More than 7oo Palestinians dead
Medical teams find ‘unbelievable’ horror amid rubble: The Guardian
Mourning relative in Gaza
Ambulances were able to drive to some of the most heavily shelled areas in Gaza for the first time to collect the dead and injured yesterday, as Israel paused its military offensive for three hours to allow in aid, amid growing international pressure to call a ceasefire and ease the humanitarian crisis. A team of medics and volunteers from the Palestinian Red Crescent took advantage of the lull in fighting to drive to Zeitoun, the scene of an Israeli attack on a house on Monday that was known to have killed nine members of the Samouni family. It was the first time medics had been able to reach the scene.
Israel: Boycott, Divest, Sanction: Naomi Klein, The Nation
It’s time. Long past time. The best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa.
In July 2005 a huge coalition of Palestinian groups laid out plans to do just that. They called on “people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era.” The campaign Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions–BDS for short–was born.
Thank you, Naomi! Read and distribute widely!
Holocaust Denied: John Pilger, Z Space
The lying silence of those who know.
“When the truth is replaced by silence,” the Soviet dissident Yevgeny Yevtushenko said, “the silence is a lie.” It may appear the silence is broken on Gaza. The cocoons of murdered children, wrapped in green, together with boxes containing their dismembered parents and the cries of grief and rage of everyone in that death camp by the sea, can be viewed on al-Jazeera and YouTube, even glimpsed on the BBC. But Russia’s incorrigible poet was not referring to the ephemeral we call news; he was asking why those who knew the why never spoke it and so denied it. Among the Anglo-American intelligentsia, this is especially striking. It is they who hold the keys to the great storehouses of knowledge: the historiographies and archives that lead us to the why.
bricup-brown-let1: Leetr to the Prime Minister: British Committee for the Universities of Plaestine
We write to you to express our grave concern about the situation in Gaza and to urge you to adopt a more proactive role in alleviating the sufferings of the Gazan people. We are a group of academics who have mainly been concerned with supporting Palestinian academic life and especially academic freedom for the people under occupation. We have followed with mounting concern the deteriorating situation in Gaza as a result of Israel’s closure policy and its repeated military attacks, often involving civilian injury and death. To read the whole letter, use the link above.
Gaza: the Israel-United States connection: Open Democracy
Paul Rogers
The Gaza war moves into the middle of its second week with Israeli ground forces driving further into the territory. The increasing civilian death-toll and the deepening humanitarian crisis are fuelling diplomatic attempts to halt the conflict. In this poised situation, Israel’s military and political leaders are faced with the choice of whether to shift their focus towards an early endgame or to intensify their campaign.
mahathir: Open Letter To Barack Hussein Obama from the former Prime Minister of Malaysia
Dear Mr. President, I did not vote for you in the Presidential Election because I am Malaysian. But I consider myself one of your constituents because what you do or say will affect me and my country as well. I welcome your promise for change. Certainly your country, the United States of America needs a lot of changes.
A Poem by Robb Johnson, sent to Haim Bresheeth, on seeing the photographs sent from Gaza
Association of University Teachers in Gaza calls for help: Ma’an News Agency
Bethlehem – Ma’an – The Palestinian Association of University Teachers in Gaza calls upon all peace-loving, freedom-loving nations, NGOs, universities, intellectuals, cultural and academic institutions, trade unions and syndicates, as well as human rights organizations all over the world to: 1. Immediately impose boycotts, sanctions and divestments on the Apartheid Israeli state. 2. Try the Israeli generals for their on-going crimes against the Palestinian people. 3. Demand a halt to Israel’s savage aggression, end its brutal occupation and lift its suffocating and lethal siege on the Gaza Strip. 4. Implement all UN resolutions related to the inalienable national rights, particularly UN resolution 194 calling for the right of return for the Palestinian refugees to their homes and their property from which they were uprooted by the terrorist Zionist gangs in 1948. 5. Comply with 4th article of the Geneva Convention, the international human rights law, the international humanitarian law, and the universal declaration of human rights as well as all other related agreements. 6. Lift the draconian blockade against Gaza as stipulated by the 1948 convention on Genocide, and consider anyone participating as a war criminal who must be tried for crimes against humanity. Israel is a rogue state that is a threat and danger to world peace and security; therefore she must be banished and punished by the international community, before it is too late for the people of Palestine, the people of Israel and the people in the surrounding countries.
Breaking news: Ethnic Cleansing in North Gaza: Moshe Macover writes
During the last 24 hours I have received from several sources news of ethnic cleansing in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. Apparently, a large number of people have been told to leave the area, and some have been transported southwards. So far this has not been corroborated by eye witnesses. But there are some indirect bits of evidence. For example, on the main Israeli Reshet Bet radio channel, military correspondence Carmella Menashe talking about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, uttered a strange sentence. She said that “the fact that there is no humanitarian crisis can be shown when the people who are being taken to the south by buses are asked about it. They do not complain”.
What buses? Where to exactly are these people being taken? Why are they being taken south? Later the same interview was re-broadcast, but the story about the busses was omitted. Please make every effort to ascertain the exact facts, and to protest against any act of ethnic cleansing.
Irish Congress of Trade Unions: ceasefire-now
March and rally: SATURDAY , 10th JANUARY 2009, details on link
The situation in Gaza is an affront to all humanity. We know that many hundreds have been killed including women and children. We know that many people have been maimed. We know that the hopes of a just and peaceful settlement are blown further away with each rocket and tank shell. We know that violence does not solve any political impasse. We are calling for an immediate and complete end to all military operations in and around Gaza. We demand that this ceasefire happens now and that humanitarian relief can be allocated to the grieving and suffering people of Gaza.
UN suspends Gazan aid operation: BBC
The UN’s main aid agency has suspended its operations in Gaza because its staff have been hit by Israeli attacks. The suspension would continue “until the Israeli authorities can guarantee our safety and security”, the UN said. Meanwhile, the US, UK and France have dropped opposition to a UN resolution urging an immediate ceasefire, and Arab nations are studying a draft.
Bowen diary: Unanswered questions: BBC
I am not down at the border today. Instead I am working out of the office in Jerusalem. Mainly it’s because this is a better place to pull today’s story together, considering that we still can’t get into Gaza. It’s also because I need a chance to think and talk to people. I could do without the driving and the mud for a day too. And not wearing a flak jacket is as good as a rest. How long is this going to go on? Everyone is asking me that, and I am asking everyone. And the only answer now is that nobody really knows.
Israel accused over Gaza wounded: BBC
The Red Cross has accused Israel of failing to fulfil its obligation to help wounded civilians in Gaza. ICRC staff found four weak and scared children beside their mothers’ bodies in houses hit by shelling in Zeitoun. The Israeli military has not yet responded to the accusation, but said it worked closely with aid groups so that civilians could get assistance.
Gaza invasion: latest news: The Guardian
As the death toll among Palestinians passes 700, rockets have been fired from Lebanon into northern Israel prompting fears that the conflict in Gaza could spread
Gaza conflict fuelling anger in UK, Muslims warn Brown: The Guardian
Representatives say Israeli government’s use of ‘disproportionate force’ has ‘revived extremist groups’ Anger within Britain’s Muslim communities over the Gaza conflict has reached “acute levels of intensity” that could have repercussions for national security, leading Muslims will warn Gordon Brown today. In a letter to the prime minister, representatives of Muslim organisations will say the Israeli government’s use of “disproportionate force” to combat threats to its security has “revived extremist groups” and “empowered their message of violence and perennial conflict”.
Obama camp ‘prepared to talk to Hamas’: The Guardian
Incoming administration will abandon Bush’s isolation of Islamist group to initiate low-level diplomacy, say transition sources
The incoming Obama administration is prepared to abandon President Bush’s doctrine of isolating Hamas by establishing a channel to the Islamist organisation, sources close to the transition team say. The move to open contacts with Hamas – which could be initiated through the US intelligence services – would represent a definitive break with the Bush presidency’s ostracising of the group.
Israel criticised after ‘shocking’ discovery of exhausted children: The Guardian
• Red Cross finds children next to bodies of their mothers • UN suspends aid shipments after truck driver is killed
Four exhausted children have been discovered cowering in a house next to the bodies of their mothers by staff of the International Committee of the Red Cross, which today accused the Israeli military of “unacceptable” delays in allowing medics safe access to injured Gazans. The Red Cross workers found the small children, who were so weak they could not stand, sheltering next to the bodies of their mothers in a house in Zeitoun, southeast of Gaza City. Another man was found alive, but again too weak to stand. At least 12 bodies were lying on mattresses.In another house nearby they found 15 survivors, several of whom were wounded. There were three more bodies in a third house. On Wednesday, a Palestinian volunteer with the Red Crescent who was in the same convoy described seeing dozens of dead bodies. Among those killed when the houses were shelled on Monday were three small boys, all from the Samouni family.
Rafah razed: The Guardian
Video supplied to the Guardian by the International Solidarity Movement shows razed suburbs of town of Rafah close to border between Gaza and Egypt
Gaza conflict: Day 13: The Guardian
As the conflict continues to escalate, the Pope denounces the violence, protests take place across the West Bank, and rockets fired from Lebanon hit northern Israel
Diplomatic efforts near deadlock in search for Israel-Hamas deal: The Guardian
• US urges Tel Aviv to say yes to call for ceasefire • UN keeps talking but fails to agree resolution
Intense diplomatic efforts between the US, EU and Arab countries to reach agreement on an international response to the crisis in Gaza appeared to be deadlocked last night, with no sign of unanimity over the appropriate way forward. Despite the urgency of events on the ground, with the death toll approaching 700 in 12 days of fighting, dozens of Israeli tanks reported to be on the move in the Gaza Strip and air strikes continuing, the international community was unable to break the stalemate.
‘It’s the only way to stop the rockets’: The Guardian
Israelis tell us about there stance:
Teddy Katz, 65, is a former Jewish Agency official who helped Jews to immigrate to Israel. He became a peace activist in his 40s and is opposed to Israel’s assault on Gaza “Many in Israel call us war criminals for speaking out against the war. They say we should stay silent. But the truth is that the government is the war criminal and it started this criminal war. What makes it worse is that this war is about an election. This is [defence minister Ehud] Barak’s war to get elected. This is [foreign minister Tzipi] Livni’s war to become prime minister. This is the war of [prime minister Ehud] Olmert [who is under a corruption investigation] to cover his criminal past with a criminal war. I am not ashamed to be against the war. I call on the Israeli government to stop the unbelievable massacres.”
War and Natural Gas: The Israeli Invasion and Gaza’s Offshore Gas Fields, Michel Chossudovsky: Global Research.ca
The military invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israeli Forces bears a direct relation to the control and ownership of strategic offshore gas reserves. This is a war of conquest. Discovered in 2000, there are extensive gas reserves off the Gaza coastline.
“I Am Still Alive” Testimonies from the Gaza Strip: Kibush Magazine
Ayman Al-Majdalawi
Testimony 1: Carnage at Al-Fakhoura School, Jabalia. `I was working at the [Kamal Edwan] Hospital here in Jabalia, when the ambulances arrived with the dead and injured from Al-Fakhoura school. Most of the dead were women and children, and most of the survivors had terrible shrapnel wounds. We had to turn the maternity ward into a surgical theatre so that we could try to save more lives.` Ayman Al-Majdalawi is a nurse from Jabalia in the Northern Gaza Strip. Yesterday, January 6, he was on duty at Kamal Edwan hospital when the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) fired four artillery shells towards nearby Al-Fakhoura school. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) had just transformed the school into a temporary shelter for dozens of local families, who, like thousands of other local residents, had been driven out of their homes by the IOF`s continuing military onslaught. One of the four artillery shells struck the house of Samir Deeb, instantly killing him, his wife, three of his children, five of his brother`s children and two female relatives. The other three artillery shells exploded next to Al-Fakhoura school, causing carnage in and around the crowded school. Twenty seven civilians were killed instantly, and more than fifty injured. Women, men and children had limbs torn from their bodies by the force of the explosions.
This is an excellent source of news from Israel, edited by a radical group which struggles against the occupation.
pcati: statement on detainee treatment
Public Statement on the Treatment of Detainees Taken During the Current War in Gaza
Respect Detainee Rights, Refrain from Torture and Ill Treatment, Abide by International Law
REad full statement on the link above.
Israel and the west will pay a price for Gaza’s bloodbath: The Guardian
Whether the current ceasefire talks succeed or fail, Hamas has already been strengthened by the US-backed assault
Over the last 12 days, Israel has inflicted a bloodbath on the Gaza Strip that matches the darkest days of the Iraq war. Backed to the hilt by the US author of that catastrophe, it has killed more than 650 people in less than a fortnight, including at least 200 children, and wounded three thousand. Yesterday, after killing 50 civilians in UN schools sheltering refugees – “C’est la guerre”, the Israeli minister Meir Shitreet told the BBC when asked about the atrocities – the Israeli government agreed a three-hour daily lull in the carnage for “humanitarian purposes”, as diplomatic manoeuvring intensified over a possible ceasefire deal. All this at the cost of only 10 Israeli dead, six of them soldiers.
The Truth about Gaza: PSC Fact Sheet
The Israeli propaganda machine has been working overtime. It is seeking to justify Israel’s actions in Gaza by broadcasting massive misinformation about the history of Gaza, its inhabitants and its leaders. Most of the media in the UK are either too ignorant or too intimidated to question these modern myths. So here is the truth, based on reports by the UN and other NGOs on the ground, including Israeli human rights groups.
Excellent fact sheet to distribute!