Voice of Revolution

End the Siege of Gaza Now!
U.S. and Israel Guilty of Crime of Collective Punishment Against Gaza

The U.S. and Israel have intensified their siege of Gaza in Palestine, imposing collective punishment on a civilian population of more than 1.5 million people. The United Nations (UN) and Amnesty International have both said the current conditions facing civilians is a “humanitarian disaster,” and called on Israel to lift the siege. Instead, the Israelis have stopped UN food and medicine shipments and again begun bombing Gaza. Most of the area is also without power as fuel shipments have been blocked.

Voice of Revolution denounces the U.S-backed siege and the criminal collective punishment of the Palestinians. It is the U.S. that is imposing its Might Makes Right everywhere, characterized by collective punishment and state terrorism against the peoples. They carry out their crimes with impunity, and then blame the peoples for them, claiming they are acting in “self-defense.” Defense of what? Americans? Israelis? These crimes are carried out for U.S. empire and cannot be justified. It is necessary to end the U.S-Israeli occupation and respect the right of the Palestinians to be!

President George W. Bush continues to back the siege and occupation. President-elect Barack Obama has been silent on the actions by Israel since November 5 to completely seal the Gaza border and block humanitarian shipments. An indication of where Obama stands on Israel, however, can be seen in his appointment of Rahm Emanual as his chief of staff. Emanual volunteered in the Israeli army in 1991. His father was part of the terrorist organization Irgun in the late 1940s, responsible for massacres of Palestinians. He recently commented to the Israeli press that his son “Obviously will influence the president to be pro-Israel. Why wouldn’t he? What is he an Arab? He’s not going to be mopping floors at the White House.” The Israeli press also said that, “Israel may get even more White House representation than it bargained for,” with the appointment of Emanual. It is also the case that Obama, speaking to the Israeli lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in June, defended Israeli attacks on Palestine in the name of “self defense” and called for a “united Jerusalem” under Israeli dictate. Both stands are contrary to UN resolutions and international law.

The Palestinians have shown that they will not bow down to anyone and are carrying forward their heroic struggle for their rights. Americans stand with the Palestinians and all the world’s people in demanding:

End the Siege of Gaza Now!
End the Occupation Now!
Collective Punishment is a Crime!

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End the Siege Against Gaza Now!

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, calls on all its chapters and members, supporting organizations and individuals to organize demonstrations to demand an end to the siege of the Gaza Strip.

On November 5, Israel completely sealed the Strip’s border crossings after launching an unprovoked attack that killed six Palestinians. Most of the Gaza Strip is without power due to lack of fuel, and the United Nations (UN) has been forced to stop food distribution to those in need.

The humanitarian situation is dire for the people in the Gaza Strip, most importantly the children. The Strip is home to 1.5 million Palestinians, 80 percent of them refugees denied by the Zionist state the right to return to their homes and lands of origin from which they were expelled by the Zionist occupation in 1948.

Action

We appeal to all people:

Speak Out! Organize Street Actions And Protests!
Demand an End to the Siege of Gaza and the Occupation of Palestine!

• Call/Write the Media and Your Congressional Representatives

• Organize Community Meetings And Delegations To Religious Leaders and Educators

• Donate to Help the People In Gaza!

To contact your congressional representatives, go to
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home

To contact the media, go to http://newslink.org

To donate and help the people in the Gaza Strip, go to
http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and simply follow the instructions.

Indicate that your donation is for the Gaza Emergency Fund.

Break the Siege of Gaza Now!
Do Not Delay! Time Is of the Essence!

Palestinian Refugees Right to Return

Al Awda’s mission is to support Palestinian refugees and their right to return to their homes and lands of origin in Palestine:

• The right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and lands is a natural, fundamental, inalienable, legal and historical right.
• The Right to Return is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Law.
• The right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and lands of origin was affirmed by UN General Assembly resolution 194 in 1948, and 135 times since.
• The Right to Return is an individual and collective national right. It cannot be delegated, diminished, reduced or forfeited.

For a factsheet on the Palestinian Right to Return, see http://www.al-awda.org/facts.html

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
PO Box 131352
Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA
Tel: 760-918-9441
Fax: 760-918-9442
E-mail: info@al-awda.org
WWW: http://al-awda.org

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Tour Opposes Apartheid in Palestine

Diana Buttu and Eddie Makue are touring the United States to defend the rights of Palestinians. The tour is entitled “Separate Is Never Equal: Stories of Apartheid from South Africa to Palestine.” The two are traveling the country to share their experiences living under apartheid regimes and their struggles to achieve equality. Buttu is a former legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiations team, and Makue is the General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches. Their two-week tour has events in eleven cities and is sponsored by the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation.

Below is the schedule for tour stops:

Thursday, November 13: Dearborn/Detroit, Michigan— Palestine Office

• 2:30-4pm: Public lecture at University of Michigan-Dearborn, Room 1030 CASL, 4901 Evergreen Rd, Dearborn, MI 48128

• 7-9:00pm: Public dinner and lecture at Byblos Banquet Hall, 7258 Chase St, Dearborn, MI 48126. Tickets are $30 each and can be obtained by emailing the Palestine Office at palestine1948@sbcglobal.net or by calling 313-945-966

Friday, November 14: Milwaukee, Wisconsin — Peace Action Wisconsin

• 12-1:30pm: Featured guests at Soup With Substance luncheon at Marquette University, Alumni Memorial Union, Ballroom D, lunch will be provided - cosponsored by Marquette Arab Student Association, 1442 West Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53201

• 7-9:00pm: Public lecture at University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, Bolton Hall, 3210 N Maryland Ave, Room 150, Milwaukee, WI 53211

Saturday & Sunday, November 15 & 16: Chicago, Illinois — American Friends Service Committee, Great Lakes Region & Committee for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine

• Saturday, November 15: 2:30-4:30pm: Public speaking event at Oak Park public library, 834 Lake Street, Oak Park, IL 60301

• Sunday, November 16: 11-1:30pm: United Methodist Church of Rogers Park, 1545 W. Morse Avenue Chicago, IL 60626 (10 minutes during service, one hour after service)

Monday, November 17: Boulder/Denver, Colorado — Rocky Mountain Peace & Justice Center

7-9:00pm: Public lecture at University of Colorado at Boulder, Humanities 1B50, Pleasant St. and Macky Drive, 1540 30th St, Boulder, CO 80309

Tuesday & Wednesday, November 18 & 19, Los Angeles, California — American Friends Service Committee, Pacific Southwest Region

Tuesday, November 18: 7-9:00pm: Public lecture at California State University at Long Beach, William Link Theater, 1250 N Bellflower Blvd, Long Beach, CA 90840

• Wednesday, November 19: 7-9:00pm: Public lecture at UCLA, Public Affairs Building, Room #1234, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024

Thursday, November 20: Louisville, Kentucky — Louisville Committee for Peace in the Middle East

• 7:30-9:30pm: Public lecture at University of Louisville Chao Auditorium, 2301 S 3rd St, Louisville, KY 40292

Friday, November 21: Atlanta, Georgia — American Friends Service Committee, Southeast Region

• 10-11:00am: Public speaking event at Georgia State University Troy Moore Library in the Department of English, General Classroom Building

• 12- 2:30pm: Public speaking event at Spelman college / Atlanta University Center, followed by a private lunch, Women’s Resource Center, Casey Hall

• 4:30-5:30pm: Wreath-laying ceremony from Martin Luther King, Jr. birthplace to Martin Luther King Jr. Center with a reception following in the evening, 450 Auburn Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30312

Saturday, November 22: Ft. Benning, Georgia — School of the Americas Watch

• Afternoon: School of the Americas Vigil

Sunday, November 23: Sterling, Virginia — Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Sterling

• 1-3:00pm: Public Lecture at Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Sterling, 22135 Davis Dr, Ste 104, Sterling, VA 20164

Monday, November 24: New York City, New York - United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People

• 10-12:00pm: Rev. Makue addresses the United Nations General Assembly in honor of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People - Rev. Makue’s panel begins at 11:15.

• 6-8:00pm: Reception in honor of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People

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Gaza: On Top of Humanitarian Disaster, a News Blackout

Cherrie Heywood, November 18, 2008, Inter Press Service

(Hamas was elected to power in Gaza in internationally recognized elections in January 2007. Since that time, the U.S. and Israel have been attempting to unseat them, imposing the siege of Gaza, including the blockade of food and fuel, to do so. The U.S-backed Israeli occupation forces are now again intensifying the siege, including blocking United Nations delivery of medicine and food and a media blackout in an effort to prevent news of the brutal attacks on the rights of Gazans from reaching the world. — VOR Ed. note)

Israel has imposed a virtual news blackout on the Gaza Strip. For the last ten days no foreign journalists have been able to enter the besieged territory to report on the escalating humanitarian crisis caused by Israel’s complete closure of Gaza’s borders for the last two weeks.

Steve Gutkin, the AP bureau chief in Jerusalem and head of Israel’s Foreign Press Association, said that he personally “knows of no foreign journalist that has been allowed into Gaza in the last week.” Gutkin said that “while Israel has barred foreign press from entering Gaza in the past, the length of the current ban makes it unprecedented.” He added that he has received no “plausible or acceptable” explanation for the ban from the Israeli government. AP has relied on reports from two of its journalists who were able to enter Gaza days before the closure began and are currently stuck there.

Philip Luther, deputy director of Amnesty International’s Middle East program, said that Israel’s latest tightening of the blockade had “made an already dire humanitarian situation markedly worse. This is nothing short of collective punishment on Gaza’s civilian population, and it must stop immediately.”

A delegation of European Union (EU) parliamentarians was also prevented from entering Gaza to assess the situation on the ground and to hold talks with Hamas leaders. They subsequently broke the naval siege of Gaza by entering the coast’s territorial waters from Cyprus by boat, defying the Israeli navy.

During talks held with Hamas, the EU parliamentarians were able to get a historic commitment from the Islamic organization to recognize Israel’s right to exist within the internationally recognized 1967 borders. Hamas further offered a long-term ceasefire in return for Israel legitimizing Palestinian rights.

Israel also prevented 20 European Union consul-generals from entering Gaza on Thursday. On Sunday Israeli border police prevented 15 trucks loaded with medication from entering the Gaza Strip.

EU commissioner for external relations and European neighborhood policy, Bentita Ferrero-Waldner, has expressed strong reservations. “I am profoundly concerned about the consequences for the Gazan population of the complete closure of all Gaza crossings for deliveries of fuel and basic humanitarian assistance,” Ferrero-Waldner said in a statement Friday.

Karen AbuZayd, head of the United Nation’s Relief and Welfare Agency (UNRWA) which cares for Palestinian refugees, added that it was unusual for Israel not to let basic food and medicines in. “This has alarmed us more than usual because it’s never been quite so long and so bad, and there has never been so much negative response on what we need,” she said.

On November 4 the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) launched a cross-border raid into Gaza, breaking a shaky five-month ceasefire with Hamas. The purpose was ostensibly to destroy a tunnel built by Palestinians allegedly to smuggle captured Israeli soldiers. More than 20 Palestinians were killed in Israeli raids. Two Israelis were lightly injured in the subsequent rocket attacks by Palestinians defending Gaza.

The timing of Israel’s breach of the ceasefire is curious in that hundreds of these smuggling tunnels have existed ever since Hamas took over the strip in June last year. They have been used to smuggle everyday necessities as well as arms because the territory is hermetically sealed by Israel.

John Ging, director of UNRWA in Gaza, who has lived there for the past three years, questioned the alleged security reasoning behind the closure. Since the ceasefire went into place this summer, Ging said, fewer supplies have passed through the crossing than in the beginning of 2006, when the western Negev in Israel suffered incessant rocket fire from Gaza.

At that time the Palestinian Authority (PA), which is supported by Israel and the international community, was ruling Gaza in a unity government with Hamas.

“Last week we were unable to feed 60,000 of Gaza’s neediest refugees due to our warehouses running out of food. UNRWA supplies half of Gaza’s population of 1.5 million people with emergency rations, and 20,000 people are fed per day when there are adequate supplies,” Ging told IPS.

Seventy percent of Gaza experienced electricity blackouts after Israel prevented deliveries of diesel fuel, forcing Gaza’s main power plant to close down. “The Israelis were only allowing 580,000 - 660,000 gallons of fuel in per week prior to the closure, which was the minimum required to operate the power plant. The plant has a capacity for 5.3 million gallons and this would last two months under normal circumstances and tide over emergency periods. But this has all run out,” Ging said.

Kan’an Ubeid, deputy chief of the Palestinian Energy Authority, said at a press conference in Gaza that in addition to the shutdown of the diesel-fuelled power plant, the electric network bringing in power from Israel collapsed due to increased pressure on the system.

Gazans also ran out of cooking gas while Gaza’s Coastal Municipalities Water Utility (CMWU) was forced to pump tons of untreated sewage into the ocean due to fuel shortages and the lack of spare parts for equipment in need of repairs and new parts. Much of this will flow back into Gaza’s underground water table, and the threat of contaminated drinking water spreading diseases has increased.

Meanwhile, the emergency and ambulance services director-general, Mu’awiyya Hassanein, says Gaza’s health ministry is short of more than 300 types of necessary medication. Sammy Hassan, a spokesman from Gaza city’s main Shifa hospital said only urgent surgery was being carried out. “We have delayed all non-urgent surgery as our small generator has stopped working, as we can not import a vital spare part.

“We are down to 8,000 gallons of fuel left to run the larger generator which is used when electricity is cut. Under the current circumstances with no electricity we require 2,600 gallons per day,” Hassan told IPS.

Following international pressure and protests from the EU, Israel allowed 30 trucks of humanitarian aid to enter the strip November 17. “It will last a matter of days,” said UNRWA spokesman Christopher Gunness. “But then what?”

Oxfam’s spokesman in Jerusalem Michael Bailey, who coordinates a number of humanitarian projects in Gaza, said this response was entirely inadequate. “Thirty trucks of aid after a closure of 10 days are insufficient. What we need is a complete revision of the embargo on Gaza. Dialogue with the relevant political leaders is the only way forward,” Bailey told IPS.

“Both Israel and Gaza’s other neighbors need to put the human rights and essential needs of Gazans above all considerations if there is to be a way out of this quagmire.”

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Afghan President Calls for Withdrawal Timeline

U.S. Announces Plans to Send 17,500 More Troops to Afghanistan

The U.S. government has announced plans to send five more battalions, about 17,500 troops, into Afghanistan. At least one battalion is to arrive by early next year and three more not long after. A fifth battalion will likely be sent later in 2009. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in making the announcement said the troops are to provide security for Afghanistan’s elections. “One of our most important and maybe the most important objective for us in 2009 in Afghanistan is a successful election.” There is a debate currently underway to whether to have the elections in the spring, or sometime in the fall of 2009. The Afghan Constitution calls for elections 30-60 days before April 22, when Karzai’s current term ends. The Independent Election Commission called for delaying the vote until the fall, a move also favored by the U.S.

Gates made the announcement together with Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay while in Canada. Defense ministers from eight countries, all with troops in Afghanistan, met in Canada November 21. Those present included the U.S., Britain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Estonia and Romania — all NATO members — as well as Australia.

NATO has close to 53,000 troops serving in Afghanistan. About 16,000 U.S. soldiers serve as part of the NATO force. Another 18,000 American troops operate under the U.S. military’s Central Command. The U.S. recently deployed an additional 3,000 Marines to Afghanistan. The planned deployment of five more brigades would bring U.S. troop forces alone to about 54,500.

The U.S. troop increase also corresponds with a campaign pledge made by President-elect Barack Obama to expand the war in Afghanistan. Obama recently reiterated that he will focus on Afghanistan. In addition to sending more U.S. troops, he plans to call on other NATO countries to also send more troops. Reflecting the difficulties government’s in all eight countries are facing from broad opposition to the war, Canada’s MacKay said Obama should use “the enormous amount of goodwill that has been engendered” by his election to call on countries other than the eight to send their troops. “There are other NATO doors that president-elect Obama should be knocking on first,” MacKay said. Canada, like others present, will continue participating in the U.S.-NATO occupation.

Afghan President Demands Withdrawal Timeline

Within days of the U.S. announcement, Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai demanded a timeline for complete withdrawal of all troops and an end to foreign military intervention in Afghanistan. He spoke with a delegation representing the 15 countries of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) involved in a weeklong fact-finding mission in Afghanistan. UN officials say a review of the humanitarian situation and status of international pledges to rebuilding Afghanistan will take place.

Karzai was elected president of Afghanistan in 2004 with the backing of President George W. Bush. He is expected to run again in 2009. He had earlier worked with the CIA in the 1980’s as part of CIA-backed forces opposing the occupation by the then Soviet Union.

In his meeting with the UNSC, Karzai condemned the mounting civilian casualties caused by U.S.-led airstrikes. These have included bombing and killing families participating in weddings. Karzai called for a halt to NATO raids on Afghan villages. Speaking to a withdrawal deadline he said, “If there is no deadline, we have the right to find another solution for peace and security, which is negotiations,” with the Taliban and other Afghan forces. “We will do everything we can to provide the opportunity for peace,” he said. Defending plans to negotiate with Taliban leader Mullah Omar, he said that if Omar “accepts the Afghan Constitution and steps forward and declares that he wants peace for Afghanistan and in Afghanistan, and he comes forward to seek residence,” then Karzai “will give him protection at any cost.”

President-elect Obama will thus be contending with the growing opposition to the occupation of Afghanistan inside the country as well as the demand by Americans and peoples worldwide to end the war now.

All U.S. Troops Home Now!
Dismantle NATO!