los anjalis

…oh wait, we can. Is it just me, or is even the mainstream media in the US documenting the Gaza massacre and its aftermath in a more journalistic manner? Like, photos of people being shelled, photos of the destruction, the actual effects of a war?

Anyway, check out these extensive photos taken during a whole week of the massacre. They were on the front page of MSNBC all day yesterday. Imagine if we saw photos like this from all the various wars going on in the world (including America’s unjust occupation and bombing of Iraq with some estimated 1 million Iraqi civilians killed). We’d kick the asses of people who were pro-war and diplomacy would be the RULE.

I just read Muammar Qaddafi’s op-ed in the New York Times last week about a One-State solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict. You know, Qaddafi, the leader of Libya. Here’s an excerpt:

A two-state solution will create an unacceptable security threat to Israel. An armed Arab state, presumably in the West Bank, would give Israel less than 10 miles of strategic depth at its narrowest point. Further, a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip would do little to resolve the problem of refugees. Any situation that keeps the majority of Palestinians in refugee camps and does not offer a solution within the historical borders of Israel/Palestine is not a solution at all.

I personally love the one-state solution, but still maintain that it can only be a theoretical solution now. It likely would have been a whole lot more do-able way back in 1948 than it is now. It’s good to see it in the news though, and it might be prudent to include it in possible long-term plans for the area. Check out the whole piece, it’s interesting (especially the beautiful picture of a tree growing out of the division of a larger tree).

Would it make sense to cut off all medical supplies and all roads to all Americans if American president Bush was bombing other countries?

No.

They why does it make sense to so many Americans that Israel can choke off Palestine completely (of all medical aid, supplies, roads, and other important needs) because Hamas is hurling rockets into Israel? Why do the civilians, men, women, and kids, have to suffer because of something that they’re not doing themselves?

Just think about it. What amazes me (or maybe i shouldn’t be so amazed) is that presidential candidate Obama wrote this letter below:

Dear Ambassador Khalilzad,
I understand that today the UN Security Council met regarding the situation in Gaza, and that a resolution or statement could be forthcoming from the Council in short order.

I urge you to ensure that the Security Council issue no statement and pass no resolution on this matter that does not fully condemn the rocket assault Hamas has been conducting on civilians in southern Israel…

All of us are concerned about the impact of closed border crossings on Palestinian families.

However, we have to understand why Israel is forced to do this… Israel has the right to respond while seeking to minimize any impact on civilians.

The Security Council should clearly and unequivocally condemn the rocket attacks… If it cannot bring itself to make these common sense points, I urge you to ensure that it does not speak at all.

Sincerely,
Barack Obama
United States Senator

The part that really gets me is this:

All of us are concerned about the impact of closed border crossings on Palestinian families.

However, we have to understand why Israel is forced to do this… Israel has the right to respond while seeking to minimize any impact on civilians.

The gall! Obama, you’re supposed to be one of the “progressive ones”. The right to respond is OK. But, the right to respond by holding hostage the whole citizenry of Palestine is WRONG. Israel is not *forced* to attack palestinian civilians by cutting off medical aid to them, cutting off electricity to their hospitals, and cutting off all border crossings. Now I’m as scared of Obama’s foreign policy as I am of Hillary’s. What about his foreign policy speaks to “hope” and “change”?

So Obama doesn’t support the United Nations Security Council coming out with a statement condeming Israel’s action’s on innocent Palestinians unless it includes a statement about Hamas’ rocket bombing?

This news piece is from mid-January, but speaks to the stark imbalance between casualties on both sides, and isn’t unique (so many news stories over the past years have shown similar casualty differences):

Israeli forces have killed at least 27 Palestinians since Tuesday in air strikes and gun battles with militants in the bloodiest fighting since Hamas took control of Gaza in June.

On Thursday, an Israeli air strike destroyed a car in northern Gaza, killing a Hamas-allied militant leader and his wife, according to Palestinian medical officials. Two other Palestinians were reported injured in the attack.

Wednesday’s deaths included three members of a Gaza family in what the Israeli military acknowledged was a missile attack on the wrong car.

Meanwhile early Thursday, Hamas claimed it fired 24 rockets at Israel after launching 79 rockets and mortars the day before. No injuries were reported.

The almost daily rocket attacks rarely strike their intended targets or cause casualties, but have kept residents in southern Israeli border towns such as Sderot under a constant state of fear.

Israel: Killed 27 Palestinians in 3 days in January. At least 3, if not more, of those deaths were confirmed as “oops” we killed a palestinian family who wasn’t involved in the fighting. Sorry, tiny mistake. Moving on…

Hamas: Fired rockets. No deaths. Not even any INJURIES.

27 to 0.

(of note – using rockets and bombs are wrong, no matter what the situation. but it’s important to make sure that a country’s retaliation towards rocket-throwers isn’t aimed at innocent civilians. and the numbers are important (i’m NOT denying that innocent israelis have been killed by palestinians, i just gave an example of a few day period. take any few day period and there may be casualties on both sides, but the ratios are alarmingly one-sided). obama shouldn’t be yelling at the security council to derail its statement because it doesn’t condemn rocket-throwers. instead the candidate using the words “hope” so casually, and talking the talk about fighting for the underdog should better understand this international human rights violation that israel is inflicting upon the people of palestine).

then again, no matter how much he acts like he ain’t, Obama’s a member of the US “establishment” and has Washington insiders as his strategists and policyfolks, so I guess I shouldn’t expect him to walk the walk that he talks, on a number of issues.

I’ve recently written about the cutting off of supplies to Gaza by Israel in retaliation for the rockets. And again, here’s a palestinian doctor’s personal account of the situation in January, just for some context:

I telephoned Al-Awda hospital and was really panicked to learn that we have only have enough fuel for 4 days for the electrical generator!!!!! What more details shall I give?

No electricity leads to no pumped fresh water and no proper sewage system which in turn leads to more diseases and more needs for different surgical operations. But after 4 days no emergency operations can be conducted in our hospitals.

Israel sealed the Gaza Strip completely and strictly on Friday. Even the UN food supplies are not allowed to enter Gaza. 80% of the population at the moment depends on the UN aid and different international aid agencies. The UN staff are also not allowed to leave or enter Gaza. And while Israel is sealing the Gaza Strip it is at the same time intensifying air raids and military ground operations against Gaza. In the last few days 37 people were killed and 120 were injured. Most of them are civilians. It is a desperate attempt to stop the rockets from Gaza against the Israeli villages where the Israeli citizens are complaining of panic attacks. This response with such overreacted operations against Gaza is unjustified. The cutting off of power and fuel is frank collective punishment.

By the way, Hillary ain’t any better on this issue (A comparison of all the presidential candidates’ stances on the Israel-Palestine conflict can be found at the Council for Foreign Relations website). Edwards os slightly more balanced on the issue.

And both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton co-sponsored the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006, a bill that would unjustly punish innocent Palestinian civilians for the wrongdoings of some of its leaders. Didn’t know that…

UPDATE (Feb 1): Now that edwards is out of the race, although I hate what barack obama did above, i’m going to vote for him against Clinton (who is no less anti-palestine). Obama’s not surrounded by the establishment AS MUCH AS Clinton is, and clinton won’t apologize for anti-war vote, AND she’s got more money from drug companies and health insurance companies than any other candidate. Obama on the other hand has great momentum, is somewhat more progressive, and is specifically ANTI-WAR, which is the biggest thing the american democrats are asking of a candidate. more later…

“If Gaza is the world’s biggest prison, this is the world’s biggest prison break.”
- a reporter

I heard about the massive break through the GazaStrip/Egypt border wall by Palestinians earlier today and couldn’t believe the radio. I knew that Israel had placed tighter restrictions on movement of food, fuel, and necessary medical supplies to Palestinians in the Gaza strip for a long while, and that for the last few days had completely cut off ALL supplies to Gaza (hence the prison reference) but I had to see it for myself. So now I share with you some video of the great 21st century prison break (juuuuust in case the mainstream media is focusing on clinton/obama or on the israeli government’s point of view).

Wow.

Some background from a physician in Gaza, blogging a few days ago at From Gaza, With Love:

In 2 hours all of the Gaza Strip will sink into darkness completely

Sunday 20 January 2008
I am writing to let you know that in less than 2 hours the last turbine of the Gaza Strip’s only power plant will stop working. The fuel for the power plant fuel will run out in 2 hours.

I hurried to recharge my laptop and my mobile and to wash the clothes. I checked my candles and rechargeable lights !!!!!! I telephoned Al-Awda hospital and was really panicked to learn that we have only have enough fuel for 4 days for the electrical generator!!!!! What more details shall I give?

No electricity leads to no pumped fresh water and no proper sewage system which in turn leads to more diseases and more needs for different surgical operations. But after 4 days no emergency operations can be conducted in our hospitals.

Israel sealed the Gaza Strip completely and strictly on Friday. Even the UN food supplies are not allowed to enter Gaza. 80% of the population at the moment depends on the UN aid and different international aid agencies. The UN staff are also not allowed to leave or enter Gaza. And while Israel is sealing the Gaza Strip it is at the same time intensifying air raids and military ground operations against Gaza. In the last few days 37 people were killed and 120 were injured. Most of them are civilians. It is a desperate attempt to stop the rockets from Gaza against the Israeli villages where the Israeli citizens are complaining of panic attacks. This response with such overreacted operations against Gaza is unjustified. The cutting off of power and fuel is frank collective punishment.

I AM WRITING TO TELL YOU PLEASE DO SOMETHING FOR US IN GAZA
1.5 million of Gaza are dying slowly. They need your help and support. Tell the world that Israel’s search for peace and security will not be achieved by this collective punishment against us.

and 1 month ago she wrote this:

The siege against Gaza has completed its six months 1.5 million of population are not allowed to travel outside Gaza ,many essential medications are not on the local pharmacies shelves as well as the hospital drug stores , tens of necessary goods are lacking only 15 kinds of goods are allowed to enter Gaza regularly , severe shortage of detergents, no cars spare parts , irregular electrical power ,most of local small industries has closed down due to lack of raw materials hundreds of local employees were made redundant , 39 patients have died before getting permit to leave Gaza for treatment in Israel , at least 2000 patients with different urgent health needs, including children with heart diseases and cancer patients , are waiting to be referred for further treatment outside the Gaza strip.

In related news, a member of the former israeli government was on the radio, on NPR’s show Which Way LA, and he commented that Palestinians were given the potential to transform their land’s worth/economy into a Singapore, but had decided to ruin it all, and therefore could not be trusted to govern their own land. He forgot to mention the noose tied just tight enough around palestinian land and the walls built left and right and the limitations of everyday necessary goods into Palestine. Minor details, eh?

The above road has a Palestinian side and an Israeli side, separated by a wall. The man is walking on one of the two roads. Photo by Rina Castelnuovo. The following is from A Segregated Road in an Already Divided Land (nytimes):

The road will allow Israeli settlers living in the north, near Ramallah, to move quickly into Jerusalem, protected from the Palestinians who surround them. It also helps ensure that the large settlement of Maale Adumim — a suburb of 32,000 people east of Jerusalem, where most of its residents work — will remain under Israeli control, along with the currently empty area of 4.6 square miles known as E1, between Maale Adumim and Jerusalem, which Israel also intends to keep.

For the Palestinians, the road will connect the northern and southern parts of the West Bank. In a future that may have fewer checkpoints, they could travel directly from Ramallah north of Jerusalem to Bethlehem south of it — but without being allowed to enter either Jerusalem or the Maale Adumim settlement bloc.

“To me, this road is a move to create borders, to change final status,” Mr. Seidemann said, referring to unresolved issues regarding borders, refugees and the fate of Jerusalem. “It’s to allow Maale Adumim and E1 into Jerusalem but be able to say, ‘See, we’re treating the Palestinians well — there’s geographical contiguity.’ ”

Measure it yourself, he said. “The Palestinian road is 16 meters wide,” or 52 feet, he added. “The Israeli theory of a contiguous Palestinian state is 16 meters wide.”

Khalil Tufakji, a prominent Palestinian geographer, says the road “is part of Sharon’s plan: two states in one state, so the Israelis and the Palestinians each have their own roads.” The Palestinians, Mr. Tufakji said, “will have no connection with the Israelis, but travel through tunnels and over bridges, while the Israelis will travel through Palestinian land without seeing an Arab.”

In the end, he said, “there is no Palestinian state, even though the Israelis speak of one.” Instead, he said, “there will be a settler state and a Palestinian built-up area, divided into three sectors, cut by fingers of Israeli settlement and connected only by narrow roads.”

The terror of the Holocaust has been used since World War II to justify the colonial creation of the Israeli settler state. Did the Jews deserve a state as compensation for the crimes committed against them by the Nazis, compounded by the global silence? Absolutely! But the choice of Palestine and the construction of a state on top of a pre-existing social formation reflected the sort of settler mentality found in other settler states, e.g., the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, apartheid South Africa, Rhodesia/Zimbabwe.

From the settler framework, history begins and ends with the experiences of the settlers. Even the Irish, oppressed by Britain for hundreds of years in what the Irish aptly describe as “racial oppression” (the proto-type, according to the late US Marxist scholar and activist Theodore Allen, for the system of white supremacist rule imposed on colonial North America), allowed too many of themselves to become foot-soldiers for settler states when they fled the horrors of their own persecution, ignoring the similarity between the oppression that they had suffered and that which they helped to perpetuate…

The work of progressive and Left forces in the USA who are pro-Palestinian must emphasize that the past (and in some cases, present) persecution of one group does not justify displacing an uninvolved third party from their land. The settler’s reality is not the reality, but is only a portion of a total equation. Restricting one’s vantage point to the problems of the settler condemns one to supporting the ‘right’ of the settler to preserve their existence irrespective of the methods and consequences. Not only is this morally bankrupt but it is also politically insane since the final result will be interminable war, and quite possibly, mutual destruction.

From “A Challenge Facing Pro-Palestinian Politics in the USA” by Bill Fletcher, April 19, 2007.

Wandering Around an Albuquerque Airport Terminal

by Naomi Shihab Nye

After learning my flight was detained 4 hours, I heard the announcement: If anyone in the vicinity of gate 4-A understands any Arabic, Please come to the gate immediately.

Well — one pauses these days. Gate 4-A was my own gate. I went there.

An older woman in full traditional Palestinian dress, Just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing loudly.

Help, said the flight service person. Talk to her. What is her Problem? we told her the flight was going to be four hours late and she Did this.

I put my arm around her and spoke to her haltingly.

Shu dow-a, shu- biduck habibti, stani stani schway, min fadlick, Sho bit se-wee?

The minute she heard any words she knew — however poorly used – She stopped crying.

She thought our flight had been cancelled entirely.
She needed to be in El Paso for some major medical treatment the Following day. I said no, no, we’re fine, you’ll get there, just late,

Who is picking you up? Let’s call him and tell him.
We called her son and I spoke with him in English.
I told him I would stay with his mother till we got on the plane and Would ride next to her — southwest.

She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just for the fun of it.

Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while in Arabic and Found out of course they had ten shared friends.

Then I thought just for the heck of it why not call some Palestinian Poets I know and let them chat with her. This all took up about 2 hours.

She was laughing a lot by then. Telling about her life. Answering Questions.

She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool cookies — little powdered Sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and nuts — out of her bag – And was offering them to all the women at the gate.

To my amazement, not a single woman declined one. It was like a Sacrament. The traveler from Argentina, the traveler from California, The lovely woman from Laredo — we were all covered with the same Powdered sugar. And smiling. There is no better cookies.

And then the airline broke out the free beverages from huge coolers – Non-alcoholic — and the two little girls for our flight, one African American, one Mexican American — ran around serving us all apple juice And lemonade and they were covered with powdered sugar too.

And I noticed my new best friend — by now we were holding hands – Had a potted plant poking out of her bag, some medicinal thing,

With green furry leaves. Such an old country traveling tradition. Always Carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere.

And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and thought, This is the world I want to live in. The shared world.

Not a single person in this gate — once the crying of confusion stopped – has seemed apprehensive about any other person.

They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other women too.
This can still happen anywhere.

Not everything is lost.

(thanks to stephen for passing this on…)

[above photo from BBC World News]

Friends, check out a video from La Repubblica, an Italian newspaper, if you can stomach it (it’s disturbing): here’s the [link] and then read the pieces below…

The women speak:

We overcame our fear

The unarmed women of the Gaza Strip have taken the lead in resisting Israel’s latest bloody assault

by Jameela al-Shanti in Beit Hanoun
The (UK) Guardian
Nov 9, 2006

Yesterday at dawn, the Israeli air force bombed and destroyed my home. I was the target, but instead the attack killed my sister-in-law, Nahla, a widow with eight children in her care. In the same raid Israel’s artillery shelled a residential district in the town of Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip, leaving 19 dead and 40 injured, many killed in their beds. One family, the Athamnas, lost 16 members in the massacre: the oldest who died, Fatima, was 70; the youngest, Dima, was one; seven were children. The death toll in Beit Hanoun has passed 90 in one week.

This is Israel’s tenth incursion into Beit Hanoun since it announced its withdrawal from Gaza. It has turned the town into a closed military zone, collectively punishing its 28,000 residents. For days, the town has been encircled by Israeli tanks and troops and shelled.
All water and electricity supplies were cut off and, as the death toll continued to mount, no ambulances were allowed in. Israeli soldiers raided houses, shut up the families and positioned their snipers on roofs, shooting at everything that moved. We still do not know what has become of our sons, husbands and brothers since all males over 15 years old were taken away last Thursday. They were ordered to strip to their underwear, handcuffed and led away.

It is not easy as a mother, sister or wife to watch those you love disappear before your eyes. Perhaps that was what helped me, and 1,500 other women, to overcome our fear and defy the Israeli curfew last Friday – and set about freeing some of our young men who were besieged in a mosque while defending us and our city against the Israeli military machine.

We faced the most powerful army in our region unarmed.
The soldiers were loaded up with the latest weaponry, and we had nothing, except each other and our yearning for freedom. As we broke through the first barrier, we grew more confident, more determined to break the suffocating siege. The soldiers of Israel’s so-called defence force did not hesitate to open fire on unarmed women. The sight of my close friends Ibtissam Yusuf abu Nada and Rajaa Ouda taking their last breaths, bathed in blood, will live with me for ever.

Later an Israeli plane shelled a bus taking children to a kindergarten. Two children were killed, along with their teacher. In the last week 30 children have died.

As I go round the crowded hospital, it is deeply poignant to see the large number of small bodies with their scars and amputated limbs. We clutch our children tightly when we go to sleep, vainly hoping that we can shield them from Israel’s tanks and warplanes.

But as though this occupation and collective punishment were not enough, we Palestinians find ourselves the targets of a systematic siege imposed by the so-called free world. We are being starved and suffocated as a punishment for daring to exercise our democratic right to choose who rules and represents us. Nothing undermines the west’s claims to defend freedom and democracy more than what is happening in Palestine.

Shortly after announcing his project to democratise the Middle East, President Bush did all he could to strangle our nascent democracy, arresting our ministers and MPs. I have yet to hear western condemnation that I, an elected MP, have had my home demolished and relatives killed by Israel’s bombs. When the bodies of my friends and colleagues were torn apart there was not one word from those who claim to be defenders of women’s rights on Capitol Hill and in 10 Downing Street.

Why should we Palestinians have to accept the theft of our land, the ethnic cleansing of our people, incarcerated in forsaken refugee camps, and the denial of our most basic human rights, without protesting and resisting?

The lesson the world should learn from Beit Hanoun last week is that Palestinians will never relinquish our land, towns and villages. We will not surrender our legitimate rights for a piece of bread or handful of rice. The women of Palestine will resist this monstrous occupation imposed on us at gunpoint, siege and starvation. Our rights and those of future generations are not open for negotiation.

Whoever wants peace in Palestine and the region must direct their words and sanctions to the occupier, not the occupied, the aggressor not the victim. The truth is that the solution lies with Israel, its army and allies – not with Palestine’s women and children.

[Jameela al-Shanti is an elected member of the Palestinian Legislative Council for Hamas. She led a women's protest against the siege of Beit Hanoun last Friday]

Now, here’s an excerpt of an Al-Jazeera newspaper article on a resolution that simply called to condemn the Israeli attack of 19 civilians in Beit Hanun:

The US has vetoed a draft UN Security Council resolution condemning an Israeli attack in the Gaza Strip that killed 19 Palestinian civilians…

The text of the resolution, which was sponsored by Arab states, had also condemned the firing of rockets by Palestinian fighters into Israel.

Ten of the council’s 15 members voted in favour and four -Britain, Denmark, Japan and Slovakia – abstained.

As one of the council’s five permanent members along with Britain, China, France and Russia, the US has veto power which it has now used 82 times, often to shield Israel from censure.

America’s previous use of the veto was in July to block a Qatari-sponsored draft resolution that would have condemned Israel’s military onslaught in Gaza as “disproportionate force” and would have demanded a halt to Israeli operations in the territory.

…and it’s striking how different a take the United States mainstream media (leftist media, as some would falsely accuse the NYTimes of serving as) has on the resolution:

The United States ambassador, John R. Bolton, told the Council that the resolution “does not display an even-handed characterization of the recent events in Gaza, nor does it advance the cause of Israeli-Palestinian peace.”

The resolution, introduced by Qatar, the Arab representative on the Council, had been amended during two days of negotiations to meet objections that it was not balanced. But Mr. Bolton said it remained “in many places biased against Israel and politically motivated.”…

New language was inserted condemning the firing of rockets from Gaza into Israel and calling upon the Palestinian Authority to take “immediate and sustained action” to end the rocket fire. But while the resolution named Israel as liable for the attacks on Gaza, it was silent on who or what group was responsible for the attacks on Israel.

In other changes, a reference to “indiscriminate” Israeli violence became “disproportionate” violence, and the words “military assault,” “aggression” and “massacre” were dropped in favor of the general phrase “military operations.”

Another provision had proposed that a new United Nations observer force be sent into the area to monitor a cease-fire, but it was substituted with language suggested by France that called for the creation of “an international mechanism for the protection of civilians.”…

The United States traditionally opposes what it considers one-sided Security Council resolutions on Israel, and Saturday’s vote was the fourth time in three years that Washington had taken such action.

…Unlike Security Council resolutions, those passed in the General Assembly are nonbinding and largely symbolic. But they generally attract widespread support when Israel, and, by extension, the United States, are the targets.

By the way, as President Bush talked of working with Democrats and working in a bipartisan manner after the elections, his first move after the elections was to slap America in the face by moving to have John Bolton serve another term. (though as Kos on dailykos mentioned, it’s not a done deal yet)

And the formal Israeli PM’s response? Sensitive, of course. From the BBC News:

Israeli PM Ehud Olmert said the strike, which hit a civilian area, was the result of a “technical failure”.

“I’m very uncomfortable with this event. I’m very distressed.

“I checked it and I verified it. This is not the policy,” the Associated Press reported Mr Olmert saying.

But military operations against suspected Palestinian militants would continue, he added, admitting that further mistakes “may happen”.

Physicians for Human Rights is counting (thank you PHR), and these are the stats on how many have died in Gaza since the end of June:

Total: 247 fatalities
155 civilian deaths
57 deaths of children
996 wounded, including 337 children (34%)
Source: Physicians for Human Rights (28 June to 27 Oct)