Child lost his eyesight after Israeli shelling. The father was killed a week later!
A rocket fell near us Tuesday in Beit Sahour. From the way it broke-up,
we think it was one of the "iron dome" missiles that missed its mark
(this happens to some 70-80% of missiles that are supposed to intercept
Palestinian home-made rockets from Gaza). The owner of the house
said of the significant damage: "we are with Gaza and continue to
be". Wars bring out the worse in people and the best in people.
Israeli devastation of Gaza is facing against heroism of resilience and resistance
of Palestinians and an awakening of conscience of millions. Every hour we hear
stories and listen to dignified resilient voices from Gaza in the face of
incredible devastation. Medics who continue to operate even as their colleagues
and relatives are killed. Remaining family members who lost everything but
promise to rebuild and fight back until freedom. Municipal workers trying to
avert a catastrophe and keep bombed sewage and water lines open and separate.
Neighbors helping each other. Resistance fighters coming back from the front
lines to help dig for civilian corpses buried under the rubble. A child
consoling her little brother after all their family has been wiped out. People
taking care of each other and giving all of us lessons in how we can keep our
humanity. Messages from Gaza say to us "we survive, we are fine, how about
you? How are you?" Gaza has become like the pH meter in my lab, a good
barometer of change in the medium. How are we, the medium of humanity doing and
where are we heading?
Palestinian Civil society organizations and public figures are calling
on the world to demand the opening of the Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip
and Egypt.
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/urgent-call-action-tell-egypt-end-gaza-siege-refuse-complicity-israeli-genocide
Israel has developed a doctrine of slowly increasing attacks on
civilians to give them a chance to supposedly stop the resistance (an
impossible task). The three stages used in the past four weeks included: first
stage) used in the first week of the shelling of Gaza included Israeli
forces giving warning to some of the people to leave their houses before they
flattened them with shells (a form of ethnic cleansing never-the-less).
Second stage) clearing neighborhoods with a blanket statement in media to
evacuate whole neighborhoods, then flattening them (also ethnic cleansing),
third stage) no warning just blanket and random shelling increasing civilian
deaths. Overlapping stage two and three was also the shelling of hospitals
and schools and the power station (targeting infrastructure, mostly without
notice given). Having exhausted these three stages which obviously were well
planned, Israeli leaders announced victory and moved on. The only gain was to
bank account of those who profit from wars (companies like Elbit Systems). This
helps sales of weapons (depleting stocks which have to be bought back and the
US taxpayers pay for these). People die but some people get to be even more
rich.
On the bright side (if there is any), this adventure accelerated the
inevitable decline of the racist genocidal state of Israel. The resistance is
strengthened because people saw that Israel could not advance one or two
kilometers into Gaza without casualties of its soldiers who are paranoid about
being captured or killed (even killed by Israeli forces to prevent them from
being captured. Many committed suicide or injured themselves to leave the
battle field. In 1967, Israeli armies advanced and conquered hundreds of
kilometers without any opposition from supposed "Arab armies". The
land conquered per hour was literally the time it took infantry to walk across
the landscape (no opposition). Israel, Jordan and Egypt did not fight or even
plan to fight. And they had supplies and open borders. Here a concentration
camp (the enclave of Gaza) giving Israel a real fight and Israeli mighty army
is bloodied and confused and wining about tunnels (well yes, the Vietcong also
used tunnels because everything above ground was instantly scorched by imperial
US forces). So many lies were uncovered that many observers have started to
believe Hamas and other resistance groups more than they believe anything that
the Western Mainstream Media and Netanyahu and his puppets have to say. Mr.
Netanyahu came in front of the Israeli public and lied yet again. Israel
acknowledged some 50 soldiers killed but most Israelis know the number is at
least three times as high. Many Israeli families acknowledge money is being
given to them to refrain from mentioning the killing of their children at the
borders of Gaza. One Israeli leak suggested some 130-150 Israeli soldiers
killed (closer to a number released by Hamas resistance). But the ceasefire
declared by the UN (the only one declared by the UN and agreed to by the two parties)
was broken by Israeli forces after they encountered some resistance fighters in
their advance to Rafa and two Israeli soldiers were killed and the area was
bombed burying a third soldier with the resistance fighters on spot. The
Israeli government version of this was a fabrication (soldiers were attacked,
one was kidnapped etc). Hamas's version of what might have happened was more
believable (they lost contact with soldiers defending the field East of Rafah
and they presume them dead). Belatedly the Israeli version changed and they
were forced t accept a version closer to what the Palestinians said. But this
is of little consolation to Palestinians including children massacred with the
excuse that Hamas broke the cease fire. Now there is talk in Cairo to give
Israel what it could not achieve by military means: impunity from crimes,
pacification of the natives while maintaining colonization and injustice.
But people are moving. The above call and other like it are followed by
actions. There si widening boycotts of everything Israeli and people are
mobilizing aid convoys to Gaza (three trucks from my own town of Beit Sahour
will leave in the next two days and this is just one of hundreds of such
efforts). Yet this is still not enough. 400,000 Palestinians are now
dislocated and for nearly half of them, their homes have been destroyed.
Billions of dollars are needed to rebuild. Every bit helps though and actions
speak louder than words. As we help Gaza Palestinians on a humanitarian level,
we must also ensure accountability and to prevent more Israeli crimes. To do
that we need BDS, we need ICC, we need coordination and joint action.
Names of Palestinians murdered by the colonial fascist Israeli forces
(they are not numbers or even names, they are people with their stories and
their rights violated and robbed of their lives by a war machine empowered by
human silence) http://www.imemc.org/article/68429
I have many friends/colleagues in Gaza and all where affected by the
ongoing horrors, more than half of them had family members killed (see for
example story of family members of our colleague Dr Mona El Farra below), and
one was killed herself with two of her children.
Being calmly rational about dead children feels like a very particular
form of madness. Whatever else journalistic objectivity is, it surely cannot be
the elimination of human emotion
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2014/aug/01/journalists-objective-writing-dead-children
Israeli Vets Speak Out: What Really Goes On In Gaza
Starvation, shooting at kids, casual violence—former IDF soldiers
reveal the abuses by the Israeli military in Gaza http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/11/israel-soldiers-testimony-idf-gaza
Photographer is killed as he videotapes attacks on ambulances
here is the same incident from another photographer who survived this
war crime https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-d5crde4vg
A very excellent example of an article putting the context out that is
ignored by Zionist dominated western media. We should all learn to write like
that and to focus our energy on media.
Who profits from the war on Gaza
Over 100 Middle East Studies Scholars and Librarians Call for the
Boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions
Boycott Israel: here is research on 60 companies to boycott/picket etc.
Dr. Mads Gilbert makes a moving speech upon his return to Norway from
Gaza
Norman Finkelstein" The word is out, Israel is a lunatic state
Thank you, Mazin, for this abundant information. Your blog is a marvelous resource.
ReplyDeleteBlessings, and you stay human.