Discussion on Where Obama is Headed
• Oppose U.S.-Israeli Crimes in Gaza! Resolutely Defend the Rights of Palestinians!
Stop Funding U.S.-Israeli Genocide!
• Palestinians in Israel Declare Strike, Call for Boycott
• Lebanon's Nasrallah Condemns Israeli Assault
• Vicious Folly of a Bankrupt Government
• U.S.-Israeli War Crime of Targeting Civilian Infrastructure Professor Abdelwahed, Gaza
• “Fight for Justice and Peoples’ Rights”
• Israeli Navy Rams Civilian Ship Bringing Medicine and Humanitarian Aid to Gaza
Oppose U.S.-Israeli Crimes in Gaza!
Resolutely Defend the Rights of Palestinians!
Stop Funding U.S.-Israeli Genocide!
The Lackawanna Discussion Group Commission on Rights (LDG-COR) calls on everyone to join in a national day of action to oppose the recent massacre in Gaza and increased violence against Palestinians carried out by the U.S. and Israel. On December 27, more than 200 Palestinians were killed and more than 600 hundred were wounded when F-16s and Apache helicopters, provided by the U.S., rained down bombs on the people of Gaza. The brutal bombing campaign took place against civilians at a time when Palestinian children were in the streets on their way home from school. Reports state that the U.S.-backed Israeli Occupation Force destroyed every security station in Gaza and that Israel plans to continue and widen military action against Palestinians. A second day of bombings took place December 28.
The situation in Gaza has already been widely condemned as a deliberate humanitarian crisis. The U.S.-Israeli imposed siege on the city has led to collective punishment of the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza. People consistently are forced to go without lights and water, with hospitals and businesses forced to close and starvation being imposed on all.
The U.S. government has stated that Hamas must stop firing rockets in order to end the violence, which clearly turns the truth on its head. U.S.-Israeli state terrorism carried out under illegal occupation of Palestinian land is the source of the violence. We will not allow the victims to be blamed for the crimes of the aggressors!
The U.S. plans to provide $30 billion in military funding alone to Israel in the next ten years. We say NO!Stop funding U.S.-Israeli genocide! We call on all to reject the criminal U.S. support of Israel and stand with the Palestinians and peoples worldwide to salute resistance in Palestine and defend the right of return.
Let Buffalo be part of the national day of action to defend the heroic Palestinian struggle! Come take a stand in solidarity with the Palestinians, with those across the U.S. and worldwide who persist in their fight for rights, standing against the massacres, aggression, deprivation, theft and oppression! Bring your signs and banners. Join in! Come to Elmwood Ave & Bidwell Pkwy at 4:30pm on Tuesday, Dec. 30. For more information contact LDG-COR at ldgcor@gmail.com
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Palestinians in Israel Declare Strike, Call for Boycott
In the presence of all national alliances, an urgent meeting for the Follow up Committee was held today declaring Sunday 28 December 2008 a general strike in protest of the Israeli massacres committed against Palestinians in Gaza. The meeting called for the organization of demonstrations and marches in every Arab town in al-Naqab [Negev], the Triangle, the Galilee areas and coastal towns as a symbol of the rage and severe grief of the Palestinian nation upon the loss of hundreds of its citizens in Gaza.
It was decided that the High Follow Up Committee remains on alert to hold further meetings to take steps in resistance and to stop the consistent aggression and break the siege on Gaza including the opening of all border crossings especially that of Rafah.
The following political message stemmed from the meeting:
Considering the Israeli aggression against Palestinians in Gaza an assault against Palestinian People everywhere and our duty is to resist it and break the siege.
Recognizing Israel and its political and security forces as a criminal state committing acts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity against our people in the Gaza Strip. This with the assurance that the current Israeli parliamentary election campaign is fueled by the Palestinian bloodshed.
Saluting the determination and will of Palestinian people in the face of the aggressive Israeli scheme to break their steadfastness and human dignity.
Condemning the international complicity with the official Israeli aggression, and considering its silence and complicity as partnership in the crime, the meeting also stressed the absolute rejection of holding the Palestinian people or the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) responsible for the situation while exempting Israel from its total responsibility.
Calling upon the international community to take its legal and moral responsibility, to sanction Israel and boycott it as a state that pursues terrorism, war crimes and crimes against humanity with premeditation.
Condemning Arab Official complicity used by Israel to cover for its predefined aggression and condemning the general Arab weakness and calling them to shut down their embassies in Israel and boycott it. We call upon Egypt to open all crossings with Gaza and break its siege.
Condemning the complying Arab and Official political voices which held the Palestinian leadership in Gaza responsible for the Israeli aggression and calling the head of the Palestinian National Authority to immediately stop the negotiations with Israel used to further fuel the Palestinian split in the West Bank and in Gaza.
Assuring the call for national Palestinian unity and its total support of the Palestinian struggle and resistance in the face of Israeli aggression.
Paying tribute to the heroic steadfastness of our people and supporters in the Arab world and elsewhere and the masses in the homeland that stood in the face of the bloody aggression and supported the steadfastness in Gaza.
Calling on the masses of our people to exercise the highest degree of readiness to contribute, on individual and collective levels, in the national relief campaign, which includes the donation of medical supplies, food and blood donation in support of Gaza and in contribution to the breaking of the siege.
Calling on the masses of our people and supporters in the world to share the worry and to have more readiness to escalate the struggle in order to defeat the Israeli aggression and provide protection for our heroic Palestinian nation.
The Higher Follow Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel is the highest representative body of the 1.5 million Palestinian citizens of Israel. It includes all Palestinian members of the Israeli Knesset (parliament) as well as elected mayors and local officials.
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Lebanon's Nasrallah Condemns Israeli Assault
Hizbullah secretary general Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah led a chorus of Lebanese condemnations of a massive U.S. backed Israeli air campaign on the blockaded Gaza Strip over the weekend that killed at least 296 Palestinians and wounded hundreds more. The Israel-U.S. alliance was trying to impose a "humiliating" settlement on Lebanon, Syria and Palestine, Nasrallah told thousands of people rallying in Beirut's southern suburbs.
After condemning the U.S. and Israel Nasrallah also urged "the Egyptian regime to open the Rafah crossing so that aid can flow into Gaza and help Gazans in their struggle.” The Hizbullah leader urged all Arabs to protest the Israeli military strikes. All Arabs states should help Gazans to remain steadfast in the face of Israel, he said, because "Israel cannot manage wars of attrition." Lebanon has to remain vigilant of a possible Israeli attack, Nasrallah added, calling for a mass rally at 3 p.m. on Monday, December 29 in Beirut's southern suburbs.
Israel launched what it referred to as "calculated" air strikes against Hamas on December 27, just days after a six-month cease-fire with the Palestinian resistance groups expired.
Also on Sunday, Lebanese Speaker Nabih Berri met with representatives from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Hamas in an act of solidarity and issued a statement calling for Arab parliamentary speakers to "hold an emergency meeting in South Lebanon to discuss developments in Gaza." Berri had earlier expressed his condemnation for Israel's "massacres," denouncing the latest in "persistent Israeli crimes against our Palestinian brethren."
Berri also phoned Arab and international speakers to press for a cease-fire in Gaza, said the National News Agency, as reports emerged that the Arab League would delay until December 31 an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers to unify their positions on the Israeli attacks. The meeting had originally been slated for Sunday.
Premier Fouad Siniora meanwhile issued a statement addressed to United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon in which he called the Israeli onslaught a "criminal operation" and referred to Palestinians killed as the victims of "new massacres to be added to [Israel's] full record of massacres." He called for immediate UN action to end the Israeli offensive.
President Michel Sleiman also issued a statement Saturday in which he "strongly condemned the monstrous attacks in Gaza" and urged Arab nations to "take a unified stand" on the crisis.
Popular outrage at the Israeli air strikes spilled onto the streets of Lebanon Sunday. In Beirut's southern suburbs, hundreds marched in solidarity with the Gazans and called for an end to Israeli air strikes. The largest demonstration took place in Lebanon's largest refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh, on the outskirts of Sidon, where some 4,000 people protested.
Earlier in the day, Hamas representative Osama Hamdan spoke to a crowd of 1,000 gathered outside the UN offices in Beirut. Protesters held high Palestinian, Lebanese and the green flags of Hamas. Hamdan said Hamas has no choice but to continue its fight against Israel. "We in the Hamas group and other resistance forces in Gaza know we do not have many alternatives. We have one alternative which is to be steadfast and resist and we will be victorious," he said.
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Vicious Folly of a Bankrupt Government
The war in Gaza, the bloodshed, killing, destruction and suffering on both sides of the border, are the vicious folly of a bankrupt government. A government which let itself be dragged by adventurous officers and cheap nationalist demagoguery, dragged into a destructive and unnecessary war which will bring no solution to any problem – neither to the communities of southern Israel under the rain of missiles nor to the terrible poverty and suffering of besieged Gaza. On the day after the war the same problems will remain – with the addition of many bereaved families, wounded people crippled for life, and piles of rubble and destruction.
The escalation towards war could and should have been avoided. It was the State of Israel which broke the truce, in the 'ticking tunnel' raid on the night of the US elections two months ago. Since then the army went on stoking the fires of escalation with calculated raids and killings, whenever the shooting of missiles on Israel decreased.
The cycle of bloodshed could and should be broken. The ceasefire can be restored immediately, and on firmer foundations. It is the right of Israel to demand a complete end to shooting on its territory and citizens – but it must stop all attacks from its side, end completely the siege and starvation of Gaza's million and half inhabitants, and stop interfering with the Palestinians' right to choose their own leaders.
Ehud Barak's declaration that he is stopping the elections campaign in order to concentrate on the Gaza offensive is a joke. The war in Gaza is itself Barak's elections campaign, a cynical attempt to buy votes with the blood and suffering in Netivot and Sderot, Gaza and Beit Hanun.
Contact: Adam Keller, Gush Shalom Spokesperson, adam@gush-shalom.org. Gosh Shalom is an anti-war organization in Israel, www.gush-shalom.org
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U.S.-Israeli War Crime of Targeting Civilian Infrastructure
Last night Israeli aircrafts targeted more than 20 places in Gaza City, let alone other areas. Let me tell you what I know from those bombings:
1) Two hospitals were targeted. Fata hospital is still new and had not opened yet but was hit from the air and another smaller private hospital, Al-Weaam in Tel el-Hawwa, was bombed as well.
2) Two major buildings were leveled to the ground at the Islamic University of Gaza. One building was a main location for scientific laboratories and the other was mainly classrooms. Each building was 4 floors high and a basement.
3) Two mosques were leveled to the ground by air raids. 10 people died inside, among them were five daughters of Anwar Balousha. They likely took refuge in the mosque as their home was unsafe. So far, six mosques have been demolished.
4) The main building of the Civil Administration has been totally demolished.
5) The building of the Ministry of Culture was leveled to the ground.
6) A building of the Passport Department at the Ministry of Interior was destroyed.
7) A building for the Prime Minster's office was totally demolished in an air raid.
8) A home next to the home of Ismael Haniyeh [a leader of the resistance and government official] at the Beach refugee camp was leveled to the ground by attack from air and sea simultaneously.
9) Several police stations were hit again and the Beach Camp police station was totally destroyed.
10) The UN’s Jabalia Youth Sports Center (of the United Nation’s Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. UNRWA ) was hit directly from the air.
11) Biet Hanoun municipality building was destroyed.
12) A Rafah government building was demolished.
13) The Rafah municipality building was bombed.
14) Hashash neighborhood in Rafah has been attacked twice. Each time with two missiles. The second hit demolished 15 adjacent homes. Many people died in the attack.
15) A playground in Zaitoun neighborhood was hit by a missile.
16) A moving vehicle was targeted and destroyed killing two men and a child in Zaitoun neighborhood.
17) Two sisters returning home from high school died together from a bombing.
18) A third attack on my neighbor, a former member of the preventive security department. One missile did not explode and fell in front of my apartment building just yards from the ambulance station.
19) Israeli aircraft targeted 40 tunnels at the Rafah border destroying all of them. The tunnels are used to get food and medicine into Gaza in the face of the siege.
20) Journalists and reporters were officially informed by Israel to stay in their places and offices otherwise they will be targeted. This is to stop media coverage of what is taking place in Gaza.
Professor Abdelwahed
Department of English
Faculty of Arts & Humanities
Al-Azhar University of Gaza
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Report from Occupied Palestine
“Fight for Justice and Peoples’ Rights”
It has not been possible to sleep here for two nights now. The events and the images of death and carnage of children, of policemen, of people that look like my mother and my son and my sister and my friends were simply too much. Gaza has run out of stretchers and many are now carried to hospitals (which are running out of supplies) and morgues on commercial street signs, in blankets or simply by their limp limbs. Three mosques were destroyed. I recalled the Israeli attacks on the Church of Nativity, which was minor compared to this. I was watching Israel shell the University in Gaza city including its faculty of science and a residence dorm for female students and was thinking of my university and my lab and office at Bethlehem University.
I was then shocked into more horrific scenes and news. In one house five young sisters killed. In another six family members including four children killed while eating breakfast. In a scene that haunted me where four children were killed with their mother, I saw rescue workers try frantically to pull the remaining surviving girl whose legs were crushed under a huge boulder from the roof. As some of them were calming her down and working hard, just next to them other workers pulled the dead body of her sister (looked like 3-4 years old). They quickly covered her but I think her sister noticed. Sometimes the dead are envied for their suffering has ended. Her suffering is just beginning. I thought of all the thousands of relatives of all the victims and how they feel...I thought of friends I lost and talks with people in Gaza...I thought of my mother who at 76 has seen so much suffering and still she cried at the new images of new atrocities…
My heart aches and struggles with my scientist brain. The latter wants to focus on facts and figures. The attack in its second day was in the words of Israeli leaders “the beginning” and is intended “to send Gaza back decades.” So far more than 300 were killed and more than 1000 injured (200 of those critically), at least 35 percent women, children and elderly. I examine numbers of homes, police stations, civil society buildings destroyed. I read the Al Mezan Center for human rights which rationally states that most Gaza victims are civilians. But even my rational mind refuses to deal with these things. How could it handle just that one image of the young girl’s anguished pained look under the rubble of her house and so tears stream down again to try to wash the image, to no avail…..How could my mind examine rationally the statements of “leaders” saying this carnage is not the fault of the bombers and war criminals, but of Hamas!
Protests were organized around the world and more are being planned. The demonstrations helped vent some frustration and we hope will herald a reawakening of the heart of humanity that has been sputtering. But we hope it will go much farther to changing the rotted system of elites in power ignoring people’s rights for political expediency and for profit.
In the Bethlehem demonstration, we pounded on the permanently closed gate of the apartheid wall with deafening sound and the soldiers in the tower started to throw stun grenades and tear gas. Injuries were sustained for activists....Our lungs still ache but our hearts ache more for the criminality of the apartheid regime, and the collaboration of the world governments. The Israeli occupation army killed two protesters with live ammunition in other parts of the West Bank.
Can someone ask western media or the Western governments ruled by elite racists who keep spouting the nonsense about "Hamas" and "rockets" (projectiles that are militarily of little use and have no explosives, killed one person this year), why targeting civilian police stations, mosques, homes with children, ports, fishing vessels, streets, and more in one of the most densely populated areas on earth murdering hundreds of civilians would be an acceptable action (I do not say response because Israel was killing people and massacring them for 60 years before)? And what do they expect a starving 1.5 million people to do? Especially when one million of those are refugees or displaced people denied their right to return to their homes and lands for 60 years while settlers live across the borders on their lands in areas like “Sderot” and “Netviot”? Would they not expect some resistance? Is not the right of occupied people to resist including violently codified in International law (note that I personally support other forms of resistance). Even if one buys the U.S./Israeli government propaganda, would it be acceptable to bomb cities in Europe and the U.S. for any perceived or actual crime of a portion of their society or even their leaders (Bush and Blair in Iraq)?
But again I think it is not best for me to try and reason things through in such times of calamities and little sleep. I got so many letters of support but please redirect your letters and energies elsewhere. Redirect them to challenge the injustice directly.
It is thus the time when people who claim they want peace and justice to stop talking about it and actually work for it. It is time for real change...It is time for a world Intifada (uprising against injustice). It is time to do something concrete (like throwing our shoes at someone?)
Below are a press release from human rights organizations in Palestine (please circulate to media and politicians) and a letter from a friend worth reading.
Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
In Bethlehem, Occupied Palestine
www.qumsiyeh.org
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Cynthia McKinney Part of International Delegation
Israeli Navy Rams Civilian Ship Bringing Medicine and Humanitarian Aid to Gaza
The Dignity, a Free Gaza ship bringing medical and humanitarian aid to besieged Gaza, was attacked by the Israeli Navy in international waters on December 29. The Dignity had been followed by the Israelis and then was rammed without warning. After damaging the ship, the Israelis sent a message to the ship’s captain saying it had attacked because the Dignity was “engaging in terrorist activities.” In an illegal action contrary to international maritime law, the Israelis are actively preventing the Dignity from approaching Gaza or finding safe haven in either Egypt or Lebanon. Instead, the Israelis demanded that the Dignity return to Cyprus, despite the fact that the ship does not carry enough fuel to do so. Those in contact with the Dignity also report hearing heavy gunfire, before losing all contact. Reports also indicate that so far, no one aboard the ship has been seriously injured.
The Dignity departed from Larnaca Port in Cyprus at on Monday, December 29, bound for Gaza with a cargo of more than three tons of medical supplies donated by the people of Cyprus. At the request of the Dignity crew, the ship was searched by Cypriot Port authorities prior to departure, to certify that there was nothing "threatening" aboard, only emergency medical supplies.
There are 15 civilian passengers from 11 different countries representing an international brigade opposed to the Gaza siege and taking action to bring medicine and supplies. Many are human rights activists. Participants also include doctors and surgeons to assist Gazans in the face of the massive Israeli bombing (see below for a complete list). Reporters from Al-Jazeera and CNN are also on board.
Activists organizing the trip are calling on all concerned to make calls to the U.S. and Israeli governments and demand that it stop the attack on the Dignity and ensure safe passage to Gaza.
Civilians aboard the Dignity being threatened by the Israeli military:
(Britain) Denis Healey, Captain
Denis Healey, Captain of the Dignity, is making his fourth trip to Gaza. Denis has been involved with boats for 45 years, beginning with small fishing boats in Portsmouth. He learned to sail while at school and has been part of the sea ever since. He's a certified yacht master and has also worked on heavy marine equipment from yachts to large dredgers.
(Greece) Nikolas Bolos, First Mate
Nikolas Bolos is a chemical engineer and human rights activist. He has served as a crewmember on several Free Gaza voyages, including the first one in August.
(Jordan) Othman Abu Falah
Othman Abu Falah is a senior producer with Al-Jazeera Television. He will remain in Gaza to report on the ongoing military onslaught.
(Australia) Renee Bowyer
Renee Bowyer is a schoolteacher and human rights activist. She will remain in Gaza to do human rights monitoring and reporting.
(Ireland) Caoimhe Butterly
Caoimhe Butterly is a human rights activist and Gaza Coordinator for the Free Gaza Movement. She will be remaining in Gaza to do human rights monitoring, assist with relief efforts, and work on project development with Free Gaza.
(Cyprus) Ekaterini Christodulou
Ekaterini Christodulou is a well-known freelance journalist in Cyprus. She is traveling to Gaza to report on the conflict.
(Sudan) Sami El-Haj
Sami El-Haj is a former detainee at Guantánamo Bay, and head of the human rights section at Al-Jazeera Television. He will remain in Gaza to report on the ongoing military onslaught.
(Britain) Dr. David Halpin
Dr. Halpin is an experienced orthopedic surgeon, medical professor, and ship's captain. He has organized humanitarian relief efforts in Gaza on several occasions with the Dove and Dolphin. He is traveling to Gaza to volunteer in hospitals and clinics.
(Germany) Dr. Mohamed Issa
Dr. Issa is a pediatric surgeon from Germany. He is traveling to Gaza to volunteer in hospitals and clinics.
(Britain/Tunisia) Fathi Jaouadi
Fathi Jaouadi is a television producer and human rights activist. He will remain in Gaza to do human rights monitoring and reporting.
(USA) Cynthia McKinney
Cynthia McKinney is a former U.S. Congresswoman from Georgia, and the 2008 Green Party presidential candidate. She is traveling to Gaza to assess the ongoing conflict.
(Cyprus) Martha Paisi
Martha Paisi is a senior research fellow and experienced human rights activist. She is traveling to Gaza to do human rights work and to assist with humanitarian relief efforts.
(Britain) Karl Penhaul
Karl Penhaul is a video correspondent for CNN, based out of Bogotá, Colombia. Appointed to this position in February 2004, he covers breaking news around the world utilizing CNN's new laptop-based 'Digital Newsgathering' system. He is traveling to Gaza to report on the ongoing conflict.
(Iraq) Thaer Shaker
Thaer Shaker is a cameraman with Al-Jazeera television. He will remain in Gaza to report on the ongoing military onslaught.
(Cyprus) Dr. Elena Theoharous, MP
Dr. Theoharous is a surgeon and a Member of the Cypriot Parliament. She is traveling to Gaza to assess the ongoing conflict, assist with humanitarian relief efforts, and volunteer in hospitals.