Israelis’ License to Murder with Impunity Must be Revoked
Posted by terres on June 2, 2010
Israel: A Terrorist State Targeting Anyone at Will
NO sane society could allow less than 0.1 percent of its population to exercise the power of life and death over the remaining 99.9 percent
Israelis murder 10 peace activists and leave at least 30 others wounded.
Former Ambassador Edward Peck, 81, who was aboard one of the ships carrying medical supplies to the Israeli-blockaded Gaza said:
“They came up in assault boats very quiet, muffled and the moon was
out and they didn’t come up the moon path and the next thing you know
they’re coming over the sides of the ship.”
The flotilla was carrying relief supplies including medical
equipment to Gaza, the “open-air prison” that has been blockaded,
repeatedly invaded and bombarded by Israelis on almost daily basis
since 2007.
Peck says masked Israeli commandos raided the six ships in the flotilla, while the vessels were still in international waters.
“What we intended to do was to lock arms around the wheelhouse so
they couldn’t get in and take that over,” Peck said. “We didn’t get
enough so the Israeli soldiers broke through that very easily.”
The soldiers killed at least 10 of the peace activists and injured
more than 30 others. About 60 people on Peck’s boat including 5 U.S.
activists were detained for two days.
“I didn’t expect anybody to get killed,” Peck said. “I didn’t know anybody had been killed until I got to New Jersey this morning.”
“I didn’t expect anybody to get killed,” Peck said. “I didn’t know anybody had been killed until I got to New Jersey this morning.”
“I think it’s unfortunate in every way imaginable,” he added. “The
only thing that could’ve made it worse is if more people were killed.”
Israeli leaders say the murders were in self-defense.
Murder in Self-Defense?
How Rachel Corrie Was Murdered by Israeli Military
Rachel Corrie lies on the ground fatally injured by the Israeli military
bulldozer driver. Rachel’s fellow activists have dug her a little out
of the sand and are trying to keep her neck straight due to spinal
injury. Picture taken at 4:47PM on 16 March 2003, Rafah, Occupied Gaza.
Photo by Joseph Smith. (ISM Handout)
Rachel Aliene Corrie (April 10, 1979 – March 16, 2003) was an
American member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) who
traveled to the Gaza Strip during the Second Intifada. She was killed
when an Israeli soldier drove his bulldozer over her as she protested
against the destruction of Palestinian homes by the Israeli Occupation
Forces in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Occupation Forces murdered Rachel Corrie, but they couldn’t kill her spirit.
Tom Hurndall
Tom Hurndall a student and a British peace activist was shot in the
head the 11 April 2003 as he tried to help a Palestinian woman and her
children flee Israeli gunfire. Tom Hurndall was shot as he moved
towards the family in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. He was wearing a
fluorescent orange vest, and witnesses say that there had been no
exchange of fire between the Israeli army and Palestinian gunmen that
day. —Near
Tom Hurndall was in a coma for nine months after being shot in the head by an Israeli sniper on April 11, 2003. He died January 13, 2004. Source
James Miller
James Miller, a British cameraman, was shot dead by Israeli soldiers. Photo source: Mona Baker
James Henry Dominic Miller (18 December 1968 – 2 May 2003) was a
British (Welshman) cameraman, producer, director and recipient of
numerous awards, including five Emmy Awards. He was murdered by a
single shot fired by a an Israeli military sniper on 2 May 2003 while
filming a documentary in Rafah. The soldier who shot him was identified
as Captain Hib al-Heib.
American man severely wounded by Israeli troops
Israel must take full responsibility for the shooting of our son. —Mike Anderson, Victim’s Father
American Peace Activist Tristan Anderson, 38, from Oakland, Calif., was severely wounded after he was hit in the forehead and face by a tear gas canister fired at him by Israeli troops in the town of Naalin, in the West Bank, March 13, 2009. Photo AP. Image may be subject to copyright.
Associated Press Writer JERUSALEM (AP). The parents of an American
man severely wounded by Israeli troops during a West Bank protest have
asked Israeli police to launch an investigation, their lawyer said
Monday. Tristan Anderson, 38, from Oakland, Calif., was struck in the
head by a tear gas canister fired by members of Israel’s paramilitary
border police in the Palestinian village of Naalin on March 13.
Anderson had joined a protest against Israel’s separation barrier,
which cuts off Naalin from 300 acres of olive groves. In the past year,
four Palestinians were killed in Naalin by Israeli troops quelling
weekly stone-throwing protests against the barrier, according to Israeli
human rights group B’tselem.
The couple’s lawyer, Michael Sfard, said he asked Israel’s police to
launch an investigation.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/8418011
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How Humanity Failed Gaza – I
Posted by terres on December 28, 2009
Many children stay awake at night for fear of Israeli soldiers returning
Majority of children suffering psychological trauma one year after Gaza conflict
Source: Save the Children Alliance
Date: 27 Dec 2009
The majority of children in Gaza are suffering from anxiety,
depression or behavioural problems as result of their experiences of
conflict and living through a deepening humanitarian crisis, warns Save
the Children.
One year on from Israel’s three-week military offensive in Gaza,
leading psychologists working with the children’s charity report that
many Palestinian children in Gaza are suffering sustained psychological
damage as their experiences of violence and loss during the conflict are
compounded by the hardships of life under the blockade.
Osama Damo, aid worker for Save the Children in Gaza, said: “This is a
traumatised nation. Many children we work with are not able to sleep at
night for fear of soldiers returning. Others cry at the sound of loud
noises, mistaking them for military jets and tanks coming to bomb their
homes. Young children in Gaza are surviving under extreme levels of
stress, which will pose long-term dangers not only for their mental
health, but for the future of the region.”
Save the Children warns that until Israel’s tight restrictions on the
movement of goods and people in and out of Gaza are lifted and the
threat of further conflict eased, the mental health of the 780,000
children living in Gaza could continue to deteriorate.
Osama Damo continued: ‘The psychological crisis facing children in
Gaza just keeps getting worse. Thousands of children are still living in
half-destroyed homes or in over-crowded conditions with host families.
Hundreds still live in tents where they risk being attacked by packs of
wild dogs and don’t have proper protection against the cold and rain.”
Research currently being conducted by the Gaza Community Mental
Health Programme suggests that the majority of children in Gaza are
showing signs of anxiety, depression and behavioural problems, including
aggression and bed-wetting.
Dr Ahmed Abu Tawanheena, Director of Gaza Community Mental Health
Programme, has worked with victims of trauma in Gaza for 20 years. He
said:
“The safety and comfort children rely on their parents for has been
destroyed twice in one year: first, during the conflict, when they saw
their parents terrified and unable to protect them from the violence.
Now, under the blockade, they see their parents are still unable to
provide for their basic needs, such as shelter or food. Many children
report feeling abandoned by their parents and by the outside world, and
parents are left struggling with feelings of guilt. It’s a crisis which
is threatening families and communities across the Gaza Strip.”
Osama Damo said: “Save the Children’s priority is to try and restore a
sense of well-being and normality for children in Gaza. We are helping
them take baby steps towards regaining their childhood, but there’s a
huge job in front of us. If things are really to change for children
here, there has to be an immediate lifting of the blockade to allow
children to recover, and Israeli, Palestinian and international
governments have to act urgently to make this happen.”
As part of its emergency response to the conflict, Save the Children
provided psychological support to children in Gaza, creating ‘safe
places’ where they could play, draw and express themselves. Save the
Children has been working in Gaza since 1973, where we are currently
running health, child protection and education projects.
For more information and interviews with Osama Damo in Gaza, Save the
Children Gaza experts in London or with Dr Ahmed Abu Tawanheena,
Director of Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, please contact Save
the Children’s media unit on +44 7831 650 409.
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Images on this page come from various source and may be subject to copyright. See Fair Use Notice.
Posted in children in Gaza, gaza kids, Gaza Strip, Israeli occupation, OPT | Tagged: extreme levels of stress, Gaza, Gaza massacre, Israel, psychological trauma, Save the Children | 1 Comment »
Renewed claim to Gaza Strip, or pointless war?
Posted by terres on January 19, 2009
The following otherwise well-written Editorial by The
Observer (UK), dated Sunday 18 January 2009 assumes that Israel
previously had any space on high moral ground!
The world will know in the coming months whether a renewed claim to Gaza Strip is a proposition Israel cannot ignore!
A pointless war has led to a moral defeat for Israel
Editorial
The Observer, Sunday 18 January 2009
The Observer, Sunday 18 January 2009
In historical terms, it is impossible to separate Israel’s offensive
against Hamas in Gaza from the long narrative of conflict and mutual
grievance in the region.
A Palestinian touches the head of a
teenager after he was shot by Israeli troops in the West Bank city of
Hebron January 16, 2009. REUTERS/Nayef Hashlamoun. Image may be subject
to copyright.
In geographic terms, the war over a tiny plot of land cannot be
detached from the wider involvement and strategic interests of other
countries: Syria, Egypt, the US, Iran.
All of which makes it difficult to judge where – even if a unilateral Israeli ceasefire holds – the war really begins and ends.
That fact alone explains why the operation represents a defeat for
Israel, as was always likely to be the outcome. The notion that the
country’s security problems can be resolved by the unilateral use of
extreme force is a persistent delusion among Israeli politicians. In
this case, the problem was perceived to be Hamas rocket fire into
southern Israel; the solution was judged to be a war against Hamas. That
analysis did not allow for the vital, humane recognition that, in
densely populated Gaza, an all-out war against Hamas is, by necessity,
an attack on the civilian population.
[Deadly Israeli Assault.] An Israeli soldier covers his ears as a mobile artillery unit fires a shell towards Gaza in the early morning near the Gaza border during Israel’s offensive January 17, 2009. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis. Image may be subject to copyright.
Even on its own terms, the campaign has failed. Israeli authorities
will insist that they have limited the ability of Hamas to launch rocket
attacks. But the ostensible war aim was destroying that capability
completely.
Israel will also claim that its campaign has exposed a lack of
support for Hamas in many Arab capitals; that Hamas’ position as the
ruling authority in Gaza has been undermined; and that Hamas has been
revealed as little more than a terrorist proxy acting on behalf of and
armed by Syria and Iran.
But the reality is that the status of Hamas as the preferred vehicle
for Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation has been enhanced by
the indiscriminate brutality of the military assault.
[Retaliatory Palestinian Fire Power!]
A Palestinian stone-thrower uses a slingshot to throw a stone towards
Israeli border police officers (not pictured) during scuffles at
Qalandiya checkpoint near the West Bank city of Ramallah January 16,
2009. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman. Image may be subject to copyright.
Meanwhile, that status guarantees the resurgence, in some form, of
armed response, including rocket fire and terrorist attacks on Israeli
soil. It is possible that Hamas’ military capability has been
drastically reduced. But even when Israel had full command of Gaza’s
external borders, it could not stop the trade in smuggled weapons.
Sadly, Hamas will re-arm with or without a ceasefire agreement.
Meanwhile, any increased consideration of Iranian or Syrian
sponsorship of terrorism will pale against global outrage at the
extraordinary disregard shown by Israeli forces for the lives of
Palestinian civilians. It is quite possible, as the Observer today
reports, that an Israeli withdrawal will reveal evidence of actions
deserving indictment as war crimes. Those allegations must be
independently investigated.
Israel’s allies in the west, chiefly the US, have traditionally
defended the country on the grounds that it is a democracy besieged by
despotic regimes and terrorists. But while Israeli citizens do enjoy
immense political and social freedom, those values do not automatically
prevent the state from committing atrocities.
The fact of Israeli democracy is not a reason to resist negotiations
with Hamas. That was true before this pointless, brutal war and will
remain so afterwards.
Copyright: Guardian/Observer
