Life Inside the Siege of Gaza
March 9, 2008
A report in the Sunday Herald from Louisa Waugh, a volunteer with the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza. (thanks Douglas)
Karim, the Palestinian who drove me to the Gaza Strip, was very quiet. As we sped out of Jerusalem in his comfortable private taxi, he said very little, except to ask if I would give his friend Rami a box of cigarettes when I arrived. “I’ve worked with Rami for eight years now,” he said, “but I’ve never seen him. He cannot come out of Gaza, and I can’t go inside.”
An hour later we reached the Erez terminal. It looks like an airport hangar; grey, immense, featureless. Erez is the main Israeli crossing to the Gaza Strip; but the journey starts long before you reach Erez. First you have to apply in writing for Israeli security clearance to enter the Strip. Since declaring the Gaza Strip “a hostile entity” on September 19 last year, Israel has tightened its siege of Gaza, and many people, including UN personnel, are refused clearance without explanation.
Humanitarian Implosion
March 6, 2008
‘Sanctions causing Gaza to implode, say rights groups‘. The honourable John Dugard states something that the international ‘community’ and servile media would much rather ignore: that the occupation makes terrorism inevitable. But now the horror of the occupation has been supplemented — with full Arab complicity — by the ravages of sanctions.
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are living through their worst humanitarian crisis since the 1967 war because of the severe restrictions imposed by Israel since the Islamist movement Hamas seized power, a report says today.Movement is all but impossible and supplies of food and water, sewage treatment and basic healthcare can no longer be taken for granted. The economy has collapsed, unemployment is expected to rise to 50%, hospitals are suffering 12-hour power cuts and schools are failing – all creating a “humanitarian implosion”, according to a coalition of eight UK humanitarian and human rights groups. Read the rest of this entry »
When Peace Beckons, Threaten Holocaust
February 29, 2008
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| Palestinian medics carry a wounded child after an Israeli missile destroyed the labor union headquarters in Gaza, 28 February 2008. (Wissam Nassar/MaanImages) |
‘Israeli minister threatens “holocaust” as public demand ceasefire talks‘, writes Ali Abunimah of the excellent Electronic Intifada.
Israeli officials began damage limitation efforts after the country’s deputy defense minister Matan Vilnai threatened Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip with a “holocaust.”
The comments came a day after Israeli occupation forces killed 31 Palestinians, nine of them children, one a six-month-old baby, in a series of air raids across the Gaza Strip. Israel claimed that the attacks were in retaliation for a barrage of rockets fired by resistance fighters in the Gaza Strip which killed one Israeli in the town of Sderot on Wednesday, 27 February. Palestinian resistance groups, including Hamas, said the rockets were in retaliation for the extrajudicial execution of five Hamas members carried out by Israel on Wednesday morning. Israeli occupation forces have killed more than 200 Palestinians since the US-sponsored Annapolis peace summit last November. In the same period, five Israelis have been killed by Palestinians.
From Israeli Occupied Europe
February 24, 2008
Europe is ‘Heading for a New Security Deal with Israel‘, David Cronin of the excellent IPS reports. (Thanks Ann)
BRUSSELS, Feb 22 (IPS) – The European Union is considering new steps to deepen its cooperation on scientific research with Israel, despite admitting that previous funds earmarked for that purpose have gone to firms operating illegally in the Palestinian territories.
Between now and 2013, the Israeli government is to contribute 440 million euros (652 million dollars) per year so that it can participate in the EU’s so-called framework programme for research.
An unpublished document prepared by EU diplomats reveals that because much of the joint research will relate to security issues, Israel has requested a formal assurance that any information it gives to Brussels will be treated confidentially.
Read the rest of this entry »
Israel and German Responsibility
February 21, 2008
‘Israel’s creation made Palestinians victims of Holocaust‘, say German intellectuals visiting Israel.
A group of visiting German intellectuals called on Berlin on Monday to change what they termed its Holocaust-rooted blind support of Israel, saying the creation of the State of Israel turned Palestinians into victims of the Nazi Holocaust as well.
The four, Dr. Reiner Steinweg, Prof. Gert Krell, Prof. Georg Meggle, and Jorg Becker, took part in a debate Monday evening at the Netanya Academic College on the future of German-Israeli relations. They were among 25 signatories to a petition on the issue that was circulated in the German media following the Second Lebanon War.
According to the manifesto, German responsibility toward the Palestinians is “one side of the consequences of the Holocaust which receives far too little attention.” The paper goes on to argue that it was the Holocaust which Germany perpetrated that brought about “the suffering that has persisted [in the Middle East] for the last six decades and has at present become unbearable.”
Pilger Tears Strips off Sorry Day
February 17, 2008
John Pilger is not convinced the Australian government’s mea culpa is meant to benefit the indigenous. (thanks Deanne)
Controversial expat Australian journalist John Pilger says Sorry Day is an event “without substance” geared towards white Australians, not indigenous people.
Pilger — who has made documentaries campaigning against the unfair treatment of indigenous Australians — told ninemsn Australians should boycott Sorry Day if they were serious about improving conditions for indigenous people.
“The ‘sorry’ is without much substance unless it is backed by an honest and massive rehabilitation campaign of all resources available to Aboriginal people,” he said.
An Extraordinary Encounter
February 17, 2008
Jemima Khan meets Pervez Musharraf.
As Pakistan votes tomorrow in its postponed elections, Jemima Khan is granted a rare interview with Pervez Musharraf, the country’s beleaguered leader
On the way to the Camp Office in Rawalpindi, I cross the bridge and pass the petrol station, which mark the spots of two recent attempts on the life of the now deeply unpopular President. I have a horrible fear that, bamboozled under the spotlight of his renowned charm, I may start to simper. My ex-husband, one of the President’s most vocal critics, has already told me he thinks this is all a terrible idea. “It will be misinterpreted in Pakistan. Besides, you’ll be too soft on him,” he said.
Bringing Them Home
February 13, 2008
Kevin Rudd, the new Australian Prime Minister, has apologized for the treatment of the continent’s indigenous. While the story of Native Americans is better know, albeit in a negative way, thanks to Hollywood. The narrative of the stolen generations of Australia’s indigenous remains largely unknown. John Pilger has written about it in several of his books, and Sven Lindqvist’s excellent new book Terra Nullius is dedicated to it. I would highly recommend both.
Here’s Dylan Welch of the Sydney Morning Herald. (thanks Deanne)
Australia has formally apologised to the stolen generations with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd reading a speech in Federal Parliament this morning.The apology was read at 9am to the minute, as the first action of the second sitting day of the 42nd Parliament of Australia.
Beyond the Green Zone
February 8, 2008
I am pleased to announce that Dahr Jamail will be in UK in the month of April. He will be speaking at the Strathclyde University on April 8 and at Stirling University on April 7. Here Jeremy Scahill, the bestselling author of Blackwater, interviews Dahr on his superb new book, Beyond the Greenzone.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Dahr Jamail has spent more time reporting from Iraq than almost any other US journalist. His new book, Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq, is a chronicle of his experiences there. He recently sat down with Nation correspondent Jeremy Scahill to talk about the supposed “success” of Bush’s troop surge, what would happen if Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton wins the White House and why he believes an immediate withdrawal from Iraq is the only way to peace. Here’s an edited transcript of that interview.
Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have indicated that US troops are not going to be withdrawn in any significant manner in the first term of a presidency. What do you think would happen if the US did withdraw immediately from Iraq?
We have a specific example of what would likely happen throughout Iraq if the US were to withdraw completely. When the Brits recently pulled out of their last base in Basra City late last year, The Independent reported that according to the British military, violent attacks dropped 90 percent. I think that goes to show that the Brits down in Basra, like the Americans in central and northern Iraq, have been the primary cause of the violence and the instability.
And I think it’s easy to see that when the US does pull out completely, we would have a dramatic de-escalation in violence. We would have increased stability and it would be the first logical step for Iraqis to form their own government. This time, it would actually have popular support, unlike the current government, where less than 1 percent of Iraqis polled even support it or even find it legitimate at all.
Kafkaesque Jerusalem
February 4, 2008
Ilan Pappe recently wrote an article stating that Israeli policy is implementing ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and genocide in Gaza. It was always thought that Palestinian residents of Jerusalem were better off, but this article by Lubna Masarwa demonstrates that Palestinians are subject to a Kafkaesque regime: arbitrary searches and blockades, confiscation of identity papers (thus losing residency rights), blockade of entire sections of the city, intrusive video surveillance, etc. The relentless drive to Judaize entire neighborhoods in Jerusalem requires the constant screwing of the Palestinians — no matter how long they have lived there. Israelis refer to this as “ethnic thinning”, the oh-so-genteel form of ethnic cleansing. Masarwa writes:
I will present a partial picture of the life of East Jerusalem residents. I will attempt to touch on the heavy price paid by Palestinian society in al-Quds due to Israeli defined “security considerations,” a designation trotted out by Israeli authorities on almost every possible occasion with intent to win battles in the demographic war over it sees itself engaged in against the Palestinians of East Jerusalem. In fact, a central and publicized objective of Israel concerning everything related to East Jerusalem is the creation of a demographic and geographic reality that will bring about an increase in the number of Jews living in the city and the largest possible decrease in the number of Palestinians living there. In order to reach this objective, the state enlists all of its institutions. For instance, the National Insurance Institute (NII), intended to serve the welfare of residents, also acts as a supplementary political appendage, serving the Zionist vision of Israel and harming residents through the non-provision of social services that it is obligated to provide. Almost every day, we receive complaints from tens of East Jerusalem residents whose national security allowances have been terminated. From conversations I conduct with the NII clerks, it appears that residents of East Jerusalem, in order to receive their national insurance benefits as mandated by law, must meet near impossible conditions. They must provide receipts proving payment of city taxes and electricity for up to the past seven years, photographs of their house, and proof they have no property in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The waiting periods for these residents can last years, and, in the meantime, they remain without the ability to receive medical attention or their legally mandated benefits-in numerous instances, the sole family income.
