Jewish Peace News

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Resistance to the war

These pieces are organized around the theme of resistance. They discuss various actions, initiatives and statements by Jews and Israelis who are speaking out and acting in solidarity with Palestinians who are struggling to keep themselves and their families alive in Gaza. There are many suggestions for actions that you can take.

Contents:

(1) Tom Pessah, an Israeli doing a PhD in the US, writes another update on protests and people inside of Israel. His attention to nuance and detail make this description extraordinary. Rebecca Vilkomerson attended the rally too and reports that the number was closer to 500 people (Pessah reports about 100): "it was also noteworthy that there were so many women and children at the rally, which despite all the police who were present, gave the rally a rather gentle presence, and unlike in Tel Aviv, there were no counter-protesters throwing eggs, so all in all it was one of the more pleasant demo experiences recently."

(2) On conscientious objection and military refusal:
Not long before this new war broke out, scores of young Israelis had declared their refusal to serve in an occupation army and several of them were imprisoned for weeks and months. Known as Shministim, these young refusers inspired an international campaign on their behalf, which culminated in the December 18th delivery of more than 20,000 letters calling for their release from jail delivered to the Israeli Ministry of Defense. (see http://december18th.org/2008/12/19/december-18th-what-happened/ for reports, news coverage, and video of the refusers themselves; thanks to Jewish Voice for Peace for organizing this great campaign.)

Now there's a new war, and new military refusers. Courage to Refuse (Ometz L'Sarev) is a group that formed in 2002 during the second Intifada to support and advocate for combat soldiers and officers to refuse to serve in the Occupied Territories. More than 600 soldiers signed their petition and many served jail terms instead of fulfilling their reserve duty in the West Bank or Gaza. (see their 2002 "Combatants' Letter" here: http://www.seruv.org.il/defaulteng.asp). Courage to Refuse has now reemerged after a few years' hiatus to again call on combat soldiers and officers to refuse to serve in this Gaza war. Below is their new call to action and an announcement of their demonstration outside the Ministry of Defense in the heart of Tel Aviv, as well as an appeal for funds. Courage to Refuse reports that many of their members have already received call-up orders to report to their units and at least three have already refused and await sentencing.

Sarah Anne Minkin

(3) The next piece below reports on a group of Canadian Jewish women who have occupied the Israeli Consulate in Toronto! We wish them well!

(4) The final piece is a letter to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle by JVP's Carol Sanders. It is a beautifully eloquent rejoinder to the argument we hear so often these days, the argument that invites you, in the absence of any historical or political context, to identify with Israeli civilians in Sderot experiencing the daily threat of missile fire.

(5) American Jews for a Just Peace (www.ajjp.org) is initiating an emergency campaign to send an 'Open Letter to Israeli Soldiers' from the international Jewish Community. Their goal is to obtain hundreds of signatures from Jews around the world, and raise enough money to publish the letter in Israeli newspapers. See below for the text of the letter and information about how you can sign on.

(6) Finally, here is something you can do now: call the Obama transition office number and leave a message. It is easy to do, the number is: 1-202-540-3000; press 2 you will get a staff member who will take a message from you:

Here are examples of things you can say (but feel free to add or embellish):
a) Obama's silence is being seen as condoning Israel's war on Gaza.
b) He should break his silence to call for an immediate ceasefire, even if it is not a "durable one". Scores of people are dying everyday and to not demand a ceasefire is to say that their deaths do not count. Also, ceasefires, even if imperfect, can work to drastically reduce death, injury, fear and trauma.
c) Gazans are in dire need of food, medical supplies and food. Even if Israel allows trucks in, without a ceasefire, distribution is almost impossible.

Judith Norman

The pieces follow:
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(1)
Tom Pessah piece more on anti-war protests in Israel 010709

Yesterday I attended a rally in Jaffa against the war. Even the main streets in the Arab part of Jaffa are narrow and traffic is slow, so I had plenty of time to look at the buildings around me. I have seen these houses dozens of times, but until yesterday I hardly reflected about how many of them must have originally been residential. Now some are shops, and many are empty. I must admit that until recently I looked at them as "ottoman houses", interesting relics from another historical period. I am only gradually realizing that the original inhabitants of these houses may still be alive, and many of them may currently be in Gaza. In 1948, most of the Palestinian inhabitants of Jaffa fled under heavy bombardment. They escaped in fishing boats, many of them becoming refugees in Gaza – literally "thrown into the sea".

Noga Kadman http://www.palestineremembered.com/Articles/General/Story10999.html has recently brought out an excellent book in Hebrew, "BeTzidei HaDerekh U-BeShulei HaToda'a" (At the Side of the Road and at the Margins of Consciousness), which helps explain how a well-meaning and relatively informed Israeli like me could be so ignorant of the history of the city I grew up in. One chapter is about how the Arab names of destroyed Palestinian communities were replaced by Hebrew names, another is about signs in parks and hiking routes (which never miss any reference to the biblical period or to the crusades, but almost never mention Arab or Palestinian presence in these same places only a few decades ago), and the third is about the (non-)representation of the previous inhabitants in publications of kibbutzim and moshavim (different types of Jewish rural communities).

Einat Lieder has an exhibition in a Tel Aviv gallery with jewelry in the shape of the six Palestinian villages that used to exist within Tel Aviv' boundaries – Summeil, Sheikh Muwwanis, Salama, Manshia, Jammusin, and Abu Kbir. This is in Hebrew, but you can see the photos - http://www.israelidesign.org.il/newsDetails.asp?PageID=2&tt=5&NewID=1283 . For more details on these villages, see http://www.palestineremembered.com/JaffaTownsSnapshot.html .

The Jaffa rally wasn't huge (probably 100 people, at most), but I was very happy to see some of the people in it. Sami Abu Shehade used to study with me in Tel Aviv University, and came with other veterans of Balad/alTajamu3, the national Palestinian student group that often maintained a friendly rivalry with Hadash/alJabha, the Arab-Jewish communist group I was affiliated with. Sami was recently harassed for organizing protests, woken up in the middle of the night by police and then released. Here is a detailed report in Haaretz - http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1052995.html . The police is claiming some threw stones, but there has not been a single report in the Hebrew media about stones being thrown in Jaffa. It seems just like the usual trick of labeling political activists as violent terrorists.

I was also very happy to see Haggai Matar, whom you can always spot easily by his red beard. Haggai, who spent several years in jail for refusing, has just been incarcerated again for three days, after a non- violent and non-obstructive protest outside an airforce base. Rebecca Vilkomerson http://peaceandjustice.org/article.php/20090106101122233 says that "the arrest and aftermath of the 19 activists from Anarchists Against the Wall who did a "die in" at Tel Aviv's air force base, was extraordinary. There is a video of the arrest (in hebrew) and it clearly shows them being ordered to move to the sidewalk, doing so, and then being arrested anyway (see video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpeC7P-2LfU) . They were held for an un-precedented three days before being charged, and in the meantime activists' homes have been entered, computers have been taken, and even additional arrests have been made by the police. The Anarchists have been one of the most effective groups
working against the Occupation, and my sense is that the state is taking this opportunity to both to try to deter others from civil disobedience as well as try to do damage to the group, under cover of the invasion and less outcry on invasions of civil liberties in a "democracy.""

The organizers of the Jaffa protest made an admirable effort to shout slogans that would reflect the diversity within the crowd of protestors. We heard the Hadash/alJabha hit "yehudim, aravim, mesarvim lihiyot oyvim" (Hebrew – Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies), as well as "min Ghazze liJenin, sha3ab wah7ad ma biylin" (Arabic – from Gaza to Jenin, one people shall not break), "ta3ish wa-ta7ya Falastin" (Long Live Palestine), and even a few "Allahu Akbar"s (God is Great). This last one felt strange to me, but I realized that it must have felt as strange for the many communist Christians present. Several supporters of Israel's Islamic Party showed up with green flags.

The Jews were also a diverse group. Consider the elderly gentleman who handed me a flyer in Arabic from the "Committee for Israeli- Palestinian Dialogue, Founded by Members of [Jewish] Oriental Communities". The use of the older term "Edot HaMizrach" (Oriental/ Eastern Communities) distinguished him from the younger student activists who would be more likely to call themselves "mizrachim" (Easterners). And I could write an entire blog on the disproportionate representation of the (mostly, but not exclusively Jewish) GLBTQ community, so much so that a lesbian friend told me on Saturday (at the big Tel Aviv rally) she was relieved to see so many straights come out and protest (even if they did prevent her from staring at some gorgeous dykes).

Coming back from Jaffa I met up with my Palestinian (citizen of Israel) friend M., whom I knew from university. She had just come back from work, hosting Jewish-Arab dialogue groups, very bravely encouraging people to bring their racism to the surface so that it can be discussed. On the one hand, everyone around her is glued to AlJazeera, watching the terrible pictures from Gaza, and getting thoroughly depressed. On the other hand, she still had enough compassion in her to tell me she feels sorry for the Israeli soldiers who had been killed that day, their lives wasted by politicians who promise that this last bit of violence is just what we need to solve the problems of the Middle East. Next week she plans to visit children from Gaza who are being treated in local hospitals.

What else? Ometz LeSarev (Courage to Refuse), who have not been active for several years, are now renewing their calls on Israeli soldiers to refuse, and are organizing a protest in front of the Ministry of Defense on Thursday at 6 (I may post more on that). The university campuses are still very active, and several students have been arrested for demonstrating without a permit (yet another well-known trick for silencing people - http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3651484,00.html) Here is a report on a rally in Haifa itself - http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1052897.html , and I hear one is getting organized in Beer Sheva, which is now within the range of the qassam rockets. There is another one this evening in Tel Aviv, and I assume there will be a big one on Saturday – they get bigger each weekend.

I will be leaving Israel before the weekend demo, but I recommend these blogs, if you want to follow what's happening - http://yuditilany.blogspot.com/2009/01/over-50-thousand-palestinians-and-jews.html , http://things.co.il/965, http://lisagoldman.net/2008/11/16/haniyeh-and-his-israeli-sisters-wartime-tales-from-gaza-and-israel/ .

To end with an observation: many of the people I know have either completely checked out, or are glued to the TV. Neither of these things are going to make you feel better. I really recommend phoning up some friends and figuring out something you can do together. None of us can wave a magic wand to stop this, but any little bit of pressure counts, and could actually save lives.

We need to listen to each other, to figure out ways of building coalitions, to respect and protect each other, Arabs and Jews. The politicians aren't going to do it for us, but we really are smart enough to figure it out ourselves. This could be an opportunity to get more involved, to make a difference, to meet really unusual people: why not give it a shot?

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(2) Courage to Refuse statement
We will not take part in the campaign of destruction.

We, officers and soldiers of the IDF,

who hold dearly the security and the future of the State of Israel,

who understand that the attack in Gaza exarcerbates the conflict and will bring many more years of missiles on widening parts of the population, and has laid an unbearable catastrophe upon the people of Israel and the Palestinian people,

we understand that revenge is not security, and that the IDF's operation in Gaza perpetuates the conflict and does not contribute to solving it.

We declare that we will not take part in the campaign for destruction in Gaza.

To sign this declaration, to help in organizing the rally, or to obtain assistance for those who are facing trials, call Noam Livne, David Zonesheine or Arik Diamant (phone numbers attached).

Rally opposite the Ministry of Defense, Thursday 1/7/09 at 6 PM.

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Dear supporters,
It's been almost four years since we sent our last newsletter. The "Disengagement" plan seemed to crush the Israeli peace camp and silence any discussion on the morality of the occupation and the siege on Gaza. Refusal became irrelevant to the Israeli public discourse. Sadly, we had to close our offices for lack of funds and public interest.

Some of us continued our activity from within other groups such as Physicians for Human Rights, Yesh Gvul and Combatants for Peace. Others receded to caring for their families and developing their carriers. Lately, however, we've been summoned again to play a role in our country's politics. The brutal, unprecedented violence in Gaza is shocking. The false hope that this kind of violence will bring security to Israelis is all the more dangerous. We cannot stand aside while hundreds of civilians are being butchered by the IDF.
A few years older, hopefully a little wiser, the core members of Courage to Refuse have decided to resume activity and play once more a part in fighting for peace and democracy. This morning we published an ad in Haaretz calling soldiers to refuse to bomb Gaza. At least three soldiers have already refused to participate in the Gaza campaign and are on their way to prison. The rest of us will be demonstrating in front of the Ministry of Defense in protest of the IDF's murderous activity in Gaza this upcoming Thursday.

We turn to our supporters, in Israel and abroad, to help us in financing our activities(ads and demonstrations). We are making great efforts to re-establish an online donation service that will be 501c3 certified. Until then we urge all those capable of helping to send an email to courage2refuse@gmail.com with your name, phone number and the sum you are willing to donate. We will contact you and guide you in placing your donation.
Please help us bring change. Thank you, Arik Diamant Courage to Refuse
mobile: +972-522-754-528

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(3)
URGENT- TAKE OVER AT THE ISRAELI CONSULATE IN TORONTO- FORWARD ASAP!

Arrests underway in Toronto Israeli Consulate Sit-in Toronto: Wednesday January 8, 2009 Time: 11:20 am Police have moved in to arrest a group of Jewish Canadian women who are currently occupying the Israeli consulate at 180 Bloor Street West in Toronto. The women took their action in protest against the on-going Israeli assault on the people of Gaza.

The group is carrying out this occupation in solidarity with the 1.5 million people of Gaza and to ensure that Jewish voices against the massacre in Gaza are being heard. They are demanding that Israel end its military assault and lift the 18-month siege on the Gaza Strip to allow humanitarian aid into the territory. Israel has been carrying out a full-scale military assault on the Gaza Strip since December 27, 2008. At least 660 people have been killed and 3000 injured in the air strikes and in the ground invasion that began on January 3, 2009. Israel has ignored international calls for a ceasefire and is refusing to allow food, adequate medical supplies and other necessities of life into the Gaza Strip. Protesters are outraged at Israel's latest assault on the Palestinian people and by the Canadian government's refusal to condemn these massacres. They are deeply concerned that Canadians are hearing the views of pro-Israel groups who are being represented as the only voice of
Jewish Canadians. The protesters have occupied the consulate to send a clear statement that many Jewish-Canadians do not support Israel's violence and apartheid policies. They are joining with people of conscience all across the world who are demanding an end to Israeli aggression and justice for the Palestinian people.

The group includes: Judy Rebick, professor; Judith Deutsch, psychoanalyst and president of Science for Peace; B.H. Yael, filmmaker; Smadar Carmon, an Canadian Israeli peace activist and others. Spokespersons for the group will be outside the Israeli consulate: Dr. Miriam Garfinkle: 416-731-6605 mgarfinkle@sympatico.ca Cathy Gulkin: 416-697-0768 cgulkin@rogers.com Release is online at http://www.sources.com/Releases/NR135.htm
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(4)
Imagining Gaza

In her piece defending Israel's assault on Gaza ("Hamas' zero-sum game," Jan. 5), Fania Oz-Salzberger begins by inviting us to "imagine your next-door neighbor [Gaza] ... pulling out a gun and shooting into your [Israel's] windows ...."

This neighborly metaphor lacks a few touchstones, so let us back up for just a moment. First, imagine that you have stolen the land of your neighbors and their families and built mansions for yourself where their homes used to be. Then imagine that your neighbor's home is filled to the rafters with those family members whom you forced to flee, most of them children.

Then imagine that for a long time now, using the mightiest weaponry in the world, you have surrounded and trapped your neighbors in their backyard, so that they cannot leave to get food, water or medical care - let alone go to school or find a job. Then imagine that you have also prevented anyone from entering to help them out.

Now feel free to imagine your windows getting shot at.

CAROL SANDERS Berkeley

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/07/EDIJ1542A9.DTL&hw=carol+sanders&sn=001&sc=1000

(5) American Jews for a Just Peace (www.ajjp.org) is initiating an emergency campaign to send an Open Letter to Israeli Soldiers from the international Jewish Community. Our goal is to obtain hundreds of signatures from Jews around the world, and raise enough money to publish the letter in Israeli newspapers.

We ask that you do the following:

1) Broadcast this announcement as widely as possible to your mailing lists, encouraging people to sign the letter and, if possible, to donate money to cover publication expenses.
2) Contact us if your organization wishes to be listed as an official sponsor. This can be done by sending an email to campaigns@ajjp.org.
3) Donate money to help us publish the letter in Israeli papers. In the event that we are unable to raise sufficient funds, we will donate all monies that are collected to New Profile and Yesh Gvul. AJJP will collect all money through our PayPal account. Full disclosure will be available to all who ask.
4) Send this letter to all other Jewish organizations around the world for which you have an email address.
The letter can be found at http://tinyurl.com/OpenLetterToIsraeliSoldiers.

In addition, we call to your attention another letter, which we encourage you to support. It can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/UnitedJewishAppeal.

We Jews must speak up to halt the atrocities that are being committed by the Israeli military. Please join us in this important appeal.

Thank you,

Joel R Finkel, for the Coordinating Committee of AJJP

http://www.ajjp.org/campaigns/signStatement.php?cid=15
Open Letter to Israeli Soldiers

Jews call on Israeli soldiers to stop war crimes

We Jews in the international community call upon Israeli soldiers to raise the Black Flag of Illegality over the operations against the people of Gaza.

We refuse to remain silent while Israeli leaders force Israeli soldiers to commit war crimes: crimes against humanity for which they will one day be called to account. Israeli soldiers of conscience can, and must, stop this dangerous, illegal, and immoral war.

This criminal activity does nothing to advance the health and welfare of Jews. Rather, from Sderot to Sydney, from Ashkelon to Amsterdam, we will all benefit when there is justice for Palestinians.

Therefore, we call on you to use all measures possible to stop these atrocities against the Palestinian people. Flagrantly illegal orders must not simply be disobeyed, but actively and effectively opposed.

We members of the international Jewish community call on you, the Israeli soldiers of conscience, to halt the Israeli war machine, which only you can, and must, do.

Signed,

[…]

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Jewish Peace News editors:
Joel Beinin
Racheli Gai
Rela Mazali
Sarah Anne Minkin
Judith Norman
Lincoln Shlensky
Rebecca Vilkomerson
Alistair Welchman
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Jewish Peace News archive and blog: http://jewishpeacenews.blogspot.com
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Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Media and the war on Gaza

Contents:

1) Media coverage: NY Times article
2) Media coverage: FAIR report
3) Amira Hass on the collapse of the infrastructure
4) The Times of London on Israel's use of white phosphorus shells

As the death toll approaches 700, the Israeli military continues to defy an Israeli Supreme Court ruling that foreign correspondents must be allowed into Gaza. As the New York Times reports (first piece below), foreign journalists are barred from seeing the scenes of carnage inside Gaza, while being given full access to Israeli government propaganda as well as guided tours of sites where Palestinian missiles have fallen.

The success of the Israeli government's concerted efforts to monopolize the narrative are apparent – the media watchdog group, FAIR, has issued a report criticizing coverage of the fighting (second piece below) and in particular the tendency of the press to blame the conflict on missile attacks by Hamas, often even while citing facts that put into question this deceptive chronology.

There is a lot that Israel does not want the world to see in Gaza. Amira Hass (third piece below) reports that the Gaza infrastructure is near collapse, about half the population does not have access to water or electricity, and raw sewage running in the streets. Civilian casualty reports (and a quarter to a third of casualties are reportedly civilian) would be much higher if they included the figures from this ongoing humanitarian crisis, people who are just as much the victims of Israeli policy decisions and wanton disregard (this would be a charitable interpretation) for human life as are the victims of F-16s. As the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports, "the civilian population of Gaza continu[es] to bear the brunt of the violence." Phyllis Bennis gives a superb account of the international legal situation: http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=3064

And finally there is Israel's use of white phosphorus shells, a decision that the Times of London (last piece below) somewhat delicately calls "controversial". In fact, as the article points out, white phosphorus causes severe burns and it is banned as a weapon of war in civilian areas by international law. Given that Israel is firing in and around even UN schools and clinics, the civilians packed into Gaza have nowhere else to go. But the foreign media is locked out just as the Palestinian civilians are locked in.

Judith Norman

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/world/middleeast/07media.html?ref=middleeast

January 7, 2009
Israel Puts Media Clamp on Gaza
By ETHAN BRONNER

JERUSALEM — Three times in recent days, a small group of foreign correspondents was told to appear at the border crossing to Gaza. The reporters were to be permitted in to cover firsthand the Israeli war on Hamas in keeping with a Supreme Court ruling against the two-month-old Israeli ban on foreign journalists entering Gaza.

Each time, they were turned back on security grounds, even as relief workers and other foreign citizens were permitted to cross the border. On Tuesday the reporters were told to not even bother going to the border.

And so for an 11th day of Israel's war in Gaza, the several hundred journalists here to cover it waited in clusters away from direct contact with any fighting or Palestinian suffering, but with full access to Israeli political and military commentators eager to show them around southern Israel, where Hamas rockets have been terrorizing civilians. A slew of private groups financed mostly by Americans are helping guide the press around Israel.

Like all wars, this one is partly about public relations. But unlike any war in Israel's history, in this one the government is seeking to entirely control the message and narrative for reasons both of politics and military strategy.

"This is the result of what happened in the 2006 Lebanon war against Hezbollah," said Nachman Shai, a former army spokesman who is writing a doctoral dissertation on Israel's public diplomacy. "Then, the media were everywhere. Their cameras and tapes picked up discussions between commanders. People talked on live television. It helped the enemy and confused and destabilized the home front. Today, Israel is trying to control the information much more closely."

The government-commissioned investigation into the war with Hezbollah reported that the army had found that when reporters were allowed on the battlefield in Lebanon, they got in the way of military operations by posing risks and asking questions.

Maj. Avital Leibovich, an army spokeswoman, said, "If a journalist gets injured or killed, then it is Central Command's responsibility." She said the government was trying to protect Israel from rocket fire and "not deal with the media."

Beyond such tactical considerations, there is a political one. Daniel Seaman, director of Israel's Government Press Office, said, "Any journalist who enters Gaza becomes a fig leaf and front for the Hamas terror organization, and I see no reason why we should help that."

Foreign reporters deny that their work in Gaza has been subject to Hamas censorship or control. Unable to send foreign reporters into Gaza, the international news media have relied on Palestinian journalists based there for coverage.

But it seems that many Israelis accept Mr. Seaman's assessment and shed no tears over the restrictions, despite repeated protests by the Foreign Press Association of Israel, including on Tuesday.

A headline in Tuesday's issue of Yediot Aharonot, the country's largest selling daily newspaper, expressed well the popular view of the issue. Over a news article describing the generally negative coverage so far, especially in the European media, an intentional misspelling of a Hebrew word turned the headline "World Media" into "World Liars."

This attitude has been helped by supportive Israeli news media whose articles have been filled with "feelings of self-righteousness and a sense of catharsis following what was felt to be undue restraint in the face of attacks by the enemy," according to a study of the first days of media coverage of the war by a liberal but nonpartisan group called Keshev, the Center for the Protection of Democracy in Israel.

The Foreign Press Association has been fighting for weeks to get its members into Gaza, first appealing to senior government officials and ultimately taking its case to the country's highest court. Last week the justices worked out an arrangement with the organization whereby small groups would be permitted into Gaza when it was deemed safe enough for the crossings to be opened for other reasons.

So far, every time the border has been opened, journalists have not been permitted to go in.

On Tuesday, the press association released a statement saying, "The unprecedented denial of access to Gaza for the world's media amounts to a severe violation of press freedom and puts the state of Israel in the company of a handful of regimes around the world which regularly keep journalists from doing their jobs."

At the same time that reporters have been given less access to Gaza, the government has created a new structure for shaping its public message, ensuring that spokesmen of the major government branches meet daily to make sure all are singing from the same sheet.

"We are trying to coordinate everything that has to do with the image and content of what we are doing and to make sure that whoever goes on the air, whether a minister or professor or ex-ambassador, knows what he is saying," said Aviv Shir-On, deputy director general for media in the Foreign Ministry. "We have talking points and we try to disseminate our ideas and message."

Israelis say the war is being reduced on television screens around the world to a simplistic story: an American-backed country with awesome military machine fighting a third-world guerrilla force leading to a handful of Israelis dead versus 600 Gazans dead.

Israelis and their supporters think that such quick descriptions fail to explain the vital context of what has been happening — years of terrorist rocket fire on civilians have gone largely unanswered, and a message had to be sent to Israel's enemies that this would go on no longer, they say. The issue of proportionality, they add, is a false construct because comparing death tolls offers no help in measuring justice and legitimacy.

There are other ways to construe the context of this conflict, of course. But no matter what, Israel's diplomats know that if journalists are given a choice between covering death and covering context, death wins. So in a war that they consider necessary but poorly understood, they have decided to keep the news media far away from the death.

John Ging, an Irishman who directs operations in Gaza for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, entered Gaza on Monday as journalists were kept out. He told Palestinian reporters in Gaza that the policy was a problem.

"For the truth to get out, journalists have to get in," he said

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3667

FAIR
The Blame Game in Gaza
Erasing Israeli actions to fault only Hamas

1/6/09

The Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip that began in late December have reportedly killed over 500 Palestinians, many of them civilians and children. As is often the case, U.S. corporate media's presentation of the events leading up to this dramatic escalation in violence have laid the blame for the violence mostly with Hamas, whose rocket attacks on Israel are often cited as the cause for the current Israeli attacks.

In many media discussions about the events that led to the fighting, emphasis is placed on Hamas' decision in late December to allow a cease-fire agreement with Israel to expire, or the group's failure to adequately suppress rocket attacks into Israel during the cease-fire.

A USA Today timeline (1/5/09) explained, "In November, the truce frays as Hamas rockets continue to land in Israel, which closes several border crossings and kills militants building tunnels Hamas was using to smuggle weapons and other goods into Gaza." On NBC Nightly News (12/27/08), Martin Fletcher explained that "a six-month truce ended this week and Palestinians fired rockets into Israel, as many as 60 a day. Israeli leaders said enough is enough."

A Washington Post editorial (12/28/08) announced that Hamas "invited the conflict by ending a six-month-old ceasefire," while Post columnist Richard Cohen (1/6/09) was much blunter: "It took no genius to see the imminence of war. It takes real stupidity to blame it on Israel."

The Dallas Morning News (12/30/08) agreed emphatically in an editorial titled, "Blood on Hamas' Hands": "The pictures of the civilian victims of Israeli airstrikes-- especially children-- are heart-rending. But let's keep straight whose fault this tragedy is: Hamas, the fanatical Islamists who rule Gaza and who have used the land as a launching pad for firing rockets into Israel."

The New York Times' December 28 lead declared, "The Israeli Air Force on Saturday launched a massive attack on Hamas targets throughout Gaza in retaliation for the recent heavy rocket fire from the area." The next day, Times reporter Stephen Farrell asked (12/29/08), "Why did Hamas end its six-month cease-fire on December 19?" He argued that the "rejectionist credo" of Hamas made this step all but inevitable.

These accounts fail on several grounds. For starters, the cease-fire agreement from June through mid-December was credited by many for ratcheting down the violence-- rocket fire into Israel dropped significantly and claimed no Israeli lives during the truce. (Prior to that, rocket and mortar attacks since the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in late 2005 had killed 10 Israelis-- theisraelproject.org.) After the cease-fire expired, rocket attacks increased, though no Israelis were killed until after the Israeli attacks were launched; four have been killed since then (Agence France-Presse, 1/6/09).

Interestingly, as the truce expired, the New York Times published an article (12/19/08) that began with a typical corporate media formulation-- Palestinians are attacking, Israel is retaliating-- before noting that Hamas was "largely successful" in curtailing rocket fire into Israel: "Hamas imposed its will and even imprisoned some of those who were firing rockets. Israeli and United Nations figures show that while more than 300 rockets were fired into Israel in May, 10 to 20 were fired in July, depending on who was counting and whether mortar rounds were included. In August, 10 to 30 were fired, and in September, 5 to 10."

The Times article, by Ethan Bronner, noted that what Hamas expected in return from the Israelis never arrived: But the goods shipments, while up some 25 to 30 percent and including a mix of more items, never began to approach what Hamas thought it was going to get: a return to the 500 to 600 truckloads delivered daily before the closing, including appliances, construction materials and other goods essential for life beyond mere survival. Instead, the number of trucks increased to around 90 from around 70.

Bronner also added that "Israeli forces continued to attack Hamas and other militants in the West Bank, prompting Palestinian militants in Gaza to fire rockets," which produced Hamas response attacks. The Times continued: While this back-and-forth did not topple the agreement, Israel's decision in early November to destroy a tunnel Hamas had been digging near the border drove the cycle of violence to a much higher level. Israel says the tunnel could have been dug only for the purpose of trying to seize a soldier, like Cpl. Gilad Shalit, the Israeli held by Hamas for the past two and a half years. Israel's attack on the tunnel killed six Hamas militants, and each side has stepped up attacks since.

This straightforward recitation of events is rarely heard in much of the rest of the media coverage of the violence in Gaza-- including in the Times, since Israel began its full-scale assault. But for many consumers of U.S. media, history is made irrelevant; a Time magazine piece (1/12/09) began:

Two sounds dominate the lives of Israelis living near Gaza: the wail of a siren and, 25 seconds later, the whistling screech of an incoming rocket fired by the Palestinian militant group Hamas. That gives Israeli families just enough time to dive for cover-even as they pray the rocket will miss.

At 11:30 a.m. on December 27, a new sound filled the azure Mediterranean sky: the rolling boom of Israeli bombs and missiles slamming into Gaza.

Israeli airstrikes in Gaza are anything but "new," but presenting them as such--and pairing that presentation with an Israeli family sheltered against an incoming Hamas rocket--gives a wildly misleading impression of a conflict where the deaths and suffering are overwhelmingly on the Palestinian side.

-----------
Officials warn: Gaza infrastructures near breaking point
By Amira Hass
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=1052984
06/01/2009

Between 600,000 and 700,000 Gazans have no water, some of them going on a week.

About one million have no electricity, raw sewage is running in the streets in some places and various localities, especially in the northern Gaza Strip, face the threat of sewer backups.

Repairmen cannot easily get out to make repairs, due to the shelling and poor conditions of roads. The mobile and land-line phone networks in the Strip have been seriously damaged from both air strikes and the power shortages. Increasingly, Gazans have no way to contact relatives, local authorities or aid and emergency services, heightening their sense of panic and isolation.

That is the picture of the Gazan infrastructure that emerges from the reports of residents and of the Deputy Director of the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility, Maher Najjar, and Maxwell Gaylard, UN Humanitarian Coordinator. Judging by the number of wells that are inoperable or operating at very low capacity, Najjar estimates that between 40 and 50 percent of Gazans do not have access to water.

Every day, air raids cause additional damage to the water system, and the number of complaints to the water utility increases hourly. Yesterday, for example, the pipe supplying water to the village of Umm al-Nasr, in the Rafah area, was damaged, suspending the supply of water to its 10,000 residents.

A pipe that provides water to about 30,000 people in the central Strip was also damaged by Israeli air strikes. According to statements by Gaza residents to Haaretz, as well as an affidavit submitted by Najjar to Gisha-Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, people are running out of potable water in their homes and are unable to reach public faucets to obtain additional supplies because of the Israeli offensive.

The homes of about one million Gazans have been without electricity for between five and seven days straight, due to a combination of war-related infrastructure damage and shortages of diesel oil for power plants.

Gaza's water and sewage pumps run on electricity. When there is not enough electricity, they run on standby generators, which are powered by diesel fuel. If the supply of fuel is not renewed to these generators within two days, the remaining 25 operating fresh-water pumps in Gaza City and the rest of the Strip will stop pumping. In Rafah, for example, 70 percent of residents could be without water within two days.

Spare parts, such as tubing, pipes, and air and water filters, are in short supply because Israel has prohibited their entry into the Strip since during the cease-fire.

The Red Cross yesterday was negotiating with the Israel Defense Forces over the transfer of about 20,000 liters of diesel fuel that arrived at the Erez border terminal yesterday. The drivers are afraid of being hit by IDF fire, in addition to the dangers of negotiating Gaza's poor roads.

Out of the 37 sewer pumping stations in the Gaza Strip, 32 are operating only partially because of the lack of electricity, while the remaining five are not operating at all.

A pumping station in Beit Lahiya stopped operating after its generator was damaged by the IDF operation, and as a result sewage is collecting in the street. Four pumping stations in Gaza City have run out of diesel for the backup generators and the sewage from three of them is flowing into the sea, while runoff from the fourth is flooding nearby farmland. If the fuel supply to the remaining pumps is not renewed within a few days the sewage will be flowing into the streets as well.

In Beit Hanun, sewage has flowed in the streets for six days since a pipe carrying it to the treatment plant was damaged. As of yesterday, efforts to coordinate the dispatch of technicians with the IDF have failed.

The sewage levels in the giant wastewater treatment plant in the northern Strip (which was to have been emptied out over a month ago to prevent flooding) are steadily increasing, posing a danger to the 10,000 people living nearby.

-----

December 5, 2008
Israel rains fire on Gaza with phosphorus shells
Sheera Frenkel in Jerusalem and Michael Evans, Defence Editor
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5447590.ece

Israel is believed to be using controversial white phosphorus shells to screen its assault on the heavily populated Gaza Strip yesterday. The weapon, used by British and US forces in Iraq, can cause horrific burns but is not illegal if used as a smokescreen.

As the Israeli army stormed to the edges of Gaza City and the Palestinian death toll topped 500, the tell-tale shells could be seen spreading tentacles of thick white smoke to cover the troops' advance. "These explosions are fantastic looking, and produce a great deal of smoke that blinds the enemy so that our forces can move in," said one Israeli security expert. Burning blobs of phosphorus would cause severe injuries to anyone caught beneath them and force would-be snipers or operators of remote-controlled booby traps to take cover. Israel admitted using white phosphorus during its 2006 war with Lebanon.

The use of the weapon in the Gaza Strip, one of the world's mostly densely population areas, is likely to ignite yet more controversy over Israel's offensive, in which more than 2,300 Palestinians have been wounded.

The Geneva Treaty of 1980 stipulates that white phosphorus should not be used as a weapon of war in civilian areas, but there is no blanket ban under international law on its use as a smokescreen or for illumination. However, Charles Heyman, a military expert and former major in the British Army, said: "If white phosphorus was deliberately fired at a crowd of people someone would end up in The Hague. White phosphorus is also a terror weapon. The descending blobs of phosphorus will burn when in contact with skin."

The Israeli military last night denied using phosphorus, but refused to say what had been deployed. "Israel uses munitions that are allowed for under international law," said Captain Ishai David, spokesman for the Israel Defence Forces. "We are pressing ahead with the second stage of operations, entering troops in the Gaza Strip to seize areas from which rockets are being launched into Israel."

The civilian toll in the first 24 hours of the ground offensive — launched after a week of bombardment from air, land and sea— was at least 64 dead. Among those killed were five members of a family who died when an Israeli tank shell hit their car and a paramedic who died when a tank blasted his ambulance. Doctors at Gaza City's main hospital said many women and children were among the dead and wounded.

The Israeli army also suffered its first fatality of the offensive when one of its soldiers was killed by mortar fire. More than 30 soldiers were wounded by mortars, mines and sniper fire.

Israel has brushed aside calls for a ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid into the besieged territory, where medical supplies are running short.

With increasingly angry anti-Israeli protests spreading around the world, Gordon Brown described the violence in Gaza as "a dangerous moment".

White phosphorus: the smoke-screen chemical that can burn to the bone

-- White phosphorus bursts into a deep-yellow flame when it is exposed to oxygen, producing a thick white smoke

-- It is used as a smokescreen or for incendiary devices, but can also be deployed as an anti-personnel flame compound capable of causing potentially fatal burns

-- Phosphorus burns are almost always second or third-degree because the particles do not stop burning on contact with skin until they have entirely disappeared — it is not unknown for them to reach the bone

-- Geneva conventions ban the use of phosphorus as an offensive weapon against civilians, but its use as a smokescreen is not prohibited by international law

-- Israel previously used white phosphorus during its war with Lebanon in 2006

-- It has been used frequently by British and US forces in recent wars, notably during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Its use was criticised widely

-- White phosphorus has the slang name "Willy Pete", which dates from the First World War. It was commonly used in the Vietnam era

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

More on Gaza

In this post:

1. The Gaza Ghetto Uprising by Joseph Massad
2. Letter from Mazin Qumsiyah
3. "In the south, support for Gaza op is far from unanimous," by Fadi Edayat, Ha'aretz
4. "Barak's political fortunes seen rising with each missile that pounds Gaza", Roni Singer-Heruti, Ha'aretz
5. Amira Hass: "No Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza?"

Rebecca Vilkomerson on Massad and Qumsiyeh:

The following two pieces, each by highly regarded Palestinian scholars, may make for uncomfortable reading, as they did for me. They are both very strong, and very harsh, as befits the situation. They are also both very analytical and incisive about the implications of the Gaza invasion, both morally and politically, and do not spare the blame to go around, starting and ending with Israel, but also including the U.S., complicit Arab regimes, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. The piece by Joseph Massad, published in the Electronic Intifada, is titled "The Gaza Ghetto Uprising" and the title intentionally evokes the Warsaw Ghetto, drawing a chilling historical parallel and along the way offering an explanation of the true relationships among the countries of the Middle East. Perhaps most important, it challenges all of us to think about our moral responsibility during this time.The piece by Mazin Qumsieh also pulls lessons from history, but focuses more on key conclusions and
strategic lessons to be learned from how the invasion has unfolded, especially the local and international reactions of people, as compared to their governments.

I don't agree with everything in them (especially Massad's implicit endorsement of suicide as a political message) but they both made me think long and hard, and broadened my understanding of the place of this particular invasion in the history of the Palestinian struggle and the potential future implications for all the peoples of the region.

Rebecca Vilkomerson on Ha'aretz:

Two articles from the January 5th Haaretz pull back the curtain on what is going on during this invasion. The first briefly profiles two residents of the south who are threatened by Hamas's rockets but oppose the war nevertheless. Haaretz has not done a great job of covering internal Israeli dissent against the invasion, especially Jewish Israeli dissent, and even when it does it is always presented as "people from Tel Aviv" as a pejorative--those not actually affected by the rockets. In fact, one of the favorite taunts from the pro-war crowd is "are you from Sderot?" So this article is significant because it acknowledges that support for the war is not unanimous, even in the South. An anti-war protest is scheduled for today in Beersheva, another town hit by rockets.

The second piece notes that Ehud Barak's political fortunes are rising thanks to the war. The money quote: "Labor officials insist that the operation's timing has nothing to do with the fact that elections are due to take place in another month, on February 10. But they readily admit that, as one put it, "his conduct in managing the operation in Gaza enables the public to examine Barak's conduct in the real world and not the world of image and style." This insistence is nicely framed right inside Barak's campaign slogan.

Sarah Anne Minkin on Amira Hass:

Because we cannot hear enough of the details of just how bad things are in Gaza: there is little water, no electricity, no heat; the cellphone network is collapsing or already collapsed; landlines are spotty; hospitals are totally overwhelmed and medical evacuations can barely be arranged, if at all. The sewage treatment plant in north Gaza might overflow and flood the area (see http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1049817.html). The assaults on Gaza continue from land, air and sea.

For testimonies on Gaza, read here:

http://www.kabobfest.com/2009/01/mads-gilbert-norwegian-doctor-in-gaza.html - on hospitals and doctors being completely overwhelmed;

http://www.kabobfest.com/2009/01/gaza-where-families-die-together.html - by Mohammad, writing from the West Bank, reporting on daily phone calls with his family in Gaza

http://www.kabobfest.com/2009/01/gaza-24-hours-into-ground-invasion.html - also by Mohammad in the West Bank

***

The Gaza Ghetto Uprising http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10110.shtml ((worth clicking to see the picture)

Joseph Massad, The Electronic Intifada, 4 January 2009

One is often baffled by the ironies of international relations and the alliances they foster. Take for example the Israeli colonial settlement that had declared war on the Palestinian people and several Arab countries since its inception while at the same time it built alliances with many Arab regimes and with Palestinian leaders.

While Hashemite-Zionist relations and Maronite Church-Zionist relations have always been known and documented, there has been less documentation of the services that Israel has provided and continues to provide to Arab regimes over the decades. It is now recognized that Israel's 1967 invasion of Egypt aimed successfully to destroy Gamal Abdul-Nasser, the enemy of all US dictatorial allies among the Arab regimes, whom the US and before it Britain and France had tried to topple since the 1950s but failed. Israel thus rendered a great service to Arab monarchies (and a few republics) from "the ocean to the Gulf," whose survival was threatened by Nasser and Nasserism. Israel's subsequent intervention in Jordan in 1970 to help the Jordanian army destroy Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) guerrillas and its final crushing of that organization in its massive invasions of Lebanon in 1978 and 1982 were also important services it rendered to these same regimes threatened by the PLO's
"revolutionary" potential and its sometimes recalcitrant positions. Israeli intelligence has also provided over the decades crucial information to several Arab regimes enabling them to crush their political opposition and strengthen their dictatorial rule. Prominent examples among recipients of Israeli intelligence largesse include the Moroccan and the Omani dictatorships.

Israel's services to Arab regimes continue apace. Its 2006 invasion of Lebanon, engineered to destroy Hizballah, was cheered by Arab regimes and neoliberal Arab intellectuals hostile to Hizballah and employed exclusively by Saudi media outlets. Though the massive Israeli destruction of southern Lebanon and south Beirut and the massacres of more than a thousand Lebanese strengthened Hizballah and weakened Israel's military standing, the invasion was much appreciated by Israel's Arab allies. Indeed since 2006, Israel's Arab regime allies as well as neoliberal Arab intellectuals have been openly calling on it to neutralize the so-called Iranian "threat" for its own sake and at their behest as well. The US has seen this as an opportune moment to fully integrate Israel in the region, so much so that it signaled to its Gulf allies to make proposals for a new regional alliance that includes Israel in its midst. The Bahraini foreign minister suggested a few weeks ago that Israel join the
Arab
League. Many such proposals have already been made in the past few months welcoming the colonial settlement to the regional alliance against Iran.

Since 2006, Arab regimes, neoliberal Arab intellectuals, as well as the Palestinian Collaborationist Authority (PCA) in Ramallah have reached an understanding that only Israel will be able to save them from Hizballah and Hamas, both organizations constituting a threat to the open alliance Arab regimes have with the US and Israel against Iran and all progressive forces in the region. These were not closely guarded secret hopes, but strategies that were openly discussed in private meetings, which often spilled into the public realm. The discussions in the Arab media and the declarations made by Israeli officials in the context of the ongoing Israeli massacres of the one and a half million Palestinians in Gaza in the last 10 days have left little to the imagination. A veritable open alliance now exists between the Palestinian Collaborationist Authority, Arab regimes, and Israel with the support of neoliberal Arab intellectuals, wherein Israel is subcontracted to decimate the Hamas
government -- the only democratically elected government in the entire Arab world.

Here let us remember that Hamas was democratically elected in free elections and that its elected officials and members of parliament were kidnapped by the Israeli occupation and have been languishing in Israeli jails for years, and that the Palestinian Collaborationist Authority set their offices on fire, staged strikes against them, and signaled the PCA bureaucracy not to follow their orders. It was after all this failed to dislodge Hamas from power that the US, Israel, and the PCA staged a coup to massacre Hamas leaders in Gaza that backfired on them. The carnage unleashed by Israel in the last 10 days is the latest attempt by Israel to ensure that all Arabs and all Palestinians are ruled by dictators and never by democratically elected officials.

Many are wondering how the Arab regimes and the PCA can be so brazen in their "treachery" of the Palestinians. "Don't they fear being overthrown by the people?" is an oft-repeated question. The answer of course is a resounding "no." It is true that collaboration with Israel by Arab regimes is not new, and that what is new is merely their openness about it, but there is a perfectly good reason for this. In the 1940s and the 1950s, these regimes could not declare openly their alliance with Israel, as there were popular and international forces that would have removed them from power had they done so. Indeed, some at the time flirted with alliances that unofficially included Israel, like the Baghdad Pact, but they paid a heavy price for such collaboration. The Cold War, Third World revolutionism, Arab nationalism, the Soviet Union, China, Nasser, were all factors to be considered. While a few of these factors had remained when Egypt's Sadat declared his open alliance with the US and
Israel in the late 1970s, none of these factors remains today. The US, Israel, and their major Arab allies have neutralized these forces one by one since 1967, opening the way for this brazen alliance between Israel and the Arab dictatorships, all of which are in the service of US interests in the region. These Arab regimes rule by terror and fear and have at their disposal the best secret police and repressive security apparatus that the US can train and equip and which oil money and US aid can buy.

When Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was asked point blank by al-Jazeera's anchorman if Israel had an arrangement with Arab regimes to commit the Gaza massacres, she refused to answer and finally denied such an arrangement existed but could not help but affirm that there are those in the Arab world who "think" as Israel does and that Hamas is their enemy as it is the enemy of Israel. This is, incidentally, the same Tzipi Livni, who only a few weeks ago informed Palestinian citizens of Israel that she has slated them for denationalization and deportation to the Palestinian Bantustans once Israel and the international community grants these West Bank prisons the status of an independent Palestinian state enclosed within the apartheid wall. After her war on Palestinians in Gaza started last week, Livni declared that her war against the Palestinian people is not only about security but also about Israel's "values" which non-collaborator Palestinians (unlike the PCA) do not share.
Livni is of course right. Unlike Livni and the Israeli leadership, whose ethnic-cleansing ideals and plans are to make Israel a purely Jewish state that is Palästinenser-rein, most Palestinians believe that they should remain present on their lands even and especially if this sullies the purity of a Jewish Israel.

Livni has also asserted that Israel's values are shared by the "free world" and by unfree Arab regimes that are allies of the "free world." We can add, that her values are also shared by Saudi-funded neoliberal Arab intellectuals and by the leadership of the Palestinian Collaborationist Authority ensconced in the Green Zone of Ramallah. The civilized values of Israel are not unlike those espoused by the US in its ongoing wars against Arabs and Muslims, and are very much like European colonial values during the high age of colonialism and beyond. Livni and the Israeli leadership speak of human rights, democracy, peace, and justice as universal while applying them only to Jews and denying them especially to Palestinians. This is hardly an Israeli ruse. Let us remember the undying words of Frantz Fanon in this regard: "leave this Europe where they never tire of talking of man, yet murder men everywhere they find them, at the corner of every one of their own streets, in all the corners
of
the globe."

On the Palestinian front, the term of chief Palestinian collaborator and coup leader Mahmoud Abbas ends on 9 January. Israel hopes to extend his collaborationist rule as head of the PCA it set up through the Oslo agreement in 1993. As Palestinians are murdered and injured in the thousands, world powers are cheering on. This is hardly a new development. It happens often in the context of other populations being murdered by allies of the US and Europe, and it even happened during World War II as the Nazi genocide was proceeding. On 19 April 1943, Britain and the US met in Bermuda, presumably to discuss the situation of Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe. That was also the day when the Nazis had launched their war against the remaining Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto but were met with unexpected courageous resistance. Little came out of the Bermuda Conference and the ongoing war against the Warsaw Ghetto proceeded uninterrupted. The Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto executed Jewish
collaborators with the Nazis and bravely faced up to the Nazi army with what little weapons it had before being massacred. Their uprising was always inspirational to the Palestinians. In the heyday of the PLO as a symbol of Palestinian liberation, the organization would lay flower wreathes at the Warsaw Ghetto monument to honor these fallen Jewish heroes.

Szmul Zygielbojm was the leader of the Jewish socialist party, the Bund, in Poland and was part of the resistance against the Nazi invasion in 1939. He would later become a hostage held by the Nazis but would later be released and made a member of the Jewish council or judenrat, the Nazi equivalent of the Israeli-created Palestinian Collaborationist Authority, and which was charged with building a Jewish ghetto in Warsaw. Zygielbojm opposed the Nazi order and fled to Belgium, France, the US, and in 1942 ended up in London where he joined the Polish government in exile. On 12 May 1943, after he received word that the resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto was finally crushed and many of its fighters killed, Zygielbojm turned on the gas in his London flat and committed suicide in protest against the indifference and inaction of the Allies to the plight of the Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe. He also felt that he had no right to live after his comrades were killed resisting the Nazis. In his
suicide letter, Zygielbojm insisted that while the Nazis were responsible for the murder of the Polish Jews, the Allies, through their inaction, were also guilty:

The latest news that has reached us from Poland makes it clear beyond any doubt that the Germans are now murdering the last remnants of the Jews in Poland with unbridled cruelty. Behind the walls of the ghetto the last act of this tragedy is now being played out.

The responsibility for the crime of the murder of the whole Jewish nationality in Poland rests first of all on those who are carrying it out, but indirectly it falls also upon the whole of humanity, on the peoples of the Allied nations and on their governments, who up to this day have not taken any real steps to halt this crime. By looking on passively upon this murder of defenseless millions, tortured children, women and men they have become partners to the responsibility ...

I cannot continue to live and to be silent while the remnants of Polish Jewry, whose representative I am, are being murdered. My comrades in the Warsaw ghetto fell with arms in their hands in the last heroic battle. I was not permitted to fall like them, together with them, but I belong with them, to their mass grave.

By my death, I wish to give expression to my most profound protest against the inaction in which the world watches and permits the destruction of the Jewish people ...

The Palestinian Collaborationist Authority that runs the judenrat set up by Oslo has never even attempted to resist Israeli orders. Not one member of the top leadership decided to resign and not serve. Mahmoud Abbas, having provided so many dishonorable services to Israel, lacks Zygielbojm's integrity and noble principles and would never follow in Zygielbojm's footsteps.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian people will resist the invading Israelis with all their might and against astronomical odds. The Palestinian people, like Zygielbojm before them, understand very well that Abbas, his clique, the Arab regimes, the US and Europe are all culpable in their slaughter as much as Israel is. In the case of Zygielbojm, he blamed world powers for their indifference and inaction, in the Palestinian case, world and regional powers are co-conspirators and active partners in crime.

The crushing of the Gaza Ghetto Uprising and the slaughter of its defenseless population will be relatively an easy task for the giant Israeli military machine and Israel's sadistic political leadership. It is dealing with the aftermath of a strengthened Palestinian determination to continue to resist Israel that will prove much more difficult for Israel and its Arab allies to deal with. While the thousands of dead and injured Palestinians are the main victims of this latest Israeli terrorist war, the major political loser in all this will be Abbas and his clique of collaborators. The test for Palestinian resistance now is to continue to refuse to grant Israel the right to conquer populations, to steal their land, to destroy their livelihoods, to imprison them in ghettos, and to starve them without being resisted.

The only constant in Palestinian lives for the last century of Zionist atrocities has been resistance to the Zionist project of erasing them from the face of the earth. While Zionism sought and recruited Arab and Palestinian collaborators since its inception in the hope of crushing Palestinian resistance, neither Israel nor any of its collaborators has been able to stop it. The lesson that Zionism has refused to learn, and still refuses to learn, is that the Palestinian yearning for freedom from the Zionist yoke cannot be extinguished no matter how barbaric Israel's crimes become. The Gaza Ghetto Uprising will mark both the latest chapter in Palestinian resistance to colonialism and the latest Israeli colonial brutality in a region whose peoples will never accept the legitimacy of a racist European colonial settlement in their midst.

Joseph Massad is associate professor of modern Arab politics and intellectual history at Columbia University in New York.

***

By Mazin Qumsiyah

Dear friends:

Israeli leaders intensified their blitzkrieg following intensive aerial "shock and awe" that killed hundreds of civilians. This was intended to subdue not only the 1.5 million impoverished and starved Palestinian but the larger human community around the world and reengineer the political map. After nine days, it is worth taking time to do some analysis in the middle of constant events (demonstrations, vigils, interviews with media). Those of you occupied doing actions for Palestine may not have time to read this while others have specifically asked for it. To make it easy for all, let me start with conclusions and then explain to those who want to read on:

a) when this aggression ends (and it will), Israeli army and leaders will not emerge victorious,

b) the political map will indeed change but not in the ways that Israeli leaders, US leaders, or even some Arab leaders predicted or planned,

c) we Palestinians have an opportunity to make sure that the sparks of unity already in the air turn to a fire of unity that will change the power structure in the Middle East in a way that will really bring justice to Palestine and defeat political Zionism and its collaborators and benefactors but only if we recognize our mistakes as individuals and political factions (including Hamas, Fatah, PFLP, DFLP, etc).

To be honest with ourselves, we must recognize that what Israel counted on materialized in a few cases: ineptness of the UN security council under threat of a US veto (itself under threat of the Zionist lobby), ineptness of the Arab league, the collaboration of many Arab governments, the apathy of large segments of the Israeli public, predicted local attempts to contain the anger in the street (from Cairo to Ramallah to Baghdad etc), and success of Israeli and Zionist forces and well financed propaganda not only in preventing reporting from the ground in Gaza but in controlling the message in much of the supine western media. Some of these initial predictables are beginning to crack after 9 days of massacres that could not be hidden. But there were other more significant failures of the Israeli blitzkrieg.

Let us review these:

1) Gaza resistance and steadfastness comes as number one surprise for the planners. Despite the massacres, it is amazing to watch the spirit. Just one image of a child no more than 10 year old with an open large wound in his belly exposing his intestines but he does not scream, does not yell.. he is talking (obvious pain only in his eyes and facial expression but with no tears), maybe just anger and a question mark to the camera directed at the world. That is Gaza today. In other images women calling not slogans against the occupiers and the war criminals bombing them from the sky but calls to the Arab and Islamic people "WaMu3tasima" (call of anguish, call for aid that goes to the history of the requirement of Muslims and Arabs to aid those who are in need).

2) Massive popular solidarity with Gaza inside 1948 Palestine (current state of Israel), including thousands demonstrating in Tel Aviv, and over 100,000 demonstrating in Sakhnin (Palestinian citizens of Israel).

3) Massive demonstrations in the West Bank that included clashes with Israeli forces despite attempts by Palestinian police to intervene. Just in the Bethlehem area, we have had at least two events (vigils or demonstrations) daily since the start of the blitzkrieg.

4) Massive demonstrations in the Arab world even when these demonstrations were banned, demonstrators beaten or arrested by governments beholden to fake peace treaties that do not protect rights or dignities of the people. Demonstrators demanded cutting all diplomatic and economic ties with Israel and a real unity and solidarity.

5) Massive demonstrations in thousands of locations in the rest of the word that really could not be ignored even when Zionist editors tried to minimize their impact.

6) Massive pouring of material support for Gaza (for example a campaign in Saudi Arabia collected 32 million just in the first 48 hours).

7) The presence of the internet and the failure of Israel to break all access of reporting and communication with Gaza. Millions of people are now learning firsthand what is going on (your receiving this email with its links is just one of the examples).

It might be too simplistic to say that rational human beings draw rational conclusions and that tribal/emotional human beings go down the path of irrational behaviors. Some claim to look pragmatically at things and yet draw the conclusion that it is inevitable that Palestine will be vanquished in favor of the Zionist Jewish state of Israel. Hence we are asked to accept the Bantustan called a state on 9% of historic Palestine AND without sovereignty. They remind us that of Hegel's words that "what we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history".

As Palestinians we must also say "mea culpa" and take some responsibility for the state of affairs. We Arabs and Palestinians have been the victims of western imperial and Zionist designs and colonization for 100 years. Yes, most of our problems could be directly connected to that. But yes also, some of our "leaders" have been less than desirable to say it charitably (this applies to other Arabs). And our leaders do originate from among us so we must work on that. But we must be clear that our societal weaknesses do not justify or excuse the slaughter or ethnic cleansing of our people. In 1948 we did not have good leaders because they were all massacred and exiled in the 1936-1939 uprising but even if we did, this does not justify our ethnic cleansing or dispossession at the hand of Zionists who had well-organized and strong leadership (Ben Gurion). The slaughter of the Warsaw Ghetto during WWII similarly cannot be said to be justified by weak Jewish leadership and strong Nazi
leadership. History is not kind to aggressors and in this case history will be written differently. An army that shells a market place causing this kind of destruction will not be successful at surviving any more than any other fascist army in history (see the graphic video of the minutes after the Israeli attack on the marketplace in Gaza at:http://muslimtv.magnify.net/video/ISRAEL-CARNAGE-CIVILIANS-CHILDR ).

Need we be reminded of the terrorist actions of Zionist groups like the Hagannah, the Irgun, and Stern (all forerunners of the current Israeli terrorist army). Over 2000 attacks on Palestinian civilians killing over 15,000 occurred before Israel was declared a state. In the six weeks that preceded declaring Israel a state, 33 massacres were committed by the prestate Jewish forces including the famous massacres of Tantura and Deir Yassin.

Over half the Palestinian refugees (and thus half the 530 Palestinian villages and towns ethnically cleansed) were driven out before May 14, 1948 (Israel's founding). After that date, with far more superior in arms and manpower than any opposing force (largely haphazard formations of Arab forces that came in to stop the ethnic cleansing), the nascent state proceeded to expand its territory beyond what was recommended in the partition resolution of the UN general assembly. In so doing, once the cease fire was declared instead of Palestine we had a state of Israel on 78% of Palestine and a collaborationist Jordanian regime occupied the 19% leaving a small sliver controlled by Egypt called the Gaza strip. In that strip, the refugees from over 150 towns and villages ethnically cleansed were squeezed. Israel of course expanded more by occupying the remainder of Palestine in 1967. With population growth, the Gaza desert ghetto became home to 1.5 million

The late Professor Edward Said wrote about Gaza in August, 2002:

"Every Palestinian has become a prisoner. Gaza is surrounded by an electrified fence on three sides: imprisoned like animals, Gazans are unable to move, unable to work, unable to sell their vegetables or fruit, unable to go to school. They are exposed from the air to Israeli planes and helicopters and are gunned down like turkeys on the ground by tanks and machine guns. Impoverished and starved, Gaza is a human nightmare. Hope has been eliminated from the Palestinian vocabulary so that only raw defiance remains. Palestinians must die a slow death so that Israel can have its security, which is just around the corner but cannot be realized because of the special Israeli "insecurity." The whole world must sympathize, while the cries of Palestinian orphans, sick old women, bereaved communities, and tortured prisoners simply go unheard and unrecorded. Doubtless, we will be told, these horrors serve a larger purpose than mere sadistic cruelty. After all, "the two sides" are engaged in a
"cycle of violence" that has to be stopped, sometime, somewhere. Once in a while we ought to pause and declare indignantly that there is only one side with an army and a country: the other is a stateless dispossessed population of people without rights or any present way of securing them. The language of suffering and concrete daily life has been either hijacked or so perverted as, in my opinion, to be useless except as pure fiction deployed as a screen for the purpose of more killing and painstaking torture - slowly, fastidiously, and inexorably. That is the truth of what Palestinians suffer."

Things have become much more difficult six years later. Gazans I talked to say direct and quick death by sophisticated weapons has now become just another alternative to the slower death by starvation but they all want to live in freedom and will not succumb to terrorism anymore. Why would people who are not facing these horrible choices stand and watch and imagine negotiating with such an "army with a state" (as an Israeli leader called Israel)?

The aggression as in basic laws of physics will generate reactions. Did we not see that over the years Palestinians and Arabs learned how to fight better? When I use the term to fight I do not just mean the violent resistance (with its various forms, some forms that individuals may not agree with) but all forms of nonviolent resistance and methods of wars (such as the media wars, the wars of ideas etc).

But could we do better? Could we learn to fight better in the media arena? After working over 15 years in the Western media I ask myself why we cannot do better. Why is it that during the critical periods of the latest uprising we had a PLO representative in Washington who was not the best communicator (or at least had good communication team who would write his talking points)? Or with Hamas spokesm,en speaking to excite their membesr instead of making their case. Why do we not use Palestinians of very high caliber in communication (people like Hanan Ashrawi and Ali Abunimah and hundreds of others) that could transmit to the West the reality of what is going on here? Why do we talk about Fatah and Hamas need to reconciliate when hundreds of Palestinians living in the same country do not even talk to each other because they have different ideas about tactics? It would be interesting to see how many leaders of Palestinian communities abroad and in refugee camps called for their
rivals to meet, asked for forgetting their differences, starting new leaves etc.? It will be interesting to see if our differences will reemerge like they did after the brief unity over the massacres in Jenin and Nablus in 2002 and 2003?

I know some people by now are saying this is not the time when our people are massacred to do such questioning. But our people have been getting massacred for 100 years by Western backed Zionists and we are all (all factions, all individuals) mature enough to learn from our mistakes and evolve. Need we remember the long list of oppressions and uprisings (192-21, 1929, 1936-1939, 1947-1950, 1956, 1967, 1970-1977,…)? Don't we remember that the sacrifices and the successes of things like the 1936-1939 uprising, the 1968 Karama battle, the brilliance of the first uprising of the stones 1987-1993 (largely nonviolent uprising) and many many more? From all of these things did we not learn some lessons? Were some of these lessons not lessons of better organizing, more actions and less talk? Did we not modify and change and evolve AND SURVIVE? And was that survival not in itself a thwarting of the most entrenched ethnic cleansing machine that attempted to remove us all from our land?
Was it not that resistance that kept five million Palestinians still living in our historic homeland despite the most sophisticated power structure of any colonial history in the last 500 years?

And why do some of us (humans that is, all humans) despair or even collaborate with the enemies of peace and justice? For Israelis and those who want to live in peace, would it not be better to get educated about the original injustice of ethnic cleansing and begin the process of true reconciliation and restorative justice? For Zionized Western media, why do you think you can keep a lid on the anger of and keep oppressing the aspirations of 10 million Palestinians, 300 million Arabs, 1.5 billion Muslims, and nearly 6 billion human beings who aspire for JUSTICE with peace? Why do you consider war a solution to anything?

Among Palestinians, did we not always find older generations that got tired and wanted to fold or at least wanted to hold the younger generation from stepping forward to take responsibility? Isn't it the time to drop everything and gather as PALESTINIANS (not as faction or political ideologies or competing Palestinians for positions and visibility), every day, speak to each other in humility and in brotherhood/sisterhood to resolve the differences? Can't we all pick up the phone and email others and simply invite them for a physical meeting and if not possible virtual meeting? And for those who are not Palestinians, what can you do to ensure such reconciliation happen and that you are not helping divisions but helping unity? For all of us, the question remains whether to light a candle or curse the dark.

Other links and resources

Gaza Website
http://gazasiege.org/

The Jewish ethical tradition means embracing Palestinians, too.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0102/p09s01-coop.html

(In Arabic) Azmi Bshara analyzes the current situation
http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/C9AF6054-1CC3-461E-9C5B-C7746EC65345.htm

****

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1052605.html
In the south, support for Gaza op is far from unanimous

By Fadi Eyadat

At the end of an interview with him, Fredo Goldfarb of Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak in the Eshkol region asked that people "take into account that in any democratic country, thinking differently does not mean we are traitors; it doesn't mean we don't love our country and care about its future. Our political analysis is different."

He has good reason to make that statement. These days, as it seems that most public opinion strongly supports the Gaza operation, those holding fast to the opposite opinion are scorned.

"As someone who has lived for the past eight years with my family under the threat of Qassams, explosive charges and tunnels [dug by terrorists] that might pop up in the middle of the kibbutz, I know what I'm saying - only agreements with the other side will bring an end to these threats," Goldfarb said. "I am afraid for my family and those around me. But does that give me the right to kill 400 Palestinians? What do I get out of this? Only more families that come into the circle of enmity."

Goldfarb's opinion is not one often heard these days in the south. But a significant number of people feel that way. Some did not want to say so publicly yesterday, especially after reports came to light that a soldier was killed and others were wounded.

Na'amika Tzion, who has lived in Sderot for 22 years, said the first time she felt secure after eight years of bombardment was when the cease-fire agreement was signed with Hamas. No matter what the army did, "we always got hit back."

"A channel of communication has to be found that will lead to an extension of the cease-fire and to the problem of [kidnapped soldier Gilad] Shalit and to the crossings," she said.

Tzion herself talks on the phone to people in Gaza.

"For me they have names and identities. There are catastrophic things happening there," she said.

Tzion agreed with Goldfarb that Hamas is extreme, "but I want to be sure our leadership has done everything to extend the cease-fire through a third party and I have major doubts, she says.

***

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1052602.html

Barak's political fortunes seen rising with each missile that pounds Gaza

By Roni Singer-Heruti

The Israel Defense Forces operation in Gaza has prompted a surge in the number of people volunteering at the Labor Party's campaign headquarters over the last week, party officials say.

Thus far, the operation has been very popular with the public, and most of the credit has gone to Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who is also Labor's chairman.

The surge in people calling or emailing to volunteer their services is yet another sign of a trend already evident from the polls: a sharp rise in support for Labor in general and Barak in particular. Last week's Haaretz poll, for instance, found that Labor had risen to 16 Knesset seats from 11 in the previous poll.

The turnabout is particular striking for a party whose demise has been widely forecast just two weeks ago.

"There is no doubt that the [Gaza] operation has highlighted Barak's advantages and enabled a real discourse about the truly important matters," one senior Labor official said this weekend. "That's what we were trying to say all along: He's not a pal, he's not nice, but he's a leader. And now, people see that."

Even in the Ramle market, generally a reliable bastion of the right, support for Barak was virtually unanimous last week.

"Barak has proven himself in this operation as someone who knows how to do the work," said Shlomo Sarur, who has been a member of rival Likud's central committee for 25 years. "On security, he's good, and you can't take that away from him."

Labor officials insist that the operation's timing has nothing to do with the fact that elections are due to take place in another month, on February 10. But they readily admit that, as one put it, "his conduct in managing the operation in Gaza enables the public to examine Barak's conduct in the real world and not the world of image and style."

Officially, the party's campaign has been suspended since the operation began 10 days ago. But party officials know the campaign will have to resume the day after the operation ends, and they are therefore busy preparing their day-after strategies.

However, these strategies depend largely on how the operation turns out. If, by the time it ends, it is still perceived as a success, Barak will feature prominently in Labor's campaign as a "leader with a proven record." If not, Labor will clearly need a different tactic. But Dr. Tamir Sheafer of Hebrew University's political science program predicts that Labor's surge in the polls will be short-lived either way.

"It's all a question of how long the operation lasts and how many screw-ups there are," he said. "But from the polls we have conducted, it is possible to say that in general, rightist voters will ultimately have trouble putting a Labor ballot in the box."

****

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1052606.html

Last update - 09:41 05/01/2009

No humanitarian crisis in Gaza?

By Amira Hass

Three hours after the Israel Defense Forces began their ground operation in the Gaza Strip, at about 10:30 P.M. Saturday night, a shell or missile hit the house owned by Hussein al-Awaidi and his brothers. Twenty-one people live in the isolated house, located in an agricultural area east of Gaza City's Zeitoun neighborhood. Five of them were wounded in the strike: Two women in their eighties (his mother and aunt), his 14-year-old son, his 13-year-old niece and his 10-year-old nephew.

Twenty hours later, the wounded were still bleeding in a shed in the courtyard of the house. There was no electricity, no heat, no water. Their relatives were with them, but every time they tried to leave the courtyard to fetch water, the army shot at them.

Al-Awaidi tried to summon help on his cell phone, but Gaza's cell phone network is collapsing. Shells have hit transponders, there is no electricity and no diesel fuel to run the generators. Every time the telephone works, it is a minor miracle.

At about noon Sunday, Al-Awaidi finally managed to reach S., who called me. There was nothing else that S., who lives nearby, could do.

I had known Al-Awaidi for eight years, and I called Physicians for Human Rights. They called the IDF's liaison office to ask it to arrange to have the wounded evacuated. That was shortly after noon - and as of press time, the liaison office had still not called PHR back.

Meanwhile, someone else had managed to reach the Red Crescent Society. It called the Red Cross and asked it to coordinate the evacuation of the wounded with the IDF. That was at 10:30 A.M. - and as of press time Sunday night, the Red Cross had still not been able to do so.

While I was on the phone with PHR, at about noon, H. called. He just wanted to report: Two children, Ahmed Sabih and Mohammed al-Mashharawi, aged 10 and 11, had gone up on the roof of their Gaza City house to heat water over a fire. There is no electricity or gas, so fire is all that remains.

Tanks are spitting shells, helicopters are raining fire, warplanes are causing earthquakes. But it is still hard for people to grasp that heating water has become no less dangerous than joining Hamas' military wing.

An IDF missile hit the two boys, killing Ahmed and seriously wounding Mohammed. Later Sunday, an Internet news site reported that both had died. But H.'s cell phone was not answering, so I could not verify that report.

And there was no point in trying H.'s land line: A bomb destroyed his neighborhood's entire phone system on Saturday. The target was a print shop (yet another of the IDF's "military" targets). Its owner, a retired UNRWA employee, had invested his entire pension in the shop.

In B.'s neighborhood, the bombs hit the water mains, so she has had no water since yesterday morning. "I'm already used to coping without electricity," she said. "There's no television, but I hear what happens from friends who call. One friend called from Lebanon, another from Haifa. And Ramallah. But without water, how will we manage?"

A. offered his own take on the situation: "I keep the children away from the windows because the F-16s are in the air; I forbid them to play below because it's dangerous. They're bombing us from the sea and from the east, they're bombing us from the air. When the telephone works, people tell us about relatives or friends who were killed. My wife cries all the time. At night she hugs the children and cries. It's cold and the windows are open; there's fire and smoke in open areas; at home there's no water, no electricity, no heating gas. And you [the Israelis] say there's no humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Tell me, are you normal?"

Monday, January 5, 2009

Report-backs on protests in Israel

On protests inside of Israel, with analysis and reports from Rela Mazali, Rebecca Vilkomerson, Gush Shalom and Tom Pessah

From Rela Mazali:

Israeli news "farteiched und farbessered"

To read the English internet version of Haaretz of January 4th, you wouldn't know that some ten thousand marchers had protested their government's policy and attack on Gaza the night before in Tel Aviv or that earlier that day, many tens of thousands (some estimates have quoted 70 to 100 thousand), Jews and Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel, marched their protest through the Arab town of Sakhnin in the Galilee. They're not part of the reality constructed by Haaretz's English website. On January 4th, one headline—topping an item picked up from Associated Press read: "Protesters across Europe urge Israel to end attacks on Gaza Strip" with no mention of domestic protests. Haaretz, mind you, is the newspaper often cited as a central example of Israel's relatively critical and truthful media.

Though the Hebrew website published items on both the above protests above, Haaretz's report on the Tel Aviv march was headlined: "Hundreds demonstrated throughout the country in protest …". The article actually says that, "thousands participated in a protest march … in Tel Aviv" and that "tens of thousands of demonstraters" protested in Sakhnin (my translation), but the dismissive "hundreds" of the headline might well convince you to skip such insignificant details. Today, one day later, as I'm writing this analysis, the Hebrew website of Haaretz no longer features even this headline; it can only be accessed via the archive and the item itself is only available for purchase.

A powerful "die-in" staged on Friday, January 3rd, by about 20 activists, at the entrance to an air force base situated in the posh northern Tel Aviv quarter known as "Tochnit Lamed" (see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpeC7P-2LfU), hasn't been reported on to date by Haaretz in English, though the English version of Ynet carried an item on it (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3649206,00.html). In Monday's print version in Hebrew Haaretz included a "box" briefly reporting on this action, which is absent from both the Hebrew and English websites.

This is just a quick and superficial survey of how reality is filtered, "farteiched und farbessered" (abridged and improved, as a Yiddish adapter is reputed to have claimed of his rendering of Shakespeare) by Israeli media, in translation to English.

From Rebecca Vilkomerson:

The arrest and aftermath of the 19 activists from Anarchists Against the Wall who did a "die in" at Tel Aviv's air force base, was extraordinary. There is a video of the arrest (in hebrew) and it clearly shows them being ordered to move to the sidewalk, doing so, and then being arrested anyway (see video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpeC7P-2LfU). They were held for an un-precedented three days before being charged, and in the meantime activists' homes have been entered, computers have been taken, and even additional arrests have been made by the police. The Anarchists have been one of the most effective groups working against the Occupation, and my sense is that the state is taking this opportunity to both to try to deter others from civil disobedience as well as try to do damage to the group, under cover of the invasion and less outcry on invasions of civil liberties in a "democracy." It is also important to note that there are reports that numerous Palestinian Israelis have
been arrested from their homes as well since the invasion began, but there has been no focus (at least in the English or Hebrew press) on these actions whatsoever.

***

Gush Shalom report on Saturday night's demonstration:

http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/events/1231029668

At the same time as Ehud Barak was ordering the army to start the bloody ground offensive against Gaza, some ten thousand protesters from all over Israel marched in Tel-Aviv in a massive demonstration against the war. All four lanes of Ibn Gvirol St., one of the city's main throughfares, were packed full of demonstrators who marched the two kiolometres from the Rabin Square to the Cinemateque, chanting and waving banners all the way.

"One does not build an election campaign over the dead bodies of children!" shouted the protesters in Hebrew rhymes. "Orphans and widows are not election propaganda!", "Olmert, Livni and Barak – war is no game!"' "All cabinet ministers are war criminals!!" Barak, Barak, don't worry – we shall meet you in The Hague!", "Enough, enough – speak with Hamas!"

The written posters were similar. Some of them paraphrased Barak's election slogans: "Barak is not friendly, he is a murderer!" (The original Barak slogan says: "Barak is not friendly, he is a leader!") Also: "No to the Election War, 2009!" and "The six-Knesset-seat war!" – an allusion to the polls which showed that in the first days of the war Barak's Labor Party has gained six prospective seats.

The demonstration took place after a fight with the police, which tried to prevent or at least limit it, arguing that they would not be able to stop right-wing rioters from attacking it. Among other things, the police demanded that the organizers undertake to prevent the hoisting of Palestinian flags. The organizers petitioned the High Court of Justice, which decided that the Palestinian flag is legal and ordered the police to protect the demonstration from rioters,

The demonstration was decided upon by Gush Shalom and 20 other peace organizations, including the Women's Coalition for Peace, Anarchists Against the Wall, Hadash, the Alternative Information Center and New Profile. Meretz and Peace Now did not participate officially, but many of their members showed up. Some thousand Arab citizens from the north arrived in 20 buses straight from the big demonstration of the Arab public which had taken place in Sakhnin.

The organizers themselves were surprised by the large number of protesters. "A week after the start of Lebanon War II, we succeeded in mobilizing only 1000 demonstrators against it. The fact that today there came 10,000 proves that the opposition to the war is much stronger this time. If Barak goes on with his plans, public opinion may completely turn against the war in a few days."

The giant Gush Shalom banner said in Hebrew, Arabic and English: "Stop Killing! Stop the Siege! Stop the occupation!" The slogan of the demonstration called for the end of the blockade and an immediate cease-fire.

On the day of the protest, the extreme Right mobilized their forces in order to break up the demonstration by force. The police made a great effort to prevent riots, and the one-mile march from Rabin Square to Cinematheque Square proceeded relatively quietly. However, when the protesters started to disperse, in accordance with the agreement with the police, a large crowd of rightists started to attack them. The police, which till then had been keeping the two camps apart, disappeared from the scene. The rioters then encircled the last of the protesters, harassing them, pushing them about and at a certain point started to besiege the Cinematheque building, where some of the last protesters had found refuge. They tried to break into the building, threatening to "finish off" the protesters, but at the last moment some police arrived and protected the entrance. The rioters stayed around for a long time.

***

From Tom Pessah, Israeli activist and JPN reader:

(I am writing in English for the benefit of our friends outside Israel, to encourage them to continue speaking out to get the world to respond to this. I assume most of my Israeli friends can follow this).

There is a huge number of protests going on around the country. This blog http://mystical-politics.blogspot.com/2009/01/israeli-demonstrations-against-bombing.html mentions some. One of the most impressive was outside a base of the airforce, to remind pilots that they are actually killing people, not just bombing targets. In this protest 21 people were arrested, some of whom have been in jail for several days.

A significant development is that parts of the zionist left, such as Meretz and Peace Now, have joined the calls for an immediate halt to the war- http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1230456536477&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull. Several thousands protested last night in Tel Aviv - http://things.co.il/, and thousands more demonsrated in Sakhnin earlier that day, in what is seen as the biggest protest in the Arab sector for many years. http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=29543
Not enough to stop the land invasion, but public opinion is turning in our direction.

The counter-protestors yesterday told us we had no right to an opinon, since we don't live in Sderot. It brought me great satisfaction to tell them of the petition by Sderot civilians against the war (thanks Sarah Anne for posting it on Jewish Peace News -http://jewishpeacenews.blogspot.com/2009/01/some-voices-of-dissent.html).

(I resolved not to let anyone silence me, and the next time someone tries to take my place in the queue at a bank or at a store, I will definitely scream "fifth column!!!! go to Gaza!!! traitor!!!!". Also, those who weren't at the rally missed the counter-protestors' inimitable rendering of HaTikvah, the Israeli national anthem, as some kind of soccer song, to which some us responded quite naturally by screaming stuff about the referee's mother. I guess you should have been there)

Yesterday I spoke with M., a 20-year old student at the Hebrew university, who is planning a vigil this week in her campus. This is her first semester ever. In Jaffa, Palestinian activists are undergoing serious intimidation, including being woken up at night by the police for trumped up charges, and then released without being accused of anything. In spite of this they are continually protesting: last week they set up a mourning site for the civlians who died in Gaza, on Saturday many of them came to demonstrate in Tel Aviv, and on Tuesday another protest is planned in Jaffa (יפת פינת הפגנה ביפו ביום שלישי - ארליך, שעה 6).
Here are some testimonies - http://www.alternativenews.org/news/english/freedom-of-speech-denied-to-palestinian-citizens-of-israel-20090101.html
Maybe remember this the next time someone tells you how lucky Arabs are to be citizens of Israel.

The police initially said that it would ban Saturday's demonstration if participants were to wave Palestinian flags, and it took a decision by the High Court to allow the protest to happen http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3649253,00.html. This is, of course, the "flag of the enemy", and Palestinian citizens of Israel are expected to proudly wave the Israeli flag with the Star of David, as an expression of their national identity.

I am constantly impressed by people's creativity: a party scheduled for Saturday was not cancelled because of the war, but it turned instead into a protest event, with drag kings dressing up as soldiers and parodying the fighting. A group of Jewish and Palestinian poets brought out a collection of anti-war poems (in Hebrew - you can download it here - http://notes.co.il/mati/51225.asp), and organized a reading outside the house of Barak, the Defense Minister, to emphasize his responsibility for the massive killings.http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1052047.html - and these are only a few instances that I am aware of, mainly from my area (Tel Aviv).

The media is barely covering it, but as a Tel Avivian friend told me, she was hardly aware of the protests against the war until 10000 people passed by her house chanting slogans like (my favorite) - Arabs and Jews refuse to be enemies - ערבים, יהודים, מסרבים להיות אויבים . Since many Arabs bused into Tel Aviv to be present, this felt especially poignant.

Tom Segev wrote in his column this week that "On April 5, 1956, Israel bombed the marketplace in the center of Gaza City. Fifty civilians were killed in that attack, including women and children. Then foreign minister Moshe Sharett thought it was a "savage and stupid" operation. But David Ben-Gurion, the prime minister and defense minister, and Moshe Dayan, the Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, believed the Egyptian president, Gamal Abdel Nasser, sought to destroy Israel and therefore his regime must be toppled, via a defeat in a comprehensive war. Therefore, the ministers followed a policy designed to increase tension and escalation, to the brink of war". This was 52 years ago! http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1052024.html
whereas this market in Gaza was attacked last week - http://www.facebook.com/people/Tom-Pessah/1237509#/video/video.php?v=1037755058264&ref=nf

We can either continue to accept this logic, that killing hundreds of people will "teach them a lesson", or we can demand a complete change of policy - a real honest attempt to end the occupation in both Gaza and the West Bank, dismantling settlements instead of building new ones, allowing people access to health care, food, higher education, travel abroad and the right to choose their own government democratically just like everyone else. To all those who say "there is no choice" - why is killing 500 people, very few of whom were engaged in firing rockets, even considered a legitimate choice? where is this leading to? only to the death and wounding of more Palestinian and Israeli soldiers and civilians. Enough is enough. Get up, stand up.

Jewish Peace News

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Resistance to the war

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Media and the war on Gaza

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

More on Gaza

Monday, January 5, 2009

Report-backs on protests in Israel

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