Thursday, January 28, 2010

How many other Holocausts have occurred and why are they not remembered?

groupstatueUSA, January 28,2010 (Pal Telegraph) -Today is UN International Holocaust Remembrance Day, but why do we only remember this one event, when so many other holocausts have taken place? Think Armenia, Rwanda, the Congo, Cambodia, Sudan, Iraq, etc. Why such a high-profile focus on this one holocaust, while the many other holocausts never get a mention?

I myself have always held great respect for the suffering of the Jewish people during the war, and many times have reflected on some of the locations where they were publically executed. I also allocated a special time to visit the Ann Frank house in Amsterdam on one of my many trips to the Netherlands.

But it seems that whenever there is any incident or conflict concerning Israel, we are almost forcibly reminded of the sad events that took place those many years ago. It is used as a sort of diversionary tactic, as if to say "hey, listen we are only protecting our existence after what happened to our people during the Holocaust." It's as if this is an excuse for the Israelis to do whatever they want today, because they were the victims of such a terrible crime during WW2. This mindset is terribly wrong and it is time to bring some logic back into the world.

It's perfectly natural for every nation to remember its dead or to have a day of remembrance for such events. But to have this particular Holocaust rammed down our throats, continuously, day after day, is not only an abuse of the very principal of remembrance, but also a manipulation of current politics, economics and military actions throughout the world.

013-rwanda20genocide20crosses20in20kigali1Let's take a closer look at some facts: As we all know, around 6 million Jews died during the Holocaust -- not just by direct execution, but also from malnutrition, hypothermia, diseases,etc. Compare those numbers to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where around 5.4 million have died as of 2006. And the conflict there is still ongoing. In other countries in the region, the numbers of dead due to conflict (directly or indirectly) also are high: Rwanda, about 1 million; Sudan, 2-3 million; Somalia, at least 1 million; Cambodia, almost 2 million; Vietnam, 2 million; and, more recently, in Iraq, more than 1 million. Afghanistan is showing the same trend.

Let's also reflect on the two world wars. An estimated 1 million people were killed in Russia during WW!, and 10 million more in WW2. In total, the number of people killed in WW2 was 60 million. Obviously, we could spend every day, every week, every month creating a Holocaust theme and remembrance day for those countries, but we don't. However, for some strange reason we are told repeatedly about "The Holocaust" as if the one that occurred for the Jews is the only one that counts.

One must ask the Israelis if their holocaust justifies the genocide they are visiting on the Palestinian people?

While talking of genocide, I would also wish to point out that the US, UK, NATO and IOF forces are using WMDs -- weapons that contain uranium components. They were first used by the IOF in the Yom Kippur War in October 1973, and they have been used on a regular basis since that time. They have been used extensively in the Balkans, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon and Gaza, and I believed they are now being used in Somalia and Yemen.

In using these weapons, we are inflicting another, indirect genocide on millions of people -- not only in the areas of conflict but also in adjacent countries. It is a genocide that will reveal itself slowly, through the contamination from radioactive materials carried via the wind. Our own troops have been exposed as well. The respective leaders and governments that allow their usage must also be classified as war criminals.

What I also find fascinating is my discovery of a poster outside an Islamic NGO promoting this special day, along with an exhibition inside that remembers the victims of the Holocaust. I know that pressure was applied to this NGO to participate in this remembrance. This is very wrong.

So, on this UN International Holocaust Remembrance Day, I would hope that people all over the world also give some thought to those millions of others who have died under similar conditions who do not receive the same global attention. They also under terrible oppression and in some cases just as brutally. I would urge all Israelis or any Jewish citizen to visit the DRC, Rwanda or Cambodia, etc. and try to understand that what happened in Europe has been repeated all over the world. In fact, it is still going on today, to the Palestinians. Is there really any difference?

Peter Eyre - Middle East Consultant

http://www.paltelegraph.com/columnists/peter-eyre/3843-how-many-other-holocaust-occurred-and-why-are-they-not-remembered

Monday, January 25, 2010

ANOTHER DELEGATION RETURNS FROM GAZA ~~ ANOTHER REPORT

Commentary by Chippy Dee, Photos © by Bud Korotzer

Within the past week there have been 2 reports from people that participated in the Gaza Freedom March that took place, so to speak, in Cairo a month ago. The first took place on January 14th and was sponsored by Brooklyn for Peace, Jewish Voice for Peace, and the Peace and Social Action Committee of the Brooklyn Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and took place at their Meeting House. The purpose of the Gaza Freedom March was to bring Israel’s siege of Gaza, which is killing the people there, to the attention of the world, and in so doing, try to end it. It was also to be a show of solidarity with the people of Gaza.

Ted Auerbach from Brooklyn for Peace was the first speaker and he also presented a slide show. He said that all arrangements had been made to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza well in advance of the march. However, 3 days before Egypt announced that they wouldn’t allow them to pass through – the crossing was being closed. When the 1,460 marchers arrived in Cairo they spent the first few days trying to get Egypt to change their policy. When it became clear that Egypt would not relent, the people there dealt with the new situation with creativity, solidarity, and courage. Demonstrations are forbidden in Egypt but the participants, determined to make the world aware of the siege, braved the riot police and demonstrated all over Cairo. They were joined by brave Egyptians who faced arrest or worse. Hedy Epstein, an 85 year old holocaust survivor, went on a hunger strike along with 30 others. Several French delegates climbed up a pyramid and unfurled a huge Palestinian flag. When Egyptian security chased after them they escaped by climb up over the top escaping down the other side.

The second speaker, David Letwin, also from Brooklyn for Peace, gave an excellent report on the Cairo Declaration – the political document that was a product of the events in Cairo. The South African delegation sent out a call for people to gather and, by consensus and collaboration, came up with a political plan for the immediate future.
The Declaration first lists the grievances and injustices the Palestinians suffer at the hands of Israel: collective punishment, illegal occupation, the apartheid wall, the deep wall being constructed between Gaza and Egypt, war crimes, discrimination and repression against Palestinian citizens within Israel, and the exile of millions of Palestinian refugees. The repressive acts are, it says, based on the Zionist ideology. The Declaration then reaffirms a commitment to Palestinian self-determination, ending the occupation, equal rights for all within historic Palestine, and the full right of return for Palestinian refugees. To that end, the declaration calls for a global mass democratic anti apartheid movement to work in consultation with Palestinian civil society to implement the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. This will include visits and speeches from South African and Palestinian trade unionists to unions all over the world. Participation in Israeli Apartheid Week (March 2010), a systemic unified approach to the boycott of Israeli products, developing the Academic, Cultural, and Sports boycott, and campaigns to encourage divestment of trade unions and pension funds from companies directly implicated in the occupation or in the Israeli military industries. There would be legal actions targeting the external recruitment of soldiers to serve in the Israeli military, and the prosecution of Israeli war criminals, coordination of Citizen’s Arrest Bureaus, support for the Goldstone Report, and campaigns against the charitable status of the Jewish National Fund (JNF). Individuals and organizations are invited to sign the declaration at http://cairodeclaration.org/lang/en-us/sign/
Letwin quoted Bishop Tutu saying, “We don’t want the crumbs from the table, we want the whole menu.” Letwin added, the civil rights movement in the US was not about getting a seat in the front of the bus. It was about ending white supremacy in the south. Operation Cast Lead was a result of the people of Gaza refusing to accept Israeli supremacy. The Cairo Declaration reflects what the Palestinian people want and is being highly praised by Palestinian civil leaders.

Letwin ended his report by saying that all movements start out with a small group sticking to their beliefs and turning it, in time, into a mass movement. He noted that truth goes through 3 phases: ridicule, attack, and self evident.
The final speaker was Adam Shapiro from the Free Gaza Movement. He announced that they will send several boats, at least 6, including a cargo ship, full of building supplies to Gaza from Cyprus in March.
They are challenging the siege by sea. Israel must be directly confronted. He said that more people are getting involved than ever before and Free Gaza needs help and support from all of us. The ships will constitute a nonviolent confrontation. He praised the Gaza Freedom Marchers and the Cairo Declaration because it presented a plan for sustained direct action and it moves the plan away from peace and towards justice. He concluded by suggesting that when activists discuss the Palestinian/Israel issue with others they stick with the principles of human rights and international law.
The 2nd report was on January 21st at Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village. The huge space was filled beyond capacity. It was estimated that over 400 people were there. Much that was said there had already been reported at the meeting in Brooklyn. Jenna Bitar, from Hunter College High School, was in Cairo with her family. She learned a lot and was very excited by the international solidarity, and by being able to bring attention to the siege.

Michael Ratner, President of the Center for Constitutional Rights was also there with his family. When they saw that they wouldn’t be allowed into Gaza they remained in Cairo for a few days participating in the intense demonstrations and then they flew into Israel to spend some time in East Jerusalem and on the West Bank. While in East Jerusalem, Section C, they saw how Palestinians are being evicted from their homes there and are living on the streets while Jews take over their houses. There is no legal justification for these evictions, he said. One elderly Palestinian man pointed to his former home and told Ratner that he was made a refugee twice. He was one of those evicted in Israel’s early history and again now. The Ratner family joined a march of Jewish Israelis opposing the evictions. Apples and water were thrown at them in West Jerusalem but they were welcomed in East Jerusalem. He said that there are very few Israeli Jews opposing the actions of their government – their numbers are small and are shrinking. When passing the Eretz crossing they saw 2 huge 15 foot photos of Shalit, the young soldier captured by Palestinians (and being held waiting for a prisoner exchange). At one point the Ratners were able to look across a valley on the West Bank. On the top of a hill they could see a settlement (colony) for 50,000 Jews. The scene made the “noxious architecture of apartheid” very clear. Visible was the dual system of roads, walls surrounding little Palestinian villages, or bantustans, olive trees uprooted, the open stealing of land. The Jewish colony was all lush and green, 400 year old olive trees were planted everywhere, and there was a huge swimming pool. Ratner said that his children were also stunned by the sight and asked how this could be going on and nobody is doing anything about it. They also visited a Palestinian family in Hebron. While on the roof of their house they were pelted by stones thrown by Jewish settlement children and were surprised by how empowered the children felt to throw the stones. The Ratners left the area with a sense that a terrible crime was going on and that changing the situation was in the hands of militant activists everywhere.

The final speaker was Ali Abunimeh, a Palestinian American, and co-founder of Electronic Intifada. Primarily he discussed the current situation in Gaza calling the 1.5 million people there “political prisoners.” They have no way of changing their situation. They are defenseless. He said that “terrorism is defined as violence against civilians to create change by non-state actors.” If the words ‘non-state’ were taken out it would describe what Israel was doing to Gaza. But the world is coming to see that the blockade of Gaza, and the attack on the area, targets the children there. Half the schools were bombed during Operation Cast Lead and 20% of the children suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) with 90% of them having at least one criteria of PTSD. Israel is no longer able to present the image of itself as a liberal democracy. There is a severe and systemic repression against non-violent Palestinian protesters, and yet they continue to protest. Israel is not renewing visas held by international solidarity workers, in fact they are deporting them. Yet the worldwide movement against Israel’s policies keeps growing – rapidly. Abunimeh expressed optimism that the opposition shown by the Gaza Freedom Marchers in Cairo will grow and spread.
When the meeting concluded representatives of the many organizations opposing Israel’s policies came forward and introduced themselves and their organizations. They included AdalahNY, Brooklyn for Peace, CodePink, Jews Say No, Jewish Voice for Peace, Gaza Freedom March, Free Gaza, Wespac, Al-AwdaNY, Committee for an open Discussion of Zionism, Women in Black, and Middle East Crisis Response. Contact information was collected from all people attending the event and it will be used if there is another attack on the Palestinian people.


Wednesday, January 20, 2010

The End of Israel and The Rise of Palestine

Matthias Chang
Monday, 18 January 2010 23:18

My recent visit to Gaza as part of the Viva Palestina Aid Convoy led by the indefatigable member of the British parliament and founder of the Respect Party, George Galloway was an eye opener in more ways than one.

Enough has been written about the convoy since it commenced its journey on December 6th 2009, and the wanton destruction unleashed by the Israeli war criminals culminating in the UN sanctioned Goldstone Report. While these coverage of the plight and sufferings of the Palestinians in Gaza following the barbaric invasion in 2008, were necessary and timely, few analysts, if any, dare venture to explain why Israel is so obsessed in its attempts to subjugate the Palestinians in Gaza and why the regimes in the Middle East by their tacit silence closed their eyes and betrayed their ‘Arab brothers’.

Fear!

Deep-rooted fear, to be precise, fear of the Palestinians as a people, as a nation!


The British understood that to win the Great Game, control of the massive land mass stretching from Turkey to the Central Republics of the former Soviet Union and the Middle East was paramount. The Sykes-Picot agreement established the present Arab regimes and the secured boundaries that ensured the total compliance to British dictates. The Balfour Declaration and the subsequent establishment of Israel provided the geopolitical basis for a state of perpetual war against the Palestinians and as a surrogate bully to control and threaten the various Arab regimes, should they entertain any ideas of rebellion.

Given this background [1] one cannot fault any political and military strategists for assuming that the Palestinians would follow their Arab brothers and submit to the fate laid down by the Imperial powers of the day.

The mandarins in Whitehall and now the policy-makers in Washington fail to appreciate and understand that there are certain principles and values that are inviolate – freedom, self-determination, self-respect, dignity and independence. And that death is a worthy sacrifice to achieve these objectives.

For sixty years, the Palestinians have not for one moment given up their God given right to be a free and independent nation.

The Zionists in Israel and the world over have one great fear – fear of this indomitable spirit, a weapon more powerful than any nuclear bomb. Palestine and Palestinians cannot be conquered and subdued.

One may well ask, “How can the most powerful nation in the Middle East fear the Palestinians?”

Simple!

Israel could never survive on its own. The Israeli leaders from David Ben-Gurion to Ariel Sharon and now Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak were and are too aware that without the combined support of the armed might of the United States, Britain and the European Union and unlimited financial assistance, Israel can never launch any military offensive against Palestine. Israel can commit any war crimes and get away with it because the United States would veto any UN Security Council Resolution criticising and / or condemning Israel’s actions.

The neighbourhood tyrant can only bully with the sanction of the Mafia Don. Absent such support and the local bully loses its fangs and be subjected to ridicule.

If Israel in fact has over 200 nuclear weapons, why is this Zionist state in frenzy over Iran’s peaceful use of nuclear power, notwithstanding repeated and longstanding assurances of United States’ retaliation against any state that intends to attack Israel?

While Israel may be able to intimidate the Arab regimes with its alleged nuclear arsenal, its leaders know that such threats and its armed might has always been perceived as hollow and a “paper tiger” by the Palestinians. While Israel may get away with nuking a pariah Arab state (on the pretext of eliminating terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism), it knows that any nuclear attack, be it by tactical nuclear weapons, would spell the end of Israel as a state. The backlash of anger and hate against Jews in general and Israel in particular would assuredly destroy Jewish power in the United States and in Britain.

This is the worst nightmare for Israel.

The Israelis cannot fathom why and it is mind-boggling to them that the Palestinians have no fear of Israel. In fact, the Palestinians have utter contempt for the Zionist war criminals and consider them as weaklings!

In simple terms, the Zionist cannot compute this equation.

Worst, the Israelis fear that the ‘Palestinian disease’ would spread to the entire Arab world and liberate the minds of the present Arab population locked in the straight jacket of subservience and obedience. The Arab regimes have a similar fear as a liberated population would spell the end of their dynastic rule.

A liberated Palestine as the end game would mean the transformation of the entire Arab and Muslim world and a regional power un-beholden to any imperial power. The Great Game would be over.

A historic power shift would move to central Asia, with Palestine in the dominant role.

Too far fetched?

This will not happen soon, as the great powers will definitely ensure that such an end game will not materialise.

But I am an optimist and I believe that such an outcome will occur in the 21st century.

My belief is grounded on my experience in Gaza.

We can debate till the cows come home whether my conclusions are justified. Unless and until you have visited Gaza and talked to the Palestinians, you will not be able to comprehend and understand my faith in the success of their struggle.

Just pause and reflect:

The Palestinians have been brutalised, tortured, collectively punished and betrayed for sixty years, yet they remain undaunted and steadfast in their quest to liberate their homeland. When young Palestinians subjected to daily bombings and atrocities consider Israelis and Zionist as weaklings, they cannot be defeated and conquered.

The Vietnamese succeeded after fifty years of colonial rule.

But the Palestinian victory will have a greater impact, greater than even the collapse of the Soviet Union, which ended the Cold War.

An imperialist mindset can never ever compute such an equation!





End Notes


[1] This background of necessity is brief and simple as it is not intended for the purposes of this article to provide an exhaustive analysis of the historical developments in the Middle East.

THE BRUTAL UGLINESS OF THE ISRAELI MENTALITY KNOWS NO LIMITS

Beyond chutzpah

By Khalid Amayreh in occupied Palestine

The brutal ugliness of the collective Israeli mentality seems to know no limits. Indeed, one wouldn’t go too far by arguing that the patterns of Israeli behaviors, nearly at all levels, reflect a real mental sickness.

In recent days, three observations of Israeli behaviors attracted my attention.

First, the Ayalon affair. Last week, Israeli Deputy-Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon called in the Turkish ambassador to reprimand him over a TV program that showed Israeli agents abducting children and shooting old men, an indisputably routine practice by the Israeli occupation army in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

A Jewish supremacist, Ayalon seated the Turkish ambassador Ahmet Oguz Celikkol on a chair lower than his own chair, ostensibly to humiliate him and show him “who the master is.”

He actually instructed a host of cameramen he had invited to “cover” the event to focus on the “inferiority” of the Turk vis-à-vis himself and the contemptible treatment meted out to the Turkish diplomat.

Ayalon is not an amateur diplomat. He has more than 20 years of experience of diplomatic service. He is also a former ambassador to the United States. Hence, the sickening conduct on his part can’t be explained away by citing inexperience.

The only explanation for Ayalon’s behavior is that he is suffering from a combination of mental disorder including superiority complex, megalomania, self-inflated ego and self-absorbedness. These are serious morbid psychotic behavior. If untreated, there is a serious risk that next time, Ayalon would physically assault a foreign diplomat. Even a more scandalous feat can be expected. We are talking about insolent people who are mentally sick to the bones.

Ayalon is also an irredeemable, pathological liar. He claimed he didn’t really mean it and that he hadn’t preplanned the entire episode. “It would have worked perfectly had it not been for the media which blew it out of proportion,” said the sick thug who was eventually forced to formally apologize to Turkey for his idiotic misdeed.

Now, he says that the next time a foreign government criticizes Israel’s genocidal terror against the Palestinian people, Israel would expel the ambassador of that country. In other words, Ayalon believes that Israel, unlike any other country on earth, should be beyond criticism. So, the message is clear. “The next time Israel carries out a genocidal campaign and murders thousands of Palestinian or Lebanese children, no country should dare criticize the Jewish state.”

Well, the problem with Ayalon is that he epitomizes the brutal ugliness and cruelty of the overall Israeli mindset. What is more awful is that this morbid mentality is taking over Israel, its army, politicians and general discourse.

With this in mind, an Israeli journalist noted a few weeks ago that Israel in its entirety needs to seek treatment at a mental asylum. That asylum must be very huge, indeed, and would have to work 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 30 days per month and 365 days per year.

My second observation has to do with Israel’s highlighted efforts to help the quake-stricken Haiti overcome the post-quake disaster. The Israeli and pro-Israeli media has been celebrating the Israeli decision to dispatch rescuers and relief materials to help the people of Haiti cope with the mega disaster.

Well, helping people is always a good and commendable act of charity. And it doesn’t matter where that help comes from as long it is motivated by good will, selflessness and a sincere desire to help.

However, when the real aim is to divert attention away from a huge crime, and when the supposedly charitable act is motivated more by public relations consideration and less by genuine human concerns, the first thing that comes to ones mind is the word “hypocrisy.”

Well, what Israel did to the people of Gaza is very much still fresh in everyone’s memory. Israel last year and for 21 consecutive days rained death on hundreds of thousands of innocent children and other civilians, murdering more than 1400 human beings, including more than 330 children. Several thousand civilians were injured, maimed and incinerated by the deadly clouds of white phosphorus. Moreover, as many as 40 thousand homes were completely or partially destroyed. This is in addition to the wanton pornographic bombing of mosques, schools, and public buildings.

The Israeli army used its all its weapons of death, including the American state-of-the-art technology of death, against a helpless people who lacked the ability to protect themselves and their children. Israel did what it did knowingly and deliberately. In short, Israel committed genocidal crimes against humanity against a helpless, unprotected people.

And until this moment, Israel is still refusing to allow building materials to reach these tormented human beings and enable them to rebuild their homes. The reason is none other than the fact that Israelis and many Jews draw satisfaction from seeing Gazans suffer.

So, it is really difficult to believe that the Israeli relief efforts in Haiti are motivated by genuine human considerations. If they were, Israel would lift the suffocating siege now imposed on the people of Gaza for the third consecutive year, all because Gaza had dared elect a government that Israel and the US didn’t like.

In the final analysis, it is an expression of hypocrisy and moral duplicity to brag about rescuing efforts in Port-O-Prance when you have just buried hundreds of children under the rubble of their own homes in Gaza City, Khan Younis and Rafah.

The third and final observation is really disgusting in a special way. The Israeli electronic and print media has been using photos of Palestinian orphans whose parents and relatives have been murdered by the Israeli army in advertisements designed to raise money for “poor and Jewish children.”One photo of a crying, bedraggled and distraught-looking girl is used widely to appeal to potential donors to donate money in order to feed hungry Jewish children.

What is strange about this is that the very same picture happens to be of a Palestinian child whose father was killed in Beit Lahya in the northern Gaza Strip during the genocidal Israeli onslaught last year.

This is more than disgusting. It is comparable to Nazis using photos or images of their victims to raise money for legitimate German causes. This act, coming from a state that continues to impose a hermetic, suffocating siege on the people and relatives of the child in question is just beyond Chutzpah.

This is why, the brutal ugliness of the Israeli mentality knows no limits.

http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/the-brutal-ugliness-of-the-israeli-mentality-knows-no-limits/


GAZA IS NOT ALONE; THE ENTIRE WEST BANK IS UNDER SIEGE

In a new effort to discourage, in fact stop, foreign nationals from volunteering in Humane organisations in the Occupied Territories, Israel has stopped issuing work permits to them. Israel has been successful in maintaining the siege on Gaza by not allowing foreigners to enter the area with much needed medical and building equipment. That, apparently is not enough; the zionist’s tentacles have now reached over to the entire Occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem as well….. as can be seen in the following report……

Israel withholding NGO employees’ work permits
By Amira Hass

The Interior Ministry has stopped granting work permits to foreign nationals working in most international nongovernmental organizations operating in the Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, Haaretz has learned.

In an apparent overhaul of regulations that have been in place since 1967, the ministry is now granting the NGO employees tourist visas only, which bar them from working.

Organizations affected by the apparent policy change include Oxfam, Save the Children, Doctors Without Borders, Terre des Hommes, Handicap International and the Religious Society of Friends (a Quaker organization)

Until recently, the workers would register with the international relations department at the Social Affairs Ministry, which would recommend the Interior Ministry to issue them B1 work permits. Although the foreign nationals are still required to approach the Social Affairs Ministry to receive recommendations to obtain a tourist visa, the Interior Ministry is aiming to make the Ministry of Defense responsible for those international NGOs and also requiring them to register with the coordinator of government activities in the territories (COGAT), which is subordinate to the Ministry of Defense.

Foreign nationals working for NGOs had understood they would receive a stamp or handwritten note alongside their tourist visa, permitting them to work “in the Palestinian Authority.” Israel is refusing work visas to most foreign nationals who state that they wish to work within the Palestinian territories, such as foreign lecturers for Palestinian universities and businessmen.

Israel does not recognize Palestinian Authority rule in East Jerusalem or in Area C, which comprises some 60 percent of the West Bank. The NGO workers say they’ve come to believe that the new policy is intended to force them to close their Jerusalem offices and relocate to West Bank cities. This move would prevent them from working among the Palestinian population of East Jerusalem, defined by the international community as occupied territory.

The organizations fear the new policy will impede their ability to work in Area C, whether because Israel doesn’t see it as part of the Palestinian Authority or because they will eventually be subjected to the restrictions of movement imposed on the Palestinians. Such restrictions include the prohibition to enter East Jerusalem and Gaza via Israel, except with specific and rarely obtained permits; and prohibition to enter areas west of the separation fence, except for village residents who hold special residency permits and Israeli citizens.

One NGO worker told Haaretz that the policy was reminiscent of the travel constraints imposed by Burmese authorities on humanitarian organizations, albeit presented in a subtler manner.

NGO workers told Haaretz that they had been informed by the COGAT official that a policy change was forthcoming, as early as July 2009. When a number of them approached the Interior Ministry in August to renew their visas, they found that their applications had been submitted to a “special committee.” They were not told who constituted this committee, and had to make do with a “receipt” confirming that they had submitted the request. The workers said the tourist visas they received differed from each other in duration and travel limitations, and surmised from this that the policy has not been entirely fleshed out.

Latest in a series of steps

A number of NGO workers who spoke with Haaretz voiced deep apprehensions about having to submit to the authority of the Defense Ministry. The groups are committed to the Red Cross code of ethics, and therefore see being subjugated to the ministry directly in charge of the occupation as problematic and contradictory to the very essence of their work.

Between 140 and 150 NGOs operate among the Palestinian population. Haaretz could not obtain the exact number of foreign nationals they employ.

The new limitations do not apply to the 12 organizations that have been active in the West Bank prior to 1967. Those groups, which include the Red Cross and several Christian organizations, were registered with the Jordanian authorities.

The new move by the Interior Ministry is the latest in a series of steps taken in the last few years to constrain the movement of foreign nationals in the West Bank and Gaza, including Palestinians with family and property in the occupied territories. Most of those who have been effected are nationals of countries with which Israel has diplomatic relations, especially Western states. Israel does not apply any similar constraints on citizens of the same countries traveling within Israel and West Bank settlements.

The Interior Ministry said in a statement that the only relevant authority empowered to approve the stay of foreign citizens in the Palestinian Authority is the coordinator of government activities in the territories. “The Interior Ministry is entrusted with granting visas and work permits within the State of Israel. Those staying within both the boundaries of Israel and the Palestinian Authority are required to secure their permits accordingly,” the ministry said.

“Recently, a question was raised on the issue of visas granted to those staying in the Palestinian Authority and in Israel, as it transpired that they spend most of their time in the PA despite having been provided with Israeli work permits,” the statement continued. “The matter is under intense discussions, with the active participation of the relevant military authorities, with a view to finding the right and appropriate solution as soon as possible.”

FLOODS IN GAZA; HUMANITARIAN AID OR ATTEMPTED MURDER?

Photo by Ayman Quader

Flooding Gaza

Eva Barlett, In Gaza

The long-awaited rains came full force.

Dehydrated Gaza was suddenly awash. And while farmers are overjoyed –they can finally plant their crops; their water wells and cisterns were destroyed during the Israeli massacre of Gaza; they must plant before the end of the month or there will be no point [we got a call right away to accompany farmers close to the border fence]–the rains brought disaster to families in flooded areas of Gaza.

In the low-lying Wadi Gaza region, between Gaza City and Khan Younis, the combination of sudden and great rains with Israel’s opening of dam floodgates caused a surge of water which swept through the villages in the Wadi area.

Civil Defense today said that at least 100 families were displaced by the flooding, living in a school. One year ago, Israel’s war displaced 10s of thousands, forced them into overcrowded and unfurnished schools.

Many in Gaza are expecting the next Israeli assault, any day, any time.

Logic says Israel wouldn’t attack now. “It’s too soon,” some outside voices say. “There’s too much scrutiny of Israel right now.”

But does that really matter? Is there really significant scrutiny, pressure, expectations of Israel to abide international law? Did the UN resolutions ever achieve anything? Wasn’t the world horrified after Jenin, Lebanon, and the list of other Israeli massacres?

Most here feel not.

*Red Crescent office in the Ezbet Abed Rabbo district, shelled by white phosphorous and shot up signicantly with tank gunfire during Israel’s massacre of Gaza [photo taken 18 January, immediately following cessation of the full-out invasion]

In the Dawar Zimmo Red Crescent office in the Ezbet Abed Rabbo district — only now (one year later) just beginning to plaster poor quality Egyptian cement over the gaping wounds of Israeli shelling on the building –the medics offer tea. Then they remember there’s no gas, they can’t heat the water.

“Israel was allowing 100 tons of gas/week in before,” Marwan says. “Now it’s down to 20 or 30 tons, at best. And this goes first to the hotels and resaurants. Ordinary folks can’t get their hands on gas. And if they do, it’s too expensive.”

The Gaza union of gas station owners says that Gaza needs 6,000 tons of gas per month in winter for the 1.5 million population.

Oxfam reports a decrease in gas transfers: from 2,500 tons/month in September, to 697 tons as of 23 November.

OCHA reported the gas shipped into Gaza in one week in December was just 43% of Gaza’s needs.

As of January, Israel has stopped using the Nahal Oz terminal to transfer gas. Nahal Oz is equipped to transfer fuel and gas. The Kerem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) reportedly has just 1/4 of Nahal Oz’s transfer abilities, and no storage capacity.

Marwan, with his sardonic humour, replies to my question: sure there’s going to be another Israeli attack. Inshallah. At least then afterwards we’ll have gas and electricity in Gaza again.

He’s defiant and strong like any Palestinian, but at the same time points out that every day under this siege people are dying slow deaths.

“Stab by stab, wall by wall, we are dying. It would be better to die all at once than slowly like this,” he says.

“It’s better in the (occupied) West Bank,” he goes on. “Sure, there are the military checkpoints, roadblocks, lock-downs (“curfews”) and all that goes with occupation. But at least people can move around, have the chance to leave. Maybe they have to wait 3 or 4 hours at a checkpoint. But we’ve been waiting for freedom to move out of Gaza for four years.”

But he is no quitter, he continues his work, and when Israel gives reason he will be among the first in the ambulances to rescue the injured.


Source

THE GREATEST THREAT TO ZIONISM IS THE TRUTH

Zionism can only survive if the lies continue. Its greatest threat is the TRUTH. Israel is now safe as can be seen in the following….

Israel suddenly expels detained Ma’an journalist

For the first time in a week, journalist Jared Malsin was allowed to use his mobile phone on Wednesday morning to inform Ma’an that he was being placed onto an El Al flight to New York.

He sounded shaken and confused. He said he did not know why he was not being flown to Prague, where he was expected to be sent, saying only that flying there “would create problems.” He said he was in an armored vehicle that was transporting him to the airport gate.

On Tuesday, Tel Aviv District Judge Kobi Vardi ordered that a hearing be scheduled to consider the Israeli Ministry of the Interior’s decision to deport the journalist. Following the call, lawyer Castro Daoud went to the airport detention facility where Malsin has been kept for the past week to deliver the news.

At about 2:30 pm, Daoud left the detention center and filed a motion requesting that Jared be permitted to leave the country while the hearing and case proceed in his absence. As the Attorney General’s Office insisted that Malsin not be permitted to attend his hearing, Daoud argued that it was no longer necessary to keep him confined to his cell in the detention center.

At about 4:30pm, staff from the US Embassy in Tel Aviv notified Malsin’s parents in the US state of New Hampshire that he would be on the next flight to Prague, even though Justice Vardi had not ruled on Daoud’s motion to let Malsin travel and still pursue the case.

At about 7:30pm, Daoud expressed shock after he received notification that a motion was signed by Malsin requesting his deportation challenge be annulled. Justice Vardi has closed the case on Malsin’s deportation order one week after it was filed.

Ma’an is deeply concerned that there was no lawyer present when Malsin apparently filed this independent motion, which was sent from the Ministry of the Interior and not his legal representative, who had just left. It is inexplicable that Malsin would knowingly drop the legal challenge after his first major success.

Without jumping to conclusions, Ma’an wants to be sure these events did not take place under duress, and is consequently concerned that Malsin’s lawyer and parents were prevented from reaching him during the 24 hours before the deportation to clarify what happened between 2:30 and 4:30pm on Tuesday afternoon.

See the following for more information:

On the reaction of international press associations:
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=254583
On Jared’s fight to overturn the deportation order:
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=254021
On the timeline of Jared’s detention and questioning:
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=254589

For the most updated version of this news release, click here:
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=253864


Tuesday, January 19, 2010

THESE ARE THE PEOPLE ISRAEL IS TRYING TO DESTROY

The people living in Gaza are barely surviving after the blitzkrieg of a year ago….. but whatever they have they are willing to share with the victims of the earthquake in Haiti.

Gazans raise money for Haiti

Gaza – Palestinians in Gaza set off for the Red Cross headquarters on Monday to offer donations and financial support for the victims of Haiti’s devastating earthquake on Tuesday.

Relatives of Palestinian prisoners also participated in the drive, with many offering financial donations and goods including blankets and covers, as well as food and milk for children.

Head of the Committee to Break the Siege Jamal Al-Khudary said “people may be astonished at our ability to collect donations from our people [in Gaza]; we tell them that this is a humanitarian campaign and our people love life and peace …”

“We are here today supporting the victims of Haiti … we feel for them the most because we were exposed to our own earthquake during Israel’s war on Gaza.”

The Red Cross director was only able to accept financial donations as transferring goods out of the Strip is near impossible, Al-Khudary added.

Source via Uruknet

Muslim countries are, in fact, helping Haiti

First, if you can, give something to help with relief efforts in Haiti -- and if you're donating to a specific charity, consider making an unrestricted donation.

Now: I was wondering how long it would take for American conservatives to blame the Muslim world for its perceived lack of aid to Haiti. Didn't take long: Jamie Allman, a talk radio host from St. Louis, says the Muslim world is "missing" from the list of donors to Haiti. (And I'm sure he isn't the only one to make this claim.)

Allman is lying. We've put together a partial list of donations from Muslim countries -- it's after the jump -- all of it culled from English-language news reports. Allman had access to the same information, if he'd actually bothered to do any research.

Bahrain: The government has donated $1 million to relief efforts.

Jordan: A Jordanian air force plane carrying a military field hospital and 6 tons of food and supplies left Amman on January 14. A second plane carrying Jordanian medics left the following day.

Iran: Iran's Red Crescent society sent 30 tons of humanitarian aid, including food, tents and medicine, on January 16.

Kuwait: Kuwait donated $1 million to relief efforts; the Red Crescent is preparing 100 tons of food, medical supplies, tents and blankets to fly to Haiti.

Lebanon: Lebanon is loading a plane with 25 tons of tents and 3 tons of medical supplies; it leaves tomorrow.

Morocco: Two planes carrying 24 tons of aid left the city of Kenitra on January 16. The Moroccan government has pledged $1 million in aid to Haiti.

Qatar: A Qatari C-17 aircraft loaded with 50 tons of aid left for Port-au-Prince on January 14. The Qatari government also sent a rescue team to set up a field hospital; the Red Crescent will sent another $100,000.

Turkey: Three cargo planes -- carrying search-and-rescue teams, a mobile hospital and aid materials -- left for Haiti on January 16. Another two planes left yesterday. Turkey has also donated $1 million in cash.

United Arab Emirates: The UAE sent two planes loaded with tents, and a team from the UAE's Red Crescent will arrive in the Dominican Republic tomorrow to buy $500,000 worth of supplies and truck them to Haiti. Another 50 tons of emergency supplies will be air-lifted from Abu Dhabi tomorrow.

And these are just the countries in our area of interest -- I didn't include majority-Muslim countries like Indonesia and Malaysia, which have also made contributions. Oh, and the Islamic Society of North America set up a fund for Haiti, too.

(One notable omission from the list: Saudi Arabia hasn't announced a donation yet, which is really inexcusable for a country with that kind of oil reserves.)

http://www.themajlis.org/2010/01/18/muslim-countries-are-in-fact-helping-haiti

Anthony Lawson/Jeff Gates- A Closer Look at Israel's Role in Terrorism - Parts 1, 2 and 3

Sunday, January 17, 2010 at 11:24AM AuthorGilad Atzmon

Israel and American Foreign Policy

By Robert Bonomo (about the author)

For OpEdNews: Robert Bonomo - Writer

American foreign policy since the end of the cold war has been focused primarily on the Middle East and to an alarming extent on the defense and promotion of Israel. Why has Israel become so central to our foreign policy and what advantages does the United States gain from the relationship?

Israel is not an important trading partner for the United States, in 20th place, behind Venezuela and Thailand. Israel has no significant natural resources, nor is Israel an important defense ally. None of its neighbors pose any significant threat to the United States or American interests. There is not an important Israeli American population. If we equate American Jews as somehow "Israeli" because of the fact that Israel is a Jewish state, than we are still only talking about a population of 6,444,000 approx. (2007) 1.7% - 2.2% of the US population. This is less than the number of Polish Americans, approximately 10,000,000 people and well below the number of Irish Americans, over 30,000,000.

Yet Ireland never received anywhere near the attention that Israel has in the media, in political debates, in foreign aid or in foreign policy efforts, even when a full blown civil war was occurring in Ulster.


The attention Israel receives in the United States is completely disproportionate to its strategic, commercial, or political importance. For example, in reference to the 2008 presidential elections, Shmuel Rosner at Slate wrote,

"in the vice-presidential debate, Israel's name was mentioned 17 times. China was mentioned twice, Europe just once. Russia didn't come up at all. Nor Britain, France, or Germany. The only two countries to get more attention were Iraq and Afghanistan--the countries in which U.S. forces are fighting wars". A week earlier, in the first McCain-Obama debate, Israel was mentioned seven times, fewer than Russia but still more than China or Japan or any country in Europe, Latin America, or Africa."

In regards to American foreign aid, the amounts are striking. According to John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt,

"Since the October War in 1973, Washington has provided Israel with a level of support dwarfing that given to any other state. It has been the largest annual recipient of direct economic and military assistance since 1976, and is the largest recipient in total since World War Two, to the tune of well over $140 billion (in 2004 dollars). Israel receives about $3 billion in direct assistance each year, roughly one-fifth of the foreign aid budget, and worth about $500 a year for every Israeli. This largesse is especially striking since Israel is now a wealthy industrial state with a per capita income roughly equal to that of South Korea or Spain."

It's fascinating to compare American foreign policy in Mexico, a country of over 100,000 million people (Israel's population is around 7.5 million) and a very important trading partner with the US. Issues like immigration and drug trafficking with Mexico have palpable daily effects on the lives of Americans, yet Mexico receives less the 2% of the foreign aid that Israel gets, less than 40 million dollars compared to Israel's almost 3 billion. And the over 28 million Americans who are of Mexican ancestry? They are apparently, for politicians, much less important than the less than 7 million Jewish Americans.

In the sphere of politics the tone and attitude of US politicians sounds as if their careers depend on how they speak of Israel. Joe Biden during the Vice Presidential debate,

"Gwen, no one in the United States Senate has been a better friend to Israel than Joe Biden. I would have never, ever joined this ticket were I not absolutely sure Barack Obama shared my passion."

And Sarah Palin,

"But I'm so encouraged to know that we both love Israel, and I think that is a good thing to get to agree on, Sen. Biden. I respect your position on that."

And President Obama this summer said, according to the New York Times,

"that he is committed to Israel's security but does not believe it is essential for him to avoid all disagreement with the Jewish state."

This type of language can only be considered pandering. Why are they pandering to Israel? During the 2008 presidential election, John McCain said he would not sit down with the Spanish government because of the way they pulled their troops out of Iraq. It caused a minor stir, but never became an issue of any importance. Do you think either Obama or McCain could have been elected if either had said that they would not sit down with Israeli leaders due to continued new settlements in the West Bank?

Israel is considered to be a nuclear power. Few if any deny that Israel has nuclear weapons, as well as other weapons of mass destruction. Why does Israel receive no pressure at all from the United States to become a non-nuclear power? Would this not be an excellent bargaining chip with Iran? Iran is a country of over 70,000 million people with a tremendous history and culture, yet they are not allowed to have nuclear weapons, but Israel is? It is easy to understand the Iranian objection to this double standard. It's very unfortunate that Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, continues to spew ridiculous, anti-Semitic diatribes that completely distract the attention of the world from the real issues of the Middle East and reduce his country's credibility. Again, Mearshimeimer and Walt write,

"Washington also provides Israel with consistent diplomatic support. Since 1982, the US has vetoed 32 Security Council resolutions critical of Israel, more than the total number of vetoes cast by all the other Security Council members. It blocks the efforts of Arab states to put Israel's nuclear arsenal on the IAEA's agenda."

Why is it impossible to have a sensible, open debate in the United States regarding our relationship to Israel? The clearest example of why it is not possible occurred in 2006 when John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen Walt of Harvard published a white paper about the power of AIPCAC, the principal Israeli lobby in the US. The ensuing debate was not centered on the issues of the white paper, quite the contrary; both academics were accused of everything from lack of professionalism to anti-Semitism. The White Paper made very clear arguments about the power of AIPAC and their silencing of Israel's critics. Mearsheimer and Walt pulled no punches,

"For the past several decades, and especially since the Six-Day War in 1967, the centrepiece of US Middle Eastern policy has been its relationship with Israel. The combination of unwavering support for Israel and the related effort to spread "democracy' throughout the region has inflamed Arab and Islamic opinion and jeopardised not only US security but that of much of the rest of the world. This situation has no equal in American political history. Why has the US been willing to set aside its own security and that of many of its allies in order to advance the interests of another state?"

The authors received a drubbing and were quickly silenced. Alan Derschowitz as well as Eliot Cohen of John Hopkins both accused Mearsheimer and Walt of anti-Semitism and bigotry.

When Jimmy Carter came out with his book about the Israeli-Palestinian question, Palestine Peace Not Apartheid, the debate again became about him, not the plight of the Palestinians.

Increasingly, the war in Iraq is being attributed to the Neo-Conservative wing of the Republican Party that had a very influential role in the Bush administration. For most of the world this has been obvious, but in the US it has been a taboo topic. Michael Kinsley is quoted as saying "the connection between the invasion of Iraq and Israeli interests had become 'the proverbial elephant in the room. Everybody sees it, no one mentions it.'" The Neo-Cons had for years been itching to invade Iraq. The general theory was that by changing the regime in Iraq, regime change would occur in Iran and Syria, clearing the way for a new Middle East and a much friendlier atmosphere for Israel.

What occurred on 9/11 gave them the opening they had been looking for, and they cunningly convinced the US population that somehow Iraq had some connection to 9/11. This was a blatant falsification of the facts advanced with the help of AIPAC and important supporters of Israel in the media. The Israeli angle for the war in Iraq is the mainstream explanation in much of the world but rarely discussed in the US.

America must be able to openly debate what has become the main focus of our foreign policy, and our largest benefactor of foreign aid. At the moment we are not able to do so. When academics or politicians question Americas support for Israel, they are branded as anti-Semitic. No member of either party is willing to openly question our relationship with Israel out of fear. Our academics are branded as anti-Semitic when they question the power of AIPAC. Something undemocratic has taken over a part of our government, and the most important part of our foreign policy. America has lost and continues to lose credibility in the world as many see US foreign policy in the Middle East as under at least partial control of Israel.

Let us imagine that the United States had "divorced' Israel 20 years ago, considering it a foreign policy liability. Would we have much better relations now with the Arab world? Would 9/11 have been avoided? Would we have avoided entering the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars? Would Israel have been forced to make an equitable deal with the Palestinians out of fear of being ostracized from the international community? Would the US have focused much more energy at the end of the cold war on improving relations with the nations of the former Soviet Union including Russia? Would the world be a better place?

The United States foreign policy has been hijacked, and our leaders and thinkers have been intimidated by a foreign government and its apologists. Somehow, discussion of the special American relationship with Israel has become taboo. This has been carried out by supporters of Israel who use the media and AIPAC to intimidate politicians, journalists and intellectuals. Our thinkers and leaders are afraid to openly discuss the US relationship with Israel out of fear of being branded anti-Semitic and being ostracized. This is a form of McCarthyism that must be immediately rooted out like the cancer that it is. American has lost part of its freedom of expression, our most sacred gift from our founding fathers, the cornerstone of our republic and our prosperity. It must be taken back.

http://www.thecactusland.com/

Robert Bonomo is a blogger, novelist and internet marketer. He has lived and worked in Madrid, San Francisco, Buenos Aires, Kamchatka, New York and a few other not so interesting places. He has worked as a car salesman, land surveyor, media (more...)

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Israel-and-American-Foreig-by-Robert-Bonomo-100114-722.html

EVICTED PALESTINIANS CAN FREEZE TO DEATH AS FAR AS ISRAEL IS CONCERNED

Sheikh Jarrah court case delayed until April: Settler heckling continues

Sheikh Jarrah- On Monday January 18th, a Jerusalem court case over the legal ownership of a Palestinian owned house in the Sheik Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem was postponed until April. The hearing against the Husseini family was delayed because the prosecution, who claims the Palestinian family does not have legal ownership over their house, needed more time to build a case.

This case comes in the wake of two other neighborhood houses being occupied by Jewish settlers since late 2009 and constant settler heckling.

On Saturday, January 16, 2010 at 4:45PM a settler girl attacked a Palestinian girl in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheik Jarrah. The incident took place on the street between two houses occupied by Jewish settlers, which belong to the Palestinian Gawi and Al-Kurds families.

A large group of settlers, largely young men, boys and one girl began to gather and walked back forth and back between the two occupied houses.

Between 4:15 and 4:30PM the group gathered on the roof the Gawi family’s occupied house and began yelling and laughing at the Palestinians. The yelling continued and until the settlers left the house to confront the Palestinians on the street where one settler girl hit a Palestinian girl before the police separated the two groups. Shortly after, the settlers left the area.

This is just one of many instances of settlers harassing Palestinians in the Sheik Jarrah neighborhood. The harassment and violence has increased significantly since the occupation of the Gawi and Al-Kurds residences.

The Gawi house was taken over 5 months ago and the family, led by Nasser Gawi has lived in a tent on the street since. The Al-Kurds family, where the front half of the house was taken in December, still lives in the back of the house.

Source

ISRAEL OPENS DAM GATES IN GAZA CAUSING HAVOC

Text and photos transmitted by Ayman Quader in Gaza

Gaza flooded after Israel opens dam gates


Israel has opened the floodgates of one of its dams in the eastern part of the Gaza Strip, flooding Palestinian houses and causing severe damage.

The Israeli authorities opened the dam’s floodgates without any prior warning or coordination with local authorities in Gaza, stunning the residents of the area, the Press TV correspondent in Gaza reported late on Monday.

There has been heavy rain in the region over the past 24 hours. It seems the Israeli authorities could not handle the huge amount of rainwater and decided to open the floodgates without prior warning.

Because Gaza is located in a low-lying area and the elevation decreases on the way to the Mediterranean Sea, water gushed into the area, flooding two Palestinian villages and displacing a hundred Gazan families.

The locals say Israel intentionally caused the floods, the Press TV correspondent said.

The waters from the dam, called the Valley of Gaza, flooded houses in Johr al-Deek village, which is southeast of Gaza City, and Nusirat in the eastern part of the territory, where the Al-Nusirat refugee camp is also located.

The Valley of Gaza is about 8 kilometers long. It starts on the eastern Gaza border with Israel and ends in the Mediterranean.

The houses of many Palestinians have been flooded and a number of people are trapped inside or on their roofs, while many have also gone missing, the Press TV correspondent said.

Rescue teams are using small boats to evacuate the trapped people.

Hamas has condemned the act as a war crime and has called on all concerned parties to intervene and offer assistance to the locals.

The flooding has made life more difficult for the Gazans, especially for those still living in tents because their homes were destroyed in the December 2008-January 2009 Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.

In the war, more than 1,400 people were killed, mostly women and children, and over 10,000 houses were destroyed or damaged, forcing at least 500 families to live in tents.

Very little progress is seen in reconstruction of the devastated areas in the Gaza Strip, mostly due to the Israeli blockade, which has prevented the delivery of building materials to the coastal enclave.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Israel opens Dam so Gaza submerges

6AEFB78F0

Gaza – Many Palestinian houses were under water in Central Gaza after Israel opened a closed dam on Tuesday.

Israeli authorities opened the “Al-Wadi” dam without prior notice after heavy rainfall on the area.

Seventy citizens were rescued by Civil defense staffs. Medical sources said that 9 citizens were injured and transferred to Gaza hospitals.

They said that rescue teams rushed to the area and evacuated all the residents who live in distance of 500-600m in Al-Moghraqa, central Gaza Strip.

The minister of Social Affairs Ministry in Gaza, Ahmed Al-Kord, said that they opened Kafer Yasef School for 100 evacuated families. He added that the ministry provided them with the need supplies of food and sheets.

http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2010/01/19/israel-opens-dam-gates-in-gaza-causing-havoc/

More Evidence The Pentagon Is Fighting A Religious Crusade



We lost the first crusade and we'll lose this
one also because in both cases WE are the
bad guys.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

New York cabbie tracks down owner of $21,000 left on back seat

Sam Jones and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 13 January 2010 19.58 GMT

Mohammad Asadujjaman turns down reward after driving over 50 miles in search of Italian tourist who had left handbag behind


Mohammad Asadujjaman's mother may not have schooled him in the quickest routes through the mean streets of the Big Apple or the best ways to negotiate with its famously plain-speaking inhabitants.

But she does appear to have imbued the 28-year-old New York taxi driver with an even greater gift: incorruptible honesty.

On finding that an Italian tourist had left a handbag containing more than $21,000 (£13,000) in cash - not to mention jewellery worth thousands more - on his backseat on Christmas Eve, the Bangladesh-born cabbie knew exactly what to do.

He rummaged through the bag until he found an address in Long Island. Then he rang a friend with a car and embarked on a 50-mile trip in the hope of handing over his find to someone who knew his fare, 72-year-old Felicia Lettieri from Pompeii. When his knocks at the house belonging to Lettieri's sister, Francesca, went unanswered, Asadujjaman left his mobile number and a note reading: "Don't worry, Felicia … I'll keep it safe."

A little while later the phone rang and he headed back to the Long Island address to return the bag and keep his word.

"They were so, so, so happy," said Asadujjaman, a student who began driving a cab about three months ago after his hours were cut back at a factory.

Felicia Lettieri's absentmindedness had briefly threatened to ruin the family's holiday.

The bag, which she forgot while she and six other relatives were travelling in two taxis from midtown Manhattan to Penn station on 24 December, also contained some of the group's passports.

Police advised the tourists they had little chance of recovering the lost goods. Francesca Lettieri said Asadujjaman's honesty had averted disaster. "We really love what he did," she told Newsday.

The cabbie himself shrugged off the incident, saying he had been taught never to take advantage of people. "My mother is my inspiration," he said. "She always said, be honest and work hard."

Despite conceding that such a large amount of money would have allowed him to focus on his studies, Asadujjaman insisted he was not tempted to keep it: "My heart said this is not good."

He also declined the reward the Lettieri family offered him, saying that as an observant Muslim he could not accept it.

"I'm needy, but I'm not greedy," he said. "It's better to be honest."

Pure-hearted taxi drivers are not as rare as some might think.

Two years ago, the Grammy-nominated violinist Philippe Quint left his $4m (£2m) Stradivarius in a New Jersey taxi after flying in to Newark airport at 3am.

Despite fearing that he would never see his 285-year-old ex-Kiesewetter violin again, Quint was eventually informed by the airport that the driver, Mohammed Khalil, had returned the precious instrument. To show his gratitude, Quint handed Khalil a $100 tip and free tickets to his next Carnegie Hall concert. He also gave a kerbside recital at the airport taxi rank to an audience of 50 cabbies.

Monday, January 11, 2010

CONVOYS TO GAZA MUST CONTINUE

Image ‘Copyleft’ by Carlos Latuff

What next, Viva Palestina?

Stuart Littlewood


Mere words cannot express my admiration for Viva Palestina and those who devote their efforts to it. I love the way they shamed – and not for the first time – the great powers and their gutless leaders.

And for his pains the British MP George Galloway has been declared ‘persona non grata’ in Egypt. How heartbreaking for him.

Given past disagreements, and the stubborn refusal of this latest convoy to be derailed, it was never going to end in hugs and kisses from President Mubarak’s henchmen, or fond messages of “Come ye back soon, George.”

What really matters is that they delivered the life-saving goods when the armies and navies of the so-called Free World wouldn’t even think about it. And they did it with style in the face of Egypt’s tantrums.

The nervous Egyptian authorities allowed exhausted convoy members only 30 hours inside Gaza to say hello, distribute their aid and take a rest. Sad and wobbly regimes simply cannot handle a few hundred humanitarians so they accuse them of “incitement” and “hostile acts”, and throw them out.

Now we hear grumbles from some activists that criticising Egypt diverts attention from the real culprit. But Israel’s evil machinations would find little success without the Egyptian government’s co-operation. There should of course be free movement of goods and people through the Gaza/Egypt border. Instead, Mubarak signed up to the US-Israel-EU conspiracy to keep the 1.5 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip bottled up and helpless to resist what many are calling a slow genocide. In so doing, Egypt joined the worst offenders against international law, the UN Charter and the codes of decent conduct. It is time the spotlight fell on Cairo even if it means momentarily taking it off Tel Aviv and Washington.

Mubarak has slithered even further into the Middle East swamp of iniquity by constructing an iron Death Wall designed to create a hermetic border seal and inflict even more misery on his Muslim bothers and sisters, and the Christian community.

The Egyptian president is certainly not part of any solution. He has become a problem.

As for Mr Galloway, when can we expect to see him receive an official pat on the back for doing what the British government’s poseurs were too cowardly to do: bringing humanitarian aid to trampled people Britain still has a residual responsibility for?

Mr Galloway speaks of more convoys setting out for Gaza from Venezuela, Malaysia and South Africa. But Egypt has just announced that convoys, regardless of their origin, are no longer welcome. Instead, it is introducing a new “mechanism” whereby all aid for Gaza must in future be handed over to the Egyptian Red Crescent as soon as it arrives at the port of El-Arish. It will then be processed and passed on (if you can believe that) to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Nobody trusts the Egyptian authorities to do this in an honest and transparent way. Besides, donors and fund-raisers often have direct links with charitable organisations inside Gaza and the West Bank. They would not wish to see the fruits of their labour and other people’s generosity disappear into some distribution ‘black hole’.

Britain still blames Hamas for Gaza’s suffering

And what says the British government, which never seems able to get anything right these days?

The Foreign Office’s “clear advice” is against all travel to Gaza. Why, when they should be facilitating travel to Gaza and applying sanctions against anyone who hinders it?

“The suffering of Gazan people is compounded by the violent and irresponsible actions of Hamas,” says the Foreign Office. “We are concerned by the recent upsurge in incidents of Hamas confiscating aid and obstructing the efforts of international aid organisations in Gaza.” We keep hearing these accusations but never proof. Gaza is on a war footing, under crippling blockade and in continual crisis. Hamas, the de facto government, runs the health service and is almost certainly best placed to know where medical supplies are needed most. Obviously they’ll step in when aid arrives.

Viva Palestina are at least as well informed about the situation in Gaza as the Foreign Office. Would convoy activists really go to so much trouble if Hamas was seizing everything they delivered?

Britain, while eagerly offering the services of the Royal Navy to help Israel stop “smuggling” into Gaza, won’t use its ships to spare the Gazans a slow death from starvation and prevent a public health catastrophe.

It is time our servants Brown and Miliband explained, carefully and logically, exactly what their problem is with Gaza and its democratically elected rulers so that the rest of us can try to understand – if indeed there is anything beneath the layers of pro-Israel ‘crapaganda’ worth understanding.

Go by sea

Events now seem to be prodding Viva Palestina to change tack. Perhaps it is too simplistic to suppose that Gaza needs to be sea-fed like any other coastal community. But should humanitarian relief teams continue to seek access by land crossings that are controlled by militarised thugs bent on destroying Gaza’s population and halting any convoy in its tracks?

Deal direct. Surely that must be the aim. And do it in the name of God. A large armada of boats led by a multi-faith alliance demanding freedom of the seas and the right to an armed escort, could be the best vehicle. The United Nations should provide the necessary security arrangements to check the cargoes as they are landed in Gaza.

It would require considerable courage. Whether religious leaders have the balls for it is doubtful, even when the highest moral purpose is being served, but they might surprise us. A sprinkling of politicians could be relied on but the higher echelons know which side their bread is buttered.

Israel, Egypt, the US and the UK might wish to airbrush Mr Galloway out of the picture, but that’s unthinkable. He’ll be nominated for the next Nobel Peace Prize and seen as a million times more deserving than the fraud in the White House.

Yes, the REAL international community – that’s ordinary folk like you and me and Viva Palestina and everyone and his dog around the globe – are finally beginning to assert themselves against the corrupt power freaks that strut the world stage.

Stuart Littlewood is author of the book Radio Free Palestine, which tells the plight of the Palestinians under occupation. For further information please visit www.radiofreepalestine.co.uk


Source