Palestine

Israeli soldiers say army rabbis framed Gaza as religious war
By Cliff Churgin | McClatchy Newspapers

Rabbis affiliated with the Israeli army urged troops heading into Gaza to reclaim what they said was God-given land and "get rid of the gentiles" — effectively turning the 22-day Israeli intervention into a religious war, according to the testimony of a soldier who fought in Gaza.

Literature passed out to soldiers by the army's rabbinate "had a clear message — we are the people of Israel, we came by a miracle to the land of Israel, God returned us to the land, now we need to struggle to get rid of the gentiles that are interfering with our conquest of the land," the soldier told a forum of Gaza veterans in mid-February, just weeks after the conflict ended.

Israeli soldiers admit to deliberate killing of Gaza civilians
James Hider | Times Online

The Israeli army has been forced to open an investigation into the conduct of its troops in Gaza after damning testimony from its own front line soldiers revealed the killing of civilians and rules of engagement so lax that one combatant said that they amounted on occasion to “cold-blooded murder”.

The revelations, compiled by the head of an Israel military academy who declared that he was “shocked” at the findings, come as international rights groups are calling for independent inquiries into the conduct of both sides in the three-week Israeli offensive against Palestinian Islamists.

Israel's dirty secrets in Gaza
By Donald Macintyre | Independent UK

Israel was last night confronting a major challenge over the conduct of its 22-day military offensive in Gaza after testimonies by its own soldiers revealed that troops were allowed and, in some cases, even ordered to shoot unarmed Palestinian civilians.

The testimonies – the first of their kind to emerge from inside the military – are at marked variance with official claims that the military made strenuous efforts to avoid civilian casualties and tend to corroborate Palestinian accusations that troops used indiscriminate and disproportionate firepower in civilian areas during the operation. In one of the testimonies shedding harsh new light on what the soldiers say were the permissive rules of engagement for Operation Cast Lead, one soldier describes how an officer ordered the shooting of an elderly woman 100 metres from a house commandeered by troops.

Israel investigates army's conduct in Gaza | UPI

Israeli military officials Thursday announced an investigation into charges of misconduct by troops involved in the 22-day incursion into Gaza.

The military police has been ordered to look into allegations from soldiers involved in Operation Cast Lead, which began in December and lasted in January, that other troops shot at unarmed civilians, vandalized property and otherwise strayed from strict rules of engagement.

Israel News said an Israeli military spokesman assured that the investigation was being taken seriously and that individual unit commanders were being encouraged to speak candidly about the conduct of soldiers involved in the operation.

Rachel Corrie's Father in Gaza
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGYKAbPXkh8

America Funded Murder on the Beach in Gaza
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8xiHFfErWc

Traditional Dancing in Palestine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqGN95TwEUw

Palestinian Breakdancer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGE7DL4sXcM

Yummy pies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KrkVD8YVgk

Zionist Gunboat Threatens Gazan Fishermen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XU6CY1h02rA

Viva Palestina!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5bEzK_yr1Y

Message from Gaza to world: WE ARE NOT BROKEN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4fMGW8y3Qs

Ann Wright’s March 9, 2009 interview on Grit-TV on International Women’s Day in Gaza
http://lauraflanders.firedoglake.com/2009/03/09/feminism-today-ann-wrigh...

Ann Wright’s article “With The Women of Gaza On International Women’s Day: We Will Not Be Silent!
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/09-1

Ann Wright’s February 9 interview on Gaza on Grit TV Israel’s Crimes http://lauraflanders.firedoglake.com/2009/02/10/israels-crimes/

Ann Wright’s article “The Israeli Smashing of Gaza and International Silence”
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/02/13-7

Ann’s article “Under Siege Again, But Gaza Will Not Die”
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/02/11-11

Ann’s article “Can Gaza Be Rebuilt Through Tunnels?”
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/02/24

Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice
www.rachelcorriefoundation.org
(360) 754-3998
info@rachelcorriefoundation.org

We thank all who continue to remember Rachel and who, on this sixth anniversary of her stand in Gaza, renew their own commitments to human rights, justice and peace in the Middle East. The tributes and actions in her memory are a source of inspiration to us and to others.

New Bin Laden Recording Condemns Gaza Strikes
by Peter Kenyon | NPR

A newly-released recording of Osama bin Laden compared Israel's January military strikes in Gaza to the Nazi Holocaust and renewed the al-Qaida leader's condemnation of Arab states for, in his view, failing to support the Palestinians.

A brief audio recording of bin Laden was aired by the Al-Jazeera satellite channel. Its authenticity could not be immediately verified. It refers to the Israeli military operation in Gaza in December and January, and charges that Arab states were, in bin Laden's words, "complicit with the crusader-Zionist alliance against our people."

Aid convoy enters Gaza Strip | alJazeera

A British convoy carrying medical relief for the impoverished residents of the Gaza Strip has crossed into the territory from Egypt.

Gazans cheered and waved Palestinian flags as the convoy finally entered the territory through the Rafah border crossing on Monday, after being stranded on the Egyptian side of the border for two days.

"The group was stopped at the border for various reasons, there were various negotiations going on over what would be let through the border; how many people, how much humanitarian aid," Al Jazeera's Todd Baer, reporting from the Rafah crossing, said.

"After an 8,000km journey, nearly one month on the road and a day and a half on the Egyptitan side of the Rafah border, the Lifeline for Gaza convoy finally made it into the Gaza Strip. It was a remarkable scene."

Israel's War Crimes
Israel blamed its earlier wars on the threat to its security, even that against Lebanon in 1982. However, its assault on Gaza was not justified and there are international calls for an investigation. But is there the political will to make Israel account for its war crimes?
by Richard Falk | LeMonde

For the first time since the establishment of Israel in 1948 the government is facing serious allegations of war crimes from respected public figures throughout the world. Even the secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, normally so cautious about offending sovereign states - especially those aligned with its most influential member, the United States - has joined the call for an investigation and potential accountability. To grasp the significance of these developments it is necessary to explain what made the 22 days of attacks in Gaza stand shockingly apart from the many prior recourses to force by Israel to uphold its security and strategic interests.

In my view, what made the Gaza attacks launched on 27 December different from the main wars fought by Israel over the years was that the weapons and tactics used devastated an essentially defenceless civilian population. The one-sidedness of the encounter was so stark, as signalled by the relative casualties on both sides (more than 100 to 1; 1300-plus Palestinians killed compared with 13 Israelis, and several of these by friendly fire), that most commentators refrained from attaching the label "war".

By Robert Parry

The neoconservatives have demonstrated that their power in Washington remains strong as they have succeeded in keeping veteran diplomat Chas Freeman out of a top intelligence job. READ IT.

Timidity Derails Obama Intel Choice
By Ray McGovern

On Tuesday morning, Director of National Intelligence, Admiral Dennis Blair, employed the indicative mood in describing the high value that Chas Freeman, his appointee to head the National Intelligence Council (NIC), will bring to the job — “his long experience and inventive mind,” for example. READ IT.

Chas Freeman's own comments:

I have concluded that the barrage of libelous distortions of my record would not cease upon my entry into office. The effort to smear me and to destroy my credibility would instead continue. I do not believe the National Intelligence Council could function effectively while its chair was under constant attack by unscrupulous people with a passionate attachment to the views of a political faction in a foreign country. READ IT.

Gaza: situation at border crossings ‘intolerable,’ Ban says | UN

A lasting ceasefire was urgently needed to keep Gaza crossings open, which will allow the Palestinian economy to recover, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today.

In a message to a UN seminar on assistance to the Palestinian people in Cairo, Mr. Ban called for a “proper and durable” end of hostilities to “allow for a return of calm” to Gaza and southern Israel.

“The situation at the crossings is intolerable,” he said, stressing the need for Israel to ease the closure.

The overall humanitarian situation in Gaza remains unchanged, according to an update from the office of the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory.

Closed Zone

Yoni Goodman, director of animation for the Academy Award-nominated film, "Waltz with Bashir", talks about the process of making his new animated film on the closure of Gaza together with the human rights group Gisha.

Click "Read more" to see the animation's making and goal.

By Ann Wright, retired US Army Reserve Colonel

“Would women in Gaza really celebrate International Women’s Day?” was the question members of our 58 person delegation from United States, Canada, Pakistan, France, Australia, Egypt, Dubai and Turkey asked as we travelled from Cairo to the Gaza border.

In less than three weeks, the delegates had responded to an appeal by Codepink: Women for Peace to join an international delegation to try to go into Gaza at the invitation of the United Nations Works and Relief Agency of Gaza (UNWRA).

Women of Gaza have so little to celebrate.

by Linda Milazzo

Certainly no person aware of Israel's blockade of goods and services to Gaza, or Israel's devastating bombing of Gaza, would consider Gaza a vacation haven. Gaza is not a place of joy. It’s an overcrowded war-zone populated by more than a million terrified men, women and children. They subsist amidst the rubble caused by Israel's missiles that crushed their homes and killed their loved ones. They inhabit a tiny strip of land that can be driven across in two hours. They have no space for recreation. They have no scenic boulevards and tony cafes. Even their beach is a danger. Their lives are a daily challenge of fear, illness, hunger, anguish, poverty, joblessness, homelessness and physical and emotional wounds.

Israel, on the other hand, which propagates its struggle for survival and its imminent danger as rationale for killing and imprisoning Palestinians, is promoted as a vacation oasis. Witness the glory of Israel from the video below that loops frequently on local Los Angeles TV. No fear, hunger, rubble or homelessness appear in this portrayal of Israel. Only beauty, riches and joy.

Pots of urine, feces on the walls - how IDF troops vandalized Gaza homes
By Amira Hass | Haaretz

GAZA - We had already visited this house, belonging to the Abu Eida family. It is the only one of the family's nine large houses that remained standing at the eastern edge of the city of Jabalya following Operation Cast Lead. The demolition of the family's houses and its four cement factories spells the loss of 40 years of hard work.

One Hebrew word scrawled on a wall tells the story of the 10 days when young Israeli soldiers became the ostensible prison wardens of five people. The youngest is Suheila Masalha, 55; the eldest is her mother Fatma, who is perhaps 85 or 90 or older. The only man is her brother Mohammed, 65, who is paralyzed and dependent on the women of his family. And there were two more women from the Abu Eida family - Rasmiya, 70, who owns the house, and her sister-in-law Na'ama, 56, who is blind.

Israel annexing East Jerusalem, says EU
By Rory McCarthy | Guardian UK

A confidential EU report accuses the Israeli government of using settlement expansion, house demolitions, discriminatory housing policies and the West Bank barrier as a way of "actively pursuing the illegal annexation" of East Jerusalem.

The document says Israel has accelerated its plans for East Jerusalem, and is undermining the Palestinian Authority's credibility and weakening support for peace talks. "Israel's actions in and around Jerusalem constitute one of the most acute challenges to Israeli-Palestinian peace-making," says the document, EU Heads of Mission Report on East Jerusalem.

Audio slideshow: Homeless in Gaza | BBC

Raed al-Atamna's family's six houses were destroyed in the recent Gaza conflict, as well as the cars he uses to earn his living as a taxi driver.

With nearly 3,000 families homeless, rented accommodation is scarce in Gaza - Mr Atamna's pregnant wife and seven children are now staying with relatives, while he sleeps in a corrugated metal shack next to his ruined house.

The Israeli military says it destroyed buildings because of "substantial operational needs", for example because of booby traps or militants in them, but Amnesty International says "wanton destruction" occurred, in violation of international law.

Click here to watch the audio slideshow: Homeless in Gaza, 3:34 mins.

Donor conference pledges $5B for Gaza, Abbas gov't
By Salah Nasrawi and John Heilprin | Yahoo!News

But the meeting's broader message targeted Hamas, seeking to isolate the Islamic militant movement and force it to compromise in its control of Gaza. Many of the participants — including top diplomats from 45 nations — called for the creation of a Palestinian unity government led by Abbas that would be able to rebuild Gaza and pursue peace negotiations with Israel.

International donors pledged $5.2 billion Monday to rebuild the devastated Gaza Strip and fund the Palestinian government, giving a powerful boost to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and putting new pressure on the rival Hamas militant group to moderate.

Gazans want open borders, not handouts | IHT

Five tunnel workers died Sunday when a tunnel collapsed from heavy rains. One of them was Ahmed Abu Samhadaneh, 20, a second-year university student. He had supported his parents and seven siblings with tunnel work for the past year, as the only breadwinner...."If the border was open, my son would still be alive today,...He wouldn't have to go work in the tunnels."

As top diplomats pledged billions of dollars for war-ravaged Gaza on Monday, ordinary people here — from merchants to housewives — said they'd rather have open borders than handouts.

The Untermensch Syndrome: Israel’s Moral Decay
By Manuel Valenzuela | Valenzuela's Veritas | Submitted by Lance Ciepiela

The labeling as anti-Semitic of anyone critical of the state of Israel’s policies in the continued destruction of Palestinian identity and the increasing domination into American foreign policy no longer has the sting of threat or intimidation it once mastered. For too long this masquerade has been used to silence those opposing anything Israel, shouted at anyone disseminating truth and seeking justice. Like the boy who cried wolf, this charade has lost its power or hypnotic control, and today only serves to breed more anger and resentment against the apologists and smear mongers protecting the cancerous tentacles of Zionism and the crimes against humanity it spawns.

Israeli leaders pledge 'painful' rocket response | MSNBC
Olmert suggests Israel's earlier offensive against Gaza fell short of its goal

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday threatened a "painful" response to Palestinian rocket fire menacing southern Israel, suggesting that Israel's blistering offensive against Gaza Strip militants fell short of its goals.

The prospect of heightened hostilities in Hamas-ruled Gaza cast a pall over a week of crucial diplomatic activity, including an international conference designed to drum up billions of dollars to rebuild the heavily damaged territory. With a new Israeli government to take office within weeks, however, it wasn't clear how sweeping any response would be.

Israel PM's family link to Hamas peace bid
Olmert rejected Palestinian attempts to set up talks through go-between before Gaza invasion
By Peter Beaumont | Observer

Hamas, the militant Palestinian organisation, attempted to conduct secret talks with the Israeli leadership in the protracted run-up to the recent war in Gaza - with messages being passed from the group at one stage through a member of prime minister Ehud Olmert's family.

Confirmation of attempts to establish a direct line of communication between Hamas and Israel - and the willingness of senior figures in Hamas to contemplate direct negotiations - fundamentally alters the narrative of the build-up to the war in Gaza which claimed more than 1,300 Palestinian lives and led to about a dozen Israeli deaths.

Israeli limits stymie Gaza rebuilding
By Ilene R. Prusher | Christian Science Monitor

Maamon Khozendar, chairman of Khozendar and Sons Company Ltd., is one of Gaza's most successful industrialists. He's a petroleum importer, and executes major construction projects around the Palestinian enclave.

What he'd most like to do now is help his fellow Gazans recover from the devastating 22-day war that came to an uncertain pause in late January. But rebuilding and rehabilitating Gaza requires the basics of the construction industry – cement and steel – that Israel will not allow in through their border crossings.

His dilemma presents a window into a core challenge faced by Palestinians and international donors as they gather in Egypt on Monday to pledge funds for postwar reconstruction.

Upgrade Palestinian rights
As it freezes an upgrade of relations with Israel, the EU should now demand respect for human rights, especially for children
By Seth Freedman | Guardian UK

The disproportionate and indiscriminate actions by Israeli forces during Operation Cast Lead rightly earned Israel's leaders international opprobrium, and in some cases the verbal outrage was backed by concrete sanctions. Having last year declared an upgrading of relations with Israel, the EU decided last month to put the process on hold in the wake of the carnage in Gaza.

Israel blocks pasta shipment to Gaza, and tensions boil
By Dion Nissenbaum | McClatchy Newspapers

For more than seven weeks, the international aid group Mercy Corps has been trying to send 90 tons of macaroni to the isolated Gaza Strip as part of a global campaign to help the 1.4 million Palestinians there rebuild their lives after Israel's recent devastating 22-day military operation.

Israel, which controls most of what goes into and out of Gaza, has said no repeatedly.

At first, Israeli officials said that they wanted to make sure that the macaroni wasn't destined for a Hamas charity. Then they said macaroni was banned because they didn't consider it an essential food item.

On Wednesday, days after American lawmakers raised pointed questions about the macaroni ban, Israeli authorities said that they were preparing to give the pasta a green light.

Targeting Israel with Boycotts, Divestment, Sanctions, and Prosecutions
by Stephen Lendman

Enough is enough. After 61 years of Palestinian slaughter, displacement, occupation, oppression, and international dismissiveness and complicity, global action is essential. Israel must be held accountable. World leaders won't do it, so grassroots movements must lead the way.

In 2004, Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote:

"The end of apartheid stands as one of the crowning accomplishments of the past century, but we would not have succeeded without the help of international pressure - in particular the divestment movement of the 1980s. Over the past six months, a similar movement has taken shape, this time aiming at an end to the Israeli occupation."

Return to Gaza
By Amira Hass | London Review of Books

On Friday, 16 January, Mohammed Shurrab and his two sons, Kassab and Ibrahim, took advantage of the daily lull in the Israeli assault – the ‘three hours’ promised by the IDF – to travel from their plot of land in the eastern part of the Gaza Strip back to their home in Khan Younis. They were driving a red Land Rover. On the road, soldiers in a tank waved them on. Later, in the village of Al Fukhari, in a street lined with small houses and gardens, their vehicle was shot at by soldiers stationed on the roof of a local home. Kassab was killed instantly. Ibrahim lay bleeding beside his father; he died at midnight. Mohammed Shurrab had called for help on his cellphone, but the army prevented ambulances from entering the area until 23 hours after the shooting. The closest hospital was two minutes’ drive away.

Israel’s Attack on Gaza: Legitimate Self Defense or War Crime?
A two-part International Lawyers Without Borders interview with Dr Franklin Lamb | 7 February 2009 | Dissident Voice

Part I: What Law Applies?

Interviewer’s Note: On December 27, 2008, Israel launched a devastating 22 day and night bombardment of the Gaza strip. The assault left, amidst an estimated 600,000 tons of concrete rubble, some 1,740 dead (this figure includes more than 350 ‘forgotten’ stillbirths and trauma-caused abortions in Gaza during the 22 days of terror), a figure that increases as the severely injured continue to die. A majority of the victims were civilians, including nearly 900 (again including the stillborn) children, approximately 5,500 severely wounded, and more than one third of the 1.5 million population was displaced while more than 14,000 homes were completely destroyed. Approximately 92,000 Palestinians are still homeless with more than 16,000 living as many as 20 to a small tent without latrines, as supplies remain blocked at the borders.

Single-limb fractures and the walking wounded are not included in the above figures, according to renowned British surgeon Dr. Swee Ang, currently conducting an on-the-ground medical investigation in Gaza. Dr. Swee and her medical colleagues estimate that of the severely injured, 1,600 will suffer permanent disabilities. These include amputations, spinal cord injuries, head injuries, and large burns with crippling contractures.

Also bombed were 68 government buildings and 31 NGO complexes, buildings all of which were completely or partially destroyed. Property damage and loss of livelihood has been estimated at close to 2 billion dollars.

On February 4, 2009, the Government of France strongly protested Israel’s refusal to allow in donated filtration equipment for drinking water, given that much of Gaza’s population have not had clean drinking water for weeks. As the massive human and material destruction continues to be documented by journalists, investigators and relief workers, the international pressure for accountability increases.

By AFP

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) — The Palestinian Authority urged the US president on Monday to press Israel to scrap a plan to raze almost 90 homes in annexed Arab east Jerusalem.

"We call on President Barack Obama to intervene personally to have this project stopped," said Yasser Abed Rabbo, one of the main aides of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

The Palestinian owners of 88 houses in the Silwan neighbourhood have received eviction notices saying that the structures will be destroyed because they were built or expanded without the necessary permits. The move would affect about 1,500 people.

"It is a massacre that Israel will commit in this Holy City," Abed Rabbo told a news conference, calling for "urgent Arab and international action to halt this dangerous project."

He said some of the houses affected by the orders had been built before Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War.