“It is not only Israel that has failed the people of Gaza with a blockade that punishes everybody living there for the acts of a few. World powers have also failed and even betrayed Gaza’s ordinary citizens”
Jeremy Hobbs - Oxfam International Executive Director
- Only 41 truckloads of construction materials allowed to enter since January;
- Homes, schools, hospitals and water networks cannot be rebuilt.
The international community has betrayed the people of Gaza by failing to back their words with effective action to secure the ending of the Israeli blockade which is preventing reconstruction and recovery, say a group of 16 leading humanitarian and human rights groups in a new reportreleased today ahead of the anniversary of the start of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.
The Israeli authorities have allowed only 41 truckloads of all construction materials into Gaza since the end of the offensive in mid-January, warn the groups, which include Amnesty International, CAFOD, Christian Aid, Medical Aid for Palestinians, Mercy Corps and Oxfam International. The task of rebuilding and repairing thousands of homes alone will require thousands of truckloads of building materials, they add.
Little of the extensive damage the offensive caused to homes, civilian infrastructure, public services, farms and businesses has been repaired because the civilian population, and the UN and aid agencies who help them, are prohibited from importing materials like cement and glass in all but a handful of cases, says the report.
Jeremy Hobbs, Oxfam International Executive Director, said: “It is not only Israel that has failed the people of Gaza with a blockade that punishes everybody living there for the acts of a few. World powers have also failed and even betrayed Gaza’s ordinary citizens. They have wrung hands and issued statements, but have taken little meaningful action to attempt to change the damaging policy that prevents reconstruction, personal recovery and economic recuperation."
“Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, too, must maintain their current de facto cessation of violence and permanently cease all indiscriminate firing of rockets into Israel from Gaza. And all the Palestinian factions also need to intensify their reconciliation dialogue to pave the way for a reunified Palestinian government able to effectively provide for the needs of its civilian population.”
The effect of the construction materials ban goes much wider, say the authors of the report. They say the blockade has also led to frequent power, gas and water shortages,seriously affecting daily life and public health. Parts of the Gaza electricity network were bombed during the conflict and require urgent repairs, which have still not been allowed to proceed almost one year after the conflict. This, combined with Israel continuing to restrict the supply of industrial fuel into Gaza, means that 90% of people in Gaza suffer power cuts of four to eight hours a day.
Power cuts also cause daily interruptions to water supply, as does the inability to repair water pipes, roof top water tanks and household connectors, because materials and spare parts are not deemed essential humanitarian supplies by Israel and so are prevented entry under the blockade. With the loss of pressure in the pipes, polluted water from the ground contaminates the supply. Together with chronic disrepair to the sewage system, poor water quality is a major concern for aid agencies in Gaza, with diarrhoea causing 12 % of young deaths.
The blockade, which began in June 2007 after Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip, has sharply increased poverty, helping make 8 out of 10 people dependent on some form of aid. Businesses and farms have been forced to close and lay off workers. An almost complete ban on exports has hit farmers hard, compounded by the offensive which wrecked 17% of farmland together with greenhouses and irrigation equipment, and left a further 30% unusable in no-go ‘buffer zones’ expanded by the Israeli military after the end of the offensive.
Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said: “The wretched reality endured by 1.5 million people in Gaza should appal anybody with an ounce of humanity. Sick, traumatised and impoverished people are being collectively punished by a cruel, illegal policy imposed by the Israeli authorities.
“Israel’s responsibility to protect its citizens does not give it the right to punish every man, woman and child of Gaza. All states are obliged under international law to intervene to put an end to this brutal blockade but their leaders are failing in this fundamental measure of their own humanity. All states must insist that the Israeli government end its blockadeand let the people of Gaza rebuild their shattered lives.”
The report argues that, while Israel has a duty to protect its citizens, the measures it takes must conform to international humanitarian and human rights law. By enforcing its blockade on Gaza, Israel is violating the prohibition on collective punishment in international humanitarian law, it says. In the report the groups call on Israel to end the blockade. But they also say, ‘the people of Gaza have been betrayed by the international community which can and must do far more to end this illegal and inhumane blockade’. They urge the EU, for example, to take immediate and concerted action to secure the lifting of the blockade of Gaza so that the close of Spain’s six-month presidency of the EU in June 2010 does not also mark the third anniversary of the blockade being imposed.
The report’s authors also call on European foreign ministers and the EU’s new High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton to visit Gaza to see for themselves the impact of the blockade on its people. Securing an immediate opening of the Gaza crossings for building materials to repair ruined homes and civilian infrastructure as winter sets in would be an important step towards an end to the blockade, say the organisations.
Janet Symes, Head of Middle East Region, Christian Aid said: “Expressions of disapproval over the blockade of Gaza by the international community are no longer enough. It is time to allow the people of Gaza to pick up the shattered pieces of their lives and rebuild. There must be no more excuses from the international community.”
source : http://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressrelease/2009-12-22/gaza-civilians-rebuild-one-year-operation-cast-lead
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Israel withholding bodies of 300 Palestinian fighters
RAMALLAH: Palestinian Minister of Detainees and Ex-detainees Issa Qaraqi’ said Saturday that Israeli authorities have been withholding for years the remains of some 300 Palestinians killed in combat in secret cemeteries known as the “Cemeteries of Numbers”.
During a visit to a Palestinian family in the West Bank village of Arourah, north of Ramallah, Qaraqi’ said Israel was in violation of basic international laws by denying Palestinian families the right to claim their dead. Israel has agreed to release the body of a Palestinian from Arourah killed by its forces in 1976 after keeping it for nearly 33 years for unexplained reasons.
Israeli media said the Israeli High Court ruled recently that the body of Mashhour Al-Arouri should be released. The ruling came after the Palestinian family petitioned the court for the custody of his body.
The appeal, lodged by Arouri’s relatives, is part of a national Palestinian campaign to bring home the bodies of Palestinian fighters killed by the Israeli military during operations.
Qaraqi’ said that Arouri’s body will be retrieved after DNA checks confirm his identity.
The court ruled that in case the body is found in a state not fit for reburial in Palestine, the family will be granted permission to visit the grave. Palestinians are skeptical about this as authorization to enter Israel is rarely granted to Palestinians.
Qaraqi’ said the “forced burial of the martyrs is a punishment to their families.” He also said that the practice of withholding the men’s remains for years sparked speculation Israel assassinated them after detention or harvested their organs.
Palestinian sources say Israeli is holding the remains of Palestinian and Arab fighters in four Cemeteries of Numbers.
Meanwhile, Israeli Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov opposed Saturday the inclusion of jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti in any prisoner swap for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
The minister said Barghouti does not qualify for release as he “has become a symbol of armed conflict and bloodshed.”
Hamas sources said that a deal is eluding the parties due to difference over the release of eight prisoners. They are Barghouti, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s Ahmed Sa’adat, top Hamas activists Ibrahim Hamed, Abbas Al-Sayed and Abdullah Al-Barghouti, female prisoners Amenah Muna, Ahlam Al-Tamimi and Qaherah Al-Sa’di.
source : http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=129524&d=13&m=12&y=2009
RAMALLAH: Palestinian Minister of Detainees and Ex-detainees Issa Qaraqi’ said Saturday that Israeli authorities have been withholding for years the remains of some 300 Palestinians killed in combat in secret cemeteries known as the “Cemeteries of Numbers”.
During a visit to a Palestinian family in the West Bank village of Arourah, north of Ramallah, Qaraqi’ said Israel was in violation of basic international laws by denying Palestinian families the right to claim their dead. Israel has agreed to release the body of a Palestinian from Arourah killed by its forces in 1976 after keeping it for nearly 33 years for unexplained reasons.
Israeli media said the Israeli High Court ruled recently that the body of Mashhour Al-Arouri should be released. The ruling came after the Palestinian family petitioned the court for the custody of his body.
The appeal, lodged by Arouri’s relatives, is part of a national Palestinian campaign to bring home the bodies of Palestinian fighters killed by the Israeli military during operations.
Qaraqi’ said that Arouri’s body will be retrieved after DNA checks confirm his identity.
The court ruled that in case the body is found in a state not fit for reburial in Palestine, the family will be granted permission to visit the grave. Palestinians are skeptical about this as authorization to enter Israel is rarely granted to Palestinians.
Qaraqi’ said the “forced burial of the martyrs is a punishment to their families.” He also said that the practice of withholding the men’s remains for years sparked speculation Israel assassinated them after detention or harvested their organs.
Palestinian sources say Israeli is holding the remains of Palestinian and Arab fighters in four Cemeteries of Numbers.
Meanwhile, Israeli Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov opposed Saturday the inclusion of jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti in any prisoner swap for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
The minister said Barghouti does not qualify for release as he “has become a symbol of armed conflict and bloodshed.”
Hamas sources said that a deal is eluding the parties due to difference over the release of eight prisoners. They are Barghouti, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s Ahmed Sa’adat, top Hamas activists Ibrahim Hamed, Abbas Al-Sayed and Abdullah Al-Barghouti, female prisoners Amenah Muna, Ahlam Al-Tamimi and Qaherah Al-Sa’di.
source : http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=129524&d=13&m=12&y=2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Palestinians seek organ theft probe
Several Palestinians in the West Bank have called for an international inquiry into a Swedish newspaper report that suggests members of the Israeli army stole body organs from Palestinians. The report, published last week in Aftonbladet, Sweden's leading tabloid, accused Israeli forces of stealing the organs from Palestinian men after killing them, a charge Israel has denied. But Jalal Ghanem, a resident of the West Bank village of Immatain, told Al Jazeera this week that his brother, Bilal, was one of the victims of the alleged theft following his death by Israeli fire in 1992. Ghanem said Israeli soldiers ambushed Bilal, a member of the Fatah movement and an activist during the second Intifada, at the gate of his family's home.
"They [Israeli soldiers] called him, Bilal, Bilal। He automatically turned, and they shot him," Ghanem said. A military ambulance then transferred Bilal to a helicopter at the gate of the village, his family said.
'Body opened'
Ghanem said Israeli forces returned the body to his family a week later, but it was cut and showed signs of being opened. "It was very clear that there was no abdomen, it showed from the way it was stitched. There were no teeth in his mouth," he said. Bilal's death was included in the Swedish newspaper report by Donald Bostrom, a Swedish freelance journalist. Bostrom said the report was based on his own eyewitness account of an Israeli army raid on a Palestinian village in 1992. He told Al Jazeera he was not anti-Semitic and insisted that what he had written was true. "The body was taken away and the authorities made an autopsy with this young man against the will of the family," Bostrom said। "All those things are actually true and happened. When the military returned the body the family said, 'We think they stole the organ of the body' because there was an empty belly.
Israeli outrage
The article has sparked outrage in Israel, with scores of ministers and commentators calling it anti-Semitic. "The statements in the Swedish press were outrageous," Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, was quoted as telling his cabinet on Sunday.
"We are not expecting an apology from the Swedish government... We are expecting condemnation." The Swedish government has refused to apologise for the article, saying the country's press freedom prevents it from intervening. "If I devoted myself to correcting all the strange claims in the media, I would probably not have time to devote to very much else," Carl Bildt, the Swedish foreign minister, said. The newspaper commented on its story on Sunday, acknowledging that it had no proof of any organ theft but argued that the story deserved publication because of the issues it raised।
Source : Al Jazeera & agencies
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2009/08/200982510415994815.html
"They [Israeli soldiers] called him, Bilal, Bilal। He automatically turned, and they shot him," Ghanem said. A military ambulance then transferred Bilal to a helicopter at the gate of the village, his family said.
'Body opened'
Ghanem said Israeli forces returned the body to his family a week later, but it was cut and showed signs of being opened. "It was very clear that there was no abdomen, it showed from the way it was stitched. There were no teeth in his mouth," he said. Bilal's death was included in the Swedish newspaper report by Donald Bostrom, a Swedish freelance journalist. Bostrom said the report was based on his own eyewitness account of an Israeli army raid on a Palestinian village in 1992. He told Al Jazeera he was not anti-Semitic and insisted that what he had written was true. "The body was taken away and the authorities made an autopsy with this young man against the will of the family," Bostrom said। "All those things are actually true and happened. When the military returned the body the family said, 'We think they stole the organ of the body' because there was an empty belly.
Israeli outrage
The article has sparked outrage in Israel, with scores of ministers and commentators calling it anti-Semitic. "The statements in the Swedish press were outrageous," Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, was quoted as telling his cabinet on Sunday.
"We are not expecting an apology from the Swedish government... We are expecting condemnation." The Swedish government has refused to apologise for the article, saying the country's press freedom prevents it from intervening. "If I devoted myself to correcting all the strange claims in the media, I would probably not have time to devote to very much else," Carl Bildt, the Swedish foreign minister, said. The newspaper commented on its story on Sunday, acknowledging that it had no proof of any organ theft but argued that the story deserved publication because of the issues it raised।
Source : Al Jazeera & agencies
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2009/08/200982510415994815.html
Monday, August 3, 2009
Israel condemned over evictions
The US has led international condemnation of Israel after it evicted nine Palestinian families living in two houses in occupied East Jerusalem.Washington said the action was not in keeping with Israel's obligations under the so-called "road map" to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict।Jewish settlers moved into the houses almost immediately।Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967 and later annexed it, a move not recognised by the world community.The removal of the 53 people was also condemned by the United Nations, the Palestinians and the UK government.Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said he was outraged at the action.
"Israel is once again showing its utter failure to respect international law," he said। "New settlers from abroad are accommodating themselves and their belongings in the Palestinian houses and 19 newly homeless children will have nowhere to sleep।"
'Deplorable'
The operation to evict the Palestinians from the Sheikh Jarrah district of the city was carried out before dawn on Sunday by police clad in black riot gear. It followed a ruling by Israel's Supreme Court that Jewish families owned the land. Israel wants to build a block of 20 apartments in the area. The families' belongings were put on the street "I deplore today's totally unacceptable actions by Israel," the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Robert H Serry said. "These actions are contrary to the provisions of the Geneva Conventions related to occupied territory. "These actions heighten tensions and undermine international efforts to create conditions for fruitful negotiations to achieve peace."
The UK government said the Israeli action was "incompatible with the Israeli professed desire for peace". "We urge Israel not to allow the extremists to set the agenda," the British Consulate in East Jerusalem said.
Sovereignty 'unquestionable'
Israel considers a united Jerusalem to be the capital of the state of Israel. "Our sovereignty over it is unquestionable," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last month. "We cannot accept the idea that Jews will not have the right to live and buy [homes] anywhere in Jerusalem."
The BBC's Tim Franks in Jerusalem says the houses are in what is probably the most contested city on earth and the diplomatic ripples from the evictions will spread. There are an estimated 250,000 Palestinians living in East Jerusalem and 200,000 Jews.
source : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8180743.stm
"Israel is once again showing its utter failure to respect international law," he said। "New settlers from abroad are accommodating themselves and their belongings in the Palestinian houses and 19 newly homeless children will have nowhere to sleep।"
'Deplorable'
The operation to evict the Palestinians from the Sheikh Jarrah district of the city was carried out before dawn on Sunday by police clad in black riot gear. It followed a ruling by Israel's Supreme Court that Jewish families owned the land. Israel wants to build a block of 20 apartments in the area. The families' belongings were put on the street "I deplore today's totally unacceptable actions by Israel," the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Robert H Serry said. "These actions are contrary to the provisions of the Geneva Conventions related to occupied territory. "These actions heighten tensions and undermine international efforts to create conditions for fruitful negotiations to achieve peace."
The UK government said the Israeli action was "incompatible with the Israeli professed desire for peace". "We urge Israel not to allow the extremists to set the agenda," the British Consulate in East Jerusalem said.
Sovereignty 'unquestionable'
Israel considers a united Jerusalem to be the capital of the state of Israel. "Our sovereignty over it is unquestionable," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last month. "We cannot accept the idea that Jews will not have the right to live and buy [homes] anywhere in Jerusalem."
The BBC's Tim Franks in Jerusalem says the houses are in what is probably the most contested city on earth and the diplomatic ripples from the evictions will spread. There are an estimated 250,000 Palestinians living in East Jerusalem and 200,000 Jews.
source : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8180743.stmMonday, May 11, 2009
Israel in secret plan to surround Old City: rights group
* Plan includes demolition of Palestinian homes built without building permits and ignores Muslim archaeological sites in occupied east Jerusalem
JERUSALEM: The Israeli government has secret plans to surround Jerusalem’s Old City with sites under its control to strengthen its hold on the divided city, a rights group said on Sunday.
“The aim is to put in place in coordination with ultra-nationalist settler groups nine biblical parks, focusing almost exclusively on the ancient Jewish past of the city,” said Daniel Seidemann, a founder of the Ir Amim advocacy group.
Plan: “The plan includes the demolition of Palestinian homes built without building permits and ignores the Muslim archaeological sites” in occupied east Jerusalem, the lawyer told AFP.
The plan, which has the support of the offices of the Jerusalem mayor and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, aims to surround the Old City with “parks, trails and tourist sites under Israeli control, in a drastic change of the status quo in the city”, Ir Amir said in a statement.
The status of Jerusalem is one of the most sensitive topics in the decades-old Middle East conflict, with Israel claiming the city as its “eternal, undivided capital”, a position not recognised by the international community.
Palestinians hoping to make the mostly Arab eastern part of the city, which has been occupied by Israel for more than four decades and contains sites holy to Christians, Jews and Muslims, the capital of their promised state.
“The programme is sponsored secretly by the office of the prime minister and the mayor of Jerusalem, not only without public discussions, but without the existence of the project even publicly known,” Ir Amim said.
The project is due to be carried out by the Jerusalem Development Authority which submitted a report on its plans to the prime minister’s office in September 2008.
According to that report, the objective of the plan is “to create a sequence of parks surrounding the Old City” in order “to strengthen Jerusalem as the capital of the state of Israel”.
“This policy risks pouring oil on the flames by transforming a national conflict into a religious one, playing the game of nationalist (Jewish) extremists,” Siedemann said. When asked to comment on the report, a spokesman for the prime minister’s office said: “Jerusalem has been the eternal capital of Jewish people for some 3,000 years and will remain the united capital of the state of Israel.”
“The government will continue to develop Jerusalem, development that will benefit all of Jerusalem’s diverse population and respect the different faiths and communities that together make Jerusalem such a special city.” The Jerusalem mayor’s office declined to immediately comment and there was no immediate reaction from the development authority. The report comes a week before Netanyahu, Israel’s hawkish premier, is due to meet US President Barack Obama in Washington.
Israeli actions in east Jerusalem – which it captured in 1967 and later annexed – is one of the main points of discord between Obama’s administration and Netanyahu’s largely right-wing cabinet.
On her first official visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank in March, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton slammed Israeli plans to raze homes built without permits in east Jerusalem as “unhelpful” and a matter of “deep concern.” - afp
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
US made white phosphorus shells hit the UN compound
UNRWA SCHOOL IN BEIT LAHIA, GAZA , PALESTINE
click on image to enlarge Saturday, February 7, 2009
Gaza’s civilians, still unable to rebuild one year after Operation Cast Lead, ‘betrayed’ by international community
“It is not only Israel that has failed the people of Gaza with a blockade that punishes everybody living there for the acts of a few. World powers have also failed and even betrayed Gaza’s ordinary citizens”
Jeremy Hobbs - Oxfam International Executive Director
- Only 41 truckloads of construction materials allowed to enter since January;
- Homes, schools, hospitals and water networks cannot be rebuilt.
The international community has betrayed the people of Gaza by failing to back their words with effective action to secure the ending of the Israeli blockade which is preventing reconstruction and recovery, say a group of 16 leading humanitarian and human rights groups in a new reportreleased today ahead of the anniversary of the start of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.
The Israeli authorities have allowed only 41 truckloads of all construction materials into Gaza since the end of the offensive in mid-January, warn the groups, which include Amnesty International, CAFOD, Christian Aid, Medical Aid for Palestinians, Mercy Corps and Oxfam International. The task of rebuilding and repairing thousands of homes alone will require thousands of truckloads of building materials, they add.
Little of the extensive damage the offensive caused to homes, civilian infrastructure, public services, farms and businesses has been repaired because the civilian population, and the UN and aid agencies who help them, are prohibited from importing materials like cement and glass in all but a handful of cases, says the report.
Jeremy Hobbs, Oxfam International Executive Director, said: “It is not only Israel that has failed the people of Gaza with a blockade that punishes everybody living there for the acts of a few. World powers have also failed and even betrayed Gaza’s ordinary citizens. They have wrung hands and issued statements, but have taken little meaningful action to attempt to change the damaging policy that prevents reconstruction, personal recovery and economic recuperation."
“Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, too, must maintain their current de facto cessation of violence and permanently cease all indiscriminate firing of rockets into Israel from Gaza. And all the Palestinian factions also need to intensify their reconciliation dialogue to pave the way for a reunified Palestinian government able to effectively provide for the needs of its civilian population.”
The effect of the construction materials ban goes much wider, say the authors of the report. They say the blockade has also led to frequent power, gas and water shortages,seriously affecting daily life and public health. Parts of the Gaza electricity network were bombed during the conflict and require urgent repairs, which have still not been allowed to proceed almost one year after the conflict. This, combined with Israel continuing to restrict the supply of industrial fuel into Gaza, means that 90% of people in Gaza suffer power cuts of four to eight hours a day.
Power cuts also cause daily interruptions to water supply, as does the inability to repair water pipes, roof top water tanks and household connectors, because materials and spare parts are not deemed essential humanitarian supplies by Israel and so are prevented entry under the blockade. With the loss of pressure in the pipes, polluted water from the ground contaminates the supply. Together with chronic disrepair to the sewage system, poor water quality is a major concern for aid agencies in Gaza, with diarrhoea causing 12 % of young deaths.
The blockade, which began in June 2007 after Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip, has sharply increased poverty, helping make 8 out of 10 people dependent on some form of aid. Businesses and farms have been forced to close and lay off workers. An almost complete ban on exports has hit farmers hard, compounded by the offensive which wrecked 17% of farmland together with greenhouses and irrigation equipment, and left a further 30% unusable in no-go ‘buffer zones’ expanded by the Israeli military after the end of the offensive.
Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said: “The wretched reality endured by 1.5 million people in Gaza should appal anybody with an ounce of humanity. Sick, traumatised and impoverished people are being collectively punished by a cruel, illegal policy imposed by the Israeli authorities.
“Israel’s responsibility to protect its citizens does not give it the right to punish every man, woman and child of Gaza. All states are obliged under international law to intervene to put an end to this brutal blockade but their leaders are failing in this fundamental measure of their own humanity. All states must insist that the Israeli government end its blockadeand let the people of Gaza rebuild their shattered lives.”
The report argues that, while Israel has a duty to protect its citizens, the measures it takes must conform to international humanitarian and human rights law. By enforcing its blockade on Gaza, Israel is violating the prohibition on collective punishment in international humanitarian law, it says. In the report the groups call on Israel to end the blockade. But they also say, ‘the people of Gaza have been betrayed by the international community which can and must do far more to end this illegal and inhumane blockade’. They urge the EU, for example, to take immediate and concerted action to secure the lifting of the blockade of Gaza so that the close of Spain’s six-month presidency of the EU in June 2010 does not also mark the third anniversary of the blockade being imposed.
The report’s authors also call on European foreign ministers and the EU’s new High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton to visit Gaza to see for themselves the impact of the blockade on its people. Securing an immediate opening of the Gaza crossings for building materials to repair ruined homes and civilian infrastructure as winter sets in would be an important step towards an end to the blockade, say the organisations.
Janet Symes, Head of Middle East Region, Christian Aid said: “Expressions of disapproval over the blockade of Gaza by the international community are no longer enough. It is time to allow the people of Gaza to pick up the shattered pieces of their lives and rebuild. There must be no more excuses from the international community.”
source : http://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressrelease/2009-12-22/gaza-civilians-rebuild-one-year-operation-cast-lead
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Alarm Spreads Over Use of Lethal New Weapons
Alarm Spreads Over Use of Lethal New Weapons
By Erin Cunningham
January 22, 2009 -- GAZA CITY, Jan 22 (IPS) - Eighteen-year-old Mona Al-Ashkar says she did not immediately know the first explosion at the United Nations (UN) school in Beit Lahiya had blown her left leg off. There was smoke, then chaos, then the pain and disbelief set in once she realised it was gone - completely severed by the weapon that hit her.
Mona is one of the many patients among the 5,500 injured that have international and Palestinian doctors baffled by the type of weaponry used in the Israeli operation. High-profile human rights organisations like Amnesty International are accusing Israel of war crimes.
Mona's doctors at Gaza City's Al-Shifa hospital found no shrapnel in her leg, and it looked as though it had been "sliced right off with a knife."
"We are not sure exactly what type of weapon can manage to do that immediately and so cleanly," said Dr. Sobhi Skaik, consultant surgeon general at Al-Shifa hospital. "What is happening is frightening. It's possible the Israeli army was using Gaza to experiment militarily."
Both international organisations and human rights groups, including the UN, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have condemned Israel's use of unconventional weapons in civilian areas of theGaza Strip.
Amnesty International's chief researcher for Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Donatella Rovera, told IPS in Beit Lahiya that Israel's use of white phosphorus and other "area weapons" on civilian populations amounted to war crimes.
"The kind of weapons used and the manner in which they were used indicates prima facie evidence of war crimes," she said.
Israel announced Wednesday it would be launching its own probe into reported use of white phosphorus, but has so far refused to comment further.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN's nuclear watchdog, said it would look into a claim made by the ambassadors of a number of Arab nations that Israel used depleted uranium in its recent attacks on Gaza.
Local doctors say a number of both widespread and unusual injuries may indicate that new types of weapons were used on the Gaza population during the war. Health officials are seeing wounds they have never seen before, or at least not on such a massive scale.
"There has been a significant loss of life here in Gaza for reasons that are unexplainable medically," said Dr. Skaik.
Mona's injury is characteristic of Dense Inert Metal Explosives (DIME). DIMEs are munitions that, packed with tungsten powder, produce an intense explosion at about the level of the knee, with signs of severe heat at the point of amputation.
"If you ask a patient how it happened, how their leg was removed, they won't know," Dr. Skaik said. "They'll say that a rocket or missile exploded and took only their lower limbs off."
Once in the body, tungsten is both difficult to detect and extremely carcinogenic, and can produce an aggressive form of cancer, according to both military experts.
Dr. Skaik says the Al-Shifa hospital alone has seen between 100 to 150 patients with this type of injury. Over 50 patients at Al-Shifa had two or more limbs severed, he says.
But because Gaza's hospitals are so poorly equipped, it has been nearly impossible so far to test properly for the substances and count accurately how many wounded Palestinians may have been hit with this weapon.
The Norwegian doctor Mads Gilbert who worked at Al-Shifa hospital during the siege confirmed to journalists that the injuries were aligned with those produced by DIME explosives.
Human rights groups say Israel used the weapon for the first time in Lebanon in 2006.
What is worrying health officials even more, however, is that some of the patients' organs are being ruptured with little or no sign of a shrapnel entry point.
This is something they have never seen before, they say, and also something they do not know how to treat.
"Normal shrapnel has a clear path, with both an entry and an exit point," said Dr. Mohamed Al-Ron, another surgeon at Al-Shifa hospital.
"But someone's entire abdomen will be ripped open, and only after searching will we find a miniscule hole in the skin. Then we will find small black dots all over the organ, but we don't know what they are."
It is an indication, he continued, that whatever is entering the body is exploding and doing the damage once it is inside. Multiple organs will fail, and will continue to fail even after surgery removes any shrapnel.
"We are consulting with international colleagues, and they are confirming that there is something unusual going on with these cases," said Dr. Skaik.
"We have seen plenty of nails, of metal shrapnel and foreign metallic parts, but there was never violence of this character or something that continued to damage even after the parts of the weapon were removed. What is being intentionally created is a population of handicapped people."
Some of the injuries, including multiple organ failure, mutilation and severed limbs, are so debilitating that Dr. Karim Hosni, an Egyptian doctor volunteering at the Al-Naser hospital in Khan Younis, says he wishes he could just end his patients' misery.
"Sometimes I wish my patients would just die," he said. "Their injuries are so horrifying, that I know they will now have to lead terrible and painful lives." (END/2009)
Copyright © 2009 IPS-Inter Press Service
By Erin Cunningham
January 22, 2009 -- GAZA CITY, Jan 22 (IPS) - Eighteen-year-old Mona Al-Ashkar says she did not immediately know the first explosion at the United Nations (UN) school in Beit Lahiya had blown her left leg off. There was smoke, then chaos, then the pain and disbelief set in once she realised it was gone - completely severed by the weapon that hit her.
Mona is one of the many patients among the 5,500 injured that have international and Palestinian doctors baffled by the type of weaponry used in the Israeli operation. High-profile human rights organisations like Amnesty International are accusing Israel of war crimes.
Mona's doctors at Gaza City's Al-Shifa hospital found no shrapnel in her leg, and it looked as though it had been "sliced right off with a knife."
"We are not sure exactly what type of weapon can manage to do that immediately and so cleanly," said Dr. Sobhi Skaik, consultant surgeon general at Al-Shifa hospital. "What is happening is frightening. It's possible the Israeli army was using Gaza to experiment militarily."
Both international organisations and human rights groups, including the UN, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have condemned Israel's use of unconventional weapons in civilian areas of theGaza Strip.
Amnesty International's chief researcher for Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Donatella Rovera, told IPS in Beit Lahiya that Israel's use of white phosphorus and other "area weapons" on civilian populations amounted to war crimes.
"The kind of weapons used and the manner in which they were used indicates prima facie evidence of war crimes," she said.
Israel announced Wednesday it would be launching its own probe into reported use of white phosphorus, but has so far refused to comment further.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN's nuclear watchdog, said it would look into a claim made by the ambassadors of a number of Arab nations that Israel used depleted uranium in its recent attacks on Gaza.
Local doctors say a number of both widespread and unusual injuries may indicate that new types of weapons were used on the Gaza population during the war. Health officials are seeing wounds they have never seen before, or at least not on such a massive scale.
"There has been a significant loss of life here in Gaza for reasons that are unexplainable medically," said Dr. Skaik.
Mona's injury is characteristic of Dense Inert Metal Explosives (DIME). DIMEs are munitions that, packed with tungsten powder, produce an intense explosion at about the level of the knee, with signs of severe heat at the point of amputation.
"If you ask a patient how it happened, how their leg was removed, they won't know," Dr. Skaik said. "They'll say that a rocket or missile exploded and took only their lower limbs off."
Once in the body, tungsten is both difficult to detect and extremely carcinogenic, and can produce an aggressive form of cancer, according to both military experts.
Dr. Skaik says the Al-Shifa hospital alone has seen between 100 to 150 patients with this type of injury. Over 50 patients at Al-Shifa had two or more limbs severed, he says.
But because Gaza's hospitals are so poorly equipped, it has been nearly impossible so far to test properly for the substances and count accurately how many wounded Palestinians may have been hit with this weapon.
The Norwegian doctor Mads Gilbert who worked at Al-Shifa hospital during the siege confirmed to journalists that the injuries were aligned with those produced by DIME explosives.
Human rights groups say Israel used the weapon for the first time in Lebanon in 2006.
What is worrying health officials even more, however, is that some of the patients' organs are being ruptured with little or no sign of a shrapnel entry point.
This is something they have never seen before, they say, and also something they do not know how to treat.
"Normal shrapnel has a clear path, with both an entry and an exit point," said Dr. Mohamed Al-Ron, another surgeon at Al-Shifa hospital.
"But someone's entire abdomen will be ripped open, and only after searching will we find a miniscule hole in the skin. Then we will find small black dots all over the organ, but we don't know what they are."
It is an indication, he continued, that whatever is entering the body is exploding and doing the damage once it is inside. Multiple organs will fail, and will continue to fail even after surgery removes any shrapnel.
"We are consulting with international colleagues, and they are confirming that there is something unusual going on with these cases," said Dr. Skaik.
"We have seen plenty of nails, of metal shrapnel and foreign metallic parts, but there was never violence of this character or something that continued to damage even after the parts of the weapon were removed. What is being intentionally created is a population of handicapped people."
Some of the injuries, including multiple organ failure, mutilation and severed limbs, are so debilitating that Dr. Karim Hosni, an Egyptian doctor volunteering at the Al-Naser hospital in Khan Younis, says he wishes he could just end his patients' misery.
"Sometimes I wish my patients would just die," he said. "Their injuries are so horrifying, that I know they will now have to lead terrible and painful lives." (END/2009)
Copyright © 2009 IPS-Inter Press Service
Israelis resorting to Nazi tactics
KUALA LUMPUR: The Israelis have not learnt from their own experience at the hands of the Nazis and are using the same tactics of fear on the Palestinians, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said yesterday.
"The Israelis have learnt a lot from the Nazis. They are using Nazi methods against the Palestinians. I thought they would sympathise with other people, having been oppressed and tortured by the Nazis... but no, now they want to do the same things to others," Dr Mahathir said after delivering the keynote address at the Forum for Palestine yesterday.
He said nothing could be done about Israel as its sphere of influence was wide and varied.
He also said the Jewish network controlled the media and ensured its perspective on the issue prevailed.
"No American president is free to act on Israel. Israel owns America. I said the last time that Israel rules the world by proxy," he said, alluding to the powerful Jewish lobby in the US.
Earlier in his address, Dr Mahathir said only justice based on historical facts would put an end to the Palestinian issue.
"Until then, the world will continue to see endless violence and war in the Middle East and Palestine."
He said the onus was now on the big powers that created Israel.
Dr Mahathir said war would not solve anything for the militarists as only justice through peaceful negotiation could resolve the Palestinian issue.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Brief History of Palestine
Palestinians consider 'Palestine' to be the area covered by what we now call Israel plus the Occupied Territories. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria and Jordan in the West, touches Saudi Arabia and Egypt in the South and the Mediterranean Sea in the east.
In 1917, the British promised a home land for the Jews through the Balfour Declaration in the land of Palestine where the people living there could trace their roots over many centuries. At this time, more than 90% of the population here were Arabs, Muslims and Christians.
The mass migration of Jews began in the 1920 and tension was inevitable. Britain then handed over the matter to the United Nations and in 1948 , the UN partioned the land to create the state of Israel giving Jews 55% of the land when tey made up only one-third of the population and owned only 6% of the total land area. The Palestinians were forced off their land even though they were the legal owners, and have never been allowed to return.
It was also in 1948, after a war with her Arab neighbours, that Israel seized another 22% of the land, expelled some 800,000 inhabitants and destroyed 531 villages. In 1967, after the 'Six Day War'Israel occupied Gaza and West Bank. In the same year, the United Nations Security Council passed resolution 242, declaring the occupation illegal and demanded Israel to withdraw and return the land to its rightful owners.
Israel ignored the demand and continues to ignore many other UN resolution since. This is because U.S has been vetoing all efforts to end the illegal occupation.
Life Under Occupation:
- You are denied permission to leave the country even you are seriously ill
- Your land is stolen from you and your homes are regularly demolished
- your towns are separated from each other by military checkpoints and separation walls
- You need a visa to move from town to town within your own homeland
- Your children are denied equal opportunities in education
Monday, February 2, 2009
Nakba
The Institute for Middle East Understanding
“We thought it would be a matter of weeks, only until the fighting died down. Of course, we were never allowed to go home.” Nina Saah, Washington, DC
“My family’s farm of oranges, grapefruits and lemons, centuries old, was gone.” Darwish Addassi, Walnut Creek, California
“Those of us who left unwillingly in 1948 are plagued with painful nostalgia. My house in West Jerusalem is an Israeli nursery school now.” Inea Bushnaq, New York, New York
“The people of New Orleans woke up one morning to complete devastation and had to flee. The Nakba was our Hurricane Katrina.” Abe Fawal, Birmingham, Alabama
Sixty years ago, more than 700,000 Palestinians lost their homes and belongings, their farms and businesses, their towns and cities. Jewish militias seeking to create a state with a Jewish majority in Palestine, and later, the Israeli army, drove them out. Israel rapidly moved Jews into the newly-emptied Palestinian homes. Nakba means “catastrophe” in Arabic, and Palestinians refer to the destruction of their society and the takeover of their homeland as an-Nakba, “The Catastrophe.”
Ten Facts about the Nakba
1. The Nakba is a root cause of the Israeli/Palestinian problem.
It is marked on May 15, the day after Israel declared its independence in 1948.
2. This traumatic event created the Palestinian refugee crisis.
By the end of 1948, two-thirds of the Palestinian population was exiled. It is estimated that more than 50% were driven out under direct military assault. Others fled as news spread of massacres committed by Jewish militias in Palestinian villages like Deir Yassin and Tantura.
3. Jewish leaders saw “transfer” as an important step in the establishment of Israel.
Jewish leaders spoke openly of the need to use military clashes to expel as many Palestinians as possible before other Arab countries could come to their defense. The Haganah militia’s Plan Dalet was the blueprint for this ethnic cleansing. Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, said “We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population.” (See what other leading Israelis have said about transfer.)
4. Hundreds of Palestinian villages and towns were destroyed.
Jewish forces depopulated more than 450 Palestinian towns and villages, most of which were demolished.
5. Palestinian property and belongings were simply taken.
The newly-established Israeli government confiscated refugee land and properties without respect to Palestinian rights or desires to return to their homes.
Israeli historian Tom Segev reported that: “Entire cities and hundreds of villages left empty were repopulated with new [Jewish] immigrants… Free people - Arabs - had gone into exile and become destitute refugees; destitute refugees - Jews - took the exiles’ places in the first step in their lives as free people. One group [Palestinians] lost all they had while the other [Jews] found everything they needed - tables, chairs, closets, pots, pans, plates, sometimes clothes, family albums, books radios, pets….
6. Some Palestinians stayed in what became Israel.
While most Palestinians were driven out, some remained in what became Israel. Although citizens of the new state, they were subject to Israeli military rule until 1966. Today, Palestinian citizens of Israel comprise nearly 20 percent of Israel’s population. They have the right to vote and run for office, but more than 20 Israeli laws explicitly privilege Jews over non-Jews. Nearly one-quarter of Israel’s Palestinians are “internally displaced” persons, unable to return to the homes and lands that were taken from them.
7. There are still millions of Palestinian refugees dispersed around the world.
Today, there are 4.4 million Palestinian refugees registered as such with the United Nations, and at least another estimated 1 million who are not so registered. Thus a majority of the Palestinian people, around 10 million persons, are refugees.
8. Refugees have internationally-recognized rights.
All refugees enjoy internationally-recognized rights to return to areas from which they have fled or were forced out, to receive compensation for damages, and to either regain their properties or receive compensation and support for voluntary resettlement. This right has been explicitly acknowledged in recent peace agreements in Cambodia, Rwanda, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Guatemala, Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Burundi, and Darfur. This right was affirmed for the Palestinians by the United Nations Resolution 194 of 1948. Israel, however, does not allow Palestinian refugees to return, although a Jew from anywhere in the world can settle in Israel.
9. Justly resolving refugee rights is essential to Middle East peace.
An overwhelming majority of Palestinians believes that refugee rights must be fulfilled for peace between Palestinians and Israelis to endure. And according to an August 2007 poll by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center, nearly 70 percent believe that refugees should be allowed to return to “their original land”.
10. The Nakba has implications for Americans.
Israel’s ongoing denial of Palestinian rights - and unconditional U.S. financial and diplomatic support for Israel - fuels anti-American sentiment abroad. A 2002 Zogby poll, conducted in eight Arab countries showed that “the negative perception of the United States is based on American policies, not a dislike of the West.” The same poll showed that “the Palestinian issue was listed by many Arabs among the political issues that affect them most personally.” Resolution of the Palestinian refugee issue would undoubtedly improve America’s international image, by proving that the U.S. government supports the consistent application of international law.
source : http://adamite.wordpress.com/
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