Denne holdning kræver et mere end almindeligt mod. Gid der var mange flere af dem.
Via No Justice No Peace.
Læs også: Støt de israelske refuseniks.
Tag: gaza
Bagslag
Til dem, der mener, at alt er OK og Israel bare gør, hvad Israel nu må gøre, vil jeg citere Citizen:
Medmindre Israel kan godtgøre, at konvojen udgjorde en umiddelbar trussel mod staten Israels sikkerhed, alternativt befandt sig i israelsk territorialfarvand og gentagne gange havde nægtet at efterkomme ordrer fra den israelske flåde, så er det endog meget svært at se, hvordan angrebet ikke skulle være i strid med så godt som samtlige folkeretslige konventioner om international skibsfart.
Nuvel, Citizen er måske lidt moderat. Her er en israeler, der ikke spæger sine ord:
Gaza flotilla drives Israel into a sea of stupidity
The Israeli propaganda machine has reached new highs its hopeless frenzy. It has distributed menus from Gaza restaurants, along with false information. It embarrassed itself by entering a futile public relations battle, which it might have been better off never starting. They want to maintain the ineffective, illegal and unethical siege on Gaza and not let the “peace flotilla” dock off the Gaza coast?
We are all in the chorus saying there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza. We are all part of the chorus claiming the occupation of Gaza has ended, and that the flotilla is a violent attack on Israeli sovereignty – the cement is for building bunkers and the convoy is being funded by the Turkish Muslim Brotherhood. The Israeli siege of Gaza will topple Hamas and free Gilad Shalit. Foreign Ministry spokesman Yossi Levy, one of the most ridiculous of the propagandists, outdid himself when he unblinkingly proclaimed that the aid convoy headed toward Gaza was a violation of international law. Right. Exactly.
Five years ago, the noted Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, who is a Jerusalem Prize laureate, after concluding his visit to Israel, said the Israeli occupation was approaching its grotesque phase. Over the weekend Vargas Llosa, who considers himself a friend of Israel, was present to see that that phase has since reached new heights of absurdity.
Og nu? Som modtræk til Israels angreb på nødhjælpskonvojen har Ægypten hævet blokaden og åbnet grænsen til Gaza:
Egypt opens Gaza border following IDF raid on aid flotilla
Egypt opened its border with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, letting Palestinians cross until further notice amid a storm of international criticism of Israel’s blockade of the enclave, officials in Egypt and Gaza said.
It is the only point on Gaza’s borders that is not fully controlled by Israel. Cairo, coordinating with Israel, has opened it only sparingly since Hamas Islamists, who are allied to Egypt’s opposition, seized control of Gaza three years ago.
Det forekommer rimeligt sikkert at konkludere, at uanset hvad, Israel har håbet på at opnå med denne aktion, er det ikke lykkedes for dem. Tværtimod. Og det er – midt i tragedien for de dræbte og deres familie – altid noget.
Israelske soldater: Vi dræbte ubevæbnede civile i Gaza
To israelske aviser kunne i går bringe en række øjenvidneberetninger fra soldater om årsskiftets aktion mod Gaza, hvor de fortæller om, hvordan de igen og igen og med fuldt overlæg dræbte ubevæbnede og uskadelige civile – ofte på direkte ordre fra deres officerer.
One soldier described how an Israeli sniper shot dead a Palestinian mother and her children, adding that troops believed Palestinian lives were “very, very, less important than the lives of our soldiers”.
The accounts, published in two Israeli newspapers yesterday, gives rare insight into how the soldiers acted. It reinforces Palestinian accounts of disproportionate Israeli force and contradicts the Israeli military’s official version of events.
The accounts come from unnamed soldiers who were graduates of a pre-military course at Oranim Academic college, in Tivon, near Haifa. Their testimony was given in mid-February, and the transcript of the session was published this week.
Ha’aretz newspaper printed one infantry squad leader’s description of the shooting of unarmed civilians: “There was a house with a family inside … We put them in a room … a few days after there was an order to release [them]. There was a sniper position on the roof. The platoon commander let the family go and told them to go to the right. One mother and her two children didn’t understand and went to the left, but they forgot to tell the sharpshooter on the roof they had let them go and it was OK, and he should hold his fire and he … he did what he was supposed to, like he was following his orders.
“The sharpshooter saw a woman and children approaching him, closer than the lines he was told no one should pass. He shot them … In any case, what happened is that in the end he killed them.”
Israel-Gaza: Blokade, hvilken blokade?
KABOBfest skriver i et indlæg om den amerikanske regerings nyfundne tendens til somme tider at kritisere Israel for manglende velvilje lidt om, hvor hårdt blokaden mod Gaza egentlig håndhæves:
Israel is letting in fewer than 200 trucks daily, which is double how many it was allowing a month ago. The U.S., the EU and the UN are demanding that at least 500 trucks carrying aid be allowed into the Strip daily, while some aid groups were calling for 900.
Israel’s absurd restrictions on what constitutes aid led to the bizarre banning of pasta from Gaza.
When Senator John Kerry visited, he learned that many trucks loaded with pasta were not permitted in. When the chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee inquired as to the reason for the delay, he was told by United Nations aid officials that “Israel does not define pasta as part of humanitarian aid – only rice shipments.”
The embargo is being upheld even to the detriment of basic needs because of the predominance of rightists in Israel who see Palestinian survival as “concessions” to Hamas.
Civilbefolkningen i Gaza har ikke fortjent pasta, kun ris – så kan de lære det, kan de. Er der nogen, der kan forklare den militære logik i det?
Israel: Hamas’ bedste PR-medarbejder
Fatah-bevægelsen, som p.t. har magten på Vestbredden og som ledes af den palæstinensiske “præsident” Mahmoud Abbas, frygter at tabe terræn til Hamas efter Israels invasion i Gaza, skriver The Independent:
The Islamic movement Hamas is taking over from Fatah, the party created by Yasser Arafat, as the main Palestinian national organisation as a result of the war in Gaza, says a leading Fatah militant. “We have moved into the era of Hamas which is now much stronger than it was,” said Husam Kadr, a veteran Fatah leader in the West Bank city of Nablus, recently released after five-and-a-half years in Israeli prisons.
“Its era started when Israel attacked Gaza on 27 December.”
“Hamas has been highly successful in portraying itself as the party of the resistance, and Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas as the opponents of resistance at a time [when] the public wants to resist,” said Ghassan Khatib, a former Palestinian minister of planning. He adds that Mr Abbas was badly damaged in the eyes of Palestinians when he blamed Hamas for Israel’s assault on Gaza in the conflict’s first two days.
Abbas’ omdømme er skadet, som i “anses for forræder og Quisling”, i mange palæstinenseres øjne.
Via KABOBfest, hvis skribent påpeger, at noget lignende er ved at overgå Fatahs amerikanske afdeling, The American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP):
After ATFP president Ziad Asali offered himself as an Israeli spokesperson to U.S. media during the Gaza assault, the little support ATFP did have took a hit.
Måske ikke helt underligt …
Link: Fatah fears Gaza conflict has put Hamas in the ascendancy
Brød til Gaza – hæv blokaden
Cecilie Surasky fra Jewish Voice for Peace skriver:
While waiting in line at the only open bakery he could find, Gaza resident Mohammed Salman said, “I’m going to buy something that my family can keep for only two days because there is no electricity and no refrigerator. We cannot keep anything longer than that.”
This was in January – of last year.
Today, many Gazan bakeries are closed because, like Mohammed’s family, they don’t have power either. Some don’t even have flour.
This is no coincidence. This is official policy. In a moment of candor, Dov Weissglas, a top aide to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was quoted as saying, “the Palestinians will get a lot thinner, but [they] won’t die.”
His prediction was true. Last April, UNICEF reported that more than 50% of children under five in Gaza are anemic, and that many children are stunted due to a lack of vitamins.
And now?
As Gaza is smoldering from the siege that killed 1,285 people – nearly 70% of them civilians, destroyed at least 4,000 homes, and sent more than 50,000 people to temporary shelters, the Israeli blockade has not been lifted.
A tenuous cease fire is in now place. Humanitarian aid is starting to pour in.
But the civilian infrastructure is crippled. The borders of Gaza remain controlled by Israel. And just as Gazans could not leave during the siege to escape the bombing and shelling, they cannot leave now to get food and fuel.
There is not enough electricity for the bakeries that are left standing to produce bread, or for families that still have homes to refrigerate food.
Palestinians cannot even feed their children with the fish from the nearby sea. Israeli gunboats offshore have been enforcing the blockade with rounds of cannon and bursts of heavy machine-gun fire, to warn keep Gaza fishermen out of the sea.
Unless we end the blockade, long after the world’s attention has shifted to some other crisis, some 1.5 million Gazans will still be under-nourished, without proper medical care, fuel and water – and trapped. Israelis too, who live in the south, will be even less safe from the threat of Hamas’ Qassam rockets falling on their heads.
Lasting peace and stability in the region is simply an impossible dream while Palestinians in Gaza are denied the right to protect their children, feed their families, and expand their worlds beyond the few feet in front of their homes, or for many, tents.
Almindelig høflighed ved reportage fra Mellemøsten
Hvis du er en kommentator eller journalist, der dækker Mellemøsten, er det vigtigt for dig at lægge dig disse regler på sinde:
Rule #1: In the Middle East, it is always the Palestinians that attack first, and it’s always Israel who defends itself. The name of this is “retaliation”.
Rule #2: The Palestinians are not allowed to kill Israelis. The name of this is “terrorism”.
Rule #3: Israel has the right to kill Palestinian civilians; the name of this is “self-defense” or “collateral damage”.
Rule #4: When Israel kills too many Palestinian civilians, the Western world calls for restraint. This is called the “reaction of the international community”.
Rule #5: Palestinians do not have the right to capture Israeli military, not even 1 or 2.
Rule #6: Israel has the right to capture as many Palestinians as they want (around 10,000 to date being held without trial). There is no limit; there is no need for proof of guilt or a trial. All that is needed is the magic word: “terrorism”.
Rule #7: When you say “Hamas”, always be sure to add “supported by Hezbollah, Syria and Iran”.
Rule #8: When you say “Israel”, never say “supported by the USA, the UK, European countries and even some Arab regimes”, for people (God forbid) might believe this is not an equal conflict.
Rule #9: When it comes to Israel, don’t mention the words “occupied territories”, “UN resolutions”, “Geneva Conventions”. This could distress the audience of Fox, CNN, etc.
Rule # 10: The Palestinians are always “cowards” who hide behind a civilian population that “they don’t care about”. If they (militants) sleep in houses with their families, the name of this is: “cowardice”. Israel has the right to annihilate the towns where they sleep using bombs and missiles. The name of this is “high precision surgical action”.
Rule #11: Israelis speak better English than Arabs. This is why we let them speak out as much as possible, so that they can explain rules 1 through 9. The name of this is “neutral journalism”.
Rule #12: If you don’t agree with these rules or if you favor the Palestinian side over the Israeli side, you must be a very dangerous anti-Semite.
I modsat fald risikerer du nemlig at skabe problemer for din TV-station eller avis eller ikke komme så hurtigt frem i verden, som du havde tænkt dig.
Link: Political Correctness – Rules of Democracy (via UrShalim)
Dagens citat: Citizen Dane
Europa skylder ikke Israel for 5 øres tak, fordi Israel tager kampen “i frontlinjen mod islamismen”. Israels lille festlige indtog i Gazastriben har formentlig gjort mere for at udbrede Hamas’ islamistiske budskab, end nogen Hamas-leder nogensinde kunne have drømt om at opnå ved simpel propaganda.
Se også her.
Link: Kære Ulrik Høy
Jødisk parlamentsmedlem sammenligner Israel med Nazityskland: “They are not simply war criminals, they are fools”
Sir Gerald Kaufman er medlem af det britiske parlament. Han er også ortodoks jøde og zionist, og dertil ikke den mindste smule tilfreds med Israels fremfærd i de besatte områder. Man svigter de idealer, staten blev grundlagt på, mener han:
“My grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza. The present Israeli government ruthlessly and cynically exploits the continuing guilt from gentiles over the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust as justification for their murder of Palestinians.”
He said the claim that many of the Palestinian victims were militants “was the reply of the Nazi” and added: “I suppose the Jews fighting for their lives in the Warsaw ghetto could have been dismissed as militants.”
He accused the Israeli government of seeking “conquest” and added: ”
They are not simply war criminals, they are fools.”
Via Khobbeizeh.
Forstå situationen i Gaza – en amerikansk analogi
Professor og aktivist Randall Kuhn tager sig tid til at forklare, hvad Israels besættelse og invasion af Gaza egentlig betyder, sådan oversat til amerikansk. Om man efter endt læsning vil forsvare den heroiske israelske indsats med de resulterende drab af mere end 1000 mænd, kvinder og børn, må enhver jo selv dømme.
Fra Washington Times:
In the wake of Israel’s invasion of Gaza, Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak made this analogy: “Think about what would happen if for seven years rockets had been fired at San Diego, California from Tijuana, Mexico.”
[…]
Think about what would happen if San Diego expelled most of its Hispanic, African American, Asian American, and Native American population, about 48 percent of the total, and forcibly relocated them to Tijuana? Not just immigrants, but even those who have lived in this country for many generations. Not just the unemployed or the criminals or the America haters, but the school teachers, the small business owners, the soldiers, even the baseball players.
What if we established government and faith-based agencies to help move white people into their former homes? And what if we razed hundreds of their homes in rural areas and, with the aid of charitable donations from people in the United States and abroad, planted forests on their former towns, creating nature preserves for whites to enjoy? Sounds pretty awful, huh? I may be called anti-Semitic for speaking this truth. Well, I’m Jewish and the scenario above is what many prominent Israeli scholars say happened when Israel expelled Palestinians from southern Israel and forced them into Gaza. But this analogy is just getting started.
What if the United Nations kept San Diego’s discarded minorities in crowded, festering camps in Tijuana for 19 years? Then, the United States invaded Mexico, occupied Tijuana and began to build large housing developments in Tijuana where only whites could live.
And what if the United States built a network of highways connecting American citizens of Tijuana to the United States? And checkpoints, not just between Mexico and the United States but also around every neighborhood of Tijuana? What if we required every Tijuana resident, refugee or native, to show an ID card to the U.S. military on demand? What if thousands of Tijuana residents lost their homes, their jobs, their businesses, their children, their sense of self worth to this occupation? Would you be surprised to hear of a protest movement in Tijuana that sometimes became violent and hateful? Okay, now for the unbelievable part.
Think about what would happen if, after expelling all of the minorities from San Diego to Tijuana and subjecting them to 40 years of brutal military occupation, we just left Tijuana, removing all the white settlers and the soldiers? Only instead of giving them their freedom, we built a 20-foot tall electrified wall around Tijuana? Not just on the sides bordering San Diego, but on all the Mexico crossings as well. What if we set up 50-foot high watchtowers with machine gun batteries, and told them that if they stood within 100 yards of this wall we would shoot them dead on sight? And four out of every five days we kept every single one of those border crossings closed, not even allowing food, clothing, or medicine to arrive. And we patrolled their air space with our state-of-the-art fighter jets but didn’t allow them so much as a crop duster. And we patrolled their waters with destroyers and submarines, but didn’t even allow them to fish.
Would you be at all surprised to hear that these resistance groups in Tijuana, even after having been “freed” from their occupation but starved half to death, kept on firing rockets at the United States? Probably not. But you may be surprised to learn that the majority of people in Tijuana never picked up a rocket, or a gun, or a weapon of any kind.
Via Akram’s Razor.