regimes are connected to Israel. Where Israel goes, they go. There is no difference between Arial Sharon [former Israeli prime minister] and Hosni Mubarak, no difference between Ehud Barak [Israeli foreign minister] and Egypt’s foreign minister. They all discuss what they are going to do together. It’s a pact with America.”

The American establishment, he said, “has had the same policy for the Middle East for the last 50 to 100 years. They want the resources. They want the people to live like dogs with no trade, no freedom and no independence.”

Asked about the position of the Labor government, Ali said: “All governments have no feeling toward the people. I am disappointed though that Labor, who I have kept voting for, is what it is. I’ll never vote Labor again.”

Source

Tel Aviv rally decries Gaza assault

By Rachel Shabi in Tel Aviv

Israel’s left-wing residents gather to add their voice against the assault on Gaza [AFP]

Amid cries of “Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies!” and banners reading, “Enough!” thousands of Israelis took to the streets of Tel Aviv on Saturday night to protest against the country’s war on Gaza.
Latest news and analysis from Gaza and Israel Protesters called for an immediate end to the Israeli attacks, in which more than 450 Palestinians have been killed and around 2,100 injured since air assaults on Gaza began last Saturday.Organisers, a coalition of groups such as Gush Shalom, the Hadash party and the Coalition of Women for Peace, were encouraged by the turnout.

“We have experience from the last war, in Lebanon, and this time the public outcry is much quicker and much bigger,” said veteran Gush Shalom campaigner Uri Avnery.

“It is a cynical war, for political reasons and people are very much aware of that.”

Palestinian-Israelis who demonstrated alongside Jewish co-nationalists waved the Palestinian flag, as police attempt to ban such a practice before the protest was overruled by the Israeli high court.

Earlier on Saturday, about 10,000 demonstrators, predominantly Palestinian-Israelis, protested in the northern Galilee village of Sakhnin.

Many of the demonstrators expressed a desire show another side of the Israeli equation amid overwhelming public support for the current attacks.

“There are people who think differently,” said 24-year-old Iya Michlin, from Tel Aviv.

“It is important that the world, and especially the Arab world, sees that.”

Others were clear in their requirements from the Israeli government.

“I want them to start talking,” said Raquel Mendelson, 65, from the central Israeli town, Rehovot.

“You can’t continue to believe that you can fight attacks with more attacks. It’s time to talk, not to die – not here and not there.”

Balance sought

Some demonstrators were critical of the Hamas government in Gaza, but argued for a sense of balance.

“It is pathetic that Hamas provoked Israel,” said Ada Bilu, 46, from Jerusalem.

“But there is no proportion and no equality in the power relations, of what Israelis can do and what Palestinians can do. Gaza is a terrible place to live and Israel has a lot more responsibility for that than it would like to take.”

A group of counter-demonstrators also attended the event and were cordoned off from the main demonstrations by police on numerous occasions.

The event sporadically turned into a contest of slogans, as counter-demonstrators shouted “Shame on you!” and “Let the Israeli army win!” while anti-war protesters responding with “The army is a terror organisation!” and “Children in Gaza and in Sderot want to live!”

Such demonstrations by the Israeli left-wing are typically dismissed as unrepresentative within Israeli society. According to a poll commissioned by Haaretz newspaper days ago, 53 per cent of Israelis believe that the air force should continue its assaults on Gaza, and only 19 per cent thought the government should negotiate a ceasefire as soon as possible.

Israeli police arrest a demonstrator [AFP]

The poll also showed low support – 19 per cent – for a ground invasion of Gaza.

Analysts suggest that this figure reflects public sentiment about the defence forces, which are more at risk in ground attacks.

“The value of a soldier’s life is perceived as worth more than a civilian,” says professor Tamara Hermann, co-author of a monthly peace poll monitoring Israeli public opinion.

“There is an understanding in the public discourse that Israeli soldiers are all our children – that is why they are so dear to us.”

But it is concern over residents in southern Israel, 700,000 of whom are now within range of rocket attacks from Gaza, that has kept some left-wing groups silent over the current Israeli assaults on the strip.

“There is a lot of solidarity and empathy with the people in Gaza and all the talk is of Israeli action being disproportionate,” says Yael Patir, Israeli co-ordinator of the Peace NGO forum, a Palestinian-Israeli affiliation group established to campaign against the current war.

“But there have been internal arguments inside our camp, because some say that, if Qassams [rockets] are falling on residents in the south, we can’t claim that Israel shouldn’t attack Hamas at any price.

Israelis don’t want to see other Israelis bombarded by Hamas and this is causing a serious dilemma.”

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Thousands in Lebanon, Turkey protest Gaza attack
By BASSEM MROUE
January 5 2009

Lebanese youths from leftist groups protesting Israel’s ground attack on the Gaza Strip, react as police forces use water hoses to stop them from arriving to the U.S. Embassy in the northern suburb of Aukar, Lebanon, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2009. Lebanese security officials say police forces have fired tear gas at scores of demonstrators who tried to reach the U.S. Embassy compound north of Beirut. (AP Photo/Ahmad Omar)

Lebanese youth from leftist groups protesting Israel’s ground attack on the Gaza Strip, react as police forces use water hoses to stop them from arriving to the U.S. Embassy in the northern suburb of Aukar, Lebanon, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2009. Lebanese security officials say police forces have fired tear gas at scores of demonstrators who tried to reach the U.S. Embassy compound north of Beirut. (AP Photo/Ahmad Omar)

Turkish demonstrators, with a placard in the center that reads: “Hurry up for Palestine! Tomorrow might be too late…..” chant Islamic slogans as they burn a makeshift Israeli flag in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2009, during a protest against Israel. More than 5,000 people held an anti-Israel rally in Istanbul, waving Palestinian flags and burning effigies of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and U.S. President George W. Bush. (AP Photo/Murad Sezer)

Jordanian demonstrators shouts anti- Israeli slogans during a rally protesting the Israeli attacks in Gaza, in Amman, Jordan, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2008. Israeli ground troops and tanks cut swaths through the Gaza Strip early Sunday, cutting the coastal territory into two and surrounding its biggest city. (AP Photo/Nader Daoud)

A man brandishes a Palestinian flag as he shouts anti-Israeli slogans to protest the ongoing Israeli military action in the Gaza Strip, at the Mohammed V avenue in Rabat, Morocco, Sunday Jan. 4, 2009. (AP Photo/Abdeljalil Bounhar)

Protesters wave Palestinian flag during a demonstration against the ongoing Israeli military action in the Gaza Strip, at the Mohammed V avenue in Rabat, Sunday Jan. 4, 2009. (AP Photo/Abdeljalil Bounhar)

Protesters hold a placard reading “No to worldwide silence” during a demonstration against the ongoing Israeli military action in the Gaza Strip, at the Mohammed V avenue in Rabat, Sunday Jan. 4, 2009. (AP Photo/Abdeljalil Bounhar)

Protesters hold a Palestinian flag during a demonstration against ongoing Israeli military action in the Gaza Strip, on Mohammed V avenue in Rabat, Sunday Jan. 4, 2009. (AP Photo/Abdeljalil Bounhar)

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Thousands protesting Israel’s ground offensive on Gaza converged Sunday in Beirut and Istanbul as the leaders of the only two Mideast Arab nations to sign peace treaties with Israel demanded an end to the attack.

In Yemen, security officials said anti-Israel protesters attacked several Jewish homes in the northern province of Omran, smashing windows and pelting them with rocks. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, said at least one Jewish resident was injured among the tiny minority community.

Lebanese police used water hoses to try to push about 250 demonstrators away from the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon’s capital. When that failed, they fired tear gas, Lebanese security officials said. A second Beirut protest — a sit-in outside the U.N. building — drew thousands of supporters of Hamas and Lebanon’s Islamic Group.

In Turkey, more than 5,000 people held an anti-Israel rally in Istanbul, waving Palestinian flags and burning effigies of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President George W. Bush. Also in Istanbul, club-wielding police broke up a small demonstration by protesters who hurled eggs at the Israeli Consulate, the private Dogan news agency reported. There were no reports of arrests or injuries.

In Morocco, tens of thousands gathered in the capital Rabat for a peaceful march to protest the Gaza offensive. Police estimated the turnout at 50,000, according to the official MAP news agency. Organizers said the number was bigger, but did not give a precise figure.

Israel’s weeklong aerial bombardment of Gaza and the start of the ground offensive Saturday against Hamas have drawn condemnation across the Muslim and Arab world and news coverage of the invasion has dominated Arab satellite television stations.

Thousands in cities from Tehran to Damascus have also taken to the streets to protest the attacks, which have killed about 500 Palestinians and wounded more than 1,600, according to Gaza officials.

In some cases, the protests of the past week were as directed against Arab governments as much as Israel, with many criticizing their perceived inaction or lack of sufficient support of the Palestinians.

On Sunday, the leaders of Egypt and Jordan — the only two Mideast Arab countries to sign a peace agreement with Israel and maintain diplomatic ties — condemned the ground offensive and called for an end to Israel’s onslaught in Gaza.

Several hundred Jordanians shouting “death to Israel” protested against the Gaza offensive Sunday in two separate demonstrations in central Amman, the Jordanian capital. The protests were peaceful and police made no arrests.

In parliament, the Jordanian government came under criticism from Islamic opposition lawmakers demanding that it suspend relations with Israel.

“All options are available to assess the relationship with every side, especially Israel,” Prime Minister Nader al-Dahabi told parliament during a heated debate.

“We will reconsider relations according to our higher national interests,” he said. “We will not remain silent about the situation and the serious deterioration in Gaza and neither about the threat which risks the security of the whole area and its stability.”

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who runs his own Palestinian administration from the West Bank, also denounced Israel’s ground offensive as “brutal aggression” in his harshest words yet in describing Israel’s assault on his Hamas rivals.

Israel says the aim of the operation is to stop the Palestinian militant Hamas group from firing rockets at southern Israeli towns. Hamas is opposed to any peace settlement with Israel and calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.

“This battle will end a (peace) settlement forever,” Hamas’ representative in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, told the protesters at the sit-in. “This battle will show who are the men.”

Five civilians and one policeman were lightly injured in the clash outside the U.S. Embassy earlier in the day, according to the Lebanese officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Meanwhile, the leader of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, discussed the situation in Gaza with visiting chief Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, the group’s Al-Manar TV said.

Al-Manar did not give further details but said Nasrallah and Jalili, who arrived here Saturday from neighboring Syria, discussed “ways of ending this aggression.”

Hezbollah, which is a strong ally of Hamas, possesses a formidable arsenal of rockets and missiles that bloodied Israel during a monthlong war in 2006. Hezbollah has not threatened to join Hamas in its current battle with Israel, but Nasrallah said last week that his men are on alert in case Israel attacks Lebanon.

___

Associated Press reporters Jamal Halaby in Amman, Jordan, and Ahmed Al-Haj in San’a, Yemen, contributed to this report.

(This version CORRECTS SUBS lede to correct that Turkish demonstrations were in Istanbul sted Turkish capital. AP Video.)

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I found this one in my wanderings as well.
Iranian Jews protest Gaza ‘slaughter’
December 31 2008

Different groups representing Iran’s Jewish Community on Tuesday gathered in front of the United Nations office in Teheran in order to protest “Israel war crimes and the slaughter of the innocent people in Gaza Strip,” the Iranian IRNA news agency reported.

Iranian Jewish school girls and their Muslim teacher attend an anti-Israel demonstration to condemn Israel over air attacks on the Gaza Strip in front of the UN offices in Teheran, on Tuesday.
Photo: AP

The protesters, led by the Jewish representative in Parliament, Siamak Mara-Sedq, carried placards with anti-Israel slogans in both Farsi and Hebrew, the report said.

“We are here to express our support and sympathy with the Palestinian nation,” Rahmatollah Rafi, the chairman of Iran’s Jewish community was quoted as saying at the rally.

Hinting mainly at Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the report said that Rafi went on to criticize “certain Arab governments for their inaction and silence towards Israeli inhuman acts and war crimes in Gaza and the entire Palestinian territories.”

Separately, IRNA reported that in a Tuesday speech to the Iranian parliament Mara-Sedq “expressed shock” over the “savage acts” perpetrated by “the Tel Aviv regime.”

The report said that the Jewish MP “expressed hope that all the peace-loving nations and the true advocates of human rights would thoroughly support the defenseless Palestinian people and make Israel stop the genocide in the region by exerting pressure on Tel Aviv.”

He also reportedly gave voice to the “hatred” the Iranian Jewish Community harbors towards “the Israeli crimes.”

According to the report, Mara-Sedq’s remarks elicited a chorus of anti-Israel and anti-US slogans from members of parliament.

Iranian Jewish leaders are often quoted as having given voice to extreme anti-Israel views, but it is unclear whether these opinions are imposed upon them by the regime.

Some 25,000 Jews live in Iran.

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Protests From Sunday Jan 4

Sunday Jan 4 Reports: Protests in Canada against Attack in Gaza

Sunday Jan 4  Reports: US protests against Attack in Gaza

Protests from Saturday Jan 3

Saturday Jan 3 Reports:US protests against Israels attacks on Gaza

Saturday Jan 3 Reports:Canadian Protesters march in support of Palestinians

SaturdayReports on: Demonstrations Against Israels attacks on Gaza, January 3, 2009

Friday Jan 2 Reports:Muslims around the world protest Gaza assault

December Reports

December 29 Reports:Global protests against Israel