Press Release
LSE OCCUPATION CONTINUES INTO FIFTH DAY AS OTHER UNIVERSITIES START PROTESTS
Students occupying a lecture theatre at the London School of Economics have continued their demonstration in to the fifth day.Over fourty students started the occupation in solidarity with Palestine last Thursday afternoon demanding that the LSE condemns Israeli aggression, divests from BAE, a firm that arms Israel, and provides material support for Palestinians. The students are demanding that the LSE waivers application fees and provides more scholarships for Palestinian students, sends surplus computers and books to Palestine and facilitates a cross-campus collection for Medical Aid for Palestine.
The move came after the Students' Union voted to condemn Israel for the attacks on Gaza.The occupation has attracted several high profile speakers including Tony Benn, George Galloway, Lindsey German and Alex Callinicos to rallies and public lectures inside the occupied theatre.
The line-up of speakers for Tuesday includes Baroness Jenny Tonge, Haim Bresheeth, Moshe Machover and Paul Gilroy.Tony Benn endorsed the occupation, "May I congratulate you all for having organised this occupation. I have seen the statement of intent that you have made and I agree with it one hundred percent." He said, "Don't think that you're an isolated little group at the LSE. In my judgement I believe there is mass support for what you are doing from all over the world."Over 350 students attended the lecture with Tony Benn. Since its start, the core group of the occupation has doubled to about 80 students, with dozens more coming in daily to express their support.One of the students, Mira Hammad, addressed 10.000 people at Saturday's Trafalgar Square rally. "Now, this is the age of human rights, this is the age when we stand up for the people who have no voice, we are giving a voice to the silenced," she said, adding, "We urge all students: Forget NUS, forget the government. Stand up yourselves, and make a statement: Start the movement now"George Galloway expressed his support for the occupation outside the occupied theatre today, "I want to thank you on the action that you have taken, rescuing the honour of the London School of Economics. It has been dishonoured by the silence of Howard Davies in the face of the war crime involved in the deliberate destruction and bombardment of the Islamic University in Gaza.", he said.
The group has received messages of support from LSE Staff against the war, a large number of academics and students from other universities and members of the public. Over 350 LSE students have signed a petition in support of the occupation.Occupations have also been taking place at SOAS and Essex Universities and other student groups plan to start occupations in the coming days.The group today expressed optimism that the School is close to meeting their demands.
A spokesperson said, "The School appears to have agreed in principle to our reasonable demands regarding providing support for Palestinians. We look forward to meeting with them to discuss the details of the support the LSE community can provide and our request that they issue a statement and divest from BAE. Unfortunately, they are currently arguing that they will not speak with us further until the occupation has ended. This is unsatisfactory to us as in the past they have used this tactic to avoid making firm commitments. We hope to meet with them shortly."The spokesperson added, "LSE is an institution founded on the Fabian values that were the precursor of the human rights agenda of modern politics. LSE must restate those values and condemn state criminality. It is not a matter of politics, it is a matter of humanity. For an academic institution to profit from firms that arm Israel is unacceptable."
NOTES TO EDITORS
1) Please view our blog for updates and past news releases. http://lseoccupation.blogspot.com/
2) The identity of other universities who will start occupations is being kept secret. Contact us: lseoccupation@googlemail.com
3) For more information on the SOAS occupation: http://soassolidarity4gaza.blogspot.com/
4) For more information on the Essex occupation: http://www.visitpalestine.asia/page.cfm/id/98207
5) For the motion on Gaza passed by the Students' Union: http://lseoccupation.blogspot.com/2009/01/student-union-passes-motion-condemning.html
6) The video of Mira's speech can be found here: http://lseoccupation.blogspot.com/2009/01/lse-students-to-speak-at-trafalgar.html
7) The video of Tony Benn's speech can be found here: http://lseoccupation.blogspot.com/2009/01/videos-now-uploaded-tony-benn-lindsey.html
8) The video of George Galloway's speech can be found here: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=22IMP8EbgFg&feature=channel_page
Tuesday 20 January 2009
Western diplomats: Israel seeks to control reconstruction of war-torn GazaBy
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1056791.htm
News Agencies, Haaretz,Last update - 17:02 19/01/2009
Israel intends to exert control over the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip following its 22-day offensive, and is seeking guarantees that no projects will benefit Hamas, Western diplomats said on Monday.Israel, which declared a unilateral ceasefire on Sunday, retains full control over Gaza's commercial crossings, through which goods and other materials for rebuilding must pass.Smuggler tunnels under Gaza's border with Egypt, which were used by Hamas and many ordinary Palestinians to get around the Israeli-led blockade, were heavily bombed during the war and are, at least temporarily, out of commission.That gives Israel enormous power to shape the recovery effort, which will be largely financed by the international community.
Preliminary estimates put the damage at nearly $2 billion. Saudi Arabia said it would donate $1 billion.Western diplomats, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said Israel has asked the United Nations and other aid groups to provide a detailed list of goods, equipment and personnel that they want to bring into the Gaza Strip, both to meet immediate needs and for rebuilding.Israel told the aid groups it would consider expanding the list of materials authorized to enter the Gaza Strip. Before the war, Israel blocked entry of most cement, steel and cash, saying Hamas used them for bunkers, rockets and militia salaries.
On Sunday, Israel and the militant Palestinian group Hamas announced separate cease-fires, ending the offensive that destroyed vast swaths of Gaza.Hamas militants wrested control of the Gaza Strip from Abbas's Palestinian Authority in a bloody 2007 coup. Abbas, who still controls the West Bank, is seen as weak and ineffectual by leaders of some Arab countries like Syria.On Sunday, six key European leaders on Sunday pledged to work to prevent Hamas from rearming. The commitments were offered both at the Sharm al-Sheikh summit in Egypt and at a meeting in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
The six leaders were British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, who currently holds the European Union's rotating presidency. They offered to provide troops and technological assistance to prevent Hamas from smuggling weapons and terrorists into the Gaza Strip, in cooperation with Egypt and the United States.The leaders expressed support for the cease-fire in Gaza and for an end to Palestinian rocket fire on southern Israel. Olmert said that he also received on Saturday a letter from EU leaders pledging cooperation in halting the arms smuggling into Gaza.
The six leaders met with Olmert following a conference in Sharm al-Sheikh, where they spoke with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Abbas.UN Chief Ban urges Arab states to back Abbas in Gaza crisisMeanwhile, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday urged Arab leaders to join together in backing Abbas' efforts to reunite the war-ravaged Gaza Strip with the Fatah-ruled West Bank.Ban also said that Arab unity was crucial if the three-week Gaza conflict was not to be repeated in the future."The Palestinians themselves must face the challenge of reconciliation, and work to achieve a unified government under the leadership of President Abbas," Ban told an Arab League summit expected to approve $2 billion in aid to rebuild Gaza."I call on all Arab leaders to unite and support this endeavour. We cannot rebuild Gaza without Palestinian unity," he added.
At the same conference, Saudi Arabian King Abdullah announced on Monday that his country would donate $1 billion for reconstruction in Gaza."I announce on behalf of your brothers in Saudi Arabia that the kingdom will offer $1 billion as a contribution under the program proposed by this summit for the reconstruction of Gaza," said King Abdullah.The Gaza conflict has divided Arab countries, as recent meetings of Gulf states have shown.Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who negotiated with both Hamas and the Israelis to get a ceasefire, called for uniting all Palestinian factions in his speech at the summit. Syrian President Bashar Assad, whom Israel accuses of financing Hamas, voiced support for "Palestinian resistance".Ban has been touring the Middle East for a week urging Israeli leaders and Arab governments to do everything in their power to end the fighting in Gaza and prevent the humanitarian crisis for the coastal territory's 1.5 million people from worsening.He told reporters during the flight to Kuwait that if Arab states remain divided on Abbas and Palestinian unity, there was "no guarantee this [the Gaza conflict] will not happen again."In his speech in Kuwait, Ban reiterated that Israel must reopen border crossings with Gaza, allow humanitarian aid in and withdraw from the Gaza Strip. Likewise, he urged Hamas to stop firing rockets at southern Israel.But a permanent solution, he said, would require a return to the stalled Middle East peace process.
"A true end to violence, and lasting security for both Palestinians and Israelis, will only come through a just and comprehensive settlement to the Arab-Israeli conflict," he said.
"The occupation that began in 1967 must end."
Monday 19 January 2009
Does boycotting work?
from www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=67659507672
Before I answer that let me ask you- even if it were to have no impact at all, can you still drink a can of Coke or have a KitKat or shop in M & S knowing that these companies actively supported the massacre of innocent people in Gaza with the profit of what you bought?
Some like Nestle intend to open their main head office in occupied lands. If you are comfortable will that at night, then the whole idea of boycott is not for you. However, boycotting does work!
1) It worked with the apartheid regime of South Africa which eventually led to the dismantling of the apartheid system
2) It worked with the Danish products which made losses of 100's of million of poundshttp://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article723266.ece
3) Even if we were to boycott one big company and it felt the effect of the boycott, dont you think they will think twice before they sponsor Israel? Dont you think others will think three times before they do the same!
4) I am working with other organisations to draw a list of the top 10 products/companies and if we all boycott the worst offenders IT WILL HAVE AN IMPACT
5) I will be compiling a list of 'ALTERNATIVE STORES/PRODUCTS' which a lot of you have asked for. Please help by sending it to my inbox so that I can compile a full list of ALTERNATIVE STORES/PRODUCTS that do not support Israel ieASDALIDLMORRISONS(for general shopping) Instead of: TescoSainsburysPret A Manger instead of Starbucks and so on..... DO YOUR BIT.
YOU BOYCOTT FIRST AND THEN TELL OTHERS. invite everyone from your contacts to join
www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=67659507672
Sunday 18 January 2009
This is no ceasefire - 3rd National Demo for Gaza
3rd National Demonstration For Gaza: Saturday 24 January
Israel Out Of Gaza Now: Lift The Blockade
Assemble BBC Broadcasting HousePortland Place, London, W1A 1AA
(Nearest Tube Oxford Circus)March To Trafalgar Square
More details to come [www.stopwar.org.uk]
[http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=69458225624&ref=nf]
*PLEASE INVITE ALL OF YOUR CONTACTS TO THE EVENT FOR THIS DEMO AND ORGANISE COACHES TO LONDON ASAP FOR THE NATIONAL MOBILISATION. MORE DEATILS WILL BE MADE AVALIABLE ON FACEBOOK EVENT AND www.stopwar.org.uk WEBSITE.******************
1200 dead, 6000 injured: Enough for now says Israel.gaza children mourn babyThis is no ceasefire. Israel has momentarily stopped bombing schools, mosques, hospitals, universities and residential buildings."We have achieved our objectives, and more," says Israeli prime minister Olmert. So 1200 dead, 350 of them children, is slaughter enough for now.Injuring 6000 people, bombing hospitals and ambulances, killing medical staff -- that will do for now, says Israel.
But, says Israel, it may start again any time it wishes.
As for lifting the blockade, which has starved 1.5 million Gazans of essentials such as food, fuel and medical supplies for the past three years - not a word. As for opening Gaza's borders, which have locked the population into one giant concentration camp -- not a word.The cost to Israel in the past three weeks: three civilians killed and ten soldiers killed, four of them by their own troops, tells its own story against the mass murder suffered by Palestinians in Gaza.
Only one Israeli was killed by Hamas in the year before Israel unleashed the last three weeks of carnage. Hamas's rockets were always a pretext for a long planned war to erase the memory of Israel's defeat in Lebanon in 2006 and to bolster the electoral prospects of Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak in Israel's general election next month.Instead of offering Israel the use of the British navy against Hamas, the legitimate government in Gaza, Gordon Brown should be announcing a complete ban on all arms trade with Israel, as he would if any other country had carried out war crimes on such a scale and violated so many international laws and the articles of the United Nations Charter.Israel has "achieved its objectives, and more"...
The morgues of Gaza's hospitals are over-flowing. The bodies in their blood-soaked white shrouds cover the entire floor space of the Shifa hospital morgue. Some are intact, most horribly deformed, limbs twisted into unnatural positions, chest cavities exposed, heads blown off, skulls crushed in.Family members wait outside to identify and claim a brother, husband, father, mother, wife, child. Many of those who wait their turn have lost numerous family members and loved ones. Blood is everywhere.Hospital orderlies hose down the floors of operating rooms, bloodied bandages lie discarded in corners, and the injured continue to pour in: bodies lacerated by shrapnel, burns, bullet wounds. Medical workers, exhausted and under siege, work day and night and each life saved is seen as a victory over the predominance of death.****************
Join the facebook group to support the university occupations in solidarity with Gaza [http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=126620265110&ref=mf]
Israel Out Of Gaza Now: Lift The Blockade
Assemble BBC Broadcasting HousePortland Place, London, W1A 1AA
(Nearest Tube Oxford Circus)March To Trafalgar Square
More details to come [www.stopwar.org.uk]
[http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=69458225624&ref=nf]
*PLEASE INVITE ALL OF YOUR CONTACTS TO THE EVENT FOR THIS DEMO AND ORGANISE COACHES TO LONDON ASAP FOR THE NATIONAL MOBILISATION. MORE DEATILS WILL BE MADE AVALIABLE ON FACEBOOK EVENT AND www.stopwar.org.uk WEBSITE.******************
1200 dead, 6000 injured: Enough for now says Israel.gaza children mourn babyThis is no ceasefire. Israel has momentarily stopped bombing schools, mosques, hospitals, universities and residential buildings."We have achieved our objectives, and more," says Israeli prime minister Olmert. So 1200 dead, 350 of them children, is slaughter enough for now.Injuring 6000 people, bombing hospitals and ambulances, killing medical staff -- that will do for now, says Israel.
But, says Israel, it may start again any time it wishes.
As for lifting the blockade, which has starved 1.5 million Gazans of essentials such as food, fuel and medical supplies for the past three years - not a word. As for opening Gaza's borders, which have locked the population into one giant concentration camp -- not a word.The cost to Israel in the past three weeks: three civilians killed and ten soldiers killed, four of them by their own troops, tells its own story against the mass murder suffered by Palestinians in Gaza.
Only one Israeli was killed by Hamas in the year before Israel unleashed the last three weeks of carnage. Hamas's rockets were always a pretext for a long planned war to erase the memory of Israel's defeat in Lebanon in 2006 and to bolster the electoral prospects of Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak in Israel's general election next month.Instead of offering Israel the use of the British navy against Hamas, the legitimate government in Gaza, Gordon Brown should be announcing a complete ban on all arms trade with Israel, as he would if any other country had carried out war crimes on such a scale and violated so many international laws and the articles of the United Nations Charter.Israel has "achieved its objectives, and more"...
The morgues of Gaza's hospitals are over-flowing. The bodies in their blood-soaked white shrouds cover the entire floor space of the Shifa hospital morgue. Some are intact, most horribly deformed, limbs twisted into unnatural positions, chest cavities exposed, heads blown off, skulls crushed in.Family members wait outside to identify and claim a brother, husband, father, mother, wife, child. Many of those who wait their turn have lost numerous family members and loved ones. Blood is everywhere.Hospital orderlies hose down the floors of operating rooms, bloodied bandages lie discarded in corners, and the injured continue to pour in: bodies lacerated by shrapnel, burns, bullet wounds. Medical workers, exhausted and under siege, work day and night and each life saved is seen as a victory over the predominance of death.****************
Join the facebook group to support the university occupations in solidarity with Gaza [http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=126620265110&ref=mf]
Hamas and allies declare ceasefire
Hamas and their allied Palestinian factions have announced an immediate one-week ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, giving Israel a week to pull out of the territory.
The move, following a meeting of the factions in Damascus on Sunday, comes a day after Israel called a unilateral truce, ending its 22-day offensive in Gaza which led to the deaths of 1,203 Palestinians.
"Hamas and the factions announce a ceasefire in Gaza starting immediately and give Israel a week to withdraw," Ayman Taha, a senior Hamas official talking from Cairo, said.
Hamas also demanded that Israel open all of the Gaza Strip's border crossings to allow in food and other goods to meet the "basic needs for our people".
The Palestinian factions at the Damascus meeting also included Islamic Jihad, Al Nidal, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and al Saeqa.
Israel had already said on Sunday that it will not consider a timetable for withdrawing all of its forces from the Gaza Strip until Hamas and other groups cease their fire.
Cease rocket fire
Palestinian factions have continued to fire rockets into southern Israel since the beginning of the offensive, killing three Israelis, out of a total of 13 Israelis that have died since the begining of the war.
They have also been fighting Israel's ground forces which enterd the Gaza Strip in the second week of the offensive.
An end to rocket fire from the Gaza Strip into Israel was the stated aim of the Israeli offensive.
Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire on Saturday, with Ehud Olmert, the prime minister, stating that they had achieved their objectives.
"We have reached all the goals of the war, and beyond," he said. "[But] if our enemies decide to strike and want to carry on, then the Israeli army will regard itself as free to respond with force."
Olmert also said the war boosted Israel's deterrence and that Hamas's actions would decide when the military would withdraw.
"This operation strengthened the deterrence of the state of Israel in the face of all those who threaten us," he said.
"If Hamas completely stops its attacks, we will judge at what moment we will leave the Gaza Strip."
'Symbolic victory'
However, Ayman Mohyeldin, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Gaza City, said some in the Gaza Strip are claiming a victory for Hamas and other Palestinian factions on an operational and symbolic level.
"On an operational level on the last day of the war and even after the war Palestinian factions are still capable of firing rockets, no doubt about that.
Hamas and Israel declared independent ceasefires each with separate terms [AFP]"In fact, more than a dozen or so have been fired today according to the factions here on the ground.
"On a symbolic level, at the end of the day the Palestinian people remain here on the ground, having paid a very heavy price though.
"Their position was one of steadfast defiance. The fact that they can stay and essentially ... claim that they have been able to stave off this aggression, in terms of the leadership and the command and control structure of Hamas and the government here, is certainly a sign for many here that they have been victorious."
At least 13 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel on Sunday morning after Israel declared their ceasefire, with Israel responding with air attacks into Gaza, according to Israeli sources.
Saturday 17 January 2009
Israel attacked Al-Quds hospital
Isarel attacked Al-Quds hospital while 500 employees and patients inside the hospital.
The main quarter of UNRWA agency in Gaza city was attacked also.New U.N school which protect civilians who escape their homes in dangerous places was attacked by forbidden White phosphorus weapons.
Even cemeteries have not been spared from the shelling !!!
YouTube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oXFRTXi2tkBBC:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7829912.stm
AlJazeera English:http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/01/20091177657498163.html
To have more details about these horror weapons, please follow this link.
Images: http://images.google.com/images?q=phosphorus bomb
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_phosphorus_(weapon)
The main quarter of UNRWA agency in Gaza city was attacked also.New U.N school which protect civilians who escape their homes in dangerous places was attacked by forbidden White phosphorus weapons.
Even cemeteries have not been spared from the shelling !!!
YouTube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oXFRTXi2tkBBC:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7829912.stm
AlJazeera English:http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/01/20091177657498163.html
To have more details about these horror weapons, please follow this link.
Images: http://images.google.com/images?q=phosphorus bomb
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_phosphorus_(weapon)
Thursday 15 January 2009
GAZA DEATH TOLL REACHES OVER 1000
The morning after the President of the UN General Assembly condemned Israel for what he calls is "genocide" in Gaza, the Israeli 'Defence' Force has continued its systematic destruction of the Palestinian civilians of Gaza. Despite our tears and grief and heart felt mourning for the beautiful cute children of Gaza, hungry and sick from the smell of their burnt flesh, the deaths of the martyrs cannot and SHALL NOT be in vain.
We as humanity, as the civilised people of the world, have the matches to light the candles of hope for those in blackness, with no electricity fuel or warmth in Gaza. These matches are the fourth geneva convention, these matches are the countless Israeli violated UN resolutions, these mathces are democracy, our strength as workers and students to organize, our unions.
Our power to boycott as the mass pool of consumption that perpetuates the thorns and weeds that strangle the sign of peace, the sign of harvest, the Palestinian olvie tree, these thorns and weeds being the stubborn apartheid wall and illegal Israeli settlements.
We as the students of the Palestinian diaspora, refugees of the countless genocides since 1948 call on our brothers and sisters in all that is good in the world to act, and ACT NOW.The candle has already been burning in SOAS university whose students are currently occupying a racist imperialist exhibition of the MOD highlighting the links between British imperialism which is the coal of the black smoke of zionism, choking the world and suffocating babies to death.
At Manchester University the zionist sympathyzers who danced on the graves of our martyrs were silenced on Sunday by hundreds of workers and students who occupied Albert Square. Horrifyingly, one of the zionist sympathyzers included the general secretary of our Student Union in Manchester. Unfortunatly, for unknown reasons his contact details are unavailable.
Many more actions are planned, and it is your duty to the Palestinians who have suffered from the inactions of the global proletariate for the past 60 years to MAKE IT STOP:
MAKE HISTORY MAKE OUR GENERATION BE THE LAST 68 MAKE IT STOPACTIONS IN MANCHESTER COMING UP:
1. Public Meeting to discuss strategy of what we can do here in Manchester to make it stop, 3 o clock, Jan 17th Friends Meeting House
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=43749713836&ref=mf2.
Mass action against Lyods TSB who are trying to block aid to Gaza, 11 oclock Jan 17th, Lyods TSB market street
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61408003&ref=profile#/event.php?eid=44108158935&ref=mf3.
Demonstration against Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Jan 22nd http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61408003&ref=profile#/event.php?eid=57244072808&ref=mf4.
PLEASE INVITE ALL YOUR FRIENDS TO THESE EVENTS AND IF YOU CAN OFFER YOUR SERVICES ANY MORE THAN JUST ATTENDANCE SUCH AS FLYERING, POSTERING, AND ANYTHING ELSE GET IN TOUCH ASAP.OTHER ACTIONS YOU CAN DO TO HELP:
1. Invite people to this group! And send this information and ideas for actions to all your contacts. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=42463811529#/group.php?gid=42463811529
2. Attend the demonstrations happening around you for a list of demonstrations/vigils please visit: http://www.actionpalestine.org/home/demonstrations/If there is no demonstration happening near you, coordinate with others people/groups to organise one. And send us the information so we can advertise it on the website. And send it on to the group.
3. Watch the media and contact them to ask them to improve their coverage (for more info: http://www.actionpalestine.org/home/contacting-the-media-about-gaza/)
4. Contact your MP and ask pressingly for urgent action, don’t take any diplomatic answers, this is a life or death matter and they need to know you care!! Call and email your government representatives (for more info: http://www.actionpalestine.org/home/contacting-the-government-about-gaza/)
5. Sign the petitions:http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Arms-embargo/http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Israel-Sanctions/
6. You can also donate to MAP Medical Aid for Palestinians:http://www.map-uk.org
Or Interpalhttp://www.interpal.org/donate/donate.html
For blogs from inside Gaza see:www.ingaza.wordpress.com
www.palsolidarity.org
Tuesday 13 January 2009
Monday 12 January 2009
interesting news links on response of Jews to Gaza
with the letters: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/11/gaza-israelandthepalestinians
To the government of Israel
We are writing this letter as profound and passionate supporters of Israel. We look upon the increasing loss of life on both sides of the Gaza conflict with horror. We have no doubt that rocket attacks into southern Israel, by Hamas and other militant Palestinian groups, are war crimes against Israel. No sovereign state should, or would, tolerate continued attacks and the deliberate targeting of civilians. Israel had a right to respond and we support the Israeli government's decision to make stopping the rocket attacks an urgent priority. However, we believe that only negotiations can secure long-term security for Israel and the region.We are concerned that rather than bringing security to Israel, a continued military offensive could strengthen extremists, destabilise the region and exacerbate tensions inside Israel with its one million Arab citizens. The offensive and the mounting civilian victims - like the Lebanon war in 2006 - also threaten to undermine international support for Israel.
We stand alongside the people of Israel and urge the government of Israel and the Palestinian people, with the assistance of the international community, to negotiate:
• An immediate and permanent ceasefire entailing an end to all rocket attacks and the complete and permanent lifting of the blockade of Gaza.
• International monitoring of the ceasefire agreement, including measures to ensure the security of the borders between Israel and Gaza as well as the prevention of weapons smuggling into Gaza. It is our desire to see a durable solution for ordinary people and our view that an immediate ceasefire is not only a humanitarian necessity but also a strategic priority for the future security of Israelis, Palestinians and people of the region.
Rabbi Dr Tony Bayfield
Sir Jeremy Beecham
Professor David Cesarani
Professor Shalom Lappin Michael Mitzman
Baroness Julia Neuberger
Rabbi Danny Rich
Rabbi Professor Marc Saperstein
Rabbi Dr Michael Shire
Sir Sigmund Sternberg
Paul Usiskin
at the rallies: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jan/12/gaza-israelandthepalestinians
The sign taped to the front of 10-month-old Ezra Wiesenberg read: "The IDF don't hide behind me! Stop Hamas abuse of children shields." Strapped to his mother Ann's chest, Ezra and his family had travelled with thousands of other Jews to London's to Trafalgar Square in London yesterday for a pro-Israeli rally calling for peace in the Middle East but also supporting the Israeli government's actions in Gaza.
Across the street, behind a cordon, the Rabbi Avraham Greenberg took his Israeli passport from its plastic wallet and slowly set it on fire with a gas lighter until its ashes floated around him. He explained to the small crowd on the pavement that he had been born in the state of Israel but he was ashamed to hold a passport from that country. He stood with more than a dozen Orthodox rabbis who joined in chants of "Judaism here to stay, Zionism no way".
But many more thousands of Jews attended in support of the rally rather than opposing it, waving Israeli flags and placards saying End Hamas Terror and wearing Stars of David on their faces.
Henry Grunwald, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, told the crowd, which was estimated at 15,000 by the organisers: "We are the people who want peace and who want life for Israel." The chief rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sacks, gave a message to Hamas: "Stop wanting Israel to die, start wanting your children to live. Why, Hamas, do you hold in contempt, not only Israeli lives but Palestinian lives?"
To applause, Ron Prosor, the Israeli ambassador to the UK, said: "The age of terrorism must be brought to a close so that together we can build an age of peace. Our soldiers are doing their duty with honour, dignity and sacrifice."
Listening to the speeches, Myer Malin, an 85-year-old Normandy veteran from Pinner in London, stood wearing his own medals and those of his father, who fought in the first world war. "I have come in support of Israel because they are under attack by Hamas and they have been unfairly represented in the press and media generally. Hamas provoked a war quite deliberately, the way they seized power in Gaza is comparable to the way Hitler seized power in Germany – they got themselves in a good position with the welfare service and promptly evicted the opposition.
"In this case, I think there is no such thing as disproportion, if you have got a war to fight then you fight."
Tania Schwartz, from north London, was furious and wanted to know where the media had been "for the last eight years when the rockets have been landing in Israel". She shouted: "Do you know that kids there wet the bed from fear? The moment the rockets stop, the Israeli soldiers will stop, they are desperate to get out of there and get home. But if it doesn't stop, the next time it will be Tel Aviv and Israel will be extinct."
Standing nearby, David Fordham, 49, from Hatch End, said his reasons for coming were very much different to those of Schwartz. "Some of us are here not because of Israel, but because we are concerned for our Jewish kids on the street, because there are Muslim kids who think if they beat up a Jewish kid or smash up a Jewish shop they are striking a blow for Kashmir or Palestine. People are shouting deaths to Jews and running amok in Golders Green. We are saying " Jews cannot get pushed around in this country". I have got kids at university and I am really concerned for them."
As the crowd around the square's frozen fountains sang the British and Israeli national anthems, Ann Wiesenberg, originally from New York, said of the protest sign on her baby son: "We feel that very often Hamas is actually putting children in front of them. We are highlighting the point that the IDF don't hide behind ci©vilians. They are putting their own soldiers at risk so as to kill as few civilians as possible."
Her husband, Andrew, said: "Hamas terrorism is like a cancer really – unfortunately. When you treat cancer you kill some of the innocent blood cells. We regret any loss of human life. The cancer analogy is very important – you don't stop before you finish the course of treatment, otherwise it will come back stronger."
As he spoke, a well-dressed middle-aged woman walked past – clearly not having planned to attend the rally – and shouted: "Shame on you Israel."The crowd, marshalled by hundreds of officials from the Community Security Trust, the organisation in charge of security for Britain's Jews and their institutions, as well as by the Metropolitan police, mostly dispersed after an hour, though a die-hard bunch lingered to exchange shouts across the barricades with the counter demonstrators. They pushed at the fluorescent yellow line of police officers that held them in as a speaker with a megaphone said: "now you know what it is like to be squeezed into a small piece of land and pushed by an oppressor".
©The rally followed a large protest against the military action in Gaza in London on Saturday, during which violent clashes broke out.
and the academic: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/07/gaza-israel-palestine
The only way to make sense of Israel's senseless war in Gaza is through understanding the historical context. Establishing the state of Israel in May 1948 involved a monumental injustice to the Palestinians. British officials bitterly resented American partisanship on behalf of the infant state. On 2 June 1948, Sir John Troutbeck wrote to the foreign secretary, Ernest Bevin, that the Americans were responsible for the creation of a gangster state headed by "an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders". I used to think that this judgment was too harsh but Israel's vicious assault on the people of Gaza, and the Bush administration's complicity in this assault, have reopened the question.
I write as someone who served loyally in the Israeli army in the mid-1960s and who has never questioned the legitimacy of the state of Israel within its pre-1967 borders. What I utterly reject is the Zionist colonial project beyond the Green Line. The Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the June 1967 war had very little to do with security and everything to do with territorial expansionism. The aim was to establish Greater Israel through permanent political, economic and military control over the Palestinian territories. And the result has been one of the most prolonged and brutal military occupations of modern times.
Four decades of Israeli control did incalculable damage to the economy of the Gaza Strip. With a large population of 1948 refugees crammed into a tiny strip of land, with no infrastructure or natural resources, Gaza's prospects were never bright. Gaza, however, is not simply a case of economic under-development but a uniquely cruel case of deliberate de-development. To use the Biblical phrase, Israel turned the people of Gaza into the hewers of wood and the drawers of water, into a source of cheap labour and a captive market for Israeli goods. The development of local industry was actively impeded so as to make it impossible for the Palestinians to end their subordination to Israel and to establish the economic underpinnings essential for real political independence.
Gaza is a classic case of colonial exploitation in the post-colonial era. Jewish settlements in occupied territories are immoral, illegal and an insurmountable obstacle to peace. They are at once the instrument of exploitation and the symbol of the hated occupation. In Gaza, the Jewish settlers numbered only 8,000 in 2005 compared with 1.4 million local residents. Yet the settlers controlled 25% of the territory, 40% of the arable land and the lion's share of the scarce water resources. Cheek by jowl with these foreign intruders, the majority of the local population lived in abject poverty and unimaginable misery. Eighty per cent of them still subsist on less than $2 a day. The living conditions in the strip remain an affront to civilised values, a powerful precipitant to resistance and a fertile breeding ground for political extremism.
In August 2005 a Likud government headed by Ariel Sharon staged a unilateral Israeli pullout from Gaza, withdrawing all 8,000 settlers and destroying the houses and farms they had left behind. Hamas, the Islamic resistance movement, conducted an effective campaign to drive the Israelis out of Gaza. The withdrawal was a humiliation for the Israeli Defence Forces. To the world, Sharon presented the withdrawal from Gaza as a contribution to peace based on a two-state solution. But in the year after, another 12,000 Israelis settled on the West Bank, further reducing the scope for an independent Palestinian state. Land-grabbing and peace-making are simply incompatible. Israel had a choice and it chose land over peace.
The real purpose behind the move was to redraw unilaterally the borders of Greater Israel by incorporating the main settlement blocs on the West Bank to the state of Israel. Withdrawal from Gaza was thus not a prelude to a peace deal with the Palestinian Authority but a prelude to further Zionist expansion on the West Bank. It was a unilateral Israeli move undertaken in what was seen, mistakenly in my view, as an Israeli national interest. Anchored in a fundamental rejection of the Palestinian national identity, the withdrawal from Gaza was part of a long-term effort to deny the Palestinian people any independent political existence on their land.
Israel's settlers were withdrawn but Israeli soldiers continued to control all access to the Gaza Strip by land, sea and air. Gaza was converted overnight into an open-air prison. From this point on, the Israeli air force enjoyed unrestricted freedom to drop bombs, to make sonic booms by flying low and breaking the sound barrier, and to terrorise the hapless inhabitants of this prison.
Israel likes to portray itself as an island of democracy in a sea of authoritarianism. Yet Israel has never in its entire history done anything to promote democracy on the Arab side and has done a great deal to undermine it. Israel has a long history of secret collaboration with reactionary Arab regimes to suppress Palestinian nationalism. Despite all the handicaps, the Palestinian people succeeded in building the only genuine democracy in the Arab world with the possible exception of Lebanon. In January 2006, free and fair elections for the Legislative Council of the Palestinian Authority brought to power a Hamas-led government. Israel, however, refused to recognise the democratically elected government, claiming that Hamas is purely and simply a terrorist organisation.
America and the EU shamelessly joined Israel in ostracising and demonising the Hamas government and in trying to bring it down by withholding tax revenues and foreign aid. A surreal situation thus developed with a significant part of the international community imposing economic sanctions not against the occupier but against the occupied, not against the oppressor but against the oppressed.
As so often in the tragic history of Palestine, the victims were blamed for their own misfortunes. Israel's propaganda machine persistently purveyed the notion that the Palestinians are terrorists, that they reject coexistence with the Jewish state, that their nationalism is little more than antisemitism, that Hamas is just a bunch of religious fanatics and that Islam is incompatible with democracy. But the simple truth is that the Palestinian people are a normal people with normal aspirations. They are no better but they are no worse than any other national group. What they aspire to, above all, is a piece of land to call their own on which to live in freedom and dignity.
Like other radical movements, Hamas began to moderate its political programme following its rise to power. From the ideological rejectionism of its charter, it began to move towards pragmatic accommodation of a two-state solution. In March 2007, Hamas and Fatah formed a national unity government that was ready to negotiate a long-term ceasefire with Israel. Israel, however, refused to negotiate with a government that included Hamas.
It continued to play the old game of divide and rule between rival Palestinian factions. In the late 1980s, Israel had supported the nascent Hamas in order to weaken Fatah, the secular nationalist movement led by Yasser Arafat. Now Israel began to encourage the corrupt and pliant Fatah leaders to overthrow their religious political rivals and recapture power. Aggressive American neoconservatives participated in the sinister plot to instigate a Palestinian civil war. Their meddling was a major factor in the collapse of the national unity government and in driving Hamas to seize power in Gaza in June 2007 to pre-empt a Fatah coup.
The war unleashed by Israel on Gaza on 27 December was the culmination of a series of clashes and confrontations with the Hamas government. In a broader sense, however, it is a war between Israel and the Palestinian people, because the people had elected the party to power. The declared aim of the war is to weaken Hamas and to intensify the pressure until its leaders agree to a new ceasefire on Israel's terms. The undeclared aim is to ensure that the Palestinians in Gaza are seen by the world simply as a humanitarian problem and thus to derail their struggle for independence and statehood.
The timing of the war was determined by political expediency. A general election is scheduled for 10 February and, in the lead-up to the election, all the main contenders are looking for an opportunity to prove their toughness. The army top brass had been champing at the bit to deliver a crushing blow to Hamas in order to remove the stain left on their reputation by the failure of the war against Hezbollah in Lebanon in July 2006. Israel's cynical leaders could also count on apathy and impotence of the pro-western Arab regimes and on blind support from President Bush in the twilight of his term in the White House. Bush readily obliged by putting all the blame for the crisis on Hamas, vetoing proposals at the UN Security Council for an immediate ceasefire and issuing Israel with a free pass to mount a ground invasion of Gaza.
As always, mighty Israel claims to be the victim of Palestinian aggression but the sheer asymmetry of power between the two sides leaves little room for doubt as to who is the real victim. This is indeed a conflict between David and Goliath but the Biblical image has been inverted - a small and defenceless Palestinian David faces a heavily armed, merciless and overbearing Israeli Goliath. The resort to brute military force is accompanied, as always, by the shrill rhetoric of victimhood and a farrago of self-pity overlaid with self-righteousness. In Hebrew this is known as the syndrome of bokhim ve-yorim, "crying and shooting".
To be sure, Hamas is not an entirely innocent party in this conflict. Denied the fruit of its electoral victory and confronted with an unscrupulous adversary, it has resorted to the weapon of the weak - terror. Militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad kept launching Qassam rocket attacks against Israeli settlements near the border with Gaza until Egypt brokered a six-month ceasefire last June. The damage caused by these primitive rockets is minimal but the psychological impact is immense, prompting the public to demand protection from its government. Under the circumstances, Israel had the right to act in self-defence but its response to the pinpricks of rocket attacks was totally disproportionate. The figures speak for themselves.
In the three years after the withdrawal from Gaza, 11 Israelis were killed by rocket fire. On the other hand, in 2005-7 alone, the IDF killed 1,290 Palestinians in Gaza, including 222 children.
Whatever the numbers, killing civilians is wrong. This rule applies to Israel as much as it does to Hamas, but Israel's entire record is one of unbridled and unremitting brutality towards the inhabitants of Gaza. Israel also maintained the blockade of Gaza after the ceasefire came into force which, in the view of the Hamas leaders, amounted to a violation of the agreement. During the ceasefire, Israel prevented any exports from leaving the strip in clear violation of a 2005 accord, leading to a sharp drop in employment opportunities. Officially, 49.1% of the population is unemployed.
At the same time, Israel restricted drastically the number of trucks carrying food, fuel, cooking-gas canisters, spare parts for water and sanitation plants, and medical supplies to Gaza. It is difficult to see how starving and freezing the civilians of Gaza could protect the people on the Israeli side of the border. But even if it did, it would still be immoral, a form of collective punishment that is strictly forbidden by international humanitarian law.
The brutality of Israel's soldiers is fully matched by the mendacity of its spokesmen. Eight months before launching the current war on Gaza, Israel established a National Information Directorate. The core messages of this directorate to the media are that Hamas broke the ceasefire agreements; that Israel's objective is the defence of its population; and that Israel's forces are taking the utmost care not to hurt innocent civilians. Israel's spin doctors have been remarkably successful in getting this message across. But, in essence, their propaganda is a pack of lies.
A wide gap separates the reality of Israel's actions from the rhetoric of its spokesmen. It was not Hamas but the IDF that broke the ceasefire. It di d so by a raid into Gaza on 4 November that killed six Hamas men. Israel's objective is not just the defence of its population but the eventual overthrow of the Hamas government in Gaza by turning the people against their rulers. And far from taking care to spare civilians, Israel is guilty of indiscriminate bombing and of a three-year-old blockade that has brought the inhabitants of Gaza, now 1.5 million, to the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe.
The Biblical injunction of an eye for an eye is savage enough. But Israel's insane offensive against Gaza seems to follow the logic of an eye for an eyelash. After eight days of bombing, with a death toll of more than 400 Palestinians and four Israelis, the gung-ho cabinet ordered a land invasion of Gaza the consequences of which are incalculable.
No amount of military escalation can buy Israel immunity from rocket attacks from the military wing of Hamas. Despite all the death and destruction that Israel has inflicted on them, they kept up their resistance and they kept firing their rockets. This is a movement that glorifies victimhood and martyrdom. There is simply no military solution to the conflict between the two communities. The problem with Israel's concept of security is that it denies even the most elementary security to the other community. The only way for Israel to achieve security is not through shooting but through talks with Hamas, which has repeatedly declared its readiness to negotiate a long-term ceasefire with the Jewish state within its pre-1967 borders for 20, 30, or even 50 years. Israel has rejected this offer for the same reason it spurned the Arab League peace plan of 2002, which is still on the table: it involves concessions and compromises.
This brief review of Israel's record over the past four decades makes it difficult to resist the conclusion that it has become a rogue state with "an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders". A rogue state habitually violates international law, possesses weapons of mass destruction and practises terrorism - the use of violence against civilians for political purposes. Israel fulfils all of these three criteria; the cap fits and it must wear it. Israel's real aim is not peaceful coexistence with its Palestinian neighbours but military domination. It keeps compounding the mistakes of the past with new and more disastrous ones. Politicians, like everyone else, are of course free to repeat the lies and mistakes of the past. But it is not mandatory to do so.
• Avi Shlaim is a professor of international relations at the University of Oxford and the author of The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World and of Lion of Jordan: King Hussein's Life in War and Peace.
and general article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/11/gaza-israel-letter-british-jews
A group of Britain's most prominent Jews has called on Israel to cease its military operations in Gaza immediately, warning that its actions, far from improving the country's security, will "strengthen extremism, destabilise the region, and exacerbate tensions inside Israel".
Describing themselves, as "profound and passionate supporters" of Israel - and supporting its right to defend itself against the "war crime" of Hamas rocket attacks - they added that the current tactics threatened to undermine international support for Israel.
The intervention, in a letter published in today's Observer, came as fears grew that Israel was to launch a "new phase" of its military offensive inside the Gaza strip. Yesterday warplanes dropped leaflets warning Gazans "not to be close to terrorists, weapons warehouses and the places where the terrorists operate". The two-week-old campaign has already killed more than 800 Palestinians, while 13 Israelis have died, three of them civilians killed by Hamas rockets.
Although individual Jewish writers and religious figures have expressed their opposition to the conduct of Operation Cast Lead, the letter represents the most significant break with Israel's tactics from a group of UK Jews.
Prominent rabbis, academics and political figures are among the signatories, including Rabbi Dr Tony Bayfield, head of the Movement for Reform Judaism; Sir Jeremy Beecham, former chair of the Labour party; Professor Shalom Lappin of the University of London; Baroness Julia Neuberger; Rabbi Danny Rich, chief executive of Liberal Judaism; Rabbi Professor Marc Saperstein, principal of Leo Baeck rabbinical training college; and lawyer Michael Mitzman, who set up Holocaust Memorial Day Trust for the Home Office.
Their demand comes amid increasing pressure on Israel from the diplomatic community to halt its operations, and rising criticism of the humanitarian impact on Palestinian civilians, including allegations of potentially serious breaches of international humanitarian law. Demonstrations around the world yesterday called for a ceasefire.
"We look upon the increasing loss of life on both sides of the Gaza conflict with horror," reads the letter. "We have no doubt that rocket attacks into southern Israel, by Hamas and other militant Palestinian groups, are war crimes against Israel. No sovereign state should, or would, tolerate continued attacks and the deliberate targeting of civilians. Israel had a right to respond and we support the Israeli government's decision to make stopping the rocket attacks an urgent priority.
"However, we believe that now only negotiations can secure long-term security for Israel and the region."
The letter was written before the escalation of ground fighting in Gaza City itself signalled by Israel yesterday.
"There can be no alternative to a negotiated solution," said Beecham. "Israel should be demonstrating, along with the Palestinian Authority, that there are economic and political benefits to be gained from peaceful engagement rather than violent confrontation."
His sentiments were echoed by Lappin: "Relying on overwhelming military force to respond to terrorist provocations invariably imposes horrendous suffering on innocent Palestinian civilians while entrenching the agents of terror in their midst. We have no alternative but to pursue rational, long term political options that promote moderation and marginalise extremists."
In London violent clashes broke out near the Israeli embassy as tens of thousands marched in protest. Helmeted riot police with batons and shields charged a group of demonstrators who hurled sticks, shoes and traffic cones back at them while chanting "Free Palestine!"
Protesters tried to force entry to the north gate of Kensington Palace Gardens and six climbed an adjoining wall, setting fire to an American flag. The windows of a Starbucks opposite the embassy were smashed.
The police charges created waves of panic. Protester Ahmed Mohammad, 23, claimed he saw women and children get hurt: "It was a peaceful protest until the riot police came. I've seen a mother and little girl pushed to the ground."
Some protesters attempted to throw barriers and other missiles at police.
The Stop the War Coalition, which organised the event, claimed that "at least" 100,000 people had made it "the biggest demonstration of solidarity with the Palestinian people in the history of this country". The Metropolitan Police estimated the total at 12,000.
Earlier, Speakers' Corner at Hyde Park was turned into a sea of Palestinian flags and banners condemning Israel. Speakers included human rights advocate Bianca Jagger, singer Annie Lennox and the Rev Garth Hewitt, canon at St George's Cathedral in Jerusalem.
Wednesday 7 January 2009
Israel resumes deadly Gaza attacks
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/01/20091812722995597.html
Violence has resumed in the Gaza Strip after a three-hour lull that allowed beleaguered residents to look for food and fuel.
Al Jazeera's Zeina Awad, reporting from the Israel-Gaza border in the early hours of Thursday, said it was clear that Israeli air attacks had intensified and explosions could be heard over Gaza as the Israeli assault entered its 13th day.
There were reports that the presidential palace in Gaza had been hit as well as police stations. Al Jazeera confirmed that a mosque had been hit, injuring 15 people.
Wednesday's lull was followed by news that Israel's security cabinet had approved an expansion to the offensive in Gaza as part of its stated aim to halt Hamas cross-border rocket attacks.
Offensive to broaden
Despite the onslaught in Gaza, eight rockets were fired from the territory into southern Israel on Wednesday.
Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, chaired the security cabinet meeting in Jerusalem which "approved continuing the ground offensive, including a third stage that would broaden it by pushing deeper into populated areas," a senior defence official said.
The final decision would be left to Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, the official added.
Israel warned thousands of people in the Rafah zone on the Egyptian border to leave their houses ahead of planned air raids on Thursday.
"You have until 8am [06:00 GMT]," said leaflets which were dropped by the Israeli military.Witnesses said that a house and a suspected smuggling tunnel were hit in two raids early on Thursday.
At least 700 Palestinians, including 219 children, have died in Gaza since Israel began its assault on December 27. More than 3,080 people have also been wounded.
Seven Israeli soldiers and three civilians have died in the same period.
Onslaught continues
Soon after the three-hour lull on Wednesday, an Israeli air raid on a car in Beit Lahia, near Gaza's northern border with Israel, killed three children and their father, who was described as a civilian by medical workers in the besieged strip.
Palestinians and aid workers in and around Gaza City had used Wednesday's brief respite to recover dead bodies, treat the wounded, and gather much-needed supplies in and around Gaza City.
The military announced a three-hour lull in fighting to open a 'humanitarian corridor' [AFP]Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, announced "offensive" military action across the strip would be suspended for three hours every alternating day, although the timings may vary.
Despite this, Israeli air raids were reported in other parts of the Palestinian territory during Wednesday's announced timeframe of 1pm-4pm.
Most of Wednesday's clashes occurred in northern Gaza, with explosions reported in Jabalya and Beit Lahia.
In Gaza City, four people were killed and seven injured outside a mosque in the Sheik Radwan neighbourhood.
Two people were also killed earlier when the Zeitoun district was targeted from the air.
Further south, air raids hit the towns of Khan Yunis and Rafah, where over 20 houses were destroyed.
Around 15,000 Palestinians have had to flee the fighting so far, but have found few places safe, with even schools converted into UN shelters being hit.
An Israeli attack on a school run by the UN Relief and Works Agency in the northern town of Jabaliya on Tuesday left 43 Palestinians dead and around 100 wounded.
Israeli officials said missiles were fired from the UN building and that their troops were simply returning fire.
Heba, a Gaza resident and mother of two, told Al Jazeera there was no place left in Gaza that could be considered safe. "What happened in the school was a hugely offensive and inhumane thing. We never expected that people who sought refuge in a UN building would be attacked and killed," she said.
Violence has resumed in the Gaza Strip after a three-hour lull that allowed beleaguered residents to look for food and fuel.
Al Jazeera's Zeina Awad, reporting from the Israel-Gaza border in the early hours of Thursday, said it was clear that Israeli air attacks had intensified and explosions could be heard over Gaza as the Israeli assault entered its 13th day.
There were reports that the presidential palace in Gaza had been hit as well as police stations. Al Jazeera confirmed that a mosque had been hit, injuring 15 people.
Wednesday's lull was followed by news that Israel's security cabinet had approved an expansion to the offensive in Gaza as part of its stated aim to halt Hamas cross-border rocket attacks.
Offensive to broaden
Despite the onslaught in Gaza, eight rockets were fired from the territory into southern Israel on Wednesday.
Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, chaired the security cabinet meeting in Jerusalem which "approved continuing the ground offensive, including a third stage that would broaden it by pushing deeper into populated areas," a senior defence official said.
The final decision would be left to Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, the official added.
Israel warned thousands of people in the Rafah zone on the Egyptian border to leave their houses ahead of planned air raids on Thursday.
"You have until 8am [06:00 GMT]," said leaflets which were dropped by the Israeli military.Witnesses said that a house and a suspected smuggling tunnel were hit in two raids early on Thursday.
At least 700 Palestinians, including 219 children, have died in Gaza since Israel began its assault on December 27. More than 3,080 people have also been wounded.
Seven Israeli soldiers and three civilians have died in the same period.
Onslaught continues
Soon after the three-hour lull on Wednesday, an Israeli air raid on a car in Beit Lahia, near Gaza's northern border with Israel, killed three children and their father, who was described as a civilian by medical workers in the besieged strip.
Palestinians and aid workers in and around Gaza City had used Wednesday's brief respite to recover dead bodies, treat the wounded, and gather much-needed supplies in and around Gaza City.
The military announced a three-hour lull in fighting to open a 'humanitarian corridor' [AFP]Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, announced "offensive" military action across the strip would be suspended for three hours every alternating day, although the timings may vary.
Despite this, Israeli air raids were reported in other parts of the Palestinian territory during Wednesday's announced timeframe of 1pm-4pm.
Most of Wednesday's clashes occurred in northern Gaza, with explosions reported in Jabalya and Beit Lahia.
In Gaza City, four people were killed and seven injured outside a mosque in the Sheik Radwan neighbourhood.
Two people were also killed earlier when the Zeitoun district was targeted from the air.
Further south, air raids hit the towns of Khan Yunis and Rafah, where over 20 houses were destroyed.
Around 15,000 Palestinians have had to flee the fighting so far, but have found few places safe, with even schools converted into UN shelters being hit.
An Israeli attack on a school run by the UN Relief and Works Agency in the northern town of Jabaliya on Tuesday left 43 Palestinians dead and around 100 wounded.
Israeli officials said missiles were fired from the UN building and that their troops were simply returning fire.
Heba, a Gaza resident and mother of two, told Al Jazeera there was no place left in Gaza that could be considered safe. "What happened in the school was a hugely offensive and inhumane thing. We never expected that people who sought refuge in a UN building would be attacked and killed," she said.
Active Muslims Advise The Government
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/08/islam-gaza
Gaza conflict fuelling anger in UK, Muslims warn Brown
Riazat Butt, religious affairs correspondent
The Guardian,
Thursday 8 January 2009
Anger within Britain's Muslim communities over the Gaza conflict has reached "acute levels of intensity" that could have repercussions for national security, leading Muslims will warn Gordon Brown today.
In a letter to the prime minister, representatives of Muslim organisations will say the Israeli government's use of "disproportionate force" to combat threats to its security has "revived extremist groups" and "empowered their message of violence and perennial conflict".
The letter, a copy of which can be read on the Guardian's Comment is Free website, also says that the "current, partisan and simplified narrative" emanating from the White House is of "serious and direct harm" to relations between the UK, North America and Arab countries.
Among the signatories are Dr Usama Hasan, imam of Al-Tawhid mosque, London, Dilwar Hussain, head of the policy research centre at the Islamic Foundation, Zareen Roohi Ahmed from the British Muslim Forum and Ed Husain, co-director of the anti-extremism thinktank the Quilliam Foundation. All are active in tackling extremism in the UK and overseas.
They say it is imperative for the UK to distance itself from the Bush government. The letter goes on: "We urge you to make concerted and successful efforts to convince the US administration of the dangers of its approach and to ensure the incoming Obama administration forges a more enlightened direction. We also believe the UK - bilaterally and as part of the EU - has an important role to demonstrate to Israel that the threshold of acceptable behaviour has been perilously transgressed."
The letter adds: "As you are aware, the anger within UK Muslim communities has reached acute levels of intensity. The Israeli government's use of disproportionate force ... has revived extremist groups and empowered their message of violence and perennial conflict. For Muslims in the UK and abroad, we run the risk of potentially creating a loss of faith in the political process."
Their intervention follows a meeting on Tuesday between Bill Rammell, foreign and commonwealth affairs minister, and 30 people drawn from Muslim organisations such as the Muslim Council of Britain and the Islamic Society of Britain.
In what was said to be a testy meeting, representatives told Rammell the government's position on Gaza could provoke UK terrorist attacks. One of those present was Dr Hany el-Banna, youth worker and co-founder and president of the charity Islamic Relief.
He told the Guardian: "We are all working tirelessly to try and cool them down. I am telling them to change and bring something positive, but they see these images and they trigger extremist thoughts in the simplest individuals. Many millions of people will see these images in the media, what do you think the affect will be?
"The government is responsible for the country and its foreign policy. I don't want something to happen here."
Another participant in the discussion, Khurshid Drabu, said there was widespread concern about radicalisation. "What we are looking for is equality of treatment when international law is breached. When a Muslim country does that the weight of the world is on them, why does Israel have such impunity?"
A perceived double standard hasalarmed the Young Muslims Advisory Group (YMAG), which the government launched last October to help prevent violent extremism. The group sent a letter to Brown this week saying government failure to condemn Israeli action against Palestinians was undermining efforts to reduce homegrown radicalisation.
The letter, first published in Muslim Youth, said: "We are in grave danger of sending a message to youth today that the mass murder of civilians can be justified if the right grievances are cited. In the current climate there is a real danger young people who witness the impotence of institutions that are supposed to be protecting innocent life will turn to other organisations in an effort to make their voices heard and the violence stop."
Gaza conflict fuelling anger in UK, Muslims warn Brown
Riazat Butt, religious affairs correspondent
The Guardian,
Thursday 8 January 2009
Anger within Britain's Muslim communities over the Gaza conflict has reached "acute levels of intensity" that could have repercussions for national security, leading Muslims will warn Gordon Brown today.
In a letter to the prime minister, representatives of Muslim organisations will say the Israeli government's use of "disproportionate force" to combat threats to its security has "revived extremist groups" and "empowered their message of violence and perennial conflict".
The letter, a copy of which can be read on the Guardian's Comment is Free website, also says that the "current, partisan and simplified narrative" emanating from the White House is of "serious and direct harm" to relations between the UK, North America and Arab countries.
Among the signatories are Dr Usama Hasan, imam of Al-Tawhid mosque, London, Dilwar Hussain, head of the policy research centre at the Islamic Foundation, Zareen Roohi Ahmed from the British Muslim Forum and Ed Husain, co-director of the anti-extremism thinktank the Quilliam Foundation. All are active in tackling extremism in the UK and overseas.
They say it is imperative for the UK to distance itself from the Bush government. The letter goes on: "We urge you to make concerted and successful efforts to convince the US administration of the dangers of its approach and to ensure the incoming Obama administration forges a more enlightened direction. We also believe the UK - bilaterally and as part of the EU - has an important role to demonstrate to Israel that the threshold of acceptable behaviour has been perilously transgressed."
The letter adds: "As you are aware, the anger within UK Muslim communities has reached acute levels of intensity. The Israeli government's use of disproportionate force ... has revived extremist groups and empowered their message of violence and perennial conflict. For Muslims in the UK and abroad, we run the risk of potentially creating a loss of faith in the political process."
Their intervention follows a meeting on Tuesday between Bill Rammell, foreign and commonwealth affairs minister, and 30 people drawn from Muslim organisations such as the Muslim Council of Britain and the Islamic Society of Britain.
In what was said to be a testy meeting, representatives told Rammell the government's position on Gaza could provoke UK terrorist attacks. One of those present was Dr Hany el-Banna, youth worker and co-founder and president of the charity Islamic Relief.
He told the Guardian: "We are all working tirelessly to try and cool them down. I am telling them to change and bring something positive, but they see these images and they trigger extremist thoughts in the simplest individuals. Many millions of people will see these images in the media, what do you think the affect will be?
"The government is responsible for the country and its foreign policy. I don't want something to happen here."
Another participant in the discussion, Khurshid Drabu, said there was widespread concern about radicalisation. "What we are looking for is equality of treatment when international law is breached. When a Muslim country does that the weight of the world is on them, why does Israel have such impunity?"
A perceived double standard hasalarmed the Young Muslims Advisory Group (YMAG), which the government launched last October to help prevent violent extremism. The group sent a letter to Brown this week saying government failure to condemn Israeli action against Palestinians was undermining efforts to reduce homegrown radicalisation.
The letter, first published in Muslim Youth, said: "We are in grave danger of sending a message to youth today that the mass murder of civilians can be justified if the right grievances are cited. In the current climate there is a real danger young people who witness the impotence of institutions that are supposed to be protecting innocent life will turn to other organisations in an effort to make their voices heard and the violence stop."
Arms Embargo petition on Downing Street Website
Israel's massacre in Gaza has resulted in the bloodiest toll of lives yet, more than 700 Palestinians have been killed, half of whom were women and children.
Israel wouldn't be able to commit these atrocities if it didn't have the arms to do so.The government's own figures show Britain is selling more and more weapons to Israel. In 2007, our government approved £6m of arms exports.
In 2008, it licensed sales 12 times as fast: £20m in the first three months alone.
Please show your opposition to this and sign the petition demanding "the Prime Minister to do everything in his power to impose an arms embargo on Israel" and "to apply pressure on countries supplying Israel with arms that breach international agreements with the intention of restoring lasting peace to the region"
Link to petition:http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Arms-embargo/
Please circulate to all your lists
Israel wouldn't be able to commit these atrocities if it didn't have the arms to do so.The government's own figures show Britain is selling more and more weapons to Israel. In 2007, our government approved £6m of arms exports.
In 2008, it licensed sales 12 times as fast: £20m in the first three months alone.
Please show your opposition to this and sign the petition demanding "the Prime Minister to do everything in his power to impose an arms embargo on Israel" and "to apply pressure on countries supplying Israel with arms that breach international agreements with the intention of restoring lasting peace to the region"
Link to petition:http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Arms-embargo/
Please circulate to all your lists
The Demolition of Rafah
For Immediate Release
The Demolition of Rafah
7th January 2009
Hi-resolution photos from Rafah 07/01/2009 available
or
Jenny Linnel a British ISM volunteer in Rafah said, "Shortly before midnight on the 6th of January, missiles began raining down on Rafah in one of the heaviest Israeli air strikes since the current atrocities began. Continuous sorties pounded the southern Gaza city for over 12 hours. Many homes were destroyed or severely damaged, especially in the neighbourhoods along the border with Egypt." According to Fida Qishta Rafah resident and ISM activist, "Papers dropped from planes in Rafah neighborhood ordered people to leave their homes in the areas stretching from the borderline all the way back to Sea Street, the main street running through the heart of Rafah, parallel to the border. This area is hundreds of metres deep and the site of thousands of homes. Most of these areas are refugee camps, where residents are being made refugees yet again, some for the third or fourth time following the mass home demolitions of 2003 and 2004 by Israeli military D-9 bulldozers.
People are told to leave their homes but even if they leave they are attacked. Nowhere is safe in the Gaza strip. Where will these families go? They are afraid to seek sanctuary in local UNRWA schools following yesterday's massacres in Jabaliya. They are afraid to drive somewhere and be shot down on the road like the Sinwar family was. They are being temporarily absorbed by the rest of Rafah's population – friends, neighbours, relatives."Jenny added: "We have a friend in Yibna, directly on the border, who refuses to leave his home.
We spoke to one woman in Al Barazil who has a family of 12 and simply doesn't know where to go and another woman in Block J who is literally in the street tonight. Her father is in his nineties. The family home where ISM volunteers are staying is on the other side of the city centre and has become a refuge for three other families tonight. The house is filled with excited chatter and lots of children. Palestinians have a long-learned talent of making-do, but there is no escaping the deep sense of uncertainty.."Referring to hundreds of homes that were demolished in Rafah along the Egyptian border in 2002 former Israeli OC Southern Command, Yom Tov Samiah, contended in an interview to the " Voice of Israel" on the 16 January 2002.January 2002 that, "These houses should have been demolished and evacuated a long time ago, because the Rafah border is not a natural border, it cannot be defended…
Three hundred meters of the Strip along the two sides of the border must be evacuated… Three hundred meters, no matter how many houses, period." The six hundred meter buffer zone that the former OC Southern Command of the Israeli Occupation Forces referred to seven years ago seems to be Israel's goal in the latest wave of demolitions.ISM media coordinator Adam Taylor stated, "Israel wants a buffer zone in Rafah in order to besiege Gaza more effectively. The tunnels that ran under the border with Egypt have become Gaza's life line during the prolonged Israeli siege and served as the only source for basic necessities such as fuel and medicine that Israel did not allow into the Gaza strip.
This recent wide scale destruction of private property of the occupied people of Rafah is not a military necessity. One war crime is being committed in order to reinforce another - that of collective punishment."
Adam Taylor – International Solidarity Movement
Please contact:In Rafah:Jenny Linnel - Britain (English) - +972 59 8765377
Fida Qishta - Palestine (English and Arabic) +972 599681669
Haled Abu Gali - +972 599 768228
Jabaliya:Alberto Arce Spain - (Spanish) - +972 59 8786094
Eva Bartlett - Canada (English) - +972 59 8836308
Ewa Jasiewicz – Coordinator of the Free Gaza movement in Gaza. Poland/Britain (Polish, English and Arabic) + 447749421576
Gaza City: Sharon Lock - Australia (English) - +972 59 8826513Vittorio Arrigoni - Italy (Italian) - +973 59 8378945
Dr. Haider Eid - South Africa (English and Arabic) - + 972 59 9441766
Dr Assed Shark - +972 824613 or +972 599 322636
Natalie Abu Shakra - Lebanon (Arabic and English) +972 59 8336 328
For More General Information, Please Contact:
Adam Taylor - ISM media office in Ramallah - +972 598 503 948
For blogs from inside Gaza see:www.ingaza.wordpress.com
www.palsolidarity.org
Venezuela expels Israeli ambassador
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/01/200916214856254298.html
Venezuela expels Israeli ambassador
Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed inthe Israeli offensive [AFP]
Venezuela has expelled the Israeli ambassador to protest against the country's assault on Gaza, after the Venezuelan president described it as a "holocaust".
The move on Tuesday came hours after 40 Palestinians were killed at a UN school where civilians had taken shelter amid the offensive.
"The Holocaust, that is what is happening right now in Gaza," Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, said in televised comments.
"The president of Israel at this moment should be taken to the International Criminal Court together with the president of the United States."
At least 660 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its offensive on December 27, in what it says is an attempt to halt Palestinian rocketfire from Gaza.
'State terrorism'
Venezuela's foreign ministry said in a statement that Israel's campaign constituted "flagrant violations of international law" and the use of "state terrorism".
"For the reasons mentioned above, the government of Venezuela has decided to expel the ambassador of Israel and part of the personnel of the embassy of Israel," the statement said.
On Monday, Chavez, a strong critic of Israel and the US, had accused Washington of poisoning Yasser Arafat, the late former Palestinian president, to destabilise the Middle East and justify US-backed Israeli incursions.
The United States, which Chavez describes as a decadent empire, firmly backs Israel, its principal ally in the region.
On Tuesday, the White House said it would support an "immediate" ceasefire in Gaza but only if it was likely to be "durable".
Venezuela expels Israeli ambassador
Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed inthe Israeli offensive [AFP]
Venezuela has expelled the Israeli ambassador to protest against the country's assault on Gaza, after the Venezuelan president described it as a "holocaust".
The move on Tuesday came hours after 40 Palestinians were killed at a UN school where civilians had taken shelter amid the offensive.
"The Holocaust, that is what is happening right now in Gaza," Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, said in televised comments.
"The president of Israel at this moment should be taken to the International Criminal Court together with the president of the United States."
At least 660 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its offensive on December 27, in what it says is an attempt to halt Palestinian rocketfire from Gaza.
'State terrorism'
Venezuela's foreign ministry said in a statement that Israel's campaign constituted "flagrant violations of international law" and the use of "state terrorism".
"For the reasons mentioned above, the government of Venezuela has decided to expel the ambassador of Israel and part of the personnel of the embassy of Israel," the statement said.
On Monday, Chavez, a strong critic of Israel and the US, had accused Washington of poisoning Yasser Arafat, the late former Palestinian president, to destabilise the Middle East and justify US-backed Israeli incursions.
The United States, which Chavez describes as a decadent empire, firmly backs Israel, its principal ally in the region.
On Tuesday, the White House said it would support an "immediate" ceasefire in Gaza but only if it was likely to be "durable".
UNITING AND EDUCATING MUSLIMS AND JEWS
http://www.thecitycircle.com/more.php?ann_id=143
Upcoming Event Details
Subject:
THE GAZA CRISIS - DISCUSSION & FUNDRAISER
Speaker:
Dr. Richard Stone (Alif Aleph UK), Abu Muntasir (JIMAS), Ziad al-Runi (Islamic Relief)
Venue:
Abrar House, 45 Crawford Place, London W1H 4LP (nearest tube: Edgware Rd / Marble Arch)
Date:
6.45-8.45pm, Friday 16th January 2009
PLEASE NOTE - THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED BY A WEEK
Richard Stone and Abu Muntasir, Founder-Presidents of Alif Aleph and JIMAS charity organisations respectively, will suggest ways in which British Muslims and British Jews can work together to lobby for a meaningful peace process in the Middle East. Perhaps it is time for British Muslims and Jews to openly condemn the killing of civilians by both Hamas and Israel, and for more balanced voices on both sides to come together and marginalise extreme elements? Join us for a passionate discussion, which will be followed by a fundraiser for Islamic Relief's humanitarian operation in Gaza, to include a live audio link-up with a relief worker on the ground there.
DR. RICHARD STONE was on the panels of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry and served as Vice-chair of the Runnymede Trust and spent 6 years on its Islamophobia Commission, from 2000 to 2004 as chair. He is President of the Jewish Council for Racial Equality, and founder and co-chair of Alif-Aleph UK, a group of British Muslims & British Jews.
ABU MUNTASIR worked as a software engineer at BT's Martlesham Laboratories in Suffolk for over 20 years. In 1984 he founded JIMAS, which has become a UK charity dedicated to serving humanity regardless of religion and building local communities on the basis of universal Islamic principles. He is also a trustee of Ipswich Community Radio.
ISLAMIC RELIEF is one of the largest aid agencies working on the ground in Gaza and has begun distributing emergency medical supplies and equipment, as the immediate needs include medical disposables and first aid kits. It is continuing to work in Gaza following the Israeli ground operations, despite the increasingly difficult security situation.
ALL WELCOME - FREE ENTRANCE (no need to register)
For more information, contact Usama on 07980 834340 .
Upcoming Event Details
Subject:
THE GAZA CRISIS - DISCUSSION & FUNDRAISER
Speaker:
Dr. Richard Stone (Alif Aleph UK), Abu Muntasir (JIMAS), Ziad al-Runi (Islamic Relief)
Venue:
Abrar House, 45 Crawford Place, London W1H 4LP (nearest tube: Edgware Rd / Marble Arch)
Date:
6.45-8.45pm, Friday 16th January 2009
PLEASE NOTE - THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED BY A WEEK
Richard Stone and Abu Muntasir, Founder-Presidents of Alif Aleph and JIMAS charity organisations respectively, will suggest ways in which British Muslims and British Jews can work together to lobby for a meaningful peace process in the Middle East. Perhaps it is time for British Muslims and Jews to openly condemn the killing of civilians by both Hamas and Israel, and for more balanced voices on both sides to come together and marginalise extreme elements? Join us for a passionate discussion, which will be followed by a fundraiser for Islamic Relief's humanitarian operation in Gaza, to include a live audio link-up with a relief worker on the ground there.
DR. RICHARD STONE was on the panels of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry and served as Vice-chair of the Runnymede Trust and spent 6 years on its Islamophobia Commission, from 2000 to 2004 as chair. He is President of the Jewish Council for Racial Equality, and founder and co-chair of Alif-Aleph UK, a group of British Muslims & British Jews.
ABU MUNTASIR worked as a software engineer at BT's Martlesham Laboratories in Suffolk for over 20 years. In 1984 he founded JIMAS, which has become a UK charity dedicated to serving humanity regardless of religion and building local communities on the basis of universal Islamic principles. He is also a trustee of Ipswich Community Radio.
ISLAMIC RELIEF is one of the largest aid agencies working on the ground in Gaza and has begun distributing emergency medical supplies and equipment, as the immediate needs include medical disposables and first aid kits. It is continuing to work in Gaza following the Israeli ground operations, despite the increasingly difficult security situation.
ALL WELCOME - FREE ENTRANCE (no need to register)
For more information, contact Usama on 07980 834340 .
How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/07/gaza-israel-palestine
Oxford professor of international relations Avi Shlaim served in the Israeli army and has never questioned the state's legitimacy. But its merciless assault on Gaza has led him to devastating conclusions
Avi Shlaim
The Guardian, Wednesday 7 January 2009
The only way to make sense of Israel's senseless war in Gaza is through understanding the historical context. Establishing the state of Israel in May 1948 involved a monumental injustice to the Palestinians. British officials bitterly resented American partisanship on behalf of the infant state. On 2 June 1948, Sir John Troutbeck wrote to the foreign secretary, Ernest Bevin, that the Americans were responsible for the creation of a gangster state headed by "an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders". I used to think that this judgment was too harsh but Israel's vicious assault on the people of Gaza, and the Bush administration's complicity in this assault, have reopened the question.
I write as someone who served loyally in the Israeli army in the mid-1960s and who has never questioned the legitimacy of the state of Israel within its pre-1967 borders. What I utterly reject is the Zionist colonial project beyond the Green Line. The Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the June 1967 war had very little to do with security and everything to do with territorial expansionism. The aim was to establish Greater Israel through permanent political, economic and military control over the Palestinian territories. And the result has been one of the most prolonged and brutal military occupations of modern times.
Four decades of Israeli control did incalculable damage to the economy of the Gaza Strip. With a large population of 1948 refugees crammed into a tiny strip of land, with no infrastructure or natural resources, Gaza's prospects were never bright. Gaza, however, is not simply a case of economic under-development but a uniquely cruel case of deliberate de-development. To use the Biblical phrase, Israel turned the people of Gaza into the hewers of wood and the drawers of water, into a source of cheap labour and a captive market for Israeli goods. The development of local industry was actively impeded so as to make it impossible for the Palestinians to end their subordination to Israel and to establish the economic underpinnings essential for real political independence.
Gaza is a classic case of colonial exploitation in the post-colonial era. Jewish settlements in occupied territories are immoral, illegal and an insurmountable obstacle to peace. They are at once the instrument of exploitation and the symbol of the hated occupation. In Gaza, the Jewish settlers numbered only 8,000 in 2005 compared with 1.4 million local residents. Yet the settlers controlled 25% of the territory, 40% of the arable land and the lion's share of the scarce water resources. Cheek by jowl with these foreign intruders, the majority of the local population lived in abject poverty and unimaginable misery. Eighty per cent of them still subsist on less than $2 a day. The living conditions in the strip remain an affront to civilised values, a powerful precipitant to resistance and a fertile breeding ground for political extremism.
In August 2005 a Likud government headed by Ariel Sharon staged a unilateral Israeli pullout from Gaza, withdrawing all 8,000 settlers and destroying the houses and farms they had left behind. Hamas, the Islamic resistance movement, conducted an effective campaign to drive the Israelis out of Gaza. The withdrawal was a humiliation for the Israeli Defence Forces. To the world, Sharon presented the withdrawal from Gaza as a contribution to peace based on a two-state solution. But in the year after, another 12,000 Israelis settled on the West Bank, further reducing the scope for an independent Palestinian state. Land-grabbing and peace-making are simply incompatible. Israel had a choice and it chose land over peace.
The real purpose behind the move was to redraw unilaterally the borders of Greater Israel by incorporating the main settlement blocs on the West Bank to the state of Israel. Withdrawal from Gaza was thus not a prelude to a peace deal with the Palestinian Authority but a prelude to further Zionist expansion on the West Bank. It was a unilateral Israeli move undertaken in what was seen, mistakenly in my view, as an Israeli national interest. Anchored in a fundamental rejection of the Palestinian national identity, the withdrawal from Gaza was part of a long-term effort to deny the Palestinian people any independent political existence on their land.
Israel's settlers were withdrawn but Israeli soldiers continued to control all access to the Gaza Strip by land, sea and air. Gaza was converted overnight into an open-air prison. From this point on, the Israeli air force enjoyed unrestricted freedom to drop bombs, to make sonic booms by flying low and breaking the sound barrier, and to terrorise the hapless inhabitants of this prison.
Israel likes to portray itself as an island of democracy in a sea of authoritarianism. Yet Israel has never in its entire history done anything to promote democracy on the Arab side and has done a great deal to undermine it. Israel has a long history of secret collaboration with reactionary Arab regimes to suppress Palestinian nationalism. Despite all the handicaps, the Palestinian people succeeded in building the only genuine democracy in the Arab world with the possible exception of Lebanon. In January 2006, free and fair elections for the Legislative Council of the Palestinian Authority brought to power a Hamas-led government. Israel, however, refused to recognise the democratically elected government, claiming that Hamas is purely and simply a terrorist organisation.
America and the EU shamelessly joined Israel in ostracising and demonising the Hamas government and in trying to bring it down by withholding tax revenues and foreign aid. A surreal situation thus developed with a significant part of the international community imposing economic sanctions not against the occupier but against the occupied, not against the oppressor but against the oppressed.
As so often in the tragic history of Palestine, the victims were blamed for their own misfortunes. Israel's propaganda machine persistently purveyed the notion that the Palestinians are terrorists, that they reject coexistence with the Jewish state, that their nationalism is little more than antisemitism, that Hamas is just a bunch of religious fanatics and that Islam is incompatible with democracy. But the simple truth is that the Palestinian people are a normal people with normal aspirations. They are no better but they are no worse than any other national group. What they aspire to, above all, is a piece of land to call their own on which to live in freedom and dignity.
Like other radical movements, Hamas began to moderate its political programme following its rise to power. From the ideological rejectionism of its charter, it began to move towards pragmatic accommodation of a two-state solution. In March 2007, Hamas and Fatah formed a national unity government that was ready to negotiate a long-term ceasefire with Israel. Israel, however, refused to negotiate with a government that included Hamas.
It continued to play the old game of divide and rule between rival Palestinian factions. In the late 1980s, Israel had supported the nascent Hamas in order to weaken Fatah, the secular nationalist movement led by Yasser Arafat. Now Israel began to encourage the corrupt and pliant Fatah leaders to overthrow their religious political rivals and recapture power. Aggressive American neoconservatives participated in the sinister plot to instigate a Palestinian civil war. Their meddling was a major factor in the collapse of the national unity government and in driving Hamas to seize power in Gaza in June 2007 to pre-empt a Fatah coup.
The war unleashed by Israel on Gaza on 27 December was the culmination of a series of clashes and confrontations with the Hamas government. In a broader sense, however, it is a war between Israel and the Palestinian people, because the people had elected the party to power. The declared aim of the war is to weaken Hamas and to intensify the pressure until its leaders agree to a new ceasefire on Israel's terms. The undeclared aim is to ensure that the Palestinians in Gaza are seen by the world simply as a humanitarian problem and thus to derail their struggle for independence and statehood.
The timing of the war was determined by political expediency. A general election is scheduled for 10 February and, in the lead-up to the election, all the main contenders are looking for an opportunity to prove their toughness. The army top brass had been champing at the bit to deliver a crushing blow to Hamas in order to remove the stain left on their reputation by the failure of the war against Hezbollah in Lebanon in July 2006. Israel's cynical leaders could also count on apathy and impotence of the pro-western Arab regimes and on blind support from President Bush in the twilight of his term in the White House. Bush readily obliged by putting all the blame for the crisis on Hamas, vetoing proposals at the UN Security Council for an immediate ceasefire and issuing Israel with a free pass to mount a ground invasion of Gaza.
As always, mighty Israel claims to be the victim of Palestinian aggression but the sheer asymmetry of power between the two sides leaves little room for doubt as to who is the real victim. This is indeed a conflict between David and Goliath but the Biblical image has been inverted - a small and defenceless Palestinian David faces a heavily armed, merciless and overbearing Israeli Goliath. The resort to brute military force is accompanied, as always, by the shrill rhetoric of victimhood and a farrago of self-pity overlaid with self-righteousness. In Hebrew this is known as the syndrome of bokhim ve-yorim, "crying and shooting".
To be sure, Hamas is not an entirely innocent party in this conflict. Denied the fruit of its electoral victory and confronted with an unscrupulous adversary, it has resorted to the weapon of the weak - terror. Militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad kept launching Qassam rocket attacks against Israeli settlements near the border with Gaza until Egypt brokered a six-month ceasefire last June. The damage caused by these primitive rockets is minimal but the psychological impact is immense, prompting the public to demand protection from its government. Under the circumstances, Israel had the right to act in self-defence but its response to the pinpricks of rocket attacks was totally disproportionate. The figures speak for themselves. In the three years after the withdrawal from Gaza, 11 Israelis were killed by rocket fire.
On the other hand, in 2005-7 alone, the IDF killed 1,290 Palestinians in Gaza, including 222 children.
Whatever the numbers, killing civilians is wrong. This rule applies to Israel as much as it does to Hamas, but Israel's entire record is one of unbridled and unremitting brutality towards the inhabitants of Gaza. Israel also maintained the blockade of Gaza after the ceasefire came into force which, in the view of the Hamas leaders, amounted to a violation of the agreement. During the ceasefire, Israel prevented any exports from leaving the strip in clear violation of a 2005 accord, leading to a sharp drop in employment opportunities. Officially, 49.1% of the population is unemployed. At the same time, Israel restricted drastically the number of trucks carrying food, fuel, cooking-gas canisters, spare parts for water and sanitation plants, and medical supplies to Gaza. It is difficult to see how starving and freezing the civilians of Gaza could protect the people on the Israeli side of the border. But even if it did, it would still be immoral, a form of collective punishment that is strictly forbidden by international humanitarian law.
The brutality of Israel's soldiers is fully matched by the mendacity of its spokesmen. Eight months before launching the current war on Gaza, Israel established a National Information Directorate. The core messages of this directorate to the media are that Hamas broke the ceasefire agreements; that Israel's objective is the defence of its population; and that Israel's forces are taking the utmost care not to hurt innocent civilians. Israel's spin doctors have been remarkably successful in getting this message across. But, in essence, their propaganda is a pack of lies.
A wide gap separates the reality of Israel's actions from the rhetoric of its spokesmen. It was not Hamas but the IDF that broke the ceasefire. It di d so by a raid into Gaza on 4 November that killed six Hamas men. Israel's objective is not just the defence of its population but the eventual overthrow of the Hamas government in Gaza by turning the people against their rulers. And far from taking care to spare civilians, Israel is guilty of indiscriminate bombing and of a three-year-old blockade that has brought the inhabitants of Gaza, now 1.5 million, to the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe.
The Biblical injunction of an eye for an eye is savage enough. But Israel's insane offensive against Gaza seems to follow the logic of an eye for an eyelash. After eight days of bombing, with a death toll of more than 400 Palestinians and four Israelis, the gung-ho cabinet ordered a land invasion of Gaza the consequences of which are incalculable.
No amount of military escalation can buy Israel immunity from rocket attacks from the military wing of Hamas. Despite all the death and destruction that Israel has inflicted on them, they kept up their resistance and they kept firing their rockets. This is a movement that glorifies victimhood and martyrdom. There is simply no military solution to the conflict between the two communities. The problem with Israel's concept of security is that it denies even the most elementary security to the other community. The only way for Israel to achieve security is not through shooting but through talks with Hamas, which has repeatedly declared its readiness to negotiate a long-term ceasefire with the Jewish state within its pre-1967 borders for 20, 30, or even 50 years. Israel has rejected this offer for the same reason it spurned the Arab League peace plan of 2002, which is still on the table: it involves concessions and compromises.
This brief review of Israel's record over the past four decades makes it difficult to resist the conclusion that it has become a rogue state with "an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders". A rogue state habitually violates international law, possesses weapons of mass destruction and practises terrorism - the use of violence against civilians for political purposes. Israel fulfils all of these three criteria; the cap fits and it must wear it. Israel's real aim is not peaceful coexistence with its Palestinian neighbours but military domination. It keeps compounding the mistakes of the past with new and more disastrous ones. Politicians, like everyone else, are of course free to repeat the lies and mistakes of the past. But it is not mandatory to do so.
• Avi Shlaim is a professor of international relations at the University of Oxford and the author of The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World and of Lion of Jordan: King Hussein's Life in War and Peace.
Oxford professor of international relations Avi Shlaim served in the Israeli army and has never questioned the state's legitimacy. But its merciless assault on Gaza has led him to devastating conclusions
Avi Shlaim
The Guardian, Wednesday 7 January 2009
The only way to make sense of Israel's senseless war in Gaza is through understanding the historical context. Establishing the state of Israel in May 1948 involved a monumental injustice to the Palestinians. British officials bitterly resented American partisanship on behalf of the infant state. On 2 June 1948, Sir John Troutbeck wrote to the foreign secretary, Ernest Bevin, that the Americans were responsible for the creation of a gangster state headed by "an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders". I used to think that this judgment was too harsh but Israel's vicious assault on the people of Gaza, and the Bush administration's complicity in this assault, have reopened the question.
I write as someone who served loyally in the Israeli army in the mid-1960s and who has never questioned the legitimacy of the state of Israel within its pre-1967 borders. What I utterly reject is the Zionist colonial project beyond the Green Line. The Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the June 1967 war had very little to do with security and everything to do with territorial expansionism. The aim was to establish Greater Israel through permanent political, economic and military control over the Palestinian territories. And the result has been one of the most prolonged and brutal military occupations of modern times.
Four decades of Israeli control did incalculable damage to the economy of the Gaza Strip. With a large population of 1948 refugees crammed into a tiny strip of land, with no infrastructure or natural resources, Gaza's prospects were never bright. Gaza, however, is not simply a case of economic under-development but a uniquely cruel case of deliberate de-development. To use the Biblical phrase, Israel turned the people of Gaza into the hewers of wood and the drawers of water, into a source of cheap labour and a captive market for Israeli goods. The development of local industry was actively impeded so as to make it impossible for the Palestinians to end their subordination to Israel and to establish the economic underpinnings essential for real political independence.
Gaza is a classic case of colonial exploitation in the post-colonial era. Jewish settlements in occupied territories are immoral, illegal and an insurmountable obstacle to peace. They are at once the instrument of exploitation and the symbol of the hated occupation. In Gaza, the Jewish settlers numbered only 8,000 in 2005 compared with 1.4 million local residents. Yet the settlers controlled 25% of the territory, 40% of the arable land and the lion's share of the scarce water resources. Cheek by jowl with these foreign intruders, the majority of the local population lived in abject poverty and unimaginable misery. Eighty per cent of them still subsist on less than $2 a day. The living conditions in the strip remain an affront to civilised values, a powerful precipitant to resistance and a fertile breeding ground for political extremism.
In August 2005 a Likud government headed by Ariel Sharon staged a unilateral Israeli pullout from Gaza, withdrawing all 8,000 settlers and destroying the houses and farms they had left behind. Hamas, the Islamic resistance movement, conducted an effective campaign to drive the Israelis out of Gaza. The withdrawal was a humiliation for the Israeli Defence Forces. To the world, Sharon presented the withdrawal from Gaza as a contribution to peace based on a two-state solution. But in the year after, another 12,000 Israelis settled on the West Bank, further reducing the scope for an independent Palestinian state. Land-grabbing and peace-making are simply incompatible. Israel had a choice and it chose land over peace.
The real purpose behind the move was to redraw unilaterally the borders of Greater Israel by incorporating the main settlement blocs on the West Bank to the state of Israel. Withdrawal from Gaza was thus not a prelude to a peace deal with the Palestinian Authority but a prelude to further Zionist expansion on the West Bank. It was a unilateral Israeli move undertaken in what was seen, mistakenly in my view, as an Israeli national interest. Anchored in a fundamental rejection of the Palestinian national identity, the withdrawal from Gaza was part of a long-term effort to deny the Palestinian people any independent political existence on their land.
Israel's settlers were withdrawn but Israeli soldiers continued to control all access to the Gaza Strip by land, sea and air. Gaza was converted overnight into an open-air prison. From this point on, the Israeli air force enjoyed unrestricted freedom to drop bombs, to make sonic booms by flying low and breaking the sound barrier, and to terrorise the hapless inhabitants of this prison.
Israel likes to portray itself as an island of democracy in a sea of authoritarianism. Yet Israel has never in its entire history done anything to promote democracy on the Arab side and has done a great deal to undermine it. Israel has a long history of secret collaboration with reactionary Arab regimes to suppress Palestinian nationalism. Despite all the handicaps, the Palestinian people succeeded in building the only genuine democracy in the Arab world with the possible exception of Lebanon. In January 2006, free and fair elections for the Legislative Council of the Palestinian Authority brought to power a Hamas-led government. Israel, however, refused to recognise the democratically elected government, claiming that Hamas is purely and simply a terrorist organisation.
America and the EU shamelessly joined Israel in ostracising and demonising the Hamas government and in trying to bring it down by withholding tax revenues and foreign aid. A surreal situation thus developed with a significant part of the international community imposing economic sanctions not against the occupier but against the occupied, not against the oppressor but against the oppressed.
As so often in the tragic history of Palestine, the victims were blamed for their own misfortunes. Israel's propaganda machine persistently purveyed the notion that the Palestinians are terrorists, that they reject coexistence with the Jewish state, that their nationalism is little more than antisemitism, that Hamas is just a bunch of religious fanatics and that Islam is incompatible with democracy. But the simple truth is that the Palestinian people are a normal people with normal aspirations. They are no better but they are no worse than any other national group. What they aspire to, above all, is a piece of land to call their own on which to live in freedom and dignity.
Like other radical movements, Hamas began to moderate its political programme following its rise to power. From the ideological rejectionism of its charter, it began to move towards pragmatic accommodation of a two-state solution. In March 2007, Hamas and Fatah formed a national unity government that was ready to negotiate a long-term ceasefire with Israel. Israel, however, refused to negotiate with a government that included Hamas.
It continued to play the old game of divide and rule between rival Palestinian factions. In the late 1980s, Israel had supported the nascent Hamas in order to weaken Fatah, the secular nationalist movement led by Yasser Arafat. Now Israel began to encourage the corrupt and pliant Fatah leaders to overthrow their religious political rivals and recapture power. Aggressive American neoconservatives participated in the sinister plot to instigate a Palestinian civil war. Their meddling was a major factor in the collapse of the national unity government and in driving Hamas to seize power in Gaza in June 2007 to pre-empt a Fatah coup.
The war unleashed by Israel on Gaza on 27 December was the culmination of a series of clashes and confrontations with the Hamas government. In a broader sense, however, it is a war between Israel and the Palestinian people, because the people had elected the party to power. The declared aim of the war is to weaken Hamas and to intensify the pressure until its leaders agree to a new ceasefire on Israel's terms. The undeclared aim is to ensure that the Palestinians in Gaza are seen by the world simply as a humanitarian problem and thus to derail their struggle for independence and statehood.
The timing of the war was determined by political expediency. A general election is scheduled for 10 February and, in the lead-up to the election, all the main contenders are looking for an opportunity to prove their toughness. The army top brass had been champing at the bit to deliver a crushing blow to Hamas in order to remove the stain left on their reputation by the failure of the war against Hezbollah in Lebanon in July 2006. Israel's cynical leaders could also count on apathy and impotence of the pro-western Arab regimes and on blind support from President Bush in the twilight of his term in the White House. Bush readily obliged by putting all the blame for the crisis on Hamas, vetoing proposals at the UN Security Council for an immediate ceasefire and issuing Israel with a free pass to mount a ground invasion of Gaza.
As always, mighty Israel claims to be the victim of Palestinian aggression but the sheer asymmetry of power between the two sides leaves little room for doubt as to who is the real victim. This is indeed a conflict between David and Goliath but the Biblical image has been inverted - a small and defenceless Palestinian David faces a heavily armed, merciless and overbearing Israeli Goliath. The resort to brute military force is accompanied, as always, by the shrill rhetoric of victimhood and a farrago of self-pity overlaid with self-righteousness. In Hebrew this is known as the syndrome of bokhim ve-yorim, "crying and shooting".
To be sure, Hamas is not an entirely innocent party in this conflict. Denied the fruit of its electoral victory and confronted with an unscrupulous adversary, it has resorted to the weapon of the weak - terror. Militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad kept launching Qassam rocket attacks against Israeli settlements near the border with Gaza until Egypt brokered a six-month ceasefire last June. The damage caused by these primitive rockets is minimal but the psychological impact is immense, prompting the public to demand protection from its government. Under the circumstances, Israel had the right to act in self-defence but its response to the pinpricks of rocket attacks was totally disproportionate. The figures speak for themselves. In the three years after the withdrawal from Gaza, 11 Israelis were killed by rocket fire.
On the other hand, in 2005-7 alone, the IDF killed 1,290 Palestinians in Gaza, including 222 children.
Whatever the numbers, killing civilians is wrong. This rule applies to Israel as much as it does to Hamas, but Israel's entire record is one of unbridled and unremitting brutality towards the inhabitants of Gaza. Israel also maintained the blockade of Gaza after the ceasefire came into force which, in the view of the Hamas leaders, amounted to a violation of the agreement. During the ceasefire, Israel prevented any exports from leaving the strip in clear violation of a 2005 accord, leading to a sharp drop in employment opportunities. Officially, 49.1% of the population is unemployed. At the same time, Israel restricted drastically the number of trucks carrying food, fuel, cooking-gas canisters, spare parts for water and sanitation plants, and medical supplies to Gaza. It is difficult to see how starving and freezing the civilians of Gaza could protect the people on the Israeli side of the border. But even if it did, it would still be immoral, a form of collective punishment that is strictly forbidden by international humanitarian law.
The brutality of Israel's soldiers is fully matched by the mendacity of its spokesmen. Eight months before launching the current war on Gaza, Israel established a National Information Directorate. The core messages of this directorate to the media are that Hamas broke the ceasefire agreements; that Israel's objective is the defence of its population; and that Israel's forces are taking the utmost care not to hurt innocent civilians. Israel's spin doctors have been remarkably successful in getting this message across. But, in essence, their propaganda is a pack of lies.
A wide gap separates the reality of Israel's actions from the rhetoric of its spokesmen. It was not Hamas but the IDF that broke the ceasefire. It di d so by a raid into Gaza on 4 November that killed six Hamas men. Israel's objective is not just the defence of its population but the eventual overthrow of the Hamas government in Gaza by turning the people against their rulers. And far from taking care to spare civilians, Israel is guilty of indiscriminate bombing and of a three-year-old blockade that has brought the inhabitants of Gaza, now 1.5 million, to the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe.
The Biblical injunction of an eye for an eye is savage enough. But Israel's insane offensive against Gaza seems to follow the logic of an eye for an eyelash. After eight days of bombing, with a death toll of more than 400 Palestinians and four Israelis, the gung-ho cabinet ordered a land invasion of Gaza the consequences of which are incalculable.
No amount of military escalation can buy Israel immunity from rocket attacks from the military wing of Hamas. Despite all the death and destruction that Israel has inflicted on them, they kept up their resistance and they kept firing their rockets. This is a movement that glorifies victimhood and martyrdom. There is simply no military solution to the conflict between the two communities. The problem with Israel's concept of security is that it denies even the most elementary security to the other community. The only way for Israel to achieve security is not through shooting but through talks with Hamas, which has repeatedly declared its readiness to negotiate a long-term ceasefire with the Jewish state within its pre-1967 borders for 20, 30, or even 50 years. Israel has rejected this offer for the same reason it spurned the Arab League peace plan of 2002, which is still on the table: it involves concessions and compromises.
This brief review of Israel's record over the past four decades makes it difficult to resist the conclusion that it has become a rogue state with "an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders". A rogue state habitually violates international law, possesses weapons of mass destruction and practises terrorism - the use of violence against civilians for political purposes. Israel fulfils all of these three criteria; the cap fits and it must wear it. Israel's real aim is not peaceful coexistence with its Palestinian neighbours but military domination. It keeps compounding the mistakes of the past with new and more disastrous ones. Politicians, like everyone else, are of course free to repeat the lies and mistakes of the past. But it is not mandatory to do so.
• Avi Shlaim is a professor of international relations at the University of Oxford and the author of The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World and of Lion of Jordan: King Hussein's Life in War and Peace.
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