Making Israel take responsibility
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- Written by James Bowen James Bowen
- Published: 16 September 2006 16 September 2006
- Hits: 8363 8363
Our campaign is gaining momentum. Recently, several Irish cultural events rejected Israeli embassy sponsorship and Irish trade unionists prevented use of Dublin trams for training staff of the projected tram system between West Bank settlements. But this is only the beginning. This campaign, part of a world-wide effort to help Israelis overcome their dysfunctional denial of responsibility, will cease only when Israel conforms to International Law.
Gaza's darkness
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- Written by Gideon Levy Gideon Levy
- Published: 11 September 2006 11 September 2006
- Hits: 5884 5884
Gaza has been reoccupied. The world must know this and Israelis must know it, too. It is in its worst condition, ever. Since the abduction of Gilad Shalit, and more so since the outbreak of the Lebanon war, the Israel Defense Forces has been rampaging through Gaza - there's no other word to describe it - killing and demolishing, bombing and shelling, indiscriminately.
Nobody thinks about setting up a commission of inquiry; the issue isn't even on the agenda. Nobody asks why it is being done and who decided to do it. But under the cover of the darkness of the Lebanon war, the IDF returned to its old practices in Gaza as if there had been no disengagement. So it must be said forthrightly, the disengagement is dead. Aside from the settlements that remain piles of rubble, nothing is left of the disengagement and its promises. How contemptible all the sublime and nonsensical talk about "the end of the occupation" and "partitioning the land" now appears. Gaza is occupied, and with greater brutality than before. The fact that it is more convenient for the occupier to control it from outside has nothing to do with the intolerable living conditions of the occupied.
In large parts of Gaza nowadays, there is no electricity. Israel bombed the only power station in Gaza, and more than half the electricity supply will be cut off for at least another year. There's hardly any water. Since there is no electricity, supplying homes with water is nearly impossible. Gaza is filthier and smellier than ever: Because of the embargo Israel and the world have imposed on the elected authority, no salaries are being paid and the street cleaners have been on strike for the past few weeks. Piles of garbage and obnoxious clouds of stink strangle the coastal strip, turning it into Calcutta.
More than ever, Gaza is also like a prison. The Erez crossing is empty, the Karni crossing has been open only a few days over the last two months, and the same is true for the Rafah crossing. Some 15,000 people waited for two months to enter Egypt, some are still waiting, including many ailing and wounded people. Another 5,000 waited on the other side to return to their homes. Some died during the wait. One must see the scenes at Rafah to understand how profound a human tragedy is taking place. A crossing that was not supposed to have an Israeli presence continues to be Israel's means to pressure 1.5 million inhabitants. This is disgraceful and shocking collective punishment. The U.S. and Europe, whose police are at the Rafah crossing, also bear responsibility for the situation.
'Gaza is a jail. Nobody is allowed to leave. We are all starving now'
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- Written by Patrick Cockburn in Gaza, Published: 08 September 2006 - Indepen Patrick Cockburn in Gaza, Published: 08 September 2006 - Indepen
- Published: 11 September 2006 11 September 2006
- Hits: 6712 6712
Gaza is dying. The Israeli siege of the Palestinian enclave is so tight that its people are on the edge of starvation. Here on the shores of the Mediterranean a great tragedy is taking place that is being ignored because the world's attention has been diverted by wars in Lebanon and Iraq.
A whole society is being destroyed. There are 1.5 million Palestinians imprisoned in the most heavily populated area in the world. Israel has stopped all trade. It has even forbidden fishermen to go far from the shore so they wade into the surf to try vainly to catch fish with hand-thrown nets.
Read more: 'Gaza is a jail. Nobody is allowed to leave. We are all starving now'
Ned Hanauer in Memorium: Premier US media activist for Palestinian Human Rights
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- Written by AUPHR AUPHR
- Published: 10 September 2006 10 September 2006
- Hits: 10006 10006
Edmund R. (Ned) Hanauer, a life-long peace and human rights activist, died after a short illness on August 10, 2006. He was 68.
Dr. Hanauer dedicated his life to peace and human rights issues and worked in particular for reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis. Realizing that this work required full-time attention as well as an organizational base, he left teaching in 1971 and, in 1972, started an organization - Search for Justice and Equality in Palestine/Israel (SEARCH) - whose mission was to inform members of Congress, journalists and other opinion makers about aspects of the conflict between the Palestinians and Israeli Jews that did not always get a hearing in the political establishment and the media. In the early years of its existence - before the internet - the organization published a newsletter, the Palestine/Israel Bulletin.
Read more: Ned Hanauer in Memorium: Premier US media activist for Palestinian Human Rights
Israeli Apartheid System Expands: Over U.S. Objections, Israel Approves West Bank Homes
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- Written by STEVEN ERLANGER STEVEN ERLANGER
- Published: 05 September 2006 05 September 2006
- Hits: 7059 7059
JERUSALEM, Sept. 4 — The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, authorized construction bids on Monday for another 690 homes in the occupied West Bank in the face of pro forma American criticism.
The houses will be built in Maale Adumim and Betar Illit, two settlements near Jerusalem that the Israeli government says it intends to keep in any agreement with the Palestinians.
Mr. Olmert, whose Kadima Party was elected earlier this year on a promise to pull thousands of Israeli settlers out of the West Bank, beyond the route of Israel’s separation barrier, has been clear about keeping and expanding settlements inside the barrier, even though they are on land occupied since the 1967 war.
[Americans must oppose Israel's Apartheid system and its unilateral confiscation of Palestinian land. This is a war crime, supported by the United States. Ask Senator Oregon Ron Wyden, ask Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski, ask Oregon Senator Gordon Smith, ask all the Senators and Members of Congress of the United States why so many support war crimes? Ask them, why do YOU support Israeli Apartheid?]
Read more: Israeli Apartheid System Expands: Over U.S. Objections, Israel Approves West Bank Homes