The IDF is Hungry for War - What Are They Fighting For?
heather on July 17th, 2006Tanya Reinhart in CounterPunch
Whatever may be the fate of the captive soldier Gilad Shalit, the Israeli army’s war in Gaza is not about him. As senior security analyst Alex Fishman widely reported, the army was preparing for an attack months earlier and was constantly pushing for it, with the goal of destroying the Hamas infrastructure and its government.
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The Israeli Action Committee for the Palestinian Prisoners and Detainees
heather on July 14th, 2006The Committee is an Israeli organization, which firmly believes that there can be no peace between Israel and Palestine so long as thousands of Palestinian so-called “security prisoners” and hundreds of administrative detainees continue to be held in Israeli prisons.
Members of the Committee believe that the Palestinian prisoners can and should play a significant role in advancing the peace process and in spreading the message that co-existence in the Middle East is indeed possible – but only if Israeli society pays attention to their hardships and puts an end to the systematic institutional discrimination against them – which exists first at the judicial level, and later on with regard to their imprisonment conditions and parole opportunities.
The committee members have made it their goal to:
• Work to change the existing norm, whereby parole boards routinely deny parole to long-serving Palestinian “security prisoners” after they finish serving two-thirds of their sentence;
• Act towards commuting the sentences of long-serving prisoners, especially those whose cases the government of Israel refuses to even discuss with the Palestinian Authority (e.g., prisoners who hold Israeli citizenship);
• Advance a public discussion within Israeli society regarding the problem of the Palestinian prisoners, raising public awareness to their cause;
• Bring about a change in the incarceration conditions of those classified as “security prisoners,” equating them to those of other prisoners.
In order to advance its activities, the Committee needs some financial support. A large part of the activity is done by volunteers, yet the expenses involved in legal representation demand resources. The Committee’s legal dealings are coordinated by Adv. Michael Sfard of Tel Aviv.
Since the beginning of 2006 Israel has kidnapped almost 2000 people - including members of the Palestinian parliament and government. About 9500 Palestinians are being held in Israeli prisons, 1000 of whom are held as administrative detainees, without trial. The Committee calls upon the international community to demand that Israel immediately releases all elected Palestinian officials and all administrative detainees, and to urge Israel to instigate a program for the gradual release of thousands of other Palestinian prisoners - primarily those 300 who are under the age of 18 and the 60 prisoners who have been incarcerated for 20 years or more.
Please help us achieve the goals we have set for ourselves. Please distribute this appeal as widely as possible, write letters and articles about the problem of the Palestinian prisoners, and also, please help us cover the expenses of our activities.
Donations can be deposited to The First International Bank (031), account number 246980, Zamarot Branch (064), swift code FIRBILIT. Cheques by mail (to the order of The Committee for the Palestinian Prisoners) can be sent to Anat Matar, 33 Bernstein-Cohen St., Ramat Hasharon 47213, Israel.
For further details: Tamar Berger – 972-54-5331484 ; tberger@netvision.net.il ; Sanaa Salame – 972-54-4805040 foadsult@zahav.net.il ; Anat Matar – 972-52-8560001 ; matar@post.tau.ac.il
Aggression Under False Pretenses - By Ismail Haniyeh
heather on July 11th, 2006Ismail Haniyeh is Prime minister of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA)
GAZA, Palestine — As Americans commemorated their annual celebration of independence from colonial occupation, rejoicing in their democratic institutions, we Palestinians were yet again besieged by our occupiers, who destroy our roads and buildings, our power stations and water plants, and who attack our very means of civil administration. Our homes and government offices are shelled, our parliamentarians taken prisoner and threatened with prosecution.
The current Gaza invasion is only the latest effort to destroy the results of fair and free elections held early this year. It is the explosive follow-up to a five-month campaign of economic and diplomatic warfare directed by the United States and Israel.
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My Life in Gaza - By Mona El-Farra
heather on July 11th, 2006THE IRONY IS almost beyond belief. Since the capture of an Israeli soldier on June 25, the Gaza Strip has been subjected to a large-scale military operation, what Israel calls ‘Summer Rain’. Because Israel bombed the power plant, and the area needs electricity to pump water, most of Gaza now has almost no access to drinking water. In the heat of summer, rain would be a blessing far more welcome than the ongoing bombings.
I am already starting to lose track of days and nights, of how many bombs have dropped. Since the main power plant was destroyed, we have had to live with no electricity. What we do get is patchy, and barely enough to recharge our mobile phones and our laptops so that we do not lose all touch with each other and with the outside world.
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Grief for West Bank Town Imprisoned Behind ‘Ring of Steel’
saleh on July 10th, 2006A press release sent to us by a Bristol teacher:
A Bristol teacher, Ed Hill, from Easton, has just received shocking pictures and reports of the suffering of the town he stayed in last autumn in the Occupied West Bank of Palestine. The town, Marda, has now been completely encircled by new security fences built by the Israelis. The only road in and out of the town is through a steel gate, which can be locked shut or guarded by armed soldiers. Ed Hill is publishing the pictures and reports on a new website and is appealing for funds and resources to help the town.
Last November Ed Hill spent two weeks on an Olive Harvest trip in Palestine. The trip was organized by Zaytoun, which is an ethical cooperative, based in Oxford, which imports Palestinian olive oil and other products into the UK. Local contacts were provided by the International Women’s Peace Service IWPS. For two weeks they worked as ‘human shields’ alongside farmers who had been unable to reach their olive groves either because the land was being cut off by construction work on the Separation Wall, or because there was the threat of attack from the Settlers.
In the town of Marda, farmers were losing their fields to the construction of the infamous “Separation Wall” being built between the town and the illegal Israeli settlement of Ariel. Since then, the Israelis have built a second fence, which separates Marda from the main road. The only access in and out of the town is past a steel gate, which can be locked closed and guarded by armed soldiers. At the end of June the gate was locked for more than a day and no vehicles could enter or leave the town. See IWPS Report attached.
During his stay in Marda Ed interviewed local people. People weren’t allowed to go onto the roofs of their houses for fear of snipers from the Israeli settlement. The Israeli army carried out aggressive military patrols through the town, sometimes several times a day or at night. In addition soldiers or settlers might marauder through the town at night firing guns or throwing sound-grenades to intimidate people. Children were unhappy because they were afraid to play out of doors and couldn’t use the tarmac football pitch next to the school. The Mayor reported there was 80% unemployment in the town with many farmers having lost all their land to the building of the settlement, new Settler-only roads, and the Separation Wall. Ed interviewed a young lad of 7 or 8 who had recently been abducted by the army and held for two days and bribed to become an informer. Apparently this happened a frequently.
Ed has been in email contact with people in the town. They’ve asked for computers to set up a Learning & Recreation Centre there. The town is very poor, the local Junior School has just one old computer, and few people have computers of their own at home. A computer center would help the youngsters with their education and will be available to the whole community. Even when the town gets cuts off people can keep in contact with the outside world via the Internet and by using email; this would help hold the community together.
Ed say “The recent Israeli massive attacks on the Gaza strip have been major news item. However, sometimes it’s difficult to relate to issues on such a large scale. To see what is being done to just one town, where I stayed and helped the people only last year, brings home the terrible of injustice of it all. It’s clear the Israelis have a program of ethnic-cleansing throughout the West Bank to remove towns that happen to be too close to their illegal settlements. By gradually strangling the towns with security fences and travel restrictions they hope people will move out. Imagine if this was happening in Bristol? I am determined to do what I can to help Marda and I’m asking the people of Bristol to help.”
Photo Opportunity - Ed Hill is available for a photo-opportunity and interview.
Video footage – Ed has stills and several hours of video footage from Palestine on Mini-DV tape.
CONTACTS
Ed Hill 0117-951-2157 / 07711-214-168 or email edwardhill1@yahoo.co.uk
Photographs of Marda are available at www.BristolComputers4Palestine.co.uk (donations are expected for use of the photographs etc)
UN Warns of Gazans’ Struggle to Survive
heather on July 10th, 2006Conal Urquhart in Gaza City
The Guardian
The population of the Gaza Strip is “struggling to survive” as a result of Israel’s two-week assault, according to the UN, with water and electricity shortages and the breakdown of the sewerage system leading to the pumping of raw sewage into the sea.
“Daily life is a misery. Ordinary people are struggling. We are running around trying to put plasters on everything,” said John Ging, the head of operations of the UN agency which looks after Palestinian refugees. “It’s a dangerous and desperate situation and it’s a myth that there is no humanitarian crisis.”
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Environmental Crises in Gaza
heather on July 5th, 2006PENGON
Palestinian Environmental NGOs Network
During the early hours of 28 June 2006, the Israeli Occupation Force launched a ground offensive in Southern Gaza. As part of the assault, the Israeli Air Force attacked three bridges and the Gaza City power station, cutting power to much of the area.
One of the bridges is that of the Wadi Gaza where, some environmental NGO’s members of PENGON, have implemented solar energy powered lighting project in the area as a mean to promote environmental friendly technology and to reduce pollution from fuel based power generation. Part of the project has been destructed from the strike as well.
The transformer station is also used to help pump water from the water network to apartments in Gaza. As the power has been severed, the water cannot be pumped and Gazans are unable to access water. As a result, some 860,000 residents in Gaza are currently without electricity and running water.
The public health and safety and environmental hazards stemming from the damage caused to infrastructure as a result of this military operation include:
• water shortages
• contamination of any remaining drinking water
• uncontrolled discharge and flow of untreated sewage in the streets, resulting in groundwater pollution
• pollution of agricultural land which Gazans will be unable to cultivate to harvest crops, impacting negatively on their earning power
• damage to marine life as untreated wastewater flows into the sea
• migration of fish to other parts of the coast, resulting in a reduction in the number of fish caught and, concomitantly, money earned by Gazan fishermen
• direct exposure to untreated wastewater in open systems
• indirect human health risks due to the consumption of polluted crops and fish
• an increase in water borne acute and infectious diseases as a result of additional viruses, bacteria and protozoa in the water. These are likely to cause serious illnesses ranging from gastroenteritis and cholera to liver failure and death.
Jan Egeland, the United Nations Undersecretary for Humanitarian Affairs has warned that Gazans are three days away from a deadly humanitarian crisis unless Israel promptly restores fuel and electricity required to pump water. ‘They are heading for the abyss unless they get electricity and fuel restored…there are hundreds of thousands of children who are now without water and electricity…without clean water in the hot summer weather we would see in days a major humanitarian crisis’ he said. Israel’s military action has impacted on innocent civilians, and thus violates international humanitarian law. PENGON calls on the international community to pressure Israel into stopping the assault immediately.
Website: www.pengon.org
Israel’s Bombing of Gaza
heather on July 2nd, 2006Starving in the Dark By Virginia Tilley
On the excuse of rescuing one kidnapped soldier, Israeli is now bombing the Gaza Strip and is poised to re-invade. It has also arrested a third of the Palestinian parliament, wrecking even its fragile illusion of capacity and reducing the already-empty vessel of the Palestinian Authority into broken shards.
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