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As Israel Lays Down Smoke, Stay Human
Israel's Destruction of Gaza
By Vittorio Arrigoni, Gaza City, Gaza
Ketchup, mayonnaise, thread and needles are the items that were included last week by Israel on the list of those few goods now allowed into Gaza. Farming tools, spare parts for cars, toys and make-up were added to the list on Tuesday, items we watched being carried into the Strip loaded onto 130 trucks.
Taking into account the decision of the Israeli government to “loosen” the siege of Gaza by allowing the entry of more goods, B’Tselem, the Israeli organisation for human rights commented: “This is a first, tiny step towards the right direction, the direction which’ll bring Israeli policy in line with its obligations.”
A veritable microscopic step, considering that before the start of the siege, more than ten thousand trucks a month would drive through the Karni pass alone, and even then, these deliveries were miles away from the 500 truckfuls of goods a day (15,000 trucks a month), the minimum decreed by the United Nations to cover the basic needs of one and a half million people.
According to some Palestinian political analysts, this step might even be counterproductive, because it proposes to attempt to legitimise the siege. This is a siege that is a form of collective punishment against a civilian population. As such, it violates Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and is considered illegal by all major human rights organisations, whether governmental or otherwise, as Amnesty International and the International Red Cross have recently decreed.
Cement, iron and any other building material continues to be banned from the Strip, so much so that according to the UN, one year after the Cast Lead bombings, 75% of the damaged buildings still gape open among the rubble.
According to Christopher Gunness, spokesman for the UNRWA (UN Agency for Palestinian refugees), Israel’s new policy is an attempt to throw smoke into the eyes of the international community and hide its blatant violation of international law: “The Israeli strategy is that of getting the world to talk about a random bag of cement being let in on one side, and a sponsored project on another. What we really need is complete and free access through all the passes.”
All eyes are now turned towards the mirage of the opened Israeli passes. Yet, forgetting to take note of the Egyptian border is a mistake. Rafah continues to remain semi-open, or better still…semi-closed. The Egyptian border authorities refuse to let any type of goods through, including tons of food supplies and medicine collected during the last weeks by the union of Cairo chemists. The bullies of the infamous Egyptian Mubarak, renowned for their rough treatment of Palestinian civilians, including women, children and sick people, have sent back hundreds of travellers with regular passports and visas over the past few weeks.
For internationals in Egypt who plan to come and report on what they see, or support the population of Gaza in any way, entering “the Rafah Pass” remains forbidding. John, a freelance journalist who accompanied us from the International Solidarity Movement to report on the daily harrassment that the farmers face from Israeli snipers at the border, eventually came in through the tunnels when he had grown tired of waiting for a pass that never came at Al Arish.
Italian state television is trying to put through the message that the siege has been loosened as an act of generosity on the part of the Israeli government, but the reality is indeed very different. The siege itself needs to be totally lifted, because the people here certainly don’t need potato chips or toothpicks. They need cement, iron, medicine, medical supplies and all the essentials coming in the way they would normally come in…through import and export. Only that means will help boost the economy and make Gaza self-sufficient, besides opening the borders to make it possible for anyone to come into or leave this prison.
All that we have before our eyes these days is the artificial image of a tragic situation, made up to seem like an improvement after the cosmetic surgery of Israeli and Egyptian propaganda. Amid these far-reaching echoes of propaganda, Tony Blair’s congratulations to Israel for the alleged “loosening” of its blockade comes across as a strident contradition. Behind the smile of Blair, one the of puppet masters of the Quartet (USA, EU, Russia and UN) who for years has produced nothing but useless press releases, is all the rot of the stone caryatids jointly holding up the current Iraqi genocide, as well as the political laxity of European governments in the face of the Palestinian tragedy.
I’m keen to remind Tony Blair that if two extra bags of flour enter the besieged Strip, it certainly isn’t thanks to his work within the castrated quartet, or any other institution in charge of resolving the Israeli occupation of Palestine. It’s actually thanks to the sacrifices over many years of thousands of ordinary civilians throughout the world committed to the rights of Palestinians. It’s an effort that has culminated in the murder of nine Turkish activists on the Mavi Marmara, much the same way as before them, Tom Hurndall and Rachel Corrie gave their lives for the good of Gaza.
On the eve of the second Gulf war, the New York Times coined the phrase “second world power”, to define the global pacifist movement that filled thousands of squares around the world. These civilians were protesting against a war “that never before in history had been met with as much blatant hostility.” Well, that second world power has now joined us on the field and is siding with the Palestinians: it is now Israel that’s under siege.
Stay human.
(translated by Daniela Filippin)
For more information:
witnessgaza.com
www.freegaza.org
http://www.flickr.com/photos/freegaza
Related Posts:
Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=38797
Posted by Yanira Farray on Jul 5 2010, With 0 Reads, Filed under Israel, WarZone. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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You just cannot make this stuff up………..
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3915394,00.html
Israeli judge: Learn from Nazis
Retired Judge Hadassa Ben-Itto says as part of PR war, Israel should adopt tactics used to distribute Protocols of Elders of Zion
Modi Kreitman Published: 07.05.10, 16:44 / Israel News
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LONDON – “We must learn from the Nazi tactics,” Retired Israeli Judge Hadassa Ben-Itto said recently during a conference discussing ways to improve the State of Israel’s PR efforts in the world.
The meeting, which was held last week in the English capital, was attended by some 150 senior Jewish legal experts.
“I have reached the conclusion that we must use these tactics in courts worldwide, just like the Nazis – with all distinctions – used the courts to spread their message.”
Let us not forget the socio-economic-political scenario
that Germany was ensnared into during the 1920′s -1930′s which
was carefully choreographed by the English Crown,their agents,agencies
and their “fellow travelers ” , Rockefellers/Rothchilds , Prescott Bush.
For the purpose of destroying an economic/manufacturing competitor
that desired to be self-sufficient and OUTSIDE the financial
clutches of the CITY OF LONDON, a one square mile Finance Empire
within the greater area that most of us refer to as “London”.
For example ,The March 24, 1933 issue of The Daily Express of London described how Jewish leaders, in combination with powerful international Jewish financial interests, had launched a boycott of Germany for the express purpose of crippling her already precarious economy in the hope of bringing down the new Hitler regime
they could not even import enough food.
(they could not even import enough food !!) .
BP is owned/chartered by the British Crown and is currently spraying
America with COREXIT in order to poison our air.water, and kill our crops.
BERTRAND RUSSELL , THIS ” UBER” BRITISH ROYAL Fascist Narcissistic Psychopathic ELITIST would be most proud and pleased.
( Note the E.P.A. had already ordered (BP) to stop using COREXIT which
is banned in the UK and Europe. There are other dispersants available,
however GOLDMAN SACHS HAS FINANCIAL TIES TO THE MANUFACTURER of
COREXIT. You just cannot make this stuff up ).
( In “test tube” analysis COREXIT is “only” 4 to 5 times more toxic than oil,
however a test tube is not where COREXIT is being sprsyed, COREXIT IS A TOXICITY
MULTIPLIER.
THE BRITISH CROWN & THE BANK OF ENGLAND ARE SPRAYING COREXIT OVER AMERICA IN MASS
QUANTITIES AS AN EFFECTIVE CHEMICAL WEAPON.
THE BRITISH CROWN & THE BANK OF ENGLAND CONSIDER IT DESIRABLE TO SPRAY MASS QUANTITIES OF AN EFFECTIVE CHEMICAL WEAPON UPON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE & TERRITORY
RESULTING IN LONG TERM CONTAMINATION OF SURFACE WATERS & LAND.
COREXIT IS A TOXICITY MULTIPLIER.
THIS MASSIVE CHEMICAL WEAPON ATTACK UPON AMERICA WILL CONTINUE UNTIL SOME PATRIOTIC FORCE STOPS IT !!!!!!!!
BRITIAN & ISRAEL , our closest “allies”,with a special “relationship”.
Just like when a degenerate thug is brutally raping a woman , in the degenerate thug’s mind he is having a ” special relationship” .
“Wall Street ” & The privately owned “FEDERAL RESERVE ” are the core structure of
the “ROYAL LOYALISTS ” that have enjoyed immense wealth and privilege by
deceiving and cajoling the rest of us to do their bidding, It is kept in the same families ,generation after generation, we can be free if we can reach a tipping point of enough awareness.
God Bless America and may our forefathers forgive us for being gullible.
May God Bless America once more.
Charles Lindbergh campaigned against America going to War with Germany,
He knew and understood the real situation much more completely
and it was not simply ” all good” vs. ” all evil”
Through the rest of 1939 and into 1940, Lindbergh continued to give non-intervention speeches and became increasingly critical of Roosevelt’s policies.
http://www.charleslindbergh.com/plane/index.asp
The Spirit of St. Louis
The Spirit of St. Louis is a wonderful plane. It’s like a living creature, gliding along smoothly, happily, as though a successful flight means as much to it as to me, as though we shared our experiences together, each feeling beauty, life, and death as keenly, each dependent on the other’s loyalty. We have made this flight across the ocean, not I or it.
- Charles Lindbergh, 1927
The was a bill passed in US Congress that stops people taking legal action against any pharmacuetical company – it was part of the war on terror security bill.
So regardless of how dangerous this chemical is, you will not be able to take legal action against the company that makes it.
Did you know that around 13 countries offered to help America clean up the oil spill and they were all told they were not needed. Apparently the ‘Jones Act’ means that only American citizens and American technology can be used in situations like this. This could have been sidelined in an emergency but the USA Gov decided not to.
And yes, a cyclone will take it across America.
We all need to want electric cars so if BP goes under it will not be a bad thing. It would certainly stop them being a lobby group for the conintued use of oil in Britain. Also if the EU does not want to fight any more wars in the Middle East and wants to end it reliance on oil, getting rid of one of its oil giant lobby groups would help.
Israel is going to starve the Palestinians so that when the next big war in the Middle East happens, it can easily finish off the Palestinians and take the rest of the land that it wants. Our goal must be to strenghten the Palestinians as a disincentive for Israel to start this war.
The austerity measures put in place by the EU will make it hard for the USA under any administration to start another war because there will not be any bubble to borrow against, our economies are going to stand relatively still for some years until the EU pays off its debt and we all pull our troops out of the ME. Hopefully everything is sorted out in the ME in this time.
Also, there is no point in any country doing more stimulus packages because they will only increase debt and cause a bubble which will instantly go down with a market correction which would be caused by another false flag and then a large war, including an oil crisis, in the ME.
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