Boston Stands With Gaza

Gaza: unbreakable

2009-07-19T07:53:00.000-07:00

“We are strong persons and we are still here, but we need you to stand up with us.” These words that I heard from a student at Gaza’s Islamic University echo in my mind upon my return from the besieged region of Palestine. The statement encapsulates the message I garnered from people who I encountered during Viva Palestina US’ trip to Gaza, which began on July 15 at 9:30 pm and ended twenty-four hours later. Our convoy, involving 200 US citizens who entered Gaza with medical aid in defiance of the Israeli imposed blockade of humanitarian goods, was restricted to a full day by the Egyptian government. Despite the limits imposed upon us, twenty-four hours in Gaza was enough time to appreciate a beleaguered but resilient people, whose pursuit of life and freedom in the face of utter brutality is a testament to the spirit of humanity.

Upon entering Gaza, I expected to witness a shattered society. I could imagine no other condition for a society that had endured nearly two years of suffocating embargo, was then subjected to one of the most savage aerial bombardments of our lifetimes, and then forced to continue life under the blockade, which extends to this day. Beyond these broad overviews of some of the more recent crimes of the Israelis against Gaza come the aspects of daily life under Israeli terror, which are too innumerable to list but include survival by Gazan fisherman of constant fire from Israeli warships, enduring terrifying sonic booms made deliberately by Israeli pilots flying overhead in American fighter jets, and working to make do without killed or imprisoned loved ones. Expecting a Gaza broken by Israeli brutality though underestimated Palestinian resilience, which is formidable beyond words. I have read many reports from Gaza of the toll that Israel has taken on the people of Gaza, and I hope that this piece speaks to the endurance of the Gazan people despite the inhuman condition forced upon them.

To be sure, the devastation wreaked by Israel’s aggression is staggering beyond description. Shells of high-rise buildings tower alongside functional and occupied ones. Piles of concrete rubble and twisted rebar dot Gaza city. Whole neighborhoods in the city seem to have more damaged or destroyed houses than unharmed ones. In addition to the bombed and half-destroyed legislative assembly and the obliterated Ministry of Justice buildings, we saw utterly destroyed buildings that played purely social functions, including homes, hotels, mosques, and even hospitals. Our bus passed by the rotten corpses of livestock animals, decaying over the past six months and recognizable only by their hides. The Gazan man narrating our tour through the destruction from the front of our bus asked, “I wonder Israel, were these animals terrorists?” Educational facilities seemed to be a favorite target of the Israelis, who damaged the Ministry of Education, leveled schools—including the American School of Gaza and a UN-run school—and destroyed 74 laboratories at the Islamic University, among other buildings on campus.

Beyond the prepared presentations regarding the siege, it was difficult to elicit personal experiences of the bombing from the Gazan residents I spoke with. When I asked one of the people who were taking us around Gaza if he could talk about how the war affected him, he simply said no. I asked another, who I had spent quite a bit of time with what the war was like for him and his family. He told me that there were no words to describe how horrible it was, and he did not try to find them. Indeed, mixed with the excited faces of people, young and old who flashed smiles and peace signs to us as our buses rolled through the Strip with Palestinian and American flags flying out of the windows, were the weathered faces of people who have been through hell. Many such people who we saw on the streets were victims of Gaza’s incredible unemployment rate. The wreckage of bombed out factories and the scores of unfinished construction projects, on hold until materials like concrete are allowed through the borders, exist alongside these idle workers. To add insult to injury, functioning Israeli factories bellow smoke visibly from Gaza’s northern border.

Despite the devastation and depression, life goes on for the people of Gaza, who seemed to be living it as vivaciously as possible in the given circumstances. Children play soccer in the streets. Shopkeepers open their stores and display their wares, despite the fact that very few can purchase them. Hordes of people swim in Gaza’s gorgeous, Mediterranean beaches. In our exit of the strip, we passed numerous weddings, complete with sound trucks blasting celebratory dance music and overflowing with smiling family members.

The people of Gaza are living as human beings placed in inhuman circumstances. They have the strength to endure, but they should not have to do it alone. The solidarity of those abroad matters now more than ever. “Please tell them,” a student at the Islamic University told those of us students from the US and UK who visited their campus, “that we’re not terrorists. We have ambitions like any other students in the world. We went to university so we can make things better for ourselves and our people. All we want is a chance.”

Press TV coverage of our entry into Gaza

2009-07-18T06:24:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Adxd7bun5y8&eurl=http://socialistunity.com/&feature=player_embedded

Twenty-four hours in Gaza

2009-07-15T22:07:00.000-07:00

Flight to and from Cairo: about $1,000
Tax to cross the border from Egypt into Gaza: 95 Egyptian Pounds
Chanting "With our soul, with our blood, we will save you, Palestine" in Arabic IN PALESTINE: Priceless!

Thanks to all of you for your help in pressuring the Egyptian and US governments to let Viva Palestina into Gaza. We came in last night and it has been...incredible. They let all of us in, including the Gazan Palestinians (who we were afraid might be denied). The mood was jubilant.

There's so much more to say, but for now I will say this: the Egyptian government let us into Gaza on the condition that we have twenty-four hours. (We were supposed to stay for three days.) Twenty-four hours to see Gaza, twenty-four hours to share solidarity. For the Gazans among us, twenty-four hours to see their families.

More later. Sunny, blue sky over Gaza.

Viva Palestina needs your help

2009-07-14T01:00:00.000-07:00

Gazan children at the Rafah Gate protest Viva Palestina's detention

In the statement from Viva Palestina below, you will see an update on our situation. We need people in the US to encourage the Egyptian government to let the aid through. Please hold demonstrations, make calls, send emails, etc. Time is of the essence. Also, please spread the word about Viva Palestina and this blog. When Viva Palestina UK came through a few months ago, a huge part of their success came because so many people were following what was happening; we need as many people as possible aware of Viva Palestina US and standing in solidarity with our project to break the siege of Gaza.

Navigating Egypt's obstacle course

2009-07-14T00:59:00.000-07:00

An official statement from Viva Palestina

THE VIVA Palestina U.S. convoy has been facing barrier after barrier in recent days despite having initially hoped to cross into the Gaza Strip this morning. The Egyptian government, collaborator in Israel's severe blockade for the past two years, has set up a course of administrative obstacles that will delay the group's entry into Gaza.

George Galloway, the British Member of Parliament (MP) who organized this effort, as well as the first Viva Palestina caravan which drove from London to Gaza in March, sent a letter to President Mubarak of Egypt prior to the departure of the U.S. convoy. This letter informed the president that over $1 million dollars had been raised with the intention of purchasing vehicles, medical supplies and other humanitarian aid to bring to Gaza. Viva Palestina was also in contact with the Egyptian ambassadors in London, Washington, D.C., and Tripoli, Libya, who, at their request, were provided with a list of the names and passport numbers of all convoy participants.

Yet when the first contingent attempted to cross the Mubarak Peace Bridge to the Sinai Peninsula Saturday evening, they were denied entry. That group spent 12 hours at the checkpoint and entered into a standoff with authorities as they negotiated the length of their stay in successive increments. Members of the delegation demonstrated at the bridge, obstructing access to the vehicles, and also held keys and occupied driver's seats in order that the four buses could not be moved.

Although Egyptian officials first stated that the convoy could not pass due to unrest in the region and potential danger to the delegates, ultimately Viva Palestina was informed that each of its members required a Gaza affidavit signed and notarized by an official at the U.S. Embassy in order to pass. That contingent decided to return to Cairo to obtain the affidavits and regroup with other delegates, thereby strengthening their numbers for the next crossing.

The Gaza affidavits are essentially indemnity agreements asserting that the individual has signed away the inalienable right to the protection of the U.S. government. Previous delegations of U.S. citizens to Gaza have not been required to sign these, and these were not requested prior to reaching the Mubarak Bridge checkpoint, despite Viva Palestina's well-publicized plan. The Egyptian government refused to accept one group affidavit on behalf of the entire convoy. Each individual affidavit will cost convoy members $30.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

YESTERDAY, JULY 12, Egyptian officials asked for a detailed inventory of all aid items, which has now been compiled and will be submitted to border officials at the Rafah crossing.

Late this afternoon, the head of the Palestine Desk of the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who has been tasked by the Foreign Minister with logistical planning, informed convoy leadership that only the two ambulances--out of the 47 total vehicles which were purchased earlier in the day at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars--would be allowed to enter Gaza. The people of Gaza, with whom MP Galloway has been in frequent contact, have indicated that new vehicles are sorely needed in Gaza for various public services.

Viva Palestina organizers were also informed that convoy members would be permitted to spend only 24 hours in Gaza. Individuals overstaying that time period will not be permitted to leave until the next general opening of the Rafah crossing, which has been continuously closed since June 2007.

New York City Councilmember Charles Barron, who is traveling with the convoy, believes the reason behind these new requirements and restrictions is clear. "They don't want this to be successful because they don't want any more convoys," Barron said. "They want to set an example with us. They were hoping that they would discourage. That's why the delays, that's why adding on stipulations. Because they want us to implode."

Viva Palestina leadership has emphasized that these tactics will not dissuade the group from its avowed purpose of breaking the siege on Gaza, nor will future convoys be canceled. MP Galloway has announced that he intends to lead caravans this year from Venezuela and Moscow, as well as a second U.S. convoy in December to commemorate the first anniversary of Israel's brutal attack.

At a private meeting of the Viva Palestina delegation this evening, an agent of the Egyptian government was found to be present taking notes. His notes were confiscated and he was escorted out of the room by MP Galloway.

Convoy members Barron and Cynthia McKinney, former U.S. Representative and 2008 Green Party Presidential candidate, will be contacting President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tomorrow to pressure the Egyptian government to allow additional vehicles through the border and a longer stay in Gaza for convoy members.

Additionally, Viva Palestina is calling for supporters to organize demonstrations at Egyptian consulates in the U.S. and to call on the White House and the State Department to support Viva Palestina's effort in bringing medical supplies to what Obama called the "humanitarian crisis" in Gaza during his June 4 speech in Cairo.

Night on the Suez Canal

2009-07-12T15:27:00.000-07:00

I won't write much about last night because I'm too tired to. Below are the press releases sent by the Viva Palestina leadership throughout the night, which cover the basic facts. I look forward to sharing details when I'm back in the U.S. For now I'll just say this: I am heartened beyond words to be present and in solidarity with this magnificent group of people on the convoy. Yesterday and last night were a day and a night of learning about each other, talking politics, laughing, and working through a very challenging situation. Through frustration, hunger, and exhaustion, we kept each other in good humor, and most importantly, kept each other focused. Our goal is to break the siege of Gaza. As we strategized together to resist the pressure to abandon our objective, and I looked out on the vast bridge that arches over the Suez Canal, I remembered the old Black freedom song, which, among other places, was sung on the marches across the bridge from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965:

"Ain't gonna let nobody turn me around..."

Last night

2009-07-12T15:21:00.000-07:00

Viva Palestina US update – July 11, 2009

Update #1

The largest ever US humanitarian aid convoy is now gathering in Egypt to head across the border into Gaza on Monday, July 13.

Vehicles are coming from Alexandria, the medical supplies from Cairo and the advanced party of nearly 100 US citizens is heading for the staging post of Al Arish, just before the border with Gaza.

That group, of four buses, has, however, been stopped from crossing over the Suez Canal and into the Sinai region, which leads to Gaza.

The buses, carrying people, medical aid and bearing US, Egyptian and Palestinian flags in a spirit of international cooperation, have been held at a security checkpoint and given various, conflicting reasons for why they cannot proceed to their destination at Al Arish.

New York Councilman Charles Barron is leading the group and is negotiating with security officials to resolve the situation. He has contacted Washington and other elected officials in an effort to clarify the reasons for the delay and address any concerns as efficiently as possible.

Former US Congresswoman and Presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney will join the convoy on Sunday, July 12, and British Member of Parliament George Galloway will also be heading to meet up with Councilman Barron and the advance group.

He and the rest of the advance group of the convoy, however, are insisting on their right to travel with their supplies to Al Arish, where the rest of the convoy is to rendezvous with them before heading for the border crossing into Gaza.

This medical convoy is on the way to Gaza a month after US President Barack Obama described the situation in Gaza as a “humanitarian crisis.”

“Our convoy is on an aid mission,” says Galloway, “We come in peace; but we will not be stopped.”

Viva Palestina Convoy, July 12, 2009, 2:45 am Cairo

Update #2

The 100 Viva Palestina humanitarian volunteers have decided to stay the night in their buses at the Mubarak Peace Bridge over the Suez Canal despite pressure from the Egyptian security officials to return to Cairo.

The official reason given at the checkpoint for refusing to allow them to cross is that the officials there did not have a list of the names of the members of the convoy. Such a list was, however, at the request of the Egyptian authorities before any of the convoy members set foot in Egypt sent to the Egyptian ambassadors to Washington, D.C., and London.

The US Embassy in Cairo has now stepped in to forward a newly provided list of those convoy members aboard the buses at the bridge to the Egyptian foreign ministry to clear the way for the convoy's passage.

Nancy Mansour Leigh, a spokeswoman for the Viva Palestina delegation at the Suez crossing, says, “It's going to be an uncomfortable night, but it's nothing compared with what the people of Gaza must live through every day. We've already succeeded in securing internet access and are negotiating other necessary facilities. But whatever facilities are provided or not, our determination will see us through the night and all the way to Gaza.”

New York City Councilman Charles Barron is on the scene at the Suez Canal and acting as chief negotiator with Egyptian security officials. “The Viva Palestina movement has had a great success this morning with our stand at the Suez crossing. We've now got an agreement for us to stay until the list of our convoy members reaches the foreign ministry. It shows what can be achieved with the determination and commitment of a collective body of people. We are determined to cross onto Gaza, and no matter what happens next, out of this first small confrontation, we've achieved a success for the movement in support of the Palestinian people. The convoy is going to move on, and we ain't gonna let nobody turn us around.”

British Member of Parliament George Galloway offered these words of encouragement for the delegation being held up at the crossing:“This is an American convoy. And Americans are used to refusing to give up seats on buses in the struggle for justice. I regard everyone who's putting themselves on the line tonight at the Suez Canal for the success of this humanitarian mission as nothing short of a hero.”

Kevin Ovenden
Viva Palestina coordinator

Viva Palestina Convoy update #3
July 12, 2009, 7 pm Cairo

The Viva Palestina members who spent the night in their buses at the Suez
Crossing after they were stopped by Egyptian authorities on July 11 are now
making their way to the nearby city of Ismailia and are preparing to resume
their travels toward Gaza imminently.

British Member of Parliament George Galloway, who has met up with former
U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney in Cairo, was working with Egyptian and
U.S. authorities to expedite the passage of the convoy over the Suez Canal
and into Gaza.

New York City Councilmember Charles Barron, who led the group at the Suez
Canal, says, "Whether these requirements are genuine or not, we will get
around these obstacles. We are going to Gaza."

Egyptians have held up the convoy on the grounds that it has not acquired the
necessary travel permits from U.S. officials in order to cross into Gaza.

"The Egyptian authorities want us to jump through yet another hoop, we
will, even though their ambassadors in Washington, DC, London, and Tripoli,
Libya were already supplied with this information, at their request. The
U.S. embassy in Cairo was informed about the mission as was the Egyptian
Foreign Ministry." said Galloway. "So now we expect that there should be no
further reasons for the delayed transportation of this urgently needed
relief to the people of Gaza. We have hundreds of thousands of dollars of
medicine, which are time-sensitive and perishable and which need to reach
the children of Gaza.

Another group of Viva Palestina delegates is in Alexandria to take
possession of 47 vehicles that will be used to drive the groupâ€™s
humanitarian and medical relief supplies through the Rafah border crossing.
A third Viva Palestina element is continuing to gather additional aid in
Cairo.

Tomorrow, Viva Palestina plans to gather all its forces in Ismailia, load
all of the collected aid on its vehicles, and make final preparations for
the drive through the Sinai.

The Viva Palestina convoy expects progress on all fronts tomorrow, but is
prepared to call for solidarity protests at Egyptian embassies and
consulates should that not materialize.

Meet David.

2009-07-11T04:37:00.000-07:00

David Schwartz is a student at Georgetown University and originally from Long Island, NY. He is a member of the Viva Palestina aid convoy and one of a growing number of Jewish people in the West who are challenging Zionism and taking action in solidarity with Palestinians. We sat down and talked for a bit at our hotel in Cairo. Thought it's not necessarily evident in transcribed text, the conversation was laden with emotion. David spoke slowly, deliberately, sincerely and righteously. At times his voice wavered, but his conviction seemed to grow by the minute.

Why did you decide to come to Gaza?

I decided to come to Gaza because Gaza is currently under siege. I’m anti-Israel. I want to make a statement to my government and Israel that the siege is wrong and immoral, and what came before the siege is wrong and immoral. Palestinians deserve human rights just like any other people.

How did you come to these conclusions?

Well, the first time I went to the West Bank, I went on a youth exchange and learned about the history of Israel. And I came home and did some research. And what I learned about Israel led me to new conclusions: that what Israel has done for the past sixty years is wrong. That they run an apartheid state, and that it needs to change.

Can you talk about what it means to draw these conclusions as someone who is Jewish?

As a Jew, it is hard to reconcile my identity as a Jew with the Jewish state. But I think the most important thing about being a Jew is to do the right thing--as is the most important thing in any religion. And as a Jew, I am defending the utmost ideals of Judaism by supporting the Palestinians. Because no Jew should hand over their ideals to any political system, any person, anything, rather than their G-d.

You have Israeli family.

Yeah, they’re very progressive Jews. So they do think the occupation is wrong. They think that many wrongs have been done to the Palestinians. But they also think that wrongs have been done to them in the Palestinian struggle for justice. But they understand that things have to change. The whole world is putting pressure on Israel. They can no longer stand alone with just the United States. Because even the United States is changing. We just elected Barack Hussein Obama. And my family thinks that if not for the Palestinians, then at least for their own sake, things have to change.

Can you talk about your plans for the convoy to Gaza and after?

I plan--no, I don’t plan--we will go to Gaza. We will deliver this aid. We will see what life is like for Palestinians in Gaza. We will achieve the mission of Viva Palestina US and Viva Palestina UK. And when I go back home, I will become more active in my chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. I will tell other people about what’s going on. And I will try to get more supporters. We will march on the Israeli Embassy if we have to, because we’re right there in D.C.!

The process that you underwent and continue to undergo, as a Jewish person who was raised as a supporter of Israel, and who concluded that he should side with the Palestinians, I think that a growing number of Jews are having the same experience. What would you say to other Jews who are in the place now where you were upon first questioning Israel?

It’s hard to reconcile being a member of the Jewish faith and also being a part of the Palestinian cause--for justice for freedom. But the Israeli state doesn’t represent Judaism, its highest ideals, anything of Judaism. We have to separate Judaism from Israel. And once people see that Judaism does not equal Israel, it will be easier to open their eyes to the fact that Israel is an occupying power on the wrong side of justice. Because that association of Judaism with Israel--that is all that holds this together.

CNN: when "Breaking News" is a verb.

2009-07-10T16:04:00.000-07:00

So after several days in Cairo, me and Ream (who I'm rooming with along with Tom), finally decided to turn on the television in our room after leaving it off all week. Lo and behold, after a few minutes of skipping through channels that featured American shows dubbed in Arabic, we came across good old CNN. Not CNN World, but CNN--the channel broadcast in the US.

Who knows, maybe there will be a report on Viva Palestina. The fact that over 200 people from the US are bringing medical aid to Gaza in defiance of a US-supported blockade seems like something worth investigating by the US' main world news network, right? The fact that we're a diverse group of Muslims, Christians, Jews and others, of old folks and young, of Palestinians and others, including a British Member of Parliament, a New York City Councilman, and former US Representative and that we've come together to bring medicine to Palestine is newsworthy, no? After all, Al Jazeera has covered Viva Palestina, as have Egyptian media; certainly US media should cover a story like this involving Americans, right?

Well, wrong. The top story on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer was the dispute between the Jackson family over the location where Michael Jackson's remains should rest. Both Jermaine and Joe Jackson got plenty of airtime, but not George Galloway, not on CNN. Other main stories included the birthday of a panda in the National Zoo in DC, (she turned four, if you were interested).

Tom and I just checked CNN online. Give them the benefit of the doubt; maybe there just wasn't enough airtime to cover Viva Palestina, but there's an infinite amount of space on CNN's Website. Well, it's not there either. There is, however, a story entitled "Wedding ring lost at toll booth" and, of course, "Psychics see magic in Michael Jackson's life." Tom and I are cracking up laughing throughout the writing of this post. "I feel embarrassed for them," Tom said as he walked away, shaking his head.

I guess the comic relief that CNN provides is nice as we think about how we're about to approach one of the most wrecked places on Earth--something that I don't know if any of us are prepared for. But then, the sober reminders for why I came to the Middle East are precisely what makes the "journalism" that CNN features (and I haven't even mentioned the outright lies that are promoted on an hourly basis via that media outlet) so criminal. But then, isn't the profound ignorance that Americans have regarding Palestine (which CNN manufactures) precisely what allows for unabated US-supported brutality in Palestine?

CNN is ridiculous to the point of being laughable, until one remembers how deadly the consequences of it's actions are.

Interview with Palestinian rapper Mahmoud Fayyed a.k.a. Kan3an

2009-07-09T18:28:00.000-07:00

This is an interview that we did with a member of the group PR (Palestinian Rapperz). They were featured in the documentary Slingshot Hip Hop, which screened at Sundance 2008 and has won numerous awards. He came to visit the Viva Palestina convoy while we were in Cairo. Khury conducted the interview, Wadad--one of the VP-US organizers translated Kan3an's responses from Arabic into English, and Ream Kidane recorded and transcribed the interview. It was first posted on The Sitch.

Khury Petersen Smith: We are with here in Cairo with Kan3an, member of the group PR (Palestinian Rapperz) from Gaza city, he is also known as Mahmoud Fayyed. You may know them from the documentary Slingshot Hip Hop. Can you tell us what it has bee like in Gaza since the war and since the blockade?

Mahmoud Fayyad: Things have been extremely hard. They are rationing everything. Everything is sanctioned, blockaded. We make do with the most basic supplies. There is a lack of electricity, lack of food, lack of gas, lack of work. We just go day by day, trying to make the most of it. We hope, every day, that that the blockade would just disappear. …..The Israelis would often come close to the border and shoot.

KPS: How did you get to Egypt?

MF: My mother is Egyptian, so I was able to get an Egyptian visa, but the others, they have nothing but a Palestinian ID card.

KPS: When did you come to Egypt?

MF: 2008

KPS: How did you get into hip hop?

MF: We were inspired by DAM, who was also featured in the documentary. One thing to explain is that the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank are called the ‘67 Arabs” They were stuck there when the walls were newly built. The Palestinians from cities like Haifa, Lyd, etc. are called the ‘48 Arabs. We were separated, so we could never actually meet them. In 2003, DAM inspired us to talk about our struggle. We never thought there was a market for Arabic hip hop, but they gave us that push. When we heard that song “Meen Erhabe - Who’s the Terrorist?“, it inspired us. It’s like, who’s the terrorist when you are living in my country?

KPS: Can you tell us something more about the Palestinian hip hop movement? Is it growing?

MF: DAM is the group that opened the door for everyone. Their have been other groups from the ‘48 cities, but we are the first from Gaza. Jackie Salloum, the director of Slingshot opened the door for them with screenings and shows all over the country. PR Rappers is the only group that has not been able to attend the screenings. It is important to watch (Slingshot) because you realize that we are normal every day people, but you also see the struggle. It is very difficult to record, you can’t just get together to record a track.

KPS: Can you tell us what it has been like to record amidst the blockade, with two members in Gaza, you in Egypt, another in Texas?

MF: Twitter, Facebook, MSN. The biggest obstacle is that takes a long time time to record one track. Most groups can be in the same studio, but for us it could take months. We are working on an album now.

KPS: Are you big in Gaza? Are you on the radio? Is there Palestinian hip hop on the radio?

MF: We are very well known in Gaza. We are all over the radio. Sometimes a friend will call me and say 'your song is on the radio!' And he'll put the phone next to the radio so I can hear.

KPS: What does it mean for you to be in Cairo while your family is and friends are in Gaza, do you want to go back?

MF: It has been really hard, especially since Ayman's father was killed 24 days past. He was like a father to all of us. It hasn’t really hit me. When you are not there, it is really hard to comprehend. They won’t let me back in, and if they did, I wouldn’t let me get back out. The hip hop we do, I want people to know what it’s like to live in such fucked up circumstances. The Palestinians are living in a unique situation. There are many different sides to it. One of the issues is that there are Palestinians walking around with Jordanian passports because they are not allowed a Israeli passport. There are Palestinians with Israeli passports that are stuck in ‘48 Palestine. People outside identify me (Waded) as Israeli, even though I live in Palestine. We need our nationality back. We need our identity back. This is one of the messages we are trying to get through. We hope the world will listen.

KPS: You are trying to get your identity back through your music, trying to assert your right to determine your own destiny. I think that is incredible.

MF: Thank you very much.

To Israel, Palestinians with chocolate pose a threat.

2009-07-09T17:41:00.000-07:00

In an earlier post, I noted that, among other things, Israel has added chocolate to the list of items banned from entering Gaza. Apparently Gazan people armed with chocolate pose a threat to one of the most belligerent military powers on Earth. Perhaps even as grave a threat to the only nuclear power in the Middle East as the homemade rockets whose fire by Gazans were the supposed cause for Israel's assault of December and January.

The fact that chocolate has been added to the list of forbidden items has been haunting me since I learned of it. There is something so insidious about it. The purpose of the Viva Palestina convoy is to show solidarity with the people of Gaza by bringing medical supplies, and certainly chocolate seems frivolous relative to heart pumps and antibiotics. But the fact that, beyond these absolute necessities, Gazans are denied those things which make life sweet, feels bitterly unjust. It is difficult to imagine even the coldest, most heartless Zionist defending such a policy.

I've been mentioning the policy to others on the delegation. Some are already aware. One guy shook his head and shrugged.

"They deny crayons too, right?"

Others are shocked. That's one of the things about standing in solidarity with Palestinians. It seems that no matter how much you know about the depths of Israeli brutality, there are always crimes that Israel commits that are so cruel that they are astonishing.

"Chocolate," one woman on the trip exclaimed when I told her. "That's just evil."

And so, when we make runs to the supermarket around the corner from our hotel, we are faced with a difficult situation: of course we would love to load up on chocolate to take to Gaza. We can't though because it is a banned item, and bringing it would raise the chance of other, essential items being denied along with the chocolate, and even our entry into Gaza being denied. In fact, no food at all is allowed through the Rafah Crossing, only through the Eretz Crossing, which is controlled directly by the Israelis. Guess how sympathetic and permissive they are.

Today, a few people from the convoy returned to the hotel after venturing out into the streets of Cairo. They had several plastic bags with Adidas' logo on them.

"We got some soccer balls for the kids," Ahmed, one of the guys said with a smile. I hated to break the news to him.

"Soccer balls aren't allowed in. Last time they tried to bring soccer balls in and it was a big deal in the negotiating at the border. I'm not sure if they let them in."

Ahmed's face soured.

Meet Maher.

2009-07-09T17:22:00.000-07:00

Maher is a member of the Viva Palestina US convoy. An older man, his long, white beard frames his smile. He is a gentle man of quiet pride, and he cracks a lot of jokes. Maher is a one of the many Palestinians and the convoy, and he is from Gaza. We sat down in the lobby of our hotel in Cairo to talk about his life and the convoy.

I was just writing about the Palestinians who are on this convoy and the significance for you all. Just what it will mean when, after we cross the border like Kevin said, all of Gaza will come out to greet us.

Yes, all Gaza will come out to see us. They’re anxious to see us, but I don’t know about the first part.

You mean crossing the border.

Yes.

You’re not sure that we’ll get in.

I hope we do.

How do you feel about going home to Gaza?

My feeling is not about going home. My feeling has been about how [members of the convoy’s] reactions will be if we don’t cross the border. Then I’ve been thinking about how we will feel when they see the convoy cross in. I dread this moment. I will feel sad for the people [on the convoy]. Because when the people see the destruction and sorrow that the people have been going through, they will be devastated. This is not just something that will last for a moment. This will affect you for a lifetime. Your heart will turn to stone.

Where in Gaza are you from?

I’m from Gaza City.

You grew up there?

Yes. I grew up there ‘till 1984. I left the country then and came to the States.

Will you talk about what its been like during the siege?

The siege is nothing compared to the three weeks. I’m talking about the war. The siege...you get used to it. It's been going on since 1967. Things change by the day. You can’t get in, you can’t get out, etc. But the war was much worse. The past two years have been very hard. The Gazan people aren’t just looking for our material gifts like bread. They need to see us--they need our support.

What do you mean?

Most of the people in the Gaza Strip, they get used to the hardship. They are patient because they have a cause--their country. They’ll be patient because they’re willing to do everything for their freedom. You will see with your eyes when you get there. A family’s a family, a neighbor’s a neighbor. So if someone in your family needs help, people will help. Same with neighbor. So the money, that’s something they can deal with. They help each other. Yes, there is a shortage. There are things missing in the market. Now you don’t just have to by food, but water too. But they get by.

What did you mean when you say they need our support? How can we support them if not just materially?

You being there is the biggest support they’ve been looking for.

I remember reading this newspaper article during the bombing. A Gazan woman was quoted in the article, and she said that the whole world had abandoned Gaza. I was struck by the level of isolation she felt.

When the war started yes, they felt that way. They were left alone. But if you talk to the whole world--yes--if you talk to the governments, yes they were left alone. But if you talk to the people of the world, they were with the people of Gaza. The governments could have stopped it if they wanted to. But somehow Israel always can do whatever they want with international law. Even after the war ended there’s a lot of people who have been trying to go there, trying to document. To see what’s going on. To see what kind of weapons were used. They’ve been stopped. The international community, if they wanted to do something, they could have. But for some reason, they couldn’t do what they’re supposed to do.

May I ask what it was like for you during the bombing?

At that time I was in Dubai. At that time, no sleep. Believe me, no sleep. If I got two hours of sleep in a 24 hour period, that’s a lot. I called Gaza 20-30 times a day to see if people were okay. Between my family and my friends. By the way, I have my wife and kids in there.

Your wife and kids?

Yes. I’ve been trying to get them out. I’ve been calling the US embassy about getting them out this time.

Getting them out right now?

Yeah! Right now. I will try to get them out. If it doesn’t work, I have no choice but to call the US embassy in Tel Aviv, where there’s not much hope. During the war I emailed the embassy there, but no one responded.

May I ask why your family and kids went to Gaza?

My family and kids, we decided to send to Gaza to learn the language and culture. They stayed for three yeas. They were supposed to stay one year but things didn’t work out with me, and they stayed three.

How many children do you have?

I have five. The oldest one is 12, and the youngest is 3.

Is your wife from Gaza?

Yes--she’s a US citizen. She’s been living fifteen years in the US. And all my kids were American born.

So you have a family of US citizens but the US is not helping you.

(Sigh) For a reason they didn’t help.

What reason?

I don’t know. I said for a reason, but for what kind of reasons, I don’t know.

This will be your first time seeing your family in three years.

No, nine months.

How did you see your family nine months ago?

I crossed into Gaza when the border was demolished.

You were in Egypt at the time anyway?

No, I was in Dubai, found out about the border, and flew here to cross the border. I tried to get out again but I was stuck in Gaza for seven months.

What is your plan for when we go in to Gaza? Do you plan to stay?

I will just go in and go out with you.

Is there anything else you would like to say?

There’s a couple people [on the convoy] from Gaza. Everyone has a story for why they want to go. There’s one who needs to see his mom; she can die any minute. Another hasn’t seen his mom in seven years. She’s 89 years old. Another, he’s an old friend. He’s been trying to cross the border. He was there for three days. He couldn’t cross. His wife and kids are there. When he found out we were trying to cross he came here to cross with us. And here he is.

(As we are sitting and talking in the hotel lobby, a man walks over to us and greets Maher.)

Is there anything else you would like to say?

We hope the world will be fair and lift the siege of Gaza.

Preparing to go to Gaza

2009-07-08T00:28:00.000-07:00

Our hotel is abuzz. There's so much work to be done before we leave Cairo for Gaza--organizing donations, vehicles, and people. We had a meeting this morning at which one of the leaders of the convoy ended the discussion by saying he has a sense of "excitement, trepidation, and focus" regarding our tasks." "Soon," he said, "we will cross into Rafah and all of Gaza will come out to greet us."

The last part sent chills up and down my skin. But my thoughts quickly left the subject of what it will mean for me to cross into Gaza and went instead to what it would mean for our Palestinian sisters and brothers on the convoy. Some of the Palestinians here have spent most of their lives in Palestine and have fresh memories of it, others have never been there and it will be their first times going home to their own country. Particularly on my mind are our sisters and brothers from Gaza--who have not seen their families and friends in years. One brother mentioned that he will be seeing his mother for the first time in three years. The experience for these sisters and brothers, I imagine, carries a significance that I don't think I can ever fully appreciate.

The story of Viva Palestina

2009-07-06T12:35:00.000-07:00

I want to give a little background on Viva Palestina US, the aid convoy that Tom and I are participating in.

In December and January, Israel carried out a brutal assault on Gaza. For a year and a half before the bombing in December, Israel imposed a blockade on the people of Gaza. Everything, from food to building materials, to international money transfers--along with countless other things to maintain a society. (Check out this BBC report on the blockade for more information.) Israel systematically starved Gaza and then bombed it in one of the more catastrophic aerial sieges of our lifetimes. The attack killed 1,400 Gazans in a month and devastated Gaza in every possible way. Reports from Gazans during the attack describe the systematic and criminal nature of Israel's attack and its aftermath, how they targeted civilians and civilian infrastructure, and used weapons banned by international law.

Since the assault ended the day before Obama's inauguration, Israel has maintained the blockade on Gaza. Israel has forbidden the entry of basic humanitarian supplies to Gaza, including "school textbooks, clothes, shoes, toys, lentils, pasta, pumpkin, fruit juice, chocolate, cigarettes, toilet paper, musical instruments, and seedlings." The result is that Gazans have been unable to reconstruct their society since the bombing ostensibly ended in January. Despite the lack of coverage in the US corporate media, even the Israeli press have documented the devastation that has resulted. The Israeli Navy has enforced the blockade, terrorizing Gazan fishermen, which has further devastated the economy.

There have been a number of attempts by activists to break the blockade and bring aid into Gaza. Several have been undertaken by the Free Gaza Movement, which has sailed ships loaded with humanitarian aid from Cypress to Gaza in an effort to break the siege. The other effort has been the Viva Palestina project. The project was initiated by British Member of Parliament George Galloway, and involved assembling a convoy of vehicles, including ambulances and a fire truck, to transport aid to Gaza. The convoy left the UK on February 14 through western Europe and north Africa, arriving in Gaza on March 9 with £1 million of aid.

After the success of the British convoy, Galloway initiated a convoy from the US. Coming from the United States, which gives more political and economic support to Israel than any other country in the world, we aim to send a powerful message that growing numbers of people in the US don't stand with "our" government; we stand with the people of Palestine. Most of us converged in New York City on July 3 to depart from JFK airport on July 4--using the symbolic date to call for independence for Palestine. Our mission is to contribute to the breaking of the siege with medical aid and solidarity. We hope to inspire more people to learn about Israeli crimes in Gaza (committed with American support), to question the legitimacy of the blockade, and to contribute to its end.

We brought a truckload of medical supplies to Egypt and our delegation is gathering in Cairo, with new people arriving every day. There are over 200 of us from all over the US and all kinds of backgrounds. In the coming days, Tom and I plan to write more about the people on the convoy and the significance of the project for those involved.

Greetings from Cairo!

2009-07-06T03:05:00.000-07:00

Tom and I arrived here yesterday as part of the first wave of people on our convoy to Gaza. After our nine hour flight, we landed in sunny, hot, and humid Cairo. Al-Jazeera and other media began filming as we picked up the wheelchairs, crutches, walkers, and bag upon bag of medical supplies from the baggage claim and moved them out to the curb. After moving everything into waiting buses, we gathered around George Galloway, who, in characteristic pride, was looking out upon the human conveyor belt moving medical supplies as he smoked a cigar, a big smile on his face. Folks took out cameras for photos. One of the brothers from Texas took out a Palestinian flag. As he unfurled it, an airport custodian approached him with a mop handle and rope. The brother tied to flag to the makeshift pole and we posed for pictures, flag blowing in the wind above us.

I won't use the limited time I have now to go into detail on my first twenty-four hours in this marvelous city. Suffice it to say that driving over the Nile, beholding the Great Pyramids (which I can see here from my hotel room window—so close that they appear to be within reach), and encountering friendly Egyptians—folks who come up to us excited to meet us, and who become much more excited when we tell them that we're bringing medical aid to Gaza—all of this has been remarkable. Instead of expounding though, I need to make an appeal.

If you can make a contribution to Viva Palestina, it would be tremendously appreciated. We are still purchasing supplies, including vehicles—which will be given to our Gazan sisters and brothers—in Egypt. There is an urgency to collect as much in funds as possible in the next thirty-six hours. Many of you have already contributed generously and we are thankful beyond words. If you thought you'd missed your opportunity to give but wanted to, please understand that there is a real need for donations now. The way that is most beneficial to the convoy is to do so by wiring money. If that is possible for you, please email me directly at khury.ps@gmail.com for instructions. Otherwise a check sent overnight to New York would be terrific. Checks are tax deductible and can be made out to IFCO – Viva Palestina. They can be sent to

IFCO – Viva Palestina

418 W 145^th Street

New York, NY 10031

My sincere thanks. Please look forward to more posts. More people from the US are arriving today. More to come.

In solidarity,

Khury

Protest US support for Israel Wednesday!

2009-02-09T20:53:00.000-08:00

What: Protest the US' support for Israel and it's war on the Palestinians!
When: Wednesday, 2/11 at 4:30
Where: The JFK Building at Government Center, downtown Boston
What: Rally at the JFK building (where Sen. Kennedy's office is) and march to One Bowdoin Square (where Senator Kerry's office is)
Why: The US government gives Israel billions of dollars in military aid each year. Israel's recent assault on Gaza was done with American F-16s, Apache helicopters and other weapons. It was made possible with American military aid. And the US gave Israel diplomatic support during the attack. As Massachusetts' senators, John Kerry and Ted Kennedy represent us and have a say in how our tax dollars are spent. We need to tell them that we won't accept our money going to fund Israel's wars, especially at a time of economic crisis when we need those billions of dollars for our communities here. It is especially important to send this message to Senator Kerry, who heads the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

For more info, email boston-stands-with-gaza@googlegroups.com

Forum Friday in Arlington

2009-01-22T21:38:00.000-08:00

Spread the word

LET GAZA LIVE!

AN EDUCATIONAL FORUM ON THE CURRENT CRISIS

sponsored by Arlington/Lexington United for Justice with Peace

Friday, January 23, 7:30 PM

Cavalry Methodist Church300 Massachusetts Ave.E. Arlington.

While a brutal war has been waged on the defenseless people of Gaza , and rockets launched into Israel, the media distorts what is really going on and more importantly, why. This forum will address the political, military, economic, and ideological reasons behind the latest crisis, the situation on the ground, as well as ways that Americans can help to support the victims and to resolve the crisis. A question and answer session will be included, to encourage audience participation and input.

Speakers:
Elaine Hagopian, Noted authority on the history of conflict in the Middle East. Salma Abu Ayyash, Palestinian activist and educator Howard Lenow, American Jews for a Just Peace Suggested donation $5.00. For more information, call 781-316-2018. Dr. Elaine Hagopian is Professor Emerita of Sociology, Simmons College, Boston. For over fifty years, she has studied the core issues in the Middle East. She has taught at the American University in Beirut and the American University in Cairo. She has received two Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Grants to do research in the M.E. She has worked with UNESCO as a team member doing a feasibility study for an open university for Palestinians, and with UNICEF in the Arabian Gulf evaluating a project in the field on community development and women. She is the editor and author of three books related to Arab and Arab-American issues, and has published some tens of articles on conflicts in the M.E.

Salma Abu Ayyash is a Palestinian born in Jordan. She is co-founder of the Palestinian arts and culture organization Tawassul and is a local Palestinian rights activist. She is an Electrical Engineer by training (MS, Ph.D. ABD). Recently, Salma taught high school math and science and does freelance Arabic-English translations.

Howard Lenow has been a union and civil rights lawyer for almost thirty years. He also has worked closely with dedicated activists seeking a just peace for Palestine through American Jews For A Just Peace and Visions of Peace With Justice in Israel/Palestine, the U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation, the Boston Committee for Palestinian Rights, the Israeli Coalition Against Home Demolition, the Palestinian Medical Relief Society and other peace groups both in the U.S., Palestine and Israel. Over the last five years, through the Health and Human Rights Project, Howard has been a co-leader of five human rights delegations to Israel Palestine and returned from his most recent trip this past November.

Forum Wednesday featuring NOAM CHOMSKY

2009-01-18T19:38:00.000-08:00

The Emergency Gaza Coalition presents:

STOP THE MASSACRE OF GAZA!

The truth about the war on Gaza, the US government's role, and why we must fight back!
featuring:
NOAM CHOMSKY

ASSAF KFOURY, Professor, Boston University

AHMED SHAWKI, Editor, International Socialist Review

with discussion period for all to input their ideas, ask questions, debate and discuss the issues!

**WITH ACTIVIST BAZAAR OF PRO-PALESTINE GROUPS AND VENDORS!**

Before and after the event, come to learn, meet activists, pick up new literature and information and get plugged into the movement!
6:30PM Bazaar opens, 7PM Teach-in with panelists begins@

Palestine Cultural Center for Peace41 Quint Avenue, Allston, MA 02134

for more information or to endorse/co-sponsor this event, or to be represented at activist bazaar, please email:emergencygazacoalition@gmail. comor call: 617-970-2701

____________ ________
Are you outraged at Israel's genocidal war path through Gaza? You and hundreds of millions around the world! Who wouldn't be at the senseless destruction, loss of innocent life, the targeting of schools and mosques, the use of horrific chemical weapons such as white phosphorus, the targeting of aid convoys, youth, power plants that keep water clean and the little food that's around refrigerated, destruction of communications infrastructure, the razing of not only homes but whole neighborhoods and cities... It's an immeasurable catastrophe.
In order for our movement to be effective and to grow wide and strong, we must come together to learn and exchange ideas. This conflict raises questions of local, national, and international significance:
* What is Israel doing? What actually happening on the ground? Why is this war happening, and why now? What are Israel's real goals behind the rhetoric?
* What is the US's relationship with Israel? Why does the US give Israel such massive and unflinching support materially and diplomatically, despite international opposition?
* Can we do anything about it? What does the grassroots movement against this war look like here and abroad, where is it going? Does what we do in our own neighborhoods and schools really matter?

Let's educate ourselves to build this movement and really make a difference!

PROTEST FRIDAY!!

2009-01-14T19:44:00.000-08:00

Let Gaza live!
Stop the Israeli war!
Stop US support for the massacre in Gaza!

PROTEST this Friday 1/16 4:30 pm

We will start at (Israeli Consulate 20 Park Plaza) 4:30 P.M and make our way to the State House while paying a visit to many important stops along the way. This will be a highly organized protest and we plan on rallying on the streets hopefully if the permit situation goes well. We will have mega-phones and amplifiers to show Boston that "when you are shopping/driving/doing whatever you are doing, BOMBS ARE DROPPING ON INNOCENT PEOPLE!"

Spread word! Invite your friends, allies, classmates, coworkers, neighbors, EVERYONE!!!!!!

As Israel ruthlessly tears into Gaza, slaying any and all in its genocidal path--including aid convoy and children--international pressure mounts to shut these atrocities down and let the people of Gaza live, which is already having a major effect on how the war is covered in the media, and--most importantly--on people's sense of need and confidence to fight back. We've had a series of excellent mobilizations in Boston including rowdy protests, vigils and a large funeral march, dozens out to Saturday's national protest at the White House and more. We must come together to continue to build the movement with even bigger & stronger actions and events geared toward drawing into the movement the thousands in our area who are outraged at Israel's shear brutality and the US's support for it.

Called by the Emergency Gaza Coalition
For more info, email bostonstandswithgaza@gmail.com

Zionist rally in Copley and counter-protest

2009-01-12T18:54:00.000-08:00

Thanks David, for sending this
Last Thursday all the Zionist groups in Boston (AIPAC, CJP, Hillel Centers of New England, etc) held a pro-"Israel" rally indoors in the temple next to the Chestnut Hill Mall in support of the Zionist genocidal aggression in the Gaza Strip. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick was there. Newon Mayor David Cohen was there. Steve Grossman, former president of AIPAC and former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, was there. And hundreds - the zionists claim over a thousand - supporters of "Israel" were there.
See http://www.wickedlocal.com/newton/homepage/x512380610/Chestnut-Hill-temple-fills-with-Israel-supportersand http://www.boston.com/yourtown/newton/articles/2009/01/09/israeli_palestinian_supporters_rally_try_to_make_case_in_newton/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Today's+paper+A+to+Z

The Zionists are going to rally again - this time venturing outdoors - this Wednesday Jan 14 in Copley Square at 5:30. They may have politicians speaking. On Friday 8 out of 10 US congressmen from Massachusetts voted 'yes' for the house resolution supporting "Israel's" genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Pro-Palestinian Anti-Genocide people, please show up in Copley Square, Boston, at 5 to start demonstrating against Zionism. We can shout down the Zionist rally.

Stop the Siege of the Gaza Strip!Stop the Zionist War of Aggression and Genocidal Massacres Against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip!End 61-Years of Zionist Racist Genocidal Colonial Rule in All of Palestine!From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free!Support the Palestinian Resistance, including Hamas! The Palestinian people are rightly defending themselves in their own country!The Zionists broke the ceasefire! The Zionists are the aggressor today as in 1948!Stop All US funding & support to "Israel"!"Israel" and "USA" are the real terrorists!

Organizing meeting Tuesday!

2009-01-12T13:52:00.001-08:00

-- PLEASE PUBLICIZE WIDELY --

BOSTON ORGANIZING MEETING FOR ACTIONS ON GAZA
TUESDAY, JANUARY 13, 7 PM
PALESTINIAN CULTURAL CENTER, 41 QUINT ST., ALLSTON

The killing and the blockade go on. Come to the organizing meeting to get involved in the following activities:

1. Public Protest - local vigils, city-wide actions

2. Lobbying - Emails, phone calls, visits to Congressional offices, oppose Israel support resolutions, promote cease-fire

3. Education - Forums, educational materials, speaking to groups

4. Media - op eds, letters to editors, radio, TV shows, pressure media to cover Palestinian side

5. Fundraising - Raise money for humanitarian relief through benefits, individual contributions, fundraising appeals

6. Outreach - Get support from diverse constituencies, religious institutions, students, unions, community organizations

7. Boycott, divestment, sanctions

Proposed agenda:

Brief updates on recent protests - 10 min.

Suggestions for organizing under each category listed above - 30 min.

Break into working committees according to interest - 40 min.

Report back from working committees - 30 min.

Next steps - 10 min.

Agenda proposed by Marilyn Levin

crisismiddleeast@yahoo.com gazaonmymindboston@gmail.com boston-stands-with-gaza@googlegroups.com

Interfaith vigil and declaration of peace

2009-01-12T13:22:00.000-08:00

Thank you to Jenna Miller, who sent this.

Dear Friends,

There has been a growing cry for a community gathering about the Gaza crisis that calls for an end to the violence while expressing our anguish for both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples.

Boston-area Muslim, Christian, and Jewish leaders have jointly written a statement calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and expressing our desire to demonstrate that during these most difficult of times we are prepared to stretch our hands out to each other. The statement with initial signatures is attached.

Join us for a silent INTERFAITH VIGIL to make the declaration public and stand shoulder to shoulder with members of Boston ’s Muslim, Jewish, and Christian communities. Signs (drawn from the statement) will be provided. No other signs please.

INTERFAITH VIGIL
Tuesday, January 13
5:30-6:30pm
Park Street Station, downtown Boston

To sign the petition go to: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/interfaithdeclarationforpeace/
This effort is being organized by a wide range of activists from each faith group. Boston Workmen’s Circle has offered to serve as the contact for logistics. For up to date information go to www.circleboston.org; for questions email info@circleboston.org.

AN INTERFAITH DECLARATION FOR PEACE

We, members and leaders of the Muslim, Jewish, and Christian communities in Greater Boston - all having deep and symbolic ties to the land and peoples of the Middle East - are anguished by the events unfolding in Israel and Gaza. Recognizing the legitimate needs of all peoples, including all those living in the Middle East , for dignity, peace, safety and security –- regardless of religion, race, or national origin -- we issue this joint statement with the hope and belief that our interfaith voices will be heard clearly, above the din of war.

As guiding principles,

We acknowledge the long, complex, and painful history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
We acknowledge the wide range of deeply-held beliefs, and intensely-felt narratives on all sides
We acknowledge that all sides are capable of assigning blame to others, and asserting justification for their cause
We observe that violence by any side begets more violence, hatred, and retaliation
We deplore any invocation of religion as a justification for violence against others, or the deprivation of the rights of others
We decry any use of inflammatory rhetoric that demonizes the other and is intended, or is likely, to promote hatred and disrespect
We believe the conflict can be resolved only through a political and diplomatic solution and not a military one.

In the face of many competing narratives, we recognize that the overriding common need of the peoples of the region is the prompt implementation of a just and lasting peace. Toward that end, and particularly in response to the current hostilities,

We call upon the United States and the international community immediately to intercede to help reestablish a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, toward the goal of a permanent cessation of hostilities
We call upon Hamas immediately to end all rocket attacks on Israel , and upon Israel immediately to end its military campaign in Gaza
We call for an immediate end to all strikes on civilian centers and citizens, both Israeli and Palestinian
We call for lifting of the blockade on Gaza as to all non-military goods, for an immediate and significant increase in humanitarian aid to address the needs of the people of Gaza , and for all parties involved to join in taking responsibility to address those human needs
We call on all parties involved in the conflict to work sincerely and vigorously toward a just and lasting peace that addresses and promotes the national aspirations of both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples
We call on President-elect Obama to make clear that as President he will urgently assert US leadership to achieve a comprehensive diplomatic resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian and Arab-Israeli conflicts

Through this joint statement we affirm our commitment to engage with one another, even, and especially, during times of great stress. We also affirm our common humanity and our common belief – as Jews, Muslims and Christians - that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must cease, that there is no military or violent solution, that all human life is valued, and that all parties must cooperate to make the peace – a just and lasting peace desperately needed and deserved by all the peoples of the region.

Signed:

Salwa Abd-Allah, Executive Council, Muslim American Society of Boston (MAS Boston ), Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center (ISBCC)

Tariq Ali, President, Harvard Islamic Society

Hossam AlJabri, President, MAS Boston-ISBCC; Trustee, Interreligious Center for Public Life (ICPL)

Rev. Dr. Jim Antal, President, United Church of Christ Mass. Conference

Abdul Cader Asmal, Past President, Islamic Council of New England and Islamic Center of Boston ; Trustee ICPL

Rabbi Al Axelrad, Hillel Director Emeritus, Brandeis University
Diane Balser, Executive Director, Brit Tzedek v’Shalom
Dorothy C. Buck, Ph.D., Director, Badaliya

Rev. Nick Carter, Ph.D., President, Andover Newton Theological School

Dris Djermoun, President, Islamic Center of Boston (Wayland)

Diana L. Eck, Professor, Harvard University

Imam Talal Eid, Islamic Institute of Boston ; Chaplain Brandeis University

Ashraf Elkerm, Board Chairman, Islamic Center of Greater Worcester

Rev. Dr. Terasa G. Cooley, Unitarian Universalist Mass. Bay District Executive

Mercedes S. Evans, Esq., Committee on Contemporary Spiritual & Public Concerns (CSPC Committee) (Civil Rights)

Imam Abdullah Faruuq, Imam, Mosque for the Praising of Allah (Roxbury)

Michael Felsen, President, Boston Workmen's Circle
Lisa Gallatin, Executive Director, Boston Workmen's Circle

Zekeriyya Gemici, President, MIT Muslim Students Association

Rabbi David Gordis

Rabbi Arthur Green, Rector, Rabbinical School, Hebrew College , Newton
Rev. Raymond G. Helmick, S.J., Instructor, Conflict Resolution, Boston College

Arnold Hiatt

Rev. Jack Johnson, Executive Director, MCC

M. Bilal Kaleem, Executive Director, MAS Boston-ISBCC

Anwar Kazmi, Executive Council, MAS Boston-ISBCC

Alexander Kern, Executive Director, Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries

Nabeel Khudairi, Past President, Islamic Council of New England

Idit Klein, Executive Director, Keshet

Margie Klein, Co-Director, Moishe/Kavod House

Mary Lahaj, Muslim Chaplain, Simmons College

Geoffrey Lewis

Imam Taalib Mahdee, Imam, Masjid Al-Quran, ( Dorchester )

Rev. Bert Marshall, Church World Service, New England Director

Jerome D. Maryon, Esq., President, CSPC Committee

Michael J. Moran, Pax Christi Massachusetts

Sister Jane Morrissey, SSJ, Pax Christi Massachusetts

Merrie Najimy, President, American Arab Anti-discrimination Committee, MA

Imam Khalid Nasr, Imam, ICNE-Quincy

Imam Basyouni Nehela, Imam, Islamic Society of Boston

Rashid Noor, President, Islamic Center of New England

Rabbi Sara Paasche-Orlow
Rabbi Barbara Penzner, Temple Hillel B'nai Torah
Rev. Rodney L. Petersen, Ph.D., Executive Director, Boston Theological Institute

Dr Asif Rizvi, President-Elect, Islamic Council of New England

Rabbi Victor Reinstein, Nehar Shalom
Rev. Anne Robertson, Executive Director, Massachusetts Bible Society

Qasim Salimi, President, Boston University Muslim Students Association

Robert M. Sarly, Trustee, ICPL

Rev. Mikel E. Satcher, Ph.D., Pastor, Trinity Baptist Church

Professor Adam Seligman, Boston University

Rabbi Sanford Seltzer, Chair, ICPL

Enid Shapiro, Trustee, ICPL
Rt. Rev. M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE, Episcopal Bishop, Diocese of Massachusetts

Alan Solomont

Rabbi Toba Spitzer, Congregation Dorshei Tzedek
Rev. John K. Stendahl, Pastor, Lutheran Church of the Newtons

Sidney Topol
Rabbi Andrew Vogel, Temple Sinai

Peter D. Weaver, Bishop, United Methodist Church , Boston Area

(Organizational affiliations for identification purposes only)

Tuesday organizing meeting for Gaza!

2009-01-11T17:14:00.000-08:00

BOSTON ORGANIZING MEETING FOR ACTIONS ON GAZA

TUESDAY, JANUARY 13, 7 PM

PALESTINIAN CULTURAL CENTER, 41 QUINT ST., ALLSTON

The killing and the blockade go on. Come to the organizing meeting to get involved in the following activities:

1. Public Protest - local vigils, city-wide actions

2. Lobbying - Emails, phone calls, visits to Congressional offices, oppose Israel support resolutions, promote cease-fire

3. Education - Forums, educational materials, speaking to groups

4. Media - op eds, letters to editors, radio, TV shows, pressure media to cover Palestinian side

5. Fundraising - Raise money for humanitarian relief through benefits, individual contributions, fundraising appeals

6. Outreach - Get support from diverse constituencies, religious institutions, students, unions, community organizations

7. Boycott, divestment, sanctions

crisismiddleeast@yahoo.com gazaonmymindboston@gmail.com boston-stands-with-gaza@googlegroups.com

Protesters arrested at Gaza conflict demonstration

2009-01-11T17:05:00.000-08:00

Funeral Procession in Boston Joins National Protests Against Israel's Incursion in Gaza

2009-01-11T16:53:00.000-08:00

Originally published on Boston Indymedia: http://boston.indymedia.org/feature/display/206629
January 10, 2009
by Sofia Jarrin

Boston, Mass.--Around 400 people with home-made coffins marched in downtown Boston in a silent funeral procession to join protests around the world against Israel's military aggression in Gaza. Thousands marched in major cities in Europe, Arab countries, and the United States to express their outrage for the killings of so far 821 Palestinians, including 235 children, and close to 3700 wounded (50% of them women and children). Thirteen Israelis have died in the offensive, ten of them soldiers.

“Palestinian people must be some of the most extraordinary human beings in the world to continue to survive and raise families and talk about peace under the conditions they are living in,” said Catherine Hoffman from the Cambridge-Bethlehem People-to-People Project. “People who see Israel as the victim here, can see the power, absolute power that Israel wields in Palestine, not just now in terms of the killing, but everyday in terms of the occupation.”

Dressed all in black, a diverse community of Palestinians, Arab-Americans, Jews, Christians, and people from different heritage backgrounds, gathered in Boston in solidarity with the Palestinian cause. They marched from Copley Square to Downtown Crossing and back, waving Palestinian flags and carrying small bundles to represent dead children. They called for an immediate cessation of Israel's attacks on Gaza, a humanitarian international response to the crisis, and an end to Israel's stranglehold of the occupied territories.

“What's going on in Gaza right now is nothing new. We've had massacres all through our history since 1948. Hundreds of massacres, large scale, low scale. Continuously targeting Palestinians,” said Salma Abu Ayyash, a US resident born to Palestinian parents who fled the occupied territories in the late 1960s. “What is happening in Gaza is basically a manifestation of a greater plan to partition Palestine and make it impossible for Palestinians to have any kind of self-determination, any kind of real political representation and rights as human beings.”

Hillary Rantisi, a Palestinian from Ramallah who arrived to the United States seven years ago with her husband, a Ph.D. student, said that life in the West Bank is marked by a daily struggle under Israel's military and political power. She said her childhood memories are marked with Israeli soldiers patrolling the streets on her way to school. She herself was caught in the crossfire and has many friends who have been imprisoned.

The 600-plus checkpoints and the network of fences and walls controlled by the Israeli army make daily life impossible in the West Bank, said Hillary. “Imagine if you lived in Somerville and went to university in Boston or Cambridge, and there was a checkpoint in between. You wouldn't be able to go to your school. Or if you worked in a different town. So your life is basically very much under the control of all these restrictions,” she said.

“They need to acknowledge that we have rights too,” said Salma, “that the only way to move forward is if Israel recognizes our right to exist. Is not the other way around. We are the ones who are being obliterated here.”

Meanwhile, Israel has dropped leaflets in Gaza warning the 1.5 million residents of an escalation to the offensive, ignoring a UN Security Council call for an immediate ceasefire. The Hamas resistance continues to throw rockets into Israel in response. Concerns for the safety of the civilian population in Gaza has become critical as Human Rights Watch confirmed today the use by Israel forces of white phosphorus in the Gaza City/Jabaliya area.

“White phosphorous can burn down houses and cause horrific burns when it touches the skin,” said Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch. “Israel should not use it in Gaza’s densely populated areas.” Its use, according to the organization, would violate the requirement under international humanitarian law to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian injury and loss of life.

At the same time, fears have arisen that its war tactics has resorted to target journalists within the strip. The International Federation of Journalists issued today a condemnation of the Israeli government for bombing the Al-Johara Tower, an eight-story building that housed over 20 news organizations. At least one journalist was reported injured. Four other Palestinian journalists were killed in separate attacks. Nevertheless, news of the human loss and devastation in Gaza have been broadly broadcasted around the world, despite Israel's blockade of media entry into the strip.

Similarly, the daily worldwide protests seem to be on the rise. Israel Indymedia reported protests in at least six different cities in Israel today and yesterday, with several arrests. In Washington D.C. as many as 15 thousand people rallied today for Gaza, according to DC Indymedia. In Boston, daily vigils and protests have spread into several different towns, including Boston, Cambridge, Watertown, Roxbury, Dorchester, Brookline, Worcester, and Northhampton; in a spree of solidarity that has not been seen since the early protests against the Iraq war.

“It is in the US where it's particularly amazing, I think, because for the most part this is where our most fierce opposition lies and it's where it's most significant to have a change in policy. We've always known there has been a global movement of solidarity with the Palestinian people, and to see that penetrate into US mainstream I think is absolutely inspiring at this stage,” said Omar Baddar, executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee of Massachusetts and steering committee member US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation.

“We stand together, whether we are Jews, Muslim or Christians, saying that we have one humanity. That we are equal as human beings, regardless of our religion, regardless of our backgrounds. And we today demand that we [Palestinians] are recognized as having equal humanity,” said Hillary.

RELATED: Watch video of the funeral procession, by Michael Borkson:http://openmediaboston.org/node/498

Accusations of Anti-Semitism

2009-01-11T16:49:00.000-08:00

This is a piece sent to me by Pat Westwater-Jong, a journalist and peace activist who has been to Palestine and lives in Boston. The piece refers to a rally that has already happened--it took me a while to post this. Thanks, Pat!

I have found that for many/most people, especially the American press and politicians and many of my Jewish friends and family - opposing the Israeli government's treatment of the Palestinians, especially now in Gaza - is code for "opposing the state of Israel", and for being anti-Semitic. I think that any signs people carry and speakers at the rally, that/who aren't clear that they oppose the Israeli government's treatment of Palestinians, and not the Israeli people and not Jews in general - is counterproductive. Those accusations merely increase many people's fear and mis-belief that to oppose the Israeli government in any way is anti-Semitic -which entrenches their inability to listen to what is happening and come to understand that what the Isreali government is going is not for safety of Israel and not within their value system. I know there are people who are anti-Semitic, and some of them will be drawn to this protest and i do not identify with them any more than i identify and support anyone who is racist or prejudiced against any group. I hope that the speakers will address this because i think this is the key reason why so many people, "liberals" in particular, align themselves with the oppressors here and cannot hear what is truly happening in Israel, and therefore cannot oppose it. Until these people realize that it is OK to criticize Israeli government policies and that can actually be a way to stand up for moral Jewish behavior, they will continue to associate criticizing Israel with being anti-Semitic, and Israel is likely to continue their illegal and immortal treatment of the Palestinian people.

If we can get enough Americans to understand that they can oppose those Israeli policies which are illegal and immoral, just as they have opposed Bush administration policies that are illegal and immoral, and still been patriot Americans - then many of them will be open to being informed about what's really happening - and then we can change public opinion and then we can withdraw that support from Israel which enables them to treat the Palestinians as they have been treated. Without US support, it seems they cannot continue and certainly my friends in Israel believe that Israel will not continue to oppress and abuse Palestinians without US support. The bombs are being dropped onto the people in Gaza, from American planes.
I want very much to be part of an effort that informs and encourages human rights for all - not one that espouses hatred for Israel and Jews. The only way out of this is to stand up against hatred and abuse of everyone - and stop abuse of anyone - regardless of what group/religion/race/political party, etc, they are a part of.

Get on the bus to DC!

2009-01-08T14:29:00.000-08:00

"Let Gaza Live!" Protest
BOSTON-DC BUS

MEET AT BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY //
COPLEY STATION- 700 BOYLSTON ST, BOSTON MA
11PM, FRIDAY JAN 9PLEASE CALL/

EMAIL TO CONFIRM! SPREAD WORD! "ATTEND" AT FACEBOOK PAGE, INVITE FRIENDS!http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/event.php?eid=43692745919
Phone:
617-970-2701
Email:
resistingempire@gmail.comThe time to act is now! Local marches have taken place all over the country. Now is the time to bring the outrage of the people right to the steps of the White House. $20-$50 --- sliding scale --- Please give generously according to your ability! we would rather neither turn people away due to low funds, nor put a huge burden on those who are fronting the $thousands for the bus. Thank you & solidarity!

The biggest possible demonstration at the seat of power will capture the largest attention in the media, put direct pressure on the government, and bring forces together who will be pivotal local, nationally and internationally in building in this new phase of the anti-war movement.We are sending a message to both Bush and the incoming Obama administration: This war of aggression must end immediately! People all over the world will be marching in their country's capital cities on Saturday, January 10. The people of this country will come together in Washington, D.C., to say NO to the government that speaks in their name and uses their tax dollars to fund Israel to the tune of over $15 million per day.Tens of thousands have marched across the country.

Sponsored by Act Now to Stop War and Racism (International A.N.S.W.E.R.), The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), American Muslim Task Force (AMT), American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), American Muslim Alliance (AMA), Muslimah Writers Alliance (MWA), Voters for Peace (VFP) and many others have become sponsoring organizations of the January 10 Let Gaza Live National March on Washington, along with the ANSWER Coalition, Muslim American Society Freedom (MASF), Free Palestine Alliance (FPA), National Council of Arab Americans (NCA), Al-Awda - International Palestine Right to Return Coalition, and hundreds of others

Video of 1/3 march in Boston

2009-01-04T19:22:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeDx79oW44c

Organizing meeting Tuesday!

2009-01-04T18:46:00.000-08:00

The war continues, so our struggle continues!
Come to an organizing meeting:
Tuesday, Jan 6, 7pm at the Palestine Cultural Center,41 Quint Ave., AllstonBetween Brighton Ave. and Glenville Ave.

Solidarity action in Providence

2009-01-04T16:42:00.000-08:00

PROVIDENCE, RI

Show your solidarity with the uprisings in Athens, and the people of Gaza.

We are planning a funeral procession in solidarity with all victims of warand state violence on Saturday, January 10th, through the streets of Providence. We will speak at various sites of state violence throughout the city. Anyone interested in planning or speaking please come to aplanning meeting Monday January 5th at 6pm. Email whatqueer@gmail.com forinfo, even if you can't make it on the 5th.

Called for by What Queer?! a radical queer collective in Providence.Please forward widely.

Rallying in support of Gaza

2009-01-02T08:09:00.000-08:00

http://socialistworker.org/2009/01/02/rallying-in-support-of-gaza
WAR AND ANTIWAR
Elizabeth Schulte rounds up reports of demonstrations of solidarity with the Palestinian population of Gaza.
January 2, 2009

AS THE news spread that the Israeli government had begun raining bombs on the people of Gaza December 27, tens of thousands of people around the world surged into the streets in the hours and days that followed to speak out in support of the Palestinian victims of this onslaught.

Throughout the Middle East, people protested Israel's latest atrocity. In Ramallah, hundreds marched to the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority in the largest demonstration held there in several years. As Mel Frykberg of InterPress Service reported:

Elegantly turned out middle-aged women from Ramallah's Christian minority marched side by side with tough young men from the surrounding refugee camps. Grandmothers, journalists, factional leaders, and mothers with toddlers walked, linking arms with a scattering of international sympathizers based in the cosmopolitan central West Bank city.

Some protesters then marched to the nearby Israeli military checkpoint of Beit El, where Israeli police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse them.

In Beirut, Lebanon, on the third day of Israel's assault, tens of thousands protested in pouring rain at a demonstration called by the Islamist resistance organization Hezbollah. Demonstrators carried Palestinian, Lebanese and yellow Hezbollah flags and banners.

Protesters in many cities marched to Egyptian consulates and embassies to condemn Egypt's government for closing its border with Gaza, which has helped fuel the humanitarian crisis there.

In Egypt, hundreds of thousands have taken part in protests around the country. Thousands more gathered in Damascus, Syria; Khartoum, Sudan; Amman, Jordan; and in Baghdad in occupied Iraq.

''The Israelis kill our people in Gaza and the West Bank,'' Yassin Abu Taha, a protester in Jordan's Baqaa camp for Palestinian refugees, told the Associated Press. "The Americans kill our people in Iraq. We're refugees, kicked out of our home in Tulkarem in 1967 and we're still displaced."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
IN THE U.S., where mainstream political leaders voiced unanimous support for Israel's war of terror against Palestinians, solidarity actions nevertheless came together in a matter of hours.

Some 2,000 marchers turned out to line eight blocks of downtown Dearborn, Mich., where there is a large Arab-American population.

In Orange County, Calif.--a generally conservative area south of Los Angeles--as many as 1,000 protesters gathered in Anaheim the day after the attacks. The rally, initiated by a coalition of groups including Al-Awda, brought out large numbers from the local Arab and Muslim community. Spontaneous marches took place, lasting from early afternoon until well past nightfall, with people young and old leading chants and marching with their friends and families.

Nayef, a young Palestinian American came to the protest with his family. "I'm here because we need a protest to let the world know we must end the occupation," he said. "It's unfair and just not right to kill innocent civilians for no reason." His 11-year-old cousin, Anas, said: "I wish that the people of Gaza could have enough food and for Gaza to be free...that's why I am here."

In San Francisco, hundreds of protesters took over the downtown intersection of Montgomery and Market December 29 and occupied it for two hours, without arrests, before continuing their march to Union Square.
The same day, some 500 people protested in Chicago's freezing temperature at Water Tower Place. Several organizations co-sponsored the event, including leftist, antiwar, Muslim, Palestinian, Arab and Jewish peace groups. The crowd was mostly Arab and Arab American, but with strong support from other groups, including student organizations from at least five universities.

On December 30, thousands of protesters in several cities--including San Francisco, Washington, D.C., New York, Los Angeles and Chicago--took part in a national day of action called by a number of groups, including the ANSWER Coalition, the Muslim American Society, the National Council of Arab Americans, the Free Palestine Alliance, Al-Awda-International Palestine Coalition for the Right of Return and others.
In San Francisco, 2,000 people gathered to protest at the Israeli consulate--the crowd was so large that demonstrators took over the streets and began marching through downtown San Francisco. Despite the interruption to their evening commute, many motorists could be heard honking their support of Palestine.
Large numbers of people of Middle Eastern descent, who have at times been ignored by the antiwar movement, attended. Iraq Veterans Against the War member Carl Davison said, "What is happening in Iraq is the same as what is happening in Palestine. This is the U.S. raining down imperialism against people who are almost defenseless, and it is unacceptable."

In Washington, D.C., 3,000 protested at the State Department. In Los Angeles, 1,000 rallied for three hours at the Israeli consulate. At the same time, a protest called by Los Angeles Jews for Peace took place at the Federal Building in west Los Angeles, drawing 300 people.

Hundreds turned out at the Israeli consulate in New York City, separated by police barricades from pro-Israel protesters. "I'm shocked at what Israel is doing--indiscriminately killing children, women...punishing an entire population for the acts of a few," protester Dalia Mahmoud told WABC.

In Boston, 200 people rallied against the massacre in Gaza, chanting "Stop the blood, stop the hate, Israel is a racist state!" The demonstrators also confronted Israel supporters who had gathered across the street to defend Israel's terrorism. The rally continued at Copley Square, where there was a speak-out. Plans were made for further actions.

In San Diego, 500 gathered at the Federal Building on December 30. The protesters were there "to demonstrate against the massacre of our people in Gaza and the rest of occupied Palestine," said Youssef Abudayyeh of the Free Palestine Alliance.

"People are outraged. We need to attract the larger American public about the massacre that is taking place in our names with our tax dollars...We call on people to do whatever they can to demonstrate our outrage."
Khalid Mansour, who has visited family members in Gaza and the West Bank, said, "Gaza is the biggest open prison. What they are doing is pushing us in this little open prison, and they are bombing us...It's just too much to see what is going on."

Some 500 people gathered the same day at the federal building in Portland, Ore., with protesters carrying signs and banners proclaiming "Stop the holocaust against the Palestinians," "Killing Children Is Not Self-defense" and "Free Palestine: One state solution."

As at other rallies, Palestinians, Muslims and Arab Americans turned out in large numbers. Activist Rima Ghandour said, "It was inspiring to so see so many young people from the Arab community participating and finding their voice." After the protest, a call was made to march on pro-Israel Sen. Ron Wyden's (D-Ore) office to demand a hearing. Failure to get one would bring a rain of old shoes on the senator and his office, the organizers promised.

Three hundred people turned out in the freezing cold in Toledo, Ohio, chanting "From Iraq to Palestine, Occupation is a Crime!"

Forty came out in Albany, N.Y. to the state capitol to hear speakers from several organizations, including one who brought solidarity greetings from Palestinian journalist Mohammed Omer, who is still recovering from his ordeal in Israeli captivity. A Palestinian refugee, who survived the Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon in 1982, spoke of his experiences.

In Seattle, 200 people turned out on December 30 at the Federal Building. Student antiwar activists used the opportunity to publicize a rally and march of local progressive forces on January 20--Inauguration Day--to show Obama what kind of change we want to see.

As one of the demonstrators, Adnan, said, "I'll definitely be out for that. I was horrified that Obama would support Israel's massacre in Gaza. We're going to have to hold his feet to the fire by organizing and protesting."

In Atlanta, 300 protested on December 30. Two days before, an emergency protest of 100 was organized on 24 hours' notice by pro-Palestine student activists at Emory University and the University of Georgia. At the conclusion of the two-hour protest on December 30, an impromptu march began through the streets of midtown Atlanta. Plans are being circulated for another protest January 3 in front of the CNN building.
In Ithaca, N.Y. 30 people protested December 30 in solidarity with the people of Palestine--as well as two local community activists, Clare Grady and Ellen Grady, who were arrested the day before protesting in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Fifty people protested in Burlington, Vt. In Baltimore, a crowd of 50 people gathered at the War Memorial Plaza near City Hall.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
THE IMMEDIATE flood of support for the Palestinian people--from longtime activists and organizations as people new to activism--reflected a new confidence to speak out. Activists are looking for ways to build more solidarity between different struggles, and antiwar activists in particular are linking the U.S. war on Iraq with Israel's war on the Palestinians.

Similarly, in many places, opponents of the Israeli war recognized that they must take anti-Arab and anti-Muslim head-on. At the University of California at Berkeley, for instance, antiwar and pro-Palestinian groups are taking a stand against anti-Arab hate crimes on their campus.
Activists are also making sure to bring their message to President-elect Barack Obama. In Washington, D.C., activists quickly organized a 200-strong demonstration near Obama's transition office. A favorite chant was "Hope for Gaza."

In Hawaii, where Obama and his family were on vacation in the fancy Oahu suburb of Kailu, a handful of protesters gathered nearby with placards that read "No U.S. support for Israel" and "Gazans need food and medicine, not war."

Obama has so far declined to make a statement on Israel's assault, while his staff reiterates the line that "there can only be one president at a time." But senior advisor David Axelrod appeared on CBS's Face the Nation the day after the attacks to affirm Obama's support for Israel's right to attack the Palestinians.

"The president-elect was in Sderot last July, in southern Israel, a town that's taken the brunt of the Hamas attacks," he said. "And he said then that, when bombs are raining down on your citizens, there is an urge to respond and act and try and put an end to that. So, you know, that's what he said then, and I think that's what he believes."

As Green Party presidential candidate and former Democratic member of Congress Cynthia McKinney told CNN, "As we are about to celebrate Martin Luther King's birthday, let's remember what he said. He said that the U.S. was the greatest purveyor of violence on the planet, and we experienced a little of that because the weapons that are being used by Israel are weapons being supplied by the U.S. government."

McKinney was on board the SS Dignity alongside members of the Free Gaza Movement who were attempting to bring desperately needed supplies to Gaza via the Mediterranean Sea, when the small boat was rammed three times by an Israeli naval gunboat. The Israeli government claimed it was an accident.

Protests against Israel's war will continue. In Chicago, for example, a Friday protest has been called by the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago, which will bring together the city's mosques and Muslim organizations.

Activists are committed to standing with protesters around the world to oppose Israel's assault on Gaza, here in the country that supports and funds Israel's war crimes.

Jeff Bale, Patrick Dyer, Rick Greenblatt, Josh Karpoff, Tim Koch, Katie Miller, Rachael Moshman, Alex Read, Mer Reese, Gillian Russom, Nevin Sabet, Michael Schwartz and Kathryn Weber contributed to this article.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Protests against Israel's assault on Gaza have already taken place in cities around the country, with more planned for the coming days. Contact local organizers for details where you live.For updates on the current situation, plus commentary and analysis on the background to the war, read theElectronic Intifada Web site. Electronic Intifada Executive Director Ali Abunimah's "Gaza massacres must spur us to action" is a good starting point for further reading.You can also find updated coverage on conditions in Gaza and the efforts of activists to stand up to the Israeli war at the Free Gaza Web site.Between the Lines: Readings on Israel, the Palestinians and the U.S. "War on Terror," by Tikva Honig-Parnass and Toufic Haddad, documents the apartheid-like conditions that Palestinians live under today.For background on Israel's war and the Palestinian struggle for freedom, readThe Struggle for Palestine, a collection of essays edited by Lance Selfa on the history of the occupation and Palestinian resistance.

Stand with Gaza! Protest Saturday!

2008-12-31T15:40:00.000-08:00

Stand up to Israel's occupation of Palestine and seige of Gaza!
12 noon, Copley Square. Rally and march!

End the Israeli aggressive war on Gaza!
End the Genocide!
End the 60 Year occupation of Palestine!
End the siege!
We support the right of Palestinians to resist!

Video of the Dec. 30 protest

2008-12-30T23:45:00.000-08:00

This shows the beginning and middle of the rally:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5RcfmxfMr0

This one shows the march:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZexS5umQgK4

Boston: Gaza Rally Outside Israeli Consulate

2008-12-30T23:34:00.000-08:00

by Patrick Keaney

On the fourth day of Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza, hundreds of Bostonians turned out to a rally to demonstrate their solidarity with the Palestinian people. The rally, which was organized by a coalition of pro-Palestinian groups, took place in front of the office building that houses the Israeli Consulate’s office in Boston’s Back Bay. The spirited rally was followed by a boisterous march from the Israeli Consulate to Copley Square, where preparations for Boston’s First Night were underway.

The Boston area has seen several highly visible demonstrations since the bombing began, including Sunday outside Park St. station, and Monday evening at Roxbury Crossing and Harvard Square in Cambridge. There was also a rally outside Sen. John Kerry’s downtown office Monday afternoon. But the demonstration Tuesday at the consulate was the largest yet, with approximately 200 people in attendance, and there appeared to be a broad cross-section of the activist community there.

With strong winds blowing several large Palestinian flags into the cold night sky, a picket line formed across the street from the consulate’s office. As dozens pro-Israeli counter-demonstrators gathered in front of the door to the consulate, the pro-Palestinian group started chanting “Occupation is a crime, from Iraq to Palestine!” and “Not another nickel, not another dime! No more money for Israel’s crimes!” A large police presence was visible from the outset, separating the two groups.

On a day when the death toll in Gaza neared 400, and with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declaring, “We are currently at the first stage of the operation,” it’s clear that a sustained campaign of resistance against Israel’s crimes is needed. Anyone interested in learning more about the issues and getting involved can visit http://bostonstandswithgaza.blogspot.com//.

The world stands with Gaza!

2008-12-30T23:24:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure of the name of the person who emailed this stuff to me, but it's a round-up of protests around the world, from NYC, to London, to Karachi, to Phoenix, to the Free Gaza Movement. Thanks for sending!

New York Demonstration:
"Yes! We Can Save Gaza. Boycott Israel Now!"

December 30, 2008On the Web at:http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j-uta_l4FyVRi5LQC2nRgWLY-u4Q

________________________________________________________

New York: Marchers demand boycott against Israel

"NYC Marches Again to Demand End of Massacres in Gaza and Boycott of Israel:
"For the second day in a row, over a thousand New Yorkers marched through midtown Manhattan."
December 30, 2008

On Indymedia at:
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2008/12/102590.shtml

By Adalah-NY For the second day in a row, over a thousand New Yorkers marched through midtown Manhattan, chanting and carrying signs and Palestinian flags, to voice opposition and demand an end to Israel's assault on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. In the last three days, Israel's bombing of Gaza has killed over 360 Palestinians. Reports indicate that at least 60 of those killed were women and children.

The Monday evening protest, which drew a diverse and noisy crowd of more than a thousand and substantial media, began at 5 PM with leafletting and chanting at Union Square and Herald Square.

The energy grew during a symbolic funeral procession for Gaza's dead from Herald Square to Bryant Park, as marchers carried aloft two stretchers covered in black shrouds and flags, similar to those used in Palestinian funeral processions. The march culminated with loud chanting at the Israeli Consulate at 8:30 PM. It comes on the heels of a Sunday afternoon Manhattan march that drew over two thousand protesters, and will be followed by a Tuesday evening protest at the Israeli Consulate beginning at 5 PM.

Rush-hour pedestrians were handed thousands of flyers calling for an end to the massacre in Gaz and a boycott of Israel, and were greeted with chants, including:
"Obama. No more aid.Stop the funds for deadly raids;" and
"While you are shopping, bombs are dropping."

Riham Barghouti from Adalah-NY explained, "New Yorkers are out in the street because they're angry that the US government is providing Israel with the planes as well as the hundreds of tons of bombs that Israel is dropping on 1.5 million impoverished Palestinians who are packed together in the world's largest open-air prison. Silence in the face of such crimes is complicity. That's why people worldwide are stepping up the non-violent campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions to pressure Israel to halt its human rights violations. With our government here in the US refusing to act, it's up to us as citizens to mobilize to hold Israel accountable."

The assault follows nearly three years of a tightening Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip which began, with US support, after Hamas emerged victorious in democratic Palestinian elections in January, 2006. More recently, Israel has almost totally sealed off Gaza to the outside world, preventing shipments of food, fuel and medical supplies from reaching Gaza's civilian population, resulting in skyrocketing levels of unemployment, poverty and hunger. Israel has also conducted frequent assassinations and aerial attacks on Gaza, killing approximately 1500 Gazans since 2006 alone. Israel's siege of Gaza's civilian population and assaults against Gaza's residents constitute grave breaches of international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention. Some observers believe Israel's attacks were timed to coincide with the holiday season, when most people turn their attention away from world events.

The flyers distributed to passersby provided information on Israel's attacks and called for support for the growing international campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel - similar to the worldwide campaign that helped end Apartheid in South Africa - in order to hold Israel accountable for its crimes.

Over the last year, Adalah-NY has carried out a successful boycott campaign against Israeli diamond mogul, settlement-builder and New York real estate developer Lev Leviev.
For photos of the protest: http://adalahny.org/index.php/photo-galleries/272-gaza-funeral-procession
By Adalah-NY info@adalahny.org http://www.adalahny.org

________________________________________________________

Dearborn Demonstration:
"Stop the Holocaust in Gaza"

"Protesters rally against Israeli airstrikes with human chain in Dearborn"

by Karen Bouffard / The Detroit News (Detroit, Michigan)

Tuesday, December 30, 2008
On the Web at:
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081230/METRO/812300436/1020/NATION

DEARBORN -- Hundreds of people lined Warren Avenue for about a mile in a human chain Tuesday afternoon to protest Israel's bombings of Gaza and what they consider inhuman treatment of Palestinians who live in the region.

The mostly Arab-American demonstrators were joined by religious leaders from other faiths, as well as members of the Green Party and other political groups in protesting the Bush Administration's handling of the Middle East conflict and support of the state of Israel.

The protest, which ran from Chase Street to beyond Scaefer, was put on by the Congress of Arab American Organizations-Michigan. While local police say about 1,000 people attended the event, organizers pegged the turnout at about 5,000.

Many of the protesters waved the red, black, green and white flag of Palestine while holding large signs showing photographs of burned and maimed Palestinians injured in the air strikes against Hamas that have gone on for the last four days.

Iman Jafin, 48, of Dearborn, helped hold a sign saying "Stop the Holocaust in Gaza" and led the crowd in a chant of "Down, down, Israel. How many children you killed today."

"I have two daughters in Palestine, one of them has three children -- two girls and one boy -- and all of them are there," Jafin said. There is no medicine. I reached them on on the Internet two days ago. I'm crying every night. I don't know what happened to them now.

________________________________________________________

Zionist beasts ram into Gaza relief boat, collapsing part of its roof:

"Gaza relief boat damaged in encounter with Israeli vessel"
December 30, 2008
On CNN at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/12/30/gaza.aid.boat/?iref=hpmostpop

(CNN) -- An Israeli patrol boat struck a boat carrying medical volunteers and supplies to Gaza early Tuesday as it attempted to intercept the vessel in the Mediterranean Sea, witnesses and Israeli officials said.

The Dignity arrives in Tyre, Lebanon, after it was reportedly rammed by an Israeli military vessel Tuesday.
1 of 3 CNN Correspondent Karl Penhaul was aboard the 60-foot, Gibraltar-registered pleasure boat Dignity when the contact occurred. When the boat later docked in the Lebanese port city of Tyre, severe damage was visible to the forward port side of the boat, and the front left window and part of the roof had collapsed.

The Dignity was carrying crew and 16 passengers -- physicians from Britain, Germany and Cyprus and human rights activists, including former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney -- who were trying to reach Gaza through an Israeli blockade of the territory.

The captain of the Dignity said the Israelis broadcast a radio message accusing the vessel of being involved in terrorist activity. But Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor denied that and said the radio message simply warned the vessel not to proceed to Gaza because it is a closed military area.

Palmor said there was no response to the radio message, and the vessel then tried to out-maneuver the Israeli patrol boat, leading to the collision. Watch Penhaul describe the boat damage »
Penhaul said at least two Israeli patrol boats had shadowed the Dignity for about half an hour before the collision, moving around the vessel on all sides. One of the patrol boats then shined its spotlight on the Dignity while the other, with its lights off, "very severely rammed" the boat.

The captain of the Dignity told Penhaul he received no prior warning. Only after the collision did the Israelis come on the radio to say they struck the boat because they believed it was involved in terrorist activities. Watch the chaos in Gaza and Israel »

The captain and crew said their vessel was struck intentionally, Penhaul said, but Palmor called those allegations "absurd."

"There is no intention on the part of the Israeli navy to ram anybody," Palmor said.
"I would call it ramming. Let's just call it as it is," McKinney said. "Our boat was rammed three times, twice in the front and one on the side. Watch Cynthia McKinney discuss the collision »
"Our mission was a peaceful mission to deliver medical supplies and our mission was thwarted by the Israelis -- the aggressiveness of the Israeli military," she said.

The incident occurred in international waters about 90 miles off Gaza. Israel controls the waters off Gaza's coast and routinely blocks ships from coming into the Palestinian territory as part of an ongoing blockade that also applies to the Israel-Gaza border. Human rights groups have expressed concern about the blockade on Gaza, which has restricted the delivery of emergency aid and fuel supplies.

The collision was so severe, Penhaul said, that the passengers were ordered to put on their life vests and be ready to get in lifeboats. The Dignity began taking on water, but the crew managed to pump it out of the hull long enough for the boat to reach shore.
Palmor said the vessel refused assistance after the incident.

The boat was carrying boxes of relief supplies, volunteers and journalists to Gaza, the Palestinian territory now subject to an intense Israeli bombing campaign.

Israel launched airstrikes against Gaza on Saturday in what Defense Minister Ehud Barak called an "all-out war" against the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has ruled the territory since 2007.
The Palestinian death toll has topped 375, most of them Hamas militants, Palestinian medical sources said Tuesday. At least 60 civilians have been killed in Gaza, U.N. officials said....

________________________________________________________

Worldwide Protests against Israeli Massacre of Gaza:
"I can recognise fascism when I see it and this is really what Israel is doing. "

"Protest demos slam Israeli aggression"
DAILY TIMES (Lahore, Pakistan)Monday, December 29, 2008
On the Web at:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\12\29\story_29-12-2008_pg7_23

KARACHI: Separate protest demonstrations were held in the city on Sunday to condemn the Israeli military operation in Gaza Strip that killed around 271 Palestinians.
Hundreds of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) activists staged a protest demonstration outside Jamia Mosque Binoria Town.
The protesters carried banners and placards inscribed with slogans against Israel, the US and India, and chanted slogans. JI Central Secretary General Syed Munawar Hussain, JI Karachi Amir Muhammad Hussain Mehnti, JI Karachi Secretary General Hafiz Naeemur Rehman and other JI office-bearers addressed the protesters. Addressing the participants of the protest demonstration, JI leader Munawar Hassan condemned the air strikes by the Israel and criticised Muslim rulers for not raising any strong voice against the killing of innocent Palestinians.

He maintained that Palestine is surrounded by the Muslims states but despite this, Israel is committing its atrocities.
JI Karachi Amir Muhammad Hussain Mehnti lamented that Israel has besieged Gaza and halted water supply besides stopping medicines and other treatment facilities to the people while the UN is playing a role of silent spectator. He maintained that world community, which raised voice over the Mumbai attacks, should also raise its voice against the Israeli atrocities. Meanwhile, the Palestine Liberation Foundation Pakistan (PLF) staged a protest against Israeli aggression in front of the local press club. Hundreds of protesters chanted slogans and torched flags.
ppi/staff report.
_____________________________

"Gaza protests planned for weekend across UK"
31 December 2008

British demonstrations against Israeli bomb attacks in Gaza will gather momentum on Saturday with thousands of people expected to attend a rally in London and smaller protests planned in cities across the UK, say organisers.

Yesterday, in the third consecutive day of protest within shouting distance of the Israeli embassy in Palace Green, London, numbers had diminished to around 200 and there were no arrests. The protests are planned to continue tomorrow and on New Year's Day. A rally will be held at the Egyptian embassy in London on Friday to demand that the country's border with Gaza be opened, while the capital's larger rally will assemble on the Embankment at 12.30pm on Saturday.

Sarah Colborne, chair of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said: "Thousands will be demonstrating all across the country. People are very angry, some of them are making spontaneous demonstrations. Everyone is building up for the Saturday protests now."

Around 100 police officers watched yesterday's protesters, who had been cordoned off in a section of Kensington High Street. Commander Bob Broadhurst, in charge of public order policing for the Met, said: "We are very mindful of the deeply passionate response this conflict causes for some people.
"There will be further demonstrations this week. The Met is committed to and will always facilitate lawful, legitimate protest. We are working closely with the organiser of the demonstrations being held until New Year's Day to ensure they can make their point safely, whilst we minimise any disruption in that area."
He added: "I would urge anyone else planning to hold a demonstration to come and work with us. What the Met will do is support lawful protest, but ensure all steps are taken to deal with those who break the law, or attempt to disrupt legitimate demonstrations."

On Monday, seven protesters were arrested and mounted police moved in to disperse the crowds. Yesterday, as temperatures fell, the mood was quieter and attendance more sparse.

Violetta Thomson, 73, from London, said it was the first day that she had attended. She said she could not watch anymore on television without doing something. "I was brought up in fascist Spain and came here 30 years ago. I can recognise fascism when I see it and this is really what Israel is doing. The Israeli people are not fascists, I don't think they really see the carnage their government is responsible for," she said.
Beside her, Vicky Scarlett, 75, said: "Human instincts say you must do something about this, it shouldn't be going on. In the most moderate of terms it is unjust. It's an abomination for the world to stand and watch this happening.".

Protests have also been organised for Saturday in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Portsmouth and Hull.

________________________________________________________

Arizona Demonstration against the Israeli Massacre of Gaza--

CARAMA Coalition of Arabs and Muslims in America

CARAMA movement in coordination with other local and student Arab/Muslims organizations has organized a mass protest today December 28, 2008, at the busy intersection of Camelback and Central St, in Downtown Phoenix. This protest, according to local senior members in the Arab/Muslims community was the largest Arab/Muslims protest ever in Arizona. More than 350 protesters continuously for two hours chanted slogans like "Palestine will be free from the river to the sea", "free free Palestine" and "free free Gaza" قامت حركة تحالف العرب والمسلمين في امريكا (كرامة) وبالتعاون مع عدد من المنظمات المحلية والطلابية العربية والمسلمة بتنظيم مظاهرة هي الاكبر من نوعها في تاريخ الجالية العربية والمسلمة الصغيرة نسبياًَ في أريزونا والتي لا يتجاوز عدد أفرادها بضعة ألاف. حيث تجمع أكثر من ثلاثمائة وخمسين متظاهراًَ على تقاطع طرق كامل باك مع سنتر ستريت المزدحم في وسط مدينة فينكس عاصمة الولاية للتنديد بالعدوان الإسرائيلي الغاشم على قطاع غزة، وقد رفع المتظاهرون لافتات تدين الدعم الامريكي للكيان الصهيوني وأخرى تتهم "إسرائيل" بشن حرب إبادة شاملة ضد أهلنا في قطاع غزة، كذلك ردد المتظاهرون طوال ساعتين كاملتين شعارات وطنية مثل "فلسطين حرة من البحر إلى النهر" و"عاشت فلسطين" و"الحرية لغزة"
________________________________________________________

Protest Israeli terror! Stand with Gaza! Protest Tuesday at the Israeli Consulate!

2008-12-29T07:17:00.000-08:00

Out of the action in Brookline yesterday, we decided to build a unified, big protest at the Israeli Consulate to complement the neighborhood ones Monday. Spread the word!!
Protest at the Israeli Consulate (20 Park Plaza, near Arlington in Back Bay; Green Line to Arlington, Organge Line to Back Bay)
Tuesday, 12/30 at 4:30
To be followed by a march to Copley Sq.
If you want to co-sponsor or build this, please contact me. More info to come!!

Blood and tears in the streets of Gaza

2008-12-29T07:00:00.000-08:00

http://socialistworker.org/2008/12/29/blood-and-tears-in-gaza

Eric Ruder reports on Israel's latest escalation of its barbaric war on the Palestinian people.December 29, 2008

Israeli air strikes have killed nearly 300 Palestinians in two days of bombing (Fady Adwan propaimages)

GAZA IS under attack by one of the most deadly military machines on the planet--with even worse to come as Israel masses troops for a threatened ground invasion.Starting at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, Israel's F-16 jet fighters and Apache helicopters, supplied by the U.S., unleashed a punishing assault on targets of every kind--police stations, mosques, hospitals, media outlets, community centers and buildings owned by the Hamas party.Gaza is one of the most densely populated places in the world, so the "precision strikes" supposedly aimed at "Hamas militants" were bound to take a toll on the civilian population.

By late Sunday night, the official death toll after 36 hours of killing stood at nearly 300.Meanwhile, Israeli ground forces and tanks were stationed at the border, and the military announced it was calling up its reserves, an ominous sign that the scale of the atrocities could grow worse.Israel's all-out offensive caused fury across the Middle East. Thousands took to the streets to protest Israel's assault and the silence of many Arab regimes as the slaughter of Palestinians was broadcast on television news stations. In several places, anger was directed at the Egyptian government for its unwillingness to open its border with Gaza to relieve the pressure from Israel's crippling siege of the last 18 months.

In the U.S., antiwar coalitions, human rights groups and others organized emergency-response actions, drawing hundreds to demonstrations in cities across the U.S. More protests will take place this week; a national day of action has been called for Tuesday.

Israel's attack began with simultaneous air raids on more than 30 targets. Within the first nine hours, the Israeli military reported it had dropped more than 100 tons of bombs. Not since the 1967 Six-Day War, when Israel began its occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, have Palestinians in Gaza been subjected to such an outburst of destruction.

In an interview, Dr. Haider Eid relayed the horror as he talked about conditions in Gaza:

"I live in Gaza City itself, where most of the air strikes took place. The attacks came just as schoolchildren were returning home from school. It was absolutely horrible. The timing was chosen to cause a massacre.I rushed to the Shifa hospital--along with ambulances, cars and trucks that were also streaming to the hospital with the wounded. I stood in front of the gate. I don't like to see the mangled bodies, but this was especially horrible. Cars carried dismembered bodies, detached legs and arms and heads.The part of this that I'm still trying to cope with are the bodies of the children. This is something you don't wish on your worst enemies, to tell you the truth. The morgue at the hospital is the largest in Gaza City, but it ran out of space to keep the bodies."

As he talked, a thunderous noise drowned out Haider's voice.

"Oh my God! A huge explosion just took place as I'm speaking with you," said Haider. "That was very close. Oh my God! Another one! I'm sorry. I must go."

Haider hung up to check on his relatives, and subsequent attempts to reach him have so far been unsuccessful.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

ISRAEL CLAIMED that it launched its offensive on Gaza to defend itself from Palestinian rocket attacks aimed at towns in southern Israel. Predictably, the U.S. backed up this assertion. "The United States strongly condemns the repeated rocket and mortar attacks against Israel, and holds Hamas responsible for breaking the ceasefire and for the renewal of violence in Gaza," said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The ceasefire Rice referred to began six months ago, but the terms of it were never honored by Israel, and in fact, it expired days before the assault began.Under the truce, Palestinian militants agreed to end their rocket attacks against Israel, while Israel was supposed to lift its suffocating siege of Gaza, which has led to critical shortages of all manner of necessities, from flour to electricity to medical supplies.But the Israeli government didn't end the siege. The blockade is designed to punish the people of Gaza for the "crime" of voting Hamas into the majority in the Palestinian Legislative Assembly in January 2006 elections. Backed by the U.S., and with the collaboration of rival Palestinian leaders in the West Bank, Israel continued to hope that the population of Gaza would turn against Hamas.

Only a tiny number of voices dissented from the claim--thoroughly dominant in the mainstream Israeli and U.S. media--that Israel was acting in self-defense against Hamas' aggression. Days before the Israeli offensive began, Jerusalem Post columnist Larry Derfner wrote:

"We don't want to see how people in Gaza are living, we block it out of our minds--which, I suppose, is natural for a society at war, but which also keeps that war going longer than it might if we would recognize that Gaza is getting so much the worst of it.

"The [Palestinian] Kassam [rockets] have terrorized the 25,000 people in Sderot and its environs, but have caused very, very few deaths or serious wounds. By contrast, Israel has terrorized 1.5 million Gazans, locked them inside their awfully narrow borders, throttled their economy, and killed and seriously wounded thousands of them...

"This is crazy. Israel is the superpower of the Middle East, but because we still think we're the Jews of Europe in the 1930s, or the Israelites under Pharaoh, we spend a lot more time fighting our enemies than we might if we looked at the whole picture, not just our half of it.There may be a way out of this war, and if Israel does not take it--if it does not accept Hamas' offer of a ceasefire, which it should have offered Hamas from the beginning--then the principal blame for the war will lie with us. Our arrogance and blindness will get a lot of innocent people killed. And no one has a clue about when, or where, or how it will end.This comment makes it obvious that the death toll from Israel's air strikes only count for part of the casualties in the latest phase of the war. Those Palestinians who died as a consequence of Israel's blockade--a clear violation of international laws prohibiting the use of collective punishment and attempts to physically destroy a people and their society--have to be included.

As Palestinian author and activist Ali Abunimah said in an interview:

"The idea that this is about Israel's "self-defense" is a very partial and one-sided claim. The reality is that Israel asked for a ceasefire with Hamas and got it, during which there were no rockets fired by the Palestinians.During this so-called ceasefire, Israel continued to maintain a punishing blockade on Gaza, starving people, depriving them of food and medicine. Many people were dying in Gaza, not because of bombs, but because they couldn't get cancer treatments, insulin and other basic medications. They weren't even allowed to travel to get medical treatment.Hundreds of Palestinians have died because of the Israeli blockade. Ehud Barak's orders to prevent medicine from reaching Gaza were just as lethal and just as intended to kill as his orders to send bombers into Gaza.Israel's harsh treatment of Palestinians living in the West Bank further underscores the hypocrisy of Israel's claim to be defending itself. "

As Abunimah points out:

"There has never been a single rocket fired at Israel from the West Bank. And yet during the period of the so-called truce in the West Bank, Israel continued extrajudicial executions, continued to confiscate Palestinian land, continued to demolish Palestinians homes, continued to kidnap Palestinians and imprison them. Israeli settlers engaged in regular pogroms and rampages, attacking Palestinians and destroying their property.What was the excuse for that? Israel never needed the excuse of rockets to continue its systematic violence against Palestinians."

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

BECAUSE OF Israel's debilitating siege, the residents of Gaza are particularly ill-equipped to deal with physical, medical, humanitarian and psychological consequences of this new offensive.The statistical measures of Gaza's desperation are truly awful. Malnutrition in Gaza is comparable to the dire situation of countries in sub-Saharan Africa, affecting some 75 percent of the population--46 percent of children in Gaza suffer from acute anemia. The majority of children suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, and thousands of kids require hearing aids because of repeated exposure to the earsplitting sonic booms of low-altitude flyovers by Israeli fighter jets.Blood supplies are running critically low. There are chronic shortages of electricity, drinking water, flour, bread and more. Unemployment is well over 50 percent. The economy is in total freefall.This is all by design. According to the logic of Israeli officials, the pressure is necessary to force Gaza's residents to turn against Hamas. Such measures have always failed in the past--on the contrary, they have lead to ever more intense and desperate anger at Israel's brutality.But according to Abunimah, the latest offensive has also exposed a new development--the outright surrender of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and the Fatah wing of the Palestinian national movement that he leads:

"For a long time, the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah has been colluding with Israel and the U.S. against Hamas. Since the election in January 2006, the PA has been determined to overturn the election result and to maintain itself in power, and it has done that with guns provided by the U.S. and Israel.Many Palestinians were not willing to confront this directly because it's a very painful truth. But the situation in Gaza has pulled the mask off, and Palestinians everywhere are now openly pointing to Ramallah as having colluded directly with the Israelis--and indeed the comments of PA President Mahmoud Abbas in Cairo that Hamas is to blame for this have sickened and revolted Palestinians.This has laid bare the reality that Abbas is working for the Israelis and is more loyal to them than to the Palestinian people that he claims to lead.As for the U.S., it has long presented itself to the world as an 'honest broker,' as Palestinians struggled to establish an independent state in their homeland.Yet U.S. economic, military and diplomatic support has been the essential ingredient that allowed Israel to continue its occupation of Palestinian land and its immunity to diplomatic sanctions or international pressure to grant even the basic Palestinian right to the necessities of life.For activists in the U.S., it's our responsibility to expose the complicity of the U.S. in the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza. This means building public demonstrations and protests, as well as ongoing campaigns to pressure the U.S. to end its support for Israel. And it means exposing the lie that Israel is acting in self-defense when it carries out massacres in Gaza.

"What can we fairly ask of Palestinians when 1.5 million people are blockaded, besieged, imprisoned in a giant ghetto, when they cannot eat due to lack of food while living under a so-called truce?" asks Abunimah.

"Israel's idea of a truce is that Palestinians have a right to remain silent while they starve to death."

Palestinians also have a right to defend themselves. That self-defense may take many forms, but Israel has never respected Palestinians' right to defend themselves, whether they do so through armed struggle or peaceful means. The Israeli response is always bombs and bullets. That's the full picture that's not being exposed anywhere."

Roundup of Boston Actions for Gaza

2008-12-28T07:39:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Nancy Murray, from Boston Committee for Palestinian Rights

Call for actions of solidarity with the people of Gaza.

TODAY, Sunday Dec. 28, 3-5. Protest in Coolidge Corner at Harvard and Beacon Sts. Bring signs and flags.

TODAY, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2-4pm. Vigil for Gaza: Park Street Station, Boston Common. Please bring candles and signs

Monday, Dec. 29, 12:30pm. One Bowdoin Square, Boston. The ADC-MA and the Arab American community will request an emergency meeting with Senator Kerry at his offices. Supporters are urged to stand vigil outside. Please come with protest signs.

Monday, Dec. 29, 4-7pm. Stand in solidarity at Harvard Sq (in front of Holyoke Center), Watertown Sq, Roxbury Crossing, Coolidge Corner, Arlington Center, or go out with friends and signs (see suggested messages below) at busy intersections in your community.

Wednesday, Dec. 31, 1-7pm. First Night Peace Fair (First Night Against the Wars), Copley Sq.

SUGGESTED MESSAGES:: Our Hearts Are With You Gaza: Gaza On My MindStop Israel’s War Crimes in GazaIsrael: Stop the Massacres in GazaNO MORE US tax $ for bombs on Gaza Please let us know if you are participating in this action. Send us the details and we will help spread the word!
Contact: gazaonmymindboston@gmail.com <mailto:gazaonmymindboston@googlegroups.com>

Abunimah on the Israeli Assault

2008-12-28T07:34:00.000-08:00

Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 27 December 2008

Palestinians carry the body of a victim of an Israeli air strike in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, 27 December 2008. (Hatem Omar/MaanImages)

“I will play music and celebrate what the Israeli air force is doing.” Those were the words, spoken on Al Jazeera today by Ofer Shmerling, an Israeli civil defense official in the Sderot area adjacent to Gaza, as images of Israel’s latest massacres were broadcast around the world.

A short time earlier, US-supplied Israeli F-16 warplanes and Apache helicopters dropped over 100 bombs on dozens of locations in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip killing at least 195 persons and injuring hundreds more. Many of these locations were police stations located, like police stations the world over, in the middle of civilian areas. The US government was one of the first to offer its support for Israel’s attacks, and others will follow.

Reports said that many of the dead were Palestinian police officers. Among those Israel labels “terrorists” were more than a dozen traffic police officers undergoing training. An as yet unknown number of civilians were killed and injured; Al Jazeera showed images of several dead children, and the Israeli attacks came at the time thousands of Palestinian children were in the streets on their way home from school.

Shmerling’s joy has been echoed by Israelis and their supporters around the world; their violence is righteous violence. It is “self-defense” against “terrorists” and therefore justified. Israeli bombing — like American and NATO bombing in Iraq and Afghanistan — is bombing for freedom, peace and democracy.
The rationalization for Israel’s massacres, already being faithfully transmitted by the English-language media, is that Israel is acting in “retaliation” for Palestinian rockets fired with increasing intensity ever since the six-month truce expired on 19 December (until today, no Israeli had been killed or injured by these recent rocket attacks).

But today’s horrific attacks mark only a change in Israel’s method of killing Palestinians recently. In recent months they died mostly silent deaths, the elderly and sick especially, deprived of food and necessary medicine by the two year-old Israeli blockade calculated and intended to cause suffering and deprivation to 1.5 million Palestinians, the vast majority refugees and children, caged into the Gaza Strip. In Gaza, Palestinians died silently, for want of basic medications: insulin, cancer treatment, products for dialysis prohibited from reaching them by Israel.

What the media never question is Israel’s idea of a truce. It is very simple. Under an Israeli-style truce, Palestinians have the right to remain silent while Israel starves them, kills them and continues to violently colonize their land. Israel has not only banned food and medicine to sustain Palestinian bodies in Gaza but it is also intent on starving minds: due to the blockade, there is not even ink, paper and glue to print textbooks for schoolchildren.

As John Ging, the head of operations of the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), told The Electronic Intifada in November: “there was five months of a ceasefire in the last couple of months, where the people of Gaza did not benefit; they did not have any restoration of a dignified existence. We in fact at the UN, our supplies were also restricted during the period of the ceasefire, to the point where we were left in a very vulnerable and precarious position and with a few days of closure we ran out of food.”

That is an Israeli truce. Any response to Israeli attacks — whether peaceful protests against the apartheid wall in Bilin and Nilin in the West Bank is met with bullets and bombs. There are no rockets launched at Israel from the West Bank, and yet Israel’s attacks, killings, land theft, settler pogroms and kidnappings never ceased for one single day during the truce. The Palestinian Authority in Ramallah has acceded to all of Israel’s demands, even assembling “security forces” to fight the resistance on Israel’s behalf. None of that has spared a single Palestinian or her property or livelihood from Israel’s relentless violent colonization. It did not save, for instance, the al-Kurd family from seeing their home of 50 years in occupied East Jerusalem demolished on 9 November, so the land it sits on could be taken by settlers.

Once again we are watching massacres in Gaza, as we did last March when 110 Palestinians, including dozens of children, were killed by Israel in just a few days. Once again people everywhere feel rage, anger and despair that this outlaw state carries out such crimes with impunity.

But all over the Arab media and internet today the rage being expressed is not directed solely at Israel. Notably, it is directed more sharply than ever at Arab states. The images that stick are of Israel’s foreign minister Tzipi Livni in Cairo on Christmas day. There she sat smiling with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Then there are the pictures of Livni and Egypt’s foreign minister smiling and slapping their palms together.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported today that last wednesday the Israeli “cabinet authorized the prime minister, the defense minister, and the foreign minister to determine the timing and the method” of Israel’s attacks on Gaza. Everywhere people ask, what did Livni tell the Egyptians and more importantly what did they tell her? Did Israel get a green light to turn Gaza’s streets red once again? Few are ready to give Egypt the benefit of the doubt after it has helped Israel besiege Gaza by keeping the Rafah border crossing closed for more than a year.

On top of the intense anger and sadness so many people feel at Israel’s renewed mass killings in Gaza is a sense of frustration that there seem to be so few ways to channel it into a political response that can change the course of events, end the suffering, and bring justice.

But there are ways, and this is a moment to focus on them. Already I have received notices of demonstrations and solidarity actions being planned in cities all over the world. That is important. But what will happen after the demonstrations disperse and the anger dies down? Will we continue to let Palestinians in Gaza die in silence?

Palestinians everywhere are asking for solidarity, real solidarity, in the form of sustained, determined political action. The Gaza-based One Democratic State Group reaffirmed this today as it “called upon all civil society organizations and freedom loving people to act immediately in any possible way to put pressure on their governments to end diplomatic ties with Apartheid Israel and institute sanctions against it.”

The global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement for Palestine (http://www.bdsmovement.net/) provides the framework for this. Now is the time to channel our raw emotions into a long-term commitment to make sure we do not wake up to “another Gaza” ever again.

Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah is author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse (Metropolitan Books, 2006).

Civilian houses and medical centres targeted by Israeli air-strikes

2008-12-28T07:10:00.000-08:00

http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/12/28/civilian-houses-and-medical-centres-targeted-by-israeli-air-strikes/

December 28th, 2008 Posted in Press Releases, Gaza Region Edit

Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip have been ongoing through the night, with civilian houses and medical centres being targeted by Israeli air-strikes.

International Human Rights Workers are continuing to witness and document the escalating devastation. Two houses that internationals were staying in last night (night of 27th December), suffered almost direct hits from Israeli missiles, one in Rafah and one in Jabaliya.

“I was woken by an incredibly loud explosion that felt like it was on top of us. We ran for the door, but the blast had welded it shut. The windows had been blown in so we crawled out through them. As we came on to the street, everyone was out. The medical centre next-door had been hit. Medical equipment was strewn over the road. Equipment here is so low anyway due to the Israeli siege, to see it wasted on the street was heartbreaking” Jenny Linnel (Britain) International Solidarity Movement speaking from Rafah.

“At the house where I am staying, the neigbours have just received a call to evacuate their house immediately. That it is being targeted. People do not know what to do”. Jenny Linnel (ISM)

Last night thousands of Palestinian residents of Gaza were subjected to calls from the Israeli Ministry of Defence saying that “any house that has guns or weapons will be targeted next without further warning or any announcement”

Two international Human Rights Workers stayed with the family of Sara Aid Hawajereh, the 55 year old mother killed yesterday by an Israeli missile in Jabaliya.

“We were in the basement with the rest of the family. We heard an extremely loud explosion and the house began to shake. Each mother grabbed their children to them. The missile had landed just outside in the garden. We were lucky” - Sharon Lock (Australian) International Solidarity Movement speaking from Jabaliya

Several medical and pharmaceutical centres treating civilians were hit by Israeli missiles throughout the night, including Al-Shifa hospital and the pharmacy in Hi Alijnina, Rafah.

A mosque was also hit last night, killing four civilians. The total amount of people now killed by Israel over the last 24 hours now stands at at least 282.

Rally Sunday in Brookline

2008-12-27T22:39:00.001-08:00

We will rally Sunday from 3 to 5 in Coolidge Corner in Brookline. Bring your own signs and flags. Thanks to Jonathan Cook for setting this up!

Gaza today: "This is only the beginning"

2008-12-27T22:31:00.000-08:00

www.freegaza.org
By Ewa Jasiewicz

As I write this, Israeli jets are bombing the areas of Zeitoun and Rimal
in central Gaza City. The family I am staying with has moved into the
internal corridor of their home to shelter from the bombing. The windows
nearly blew out just five minutes ago as a massive explosion rocked the
house. Apache’s are hovering above us, whilst F16s sear overhead.

UN radio reports say one blast was a target close to the main gate of Al
Shifa hospital – Gaza and Palestine’s largest medical facility. Another
was a plastics factory. More bombs continue to pound the Strip.

Sirens are wailing on the streets outside. Regular power cuts that plunge
the city into blackness every night and tonight is no exception. Only
perhaps tonight it is the darkest night people have seen here in their
lifetimes.

Over 220 people have been killed and over 400 injured through attacks that
shocked the strip in the space 15 minutes. Hospitals are overloaded and
unable to cope. These attacks come on top of existing conditions of
humanitarian crisis: a lack of medicines, bread, flour, gas, electricity,
fuel and freedom of movement.

Doctors at Shifaa had to scramble together 10 make shift operating
theatres to deal with the wounded. The hospital’s maternity ward had to
transform their operating room into an emergency theatre. Shifaa only had
12 beds in their intensive care unit, they had to make space for 27 today.

There is a shortage of medicine – over 105 key items are not in stock, and
blood and spare generator parts are desperately needed.

Shifaa’s main generator is the life support machine of the entire
hospital. It’s the apparatus keeping the ventilators and monitors and
lights turned on that keep people inside alive. And it doesn’t have the
spare parts it needs, despite the International Committee for the Red
Cross urging Israel to allow it to transport them through Erez checkpoint.

Shifaa’s Head of Casualty, Dr Maowiye Abu Hassanyeh explained, ‘We had
over 300 injured in over 30 minutes. There were people on the floor of the
operating theatre, in the reception area, in the corridors; we were
sending patients to other hospitals. Not even the most advanced hospital
in the world could cope with this number of casualties in such a short
space of time.’

And as IOF Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenaz said this
morning, ‘This is only the beginning.’

But this isn’t the beginning, this is an ongoing policy of collective
punishment and killing with impunity practised by Israel for decades. It
has seen its most intensified level today. But the weight of dread,
revenge and isolation hangs thick over Gaza today. People are all asking:
If this is only the beginning, what will the end look like?

11.30am
Myself and Alberto Acre, a Spanish journalist, had been on the border
village of Sirej near Khan Younis in the south of the strip. We had driven
there at 8am with the mobile clinic of the Union of Palestinian Relief
Committees. The clinic regularly visits exposed, frequently raided
villages far from medical facilities. We had been interviewing residents
about conditions on the border. Stories of olive groves and orange groves,
family farmland, bulldozed to make way for a clear line of sight for
Israeli occupation force watch towers and border guards. Israeli attacks
were frequent. Indiscriminate fire and shelling spraying homes and land on
the front line of the south eastern border. One elderly farmer showed us
the grave-size ditch he had dug to climb into when Israeli soldiers would
shoot into his fields.

Alberto was interviewing a family that had survived an Israeli missile
attack on their home last month. It had been a response to rocket fire
from resistance fighters nearby. Four fighters were killed in a field by
the border. Israel had rained rockets and M16 fire back. The family,
caught in the crossfire, have never returned to their home.

I was waiting for Alberto to return when ground shaking thuds tilted us
off our feet. This was the sound of surface to air fired missiles and F16
bombs slamming into the police stations, and army bases of the Hamas
authority here. In Gaza City , in Diere Balah, Rafah, Khan Younis, Beit
Hanoon.

We zoomed out of the village in our ambulance, and onto the main road to
Gaza City , before jumping out to film the smouldering remains of a police
station in Diere Balah, near Khan Younis. Its’ name - meaning 'place of
dates' - sounds like the easy semi-slang way of saying ‘take care’, Diere
Bala, Diere Balak – take care.

Eyewitnesses said two Israeli missiles had destroyed the station. One had
soared through a children’s playground and a busy fruit and vegetable
market before impacting on its target.

Civilians Dead
There was blood on a broken plastic yellow slide, and a crippled, dead
donkey with an upturned vegetable cart beside it. Aubergines and
splattered blood covered the ground. A man began to explain in broken
English what had happened. ‘It was full here, full, three people dead,
many many injured’. An elderly man with a white kuffiyeh around his head
threw his hands down to his blood drenched trousers. ‘Look! Look at this!
Shame on all governments, shame on Israel, look how they kills us, they
are killing us and what does the world do? Where is the world, where are
they, we are being killed here, hell upon them!’ He was a market trader,
present during the attack.

He began to pick up splattered tomatoes he had lost from his cart, picking
them up jerkily, and putting them into plastic bags, quickly. Behind a
small tile and brick building, a man was sitting against the wall, his
legs were bloodied. He couldn’t get up and was sitting, visibly in pain
and shock, trying to adjust himself, to orientate himself.

The police station itself was a wreck, a mess of criss-crossed piles of
concrete – broken floors upon floors. Smashed cars and a split palm tree
split the road.

We walked on, hurriedly, with everyone else, eyes skyward at four apache
helicopters – their trigger mechanisms supplied by the UK ’s
Brighton-Based EDM Technologies. They were dropping smoky bright flares –
a defence against any attempt at Palestinian missile retaliation.

Turning down the road leading to the Diere Balah Civil Defence Force
headquarters we suddenly saw a rush of people streaming across the road.
‘They’ve been bombing twice, they’ve been bombing twice’ shouted people.

We ran too, but towards the crowds and away from what could possibly be
target number two, ‘a ministry building’ our friend shouted to us. The
apaches rumbled above.

Arriving at the police station we saw the remains of a life at work
smashed short. A prayer matt clotted with dust, a policeman’s hat, the
ubiquitous bright flower patterned mattresses, burst open. A crater around
20 feet in diameter was filled with pulverised walls and floors and a
motorbike, tossed on its’ side, toy-like in its’ depths.

Policemen were frantically trying to get a fellow worker out from under
the rubble. Everyone was trying to call him on his Jawwal. ‘Stop it
everyone, just one, one of you ring’ shouted a man who looked like a
captain. A fire licked the underside of an ex-room now crushed to just 3
feet high. Hands alongside hands rapidly grasped and threw back rocks,
blocks and debris to reach the man.

We made our way to the Al Aqsa Hospital. Trucks and cars loaded with the
men of entire families – uncles, nephews, brothers – piled high and
speeding to the hospital to check on loved ones, horns blaring without
interruption.

Hospitals on the brink
Entering Al Aqsa was overwhelming, pure pandemonium, charged with grief,
horror, distress, and shock. Limp blood covered and burnt bodies streamed
by us on rickety stretchers. Before the morgue was a scrum, tens of
shouting relatives crammed up to its open double doors. ‘They could not
even identify who was who, whether it is their brother or cousin or who,
because they are so burned’ explained our friend. Many were transferred,
in ambulances and the back of trucks and cars to Al Shifa Hospital.

The injured couldn’t speak. Causality after casualty sat propped against
the outside walls outside, being comforted by relatives, wounds
temporarily dressed. Inside was perpetual motion and the more drastically
injured. Relatives jostled with doctors to bring in their injured in
scuffed blankets. Drips, blood streaming faces, scorched hair and shrapnel
cuts to hands, chests, legs, arms and heads dominated the reception area,
wards and operating theatres.

We saw a bearded man, on a stretcher on the floor of an intensive care
unit, shaking and shaking, involuntarily, legs rigid and thrusting
downwards. A spasm coherent with a spinal chord injury. Would he ever walk
again or talk again? In another unit, a baby girl, no older than six
months, had shrapnel wounds to her face. A relative lifted a blanket to
show us her fragile bandaged leg. Her eyes were saucer-wide and she was
making stilted, repetitive, squeaking sounds.

A first estimate at Al Aqsa hospital was 40 dead and 120 injured. The
hospital was dealing with casualties from the bombed market, playground,
Civil Defence Force station, civil police station and also the traffic
police station. All leveled. A working day blasted flat with terrifying
force.

At least two shaheed (martyrs) were carried out on stretchers out of the
hospital. Lifted up by crowds of grief-stricken men to the graveyard to
cries of ‘La Illaha Illa Allah,’ there is not god but Allah.

Who cares?
And according to many people here, there is nothing and nobody looking out
for them apart from God. Back in Shifa Hospital tonight, we meet the
brother of a security guard who had had the doorway he had been sitting in
and the building – Abu Mazen’s old HQ - fall down upon his head. He said
to us, ‘We don’t have anyone but God. We feel alone. Where is the world?
Where is the action to stop these attacks?’

Majid Salim, stood beside his comatosed mother, Fatima. Earlier today she
had been sitting at her desk at work – at the Hadije Arafat Charity, near
Meshtal, the Headquarters of the Security forces in Gaza City. Israel’s
attack had left her with multiple internal and head injuries, tube down
her throat and a ventilator keeping her alive. Majid gestured to her, ‘We
didn’t attack Israel, my mother didn’t fire rockets at Israel. This is the
biggest terrorism, to have our mother bombarded at work’.

The groups of men lining the corridors of the over-stretched Shifaa
hospital are by turns stunned, agitated, patient and lost. We speak to one
group. Their brother had both arms broken and has serious facial and head
injuries. ‘We couldn’t recognise his face, it was so black from the
weapons used’ one explains. Another man turns to me and says. ‘I am a
teacher. I teach human rights – this is a course we have, ‘human rights’.
He pauses. ‘How can I teach, my son, my children, about the meaning of
human rights under these conditions, under this siege?’

It’s true, UNRWA and local government schools have developed a Human
Rights syllabus, teaching children about international law, the Geneva
Conventions, the International Declaration on Human Rights, The Hague
Regulations. To try to develop a culture of human rights here, to help
generate more self confidence and security and more of a sense of dignity
for the children. But the contradiction between what should be adhered to
as a common code of conducted signed up to by most states, and the
realities on the ground is stark. International law is not being applied
or enforced with respect to Israeli policies towards the Gaza Strip, or on
’48 Palestine, the West Bank, or the millions of refugees living in camps
in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

How can a new consciousness and practice of human rights ever graduate
from rhetoric to reality when everything points to the contrary – both
here and in Israel ? The United Nations have been spurned and shut out by
Israel , with Richard Falk the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Human Rights
held prisoner at Ben Gurion Airport before being unceremoniously deported
this month – deliberately blinded to the abuses being carried out against
Gaza by Israel . An international community which speaks empty phrases on
Israeli attacks ‘we urge restraint…minimise civilian casualties’.

The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated regions on the planet.
In Jabbaliya camp alone, Gaza ’s largest, 125,000 people are crowded into
a space 2km square. Bombardment by F16s and Apaches at 11.30 in the
morning, as children leave their schools for home reveals a contempt for
civilian safety as does the 18 months of a siege that bans all imports and
exports, and has resulted in the deaths of over 270 people as a result of
a lack of access to essential medicines.

A light
There is a saying here in Gaza – we spoke about it, jokily last night. ‘At
the end of the tunnel…there is another tunnel’. Not so funny when you
consider that Gaza is being kept alive through the smuggling of food, fuel
and medicine through an exploitative industry of over 1000 tunnels running
from Egypt to Rafah in the South. On average 1-2 people die every week in
the tunnels. Some embark on a humiliating crawl to get their education,
see their families, to find work, on their hands and knees. Others are
reportedly big enough to drive through.

Last night I added a new ending to the saying. ‘At the end of the tunnel,
there is another tunnel and then a power cut’. Today, there’s nothing to
make a joke about. As bombs continue to blast buildings around us, jarring
the children in this house from their fitful sleep, the saying could take
on another twist. After today’s killing of over 200, is it that at the end
of the tunnel, there is another tunnel, and then a grave?’, or a wall of
international governmental complicity and silence?

There is a light through, beyond the sparks of resistance and solidarity
in the West Bank, ’48 and the broader Middle East. This is a light of
conscience turned into activism by people all over the world. We can turn
a spotlight onto Israel’s crimes against humanity and the enduring
injustice here in Palestine, through coming out onto the streets and
pressurizing our governments; demanding an end to Israeli apartheid and
occupation, broadening our call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, and
for a genuine Just Peace.

Through institutional, governmental and popular means, this can be a light
at the end of the Gazan tunnel.
-----

Ewa Jasiewicz is an experienced journalist, community and union organizer,
and solidarity worker. She is currently Gaza Project Co-coordinator for
the Free Gaza Movement.

http://www.FreeGaza.org