Palestinians ‘treated like animals’: Agence France-Presse
From correspondents in Gaza City
Courier Mail June 17, 2009
FORMER US president Jimmy Carter today met Hamas leader Ismail Haniya in the Gaza Strip, where he called for a lifting of Israel’s blockade, saying Palestinians are being treated “like animals”.
Following the talks, Mr Carter called for an end of “all violence” against both Israelis and Palestinians.
“This is holy land for us all and my hope is that we can have peace… all of us are children of Abraham,” he said at [a meeting] with Mr Haniya, prime minister of the Hamas government in the Palestinian enclave.
Mr Haniya in turn said Hamas supported the creation of a Palestinian state in the territories Israel has occupied since the 1967 Six-Day war.
While Hamas has made similar statements in the past, it has more often insisted that the future state should encompass not only the West Bank and the Gaza Strip but also all of Israel.
“If there is a real plan to resolve the Palestinian question on the basis of the creation of a Palestinian state within the borders of June 4, 1967 and with full sovereignty, we are in favour of it,” Mr Haniya said.
He also praised US President Barack Obama’s June 4 speech in Cairo to the Muslim world.
“We saw a new tone, a new language and a new spirit in the official US rhetoric,” he said. Such praise is rare coming from Hamas, a group pledged to the destruction of the Jewish state and which is listed as a terrorist group by the United States, Israel and the European Union.
The Islamist movement violently seized power in Gaza two years ago, ousting forces loyal to the secular and Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.
Mr Carter also passed to Hamas a letter from the parents of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier seized by Gaza militants including Hamas in a cross-border raid almost three years ago, and who remains in captivity.
“I met earlier with Noam Shalit. He asked me to ask them (Hamas) to accept a letter from him to his son. They accepted the letter,” Mr Carter said in Tel Aviv. “My conviction at this moment is that he is alive and well,” Mr Carter said of the soldier whose father he met in Jerusalem on Friday.
Earlier Mr Carter denounced the Israeli blockade and the destruction wrought by its 22-day military offensive against Gaza in December and January. “My primary feeling today is one of grief and despair and an element of anger when I see the destruction perpetrated against innocent people,” Mr Carter said as he toured the impoverished territory.
“Tragically, the international community too often ignores the cries for help and the citizens of Palestine are treated more like animals than like human beings,” he said.
“The starving of 1.5 million human beings of the necessities of life – never before in history has a large community like this been savaged by bombs and missiles and then denied the means to repair itself,” Mr Carter said at a UN school graduation ceremony in Gaza City. The United States and Europe “must try to do all that is necessary to convince Israel and Egypt to allow basic goods into Gaza”, he said. “At same time, there must be no more rockets” from Gaza into Israel, said Mr Carter, who brokered the historic 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. “I have to hold back tears when I see the deliberate destruction that has been wracked against your people,” he said at a destroyed American school, saying it was “deliberately destroyed by bombs from F16s made in my country”.
Israel’s offensive killed more than 1400 Palestinians and left large swathes of the coastal strip sandwiched between Israel and Egypt in ruins. Thirteen Israelis also died in the conflict. “I feel partially responsible for this as must all Americans and Israelis,” Mr Carter said.
Criticising Israel? Is he antisemitic? Maybe he is just human.
Independent Jewish Voices (Canada) Joins Campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Against Israel
Ottawa – Independent Jewish Voices (Canada) voted to join the growing international campaign in support of the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, at its first Annual General Meeting this past weekend. This decision makes IJV the first national Jewish organization in the world to do so. The adopted resolution states that IJV will “Support the Palestinian call for a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and complies with the precepts of international law, including the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.”
“Independent Jewish Voices has voted to join the international boycott campaign because we stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and support their right to self-determination,” says Diana Ralph, Co-Chair of IJV. “We are calling on the Canadian government and all Members of Parliament to push for immediate sanctions on Israel.”
“The time has come for people around the world to rise to the challenge in Israel/Palestine, as we did for South Africa,” says Fabienne Presentey, Steering Committee member of IJV. “All voices that can be raised against this injustice must be.”
The resolution, which passed with the support of 95% of voting delegates, also calls on the Canadian government to “1) cease its one-sided and uncritical support for Israel and 2) insist that Israel abide by international law”.
The international call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions originated from 170 Palestinian civil society organizations and has sparked a growing global movement, modeled on the international campaign that successfully ended South African Apartheid. Many prominent organizations around the world have joined the BDS campaign, including the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), UNISON (UK), Transport and General Workers’ Union (UK), Canadian Union of Postal Workers, Canadian Union of Public Employees-Ontario, six Norwegian trade unions, Irish Congress of Trad Unions, Scottish Trades Union Congress, and Intersindical Alternativa de Catallunya.
Independent Jewish Voices is a member-led organization, with chapters in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa, Montreal, and Halifax.