Rana Shubair: Yes, I Can Dare to Dream in My Gaza

Friday, January 14, 2011 at 8:40AM Gilad Atzmon

http://www.paltelegraph.com/

Although I’m not a fervent advocate of using technology in every aspect of our lives, I have chosen to open my laptop and type this piece instead of writing it in my notebook first, just for a change, and may be to please my ears with the clicking sound of my fingers striking the keyboard. I guess this shows that I’m in continuous pursuit for change even in the tiny aspects of life. Change; something referred to as being healthy nowadays is, by all means, a vital part of life for all those living in the tremendously stressful life of the 21st Century.

Seeking this change from the ordinary and mundane schedule of mine here in Gaza, I chose to go downtown today, a place where I seldom go and to amuse myself with just walking around and examining the faces of the people and what life looks like in that part of town. Downtown Gaza is a place where the majority of the population of Gaza shops. It’s lined up with stores on both sides situated on a fairly narrow street, as well as small vending huts where one can find almost anything. As I treaded up and down the street, I held my hand over my nose as I passed the rows of power generators placed in front of literally every store. Their roaring and screeching makes you feel as if they are somehow venting their anger at you. No sooner did I put my hand down when I suddenly felt a gush of fuel combustion hit my face making me choke. My mind suddenly tries to picture the days when the only mean of transport available were horse drawn carriages. Although our streets are full of donkey and horse- pulIed carts today, there are still outnumbered by the monstrous vehicles and you won’t find anyone wishing they owned one. “I wish these nasty vehicles would just disappear and be replaced with primitive carriages”, I thought to myself. I would get one of my own and take care of my horse as if it were one of my children. The fresh air, the sound of horses trotting along, oh how peaceful it would be indeed! I could easily breathe fresh air and relieve myself. It’s so ironic, I thought to myself, we tell ourselves: ” I need to go out to get some fresh air”, but from what I’m smelling as I walk up and down the streets here, I’m convinced that I need to by a pack of medical masks to protect my lungs.

My imagination was spurred at that moment and more images appeared before me. I’d buy a cow and drink from her fresh milk every morning. I’d buy chickens and ducks and a dog to guard them. I’d let my kids fetch the chicken eggs without screaming hell if they got dirt on their clothes.

The dozens of shops displaying all sorts of items failed to lure me into buying anything except for the item which I especially came for. I felt a vacuum; an emptiness inside which could not be fulfilled by merely buying and possessing items. So instead, I walked a long way to a bookstore, a place which gives me a sense of freedom, enlightens my mind and uplifts my soul. Reading, the only daily pastime of mine which takes me to faraway places. I see myself beyond the deep oceans and soaring high into the skies above, may be flying with the migrating birds. How lucky those birds are for possessing the freedom to fly away from the earthly life of human beings. The siege may imprison our bodies, but I must learn to discover the world where my mind lives. My soul will not be crushed when I’m denied material needs, for the soul is a lofty being which can enrapture my own spirit.

Over sixty years of hardships and abominable suffering of my people cannot in any way be underestimated and deemed as sixty years of failure. If the people of Palestine had minds only accustomed to physical and mortal needs, they would have been dead and defeated long ago. But, it is the life of the mind and soul which keeps them going, holding on to their rights no matter how long the path to freedom is.

Rana Shubair
Interpreter and Writer
Gaza, Palestine

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Gaza’s children cope through art

Mel Frykberg, The Electronic Intifada, 12 January 2011

A Gaza child draws hope.

GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IPS) – Despite the lingering trauma of living under siege, regular Israeli military attacks and the consequences of a bloody war several years ago, Gaza’s children still dream of happiness and of normal lives.

Islam Mqat, 9, from Gaza City’s al-Zarqa neighborhood, together with 150 family members, friends and neighbors, spent weeks cowering in her family’s apartment building as its was rocked and damaged by Israeli jets screaming overhead and bombing the trapped civilians below.

The Israeli military’s “Operation Cast Lead,” from December 2008 to January 2009, left more than 1,400 Palestinians dead, most of them civilian, including more than 300 children.

From her window Islam, and those trapped with her, saw people dying and wounded in the street below. Hundreds of people from al-Zarqa neighborhood died in the aerial bombardment.

Islam still experiences flashbacks. “I get very afraid when I hear the sound of jets in the sky. I’m afraid the Israelis will start bombing us and I will see dead people in the street again,” Islam told IPS.

But she, like thousands of other children in the coastal enclave is showing resilience, and daring to dream of a better future.

“I want to be a doctor so I can help people and save their lives. I dream of peace. In my imagination I see a peaceful Gaza with children playing and studying. I see a zoo and beautiful parks and cinemas,” says Islam.

Islam’s dreams have been captured in drawings she has made. A number of Gaza’s children are taking part in an art exhibition, organized by Oxfam, depicting their dream neighborhoods and describing their aspirations. Ten of the best drawings will be published in postcard form and sent to children and politicians abroad.

Islam lives in one of Gaza City’s poorest and most neglected neighborhoods, with her seven brothers and sisters, and her parents.

Al-Zarqa’s almost non-existent water and sewage infrastructure poses a constant threat to the Palestinian families living there. In an Oxfam survey of nearly 200 homes, 57 percent were found to be living below the poverty line, earning less than 1,000 shekels per month (about $300 US).

Thirty-eight percent of household heads are unemployed, 61 percent of the families have at least one child with a parasitic infection, 59 percent have skin diseases and 51 percent have suffered from diarrhea, the report said.

Despite the images of hope in Islam’s sketch, other children’s drawings reflect the post traumatic stress disorder affecting many Gazan children.

“Many of the children’s drawings have depicted corpses, soldiers, airplanes and blood,” Karl Schembri from Oxfam told IPS.

During the war more than half of Gaza’s children experienced a violent event, around 25 percent lost a loved one and 30 percent were forced to relocate.

Dr. Jameel Tahrawi from Gaza’s Islamic University conducted a study called “Drawings of Palestinian Children after the War on Gaza,” which surveyed 445 children in the north of Gaza.

“The study shows that over 82 percent of children drew the war and events related to it. Fifty-six percent used writing to explain their drawings as they felt the drawings were insufficient to convey their message,” Tahrawi told a Gaza Community Mental Health Program conference entitled “Twenty Months after the Israeli War on Gaza — Psychological Impacts on Palestinian Children” held in Gaza recently.

But there is still hope. Tahrawi explained that art therapy could be used as a bridge to a better future and that despite the gruesome content of many of the children’s pictures the drawings could help the children overcome their grief and move on.

“The children can relieve their stress by expressing their feelings instead of repressing them. I was surprised at the bright and cheerful colors used by certain children. I expected them all to use bleak colors such as black and brown. But the rainbow of colors is proof of their resilience,” Tahrawi told IPS.

“If they are given the chance and the same opportunities as other children they can overcome Gaza’s tragic history and circumstances. Unfortunately we don’t have sufficient people qualified in art therapy in Gaza,” added Tahrawi.

Dr. Suhail Diab from al-Quds Open University agrees that helping the children to understand their experiences and involving them in positive activities such as sport, music, writing and art would help to deal with their post traumatic experiences.

According to a study carried out on young medical patients, “Medical Art Therapy with Children” by Cathy Malchiodi, “participating in creative work within the medical setting can help rebuild the young patient’s sense of hope, self-esteem, autonomy, and competence while offering opportunities for safe and contained expression of feelings.”

Rahma Elesie, 9, has 14 brothers and sisters and also lives in al-Zarqa. In her spare time she plays on her computer or with her friends. But she loves drawing and painting.

“When I paint I feel happy and I feel relaxed. I like to imagine and draw pictures of happy families having picnics on the beach and I dream of being able to go for walks and picking pretty flowers,” Elesie tells IPS.

All rights reserved, IPS — Inter Press Service (2011). Total or partial publication, retransmission or sale forbidden.

The Samouni Family Children – Survivors of the Israeli Massacre

The weblog of Ken O’Keefe

January 12, 2011 is a day I will never forget, visiting the Samouni family could not possibly be anything but a life-changing event.  Words simply cannot describe the devastation wrought upon this family by a marauding band of Israeli psychopaths, otherwise known as the Givati Brigade of the Israeli Defence Forces.

Little Ahmed, shot twice in the chest, died after days without medical care as the Israeli’s would not allow it.

Today my team heard from mothers and fathers and children the story of the hell on Earth created by Operation Cast Lead.  Forty-eight people were killed in this family, children shot in front of parents, parents shot in front of children, a group of 97 in one home blasted to bits by rockets and mortars.  Made to live amongst the mutilated and dead for several days, ambulances were kept away and some died slowly over hours and even days.

Samouni family children murdered by Israel.

If you knew the details of this story you would conclude as one mother did, those soldiers that committed these acts, could not be considered human.  These were demons with the latest high-tech weapons, courtesy of the US tax-payer and if the good people of the US knew what was done in their name here, they would be sick to their stomachs.  Shame on all of us for allowing this to happen and to go completely unpunished.

  But amidst all the horrifying memories the children still have their moments of childhood, even if they quiver with terror in the night as the Israeli jets fly overhead as they do to this day nearly every night.  I love these people, we are all touched beyond words by the experience of being with them, I wish we could take the whole world on a date with this most incredible family.

Amal

Sazaan & Fares

Noorhan

Shaaban

Suhaib

Mushira, Noorhan, Noor & Amal.

Abd-Allah

Reem

Nisma

Hamid

Mohammed

Karima

Duaa

Nedaa

Jubril

Anas

Luaay

Saidah

The Samouni family children

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

THE ONGOING GAZA MASSACRE

But the tragedy does not end with those who were killed. Along with thousands permanently injured, there is the incalculable psychological cost of children growing up without parents, of parents burying their children, and the mental trauma that Israel’s offensive and the ongoing siege has done to almost everyone in Gaza. There are the as yet unknown consequences of subjecting Gaza’s 700,000 children to a toxic water supply for years on end.

The Gaza massacre and the struggle for justiceAli Abunimah

27 December 2008: Israel began its deadly three-week assault on Gaza. (Hatem Omar/MaanImages)

The Gaza massacre, which Israel launched two years ago today, did not end on 18 January 2009, but continues. It was not only a massacre of human bodies, but of the truth and of justice. Only our actions can help bring it to an end. 
 
The UN-commissioned Goldstone Report documented evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in an attack aimed at the very “foundations of civilian life in Gaza” — schools, industrial infrastructure, water, sanitation, flour mills, mosques, universities, police stations, government ministries, agriculture and thousands of homes. Yet like so many other inquiries documenting Israeli crimes, the Goldstone Report sits gathering dust as the United States, the European Union, the Palestinian Authority and certain Arab governments colluded to ensure it would not translate into action.
 
Israel launched the attack, after breaking the ceasefire it had negotiated with Hamas the previous June, under the bogus pretext of stopping rocket firing from Gaza.
 
During those horrifying weeks from 27 December 2008 to 18 January 2009, Israel’s merciless bombardment killed 1,417 people according to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza.
 
They were infants like Farah Ammar al-Helu, one-year-old, killed in al-Zaytoun. They were schoolgirls or schoolboys, like Islam Khalil Abu Amsha, 12, of Shajaiyeh and Mahmoud Khaled al-Mashharawi, 13, of al-Daraj. They were elders like Kamla Ali al-Attar, 82 of Beit Lahiya and Madallah Ahmed Abu Rukba, 81, of Jabaliya; They were fathers and husbands like Dr. Ehab Jasir al-Shaer. They were police officers like Younis Muhammad al-Ghandour, aged 24. They were ambulance drivers and civil defense workers. They were homemakers, school teachers, farmers, sanitation workers and builders. And yes, some of them were fighters, battling as any other people would to defend their communities with light and primitive weapons against Israel’s onslaught using the most advanced weaponry the United States and European Union could provide.
 
The names of the dead fill 100 pages, but nothing can fill the void they left in their families and communities (“The Dead in the course of the Israeli recent military offensive on the Gaza strip between 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009,” [PDF] Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, 18 March 2009).
 
These were not the first to die in Israeli massacres and they have not been the last. Dozens of people have been killed since the end of Israel’s “Operation Cast Lead,” the latest Salameh Abu Hashish last week, a 20-year old shepherd shot by Israeli occupation forces as he tended his animals in northern Gaza.
 
But the tragedy does not end with those who were killed. Along with thousands permanently injured, there is the incalculable psychological cost of children growing up without parents, of parents burying their children, and the mental trauma that Israel’s offensive and the ongoing siege has done to almost everyone in Gaza. There are the as yet unknown consequences of subjecting Gaza’s 700,000 children to a toxic water supply for years on end.
 
The siege robs 1.5 million people not just of basic goods, reconstruction supplies (virtually nothing has been rebuilt in Gaza), and access to medical care but of their basic rights and freedoms to travel, to study, to be part of the world. It robs promising young people of their ambitions and futures. It deprives the planet of all that they would have been able to create and offer. By cutting Gaza off from the outside world, Israel hopes to make us forget that the those inside are human.             
Two years after the crime, Gaza remains a giant prison for a population whose unforgivable sin in the eyes of Israel and its allies is to be refugees from lands that Israel took by ethnic cleansing.
Israel’s violence against Gaza, like its violence against Palestinians everywhere, is the logical outcome of the racism that forms the inseparable core of Zionist ideology and practice: Palestinians are merely a nuisance, like brush or rocks to be cleared away in Zionism’s relentless conquest of the land. This is what all Palestinians are struggling against, as an open letter today from dozens of civil society organizations in Gaza reminds us:
“We Palestinians of Gaza want to live at liberty to meet Palestinian friends or family from Tulkarem, Jerusalem or Nazareth; we want to have the right to travel and move freely. We want to live without fear of another bombing campaign that leaves hundreds of our children dead and many more injured or with cancers from the contamination of Israel’s white phosphorous and chemical warfare. We want to live without the humiliations at Israeli checkpoints or the indignity of not providing for our families because of the unemployment brought about by the economic control and the illegal siege. We are calling for an end to the racism that underpins all this oppression.”
Those of us who live outside Gaza can look to the people there for inspiration and strength; even after all this deliberate cruelty, they have not surrendered. But we cannot expect them to bear this burden alone or ignore the appalling cost Israel’s unrelenting persecution has on the minds and bodies of people in Gaza or on society itself. We must also heed their calls to action.
One year ago, I joined more than a thousand people from dozens of countries on the Gaza Freedom March in an attempt to reach Gaza to commemorate the first anniversary of the massacre. We found our way blocked by the Egyptian government which remains complicit, with US backing, in the Israeli siege. And although we did not reach Gaza, other convoys before, and after, such as Viva Palestina did, only after severe obstruction and limitations by Egypt.
Yesterday, the Mavi Marmara returned to Istanbul where it was met dockside by thousands of people. In May the ship was part of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla which set out to break the siege by sea, only to be attacked and hijacked in international waters by Israeli commandos who killed nine people and injured dozens. Even that massacre has not deterred more people from seeking to break the siege; the Asian Convoy to Gaza is on its way, and several other efforts are being planned.
We may look at all these initiatives and say that despite their enormous cost — including in human lives — the siege remains unbroken, as world governments — the so-called “international community” — continue to ensure Israeli impunity. Two years later, Gaza remains in rubble, and Israel keeps the population always on the edge of a deliberately-induced humanitarian catastrophe while allowing just enough supplies to appease international opinion. It would be easy to be discouraged.
However, we must remember that the Palestinian people in Gaza are not objects of an isolated humanitarian cause, but partners in the struggle for justice and freedom throughout Palestine. Breaking the siege of Gaza would be a milestone on that march.
Haneen Zoabi, a Palestinian member of the Israeli parliament and a passenger on the Mavi Marmara explained last October in an interview with The Electronic Intifada that Israeli society and government do not view their conflict with the Palestinians as one that must be resolved by providing justice and equality to victims, but merely as a “security” problem. Zoabi observed that the vast majority of Israelis believe Israel has largely “solved” the security problem: in the West Bank with the apartheid wall and “security coordination” between Israeli occupation forces and the collaborationist Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, and in Gaza with the siege.
Israeli society, Zoabi concluded, “doesn’t feel the need for peace. They don’t perceive occupation as a problem. They don’t perceive the siege as a problem. They don’t perceive oppressing the Palestinians as a problem, and they don’t pay the price of occupation or the price of [the] siege [of Gaza].”
Thus the convoys and flotillas are an essential part of a larger effort to make Israel understand that it does have a problem and it can never be treated as a normal state until it ends its oppression and occupation of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and fully respects the rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinian refugees. And even if governments continue to stand by and do nothing, global civil society is showing the way with these efforts to break the siege, and with the broader Palestinian-led campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS).
Amid all the suffering, Palestinians have not celebrated many victories in the two years since the Gaza massacre. But there are signs that things are moving in the right direction. Israel begs for US-endorsed “peace negotiations” precisely because it knows that while the “peace process” provides cover for its ongoing crimes, it will never be required to give up anything or grant any rights to Palestinians in such a “process.”

Yet Israel is mobilizing all its resources to fight the global movement for justice, especially BDS, that has gained so much momentum since the Gaza massacre. There can be no greater confirmation that this movement brings justice within our grasp. Our memorial to all the victims must not be just an annual commemoration, but the work we do every day to make the ranks of this movement grow.

Almost 100 Gaza Laborers Shot this Year for Collecting Rocks

Ken O’Keefe and Noor Ahmed Harazeen Salem-News.com


Noor Ahmed Harazeen, 15-year old Mukhless El Massri of Gaza, and Ken O’Keefe. Video & Photography  by Cormac O’Daly, Musheera Jamal & Ken O’Keefe.

These are the stories about Gaza that you rarely if ever hear.

(GAZA) – Since March 2010, 97 people have been shot in Gaza for collecting stones. This is one of the few ways a person can actually make money here at all.

Beit Hanoun, Gaza is a dangerous place to spend time. 22 days before this report was filed, our party was shot at by Israeli soldiers in towers, here, in this same place.
Over the last three weeks the same number; 22, describes the number of people shot by Israeli military here in this part of Gaza for either farming their crops, or the simple act of collecting stones, which in turn bring a person twenty sheckles a barrel.

In the video you meet 15-year old Mukhless Jawad El Massri, who was shot twice by the Israeli soldiers in the leg. Today he is on crutches and unable to work.

Noor Ahmed Harazeen translated Mukhless El Massri’s words for our English speaking viewers.
Ken O’Keefe: What do you want for Palestine?

Mukhless El Massri: “I want to get my land back and to have that land, and work it, for farming or whatever they want to do; to live like other people and to feel safe.

Ken O’Keefe: And what does he think about the Israelis?

Mukhless El Massri: “The only thing is to tell them that I am not a threat to them. I am only here to get money and food for my family and I want to be safe. And wants them to get out and leave them doing things that provide his family money. He is not a threat to them.”

These are the stories about Gaza that you rarely if ever hear.

____________________________________

Ken O’Keefe is a former U.S. Marine who served in the 1991 Gulf War and subsequently spoke out about the use of depleted uranium as a “crime against humanity” and the US military using soldiers as “human guinea pigs” with experimental drugs that were directly linked to Gulf War syndrome. He is also a social entrepreneur utilizing direct action marine conservation, he is more widely known for leading the human shield action to Iraq and as a survivor of the Israeli attack on the MV Mavi Marmara in which he participated in “defending the ship” and “disarming two Israeli Commandos”. On January 7, 2004, O’Keefe burned his US passport in protest of “American Imperialism” and called for US troops to immediately withdrawal from Iraq. He replaced his US passport with a “World Passport”, subsequently proclaiming himself a “Citizen of the World” with “ultimate allegiance to my entire human family and to planet Earth.” Ken is also legal citizen of Ireland and Palestine citizenship. Read Ken O’Keefe’s Biography, you can also visit Ken’s Ken’s Website alohapalestine.com

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

UNRWA suspicious trips raise ire of Palestinian parents

[ 19/12/2010 – 12:39 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)– A state of anger and dismay is prevailing among Palestinian parents in general in the wake of the trips that were organized by the UNRWA for outstanding students from Gaza to sightsee Jewish holocaust centers in the US, Europe and South Africa.

Many Palestinians, who expressed their anger, saw a documentary movie showing 15 students from Gaza, who were taken on a journey arranged by the UNRWA to New York city, visiting the museum of the holocaust in the city.

More outrageously, spokesman for the UNRWA Adnan Abu Hasna denied that the students visited the holocaust museum in New York.

The UNRWA usually hastens to deny the violations and mistakes it makes against the Palestinian society whenever it senses the danger of its actions and the consequent reactions from Palestinian citizens, especially the parents.

A lot of parents stated openly to the Palestinian information center (PIC) that it is time for the Palestinian government in Gaza to take action against the UNRWA and prevent it from exploiting the margin of freedom given to it to tamper with the minds of their children.

Among those parents was a father of three children studying in UNRWA schools named Abdulaziz Hammad who said he was extremely chocked when he saw the report of the Guardian newspaper and the video clip on the journey to New York, especially the part that focused on the alleged suffering of Jews on the world day of human rights.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

TJP Liberty Report from Gaza ‘Story of Areej’

Throughout my time in Palestine I am constantly reminded of how I would feel as a parent to endure not being able to provide all that a child needs.  Whether it be proper food on the table, clean drinking water, schools and supplies or that most basic need of loving security, all of these things become impossible under the blockade of Gaza.

Areej is a 4 year old girl from Sabra in Gaza. She is an orphan whose father was a killed by an Israeli bomb. She has a skin condition that is undiagnosed but worsened severely during the Israeli invasion of Gaza in 2008-2009. Although it is inconclusive, Areej’s neighborhood was one of the worst hit by white phosphorus bombs, a blatant war crime as yet unpunished. At the end of the video there is information about how to make donations directly to her family and help her with possible medical attention in Europe or elsewhere.

Areej is a 4 year old girl from Sabra in Gaza. She is an orphan whose father was a killed by an Israeli bomb. She has a skin condition that is undiagnosed but worsened severely during the Israeli invasion of Gaza in 2008-2009. Although it is inconclusive, Areej’s neighborhood was one of the worst hit by white phosphorus bombs, a blatant war crime as yet unpunished. At the end of the video there is information about how to make donations directly to her family and help her with possible medical attention in Europe or elsewhere.

Meeting Areej at her home in Sabra, Gaza.

Areej’s father – Killed by Israel

Treatable but not due to blockade

A smile from Areej

To make donations to to Areej’s family
go to Tuesday’s Child website at;

http://www.tuesdayschild.ie/site/hand_donate.asp

Make sure to specify her family name;
Grandfather of Areej; Khamees Banat

For English speaking contact in Gaza with Areej’s family,
please contact Yousef Hassan at;
00972599682365 or
reem_king@hotmail.com

Finkelstein: ‘War in Gaza was a prelude what’s to come in Lebanon’

Posted on November 14, 2010 by rehmat1|

The controversial American Jewish academic, author and a critic of Zionist-regime’s policies in Occupied Palestine and Lebanon. Unlike his fellow Jewish academic and critic of Washington’s foreign policy, Dr. Chomsky, Dr. Finkestein has never claimed to be a supporter of Israel.

On October 28, 2010 – Dr. Norman Finkelstein spoke at a function sponsored by the Canadians For Justice and Peace In The Middle East (CJPME) held at the University of Toronto.

He told the audience that the 2008-2009 Israeli genocide of 1.5 million Palestinian people was a prelude to what’s to come in Lebanon. Watch a video at the end of this post.

According to Dr. Finkelstein, the Zionist entity flew 2,800 to 3,000 combat missions, not a single plane was damaged because Hamas sat in its bunkers the whole time; an Israeli analyst said not a single battle was fought.

“After the first week of the air assault, the land assault began. The Israeli soldiers had special night-fighting equipment so Hamas couldn’t even see them. One Israeli soldier said: ‘There was nothing there. It was a ghost town, with only livestock.’ Another soldier said: “I didn’t see a single Arab the whole week I was there.’ Another Israeli soldier said: “It felt like hunting season. It reminded me of a playstation computer game.’ ”

Surreal though this may sound, Mr. Finkelstein said the reality is that this so called War in Gaza was really 22 days of death and destruction inflicted on the Palestinian people in Gaza. He said the Israeli military exploded white phosphorous – which burns at a temperature of 816 degrees Celsius – over schools, hospitals and markets, resulting in 1400 Palestinians deaths.

“Four-fifths of these deaths were civilians, of which 400 were children. Israel had 10 combat deaths and four civilian.

The kill ratio was 100 to one. Is this a war or a massacre?”

Subsequently he asked the audience to raise their hands if they had heard that Israel claimed the high number of civilian deaths was due to Hamas using human shields and forcing people to gather near Hamas staging grounds.

Although many in the audience raised their hands, few did when he asked them how many knew that of the 300 human rights organizations that investigated, not one reported any evidence of Hamas using human shields or forcing people to remain around buildings controlled by Hamas.

“That shows the power of media,” Mr. Finkelstein said. “The basic facts are not widely known.”
He added that Amnesty International said even if Israeli accusations of human shields being used were true, it doesn’t explain the deaths in Gaza.

“Many were killed in their homes or going about their daily activities. Of the 400 children killed, many were studying or playing on their roofs or in their homes.

All the human rights organizations said these actions were war crimes and crimes against humanity. They said Hamas committed comparable crimes, but not on a comparable scale.”

Dr. Finkelstein said he thinks the real reason for the assault on Gaza was part of a plan to restore Israel’s deterrence capacity, after it suffered military defeats in Lebanon in 2000 and 2006. He said a former US ambassador to Israel has predicted that Israel will attack Lebanon within the next 18 months.

“Israel has made it clear that it intends to do to Lebanon, what it did to Gaza – use massive force against the civilian infrastructure. Israel has said that the next war will be a game-changer.

Hezbollah leader Nasrallah said the next war will be a tit for tat war – a factory for a factory and an airport for an airport. If missiles hit Tel Aviv there will be massive casualties. There’s no way that Israel will accept a third defeat in Lebanon. If Hezbollah starts losing, it’s almost certain that Iran will enter, knowing they will be next. It’s difficult to know how it will end, but both sides will probably resort to extreme measures.”

With the possibility of war on the horizon, much is being made in the media of the peace process to try and resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; but Mr. Finkelstein said there has never been a peace process: it is just a facade for annexation.

“In September 1993, when the Oslo Peace Accord was signed, there were 250,000 settlers. Now, 17 years later there are 500,000 settlers. Fourty-two per cent of the West Bank has been annexed. When Palestinians complain about this, Israel says the issue of settlements must be negotiated in the peace process.”

In January 2009 – Amnesty International had called for a ban on arms supplies to the Zionist entity. In September 2010 – the Neculear Watchdog (IAEA) rejected the 128 UN members’ call to force Israel to join NPT.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

How many Palestinan "Anne Franks" did "israel" create?

This Palestinian angel in gaza is a Victim of nazi Israeli war crimes Against Humanity

Scavenging lures Gazans to dangerous "buffer zone"

Mel Frykberg, The Electronic Intifada, 20 October 2010

A Palestinian teenager shot in the ankle while scavenging for building material, October 2010. (Anne Paq/ActiveStills)

EREZ CROSSING, occupied Gaza Strip (IPS) – Crossing through the metal-caged tunnel that leads from the Israeli side of the boundary into northern Gaza towards the Palestinian checkpoint, several groups of young Palestinian men and boys can be seen scavenging through piles of rubble.

The twisted metal and shattered concrete are all that remain of Palestinian homes bombed and shelled by the Israel military during its invasion of Gaza from December 2008 to January 2009 dubbed “Operation Cast Lead.”

Suddenly several shots ring out. The fire comes from Israeli military guard towers and is aimed at the youngsters about a hundred meters away. Israel has declared a 300-meter security zone between the Gaza boundary fence and northern Gaza.

Since the end of Cast Lead at least 25 Gazans, six of them children, have been killed by Israeli gunfire in the buffer zone. Another 146 have been wounded.

Defence for Children International reports that ten young Palestinians have been shot in the past three months. The youngest was 13 and the oldest 17. Three horses and a donkey were also shot dead.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) “uncertainty and lack of clarity are high regarding the precise boundaries of the restricted areas, the conditions under which access to these areas may be allowed or denied, and the consequences of a prohibited entry.

“Regarding the boundaries, the Israeli military has failed to physically demarcate the restricted areas in any meaningful way, even though it carries out land incursions into the restricted areas three to four times every week.”

Karl Shembri from Oxfam in Gaza tells IPS, “besides farmers who are banned from working on their land accounting for more than 30 percent of Gaza’s highly fertile soil, Israeli soldiers also shoot at Palestinians collecting rubble to be recycled for reconstruction from up to 1,500 meters from the fence, at times fatally.

“Not only are Palestinians denied construction material, they are shot at when trying to make up for the devastating shortage by recycling what’s left of their destroyed houses and factories,” adds Schembri. The Israeli rights group Gisha reports that the amount of reconstruction material currently allowed into Gaza at present amounts to only four percent of what is needed. This has allowed some international aid projects such as sewage plants, water wells and community centers to be built. But most Palestinian homes and businesses remain either damaged or destroyed.

The UN agency for Palestine refuges, UNWRA has been forced to turn away 40,000 Gaza children eligible to enroll in its schools for this academic year because it has been unable to build 100 new schools to meet enrollment demands. The shortage of classrooms has forced most of Gaza’s schools to hold double shifts in classes accommodating up to fifty students.

OCHA reports that since June 2009, a total of 46 percent of agricultural land in the Gaza Strip was assessed to be inaccessible or out of production owing to destruction of land during “Cast Lead” and inaccessible areas lying within the “security buffer zone.”

The area inside the buffer zone along the northern and eastern boundary with Israel contains nearly a third of the Gaza Strip’s arable land, and is inaccessible to farmers and herders.

IPS has regularly witnessed the boys working near the border. Many of those shot in this belt were wounded in the legs or arms in what appeared to be a warning.

Such is the grinding poverty and unemployment in Gaza, with 80 percent of the population dependent on food aid, that these youngsters regularly risk life and limb to earn what by Gaza standards is a good income.

A day’s backbreaking work from dawn until sunset salvaging through rubble can net about $40. Both scrap metal and rubble are collected. Some of the collection sites are in the buffer zone.

Most commonly, chunks of concrete rubble are unearthed and ground down, and then remixed to make poor grade bricks which are then sold to contractors and factories. Because rubble-collecting is relatively lucrative, an increasingly large number of Palestinians in Gaza are venturing into buffer zones.

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