Gaza Mourning - 1 year after the war

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من فضلك أرسل دعوة لأصدقائك للانضمام إلى المجموعة

Breaking; 26 Dec. 2009 ; Six Palestinians killed in West Bank, Gaza attacks by IDF - Israeli Armed Forces

Long Live Gaza: Remembering one year since the massacre

The video says it all .....

Links; Window into Palestine, Pulse, Electronic Intifada,

Convoy through Egypt into Gaza....

Shame, shame shame on men without humanity!

We watch in horror as the Egyptian Govt. unload the clothes, blankets, food, tents, toys, shoes, and anything else they deem not being "medical aid". How they could deny this aid to their neighbours left homeless after the recent war is truly mind boggling. And the people of Gaza continue to suffer through yet another crime done against them.........!

Letters from Gaza - Now collected -

Dear Brothers and Sisters; 

Our Diary "Remaining Human" - now becomes a book! 

And within the book; the story of three weeks of bloodshed, 

written to the best of my ability, in situations of extreme insecurity. Often transcribing, in the midst of the surrounding inferno, on a crumpled notebook, bent over, in an ambulance with the siren racing.... 

Frenetically tapping the keys on a computer of luck

within buildings shaking as crazy pendulums by the explosions all around. 

Be advised that only leafing through this book could be dangerous, 

pages are harmful, soiled with blood,impregnated with white phosphorus and sharp splinters of explosive. 

If read in the quiet of your bedroom, walls will echo of 

our screams of terror, 

and I worry for the walls of your hearts

I know not yet how to soundproof them from pain. 

Set the volume right, just to be sure - Near the children; This to enable them; To know right now about a world, which are not far away, where indifference and racism are intact, and where children treat their peers, as were they rag dolls. 

In such a way; Maybe a vaccination at an early age, will help 

against this epidemic of violence and lead towards the other face of injustice and sloth. 

For one day being able to Remain Human. 

The proceeds of the book by the author; IE Vittorio Arrigoni, myself! 

Will go ENTIRELY to the children of Gaza! All of them surviving victims of this horrendous massacre-

To ensure that their wounds can heal quickly....

(And give back my part and help those of Il Manifesto at the Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution, website: http://www.pcdcr.org/eng/, to fund a series of games and social assistance aimed at children, who were severely injured or traumatized). 

Despite attractive offers; Like a tour around Italy with Noam Chomsky, I've decided to stay in hell, here in Gaza.

Not only because I am very difficult to evacuate from this open-air prison (An Israeli government spokesman said: "He arrived by sea, he'll have to leave the Strip by sea"), but above all; Because there is yet much to be done and most violated human rights on these moors, are often missed by the outside world. 

Promoting my book from here, with the support of all those who have demonstrated friendship, brotherhood, closeness, empathy. 

I ask you to buy some books and try to sell them if not almost door to door, to friends and acquaintances, work colleagues, fellow university fellows 

volunteers, of life. 

And further still, to propose it to a library -aggressive libraries interested in a project of truth and solidarity.

Go to the centers for social and cultural associations close to where you are. 

We could organize readings in various cities, (I could speak by phone, the events would be advertised on The Manifesto, on our blogs and Internet sites) 

and this could also be an interesting opportunity to count, to know, 

and to bound. 

We are not few, are many,and we can really count - believe me!

The book can be found right now at newsstands with Il Manifesto. And soon in bookstores. (Only in Italian as of yet!

I trust in you, 

that trust in me, 

not for the dead 

but for the deathly wounded of this horrible massacre.

A hug as big as the Mediterranean that separates - unites us!

We are humans. 

Yours, but never tamed;

Vik.

(This is a translation partly by Google translation tool [it shows here and there] and partly by me; your humble Blogger [which also shows everywhere (",)]

Reality in Gaza ....

Gaza's Reality




While on the subject of forgotten realities; Here's one from Gaza - The video was uploaded in Nov. 2006 - Don't think that it has gotten any better since!  - Wrangle 5 min out of your busy Twitter/Facebook/Myspace/Whatever social media, which takes your fancy and watch a bit of this great Documentary; "Occupation 101" - I have posted the full movie before!-

Oh and the promise from yesterday about Anders Østergård? Well, the day is not over yet (",)

How to Justify Injustice -A letter from Reem

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

Link to Free Gaza  

Palestine on Valentine;" In Gaza, the struggle within me"

© 2009 Łukasz Trzciński

Tuesday, 10 February 2009 09:51

Written by Natalie Abou Shakra

It is a curve, a curvy path. From the very top, till the very bottom. You can trace it with a light touch, from the inclined neck, down to the sensitive nape, around the curve of a yearning breast, around the erecting nipple. The waist moves for your hands to tighten their grip and motion you closer. The line of the hip seduces your tongue to taste its prolonged solitude, in dire need of the warm, damp of the salivary liquid you leave as you go further below. The thighs expand their distance, awaiting a touch, in between a distant cave, that had once existed, now forgotten- Bomb! We all fall down to the ground... a reverie of a longing sensuality broken. Your body does not belong to you any longer. Your sex has suddenly disappeared. You no longer are man, or woman; you are an object subliming in fright, rigidity, terror, trauma, disgust, and anxiety. Love under the bombs? What an alluring, distant broken dream...

Twenty two days, and the coming ones hold more savagery to your body than ever before. The body of Gaza has been barbarically violated, raped. To the images of slaughtering and torn human flesh you awake, you arise, and to the anxiety that you are next, you dwell. Your body, your sex, your self, you lose in the oblivion of an existence you once lived.

I open the tap for warm water, and nothing pours down. I smell of sweat, and a week of non-cleaned flesh, but the yearning for a touch, is left intact despite it all. My hair, too oily to be stroked gently, tangled and shaggy. I am clad in an attire of loose cloths, the only ones I could find, untouched by any other dirt, than that on my body. It removes any form, or curve my figure reveals. I tie the long hair around in several trials to the back. Its length no longer shows. Despite the continuous vibrations of the shelling, shaking the building I am, I struggle to place my kohl. I resist with all my might, "the day shall not rise without the kohl," I jokingly tell myself. "I placed nail polish on," the lady I live with tells me. "I want my spirits uplifted. I cannot take it anymore," she confides in me. She remained home during the twenty two days of death and terror that have not ended yet, now that trauma and shock have replaced them. She is married and has a seven year old boy dependent on her life and wellbeing. I am an activist dedicated to a cause and struggle. I do not stay home. I shall not die home.

The house, without tap water, is a haven of unwashed dishes, smelly bathrooms, and dirty laundry. Nevertheless, it is a roof atop our heads, despite all the broken windows of our house. My host family consists of three individuals, the child and his parents, and now myself. We shared a vacant room, of which we placed a mattress that can support us against the cold of the floor, of which to sleep on during the sleepless nights. There is no privacy to the self, no moment to live to touch yourself, to feel that there is still a body that yearns within you, that sends shocks of vibrations, other than those of the shelling, that cause you to smile, to feel, to climax.

Outside, every man becomes a potential prospect to your loneliness; a companion that can soothe the hunger; the hunger for a loving touch, and the thirst; the thirst for sentimental unity, and the flowing of emotions. ‘Do I still look like a woman?' I ask myself in the empty streets as I walk alone, in a ghost town, with no lights, no electricity to lift the shadow of darkness that has fallen against a million and a half bodies of a land. ‘Can I break a taboo or two? Do I have a right to against these circumstances?' I question the desperate, yearning soul in the human being of me.

Eyes lock with the pedestrians as I move towards my destination. It is still a long walk towards where I am supposed to be. The shelling continues, and the darkness is broken from the White Phosphorous the Israeli Occupation Forces light our skies with. During the day, darkness dwells reflecting the sun rays, as a result of the constant bombings and dark smoke that arises. Our days become nights, and nights turn to day. I fear for my health, as we all do, against the chemicals used. Can we be future cancer victims? How will my body respond to this present in case it has a future to live?

I struggle with myself to resist an occupation and all its influences. I struggle with a body, with no weapon. I struggle to smile, to laugh, to sing, to dance... to live my days as if there is no grander might that can remove my physical self from this being. I struggle to defy death, the killing machine, the loneliness, the fatigue of emotions and sentiments, the extinction of entertainment, the sadness of tales, of unjust facades of an absurd reality. I struggle for a rose, in a black field of death. I struggle for a crimson reality other than that of blood. I struggle for unity against division. I struggle to defy insecurity and its all resulting fragmentations. I struggle to listen to a tune, to touch a man. I struggle and struggle with all that I can, to live the last moments, as if they were the only ones in my life, to allow myself the non-existent pleasures of an already shortened life span.

Gaza the spark of burning coal onto the ears of forgetfulness; Gaza, now the liberating torch against all the evils of occupation, oppression, repression, colonialism and silence; Gaza, the struggle of the politics of identity and the right to self-determination, of a people, of a body, of every child, man and woman.

Link to; Free Gaza

Email from Eva in Gaza! Israeli-Police harassment continues...

Shooting at farmers, what gives Israel the right?

Tuesday 3rd February, 2009

Eva Bartlett

 

This morning, farmers from Abassan Jadiida (New Abassan), to the east of Khan Younis , the southern region, returned to land they'd been forced off of during and following the war on Gaza. The continual shooting at them by Israeli soldiers while they work the land intensified post-war on Gaza. The Israeli soldiers' shooting was not a new thing, but a resumption of the policy of harassment that Palestinians in the border areas have been enduring for years, a harassment extending to invasions in which agricultural land, chicken farms, and the houses in the region have been targeted, destroyed in many cases.

  Gaza Farmhouse bulldozed.

Today's Abassan farmers wanted to harvest their parsley.

 

Ismail Abu Taima, whose land was being harvested, explained that over the course of the year he invests about $54,000 in planting, watering and maintenance of the monthly crops. From that investment, if all goes well and crops are harvested throughout the year, he can bring in about $10,000/month, meaning that he can pay off the investment and support the 15 families dependent on the harvest.

 

The work began shortly after 11 am, with the handful of farmers working swiftly, cutting swathes of tall parsley and bundling it as rapidly as it was cut. These bundles were then loaded onto a waiting donkey cart. The speed of the farmers was impressive, and one realized that were they able to work 'normally' as any farmer in unoccupied areas, they would be very productive. A lone donkey grazed in an area a little closer to the border fence. When asked if this was not dangerous for the donkey, the farmers replied that they had no other choice: with the borders closed, animal feed is starkly absent. The tragedy of having to worry about being shot once again struck me, as it did when harvesting olives or herding sheep with West Bank Palestinians who are routinely attacked by Israeli settlers and by the Israeli army as they try to work and live on their land.

 

After approximately 2 hours of harvesting, during which the sound of an F-16 overhead was accompanied by Israeli jeeps seen driving along the border area, with at least one stationed directly across from the area in question, Israeli soldiers began firing. At first the shots seemed like warning shots: sharp and intrusive cracks of gunfire. The men kept working, gathering parsley, bunching it, loading it, while the international human rights observers present spread out in a line, to ensure our visibility.

 

It would have been hard to miss or mistake us, with fluorescent yellow vests and visibly unarmed–our hands were in the air.

 

Via bullhorn, we re-iterated our presence to the soldiers, informing them we were all unarmed civilians, the farmers were rightfully working their land, the soldiers were being filmed by an Italian film crew. We also informed some of our embassies of the situation: "we are on Palestinian farmland and are being shot at by Israeli soldiers on the other side of the border fence."

 

For a brief period the shots ceased. Then began anew, again seemingly warning shots, although this time visibly hitting dirt 15 and 20 m from us. Furthest to the south, I heard the whiz of bullets past my ear, though to estimate the proximity would be impossible.

 

As the cracks of gunfire rang more frequently and louder, the shots closer, those of the farmers who hadn't already hit the ground did so, sprawling flat for cover. The international observers continued to stand, brightly visible, hands in the air, bullhorn repeating our message of unarmed presence. The shots continued, from the direction of 3 or 4 visible soldiers on a mound hundreds of metres from us. With my eyeglasses I could make out their shapes, uniforms, the jeep… Certainly with their military equipment they could make out our faces, empty hands, parsley-loaded cart…

 

There was no mistaking the situation or their intent: pure harassment.

 

As the farmers tried to leave with their donkey carts, the shots continued. The two carts were eventually able to make it away, down the ruddy lane, a lane eaten by tank and bulldozer tracks from the land invasion weeks before. Some of us accompanied the carts away, out of firing range, then returned. There were still farmers on the land and they needed to evacuate.

 

As we stood, again arms still raised, still empty-handed, still proclaiming thus, the Israeli soldiers' shooting drew much nearer. Those whizzing rushes were more frequent and undeniably close to my head, our heads. The Italian film crew accompanying us did not stop filming, nor did some of us with video cameras.

 

We announced our intention to move away, the soldiers shot. We stood still, the soldiers shot. At one point I was certain one of the farmers would be killed, as he had hit the ground again but in his panic seemed to want to jump up and run. I urged him to stay flat, stay down, and with our urging he did. The idea was to move as a group, a mixture of the targeted Palestinian farmers and the brightly-noticeable international accompaniers. And so we did, but the shots continued, rapidly, hitting within metres of our feet, flying within metres of our heads.

 

I'm amazed no one was killed today, nor that limbs were not lost, maimed.

 

While we'd been on the land, Ismail Abu Taima had gone to one end, to collect valves from the broken irrigation piping. The pipes themselves had been destroyed by a pre-war on Gaza invasion. "The plants have not been watered since one week before the war," he'd told us. He collected the parts, each valve valuable in a region whose borders are sealed and where replacement parts for everything one could need to replace are unattainable or grossly expensive.

 

He'd also told us of the chicks in the chicken farm who'd first been dying for want of chicken feed, and then been bulldozed when Israeli soldiers attacked the house and building they were in.

 

My embassy rang me up, after we'd managed to get away from the firing: "We're told you are being shot at. Can you give us the precise location, and maybe a landmark, some notable building nearby."

 

I told Heather about the half-demolished house to the south of where we had been, and that we were on Palestinian farmland. After some further questioning, it dawned on her that the shooting was coming from the Israeli side. "How do you know it is Israeli soldiers shooting at you?" she'd asked. I mentioned the 4 jeeps, the soldiers on the mound, the shots from the soldiers on the mound (I didn't have time to go into past experiences with Israeli soldiers in this very area and a little further south, similar experience of farmers being fired upon while we accompanied them.).

 

Heather asked if the soldiers had stopped firing, to which I told her, 'no, they kept firing when we attempted to move away, hands in the air. They fired as we stood still, hands in the air. " She suggested these were 'warning shots' at which I pointed out that warning shots would generally be in the air or 10s of metres away. These were hitting and whizzing past within metres.

 

She had no further thoughts at time, but did call back minutes later with Jordie Elms, the Canadian attache in the Tel Aviv office, who informed us that "Israel has declared the 1 km area along the border to be a 'closed military zone'."

 

When I pointed out that Israel had no legal ability to do such, that this closure is arbitrary and illegal, and that the farmers being kept off of their land or the Palestinians whose homes have been demolished in tandem with this closure had no other options: they needed to work the land, live on it… Jordie had no thoughts. He did, however, add that humanitarian and aid workers need to "know the risk of being in a closed area".

 

Meaning, apparently, that it is OK with Jordie that Israeli soldiers were firing on unarmed civilians, because Israeli authorities have arbitrarily declared an area out of their jurisdiction (because Israel is "not occupying Gaza" right?!) as a 'closed area'.

 

Israel's latest massacre of 1,400 Palestinians –most of whom were civilians –aside, Israel's destruction of over 4,000 houses and 17,000 buildings aside, Israel's cutting off and shutting down of the Gaza Strip since Hamas' election aside, life is pretty wretched for the farmers and civilians in the areas flanking the border with Israel. Last week, the young man from Khan Younis who was shot while working on farmland in the "buffer zone" was actually on land near where we accompanied farmers today. Why do Israeli authorities think they have an uncontested right to allow/instruct their soldiers to shoot at Palestinian farmers trying to work their land?

 

If Israeli authorities recognized Palestinian farmers' need to work the land, Palestinian civilians' right to live in their homes, then they would not have arbitrarily imposed a 1 km ban on existence along the border, from north to south. What gives Israel the right to say that now the previously-imposed 300 m ban on valuable agricultural land next to the order extends to 1 full kilometre, and that this inherently gives Israel the right to have bulldozed 10s of houses in this "buffer zone" and ravaged the farmland with military bulldozers and tanks.

 

Furthermore, what gives Israel the right to assume these impositions are justifiable, and the right to shoot at farmers continuing to live in and work on their land (as if they had a choice. Recall the size of Gaza, the poverty levels)?

 

Nothing does.

 

Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical.

There's many ways to inflict suffering and harassment... The past months war; "The Full On" version, did a whole lot of damage and continues to do so!

 

But there's also the 'smaller invisible' ones; The everyday harassment at the border to Israel, waiting for hours in the sun; your fate at the whim of a pimpled youth who hates and fears you. The continued annexation of land, housing the never ending influx of settlers, who find it justified to let the government steal some land and by force ouster the rightful owners. There's the ever expanding illegal "safety zone" leaving people homeless-  Giving them a day, sometimes only a few hours notice, before the bulldozers come and levels, what has been their farms/houses for several generations! - How can Israel keep on  justifying this?

Israel has during this last invasion, destroyed acres and acres of fertile farmland, to such a degree, that Gaza now is facing a severe food crisis.... This destruction cannot be justified as 'targeting Hamas rocket sites', no chicken, cow or olive orchard has yet fired a single shot against anyone in history! Taking away the means of feeding the population is bordering the Ethnic Cleansing, which has been some have been whispering about for some time....!

 This cynical treatment of the Palestinian peoples can only be explained as; The Israeli simply doesn't see the Arabs as fellow human beings, this view has been indoctrinated to all Israeli during school and the compulsory military service! After having treated Palestinians like 2.class citizens during their service, how will they change their mind later in life?

    -When I hear "normal and average" Israelis talk about their neighbours, it's so clouded with prejudice and racism - and the tales of child eating two headed dragons inside of every Palestinian, is hard to listen to! 

It simply do not make sense to me like; Why the Israeli sets up a brand new and shiny medical emergency clinic, outfitted with doctors, nurses, medicine etc - treats 5 (!) persons - this at a time, where the Gaza hospitals are literally wading in amputees, blood and the dying - and the closes the whole damn thing...???? What was the purpose of this exercise? 

The politics of Hamas has not helped their people much, but I get it - When the desperate have nothing to lose....!! - And when you see your sick Grandmother/child whoever, being treated like underlings by boy soldiers, begging for the right to go to hospital, not once in a while, but every single time! 

When you're constantly being robbed of a future; No jobs, no education, no homes, no food, no water, not even the right to harvest your own land! - Well, then you take desperate measures... 

And this desperation is what is (maybe) so hard for us to understand, sitting here with our bellies full and all comfy like in our "Lazeeboy" zapping the channels for something to entertain us! 

"We Will Not Go Down" Michael Heart Music Video- And then some !

You might find this video a bit..... eh, well .... eh ahem.... I find it hard, not to say something rather unkind about I think of the song it self and the way it's performed, it is a bit over the top, and sounds like thousands of other ballads of exactly same sort... The images are heartbreaking though and drives the message home.... It just might do the trick, where such tricks are necessary, where mere facts aren't enough... 

And by this; I mean the big wast majority of the worlds population! Who didn't pay too much attention, when it all this mess went down in Gaza and who most certainly will not do so now that it's supposedly "all over"! Our, for ever shortening, 'attention span' will quickly turn to something else. We'll forget that the aftermath of war is almost as horrendous as war itself  - The suffering is longer, so much longer! People are still dying from the wounds! People are grieving over entire families gone, People (by this term I mean children, women and men old and young) are suffering from "Post traumatic stress syndrome" with all that entails!!! People are now living in "tents"!  There's no water, no food, no sewage, no electricity  etc etc ... 3 out of 4 in Gaza is unemployed (!!) due to the 19 month long Israeli Blockade makes it absolutely impossible to maintain a steady job and the whole Palestinian population is totally dependent on foreign Aid... (Here's some links to random articles on the Blockade from Nov.2008; Counterpunch

and LA times) 

The Israeli border blockade is still in full vigor; This meaning no building materials, no fuel, no medicine, nothing whatsoever!!!

 The EuropeanUnion and some Humanitarian Aid Org.'s (like the UN) are for the very first time (!!) refusing to pay for all the damages done by IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) arguing, that Israel should pay for some of their destruction as well! The EU, UN, Red Cross/Half Crest and different NGO's has paid billions of $ for the rebuilding of Gaza and the West Bank, every time Israel has bombed and pulverized the infrastructure, houses, schools, hospitals, food storage etc in Gaza... But Israel refuses to pay a penny, they say, not surprisingly; It's all Hamas' fault (!!!)

The rest is silence....

International Red Cross discovered today several wounded children left behind unattended by Israeli Defence Forces (IDF)!!!

 Alone without food or water for several days - At one instance 4 small children had  been sitting by their dead mother for 3-4 days, so weak by dehydration, that one of them (a boy of 7) now are dying. Another had to have an arm amputated due to lack of immediate medical attention.

Israeli officials has not yet responded to the Red Cross allegations.....! 

"There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and therefore there is no need for a humanitarian truce." - Tzipi Livni, Israel's foreign minister. Read more on Window into Palestine  and see the related pictures (warning they are disturbing)