Showing posts with label Israel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Israel. Show all posts
Monday, December 21, 2009
Israel Harvested Palestinian organs....
It appears it is not just a rumor. Israel actually harvested organs from Palestinians. Allegedly the practice stopped in the 1990's. Allegedly "civilized" governments like Israel and the US appear to routinely violate human rights these days. So much for good guys in white hats. Here's the source.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Bearing Witness in Gaza: An Evening with Kathy Kelly in Three Parts
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
This event was presented by the Tidewater Peace Alliance and
the Hampton Roads Chapter of Amnesty International on March 18, 2009:
Author and activist Kathy Kelly returned to the Naro Cinema in Norfolk, Virgina with stories from her recent travels to Egypt and Gaza during the Israeli invasion. Circumventing the Israeli blockade, Kathy was able to enter Gaza from Egypt during the Israeli siege, on the sixteenth day of the 22 day duration.
Twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, Kathy founded Voices in the Wilderness and is executive director of Voices for Creative Nonviolence. She has traveled twenty-four times to Iraq and was in southern Lebanon in summer 2006 during and after the Israel-Hezbollah war. (see: http://vcnv.org/speaker-bio/kathy-kelly)
Part 2
Part 3
This event was presented by the Tidewater Peace Alliance and
the Hampton Roads Chapter of Amnesty International on March 18, 2009:
Author and activist Kathy Kelly returned to the Naro Cinema in Norfolk, Virgina with stories from her recent travels to Egypt and Gaza during the Israeli invasion. Circumventing the Israeli blockade, Kathy was able to enter Gaza from Egypt during the Israeli siege, on the sixteenth day of the 22 day duration.
Twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, Kathy founded Voices in the Wilderness and is executive director of Voices for Creative Nonviolence. She has traveled twenty-four times to Iraq and was in southern Lebanon in summer 2006 during and after the Israel-Hezbollah war. (see: http://vcnv.org/speaker-bio/kathy-kelly)
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Gaza Television Ad
Check out the TV ad of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation about Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip that DIRECTV censored. Take action to protest DIRECTV's censorship by clicking here: http://endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=1817
Check out the full End the Occupation webpage by clicking here:
http://endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=1826
Friday, February 13, 2009
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Guest Editorial: Under the Black Flag by Uri Avnery
Guest Editorial from OpEdNews.com by Uri Avnery, Israeli writer, ex-Israeli soldier and now peace activist with Gush Shalom:
Israeli War Crimes
Under the Black Flag
(Click here for original article.)
By URI AVNERY
A Spanish judge has instituted a judicial inquiry against seven Israeli political and military personalities on suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The case: the 2002 dropping of a one ton bomb on the home of Hamas leader Salah Shehade. Apart from the intended victim, 14 people, most of them children, were killed.
For those who have forgotten: the then commander of the Israeli Air Force, Dan Halutz, was asked at the time what he feels when he drops a bomb on a residential building. His unforgettable answer: “A slight bump to the wing.” When we in Gush Shalom accused him of a war crime, he demanded that we be put on trial for high treason. He was joined by the Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, who accused us of wanting to “turn over Israeli army officers to the enemy”. The Attorney General notified us officially that he did not intend to open an investigation against those responsible for the bombing.
I should be happy, therefore, that at long last somebody is ready to put that action to a judicial test (even if he seems to have been thwarted by political pressure.) But I am sorry that this has happened in Spain, not in Israel.
* * *
ISRAELI TV VIEWERS have lately been exposed to a bizarre sight: army officers appearing with their faces hidden, as usual for criminals when the court prohibits their identification. Pedophiles, for example, or attackers of old women.
On the orders of the military censors, this applies to all officers, from battalion commanders down, who have been involved in the Gaza war. Since the faces of brigade commanders and above are generally known, the order does not apply to them.
Immediately after the cease-fire, the Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak, promoted a special law that would give unlimited backing by the state to all officers and soldiers who took part in the Gaza war and who might be accused abroad of war crimes. This seems to confirm the Hebrew adage: “On the head of the thief, the hat is burning”.
* * *
I DO NOT object to trials abroad. The main thing is that war criminals, like pirates, should be brought to justice. It is not so important where they are caught. (This rule was applied by the State of Israel when it abducted Adolf Eichmann in Argentina and hanged him in Israel for heinous crimes committed outside the territory of Israel and, indeed, before the state even existed.)
But as an Israeli patriot, I would prefer suspected Israeli war criminals to be put on trial in Israel. That is necessary for the country, for all decent officers and soldiers of the Israeli army, for the education of future generations of citizens and soldiers.
There is no need to rely on international law alone. There are Israeli laws against war crimes. Enough to mention the immortal phrase coined by Justice Binyamin Halevy, serving as a military judge, in the trial of the border policemen who were responsible for the 1956 massacre in Kafr Kassem, when dozens of children, women and men were mown down for violating a curfew which they did not even know about.
The judge announced that even in wartime, there are orders over which flies “the black flag of illegality”. These are orders which are “manifestly” illegal – that is to say, orders which every normal person can tell are illegal, without having to consult a lawyer.
War criminals dishonor the army whose uniform they wear – whether they are generals or common soldiers. As a combat soldier on the day the Israeli Defense Army was officially created, I am ashamed of them and demand that they be cast out and be put on trial in Israel.
My list of suspects includes politicians, soldiers, rabbis and lawyers.
* * *
THERE IS not the slightest doubt that in the Gaza war, crimes were committed. The question is to what extent and by whom.
Example: the soldiers call on the residents of a house to leave it. A woman and her four children come out, waving white handkerchiefs. It is absolutely clear that they are not armed fighters. A soldier in a near-by tank stands up, points his rifle and shoots them dead at short range. According to testimonies that seem to be beyond doubt, this happened more than once.
Another example: the shelling of the United Nations school full of refugees, from which there was no shooting – as admitted by the army, after the original pretexts were disproved.
These are ”simple” cases. But the spectrum of cases is far wider. A serious judicial investigation has to start right from the top: the politicians and senior officers who decided on the war and confirmed its plans must be investigated about their decisions. In Nuremberg it was laid down that the starting of a war of aggression is a crime.
An objective investigation has to find out whether the decision to start the war was justified, or if there existed another way of stopping the launching of rockets against Israeli territory. Without doubt, no country can or should tolerate the bombing of its towns and villages from beyond the border. But could this be prevented by talking with the Gaza authorities? Was our government’s decision to boycott Hamas, the winner of the democratic Palestinian elections, the real cause of this war? Did the imposition of the blockade on a million and a half Gaza Strip inhabitants contribute to the launching of the Qassams? In brief: were the alternatives considered before it was decided to start a deadly war?
The war plan included a massive attack on the civilian population of the Strip. The real aims of a war can be understood less from the official declarations of its initiators, than from their actions. If in this war some 1300 men, women and children were killed, the great majority of whom were not fighters; if about 5000 people were injured, most of them children; if some 2500 homes were partly or wholly destroyed; if the infrastructure of life was totally demolished – all this clearly could not have happened accidentally. It must have been a part of the war plan.
The things said during the war by politicians and officers make it clear that the plan had at least two aims, which might be considered war crimes: (1) To cause widespread killing and destruction, in order to “fix a price tag”. “to burn into their consciousness”, “to reinforce deterrence”, and most of all – to get the population to rise up against Hamas and overthrow their government. Clearly this affects mainly the civilian population. (2) To avoid casualties to our army at (literally) any price by destroying any building and killing any human being in the area into which our troops were about to move, including destroying homes over the heads of their inhabitants, preventing medical teams from reaching the victims, killing people indiscriminately. In certain cases, inhabitants were warned that they must flee, but this was mainly an alibi-action: there was nowhere to flee to, and often fire was opened on people trying to escape.
An independent court will have to decide whether such a war-plan is in accordance with national and international law, or whether it was ab initio a crime against humanity and a war-crime.
This was a war of a regular army with huge capabilities against a guerrilla force. In such a war, too, not everything is permissible. Arguments like “The Hamas terrorists were hiding within the civilian population” and “They used the population as human shields” may be effective as propaganda but are irrelevant: that is true for every guerrilla war. It must be taken into account when a decision to start such a war is being considered.
In a democratic state, the military takes its orders from the political establishment. Good. But that does not include “manifestly” illegal orders, over which the black flag of illegality is waving. Since the Nuremberg trials, there is no more room for the excuse that “I was only obeying orders”.
Therefore, the personal responsibility of all involved - from the Chief of Staff, the Front Commander and the Division Commander right down to the last soldier - must be examined. From the statements of soldiers one must deduce that many believed that their job was “to kill as many Arabs as possible”. Meaning: no distinction between fighters and non-fighters. That is a completely illegal order, whether given explicitly or by a wink and a nudge. The soldiers understood this to be “the spirit of the commander”.
* * *
AMONG THOSE suspected of war crimes, the rabbis have a place of honor.
Those who incite to war crimes and call upon soldiers, directly or indirectly, to commit war crimes may be guilty of a war crime themselves.
When one speaks of “rabbis”, one thinks of old men with long white beards and big hats, who give tongue to venerable wisdom. But the rabbis who accompanied the troops are a very different species.
In the last decades, the state-financed religious educational system has churned out “rabbis” who are more like medieval Christian priests than the Jewish sages of Poland or Morocco. This system indoctrinates its pupils with a violent tribal cult, totally ethnocentric, which sees in the whole of world history nothing but an endless story of Jewish victimhood. This is a religion of a Chosen People, indifferent to others, a religion without compassion for anyone who is not Jewish, which glorifies the God-decreed genocide described in the Biblical book of Joshua.
The products of this education are now the “rabbis” who instruct the religious youths. With their encouragement, a systematic effort has been made to take over the Israeli army from within. Kippa-wearing officers have replaced the Kibbutzniks, who not so long ago were dominant in the army. Many of the lower and middle-ranking officers now belong to this group.
The most outstanding example is the “Chief Army Rabbi”, Colonel Avichai Ronsky, who has declared that his job is to reinforce the “fighting spirit” of the soldiers. He is a man of the extreme right, not far from the spirit of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, whose party was outlawed in Israel for its fascist ideology. Under the auspices of the army rabbinate, religious-fascist brochures of the ultra-right “rabbis” were distributed to the soldiers.
This material includes political incitement, such as the statement that the Jewish religion prohibits “giving up even one millimeter of Eretz Israel”, that the Palestinians, like the Biblical Philistines (from whom the name Palestine derives), are a foreign people who invaded the country, and that any compromise (such as indicated in the official government program) is a mortal sin. The distribution of political propaganda violates, of course, army law.
The rabbis openly called upon the soldiers to be cruel and merciless towards the Arabs. To treat them mercifully, they stated, is a “terrible, awful immorality”. When such material is distributed to religious soldiers going into war, it is easy to see why things happened the way they did.
* * *
THE PLANNERS of this war knew that the shadow of war crimes was hovering over the planned operation. Witness: the Attorney General (whose official title is “Legal Advisor to the Government”) was a partner to the planning. This week the Chief Army Attorney, Colonel Avichai Mandelblut, disclosed that his officers were attached throughout the war to all the commanders, from the Chief of Staff down to the Division Commander.
All this together leads to the inescapable conclusion that the legal advisors bear direct responsibility for the decisions taken and implemented, from the massacre of the civilian police recruits at their graduating ceremony to the shelling of the UN installations. Every attorney who was a partner to the deliberations before an order was given is responsible for its consequences, unless he can prove that he objected to it.
The Chief Army Attorney, who is supposed to give the army professional and objective advice, speaks about “the monstrous enemy” and tries to justify the actions of the army by saying that it was fighting against “an unbridled enemy, who declared that he ‘loves death’ and finds shelter behind the backs of women and children”. Such language is, perhaps, pardonable in a pep-talk of a war-drunk combat commander, like the battalion chief who ordered his soldiers to commit suicide rather than be captured, but totally unacceptable when it comes from the chief legal officer of the army.
* * *
WE MUST pursue all the legal processes in Israel and call for an independent investigation and the indictment of suspected perpetrators. We must demand this even if the chances of it happening are slim indeed.
If these efforts fail, nobody will be able to object to trials abroad, either in an international court or in the courts of those nations that respect human rights and international law.
Until then, the black flag will still be waving.
Israeli War Crimes
Under the Black Flag
(Click here for original article.)
By URI AVNERY
A Spanish judge has instituted a judicial inquiry against seven Israeli political and military personalities on suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The case: the 2002 dropping of a one ton bomb on the home of Hamas leader Salah Shehade. Apart from the intended victim, 14 people, most of them children, were killed.
For those who have forgotten: the then commander of the Israeli Air Force, Dan Halutz, was asked at the time what he feels when he drops a bomb on a residential building. His unforgettable answer: “A slight bump to the wing.” When we in Gush Shalom accused him of a war crime, he demanded that we be put on trial for high treason. He was joined by the Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, who accused us of wanting to “turn over Israeli army officers to the enemy”. The Attorney General notified us officially that he did not intend to open an investigation against those responsible for the bombing.
I should be happy, therefore, that at long last somebody is ready to put that action to a judicial test (even if he seems to have been thwarted by political pressure.) But I am sorry that this has happened in Spain, not in Israel.
* * *
ISRAELI TV VIEWERS have lately been exposed to a bizarre sight: army officers appearing with their faces hidden, as usual for criminals when the court prohibits their identification. Pedophiles, for example, or attackers of old women.
On the orders of the military censors, this applies to all officers, from battalion commanders down, who have been involved in the Gaza war. Since the faces of brigade commanders and above are generally known, the order does not apply to them.
Immediately after the cease-fire, the Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak, promoted a special law that would give unlimited backing by the state to all officers and soldiers who took part in the Gaza war and who might be accused abroad of war crimes. This seems to confirm the Hebrew adage: “On the head of the thief, the hat is burning”.
* * *
I DO NOT object to trials abroad. The main thing is that war criminals, like pirates, should be brought to justice. It is not so important where they are caught. (This rule was applied by the State of Israel when it abducted Adolf Eichmann in Argentina and hanged him in Israel for heinous crimes committed outside the territory of Israel and, indeed, before the state even existed.)
But as an Israeli patriot, I would prefer suspected Israeli war criminals to be put on trial in Israel. That is necessary for the country, for all decent officers and soldiers of the Israeli army, for the education of future generations of citizens and soldiers.
There is no need to rely on international law alone. There are Israeli laws against war crimes. Enough to mention the immortal phrase coined by Justice Binyamin Halevy, serving as a military judge, in the trial of the border policemen who were responsible for the 1956 massacre in Kafr Kassem, when dozens of children, women and men were mown down for violating a curfew which they did not even know about.
The judge announced that even in wartime, there are orders over which flies “the black flag of illegality”. These are orders which are “manifestly” illegal – that is to say, orders which every normal person can tell are illegal, without having to consult a lawyer.
War criminals dishonor the army whose uniform they wear – whether they are generals or common soldiers. As a combat soldier on the day the Israeli Defense Army was officially created, I am ashamed of them and demand that they be cast out and be put on trial in Israel.
My list of suspects includes politicians, soldiers, rabbis and lawyers.
* * *
THERE IS not the slightest doubt that in the Gaza war, crimes were committed. The question is to what extent and by whom.
Example: the soldiers call on the residents of a house to leave it. A woman and her four children come out, waving white handkerchiefs. It is absolutely clear that they are not armed fighters. A soldier in a near-by tank stands up, points his rifle and shoots them dead at short range. According to testimonies that seem to be beyond doubt, this happened more than once.
Another example: the shelling of the United Nations school full of refugees, from which there was no shooting – as admitted by the army, after the original pretexts were disproved.
These are ”simple” cases. But the spectrum of cases is far wider. A serious judicial investigation has to start right from the top: the politicians and senior officers who decided on the war and confirmed its plans must be investigated about their decisions. In Nuremberg it was laid down that the starting of a war of aggression is a crime.
An objective investigation has to find out whether the decision to start the war was justified, or if there existed another way of stopping the launching of rockets against Israeli territory. Without doubt, no country can or should tolerate the bombing of its towns and villages from beyond the border. But could this be prevented by talking with the Gaza authorities? Was our government’s decision to boycott Hamas, the winner of the democratic Palestinian elections, the real cause of this war? Did the imposition of the blockade on a million and a half Gaza Strip inhabitants contribute to the launching of the Qassams? In brief: were the alternatives considered before it was decided to start a deadly war?
The war plan included a massive attack on the civilian population of the Strip. The real aims of a war can be understood less from the official declarations of its initiators, than from their actions. If in this war some 1300 men, women and children were killed, the great majority of whom were not fighters; if about 5000 people were injured, most of them children; if some 2500 homes were partly or wholly destroyed; if the infrastructure of life was totally demolished – all this clearly could not have happened accidentally. It must have been a part of the war plan.
The things said during the war by politicians and officers make it clear that the plan had at least two aims, which might be considered war crimes: (1) To cause widespread killing and destruction, in order to “fix a price tag”. “to burn into their consciousness”, “to reinforce deterrence”, and most of all – to get the population to rise up against Hamas and overthrow their government. Clearly this affects mainly the civilian population. (2) To avoid casualties to our army at (literally) any price by destroying any building and killing any human being in the area into which our troops were about to move, including destroying homes over the heads of their inhabitants, preventing medical teams from reaching the victims, killing people indiscriminately. In certain cases, inhabitants were warned that they must flee, but this was mainly an alibi-action: there was nowhere to flee to, and often fire was opened on people trying to escape.
An independent court will have to decide whether such a war-plan is in accordance with national and international law, or whether it was ab initio a crime against humanity and a war-crime.
This was a war of a regular army with huge capabilities against a guerrilla force. In such a war, too, not everything is permissible. Arguments like “The Hamas terrorists were hiding within the civilian population” and “They used the population as human shields” may be effective as propaganda but are irrelevant: that is true for every guerrilla war. It must be taken into account when a decision to start such a war is being considered.
In a democratic state, the military takes its orders from the political establishment. Good. But that does not include “manifestly” illegal orders, over which the black flag of illegality is waving. Since the Nuremberg trials, there is no more room for the excuse that “I was only obeying orders”.
Therefore, the personal responsibility of all involved - from the Chief of Staff, the Front Commander and the Division Commander right down to the last soldier - must be examined. From the statements of soldiers one must deduce that many believed that their job was “to kill as many Arabs as possible”. Meaning: no distinction between fighters and non-fighters. That is a completely illegal order, whether given explicitly or by a wink and a nudge. The soldiers understood this to be “the spirit of the commander”.
* * *
AMONG THOSE suspected of war crimes, the rabbis have a place of honor.
Those who incite to war crimes and call upon soldiers, directly or indirectly, to commit war crimes may be guilty of a war crime themselves.
When one speaks of “rabbis”, one thinks of old men with long white beards and big hats, who give tongue to venerable wisdom. But the rabbis who accompanied the troops are a very different species.
In the last decades, the state-financed religious educational system has churned out “rabbis” who are more like medieval Christian priests than the Jewish sages of Poland or Morocco. This system indoctrinates its pupils with a violent tribal cult, totally ethnocentric, which sees in the whole of world history nothing but an endless story of Jewish victimhood. This is a religion of a Chosen People, indifferent to others, a religion without compassion for anyone who is not Jewish, which glorifies the God-decreed genocide described in the Biblical book of Joshua.
The products of this education are now the “rabbis” who instruct the religious youths. With their encouragement, a systematic effort has been made to take over the Israeli army from within. Kippa-wearing officers have replaced the Kibbutzniks, who not so long ago were dominant in the army. Many of the lower and middle-ranking officers now belong to this group.
The most outstanding example is the “Chief Army Rabbi”, Colonel Avichai Ronsky, who has declared that his job is to reinforce the “fighting spirit” of the soldiers. He is a man of the extreme right, not far from the spirit of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, whose party was outlawed in Israel for its fascist ideology. Under the auspices of the army rabbinate, religious-fascist brochures of the ultra-right “rabbis” were distributed to the soldiers.
This material includes political incitement, such as the statement that the Jewish religion prohibits “giving up even one millimeter of Eretz Israel”, that the Palestinians, like the Biblical Philistines (from whom the name Palestine derives), are a foreign people who invaded the country, and that any compromise (such as indicated in the official government program) is a mortal sin. The distribution of political propaganda violates, of course, army law.
The rabbis openly called upon the soldiers to be cruel and merciless towards the Arabs. To treat them mercifully, they stated, is a “terrible, awful immorality”. When such material is distributed to religious soldiers going into war, it is easy to see why things happened the way they did.
* * *
THE PLANNERS of this war knew that the shadow of war crimes was hovering over the planned operation. Witness: the Attorney General (whose official title is “Legal Advisor to the Government”) was a partner to the planning. This week the Chief Army Attorney, Colonel Avichai Mandelblut, disclosed that his officers were attached throughout the war to all the commanders, from the Chief of Staff down to the Division Commander.
All this together leads to the inescapable conclusion that the legal advisors bear direct responsibility for the decisions taken and implemented, from the massacre of the civilian police recruits at their graduating ceremony to the shelling of the UN installations. Every attorney who was a partner to the deliberations before an order was given is responsible for its consequences, unless he can prove that he objected to it.
The Chief Army Attorney, who is supposed to give the army professional and objective advice, speaks about “the monstrous enemy” and tries to justify the actions of the army by saying that it was fighting against “an unbridled enemy, who declared that he ‘loves death’ and finds shelter behind the backs of women and children”. Such language is, perhaps, pardonable in a pep-talk of a war-drunk combat commander, like the battalion chief who ordered his soldiers to commit suicide rather than be captured, but totally unacceptable when it comes from the chief legal officer of the army.
* * *
WE MUST pursue all the legal processes in Israel and call for an independent investigation and the indictment of suspected perpetrators. We must demand this even if the chances of it happening are slim indeed.
If these efforts fail, nobody will be able to object to trials abroad, either in an international court or in the courts of those nations that respect human rights and international law.
Until then, the black flag will still be waving.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Rachel Maddow Show: Richard Engel Reporting From Gaza
This Rachel Maddow video discusses Israel's media planning and strategy to time and spin the war on Gaza, planning that began well before the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel was put into effect in later June, 2008, according to reporter Richard Engel, who has been talking to Israeli officials and states that Israel planned the Gaza operation for about a year. This means that for Israel, the ceasefire was only a Machiavellian tactic, not an end goal. Massive damage to Gaza was the end goal, and this was achieved, at the costs of thousands of deaths and injuries. The Lords of Karma are not pleased.
Gaza, War Aftermath Toll...
Welcome to Hell, compliments of the State of Israel, a state in the grip of the Shadow Archetype, to borrow a term from Carl Jung. 1.5 million Gazans have just been put through psychological, physical and mental Hell for 23 days, with well over a thousand dead, thousands more injured, many critically. This is a testament to the innate cruelty and sadism of homo normalis, to paraphrase another psychiatrist's terminology. The worst of it is that now the laws of Karma are kicking in. No one escapes the consequences of their actions in this universe, no matter how rich, how wealthy, how powerful, how vain.
Here is the sidebar for this video:
The Gaza Aftermath, Facts and Statistics.....
As of January 18, 2009.
اللهم انصر اهلنا في غزه
Breath Taken Images....
After 23 Days of Air, Land and Sea Attacks on The Gaza Strip the Death Toll is
1300 (Martyrs)
"Of Which"
417 Children
108 Women
120 Elders
14 Press Personal
The Number of the Injured so far is 5320.
Israel's fierce assaults on The Gaza Strip has destroyed over $2.1 Billion worth of Buildings, Roads, Pipes, Power Lines and other Infrastructure...
And the numbers are rising....
GAZA SHALL OVERCOME!...
Sunday, January 18, 2009
GAZA (Ceasefires) Tenuous but Holding, Both Sides Speak
Israel declared a ceasefire unilaterally early Sunday morning, Jan 18, which Hamas did NOT sign, so they did not cease their own hostilities for several more hours before declaring their own. Was there posturing going on. Yes, without a doubt.
So now we have two unilateral ceasefires, which is not exactly reassuring, since neither side is under compulsion to honor the other's. So forces for peace must act to firm peace up. Simultaneously, peace with JUSTICE must be sought, and that means investigating charges of war crimes on both sides, but even more importantly, the elephant in the living room must be confronted, and that is the Occupation. Until the Occupation is ended and Palestinians allowed a free and open state to exist in, there will never be peace.
Here is the sidebar for this video:
ITN (UK) - (Independent Television News)
Sunday 18 January 2009
Hamas announces ceasefire on Israel
Palestinian militant group Hamas has announced a ceasefire with Israel, giving the Jewish state one week to pull troops out of the Gaza strip.
It comes hours after the Israeli leaders voted to halt the offensive in region that has killed nearly 1,200 people.
A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said earlier that if a ceasefire held in the Hamas-ruled enclave, Israel could start the process of withdrawing its forces.
A Hamas official in Cairo, Ayman Taha, said: "Hamas and the factions announce a ceasefire in Gaza starting immediately and give Israel a week to withdraw."
The Islamist group said previously it would not stop its attacks as long as Israeli soldiers remained in the Gaza Strip.
Taha said Hamas was demanding the opening of all Gaza border crossings for the entry of "all materials, food, goods and basic needs".
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has touched down in the Middle East for an international summit on the crisis.
International leaders are holding a summit at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh which is to be co-chaired by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Also attending are United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and senior politicians from Germany, Italy, Spain, Turkey and Jordan.
As he arrived in Egypt, Mr Brown announced an additional £20 million of British humanitarian aid and called for renewed efforts to find a lasting peace in the region.
In an apparent criticism of the scale of the Israeli response to Hamas rocket attacks, Mr Brown said "too many" innocent people had died in the 22-day assault on Gaza.
Mr Brown said the violence in Gaza must not halt the search for a path to peace, but should spur the international community on in its efforts to establish a sustainable two-state solution.
"This conflict has once again demonstrated the urgent need to forge a longer term settlement which gives security to both Israelis and Palestinians," he said.
(source)
---
AFP
18/01/2009
At least 1,206 Palestinians, including 410 children, have been killed since the start of Israel's deadliest-ever assault on the territory on December 27, according to Gaza medics, who said another 5,300 people have been wounded.
Those slain in the war also include 109 women, 113 elderly people, 14 paramedics, and four journalists, according to Dr. Muawiya Hassanein, the head of Gaza emergency services.
Since the start of the operation10 Israeli soldiers and three civilians have been killed in combat or in rocket strikes. The army says more than 700 rockets and mortar rounds have been fired into Israel during that period.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
War Crimes du Jour: Another UN School in Gaza Hit by Shells - 17 January 2009)
Yet another UN school in Gaza has been hit by shell fire, and as usual, Israel immediately blames Hamas militants, stating that they were firing from the school. Each time the local UN officials have said there is absolutely no proof of this and that they have repeatedly given the Israeli military their coordinates and warned them that there are hundreds of refugees in their facilities.
How many times will Israel use this canard, I wonder? The world is not buying this. There are increasing calls that Israel be investigated for war crimes.
How many times will Israel use this canard, I wonder? The world is not buying this. There are increasing calls that Israel be investigated for war crimes.
Sidebar for this Video:
UN school in Gaza hit by shells
Jan 17 - Palestinian death toll rises as Israel prepares to decide on a unilateral ceasefire.
At least another six Palestinians have been killed during a wave of Israeli raids on Gaza overnight. The casualties included two boys sheltering at a United Nations school hit by tank fire.
Paul Chapman reports.
---
Independent.co.uk
UN condemns shelling of Gaza school
Saturday, 17 January 2009
A United Nations official has condemned an Israeli shelling attack that struck a UN school in the northern Gaza Strip and killed two people.
Spokesman Chris Gunness said the school was crowded with 1,600 people who had sought shelter from Israel's three-week offensive in Gaza.
It was latest incident in which Israeli fire aimed at militants has struck a UN facility during the offensive. Gunness says Israel had the coordinates of the school and knew it was being used as a shelter. He says there should be an investigation into possible war crimes, and that anyone who is guilty should be brought to justice.
The military was investigating the incident and had no immediate comment. But in similar cases, it has accused Hamas militants of staging attacks from schools, mosques and other civilian areas.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/un-condemns-shelling-of-gaza-school-1418531.html
---
ITN (UK)
More than 1,150 Palestinians have been killed and 5,100 wounded since Israel began attacking Gaza on December 27 with an air blitz, and then moved in with ground forces a week later. A large majority of the dead are civilians.
Gaza: Israel War Crimes in Gaza....Part 2
Here are pictures being sent out of Gaza that the Western media are largely not picking up. In fact, in my own local paper, we are lucky to get more than one AP report a day, usually with no photos.
This video shows how extensive the attacks on children have been.
Zionism, for the few of you who do not know, was a concept created by certain European Jews back in the 19th Century to create a Jewish state in the territory of Palestine by emigration and force of arms if necessary, which resulted in the creation of the state of Israel in 1947/48. Zionism has become associated with Israeli colonialism and race ideology and is criticized by many other Jews.
BUZZ--Israel "considers" unilateral ceasefire
Israeli government officials allegedly meeting on Saturday night to consider a "unilateral" withdrawal so that once again they will not be bound to any considerations that benefit the safety and well being of the Gazan civilians.
According to Reuters:
According to Reuters:
The halt would come with all sorts of conditions, being negotiated under the tableJERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli leaders are leaning toward declaring a unilateral halt to their offensive in the Gaza Strip instead of entering into a formal, Egyptian-brokered ceasefire with Hamas, Israeli political sources said on Friday.
Such a move could deprive Hamas of political gains from a truce deal that would include the easing of Israel’s blockade on the coastal enclave, home to 1.5 million Palestinians.
Israeli officials said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would convene a meeting of his security cabinet on Saturday night to decide whether to call a unilateral halt to the offensive, which has killed more than 1,100 Palestinians.
Israel remains committed to controlling the news out of Gaza. The Israeli military refused to abide by the Israeli courts decision to allow journalists to enter Gaza. Now the Israeli military has taken the latest propaganda technique--embedded journalists--from the US military playbook. Now the Israeli military will allow journalists that they approve of to embed with their troops, of course all reports must be "screened" by the military.
[Buzz Buzz...Think about it--if the military had invented the "embedded journalist" concept during the Vietnam war....we'd probably still be there fighting that war.]
Friday, January 16, 2009
The Young Turks: Israel Strikes a UN Facility - Is it Intentional?
The Young Turks YouTube channel tackles another major news item and controversy, the Israeli shelling of the UN with white phosphorus, as well as shelling the local media building in Gaza, and a hospital (or hospitals?) yesterday, January 15.
UN compound on fire from White Phosphours Shells
It appears that Israel continues to lie. Israel continues to deny it's use of white phosphorous.
Yet the U.N. is reporting that three white phosphorous shells hit a U.N. compound and started "raging fires" and the Israeli military forces failed to respond. This is being conservatively reported by the New York Times, a US corporate media outlet. According to the NYT report:
White phosphorus is a standard, legal weapon in armies, long used as a way to light up an area or to create a thick white smoke screen to obscure troop movements. While using it against civilians, or in an area where many civilians are likely to be affected, can be a violation of international law, Israel has denied using the substance improperly. On Wednesday, Hamas fired a phosphorus mortar shell into Israel, but no one was hurt.
Yet the U.N. is reporting that three white phosphorous shells hit a U.N. compound and started "raging fires" and the Israeli military forces failed to respond. This is being conservatively reported by the New York Times, a US corporate media outlet. According to the NYT report:
White phosphorus is a standard, legal weapon in armies, long used as a way to light up an area or to create a thick white smoke screen to obscure troop movements. While using it against civilians, or in an area where many civilians are likely to be affected, can be a violation of international law, Israel has denied using the substance improperly. On Wednesday, Hamas fired a phosphorus mortar shell into Israel, but no one was hurt.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Meet Anna Baltzer: Life In Occupied Palestine, Parts One Thru Six
PART ONE:
PART TWO:
PART THREE:
PART FOUR:
PART FIVE:
PART SIX:
Meet Anna Baltzer, young, articulate, highly intelligent and committed to justice for Palestinians and Jews in the Middle East. She offers a new paradigm for the up and coming generation of American Jews (and Jews beyond America) who are shocked and bewildered by the brutality and racism of the Israeli State and are grasping for a way out of this dark cycle of violence that affects Jews all over the world at least indirectly. She offers a paradigm of compassion and understanding toward Palestinians, in a word, a strong step toward the path of Love. For the last six decades everyone has tried the opposite path, the path of FEAR, and we can see to what wretched point that has brought us now.
Here is the video sidebar for Part One:
Life in Occupied Palestine: Eyewitness Stories and Photos
Anna Baltzer, Jewish American Columbia graduate, Fulbright scholar, author of "Witness in Palestine", and the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, shares her discovery of Israel's human rights violations in Palestine.
Anna's MySpace page: http://tinyurl.com/83mr7d
Anna's Eyewitness Reports from Palestine: http://annainpalestine.blogspot.com/
Jews in Solidarity with Palestine
Jews in Solidarity with Palestine
Sign on to this statement View signers
Stop the U.S.-backed genocidal Israeli war on Gaza
* Nearly a thousand women, men and children killed by U.S.-made Israeli bombs
* Thousands more wounded
* 1.5 million under siege for the past 18 months, without food, water, medicine, fuel
* Collective punishment for resisting occupation; emergency aid blocked
* Massive violations of international law
* Apartheid wall
* Racist oppression
* Homes and land stolen
* Forced into refugee camps
* 60 years of occupation, from the river to the sea
We Say Enough!
We Are
Jews in Solidarity with Palestine
No to Israel! Yes To Self-Determination, Democracy & Freedom!
Stop U.S. Funding of the War on Palestine!
The whole world is horrified by the murderous Israeli assault against the suffering people of Gaza. From Seoul to Caracas, from Johannesburg to Amman to London, millions of people have poured into the streets to demand an end to this genocidal campaign, which is funded by the United States and carried out with U.S.-supplied weaponry.
There have also been protests in U.S. cities. While most of those marching are Arab-Americans, many African Americans, Latinos, Asian-Americans and whites have joined in. Many Jewish people, outraged at Israel's war crimes and anguished that they are carried out in their name, are speaking out.
It's good that Jewish people of conscience are disassociating themselves from the Gaza aggression. But it's not enough. This atrocity is only the latest, and it's no aberration. It reflects the program of the Israeli settler state -- which is based on the theft of Palestine, the ouster and suppression of the Palestinian people, and the racist ideology of Zionism -- and of its primary sponsor, the Pentagon and U.S. business establishment.
It's not enough to oppose the bombing. It's not enough to demand an end to the 41-year occupation of Gaza and the West Bank. We stand in complete and unconditional support for the self-determination of the Palestinian people. This includes the right to return to Palestine, from the river to the sea, and the right to democratically determine the form and the future of the Palestinian state.
Nothing less will undo the historic crime of al Nakba -- the 1948 catastrophe of the establishment of the state of Israel based on the ouster of the Palestinian people from their homeland, oppression and inequality.
That crime betrayed the whole history of the Jewish people. From helping topple the czar in Russia and build the unions in New York, to resisting pogroms and fighting to the last breath in the Warsaw Ghetto, opposition to persecution, oppression and racism was central to the Jewish heritage.
We call on Jewish people around the world, including those inside Israel, to join us in reclaiming that heritage. Reject racism and genocide. Reject the Zionist state, the very concept of which is racist to the core. Take the hand of our Palestinian sisters and brothers. Defend their righteous struggle to restore their stolen land and build a democratic Palestine.
This is not an impossible quest. Remember how mighty the settler state in South Africa seemed, only a little over two decades ago? The racist regime there was buttressed by U.S. -- and Israeli -- support. But it was battered by the unstoppable political and military struggle against apartheid, which gained worldwide support. Apartheid fell, replaced by a new state based on legal equality.
A future of equality for all is possible in Palestine too. Until this future is won, the Palestinian struggle will go on. We stand with that struggle.
Sign on to this statement
Initial list of signers:
Toni Arenstein, NY
Dave Axelrod, NJ
Tibby Brooks, NY
Ellen Catalinotto, NY
Sara Catalinotto, NY
Hillel Cohen, Doctor of Public Health, NY
Naomi Cohen, NY
Heather Cottin, Long Island Troops Out Now Coalition, NY
Barbara Dorritie, Teacher, MA
Ellie Dorritie, ret., APWU*, WNY
Rachel Duell, prof., NJ
K. E. Durkin, NY
Sharon Eolis, nurse-practitioner, ret., NY
Shelley Ettinger, NY
Leslie Feinberg, Co-founder, Rainbow Flags for Mumia, NY
Irving Fierstein, artist, NY
Laurie Fierstein, NY
Michele Finkelman, AFSCME L. 215*, NY
Sherry Finkelman, UFT L. 2*, NY
Julie Fry, V-P., Assn. of Legal Aid Attorneys*, NY
Gavrielle Gemma, NJ
Michael Gimbel, del., NYC Central Labor Council*
Carl Glenn, NJ
Jerome Goldberg, attorney. MI
Marsha Goldberg, NY
Fred Goldstein. NY
Lila Goldstein, Students for Justice for Palestine*, MA
Judy Greenspan, CA
Sue Harris, Ph.D., NY
Joyce Kanowitz, NY
Stevan Kirschbaum, chair, Grievance Comm., USW L. 8751*, MA
Tova Klein, CA
Michael Kramer, I.D.F. veteran, Veterans for Peace, Chap. 021*, NJ
Donna Lazarus, UFT*, NJ
Milt Neidenberg, ret., Teamsters L. 840*, NJ
Frank Neisser, CWA L. 1701, ret.*, MA
Cornelia Rakow, NY
Arthur Rosen, NY
Anita Rosenblithe, AFT*, NY
Malcolm Sacks, Montreal
William Sacks, attorney, NY
Karina Mellos-Schechter. NY
Dave Schechter, NY
Susan Schnur, Transit Union L. 268*, OH
J.R. Singer, Ph.D., NY
David Sole, Pres., UAW L. 2334*, MI
Al Strasburger, NJ
Paul Teitelbaum, International Action Center, AZ
Jill White, EdD, IL
Eddie Yood, NY
*For purposes of identification only.
Sign on to this statement View signers
Stop the U.S.-backed genocidal Israeli war on Gaza
* Nearly a thousand women, men and children killed by U.S.-made Israeli bombs
* Thousands more wounded
* 1.5 million under siege for the past 18 months, without food, water, medicine, fuel
* Collective punishment for resisting occupation; emergency aid blocked
* Massive violations of international law
* Apartheid wall
* Racist oppression
* Homes and land stolen
* Forced into refugee camps
* 60 years of occupation, from the river to the sea
We Say Enough!
We Are
Jews in Solidarity with Palestine
No to Israel! Yes To Self-Determination, Democracy & Freedom!
Stop U.S. Funding of the War on Palestine!
The whole world is horrified by the murderous Israeli assault against the suffering people of Gaza. From Seoul to Caracas, from Johannesburg to Amman to London, millions of people have poured into the streets to demand an end to this genocidal campaign, which is funded by the United States and carried out with U.S.-supplied weaponry.
There have also been protests in U.S. cities. While most of those marching are Arab-Americans, many African Americans, Latinos, Asian-Americans and whites have joined in. Many Jewish people, outraged at Israel's war crimes and anguished that they are carried out in their name, are speaking out.
It's good that Jewish people of conscience are disassociating themselves from the Gaza aggression. But it's not enough. This atrocity is only the latest, and it's no aberration. It reflects the program of the Israeli settler state -- which is based on the theft of Palestine, the ouster and suppression of the Palestinian people, and the racist ideology of Zionism -- and of its primary sponsor, the Pentagon and U.S. business establishment.
It's not enough to oppose the bombing. It's not enough to demand an end to the 41-year occupation of Gaza and the West Bank. We stand in complete and unconditional support for the self-determination of the Palestinian people. This includes the right to return to Palestine, from the river to the sea, and the right to democratically determine the form and the future of the Palestinian state.
Nothing less will undo the historic crime of al Nakba -- the 1948 catastrophe of the establishment of the state of Israel based on the ouster of the Palestinian people from their homeland, oppression and inequality.
That crime betrayed the whole history of the Jewish people. From helping topple the czar in Russia and build the unions in New York, to resisting pogroms and fighting to the last breath in the Warsaw Ghetto, opposition to persecution, oppression and racism was central to the Jewish heritage.
We call on Jewish people around the world, including those inside Israel, to join us in reclaiming that heritage. Reject racism and genocide. Reject the Zionist state, the very concept of which is racist to the core. Take the hand of our Palestinian sisters and brothers. Defend their righteous struggle to restore their stolen land and build a democratic Palestine.
This is not an impossible quest. Remember how mighty the settler state in South Africa seemed, only a little over two decades ago? The racist regime there was buttressed by U.S. -- and Israeli -- support. But it was battered by the unstoppable political and military struggle against apartheid, which gained worldwide support. Apartheid fell, replaced by a new state based on legal equality.
A future of equality for all is possible in Palestine too. Until this future is won, the Palestinian struggle will go on. We stand with that struggle.
Sign on to this statement
Initial list of signers:
Toni Arenstein, NY
Dave Axelrod, NJ
Tibby Brooks, NY
Ellen Catalinotto, NY
Sara Catalinotto, NY
Hillel Cohen, Doctor of Public Health, NY
Naomi Cohen, NY
Heather Cottin, Long Island Troops Out Now Coalition, NY
Barbara Dorritie, Teacher, MA
Ellie Dorritie, ret., APWU*, WNY
Rachel Duell, prof., NJ
K. E. Durkin, NY
Sharon Eolis, nurse-practitioner, ret., NY
Shelley Ettinger, NY
Leslie Feinberg, Co-founder, Rainbow Flags for Mumia, NY
Irving Fierstein, artist, NY
Laurie Fierstein, NY
Michele Finkelman, AFSCME L. 215*, NY
Sherry Finkelman, UFT L. 2*, NY
Julie Fry, V-P., Assn. of Legal Aid Attorneys*, NY
Gavrielle Gemma, NJ
Michael Gimbel, del., NYC Central Labor Council*
Carl Glenn, NJ
Jerome Goldberg, attorney. MI
Marsha Goldberg, NY
Fred Goldstein. NY
Lila Goldstein, Students for Justice for Palestine*, MA
Judy Greenspan, CA
Sue Harris, Ph.D., NY
Joyce Kanowitz, NY
Stevan Kirschbaum, chair, Grievance Comm., USW L. 8751*, MA
Tova Klein, CA
Michael Kramer, I.D.F. veteran, Veterans for Peace, Chap. 021*, NJ
Donna Lazarus, UFT*, NJ
Milt Neidenberg, ret., Teamsters L. 840*, NJ
Frank Neisser, CWA L. 1701, ret.*, MA
Cornelia Rakow, NY
Arthur Rosen, NY
Anita Rosenblithe, AFT*, NY
Malcolm Sacks, Montreal
William Sacks, attorney, NY
Karina Mellos-Schechter. NY
Dave Schechter, NY
Susan Schnur, Transit Union L. 268*, OH
J.R. Singer, Ph.D., NY
David Sole, Pres., UAW L. 2334*, MI
Al Strasburger, NJ
Paul Teitelbaum, International Action Center, AZ
Jill White, EdD, IL
Eddie Yood, NY
*For purposes of identification only.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Jewish Protesters block entrances to Israeli Consulate - Los Angeles, Jan. 14, 2009
For Immediate Release: January 14, 2009
JEWS SHUT DOWN ISRAELI CONSULATE!
10 JEWS CHAIN TOGETHER TO BLOCK DRIVEWAY AND ENTRANCE!
Who
Jewish people of conscience in Los Angeles, including a nurse, a school counselor, a retired school teacher, a retired union representative, and a community organizer.
What
Civil Disobedience to shut down the Israeli consulate, with people risking arrest by chaining themselves to the building, strong visuals condemning Israeli attack on Gaza
Where
Consulate General of Israel, 6380 Wilshire Blvd # 1700, Los Angeles, CA 90048
When
January 14th, 2009 at 8:30 AM
Concerned Jewish residents of Los Angeles will shut down the Israeli consulate for the first time ever in a historic protest against the policies of Israel. An ad-hoc, multi-generational group including members of the recently founded International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, will send a message to the Israeli government and its US supporters: "Not In Our Name! We will not be silent! Jews demand an end to20the Israeli siege on Gaza and an end to Israeli apartheid." The demonstration will kick off a wave of demonstrations across the United States uniting Palestinians, Jewish people, and other Americans outraged by the siege.
"We are shocked and outraged at Israeli's latest act of violent aggression against the Palestinian people. Killing over 950 people, including 250 women and children, bombing schools and mosques and then calling it self-defense—that is the worst kind of hypocrisy. It also amounts to war crimes," said Hannah Howard, a local member of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. "We are shutting down the Israeli consulate today because as Jewish people we cannot allow business as usual while violence is being done in our name. This is a direct betrayal of our Jewish tradition of social justice."
Action participants will also speak out against the US government's unconditional support for Israel's siege and its ongoing war against the Palestinian people. "While US-funded F16's rain down bombs on the people of Gaza, our elected officials locally and nationally offer unqualified support." said Marsha Steinberg, a retired union representative. "Our government must stop sending billions of dollars in military and economic aid to the Israeli war machine while defending Israel in the international community," Steinberg said. In the coming week, concerned Americans from all backgrounds w ill call on the new Presidential administration to make a 180 degree change in policy.
"While the end of the siege on Gaza is our most immediate priority, this is only the latest chapter in Palestinians' 60 plus year experience of occupation and ethnic cleansing. Peace and justice in the region will only come when Palestinians have freedom and control their own destiny," said Lisa Adler, a community organizer in Los Angeles and another member of the International Jewish Solidarity Network. "Even before the siege began, Israel's inhumane months-long blockade of Gaza created a major humanitarian crisis. We must end the siege. And we are building a nonviolent international movement of boycott, divestment and sanctions that brings an end to Israel's policies of occupation and apartheid and advances the Palestinian struggle for justice," said Adler.
For more information on the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, visit: www.ijsn.net
-- ## --
Profiles of the Demonstrators
Marsha Steinberg is a retired union representative and long time activist for social justice.
Gabriel Strachota is a 22-year old Jewish native of Massachusetts. His mother grew up in apartheid South Africa and he has many aunts, uncles, and cousins living in Israel.
Robin Ellis is a 34-year old queer woman originally from New York and a Registered Nurse working in Los Angeles' public health system.
Lisa Adler is a 29-year old New York native from a Latin American Jewish family. She spent several weeks in occupied Palestine in 2002 working in solidarity with Palestinians resisting the occupation non-violently.
Eric Romann is a 31-year old community organizer originally from New Jersey. Eric's grandparents moved to Palestine to escape Nazism in the 1930's and lost many family members in the Nazi Holocaust. His father spent the first 15 years of his life in Israel and Eric has many family members living there.
Samantha Tess Sunshine is a queer white Jew who lives in Los Angeles. She is a trained sex educator who has worked in the field of sexual health for almost a decade, and is currently a lead facilitator for the Leadership Development in Interethnic Relations Program at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Photos of Interfaith Vigil of Moslems, Christians and Jews, Downtown Norfolk, Mon 12 January
Despite freezing weather dipping into the low 30s on Monday afternoon, January 12, over two dozen people (maybe more because I got there late) held an interfaith vigil for two hours, going well past dusk at the intersection of St Paul Blvd and City Hall Ave in downtwon Norfolk. This was the second activist event against the assault of Gaza in two weeks, both at this same corner. This time members of three faiths (at least), Moslem, Christian and Jewish, gathered together to carry signs and make their presence felt as hundreds of cars drove by, many of whom honked in affirmation to their messages. Finally, around six-thirty and quite frozen, they all gathered in a circle and bowed their heads in a prayer for peace.
Later I was emailed that as many as seventy people may have come and gone from the event during the two plus hours. Since I got there during the last half hour I only caught the event as it was winding down. There was a WAVY 10 cameraman just leaving when I arrived, so I wonder if any of his footage made the news.
Later I was emailed that as many as seventy people may have come and gone from the event during the two plus hours. Since I got there during the last half hour I only caught the event as it was winding down. There was a WAVY 10 cameraman just leaving when I arrived, so I wonder if any of his footage made the news.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
From an OpEdNews Article: Israel's Little Shop of Horrors
Israel has been accused of using White Phosphorus (Willy Pete in U.S. Army slang.) on Gaza. Willy Pete is a diabolical weapon when used on humans, clinging to one's skin and burning all the way to the bone. It can't be put out by any normal means. The American military was caught using it in Fallujah in Iraq. Here is a photo from the Fallujah morgue showing what Willy Pete can do to humans:
This was a woman who was burned alive in Fallujah by Willy Pete, utilized by the American military in their assault on the city.
This is a serious, serious allegation and must be investigated by the United Nations as a potential war crime. I have watched on Aljazeera.net as their cameras panned to white clouds exploding and floating down on Gaza, just like Willy Pete does, and doctors have been reporting horrible burns in the hospitals. The London Times has published an article on this which is posted at OpEdNews, detailing the allegations. Here is the article:
From The Times (London)
This was a woman who was burned alive in Fallujah by Willy Pete, utilized by the American military in their assault on the city.
This is a serious, serious allegation and must be investigated by the United Nations as a potential war crime. I have watched on Aljazeera.net as their cameras panned to white clouds exploding and floating down on Gaza, just like Willy Pete does, and doctors have been reporting horrible burns in the hospitals. The London Times has published an article on this which is posted at OpEdNews, detailing the allegations. Here is the article:
From The Times (London)
January 12, 2009
Gaza's burn victims add to pressure on army over phosphorus (source)
Sheera Frenkel in Jerusalem and Michael Evans, Defence Editor
Pressure grew on Israel to end the use of controversial white phosphorus yesterday as The Times saw more evidence of its deployment around civilian populations in Gaza.
More than 50 people with burns were taken into Nasser Hospital in the southern town of Khan Yunis, in what the hospital director, Youssef Abu Al-Reesh, said was a massive case of exposure to white phosphorus.
“We don’t have the medical experience to judge these cases, but we searched the internet according to the cases we have, and it indeed confirmed that it’s white phosphorus munitions. I have been working in this hospital for ten years and I have never seen anything like this.”
The 1980 Geneva treaty says that white phosphorus should not be used as a weapon of war in civilian areas, but there is no blanket ban on its use as a smokescreen or for illumination. It produces a thick white smoke when exposed to oxygen, but can cause severe burns and melt flesh to the bone if it comes into contact with skin.
The sudden influx of burns patients at Nasser Hospital coincided with Israel’s expanded ground offensive, which included the Al-Qarara and Kuza’a suburbs of Khan Yunis.
Muhammad Tahseen, 20, said that he was sitting outside his home in Al-Qarara when a shell exploded above. He described watching his two cousins writhe in pain as he stood metres away, unable to help. “There was an explosion and white smoke. I saw my cousins screaming . . . I saw them burning and their clothes burning. I saw their skin melting.”
Doctors said that they were unable to provide further help to Muhammad Nabih Ahmed, 17, listed in critical condition with burns to the chest and back. The family hope to get Ahmed treated in an Egyptian hospital. But travel from Khan Yunis to the southern border with Egypt is treacherous, and many aid organisations have ceased travelling along the roads.
When first questioned by The Times last week an Israeli military spokesman “categorically denied” using white phosphorus in Gaza. In a statement issued yesterday the spokesman’s office said: “We don’t specify operational details, nor the type of ammunition that we use, but any ammunition that is used by the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] is within the scope of international law.”
Human Rights Watch said it was sure Israel had used white phosphorus. “The use of white phosphorus in densely populated areas of Gaza violates the requirement under international humanitarian law to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian injury and loss of life,” it said.
Further research by The Times into the type of US-made shells being fired by Israeli gunners on the border with Gaza uncovered additional evidence that the light blue munitions, known as M825A1s, are carriers of white phosphorus, impregnated in more than 100 felt wedges.
The lot number – PB-91J011-002A – visible in a photograph published by The Times last week indicates that the shells being used by the IDF were assembled in September 1991 at Pine Bluff arsenal in America, where all US white phosphorus munitions are reportedly made. The contractors are Chamberlain Manufacturing [metal parts only], General Dynamics, and Ordnance and Tactical Systems.
White phosphorus can be air-burst or ground-burst. It emits a distinct garlic smell. When air-burst, it covers a larger area than ground-burst and is useful to mask large troop movements. However, this spreads the incendiary effect over a wider area.
Munir Albarsh, the Head of Emergency Medicine at Gaza’s Ministry of Health, said that doctors were collecting tissue samples at hospitals across Gaza to send for phosphorus testing at international laboratories. He added that the ministry would demand an independent international investigation into Israel’s use of white phosphorus.
From Turkish TV Last Week: One Million Turks Stand for Gaza against Israeli Massacre
Israeli-Turkish relations were pretty good until Gaza erupted. Now look. This is the sidebar for this video:
TIMETURK / NEWS CENTER
All around the world, the protests against the Israeli policies and attacks in Gaza are denounced by millions of people.
Many parts of the world, especially after Israel started the ground operaiton yesterday, millions of people in differents parts of the world protest Israel in the squares and in front of the Israeli embassies.
The protests in Turkey started yesterday in different cities and especially the most crowded ones were in Istanbul and Ankara. Still today tens of thousands of people come together to pray for Palestinian people and to curse Israel.
In the ongoing protests the crowds chant slogans denouncing Israel and supporting Hamas and Palestinian people.
From the ages 7 to 77 there are protestors
Not only the men are filling the squares to protest Israel but also thousands of young-old, child, women are chanting slogans in the squares supporting Palestine. Yesterday three thousands of children protested the Israeli attacks with their mothers in the meeting area in Istanbul.
Today tens of thousands of people are in Caglayan square in Istanbul for one of the biggest protests. By the way the crowd sieging the Israel's Istanbul embassy has become a good example for the protests.
In Indonesia, one of the biggest protest meetings were arranged. In Israel, Europe, America and the entire world Israel is protested by even its own citizens.
Huge Rally for Gaza in Madrid: Manifestacion por Gaza (Palestina) en Madrid
Estimates as high as 250,000 people marched in solidarity with the people of Gaza today, Sunday, January 11, 2009.
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